2012 Starting with a Bang

2012 started out with a death, a premature birth, a rush to the hospital, wisdom teeth extraction, a biopsy, walking pneumonia, a near car wreck, a lock down, and a lay off scare. These things happened either in my own family, or in our extended family. If one of these happened to you then you know who you are;) These events kept us on our toes, or better yet on our knees. I am so grateful for the merciful hand of the lord in watching out for those we love and answering fervent prayer. Prayer works. Fasting with Prayer works even better.

But before we get to any of that, January started just as it did last year; a girls trip to Hurricane UT to celebrate Sadie's birthday. With my grandmother nearing the end of her earthly journey in a matter of days we were surprised at my mom's decision to come along at the last minute. I realize how badly she must have needed to get away. The break was good for her.

Last year Lindsey Taylor came on the trip with us and I told her when we got back that she could just picture the trip from the previous year and feel like she was there with us again. We did so many of the same things; Cafe Rio in Cedar, movie night in Hurricane (go to War Horse only if you hate horses, not if you love them), Friday shopping in St. George, lunch at Applebee's, and a trip to the mall till it closed. The only thing different was that we picked up cupcakes at Sweet Tooth Fairy instead of doughnuts at Lynn's. I like to be with someone when they taste Sweet Tooth for the first time, however, we were too full from Applebee's to eat them right away. Instead we brought them back to the house for later. We got laughing at Lindsey's funny stories till we were in tears, just like last year! She's a good story teller. When we started getting delirious we figured it was time for bed. As it was nearing midnight Sadie said, "I didn't have cake on my birthday." I went in to brush my teeth while Sadie must have decided to bite into her cupcake. I heard a moan from the kitchen, "This is a good cupcake!" That was all it took for us to join her with forks in hand.

(Oh the debating that went on before Sadie decided to buy this purse.) A birthday dream come true.

On Saturday the three of us headed into Vegas leaving our dear mother alone in Hurricane. This felt strange but we all agreed that since she didn't have a ticket to the show, sitting in a comfortable house was a better option than sitting alone in a vegas hotel room. Using Matt's Marriott points we got checked in and got ready to head into the strip. It's a good thing we didn't dawdle because I took enough wrong turns to make up for any extra time we may have had. That was why once I parked the car it stayed parked till it was time to head back to the hotel. We walked to the Gand Lux Cafe because ever since last year, neither Lindsey nor Sadie could get their delicious meals out of their heads. By the time we walked back to Caesar's Palace we had only minutes to spare before.....CELINE!!!!! We all wore sparkles and were certain at any moment we would be mistaken for Celine herself. All three of us have been to her show previously, but this time it was completely different. It's got a more classic feel; simplified, yet elegant. The most amazing thing about the show though is always her voice, it's buttah on your ears. It's easy to get choked up at the beauty of it all. 

The conversation that went with this picture. Sadie: "I think my eyes were closed." 
The guy checking the picture, "No you're fine."

I was glad Lindsey had also given him her camera.

We were too wound up to go right back to the hotel after the show so we walked next-door to Serendipity for frozen hot chocolate. We couldn't stop talking about the show, the details, the songs, the clothes, the scenery, the duets. Sadie was certain Andrea Bocelli had died. I had to look it up when we got home and sent her an exact quote that said, "Though the rumors are that Bocelli has died, it is actually Pavarotti who croaked." But back to Serendipity. The frozen hot chocolate was good but not that much different from a frosty at Wendy's. Maybe that is because we were eating it wrong. Our waiter came to the table to tell us, "You are suppose to use a straw, not a spoon." The late night crowd had come out of the shadows we noticed as we walked back to the car. Here is what I have to say: Stay away from Vegas, nothing there is worth seeing that is worth wading through the filth to see it...except maybe Celine;)

Back in our room we chatted on some more till our eyelids could stay open no longer. The next morning my cell phone woke us around 8 am. I apologized as I tried to get it out of my tiny purse till I realized, wait, I left it on for one reason. We were waiting for THE call. This was it.

Odds and The End

THE END

The end of 2011. We had Kate with us on New Years Eve when we decided to go to the Gateway. I figured from there we could ride Trax to see the lights at Temple Square. We did some shopping and ate at the food court before heading over to the theaters. We split up from Matt while he went to "Sherlock" and we went to "We Bought a Zoo."I thought our movie was a tad slow and was almost relieved Matt had gone to the other one. It was dark when we came out of the theatre. No one wanted to go to Temple Square. I was shocked! The trunk was full of everything to bundle up and the Trax stop was right there. But no one wanted any part of it. Ava and Kate said, "We'll whine the whole time if we have to go there." Soooo, we drove around the block and looked through the gates before heading home. I think Mallerie's real reason was because she had a party to go to. It was with the friends of hers who aren't yet 14. Everyone else, including Katrina and her friends, were at the Stake Dance. The rest of us stuck to tradition at home; eating low, making noise at midnight, and calling it a night. 

How pleased I was to see that Mallerie had taken a PLETHORA of pictures at Temple Square when she went with the YW. Isn't that pre-tty.

 Matt came on Sunday to collect Kate. Callie enjoyed playing with the Scrumpies (aka Rachel and Samantha). I just get a kick out of the fact that is what everyone calls them. Graham says, "I can't remember which of the twins is Rachel and Samantha so I just say 'Scrumpie."

ODDS

Sometimes things happen or are said during the year that don't necessarily go with an event and they pushed aside...cause they are odd. So here are the odds of 2011:

The first time we turned on the heat was Ocotber it smelled like something was burning. I went in our room and it was the worst. I am used to that initial musty smell after the furnace has sat idle for so long  but this smell was stronger. After the heat had been on for awhile the smell got worse and worse and smelled more like burnt coils. Matt investigated downstairs and even looked in the vent. Nothing unusual. He turned the heat off and the smell eventually subsided. The next eveningI kept the heat off. I sat back and watched TV in my room waiting for Matt and Gray to come home from a late BYU home game. After they came home Matt went to take a shower. Then the smell started up. I was cozy in bed and wondered, "Why did he turn on the furnace?" The smell was so strong in our room that night that I slept on the couch because the fumes seemed like they were killing the precious few brain cells I have left. 

The next day I asked Matt why he had turned the stinky furnace on right before bed. He hadn't. Now we had a mystery on our hands. Could it be the TV? We put two and two together to realize that the smell actually started after the TV had been on for a while in our room. But the next time the TV was on it DID'T smell. I Googled this and found that others had experienced the same thing and it was the picture tube burning up. Matt and I figured whatever it was had burned itself out and at least we could still see the picture. The next day I had to make the unfortunate call to Matt and say, "There is no picture on our TV anyomre." This was just odd that the burning totally coincided with the heat being turned on.

MOVING ON

I mentioned how Gray goes with Matt to the BYU games. He is a crazy BYU fan and subsequently a UofU hater. Well, during Red Ribbon week at school one of the days was 'wear red day.' I came out at breakfast to hear Ava telling Grayson, "You are supposed to wear red!" "I don't wear red," he said matter of fact. I looked and saw that he was wearing his BYU shirt for 'wear red day.'

I like it when Matt is still around in the morning and can take Ava and Grayson to school. I am looking forward to it being warmer so they can ride their bikes. One morning Ava came in my room to do her hair. I could hear that Matt was still home. I said, "Dad will take you to school today." She asked," Does he know that?" I told her, "He will when you get in his car." She laughed.

Every now and then when I'm on errands during the day I need to text Matt about something. I hadn't noticed that Mallerie's friend had changed our cell phone settings so that all texts are signed from Mallerie. I only noticed when Matt texted back, "Why aren't you in school?" 

I'm in my 30's and people are still asking me that.

Grayson was watching "Who wants to be a Millionaire?" He turned and asked me innocently, "If you were smart would you be on that show?" At least now I have an excuse..."It was the TV fumes!"

Still sometimes the kids get the short of the stick when it comes to me being a scatter brain. I'll never forget one Sunday this year when we were pulling out of the driveway for church and I heard, "Ava!" I looked and saw her peering out of the mudroom window." Her face had an expression I can barely describe: shocked, confused, hurt, worried. It was the most pitiful thing I have ever seen.

Moving on to Matt now. One day he was driving out in the Payson area to pick up a bag of chips from a convenient store that someone claimed had a dead cockroach inside. 

As he was driving a woman was waving madly on the side of the road. He pulled over and she said she was camping where she had no cell phone service. She gave him a paper with a phone number and asked him to call it with the attached message. He took the note, drove to where he had service and left the following message: "mosquitos eating me alive, the nature is beautiful, the potatoes burned- yuck, had trouble with the tent..." Now that isn't nearly half the list or even what it said exactly, but as you can see it was URGENT. 

Here's to 2012

Merry Christmas 2011

I was the first to awake on Christmas morning. The house was so calm and peaceful. Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. I had put together a bread pudding the night before that I just had to put on the oven. I turned on some lights. I turned on Christmas music. No one was waking up. We have 9:00 church so if we wanted to not be rushed and have time for bread pudding, people needed to wake up! I turned the music up louder to get the job done. Grayson came out already dressed for church. We went downstairs to see what Santa left but didn't open any gifts. 

I had new church clothes set out like I do every year. It was nice to have the kids be able to wear their new clothes the very day. I had fun picking out fabric for the girls skirts. They were SEW fun. They all left to their rooms to change. Matt was just sitting there. I finally had to ask, "What do you think of your new suit?" He hadn't noticed. Must be a boy thing. Grayson's clothes were also left on the bench. I asked Grayson if he wanted to change. He looked at me confused, "I'm already dressed?"

There was just enough time for the kids to look at some of the toys and things sitting out: a football mat for Grayson, a train mat for Graham. Callie ran right towards the baby dolls, "These are mine." They were. The older girls put on their new shoes for church.

The night before after the kids opened their new jammies they exchanged gifts with each other. Callie opened a ballet Barbie from Katrina. I looked at Callie as we were sitting down in the chapel that morning, she was clutching Barbie. It was Christmas, figured I'd make an exception. I wondered to Matt why we were sitting so far back. Since people come out of the woodwork for Christmas services only the front two benches were available. I said,"It's better than this." We got up and moved. See, Katrina was on the Christmas program to speak and I didn't want to be way towards the back. 

Callie and that Barbie! I spent the meeting telling her to quit waving it around and making it dance on top of the bench. She finally sat it on the front row. I peeked over to see Barbie alone on the front pew, sitting and looking at the speaker. If ever a Barbie doll has seemed out of place, it is in Sacrament Meeting.

The music was so beautiful that day and the talks so fitting. Katrina talked about faith. The faith it took for Samuel to stand on the wall and prophesy of Christ's birth. The faith the Shepherds needed to follow the angel's heed. And the faith we need to follow the Savior. She did wonderfully and she looked so cute in her new duds.

I remember last time church fell on a Sunday my parents and Cade were over. During church Cade wrote at the bottom of the program, "Presents!" The same went for this time around. Following church we came home and opened...Presents!

Katrina and Mallerie enjoyed opening new cameras.

Callie sits with her Barbie head. She gets very frustrated that the head won't stay up as she brushes her hair,"Stop it! Stay!" She'll say as the head tips. We started noticing that all her gifts were sparkly and pink. The first tear of the paper would reveal...pink. I love that she calls her My Little Ponies, "Pony Tails." She calls her Barbie, "My BBQ." She doesn't know much. (The older kids were watching a movie downstairs during Christmas break that wasn't for the little kids. Graham complained, "Callie keeps going downstairs." I asked him, "Do you know why?" He said, "Cause she wants to watch the movie?" I said, "It's because she doesn't know she's a baby.")

"I hope it's a football helmet, please be a football helmet, I think it's a football helmet, I really want a football helmet, it is a football helmet!"

These grocery carts I absolutely fell in love with. I think they are the cutest things. One day in December I heard a knock on the door. I ignored it because Matt gets packages for work constantly and the UPS guy knocks and leaves. But this day he kept knocking. I opened the door and asked, "Do I need to sign something?" He told me that he could tell the boxes he was delivering were Christmas gifts so he didn't want to just leave them out in the open on the porch and ruin a surprise. I could have kissed him!

Ava riding a fictitious segway on Wii fit. She also likes her Just Dance 3 for the Wii.

Ava said her favorite gift was the netting to go over her bed. Graham said, "Now take a picture of my room." I did. Then he wanted to be in it. You can't tell here but when the last two pictures were on the camera and you clicked back and forth it made him appear and disappear over and over. Sort of freaky. (Side note: Callie has since yanked her netting out of the ceiling. I could see it coming).

The rest of Christmas Day consisted of lounging, movies, and a Stouffer's Lasagna.

Snow, Where art thou?

Back at the beginning of November I posted about how I tore into the yard. I got it "winterized" for the harsh winter that lay ahead. Sure enough within days the yard was covered with snow. Little did I realize that would be the LAST snowfall. The snow didn't stick around long and the rest of the winter revealed brown grass and brown plants that begged to be covered. It really looked so bizzarre to me to see the ground at all past Thanksgiving.

It wouldn't be till late January that we even had to use the snow shovel.

It finally came!

A special Christmas Eve 2011with family

After our Jerusalem dinner we gathered downstairs to watch the New Testament clip the church just released during the First Presidency Christmas Devotional. We had enjoyed that evening earlier in the month. That night MOTAB sang "The First Noel" (my favorite!) Matt again played that clip for the family on Christmas Eve. I thought it considerate he would play OUR favorite for the program.

Last year I made red velvet cookies, this year I picked up a red velvet cake at Day's. Before we cut it I lit candles. Several asked, "Who's birthday is it?" Before I could answer they would say, "Ohhh."
The song that was agreed upon to sing was Joy to the World before we blew out the candles and cut the cake!

Ademir captured that part on film: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxyBETPeCNI&feature=youtube_gdata_player

**Little did we know that even though we were just getting used to the fact that Kei and Ademir are expecting, their new baby boy would come into the world just over a moth later. **

Guess who the cameraman was for this event?

Busy Christmas Elf

I hadn't planned on it but I think I got out every Christmas decoration I own this year. Graham has quite the memory and would say, "What about...the stockings, the music box, the mistletoe!" He kept me hopping. Once the house was decorated he asked, "When are we making cookies?" 

We made gingerbread men cookies. He took some to his Primary teacher who was under the weather.

 He wanted to make paper chains.

 

He wanted to make paper snowflakes. You could hardly see the floor when we were done cutting out dozens of snowflakes.

 Then he asked, "When are we going to make the cookies that we frost?" These are the most dangerous to me. I hurried and put them on plates and wrapped them up for neighbors before I  ate them all. 

I kept the kids somewhat busy by carrying on a tradition I had growing up. 

Graham would have colored on every day if we let him so excited for the big day he was. Whenever I came out in the morning the countdown calendar in the dining room had already been moved and the tree lights were plugged in.  One morning I got up real early for some reason and was laying on the couch when I saw Graham come out and go straight for the countdown calendar, "Mom you didn't move this yet?"

When I told Sadie how busy Graham was keeping me she said, "Have you ever thought of saying no?"

Huh.

No I hadn't.

The Forgotten Elko Carols

I decided to take a little road trip with the girls in December. Some of he Goulding's were in "The Forgotten Carols" in Elko the weekend of December 17th. Matt took Friday off and we left as soon as the girls were out of school. I was originally going to just take the three older girls and leave Callie behind but when they heard of this they couldn't stand the thought. Besides, Callie LOVES to play with Scarlett. Callie got confused as we headed out on open road, "We aren't going to Scarlett's we're going to a Hotel." Then after even more driving, "We're almost there." Truth is, we weren't. There is a whole lot of nothing between here and Elko to look at. Katrina hooked up her iPod and we sang along to the likes of Adele and Taylor Swift. I like Lauren Alaina's version of 'If I Die Young.'
When we arrived in Elko the three older Goulding girls and Brent were at the play but Sadie was waiting for us in front of the fire. The house was beyond welcoming. The ceilings are vaulted there, which allowed for a 12 foot Christmas tree. It was gorgeous. Mallerie was the only one who hadn't been there since she was at girls camp when we went this past summer. Scarlett gave us a TOUR that was very detailed for a three-year-old. She showed us the garage door opener, and the bathroom, where you can "poop and pee" as she pointed to the toilet. Callie was hanging on her every word. Ava was following Scarlett down the stairs and Callie was behind Ava. Callie hollered, "Move Ava! I can't see Scarlett."
This gives you an idea how much she enjoyed playing with her and I was glad I brought her.

We ate Papa Murphy's and chatted with Sadie while we waited for the others to get home. Sadie told us about the woe's associated with renting their Sandy house out. The guy still hadn't paid rent and she said, "He's just squatting there." I hadn't heard that term and thought it had something to do with him using the bathroom in the wrong place. She taught me it's when someone stays there without paying. I slept down on the couch by that gorgeous Christmas tree. I also had the thermostat by me and since I like it a cool 66 when I sleep I hoped everyone else did too cause that's what I set it at.  Callie was sleeping on the other couch and had an annoying cough going on. I had seen where the medicine in the kitchen was kept and found some Motrin for her as well as some vapor rub. And while I was at it I popped a couple of Ibuprofen for me. I guess you could say I was squatting in their medicine cabinet. 

Saturday night we went to a light parade on Idaho street. It was cold but I can genuinely say we had a good time. Earlier in the day we had spent our time SHOPPING. You might wonder who would go to Elko to SHOP. But compared to to Heber it has a lot of shopping. We were all walking into Rue 21 that morning and as I saw the cousins gabbing and laughing with each other I thought, "I love these girls!" They were so much fun to shop with that we barely got them to the play on time. The thing was that we were at JCPenney and they had this door buster sale that only went till 1 pm and we were in line to buy with only minutes left. I scored and got a cardigan for .21 cents.

I had taken Matt's company car to Elko so we could use the gas card. I like that car because it tells you exactly how many miles until empty. As we drove around that weekend I threatened, "11 more miles...7 more miles!"

The Play: I thought it was so great! Sadie had warned that the girls were hardly in it, "really, no one should have to feel like they have to drive all that way..." But the truth is, the girls were in the chorus and on stage the entire time, Brent had a lead with lots of speaking parts, and the whole play was well done. I think that song, "Let Him In" is very poignant.

On Sunday I sat through Brent's Gospel Doctrine lesson and we were there to see Sadie put in as Primary President. The out-going president had a very tearful goodbye and I teared up right along with her. She probably thought, "What is this strange girl crying about?" I suppose it's because I've been there and I know, it's very hard.

We stayed for dinner on Sunday but had to get on the road before dessert was done. We left a mere 15 minutes before it came out of the oven. I've been meaning to ask Sadie how it turned out since we made up a recipe of our own. I used the opportunity of having the girls trapped in the car with me to tell them, "My story." They listened with rapture as I told them of growing up and meeting Matt. The crazy crush I had on him and how we eventually ended up together and started our married life. I remember laying on the bed at one point in my life listening to my mom tell her story and I loved it. Sometimes I just assume they know stuff that happened before they were born but I discovered from this conversation that they do not! Before we knew it we were heading up Parley's Canyon so fast had the time gone.

A lovely weekend.