Saturday, December 27, 2008

Anolis carolinensis

We had a great Christmas! We went to a party at Kim and Kurt Acton's house on Christmas eve, and we had a great time! We ate lots of yummy meats(Kurt and Bob were in charge of the food;) and I made cookies for everyone to eat. We had a white Elephant gift exchange... but it was just more of a $10 or less gift exchange. The kids all got something from Mom and Bob, and we just sat around and talked and had fun.
When we got home, we opened our PJ presents and made some sugar cookies for Santa. The kids all decorated one, and then I decorated one and we all took a bite of it.








All of us taking bites and doing cookies
So, for months, all that McKie has wanted is a lizard. So we told him if he was good, maybe Santa would bring him one for Christmas. We went up to Billings to finish our shopping and went to petsmart to get the lizard stuff. Well, we waited there for around 30 minutes to get someone to help us, and finally, when she came, she said there wasn't a set-up there for a tropical environment, only one for a desert environment. I didn't think that a simple little lizard needed much, and I didn't think the small lizards that were out in the sandhills needed a tropical set-up. BUT... they do. So we contemplated wether to just get a bigger lizard and use the desert set-up, but it would have been $40 more dollars, and I didn't think that we could handle that, it was already costing more than we wanted to pay. So we called the place that they told us to at petsmart, and they were closing in 15 minutes, and the roads were horrible, so we didn't know if we could get there in time, but thankfully, the people there stayed open long enough so that we could get our things! It was so nice of them! He was so excited when he walked out on Christmas morning to his lizard! I got a video on Calli's phone, but it was too long to send, and my phone was at my sister's so I don't really have any Christmas pics. That, and McKie threw up after he opened half of his presents, so we were cleaning that up.
After we opened presents, we went over to Cam's and ate a very good breakfast that mom and Bob made. Dad brought over the kids' gifts and all of our gifts(the traditional 12-pack of pop and some moolah- love it!) and we gave him his. We then went home to take naps... and I actually got to take one! Then we woke up, went to Mom and Bob's and the kids opened their presents there.
The day after Christmas, we always go up to Billings and Mom and Bob give all of their kids our gift(moolah again) and we get to partake of all of the sales and get what we want or need! We shopped around for a little bit and met up at the Golden Corral for a late lunch. After that, we went to a couple places to look at snow suits for the kids and we got an ipod alarm clock dock for Jaran. McKie went home with Maddox for a few days(and I already miss him tons).
We then went home and got ready and went to our UGLY SWEATER PARTY! It was great, and there were a lot of great sweaters. I don't like to do things half-way, so Jaran and I did whole outfits for ours!

I tied for 2nd, one more vote and I would have tied for 1st! DANG! J/k!

The kid that won had this off-white sweater with blue polar bears on it, and it was fantastic! We left early, cause I wasn't feeling well, but it was a good time, and we got to see Alex, whom I haven't seen since high school!
Well all, it's time to do something non-computer-related!
Take Care!

Friday, December 19, 2008

Baby it's cold outside


I know that it's not as cold toay as a couple days ago, but it's still so dang cold! I am pretty sure it's reached 20 below here one night. I would describe it as skin-peeling cold. Why? You might ask. Well, it's because it feels as though your skin is being peeled away from your flesh when you walk outside. And if it's blowing at all- it's HORRIBLE! I like snow, and I don't mind the cold most of the time... but it's TOO cold to be fun.
Last night we went to the Lovell/Rocky game, and it was very disappointing. Our boys didn't play very well, and I felt so bad for them. Every shot they put up just didn't want to go through the basket! We took the kids, and Jaran left not long after the 3rd quarter started with Ans and Brens. Kies and I stayed, and he had fun hanging on the railings of the bleachers. He kept asking me to take pictures, so here's what I captured!

We finally got our dance uniforms, and I gave them to the girls Wednesday at practice! I think they're pretty dang cute, what do you all think? I'm really proud of the girls and how hard they have been working. We finally finished the dance and are ready to perform. It's so exciting!

We are going to finally decorate our tree today after Jaran gets here. It hasn't really felt like Christmas since we haven't had any decorations, so I'm hoping this will make it more real. It's less than a week till and I can't wait now that the kids are old enough to get excited. I hope that they're not disappointed, as this year is going to be mostly homemade stuff. I'm sure it will be fine, as long as we find some big boxes for them to play with, right?!

This is just a pic of Ansleigh after she woke up yesterday. She had a pony-tail in her hair the day before, and it held it's shape pretty well. Steph said it looked like the baby Grinch from the real-life movie! Ha ha ha!

A very cute, and unusual, picture! They were sitting watching "Kung Fu Panda" and were all sitting so nicely! Sweet babies!
My Aunt Deana flew in for a few days to help get my Dad's place ready to move into. We had our ward Christmas party Wednesday night, which I had to sing at, and then I took her to Cody so she could go to the airport early the next morning. I ended up staying until after 2 and just talked with her. It was nice to catch up, and get my gossip quota filled;)! I am hoping that I will be able to make it to Denver for my cousin's wedding on Jan. 10th. It's been 4 1/2 years since I was there last, and I used to go several times a year before that. Cross your fingers for me!
Well, sorry the post is kind of boring, but it's been a semi-normal week! Take Care!

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Husband Tag



5 Things he loves:

- BYU football
- His family
- 311
- Building log furniture
- His homemade salsa


5 Things on his to do list:

- Make a toy chest for the boys for Christmas
- Make end tables for the living room for Christmas
- Help me organize the craft/computer room
- Take a vacation kid-free
- Close on our home refinance


5 Foods he enjoys:

- Steak
- Baked potatoes with cheese, sour cream AND butter(not butt like it said before!)
- My Grandma Fran Spaghetti
- Hamburgers(he orders this almost everywhere we go to eat)
- Chinese food from China Town


5 things you may not know about him:

- He can sing, even though he tells people he can't
- He is a master paper airplane maker
- He DOES NOT like to relax when he can be doing something... he'd rather be working that sitting on the couch watching a movie
- HE is the one who wanted to buy a van
- He Speaks Spanish(from his mission although he says he doesn't anymore)


5 quirky things about him:

- His jaw pops when he chews
- While sitting he always has to move his legs
- He always taps his knuckles together
- When he laughs he doesn't really make noise
- He calls grilled cheese sandwiches "cheese grills"

Anyone who wants to do this

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Now is the time

I suppose it's been too long since I last posted anything worth posting, and I apologize for that. I will now bombard you with pics and good fun stories!

We spent over a week in Utah during Thanksgiving time, and we had such a great time we didn't want to leave. We left on the Sunday morning before Thanksgiving, and got there around 5, I think. Monday we just kind of hung around and had fun. We visited with Kendra and Joseph for a little bit on Monday evening, then went back to the Baker house.

Tuesday we went to visit Nikki and Jeremy at the car lot, and went to get my ring fixed, only to find out that the place we bought it from went out of business and so now to get it fixed, we have to pay a bunch of money for it... so I will probably be wearing fake rings again for a while. I made Jaran go to Twilight with me on Tuesday night, and it was better the second time. I still don't think that people who haven't read the book really gets how great the books are. It doesn't do it justice, and I'm crossing my fingers that whoever they get to direct the "New Moon" film does a better job. He thought it was an okay movie, so that is all I could really ask for. Wednesday we went to Zak's wrestling tournament, and it was so much fun! Jaran and I took our kids, and Kendra brought 7 of hers, and Amanda was there to help us out. When we got there I went up to talk to Zak and his friends thought I was their age, and asked Zak- who is that? It was funny to think that I can still pass as 18... and really weird at the same time. So after Zak's first match, we decided that all the kids needed to go back to the Baker house and get their energy out, cause 10 kids with only 4 adults(or close enough) didn't quite work out. So Kendra, Amanda and I went to walmart to get some stuff to make shirts and posters to go back and cheer Zak on. This is what we came up with!


It was so much fun! That night we went out with some of Jaran's friends to dinner... you know what? I might be getting nights mixed up, but who cares? Justin and his girlfriend Amy, and Billy and his wife Nikki and Jaran and I went to a place called Iggy's for dinner. It was really good food, and they had this great dipping stuff for your bread they called "chili water." It was sweet, but spicy, and so dang good. Then we went back to Justin's and played TABOO, which I found out later was a mistake. We did boys against girls, and the boys were being crazy and did everything they could do(cheating) not to lose. So we conceded so they wouldn't cry. Thursday morning I woke up and started doing stuff for our Thanksgiving meal. I made Crandberry relish, made a homemade pie crust for my pumpkin pie, and did the relish trays. I ran up to get in the shower while my pie was in the oven, and due to the craziness you always have before dinner on Thanksgiving, the pie got burned. You see, you have to change the temperature 15 minutes into baking it, and everyone forgoet while I was showering! But it's okay, cause Kendra made a bunch of delicious pies to share! Almost everyone was there for Thanksgiving dinner... all but Karina and her family, Jonny and his, Vyedka and hers(sorry I forgot to mention that before Vye, you just usually are, so it was weird that you weren't in the first place! I feel like a loser for not saying so before) and Buddy, who is on his mission. We got to spend time with Krystal, Justin's daughter, whom we had never met before. She lived in Georgia with her mom, and just moved to Utah during Thanksgiving time. It was great!
That night we decided to get crazy, make some funky shirts and go to Twilight, again. It was great fun! We also talked Zak into being extra crazy and doing his hair like Edwards(which took tons of hairspray and a straight iron) and put a little extra saying on his shirt. Jaran ditched out on the movie until the movie he and Justin went to was over. Then we went back and realized we were only going to get a couple hours before we had to wake up for "Black Friday" shopping. We woke up around 3 and Jaran went with his sisters to Walmart in Layton, while I went to the JoAnn's in Riverdale. I thought they opened at 5... but they didn't until 6... so I could have been first in line, but I went to check out the stuff at Walmart there in Riverdale, and then went and got some snacks for the long stand in line. I met a lady that was born in Lovell, and we had a good talk about home. When I realized that I could get trampled at this store, I called Jaran for reinforcement. You see, you have to get a number in order to get your fabric cut, and if you do that first, you miss out on the great flannel... so being the great husband that he is, he came to help. We ran in and got the stuff we needed(or all that I was able to get anyway) and our number was A20. I only had to wait a couple minutes to get mine cut. When we were leaving they were only on A38 and people were picking numbers clear into B80's and I am sure they were there clear into the afternoon waiting to get their fabric cut. It was crazy! I'd only been to the JoAnn's in Bozeman, and there were only a handful of people there. This place had people clear around the corner of the store outside waiting when they opened, and I was 5th in line! So we went home and tried to catch a few Z's after that(which didn't really happen cause the kids were just waking up when we got there. Then Jaran went to Tooele to help his mom and her family move stuff out from his Grandma's house. I took Nikki and Zak to Walmart, where she bought rock band for her Wii. Needless to say, that's about all we did for the rest of the day.

Saturday we all went back to Tooele to move more stuff out of the house. We were there until around 5 and then had to go help Jaran's uncle unload his stuff... and got home around 6:30. Then around 7 we went out with Andy and Ashley(Jaran's friend and his wife) to dinner and then the new Bond movie, which was good, but a little confusing cause we hadn't seen the one prior to the new one. Sunday, Amanda spoke in church, so we went to listen. She did a great job, but the boys were extra naughty and hard to control. So we left them at class and nursery and went back to clean up the house. We actually got some stuff done without them there! Then we went over to Joseph and Kendra to help them un-pack the rest of their stuff from Montana, and while there, I stepped into a hole and twisted my ankle so bad! I had already stepped into the hole 2 times, and had just finished telling Joseph he should fill it in before someone hurt themself... and then I did! So I was of no help after that. Then we went home and played some cards that night. Monday we took the kids to a park down the road that is shaped like a castle, and the kids loved it! Then we decided to take them to The Mayan, which is a restaurant that has these people who dive off of cliffs into a big pool below. When we got there, we found out that they didn't open until 4... so we went and got a pizza at Little Caesars for 5 bucks and went home to the Baker's house. We put the kids down for a nap, and just vegged out.

That night, we went into Salt Lake and walked around the temple, which was AWESOME cause they had the Christmas lights up and on.

I have never seen them in person before, and it was so great. Even the kids loved it.

We met up with Jeremy and his girlfriend for a few minutes, then walked back to the car, went home and went to bed.

Tuesday, we got up and drove home. It was a great trip, and it was sad to leave everyone.
As soon as we got home from there, I went and helped my Mom and Bob with a catering job they got talked into doing. I got there at 5:30 and was on my feet serving food until 10:30... my ankle was swollen and hurting, and I was exhausted by the time I got home.
Wednesday I had dance, so Jaran stayed with the kids during the afternoon. The girls are great, but sometimes they have these moods where all they want to do is talk and giggle and not get anything done! Tomorrow will be better, I am sure, but last week wasn't very productive! The shoes we ordered should be here by the end of this week, and the uniforms by the end of next week, so that is exciting!
Jaran has been building some log furniture for Christmas, and just cause we need some. He's building another bunk bed, just a double twin, so we can put it downstairs for Ans and one of the boys... cause the one we have doesn't fit down the stairs. He is also building a chest-of -drawers for our room, so we don't have to live out of bins anymore! He is going to do a Toy chest for the boys from you-know-who and some end-tables for us. I am going to make him a big quilt that he has been asking me to for years, but since I found the perfect fabric at Black Friday, I now have the stuff to do it!
As I said before, Calli did our Christmas card pics last night, and they turned out as well as you can expect with our kids.





They just don't like to sit still for long periods of time... as you can see in the one of Ansleigh with the boys giving kisses. It's pretty dang funny! Well, that is all for now! Take Care!

Monday, December 8, 2008

I will update more tomorrow

This is just so that Kim will still love me! I have some pictures I need to get off of my phone, and Cal came and took a bunch of pics for us for Christmas cards... as you can see at the top of the page. So I will give as much info in the next post as possible. In fact, you will probably want me to NOT write so much, but I'm going to anyway! Love you all, Take Care!