I was cleaning out my house this weekend and I found this mirror. Here is me standing infront of it. Don't pay attention to my red carpet. It hides the stains. I had no idea that I lost so much weight. Who needs mirrors when you look like a model. That is why I have decided to auction it off to the highest bidder.

Mud and dogs. They are both dirty.

Mud, Mud, Mud, Mud, Mud. Any chance they get, the boys get in the mud. I must say that I was pretty impressed with the size and roundness of Rail's mud ball. He was pretty proud. Jesse is just happy to be dirty.
People say that a man's best friend is his dog. I have to agree. Daisie and Rail have a special relationship. It is really cute. (Sometimes though, it's like, "Okay Rail, that's enough")Right before this picture was shot, they were both laying on the floor with their arms around eachother (Yes, Daisie had her arms around Rail too). I couldn't get my camera fast enough before she moved. Rail kept trying to get her back into position for the shot, but she wouldn't have it. He likes to come up with his own ideas for a "cool picture".

Why Why Why??? says Case

Everyone knows that kids get to a certain age and they begin to wonder about the world around them. Part of that wondering comes in the form of the infamous "why" questions. Case is in that phase and often times surprises me with the deepness or complex nature of his questions. Well, tonight, the kids and I were returning home from a quick trip to Toys-r-us so we could scope out some of their favorite toys for Santa. On the car ride home, we were listening to "Walking in a winter wonderland." After the song was over, Case began his barrage of questions. It went something like this.
Case: What is a winter wonderland?
Mom: It is a place filled with snow and christmas decorations and Santa Claus, and all the other things having to do with Christmas, kind of like at Bass Pro Shop when we went to see Santa (Lame explanation, I know, but I couldn't think of a simple explanation)
Case: Why does Santa give us presents?
Mom: (I paused for just a brief moment, and before I could respond, he asked the bomb shell question)
Case: Why did Jesus make Santa?
Mom: (Thinking to myself.....what the crap? Where did that come from?....
How am I going to answer that one? .................Uhmm....Thinking.....
Nothing coming.........)
Case: I know! He was born as a baby, then he grew up and decided he wanted to be Santa Claus.

OKAY then. Whew, not even close to the kind of answer I was thinking he wanted. Boy did I get lucky on that one. He asks the funniest questions about Jesus. Like, Why did Jesus make food? Why did Jesus build the roads? Why did Jesus make our house? Most of these questions I can explain by saying that these things are made by people. Jesus made the earth and everything living on it like people, animals and plants, and people take these things on the earth and build what they need. It may be a little complex, but he gets it. He is a bright child.

Random sampler.

Today was full of a little of this, a little of that and alot of errands, so I thought I would give a few random samples of our day at home.

Our Grandma Curtis is the best. If it weren't for her, our cupboards would be in sore shape. She surprised us with more than 30 cans of cream of ckn soup for our year supply. Case decided to play store, with me as the shopper and Case as the clerk. I would buy so many cans and he would give me a price. I then matched his price in change ( i.e., if my bill came to $37 dollars for 4 cans, I would pay him 37 cents). He thought it was great. He lined up every cent in the bottom of the box that the soup came in. Then we played with cans of Mushrooms and then thread. We would have played longer had the game not erupted in a fight between Case and Rail. That is usually how most games end unfortunately. They are so competitive.
This is our dog Daisy (Boxer) with the Slade's dog Bubba. They are best friends. Bubba comes over to our house to play every day and Daisy goes over to the Slade's house to play(probably every day). They jump the fences to get to eachother. Truely a sight to see. Jesse loves to get in the middle of their rowdy play. One of these days, he is going to get plowed over.
Any opportunity the boys get to make a mess out of the items in the pantry, they will, as you can see by this poor roll of trash bags strewn all over the floor. While stunts like this use to be Rail's domain, they have now been taken over by Jesse. I guess he is learning from his brothers.
What good is a tree if you can't climb it. The boys are beginning to get interested in climbing trees. Maybe shoes would make it a little easier.
When one bud gets to do something, the other two must be allowed the same privilege or else WW3 breaks out. Heaven forbid they be left out. What is the appeal with sitting on the counter?

...Cause Obama president naw (sp intentional)

While I am on the political subject, I guess I will vent my issues now and be over with it. I have seen on the news the latest leaks about Obama possibly chosing Hillary Clinton as his Secretary of State. One theory being that she could do less damage as his secretary of state than she could as a senator. Then it hit me tonight. Holy crap! As if one of these Democratic candidate in the white house is not bad enough, now we may end up with both of them. How much worse can this get? I probably shouldn't have said that out loud because I may have single handedly doomed our country to another cabinet choice like of Jesse Jackson or Bill Maher, or worse yet, a hollywoodian. Where are the morals that this country was founded on? What happened to people working for their livelyhood-a little theory called self-sufficiency. Cory said he heard a clip on the radio where this ladywas being interviewed about Obama being president. She responded, "I don't have to worry about my mortgage anymore, cause Obama president Naw" (Misspellings and incorrect grammer intentional) Unfortunately that attitude embodies a large majority of Obama supports. Where do they think this money is going to come from? I would love to see their faces in 4 years when the reality of American under Obama sinks in to these people and they realize they have been deceived. I hope with all hope that I am wrong, and God willing, may we survive these next four years with a few of our freedoms still in tact. That is all I have to say about the matter.

Vote for me

I don't know if it has been the ringer of a campaign that we have just been through or my age, or being a mother and trying to make a better world for my children, but all of a sudden, I really care about issue. I watch CNN daily (something that would have made me gag 10 years ago). I am starting to branch out my interest of government from the presidential race to now, all of the affairs of public policy. Tonight I went to the annual Lehi Community Meeting where they talk about all the issues facing our little community. I was impressed because our Mayor, Scott Smith came, along with our city councilman, Dave Richins, 2 of the Mesa police chiefs and numerous other city officials. I couldn't believe our little community would bring out the big guns, but we did. The meeting itself was not really noteworthy, but the bi-product of it is what I am writing about. The members of the Lehi Community Board talked about next year being the first year that they will hold elections for the Board. All of a sudden a light bulb went off in my head. Ever since I got interested in the presidential race I have been feeling a big pull to do something, to stand up for what is right and make a difference, but I have felt so insignificant. I realized that I could start locally, in Lehi, maybe a position on the PTO, then city government, after that state, then who knows, I could be the next Sarah Palin (ha ha). Who knew she would be such an inspiration. Anyway, I'm thinking that might be a good start. What do you think? Should I get involved in politics???

Flakey

This post is dedicated to our Flakey (As he is known at our house). You have become a man overnight it seems. When your dad and I first met you were a mere 12 years old, unsure of what teenage years were all about, just about to embark on your first days of junior high, where spongebob ruled and the movie theaters were the place to be. The next thing we know, you are this tall, handsome young man who has graduated from Highschool, is attending college, has an incredible girlfriend(whom we love as well) and is just beginning to carve his own way in this world. How proud we are of you Flakey. How much we love you. Thanks for being so amazing. Love, Dad & Lisa

FHE at Bass Pro Shop

For FHE tonight, we decided to take advantage of Bass Pro Shop's Christmas celebration. Did you know that Santa is there already, and better yet, you can get your kids picture taken with him for free? Pretty cool huh? Bass Pro Shop has kind of become our family's hangout. (As I am sure you can tell by that statement alone, we are not big Obama fans). Needless to say, Cory and the kids like to go look at the guns and I like to just be there with them. But right now, for the Christmas season, the store is all decked out. In Santaland, not only can you get your pic taken, but they have some other activities for the kids to do. Our kids had a blast. And there was absolutely no line. Poor Santa and his Elves...they sat there for quite a while doing nothing. I heard it is swamped on the weekends, so you might try the weekdays like we did, or better yet, go next Monday night for Family Night.

It is good to be a kid.

The boys had quite a night last night. First off, they got to go play at their friends house, Alexandria, AJ, DJ and Isabel (Ondria's). They played while daddy hung up fixtures for their mommy. Then we went straight to candlelight park where we met up with all the Langford cousins and ate pizza. From there, we came back home and the boys had their long awaited campfire with their daddy out by the "wareshop". This is one of their most favorite things to do and they have been bugging us forever to roast marshmallows on the campfire. Cory was somehow able to talk the boys out of sleeping in the toyhauler (because that was the plan since we weren't able to go camping like planned). Most families go out to the forest for this type of entertainment, but we have a hard time getting farther than our own backyard. Oh well, the boys love it and I guess that is all that matters. Needless to say, they had tummy aches when it came bedtime from downing a whole bag of marshmallows. It is good to be a kid!

The great outdoors

Ahhh....The great outdoors. And this time of year, we see alot of it. As you can see, the boys love to play outside, especially with their friends, the Slades(Josh, Riley and Jocelynn). They are so sweet to my boys and help me out so much. We are so blessed to have them as our neighbors and my boys love every moment with them. Tonight the boys got to go over to the Slades and eat pancakes for dinner. They thought that was the coolest
thing.

Happy Anniversary Honey

Happy Anniversary Honey. We made it 6 years and are still going strong. I love you dearly and forever. Thank you for being so wonderful to me. You are exactly what I wanted in a husband. I thank Heavenly Father every night that we have been sealed together forever... Here's to forever. Love, babe.

The secret double life of inanimate objects

Most of us have heard stories of a soccer mom's who has a secret double live or a politician, or worse yet, a preacher/priest. Shocking as they may be, have you ever considered the secret double life of an inanimate object? Neither had I until I began noticing a strange phenomenon around my house. It seemed that the most common of household items were beginning to take on a new role (i.e., glue sticks, flashlights, empty prescription bottles, plastic recorders from the dollar store, highlighter pens). The strangest part about it was that they were taking on the same double life. They were all doubling as light sabers. I know. Who would have thought? Buds #2 & #3 have lost their real light sabers and so have gone on a quest to turn anything and everything we own into one, hence, the secret double life. It has been quite interesting, I must say, to see what object become their next victims. Bud #4 on the other hand is content with the box from Costco. Why do we spent the money on expensive gifts?

You win

Alright Ondria and Betsy, you win. I now have a blog. In fact, I have been on it for 2 hours already setting it up and it is alot of fun. I knew I would like it once I did it, I just didn't want to commit the time to it. What really sold me on it was seeing the pics of Ondria's blog book on her site. How awesome. Now I see the whole "scrapbook" parallel. I am too tired to mess around with posting any pictures, so this is it for day one. I am officially a blogger!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!