Winter Wonderland!

On Thursday it snowed, and snowed, and snowed. It started sometime in the morning before we woke and it ended sometime around 6 or 7pm. After the wind finally died down some, we sent the boys outside to try out their winter gear from Santa. Jamison wasn't sure he loved being out there so his time was very short lived. Spencer would have lasted longer if he hadn't of fallen into the snow and it went down his neck. So while I was out shopping tonight, I bought him a new scarf so that won't happen again. The pictures turned out so cool with the snow falling down. Jamey is using the new snow blower that we got from my grandparents this fall. Thanks Grandpa and Grandma!! It really saved Jamey that day, because he had to do it twice. This is the second time. The drifts are pretty cool!!

Christmas; O Joy

Well I thought I'd post a couple of fun pictures from Christmas. We had a great time together.

1. After church on the Sunday before Christmas I love to take a family picture of that year- so here it is. (By the way- I really love family pictures so I make my family endure several!!)

2. On Christmas Eve we thought it would be fun to make sugar cookies and decorate them for Santa. I also thought it would be fun to make my own sugar cookies from scratch. Well they looked pretty, however they were seriously deadly. The shorting that I used was bad and in turn Jamey and Jamison were sick from them. I guess Spencer and I were smart enough not to eat them. I really hope that Santa is OK!!!

3. We decided that we would carry on Jamey's family tradition on getting new PJ's on Christmas Eve and so here we are in our new jammies!!

4. So because of the bad sugar cookies (or at least that's what I think happened) Jamison was throwing up on Christmas day. He seemed fine and had a good time opening the gifts, in between his spouts of upchucking. He just preferred to sit on dad's lap all morning- which once again was a bit of a bonus for me because then the aim of fire was at dad. :-) Here are a few shot of the boys opening gifts.

Christmas... Here We Come!

I have felt SO overwhelmed trying to get ready for Christmas this year. I have been SUPER busy working, and have once again had to turn people down for appointments. It really does make me feel good to know that so many people are using me as their stylist, but I hate having to say no. The last couple months however- I have learned that it is a necessity in my life to say no. Since I haven't posted in a while I will just quickly post a new family picture that we took, and I did a little photoshoping. I am not Becky, but I did take a few minutes and played with the picture to get what I wanted. All I have left to do is wrap some presents, and then I can officially say that I am 100% ready for Christmas. My last day of work this week is Thursday, so hopefully I will get do some some fun stuff this weekend with the family. I have big goals of trying to home make sugar cookies for Santa this year. Thanks to winning the cookie cutters from our white elephant exchange at our friends Christmas party last weekend, we now have lots of shapes to choose from! I'll have to let you know how it turns out. Have a GREAT Christmas.

Murder Mystery Dinner Party

So mid November some friends invited us to be part of their Murder Mystery Dinner Party. It was a blast. We totally skipped out on Halloween this year (and for some of you- we know you missed our AWESOME costumes), so this was a way to party like Halloween. Jamey and I were assigned the roles of Elias Truist-Heath (Jamey) and Elvira-Lynn Fekshin (Erica). Elias is a young up-coming heart-throb gunfighter. (I think they nailed Jamey's character to a tee.) He's known as the best brawler west of the Mississippi and comes out of every fight with nary a scratch. Now Elvira-Lynn on the other hand is a consummate soiled dove. She spreads, among other things, sunshine wherever she goes. The theme was Old Western set back in July of 1881. We had so much fun with the other couples that participated and dressing up. Here are a couple of pictures of the night.

Name Game

OK Kris here this is for you. You are keeping me busy with all your emails and games. I've become a bit scared that you might start to get to know me oh so well.

1. YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet & current car)
Peppy Tahoe
2. YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (fav ice cream flavor, favorite cookie)
Oreo Peanut Butter (?)
3. YOUR “FLY Girl” NAME: (first initial of first name, first three letters of your last)
E Sta
4. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal)
Purple Raccoon
5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born)
Jeanne Loveland
6. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first)
Sta Er
7. SUPERHERO NAME: (2nd favorite color, first tool that comes to mind, put “The” at the beginning)
The Black Saw
8. NASCAR NAME: (the first names of your grandfathers)
Rex Junior
9. STRIPPER NAME : (favorite candy, the name of your favorite perfume/cologne)
Hot Tamales Heavenly
10.WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother’s & father’s middle)
McClellan Clifford (my mom doesn't have a middle name, this is her maiden name)

I don't think this turned out so well for me. Some of you other girls had better answers.

Our Family Pictures

We got our family pictures today and I must say- I love them!! I love looking at how beautiful my family is. Sorry but I am a bit biased. Here are a couple, but I also made a slide show on my sidebar you can check out too. Bphotogenic is amazing, and I am so glad that I know Becky!

Hope you will enjoy!

Throwing the fall leaves- one of my favorite pictures!

Gettin' Jiggy Wit' It

This video might be long so just watch what you want. We went to
dinner the other night and Spencer got up from the table and started dancing. It was so funny we had to take video.

Enjoy!

Thanksgiving 2007

We had a great Thanksgiving this year. My whole family was together and it was awesome. On Thanksgiving morning, my sister and sister-in-law ran/walked in the Greeley 5K Turkey Trot. (I walked!) That was so fun, I had never done anything like that before. My real goal is to be running one like this next summer, so it really helped to walk it and see what I have ahead of me. Then we went to my parents house and had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner. A little untraditional when it came to the turkey, but still really good. My parents decided that this year they wanted to fry the turkey. It was good. And then like most other crazy people again my sister, sister-in-law and mom got up early in the morning on Friday to hit all the great sales and finalize our Christmas shopping list. It was a blast, busy, but I managed to get all the shopping done, (except for a few things for Jamey)!! Whooo!! Then to finish on the fun on Saturday we went to my sister's house and had a craft morning, and went to lunch to celebrate Logan's birthday. I think he said he was 21?! Not really but we all joked that he probably could have past for that. It was a rush, rush, early mornings, but the best 3 days- spending it with the family I love so much!!

Ashley put some other neat pictures on her blog- so click here and see her site to read more; if you feel so inclined.

I Am Thankful

I just wanted to post some things that I am very grateful for.

My life is very rich with so many blessing, here are a few.

1. My MIRACULOUS family. Two wonderful boys who make my life a little crazy, but very enjoyable. A husband who loves me unconditionally, and helps me through it all.
2. My unwavering testimony of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
3. All my extended family.
4. The greatest friends ever!!
5. Temples, and eternal marriage.
6. Being able to start a new day, fresh from the past day. Hopefully learning something new and changing for the better.
7. Prayer and the answers that come from earnest prayer. And with that personal revelation.
8. Service. I have always known how important service was, or is, but lately I have seen such amazing blessings from serving others.
9. A very beautiful place to call home, and a husband who has a wonderful job that helps to support this family.
10. Children's love, forgiveness, willingness to learn, and awe and amazement for the world and God's creations.

We Got Elfed

Hey, we just made a total elf of ourselves. Click here.

Uncle Brett- Here's Your Apprentice

One, Two, Three, PINNED...

Disclaimer: Sorry about the yelling- I am my mother's child and I can

not keep from yelling even when taking video! Also watch for the nose

picking in the middle of the match and his little dance moves.

Who's kid is that anyway?!?

Spencer started wrestling a couple of weeks ago and Saturday was his first meet. Boy was that an experience for mom and dad. Spencer was sick on Tuesday night, so he missed practice and incidentally missed the team getting their singlets. That is why he is not in one and just wearing his shorts and tee-shirt. They are on order, when we get ours you can believe there will be pictures and I'm sure lots of them!!
The adventure goes like this: First we had to get to the school at 7am. After arriving, Spencer didn't see his friends from school and so he didn't want to wrestle. It took the next hour to convince him that it was ok to wrestle even if his friends weren't there too. Once the meet finally got under way Spencer decided then that he was hungry. We fed him, but he still refused to sit with his team. We wrestled the first team and somehow Spencer was missed and didn't get to wrestle. After I spoke with the coaches, they determined that they missed him, one because he originally said he didn't want to wrestle and two because he wasn't with the team the whole time. I told them I totally understood and just wanted to make sure he would get to wrestle someone from the next team. He did, but boy was it sad. Because he was missed the first time, the coaches from the other team graciously let Spencer and this other kid wrestle a couple of times. Not that it mattered, the kid pinned him both times very fast. But I did appreciate the experience for Spencer. After he wrestled that little boy he decided he was done and then the tears came again, not because he lost, he said he was tired. After the 5 hours I had already endured with him I said fine and told him to go talk to his coaches and then he was going home to take a nap. To my utter surprise HE DID. He came home and went to his room and fell asleep. I have to just keep remembering that he is only five and this will take time. His next meet is way past Colorado Springs, so we are skipping that one. Then with Thanksgiving he will not have another meet until after the first of December. That should be good so that he can get some more practice time in before the next meet. Brett be prepared to do a little coaching when you come out here in a couple of weeks.

Oh How They Change!

At times it seems as though it was just yesterday that we held this "little" boy in our arms. In reality though, yesterday Spencer turned 5 years old. Boy does time fly by. Spencer had a fun evening with family and friends, at his Transformer pizza party. Someone gave me this neat idea to have the pizza place spell the number 5 on the pizza with pepperoni. It made the pizza extra special for him. Even though he is a handful, we love this Spencer and couldn't imagine our lives without him. Happy 5th Birthday, Spencer!!

Do the Shuffle

Again I was asked to this, and I think it will be pretty funny to see what songs come up. So I thought I'd play.

1. "Jeremy" (Pearl Jam)- High school times, of taking my brother's CD's and making mixed tapes. I actually own the "record" of this album. I wonder if it's worth anything? I really think I acquired it in the marriage. :-)

2. "Saints and Angels" (Sara Evans)- When my sister got me listening to country music, this was a song that I fell in love with.

3. "Something Is in the Air" (Lila McCann)- This makes me think about the days of going to beauty school and living in the basement of grandpa and grandma's house. When I first had cable television, and I loved falling to see with CMT.

4. "When I Look into Your Eyes" ( Firehouse)- Again, high school and the mixed tapes from my brother's CD's.

5. "Onward, Christian Soldiers" (Mormon Tabernacle Choir)- I put all the church hymns and the Mormon tab. on there, so that when I need to have a major uplife I can turn to really great music.

6. "The Prayer" (Josh Groban)- I just love this song. Celine Dion also has a great rendition of it too, and it is an awesome song for mothers.

7. "Don't Save It All for Christmas Day" (Celine Dion)- I LOVE Celine and this is part of my Christmas music. I am getting super exited to start playing the Christmas music all the time!

8. "Valentine" (Martina McBride and Jim Brickman)- This song is how I found Jim Brickman, and love listening to his piano talent!

9. "Let Them Be Little" (Lonestar)- First heard this song at the Greeley Stampede at the Lonestar concert, and it made me cry. Right there in the mix of everything I was crying and my sister made so much fun of me. Spencer was just a little over 6 months and the words really hit home.

10. "Red Ragtop" (Tim McGraw)- Another artist that I could listen to everything and love.


So play the game, put your songs on shuffle and list the first 10 songs that come on. It's fun to see what everyone listens to.

Tag and I'm it

So my dear sister-in-law, tagged me a long time ago and I have never done it, so I will now. Hopefully there is something you want to read about.


Four Jobs I've Had:
*Receptionist at a dental office
*Customer service at a dry cleaners
*Receptionist at the beauty school (I guess answering phones and other odd jobs are my speciality)
*Stylist

Four T.V. Shows I Watch: (now that I have DVR I watch TOO much)
*Amazing Race (It's back!)
*Private Practice
*Grey's Anatomy
*Dr. Phil

Four Favorite Foods:
*Clam Chowder
*My mom's cinnamon rolls
*Burritos
*A good steak with a baked potato (and those who know me well, with umm... some sour cream)

Four Movies I Love:
*10 Things I hate About You
*How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (can I keep with the number 10?)
*Dirty Dancing (I'm not sure why, I just love it. I know it is super cheesy!)
*Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves

Four Websites I Visit Daily:
*Blogger (I set it as my homepage, so I could regularly check on everyone)
*Email account
*Compass Bank (although I think that now since Jamey is doing the budget he visits it a lot more than me)
*Old Navy, Children's Place, Hobby Lobby, Michael's etc. (about anything that I'm not suppose too, where I spend money)

Four Places I'd Rather Be Right Now:
*A date night with Jamey (I love my kids, but it's 4:30pm and I'm tried)
*Hawaii (we loved it there!!)
*Hanging with my sister or friends
*Cozy-ed up on the couch with the kids and Jamey watching a movie (but real life is dinner, practices and haircuts!)

Now let's see some of your anwsers:
Kris-bee
Kris
Tami

Trick-or-Treat

~Happy Halloween~

Well you had to know that pictures were coming. Spencer had a little pizza party at school and he said he had fun. Then later tonight Spencer and Jamison (with the help of dad) went to a few houses collecting candy. The neighborhood is still very new and so the houses are pretty far apart. They went down one street, but they sure seemed to enjoy the load of treats.

Bragging

I'm just going to take a moment and brag about what a very neat sister I have. Ashley called on Saturday on said that they were in the area and I made her stop by to say hi. While she was here we got this idea to run to Michael's to buy some frames. While there she convinced me that she could make me a fall wreath in no time at all. So we bought all the stuff and less than 2 hours hours later this is the finished product. Isn't beautiful? She did a great job, thanks Ash!!

Time Out

On Saturday I had the opportunity to go to Time Out for Women (with my grandmother, mother, and friends Kris and Shannon). This is a day Deseret Book has put together for women to gather together to listen to speakers and be inspired to be better women, wives and mothers. I have been to this event now three times and every time I leave with a strong desire to change something in life to help me better. One thing that really impressed me that was said, was by Dean Hughes. He said that all to often we measure ourselves by the worlds standards as to what we should be and what we should do with our lives. But if we are true followers of Christ we would only focus on measuring ourselves on the Lord's standards. We need to be concerned on what He thinks than what the people around us think. He also said that the Lord is going to measure us on the Beatitudes. Then I went to church today and a sister in our ward gave a talk about the Beatitudes. It is so true, the beatitudes are the formula of how we should measure ourselves and how we should live. Look them up and read over them again and constantly think about those things that the Lord said about how we should live.

Also for fun I had to get my friends to get their picture taken with Kenneth Cope. I had never heard much of anything he had done until this day. For Easter this year our ward choir sang Alleluia, that he had written. However my friends Kris and Shannon knew his music very well and own several of his CDs. So before the event started Kenneth Cope was walking around greeting people and getting his picture taken with them. I kept teasing my friends that they needed to get their picture with him, but they wouldn't. So when he walked down our row and said hi to them I found the moment to be a golden opportunity. However they made me stand in it too. He sang a couple of times and by the end I was converted to Kenneth Cope and bought a CD before leaving. (Which I later had him autograph!:))

I really love getting the chance to be rejuvened and up lifted by these speakers. I had a wonderful day.

Pumpkin Patch 2007

Last year I decided that we as a family were going to make a tradition of going to the pumpkin patch in October. Well, although I am sad that we could not go back to the one we attended last year, we again had a very fun experience this year. Jamey took the day off from work and went with us along with my sister Ashley and her family and my dad. We had a good time riding the barrel cars, running through the hay maze, looking at the goats, chickens and ducks, and going on a tractor ride to feed the cows, and buffalo and pick out a pumpkin right out of the patch. After we came back from the tractor ride we went into the corn maze, just to walk around for a bit. My sister did tease me, because I said that I wanted to just walk around for a bit, and she asked, Are you crazy? You don't just walk around. She was concerned that we would be in the maze for hours. We didn't make it to any specific destination, but we worked together and made it back out quickly.

I wasn't sure what Jamison would think about the barrel cars, but we quickly decided that if he could he would have done that the whole day. Every time the cars would pass us, Jamison would chase after them and then cry for a while becasue he couldn't get back on. Spencer loved touching the cows horns and their fur. What a surprise to me, I htought he'd be scared of them, but he wasn't. I know that as the kids keep getting bigger, it will be more and more fun. Dealing with the elements of weather (cool in the mid morning and warm in the afternoon) and nap schedules make it hard on the little ones, but over all they loved the day.

The NEW Nerd Test

Erica wanted me to take this test to get to know me better I guess. I thought she knew me already, but aparently not. So here is my new nerd test score. I'm looking forward to seeing all of your test scores so I'll know what I'm up against.

Take care!

Weekend Get-A-Way

Thanks to our awesome friends the Briggs- we left our kids for the weekend and enjoyed 3 beautiful days in Seattle, Washington. We could not have asked for the weather to be any better. It was sunny and in the 60's the whole time. Then after our plane landed, we were welcomed to Denver with very cold rain and weather in the 40's. While in Seattle, we went to the Pike Street Farmer's Market, ate at the top of the Space Needle, went to a session at the Seattle Washington Temple, visited Seattle's underground, and took a ferry ride to Bainbridge Island. We had a wonderful time seeing the great sites, and enjoying a few days with no kids. We left the day after Jamey's birthday so we celebrated it with a really neat dinner at the top of the Space Needle. The room, very slowly, turns all the way around while eating so you get the chance to see all of Seattle. We planned it just right so that we saw the city during the day, but also seeing the sunset, and the lights in the city at night. It was the neatest experience. We really enjoyed our quick little get-a-way just the two of us.

What is this?

While I was on the phone with my sister this morning, Spencer came down stairs looking like this. I asked- what is that? Lotion he replied, nonchalantly. Not just any lotion though, the very thick cream, Eucerin. He said that he put it on so that nothing would stick to his hands. Well he would probably be right with as much as he used. What about the reasoning behind loading it on his face? In the mist of being upset at him for getting into the cream, I was laughing at how ridicules he looked and had to take some pictures and share.

Spencer's Field Trip

On Thursday I had the opportunity to go with Spencer on his class field trip. It was my first and I needed to capture every minute of it. It was fun. The morning started off with Spencer riding on his very first school bus. He and his friends thought that was pretty cool. When we got to the farm we started that adventure by riding on a wagon with hay bales, pulled by a tractor. The tractor stopped at all the different crops, and we were able to get out and pick as many of the fresh vegetables that we wanted. The farm supplied all the plastic bags that you could ever need or want. We went to town filling our bags. We got corn, red potatoes, tomatoes, carrots, onions, cabbage, and some very cute little pumpkins. This farm that we went to really tries to attract people to it, so it has other very fun things to do too, like jumping castles, go carts, and several tractors and cars to look at and get your picture taken by. Many of the children quickly got bored with picking vegetables and kept asking when it was time to go play. Unfortunately for them, the field trip was not about playing so there was not time for playing. Last year my sister and her family, and my parents and our family all went to a really fun pumpkin patch. This reminded me a bit of that. I can't wait to go again this year. We have decided to try to make it a yearly event. Fall is most certainly my favorite time of year.

Friends in the picture: Allie, Jenna, Jamie, Spencer and Chandler

The Nerd Test

OK, so some friends of ours told us about the "Nerd Test". Well when I heard about it I KNEW Jamey needed to take the test. Boy was I right. He scored higher on it than one of our other friends, whose score I thought was ridiculously high. However Jamey being the bigger nerd scored even higher. My score was low, but the answer said that I am not a nerd, but not hip either. Well I could have told you that without even taking a test. I knew Jamey would score high, he has a wealth of information. His latest past time, since getting the satellite TV, entails watching the Discovery Channel, the History Channel and working on his laptop. Isn't it oblivious why he scored so high? Take it and see what your score is, then make sure to post it.

Sick or Teething?

I don't know about anyone else, but I HATE when my kids are sick. It makes for long nights with no sleep and extra long days of caring for them when all they do is cry. Jamison has been going through this now for about 4 days. It probably hasn't helped that he hasn't gotten a regular nap for a couple of those days because I have been so busy trying to get things done. Jamey and I have been up for 3 nights in a row with Jamison crying for about 30 minutes each time he wakes up. Usually nothing consoles him, so we both just lay in bed hoping he doesn't cry for too long. Then last night when I got home from the Relief Society Broadcast, Jamison woke up crying at 8:30pm. When I went into his room to give him his pacifier he was on fire. I took his temp and noticed that he had a slight fever. Jamey told me that he had given Jamison some medicine before putting him to bed. Well, he slept most of the night before waking up, but this morning he was still warm with a bit of a fever. He and I stayed home from church to get him a little more rest. I just keep wondering is it teeth or is he sick? He has no other symptoms, and his I-teeth are coming in, so I am just hoping for teeth and that this will pass soon.

The latest invention

Well if Erica is going to tell the world that I want to create things, I might as well reveal the latest attempt. I've written a book, a short Ebook on getting out of debt. I also put up a web page to try to sell it to make a couple of bucks. So far that's all I've made, but have patience grasshopper, it takes time to get all the search engines to see your site, and realize it's obvious value and start to direct people to it. If you'd like to check it out, here you go. http://www.rushoutofdebt.com.

I'm currently looking for a java programmer to finish the piece of software I want to sell to accompany the book. So if you know anyone send them my way. If you want to read the book, I'll send it to you free, because I want to get feedback on the website, and book while I'm still ramping up. So send me an email and just ask and I'll send it to you. Free for a limited time. But wait, that's not all, email now and I'll also throw in a free bonus. But hang on to your email, don't hit send yet, email within the next 10 minutes and I'll even offer you free phone consultation! Mainly selfishly because if something doesn't make sense to you, it probably won't make sense to anyone else, so help me clarify the ideas in the book will you? Please?

Sorry I've obviously always wanted to be on an info-mercial. Remember this is the flavor of the month, and who knows when I'll start on the next flavor. Get in on this while there is still time. By the way there is only 9 minues left to send that email.

Count us in TOO

So many of my friends and family are doing the "blog thing", so I am going to try to join the bandwagon. I never find the time to update our website, so hopefully I can post some of the happenings of our life a little better here. Our children are growing fast, and we don't want our family and friends that live away from us to miss out on their lives.

Spencer is 4 years old, soon to have his 5th birthday in November. He is in Pre-Kindergarten this year at Legacy Elementary and he loves everyday that he goes. He met his good friend the first day, and often gets in trouble for talking too much to Chandler.

Jamison is 18 months old and growing and changing by the day. He doesn't say any formal words, but the little guy never has a lack of things to say. He is trying so hard to keep up with his big brother. It took Jamison a while to walk, but when he finally did, he went from walking to running.

As far as Jamey and I, well what is there to say. We can't stay busy enough. Jamey is still working downtown at the Federal Building and is liking his government clearance. (So do I, we have to talk about things other than work now.) So besides his full time job he is the Young Men's President in our ward and is still trying his hardest to find the next big invention.

I am still working from home, and quit at the salon (which I had been at for almost 6 years) in July. It was definitely bittersweet. So my life entails taking care of 2 very active boys and working from home.

We hope you come back often to check with our progress and success in life.