Go BYU!!!

When Craig and I were first dating and going to school at BYU-Idaho, we would frequently make the 3 1/2 hour trip to Utah to visit his family on the weekends. There was usually some reason, weather it be a farewell, a baptism, a baby blessing, General Conference, etc. It didn't really matter the reason, we were just excited to get away from Rexburg for a while and spend some more time together away from school. I remember one particular time we went to Utah and went to the BYU vs. University of Utah football game. I went willingly, not thinking a whole lot about it. I do remember, however, that I was wearing a red shirt and Craig very kindly told me that I couldn't wear that shirt. Apparently it was the OTHER teams colors and it would have been very bad if I wore it while sitting in the BYU stands! Oh, silly me, I should have thought about something like that! I graciously changed into a blue shirt, and off we went. BYU lost that game and I remember the other team going crazy after the game. They were running around, yelling, dumping ice on the coaches, and they even broke down BYU's goal posts and were carrying them around chanting something! Wow! I knew there were big fans out there, but this was a little too much. I just didn't understand what the big deal was! I mean, it is only a game . . . right!

Now, 5 years later, I am beginning to understand! BYU has a huge rival! Yes, that rival is The University of Utah! I just assumed all my life that if you were Mormon, you were a BYU fan. Well, apparently I was very wrong! Here in Salt Lake City (which is where the U of U is located), you are either a BYU fan or a U fan . . . you can't be both! According to stories I've heard from Craig and others around these parts, if your team loses the BIG game, you don't hear the end of it for weeks from people at church, school, work, neighbors, etc. So, yes it is a BIG game and a BIG deal! I am starting to get it! As much as I can really get that kind of thing, but you know what I mean. :)

So, the BIG game was on Saturday, and BYU won! They were losing, with like a minute and a half left, and then they got a touch down and won by like 5 points! I am not a huge sports fan, but I did watch most of this game and it was very exciting and a very good game! I hear they won last year in the last couple minutes of the game too (I missed that game some how)! Hopefully they will keep it up!

Of course our kids couldn't get left out of the BYU spirit . . . here they are, sporting the BYU shirts that Craig had his brother get for them from the BYU Book store!

Here is Cade in his shirt, having a Toy Story Party with all the guys from Toy Story. Between the toys my mother in law has, and our toys, there are probably around 12 buzz characters, and can you guess what Cade wants for Christmas? A big Buzz toy!! I keep telling him that he already has enough, but he seems to feel differently. . . silly kid!!

Gingerbread Houses!!

My in laws have a tradition of making Christmas gingerbread houses the day after Thanksgiving, so Cade and I (and Craig for a little while) decided to join in on the fun! Here are all the people that participated and the houses that were created. . . they all turned out very cute and creative! We had a lot of fun!

Cade and I posing in front of our houses!

Front view of my house

Back view of my house

Side view of my house

We decided to do Cade's house with gram crackers instead of the real gingerbread. He thought it was so fun to have his very own. Craig helped him for a little while and then I took over. I would put the frosting on and tell him to stick what ever kind of candy he wanted. He kept requesting all sorts of things, and I tried my best with what I had. He seemed pleased with whatever I came up with!

Front view of Cad's house

Back view of Cade's house

He just had to have a Christmas tree (Craig helped with this).

Oh, and a snowman (this was Craig's creation as well . . . isn't it cute)!

Then of course there's the sleigh with Santa and the reindeer!

And last but not least the pond with Buzz and Woodie from the "Toy Story" movie ice skating. Can you see the resemblance? Cade could and I guess that's all that really matters right?!

I think we'll definitely have to keep this tradition alive even when we aren't with my in laws. It really was a lot of fun! Hey, maybe a healthier option would be to use veggies and other healthy snacks instead of candy! What do you think? It might get rotten too quickly, but at least my kids would be snacking on healthy stuff all day instead of candy. Oh well, I guess every once in a while is OK! :) It's the holidays right!

A few things I've learned in the past two weeks . . .

• I have to use a lot more lotion in Utah than in California.
• So do my kids . . . we very rarely used it before.
• My husband and I are very different when it comes to what kind of weather and climate we prefer.
• My joints in my knees don't like cold weather! We have something in common!
• It's a lot more difficult and time consuming making dinner for 10 people than it is for two.
• It's very nice makin dinner only two nights a week, rather than every night of the week.
• It's a lot noisier with 10 people around the house than it is with 4 people.
• Especially when most of those people practice the piano and another musical instrument regularly.
• When my kids throw up, they will throw up again right after the first mess is cleaned up.
• They prefer to do this throwing up thing all night long, rather than during the day when I am not trying to sleep.
• At least they decided to do this on different nights, two days apart.
• When one person gets sick, everyone else will too. Luckily it hasn't hit me very hard (knock on wood).
• My kids are very entertained with all the people around, which is nice in a lot of ways, but not when I am trying to get them to wind down before bed time.
• My mother in law has more energy than I do! She never sits down! I wish I could be more like that!
• I really need boots, warm nylons, a new ski jacket, thick socks, black winter dress shoes, and more warm sweaters!
• Cade is obsessed with creative play and ALWAYS wants me to be some character!
• Ambree's favorite word to say is, "No." Probably because that's the word she hears me say to her the most!
• I love having a yard for my kids to play in!
• It's very nice being able to go out after the kids are asleep and having people there just in case they wake up.
• I am considered a "Licenced Teacher" when I sub here and get paid more than I expected!
• When you put your bed over the heater vent, the room doesn't get that warm!
• When you get an old car that only costs $2,500 it will probably start smoking after a long drive from Calif. to Utah, and will cost over $600 to repair.
• Of course the car will still smoke on the way home from the mechanic after they "fixed it".
  So, you take it back a few days later, and of course it doesn't smoke at all the whole way there, or when they test drive it, but it does when you are almost home!
• It cost's a lot of money to rent a U-haul!
• It cost's a lot of money for gas to get a U-haul to Utah from California!
• It cost's a lot of money to get a crown on your tooth when your insurance doesn't cover it
• It cost's a lot of money to pay for repairs, a paint job, carpet cleaning, etc. when you move out of Las Palmas Apartments.
• Although, it would be nice to have our own place, it is really a blessing to live here while Craig is finishing up school, so we can save money.
• We were hoping to save money while we lived here and use it for a down payment on a house, but it looks like we will be using it for all the expences above instead!
• I guess I gotta have faith that it will happen someday . . . huh!
• Oh, and last but not least, I think this is proof that Ambree and Cade might actually love eachother, even thought they do fight quite often!

Ambree and her TOYS!!

So, do you think maybe I should buy Ambree a doll for Christmas?

What do you think of Ambree with glasses?

Do you think they make her look smarter?

Oh, and you gotta love the hair!
I don't think she likes them much!
But I think she could definitely pull them off! Literally! LOL!

The Many Faces of Cade!

It seems like I usually just keep pictures of my kids where they are doing their nice smiles that take a while sometimes to get. Thank goodness for digital cameras! You can take tons of pictures of the same pose and hopefully one turns out! My sister, Jenny, was babysitting Cade the other day and got a bunch of shots of him making different faces. I thought it would be fun to keep them all (even though some of them aren't the most flattering) to remember the MANY faces of Cade, rather than just the "picture smile".

Tough Cade

Guilty Cade
Fake Smile Cade
Mischievous Cade
Angry Cade
Sad Cade
Bashful Cade
"What are you looking at?" Cade
Silly Cade

Halloween . . . Late, I Know!

We are finally moved in!! I am so sick of packing, moving, unpacking, organizing, etc. We have a little more organizing to do, but for the most part we are moved in. We didn't even have our computer set up until yesterday! I know you were all sad about me not blogging for a while. LOL! Everything has been so busy and crazy that I haven't really had time to think much about missing people and things back in good old California, until today. And especially now that I am doing this post! It's funny how people always seem to want what they don't have. For so long I have been anticipating Craig finishing Optometry school, and now I wish I was still there! I know, I know, things will get better and we are one step closer to having a nice income and a house, etc. etc., but I still miss home! I hope you are all doing well there, and in other places too (fellow fourth years). Anyway, here are some late Halloween pictures. . . enjoy!

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Cade really wanted to be Buzz for Halloween, so we thought it would be cute to have Ambree be a girl version of an Alien from Toy Story. Little did I know how much work It would be to make her costume! I had to re-do parts of it so many times, but it turned out pretty well in the end. Our Halloween festivities began on Friday the 26th when we went to Craig's school and took the kids trick-or-treating in the administration building and the clinic. Here are some of the kiddos . . . I can't believe we got them all to hold still and look somewhat at the camera!

Next it was off to my dad's work. He works about 5 miles from my house and usually has a Halloween party that I take my kids to, but this year since the kids were going to be gone on Halloween, I just took them to the office so he could see them in their costumes and show them off to his co-workers. My mom was babysitting my nephew, Brogan, so we put him in a Woody costume and took him too. It was a lot of work, but we actually got some pretty cute pictures!

As you can see, Ambree's alien head is still pretty big here. It kept falling off, which was pretty frustrating after all that work. When we got home I fixed it before we headed off to our church Halloween party that night. . . see, doesn't that look better!

A few days before Halloween Cade asked me what I was going to be for Halloween. I told him that Daddy and I were going to be old people. My roomies and I were old women one year for Halloween, and it turned out to be pretty funny, so I thought Craig and I could do that too. Cade gave me a funny look and said, "No, I don't want you to be an old person, I want you to be Woody!" I then said, "Woody's a boy, maybe daddy could be Woody and I'll be Jessie." Cade agreed to that, and so I scrambled trying to find things that would work for our costumes and it turned out pretty well. Cade loved the idea of us all being Toy Story Characters since he has been obsessed with Toy Story for the past year or so!


The following night Craig and I went to the annual Student Spouse Association Halloween party (for adults only) at Craig's school. We had yummy food, had a "Fear Factor" game, carved pumpkins, and had a costume contest. It turned out to be a lot of fun, and there were a lot of great costumes!

Last year Craig and I won the "Fear Factor" game, so we thought for sure we would win again this year! LOL! We made it through the first round where I had to find gummy worms that were mixed in "pumpkin guts" without my hands and feed them to Craig.

In the next round, the girls were locked in handcuffs and we had to tell our husbands where to go to find the key, while they were blindfolded. Everyone was yelling and Craig couldn't hear anything I was saying! Needless to say, we didn't win that round. . . so sad!

In the last round they had to eat chocolate covered anchovies (I guess it's a good thing we lost and didn't have to do that)!

And the winners were . . . Super Man and Super Woman! Of course it would be them. I mean, if they can fly, and crush rocks with their bare hands, why wouldn't they be able to find a key while blind folded and eat chocolate covered anchovies!

But that's OK because Craig and I won an award for the best costume overall! We wouldn't have wanted to take away all the prizes, you know, as humble as we are. LOL!

Craig and Me: Best costume overall, Jenna and David Steed: Funniest costume, Shunae and Travis Shelton: Scariest costume

After the SSA party our Halloween festivities were over and it was packing and moving from them on out! So Fun!