ANNOYED

I really do have WONDERFUL/EXCITING things to blog about like a 2-year old birthday bash, seeing the REAL Santa, doing the Natvity with cousins, wonderful FAMILY pictures, & spending a weekend with Daddy, but alas I CANNOT because my pics won't download ... Can anyone say OBNOXIOUS??!!??

But as long as I can't download the pics from my camera I will go back in time & share with you some photos that you haven't seen ... Can you BELIEVE there are such things??

Well, WAAA-AAY back in October I did have a WONDERFUL birthday!

The weekend before my birthday my Terrific Husband took me out to CELEBRATE!

We went to THE GARDEN resturaunt on the top of the Joseph Smith Bldg. & had a LOVELY dinner just the 2 of us! I got to release a "birthday wish" out of their sky window so that ALL my wishes may come true.

(this resturaunt is where we went right AFTER Alan propsed to me & we have NEVER been back since, so it brought WONDERFUL memories for both of us.)

After eating out we spent the night shopping/looking at Gateway & then we headed to my next favorite store ... TARGET!!! Where I got this beauty for my birthday:

I think I might've shared these WONDERFULNESSES with you before, but in case I haven't let me introduce you to Pink Lemonade Doughnuts made from yours truly:Yummmmmmm-O!!!!

Then I got a wonderful suprise from my TWINSTER ... A marvelous belt-y thing that has her FASHION written all over it!!!(I think I've pulled it off pretty well a few times now, & I really do LOVE it!!!)

I did get some LOVELY brown boots for my birthday, but I don't think I have a specific picture taken of them ... I DO LOVE THEM THOUGH!!!

And last but not least I got 2 new pairs of glasses:

I have only taken a picture of me in one pair, but I just don't think I'm a glasses GAL, but with both pairs only costing me a whopping $30 it was ALL worth it! At least they are the right percription so I can see correctly out of them!

Now enough about ME ... Let's move-on to the CUTIES in my life!

This TRIO loves to color their hearts out!!!!(especially my little princess!!!)

It was getting so outta hand a few months ago with STACKS of papers hoarded EVERYWHERE that I had a little talk with her & we decided that we'd take pictures of ANY picture she wanted to treasure & someday we'd make a special book with them all in, so we DON'T need to keep all the papers ... ahhhhh, so much less MESS!!!

So without further a-do I'm going to share just a FEW of her beauties:& last but not least she drew a picture of ME:Belly Button & ALL!!!

Do ya think their are similarities to me???

(I promise I don't dress like that, but my hair could look like that MOST days!)

I love it!!!

She delivered it right to my bedside one day & proudly exclaimed, "Mom, this is you!!! I just LOVE you!!!!"

WOWSIE!!!!

HELP ME!!!! Blogger has CHANGED on me AND I can't get my pics to upload to my computer cause it says that drive is full ... I KNOW NOTHING about computers & my hubby isn't home until the weekend!!!!  I am so SOOOOO, SOOOO ANNOYED at life right now!!  & what is with this new blogger stuff ... DOUBLE UGH for sure!!!!!  PLEASE ... if you know anything to help me PLEASE HELP!!! :(

Sincerly,

UNHAPPY BLOGGER!!!!

Hello from my phone

Life is crazy & I always have my phone so sometimes I capture the "moment" on my phone. Here's some fun random moments from the past month: ENJOY!

Hmmmmm ...

*****Consider yourself WARNED that this post is LONG & WORDY ... but I'm not gonna change it cause it's for me ... JUST WARNING YOU!!!*********

I don't quite know what to title this post ...

I have wanted to blog for a while, but have not wanted to sit downstairs in the cold to do it.

And now that I look through my pictures I REALLY don't have much to blog about ... BOARING!

I had moments in the last month that as a Mommy, or grown adult, I don't think I have EVER had!!!

These last 3 weeks have been hard & lonely with a husband outta town & 3 kids around.

Emma's off-track until after Chrismtas so our schedule has gone out the window ... which isn't a bad thing at ALL!!!

{I think I am REALLY liking this TRACK thing!!}

But with no Hubby home is makes NIGHTS the hardest!

I'm burned out ... my kids are tired ... & there's no HELP in sight!!!

I can handle the days, but when it gets close to dinner time I tend not to be the most LOVING...FAIL!!!

But that's ok ... a new day comes & I get to try again.

I'm grateful for tender moments when my children SHARE ... I have to capture them, so that I CAN REMEMBER THEM!!!! :)I also really do LOVE the helping hands that I receive from ALL 3 of them!!But my biggest Ah-HA moment came last week in an outing. I wanted to go, but apart of me was dreading the whole event. I didn't know why? {... Was it because the 1st year I was married I went with my Hubby & it was so CROWDED, people were literally BREATHING down my neck the ENTIRE time, & I vowed never to return ... ESPECIALLY with KIDS ... YES, I think that's why!!!}

But we went ... BECAUSE MOMMY NEEDED TO GET OUT!!! :)

Once we got into the event I was a little frustrated because I had a child who didn't want to be by me ... they wanted to be by cousins ... which is understandable, but it's a crowded place & I worry about being able to keep an eye on 3 kids, so I just wanted them by ME.

Needless to say, I LOST that battle & everytime I asked this child to come by me & got the upset/grumpy look ... oh well!

I at least got to have 2 other children by me the whole time & THAT did make it EASIER!As the "looking at the trees" progressed my attitude began to change as I realized that as long as I didn't tell that child to come by me, she listened to EVERY word I said ... like slow down, stay BEHIND so-&-so, come in front of me, hold that persons hand, etc. So it was OK! :)

{don't ya LOVE the HOT PINK of this tree!!!}It was a crowded event, but nothing like I remembered it!

The only time I felt like I had people BREATHING DOWN MY BACK was when we'd stop, so I didn't get many pictures which I am kind of regretting now, but I think my kids enjoyed themselves. As I got to watch them, I realized that I DO have good kids ... I HAVE done something right ... & I felt an over-whelming sense of gratitude for them & the way they responded to my wishes.

I'm grateful that even though we all miss Daddy SOOOOOOO, SOOOOOO, SOOOOOO much, I at least have these little MONKEYS to keep me company!

That day was one for the record books!
I'm grateful that I was able to stay a little longer at the Festival of Trees & spend some one-on-one time with just my kids in a public setting. That is something that usually overwhelms me, but on that day, after the events that went on, I wasn't overwhelmed AT ALL!
I KNEW my kids were manageable by MYSELF & I KNEW that they LISTENED to me!
Once we left we came home & had Breakfast for Dinner & got to spend the evening together watching Smurph's & eating Popcorn ... It was a PERFECT day to hold my kids close to me on the couch!
& you know what ... I think I wanna go back again next year!!!!! :)
{a new tradition!}
Speaking of traditions:
This year I FINALLY finished my muffin tin advent calendar ... I finished because I HAD to do it as a craft for a Super Saturday ---YES, great MOTIVATION!!!
Soooo, it's been fun to start a "NEW" thing around here!
If my kids are GOOD during the day ... NOT PERFECT, but GOOD ... then the magical ELVES come & put 3 little TREATS in the muffin tin for them to have then next morning.

My kids love to rattle it on the door in the morning to see if anything is in there ...
on 1 day there were 3 candies in there, but 2 of them were bitten/broken in half {Emma insists that the elves broke them, becuase they didn't want to spread their germs} Emma & Zachary KNEW that the broken ones were for them becuase they KNEW they hadn't acted very good the day before, but they were grateful to at least get something. It's been fun to watch them assess themselves throughout the day to see if they will recieve any candy from the elves ... hopefully we can make it to Christmas with all 3 of them getting candies EVERY day!!!!

Gobble Gobble until you WOBBLE!!!

Our Thanksgiving weekend started EARLY with Daddy arriving home on TUESDAY from Washington to CELEBRATE with us!!!

We were all so THANKFUL to have DADDY home!!!!Our Thanksgiving Day went like this:

Got up at 7am to play in the Neighborhood Turkey Bowl {Alan}

Got up at 8:00am to go running {Amber}

Got home around 10am & got ready to go to the Madsen's for some YUMM-O food!!!

Yep, I ate ALL of that & MORE!!!!! :)Then we cleaned up & us GIRLS planned out our Black Friday Madness!!!While the boys pecked away at their laptops!

{yep, Al has a laptop that he got to buy all for himself on the companies DIME ... AWESOME!!!}Then we were hungry enought to DIVE into our delicious dessert!

Dad sampled them all & gave us 2 thumbs ... WAAAY-up!Grammy got to feed Kye since he was going on a NO-NAP day & was so finicky with me, but loved it when Grammy fed him ... STINKER!

{take note of Grammy's hair ... the next picture is the result of her knotted up-do she did to keep hair outta all the food}We even had a visitor ... Grammy the CLOWN!!!

{she's probably going to shutter when she's sees this picture on here ... LOVE YA MOM!!!!Kye was a pretty happy kid, even with no-nap.

{he just stuck BY ME the whole day ... while my other 2 ran about with cousins}

He LOVED played with the feathers out of one of Grammy's decorations.We hope you all had a WONDERFUL Thanksgiving!!!

We DID!!!!!I left about 7pm to go stand in-line at Wal-mart for a big ticket item that Santa MIGHT be bringing our kids for Christmas ...

It's ALWAYS such a blast to Black Friday Shop with my Sisters & my Mom!!!After Target's opening at midnight Char & Megie chose to head home for the night while Mom & I trekked on to the other stores.

We hit up Khol's for some items ... that were worth it although the line took us over 1 1/2 hours to get to check-out ... it was a MAD-HOUSE!!!I got EVERYTHING I wanted on Black Friday thanks to my Mom-in-law who didn't want her extra pair of sheets ... SCORE!!!

We went to Alan's Cousin's Party with all of his cousins on Friday afternoon.

{it was fun to catch-up with those who came}

Saturday was spent enjoying just US!

We hung-up Christmas lights, put up the tree, & just hung around.

After spending LOTS of time with Daddy we had to SADLY say goodbye to him Sunday morning ... :(

But to take away some of the GLOOM we decided to decorate the TREE, that Daddy put up, that night.

My kids were EXSTATIC!!!Look how well Kye "hung"-up the ornaments he was given. {hehehe}It was a wonderful weekend!!!

**SIDE NOTE**

ALL 5 of our chickens are now laying eggs!!!!

We finally get enough eggs EVERYDAY that we don't have to buy ANY!!!

{we also have enough to share with others ... SCORE!!!!}We LOVE having chickens!!!!!

Low-maintenance & they produce useful things!!!

:)

Thankful ...

I am TRUELY thankful for so much!

As I have gotten older I realize more & more the LOVE of this holiday!

I LOVE to reflect on the things I'm thankful for & desire to have the same attitude of gratitude all year long!!! ---maybe this year I'll be better at it!

Anyways ---

{i won't list them ALL ... just a few with pics!}

I am THANKFUL for my FAMILY!!!

I couldn't of asked for a better husband in the whole world!

He is TRUELY meant for ME!

I have 3 marvelous kids!

I love all of them to PIECES!

--

I'm thankful for the gospel!

It brings me such joy & peace!

I'm thankful to know that my family, my WHOLE family, will be together FOREVER!

That is so POWERFUL to me!

I'm grateful to know that I WILL see my loved ones someday that I have & have never met & who have FOREVER influenced me for the better!

What a blessing to know that there IS a life hereafter!

---

I'm grateful for the simple things like snuggling with each one of my children! {& my hubby!}

They may have not all been snugglers as a baby like Kye, but they ALL enjoy snuggling with me every now & again & I LOVE IT!!!

I'm always up for a GOOD 'ol fashion SNUGGLE!!!

----

I'm grateful for a sense of HUMOR! We have some GOOD laughs at this house between all 5 of us!
--

I'm so grateful for the WONDERFUL job that my Sweetie has!

& that he is SOOO willing to support our family & work his hardest for us all!

It was a long 2 years of unemployment, but it has been a change to have him go outta town for 2 weeks at a time every so often, BUT we are SOOOO, SOOOO GRATEFUL!!!

--

I'm grateful for our wonderful house!

This house has brought so many WONDERFUL memories for us & even though it's a PIG-STYE alot of the time ---

{like today while I was busy making 3 batches of rolls & my 1st homemade pie}It's nice to have a place to call HOME SWEET HOME!

--

Life is TRUELY wonderful once you REALLY start to look at it ... isn't it??!!??!!

I am so BLESSED!

Thank You to all the WONDERFUL people in my life that make it WONDERFUL!!!

--

Can I say I'm not grateful about 1 thing??

Well, I'm sad to say that my first pie making experience was a BOTCH!!!

ugh!

.... hopefully it won't taste too BURNED cause I'm too tired to make another one!!!

Happy Thanksgiving Y'all!

Hope it's a WONDERFUL day!!!