A little rundown....

As I was adding pics from the camera to the computer I realized that during my blog hiatus I hadn't posted hardly 1 pic in the December month.

We hit up Chuckee Cheese on one of our trips down to Utah....decisions, decisions.

We had a great time and think we did what we came to do.... get them good and tired!

Still in Utah, these boys played PBS kids and Playhouse Disney a ton...
Good thing they both had their "own" computer!

Ummmmm boys are weird...
(Gotta love Iggy's)

This little guy went through a streak where he was so stinken kissy! looooong ones too!

Of course we saw Santa.

Cole told me he was a fake.

Lane and the boys did a great job on their gingerbread house....while I was working.

Go Cart anyone?

Aghhhh.... this fake bear is trying to steal me and my soda!

A few rounds of bowling.... ya gotta love small town bowling alleys.

This isn't my kid... it must be Brittany Spears. Ok he is mine but he didn't learn that from me!

We seriously play football daily in our house. When I say we, I mean the 3 boys.

We baked a lot of goodies and holiday treats!

Got attacked by this weird gorilla!

And rode animals on our safari.

Ate some delicious food at Harley Davidson's in Lindon... YUM!

Tried on the helmets for size.

Played in the snow quite a bit.

I forgot to take a picture of their fort/igloo they built.... even had a window!

Don't ya hate it when.....

You CAN'T fall asleep! Ughhhh If you aren't in the mood for a little complaining than I suggest you mosey on over to someone else's blog.
It is just one of those nights when you can not find a cozy spot on your pillow. You are smoken hot and than the next minute you are searching for your covers.

(pretty bold of me to take this shot of myself I know.)

I have about 10 weeks left of pregnancy and am starting to realize that I oughta start slowing down a smidge. I went to my doc appointment last week to find out that I was extremely low in iron. THAT explains the exhaustion, the zero energy, the dizziness, the shortness of breath, and the real hard mornings (getting up that is)! I am now on iron supplements and trying to eat more like an anemic person, but I am still tired....
OK. That is all I really wanted to complain about. I am sure I will have a better attitude in the morning. I have a pretty full day of appointments so that always helps me forget about "poor me" and keeps me going!
Thanks for listening if you are still here.
I am now going to give this sleep thing another try.... wish me luck!
(if you are wondering the time it is 1:26am)

It happened.....

This morning my 5 year old decided he was going to run away! What? My kid? Why would my kid EVER want to run away from his dear, sweet, fabulous mother??
Yeah well it went like this.
He wakes up with a stretch, a hug, and a "good morning!" So I am thinking we are off to a good start. (til i looked further in the kitchen to see cole rummaging through the candy drawer for a dove choco bar)
I then say pick out which cereal you guys want cuz I don't have very much time to do breakfast. I hear the usual, "we want swedish pancakes!" over and over. Then they realize, it ain't going to happen.
So Daws goes into our pantry to look over the selection of "other" food that we have cuz he apparently doesn't want cereal and decides he wants Otter pops. Not the ones in the freezer, the ones in the box waiting to be frozen. I of course tell him no, that is not going to pass as his breakfast. He shuts himself in the pantry moping and I go take a shower.
Cole comes in to tell me that Dawson is in the garage and he is leaving! I told him to tell him to come talk to me first. Cole came back and apparently Daws didn't want to talk to me cuz he wasn't coming in and so Cole told him to go and don't forget his scarf.
(ok geesh, this is getting long....sorry)
I decided not to feed into Daws dramatic situation and went about my morning and eventually he came in and said "MOM! Do you know why I was in the garage?" I said, ummm cuz you were going to run away? And he shook his head yes and told me it was cuz he deserved a GOOD mom that would let him have a melted popsicle for breakfast.
Then he says to me "if you want me to go I still will" I sat there on the end of the bed thinking. After a few seconds he says, "OR, if you want me to stay i will unpack my stuff"
Sorry but I started laughing.... "unpack what?" I asked. He took his pillow case and dumped out the pillow and filled it with a few stuffed animals, a bat, and an etch a sketch.
I then told him I didn't want him to go and he should unpack cuz our family wouldn't be a happy family with out him. So he did, and he has been in a good mood ever since!

(pic of dropping daws off at school. obviously this was taken before the freezing white wonderland approached us. couldn't find a pic of daws riding solo.... these two cubs are usually together)

Green Bay Packer Lady

For those of you that assumed the rather strong girl in a Green Bay Packer Santa hat pushing our van out of the snow was Audrey, shame on you. She is way more classy she would be wearing an Indianapolis Colts hat or something.
One more Christmas memory for you and I will be done posting for a while. We had our Christmas presents under the tree in our formal living room, but because of limited space Santa moved everything to our living room by the fireplace. Dawson woke up way early in the morning and ran to the tree only to return to our room with his head down to go back to sleep. Then when they woke up again at 7:30, Cole ran to the tree and just looked around like, not only did Santa not come, but somebody took all of the presents that we had before? Then Dawson says to Cole, "I already know Cole, Santa didn't bring us any presents", assuming that he must of been naughty. Any ways it was hilarious and it made it the best Christmas ever for us, well at least us parents.

Lane

Are you kidding me?

So last night as Lane was being a fantastic husband and posting since I have been telling him I have just been in the biggest blog bog ever, I head into the kitchen to get some tums for my HORRIBLE heart burn that I experience every single day multiple times but esp. when I lay down for the evening.
I had just used the last of the big bottle in my bedroom and was bummed when I had to walk ALL the way to the kitchen to get my next bottle. NONE! That is right, GONE! What the freak am I to do?? There is a hole being burned into my throat/chest/back area and I don't even have a rescue. I live in a small town that has no grocery store possibilities after 11pm. Fear no more my friends, I picked up a el grande bottle today cuz I never want to experience a night like last night again-ever!

Merry Christmas!

Well we had as Dawson said, "the best Christmas yet!" Unfortunately, the only pictures to document that are on Cole's new Fisher Price digital camera and trust me none of those are worth posting, unless you're interested in the kitchen floor or the ceiling fan in the living room. Maybe some day he will be true to his roots!
We had a good time with family even though I believe that we got stuck in the snow at least 3 times just on Christmas day. When we were dreaming of a white Christmas we had no idea. I think I'll be fine without one from now on. Nothing says holiday cheer like a girl with more know how and strength pushing our mini van out of the snow with a Green Bay Packers hat (I guess it did make us nostalgic for Wisconsin) by the way it wasn't Audrey just in case that was what you were thinking.
Any ways we wanted to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, and hope that the new year brings you some exciting adventures!

Lane

p.s. this is part of my present to Audrey for next year, so remind me if I think to buy her anything that I already blogged.

I am grateful...

for so many things....
but today, i am most grateful for these little fellas.

(thanks geri for taking fun pics of my boys in the freezing cold!)

Welcome Home....

.....from the Land of the Rising Sun!
As many of you know my in laws have been serving an LDS mission in Japan. It blows my mind that their 18months has come to an end already! When people say to them WOW did you serve the whole 18 months, that went FAST? They say, maybe for you but it seemed like a year and a half to us!
It was sure fun to go down this last weekend plus a few days to see them. When we pulled up to the house and Nobby came out to greet us it really felt like good ol times and they had never been gone.
When they left Cole was 18months and so when we were giving hugs and saying hello he quickly hid behind Lane and I's legs. It was kinda surprising since he and my father in law were the best of friends before they left. (he would bring him a balloon from Macy's almost everyday.... Cole thought that was pretty swell) When he saw Kitty at the top of the stairs he did give her a hug and quickly warmed up after that.

Opening their mission call and obviously pleased to be going back to Japan!I think they are about the cutest couple ever!

It was so fantastic to get frequent updates on how life was and all about the interesting food they were enjoying!Some looked real tasty to me, and some didn't.....I couldn't find one of the pictures of Nobby getting his drivers license there dang it! (he said that it was the hardest part of their mission for him....tough test!)
Also they sent me some AMAZING pictures of hairstyles of young people there. I can't find them either but when I do.... it is worth sharing! Quite edgy and somewhat frightening! I am sure they think the same of some of us here too.

Here is the Missionary couple at the airport...
I am sure the people of Nagoya are sure missing you and sad you are gone... but we are sure glad you are back!
You are such an amazing example to everyone around you. I have never met a single person that didn't just rant and rave about you both! You guys did such a great job raising your children which I am so grateful for cuz it makes being married to Lane such a joy! He is the best dad and husband I know and I would like to thank you for that!
Thanks for all you do and the light that beams from you both....
Kitty, now that you are back, would you teach me to hem my jeans? I have never seen such amazing work. (no offense mom, i appreciate your hemming too. Hers is just...different) hehe
Also, thanks for the happy coat, the dvd's (the boys watch them daily), the authentic dolls etc. It was like Christmas!
WELCOME HOME!
(oh yeah, if you are interested or wondering, their "mission report" will be this coming Sunday at 1pm at their church house.)

Coley is 3...

Even though he usually tells people he is 5. He wants to be bigger like his brother so bad. And to be honest I think he is going to be bigger than his older brother pretty darn soon! Whenever anyone asked Cole what he wanted for his birthday, his response would go something like this... a football helmet, a treasure chest, a shark, a guy, a crocodile, money, a movie, a transformer, and so on. Although, he did tell Bobbi that he wanted "nothing, I will get it myself"

Well, it started out WAY too early (again). Dawson can not handle his excitement in situations like this, and it wasn't even his birthday! He woke up about 5am and I told him to go back to his bed til 7am. Well, he waited an hour and at 6am he had woke up Cole and they were ready to roll!

We didn't do anything all that special today to celebrate. Tuesday's are a busy day around here so the poor kid is gonna have to wait til we are down in Utah to hit up Boondocks or Chuckee Cheese.

So as most of you know Lane is the birthday cake "designer" in our home. We asked Cole for days and each time he would say a baseball game cake. We tried to give him more exciting ideas but nope, baseball game trumped. (lane wasn't too impressed with himself but the boys and I thought he did GREAT!)

Daws begged to miss school today so he could "spend time with his favorite brother" and since I wasn't feeling so hot I said SURE! I took them to McDonald's and let them go nuts for a bit. We came home played a whole lot of Wii and then I made Cole a birthday dinner and off to my Primary meeting I went.

I must say I dig this age. He is so funny, and he is so quick to apologize, he admires Daws so much, he asks sooo many questions, he tries to show off for girls by telling them he farted (we need to teach him that that is not cool to us girls, must be a boy thing), he begs for mac and cheese for breakfast, he actually listens to me (something his brother stopped doing recently), he is just a good kid with a big heart and I just love him!

He said he had a great day and loved all his presents. The biggest hit was the 4dollar bowling set Lane bought him last minute at the dollar store.... so much for the $$football helmet!! ah well.and here is a little birthday kiss for everyone!