December Haps!

Wow! Don't you feel like December just goes too fast! And that no matter how well you plan, you still have sooo much to do!!!!! This first half of the month has been filled with some many fun activities such as the Midway Swiss Christmas festival, shopping, ward Christmas parties, shopping, Christmas card mayhem, shopping, Christmas themed co-ops, shopping, temple lights and hot cocoa, shopping, play groups, and.. you guessed it! More shopping. And the month isn't half way over yet!!!!! Anyway, we are escaping to Park City this weekend and so hopefully we will relax a bit before the next big wave of fun and stress! :) Here are some fun pics of the "haps"!

Kids waiting for Father Christmas at the Swiss Christmas

Zach explaining exactly what he wants. Something about cars driving on the ceiling

Yes, I am biased. I won't say why........ :)

Poor Zachy got cut off.

The carriage had chains that jingled. Oh Happy Day.....


Papa and Gramma Shoff.... Cute pics

Brady's friends... Miles, George, (Brady), and Lincoln. They play every Monday together. Such a cute group of 2 yr. olds!

This is our co op group. We babysit them every 6th week and then get 5 straight weeks of dates. It's wonderful. We were missing 3 of the kiddos this night. Such fun kids though. Love them all!


And our Temple night. It was way fun and surprisingly warm for this last week.

Just be grateful I didn't take any pictures of SHOPPING!!!!! :) More events to come!

Kingsport Cakemaker Could Be Picked To Make The King's 75th Birthday Party Cake | TriCities

Kingsport Cakemaker Could Be Picked To Make The King's 75th Birthday Party Cake | TriCities

I'm so proud!

My cousin Erin, lives in Tennessee and she is an amazing cake maker! So she was chosen from 4 cake makers to designer Elvis Presley's 75th birthday cake. Pretty rockin huh! I was "all shook up" when she told me! Go to Elvis.com and follow the link to Elvis' birthday cakes and vote for cake B. The voting ends Monday. I truly think she has the BEST design anyway. You can watch her on the news as well. Follow the link above. Just click on the above post to watch! SO COOL!!!!

ADDRESSES NEEDED!

PLEASE POST YOUR ADDRESS HERE SO I CAN SEND YOU A CHRISTMAS CARD!!! THANKS!!

Tim Dailey Fund

I want to bring awareness to drug and alcohol addiction right now! It is sweeping across our nation and I promise, if you have not been affected by this disease, you will at some point. Many of you probably don't even realize that a loved one close to you is using drugs and alcohol. My friend Andrea lost her husband and her family has found that their healing has increased through helping others in need. SO they have started the "Tim Dailey Fund". All proceeds go to a scholarship for someone needing treatment but not able to afford it. So many lives can be saved if awareness is brought to this sickness.

Please help and send your donations to 4143 Otter Brook Drive South Jordan Utah 84095! This is a great way to help this Christmas season! I appreciate your support!

New Moon Premier

So I went with a bunch of girls to the midnight showing of New Moon! Thanks hunny for letting me go for the whole evening! We went to eat at Carrabba's and then did a treat run to Walmart. I swear we were all so giddy and we all couldn't stop laughing! Oh what fun night. Then went to the theater an hour before showtime. It was jammed packed as you can only imagine. Luckily our theater has reserved seating so we were front and center! Thanks Tibby :). You know I love you. WE had two rows of girls in our group and so the mood turned electric when the lights started to dim! I tell you, the girls that were in love with Edward, quickly turned to Jacob after his transformation! You were supposed to wear red for Jacob and black for Edward. I love Edward but I had to be for Jacob this time around. How could you not!? And yes, I know he is 17. BLAH BLAH BLAH. Anyway! What a funnnn night!

New family pics!

WE got some family pictures taken by Jake's cousin Kari! She was so awesome and I would recommend her and her sister Mandi, to anyone! The boys did great until the last 45 minutes. Here are just a few of the pics!






Thanks SO Much Kari! You rock! I can't wait to get our photos up in our home!

Halloween and BYU!

SO we had a very fun Halloween! We all dressed up and Jake's brother's, Rick and James, came over and turned our front porch porch into a "haunted" front porch. My family also came over and we all ate chili and cornbread and homemade root beer. So yummy! Jake was a "dead" Utah fan. Underneath the red shirt was a BYU shirt. He claimed he couldn't let the red touch his skin! :) I, of course was a witch. I asked Jake if I should add a mole to my face and he said no, I want you to be a pretty witch. Silly. Zach was a ninja and Brady was Tigger. The twins and their friends dressed up as Zombies and blasted "Thriller" as they chased many scared children down the street. Oh brother. We will never get trick or treaters next year. But it was so fun.


Then a few weeks ago we had Jake's BYU alumni basketball reunion. Here are some pics of some of the guys Jake played with and their wives. It was way fun catching up with everyone. It's been 5 years since Jake graduated from the Y. We have missed it....... but not really. :)

It's amazing the different journeys one has in a lifetime. It will be fun to look back at my timeline to see all the ups and downs and experiences I have had along the way. I have realized that hope and faith make uncertainty and doubt diminish! Anyway, hope you all are happy and healthy! I look forward to the Holiday season!

GLEE

I LOVE GLEE! It's my new favorite show! I have changed all my music to glee cast. Check it out if you haven't yet! It is Wednesday nights on fox after "So you think you can dance'"!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAKE!

I want to wish Jake a very happy 31st birthday! I can't believe it's been a year since I threw you your 30th surprise party. Crazy how time goes faster and faster. But I am so happy I have spent the last 8 years with such a loving, kind, fun and just GOOD person. I am grateful for the choices you have made in your life. Not just as a youth, but as a man. You have made very good decisions to follow the Lord and to be an advocate for righteousness.

You have been a very loyal husband and I am so grateful for that. I KNOW that I was very close to you in the pre existence. After all, our mothers were pregnant within 6 weeks of each other! That means I knew I couldn't be in heaven without you. You are truly my soul mate and best friend. I hope you have a wonderful 31st year of life! Happy birthday hunny buns! I LOVE YOU!

Ok Last One! I promise!

For the requests of the people!

Ok, this is hilarious. I couldn't stop laughing. I've told many people about this spoof, but I just decided to put it on my blog. The first is the original trailer but if you haven't seen it, watch it first. Then watch the spoof. So funny!

Original
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYBF3HKzrmE
Spoof
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbAppj00nZo

Meet Jacob Black!

I ADORE HIM!

1st day of 1st grade

Well the day started out the night before. I kept saying "you're gonna be fine! He's been going to school for 3 years now!". Yes, he has, but not ALL DAY LONG. When Zach was younger, I couldn't wait for him to start school, he was just so active! But he is such a joy for me now. He is a big help to me and loves playing with Brady. So anyway, I was saying that the day started last night. I went to check on him before I went to bed, and I slowly bent down to kiss his cheek and I TOTALLY lost IT! I was bawling right by his bed. I didn't leave the room for 10 minutes, just sobbing. "This has gone by way too fast!", I kept thinking.

Then I finally walked out of his room, checked on Brady and went to brush my teeth. You would have laughed to see me staring in the mirror with my toothbrush in my mouth, bawling my eyes out. I climbed into bed, and texted Jake (who was just below me watching sports center). I sayed, "I can't stop crying." He just sayed LOL and that Zach would be fine and that he's so ready to be gone. Men. They just don't have the strings to their children like mommies do. Although I have a lot of friends who celebrated today. I just couldn't bring myself to.

SO, we woke up and got ready. Ate breakfast, comb hair, brushed teeth, and took some pictures. You can see that Zach is "SO READY" as Jake said. He has a bunch of friends in his class this year so I am not worried about that. Oh, and he already received a love letter from the girl that sits across from him, stating that she loves him. Zach hid the note next to his bed. Oh brother, I definitely am NOT ready for that AT ALL! Anyway, here are some pics! Thanks for listening to me rant about how ridiculously pathetic I am. :)

His buddies in his class and his best girlfriend Sydney
.Before going through the gates Way excited.....too excited if you ask me.
Zach posing for mom outside. Sun is really bright at 8:15 am.

Crazy July!

So July is a big month for us! We have lot's of birthday's and of course the 4th! But this July was especially crazy. It started out with me getting really sick at the end of June and I had to start on antibiotics. I had a viral infection on top of a bacterial infection. It was a huge bummer because I had been called to be the girl's camp director 8 weeks prior and camp was a week and a half away. Luckily by the 3rd I was feeling better but knew I was going to be crazy the following week.

The 4th was great. We had a bbq at my parents house and then went to the bee's game. Fireworks didn't start until 11:30 pm because the game went into the 12th inning! My kids were DONE! We didn't put them to bed until 1 am! I felt like a terrible mom, but at least they are both good sleepers and slept until 11 am.

That whole next week was a blur of running and meeting like crazy to get all in order for girl's camp. We left on the 6th and it was SO much fun. Everyone was awesome so it turned out awesome. There was no drama, which is odd for girl's camp and all of the leaders pitched in tremendously to make it run super smooth. sigh. I thought I was done with YW's when they called me back into it to be the personal progress leader. So I get to stay with the girls! It will be fun! And I have never had so many YW babysit for me! It is well worth the calling.

I returned home on Friday only to go shopping that whole afternoon for Zach and Brady's birthday's which were 2 days later. Jake was gone all Saturday at a golf tourney so we had to get it done! On Monday morning we had a little party for Zach and then took him and a couple buddies to a movie. On Tuesday, Brady got to go out to dinner and we celebrated that night. Then on Saturday we had a big birthday bbq with both families. And then went to the temple open house after. It is SO SO beautiful. In fact it rained really hard one day and I went out to my back yard to find a rainbow arched right by the angel Moroni. Cool huh? Anyway, I am glad July is over. Now onto Zach starting school as a 1st grader. YES, I will cry my eyes out. He has really been so good as he has gotten older. Such a help to me and is so sweet to Brady. I have loved having him around this summer. But he is way excited to have 2 RECESSES so go figure. Anyway, there's some pics of the birthdays! oh and.....I am NOT LOOKING FORWARD TO ANOTHER WINTER. (can you tell that I am yelling!) :) Loves!

Just a random update!

Well we are just truckin along. At the the bottom you will see that my kids are washing windows! Yes, that's right. I start them out early. In fact, this is one of Zach's weekly chores. He does a great job!

Next you will see Brady trying to imitate his older brother in soccer. You should see him swing a golf club. Seriously cute. He will be a golf addict. :)

"Oh what do you do when it rains.....?" We make cookies! Zach's friend Mason is in the middle of the pic. Brady and Zach LOVE to make the famous "Criddle Cookies"! Yes, they are famous...

So my new love is "glitter toes". I had a small party here before my brother and sister-in-law got married and we all got our nails glittered! They are so cute and the picture doesn't do them justice!

Finally, at the top, is my little soccer boy! Zach's team was undefeated this and last year! It was fun to watch! This year he finally started scoring goals. It's way more fun to watch when your kid is actually getting a goal or two.

The New Moon Trailer!

Just copy and paste on the browser. Sorry. I am not good at computer stuff! But ENJOY!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBAaRGO-07U

where is Brady... where is Brady.. Here I am.. Here I am!

Ok so Brady is finally showing signs of a two year old. I was doing laundry and I was gathering the clothes in the house when Brady SUDDENLY went missing. I was searching for him EVERYWHERE. Finally I heard some faint calling, "mom, mom".

Needless to say I had a good laugh when I stumbled upon this.......


ARE you READY!




I said HOLD ON! Let me get my camera, ( in the back of my mind I'm hoping Zach doesn't see him and want to push any buttons and give him a ride...)! I took the picture at exactly 11:45 am. Here's another one.





So I started my load and I started to look for him again and at exactly 3 minutes later, And I'm not exaggerating, I took this picture at 11:48. (AS I sayed, 3 minutes...)




HE was soaked! I had to completely change him. It was a funny day. A funny, almost 2 year old day! :)

I found this on my cousin Stacey's blog!

Thought I would share! There is a new item for sale everyday! Check it out!
Small

yes, I've watched it!

Ok~ So here's the confession. Friday night my good friend Jen and her husband came and spent the night here. At midnight I got on to check my email and I saw that Rachelle Lafevre (Victoria in Twilight), was at my Walmart signing autographs for the release of the movie. I went and told Jen and we made a very mature decision to stay in bed........NOT. We totally jumped in my car at 12:15 at night and drove to Walmart. The front entrance was closed off so we went to the side and saw the movie sitting right there as we walked in. Of course I got the 2-disc edition.:) Then we went to check out and saw "Victoria" signing away. Needless to say, she is very beautiful. But I wasn't about to hop in the line, as it started at the front of the store and wrapped all the way to the back, in automotive. So we went home and watched the first 45 minutes and were too tired to stay up for the rest.

Saturday night Jake and I quickly put the kids to bed and put on the movie. Don't let Jake fool you either. He was very into it and when it was over, watched ALL of the special features and extra bonus material with me. In fact, he encouraged it! Then today, after Zach was in school and Brady down for a nap, I made a quick lunch and put it on again! Jake called and I answered the phone saying, "NO, I am not watching Twilight again.!" He laughed and said I need a hobby.

I do like it better and better the more I watch it, BUT........ I hope that New Moon has a little more money put into it. Ya know?? Anyway. I should probably take a break and not watch it again for a least a week.... :) Wink Wink.. Anyway, I added to my playlist my favorite music from the movie! Enjoy it!

The haps

So I made a slide show of some pics of the boys and our house. Since I do a little decorating on the side for close friends and family, I decided I would put up some pics of my own house. I still need to get some before and afters up of some of the other homes I have worked on. But that is me. I am not very on the ball that way. :)

We have been really working for our survival in these hard economic times. It's amazing the sweet blessings of support you receive when you are down or hurting. We live in a great community. Wonderful friends and neighbors. I was especially impressed with our ward, after we learned of a good friends passing last Monday. He was young and left behind a young family of four children and a wonderful wife. There has been so many people willing to help in their own way. We have so many questions, but I know the Lord is very aware of my sweet friend Andrea and her children.

I am grateful for all that I am learning right now. I am humbled by this trial. I feel like I am learning a lot about myself and our mistakes and also our good choices. What we would never do again and what we will constantly strive to do always . I am learning who to trust and who to let in. But, I don't think that trials are really about other people that hurt you and that you will never allow that to happen again. I believe that it rest on our shoulders and our shoulders only.

I had an amazing answer to my prayers last night. I had knelt down and prayed for help to get through these hard times, and then I read my scriptures. I am in 2 Nephi (Isaiah sections) and I realized that until we take responsibility for our own actions, that the Lord cannot help us. Here lies my point. Others can hurt us, but we are the ones that can hurt us the most. Until WE repent and WE forgive, we cannot move to that next level in life. It was good to turn back onto my knees after reading this and take responsibility for my own actions and my own pride. WOW, that felt good. :) Sorry so deep. I only meant to give an update on us and you got a whole lotta information about me.

Anyway, thanks for all your kind words and love and help. Truly you are all a blessing to my life.

The boys and the house