These are a few of my favorite things......

So this year has come and gone in a flash! It has been full of excitement and full of good things and full of stress and full of happiness and full of change!
I decided that since I have been so focused on the things in our life that are not going as we had planned that I would turn this post into a "what makes me happy" and "what I can't live with out" and "the little things I love"
I sometimes tend to be a little materialistic so here are the worldly items I am into. I will give a little shout out to my Oobees! Love them for many reasons. Mainly cuz they are sooo warm and fuzzy and cozy and tall. It doesn't even hurt my feelings when my mom makes fun of me for wearing my slippers in public....that is how much I love them...
Another thing that I wear quite often, okay everyday, is a necklace my sister Geri gave me. The reason I love it so much is because the best compliment I have ever gotten was from my dear friend Kellie Fullmer. It was one of those things where you sum someone up in 1 word..... her word for me was BALANCED! Isn't that what we all strive for as mothers?? It is like a balancing act each and every day. Making sure that you give your kids everything they need, save some time and energy for your husband whom you love dearly, make sure you do your obligations, making time to maintain friendships and making new ones, and than STILL leaving a little extra time JUST for YOU! Seems like it is such a balancing act of making a moment for yourself but not soo much you feel guilty for not being there for everyone else. (sorry if this doesn't make sense!) Anyways, it was so nice of her to say such things and even if she didn't mean it I am grateful she said it! (ps, the necklace says "balance")
I betcha if it rained 5 days a week you wouldn't hear me complain! You hear a lot of people saying that they get blue when it is gloomy out but for me, quite the opposite! I mostly love watching from inside on a cozy couch and a blanky BUT I do love being in it as well! When I was a little girl I remember it raining on my birthday and my friends and I hopped into our swimsuits and ran outside to jump on the tramp in the rain....good times!
I hate to even say this one cuz EVERYONE loves Cafe Rio but it is true.... one of my faves.... moving away has made it so it is a real treat when we go back to Utah and get to go. Pork salad please with black beans and no pi co or gauc! The only thing I am not a fan of is when they yell, "FREE MEAL!" yeah sorta makes ya feel like a "frequent diner"
I am all about a GREAT sale and I am not afraid to admit to being a bit of a sale shopper. Especially with my kids clothing cuz there are some killer deals out there to be had! I shop mostly for them at the Gap, Children's Place, Gymboree, and Naartjie and I RARELY pay full price..... there is such pleasure in finding a screaming deal! I consider myself a black belt shopper in that department.
The other day while playing outside with the boys I looked out across the yard and realized how much I love the look of clean sparkling snow.... IT TWINKLES! Such a pretty sight....
My life changed forever when we got a DVR a few years back. I thought when I had kids my Dr. Phil and Oprah days were over. Hmm no wonder I stay up way too late! It could also be considered a bad thing too.... I definitely waste more time because of it. Seems like when I should be heading off to sweet slumber I am either in blog land or watching something on the DVR. So, I guess it is a love/hate relationship.
Something else that I enjoy WAY too much would have to be Diet Coke. My favorite is actually Diet Cherry Coke but I am not THAT picky. I actually like whatever is on sale at the time (there I go again, looking for a sale) I really love it COLD. If it has been sitting very long I try to pon it off on Lane. He doesn't seem as picky as I am.
I got a GREAT birthday gift this year from my sister in law..... I wear it everyday and have people ask me all the time what fragrance I am wearing. It is truly a beautiful scent and I feel like a total woman when wearing it. When Daws smells it on me he always tells me that I smell DELICIOUS! You may need to give me a whiff sometime to see for yourself! It is Flower Bomb by Viktor and Rolf. (Thanks Mel!)
Who doesn't like a yum smelling house? I always seem to have at least 3 wallflowers plugged in at a time. (no worries, i have read the scary stories on the empty ones burning your house down so i am careful) My all time fave has been Brown Sugar and Fig but as of recently I can't get enough of Winter Candy Apple and Sweat Cinnamon Pumpkin. For summer time I really like Fresh Lemonade and Blissful Blackberry. Smells are definitely seasonal don't ya think?
It has been mentioned before but I am a big fan of the Doc. Lane's impersonation is hilarious (and somewhat legit). I think he gives great advice and I agree with MOST of his opinions and ideas.
Anyone that knows me knows that I am sort of a picky eater...but when it comes to treats, sign me up! One of my all time faves has got to be Baked Lays. I love the BBQ and the Sour Cream and Onion.... speaking of, I think I will go get some to munch on now!
Being that I do hair some of my favorite products to use for my own hair would be the Pureology shamp and condition.
For styling products I have been diggen the Big Sexy Hair root pump. (i use that on a ton of clients)
Hands down the best spray shine is Varnish. I spray on the hair OR spray with whatever pomade or wax I am using and I get great results!
Oh and I also really like the Hydrating Halo shampoo and conditioner. Dry climates call for some major hydration!
Since I have had the 2 little bundles of joy in my life my hair went from pretty curly to semi wavy to bendy frizzy. So on days that I go in public or actually do my hair I am always grateful for my Chi. (I secretly want the GHD but don't know if it is worth it when I really do love the chi)



Well, looks like I didn't get to all of them but I am too tired to to go on... I will be back later for the rest of my list..... Merry Christmas EVERYONE!

Baby It's Cold Outside

I would go on with the song but I don't know any more of the words. Incase you were wondering what we Idaho folk do for fun in the middle of December.... We FREEZE!
I don't have any snow pants for them so we had to put some fleece bottoms on under their jeans and hike up their socks. Cole usually HATES being cold but since he was bundled he didn't want the fun to end..... but after an hour and a half my toes were passed the point of cold and hit the point of PAIN so we went in and made us some delicious hot cocoa with the good ol cocco motion! My Gma loved their rosie cheecks (notice Daws has a mirror in hand...he must of loved them too!)

Hmmmm

Deep thoughts by Dawson........

I wonder if he is bored? I wonder if he is cold? I wonder if he wishes he had some other fish friends? I wonder what my mom would do if I put in some plastic sharks and some marvel figures (spiderman to be exact) in there for him?
Don't think he didn't do just that, I was the one that had to fish them out!!

The 2 wisemen

Ok well since it is Monday night and I haven't updated in quite sometime I thought it only fitting to post about our Family Home Evening...... I am sad I didn't take any pictures of them bringing their gifts to baby Jesus. They thought it was great fun and I think that Daws now kinda gets the whole meaning of Christmas now. (until someone asks him what he wants for Christmas and he pulls out his LONG list of WANTS and NEEDS) But it was a fun night and nice to take a moment out of the commercialism that Christmas has become..... I am a victim of it myself, dangit! It is kinda hard not to get all caught up into when ya have kids (and you love shopping!) Well, here is to trying to bring back the "true" spirit of Christmas!

Updates on the home front....

Lane took the boys over to the lot for his daily walk through.... The brick man put up the tarp so he could turn on his heater and stay WARM in this FREEZING cold! Here are a few pics of the outside and the inside of the upstairs. The pic of the birds has a story. Now that the windows and doors are in there has been these 2 birds (that obviously forgot to fly south) making our home theirs..... so when Lane, Daws, and Coley were trying to shew them back outside the one TOTALLY crashed into the window and fell lifeless! Sorta sad but kinda funny. After finding a big pole of sorts they managed to get them out and all is well. (i really wouldn't mind them staying there if they were willing to pay just a little rent!) PS..... does anyone want to buy our house in Utah? We use to joke that it was our summer home but from the looks of it.... it might be! YIKES

It is the Japanese blood......

So Lane taught this little song to Dawson about a year and a half ago and he will RARELY sing it for others so I was amazed that I got it (mostly) on camera! I never learned it in grade school so when he get stuck and wants to know what is next and dad is at work..... we pretty much go back to singing twinkle twinkle! As you can tell he is trying to win the speed award.....

So I realized after I listened to this he did forget one....... can you guess which one it is?? Also, he has chewing gum in his mouth so for those of you that know him are probably wondering when he picked up that lisp...... just the gum, well except sometimes his L's are yu's. Like in Primary when they had them tell the teacher their family names to put on the Family tree and when he showed it to us after church it read.... brother=Cole, mom=Audrey, dad=Yang! Lane was like ("they think I am Chinese?!")

Naughty spot.... (with an english accent)

So I put Cole on time out today cuz he hit his brother (something I am trying to stop before he actually makes him cry cuz it hurts and not crying just to get him in trouble if ya know what I mean!) Anyways, I sent him to sit on this stool that we use for these situations and he wasn't there... so I looked a little longer and this is what I found.......
Must have saw it sitting there hopped in and zipper er up!

OK ok OK

I would like to apologize for taking a bit of a break from posting.... To be completely honest the main reason (aside from laziness and the holidays) is because there seems to be something wrong with our camera. It takes blotchy blurry pictures lately. Lane told me it could have something to do with I have been toting it around with us in my purse that could pass as a 72 hour emergency kit. He is pertaining to the goldfish and pretzel crumbs floating at the bottom. I did find a week old string cheese in there the other day, so maybe he isn't exaggerating. I finally dumped it and dejunked (which I try to do at least 2 times a month but haven't gotten around to it lately) when my sister Bobbi told me I need to vacuum out my purse....sick but true!
So Thanksgiving was great for us! We spent it with Lane's family in Utah. It was kinda strange not to have his parents there but it was still nice to all get together. Poor Kitty was sick with kidney infection and so they didn't have turkey that day. (I am not sure if they eat turkey on Thanksgiving in Japan... probably not since it is an American holiday?) Hope you feel better soon Kitty!
Let's see... oh I saw 2 movies this last weekend and LOOOVED Enchanted! Seriously, I know I am 30 years old..... but I secretly wanted to be her! The scene where they are all singing and dancing in New York City...LOVED! It is a good show for all to see I think. (It makes Mc Dreamy even MORE dreamy!) Dawson really liked it too. It is one I wanna buy when it hits Target shelves. (hope i didn't hype it so much that when you see it you are disappointed!) We also watched Chuck and Larry. Ok, I am going to deny saying this if you see this movie and think it is horrible but I thought it was hilarious!! Maybe it was late and the people we saw it with but I couldn't stop laughing! (don't watch this movie mom....you will HATE it!)
Well, that is enough hodge podge for now.... I will update about the boys when I am not so tired....
(Becca, i am back in action........ rad huh!)

Fam of 4!

So..... Kelly McCaleb, the girl that took these pics is amazing! She has a good eye and has great style! My only wish is that it wasn't the first day of the year to FREEZE and SNOW in October when we took these pics!!! That would explain bad hair (for me) and grumpy baby (for cole).
Other than that....here are a few of my faves....

uho.... terrible TWO's???

notice who is in charge in this pic.....
ok hopefully he can open this one with out any help.....from big D!
this was actually a really cute spider, then daws thought it should have more legs and whiskers....
hmmm fire......WOW... fire
i had to take a pic of him eating his cake cuz this kid NEVER eats cake!! (or cookies, or brownies, or donuts, or candy! he oddly enough prefers green peppers, lettuce, cucumbers, carrots, and mac and cheese!)

So Mr. Coley Monster turned 2 on Sunday the 11th. It kinda makes me sad he is growing up so fast! At the same time I love to see them grow, learn new things, have so much emotion, become themselves, say funny things, and ya just love them more everyday! We didn't get very many pics cuz the camera card is FULL. He had a fun day.... Gma and Gpa Simmons along with Geri and Jason came over to Gma Fern's for birthday dinner, cake, and pie. (i knew if i wanted my dad to come i had better make a pumpkin pie!) Then Toby, Becky, Zoey, and Jayce came over and gave him more gifts. Then Bobbi, Jared, Carter, and Rook came over with more! He thought he had died and gone to heaven with all these visitors and gifts JUST FOR HIM!

A few more....

pics to add to the last post........ after I wrote that I had a few of those days where I wasn't so grateful but luckily yesterday and today I don't want to pull out my hair (or theirs!) Things are good.... Daws has a bit of a cough and Cole has boogs but we can deal with that for sure!