Spooktacular Family Night

With the chill in the air it was time to warm up with hot pizza & breadsticks... then freeze our fingers off digging guts out of pumpkins! Tis the Halloween season!

We had a blast making "monster" pizzas and carving pumpkins for family night. Landen was totally grossed out by the slimy feeling while the other two wanted to make sure every seed was saved to bake as a snack later. Abbey drew her face out for me to carve, Landen picked a picture of a jack-o-latern that he liked from the newspaper and Braxton took a totally different approach and did a snake. (He was listening to me tell Bryce that I saw a cool pumpkin carved into a snake.)

Sorry for the blurry picture-- I need to get a tripod for these kinds of shots!

Handsome Boys

It was time to get the boys new Sunday pants and shoes and boy was that a nightmare to get the two of them to focus long enough in the store to actually try on something!!! I was hoping for one stop shopping, but to all our dismay... it didn't happen. Eventually we found some stuff and they sure looked cute on Sunday. I was glad that Bryce took a second to grab this snapshot of them before we headed out the door. Here are two fine future missionaries!

Happy 5th Birthday Braxton!

This week was Braxton's 5th birthday and he could hardly wait! Every morning he would get up and count down the days on the calendar. On his birthday he asked me how many more days till his next birthday. When he found out it was 365 more days he said that was too long to count down from and walked away.

I think Braxton had a fun time bringing a birthday treat to preschool, having a tiny friend party and then a big family party that night! We were jam packed with activities all day (not to mention the other appointments and obligations from regular life to do).

Braxton was able to invite 3 friends to go to Carl's Jr. with him for lunch and then back to our house for icecream. They boys all had a blast! They were so well behaved and having so much fun that we had to extend the party out another hour! (I didn't expect that one!) Here are a few pictures:

Parker, Braxton & Carter showing off their kid's meal toy at Carl's Jr.

Parker & Braxton
Carter & Braxton

We were sad that his cousin, Porter, was sick and couldn't come cause Braxton would have loved for him to join in too. Landen had a blast and felt so cool to be able to be one of the "big boys" all day and skip a nap to party!

Braxton loved opening all of his presents! He received a bike ramp and a castle from our family, pj's from both Grandma & Grandpa Christensen and Grandma & Grandpa Bezzant, money and then lots of dragons and guys to go with his castle from lots of different family members! He was so excited for everything and hasn't given them a rest yet! Thank you to everyone for their generosity and helping to make his birthday so much fun!!!

A few things about Braxton:

*He LOVES playing with friends

*Misses Abbey when she is gone to school

*Loves to ride the little motorcycle

*Loves TV and movies. I think he would watch all day if I would let him!

*Loves gum and all treats

*Full of energy

*Loves preschool

*Wants a pocket knife and a BB gun REALLY bad but mom won't let him have them yet

*Loves to play nintendo

*So good to help Abbey with her chores after he is done with his own.

*Very competitive! Doesn't like to lose at all!!!

*Tender hearted

We love Braxton so much and he has brought so much fun into our house! I can't believe that he is already 5! Happy Birthday Braxton!!!

Big Changes

I guess that the only constant thing in life is change and that is staying true at our house! I just got a new calling today... 2nd counselor in Relief Society! What a shocker!!! I about fell over dead when I realized that the bishopric wanted to talk me with Bryce and it was for ME! All day I kept going through possible callings that were open in the ward for Bryce and was 100% sure I was safe. I am about 1 month shy of being the primary president for a year. I definately didn't see this one coming. I had finally gotten into a groove and was really enjoying primary. I have been so blessed to have such a fabulous presidency!!! I will really miss working with Kathleen Haskell, Shanda Bezzant and Judy Moss. There is a bond and friendship that is developed that is undescribable and it makes me want to cry thinking about leaving that for the "unkown." I have also been blessed with fabulous teachers and leaders that magnify their callings and have made me sleep well at night knowing the love that they truly have for their classes and/or groups. I am sure that things in relief society will be great too but I don't really have experience with R.S. since I have spent most of my married life in primary and young women's. I guess it is time to dust off my "adventure boots" and get to work!

Other changes in our house... Landen has a "big boy" bed now and Abbey moved down to the basement bedroom! We are starting to shuffle things around as we get prepared for a baby to come to our house! 2 weeks and 1 day till we find out what we are having!!! (Not that I am counting down) Landen is excited to have a big bed and I still need to find him some cute bedding. At the moment he doesn't seem to care that he is sleeping on purple sheets but I just can't leave it that way! Abbey is also loving being downstairs. She practically has her own hotel sweet (minus the housekeeping) since she has a full bathroom just off of her bedroom. It will be weird to not hear her singing in the bathroom all of the time. Abbey cracks me up cause on days she doesn't have to hurry to school she likes to turn on the clock radio and crank up the mexican tunes. I feel like it is cherry picking season every Saturday and think that I am going to look out the window to see a family of Mexicans chattering away while they pick the trees clean!

Anyway, a few more hours till a jam packed week starts again! That is for the next blog entry though!

Favorites!

My sister Karen put up a post about her favorites and a challenge to put one up of my own. Then my sister-in-law, Celeste, took her challenge and I had a blast reading both of their posts so I am taking the challenge and doing it too.

Favorite Food:
1. Chicken rolls
2. Mexican
3. Steak & potatoes
4. Being pregnant right now.. MEAT! MEAT! MEAT! How weird is that??
5. Anything I don't have to cook or clean up!

Favorite Drink:
1. Jones Cream Soda... hands down
2. Rootbeer
3. Grape or orange soda
I am not a huge soda drinker though but I love these on a special occasion!

Favorite Store:
1. GAP Outlet
2. Down to Earth at Gardner Village
3. Target

Favorite Candy:
1. Chocolate
2. Chocolate w/ caramel
3. Jelly Belly Jelly Beans
Who am I kidding??? I love all candy that isn't dark chocolate (except those fabulous york peppermint patties & jr. mints) or sour stuff. I do NOT like sour stuff.

Favorite Things:
1. An immaculate house
2. Dates w/ Bryce
3. Girls night
4. Unexpected hugs and kisses from my kids & Bryce
5. Shopping!
6. Redoing something (i.e. painting a room, modifying a flowerbed) I love to see transformations happen!
7. Organizing

Favorite TV Shows:
1. Don't really watch much tv
2. I love chick flick movies!
3. I like Cold Case sometimes

Favorite Rush:
1. Getting a REALLY good deal!
2. Making over something (see #6 on favorite things I like!)
3. Laughing my guts out uncontrollably

Favorite Treats:
1. I pretty much like anything with sugar
2. Depends on what I am craving that day... pregnancy or not.
3. Hot cinnamon rolls
4. Fresh chocolate chip cookies

Favorite Holiday:
1. I get so excited for each one! :)
2. Christmas time
3. Halloween / Fall
4. 4th of July


:) Okay...YOUR TURN! I wont tag anyone...but would totally LOVE reading YOUR favorite things!

Happy Birthday to ME!

A few weeks ago I celebrated my 30th birthday! It seems weird to blog about my own birthday but it was such an awesome day that I just had to document it!

I had a million birthday wishes through phone calls, emails, text messages, posts on facebook and friends pop in to say hello! That made me feel good that so many people thought of me! The kids got up at 6:30 to make me an egg sandwich with a huge glass of milk and brought me breakfast in bed! (They made one for Bryce too! He doesn't eat breakfast and they didn't seem to notice cause after he took one bite they all asked for a bite and before you knew it... both of our sandwiches were gone. We didn't care since we finally weren't fighting them to eat and they weren't fighting with each other!) Bryce bought me a carpet cleaner that I wanted! He didn't want to get me something that I had asked for cause he likes to surprise me... but I HATE surprises! Anyway, we all got ready for the day, sent Abbey off to school and took the boys over to a neighbor's house to play. How cool is that?! My neighbor called and volunteered to watch the boys so Bryce and I could spend the morning together!!! As we went out to get into the car we found balloons all over the porch and a huge banner on my garage from a few of the other neighbor ladies! What great friends huh?! Anyway- Bryce took me shopping and then to Texas Roadhouse for lunch. I have been craving meat so bad this entire pregnancy and I definately ate my portion (and a few other people's portions too). We had a great time being alone and I found some cute clothes that I can fit into now! I then spent the afternoon at scrapbooking stores looking for paper to make cards out of while Bryce stayed home to work and let the boys have a nap. In the evening time lots of my family came over and we loaded up on cream puff dessert and rootbeer floats! Both of those sounded so good to me and since it was my birthday it didn't matter if they didn't really go together or not! I went to bed that night completely exhausted but feeling on top of the world. If turning 30 is this much fun... I can't wait for 40! Oh wait-- I didn't really just say that! I will wait!

Thanks to everyone who made my birthday fabulous! I really should list each person cause every little thing that was done for me that day meant so much to me! THANK YOU!!!

P.S. Landen must have known that I was getting frustrated about not having time to use my carpet cleaner yet cause tonight after I got him out of the tub he walked into his room, went over to the corner and peed on the carpet. Then he came and told on himself. What do you say to that? Well, I have now used my carpet cleaner!

A much better day

Today went much better. I watch Braxton losing his temper and know that it comes from me and that is a kick in the gut. I recommitted myself to try and keep my cool when life happens and I did better today. It is probably due to Bryce praying for me this morning. I am glad that he thought of it cause I sure didn't! It was nice to get a text message from him wishing me a good day and that he prayed I would have a better day today. I am glad that one of us is in tune to ask for help from the perfect source! It was also nice to relieve a little bit of stress by going out to eat last night and not have that responsibility to worry about. We had fun picking out pumpkins at Lisa's house too. THANKS LISA! Our poor pumpkin plants all died and that was the only thing the kids really cared about growing! They did get excited though when our other stuff started producing though.

Abbey had school pictures today so we took the boys down to the school this afternoon to get theirs done too. Landen was a TOTAL stinker! He couldn't crack a smile to save his life even when we were just sitting on the chairs waiting for our turn. He watched several other kids laughing their heads off at the rubber chicken flying through the air as he kept a stone cold "look at me if you want to die" face the entire time. Then when it was actually HIS turn to sit on the stool he started kicking and screaming for the whole school to hear. I tried sitting next to him. It didn't matter. I calmly explained what she was going to do. He didn't care. I finally threatened him that if he didn't stop screaming and sit up to get his picture taken that he wasn't going to play on the playground outside at the school. Instantly the tears stopped and he sat up quietly with a force smile on his face. I don't think that she ever got a good smile but I guess we will see in a few weeks when we get the pictures back. I don't think that Landen will ever be tagged as a "people pleaser!" He doesn't care what you think... if he doesn't want to do it... he isn't doing it. I can barely get the kid to give me a hug now half the time. And this is coming from the kid that wouldn't let me have my own breathing space for the first year and a half of his life!

Anyway- I made a dent in the clutter of my house and hopefully can get the rest done tomorrow. The kids are in bed, dishes are done and I think that it is time for a hot bath to prepare for tomorrow!

GRRRRR!!!

Today is just one of those days! But it seems like I am having them more often than not. I think Monday is especially worse though. Sunday takes ALL of my energy to keep up with the kids and my calling. It takes so much that it robs me of feeling good on Monday. I have also set up a bad schedule for myself and Mondays are one of my laundry days... what was I thinking putting it on a Monday?! Oh yeah- I thought if I did laundry on Mondays and Thursdays that would be an even amount of days in between to not think about it and to also get other things done. I am not one of those people who can do a load a day. I actually don't think I have enough laundry to do one full load a day... LUCKY ME!! I know that will quickly change when the baby comes though. I also need to "get it done" and not worry about it again for a few more days. I have enough chores that require my daily attention that laundry would just send me over the edge.

I think that I have also created another monster in my life. I keep busy doing so many things that my boys are left to play and entertain each other. The entertainment that they love the most is fighting. Braxton knows every button to push of Landen's to get him bawling his head off and that drives me NUTS!!! I know that Landen isn't always innocent either cause he has learned a few tricks up his sleeves to use too when Braxton is peacefully doing something on his own.

I always laugh when I see people posting that they have no time for their stuff and yet they are on facebook, blogging or whatever at the time. I think to myself, "If they would just get off the computer and get stuff done they would feel so much better!" Then I have days like today where I needed to sit down and vent to cope with the rest of the day.

I probably should have just taken the kids to the zoo when I was invited to go this morning. I wanted to go REALLY bad but looked around at what I had to do and knew that if I spent all of my energy at the zoo then I would feel even worse tomorrow when our day is already jam packed full of appointments and such. I also didn't want to hurt Abbey's feelings by going without her and wasn't sure that I should justify checking her out of school to go to the zoo. I doubt that she would have really missed a whole lot at school today with it being a short week and an early out day but the responsible side of my overpowered my fun side. (That happens alot.)

I still know that I am VERY blessed and couldn't even finish a list of my blessings before the day is over. I am glad that I have an automatic washer, dryer, dishwasher and all sorts of other things that make my chores a snap. I am now resolving to walk back into my life with a positive attitude and tell myself that I can happily enjoy today. We will survive Bryce being out of town for the next few days. Maybe the kids and I will have to go to KFC for family home evening since Bryce hates that place!! :) Now I am starting to think crazy thoughts so back to work I go!!!

Update to Life

I pretty much haven't posted anything that has happened since the middle of July! To say that I am a little bit behind would be quite the understatement!!! There is one MAJOR reason that I fell of the face of the earth at the end of July... WE ARE HAVING A BABY! Most of you know by now since we have run into each other at some time or another but I thought that I should make an official announcement. Life was turned upside down at our house as I was WAY more sick than I have been with ANY of my other pregnancies. On good days the minimum was done and not so much on the not so good days. I tried to stay as busy as possible to help the minutes tick by quicker but it was getting really frustrating to go to bed sick and wake up sick every single morning. Thankfully I am 16 weeks along now and feeling SOOOOO much better!!! The baby's due date is March 22nd and we get to go in for an ultrasound on November 3rd! I am really excited to find out if it is a boy or a girl. The kids want it to be a girl REALLY bad and it would be fun to have an even split of boys and girls in our family but it doesn't really matter to us. We are just really excited that this pregnancy seems to be going well cause we were extremely nervous that it would be another miscarriage. More updates will come as they happen (or within a few months of them happening! ;) )

As for life that still went on when I just wanted to roll over and die...

Abbey played soccer again this year and had a great season! They don't keep score at the games, but the girls do! :) I think that they won one game the whole season but that didn't curb their enthusiasm and sweetness with each other! Our teenage neighbor, Fritz Culp, was her coach and he was really sweet with all of the girls! We wish him the best on his mission in Peru!

Braxton has been riding his little motorcycle up in American Fork Canyon with Bryce and loves it! He is so excited that he can ride on some of the same single track that Bryce does! Landen also loved tagging along on the front of Bryce's bike and can't wait to go again! Abbey doesn't mind going either as long as she can just ride on the back with Bryce and doesn't ever have to drive the little motorcyle herself. (Sounds like me!)



Abbey and Braxton both started school and are LOVING it! Abbey is in the 2nd grade and loves Mrs. Champion. She is doing well in reading, loves math and is so excited that Mrs. Champion can keep things organized and in control in the classroom. I am starting to realize how bad things must have been with the intern she had as a 1st grade teacher since she is getting excited to not be late for lunch and small things like that!

Braxton is enjoying another year of preschool with Miss Heidi. This year though he gets to have his cousin and best friend, Porter, in the same class! It has been fun doing some of his homework games and he loves the individual attention. It does feel like you are taking your life into your own hands trying to play "Red light, Green light" with him though! He gets so excited to be the first one there that he practically punches your lights out to touch the cards! We are working on that one. Braxton does surprise me with the things that he thinks about randomly though. The other day he told me:

Braxton: I don't ever want to be a spider.
Me: Why not?
Braxton: Spiders get stepped on, squished and die before it is time for them to be dead. I don't want to be a bee either cause I step on those and squish them too.

I just loved that he thought about "dying BEFORE it was their 'time to be dead'". What makes him think about that stuff... who knows.

Landen has discoverd playing with cars. He will play with them all day and loves to bring a few of them anywhere he goes. He prefers matchbox cars and I think it is because he can carry them easily in his little hands and they fit into his pockets. Speaking of pockets... this morning I asked him to put his jacket away in the closet and he told me that he couldn't. He has been saying that "he can't" alot lately and I more sternly told him to do it. He looked up at me and then said, "I can't. My hands are in my pockets." I told him to take his hands out of his pockets and hang up his jacket. He said ok like I had just come up with an amazing idea and then went and did what I asked. I probably would have started laughing if it hadn't been a frustrating morning already. I am excited though that Landen has started going to the bathroom in the toilet a little bit! I can only hope that he will be potty trained before we have the baby! A few other things that come to my mind with Landen is... "I do it MYSELF," "Why?" and "MOM! Watch this!" about a zillion times a day. The joys of a 2 year old! :)

Bryce got a promotion that he wanted at T-Mobile. He will be managing a team of people that are across the nation and deal with the "indirect business sales" side of things. I really don't have any idea of truly what he will do but I know that it will require him to travel at least one day a week to somewhere other than Utah. I am not looking forward to that but he seems to be excited for a new challenge so we are going with it.

Anyway-I am sure that I have forgotten lots of things to say but something is better than nothing! I am lucky to have such a good life and hope it last forever!