Sledding

We had a great day yesterday. We went sledding with Grandma and Grandpa Jaussi and Tricia and her kids. I didn't get a lot of still shots, more video but here's a fun one of Grandpa and Eliza about ready to make a run.

Jack loved the snow! My mom tried to take him in the car because it was getting cold and he cried until she started to put his hat back on to bring him back out. He's such a boy.

And here are Eliza and me getting ready to take off. It was so much fun and the best part was nobody got hurt!

Santa Found Us

We must have been nice because Santa sure did find us! We had the best Christmas. The kids were so excited and happy on Christmas morning! Aiden was the first to wake up at 6:50 am-so not so bad.
Here is Eliza, Aiden and Jack by their Christmas socks. They are all wearing their new pajamas.

My mom made Jack his sock this year and it is as big as he is! He wasn't really interested in what Santa brought him, he wanted what Eliza and Aiden had. All of the small toys that he could choke on! :)

This is in front of the tree before opening the presents. All Jack wanted to do at this point was drink his bottle.

Santa brought Eliza what she wanted - a pony set. She was really happy.

Every present Aiden would open he would say "I think this is my DS," finally the last present under the tree was a Nintendo DS for the Liston Family. I didn't see his eyes for the rest of Christmas day. He was so caught up in playing his game!

Thanks Santa for such a Merry Christmas!

Christmas Tag

Ok, anyone who wants to play, can copy this and put it on your blog. Just answer the questions with what you prefer! Have fun!
1.Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping Paper and gift bags-I like to mix it up.
2. Real tree or Artificial? Artificial-I don't remember ever having a real one.
3. When do you put up the tree? After Aiden's birthday.
4. When do you take the tree down? Usually a day or two after Christmas-I like to get things back in order.
5. Do you like eggnog? Yes, in small amounts and for sure in an egg nog milkshake.
6. Favorite gift received as a child? I loved the cabbage patch doll I got one year-he was bald and cute.
7. Hardest person to buy for? Russell's mom and dad, they have everything :). And Aiden, I've given him too many things throughout the year!
8. Easiest person to buy for? Eliza, I could pick up a million things for her.
9. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes.
10. Mail or email Christmas cards?If I sent Christmas cards it would be by mail. Maybe one year I will.
11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? Russell bought me a shop vac one year-why? He must have wanted it.
12. Favorite Christmas Movie? I don't have one.
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? The first of December.
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? I really don't think I have.
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Artichoke dip, eggnog milkshakes, cheese fondu-all of the appitizers my mom makes for Christams Eve. Oh and of course chocolate.
16. Lights on the tree? Of course!
17. Favorite Christmas song? Feliz Navidad sung by my brother Curtis! (I had to steal that answer from my sis Tricia, because it was the best!)
18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Stay home. Now that we have 3 kids it's too hard to go to Idaho :(
19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer's? It gets a little dodgy at the end.
20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Star.
21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Christmas morning with the exception of opening our new Christmas PJ's on Christmas Eve.
22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? Buying the WOW presents-the filler stuff is easy.
23. Favorite ornament theme or color? Right now I am liking blue and silver.
24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? I again have to go with Tricia's answer- the big sandwich on Christmas Eve.
25. What do you want for Christmas this year? I am pretty content this year, maybe a new shirt.
26. Who do you tag? Anyone who wants to play

The Last Straw

We read a great book a week ago Sunday called The Last Straw, about a family who secretly did nice things for each other and each time they did they got to put a straw in a bed for Baby Jesus to sleep in on Christmas Eve. It was such a good book that we decided to do that in our family this Christmas season. We had one of Eliza's doll beds out to put the straw in, but Aiden didn't think it looked like a bed Jesus would sleep in, so Russell, Aiden and Eliza built a manager on Saturday afternoon. Here are the workers out in the garage.

They hammered, they sawed and they worked really hard to make a great bed for Baby Jesus.

Here is the finished product with the book that gave us the idea.

As you can see the we have all been working hard to fill the bed. Every time we do something nice we get to add more straw. It's been a great way to remember what Christmas is all about.

Candy Houses

Aiden and Eliza both made candy houses at school this week. I went and helped Aiden in his class and it was fun to see how creative he is. He had a lot of great ideas and it turned out really cute.

Eliza's turned out really cute, too. She was really proud of her work. I am glad that I took pictures, because neither one of the houses lasted very long. The candy looked so good, the houses just had to be eaten! :)

I Love Your Blog Award

Thank you Tiffany for giving me this awesome award. I am glad that you like to read my blog. I have really enjoyed my life in the blogging world. And I love to read blogs as well. It's fun to hear the day to day stuff about my friends that we normally don't tell each other because we forget, or it may not be the important stuff. But it is usually the funny stuff! Thanks again.

Okay now I get to pick 7 other blogs that I love to read. If your blog makes the list you get to put the I love your blog icon on your page and then thank the person that gave it to you (that is me) and then choose 7 others who you want to give the award to! Fun, huh. Here are the people I choose:

Joleen

Becky

Kimber

Jennefer

Rachel W.

Logan

Rachel B.

Happy Blogging!

Jack's 1st Birthday

It's hard to believe that my baby is 1! He was excited to see what was in the bags. So excited that I couldn't get him to look at me. We had a fun party with Tricia and her wonderful kids, Jean, Jane, Megan and Kenny. Jack loved all of his new toys.

But what he really loved was the cake! Russell was holding it in front of him so I could get a picture and he just went for it!

You can see the corner of the cake missing where Jack grabbed it. Russell thought it was awesome- I was just thinking about the mess. But it was really funny.

He had so much fun eating his piece of cake. He has never really had anything sweet like that in such a big amount and he couldn't get enough. I was afraid that he was going to throw it up-but thank goodness he never did.

I think that Jack had an fantastic birthday-if this picture doesn't say it all I don't know what would! :)

So we just had three birthdays in one week and now it's on to Christmas!!

My Birthday

I had the best day yesterday on my birthday. Russell woke me up at 5:50am with my birthday present, a new video camera and told me I needed to be ready to leave in 10 minutes. I told him I wasn't running today because it was my birthday, but he told me to get up. At 6am my friends came and got me and took me to breakfast! It was so much fun. Thanks ladies. Then on the way home my awesome sister-in-law Joleen told me she would watch my kids if I wan't to go and get a pedicure. So I took her up on her offer. Here are the results:

The Christmas trees are quite festive, don't you think? Then Russell took me out to the Red Lobster last night with our friends the Dayton's and the Sundberg's. I got the lobster pizza- mmmm. Then we went and saw the movie Australia. I thought it was a good movie. Thanks to my wonderful Aunts Jean and Jane for babsitting for 5 hours! :) My birthday didn't end there however, Jean and Jane took me out to a fabulous lunch today to keep the celebration alive. Thanks everybody for making turning 33 a little less painful!

Happy Birthday Aiden!

Aiden had his 7th birthday yesterday! I can't believe that I have a 7 year old. It felt like we celebrated for days and days. Yesterday he opened his presents from us. a Ninja Turtle, a backpack and...

A skateboard. He was really happy with his presents and kept giving us hugs and telling us how much he loved everything. I was glad that he loved them.

Then it was on to Grandma Liston's for another party with cake and ice cream. Aiden helped me make his cake. He added all of the sprinkles. This morning when he woke up he told me it was the best cake he ever had and he could still taste it in his mouth. :) This is Aiden and his best friend/cousin Kyler.

Then today we had a friend party. I made cupcakes that I was really proud of.

Aiden had his party at Classic Skating. Here he is with Addy and Kyler. I think everybody had a great time scooting and playing arcade games. He got loads of great presents. Thanks friends!

This pictures is kind of crazy, but if you can tell there is a spotlight in the middle of the floor and the dj at classic skating had Aiden stand in the middle while everybody sang Happy Birthday to him. I don't know if he could have had a better 7th birthday! We love you Aiden.

The Turkey Trot That Was Not

I have been running for the past couple of months and today was suppose to be my "big" race, but thanks to Rumbi Grill I spent all of last night and most of today throwing up. I am quite sad that I missed the race and Thanksgiving Dinner today. But I hear both were great. I am finally feeling a bit better. I don't think I will be eating and Rumbi's anytime soon!

No School Today

Aiden hasn't wanted to go to school this week - the two whole days he had to.
He had quite a few excuses:
1. I am sick
2. My neck hurts
3. My head hurts
4. I threw up two times before you got out of bed
5. I am the boss of myself and I choose not to go to school today

So I told him today that he could take the rest of the week off and he has had no head, neck or stomach ache today! He's only in first grade and he is already full of excuses, I didn't think that happened until Jr. High!

Maybe too much Nacho

After dinner last night Eliza said, "Aiden, why are you always judging me?"

She is too funny. And maybe too addicted to Nacho Libre. :)

4th File, 4th Picture

My friend Rachel tagged me. Here was the tag-Go to your fourth file and pick the fourth picture and post it. So here it is:

My sweet little Aiden on Christmas morning when he was three (and still an only child). My mom made him his Christmas sock and by the time Santa filled it, it was almost as big as he was! That was fun Rachel. Thanks for the challenge.

Two Things

Two things I am sad about:
1. The outcome of the Presidential election.
2. That I don't have a book to read right now.

Two things I am happy about:
1. They are taking Dr. Hahn off Grey's Anatomy-along with her story line!!
2. I have an idea for dinner tonight and it's only 2:15.

The Happiest Halloween

I didn't upload these in the right order, but that's okay. Here is the end of the night. Jack sitting in front of all the candy trying to figure out how to get into the wrappers.

Here is Harry Potter. Aiden wanted to be as close to the real Harry as possible. Including the black hair. When he went to school his teacher said it took her a couple of seconds to recognize him with his hair and glasses-so the costume was a success.

Here is my frog-man Jack. He wouldn't sit still for a picture. This costume has gone through Aiden, Eliza and now Jack. Way worth the $20 I spent six years ago. :)

And here is Tinker Bell. The first time I asked Eliza what she wanted to be she said Tinker Bell and never strayed from that decision. She was so cute. And is was so warm she went all around Halloween night like this and wasn't cold! Perfect.

And here are my three cute kids. This is the best picture that I took. I couldn't get Jack to cooperate, but that's not unusual. It was a great Halloween.

A side note. We never did carve my dad's pumpkin (we never got another minute), but on Saturday morning I woke up to go to yoga and it was in the gutter in front of our house. When I got home I told Russell and he said that whoever tried to take it probably broke their back because it was so heavy and just left it there. A couple of hours later our neighbor Julie called and said that about 11pm on Halloween she was getting ready for bed and she saw some teenagers walking up the our sidewalk. She said that she could tell we were asleep all of the lights were out, so she ran downstairs and they have an intercom system, she turned on the outside one just as they were carrying it down the walk. She said in her roughest voice "Hey, what are you doing?" They stopped and looked around and didn't see anyone so they kept going then Julie said "I'm calling the cops" and they dropped the pumpkin in the street (it didn't break) and they ran away. I thought that was so funny. Thanks Julie for keeping an eye on my house.

So big pumpkin is back up on the porch in one piece and Aiden said today, "I think we should still carve it."

Pumpkin carving party

What do you do the Monday before Halloween? Carve pumpkins of course. The perfect family night. We had my sister Megan and her husband Kenny join us. This is Meg with her creation-she's holding Jack who is trying to eat pumpkin. Yum.

Eliza had Kenny help her carve out a scary face. She was funny, she wanted him to make cheeks on it. Thanks Uncle Kenny.

Okay this is Aiden and Russell's masterpiece. We actually grew this pumpkin in our garden (my dad was disappointed to hear that we had planted pumpkins, but we still took some if his). Good job boys!

I carved this small pumpkin that our neighbor Brother Heaps found in his garden. Our vine snaked it's way over and produced two pumpkins. The other one was bigger. Eliza kept calling that little pumpkin Jack's, but it was really mine. :)

Megan wanted to come over because she likes digging guts out of the pumpkins, so why am I working on the biggest one? :) Jack had to be right where the action was. We are drying out some seeds tonight and we are going to roast them tomorrow. It was a great night. Thanks for coming over Megan and Kenny.

Oh if your wondering about the huge one we brought back from my dad's wonderful garden, we think we might tackle it tomorrow night. If we do I'll post the amazing pictures. We'll see how ambitious we feel.

Hi-Dee-Ho For Idaho

Where the big potatos grow-or in the case of my dad where the big pumpkins grow. My dad loves to grow pumpkins and give them away to the grandkids. Of course Aiden had to pick the biggest one. I'm pretty sure that Russell threw his back out trying to get it out of the car. :)

This is Jack by the big pumpkin on our front porch. It's bigger than he is!

Here's one more shot of it on the porch. Anybody want to help carve it?

While we were in Idaho we stopped by the green belt and took some pictures and chased some ducks. It was a beautiful day. You never know what the weather will be like in Idaho. There could have been a foot of snow.

Here is Russell, Jack, Eliza and Aiden in front of the Idaho Falls Temple. We had such a great time. Tricia came with her kids and the cousins just ran around the house, jumped on the trampoline and made a huge mess. I am glad that they love their cousins so much. My mom cooked up a storm for us cinnamon rolls, pulled pork sandwiches, swedish pancakes - Thanks mom for all of the hard work! Jean, Jane and Reed were up visiting as well and we had a great time playing cards on Saturday night. I love my family and I love going home!

Nachoooo

Eliza's favorite movie in the whole world is not Cinderella, not Little Mermaid, not Sleeping Beauty - it's NACHO LIBRE!! If she ever asks to watch a movie it's always Nacho. She will sit in front of it for the entire movie and not move. I think that it is so funny that my little three year old girl thinks that Nacho is the best. She wants Russell to dress up as him for Halloween.

She said, "Mom you know on Nacho when he eats the eagle egg and gets eagle powers-I love that part." We were driving in the car the other day and she had two pennies in her had and she put them over her eyes and said, "Mom this is what Nacho does to the dead guy", and I said "Do you think about Nacho all of the time?" and she said, "Sometimes I think about you and dad." She is so funny.

So if you haven't watched Nacho in a while, check it out-it's fantastic and think of Eliza. :)

a little R rated

Jack loves to take a bath- he loves to look in as the water is being filled. Look at that cute bum!

He got so excited this time that he peed on the floor while I ran to get the camera (Russell was supervising).

Finally in the tub. He is such a fun baby!!

I was running...

Joleen and Becky have been running with our friends Jennefer and Janell for years. They have invited me to come quite a few times but I have always had the excuse that Russell had to go to work so early in the morning and I couldn't leave the kids. Well now that Russell doesn't have to leave quite so early I decided that now would be a great time to join the running party...

Monday was my first day and I don't think that I realized what I was doing. Joleen and Becky were the only runners and they run for an hour! A HOUR!!! They were very sweet to there sister-in-law and we walked for over half of the time. But when I got home I was so shaky and I felt like throwing up. That is hard work for somebody who hasn't run one step since 9th grade track. :)

I decided to try again this morning, so they took me on a 20 minute loop and dropped me back home as they continued on. And even then we had to walk for a while. But I feel pretty good about trying something new. I think that I am just going to have to start out small and work into it.

My sister-in-laws are so strong and in shape--they really motivate me and are very kind to the new runner. Thanks Joleen and Becky.

So if you see me hobbling around town it's because I can't really move my legs. :) But just like Forrest Gump says, "I was running!"

Out to the Pine Nuts

Russell's dad Sherril goes to Nevada every fall to pick pine nuts. He usually lives out there for a couple of months and Russell and Layne have started a tradition of taking the boys to visit him. This year they went on a hike to Lexington Arch. From left to right is Zach, Grandpa, Aiden and Kyler. They all look really excited.

This is Aiden and Kyler under the Arch. Now there is some enthusiasm!

Not only do they visit Grandpa, they sometimes help him with projects. This is Aiden, Kyler Layne and Grandpa painting a storage shed. It's nice to see Aiden does know how to work. :)

Since it's a fun boys weekend, there has to be shooting involved. Russell is helping Aiden with his aim.

The last stop on their trip was Leman's Cave. Here is a picture of Aiden, Russell and Grandpa inside of the cave. Russell let Aiden loose with the camera inside of the cave so we have tons of pictures-anybody is welcome to come and see them. :) They came home dirty and happy so it was a success.