Family fun!!

Matt's brother Steve and his family came into town for the holidays. They came in on Friday night and left Sat. morning. Mckayla and Isaiah were especially excited because this meant lots of cousins to play with. Steve and his wife Heidi have nine kids, so it made for a fun night. They arrived friday evening, we had lots of food, we watched Kung Fu Panda, and played games. I had planned to have a nice breakfast for them in the morning. I had lots of fruit, and made Volcano pancakes. I don't know if you have ever made Volcano pancakes, but they are suppose to be fluffy, and grow really big in the oven. Well, I certainly botched mine. My sister told me she mix's her ingredients in the blender, just to make sure everything mixes up really well. I thought I would use my mixer. Mixer, blender does it really matter? I am here to tell you it does. I think I mixed mine up to much. They were flat, and barely etiable. I had two pan fulls. My guest were gracious enough to eat it all up, and then tell me it really did taste good. I was somewhat embarrassed with my homemaking skills. Oh well, we had a fun visit with family whether I know how to cook or not.

Happy New Year

New Years Eve was that of a quite one. Matt and I tried to get together with some family, but everyone had some other plans. We were actually wishing my brother Bill and his wife Dede were here. We so wanted to get together and play games with them. We still had a good time. We bought a bunch nibble food, and made steak and mashed potatoes to ring in the new year. We played games with the kids, and after putting them to bed, ordered us a movie on paperview (Hancock). On New years day, we went to the matinee with the kids (Despereaux)! Was a very cute movie. The kids enjoyed it especially Isaiah. Anything that has a knight, or saving a princess, he is loves it. It was a fun and relaxing day.

Better Late than Never (All of December festivities)

December was a busy month, hence the no posting until now! I don't know if any of you that have a 5 year old have had the same experiences I have, but Santa was pretty much scrutinized this year. Mckayla has been doing a lot of thinking, and asking lots of questions, and at times left mom pretty flustered in how to respond. Here is how one of our conversations went;

Mom- Hey Mckay, in your preschool class you will get to see a real live reindeer!
Mckay- (Eyes as wide as silver dollars) A real reindeer?
M- Yup, a real one, pretty cool huh?
Mc- Mom is Santa real?
M- ignoring the question and hoping she will move on to something else!
Mc- Mom, Is Santa REAL?
M- Yes, Yes, Santa is real!

Then a few days later she asks me how come daddy and I never got presents from Santa last christmas?

At Mckayla's preschool they had the chance to meet a real reindeer (Comet). Both Mckayla and Isaiah were excited to see one of Santa's reindeer. They got to pet comet, and ask questions. They loved it.

We also had the chance to see Santa a couple of times this December. The first time seeing Santa was at Matt's work party. Matt's work had breakfast with Santa, it was a fun time. We got there right at the start, and so we had the chance to see Santa enter the room. I think we saw him all about 2 seconds and Mckayla says "how come Santa doesn't have glasses on?" Maybe Santa has contacts like Mommy! This Santa didn't quite fit into the costume (with fake beard and all) I was prepared to give the Santa's helper talk. All in all it was lots of fun, they had lots and lots of games for the kids, and cookie decorating. The kids came away with lots of candy and trinket toys.

The second time seeing Santa was at Mckay's preschool. Not only was Santa at her school, but Mrs. Claus was there as well. This was a highlight for Mckay, because she got to have lunch at preschool, and visit with Santa. Normally Mckayla does not eat lunch at school, so that was definitely an added treat. Mckayla asked Santa to bring her a Belle dress up, Isaiah only request was Mickey Mouse keys he saw on the less than $5.00 isle.

I thought for sure Mckayla was going to say something about him having glasses this time, and actually having a real beard, but luckily these things were not noticed.

This year I decided to do a gingerbread house with the kids. They were so excited. On the box is this perfect gingerbread house. They make it look so easy. They have all the pieces ready to assemble. Candy and frosting to make the finishing touches. How could you go wrong. I do not know how they made it look so perfect on the box, but ours did not turn out as beautiful as the box showed. We couldn't get the frosting to stay in its place, it kept drooping down, and the frosting wouldn't hold the candy very well either. That didn't seem to matter to the kids they absolutely loved the end product, and had fun doing it. Mckayla said to me " I think this is the most beautiful ginger bread house." I guess that is all that matters.

On the Sunday before christmas we filled our mugs with hot chocolate, and bowls with popcorn for a snack in the car, and headed to Kirtland to the Nativity exhibit that they had going on. It is fun that we live so close to a church site, and participate with the events that they have going on there. They had 100 nativity scenes on display with many coming from around the world. This one is from Italy.

The only down fall of our family activity, was that it was bitter cold. I think we were the only ones out to brave it. When we got to the visitor's center they said it was 5 degrees outside, but with the windchill it was definitely below zero. There was snow blowing up all around and the first part of the tour, which was displays from other countries, was in a seperate building. So we had to brave it out in the cold to see that. Mckayla enjoyed it but as you can see Isaiah fell asleep on the way. He slept through the whole activity. They also had a little room for kids, that had nativity dress ups, and lots of little nativities to play with. To no one's surprise this was Mckayla's favorite part, and it took a little bit of coaxing to see the rest of the displays. I wish Isaiah had stayed awake, I think he would have enjoyed this part as well.

Here are some other pictures of the nativities that they had displayed.
My pictures do not do them justice, but they were beautiful, and they had so many that you would be bored with all the pics. After looking at the displays they had the movie Luke II.

I wanted to throw this pic in because I thought it was so cute. This is Seth having enjoyed a christmas cookie! YUM, YUM!!!

So I thought I would do a new tradition this year, we will see if it sticks. Matt loves for me to make Buckeye candy (who would of guessed). It is basically like a reese's peanut butter cup, except it is in the shape of the Buckeye nut. I normally make them for the first buckeye game of the season, but because he has been asking for them I decided we would make some for him for the holidays. Mckayla loves to help make them, and was very excited to do this for daddy. We all dressed in our buckeye gear (even me), and made buckeyes for Matt.

On Christmas eve we made cookies for Santa, the kids loved making them, and were so excited to see that Santa ate them, and left a thank you note for them. After making cookies we read the christmas story in the new testament, and used Mckayla's puppets that she had made in her preschool class. We then gave our gift to Jesus, and we each thought of something we could do in the upcoming year that would help us come closer to him. We wrote them down and put them in an envelope. In my family our tradition is that we have our family Christmas on Christmas Eve. Since we have moved away, and we do not have the opportunity to attend the party, we still exchange gifts among those in the family. So we got to open our one gift that was sent to us from family. Thank you to all those who had us for christmas. We loved our gifts, and are grateful to be apart of such a great family.

Christmas morning was very nice. The kids were so excited Santa had finally arrived. Here is a shot of our christmas tree, and all the gifts Santa brought.

Mckayla received a new Cinderella dress up with shoes, crown, and purse to match. She had requested the Belle dress, and received the Cinderella one. Maybe Santa ran out of Belle dresses this year, I know they have been hard to come by. I am glad he chose Cinderella, it is very beautiful.

Isaiah received the mickey keys he requested, and also a new bike to ride with his big sister. I can't wait for spring, they will have so much fun together.

Seth received a crawl and cruise jungle, which he loves. It has lots of noises when the ball rolls down the ramp, and lots of toys on top to play with.

We had a great christmas day, and we were grateful to be close to family, as we had the opportunity to go to Matt's parents house and have dinner with some of his family. It was a real enjoyable day.

Matt's family also had a family get together at a resort called Maumee Bay Resort. We stayed there for 2 days, playing and hanging out with family. It was so much fun. We went to the resort for this Winter Carnival. In one of their rooms they had a bunch of stuff for kids to do. They had a cupcake walk, bean bag toss, fishing game, grabbing for ducks, horse races, putt putt golf, basketball game, football toss, and many other games. With each activity you won tickets, and then you could enter them into a drawing. We had so much fun hanging out as a family. This resort was so much fun, because it had so much to do there. We enjoyed swimming, and wallyball. We did the christmas pagent, and opened presents. The most fun was just hanging out, and enjoying being with each other. It was certainly a great way to end the year of 2008.


Here Seth is among all of his cousins. He was the main attraction. I never knew he could be so popular at such a young age.

Trying to be crafty!

So long long time ago, when Matt and I bought our first home, we bought some tile to make a back splash in our kitchen, but we did not live in that home long enough for us to put up a back splash. So we carried these boxes of tiles from home to home, thinking that we would use them. Well when we left Utah to move to Atlanta we decided to get rid of the tile. My sister-in-law had just bought a vinyl machine and thought she could use the tile for gifts etc. This past summer when we went home to visit I took three of those tiles, and had my sister-in-law do me up some vinyl. I was so excited to put up the tiles, but was not sure exactly how I was going to do it. I wanted to hang each tile by ribbon, but the tile was to heavy and rip right off the ribbon. I wanted to buy the sticky stuff to apply to the back and stick it to the wall, but Matt thought if we had to remove it, it would be to hard to patch up the wall. The other day I was in the store and saw this black iron plate holder, I thought this would be perfect. So I came home and put it all together, and this is my results

What do you think? I am so excited at how it all turned out, and the only damage to the wall is a little nail hole that can be puttied if needed. Hooray!!!

Broken foot?

So Isaiah's favorite past time is jumping off the coffee table. He somehow believes he is superman. He has even had many a time sitting in time out, for this very thing. Somehow it still has not sunk in, that climbing and jumping off the furniture is a big NO, NO. I have threatened him, and in fact had threatened earlier that day that the next time jumping occurs that time out would be involved. As you all know nobody listens to mom. So, Isaiah jumps off the coffee table, and a big crying fit begins. I tell him I have no sympathy, for he has been warned, and he is not listening (ok so I am not that harsh, but it did run thru my head). After hugs, and kisses he seemed ok. He favored his foot a little bit, and I wondered if maybe he had hurt it worse than I thought. Around midnight, I hear wailing from Isaiah's room. Crying like I have never heard before. As I go in to check on him he is holding his foot, crying that it hurts. The foot looks fine, maybe a little bit of swelling on the bottom of the foot, but all in all it looks ok. His crying does not subside, and he begins to thrash from side to side, because the pain seems to great. I give him a dose of tylenol, and Matt gives him a blessing. We decided we probably need to get it checked out. With him crying so intently something must be wrong. It is now about 1:00 in the morning, with Isaiah in the back, and a snow storm to add to all the drama, I head out to get it x-rayed. Now being new to the area, we were not sure where the nearest hospital would be. I told Matt I had seen this place 5 min. up the road that says University Hopsital, surely we could take him there. I head out and when I arrive to the hospital it says out front URGENT CARE, and it was closed. I called Matt and asked him to find something in the phone book. I also had him call to make sure they were open. after about 3 tries, and negative to all of them, I decided to come back home. Isaiah was no longer crying and seemed content. So the next day I was going to take him to the Urgent care, but he never complained about it, and was walking on it, or walking on the outside of the foot. I debated whether I should take him in. My friend referred me to her doctor, so I called, but they could not fit us in and they suggested the emergency. So off we go a second time. The x-ray came back negative, and all is well. I guess all I can say is it is better knowing that all is well, than always wondering if possibly he fractured or broke his foot. Hopefully, Isaiah has learned his lesson, and from now on will always listen to mommy. (one can be hopeful, right?).

Abomnible Snowmen

This week we have had snow, snow and more snow. Welcome to Ohio! Mckayla to say the least is more than happy that so much snow is falling. The first day she could not wait to go and play in the snow. I kept telling her that she would have to wait until I could find our snow bin, so I could get all the snow clothes out. SO I pull out her snow pants and hat and boots. She is so excited and has them all on in minutes. I couldn't help but giggle at the sight before me. Sorry folks I failed to get a picture of it. Living in Georgia we really had no need to buy snow gear to keep warm. Needless to say, her pants, boots and hat were two sizes too small. Just seeing her excitement I didn't have the heart to tell her she could not go out and play. I told her her pants didn't cover her all the way and she most likely would get cold. I asked how her feet were, considering she is in a size 11, and her boots were size 8. She insisted that all was well and was off in the backyard to play. It only took 5 min. and she was back in the house, done for the day.

So today was the day to hook ourselves up with snow gear that actually fit. The kids were so excited to go out back to play, and by today there was lots more snow to play in. Here the kids are in their full gear out in the back playing.

Have you ever seen the Christmas Story? I think that is what it is called, and the little boy can't put his arms down because of the snow suit. It wasn't that bad for my kids, but snow gear is so much harder to move in, and watching them play, totally reminded me of that.

Here they are making snow angels.

This is how much snow we had accumulated on our picnic table. Mind you it was still snowing while they played outside, and has continued throughout the evening. It is suppose to snow thru tomorrow afternoon. It is a good thing the kids are loving the snow!!!

Catch up!!

Ok so where do I begin? These last few weeks have been a world wind, and it seems like I am finally taking a breath from all that is going on in our lives. Did I mention how much I hate moving. What STRESS!!!! To top off moving, and all the stress that goes with that, I have my little Sethers that is just learned to crawl, and is out and about and is finding his way into things he should not be getting into. He has been teething and this week his two bottom teeth have just broke through. I have to admitt, my little Seth is such a trooper, and has done very well amongst all the changes going on.
So I have to play a little catch up of all that has happened in the last month. I will begin with Mckayla having her last field trip with her pre-school class. We had the opportunity to go to the Thompson tree farm. On this field trip, they got to listen to a pumpkin story, feed the goats, go on a hay ride, have a little picnic, and go on a pumpkin hunt, and pick there very own pumpkin. The kids had a great time.






Mckayla is truly going to miss her pre-school class, and Mrs. Kristi.

We had our yearly check-ups. Mckayla and Isaiah were healthy!! (Yeah) Mckayla had to get one shot and did awesome, she didn't cry at all even though she was a little scared. Isaiah on the other hand had to get 3 or 4 shots, and he was a bit upset to say the least.

Can I just say how much I hate good-byes. It is making me all teary-eyed just typing about it. We had to say good-bye to all our friends, and our beautiful home. We will miss you all dearly. Georgia will forever have a special place in my heart.

Off to Ohio we go. Let me just say we are very blessed, and I am so thankful for the blessing the Lord sees fit to give us. I hope those that read this do not think I am ungrateful by any means, but I do want to post my struggles and such that I have felt over the last couple of weeks. In moving, we had to live in temporary living for 2 weeks( thus the absence from my blogging, and this extremely long post, thank you to those who are enduring, and reading to the end). I hate temp. living, especially with three small children. It is so hard when, you do not know the area, your cramped in a small hotel room (remember, which I am very grateful for), I have limited activities for the kids, and you know no one, or are limited to a few people that you know. When we first arrive the weather is just bitter cold and snows for the first few days. Talk about shock to the system. I wonder what in the world were we thinking, Georgia has such nice weather. Why would I ever leave?
We were scheduled to have a two bedroom hotel room, and when we got there we found out that they were rennovating the hotel, and all they had was a one bedroom. To say the least this was another damper to my hotel living. So for one week we lived in the one bedroom, and then they were able to accomodate us by giving us a two bedroom, which gave us a little more room. If you think about it life was not so bad, we got fabulous breakfasts every morning, and on Mon.-Thurs. they also did dinner. My kind of living. I didn't have to think about what I had to make for dinner. Here is the our home sweet home for the last two weeks. Homewood Suites

Some highlights of our stay was Halloween. Here are the kids all dressed and ready to go trick or treating. Mckayla was sleeping beauty this year, with Isaiah as her Knight in shining armor, and little Seth as the custest little frog you will ever see. Don't you want to just kiss this little frog? We had a great time. We were able to go trick or treating with lots and lots of cousins, and celebrated 4 of their birthdays as well. It was great fun!!


This past week we actually moved into our new home. It has been a very stressful unpacking this time, and I couldn't figure out why. We have done this so many times you would think I could do this in my sleep. I think with the combination of having 3 kids, and moving into a smaller home has something to do with it. It has been a week of complete chaos. Everything is so un-organized, it is just killing me. It has been so hard figuring out where to put everything. I think we are slowly but surely finding our way out of the huge mess we have found ourselves in. Let me not comment on the mound of laundry that we finally got to. We realized when we bought the home, that it had a gas dryer and not a electric one. So I got a quote on how much it would be to change the outlet to a gas one, I was quoted between $300-$400. I went to price out new dryers and found that they cost about this much. SO we opted to go with the new dryer. SO needless to say this did not get installed and ready to go until yesterday. I had at least 2-3 weeks of laundry. CRAZY!!!!