Pics for Brad

My best friend, Kalli, here in TX took these for me to give to Brad for Christmas, I think they turned out pretty dang well.

Santa Saga Part II

READ PART I FIRST!!!


So it was worth all the lies. Tori is one of the biggest believers out there I think. She said, "I didn't think it was going to be a good Christmas this year, but now its the BEST CHRISTMAS of all time!"

She was VERY pleased with the presents and gifts and quite dissapointed in Santa for the Bratz gift. LOL.

So after the gift opening, Brad tells the girls we need to go give a gift to someone who is really in need (family tradition) and Tori says, "Daddy, I'm going to give my Bratz toy to Olive. (her friend from church)" I thought that was hilarious, she said she didn't want it, and she could give it to someone else. I assured her that Olive had plenty of toys for Christmas.

Last night Brad told the girls that an elf would come with Santa to wrap the presents while they were sleeping. I did such a poor job wrapping, I thought it was hilarious. Brad said that Tori would say that Santa's elves are bad gift wrappers. So this morning Tori says, "Santa's elf is not that good of a wrapper." I laughed quietly and went and told Brad who was in our room at the time. Do we know her well or what!?!

So anyway, the girls are pleased, and I'm totally stoked that we spent about $100 total this year for Christmas, and the girls are completely satisfied. PHEW! We pulled it off!

Santa Claus - Not for young readers PART I

So now that my children are old enough to really get into this Christmas thing, and really start to believe, it creates a more dramatic and complicated Christmas than I ever thought it would. As a child, Christmas just is what it is. You don't realize all that your parents do to make it so special because in your mind, its magic. But now that I am the parent, trying to make all the magic and work a full-time job, its VERY HARD! Of course i didn't go out and buy gifts in November, why would I do that when I still have plenty of time, right? Well, we weren't going to get a ton of presents anyway this year, but I found myself buying presents the week before, with the children there, because I had no one to watch them... and I thought, I'll get the Santa presents later... so we went on Monday to get the Santa presents... Brad was going to stay in the car with the girls, Tori was sleeping, and Abbie... well, she had to go potty of course. So I had to take her inside with me, and by the time we went all the way to the very back of the store, I wasn't about to take her all the way to the car and then go back inside to get the gifts. So I'm trying to work it all out in my head how I'm going to make this work. So I start with, "You have to close your eyes..." Then I realize there's no way that's going to work, so then I get desperate with, "This is from Santa, he gave me money to buy your gift." I thought that would work till I told some lady in line that and she about hit me in the head and gave me the most disgusted look I've ever seen. My face turned red with embarrasment as I apparently made like the worst parental Christmas mistake there is... Abbie really is oblivious though, she doesn't really care. So I thought that might fly, as I made her promise not to tell Tori. Well I left it in the car last night, and today as we were driving to a meeting Tori goes, "You got Barbie and the Diamond Castle!?!" I couldn't believe it. I'm so stupid. SO... there goes that Santa gift... maybe its better anyway since I totally screwed it up with Abbie being there... so all day I'm debating, what should I do? Should I just give up and tell them the truth? But all day they are asking us things about Santa like, "How does he get here? How does he know if we're good? How does he see us? When is he going to be here?" Etc Etc and Brad and I are just filling their head with these make believe stories aka LIES and I'm just thinking to myself, "I can't believe I am sitting here lying to my child... and for WHAT?!" So we went to Costco to go get WALL-E and two toys that can be from Santa... but of course we have to take the kids into Costco because they are too ansy to stay inside the car, so we decide to split up. I go pick up the photos that I got printed for Brad (surprise) and guess what, he has the debit card, so I have to spill the beans that I'm at the photo lab, asking him for his debit card (I didn't have mine with me) so he comes over, tries to hide the girls gifts under a t-shirt he was buying for me, the girls start snooping, and Wall-E falls out! SO, then we have to pretend that we have to put it back, which then sends the girls into tantrums, so Brad takes them to the car, I go change their gifts (except Wall-E because of course I "put that back"). So we went through all that just to get them presents from Santa. On the way home from Costco Tori is crying that it doesn't seem like Christmas this year because we don't have a Christmas tree or stockings (and where is Santa going to put our presents if there aren't stockings) and no SNOW! We can't have Christmas with NO SNOW! So I decide to take the opportunity to share with her the TRUE meaning of Christmas, and how Christmas is in our hearts and the meaning, etc. etc.

So Tori put out the 8 carrots for the 8 reindeer and 2 cookies, and a cup of milk in front of our fireplace, thank goodness we have one of those! And Brad comes in after a quick trip to Walgreens since they are open till 10:00 to get milk, he comes in with 2 bags and declares that he no longer is allowed to go to the store alone because he spent $40.00 As he walks in, he tips over the glass of milk which spills all over the carpet and he has this really mad look on his face, and I just start busting out laughing. I say, "Brad, its okay, you can laugh, its funny." So he decides to smile a little and then shows me how he got stockings for the girls and some candy to fill them, and get this... he got them BRATZ Pez candy because we never get them any Bratz stuff and so Tori will think, there's no way it was Dad, it had to be Santa because he doesn't know we don't get Bratz stuff... tricky tricky. So anyway, that's the part 1 of our Santa Saga, I think tomorrow morning might be worth all the lies, but I'll let you know. I guess they can have one more year to their childhood innocence.

Merry Christmas Y'all

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Coodie Bugs

Coversation while laying down with Abbie:

Abbie: "Mom, Tori got coodies."

Me: "Ohh, really, how did she get coodies?"

Abbie: "from a boy at her old school, cause he kissed her (on the cheek), boys give girls coodies."

Me: "Oh wow, if boys give coodies, how come I don't get them from Daddy?"

Abbie (smiling): "Cause he's a MAN!"

Doing some research for this story, I found a term in the dictionary for coodie bugs:

"a young girl's greatest fear of boys..."

J Hilburn-The Perfect Present for Your Husband/Father/Brother/Son

In December we are doing a special for gift cards. We are offering a free tie for any gift card for a Brown Label Shirt ($99) or a Black Label Shirt ($149). OR a Free Men's Polo Shirt ($79 value) with the purchase of any gift card of 3 or more shirts. And as always, I can give you $20 off your first purchase :) So you can get your husband (or loved one) a custom tailored shirt that fits him perfectly for only $79.00 PLUS a free TIE (shipping and tax not included). We've got someone in Washington and Utah and a few other states that can get measurements if I'm unable to, we can work it out, these are great unique presents that your husband will be SO EXCITED to receive, and think that you put a LOT OF THOUGHT into getting him the best gift :) Merry Christmas!

Thanksgiving

We decided last Monday (a week ago) for Thanksgiving we were going to take a trip back to Utah. Brad's Grandpa, Dean Brockbank, passed away on November 21st, and his funeral was on Saturday, so we decided... why not? Besides the 20 hour drive, nothing else was holding us back, so we decided to jump in the car and take a trip :) I'll tell you what, I'm SO GLAD WE DID! It was an incredible trip. We had such a great time. Thanksgiving Dinner was the best I could have ever imagined at Bart and Jeni's (my brother in law/sister in law) house as they are pretty much the best cooks IN THE WORLD. I got to hold a little newborn for like 2 days straight, which was so fun, and we went shooting, and just had a blast. On Friday night we went to the viewing and Saturday to the funeral. I got to sing a solo a capella and that was fun, glad that's over :). The girls were SO good in the car, even though it was 20 hours each way, they hardly complained at all.

Blogworthy Moment: Abbie is responding to the question of how old are you... "I'm four (holding up all fingers but her pinky), I'm a grown up now." I thought that was hilarious.

We had a great time, I miss my family and friends in Utah. I sure loved coming back home and sleeping in my own bed though, there's something about your own home that is so welcoming, it sure feels good.

We're excited to be moving in January though to a new home in Richardson, TX. Its about 20-30 minutes away from where we are now. Its got an incredible school that Tori is now going to (Hallelujah) and its a brand new townhome with a two-car garage and a back yard. Granite Countertops, Stainless Steel Appliances, Crown Molding, you know, all that good stuff. I'll post pics once we move Jan. 1st. We're doing a lease option so that we can see where the market is in a year and decide then. 25% of our rent is going towards our down payment if we choose to buy, so that's really good.

Life is good, we're happy, excited for the future, and happy where we are, and SO GRATEFUL we aren't where we were a year ago!!!! Woo Hoo!!!

Abbie's Growing Up

I can't believe she's over 4 years old now! I remember being in Washington and receiving a beautiful soft baby blanket as a gift from Shirley Morgan for Abbie. We swaddled her tight in it and used it very often. As soon as she was able, she started asking for it. Even before she could talk she'd start looking all over for it and get frustrated if she couldn't find it. As soon as she could start talking, she kept requesting her blue blanket. It took another year for her to realize it was green. She's loved the thing to pieces... literally. I found a piece of the fabric in her bathroom the other day. About 6 months ago I had to stop letting her take it to places because it was getting all ripped up. So Thank you Shirley, it was definitely the most used gift we were given by far! This morning as Abbie was making her bed and asked for her green blanket, I gave it to her, sat her down, and asked her if she'd like to go to the store and pick out new fabric so I could make her a new favorite blanket. She finally said, "Yes." She said, "This one is actually a little scratchy now." Since the middle part of it is exposed from the rips on the flannel, she's been cuddling up to that white scratchy padding stuff (can't remember the correct name). Anyway, so I hurried up and went to Walmart today before she changed her mind (I've been trying to replace the favorite blanket for about 6 months now). She decided to get a Blue Blanket, because that's Abbie for ya. She got blue puppy paw prints. And I found the coolest little handy sewing tool by Singer. I made this blanket in about 30 minutes maybe with all the cutting and sewing (I forgot the yarn needle, so we'll do that part later), its a handheld sewing machine that is actually all set up and ready to go (minus batteries) the second you open it. It was such a relief to not have to thread it and worry about all that sewing stuff. This is great for those who don't like to or don't know how to sew, definitely worth a try, and it was only $15!! So We're going to pack the green blanket away for her when she's my age and has a little one her age so she can look back. Good times :)

Blondes Have More Fun!

I got my hair touched up and added a little more blonde in it, but I haven't shown you guys my blonde hair yet so I thought I'd take a few shots with my photo booth and show ya'll ;) my new do :) The front shot makes it look darker than it is, it's pretty light. I LOVE IT!!!

The Princess and the Popper

Brad wanted me to make sure to post this one. The other day we were at Tori's school to vote and we saw her PE (Gym) Teacher. We asked him how Tori is doing in PE and he chuckled a little and said, "She's doing okay." He then explained that Tori has a hard time getting in and dirty with some of the activities. They had these scooters they were racing and Tori was just being very careful and taking her time and he told her, "Tori, you're supposed to RACE!" And she said, "No thanks." and then proceeded to take her time carefully. She's such a princess. She LOVES to dance...

compared to...

Abbie asked me yesterday, "Mom, when do I get to start karate?" I said, "You wanna do karate?" She said, "I already know how." And then tried to show me her incredible skills. :) I chuckled and thought to myself, wow, what a difference in children. How awesome. Tori will be the princess, and Abbie will be the Popper (Pop boys in the face).

Halloween Fun... Or Not...

Tori decided to be Barbie again this year, however, she's "Cheerleader" Barbie this time. Abbie decided to be a Cheetah/Leopard/Tiger. I think it was actually a Tiger costume, but she kept changing her mind on what exactly she was.

We went to Tori's School's Carnival. They had a haunted house there done by the older children in her Elementary School. She was adamant to go to this Haunted House. We warned her many times that it was going to be scary, and that we didn't think she'd like it, but she was set on going. I tried to keep Abbie from going, but she insisted that "Tori would protect her." Well, I figured it couldn't be that bad, since it was an elementary school and all you know?! Well, we were wrong. It was pretty dang scary. The girls were horrified, terrified, and traumatized. Abbie literally crawled up Brad up to his neck and they were screaming and crying hysterically the whole time. So their makeup/face paint was all smeared off before we even went trick or treating. We didn't do that a whole lot till tonight at the ward Trunk or Treat. But that was fun. So we learned our lessons, no Haunted Houses. But DANG they looked cute!!!

Houston... We Have No Problem

We decided to take the day yesterday and drive to the coast. It's been since last December since we saw the big blue so we decided... Why Not? It was truly one of our most favorite memories now. We had so much fun! It was a perfect 79 degrees, the water was probably about 65-70, not bad at all, we jumped the waves, threw sticks for Nali, and just really enjoyed the time as a family. Can I just say that all the bad talk about Texas really is just from people who haven't been here, or rarely come. Who can really turn down a late October day at the beach in 79 degree weather? I mean, seriously. It was amazing. We didn't go to Galveston for obvious reasons, and didn't see any destruction in Houston besides lots of signs needing repair/replacing and some skyscrapers with windows boarded. Besides that I was extremely impressed with the amount of clean up and repair done in Houston, it looked pretty normal to me. We went to the Children's Museum in Houston first and they went "trick or treating" there, where I got go do face painting on them (kitty cats), and they really had fun, for those of you from the Pacific Northwest, it was a lot like OMSI. Anyway, it was definitely worth the drive and I'm becoming more and more a fan of Texas. The pride is there for a reason, really... its awesome here!

The Cuddler

Abigail is quite a cuddler. Whenever she manages to sneak into my room and get in bed with me in the middle of the night, she always pushes me over to Brad's side and manages to take up more than half of our King Size Bed.

Poor Tori, Abbie insists on sleeping with Tori, and then she pushes her almost off the bed because she cuddles so much. I walked in to check on them and found this, you'll see Tori dangling off the bed while Abbie is clearly on Tori's side, leaving a huge space (where Abbie should be) empty. I think its adorable.

Election Fun

So Tori asked me yesterday,

"Mom, could you explain to me who John McCain is? I keep hearing his name, who is he?"

I was kind of taken a back thinking, "Wow, she is listening." So we decided to take the opportunity to teach her a little about Politics. So I said,

"Tori, do you know who George Bush is?"

thinking that I could start with who the President is now. She said...

"No... *pause* Wait, do you mean George Lopez?"

Brad and I had a good laugh, you know your child goes to a Spanish School when she knows the name George Lopez more than George Bush... that or she watches too much TV, hmmm, probably both.

WOW... wow.

I woke up at 6:30 this morning finally letting my body agree with my head that its time to get up. So I got up and started cleaning things up a bit when I heard some laughing and talking in the girls room. It was still dark out and I thought, wow, what are they doing up? Their light in their room was off, and I just thought it pretty odd. I opened the door and VOILA... it was CLEAN! They were just putting their last toy away! Tori went to bed at 7:00 last night, so she got up early, thought it was still night time because it was dark out, and decided that she'd better get her room clean for the house fairy before morning, so she woke up Abbie, and they cleaned it all before 6:30 in the morning. Seriously, this works! Prior to this there isn't anything I could have done to or for Tori to get her to clean it by herself without asking, let alone "in the middle of the night" I'm just amazed. THANK YOU HOUSE FAIRY!!! www.housefairy.org

House Fairy

Sometimes I blog just to get the other blog entry further down in the list, I hate being reminded about the "caca" incident, so I'm putting this on because its a much more pleasant entry. My wonderful sister introduced us to the House Fairy.

http://www.housefairy.org

Its done wonders for us, as it will for your family. I think its the cutest thing and Tori has responded so well. The house fairy is Santa Clause's sister and she comes when you least expect it to make sure your room is clean and bed is made, etc., and if it is, she leaves a surprise, and if its not, she only leaves her fairy dust so you know she came, and she also leaves a note. You can pretty much tell your child anything you want through the house fairy and they accept it and listen to it, like, "Next time you need to be nicer to your sister," or "make sure you don't leave your toys in the living room," or "Make sure to do your chores" or "have a better attitude tomorrow" and the kids really listen! I told Abbie she needed to help without complaining and let her sister teach her how to clean, and SHE DID! I'm just shocked. Anyway, check it out, its definitely worth trying. Its actually motivating me to clean my room too cause Tori keeps saying, "Mom, the house fairy didn't leave you a treat cause your room is dirty."

Here's a good one for you

First of all, I always try to have pictures on my blog posts, but here's one I purposely did not include.

It all started out like a normal day. I woke up early, around 6:30, got ready, got Tori off to school, and started work. Things were going great until *sniff sniff* something STINKS! And it smells like Poop! From here on out I will use the term Caca. I believe that is Spanish for Poop, and since we're here in TEXAS, I think that's appropriate. I'm doing this to soften the disgusting nature of the following...

SOOOooooo... as I was saying, I smelled Caca, and it wasn't pleasant. I figured it was the cat doing her business in the kitty litter, as her caca always smells quite strongly and nasty, so I went to go clean the kitty litter. It was empty, and the smell was still there. So i sighed and looked all over the bathroom and closet floor, trying to find the source of the disgusting smell. I looked all over going in circles trying to find it, but to no avail.

I was pretty perplexed, trying to use my sniffer to figure out the location, but the whole bathroom smelled nasty, so it was hard to figure out what area it was coming from. Finally, as I was leaving the bathroom, I noticed some liquid on the floor right next to our little trashcan that we had by the door. I thought it was odd that there was liquid on the floor so I opened up the lid (one of those step on cans). All I saw in the shadow of the lid was a dirty diaper with dark around it.

Now I thought to myself, the last time a friend was here with a baby that had diapers was probably around 3 weeks ago. Now granted I'm sure this stinks, I'm positive that the source of this caca smell is not from this diaper, as that has been there for 3 weeks without me knowing. So I closed it and kept looking, but looked back at it and tried to figure out why there was liquid coming out of the bottom of the garbage can, which had no liner in it because we never used it... so I thought.

So I decided to empty the miniature garbage can into the large garbage can and that's where the fun began...

I'm going to spare you from all the gory details of what it looked like and smelled and leave that to your imagination, I'll tell you how it happened.

Abbie enjoys scooping the cat caca from the kitty litter with the scoop every time she goes caca. She has told me that she has either put it in the toilet and flushed it or put it in the garbage can. Well, I assumed the garbage can she meant was the one RIGHT NEXT to the kitty litter that had a garbage bag in it. Apparently for the last 3 weeks, she has been putting the cat caca into this miniature garbage can, with no liner...

So what about the liquid you ask? I was perplexed as well. The conversation went like this:

"Abbie, did you go potty in the garbage can?"
"NO, I did not."
"Abbie, are you sure you didn't go potty in the garbage can?"
"Nope, I didn't."
"Abbie, did you spray the water bottle in the garbage can?"
"No."
"Abbie, I promise you, I won't be mad, and you won't get in trouble if you did go potty in the garbage can, did you?"
(Abbie pauses, looks deep in my eyes to see if I'm telling the truth)
"I was just kidding, I did go potty in the garbage can."

So let me explain. My wonderful daughter Abigail who is the most adorable child in the world, seems to think its a good idea to go #1 in the garbage can. I don't know why, I don't know HOW, but she does. She started at my Mother's house last April for some really odd reason, and admitted it a few weeks later and continued to do this about once a week in my little garbage can. And I had thought she had quit doing that after a few months. Well, apparently NOT, because there was PLENTY of #1 in that garbage can to make a nice outhouse out of it to greet me this morning with all of its glory.

So i think this was 3 weeks worth of #1 from Abbie and #2 from the cat, and trust me, it was worse than ANY outhouse you have EVER been in. Especially since I got so up close and personal while I cleaned it out. It soaked in bleach in the tub after a good rinsing and I put my hands in the bleached water to bleach my hands, and then I've scrubbed them about 8 times now thoroughly, and somehow, my hands, still have a hint of outhouse on them. Definitely by far, wins the most disgusting mess I've ever cleaned up award.

There's a good laugh at my expense for you :)

Adorable Abbie

So Abbie has gained this new Independence with preparing her own food. It could be the fact that I refuse to cook for her every 20 minutes (no joke, she really asks me that often) and that I work during the day on the computer and can't just get up all the time to cook her food, but she has come to the realization that she truly CAN COOK! So Tori helped her yesterday afternoon make her own Mac N Cheese in the microwave. It turned out great and she was so proud of herself she wouldn't even share with her sister. But when Tori made her own, Abbie asked for more and Tori was reluctant but after some gentle guidance (the golden rule) Tori gave her some. Well, some wasn't enough and Abbie wanted more. So she decided to make her own, again. Well this time Tori didn't help her. I was behind my computer when I heard some popping noises in the microwave. I of course got up quickly, ran to the microwave, and found a sippy cup without a lid full of dry macaroni. Abbie was waiting to the side of the microwave ready for her magical mac n cheese to come out perfect and was quite disappointed with the smoke and burned popcorn smell that still radiates our home 18 hours later. It even melted the cup! You can't help but laugh and give her a big hug at her attempt to cook for herself. Adorable Abbie.

OKLAHOMA OKLAHOMA OKLAHOMA OKLAHOMA!!!!

So Brad and I decided to drive to the border, get out of Texas and see the world. Oklahoma is about an hour and 15 minute drive from home so we decided to venture out and see what its like. Well, its definitely the middle of nowhere in hickville. Now I know that we were in some podunk town on the outskirts of Oklahoma but HOLY COW, it really is out there. For the first 10 miles or so there are no exits. Now I don't know how far you have to go to find an exit, we didn't take the time to drive that far. Instead of exits, they have little dirt roads that are directly off the freeway and little turn around areas too, so we slammed on our brakes to turn around since there was really nothing to look at, and then sped up as fast as we could to keep up with traffic until we found a dirt road to go and see the scenery. The first picture I got was right off the freeway it was a rundown house, I thought, wow, this is a picture to take for the blog, just what Oklahoma looks like, this and lots of little RVs and trailers! We got stuck on a dirt road (never saw a paved road besides right along the freeway) that had a train we had to wait for, and then that road led to some other dirt road that had dogs and their puppies all along it, I never realized how small Chihuahua puppies are, holy cow. They surrounded our car and I was just waiting for some old guy to come out with a rifle telling us to leave. We didn't see a soul until we got back on the road that leads to the freeway. We decided to stop at the border of Oklahoma and TX and get a picture with the nice big LoneStar :)