Happy Birthday Justin!

Yesterday was Justin’s birthday and to celebrate he decided he wanted to take the girls bowling. We haven’t been bowling together since 1999 so I was excited. We kept it a surprise from the girls and they were thrilled when we arrived at the bowling alley. The alley we went to was fabulous. It was clean, family-friendly, highly technically advanced and just all around awesome… nothing like any other bowling alley I’ve been to. One of the coolest things was that the bumpers would automatically come up whenever it was the girls turn.

So how did we all do? It was looking like I was going to get beaten by my three year-old. Especially after she got a strike in the eighth frame! Sadly none of us were even watching her when she got it. After Carly’s strike I found my groove and bowled a strike in the eighth and last frame, that last strike saved my ego and put me in second place behind Justin. Final Stats: Justin – 149, Holly – 86, Carly – 67, Abigail – 64. We had a great time and decided we definitely need to go bowling more often!

(Look at that form! and the big screen TV's)

(With all that power you'd think her ball would be cruising down the lane, not so)

(Birthday Boy and his little man)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Go Cougs!!! (They need all the help they can get)

My dad and brother-in-law, Darin, made the long arduous trip over to Pullman (and back, 5 hours each way) on Saturday for the WSU-OSU football game. My dad loves the Cougars but I have to remind him often that the real Cougars are blue. He has yet to catch that vision. My dad graduated from WSU and is always talking about how great the university is and how the grandkids will love going to school there. So to win them over to his side he brought home a special treat, besides the Cougar cheese. Abigail, Hallie, Carly, and Haden got Cougar t-shirts. Carly was so excited that she wanted to wear it to bed. Our girls love surprises like this and think Grandpa is the best!


As for the game, the Cougars lost 52-17 on a rain-soaked soggy windy day. But hey, for once, the grandkids are wearing my dad's color of choice. So maybe it was worth the long drive to see your team get whomped on in terrible weather. Always a positive side of things, right?

Abigail & Jason

I’ve been trying to get a video clip of Jason laughing; his giggle is adorable and will definitely make you smile. But every time he sees the camera he gets camera shy and stops laughing. I haven’t given up hope and will keep trying. In the meantime here’s a fun clip of Abigail and Jason. He loves his sisters and his sisters love to be goofy for him.

I need your help!

Before I begin let me remind you of my serious inability to make decisions... So we're going to get some outdoor pictures taken of the kids and family. I went shopping yesterday trying to find coordinating clothing for 5 people. Not an easy task. Idealy I would love to have us all in jeans with nice sweaters all in the same color group. I found out that is impossible. Justin is too tall to shop in normal stores and Jason is still so tiny. The only sweaters I could find in similar color for the girls was bright red, sure it fits the season, but I'm a little worried that having all 3 girls in red will be too much. The guys are a even bigger problem. Below are what few options I can come up with. Will any of them work???

(Girls in red sweaters, Boys in Brown)

(Red, White and Blue ... Christmas in July?)

(Girls in red sweaters, Jason black and white jailbird, Justin in charcoal)

(Girls red sweaters, Jason brown/tan raindeer, Justin brown sweater)

A little clarification…

So the other day one of our friends, after reading my post about our trip to Arizona, told Justin he thought I was ripping on Arizona. Let me clarify… We had a great time in Arizona. The purpose was to visit Justin’s family and spend some time swimming in the nice weather. We enjoyed both.

When we were visiting with my childhood friend we asked her what there is in Arizona that would draw visitors. She said golf and shopping. We don’t golf, but they do have some fabulous shopping areas there. I also think Phoenix has a lot more yummy restaurants than Seattle. Utah is also a great place for good food.

The weather was perfect for swimming. If it was any cooler than we would have gotten cold playing the water. I’ll be the first to admit I HATE being hot. Swimming in Phoenix in October… perfect. Swimming in Phoenix in July… not so perfect.

I honestly had a great time. Would I want to live there? No, but I’m sure a lot of people would say they would never want to live in Seattle… a place I have really grown to love. So I hope I have dug my way out of my Phoenix bashing hole. A huge thank you to everyone that made our stay so much fun!

I also mentioned that the traffic in Phoenix was way better than here, right?

Moments like this

This week has been crazy. I’ve had so much I need to catch up with after our vacation. My house is still a disaster zone, but I’ve gotten all the suitcases unpacked and the laundry is finally done. I’ve realized I’ve spent most the days getting my kids situated so I can do what I want or need to get done. The girls are very self-entertaining so they are pretty easy. Of course there are times they ask me to do something with them, but I’m really good at distracting them by getting them involved in something else. I can’t tell you how often I say “in a minute”, hoping they forget I’ve implied I would see to their desires. Jason is a little harder to ignore since he does rely solely on me for all of his needs. But after feeding and changing him he usually ends up right back in his bouncy chair or car seat until my services are required again. Wednesday, for a small moment, things were a little different. Jason had just fallen asleep in his crib when he spit up. I cleaned him up and laid him back down. He’s been sleeping in a bassinet in my room so his crib is still quite foreign for him so he started to fuss again. I decided to spend a few extra minutes and rock him to sleep. This is when I had my lightbulb moment and while holding my sweet little boy realized just how precious these moments with my kids can be. My little boy isn’t so little anymore. Soon he won’t want to cuddle up with his Mom. I stayed in that rocking chair for a long time and we ended up being late for the Halloween activity at the church. Being late would usually drive me nuts, but not this time. This moment was worth it.

Halloween

This was the first year we’ve bought Abigail a Halloween costume. When she was little we borrowed costumes and the past couple years she has been completely content just dressing up in one of our Princess dresses. This year, with a lot of encouragement from Justin, Abigail moved away from the whole Princess theme and decided to be a witch. The costume we bought was actually a size 8-10 so I had to pin it up quite a bit so it wouldn’t drag on the ground. I think we’ll put this one way for a few years til it actually fits better.


Carly wasn’t quite sure what she wanted to be. She expressed an interest in being a chicken, a bunny, and a fairy. Remembering that Abigail’s friend Linsey was a fairy last year made the decision a breeze. (Thanks for letting us borrow it Camille). I think her favorite part of dressing up for Halloween was when I put a little lipgloss on her. What a cutie!

As mentioned earlier, Jason was a pumpkin. Very fitting because I often call him my little pumkin’. Jason stayed at home with Justin while the girls and I went trick-or-treating around the block. The girls (and as a result, I) scored… I love Halloween!

Worth every cent!

I bought this pumpkin costume last year before I even knew if we were having a boy or girl. For only 49 cents who could resist? Jason looked absolutely adorable!

King of Free Stuff

Anyone who knows me knows that I love free stuff. At BYU I could attend almost any sporting event and catch something flying through the air like a football or shirt or gift certificate or whatever. Maybe it was my long arms or maybe just my desire to "get a good deal" which for me means spending nothing at all if possible to get something cool and almost anything free is cool. The girls love getting gifts I bring home for them from work (T-Mobile branded stuff). In fact one of their favorite gifts that I gave them was a wooden box with a T-Mobile brand on it that was originally filled with a bag of nuts but which now keeps the girls' jewelry. Anyways, to my point, attending the COST (Council on State Taxation) conference vendor fair on Thursday night in Phoenix really paid off! On my chair at work this morning was an Apple iPod Touch from a tax software vendor Corptax. Pretty sweet! I signed up literally on my way out the door of the reception as Holly and the kids were waiting to pick me up. Now to figure out how to use it….