The Perfect Day

Yeah, I said it, The Perfect Day...

I got home from work to dinner made. Yes, Landon on his own had taken out a frozen lazagna, thawed and cooked it. He even timed for it be done as I was walking in the door. I was a few minutes late so it was warming in the oven. I set the table and we sat down and had a yummy dinner. **Big Thanks Honey** Collin sat on the table in his bumbo. **Note to self go get high chair out of storage** Emily was silly and it was perfect.

When we were finished eating I ran and grabbed a picture of Christ healing the blind man and we had "scripture time." Followed by Family Prayer. I know I am in shock that we did it too! And the kids were fantastic too. **Note to self, new family tradition...**

After dinner instead of worrying about dinner dishes I played on the floor with Emily and Collin building "birthday cakes" out of blocks. Both kids thought I was hilarious because according to Emily the blocks were "hot" and I would throw them around until she blew on them and told me they were cold. I will treasure that moment since I know that I am not the funny one. :) Emily and I mixed up a cake mix to make cupcakes. She is such a great little cook. Well she is until she gets silly. I had to step in before the mixer sprayed cake mix on my walls...

AND THEN...

As I was shutting the oven door on my cupcakes the power went out. (6:45 pm) Yep, a fantasticly crazy wind and rain storm knocked out all the power. As Landon searched the house for a working flashlight (which Emily had worn out all batteries playing with them) and then for just candles to light, my children laughed at mommy for turning "out the lights." We gathered as a family in our living room and enjoyed enforced no electricity time. LOVED IT! Landon read us five chapters, by candlelight, out of his favourite childhood book, The Westin House. Emily, Collin and I sat on the floor and coloured as he read. Then Emily fell asleep in my arms as Collin and daddy wrestled. When Emily woke up we ended up hanging out on my bed until Emily decided it was time for Mommy to "lay on Emmy's bed with Emmy." The power came on at 9:15pm to a house of sleeping people. I got up, threw out the cupcakes which were in the stove, and finished making cupcakes with the left over batter.

A perfect end to the perfect day!

My brother, Super Matt

I love coming from a large family. For many reasons but I really was blessed to have some amazing siblings!

My brother Matt for instance...
I interrupted his family night last night to ask him to come over at 7:30pm to help us put plastic up on the outside of our house over the windows. Without hesitation his wife said yes... :) Matt said yes too but I am grateful he has a wife that says yes. Its even more incredible because the wind was blowing, it was pitch dark outside and the rain was pouring. He came with a smile and great ideas. It took a just about 40 minutes for Matt, Landon and I to get plastic over 3 out of the 4 windows that needed it. He stayed for a short chat over a bowl of ice cream and then was off into the dark night again.

I tell you they are amazing. I could tell selfless, sacrificing stories about each of them. I love you guys and thank-you for all the love and support you shower me with!

And my Superdad is coming over tonight to help me board up my bedroom window and put plastic up. Oh yeah, he asked me to call Matt to help out with that, hmm better go make a call...

**I have this lovely crosswind that blows through the broken glass in my bedroom window to the window in Emily's room which doesn't shut properly. The broken glass in my window would be because I dared to open it this summer. Yeah our house is old and needs new windows. **

Our Kitty

Emily has given up convincing her parents to let her have a pet. So she took matters in her own hands. Here is our new kitty! I'm hoping to have her toilet trained at the same time as Emily....




Emily will crawl and meow in the mall, church or grocery store. She will crawl over to me, climb up on my lap and curl up with her head on my arm. She meows while I pet her head.

Remembrance Day: Lest We Forget

Remembrance Day has always been a large part of my family's life. My parents instilled a great reverance for this day. I have attended cenotaph for the majority of my life and have looked forward to the day when I could share it with my own children. It brings tears to my eyes everytime. During the moment of silence at the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month, I remember my grandfathers and my great grandfathers and the sacrifice they and their friends made to keep the world free from mad men. So many gave their lives so that we could have freedom of speech, religion and so forth. And so many still give their lives to help others around the world realize these great blessings. I am grateful for my heritage and I hope to instill this in my children. Here are the pictures I took today after the ceremony at Dwight Hall. Emily enjoyed the bag pipes. I thank God for the blessing he has given me in being born and raised in a free country and for parents who instilled a love for country and history. May we always remember so that history does not need to repeat itself!

Emily and the Hair Cut

Some mothers revel in their daughters long hair. When Emily was first born I was surprised to realize I looked forward to the day when I could braid her hair and put ponytails in it. But I must unconsciously not want that to happen because as soon as her hair gets long I decide its time to either cut her bangs or trim the back. 2 inches later she is back to short hair and I am frustrated. :) She won't sit still and oops she moved and I chopped off too much. I didn't like her new hair cut at first but Landon loved it. It is much easier to look after her hair when it is short. Enjoy the pictures. They were taken at Elder Seebeck's farewell we had on Sunday.

Side Note: Don't you love Emily's dress! I got it at the 2nd hand store and I am sure it was made in the 50's. I've seen a picture of my mom with a similar hair cut and dress when she was about Emily's age. :)

Four Already?!

Two weeks ago Collin opened his mouth to show me tooth 3 and 4. Yep, now he has all four front teeth (2 top, 2 bottom). Since Emily didn't get any teeth until she was 2 weeks from her first birthday this is a totally new experience. I thought breastfeeding was bad with 2 teeth, here he is with 4 and he's only 8 months old. I've told him a few times that it is only my love for him that is allowing him to continue breastfeeding. :) As soon as he will let me, I will take a picture so you can all see his big chompers.

How Toodles saved Papa

Emily, Collin and I drove down to the ferry terminal to pick my parents up from their trip to Pocatello. They caught the last ferry so they arrived at 8:30pm. I was down at the terminal at around 8:15pm. Collin was asleep and it was cold out side so Emily and I "grooved" to music in the car while we waited. I kept trying to point out the ferry boat but Emily was adament the boat wasn't there because all you could see was the lights and not the boat since it was so dark out. When it was not far away she finally agreed that the boat was here. And the following transpired...

Emily: "Oh no mom, Papa's boat stuck!"
Me: "What do you mean? How is Papa stuck?"
Emily: "Mom, Papa's boat is stuck in mud!"
Me: "Oh no, what are we going to do?"
Emily: *in a sad voice* "I don't know, oh no Papa's boat stuck in mud!"
(In reality the boat had stopped moving so it could turn around and come in.)
Me: "Is Papa going to have to swim?"
Emily: "I know, Mouskatools"
Me: "Are we going to use a mouskatool to save Papa?"
Emily: "Oh Toodles! Mom say toodles!"
Me: "Oh Toodles!"
Emily: *pause* "Oh mom, there he is in the water. Toodles in water, help Papa's boat. Oh look Toodles *gibberish* now Papa not stuck."
Me: "Yeah Toodles! Papa and Grandma can come home now! We should do the hotdog dance!"
Emily: "Do the hotdog!"
(Now Emily and I are doing a victory dance. Lots of arms up in the air...)
Emily: "Mom, oh no Papa's boat stuck in mud, there's Toodles *gibberish* help Papa. Do the hotdog!"
(More dancing)

**I believe the gibberish was her telling me how Toodles was helping the boat out. I just didn't understand.**
(Also if you have seen Mickey Clubhouse you would know that at the end of every episode they do the Hotdog dance and recap the episode using first, second, third and finally on how Toodles helped them out with whichever tool.)

Emily was so excited to walk down to the gate and get Grandma and Papa. She wanted to show them how she could climb on the fence and almost fell twenty feet into the black water. Not cool! But happily she chatted to them about Toodles saving Papa. Until we got back to the car. Then she started to cry and told us, "Emmy no want to go in car. Emmy wants go on boat." I guess she thought we were going on the ferry with Grandma and Papa. Oops! She only stopped crying when Papa climbed into the back of the car to sit with her. I should have called for Toodles he would have known what to do...

Beware: Extreme Cuteness Ahead

Halloween 2009: What a Blast!

Emily and Collin went as the princess and the frog prince. They both loved their costumes. Emily would never have worn a hat at Collin's age. We went trick or treating in the mall just before lunch with Matt, Ashley, Ethan, Sariah (Goldilocks and the Three Bears) and Nicole, Mike and Ryan. Emily had so much fun running into the stores with Ryan. She would walk up and say, "Treat please." Sometimes she would say, "Emmy need treat please for party." I don't know where she got that from. She said lots of interesting things that day. Collin loved everyone coming up to him and saying he was cute. He would always give them a big grin. After the mall we went and got Landon from work. The ladies at Sears showered Emily and Collin with attention and candy. They both loved it. For a special treat we went for lunch at McDonalds before heading out to Rob Higgin's house to crash his pumpkin carving party. We had lots of fun playing with the Coe family (minus Jordan), the Jensen and Higgin families. We headed home for naps and dinner before heading out with Wes, Serena, Amy and Karina for a few hours of trick or treating. You heard me correctly we went out from 5:30pm-7:30pm. And if the houses on the way back hadn't had so many stairs I think Emily could have gone for another hour. She LOVED it! The first house we went to was the Corbett's who are like another set of grandparents for Emily. She went straight into the house. :) By the second house she was racing. I don't think she said trick or treat once. Usually it went like this...

Emily: **knock on the door** "Hello" (I would then knock because she doesn't knock very hard.)
Door would open and then....
Emily: **giggling and jumping up and down** "Treat, please, treat, please, treat please"
The owner would usually tell her how cute she was, hand over the candy and then..
Emily: "Thank-you." **then turn to me** "Mommy, let's go get nother treat for Emmy" and off she would run!

She literally ran from house to house for two and a half blocks. The older girls had trouble keeping up. My favourite was when we would come to a house with a "scary monster" and she would say, "Its scarey monster, mommy. C'mon let's get out of here." Word for word that is what she would say and then she would run pulling on my hand. I would break out into laughter each time. I love my daughter. And she LOVES Halloween. At the end she wanted to go to Ethan's house to trick or treat. So we walked to my brother Matt's house and hung out there for a few minutes. She fell asleep on the way home. It was an awesome day! Enjoy the pictures!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Sneak peek...

Here is a sneak peek of Collin's costume. I finished making it tonight and Emily insisted on wearing it. At first she got Collin to hop around the house ( with mom's help.) But then she wanted to wear the shoes and hat and this is what it looked like. Be ready for cuteness tomorrow with Collin! I hope Emily likes her costume?!

Our Weekend

We had a mini family vacation this weekend. It was fabulous! We left Friday night after a fantastic fireside on Christ's Atonement given by the mission president and his wife, Pres and Sis Nielson. Landon had fun talking with them since Pres Nielson is originally from Cache Valley and Sis Nielson is originally from Brigham City. They sit and talk about places that all three know. :) We actually took the ferry with them, the missionaries, my parents, and Matt's family. I played with the kids while the "adults" talked. :) I do fit in better with the kids. :) We shared a hotel room with my parents that night in Courtenay. Emily thought it was perfect. She tried to convince Grandma to let her stay in their bed in their room. In our room their was two double beds. Emily decided that if she couldn't sleep with her grandparents than she must sleep with mom. This meant I slept in one double bed with both Emily and Collin. The kids slept really well.

I got up early in the morning and drove my parents to the airport as they are spending 10 days with Rita and her family. Emily woke up and was a bit confused that Grandma and Papa were gone. We had a relaxed day window/real shopping. I bought Emily the perfect dress. I love it! We dropped Landon off for his church meetings at 3pm in Nanaimo. Sis Norris came with us to check into the motel. That was when I realized I had left my skirt at home. So we got directions to Value Village (a second hand store). I found a really great dress and skirt plus Emily three dresses all for $30! I will post a picture of Emily and I in our new dresses the next time we wear them. Her peach dress looks right out of the 50's. Actually I have a feeling it was a very expensive dress from 50's. :) She looks ADORABLE in it! Saturday night was the adult session for stake conference. A member of the Quorum of the 70 was here for the two days, Elder Perry. He was so funny and just really nice. He did a question and answer time which was INCREDIBLE! I learned so much.

Sunday we went to stake conference and well the kids have definitely behaved better in the past.... :) Ethan sat with us for the first part. He and Emily are great together. Great talks, I always love the time we spend at conference. Afterwards we were invited to Rachel and Justin Kingsley's home for dinner. It was so nice of them. Rachel made a FEAST! It was delicious. I wish I lived closer so that I could take some cooking lessons. We had a nice time visiting with her family, her parents, and sisters. Emily loved Claire's toys and spending time with all the kids. Thanks again for being so kind to us. We drove down to Victoria and spent the night at my Aunt Ruth and Uncle Lynol's house. We had dinner with them, my cousin Stephanie, her son Tye, my cousin Celine and her fiance Tim. It was a delicious dinner and great visit. I wish I could see them all more often. Emily loved playing with Tye and Uncle Lynol. Collin showed off to all the pretty girls! :)

Monday we went to Build a Bear where Rmily got her Christmas present for Collin, she stuffed a monkey! Of course mom and dad named him Chunky Monkey. We let her pick one up for herself, she picked a bunny. She named her, "Bunny." She picked out the noise "giggling." It is cute when she and bunny sit and giggle together. Collin loves the monkey, he laughs when it makes monkey noises. We had Arby's and New York Fries for lunch and then drove back up the island to catch the 3 o clock ferry. The kids slept most of the way. My aunt had us over for dinner when we got home. It was a fantastic weekend with my wonderful little family!