A Winter Wonderland

I just got in from spending almost 2 hours shoveling the driveway that looks like no shoveling was done at all. The snow is beautiful, and white. The lights on the houses and the trees seem to sparkle and shine just a little bit brighter. I love it! It made me start thinking about last Saturday, when it made another grand entrance as we were moving boxes from the other house. I realized that I haven't had a chance to formally thank all of you who took time out from this busy time of year to help us with moving and cleaning. You don't know how grateful we are for all the time that you gave to us. I'm sure it was the last thing you wanted to be doing on a friday and saturday so close to Christmas, but what a wonderful gift you all gave us. We had movers, cleaners, babysitters, and so many offers for help. My thanks seems so inadequate to what you all truly deserve, but I hope you know it comes from the bottom of my heart.

I caught a couple of these pictures when the trailer showed up to be unpacked. The snow started about 30 minutes before Brett, Randall, Chad, Jeff, Nat, and Nick showed up to help unload. They hauled butt and got the trailer unloaded in record time. Thanks again to everyone!! I love you all!

Bittersweet Blessings

So, I know. I definitely have not done well in keeping up with the blog. I'm sure you are no pins and needles waiting for pictures from Hawaii...and I have just a nibble...
Since we got back, things have been a bit crazy for us. So, you all know that we have been here in Kaysville for about a year and a half now. I just knew this was where I wanted to be probably for 12 years now. This was it, this was where we were going to stay for the long haul. I love my home, my yard, the neighborhood, etc. Everything about it was just good. But, in just a matter of moments...things change.
Unfortunately, we were never sucessful at getting our house sold up in NSL. We had people rent from us for about 9 months, but it was still difficult to get them to pay the rent in a timely manner, let alone at all. Well, they moved out the end of September and the house has been empty since. So, around that time Jeff and I feel like maybe we should just put this house on the MLS and just see what happens. We didn't have too much longer until we just couldn't pay two mortgages anymore. We ran many options back and forth to each other, but we just didn't know what to do. We just decided to see what happened.

Well, we head to Hawaii and have such a fantastic time. It was beautiful, peaceful, and trouble free. I kept saying to Jeff that we should just sell everything we own, get the kids, and move to Hawaii. There was just a feeling there that I will never forget.We could live in a hut, sell shells on the beach, Jeff could become a divemaster. What could be better than that? HA. Of course, that's not really realistic, but it was an idea. That seven days ended so quickly, we were back to real life before you know it.

In a nutshell...we get back, someone comes through the house here in Kaysville, decides they like it, put an offer in, we accept it. Now, we are off on another adventure. We're heading back to NSL. I'm excited to be back with old friends, the kids are familiar with the school, we have a nice home there. I know this was a huge blessing for us. How lucky are we in this market?

I'm very sad though, too. I just want to tell all you girls that I haven't gotten to know here, how grateful I am to have crossed paths with you. You are wonderful women, whom I love. You've all made an impact in my life and for that I am grateful. I know, I'm not moving out of state or across the globe, it's just 20 or so miles down the road. I do know how hard it is to keep in close touch when we are so wrapped up in our immediate lives, our family, school, ward callings, etc. that it's hard to keep the effort up. I'm guilty of that, I'm not good at that, so forgive me now! :)

I've started packing up now and we'll be finishing up next weekend. I want to be somewhat settled before Christmas. I'm going to have the kids start at the new/old school the week before school gets out for the holidays so they can get the nerves out and feel comfortable when the go back in January.

Crazy times! Bare with me...I may or may not get Christmas cards out. I may not write here again for awhile. Love me anyway! :)

Halloween 2008

OK...so I know these pictures are so last month, but with my recent jaunt to the beautiful Kauai, HI I was not able to post them in a timely manner. They were so cute though, I wanted to show them off! By the Way...thank you Amy and Ray for such a fun Halloween night. The food was awesome and the Haunted House ruled! It was a blast!!

Like Totally Awesome!!

 
 
 

Ashley and I got to go to a Mother/Daughter Activity Days Halloween Party. As you can see, it was a costume event. I definitely procrastinated until the last minute to figure what to do for a costume (I was at Walmart at 3pm, the party was at 6:30pm), but it all came together quite nicely. It helps that the recent fashions happen to imitate the fashions of the 80's. Lucky for me! ha. The two of us had a great time! It was funny, I had moms keep coming up to me saying, "Oh my gosh, that's totally bringing back memories for me..." The only thing missing was leg warmers and lace gloves with the fingers missing. You never know...we might bring the banana clip back!! (Yes, walmart sells them in a package of three!)

Is he not the cutest??!!

 

So, I was giving CJ a bath the other night and decided to snap some shots with the camera. I couldn't get the kid to smile, however I think this one is pretty, freakin' adorable.

Tagged #2

 

So, this is really funny. You saw the photo on my laptop I used, but I decided to see what picture would come up if I got onto my computer that has most of my pictures on it. 4th folder, 4th picture...it's Megan again. Just a little smaller this time. :)

Ok. So, I get to tag a few more people...Kim Kuipers, Julie, Brooke, Becca, and any others who would like to entertain us.

Tagged!

 


This is kind of a fun tag. Tiffany (my sister) tagged me. The fourth picture in the fourth folder. To be honest with you, I was kind of confused by this. Nothing more than 4th picture in the 4th folder. Took me a minute, but I figured it out. Ha. I'm so blonde...I just downloaded picassa onto my laptop and I've imported a few pictures onto this computer. I'm too lazy tonight to go down on the other computer that has most of my photos, so here it is. I might even answer the tag with the pictures from my other computer...Maybe...you know how on top of it I am to update my blog:)

Meg playing goalie at her soccer game. I think she really enjoys this position. She is really aggressive and doesn't shy away from the ball when it is coming at her. It's fun to watch her play and I'm glad she's enjoying it. I'm also glad that tomorrow is her last game until spring.

Ok, Becky, Debbie, Amy, Amber, Nat, Jenny, Sara, Chelon...TAG, you are it!

He found the stairs!! AGH!

Ok. I'm in some major trouble people. In the past couple weeks, CJ has gotten a little more mobile by adapting the army crawl into his daily routine. Well, he has found the stairs in the last couple days and it seems he bee-lines straight to the stairs for play time. I have GOT to get on top of things and go pick up a gate before something drastic happens.

The Big 3-2!

So, I'm 32 years old today. It just seems a little crazy to me. I know, it's not a BIG year, nothing special about it. Really, just another day. I'm just sitting here in a quiet house. The older kids are at school and CJ just crashed on the front room floor. I've just started thinking about how tremendously blessed I am. I have a wonderful husband and beautiful children. I have an incredible extended family. I'm just content, I'm happy. Life is chatic and crazy, the world seems to falling apart bit by bit, but life is good today. I'm sure it will be good for awhile.

I just want to say thank you to all of you. I have been blessed to have you in my life, whether for a small time or or extended period of time. You have made an impact on me and have been a part of making me the person I am. I'm happy with the person I am. I know I have plenty of short comings, and I have some things I need to work on and I am trying to work on those. Thanks for putting up with me and still loving me just the way I am!

HAPPY DAY!!

Alaska 2008

OK...so maybe took a little longer than I anticipated for me to get these pictures on. I had some technical difficulties (of course, why can't it be easy), but finally at 1:20am it's finally done. I know I'm a little over my deadline of what I set for me, but at least it wasn't a whole month later, right?? We had an awesome time. It was cold, but beautiful! Definitely something you need to do at least once. I wish we could have had all of the family there, we missed everyone who couldn't make it. It's good to be home. We missed the kids alot! Thank you Natalie, Amy, and Mom & Dad Harris for watching out for them. We couldn't have had this experience without you!!

We're back!!

Hey, I know you are a bit disappointed. Thinking that you would see all these fantastic pictures to Alaska, but not yet! I'm a bit too tired to get them on tonight, but I will I promise! It will not be in a month or even in a week. I will get them on tomorrow. I promise, I will. It might be 11:57pm but I will do it. I just wanted to let you all know that I'm back! I had a great time and look forward to sharing it with you!!

School is in Session

Parker- Kindergarten

Megan-1st grade

Ashley-4th grade

The first week of school has successfully come and gone. Ashley came home on the first day and was horrified with the fact that she had to do work on the first day! "I had to do mathmatics! Can you believe it?" she said. "Yes, I can. You are in 4th grade! Get ready for loads of homework!" (I may have scared her!:)) Megan was thrilled with the first day. She's been waiting for weeks for school to start! Parker asks me everyday when he gets to go. Kindergartners have testing the first week so he FINALLY gets to start on Tuesday next week.

Well, Jeff and I are off to Alaska tomorrow for a week. I'm really excited, but a bit sad to leave the kids. I'm sure they'll be fine and not think twice about us not being around. We miss Parker's first official day of school and both Megan and Parker's first soccer game. I hope they forgive us. I hope CJ sleeps through the night for Natalie and that the kids behave! Thanks for everyone's help! Love you guys.

Farewell to Summer

The week before school was packed with some last minute fun! The kids and I went to the Roy pool with The Howes, Allens, the Hess Family, and Amber came with the boys. Thanks all of you, that was a lot of fun. We also decided to take a last minute trip up to Pineview on friday for most likely the last time of the year. The second the sun went down we were shivering! Then Saturday, Randall and Sara invited us over for a little BBQ and swim before school started on Monday. The food was fantastic! Thanks for letting me come even though Jeff didn't show up until everyone went home. Jeff finally got the motorcross track open that weekend. (detailed post to come, eventually...)

This summer was so fun! I can't believe that it's over already. I'm looking forward to a change of seasons and having a bit of order around here. The holidays are fast approaching, get ready!!

Under Construction!!

So, I'm feeling pretty good about myself. I'm getting old..er, but I can still play!! So, last friday Parker goes outside to get the milk out of the cooler on the front porch and finds that someone has left us a little gift on the front porch. There were a couple of orange barrels, 2 cones, and a baricade along with some caution tape so lovingly placed on the front porch. I knew right away which house in the neighborhood was to blame (any guesses,anyone??), it was just a matter of finding out what individual it was. I took the baricade and barrels over to their house and put them behind their car,(just returning them you know!) and minutes later Jr. throws them back in my yard. I know who the colprit is now...

So, later that night I just can't get my mind off getting back at him just a bit. Jeff of course doesn't want to have a part in it. So, I just do it by myself. (Amber didn't help at all!!) I actually call "Mama W." to get her blessing because they were having some family time at Lagoon (it's what fun is!!). I figured if I got permission then if there was retaliation it wouldn't be so bad...(I was wrong, sounds like it might be a family affair after all!)

ANYWAY...so I only had an hour. Jeff had a new roll of caution tape in the garage and there has been some recent road work in the area so there was plenty of cones around (those things are pretty heavy! got a work out though!) I didn't call Amber and she didn't come and assist (she didn't do most the heavy labor gathering cones). I'm sure she was just at her house, minding her own business like reading a book or something. I on the other hand had a fun time, just on my own without Amber of course!! I also wrapped his bed in caution tape, fun, fun!! I used almost the whole roll of tape.
Here is how the room ended up!
  

Well, I thought they might retaliate as soon as they got home, but thank goodness they were totally exhausted from their long day of playing. Now, they are just loving tormenting me with idea of retaliation. Honestly, I am afraid. Cam and Nat are the biggest pranksters and I've always made an effort to stay clear. All I did was rightfully return what was left at my house and all of the sudden there is a hit out on me (so to speak). I have just come to terms with the fact that I'm in big trouble and look forward to what is to come!!

Night at Red Butte with KT (and Amber)

There was a fun time had here at the Red Butte Gardens! After the great AI concert months back, Amber asked if I was interested in another little evening out for KT Tunstall. It sounded like a fun time so I jumped on the wagon!! It was just the two of us again, (we started feeling a little self-conscience that no one else wanted to hang with us again, but tried to push it out of our minds and not take it personal! :)) ANYHOW...

The concert was great! KT was so entertaining and had a great personality. I loved to here her talk being scottish and all and some of the things she said were hilarious! One of my favorites was that she had to ask her tour manager if they were really performing at Red Butt Gardens as in your backside, booty, or toushy. I was seriously loving her rocking out on like four different guitars, I though that was awesome. The venue was awesome being outside. Amber and I snuck to the front and settled in around many large groups of concert goers!

 

Here's us, when we started to get cold we cuddled! We fit right in with the other fans of KT, nobody even stared!
 

I have to say that my favorite was one of her band members, who was I swear straight out of the 70's. He had on 100% polyester, the big brown belt, and to top it off the stand alone mustache. I sure enjoyed watching him. I even more enjoyed watching her token hottie guitar guy who unfortunately was on the other side of the stage. I couldn't get a good picture of him, so that's a bit of a bummer.

 

Other fun highlights: *watching two drunk chicks fight, because one kept getting in the others view of KT.
*watching the drunk girls dancing in the front. Do they dance like that sober???
*trying not to stare at the couples who were cuddling, mostly because they were of the same sex.

I had a great time! Amber thanks for the invites, we'll definitely have to get to some more!! love ya!

Technical Difficulties

Ok, so I'm a bit peaved right now. I finally have a bit of time to sit at the computer all by myself and it's bliss. So I think, "What a fantastic time to download pictures from last week and blog a bit about the fun, busy week the kids and me had." But for some reason and no reason I can figure out, the pictures won't download! I'm dying people!! I finally decide to get on top of things a little better and then I'm cursed. NO PICTURES! Who will read a blog without pictures? I can't write worth crap and it's the pictures that people come for! Oh well, what to do? Sorry, my friends...maybe I'll have better luck later, tomorrow, next week. I'll see what I can do!

Fish Lake 2008

The Harris Family has an awesome tradition that has been passed down through generations of spending time during the summer at Fish Lake, Utah. Fish Lake is beautiful, I swear this is what heaven will look like. We have many wonderful memories that we have made in our own little family in the last 4 or so years that we have starting going there and I know that we will make plenty more. Harris Family...I love you and am so grateful you have shared this with me!

Cousin's Visit/Trip to Lagoon

I was so excited to get an email from Mindy telling me that she and her family were going to be heading out to Utah for a visit. We were even more excited to be able to have them stay with us. One day (this was July 22nd of course, because I obviously can't stay on top of blogging recent pictures!) we decided to take all of the kids over to Lagoon (minus CJ, thank goodness) for some good 'ol fashion fun!! Bill was a good sport coming with us. Jeff had to work (plus he hates the place), so he was the lone male adult hanging with us. I think he even had fun though! It was so freaking hot though! Thank goodness for the water rides or we would have never survived. We actually played until they kicked us out at 10pm! (So, when did Lagoon start closing their doors at 10pm? In my younger years (ha!) I could have sworn they were there til midnight!!) Anyway here are some pics of the day!!




Sammy totally cracks me up! He found a feather off the ground and was being pretty silly!



Always have to get a cheeser pose with my sis!

What posers!!! :)ha.

This was Ashley's first time on the Colossus! I was so impressed, she was scared but tuffed it out and loved it! She wanted to find Meg and Will and go with them too! Parker was pretty ticked because he wanted to be with us, but he was too short. Maybe next year bud!

This is Meg and Will before their first time. They were pretty pumped and weren't going to let Ashley show them up!! Meg and I ended up in the very back and we definitely got tossed around a bit. She thought one time was good enough for her. She hit her head on the side of her seat so she had a nice headache for a bit, but she still wanted to go on Wicked.

We all voted and this was by far the favorite of the day/night! I couldn't believe how brave Ashley, Meg, and Will were! It was a scary ride, but it was a total blast! They had so much fun that we did it twice! By the time we did Wicked again, it was 10pm and we got hearded out of the park with everyone else. We had a fantastic time! We miss you guys!!!

Like Father...Like Son!

So, if any of you know Jeff, you know that he is a bit addicted to the thrill of riding motorcycles. He began this addiction a little over six years ago. I don't know the exact date, however I do know that it all started the day after I told him I was pregnant with Parker. That was the day he bought his first motorcycle. I remember he brought it home one evening and spent hours out in the garage that night with it. I knew I was in trouble, forget having to compete with another woman for my husband's attention. I was going to have to compete with a motorcycle???!!! I have to admit, I hated everything thing about that bike. I hated that he loved riding so much. I hated that if he had any free time, he would just want to ride for awhile. I hated that he was making new friends at the track. I hated that he ate and drank anything involved with it. I actually think I hated him for awhile. I began to resent him and the bike and I was angry. One day (maybe a year or two or three down the road), to make a long story short and leaving out gory details, I came to terms with it. I actually asked him if the kids and I could join him at the track one day. He was thrilled! He had asked in the past and I always came up with an excuse not to go, blamed it on the kids, the house not being cleaned, blah, blah, blah. Anyway, I actually had a good time and the kids loved it! We got dirty and hot, but had a blast. What was even more thrilling to me, was to see Jeff so excited that his family was with him, that I was there with him. From then on, we have integrated this crazy sport into our lives. We have had some fun times!! Jeff and I have traveled to different states to some of the Supercross races. We've spent weekends camping so Jeff could race in some of the local races. And with all of that, Parker has become a bit addicted to the sport. Jeff picked up a couple of 50's (the small motos) in the past hoping maybe the girls would ride. They did for a little bit, but got bored. Parker on the other hand, loved being around the bikes since he was little. They never scared him. He loved to get rides with Jeff on his and when he was big enough to ride one himself, he was ecstatic. Last summer we took the training wheels off for him because he was actually tall enough to touch the ground with his feet. He got on the bike and has been loving it since. He's been getting to go to the track with Jeff a little bit this summer and he loves it. I just dread the day when he asks to race for the first time!!