Monday, January 21, 2013

A New Year of Cuteness!

Once again the boys keep us laughing with their funny ways. And once again I want to write down what I remember, while I remember.

Big H calls "The Polar Express" "Gordan's Express". Its so cute! Gordan is a train from Thomas and Friends". He often says, "I'm strongest and best and pull the express." Thus making "The Polar Express" "Gordan's Express".

Big H continues to be a helper. The other day, we were headed somewhere, and he got me my coat from the coat closet. So cute!

The other night the boys rode home with Craig. When they came in they said, "Mom! We bought you flowers!" Seriously, melted my heart!

Big H started a dance class. He loves to dance, and sing. We were watching "Hercules" and he was mimicking the Gospel Singers.

Little M likes to tattle. He always says, "'e 'it me (He hit me)." One time he fell of the bed and tattled on the bed.

In this house there is serious drama over super hero clothing. I cannot tell you how many times we've had to fight with the boys, mostly Big H, over which shirt to wear. It always one superhero shirt Vs another. As soon as they are clean they want to wear them all in one day. Then when favorites aren't clean, or one suddenly wants to wear Spiderman, chaos ensues.

Little M plays into the drama too, but with Thomas stuff. 

The twins are such moms. The other day Big H helped Little H cut his pancakes. Little helped Big H button his jammies. And they like to help each other with brushing teeth.

Baby S is starting to sit on his own.

A while back I met my friend at the mall, and took Little M. He flirted with the carousel atendent the whole time-- held her hand, sat on her lap, convinced her he was cute. Someone paid for an extra ride and she gave it to Little M.

Now for some pics. There are some of making gingerbread houses at grandma's. Big H said, " I'm putting on lights."
Theres us walking down main street on "Small Business Saturday." The boys in their Christmas pj's on Thanksgiving night. The  fam at Sundance after family pics. And the rest are from other stories, or just for fun.


























Thursday, January 3, 2013

Tricia's Reading List for 2012

So last year my New Years Resolution was to read a book a month. It's because I have a terrible time sitting down and reading a book. I was actually very successful. I wanted to share my book list here for fun.

January

Sherlock Holmes Vol 1
     Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

I enjoyed finally reading the famous detective stories. There is one novel that has quite an interesting view of Mormons, but other than that I found them to be really enjoyable. And they are actually a pretty easy read. The stories are short, so that made it easier for me to get through.

February

. . .As a Thief in the Night
     By: Roger K. Young

This was a book my Dad loaned me about the second coming. I found a lot of things interesting. Some things I wasn't sure if I believed-- they were the writers opinion. Other things were a little hard to swallow. But it was a pretty good read.

March 

The Cleansing of America
      By: Cleon Skousen

This book was a gift from a friend a couple Christmas's ago. I started reading it and really enjoyed it, but I got off track, so I never finished it. I decided my New Year's Resolution was a perfect opportunity to get it read. And I really enjoyed it. I gave it to my Dad to read, and he wasn't sure if he believed everything it said, but I still found it interesting.

April 

Daughter's in My Kingdom: The History and Work of The Relief Society

Truth be told, this book was short and kind of hard to get through. At times I found it inspiring and touching. At other times I just really struggled to read it. It was good, and I learned some new things about the Relief Society. But there were also things that were just a little too ideal for me.

The next few months get a little hazy. I can't remember what I read when. So I hope I have it right.

May 

Emma
     By: Jane Austen

I'm not quite sure if it was because I read it on my phone, or if I'm just not a Jane Austen fan, but I did not enjoy reading Emma. It gave me a headache. I love Jane Austen's stories, but I don't know if I could read another one of her books. However, Pride and Prejudice is up on the book shelf calling my name, so we'll see if I give it another go.



June

Common Sense, Rights of Man and other Writings
     By: Thomas Paine

It took me two months to read this. It was kind of hard to get through, but I still really enjoyed it. It gave such a good insight into what, politically, was going on during the American Revolution and America's first years as a country. It was so interesting to read a factual book that took place during such a rich time in history. I know that sounds weird because I've read and studied history. But this was different. I guess because he was actually writing it while living through those times. He sort of lost me in his other writings when he talked about his belief in God. That's when it got really hard to get through. But I still enjoyed it.

July

Finished Common Sense. . .
Started Teachings of the Presidents of the Church: Spencer W. Kimball

After getting through Common Sense. . . I needed something small and easy to read. I thought the church manuals of Teaching of the Presidents of the Church would be a good place to look. I haven't ever actually read these books. I decided to read Spencer W. Kimball's because I knew he had a hard life, and I thought it would really help me with what I was struggling with at the time. I was wrong. I'm not saying the man wasn't an inspired, incredible and amazing man. Just that it was so ideal. Incredibly ideal. A little too ideal for someone like me to read at this point in my life. I now know why President Kimball's book The Miracle of Forgiveness has been the cause of so many missionaries coming home. I just felt that I could never achieve the things he said I needed to achieve to get to the Celestial Kingdom. It made the book a little hard to get through. But I finally finished it

August
It's Book Club time!

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society 
     By: Mary Ann Schafer and Annie Barrows

I LOVED this book! It was so awesome. I felt so connected to the characters, and I was so sad when it was over. It was like I had to say goodbye to some really good friends. It was such a great read. I seriously couldn't put it down. And it was the first book that I read as part of my Book Club. My friend started a book club, and I LOVE it. I love the people. I love the books. And I love going every month. Seriously, some of the most amazing people I've ever met are part of this book club. I'm so glad they let me be a part of it.

September

The Great Divorce
     By: C.S. Lewis

This was the second book for our book club.


This was a great book too. It has such awesome insight. The ending is a little abrupt, and I got a little confused sometimes, but it is extremely quotable, and has some awesome lessons in it.

October

The Secret Daughter
       By: Shilpi Somaya Gowda


A book club selection.

I can't even begin to describe what this book means to me. It sounds kind of silly, but it was kind of life changing for me. It was so emotionally draining, but in a good way. And one of the main characters, Kavita, will forever be a best friend to me, even though she's not real. She was just so amazing. And she went through so much. And through it all she stayed so incredible and good. Just from reading about her, as a character in a book, I felt stronger myself. I wish I could have known her. I wish I could have been there for her during her hard times. If only someone as amazing as her told me she thought I was amazing to than I could believe it till the day I died. I seriously feel so close to this story. It sounds so strange considering I just read it, but I seriously fell in love with it.

Started The Scarlet Pimpernel 
     By: Baroness Orczy

November

As a Man Thinketh
     By:  James Allen

This was another book club book.

It really is an interesting read. It really gives you an idea of how you can really control everything about your life just by learning how to control your thoughts. It was pretty awesome, and pretty short so I don't have much more to say about it.

Finished The Scarlet Pimpernel   
     By: Baroness Orczy

I loved The Scarlet Pimpernel. I've always loved the story, but I have never read the book. I have to say, the book was awesome. My only disappointment was that it was all told from Marguerite's point of view. I was hoping to see more from The Scarlet Pimpernel's point of view. But I still loved it. And I highly recommend reading it. It's easier to read than most classics because I believe it was written in the 1940's or 1950's.

December
The book club took a break this month.

The Christmas Sweater
    By: Glenn Beck

My brother gave me this book a couple Christmas's ago, and I never read it. Well what better time than to read it now. I really enjoyed it. I found it was pretty easy to read, and most the time I didn't want to put it down. Some things were frustrating about it, but that's just because I felt like the main character wasn't really allowed to feel. But when I got to the end my lesson was learned, and I was almost in tears. It really has a good message, and I really just enjoyed it.
Started A Tale of Two Cities
    By: Charles Dickens

So that concludes my book list for the year. I don't think I got it exactly right, but that's pretty much what I have read this year. I loved this resolution, and I loved getting to enjoy all these good reads. It was so nice to know that I had accomplished these things, and it was so nice that it gave me some new things to talk about. Even though I'm sure I drove people crazy. The whole reason I joined a book club was so I could actually discuss books with people. But once a month was not enough. I still had to talk about them all the time. I even gave some of the books to my parents to read.

Who knows what this years New Years Resolution will hold. Maybe I'll finally publish a book :)

I'll end the post with a photo. It was the last photo from my December Photo A Day Challenge. I know it sounds stupid, and probably seems a little conceded, but taking a picture of myself, just myself, was a huge step for me to take this year. Not only did I take it, but I didn't delete it. I edited it a little, but still it's a huge step. It's just been so long since I've been able to confidently do something like this for myself. And posting it here, and on facebook, is a huge step for me. I know it may not seem like it, and it may seem sort of silly, but it really is a big step for me :).


Our December




Our December is a little crazy and insane. Our other computer is a little out of sorts, so I don't have all the pictures I want, but I'll try and get by with what I have.

I started a job at Sundance as a housekeeper. I really enjoyed it, but the hours got a little hectic. The work also totally wiped me out, and so not much got done in December. We're still trying to piece things together. I finally got our Christmas letters out, for the most part. And we're almost done with our neighbor gifts. Sad I know.

On Dec 15th we had the Guthrie Christmas party. This year the Thomas's hosted it. It was so much fun. Craig and I were really late though. But at least the boys and my Christmas tree salad made it on time. We did a pinata, children's nativity, the present pass game, sang songs, had dinner and opened gifts. As always everyone was so generous. I don't have any pictures with me to post here, but they are up on facebook. I'm going to try and list the gifts we got just for my reference. I didn't get any pictures of our present this year, and I like to just so we can look back and see what we got what year. So since I didn't I'll try and make a list.

The boys got

  • Dinosaur hand puppets
  • Thomas books
  • Train Whistles
  • A Thomas tub coloring set
  • Pajamas

Craig and I

  • Candy
  • Hand towells
  • A kitchen towell
  • Hand soap
  • A iTunes gift card 
  • A coldstone gift card
  • An Outback Steakhouse giftcard

We didn't really do much else this year because of my job. I spent most of my time at home in bed because I was so tired. We watched some Christmas movies, made ornaments and put together the Christmas card. My parents helped us take the boys to see Santa. Before we left to see him I had the boys "write" letters to Santa. They were way cute about it. Big H calls him "Granta Claus". Little M walked right up to Santa and handed him his letter. He didn't hesitate at all. In fact we had to hold him back until the people in front of us were done. The twins needed some encouragement, but they gave him their letters, and sort of stood by him. At least we didn't have any crying. I need to get the picture scanned so I can post it. Here's a pic of the boys writing letters.




On Christmas Eve we got together with my family and exchanged gifts and had dinner. It was way fun! We enjoyed pancakes with buttermilk syrup, our traditional baked apples and, of course, everybody's company. Once again I'm going to make a present list just so I can keep track of what we got this year.

The Boys

  • A Thomas tub set
  • A Thomas toy
  • A Henry (from Thomas and Friends) toy
  • A James (from Thomas and Friends) toy
  • New superhero pajamas
  • Candy
  • Lady bug wind up toys
  • Superhero snow hats and mittens
  • Superhero pants
  • A mobile for Baby S
  • A frog toy for Baby S
  • Baby food for Baby S

Craig and I

  • A sewing machine
  • New clothes for Craig
  • Martinellis
The boys were kind of grumpy when we put them down for bed on Christmas Eve. I kept saying Santa wouldn't come if they didn't stop. Finally they calmed down and we read The Night Before Christmas. The boys were so excited for "Granta Claus" this year. 

Christmas Day I had to work. Craig kept the boys out of the house. He even brought them up to Sundance, so I could see them at lunchtime.



When I got home we did Christmas morning. As we walked up the stairs I asked the boys, "Should we go see if Santa brought you presents?"
Big H said, "I don't want presents. I want toys!"

They were so excited to see what Santa brought. We got some pictures but they're kind of blurry.





Here's our Christmas Day gift list-- once again this is mostly for my reference

The boys

  • Superhero dress ups
  • A VTech VReader
  • Scooby Doo Movies

Big H

  • A Batman shirt
  • Batman PJ's
  • A Batman memory match game
  • A Spiderman plate
  • A Batman action figure
  • A Spiderman action figure
  • An ornament
  • Candy
  • Toothbrush
  • Loofa
  • An Iron Man toy
  • An Iron Man cup and some pop

Little H

  • A superman shirt
  • Batman PJ's
  • A Spiderman memory match game
  • A Spiderman plate
  • A Bat mobile lego set
  • A Spiderman action figure
  • An ornament
  • Candy 
  • Toothbrush
  • Loofa
  • A Hulk toy
  • A Thor cup and some pop

Little M

  • A Thomas shirt 
  • Spiderman PJ's 
  • A Thomas memory match game
  • A Thomas plate
  • Thomas Soap
  • Thomas Socks
  • An ornament
  • Candy 
  • Toothbrush
  • Loofa
  • A Spiderman toy
  • A spiderman cup and some pop

Baby S

  • A new toy for his carseat
  • An ornament
  • Some candy
  • A loofa
  • A toothbrush

Craig

  • Mistletoe
  • An ornament
  • New Shirts
  • Candy 
  • Sparkling grape juice
  • A loofa
  • A toothbrush
  • Crackers, cheese and Summer Sausage
  • A promise to get some new monitors 
  • New Garments-- so terribly needed! Thank you Mom and Dad S.

Tricia

  • A new comforter set (a late birthday gift)
  • A shark mop
  • Hair Dye
  • New pants
  • Hello Kitty Pajamas
  • Candy
  • A toothbrush
  • A loofa
  • Sparkling grape juice
  • New Garments-- seriously, so terribly needed! Thank you, Thank you Thank you!

The Family

  • A memory foam bath mat
  • Catchphrase game
  • Scrabble Game
  • The Blind Side movie


Time for the clean up.


 Along with these gifts we also got lots of Christmas Cards!



And some neighbor gifts.

Next came more work, bills and not much else. The boys have loved all the snow. They go and play and then come inside crying because they are so cold.







It really is really cold this winter. The last time I remember it being this cold was one February back in high school. The boys also like the icicles. They call them rockets.




We also enjoyed some Tim Tam Slams. This was our American version :)




Next came New Years.





We didn't have much to do. I was scheduled for work, but I was so tired, and our car started having trouble so I just told them I'd have to quit. I got to spend the holiday with my family. And it was wonderful! We played games and made lots of noise. It was a fun New Years. Once again, thanks to our crappy camera, the pictures are all blurry. But they're still fun!







The next day Craig took me on a date to see Les Miserable. That story is here. We even went out to Dinner thanks to the Outback Steakhouse gift card from my cousin.

Last of all I would just like to send a Thank You from all of us! If I missed a gift you gave us I'm sorry. I really appreciated every thing from everyone. It was such a good Christmas. Such a good holiday season. Thank you everyone! Hope you had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.