EASTER 2011

So this year we went back to Little Egypt for Easter. We were excited for this year, our kids were getting older and I wasn't pregnant so we figured this would be a good year to just hang out....and hang out is what we did, because....the weather did not really cooperate with out great outdoor plans. Day one: was SO windy there were gust up to 50 mph winds!! And it didn't stop that whole day. Apparently it was like that for almost 48 hours straight. There was NO way we could set up a tent when we could barely stand on our own two feet ourselves. Seriously it was windy.....and I live in what I thought was the windiest place I've ever been. We stayed in my mom's trailer for all afternoon and then just before dark it was still windy, but at least enough that we could walk around a bit and go exploring with the kids. Needless to say though, because we weren't able to set up our tent my dad got my sister and I a hotel for the night. LAME, I know. But it was WINDAYY! And it meant one more showered day. :) Okay so Day 2 was by far the best weather day. It was warm and nice and easter baskets were a hit! We got some kite flying in, a little hiking, quite a bit of horseshoeing and some good old fun. We did Easter baskets Friday and were glad that Brett and Tiffany were there. Neal and Brittlyn and Tallie and Jim didn't show up till Saturday.
Lets see here's some other event's I remember from the trip. I left my pillow at the hotel and couldn't ever find it when I went back for it. Tallie got a ticket for riding their four wheelers right in front of camp with Gavin having a helmet on and she gave the poor rangers heck for it. She was ridiculously in the wrong and they were just enforcing the law with kids under the age of 16, but man she was SOOOOO mad and upset. And of course us being the ultimate, paranoid parents we are, completely sided with the " what if..." argument made by the rangers and then I later learned that I too was in the wrong for that one because I "should have had my sisters back" instead of "sticking up for some officers I didn't even know." Ahh, I guess sometimes you can't win. And that's where I smiled to myself, shook my head and walked away. Wouldn't be Easter without a little family drama. Love her.
Brittlyn experienced her first of many Easter campouts and did well, rigid wind elements considered. We even took her on one extreme hiking session and she did great! I'm pretty sure she'll enjoy it when she can actually sleep WITH Neal in the tent and not by herself. I like her. I'm glad they're getting married.
Okay, so the very last day was Sunday and we woke up to rain and rain all night long. THen in the morning we walked out into what might as well of been a lake of mud. Okay, it was a lake of mud. Endless rainstorms in a desert of red dirt made for a HUGE mess! Everywhere you walked you sunk it about 2 inches and everything and I do mean EVERYTHING was covered in this lovely red mud. We were in no hurry to leave so we kind of just chilled waiting for it to stop raining and eventually dry up which it did, a tiny bit. But we sure did love listening to communication going on between my parents. It really was hillarious. For anyone who knows my father, situations like that cause stress, and stress causes ridiculously rationalized arguments which almost always leads too the intense need to hurry. And in this case, since their destination was home by the end of that day, it was a need to hurry home. In the mean time my mother could care less about a storm, the mud or onery people. She just wants tradition to continue as planned. So my dad would enter frustrated and impatient, snapping at people to start packing up cause we have got to get out of here this instant, then leave, and in the exact moment my mom picks up her walkie talkie and calls my aunts letting them know that she is starting "putting the ham on" for our family luncheon. It was hilarious. Really.

We did end up going home a little early, but it was still a great Easter outing as always. Here's some pics! SHould've gotten more of the mud, but wasn't really thinking, "yes. picture." Mostly, "kids dont step in th....too late."

So the pictures are a little out of order...but once you upload, its really a pain to fix them all in chronological order....sorry!

Playing with the cousins in Grannie's trailer with the head lamps they all got for Christmas

The hunt

.....crack and all

Cordelle and Seth every night at the campfire. Finally snapped a pic.

Flying those kites....certainly had the wind for it. And my dollar walmart kite did pretty well.

The Evidence

Following the trail

Jaq's basket


Seth and his basket

the loot

focused.

just us

The fam...or at least who was there Friday morning.

My little brother Scotty

Kids from camp that first day the wind finally died down. Love that smirk Seth.

Don't let me fool you, it was freezing.

Lake to Lake Relay

This last weekend I ran in a 52 miler relay with some friends. Relays are simply so much more fun than other races. You get to be silly and have fun and psych yourself up for your next leg. I dont know it was cool. And the best part was, my knee did pretty good. I restrained my IT band so I was MEGA worried about doing this race. But Cordelle gave me a blessing and my entire first leg was fantastic! My second leg I could feel it about 3 miles in, but I had to end on a hill and as long as I was going up, my knee quit hurting. (Good thing too, cause my lungs were about to explode as it was). I have some really fun running friends so it made the whole trip way worth it.Team: What the hill? :)

Shannon (Krista's friend from work)

LISA

TAWNA
(ran first so she was all dressed by the time we finished)

ME!

KRISTA

Finishing Time 7 hrs. 37 min.

Do I really run that awkwardly?

Is that a smile or pain?

silly hair ribbons.

hello? theres a picture being taken here

...and stretch some more

Can I play catch up?

My posts are getting further and further apart. I guess that could mean life is getting busier. Or I'm a slacker. But there are a couple of things I want to remember from January and February. One being that first picture. Isn't that sweet? Jaq kept telling me mom come see, we're being nice. :)


On the 10th was my birthday and my good friend Melissa called me and offered to dye my hair darker as a gift. It was something I've been wanting to do for a long time (no more BLONDE) so it was such a great gift. (Combine that with the new "nerdy/trendy" glasses I got and I feel like a whole different person. But it feels good to do something way out of your comfort zone and just go with it, ya know?) Anyways back to my birthday. My parents and Scotty came down for part of the day and we hung out. Then I headed to bunco (but didn't win) and then my girls took me out to Applebee's for our traditional birthday desert. It was so great! Then the next week we went out for our monthly birthday club and saw some lame drama chick flick called the Dilemma. Blah but most importantly, I have great friends! All in all, I wasn't home very much and it was busy but it was a great birthday! Its great to be 28.
Most of our weekends have been spent getting organized or just taking a break from the week. But on Martin Luther King Day, Cordelle was sweet and created this fun scavenger hunt for the kids around our yard and house. He's so fun with them and they ate it up! It was good for them to spend some good quality time with their dad. And he always comes up with the most creative games for them. Which reminds me, one night I came home from somewhere and found them playing a game called "Jammie Monsters." This includes getting Jammies on of course, then taking their blankets and putting them over their heads so just their faces show and telling silly stories and pretending to stay warm and cook things over a fake fire (flashlight). Both kids were still talking the next day about how Jammie Monsters sing their abc's by plugging their noses and singing in a nasally voice. Cordelle seriously is the most creative dad. Its so much fun watching what he invents for these kids. They don't know how good they have it. What's funny about it is, lately Seth is obsessed with playing games. So much where its like, okay Seth we can play a game but then we HAVE to get dressed or eat dinner or do basic things like that. And Cordelle is like, " Holy cow, this kid wants to play games all day long." And I just laugh, mostly because he has NO IDEA (its me thats with him all day long playing these games) but then again it's funny when he says that cause I'm like HELLO? HE IS HIS FATHERS SON. Seriously, he gets all these crazy game ideas because he watches Cordelle just create things on the fly and so he's stepping up and learning he can make up games too. Its fun though. I have to say Seth is at a hilarious, fun stage.
Oh but that reminds me of something funny that happened the other day. So we're in the little pharmacy waiting room at Smiths waiting to pick up a prescription when we sit next to this black guy. My kids were being uncharacteristly unshy and so we started making small talk with the guy. When out of nowhere Seth says outloud, "mom, does he play basketball?" Uh. Silence. I froze. (Granted in his defence, Cordelle had just taken him and Jaq to an SUU basketball game the night before but how do you explain that on the spot?) So I tried to give him the look that said, "uh sorry sir, this kid has been sheltered his whole life in Utah where the ethnic diversity is minimal." Geesh. The guy was cool and told me not to worry about it, when he saw the look on my face. But the question is out, anyone know where to buy a kid filter?
THen there was our valentines stake dance. LAME. But there was one other couple there from our ward that we hung out with that made it worth it. They were crazy, but fun. They dressed up. Obviously we did not. Halloween's pushing it for us. :) Anyways it was a date. So I can't complain, but seriously Enoch Stake Valentines Dance probably won't be an annual event for us unless they discover that there is indeed music that was created after 1974.

wrapping up 2010!

Theres just a few things I wanted to make sure I remembered that happened this month and the first part of Jan 2011.
First after 2-3 months of casually sitting Jaq down on the potty whenever I felt like it, I decided to break down and just put her in underwear to see what would happen. We had 1 and 1/2 accidents but the bathroom god's were gracious to me and she other than that, did surprisingly well. I was diligent in asking her very frequently if she had to go, and soon I decided it was more me that was trained to ask her instead of her being trained to tell me. So I stopped and lo and behold, she learned to eventually tell me. 4 days later we had no accidents and now its been over a week! I LOVE NOT HAVING DIAPERS! Seriously! And she's so young (2 years and 4 months). This is awesome! She is awesome! I still can't believe it! (Aren't exclamation points great!!)
Other news with Jaq....I"m thinking of ditching the naps. She is CRAZY going to bed. She's up and out till almost 10! Its ridiculous. But if she doesn't get a nap, 7pm comes and she is out for the night! I would just make the switch but come 3-4 in the afternoon if I leave her alone for 2 minutes she's zonked on the floor somewhere. And it kills me to see a tired kid barely able to keep their eyes open, so I know she still needs a nap. Maybe I've just got to give her an early nap and cut it short. Anyways here's a picture of her zonked out late in the afternoon, this time on the couch. Funny she went and got the step stool so she could rest her feet and then she was out.
Here's a little story about Seth. We are out looking at Christmas lights, when we see one of those blow up snowman Christmas decorations on someone's house. It was extremely windy that night and just as we drove by we saw this snowman get blown over, to which Seth says, "Mom, did that snowman get knocked up?" Yes Seth, yes it did. :) Okay the kid meant, "knocked down" but Cordelle and I got a good laugh out of that one.

Of course my kids are playing dress up with their new Christmas dress ups. Although in this picture, Jaq looks like she is tired of being the princess.

And lastly, look how close we're getting on our basement. (I know its not the most conclusive picture of the basement, but it all looks like this so you get the idea). Mudding and taping is done. Now its just trim, paint and carpet. Ahhh, I can't wait. Its so exciting and will be so nice to get the toys downstairs. Its a slow, long process but I bet within the next couple of months it'll be ready....

Christmas Day

Christmas morning was a blast. We opened up presents at my parents house, which I think was fun for them to see. And Neal and Scott were there too. Seth's big gifts were his huge train set and a scooter. We set up Seth's huge Thomas the train tracks and he was glued for hours playing with it. It was fun. (and because I'm writing this in January, I can tell you it has been the ultimate present for him. He spends hours every day with this train track. Its been so much fun for him.) It feels good when you know you got something they will love. Jaquelle mostly got dress ups and make believe stuff like fake food and baby accessories, but she was cute taking every gift over to show Grannie Annie and get her approval for. This really is a fun age for both of them for Christmas morning. They know how to rip off the paper so they dont take hours and yet they super excited even for what other people were getting. For instance, Jaquelle got some buzz lightyear art stuff and Seth excitedly said, "Jaquelle, maybe we can share that." :)

We ate a big breakfast together and then got to talk to Mark who's still in Hungary but gets home at the end of April! It was good to hear from him. Then the rest of the day was spent vegging and sleeping, and watching movies, playing risk, watching football. I love how lazy Christmas day is. It was so great just to be with family. I think that is what I would miss the most when we finally crack down and do our own Christmas at our house. Or maybe I could just bring them all down here for a change......make them truck all their christmas down to our house....hum...tbc on that one.

Jaquelle Christmas morning

Seth Christmas morning

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVE

Ahh, I'm late as usual. Lets see if I can remember all of Christmas Eve. This year once again, instead of giving gifts to my brothers and sisters, my sister picked a family in their ward and we all took a kid/person and bought their Christmas for them. It was really cool. It has seriously changed Christmas for our family starting this tradition. So on Christmas eve we all got together to help wrap all the presents for this family and then we went on a secret delivery. Of course the parents knew it was coming but we wanted the kids to get the excitement of giving these gifts secretly, so we dropped everything off at the Relief Society President's house and she came out and acted all excited and surprised. It was cute. Seth got to ring the doorbell and he was so excited for the kids to get their presents. Very memorable.
Then we headed over to Tallies for dinner and our Christmas pageant. Its always super short, but so much fun to do for the kids. I love that we started to do this a couple of years ago, because it was definitely something I missed growing up. And I think its important.
Then of course the grandkids got their gift boxes from grannie annie and grandpa. Every year my mom has these nice boxes that she puts something in for each grandkid. This year they each got pillow pets and jammies for a future sleepover with Grannie. (My poor mom found out she had shingles a few days before Christmas! I felt so bad! So the sleepover had to get postponed). Anyways the kids stayed up way late and were a nightmare to put to bed at my parents house (okay just Jaq and Seth was so excited and then got nervous cause Jaq was being so loud that Santa would come and hear her crying and not stay).
I still haven't decided how to approach the Santa Clause idea. Santa was huge for me growing up. I mean it was all about Christmas morning, presents, all of it. Cordelle's was a little less Santa. I think I want a good mixture. I definitely dont really feed the whole Santa idea, but especially with preschool this year, he learns about it. And everyone asks him what Santa's bringing him....so it comes up. And I am okay with it. I love the magic and make believe it is for him. I'm just kind of torn about what I'll do when he asks me if he's real. Cordelle is completely opposed to lying to him. I was lied to for 12 years and I didn't hold any scars from it. I think if I can focus on Christ's birth the whole month of December and then let the Santa stuff flow come christmas eve, maybe it will be a good mixture. I guess time will tell what I do.

wrapping gifts at Krista's

Brett and Tiffany

Jaq-in-the-box :)

Delivering gifts

Doorbell ditching the gifts

My cute shepherd

Sheepish Jaq

Okay so the sheep in this one wanted the staff too....maybe she can wrangle herself in.

Mason Family Christmas. The girls are always angels. The brothers wisemen, brother-in-laws shepherds, Jaq was a sheep, Anna - Mary, Mason - Joseph, baby Jesus was supposed to be baby Zach but I think he was being fed. Oh yea Seth and Gaven were shepherds too. And Grandpa was of course the narrator.

Grannie's Christmas boxes

Jammies, pillow pets and head lamps for Easter

SO fun. I love spending time with my family. It was weird this year not seeing Cordelle's parents at all because their still in Chicago on their mission. But we love them and wish them a Merry Christmas too!