You're Welcome cards...

The funniest thing JUST happened. Stephen woke up this morning with a burning desire to finish his half of the thank you cards. I had a burning desire to blog about our sleepover with the kids yesterday! So we were both doing such and he starts complaining about a hand cramp so he takes a break for a while then he says, “okay I’m gonna get to it!” And I say, “mm back to thank you cards” and he says “oh…no I was going to get ready to go to the gym..” and I say “get back to it mr.!” HAHA I have never seen him not want to do something as much as he doesn’t want to be writing these thank you cards right now. All of the sudden he stands up and with a very sarcastic tone says, “I’m sure glad I don’t have to write thank you cards for my Christmas presents. You know the only time we have to do this is for like weddings and showers and stuff. Who came up with that idea? What ever happened to just a simple thank you? We already sent them an invitation to come share with us our special day! They should be thanking us! If anything we should send them a ‘You’re Welcome’ card.” Meanwhile I’m just rollin with it. We’re totally not being serious he was just complaining so I’m agreeing with him you know… feeding off each other. All the sudden he stops and is waiting for a response from me and I say, “But… you still have to write them… though…” He squints his eyes with the look of the deepest disappointment... sits down in a pout to keep writing and says, “I thought you were on my side!!!”
I take it when he paused awaiting my response he was hoping for me to give him permission to quit or for me to agree and feel bad for him and offer to do them for him. Needless to say he was crushed with I had no sympathy for him. All along he was just trying to get out of it.
I laughed for 5 minutes straight. With tears. Maybe you had to be there :)
I love you Stephen.

Parenthood is calling...

We absolutely adore our nieces and nephews. Especially those Hone children! This week, Stephen and I had an opportunity to have the kids stay at our house to allow Tiffany and Justin to celebrate their 7th wedding anniversary. That night also happened to be our big family Christmas party! They went all out this year. We had an amazing dinner then a program where all the little kids sang us songs and then put on a nativity. It was so cute. Santa Clause even made an appearance to bring all the great grandkids a special early Christmas present! Buddy the Elf made a guest appearance!

He was a great helper. I sure love that big guy :) Then all the adults did a gift exchange. It was very fun and we were very satisfied with our gifts. Then we loaded up the chillins and headed home to star. They were so cute; we gave them a tour to let them know where everything was and what not to touch and all that good stuff. Then we watched to polar express and had some hot chocolate and chicken nuggets!

The last thing we did before bed was show them where our room is again and told them the door would be open and if they needed us to knock on the door to wake us up. Sure enough… 6 a.m. rolls around and I hear a tiny little knock on our door and in the doorway is sweet little Cameron (5) with his blanky and the saddest look on his face and he says in his sweet little voice, “I had a bad dream” it was too sweet for me to tell him ‘its okay’ and to ‘go back to bed’ so instead I told him to come climb in bed with us. He was really good he hardly moved and went right to sleep. Then about an hour later started snoring really quite loud for a 5 year old! Then Jaxon(3) came to the door, without knocking, in a hurray shouting, “I need to go yuckies! I need to go yuckies!” poor little guy he was trying to get his onezy unzipped and couldn’t. So I got up quick as I could and helped him into the bathroom and unzipped him. Then I left and told him to let me know when he was finished. Well I went back to lay down and he came running back in buns naked and he says to me, “Sinee I want to sit down please” HAHA so I went back in with him and sat him on the toilet so he could go yuckies. A few minutes later he yells, “IM DONE! IM DOOOOOONNNNNNEEE!” and all it took was a long glance at my sweet husband and he went and took care of him. It was only when he was putting his jammies back on that he realized they were wet and Jaxon told him he tried really hard to hold it in but he had an accident when he was running up the stairs to our room. Oh dear sweet Jaxon.

So while I gave Jax a bath Stephen took Cameron and they woke up Kendall and made waffles. We ate breakfast and watched the snow fall outside our window then the kids wanted to bake some more so we made some homemade bread. They were such great little chefs! We then colored for a little bit and played a game called memory barn yard. After that we built a sweet fort in our living room!

Stephen had this great idea to put the sheet over the TV so the kids could watch a movie while we cleaned up breakfast! It was pretty awesome. They only stayed in there for a little bit but it was long enough to get our poor kitchen in order! It then came time to go home so we cleaned up our fort and packed up their things and took them back to mom and dad. Stephen said he learned a lot about how much you give up to be a parent. It was perfect because he is starting to agree with me on waiting longer before we have our own. But its true that having children and raising them is one of the most selfless things we will ever do. It takes all your time and energy..and free time? Forget about it. We are so lucky we will be fortunate enough to have BOTH sets of parents here and ready and willing to help us out when we need them. I really enjoyed the experience. I think the reason it was challenging was because we went from no kids to 3 kids, twin 5 year olds and a 3 year old. I know that when they’re my own and we get used to having them one at a time it will be much different. But I still don’t want it for a few more years! All those commercials when I was a kid really worked! Sex lasts a moment! Being a parent lasts your wholeeeee life!! I cant wait for the honor of being a mommy…. But then again, I can.

Getting put in my place

So on our drive home from McCall we stopped at the Pancake house again to get the worlds largest and most delicious cinnamon roll to go. We're eating it and loving it and soon it comes time for the clean up. So what do you do? Lick your fingers. Mind you, Stephens fingernails are in desperate need of a trim and well a full blown manicure so he has the longest nails I'm sure he's ever had and he just goes for it. Lickin away. Using his teeth to get the cinnamony goodness that is under his fingernails.
Sidnee (tiny bit disgusted): Babe, underneath your fingernails is the dirtiest place on your body. Thats gross.
Stephen: I disagree... I think your butthole is the dirtiest place.
Sidnee (Ew): Yeah maybe, but think about it.. the only thing down there is bodily waste. Think about all the bacteria and germs and dirt and grime that builds up under your fingernails.
Stephen: Thats true I suppose... but which would you rather lick? Your fingers or your butthole?
Sidnee (shot down!): Point WELL taken!

Haha I love you baby.

Christmas trees and Camels

One of my favorite things this holiday season has been looking back on last years holiday season. It reminds me of falling in love with Stephen. I love the traditions we unknowingly started last year.. for example going to McCall to find our Christmas tree! We had a blast this year. We decided to stay at the family ranch instead of going up and back home in one day. We woke up early and headed up there and made really good time! We then had breakfast at the Pancake house, which is phenomenal. Then we got our permit and headed up the mountain on smoky boulder road! Last year it seems to me we got lucky or something because I don’t recall searching so hard! We drove and drove and drove up that mountain slowly scanning the open obis looking for that perfect tree! We finally found it…
Now to chop her down!!

Well done baby!
I sure love this guy. Last year Stephen went with his dad to help him with his tree and brought me back a baby tree for my room. I loved it so much that we decided to do that again, but since my room is bigger this year we got a little bit taller tree! With a kink in it!

I love its imperfection.

And the excitement of this man right here.
Love him. Then we came down the mountain and up the road just a bit to the ranch. It was very nice to curl up with a hot cup of coco and play some chess with my hubbs. He kicked my butt. Always does, but at least I always put up a good fight! One of these days I’ll beat him.. and you better believe I’ll blog all about it! Then we snuggled up on the couch and watched some movies and headed to bed. For some reason I sat wide awake unable to fall asleep because I was thinking of every scary movie that had to do with cabins and mountains and being all alone. It was terrible but my baby helped me out by throwing conversation topics out at me like cotton candy or Christmas day and things like that : ) He’s a sweet husband. The next morning we leisurely headed home and that night we went to the live nativity put on by my parents ward.

It was lots of fun, the kids did a wonderful job. And Stephen got checked out by a sister missionary. After that we headed back to Ma and Pops to make cheeseballs for my work party the next day and ended up devouring an entire ball just my Stephen, my mother and myself. Mmm delicious. All in all, a wonderfully eventful weekend.





FLASHBACK.....



Last year when we went to get our tree : )

Last year he wanted to take a kissing picture but he was never able to get a good one so we tried for like ten minutes to get a good one and he got it in one shot this year! I got him to admit that he just wanted to keep kissing me so he was missing on purpose. He's pretty cute. And sneaky!Clyde a year prior. He's still lookin good for a camel! Haha

I love flashbacks:)

Merry Christmas everyone!

Thanksgiving...belated

This Thanksgiving was a little bit different from all the rest. Our first as a married coupleJ The whole week was amazing. Sunday was our debut at the Star 2nd Ward. We were able to speak on Thanksgiving. Our wonderful parents came to hear us speak and I loved watching them…My mothers proud tears streaming almost the whole time, and Pam and Richard with their proud beaming smiles. It really was an excellent meeting full of the spirit. Stephen is an incredible public speaker. Monday and Tuesday were fantastic Stephen and I got to spend lots of time together then Wednesday, he was off to the station and my wonderful sister Ainslee rolled into town with her darling kidos. Thanksgiving day was pretty intense for me. I woke up at my mom’s house and spent time with them in the morning then I was off to the station to have dinner with my darling husband and 17 strangersJ It was really nice though, it was interesting to see all these families come together with different thanksgiving traditions and beliefs. I had a great time talking with everyone after dinner, while Stephen fell asleep in the recliner watching football. After that I headed to catch the tail end of Dinner with my parents at the Budge residence. I sat with Toni and Sydney as we discussed the movie New Moon for 2 hours it was awesome. Then I got to go to the Murrays and build gingerbread houses!! SO much fun, the kids had a blast. I helped Jaxon (who mixed up his holidays a bit and was wearing a s.w.a.t. team outfit….adorable) make his a ‘super candyland’ and then moved on to my own. Last year was my first experience with making these gingerbread houses I had no idea how I would manage without Stephen. Luckily Jonathan and Robby stepped up to the plate and helped their struggling sister-in-law. We had a great time and Jonathan gave it the old BSU roof! Which I’m sure helped them win the WAC championship the following day! Anyway, after that it was back to the parents home for some games then bedtime. It was an exhausting day, I had places to be and people to see! But when it was all over I stopped to really take in all that I was grateful for. I am very blessed and very thankful for everything, and at the end of the craziness it came down to how grateful I was for every single person I stopped to see that day; The most important people in my Life and I was glad I was able to spend a part of it with all of them. I hope everybody had a wonderful thanksgiving, I sure did.

crock pots and power tools?

Today was a beautiful day. Stephen and I both had the day off so we decided we should make dinner this morning using our crock pot. We had bought ingredients a few weeks ago for a recipe entitled Creamy Mushroom Chicken. When we went grocery shopping I had to make sure to bring Stephen with me because the recipe called for 1 cup white wine and well... in this great nation I'm not able to buy alcohol just yet :) So back to this morning.. we go to dump the ingredients into to crock pot and leave it to do all the work for us while we went about our day. Only one problem. How to un-cork Chappells white wine. As members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and as non drinkers, we have never run into this problem. We immediately start looking in drawers for things we might be able to use to force the cork out. We tried knives, sissors, hand held can opener, corn on the cob holders, push pins, EVERYTHING we were running out of ideas. Suddenly I saw a light bulb hovering over my sweet husbands head. He went out to the garage for a moment and came back with the electric drill. Oh dear, it just got serious. I decided it would be in my best interest to step back and let the man work so I went to lay on the couch and watch my husband take power tools to a dainty bottle of wine. Very amusing. I sat while he went back and forth between the kitchen and the garage, bringing in every tool box and power tool he owns and setting them on the kitchen counter planning his strategy for attack on the cork. After about 20 minutes and lots of noise he managed to get the cork out. He ended up drilling a screw into the cork and using the back end of the hammer to alleviate the cork from its wedge. As he was pulling it out slowly but surely he repeated, "Its all about leverage." What a guy. Who knew you needed power tools to make dinner:) Needless to say Stephen, baby, I don't know what I would do without you.

Made for each other...

Anybody who knows me knows that I love shoes. If you were to ask Stephen what his biggest pet peeve is about me, he would respond 'Crazy Shoe Sale Sidnee.' I'll admit.. i get a little crazy when my Steve Madden and Jessica Simpson shoes are marked down 70%!! Here they are in the closet nestled safely in their shelves I got for them at Costco:)I currently own 48 pairs of shoes, not including the ones in the dress up bin. I have a problem. Luckily I just donated ten pair when I moved. But the entire time that Stephen and I were dating he gave me a hard time about how many shoes I have and how I care too much about my shoes. "He's a boy, he doesn't understand," I thought to myself. Well...... when I was moving my things into our bathroom I stumbled across a strange cabinet. One that had been installed more recently then the rest of the cabinetry. So curiously... I opened it only to find this

My husband had 27 different colognes. Rather, he bought a cabinet specifically for his precious cologne. I think this was a classic case of the pot calling the kettle black. This isn't even counting the samples that he keeps in his truck just in case:) So now we get to give EACH OTHER a hard time about the others obsession. Oh and he just bought another one, and last week.... I got new shoes. Now he understands:) I love you Stephen.

first fight...

Moving in with Stephen was a very easy adjustment for me. His house was new and big and decorated very nicely.. especially for a home full of stinky boys. But now it was to be my blank canvas...or so I had thought. When we got back from the honeymoon there was still a lot of unpacking to do on my part and de-junking and organizing on his. I had been getting ideas of what I wanted to change, after all I had to make it pretty right? So I asked him if I could take down that or move this or change such and such. His response was nearly the same with every question.. what I like to call 'the golden response'.. "whatever you want baby" Well it was after we got back from Bed Bath and Beyond where we had purchased the remaining items on our registry with all the generously donated gift cards:)(thanks again to everyone!) He was putting together our new vacuum and I was putting together picture frames and wall hangings when I asked yet another one of my questions, "Dear, would it be alright if we moved Lightning McQueen and Tow Mater somewhere else?" To my surprise I didn't get another one of those golden responses I was hoping for. Instead he replied, "Where would you want to move them to?" I hadn't really gotten that far, I had planned to figure that out after he said 'whatever you want baby' like he had so many times before! When he said that, it was almost as if he was offended. But I didn't catch on to that just yet. Instead I suggested we move his beloved tin pictures of these fictional characters upstairs.. perhaps in a closet. He was stunned. Upset, really! He then rambled for several minutes about how much they mean to him and how much light and color they bring to the room and how everyone likes them except me and when the kids come over they will just be devastated if they aren't up on the wall where they can see and well he went on and on.... Unfortunately I was not as sympathetic as I should have been to his love for these pictures. I started laughing, maybe a bit mocking. I couldn't help that this was funny to me! Of all the things in his house I asked to move THESE were what he was upset about. He called me a mean wife and pouted the rest of the night. We never really reached a conclusion but I didn't dare move those if I wanted a happy husband! Stephen went to the Chiropractor in the morning and when I woke up after he had left, I went downstairs to find that McQueen and Mater were gone. I felt horrible. Worse than horrible. I felt as if i had just taken candy from a baby. I went looking for them thinking maybe he had thrown them away or put them somewhere else but they were no where to be found. When Stephen came home I confronted him and asked them what he had done with them. He said, "I put them upstairs in the closet like you wanted." My heart sank. He looked so sad but he was so determined to be a good husband and make his wife happy and give her anything she wanted. And what had I been? Inconsiderate. Except I didn't have any idea how much they meant to him! If I did I would have never even brought it up. I asked him to get them for me and I put them back up on the wall. And there they hang as a constant reminder of compromise. I love you Stephen.

The Monster Mash...

Last year Stephen had an amazing Halloween party. . .

We decided to carry on the tradition this year! We had a lot of fun planning for it. We already had a ton of decorations from last year so that part was easy. We went all out. Put up orange Christmas lights, black lights in all the outside lighting, Tiki torches in the yard, our awesome pumpkins, scary torn fabric on the porch it was lookin pretty good. Inside was just as good. I was very impressed with the choice in costumes this year. Everybody got pretty creative. Our favorite was the stick figures....

Haha Logan and Kaylee dressed in all black with beanies and gloves and even painted their faces black and then safety pinned glow sticks in the shape of stick figures. Hilarious. Then there was the shot gun wedding...

This was particularly funny because they are getting married next weekend:) I loved it. Rusty's wig is the cherry on top. Next comes the sound of music...

I loved it they even brought her younger brother and his girlfriend as their children haha! Then of course the amazing Ceasar and Cleopatra! . . .

They looked awesome. She even made his costume! So creative. They are also getting married next weekend! Alright I think that's all of my favorite couples costumes. But i took more pictures This is Jill and Mike she was Dracula and he was a military man. Which is not much of a costume because he is a military man! They were cute though, they are getting married in December. So exciting getting more married friends!

Then there is the amazing Craig Roberts...who took first place in Septembers fitness competition! He is our famous friend. And Stephens Idol basically...

Stephens brother and his 3 dates. . . My favorite was the one in diapers:) The cutest little girl ever!

Now last but certainly not least. . . The elves themselves

The Amazing Buddy the Elf and Jovi the Elf!

So we were planning on being pebbles and bam bam but last minute found these online and had to have them. Stephen was so excited to be elf, it is on his top 3 movie fav's. He was adorable. And I love him so much i was willing to make his Christmas/Halloween dreams come true. Haha we had a lot of fun. My hat was so big! When I saw my shadow I almost felt like part of the KKK. And the costumes were too small for both of us when they arrived...part of the risk of ordering online I guess. We rocked it though and pulled it off. He quoted the movie all night and we even put maple syrup out on the table:) But the party wasn't over yet! You better believe we had bobbing for apples! Stephen and Dylan. . .

Stephen lost his hat in safari falls so we let him take it off. But I put it back on him for the picture:) GOT IT! Thats my boy.

A great Halloween. I wish i would have taken more pictures but as more people were showing up I was distracted playing hostess:) I hope everybody had a fun and safe Halloween! Hope you enjoyed sharing ours with us.

CHOO CHOO!!

Stephen and I had found this train ride when we were coming home from Mcall one time and decided we were going to do it in October. We figured there would be lots of kids so we also decided to bring one! Hazels birthday was that weekend so Pam and Richard were down in Provo celebrating and so were Annie and Stephen and their kids so we decided to bring Tiffany's wonderful children. Apparently Cameron and Kendall had a Halloween party at the primary teachers house so that left Jaxon to come play on the train with us! We were so excited to play mom and dad for the day. He looks like a natural doesn't he? :) ...

Jax and I have a special bond. When mommy wasn't around I was happy to be the next best thing:)


We were taking pictures and a lady offered to take one for us. Aw Happy Family. Jax munchin on his pretzels. Oh ya...we were prepared with snacks and transformer! The train and beautiful scenery kept his attention at max ten minutes. He was really good though.

We finally reached our destination. The train took us up past banks to this adorable pumpkin patch and we got to pick a pumpkin. Jax fit right in with Stephen and I...he loved having his picture taken! Love this one! He was so funny he thought the pumpkins were in a maze so he was trying to weave his way in and out of the pumpkins. I had to video it:)
The Final product. We picked the most misshapen pumpkin we could find. As long as there was no green Jaxon was happy. He was more interested with the pumpkins as a maze. We like it. Its got personality:) Oh and we moved to inside the train car because it started raining on the way back. Good timing!

We had so much fun with monster Jax. Thanks Tiffany and Justin for entrusting your precious baby in our care. We love watching our nieces and nephews, it pushes back the day we have our own children! Parenting im sure is rewarding. But exhausting!

Larger than Life...

I am so happy for my sister. When I was in high school I modeled wedding and prom dresses for a company called Margenes Bridal. I grew pretty close with the wonderful girls who worked there. Jaylee, the owner, has given me a beautiful opportunity. When she saw my amazing Bridal pictures taken by Mallory Hurst Photography she asked me to send my favorites to Margenes Head quarters, that they were looking for pictures to use for advertising. So i did and amazingly enough...they picked one. One of my sisters pictures of me. This picture is going to be used on a billboard for Margenes bridal. Its official. I'm going to be Larger than Life. Thank you Mallory for all your hard work in making me and my Margenes dress so beautiful.

Roctoberfest 2009

October is our very favorite time of year. We LOVE Halloween, especially all the festivities that go with it! This year to start off the Halloween spirit we were able to go to a haunted forest with my side of the family when we were all in Utah for cousin harmonies wedding. It was a total blast! I wish we would have snapped some pictures. Way better than anything they could manage up here in Boise. The next phase would be to carve pumpkins of course! We tried several times to go pumpkin shopping together but it just wasn't working. Finally, last Saturday I took matters into my own hands and went to wally world and picked out what I thought were excellent pumpkins. When we pulled them in the house to carve them I realized I got the worst pumpkins possible. Mine had a spot on the bottom where it was bruised or just plain rotting which after cleaning out the inside turned into a big fat hole in the bottom which we referred to as its "butt hole" Mature I know. Stephens was dropped or something (possibly by me) and has a crack in the bottom. But we made them work and I put Stephen in charge of buying pumpkins next year! Here is Stephen workin away at his kitty....

Yes we made the executive decision to cheat this year. We got a cute little carving kit with sweet little ideas inside. We slapped those stickers on and went to town! Stephen gave me the more complex one because apparently 'I'm more artistic and could handle it' Haha I Love my husband. Here I am with my ghost...

The beautiful finished product. Here you have Felix the Cat in Moonlight (quite the name) Then there is Gwendolyn the Ghost. It was a very successful family home evening!

FLASH BACK...........

This was last years pumpkin carving event! Come to think of it, I got the pumpkins last year also! oh yeah its totally Stephens turn. I'm not sure where my pumpkin is but this is Stephens cute lil freehand guy. We had such a great night and when I showed my mom the pictures she was mad that he was wearing a shirt that says "divers do it deeper." :) This was also before she had even met him...they left the night of our first date (the 3rd) for Hawaii for 3 weeks!

Its really fun to remember last October. The 3rd was our first date AND first kiss:) We went to the Haunted World and i kept my hand in his back pocket and we progressed to holding hands by the end of the maze. It was cute. I had a crush on him for 9 months...you know since the day we met...so it was a long time coming. I finally gave up on it over the summer and it worked! We fell in love at the Reflections of Christ fireside at the end of September, actually after it on the 3 floor of the parking garage when he walked me to my car. Who knew we would be married the following September. Fall reminds me of falling in love with Stephen. That may have something to do with why its my favorite time of year:) Happy Haunting everyone! Hope to see you at our Halloween Party!!

Joining the club

I cant believe we're bloggers! I've had several requests so I decided to take the plunge. If I can handle being married I would certainly hope I could handle a blog. We're happy to share our journey. Marriage has been a lot of learning so far. We loved setting up the stage which is our home. It has, however, been half-hearted because our house is for sale and hopefully will be selling soon so we don't want to do too much with it. It was interesting because I've never lived away from my parents house so I thought it would be a hard adjustment but I was itchin to move in with Stephen! He is so easy to live with; so wonderful and helpful and loving. We have no fights to speak of but it was a rough time for him when a girl moved in and started messing with his bachelor pad! He's a trooper. Cooking is an increasing endeavour. So far I only have one failed attempt in making rice; of which I blame Stephen for distracting me causing one cup of water too many! Our favorite wedding gift toy is well our robot vacuume but next to that is our bread maker! We've made four loaves already. Delicious. I have many favorite parts to being married but one that is high up on the list would definitely be cooking and eating dinner together. We wont talk about number one;) Stephen and I are so deeply in love. It grows stronger and deeper with every day that passes. Just when we get comfortable it sneaks up and takes my breath away and I am overwhelmed again. He is everything that i hope for and more. I hope every person in the world will be able to feel this way someday.