seven.

You've heard of the "seven year itch" right? Well, we've surpassed it! We made it SEVEN years! Seven years ago we were sealed for time and all eternity in the Idaho Falls Temple. It was VERY cold. {I think it's colder there now, so I'm glad it was seven years ago!} But, it was the best day of my life. In those seven years we have graduated college, had three children, lived in 3 states, and 8 different houses, owned 4 cars, and we still love each other! Amazing. ;-)

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY, ADAM! I LOVE YOU MORE THAN ANYTHING!

6 years old.

Noah is 6 today. I'm in shock that it had already been 6 years ago that I held him for the first time. He is the best kid ever! I love him so much! Everyone does! He is so imaginative, and so full of energy. He is very social, but shy all at the same time. He's very sweet and tenderhearted. He looks after his brother and sister. And his friends too. Just today he didn't get any candy from his pinata because he was worried his friends wouldn't have enough to take home. {there were two HUGE bags of candy in that thing...it was very full} He's just a good kid!

I'll never forget the day he was born. The day I became a mother. It must not have been too horrible, I did have two more! ;-)

Happy Birthday, Noah! Here's to another awesome year.

opinions

My children all have very strong opinions. On pretty much everything. And they let me know it. I've been planning Noah's birthday party coming up tomorrow. It's been crazy, but not NEAR as crazy as Macie's birthday party. Luckily boys are little more easy going...but not much, in my case! We are doing a little Jedi Training. I had two ideas. One was to make Jedi "tunic/cloak things, or I thought it would be cute to do a freezer paper iron on to a t-shirt for everyone to take home. Apparently, I was wrong, that was not a good idea. Noah told me, "Mom, are you trying to ruin my life? This is a Star Wars party. We are doing Jedi Training, and we have to have Jedi shirts. Just like this. {and he showed me a picture.} My friends are going to want a Jedi shirt thing." Okay, Noah, you win. But the rest is up to me! ;-)

Momo and Pa visit

We really like visitors. This past week my mom and dad made the journey to come see us and hang out with us! It was a lot of fun. We were able to squeeze in quite a bit in their 3 1/2 day stay. We played a lot, ate lunch at In-n-Out, gawked at the oddity of the Madonna Inn, loved being in the sun at Avila Beach, licked yummy ice cream at Avila Barn, hit the jackpot of sunsets at Shell Beach, searched for fabric in Solvang, glady accepted the fudge samples in Solvang, trekked to Oso Flaco to watch yet another sunset on the beach, took lots and lots and lots of pictures, ate homemade chicken soup, celebrated Noah's upcoming birthday was a "trial run birthday", went to church, and finished with a meal of honey lime enchilads. It was a good time. Come back again, soon!

10 Holiday Survival Tips

{once again, I've copied you, Kara! Thanks, though! You just have lots of good ideas...and we miss you! ;-)}

The holidays are quickly approaching. Yeah, the holidays. Can you believe it? I swear we just did this! Before I can fully embrace the holidays, we do need to get two more birthdays out of the way! We all have our own traditions and traditions we want to start. It gets so crazy! And, with that, we all have our own ways we make the Christmas season easier.

Here's mine:
1. Eat lots and lots of Brach's Christmas Tree Nougats. They are the best thing ever. Granted, I think I pulled a few fillings out of my mouth eating them, but they only come around once a year. Indulge.

2. Never buy Christmas decorations for the current holiday season. They will be overpriced. You shouldn't ever buy Christmas decor at full price. Odds are, it will all still be there after Christmas. You can use it next year.

3. Make things simple. No one will notice if you hand stitched every ornament on your tree, or every Christmas card. {Take advantage of modren luxeries like TinyPrints.com}

4. If you have children, adopt an elf to sit on the shelf. Even if you don't have the actual book, Elf on a Shelf any elf will do. It's amazing how much power that little elf has. We may keep ours around ALL YEAR next year!

5. Shop all year. {I have a hard time with this one} The bill won't be so overwhelming. And, if you designate a storage box for each child or spouse, you can just throw things into it throughout the year. It makes things easy! And you won't forgot what you bought and where you "hid" it.

6. Always looks at the lights around town. It's a must. If things are crazy, this always makes it better. When you are in the car, listening to Christmas music, and you HAVE to be together, it's a memory in the making! Even if you don't see any lights!

7. Homemade is a good, but not always cheaper.

8. If you wrap every present, have different paper for Santa presents that they haven't ever seen. It helps keep the magic alive.

9. Give away things before getting new ones on Christmas. Make the room to put all the new presents before opening them. Eliminate the stress of having the Christmas mess.

10. Last, and MOST important: REMEMBER THE REASON FOR THE SEASON, the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Be grateful for his life, and the gift of the Atonement in our lives. That is the best thing we can get. No other present we open can be as great as that. Be sure to always include the Christmas Story scripture account into your festivities.


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teeth

Noah and Macie went to the dentist about two months ago. It had been a while since Noah had gone, and Macie hadn't ever gone. So, it was time. However, there weren't any Pediatric dentists within a 50 mile radius that were on our insurance plan. Of course. And, there weren't any densists on our plan that would take kids under 5, and I knew Macie needed to go. Noah had 4 cavities filled when he was 3. So, we got a recommedation of a dentist in Lompoc {thanks, Ginet!} and he was great! We loved him. And not only was he really nice along with the staff, but he's a bishop, too. It made him that much nicer!;-) It's very uncommon to find a copy of the "Friend" in a waiting room in California! I loved that he actually did the cleaning , too. Adam and I went to a dentist that has the hygenist clean your teeth. I swear she uses and ice pick to clean your teeth. I KNOW my teeth aren't that bad. But, there was blood streaming out of my mouth. That little bib thing that you wear, was covered in blood. Remember, I just went for a cleaning! And then after that my mouth hurt for days! Awful. Sorry, I digress. Back to the kids. {that's why you read the blog anyway, right? ;-)} They did awesome at the dentist. Opened wide, followed all the directions, and said thank you when they left. Macie left with no cavities. Noah, however, was not so lucky. FOUR CAVITIES! And, one tooth was pretty much gone because of decay. He needed one molar pulled out {totally beyond repair!} and a spacer put in. But, since it is a baby tooth, they were going to pull the mirrored tooth on the other side to put in a spacer so his teeth don't go weird. Goodness. Poor kid.

So, we made out appointment to come back. I left the younger two with a friend and headed to Lompoc. Where Noah, again, was awesome. He barely complained when he got the novacaine shot. And just sat and watched Kung Fu Panda the entire time. They pulled one tooth and filled one cavity in less than 30 minutes. The tooth was disgusting. I don't even want to take a picture of it. I'll spare you the details. But, we took it home. Noah insisted he needed it so the Tooth Fairy would come. I was instructed by the dentist to not let Noah bite his cheek or lip, but on the way home, he did. And it got huge. But, he was very excited that his "hurty tooth" was gone. Maybe now he'll eat better?

That night he put his tooth under his pillow with high hopes of waking up to find the Tooth Fairy surprise. We read scriptures, said our prayers, and the kids dozed off. Meanwhile, I was downstairs doing whatever. I got tired and went to bed. It wasn't until I heard, "SHE DIDN'T COME! THE TOOTH FAIRY FORGOT ABOUT ME I STILL HAVE THE TOOTH!" that I started to panic. Noah was heartbroken that the Tooth Fairy didn't come. That Tooth Fairy is terrible! He didn't even want to go to school he was so upset. CRAP! So, while he ate breakfast I got to work. And a few minutes later when Macie woke up she found something under HER pillow. It was a letter for Noah. Oh my goodness, that silly Tooth Fairy, right? The letter read:

Dear Noah,
Thank you for the tooth. But, I want to leave this one with you to
remind you to always brush your teeth to get rid of the sugar bugs.
Love,
The Tooth Fairy.

Good save, right?

the curls...

...are gone. We did it. Jacob got his first haircut. Believe me, I put it off for as long as I possibly could. But, if you saw him today with his Albert Einstein, ratty hair, you would have agreed that it was WAY past time! {Well, you probably thought I should have done it a LONG time ago!} But, his curls were so great. I loved looking at his curly locks. But, a little boys hair should not get snarls and knots in it. So, the curls are gone. He looks SO old. It's sad to see how old our baby boy is! But, it's inevitable, I suppose. However, there is still some wave in his hair. Maybe the curls will come back? Maybe this time a little more tame? I don't know, we'll have to see. I do have to admit, there were a few tears shed, and most of them from Noah, actually! He was very teary and held onto Adam's leg to try to stop him! He was so sad to see the curls go, poor kid! I am saving all the hair we cut off. So, if you want a curl, let me know! ;-)

He did so good throughout the whole thing, too. At first he was hesitant, but after the clippers started, he loved it! He sat on the counter and held very still. Hopefully this will continue. He does look very cute, but so old. I'm sure I'll get used to it.

Primary Program

{This is a few weeks late in the posting. One of these days I'll be all caught up and won't have anymore back posting. Thank goondess Blurb lets you rearrange your posts!}

The Primary Program was on October 24th. It was Macie's very first one. Both kids were so excited. They have been practicing the songs all year long. Macie really has caught on to the whole singing thing. She memorizes songs very fast and so well! She was a little disappointed that she didn't have a part for the program, but there is always next year! Noah knew his part the very first day that they handed out the slips. He had it down. Well...until Adam confused him. Poor kid. His part was, "Through the Atonement of Christ, all man kind may be saved." Just a portion of the 3rd Article of Faith. But, Adam told him the entire thing. That totally threw him off, but in the end and after lots of practicing, he said his part perfect and without any help! I was shocked at how many of the kids has their parts completely memorized, it was so great! All of the Primary kids did awesome. But, my kids did the best! ;-) It was so cute to see them both up there singing their little hearts out. And, I didn't even cry. Adam was sure that I would. When they practiced a song for a ward activity a while back, I was a sobbing mess, but I did good this time. I was just worried that Macie wasn't going to make it through. She yawned and yawned the whole time, I was sure she'd fall asleep.

I love the Primary Program! And I love our Primary Leaders, they did great!

haircut

It was time for a haircut. My hair grow way too fast, and it always grows out weird. The layers I had before were awful and it never really looked like it did the day I left the salon. I wasn't ever really happy with my hair. It's thick, too. And she didn't thin it out much last time. So, I made the appointment and knew I wanted to go short. I love it. It was probably the longest haircut I have ever had! I was there for 2 1/2 hours! But, it was worth it. I should have done this a long time ago!

first talk.

Macie gave her first talk in Primary today. She did awesome. She was so excited to get to talk in the microphone like a big girl. She didn't want anyone to help her. She insisted on going up there like a big girl and giving her talk on her own. BUT...because we know how her "lessons" she gives during the week are, we knew we may end up being there a while! So, we let her help write the talk. The theme for November is service. She REALLY wanted to talk about Joseph Smith and tell a story when she did service. So we came up with this:

One day I was really sad. My friend brought me over some cookies to help
make me feel better. I did, I felt happier. Service helps other feel happy. We
are also serving our Heavenly Father.

I can give service, too. When I was at storytime, there was a boy who was
sad. He started to cry. So, I held his hand and he felt better. And now we are
friends. As I did service for him to help him, we became better friends,
too.

Joseph Smith is a great example of service. With the help of Heavenly
Father, he translated the Book of Mormon. I read the Book of Mormon everyday
with my family, and am grateful for the service he did for me.

I hope that we can all serve others and help make others happy.

Although she was a little itchy and liked the feeling of her silky dress, she did AWESOME! Good job, Macie!

Nana visits.

A few weeks ago, Adam and I found a killer deal for a plane ticket from Seattle to Long Beach. Killer, I tell ya. It was the featured destination on Jet Blue. We called Carol and told her {we didn't really ask} that she would be coming on October 27th and leaving on November 3rd. She gladly accepted and the tickets were ordered.

At the time we didn't know, but it really could have been inspiration for us to find those tickets when we did. Because it was pretty random. October 27th is Bryan and Carol's wedding anniversary. They have married 46 years. And an eternity more. It was another "first" since his passing. Which, is understandably harder. So, it was a blessing that she was able to come to California for a fun visit. We were able to share lots of memories with her, and make many more.

We had a lot of fun with Nana. It wasn't as action packed like the last trip. It was definitely more relaxed. But, still a lot of fun! I can't blog about the entirety of the visit. I'm still behind on the last one. But, I can tell you we had a very great time! We miss you already, Nana! I'll start making the itinerary for the next trip! ;-)

nutella

Nutella is a staple at our house. Much like ketchup, really. Adam loves it. And if we don't hide it, will eat the entire jar! He has passed this love onto our children. Adam makes pretty good crepes, and a nutella crepe is pretty darn good, so we usually have in the pantry. What's not to love about hazelnut and chocolate?

I noticed a commercial on tv the other day for Nutella. I don't watch much live TV {Gotta love DVR} so I don't know if it's a regular commercial or not, but apparently it caught Noah's attention. He woke up the other morning in tears probably due to lack of sleep and too much sugar. Everything was triggering more tears. He didn't like cereal, he didn't want milk, he didn't want waffles. It was a bad morning. But then, through the tears, he said, "On tv, it said that Nutella is a nutritious way to start my day. I want that on toast."

I have never thought of Nutella being nutritious, but since he's a great cute kid, I had to relent and give him his toast and nutella. Congratulations, Nutella Marketing. You win.

blame

Jacob is a ham. And very clever. {this may be too much information, but it's necessary for the story...} He's been a little gassy the past few days. This morning he "tooted" quite loudly. I turned to him and called him on it. He got a huge grin on his face. I asked him, "Did you just toot?" He looked at me with this mischievous grin, and pointed at me, "No. Mama!" that little turkey, already passing the blame!

Halloween Sunday

It was a pretty scary Halloween. All THREE kids looked at the camera and smiled, even. That never happens. But, weird things do happen on Halloween.

May the force be with you.

Happy {belated} Halloween!

The Star Wars theme was very fun.

And, there weren't any other Leia's running around.

We did run into one other Darth.

Another Luke, too.

But no other Han Solo or Chewbacca.

We went to our ward Trunk-or-Treat on Saturday night, and the kids made out with quite a stash of candy, along with apples, toothbrushes and floss! Jacob refused to wear his mask, but I'm pretty sure most people caught on to what he was! Macie's hair did have a few malfunctions, but it worked. Noah's costume malfunction many times, too. Don't they know that costumes are just for you to stand there and smile? :-)

Since we live in California, we did go out Trick-or-Treating last night. It only seemed fair that if we had to give candy out, we should be getting some in return! It was fun. This is the first year Macie has really caught on to it, and ran to each house with her bag on her shoulder. She looked like she was on a real mission. Jacob even got into it and said, "Treat" and "Tank you" at every door. {they all got extra candy at many houses because they are so cute!}

But, we can all breath a little easier at our house. No more costume for a while. Maybe the stress level will be reduced. Maybe? I'm already thinking about next year. Here's a hint