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!)

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!

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!

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!

I just made a video slide show of pictures of my kids during 2007. Check it out by clicking here and then on their picture:

http://www.onetruemedia.com/my_shared?z=260275332dd9c426352e9f&utm_source=otm&utm_medium=text_url

Merry Christmas and happy new year from the Braegger Family!!!!

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We were busy with Christmas activities galore during December and had a wonderful Christmas holiday! Here is our house with the lights up. You can't really tell in this picture, but we have large white bulbs and red & green icicle lights on the roof, the holy family with baby Jesus under the star in front of the porch, and a family of deer to the righy of the front steps. There is also a big inflatable globe (with reindeer pulling Santa's sleigh going aound & around a Christmas tree inside) on the left side of our house. Not as decked out as Tony would like, but a good display of our Christmas spirit!

On Saturday the 15th, Tony, Faith, Tammy & I went to "Scrooge" at the Terrace Plaza Playhouse. They do such a great job! Faith especially loved Scrooge's song "I Hate People."

On Monday we went to Zoo Lights with Tammy, Brian, Tina & Zach. This is the first year they have done this and I was surprised at how nice the light displays were!

It was cold, but I much prefer hiking the zoo hills trying to keep warm than dying from the heat in the summer.

Christian and Faith loved seeing all the lights. We only saw one animal, fittingly enough, the snow leopard.
Here are Faith and Zach in front of an especially cool peacock. In addition to the lighted animal displays, they had a million lights on the trees making it beautifully twinkly.

On Tuesday I volunteered for Faith's kindergarten class where they were having a "Polar Express Day" party. All the kids came to school in their pajamas and we helped them with fun crafts like: making an 'I Spy' toy out of a water bottle, erasers shaped like candy canes, snowflakes, wreaths, etc., and rice; stringing a jingle bell from Santa's sleigh onto a boondogle string to make a necklace; and stringing beads onto a pipe cleaner and bending it into a candy cane shape as a tree ornament. They also got to watch part of the movie and have cookies and hot chocolate.

On Saturday, December 22nd we went to the Mitchell family Christmas party which was held at Tony's uncle Craig's house in Uintah. We had pizza and chatted with everyone and then the kids did a gift exchange. At the end we sang "Happy Birthday" to Grandma & Grandpa Mitchell (Grandma's birthday is Dec. 25th and Grandpa's is Jan. 3rd) and had cake and ice cream.


Here is Christian eating his bowl of chocolate ice cream with a fork. I don't know why he didn't want to use a spoon, but when he was nearly done and the rest of the ice cream had melted a little too much to get it on the fork, he just picked up the bowl and drank it!

On the afternoon of Christmas Eve, We went to the Treehouse museum with Tammy and Zach. I helped Faith make this cool Santa Lucia crown with candles on it, and she did some other Christmas time crafts from around the world.



Christian sure enjoyed their fish tank.
We then went to a cute program at their theater where Santa Claus came!


When we went to leave, we saw that there was a huge blizzard going on outside! We called my mom to see if the Christmas Eve party was going to be held or not and if there was anything we could help with. We ended up picking up KFC to eat so that my dad wouldn't have to go out into the storm to pick up Chinese food like he had planned and also gave a ride to my Grandma Tesch.

We didn't know who would end up making it there, but Sarah, Joy and their families braved the weather to come! Eric was told probably not many would make it so he opted to stay home, but felt bad when he found out we were all there :(

We got some pictures with all of my parents' grandchildren together and I didn't succeed in getting any where the babies looked happy, I'll have to see if my dad or Sarah were luckier in their timing.



We then did our traditional nativity with the kids wearing the darling costumes Sarah made a few years back.

Faith got to start out being Mary, and then Celeste got a turn and Faith was an angel.






The three babies were the wisemen. Unfortunately, Noah and Christian were tired and cranky (Christian being the WORST) but they still looked adorable!




The script we use is a simplified version of Luke 2 with lots of songs added between the lines of dialog. Faith especially looks forward to doing this every year and started obsessing over getting to be Mary this year over five months ago.

It's not really Brendan's thing, but the girls LOVE dressing up!


Here is my early Christmas present--a new ring! My old one was missing a diamond and it would have been expensive to get fixed. This one was on super sale and I love it!




Christmas morning was fun at our house. To begin with, the kids didn't get up until 8:30!! That was truly a gift! Faith got a doll that swims, an American Idol microphone and a Hannah Montana wig from Santa and Christian got a rocking horse and a basketball hoop.




As you'll see in the following pictures, that wig was a hit!
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You know, I'm all for donning your gay apparel at Christmas, but I think sometimes you can go a bit too far!! ;D


















There's a cute Christmas smooch!

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In addition to a million fun toys, the kids got the most adorable clothes from my mom, Tony's mom and his sister Tammy!

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Even Tony's dad couldn't resist the temptation to see if blondes really do have more fun!

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By afternoon, my two little boys had pooped themselves out unwrapping all those gifts. They found a cozy spot on the sofa at his parents' house next to the fire and caught some z's.

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We had a wonderful Christmas and hope all of our friends reading this had a great holiday as well. Because of the move, I don't know where I've misplaced my address list and therefore I didn't get any Christmas cards sent out this year. Please know that you are in our thoughts and prayers and we wish you a new year filled with health, hope, happiness, and abundant blessings for you and your families.

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Unfortunately, right after Christmas Grandpa Mitchell had a heart attack and was in the hospital for a few days. His arteries are terrible and needed a quintuple bypass, but has decided that he would like to spend the time he has left at home and not in the hospital trying to recover from such a major surgery. He turned 92 on Thursday and we are glad that we have gotten to have him around for so long, he truly is a great guy.

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Also my Grandpa Quinn is not doing very well. When he was in the hospital a couple of weeks ago he found out that he has lung cancer and they gave him 3-6 months. Grandpa says that it was great news! (He has a terrible condition that is crystalizing his lungs and he was afraid that he would live for years and slowly suffocate.) He is enjoying spending time at home, visiting with friends and family. He's in good spirits and the medication they have him on is making him INSANELY talkative so we've been hearing all sorts of stories about his youth, time in the service and work at the Bank of Utah. He is still always cracking me up!

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Because of Grandpa Mitchell being in the hospital, Tony's mom cancelled her New Year's Eve party so we threw together a last minute get together at our house and had my mom & dad, Eric and Sierra over and Joy & Jordan except for the few hours that they were at their friends' house. We had ribs from Chili's, hot wings, my dad's clam chowder, cole slaw and the chocolate fountain going for dessert.

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We had a great year in 2007 with lots of changes and fun times and are looking forward to an awesome 2008!!

To begin with, we had a big snowstorm on Friday the 30th and Saturday the 1st. We ran right out after the snow had stopped (after being made completely crazy by Faith's whines of "can we go play in the snow, YET?!?") and Faith & I made a snowman while Tony shoveled the driveway.

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That evening was our Stake Christmas Festival. The first hour was outside and while Tony drove around with Christain asleep in the car, Faith and I enjoyed the festivities. They had: a live nativity with a miniature donkey, miniature horse, sheep and goat which you could pet; a craft table where you could make a jingle bell necklace; hay rides; cookies, hot chocolate & wassail; and freshly made cinnamon almonds. The second hour was a program in the chapel with an amazing choir and orchestra. Faith only made it through the first half hour, and then Tony came in with Christian and she was ready to go. We then drove through the Layton light display and got mint M&M shakes from Sonic.

On Tuesday the 4th, I dressed Christian up in his funny snowman hat & mittens and Crumpet in the light-up Christmas tree sweater my mom had gotten her for an early gift. They were quite a sight on the walk to the bus stop!

On the 5th Christain got ahold of Faith's loose glitter makeup and completely covered his face and hands as well as make several piles on the floor. This picture does absolutely no justice to how sparkly he really was!
December 6th was my mom's birthday, but my grandpa Quinn was in the hospital so it wasn't as happy as it could have been. Grandpa, as usual, had to tease the nurses. He kept accusing them of trying to get in the shower with him so they could check him out and when a female nurse asked if he was O.K. with the obviously gay male nurse he said, "That's fine, I used to be bisexual." When the nurse looked surprised he added, "I wanted sex twice a year and not just on my birthday." Ha, ha, grandpa, you keep us rolling in laughter!

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That day I took the kids to the doctor, Christian for his 15 month checkup and Faith to see if we can figure out why she feels a little sick almost every day. Faith knew Christian was getting shots and that she wouldn't have to get any but, unbeknownst to her, as the doctor and I were discussing her symptoms he decided to test her blood for anemia. The nurses walked in with the syringes and a lancet and asked Faith to hold out her finger. In her grown up voice (and with a condescending tone, no less) she said, "Oh, no, they're for him." The picture is of them in front of the waterfall in their doctor's office building just after they have thrown in all of my change.

On the 7th (which is my sister Sarah's oldest son Brendan's birthday!) Tammy took Faith, Zach and Christian to Teddy Bear Builders for a Christmas activity. The kids had a blast

choosing the animal, eyes, sounds and accessories and grooming them after they were stuffed.

Faith slept over at Braegger's Friday night, but Tony picked her up bright and early on Saturday to bring her to our ward Christmas breakfast with Santa. We had delicious eggs, ham, sausage and sweet breads and then the special visitor arrived. Both Faith and Christian were so excited to see him! Faith sat on his lap first and told him what she wanted, then Tony put Christian on the other side for a picture. Christian immediately broke down in sobs and Tony pulled him off right after this was snapped. As soon as he was in his dad's arms, he cheered right up and wanted to talk to Santa!

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That night we had our friends Ann & Mike over to our house with their kids for a Christmas party. We ate bread cubes and spinach dip as and appetizer, clam chowder or chicken noodle soup as the main course, and broke out the chocolate fountain for dessert. We put in strawberries, pineapple, bananas, pound cake, pretzels, cinnamon santas, and marshmallows. It was hit, especially with the kids. We talked while the kids played and then the guys broke out the Xbox. It was so fun getting together with them, I can't wait to do it again!!

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Also the 8th is Tony's dad's birthday, we like to pack 'em in around here!!

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Sunday the kids made crazy bubbles in the jetted tub and had fun making bubble hair and beards.

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We tried to go to "Journey to Bethlehem" (a live nativity event at a church in Layton) after church and a stop by mom & dad's for dinner, but we forgot Faith's coat :( Hopefully we make it next year.

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Last night we made sugar cookies for Family Home Evening. The kids sat up on the island and cut them out, well Faith cut them out and Christian made a mess and kept trying to eat the dough. They came out delicious!
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Countdown to Christmas: only two weeks left!