My new house numbers

Nephi always laughs at me because I've had an obsession with house numbers for years. I love them. I think it is a shame when they aren't treated as their own work of art. Call me nuts. I can't help it. When we bought this house I salivated over the possiblility of great house numbers. The old ones were small rusting numbers drilled in under the front light. Technically nothing wrong with them, I'm pretty sure they were serving their purpose well, but awful to me. So anyhow, here's my new numbers. Oversized - stainless steel - custom made beauties. I love them. Clean and modern. Because they're not under a light I put a spotlight in the ground pointing up at them at night. Very dramatic. At Christmas clearance sales I bought two more spotlights to point up at the two trees in front of the house and put them all on a timer. At night everything is lit up. I'm really happy with it. Mom, I know you'd like to see it but it wouldn't photograh well I'm sure. Enough about house numbers! :)

Christmas 2008

We had a GREAT Christmas this year. Nephi's brother, Jared, came from L.A. and spent 4 days with us. It was FUN! We cooked, baked, made candy, relaxed, watched movies, etc. The kids said over and over again that this was the best Christmas EVER! (Not that our other Christmases haven't been fun). The kids really bonded with Jared. It was so nice having him here. With being new in town we don't have close friends here yet so it was so good having family with us this Christmas. It really was our best Christmas ever.

But.....we still missed and thought of all you that we weren't with!

cutting out the gingerbread

The kids each had 3 cookies to decorate how they wanted. Jared let them pick out the colors for the frostings, we made them little decorating bags and they went to town. It was SO MUCH fun for everyone.

whoops, repeat picture.

In person they looked like something out of a Martha Stewart magazine.

Yes, I actually was there for all of this. A picture to prove it.


oh, so cute.....

Here we go....
starting with the stockings...

Laci trying to figure out if presents have her name on them.

Brigham checking out his Ironman

Brigham playing with his new Ironman and Batman.

quote of the day

Brigham: "Laci, what is the opposite of cracker? Is it chip or is it cheese?"
Laci: "Cheese."
Brigham: "Nope. It's chip."
Laci: "That's okay. Because I like chips."

Winter is here....

Our Christams Tree

In my haste to take a few pictures of mom's painting I snapped these pictures since the kids both wanted to be in a photo. nothing fancy.

Mom's new painting

Mom let me take one of her paintings. I thought it would look perfect on that wall and it does. It's on loan, but I don't think I'm giving it back anytime soon. I love it mom!

more photos from Thanksgiving in Mesquite

These are some pictures from our bonfire in the backyard. We were planning to go out in the hills and have a fire, but John was called into work so mom made a campfire in the backyard and we sat around and ate sandwiches! ha ha! The kids didn't know the difference. They had a good time.

Family History

Thanks to the Dec Ensign I learned about how I can do family history work at home. pg 74. Have you read it? It talks about the new program where anybody can download a new progam (FamilySearch Indexing) and you just upload a batch and you get to work. Basically it's data input. I started last night and I've done two batches. If I can figure it all out, anybody can. In the first batch I had to go through a scanned image of a census sheet from 1920 Illinois. Tonight I went through early 1900 New Hampshire births. Basically it's tedius work, but the spirit of Elijah is real. I truly feel good when I work on these. Except of course when I can't read handwriting. That can be a real challenge. Especially when you aren't familiar with some of the old fashioned names and towns you've never heard of. In my determination not to submit a bunch of crap to the church I googled until I found a good census listing from 1895 of the towns and cities in New Hapshire. Everytime I came across a town where the spelling wasn't obvious, I would just jump over to my town listing page and look until I could find a good match. That was awesome. If I hadn't done that, I would've been submitting some real unhelpful info. So that felt really good. I did send a couple projects back as soon as I looked at them because they were so faded it was impossible to deciper. I felt bad for those people. Hopefully they get found on other documents.
I'm grateful that I can finally be involved in family history. I've always felt bad/guilty that I've never done anything and I'm truly grateful to be a part of something so big. Maybe I can help make a difference for someone else.
I've always found it interesting that Heavenly Father has the power to get all the work done in no time flat and yet he gives all of us the opportunity to serve each other and no doubt form bonds (though we may not feel them yet in this lifetime)of love with others. I envy those people that have and are doing so much work for the dead that I can only imagine the wonderful bonds with people they will have when they get to the other side. That is sooo special.

On a side note: I think half of the 1895 New Hampshire population was named Henry Johnson. I have never seen so many Henry Johnsons in my life.

hello again...

Thanksgiving's over. We went to Mesquite and had a good time. I personally haven't been home for Thanksgiving since before Brigham was born. We had a good time. Grandma's 90th birtday party was on Saturday. How cool that we still have grandma at 90 years. I love her. I tell everyone that she was my second mother. We were very lucky to live next door to her and have her presence every single day. Pretty much everyone attended her party. It was a family reunion of sorts. I saw some cousins I haven't seen in years and that was really cool. Mom, uncle Don, and aunt Suzanne said a few nice words for grandma and we sang happy birthday. Very low key. The way we like it.

Tuesday

The tree guy has come and gone. I survived, correction: the house survived. Just as I planned I ran outside when I saw him go towards the other trees with his saw. I lamented my concerns to him about branches crashing down on the roof and/or knocking the satellite dish. We discussed it and he spent a lot of time planning how to go about it and I told him I would help. He took me up on it. He had me holding the rope pulling the BIG branches while he was up in the tree going at it with a chain saw. Trust me, we were a sight to be seen. When I wasn't holding the rope I had my face in my hands having panic attacks. But, to make a long story short-er, we took care of it, no damage, except a potted plant I should've moved. The trees I needed cut back are cut back. Success. The End. :)
When I came in from the backyard I realized that Brigham was talking to someone out front. A ward member had come to welcome us. As I walked out past our courtyard wall I greeted the guest then in the next second I looked around. Laci had brought out half of her wardrobe and many of her toys and they were laying across our front yard. Oh, also, there was a big cardboard box they had cut into a playhouse AND a ton of bubblewrap lying everywhere. My mouth dropped open as I looked at this woman and looked around our property. We looked like hillbilly's. I was horrified but because the horror was genuine I'm pretty sure she believed me when I begged her to know that our yard does not normally like this. While we stood there and talked I had to watch car after car and person after person go past our house staring our way, no doubt disgusted with the new trashy neighbors that just moved in. Anyhow, we had a good laugh about it and as soon as she left I picked it all up. It really was funny. Overall, I'm just grateful that the weather is so good that my kids are making playhouses outside. At 6pm tonight it was dark and they were still out front playing in their playhouse with flashlights. Unbelievable. Without jackets. I love Ogden.

Interesting....

My mortgage broker forwarded me this. She's a really nice lady and I must be on her contacts list. I definately will see if it works when we deal with coughs this winter. I wanted to blog it because I know many of my devoted fans (ha ha) may also benefit from it.


During a lecture on Essential Oils, they told us how the foot soles can absorb oils. Their example: Put garlic on your feet and within 20 minutes you can 'taste' it. Some of us have used Vicks Vapo rub for years for everything from chapped lips to sore toes and many body parts in between. But I've never heard of this. And don't laugh, it works 100% of the time, although the scientists who discovered it aren't sure why. To stop night time coughing in a child (or adult as we found out personally), put Vicks Vapo rub generously on the bottom of the feet at bedtime, then cover with socks. Even persistent, heavy, deep coughing will stop in about 5 minutes and stay stopped for many, many hours of relief. Works 100% of the time and is more effective in children than even very strong prescription cough medicines. In addition it is extremely soothing and comforting and they will sleep soundly. Just happened to tune in A.M. Radio and picked up this guy talking about why cough medicines in kids often do more harm than good, due to the chemical makeup of these strong drugs so, I listened. It was a surprise finding and found to be more effective than prescribed medicines for children at bedtime, in addition to have a soothing and calming effecton sick children who then went on to sleep soundly. My wife tried it on herself when she had a very deep constant and persistent cough a few weeks ago and it worked 100%! She said that it felt like a warm blanket had enveloped her, coughing stopped in a few minutes and believe me, this was a deep, (incredibly annoying!) every few seconds uncontrollable cough, and she slept cough-free for hours every night that she used it. If you have grandchildren, pass this on. If you end up sick, try it yourself and you will be absolutely amazed at how it works.DON'T SHUN THIS ONE.. TRY IT THE NEXT TIME YOU GET A BAD COLD.

Monday

The tree guy came today. He did alright. He didn't cut the tree down as far as I'd liked, but I didn't complain to him because I think the tree was a lot huger than he realized and I was nervous enough as it was. But the main bulk of it is gone. My rain gutter has a dent in it, but other than that we seem to have survived. He's coming back tomorrow to do a smaller tree that has branches leaning over the house. Okay, that one I'm nervous about. I will definately be out talking to him about that one. It's not major, major, (Remember that phrase Maggie?) but our satellite dish could possibly get hit and it would cost to have Dish network realign that. I'm not sure it's worth it. I'll have to see what he thinks and I'll probably hang around to assist a little.....More to come.....I'm sure you are waiting on pins and needles....

Laci started preschool. I got a lead from a lady at church and called the teacher last night. She said she had one opening left. Serendipity, right? (Is that the right way to use that word?) I took down the address and we decided to walk there since it sounded close. Turns out its around the corner from our house! You've got to be kidding (I thought to myself)! :) The teacher is AWESOME and she lives in a NICE house a 3-4 minute walk away. Halaleujah. Laci loved it. She made a new friend that she already wants to play with. Her name is Lexi.
Imagine: Laci and Lexi. How funny. So three days a week I am claiming some ALONE time again! I was planning on going to the gym but I'm going to put it off longer. I still cannot get over what a great running neighborhood I live in. I feel like I've rediscovered running. I've never seen such a hilly place. It's awesome. I have to say though....NOT so good for bike riding. Some spots are so steep it would be murder to let your kid ride down them and good luck riding up them. Impossible. However, great for those buns and thighs! yah, buns and thighs. (I've watched too much Sponge Bob)
It's been so mild here during the day. I only turn on the heat through the morning and evening hours. I'm finally enjoying the kind of sun that Kim in Idaho Falls has enjoyed for years because they're facing the right direction. I wore flip flops today and tomorrow it's going to be warmer. Yee haw!
Nephi and I registered our cars today. That was a small fortune. $300 total to register the cars. What a rip off. Why so much? In Idaho that same amount would've registered 5-6 cars. No kidding. I knew I'd moved to the big city when I went to the DMV. It reminded me of the old days of going to the DMV in Vegas. Very big, cold feeling, everything gray, security guards watching you. I'm glad I won't have to go there again for a long time hopefully. They have a renewal drive thru. Isn't that funny. Also, I guess you can just mail it in. I just love the idea of the drive thru though. Kind of like mom going through the flu shot drive thru. Genius.

A little taste of the show last night that I could find on YouTube

This is an actual clip from last nights show. You can see for yourself that Jon still can't dance. That's alright.

New Kids

I just got home from the New Kids concert. It's 12:30am. Whoo! It was fun. 3 1/2 hours of music. It started with Lady Gaga, then Natasha Beddingfield (spelled wrong), and then the New Kids. The concert was great. Definately a little cheesy at times, but I loved it because it was classic New Kids. They still dance like they used too. John is still a bad dancer. He was funny to watch. Nowadays he's highschool showchoir talent worthy, but I think he gets grandfathered in since he's a classic. :) I have to say, Donny was pretty hot. But Joey was GREAT. If you didn't look at the monitor and see his aging, you would think he was still a kid. Great showman. The last and only time I ever got to their concert was like 18 years ago (is that possible?) and Joey was sick. So it's the first time I've ever seen him. Holy cow. 18 years. You'd never know it's been that long. Not rusty at all, except Jon, who's always looked rusty.
Someone threw Donny an "I love Mormon Girls" shirt so he put it on. Pretty funny. Anyhow, had a great time. Danced the whole time as did my entire section. Fun fun fun.

tree trimming

We have a huge, looming tree we need cut down quite a bit in the backyard. I feared it would be very expensive so I worried about when I could get to it. When I was on craigslist I found an ad for tree trimming. I contacted the guy to come for an estimate and he came yesterday. He told me he'd cut the tree for $300. A really good price for major tree work. I was like, "How soon can you come?" So, I think he's coming Monday. After he left I looked over his flyer and thought, "Oh crap. What have I done?" "Does this guy really know what he's doing", as well as had a good nervous laugh over the rest of his skills. I told my neighbor about everything and he said, "Hey, if he gets your tree down for $300...Great!"
Do you suppose he trims trees wearing his Chips Patrol suit? :)
P.s. double click on the flyer to enlarge it.

New phone #

Okay, I have a phone now! So far so good. My new phone # is: 1-(801)-337-4223.