I've been tagged!

List 6 interesting facts about yourself that no one knows:

Since my life is pretty much an open book, let's see how many people I can stump with this information!

#1. My ear drum ruptured - oh, and so did my uterus. Apparently I have a knack for exploding things.

#2. I wrote a book. It's more a collection of stories from my life, but I have a dream(hold the giggles please) to one day have it printed...even if it's just for my own reading pleasure.

#3. I had major back surgery when I was 13, and now I'm the bionic woman with metal rods in my back!

#4. I've never had my own bedroom (and never wanted to). From birth until now I've always had a room mate even if it was just my dog Oscar while Tom was deployed.

#5. I HATE to drive. I didn't get my license until I was almost 18 years old and even then I rode everywhere with my friends. Thanks Mike and Marisa!

#6. I LOVE all things smelly...good smelly that is. Candles, air fresheners, oil burners, Scentsy warmers, Febreeze - you name it, I'm all over it. It's kind of an obsession really.

Alright Mindy, EE, and Amy...you are it!!!

"Bless President Hinckley"

President Gordon B. Hinckley

June 23, 1910 - January 27, 2008

The news of President Hinckley's passing brought very mixed emotions. He has been the Prophet through some very crucial years of my life and has provided me with much comfort, hope, and strength. I will miss seeing his sweet face and hearing his tender voice but I am so comforted by the knowledge that he is with his wife, and many, many, others that went on before him. What a great reunion that must have been! I can truly say I love that man and that he will be missed. Last night after we heard the news and I started to cry, Tom thought he would explain to Savannah what had happened. I wondered if she would really grasp any bit of what he was telling her. As he was putting her to bed and they were saying prayers, Savannah spontaneously jumped in and said,"please bless President Hinckley." It was a tender moment. I am so grateful for his life and for the Gospel that he lived so fully.

All in the Family

When you have children, it seems that everyone has an opinion as to whom the child looks like. Every relative will take credit for certain aspects of cuteness, and most everyone will analyze down to the eyebrow which side of the family can claim a certain feature. And of course opinions will change at different stages of the child's life. I don't know why it really matters, well, who am I kidding? I think deep down we all want a little bit of ourselves to be passed on to our children, but I thought it would be fun to make a side by side comparison and have you be the judge. We are about seven months old in these pictures. Who do you think the kids look like??

Here's another one just for fun. These picture are taken around 2 years old.

Rub-a-dub-dub

Two kids in a tub! You know, it's always nice when you can multi task...especially when it comes to bath time. Except, I'm not always sure that both kids taking a bath at the same time cuts down on the amount of time spent in the bath, or the amount of water that ends up all over the bathroom floor. Atleast they have a good time.

Red Shoes

So, we went to Target today and I can tell that Summer is coming because the bathing suits and sundresses are already flying off the shelves. I've never really understood the concept of buying summer clothes when it's 12 degrees outside, and I even consider myself a planner. Anyway, in an effort to get rid of last season's merchandise and make room for sandels and flip flops, a lot of stuff is on sale. While browsing through the children's shoe department with Savannah (which I've discovered is her candy store) she found a pair of red shoes. Granted, they were about five sizes too big but Savannah wanted to have a look at them anyway so I handed them to her. Well, my mom and I must have gotten distracted somehow because by the time we reached the check out Miss Savannah had removed her own shoes and socks and replaced them with these red shoes. Thankfully, they were only 3 dollars and I felt I could afford Savannah 3 dollar's worth of happiness. Because of course as we all know, true happiness comes from buying shoes!

Benjamin's Awake!

Our house isn't very big. Don't get me wrong, it's big enough for our needs but when it comes time for Benjamin to take a nap it's not big enough for Savannah to make as much noise as she wants to. I feel like a big meanie telling Savannah every few minutes, "Shhh! Benjamin's sleeping!" So when Benjamin wakes up, it's party time for Savvy! This morning was a rough morning for her anyway. She was extra whiny and nothing was making her happy. So at the first peep Benjamin made, she ran upstairs cheering, "Bizhaben's awake!!! I go get him!" Ya, she can't quite say his name correctly yet, but her version is quite endearing. She really does love him. We're pretty lucky.

The Epitome of Motherhood

So as every mother can attest, motherhood isn't always the most glamorous job. Most days (at least mine anyway) are filled with trying to make sense out of chaos and catering to my beautiful children with their constant "needs", "wants" and sometimes "demands", while occasionally slipping in some "me" time which usually ends up being about five minutes browsing through my favorite blogs. I guess the reality that I am actually a mother hasn't completely sunk in, because often times I will look at Savannah and think to myself, "it's so crazy that she's actually mine". Well, she's not mine really, but you know what I mean.
Yesterday Aunt Holly paid us a visit after taking Jane to her second Dentist appt. While the four kids were playing and producing as much noise as four children can possibly make, I was doing laundry and Holly was applying stickers on the Happy Meal toys that she had just acquired from gasp! Mc Donald's. Yes, occasionally we do feed our kids fast food. The phone rang, and it was Holly's friend Lisa who asked what she was doing. Now mind you, Holly could have conjured up a number of creative things to say that would have sounded a lot more meaningful than, "I'm sitting here putting stickers on a toy from a Happy Meal." I laughed to myself and thought, "Now this is the epitome of motherhood". Granted, there are SO many payoffs and much satisfaction to be had as a mother, but really, it's the hundred moments spent "putting stickers on Happy Meals" that make up the majority of motherhood.

You may wonder how I found the time to write this lengthy blog. Well, it takes a lot longer typing with one hand, while holding a child with my spare arm, and taking breaks to tell Savannah to "stop poking me with a nail", but alas I was able to finish! Sigh.

The See's Obsession

If you know the girls in my family, you will know of our love for chocolate!! I'm actually surprised that the good people at See's Candies don't know us on a first name basis because of how often we frequent their establishment. Each of us girls has our list of "favorites" and a few that we all enjoy, but we become very possessive if someone tries to sneak a nibble of the chocolate we have chosen for our own eating pleasure.

We have the selection process down cold and have figured out that we can divide a pound (you read that right) of hand picked See's chocolate four ways, each of us getting five or six pieces depending on our personal need for a chocolate fix. Tonight as we sat around dividing up our portions, we were getting so desperate that we were resorting to cutting truffles in half just so we could each have a well balanced variety to please our pallets. I believe Holly even requested a piece of tin foil to cover her uneaten portion to save for later. Need I say more? It's very possible that we just might be able to open up our very own a private sector of chocoholics anonymous.

P.S. three of my personal favorites are as shown: rasberry cream, key lime truffle, lemon truffle. I also like blueberry truffles, but I couldn't find a picture! The blend of dark chocolate with a tart, fruity, center is divine!

Photos Taken by, Uncle Mark part II

More pictures taken by Uncle Mark a few days before Christmas. I love the one of Benjamin surrounded by his cousins Eric and William wearing the beanie. And of course his Grandma Sandy loves him to pieces!!

Finally...A New Bed!!

So (I like to start out my blogs like I'm right in the middle of a thought, can you tell?). Anyway, I'm sitting here on our new bed that Santa brought us for Christmas with a cold, and from what I can tell a mastitis infection on top of it and I thought, why not take advantage of Tom's laptop and blog a couple of posts? So, here you go...nothing earth shattering, just a little bit of what's been going on with us the past couple of days....before the exhaustion sunk in.

The Striped Room

When we moved into our home two years ago, we painted every room in the house except for Savannah's room and what was then the "guest bedroom". Now, that both rooms have full-time occupants in them, we decided to finally get around to painting them. We did Benjamin's room first because we want to do bead board in Savannah's room and we have to find a truck to haul it here. I give Holly the COMPLETE credit for this idea. She just did the same thing in her kids' room except with yellow stripes instead of green. I really like it...hopefully Benjamin will too!!

The Crazy Finn

Yesterday it snowed. And it snowed. And it snowed. So when we went to visit Grandma for Sunday dinner, her Finnish blood really came through when she wanted to go outside and build an igloo. Not an eskimo sized igloo, but a little one that you can put a candle in so it looks like a pile of toasted marshmallows...really cool actually! Here's a couple of pictures Grandma and Savannah in action and the fun, "finished" product!!