Who Knew...

that dribbling a basketball could be so funny! Zack LOVES to play with a basketball. He packs it around, bounces it on the floor, tries to pass it to anyone that comes close :) It is so cute to watch him.

Potatoes

What to do with a box of potatoes???

Our Home Teachers brought us a box full of potatoes. Does anyone know how long they will last, or how I should store them?? Or do you have any great ideas on what to make with them? I would love any and all ideas. This is what we have come up with so far.

Homemade battered french fries - they turned out really good, but only uses 1 maybe 2 potatoes.I made 4 pans of cheesey (funeral) potatoes and froze them. I will probably make a couple more pans - I have 2 sisters that are going to have babies in the next couple months and this can be part of a meal for them.

I have barely made a dent in the box of potatoes so send me your favorite potato recipes or ideas on how to use these things.

Happy Birthday

Zack's 1st Birthday was yesterday - Dec. 20th. He shares his birthday with my sister and brother! He has been such a fun addition to our family. He has been such a good baby and happy since the day he was born. He is always smiling and wanting to play. I love it when he laughs just because he hears other people laughing. I love when he cuddles with me and lays his head on my shoulder. I love his deep, low laugh that we get to hear all the time. Here is a look back over the last year of his life.The day we brought Zack home from the hospital - he was born with his hair that white!

Relaxing in the bathtub. Zack has always loved baths, as soon as he hears me turn on the water he comes crawling as fast as he can and tries to climb in.

The day Zack was blessed - he was about 3 months old.

Zack sitting in his bumbo chair about 4 months old

Relaxing in the stroller

Rolling all around the house

Zack is always trying to "help" me with whatever I am doing

Right out of bed on his birthday - he woke up excited and happy and ready to play!

Happy Birthday Zack - We love you!

Weekend in Utah

We went down to Utah to spend the weekend with our friends last Friday. We have such great freinds and have so much fun when we get together. We went to the Christmas Village in Ogden Friday night. There were lights all over in a park and little Christmas houses lit up with christmas scenes inside the houses that the kids could look through the windows to see. It was really cute and the kids loved running around looking in the houses.
After staying up until 3am playing games we all went to Chuck E Cheese on Saturday. Kade has been so excited to go to Chuck E Cheese - this was our first time - and probably last! :) The kids loved it and Rich and I even got into a few games, but the food is not that good and there were SO many people and it was so loud and crowded. It probably didn't help any that I got a 24 hour stomach flu that day and was running on about 4-5 hours of sleep. :)
I had the stomach flu all day Saturday and after throwing it up that evening I was feeling much better, but had passed it on to Rich. My friend gave us some make-up for Christmas and we started to play dress up. This is the before picture when we were just starting out.

This is the after picture! The reuniting of our Rock Band!

Sunday before church I wanted to try and get a picture of my boys all together - you can see how well that turned out. This was about as close as we could get. :)

Ten years ago today....

We got engaged!

I love our engagement story and Rich for putting so much thought into it. Some of you may already know the story but I am going to tell it again.

Rich and I had been dating for about 2 years and we had looked at rings and I picked out what I wanted but didn't want to know when it would be done being made or when Rich picked it up - I wanted all that to be a surprise. Rich was graduating from college in the spring and had been applying for jobs and had an interview up in Seattle with Boeing. In the email coordinating his trip up there his plane tickets were through Southwest and they had a special going on at the time for buy one get one free on plane tickets. So Rich asked if I wanted to go with him. I was so excited and we were going to stay with my friend who had just gotten married and lived in Seattle. A few days before we left the jeweler called and told me my ring wouldn't be done for a couple weeks. I was so mad that he called me, because I didn't want to know anything about when it would be done. But, since he did call me I knew that Rich wouldn't be proposing in Seattle because there was no ring. We flew up to Seattle and our plane was delayed for something and we got in really late and missed the interview which was suppose to be that night. Rich called the guy and rescheduled for the next morning. We were meeting him for lunch in the restaurant at the top of the space needle. Rich and I were both dressed up and went to the restaurant and were barely seated when the waitress came up and told Rich that he had a phone call. So he left and came back after the call and said the person doing the interview was running late and would meet up with us for dessert after lunch. I was relieved that I didn't have to eat in front of some strange man. We got our lunch and ate and after we were done the waitress came walking up from behind me and said, It's time for dessert and set down a dessert like the picture below, but instead of the ice cream on the stand there was my ring! I was so surprised, and there was so much smoke I could barely see Rich across the table.
Rich took the ring and then got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. I was still in complete shock - I think I said yes! Everyone in the restaurant started clapping and cheering. I was so confused and kept thinking the man was going to come to interview Rich. The whole interview was all a lie and part of his plan. After lunch we had to hurry back to the airport to catch our plane back. We were married 3 months later on March 13.

Countdown to Christmas

My sisters and I made this cute Christmas countdown over Thanksgiving weekend. They turned out so cute and the kids love to countdown the days until Santa comes.

They are just 4x4 posts cut into blocks with the edges sanded and then stained. Then you just mod podge christmas scrapbook paper on the sides and put numbers on.

Here is another one of my favorite countdown to Christmas. My mom gave this to me a few years ago and my kids love pulling the numbers out and watching santa drop down the chimney. I think she got this out of Terry's Village.

Christmas Lights and Plasma

This is what I have been up to the last few days. Last night we drove around to look at christmas lights. I got directions from my friend to two different houses in Iona that have christmas lights up around their house that are set to music. One of the houses being their uncles. They were so fun to go see. They had tons of lights and their own radio station you turn to and then watch the show. Of the two houses we saw we liked the Belnap's uncles the best!! They are worth the drive to the other side of town to see. Here are some directions:

Take Iona Rd. heading east. Go past Ammon Rd. and continue going east. There is a subdivision on the Right hand side named Mountain Ridge and the first house is back in there - you'll see it. We could not get their radio station to come in. :( The lights are still fun though.

To get to the Belnap's uncles you would continue going east on Iona Rd. to 55th and then turn Left - you can't miss it.

I went in today for my first time donating plasma. I got the physical and first time stuff all set up but NO donation because by the time I was ready to donate it had been about 5 hours since I had eatten and they wanted me to have food in me. I did have to get blood drawn today and after trying and failing in the first arm they poked me in the other arm - thankfully they were successful. So tomorrow morning at 7am I will go donate for the first time and get $20. You get $30 for the second donation and can donate 2x in 7 days - that is $200 a month. That is a pretty easy $200 bucks, and nice, quiet time away from kids :) If anyone decides to go try it tell them I referred you!

Quick Update

I know it has been a while since I have posted or updated my blog, but with Rich searching for a new job he is on the computer most of the day and I am not :) Plus we have been busy getting ready for our ward Christmas party which was last night. It is such a nice feeling to have that done. I think it turned out really well. We had it open house style and had activities in a few different rooms for people to just wander through as a family. This seem to work really well to accommodate the large amount of people we have in our ward. We had a santa in one room where we took family pictures with santa. We had a christmas craft in one room, a bunch of different nativity sets displayed in one room and then the dinner and slide show of different activities from our ward throughout the year. We had around 240 people come.
Here are a few pictures from the last couple weeks.

I don't know what it is about guys growing facial hair and being so proud of how much they can grow but I am not a facial hair type of girl. So when Rich started growing out his beard a couple weeks ago I would ask him to shave it every morning. When he finally had to shave it for an interview I was out running errands when he shaved and this is what I came home to. He told me he was going to interview with the police force since he had the mustache for it. He did not leave the mustache, thank goodness, he shaved it all off .

Zack turns 1 year old on the 20th and is just starting to take his first steps. He is so silly that when he tries to walk and falls down he starts laughing and just keeps laughing every time he tries - he has no focus :) so it is going to be a long process. He got 3 new teeth in the last 2 weeks. Thankfully they finally broke through, he was a little nightmare while getting all 3. This picture is of him after eatting his first Oreo cookie. I gave it to him and walked away to do something and this was what he looked like when I got back. He loved it!
One of the boys Christmas presents got shipped to us in this box - the present was this tiny little box that they shipped in this huge box. The boys loved it and made it their mario ship. It kept all 3 of them entertained for a long time.
Over Thanksgiving my niece had a cousins birthday party. She turned 4 and had a minnie mouse birthday party which was a big hit with everyone. Here is a picture of most of the cousins, Ty is crying - of course - because I made him get in the picture with everyone. Another one of Ty's crazy quirks, he does not like to have his picture taken.

The Forgotten Carols

To get the holiday season started off right - I went and saw The Forgotten Carols last night.  It was really good and fun to go with 3 of my sister in-laws, my mother in-law and Rich's  Grandma Carver.  

Sushi Lover

While Rich was down in Utah taking a test, I took the boys up to my parents house in Driggs. It is always fun to go see my parents and the boys love playing up there. My brother decided to come home from college for the weekend and when he got there at 3am he and his buddies were locked out. The were trying to find an unlocked window or door to come in and I heard all this noise and people talking and walking around on the decks and it scared me to death. They finally ended up calling, and my parents went and let them in - crazy boys! Today we got sushi from the sushi bar inside Broulins in Driggs. It was so good. Here are a few pictures of us enjoying the yummy sushi, chopsticks and all!

Loving every bite - we got some really good sushi!

The chopsticks proved to be more difficult for some - Dad :)

Andy, Scott and Beau
My brother is the one in the middle

Snow Blower

My sister called me last night with an amazing deal she found and wanted to pass on the good deal. It is a TORO electric snow blower that is regularly around $300.00 and was marked at $15.99 on Target.com. I quickly purchased one and paid around $25.00 for shipping for a total of $41.00. I called a few neighbors and family members who bought it as well. About 10 min. after I bought it an error would come up when you tried to pull it up again. I have an email receipt and estimated shipping date - we'll see if this is really going to happen. If so - HOORAY!! What an awesome deal.

Mini Makeover

My friend (Challis Parke) is going to school at Austin/Kade Academy here in Idaho Falls and I made an appointment for today for their Nov. special a mini makeover!!!  That includes a weave, a haircut and a facial (or pedicure or microderm) I chose the facial because I have never had one for only $49.  Challis is so good,  it was fun hanging out with her all afternoon while she did my hair.  I just had her cut and color it today and it turned out great!  I really like the color and she taught me a new way to curl my hair - it's fun!  I got a rain check for the facial (an excuse to have another "me" time).  While I was at the beauty college I also got a cute girls phone number and passed it on to my brother and told him to call and ask her out!  It was a very productive afternoon!  Thanks Challis - you're great!

Halloween

Zack loved his costume - he kept laughing and trying to figure out what was on his head.   Zack stayed home with me and was my helper passing out candy to the trick or treaters, while Rich took Kade and Ty trick or treating.  

Zack was thrilled to find the candy bowl and tried eatting a few pieces still in the wrapper - but gave up and started chewing on the bowl!

Ward Christmas Party Ideas!?

We are in charge of our wards activities committee and are trying to come up with something for our Christmas Party this year.  It is a family event and centered around the kids.  We did a nice sit down ham/potatoes/salad dinner last year.  Our ward is really big, there are over 100 primary aged kids, there is no stage in our gym which is pretty small and we get really good turn outs to events.  Does anyone have any fun, great ideas for a ward party?? What have wards you've been in done before??  Any ideas would be great - Thanks 

Extended Halloween

MARIO and LUIGI

We are enjoying an extended Halloween this year. Grandma Madsen invited us to their wards Trunk or Treat on Saturday, so the boys got to get all dressed up in their Mario and Luigi costumes I made them and went trunk or treating, and then will get to do it all again this coming weekend for Halloween!

You can see in the picture above that I am pointing to the candy I think Ty should get - so I can eat it later!

Tag

8's

8 favorite TV Shows:
1. Office
2. So you think you can Dance
3. The Hills
4. Gossip Girl
5. The Starter Wife
6. Privledged
7. Kath & Kim
8. Anything on HGTV

8 Favorite Restaurants
1. Puerto Villarta
2. Costa Vida
3. Chili's
4. Jaker's
5. Rumbi Island Grill
6. Arby's
7. Red Robin
8. I wish I knew a good Sushi place

8 Things I Did Today
1. Woke up way too early thanks to
Kade and Ty
2. Ran on the treadmill
3. Made chili
4. went to a trunk or treat with kids
5. Set up for chili cook-off
6. Was in charge of chili cook-off
7. Ate chili and cleaned up after
8. Ate popcorn with a chaser of chocolate :) Nice ending to the busy day!

8 Things I look forward to
1. Sleeping tonight
2. My parents coming home
3. Christmas
4. Our 10 year anniversary cruise with our friends
5. Going to the production of Wicked (hopefully we can get tickets)
6. Eating carmel apples tomorrow
7. Kade's primary program tomorrow
8. The twilight movie

I'm tagging Jenni, Heidi, Rachel, Anne and Nicole!!

Belly Badges

Kade and Ty are being Mario and Luigi for Halloween - these are the hats I made for them.  They love them and they were so cheap and easy to make that I made a couple for the neighbor boys so they could all play mario and luigi together.

Kade and Ty were playing over at the neighbors house and came home with no shirts and marker drawn all over their bellies.  When I asked them what was all over their stomachs Kade  said, "It's a belly badge!" like I was crazy for not knowing that.   I still wasn't sure what he meant and then he told me that they were pretending to be care bears and needed belly badges so they drew their own belly badges with markers on their stomachs. 

Disneyland

We have been counting down to this Disneyland trip for about a year and were so excited to go. My sister's family went with us and my parents were able to drive over from Phoenix to spend the week with us, which made our trip even better! Our flight was out of Salt Lake at 7am which had us getting up a lot earlier than we are used to. The boys did great on the flight but fell sound asleep as soon as we got in the rental car to drive to the hotel. We had a busy week planned which started out with 4 days at Disneyland but we broke up the days at Disneyland by going to Knott's Berry Farm for a day. We have so many fun pictures but here are some of my favorites.

Meeting Mickey Mouse


We played so hard all day long that Ty fell asleep in the middle of it all. This picture is waiting in line for the new Toy Story ride in California Adventure. Ty was so excited for this ride that we didn't want him to miss it. We woke him up just before getting on the ride and he LOVED it!! We all LOVED it! I think it was one of the favorites for all of us. We rode it two times in a row we loved it so much.

Kade, Luke and Braden in their 3D glasses for the new Toy Story ride - Midway Mania

Braden and Kade going into the ride. On this ride you shoot those little red and blue guns at targets on the 3D screens and it keeps track of your points. Rich's score was always at least 3x more than mine.

Ty and Grandpa Burnside riding the carousel

Grandpa loved to buy ice cream and treats for everyone in the afternoon, and we all loved eatting them :)

Kade was so excited to ride the Indiana Jones ride. He kept asking when we were going to ride it and wouldn't let up until he rode it.
The temperature while we were at Disneyland was in the mid 90s, so we would go over to California Adventure in the afternoons and watch the 3D shows and playhouse Disney shows and let the kids run around and play in the water to cool down.

It was so fun just taking Kade and Ty with us. It was sad being away from Zack for so long, but we really had a fun time with just the two boys and not having to worry about naps and bottles. We took Kade and Ty to Disneyland 3 years ago and it was so fun to see how different this trip was from the last one. Now that they are a little older it was fun to see them get so excited over things and being able to ride most of the rides together.

Swimming in the hotel pool was always the highlight at the end of the day - even if the water was cold.

Everyone sitting and waiting for the Disney parade. We loved the parades at Disneyland and California Adventure.

Kade loved seeing the characters - a little too much!! He would chase after them and pull on their shirts and almost tackle them. It was funny to watch but the characters didn't like it very much.

This picture pretty much sums up Ty's experience at Disneyland. He cried on most of the rides that I made him go on. If it was his idea - he loved the rides. But on some of the bigger rides he was not thrilled to be there and I was covering his mouth most of the time to muffle the screaming and crying. But usually after the ride was over he would say he liked it. There were a few that he still tells me he doesn't like. This is Rich's "I told you so" face. I think he thought I was torturing Ty by making him ride on the rides. But this is Ty's reaction to everything in life - he is very uncertain and nervous to new things until he tries them.