CHRISTMAS!!!!

This Christmas we were of course up north, but we decided to spend Christmas morning with Cordelle's parents who are leaving for a mission in 2 weeks!! We thought it would be a great opportunity to spend some extra time with them and we were so glad we did. I think they enjoyed having us spend Christmas morning with them as well. Seth was SO funny to watch open gifts. He has the best facial expressions and was so excited. Jaq just wanted to rip the wrapping paper until it was completely off, after which, she cried until we got her a new present to unwrap...the cycle continuing. (Should of just wrapped up empty boxes).

Oh but here's something weird, but that describes Seth to a "T". When he first woke up Christmas morning, we told him "Seth come see. Santa came and brought you some presents!!" I dont think he heard a word about presents, because all he did was start crying and refused to come upstairs because of Santa. I remembered that he was terrified of the fat red man but I didnt think he would put two and two together on Christmas morning. Finally I convinced him that Santa wasn't actually STILL here. He just dropped the presents off and then left. That much information got him up the first set of stairs till Cordelle's dad said, "looks like Santa came" to which he remembered his previous fear and once again started crying and retreating to the basement. I finally broke down and told him the gifts werent from Santa, that they were all from mom and dad, just so I could get him in the living room to open them....so much for fun Santa business. But that's Seth. Hopefully he'll forget my secret next year. However, once he saw the presents he had no reservations going to town on them. But hopefully this fear of Santa will subside by next Christmas.Seth in front of our tree

Jaq in front of our tree

Christmas morning....no tree cause G&G Morris have everything stored up for their mission

Oh yea, and for Christmas this year Cordelle printed out my blog to a book! It is awesome. But I realized there a many gaps where I didnt write. So this year, now that I am going to continue to print out my blog as a journal, I think I am going to be much better at updating the blog! Thanks hunk!

Christmas Eve Nativity

This Christmas my family finally decided to do a lot more things centered around Christ than just be the "Gimmie Gimmies Gifts" that we had previously characterized ourselves to be. We did Christmas for a family enstead of sibling gifts and then we actually did a nativity re-enactment (which was SO FUN). I know most people read the the bible story or do something nativity-like regularly on Christmas Eve like good Christian families should, but my family had kind of strayed into Babylon so-to-speak the last few years and Christmas was simply family drama and alright "lets see what you got me."
This year everyone was there (except for Mark who is still in Hungary on the mish). And it was so fun. We had Christmas Eve at Tallies new house and it was perfect for our manger scene with angels above...see pics. I keep telling myself its just too hard to pack up all the gifts and do Christmas up north every year, and that I really should just stay home and have Christmas with ourselves....but when I am up there....especially over Christmas Eve with my siblings, I dont know its just so much fun, and it would be lame without them all. And it would be lame for them without us too...we are the life of the party you know.

Me (pre-costume) and Jaq (post costume) as a sheep

Joseph (Mason) and Mary (Anna)

...and Baby Jesus (Gaven) watched over by a very protective, motherly angel (Tallie)

The Shepherds with their sheep

The wise men bringing gifts (of apparently Hershey's chocolate chips)--Brett, Neal, and Scott and my dad who narrated

Angels: me, Tallie, Krista (my sisters) and my mom

All of us Mason clan. Oh yea, notice that Seth is the ONLY one not dressed up? Anytime anyone came near him with a robe, sheet, or anything that resembled a costume he threw a fit! He wanted nothing to do with looking like a shepherd or anything about this nativity business. That's Seth for ya.And then I had to add this one cause it showed the wilder side of Christmas Eve. My mom gave all the grandkids these colorful, squooshy ball things and they had pillow fights with them. It was pretty funny.

2nd child guilt

So I keep finding like a million pictures of Seth when he was younger, and I am starting to realize that whole 2nd child syndrom is hitting in hard with the photographs. So I thought I would post some pics of Jaq, just so that she has proof she was a one year old at one point....and she's just so darn cute!

Move over Martha Stewart....but dont go to far cause you have some great ideas

alright I am finished! Heres the projects I have been working on in November and December. And all sarcasm aside, I really have begun to like sewing! Its been fun! (up until now sewing has pretty much been non existent in my life) The quilts were probably a once in a lifetime-never-again thing..but at least their done. :) Whahoo!

Ah Seth!

Quick post cause aparently November/Thanksgiving was just like any old month/day and I have done nothing to documenting its actually taking place. But because it is now December and almost Christmas, I know it took place and will hence sum up my November as being full of average days with a side of JUMBO projects. Most of which have consumed sewing (yes, SEWING) scripture bags, and TWO QUEEN size levi blankets which are supposed to be given to my children for Christmas but because of the literal blood, cursing, time, hand cramps, quilting frame catastrophe, pin poking and shoe marks across my fabric incidents that have occurred in the creation of these blankets, I am seriously considering not giving them to them until they would fully be able to appreciate them; like when they are 80 and trying to crochet a comforter with arthritis hands and hemorrhoids or something, but by then they'll probably have crocheting machines that do it all for them, so they still wouldn't appreciate my determined hard work. Ah well. Pictures to come.

And here's something I just wanted to remember so I am including it here on the blog.

Seth: Mom you are such a good girl.
Me: Thanks Seth
Seth: You are such a good mom too.
Me: That is so nice Seth, thank you.
Seth: You are so pretty..... (and then a pause while he stares at me)... "See, you have hair."

Ah how nice it would be to think like a 3 year old and have the only requirement for being pretty be, having hair. :) Love that kid.

Oh yea, I forgot about Halloween

So here's my kids at Halloween. Sorry for the low quality pics but I had to take them from my not-so-wonderful camera phone. I love this holiday, its so much fun. And besides Seth forgets he has candy after a couple of days so by default I get to eat it all. That and since he's allergic to peanuts, I get all the best, "poisonous" candybars anyways. :)


AAAARG!! A happy Halloween.

And a not so happy halloween.

My graveyard treat!

Family Pictures

So its Fall which means we get new family pictures. So I thought I'd post some of my favorites. (All pictures were taken by Abbey Kyhl)

GOING PRIVATE -please contact

Guess we all have our reasons....anyways I think I want to go private on the blog. So if you could get me your email addresses please, that would be awesome. If you dont want to send them over the blog, just email me at sneakrz22@yahoo.com

Thanks!!

No pictures but still a lively update

Camera status: still broken from a lively shove off of the top of the stairs by a child who shall not be named....who rhymes with Meth.
Alright an update for you....(who am I kidding with my sparse and sporadic posts I fear my audience are few and hard to come by)...so an update for posterity.
2 weeks ago we were all miserable around here. All of us were sick at the same time. And not just "cough, sneeze, snot coming out of your nose, but still go to church and pretend your not sick" sick. I am talking about miserable sick. Jaq's eyes were goopying out horrid amounts of...what only can be known as "gunk." To the point that she would literally scare Seth and I when she'd wake up first thing in the morning cause her one eye would be half glued shut like Quazimoto and the rest of her looked like she'd gotten in a terrible fight with some sandpaper-like tissue. Poor girl. To top it all off I we think she has some sort of problem digesting whole milk cause she'd be up 2-3 hours a night with really bad stomach pains until we stopped giving her the stuff...and finally when we'd get her to sleep, Seth's hacking cough would wake him up to delight us with a mid-night (rather early EARLY morning) rendition of 20 questions...only they werent questions....more like demands. Yes, 20 demands. I need a drink. I need medicine. I need to go to the hospital (which we finally had to tell him that unless your DYING you cant go to the hospital....but that was dumb cause soon he was now "dying"). I need to watch Super Why, I need to pee, I need to sleep in your bed...the list goes on. Dont you love the age when everything becomes, "but I NEED that?" Well anyways on top of miserable sick kids, both Cordelle and I got some weird flu bug and were achy and tired and cranky and tired and tired.....and...yes well you get the point. Lucky for me we tag teamed for about 4-5 days naps, sleeps, rotating movies for Seth (who after a couple of days miraculously recovered and became ULTRA SUPER SETH with incredible amounts of energy and enthusiasm and spunk and he wouldnt stop humming, or singing, or running, or bouncing, or jumping or yelling). In retrospect I suppose he was normal and it was I who was over-proportionalizing (totally not a word) things to a whole new level because of the previously mentioned lack of sleep and illness.
Alright needless to say, we recovered and got better (how redundant). And we have pretty much done nothing UNTIL Saturday. Okay, this is one of those days you really want a camera. Go figure. We went into town (how "Little House on the Prarie" huh?) for Cedar City's annual pumpkin festival. We just missed the sheep parade so we were bumbed about that. What? Never heard of a sheep parade? Get this. Its a parade full of tractors and farmers and then a grand finale of hundreds of sheep walking down the street from the mountain. I'd be more specific, but we WERENT there. But truly disappointed to miss such a spectacle. But the pumpkin festival was so fun...IF I was to have a kid who liked that kind of thing. No, it was really cute, but Seth is so painfully shy that getting him to play any kind of game is torture. He did decorate a cookie, paint a pumpkingand go down the blow up slides so I guess it wasnt a complete failure. And then what to our astonishing surprise? Another parade had begun. So we stayed and watched SUU's homecoming parade. Glad I'm out of college.
Then that evening we met up with some friends from the first apartment we lived in as a married couple. We all are oldies now with kids and morgages....but it was fun to see everyone all into real life and such.
We topped our day off with watching the BYU vs. TCU game which we had THANKFULLY recorded while we were out partying. "Thankfully" not because it was a game of epic proportions that I want to one day pass on to my children and my children's children, but "thankfully" because if I had to watch that onslaught of a game with all the commercials, TCU touchdowns and real time BYU beating I would have withdrawn shamelessly into my couch and simply waved a white (and blue) flag of surrender.
Well thats us for now. Hopefully I'll find a camera to use before this weekend (Halloween) otherwise I'll be posting VERY amateur drawings of my kids' costumes on the blog.

Pictures from Jaquelle's first birthday

All I can say is that we were picking apples all morning, had a late lunch and as a result her naptime had been put on hold....needless to say it wasnt a very "Happy" birthday party. But it was funny to watch her.

She kind of went ballistic when we showed her the cake....so tired.

You want me to do what with that cake? Just give me my blankie please....

Eventually we did get her to play in it....still not too keen on actually eating it.

I made her this tutu which also was NOT a hit. She would not put her arms down to touch it. Also it turned out kind of big (more for a 2-3 yr. old) oh well maybe I'll save it for another year.

However she made out with some fun toys and a cute Britney Spears outfit from Grannie Annie.

And this is the closest thing to a smile we got out of her all day. Ah well, cant win them all.
Happy Birthday Princess!!

Really liked this....thought I'd share

http://www.anothertestamentofchrist.com/

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAQUELLE

Well my little girl has turned one! Can you believe how fast that year flew? Crazy! She is the sweetest thing in the world and I seriously cannot stop kissing and cuddling her chubby little body. Jaq's been crawling for only a couple of weeks (yes, a "slow" one) but she is into everything; correction, she is into everything Seth is doing....and driving him nuts. But she really is so much fun. And for as much as she terrorizes him already, no one can make her laugh like he can, and her laugh is priceless. I'd share the pics from the birthday party but Seth threw my camera off of our banister/wall thing down the stairs and busted it up pretty good. Got to love them kids. (I'll get some from my mom and post those later :)

I'm so proud of myself.

The other day I strapped Seth and Jaq in the bike trailer for a bike ride. I got no further than across the street when Seth said, "Mom, good pedaling." Pleased with myself I told him thanks and gloated all the way home.

The next day I was helping him retrieve a soccer ball out of the widow well with a rake and once the trickier-than-it-seems-like-task was completed, he looked beamingly into my eyes and said, "Thanks mom, you're such a good helper!"

Finally some recognition for all my hard work. :)

PUNCH DRUNK JELLO LEGS RAN THE RED ROCK RELAY!

This last weekend I finally got to check something off of my life-time to do list! I ran a big race! I know many of you are pros at this but this was my first and it was a blast. I ran the Red Rock Relay. Our team of 12 started in Brianhead, ran 3 legs each and after 30 hours, 187 miles, and a descent of 8,000 feet we ended up in Ivins (down by St. George). It was crazy. Basically you have two vans that switch off and everyone rotates running so there is always one person running the entire race. Your van stays with you your whole run and cheers you on during your assigned legs (so its kind of hard to quit with the pressure of 5 other people screaming you to keep going every mile of your run).
My first leg was a killer climb in Cedar Canyon to the top of the C-Trail where I ascended up 900 feet in just over 2 miles. But the adrenaline of getting my first road kill (passing someone in the race) made me book my trash up that mountain. 4 roadkills later they almost had to scrape ME off the road.
My 2nd leg was my longest but by far my favorite. I started running at midnight down from Hurricane into Sand Hollow and it started raining...it felt so good cause other wise it was icky HOT. Then there was this big lightning storm right around me that I perhaps should have been fearing for my life with, but it was too awesome to watch as I ran. The last half of my run was a heavenly downhill next to the lake with a full moon. Ah it was so awesome!
The last leg of my run was pretty dry with another large hill but I think it would have been okay too, if I had of slept more than an hour and a half the night before. But for some reason my whole van were insomniacs when we tried to sleep before our second legs and then before our third legs it started pouring down rain so we tried to all cram in a mini van and sleep which DID NOT WORK WELL. (It was crammed, stuffy and I had some weird gastrointestinal issues that only long runs can bring) and so finally at 5 AM we gave up and headed to our next exchange point which was a church parking lot in Gunlock. By then though it had stopped raining, so I booked it to the bathroom, then grabbed my pillow a small blanket and crashed on the most comfortable slab of cement I have ever laid upon just outside of the church and got really the only good sleep since the night before: an hour and a half. Then we had to get up for the next exchange.
We had some pretty funny conversations during the 30 hours of time in that van (thanks Lisa) and definitely in those early morning hours we felt punch drunk for sure! Oh yea, did I tell you that was our name? Punch Drunk Jello Legs. There was absolutely some punch drunkenness AND jello legs on our team, but it was all very memorably fantastic! I have to be honest though, I'm kind of glad its over. Training for something like this bites....hard. I cant wait to sleep in next week and eat whatever the heck I want. :)

Our Team before our first leg in front of the Ultimate Punch Drunk Jello Legs Van,
all matchy, matchy in our pink and black

Me. Running.

There were 3 Huge hill legs that were called Diablo 1, 2 and 3. Angie had the first, I had the second and Lisa had the third. So when we saw this at the top of the mountain we had to snatch our picture by it.

Inside the Van

Lunch at Burger King (NOT A GOOD IDEA in the middle of a race) Wicked crowns though.

Me pointing to my name. Oh yea, after each leg we ran we had to draw a line with permanent marker on our arm or leg until we had all three standing for the Red Rock Relay.

Our van of girls flexing our guns with our Red Rock Relay signs after the race was over.

Our whole Team...although, I dont know very many of the ones in the other van very well, everyone was way fun and it was a cool bonding experince even with the people we didnt know.

What a week! (2 weeks ago...sorry I'm a little late posting)

OH SETH WHAT AM I GOING TO DO WITH YOU?
Okay so Thursday he is out playing on his swing set and I go out my back door to check on him and he's climbing on his rope ladder. (In my head, I think I should tell him he shouldnt climb on it without be being there, cause its wobbly and unstable as rope ladders are) at that moment, I see him reach the top and the FALL BACKWARDS onto the ground. My stomach sank and I ran out and picked him up only to find that soon both of us were covered in blood. Turns out he somehow gashed the back of his head open really bad (whether just from the blunt hit of the ground or on the stairs that climb up to the playhouse part of the swing set). After being VERY brave and actually quite happy at the insta-care. He came home with 3 staples in his head (apparently they dont do stitches if its in the hair because they're not worried about what it looks like...unless he's bound for baldness then the poor kid's doomed). But lucky for us, no dizziness, concussions or things of that nature but for sure an adventure nonetheless. I always thought I'd be pretty cool and collected in emergency situations but hey, turns out I'm not as calm as I assumed when blood is gushing out of my child's head. Go figure.

(Its kind of hard to see but you can see the staples)

Then get this, two days later...I see him doing this! Thats right that is his rocking horse on top of the couch in a dire attempt to retrieve the helium balloon from the vaulted ceiling. This kid is bound to make his second home in the emergency room. Now, however before he does something dangerous he asks me, "mom is this dangerous?" but then proceeds to do it, until I reaffirm to him that we DO NOT do dangerous things.
Crazy as he is, that didnt stop us from having a rockin' birthday party for him on Saturday. He turned 3! He got a remote control train that he LOVES and can finally stop coveting the one he plays with non stop at the neighbors. We spent the day playing, going to the park and just letting him do what he wanted. My parents came down for a very short birthday visit and of course we invited Madi and Wyatt over for cake and icecream. I cant believe he's three! But I really love the kid to death. He is the sweetest, funniest kid I've ever met and has the dance moves of a pro. We're like little buds and it actually is fun for me to just hang out with him during the day and have little conversations. Well anyways Happy Birthday Sethers!