Christmas and one of the best Christmas presents ever

Does everyone know about Pinterest? It's so much fun! I got lost on there one day and found an idea about giving a collection of letters to someone turning 60. So, 60 letters from 60 different people. I thought it would be such a perfect gift for my father-in-law Nick. He is the kind of guy that remembers everyone he's ever met and can talk to ANYBODY. It's a true talent and gift.
My sister-in-law Molly and I printed off the letters and stuffed them in these great Air Mail envelopes and tied them up for Christmas. His birthday was on the 8th of December, but we couldn't get it to him in time, so we did it for Christmas. He loved it. I would recommend this to anyone with a loved one having a milestone birthday. It was so great to read the sweet things people wrote about him. We joked around and said that we didn't have to plan his funeral because everyone had already written it.







Christmas was nice and low key, just the way I like it. We spent Christmas Eve with my brother Ryan and then with Buck's parents and brother Brady's family. We were the only ones with the in-laws for Christmas day. We went to an hour of church and that was nice. I think that we should always have an hour of church on Christmas, I liked that it changed my thinking toward Christ instead of just presents. :)

Harvest of the Month and Barking Seal Babies

Harvest of the Month went SO well! I was so excited by all of the kids who wanted to try butternut squash! I think there was only 2 kids out of the 400 that out right refused. As you can tell in the picture, there are some thumbs down, but most are up. Of course, I added stickers and pumpkin pie spice as a bonus, but still. It couldn't have gone better. :)


















This is the poor babe that woke up this morning with a barking cough. I will say that it's nice not to hear so much screaming/talking from him, but I digress. Poor sick baby. Love that kid, can't get enough pictures of him either. :)

Giving thanks in St. George

On the years that we have Alyssa(Bucky's daughter) for Thanksgiving, we always go back and forth about what to do. Should we fly her up or should we go down to St. George? Well, this year we decided to pack the lot up and head down. Boy, am I glad we did! It was gorgeous!

While we were there we "popped" in on my Uncle Markel and Aunt Kathy. These guys are some of my favorite relatives. And my cousins are fun too. We meant to only stay an hour or two, but somehow managed to stay pretty much all day. It was fun. Lots of kids around for our kids to play with. We didn't see or hear from Ethan and Evie the whole time we were there. Buck and Alyssa played Dominion with the cousins and Kathy and I just relaxed. It was great.

It was such a treat for us to hang out with Bucky's grandparents, they love life and doing things and are just fun to be around. Mary Ellen showed the kids how to make hats with a loom while we were there and they were blown away. They were pretty obsessed with it the whole time we were there.

You can tell by the pictures that it was beautiful this time of year. The temperatures hovered around 60 and 70 degrees the whole time. We even ate our Thanksgiving feast outside! For a girl from Alaska, it was an anomaly. Bucky's Uncle Joel and Aunt Lynette hosted the dinner and it was soooo good. Lynette is one of those cooks that never cooks anything bad. The only other person I can say that about is my friends, Kelly. Don't take offense everyone else, but there are just some people out there that have a talent for cooking and I am working on my talent. Recognize.

Black Friday night we went with Bucky's cousin Haley and her husband Shawn. We pulled up to Target and saw how long the line was and turned around and headed to Walmart for the Electronics unveiling and the fights during. It was fun to stay up way past our bedtimes and have some fun. There's a crazy feeling in the air on Black Friday, like a herd of spooked horses. I don't really have a better explanation than that.

And last but not least, we visited Snow Canyon. There are pictures of us on the red rocks. This was one of the highlights for the kids on the trip. Hat making and the red rocks.

The best part of the trip for Bucky and I was spending time with family on a one on one basis. It's hard to get very well acquainted at a family reunion or a dinner, it's just better to hang out doing every day things. Don't you think?

I swore...

I swore I would never be the person who had so much going on that I couldn't make time to help my friends and family.

I swore I wouldn't just shuffle my kids from one thing to the next.

I swore I would be able to breath.

I'm finding myself in a pickle lately, literally running back and forth trying not to get tagged out by the ball. I'm not having a pity party here, just an enlightening thought that some of the things that I thought I wouldn't do are actually making me a better person.

Like, for instance, I'm tackling the obesity epidemic at my kids school. And it's hard. Very hard. The head lunch lady, Sherlene, fights me at every turn. I also set up a Parent's Nutrition Night to help families learn how to eat better and exercise. Three parents showed up. All of them good friends. I'm starting a program where I talk to all the kids about fruits and vegetables every month and let them try new foods.

I'm not saying this to brag, but it's something that I'm passionate about and feel compelled to do. I feel like it's what I'm supposed to do. So, in that sense, it's easy because I have conviction.
But it's hard when parents say they want to help and see change, then when it's time to help they have to shampoo their hair. I'm not asking a lot, like handing out stickers to kids who eat their fruit/vegetables at lunchtime. But, as hard as it is, I've never felt more excited about the possibility of this change.

I'm also teaching doTERRA essential oil classes. There was a time when Ethan got sick, really sick with a bacterial infection called H. Pylori. It's a fecal borne contaminant that lives in your stomach and causes huge amounts of pain. And it doesn't matter what you eat or don't eat, it's painful. All the time. So, like a good mom I took him to the doctor and he prescribed antibiotics, Prevacid, and Miralax. They call it a triple combination. We did it for 2 weeks and no difference. Imagine seeing your child losing weight and in so much pain. In desperation I called my cousin Robin because I had been to a class she had. I hadn't gotten anything because I thought it was hokey. Well, long story longer, after 2 days of rubbing a digestive blend on his stomach he didn't have any pain. We continued with it for a week just to make sure the bacterial infection was gone and haven't had any issues since.

After this happened, I couldn't keep it to myself. Time and again we've used these oils and they've been amazing. They are pure and there aren't any fillers, pesticides, weeds, herbicides, additives, or synthetics. So, the medicine that God made in plants is now helping us as a family.

I want to make this clear, we still go to the doctor when we need to. But, for the most part we don't need to. Modern medicine has made many advancements and has helped many people, but it's also moved away from the home remedies that people used to use that were effective.

As for shuffling kids around, it's only on Tuesdays. Ethan has Cub Scouts at 4 and soccer practice at 5:30. But, still I don't like it, it throws off my dinner plans and I HATE that. Dinnertime is sacred to me. :)

Okay, I'm breathing, now that I've had a little venting session. Thanks for listening. And please, it makes it worth while when you leave messages! That way I know that you're reading and it's worth the effort. It seems like everyone has moved over to Facebook and Twitter and don't like to slow down and read things anymore. Is it just me???

The Little Dude is One!

Ellis' birthday was last Saturday. We didn't have a huge birthday party for him, we went out for breakfast. I can honestly say I liked that better. It was calm and there wasn't much planning to it and I didn't have to cook anything!

In his short life, Ellis has been the hardest of all the kids. He was a pretty cranky baby who didn't sleep. He didn't nurse very well and it made for some tough times. But there was light at the end of the tunnel. He started sleeping through the night at 9 months round that time I gave up on nursing and started formula. We both liked that better.

Since then, he's been really fun. And when I say fun, what I mean is....ACTIVE. He crawled and got into everything, then he started pulling up on things and got into everything. By 11 months we was walking and BANGING into everything. :) He's loud and wild and that's one of the best and worst things about him! He is brutal with other little babies, but in a Lenny (of Mice and Men) way. Not thinking he's hurting and then BOOM bloody lip (Sorry about that Sam). He's quick to laugh but is shy around new people. That's Ellis. He's a handful but also a joy.

Oh yeah, and he's cute.

I'm sure every mother says this...

It's the night before Ethan's birthday and I can't help thinking about the night before he came into this world. I was nervous, the impending doom a first baby brings. You spend 9 months getting excited for this baby to come into your life (and out of the space he's currently renting). But then the moment of truth comes and then it starts coming like a freight train and then you're looking right down the barrel and it can be a little frightening. At least that's how it was for me anyway. Add to that, moving 4 days before you give birth, that was a lot to say the least.

The delivery was less than ideal, but the end result was amazing. Ethan has always held a special place in my heart, not just because he was the first baby I ever had, but because he's always had such an amazing spirit about him. He's just good to the core, he never wants to hurt anyone and he defends people even to the point of me worrying that one day he'll get beat up for it. He loves to have a good time and is always so cheerful. He's just a delightful kid to have around.

So, cheers Ethan, I love you.

The River

Earlier this summer, there was some serious flooding in my town and around all of northern UT. Every time we would drive past the Ogden River on our way downtown, we would look at how much it had risen and watch the efforts that were made to block it from flooding the street, sandbags and huge mounds of dirt. Well, Mother Nature cranked up the heat these last couple of weeks and the river has dried up a bit. We live near an awesome place called the Ogden Botanical Gardens and the River Parkway, and the Ogden River flows right alongside it.

We decided to explore the river the other day and found a great spot to go swimming! It's shallow and the current is slow. We took our Davenport cousins down there and had a great time. Incidentally, they did find a submerged push lawn mower in there, but that's fun for the kids to explore. :)

We went back again for a second time with Bucky's parents and his aunt and uncle's family. We stayed down there for 3 hours, just sitting on the bank while the kids played in the water. It was great.

Ellis had a great time putting rocks in his mouth and causing all sorts of mischief.