Saturday night Tony surprised me with . . . A NEW CAMERA!!! It's a Canon Elph with lots of bells and whistles so it should take great pictures. I've just started playing with it and figuring it out, but I think I will love it.

Last Tuesday, I got to babysit Sierra & baby Lily. Faith loves absolutely loves holding her and Christian was very interested, as well.

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Faith drew this awesome Lepricon during art time at school on Friday. The most amazing thing is that she reproduced a nearly exact copy at Tony's parents' Sunday evening because she wanted to show them but had forgotten the original!

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Here is Christian with my mom

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and Tony's mom. He sure loves his grandmas!!

On Sunday we enjoyed an Irish feast that my dad made. Corned beef, cabbage, potatoes, and colcannon (which was basically mashed potatoes with cabbage and seasoning). Yummy!!

Here is Faith modeling her St. Patrick's Day hair tutu that she wore on Monday.

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Here is a pic of Christian & his kitty that didn't make the cut for the blog header. If only Misty would have cooperated better!

Here are the kids eating Chic-fil-A nuggets at the Layton mall food court yesterday.

And here they are sporting their new shades that we picked up at the mall.

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Last night we watched our brand new copy of "Enchanted." We LOVE that movie!!! Even Christian payed attention to the parts with animals in them and did a little dancing during the musical numbers.








Here is a new scrapbooking layout I completed:

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And here are some pages from my old scrapbook. A typical page (with our pets as the subjects) from 1997 showing our dogs enjoying our bed, which is where they all slept every night. I thought it was uncomfortable at the time, but I had not yet slept with KIDS!

And for the pièce de résistance, this gem preserving forever the proof of Tony & my being the biggest nerds ever. Some of you may have had bigger glasses, but I bet it was way before 1997! The cute baby is Sarah's oldest, Brendon.

Ok, so Tony came home Monday night, read my blog, and told me that I had the wrong Cinderella song on here!! I can't say that I'm too surprised by that taking into consideration #1 - my memory, #2 - that I saw the video for the first time right before church on Sunday amidst my running around getting together stuff for my primary chorister gig, and #3 - the song I found did have Cinderella in it and was about a little girl growing up. So, I've added "Stealing Cinderella" (click title for lyrics) to the top of the music queue so you can all enjoy the correct song. I kept the other one as well, because I like it, too.

Another thing that I just have to post, did you see David Cook on American Idol Tuesday night? He ROCKED!! He was so good that it raised his sexyness factor above all the other contestants! (And that's not easy, have you seen these guys this year?) Anyway, if you missed it, here's my new crush rocking an '80's Lyonel Richie classic: click here for video on YouTube.

And lastly, I finished another scrapbook page:

Yay it's March, now bring on spring!!!

We have mostly been hanging out at home this last week. Here is Faith enjoying one of her very favorite activities, drawing.

Have you noticed that I've updated the "about us" section over on the right? I also changed the music to some songs about family life and growing kids. I totally relate to the lyrics of "Just Another Day in Paradise" (click on the titles to read them). My friend Rachel Hood mentioned in her blog hearing "You're Gonna Miss This" and I just had to put it on here. And a new one that Tony just showed me the video of (be forewarned, it's a tear jerker if you have a daughter), "Cinderella." I also have "And Then They Do," at the bottom of the list. Listen for awhile to get to it, or you can click on the songs individually at the very bottom of the blog (scroll ALL the way down, just above the map).I hope you liked my selections about kids last week, I especially love "Let them Be Little."


Faith is the greatest big sister! She is such a helper, I don't know what I'd do without her!! She's going to be the best mom ever.



I just had to take a picture of this, even though Tony thinks it's gross. For some reason, one half of a cut onion got tossed into the pantry behind some stuff and I just came across it the other day. I have no idea how long it's been in there, probably a month or two. I can't believe that after being cut in half, getting moldy, and without any light or water, it grew into such a big plant!



Here's Christian at the sink . . . again. It sure keeps him busy, though. I use it as my secret weapon when I need to get something done and he's extra clingy.

A cute succession of photos that I got when I was trying to get the kissy pic for the blog header:

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And the adorable smiles that melt my heart!

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We had a fun afternoon at McDonald's on Friday with Ann & her kids and Natalie & her kids. The little ones had a great time and us moms got in a much needed chat, I can't wait until next time!

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Faith got to go to a sleep over with her cousin Zach at Tony's parents that night after we met Lana & Tammy at Arctic Circle (yep, fast food lunch and dinner that day). Faith got to make a cute Easter craft foam project, go to one of Zach's Junior Jazz games, and then play some Ski Ball at the arcade.

Here is my second digital scrapbooking layout:

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I don't know if you can click on it for a larger version or not. Last time I said that, my mom pointed out that it didn't work! Anyway, I'm totally addicted to "digiscrapping" and am having a great time with my new hobby. I even made a PURCHASE and spent ACTUAL MONEY! Nine dollars and ten cents, and even though it killed me to do it, I love the kits I got. What is really amazing is how much neat stuff I've gotten for free!

Here is my adorable little sleepyhead.

With my camera doing worse and worse (now the internal battery won't stay charged) I've been taking less pictures, but

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my friend Carolyn gave me a great idea that she saw on one of her friend's blogs. I think she called it a "blast from the past" or something like that. I thought it would be fun to put on some old photos and pages from my infamous old scrapbook.

I'm not exactly sure when this picture of Faith was taken, I guess my camera batteries had died and when I replaced them I forgot to set the date. The date on the picture (which I cropped out) had the year as 1994. I think it is from spring '03 and she is just younger than Christian is now.

And just to show that Faith wasn't always a complete angel, here is this one of her proudly displaying her artwork on her giant art pad . . . and the floor . . . and her hands & face!! She sure looks happy about it, I know that I was happy that the markers were Crayola washables ;)

And now on to the really embarassing stuff, an old scrapbook layout. Just to surprise all of you, I managed to find one not featuring our pets!!!!

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Here are Tony and I at one of the only two high school dances I went to (both girl's choice). This spring formal was not fun, as we had to wait forever in a hot, claustro- phobic hallway for most of it just to get this picture. We did have a fun dinner at my house beforehand where little Joy waited on us and a video party at my friend Liz's afterward.

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So, did you like this little trip down memory lane? Please leave your response, or any and all requests in the comments section (Mom--you just click your little mouse arrow on the word "comments" at the end of the post. You're welcome. He he!)

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.