Monday, December 31, 2007

What I did so I could get out of doing housework

The title isn't totally true, but it has been nice to not do dishes. On Thursday I cut my finger pretty good that I had to get stitches. I was cutting some partly frozen hamburger and I must of hit a thawed part and I sliced it right over my knuckle. It did not hurt at first but it sure does now. You never know how much you use a certain body part until you can't anymore. Luckily it will be ok in a couple of weeks.

Christmas

Christmas Eve we went to my mom's house for our traditional pizza and wings dinner. The kids always get P.J. 's and a small gift to open. It is usually late when we get home and then Santa's helpers have to get to work. These helpers were up until 3am.


Christmas was so much fun. Getting ready is always a little stressful but when the day comes we always have fun. We got woke up by Garrett at 5am and he was told to go back to bed. Briauna woke up at 6am and then Garrett came in again at 6:30. So he then woke everyone else up. The gifts we a big hit and the whole opening part only lasted about 20 min.



When John was a missionary he had groucho marks glasses that he took pictures with every companion. I saw some at the dollar store and thought how fun it would be to takes pictures of each other with the glasses on. I gave them to him so we could take these silly pictures.

After our fun opening our gifts off to grandmas house we went for our big Christmas breakfast. I wait all year for it. The food is so good and there is always alot. The gift opening was a lot more civilized than normal so there was not as much caos. And nothing was lost in the paper. After grandma,s we went home for a quiet afternoon with some sleep and some playing. It was a great day. The kids make Christmas so fun.
I am so grateful to be around family during this season. We always have so much fun together. It is neat to see my 19yr and 15yr old nephew and neice play with my littlest kids. We are happy to have them around and we will miss Blake when he goes to UofA in Jan. We hope you all had a great Christmas and have fun taking all of the decorations down.

Christmas in Prescott

It has been a while since I posted anything so I have a lot to catch up on. The weekend before Christmas we went to Prescott to have Christmas with the Lowry's. We always have so much fun when we go up there and this time was no different. There was a ton of kids running around and several adults as well. We had the traditional Mexican dinner which was way yummy. I have to say I did not like how cold it was. I have lived in Az almost my whole life so I don't handle the cold very well, 22 degrees was too cold. We had fun and look forward to the next visit in Prescott.

Saturday, December 22, 2007

Tagged

This my first time being tagged so hopefully I did ok.

A- Attached or single: attached - for 12 years.

B- Best Friends: so many -John of course but as far as friends - Kim, Sara, Rebecca.

C- Cake or Pie: That is a toss up but I am going to choose pie today.

D- Day of choice: Saturday

E- Essential Item: family, journals and pictures.

F- Favorite Color: light yellow

G- Gummi Bears or Worms: both

H- Hometown: Phoenix, AZ

I- Indulgence(s): hobby of the month,quiet time with husband

J- January or July: Both- anniversary is in Jan. and we have 3 b-days in July

K- Kids: Garrett 10, Lance 8, Caleb 6, Jenna 3, Briauna 5 months.

L- Life is Incomplete Without: my husband and kids, the Gospel, thanks Natalie your answer was too good

M- Marriage Date: January 13, 1996.

N- Number of Siblings: 3

O- Oranges or Apples: oranges

P- Phobias or Fears: bridges, accidents, bugs

Q- Quotes: this is not really a quote but Jenna always " I need to hold you " she really wants to be held

R- Reason To Smile: kids, husband, health

S- Season: Fall and spring

T- Tag Three: Toni, Adrea, and Lindsay

U- Unknown Fact About Me: I absolutaly hate bridges especially over water.

V- (there was no "V" ???)

W- Worst Habit: nail biting

X- X-Rays or Ultrasounds: Ultrasound around 20 - multiple children and miscarrages. Xrays chest as a child with pneumonia

Y- Your Favorite Food: I don't have one at this time

Z- Zodiac: Taurus

Thursday, December 20, 2007

Happy Holidays

I do Christmas cards every year and love it. I really enjoy getting them as well. It is so fun to hear from friends you haven't talked to in a while. So this year since I started a blog I thought I would put our letter on it as well. I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and New Year.

Happy Holidays from our home to yours.
We have had a very exciting/crazy year now being a family of SEVEN

January
We came home from our Disneyland trip.
John and Steph celebrated 11 yrs together
Oops we’re having another baby
February
Steph had first OB appt.
March
Garrett turns 10yrs
The new elementary school opened and now the boys can walk.
April
Church campout in northern Arizona was so fun and cold with snow
Lance broke his right arm
Steph has another birthday
May
Steph goes on two field trips with Garrett and Caleb
Jenna has tonsil and adenoid removal surgery
Many graduations were attended
June
School is out
Swim and dive team starts
Steph has two hospital stays for pre term labor (good thing john does mortgages at home)
July
Steph has third hospital stay for pre term labor and then has a baby girl.
Briauna Lynn
7-20-07 - 3lb 15oz - 16 ¼ inches
Lance turns 8yrs
Caleb turns 6yrs
August
Briauna came home from the NyICU at St. Joseph’s Hospital
School starts with Garrett in 5th, Lance 3rd, Caleb 1st
Briauna has a hospital stay for GI issues
September
Briauna in hospital again for the same GI issues
Briauna due date was the 16th
October
Briauna started cooing and smiling
Lance broke his left arm
We had lots of Halloween fun with a pirate, princess Aurora, ballerina, and 2 FBI agents
November
Lance was baptized and Briauna was blessed at the baptism
Caleb in the hospital for Valley Fever
John has a birthday on Thanksgiving
December
Jenna turns 3yrs
Said goodbye to our 10yr old dog Max

We hope you have a wonderful holiday season and remember the Savoir and how he has blessed all of our lives.
Love: John, Stephanie, Garrett, Lance, Caleb, Jenna and Briauna

Monday, December 17, 2007

Park Grand Opening

On Saturday the park by our house had a grand opening party. It has been open and being used for about six months. So they had the official opening and had a naming contest, games, music, etc.. We thought we would show our support and took the kids over to play some of the games and have some fun. They had a rock wall and of course my boys had to try it out. Garrett was the first to go and went several times. He is the most daring of the kids and he loved it. It took a little more watching before Caleb and Lance did it. And of course John had to try it out.


Jenna loved this big bouncy maze thing. I am shocked she survived going in it with how crazy all of the kids were. It was fun and helped get the kids some good out door fun to get the energy out.I took this picture of Briauna at the park and just loved it. She will be 5 months old on the 20th. It is so hard to believe it has been so long. She is doing so well and growing so good. Today she was cooing and smiling so much. You forget how sweet and wonderful each stage they go through is. We just love her so much and think she is so dang cute.

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Goodbye Max

Yesterday I woke up to let our dogs out of the kennel and our 10yr old dog Max had died. I knew he was getting old but really had not thought about what it would be like when he actually died. He frustrated me sometimes and sometime I felt bad about not paying much attention to him but the thought of him not being around was so sad. I always felt safe and knew the would protect my home. The boys were really sad especially Garrett. We have had Max since Garrett was a baby. He is a sensitive kid already but dealing with death is very hard on him. I really feel bad for our other dog Maggie. She looks so lost and lonely. We told the kids they had to pay special attention to her so she won't be so sad. I think it is a good thing for the kids to experience because it would really hard if a friend or relative they were close to died. Today they are doing better but it is strange not having Max around.

Monday, December 10, 2007

OUCH!!

Well I did it. I took Briauna to get her ears pierced. I wasn't nervous thanks to having done it to Jenna at 2months. But with it being winter and so many people sick I am somewhat afraid to take her out to much. I kept her covered and luckily no one wanted to look at or touch her. She cried a little and was cranky the rest of the day but she sure looks cute.

Happy Birthday Jenna

December 3rd my little girl turned 3yrs. old. It is crazy to think she has been in our life for that long. We had our family and some friends over for her birthday dinner on Sunday the 2nd. She was kind of funny about the party. She has been talking about her pink princess birthday with a pink cake and her pink princess bike for months. But when the day came she did not want presents or to have us sing and definately not have us cut her cake. I think she was tired. Sunday does that to her with us going to church at 1pm. Once she started opening the gifts she got more and more excited.On her real birthday I let her open a couple of presents from us and she was a lot more like herself. She joked with John and was very silly. We are sure happy to have her in our life and love getting to know and see her personality grow.

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Turkey Time

I decided I needed to do an update before the year is over. First off Caleb is doing well and back to his old self. The only difference is the medication routine everyday. And some other good new is Lance got his cast off. He still has a bump on his arm but it is healing well and only 2 more weeks with a brace. The doctor said he only needed to wear it when he was running or might fall. He doesn't know Lance very well so I told Lance he needed to wear it all the time. At least he can now wash him arm.
Lindsay and Ryan stayed with us the weekend before Thanksgiving to go to the temple.The girls have so much fun together and it is fun that both sets are so close in age. After they got home we headed up to Prescott for the weekend for a pre- Thanksgiving with the Lowry family. It was alot of fun with a lot of people. My boys love going to Prescott to play in the woods. And play they did. They played frisbee, rode a big wheel down the very steep driveway and explored the woods. Thankfully no one got hurt.


After our weekend gone our kids had to catch up with the neighborhood kids. Practically the whole week of thanksgiving the played outside. They really didn't have much homework so that gave even more time to play. Again I will say we really enjoy our neighbors and that our kids have so many friends to play with.
Thanksgiving was John's birthday. He went to play Turkey Bowl with some guys from church. No injuries to report, Yeah!! After that he went to the park to fly his remote control airplane. Well it died and went into the lake. There were no fishermen around so in he went to save the silly plane. The people at the park got quite a laugh. Thanksgiving dinner was at my parents house. The food was wonderful and we always have fun with all the family together.

John and I kind of started a tradition to go shopping on Black Friday without kids. We get a babysitter and go all day. We didn't go until 6:30 but we still got the deals we wanted and were tired at the end of the day. It has been a busy couple of weeks but we are excited for Christmas and have started getting the decorations up.