Love the dog...don't love the hair...

Since the weather turned chilly, big Max gets to sleep inside. He has a specified spot...on an old towel next to the chaise on Mike's side of the bed. He does really well and we can tell he appreciates and prefers the nice, warm bed as opposed to the freezing patio. The dog has a dog house...he's scared to go inside.

Can you imagine? This big, scary, intimidating doggy is scared of the dark?

So, now I have a hair removal routine every morning. These are my tools of the trade. First I take the old towel outside and give it a shaky, shaky, shake. Then, it goes into the garage where it will wait until all the old towels are ready to go in the wash. Then, I do a quick wash with them, fold them, and leave them on the laundry floor until they are ready for use.

Next, I use the vacuum without the power head to remove all stray hair from the chaise, blankets, bedspread, pillows, and bedskirt. Then, I use the lint roller on the kids. See, they LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the dog and HUG and HUG and HUG the dog. BLAHHHHHHHHH. Then, I vacuum our entire bedroom and hall. Only then, do I feel like I can make the bed. It gets a little old, but it's worth it because we love the dog.....

C.R.U.N.C.H.

Mike & I love our cars. However, we haven't had the best of luck, lately. Last year, they each were both in the shop multiple times for leaks, etc. This year, it seems we are going to be in the shop for body repairs!

Crunch #1 happened to Mike's car at church. A newbie driver backed into his car. (about $1000 to repair!) I'm going to sound old now, but 'gotta love those teen-agers.' A whole slew of 16 year old whippersnappers in our ward will be getting their coveted drivers licenses this year.
Be on the look-out!

Crunch #2 happened to me today. While sitting in the left-hand turn lane waiting to get on the freeway, a gal in a Ford F350 with a lift-rear-ended me! Nice. (Estimated $2800 to repair!)It doesn't look that bad unless I point a few things out. The hatch won't open. The right side of the bumper is jammed in against the car. There are some slight puncture wounds in the hatch and in the bumper. The truck who hit me lost her front license plate! Not a fun way to start the day. I was just glad that none of the kids were with me. Now the dealing with the awful insurance company begins.

Anyone have a spare rabbit's foot or two?

Smarty Pants!

Congratulations to our darling daughters!

Both received straight A's this term!

We are proud of our smarty pants kids!!!!

Do you like movie popcorn?

Brandon, Spencer Harwood, and Matthew Butler

Brandon's preschool took a field trip to Tinsel Town movie theater this week! It was great fun as they took us behind the scenes at the movies! We saw the projectors, how they load the film, looked into the theater from above (fun perspective) and shown the very powerful light bulbs that 'project' the movies onto those giant screens.

Then, we went behind the snack counter. You know how you think they are always trying to make you buy more? Well, they are. Posted above the door which leads to 'behind the counter', was Upsell, Suggest and Thank......

Also, during the popcorn demonstration, our young, but qualified, guide told the kids the reason they put the yellow salt on the popcorn is so that you really like it and want to buy more (addiction?)! Then, she gave them all a sample of freshly popped corn and told the 4 year olds that if they liked it to have their parents bring them to the movies and buy them some popcorn! I guess since it was a free tour, they were free to brainwash!

Next we went into a theater to watch 3 or 4 short cartoons and each kid was given popcorn, Sprite, a poster, pencil and ruler! Brandon thought he'd hit the jackpot!

Brandon...the amazing disappearing Spence (he doesn't like pictures) and Matthew

Emily, Angie and I let the boys sit down front by themselves so they could feel big. We could hear them laughing and talking to each other loudly the whole time! Priceless!

The older I get, the more I realize how SLOW I am!

So, sometimes it takes me awhile to get something....like truly 'get something' Maybe it's because I'm maturing slowly....I still feel 25 years old. That's ok, right?

Anyway, my latest epiphany is that my sweet hubby really likes to have 'thoughtful' gifts. He doesn't like to just get something for the sake of getting something.

He usually puts a great deal of thought into gifts he gives.

We have been discussing a few gifts lately.

It's been a little fiesty.

My word for the year is determined, right?

So, this year I'm determined to give Mikey good and hopefully GREAT gifts!

I feel like I want him to know through these gifts (because it's important to him) that

I truly love him

more than anything!

I have some things in mind.

I'm already thinking about Christmas.

Already have an Anniversary gift in mind.

I have his BIG 40th BIRTHDAY that I'm working on.

We aren't into giving gifts for mini-holidays, really. I consider Valentine's Day a mini. I'm having a hard time figuring out something to do.

So, give me some suggestions if you've got them...

Mike is going to hate this post.....just fyi!

Loves!

Saturdays are for Skiing!!!

Mike & the girls have been skiing every Saturday in January. The girls took some ski lessons at Snowbasin resort. This resort is kind of a neighborhood hang-out as they run into half the neighborhood every week! There was even a 'tailgating' party set for this Saturday with everyone from the neighborhood, but then the weather turned crazy. Brandon and I were going to come up and join everyone for lunch, but we'll have to do it when it gets rescheduled. Mike wants Brandon to start skiing and we need him to see what it's all about. Utah has a great program for 5th and 6th graders which gives them 3 free passes to each resort in the state! Now that lessons are over, Mike is going to take Amanda to check out some of the other great resorts.
Mike got a couple of pictures of Sydney one week.....cute little Syd-Syd!


Amanda has been doing great and loves, loves, loves skiing. Sydney has been doing great, too, but she doesn't really love staying all day...can you say lodge? Mike has been able to ski while they are in lessons and then spend the rest of the day with the girls. This week he was loving the new powder! I told him last week, that the girls are going to remember skiing with their Dad and it will be one of their favorite memories of childhood.

Sundays at the Gibsons

Family!

Grandma and Ari

Cousins

Good smile, G

Cousins waiting for cake

The Gib family usually gathers every Sunday. Our girls, along with Kate & Elyse, put together a little school for their younger cousins. The kids all disappear into Grandpa's train room and entertain each other. It's so great!

Then the adults....or should I say the siblings get to chat. Eventually Papa will make his famous popcorn and Grandma will pull out the chocolate! Our kids have taken to calling them Grandpa Popcorn and Grandma Chocolate to distinguish them from the other grandparents.

These pictures are from a Sunday when we were celebrating Zachary's 5th birthday!

Aren't my bros cute....Papa must have been gone because Rog is sitting in Big Blue....

Today, I was the driver for 'Temple Taxi.' It's this great little thing that our Young Women's leaders do for our girls. One Friday a month, we take the girls to the temple to do

Baptisms for the Dead.

We have to bring our 'own man' to do the baptisms and confirmations. Luckily, Michael came along. I was really grateful he could make it as work was really crazy at that moment. They are changing 'computer something' and were going 'live' at the same time he was supposed to meet us at the temple.

I had 6 girls show up to go to the temple with me. As we sat in the confirmation room, it was really fun to see Mike able to perform this ordinance. As he read a couple of the names, he told us that these people were from the city where he served his mission! Pretty amazing.....I dressed in the white onesie and got baptized right along with the girls! I don't think I have done this since I was a youth.

There was a time in our Murray ward that I went with a sister who hadn't been endowed to the temple to do baptisms, but we got turned away because we didn't bring family names. I always felt so bad that I didn't get to share a temple experience with Shawna. We did share a Krispy Kreme experience though. We figured if we were up at 5AM, we might as well do something fun!

It was a neat experience to have Mikey in the font, helping the cute girls from our ward to participate in the only thing they could do in the temple. I can't wait until Amanda gets into Beehives this October.

Hopefully, we'll be able to do this together again and Mike & I can be right there with her.

Of course, I had to take the girls for a treat after. We were running late because we got grouped with another ward. So, a quick run through McD's drive-through and I had some happy youth!

I'm really grateful for this calling. I sat in the temple with these girls and they asked me questions about the gospel. We discussed 'spiritual gifts' which was the topic of last week's lesson. I issued them a challenge to figure out what 'spiritual gifts' they feel they have and asked them to share for this week's lesson. I'm amazed at their spiritual maturity. I'm really blessed to be called to teach them. I think they are teaching me much more.

Giveaway!

Go to www.utahdealdiva.com to enter to receive some food storage!

Ring in the New Year!

Happy New Year beautiful children! We have the best family!

Mike & I went to the Francis' for a New Years party! Lots of fun with good friends! We actually played a game this year...Wackee Six. Really fun and Mike and I were in 2nd place, ready to pounce on the title, but during the last round, we lost and came in 3rd. Fun stories from the Lalli's. Great way to celebrate the new year. The kids were invited to hang with the Francis kids in their newly finished basement, but I thought if they stayed home that Brandon would go to bed.

Well, I guess that we had promised to burn our gingerbread house to ring in the New Year and this proved to be enough incentive to stay up! When we got home, all 3 kids were up, with coats on, ready to light up the night!

I read on Heather Hopkin Moss' blog that this is a family tradition of theirs. It was crazy enough that I knew we would like it and embrace it fully!

Before we left for our party, Mike prepared the house for it's adventure. Laying it on a cardboard box lined with foil. Matches and lighter fluid at the ready!

It took a minute to get it going, but Mike got some good flames!

Rest in peace 2009! On to 2010!