She made even US look Good!

 On Sept 11, 2010 

our neighbor and friend Sonja 

took our family pictures.

Wow,  I am so so blessed to have talented people in my life.

 Sofia-        Joy,  She lives in extremes.

 Me -  I finally feel I have found me.

 Noah - Oh, the adventures he has.

 Daddy, You come play with me?

 Kersten -  Yes, Ladies,  he is ALL Mine! 

 Yes, Please!

Can't get much better than this!

Sonja is such a great example to me.  She has so much joy and passion 

and lives in such a way that you want to be better by knowing her.  

Thank you again for sharing your talent with our family.

Building

Today in the car........ 

Noah:  "Mom,  you need to build a strong family."

Me:  "We have a strong family, I think"

Noah:  "No,  it's the mother's JOB to build a strong family"

Me:  "So, how do you think I am doing?'

Noah:  "Pretty good,  we all love each other at least"

Me:  "Well,  I promise to keep working hard at my job"

Noah: "Yeah,  it's really hard work.  Really, really hard work."

As per this example, Noah maybe has been learning something at church and at family home evenings. It might also be a bit from Disney channel.  I saw a commercial this morning with this message.  He is so thoughtful and mulls things around in his head a lot.  I am grateful for his reminders of the things that really matter.  It is my job as a mother and as one lucky enough to stay home with my children, now when they are young to build our family.   I do appreciate that Noah realizes that building a strong family is "Really, really hard work".  Not to say that it does not have it's rewards and blessings.  It sure does not come in a monetary way. I say that I win when my job description calls for multiple snuggles, rocking and hugs throughout the day.  I often struggle with the balance of the most important things to teach.  I know the most important is the spiritual aspects for they will not get that anywhere else.  But the physical, the manners, working, independence, grooming and all the other, day to day things that they need to be healthy functioning and happy adults someday.  With my son it is better to relate anything you can to Star Wars.  So I am trying to teach him the light side of the force.  That we are all connected and we can and will be a stronger family if we rely on the force or the Holy Ghost.  And listen to our hearts to know what the right choices are.  And if we try to do what is right we will be together forever even after we die.  We need to forgive and love one another for our strengths and weaknesses.  As Noah say.... I love you to infinity and beyond and to beyond heaven.  So for better or for worse,  I am trying to build a strong family.

MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU!

Tivo or DVR if we had one....

I was browsing, thinking and looking at blogs and noticed somewhere along the way someone wrote what is on their DVR. Well, Kersten and I don't have a DVR. We have talked about it, researched it, dreamed about it, and have coveted it a little when other people have it. (I know we have repented). But we just can't justify the cost. So we do things the old school way. Where we know when our favorite shows are on and try to plan life around it and if we miss it we search online and if it is still not available we live without it. Because of this we watch a lot of Disney Channel, Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon and Noah's favorite tv shows (can you guess, Star Wars). We do still have our favorites and we are a bit sad when they overlap. So here it is... If we had a list of things we could record this is what it would be...
* The Clone Wars- Cartoon Network
*Dirty Jobs
*Wonder Pets
*Myth Busters
*Gilmore Girls
*Ellen
*Pushing Daisies
*Dancing with the Stars
*Ace of Cakes
*Diners, Drive Ins and Dives
*My Name is Earl
*Imagination Movers (our new favorite, both kids love it)
*Spiderman, Iron Man, Fantastic Four, The Incredible Hulk Batman etc (cartoons on Jetex Disney).
*Ben 10 Alien Force (my new favorite cartoon)


*Man Vs Wild with Bear Grylls
*Iron Chef America- FN
*Burn Notice (new obsession. bought on dvd, love so much) -USA

*The Office

*Heroes

*Scrubs

*What Not to Wear

*Jon and Kate Plus 8

*Grey's Anatomy

*CSI Miami

*Life on Mars

*30 Rock

*Project Runway

*Charlie and Lola

*Word Girl

*Super Why

*Wishbone

*Curious George

*WordWorld

Okay so now that you know this useless information,  you also need to know that we do not watch all these every week.  These are shows we  watch sometimes or weekly but that we enjoy on occasion.

So what you you watching these days?

Sweetness

We took pics yesterday for her birth announcement. These are a sample of the sweetness. You will have to wait to se the pic in the announce and the fam pic. Thanks Al and Mom for taking these. We Love them

Utah State Fair 2007

Last night was the first night of the Utah State Fair and as such admission was only $2 a person. So we gathered in the car with Uncle Nik and Aunt Lena and we were off to the Fair. I love the Fair. It is so much fun. There are so many interesting people to see and fun booths and food. We went last year and I hope to make it a tradition.

Noah was so excited to see the animals. As of last year his favorites were still the goats. They are really friendly animals and very soft to pet. He and Kersten were connected the whole night exploring all the fun things to see. That is why their are no pics of me. I loved seeing the wonder on Noah's face. He also got to see a sheep being sheared and baby pigs.

They had some adorable miniature cows. Noah kept saying "Ahh, cute" He could not get enough

As a reward for not whining and being a major pain, when we arrived at the Fair. Noah was really grouchy and whiny. So we told him if he made good choices that he could ride the ponies. From then on he was happy and did not throw fits the entire night. He loved riding his horse. He actually had really good posture

I love the kid farm area they have. You go and do activities to earn money to buy a treat at the end. He got to plant a seed and harvest a carrot. Deliver the hay to the animals (he is doing that in the pic), brush a sheep for wool, feed the cows grain and he earned a dollar and bought a carton of vanilla milk. He was very proud of himself for earning the money himself.

Nik and Noah went down this huge, giant, wavy slide. It looked like fantastic fun, The pic I took of them going down, did not turn out. Lena got a better one, I am hoping she posts it on her blog. At the bottom, you could tell Noah was not sure how to feel but when Nik started saying how cool it was and getting excited that it was so fun. Noah started jumping up and down and saying "Yeah" with his fists in the air.

Overall, it was a fun filled night. We arrived home tired but happy. Noah said he liked the fair. He could not decide what his favorite part was.

Busy and other such nonsense

This week I have felt more than a little bit haggard. I feel the weight of everything that is represented in this painting of "The Responsible Woman", Home, Career, creativity, chef, housekeeper, leader, scheduler, family and romance. I as the enrichment leader in our ward had the Relief Society birthday party on thursday. I think it turned out rather well. Unfortunetly, I forgot to take pictures of everything on that night so I will just have to describe it.
For decorations we had wrapped a birthday present with a handkerchief and a poem about Heavenly Fathers love for each individual sister that we put a their plate. They were wrapped in pink, lavender and yellow paper with 5 pastel colors of curly ribbon. We had a two tiered birthday cake as the centerpiece on cake pedestals. Kathy, my sister in law Lena's mother came and decorated them for me. She made pink roses for them. They turned out incredible and the sisters loved them. Kathy and Lena helped me Wed mid morning and afternoon decorating these cakes. I am so grateful because cake decorating is not my talent and If I had done it myself it would be lucky to have frosting on it.
For food we had french dip sandwiches, strawberry spinach salad, fruit, veggie tray and cake for dessert. Karina the enrichment counselor made all the meat. It was delicious and tender, quite impressive really. Suzanne on my committee did the program. She found all these fun facts about Relief Society and wove them together with the Songs that Leslie and Roger sang. Here is one of those random facts, In the 20's the Relief Society started a catching flies club worldwide. Where the women would catch flies and put them in a jar and get together once a week to bury them and have potluck. There were no screens and flies spread disease. So by doing this they all were much healthier. The songs were so fun, In the year that Relief Society formed, the hit song was "I Dream of Jeannie with the Light Brown Hair", they sang that and "I Love You Truly" a love song from the 20"s and two hymns by Mickey Hart who is in our ward. It was beautifully written and very enjoyable. I was amazed at Suzanne's talent in arranging everything to fit so beautifully together. I took my camera but I was running around so much that I barely had time to sit down, so I forgot to take pictures. It look really nice and I was really glad to see it over. I was so busy and stressed that friday I had the worst migraine I have had in 4 years, My sweet sister Em took Noah so I could sleep. He was in heaven play Star Wars with Spencer and his friends. I apologize about the gap in my blogging adventures and I will warn you next time if I need a week break.


After my week I needed a little R and R, Jason and Verity came over after Noah went to bed on Fri and we watched "Stranger than Fiction" with Will Ferrell, Dustin Hoffman, Emma Thompson and Maggie Gyllenhal. I personally Loved it. Kersten said it was good but I don't think he loved it as much as I did. I loved the literary elements of this show. I loved Maggie's character, Ana who was a baker that did not want to pay her taxes. I also liked seeing Will Ferrell in a more serious role but I told Kerst that it I kept laughing cause I would see a little of Elf or some of his other crazy characters in his face and it would make me laugh. I really liked this movie. I don't remember any swear words although there could have been a few mixed in. I loved how they told the story and it was just really interesting. If you haven't seen it, I don't want to give to much away. So I will stop now.

ABC Meme Parody Kersten Style

Kersten sent this to me in an email and I asked if I could post it because he is so hilarious and not serious
Here is a parody of my ABC Me from jour Housband

A – Available or Single: Married, at least that’s what the woman I live with says.

B – Best Friend: My XBOX

C – Cake or Pie: I want them both in my mouth at the same time!

D – Drink of Choice: San Pellegrino

E – Essential Item You Use Everyday: My Poké ball

F – Favorite Color: Red

G – Gummy Bears or Worms: Put them in my MOUTH!!

H – Hometown: Preston, ID

I – Indulgence: Monkey Ranching

J – January or February: February

K – Kids and Names: Johann, Thor, Magnus, Morton, and Salvador.

L – Life is Incomplete Without: XBOX

M – Marriage Date: To my xbox? It was October 12th, 2002. I don’t really remember the other one.

N – Number of Siblings: Legion

O – Oranges or Apples: PUT THEM IN MY MOUTH!!!

P – Phobias or Fears: Castration and enemas. The ultimate fear is having them both performed together.

Q – Fave Quote: “Don’t vote for SWAT! SWAT would make a terrible governor”

R – Reason to Smile: The demise of my enemies

S – Season: Curry

T – Tag 3 or 4 People: Is that like on the animal shows where they shot the animal and put a thing on their ear? I would love to do that to lots more than 4 people.

U – Unknown Fact About Me: I can’t dance, I can’t sing; but I can cuss better than a retired sailor who now drives truck.

V – Vegetable You Don’t Like: Okra

W – Worst Habit: Record setting blue flames

X – X-rays: heart of a pig, spleen of a yak and bladder of a 12-year old Pakistani

Y – Your Fave Food: Canned heat

Z – Zodiac Sign: Leo – Roar!

Last night, he was cracking himself up over his love affair with his Xbox. I love him, he cracks me up

The Legend of the Pink Boots

Once upon a time, the Lord of the Manor went to market to get nourishment for his family. Upon arriving at market he saw a pair of pink boots for the marvelous price of 5 dollars. The Lady of the Manor needed new boots for the winter snow. He promply purchused them for her. When he brought them back to the manor, the Lady was very excited for the deal and expressed gratitude to the Lord of the Manor for finding said boots for her to play in the snow with the Little Lord of the house. The next morning when the Lord of the Manors Heir the Little Lord arose after a restful sleep. He ran into the kitchen for his morning refreshment. He noticed the new pink boots immediately. He ran over for inspection. He made noises of approval and continued to eat his morning meal. A little while later the Lady of the Manor noticed the boots missing.

She found them in the possession of the Little Lord. He then informed the Lady that they were a spaceship and could fly. He showed her a triangle piece of paper that could stick out the top of the "spaceship" and blast the enemy. He had taken his Obiwan and Clone trooper figures and used them as the pilots for the ships. The Little Lord played with his spaceship all morning before the family when to church, after church he continued to fly them around the house. When it became time to go supper at the Lords parents house. The Lord of the Manor told the Little Lord that he needed to leave the spaceships at home. The Little Lord started to cry and throw a royal fit. The Lady did not feel it worth the fight to have the "spaceships" stay home. The Lord of the Manor wanted to battle and informed the Lady that it was a bit embarrassing to have his son carry around pink boots. Well the Little Lord won that battle and took them to show his Grandpa and Grandma F. who both thought it to be adorable and entertaining.

The Little Lord wanted to have his spaceships eat supper with him and did not let them out of his sight. He inspired his other cousins Josh, Sam and Charlie, to grab other boots in the house and use them as spaceships. The Little Lord later took them to bed with him to keep them close to him throughout the night. The first thing he grabbed as he arose this morning was his pink "spaceships". They have been flying around all morning. In complete joy and contentment. The moral to this story is that you don't need to buy your Little Lords and Ladies the actual toys at the market, Just purchuse a pair of fasinating, fun and entertaining Pink Boots for the Lady in the House.

The Daily Uniform

Noah has a daily uniform. If the uniform is changed or altered in any way. It leads to fit throwing, tears and pulling on his clothes all day as he realizes over and over again that this is not what he likes to wear. I decided this is not a one of the battles I have to win except for on Sunday he does have to wear something else to church. I usually try to plan now with Late church at least 40 min to get him dressed. It is a difficult thing getting a screaming, wiggly 33 month old dressed in something with a collar instead of Buzz Lightyear, at least that is how it is a our house.

Since a little bit before thanksgiving he only wants to wear this. I sometimes can reason with him that it needs to be washed and he will have to wait. We have a ceremony to take it to the washing machine. And he checks if frequently to see if it is done. For bedtime a similar problem. Pajamas don't have pockets so we now go through a hurricane to get pajamas on him. I just don't think that his clothes with be that comfy. I sometimes sneak them out of his room and get them washed that way.

Here is what the beloved outfit contains, It has to be Levi's with pockets and he is not fooled if I tell him tan pants are levi's in a different color. He likes the pockets so he can clip his new Light Saber to the pocket of his pants. If he is playing another game he puts a dowell in one and his Kerrigan Sword from Uncle Jason F* in the other and practices drawing them out like they are guns. He loves his black winter boots, that at the store he kept trying to put on the pink boots with the fur. Well, Dad would have none of that so we convinced him that these cool black boots were just like Zurg and Darth Vader would wear and there is not turning back now. He has a hiding shirt that still has to be approved for underneath his jacket. And now for the inspiration of this entire outfit, his beloved Buzz Lightyear jacket. It came in an entire jogging suit and he has loved it from the beginning. He uses the spaceship on the sleeve as his Buzz laser.

For Noah this is the perfect ensemble. It is comfortable, serviceable but most importantly it just looks really Cool.

Noah the aspiring photographer

Noah has always loved having his picture taken. He loves saying cheese and finds it hilarious. Only a couple of times I can remember has he been camera shy

He found our camera the other day and started snapping pictures left and right. I was making dinner and cleaning the kitchen as seen in the bottom picture. And since he was laughing and having a great time decided not to worry to much.

He came in to show me his master pieces. I think he is becoming quite the photographer. And he is getting better at actually aiming and centering the picture. Well, how grateful we are for digital cameras. He loves taking pictures

After Noah takes a picture he thinks he is hilarious. He laughs and laughs and shows you the picture a million times and he will say "Oh, mom mom" and laugh again. So enjoy the talent of Noah and his brilliant photography

Today's silliness

Today Noah is grounded from the TV from throwing a fit. He threw a fit because being the "horrible" parents that we are, we made him wear a coat outside. Time out did not phase him in his fit. So no more tv today. He keeps asking me if we can turn on the tv. I just remind him of his fit and we move on.

I have been making signs for our house which I will blog later and started taking pictures of them around the house. Noah of course then wanted to take turns taking pictures.

Most of the ones he took were of my knee or of my neck and chin etc. He is budding into quite the photographer. so these are some of the silly Noah pictures we took.

Having no tv days are good for the soul. Although some say it can be hard on Mom. He has played more with toys and he wants more of my attention than usual. I think I will just take advantage of it and play with my son today.