Merry Christmas!

This year was a great Christmas like always! We had the normal activities, party with mom on the 23rd, tubing and dinner at McMurray's on Christmas Eve, followed by pajamas and balderdash with my dad on the 24th and then a fun Christmas with our kids! Tim was excited to get The King car from Disney's Cars and a garage, little cars and some books. Allison got a kitchen, a train, play food and some books. Then we visited McMurray's, my mom and my dad and Grandma. All in all, a great day! Justin has this entire week off so we look forward to finishing our basement if possible and doing some fun activities with our kids. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!

My Christmas Gift, this picture.

Mine and Justin's presents

Allie's presents

Timmy's presents

Timmy showing off his new The King and Lightning McQueen

Yikes!

I must admit, I have lost my temper a few times in the last few days! I was actually just thinking a while back that I was not getting as upset with my kids, and then just to taunt me, my kids have started up again with naughty antics and I have lost my temper again! Truly, motherhood has been the biggest test of my patience ever!! I sure hope you all don't think less of me because I'm sure I'm my biggest critic but wow, some days are hard!

Do you ever wish?

There have been many times in my life that I wish I could allow someone else to feel what I'm feeling for only a few minutes just so they can understand what I'm going through. For example, tonight while I folded a huge pile of laundry and my back was hurting, I wished for just a moment that Justin could feel how my back felt so that he understood how painful it was! As it is, he hardly ever has back pain so I don't think he realizes how much it can put me out but this topic has been a thought of mine for several years. Do any of you ever wish this? Just as you would let your mechanic test drive your car to hear the funky noises it makes, wouldn't it be so nice to transfer your symptoms to your doctor so they could understand your ailment for just a moment? Anyway, just some food for thought.

Anyway, things are going well, trying to get in the Christmas spirit but knowing that snow always helps things along. Here's to a good snowstorm soon!!

Happy 30th Birthday to Me!!!

Well, I've made it to the big 3-0! I thought my birthday would be a bummer since my family was all sick, including myself (I had a cold) but it ended up being pretty great! I had a fondue and karaoke party planned with some close friends and several girls in my ward but since my family all had fevers on Thursday night, I decided to cancel it. I had decided to have a little party since Justin was going to be at school until 7:30 PM on my birthday.

As it turns out, Justin decided he was too sick to go to work and school on my birthday so he was a sweetheart and watched the kids for 3 hours while I went shopping, it was absolutely fabulous! I enjoyed shopping to my heart's content and even ate lunch out. Then we had fondue for dinner which was yummy but really too much work on my birthday and then we watched Harry Potter 6. It truly turned out to be a great day!!

Oh, and Justin gave me a coat and sweater I had picked out earlier as well as a new dustbuster and a really nice black and silver necklace. He also gave me a voucher for 2 chapsticks from each of my kids because he wasn't sure which kind I like. What a great guy, thanks honey!



Here I am blowing out the candle in my cream puff. I decided to wait and have cake and ice cream with my family when we have our family party which will be this Sunday. It was postponed a week because of illness.

Happy Halloween!

On Halloween we went to our neice's baptism in the morning and it was fun getting together with family. Then we went to help our sister-in-law Liesl with her computer and then came home to get ready for the big night. We went to our ward's trunk-or-treat and chili cook-off. We got home around 7 PM and I took my kids out trick-or-treating for another while around the neighborhood and finished off the night watching Hocus Pocus. It was a fun holiday with our family all day!




Tim as Bob the Builder (thanks Ender for getting Tim into dressing up!)




Allison the Ballerina. We had originally bought Allison a butterfly fairy costume but she hated it. I threw this together at the last moment. I had bought the tutu dress from my friend Celeste a while ago and had shiny pink shoes for $5 from Kmart and had never used the pink tights before but they all matched great! My kids were so cute and had so much fun!

Justin is now Jason McRoberts!

For Halloween, Justin decided to dye his hair brown and go as his coworker for his work Halloween party! His coworker is named Jason McRoberts, has a similar build and style of clothing and he has brown hair with a little spike in the front as well as glasses. Since they are so similar with similar names, many people at work get them confused. So last night we dyed Justin's hair brown and this morning put some gel in it and he looks great! Here are some before and after pictures! Happy Halloween!

Justin Before:



Justin After (it actually looks more brown in real life):



Justin After with Spiky Hair:



This picture is just for fun. He got his hair cut on October 2nd and the lady spiked it for our date night. I love it but he doesn't want to spike his hair.

My heart goes out.....

These past few days I have been thinking of a friend of mine that I am not very close to and barely know, but my heart goes out to her and her husband in a way that probably wouldn't if I weren't a parent. My friend Arae recently gave birth to a little boy who had severe heart defects and only lived for 11 hours. She asked on Sunday, October 11th that those who were of the faith to join in fasting for her that she may be able to hold her baby boy who was to be born on October 12th by C-Section. They knew their baby boy Tristan would not live a long life but the hope was that they would be able to spend a little time with him as a family before he joined our father in heaven.

In an answer to many prayers and the combined fasting of several friends and family, Arae and her family were able to spend 11 precious hours with their sweet baby boy and even give him a name and blessing before he passed on. While I have thought of this family several times this week, I recently read about the memorial service they are holding this Saturday and saw the sweet picture of the parents holding their darling baby boy and I just become overwhelmed with emotion and grief. The picture of course reminded me of when I held my newborn babies and how hard it would be to let them go after such a short amount of time. I know the Lord has a plan for us all and that we can have eternal families by living his teachings. What a blessing it is to have the gospel in our lives and I know that I am going to cherish my children each and every day I get to spend with them. In fact, I think I am going to go and kiss both of them goodnight one more time.

Halloween Decorations

I finally put up my Halloween decorations today just to find that I don't really like most of the stuff I have. Most of it is really cheap or was given for free and I think it is time for a trip to Tai Pan Trading! They always have cute and fairly inexpensive decorations so that I can hopefully DI some of the stuff I have, which isn't much! I love extra paycheck month :)

Conversation with Timmy

Janelle: Tim, let's change your diaper because you can't wear the same diaper all night and all day.
Tim: Okay. If I wear the same diaper all day and night it will start to spill the pee pee's onto my pants.
Janelle (laughing): Yes, yes it will.

Family Update

I thought I would do an update on my family. Here goes:

Justin is still in school and so far his classes this semester do not seem that tough. He is not very stressed with homework and I am enjoying this! At the end of the school year (next end of April and beginning of May) he gets to go to ASIA for 2 weeks! They will be visiting many businesses as well as many touristy things. I could go with him, but it costs $7,000 so I have decided to pass and perhaps take a fun family trip next summer instead. After he finishes school next June we are hoping to move closer to SLC (Bountiful ideally) and he is going to apply to different companies in Utah and out of state and just see what else is out there. Although last night he just said he may not apply out of state and just stay living here in Utah which is fine by me! He is still working for Northrop Grumman (7 years now) and is working on a proposal which could send him to LA for 3 months at the beginning of the year. If he leaves, I may board up my house and go with him for a while and we'll stay in an extended stay place. If we get sick of it, we'll come home but I love adventures!

I just finished my diet and as is expected, the weight did not stay off completely. I gained about 1-2 pounds per day for the first few days and have leveled off around 142-143. I am completely fine with this for now since I am enjoying food. Perhaps in a little bit I will work on getting under 140 again. I am really enjoying my kids and they are fun to hang out with. I am working to put together our choir's Christmas program and enjoy teaching the Sunbeams at church. I also enjoy shopping way too much and need to find more hobbies to keep me busy so I shop less! I am also really excited for the Christmas season and can't wait for stores and the mall to start decorating! I know that it is months away but I am just in the mood for it to all begin. In some ways I am glad it is still so far away because I am going to enjoy it for a long time! On the other hand, I am excited for Halloween and that is just right around the corner!

Tim is almost 3 1/2 and just started preschool with our neighbor Sarah Parke. I was a little nervous because we sent him for a summer camp this June and he did not want to go and did not want to learn. As such, I did not send him again to camp in August and went straight to Preschool in September. The orientation was rough but then it was like he did a complete change and really enjoys going and learning! He loves riding his bike over there with his backpack on and shows me everything he did when he gets home. He constantly amazes me with the things he knows and his language makes me laugh a lot! He loves sending things down slides and racetracks and still loves Lightning McQueen. The potty training is slow going and pretty non-existent right now. His diapers are starting to really bother him so hopefully soon he'll be ready. He is getting so big!

Allison is just a doll. She is learning new words every day and acting more like a little girl than a baby and I just love it! We just barely pulled her binkies away yesterday and she is going through withdrawals but she will live. We just hope there won't be an hour of screaming again tonight! She loves dolls and sticker books and brings me the remote and asks me to turn on her show (Baby Einstein) every day. She can climb out of her bed and we are in the process of getting her a mattress and new twin bedding for her big girl bed. For now, I just leave the side down on her crib so she can climb out easily and it works.

Well, there you have it! I am constantly amazed at the blessings in our lives and grateful that we are part of the gospel. We are working on kneeling down for family prayer and holding a regular FHE each Monday night. I enjoy being a mom more and more each day and love seeing my kids and husband happy!