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Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Today Faith got to bring the "estimation jar" back to kindergarten. She already got a turn at the beginning of the school year, but now all the kids have done it and it's back to Faith. How it works is that the parent puts items that the kids can share (cereal, treats, raisins, straws, cotton balls, etc.) into the jar and the child estimates how many are in there. After finding out the answer and writing it in the notebook, they get to take it to school and have the class do the same. Go ahead and guess how many mini marshmallows are in there, the answer is at the end of the blog!

Last week when I was writing about Valentine's Day I forgot to put that Tony took me out to a nice dinner at Red Lobster on Saturday, the 16th. After Tony got home from work (he did a run to Grand Junction) he had his mom, dad and sister Tammy watch the kids and we went out on our date. It was so nice to dine alone, just the two of us!!

When I was cleaning out some files on my computer, I came across this picture which I had named "Sarah's baby maybe" because the hair so reminded me of her cute redheads.

I'd gotten it from an email that said a lady was making these edible marzipan sculptures of babies! I, of course, immediately snoped it (Snopes story of the email) and found out that they were not out of marzipan at all, but polymer clay. I went to the sculpter's website (here) and found that they range in price from $99 - $300 and up to $3000 for one-of-a-kind minis. So, completely out of my price range, but soooooo fun to look at in her gallery pictures.





On to my own not-so-serene-looking baby. Here he is in the middle of a temper tantrum, just before slapping himself in the face and throwing himself on the floor. I can't remember what started this one the other day, I probably took something away from him that he shouldn't have had. Well, he'll be all practiced up by the time he's two!!




Here the kids are enjoying some apples. However, their favorite snack lately is a GoGurt (yogurt packaged in a squeezable plastic tube)
that has been frozen. Cheerios, Goldfish crackers, juice pops, and carrots with ranch dressing are also very popular at our house.



I realized the other day that my blog was completely lacking in nudity, so I snapped this picture just before Christian got in the bath. I just love baby bums!! My friend Michelle said, back when her kids were babies, that they are so cute, you just want to bite them. (And the phrase "bite their bums" sounds even more adorable in her British accent!) I need to hurry and get one of those "nude baby, from behind, wearing his dad's cowboy boots and hat" pictures before he's old enough to be worried that one day I'll show the picture to his prom date--which we all know that I will :D





This morning I took Faith shopping for an Easter dress. My mom always gets her granddaughters Christmas and Easter dresses, a tradition which is one of Faith's favorites! She tried on a bunch, but between helping her change and trying to keep an eye on busy boy, I forgot to take pictures until we were about to leave.










The shop owner is going to see if she can order this hot pink one in Faith's size and get it here before Easter, and if not Faith may choose it in another color. She also loves the one above, but with a hot pink sash and pettals. She's sure a little princess!




Okay, here's the picture with notebook included. The jar held 88 mini marshmallows & Faith estimated that there were 100. She said that kids in her class were calling out estimations of 20, 30, 40 & 50. Good guess Faith!!

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Well, my nearly destroyed camera is hanging in there and managing to get some cute pictures of the kids. Unfortunately the settings inside are messed up and even after my efforts with a photo editor, the end results sometimes look a bit wierd. Also, Christian was playing with the camera and I forgot to clean the lens afterward so there are some blury shots. If the view screen was working I would have caught that!

I thought this picture was so cute of Faith! She's just growing up before my eyes.
Speaking of that adorable little stinker pot, he plugged up yet another toilet! He threw another toy into the kids' bathroom toilet and flushed it. Tony has yet to go through the rigamarole of taking the toilet apart to remove the obstruction. We finally decided that the kids' bathroom and the guest bath have to stay locked at all times and we will just use the master bath potty. The door to it sticks pretty bad so Christian can't get it open but the rest of us can. Tony also put a locking handle on the pantry door so we can keep him out of there as well. Here he is - CAUGHT! - playing at my computer.

Part of the problem is that he's too smart for his own good. Last week he brought me this little plastic chip (next to a penny for a size reference) and kept saying "Ho ho," "Ho ho." I was confused as to why this was a Ho ho when I finally figured out what it was. A week and a half before, a little plastic resin Santa figure had been dropped and shattered in the kitchen. This was a little piece of Santa's beard that Christian must have fished out from under the stove or fridge!! I'm surprised that he could remember the event and recognise what it was, and if he hadn't told me, I'm sure that I wouldn't have known.

Wednesday was the big windy snowstorm that caused so much trouble on the road, especially south and west of Salt Lake. It took Tony about six hours to drive from Springville back in to Con Way (which is just south of the Salt Lake Airport)!!!! He finally got home at half-past midnight, luckily safe and sound.

On Thursday evening, the kids and I went to my mom & dad's for a Valentine's pizza party. They always get my favorite--Chicken Garlic from Papa Murphys! Mom had balloons and some cute little gifts for the kids and Tony's mom & Tammy brought by some balloons and candy for them.

At home, Tony had stuffed bears and M&M's for the kids and these beautiful flowers for me (and Faith, who enjoys bouquets much more than I do). Unfortunately, he was too exhausted for much Valentine celebration because of the previous day's ordeal so he went to bed early.
I got the kids down and then settled down at the computer for a romantic evening with some Michael Buble music (which you could have heard on my blog between Feb. 19-25) and searching out digital scrapbooking freebies.



The next day Christian was having a blast with his balloons and we started up a game of chase which got him laughing. He sure loves those "boons"!!



Here is the darling paper kitty that Faith made for Christian's Valentine's Day gift. It's 3-D with the legs bent down and the tail bent up and has stripes down the back and legs. What an artist!

On Saturday morning around 11, I got a call from Joy that she thought she might be in labor and leaking amniotic fluid. I got ready and then waited for my mom to get to our house with Sierra. Just after noon Jordan called and said not to come yet, that Joy wanted to just labor in the car parked there in the hospital parking lot for awhile because it was quiet. Finally at 12:59 Jordan called to say they were going in to the hospital and I raced over there.

Joy said that when she checked in she was already 7-8cm dialated and I started doing Hypnobirthing techniques with her. With Sierra she had an epidural, but none of the medications they put in it helped at all and the anesthesiologist said that it was because of Joy's body chemistry. This time she didn't want one since it most likely wouldn't do any good and figured that counting on that pain relief last time and not getting it made going through labor immensely worse. Hypnobirthing helped to relax her so she could deal with the contractions.

It was so amazing! Joy did it without any drugs, just me talking her through self-hypnosis techniques. She looked like she was asleep most of the time, but was in a kind of trance, concentrating on relaxing every part of her body and letting it do it's work. Dr. Hall said to me, "I didn't know you were a doula." Of course I'm not, doula's are professional labor coaches, so it made me feel great that he thought I was doing a good job. I had taken a Hypnobirthing class when I was pregnant with Faith, but ended up getting an epidural and didn't do it myself.

After a few minutes of pushing and only a couple of loud grunts from Joy, Lilianna Celeste Savage arrived at about 3:15 pm (sorry, I forgot to ask the exact time of birth and had my back to the clock during the delivery). She weighed 8 lbs. 4 oz. and was 20 inches long. Dr. Hall said that it was the most controlled natural birth he had ever seen. Joy, you are AWESOME!!!

When my mom told Faith that Lily had been born, she ran over to the calendar she had made in school, wrote "Lily's Birthdae" on it and said "I will keep this calendar forever!" The next morning I took Faith to see her new baby cousin. She was so excited! While Faith was holding Lily, the nursery nurse came in to examine her. When the nurse handed the baby back to Faith she was crying, but settled right down in her cousin's arms. Faith was very proud of being so good with the baby!


Yesterday I made this, my first digital scrapbook layout!!



If you click on it then you can see a larger version. [edited to add: no you can't! For some reason you can see a larger version of the other pictures, but not this one. Maybe the file is too big. Sorry, mom--you were right!!!] I don't love it, but I think it came out allright. I did it as part of an online challenge where you look at a specific layout for inspiration and then make your own and display it on the website. The lack of journaling, interesting title placement, and swirly embellishment were all features "scaplifted" from the inspiration. The ripped part with the laces just came on the paper I had gotten as a freebie, but someday I hope to be able to make something like that. Of course the cutest part of this layout is the subject :)


Last night the kids and I went to help clean our church. Faith was such a good helper and only left her brother behind stuck in the women's restroom screaming and pounding on the door once!
Christian's favorite job was replacing the handprints that I was cleaning off the glass doors.
On the way home I stopped to get a picture of this beautiful sunset. I posted last time a picture taken out our back door, now this one taken less than a block west of our front door. I feel so lucky to be surrounded by such beauty!!











And now a final, classy picture to end this week's blog.

I've been tagged!

I've been tagged by both Carolyn and Natalie now to do this, so I thought I'd better get going! I had to answer the following questions and then tag someone else.

10 years ago

We had been in our Clinton home just over a year (we moved in on Valentine’s Day 1997) and I was working as Assistant Manager at the Ogden Animal Shelter. Tony was driving truck over the road and was only home on the weekends, many of which we went fishing or camping in the Uintahs. We went to tons of movies and out to dinner all the time (I must say that I do miss that!). We had four pets: our cat Misty, Yorkie-Dutchess, German Shepherd-Smokey, and Yorkie-Crumpet. I had just gone off the Depo-Provera birth control shot so that I could get pregnant in the next year or two (but it just didn’t quite work out that way, of course). I had super long hair and Tony & I both wore glasses at the time. Things sure have changed!

Things on my "to do" list today

1. Read with the kids
2. Laundry
3. Clean the bathrooms (YUCK!)
4. Call my homebuilder to come fix a few things
5. Update my blog

What I would do with a billion dollars

1. Pay off the house.
2. Buy homes for all my & Tony’s sisters, brother and parents.
3. Tithing & lots of charities which help kids or animals
4. Get some serious plastic surgery
5. Buy a crazy cool computer with tons of memory, an awesome camera, and lots of digital scrapbooking supplies for my new addiction. :D

3 bad habits

1. Mindlessly snacking
2. Picking my zits
3. Watching too much TV

3 places I have lived

1. Ithaca, New York
2. St. Louis, Missouri
3. Ogden, Utah

5 jobs I have had

1. Kennel cleaner at Kendell Veterinary Hospital - shout out for poop scoopers! By the way, my sister, Sarah, took the job after I quit and did it for years.
2. Salesperson at Video Express
3. Hostess at El Matador
4. Adoption Supervisor at the Tiffany Adoption Center in the Ogden Animal Shelter
5. Dog groomer at Groomingdales

5 things people don’t know about me
*I’m such an open book that most of you reading this already know WAY more about me than you would ever want to, so this was very difficult. But I tried hard to think of some obscure facts so that maybe a few of you might learn something new!*

1. I’ve been vaccinated against rabies (when I was working at the animal shelter, and it cost the city like $1,200.00!!)
2. I absolutely LOVE gay guys.
3. In high school I took the National Latin test and scored in the top 2%, was on the debate team and competed in Extemporaneous Speaking, won an FHA (Future Homemakers of America) award for cooking an appetizer in a state competition, and one year was on the stage crew.
4. I have never broken a bone.
5. In general, I like bugs but am completely freaked out by earwigs and wasps.

I tag:

Rachel Hood, as soon as her little seven week old Gracie is feeling better from RSV. (We’re praying for you!)

Monday, February 11, 2008


My dad was sweet enough to take this picture of me last night so I could show what my hair looks like. I still need to get some new hair products, tools, and experience at styling it to get it to look right, but this will give you an idea.


Also, a few people have noticed that the older blog entries were missing and asked me to put them back on the page. They are not gone, just moved! I just lessened the number of posts that show by scrolling down the front page, but you can access past posts by using the dated links on the far right under "Blog Archive."


Thank you to everyone with sweet comments on the new look and on the slide show!

Saturday, February 9, 2008

Well, we have had a somewhat slow month around here, but here are some things that have happened.

We have had TONS and TONS of snow!! Here is a picture of the kids playing in it at the beginning of January, but since then we have had at least two more feet. Because of our proximity to the lake ours has melted down quite a bit, but up by our parents' houses they got even more snow and none of it has melted. The piles on the sides of the driveway are over four feet tall!
Tony has been so glad that he bid the Provo/Spanish Fork area this year instead of Logan again.It does make for a pretty view out our back door!
Christian has been getting into unbelievable amounts of mischief, as usual. We can't keep any kitchen chairs around our table because he not only climbs up onto it (and tries to grab the chandelier) but he pushes them over to the counters to get into the cupboards & sink and into the pantry to reach things on the higher shelves!

One day he discovered some lotion and I guess he thought his hair needed some moisture.






Here he is enjoying an Indoor S'More in the car.












If a chair is left out, he loves to help with the dishes.







But the worst thing he did this month is plug up our Master Bathroom toilet. Tony had to completly take the thing off and apart on Wednesday and said he almost had to buy a new one because he couldn't pry the toy out. Be forewarned: Fisher Price Little People are the perfect size to jam up potty plumbing!






Faith has been drawing and writing up a storm. She is always making books, cards and decorations. We had Parent/Teacher conference this week and Mrs. Schaefermeyer said that Faith is doing GREAT!!






She loves to play with the couch cushions and drags her brother into playing "cave" . . .


or "swimming pool." Unfortunately for Christian, this time she included dress-up into swimsuits and he got to wear her Ariel tankini.


At her school they had an "I Search" fair. The students were supposed to research anything of their choice and create a presentation. Kindergarteners were asked to pick an animal and learn three facts about it and then make up a paper-sized poster to display what they had learned. Faith wanted to do hers all by herself so she chose her animal, a giraffe, and came up with three questions she had about them. I helped her find the answers to her questions on the internet, then she wrote the facts on some cardstock, drew pictures to go along with them, and then decorated it. I am so proud of her!! We went to her school to see the entries and Faith even got a ribbon for participating.


The most exciting thing is that my mom gave us a piano!! She wants each of her grandkids to have one in their home and had given my sister, Sarah, one last summer. She was going to wait until Faith was 8, but Faith loves to play my mom's piano so much that she wanted her to have one now. Here is Christian peeking around the wall at the guys setting it up.


It looks so beautiful in our front living room! It's a Yamaha Clavinova Digital Baby Grand and has a ton of fun features. Faith loves to have it play one of the songs already stored in it and play along.




On Feb. 2nd, we went to Sierra's second birthday party. It had a Shrek theme and the kids got Shrek ears or Fiona crown & ears.








The kids played "Pin the tail on Donkey"








and "Feed Shrek."







Joy's tummy is sure getting big!! She's due at the end of the month so the baby could be arriving at any time now. I can't wait to meet you Lily!








Something bad that happened a few weeks ago is that I accidentally put my camera through the washing machine in the pocket of my jeans. Amazingly, it still kind of works!! You have to manually tell it to flash, and the view screen is so dark you can hardly see what you're taking a picture of, but at least it still takes pictures. Here is one I took of Crumpet when I was testing it out.


I downloaded the pictures off my old camera so I can use it also, and found this cute one of Faith from July '06.


Anything else that happened that I can think of -

We went to a fun Superbowl party at Tony's parents'. Lots of great food and fun company, and Tony enjoyed the great game.

We were saddened by the passing of President Hinckley, but are excited to have President Monson as our new prophet!

I got my hair colored and cut. I will take a picture as soon as I figure out how to style it!

Friday, February 8, 2008

Some fancy new stuff on the blog

As you can see, I've been playing with my blog template. A HUGE thank you to Rachel Hood who helped me figure it out!! I promise to put some effort into an actual post soon!