Dinner with High School Friends

Dave Carter and I put together a dinner with a bunch of our friends from high school on the 26th at Los Hermanos. It was super fun to see everyone! I couldn't believe how many people were able to make it this year! Thanks for coming everyone!!! It was great to see you guys!!!

Christmas 2007

WOW! Christmas came and went so fast! We have so much to be grateful for. It was really nice to have the holidays at home with my family this year to do alot of things that we haven't had time for in the past since I am usually working. I started wrapping some of the kids presents a couple of days before Christmas. They were going crazy wanting to open them...Payton kept asking if he and Parker could go and count them...they did this several times a day, making towers out of some of the presents. A couple of days before Christmas, we had a family Christmas party at Ben's parents home. The little kids from each family performed a song(s) of their choice. Payton and Parker sang "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" and the "Alphabet Song" (Payton decided this one last minute because it is one of his favorite songs from the Learning Dynamics preschool CD). It was pretty funny because Parker would kindof mumble the sounds and then chime in every 4th word or so. We spent Christmas Eve at my parents house and like every year, the kids always do the navitity before we leave. Payton was a shepherd and Parker was a sheep.



I found the boys these cute red PJ's to open on Christmas Eve. That was always a tradition for me growing up. We always opened up one present on Christmas Eve, and it was always PJ's.





















Payton really wanted Super Mario Galaxy for the Wii from Santa this year. That was basically all he wanted! Santa wrapped it up and kindof hid it behind all of Payton's other presents from him so at first, Payton didn't think that he brought it for him. He was pretty sad! Boy was he happy when he discovered it hiding! Parker really liked the Scooter that he got from Santa. Their other favorite present was a huge racetrack for their Cars Movie Cars. Ben's favorite gift to himself was Guitar Hero III for the XBOX 360. He now thinks that he is a rockstar! It is pretty funny to watch him play! Later that night after we went to my parents for Christmas Dinner, Payton really wanted to play Super Mario Galaxy with me. So, after getting them ready for bed, we went to go and play. After a while, I decided it was time for bed. I hadn't seen Ben for a while and when we came upstairs I realized that it was 11pm and Ben had already gone to bed!!! I couldn't believe that he didn't tell me how late it was... the poor kids must have been SO tired!!! I thought that it was like 9:30pm!!! Crazy!

Annual Girls Christmas/Birthday Dinner

Every year since Jr. High, Brittany, Shea and I have gotten together before Christmas to have a gift exchange. Since my birthday is right before Christmas as well, we just combine it into one event! I choose Chili's this year because I really wanted their Chocolate Molten Lava Cake for dessert! YUM!

Payton's Pre-School Christmas Program

Payton had his pre-school christmas program on Wednesday the 19th with his pre-school at Learning Dynamics. There were several classes together for the program. All of the kids had props to wear and Payton was a cute little christmas elf. It was so cute to watch them sing all of the songs that they learned with the actions to go along with it. Payton had a part that he said in the program. I was so proud of him! He did really good and didn't get nervous! His part was perfect for him since he loves trains! He said, "Here comes the electric train!" Then they sang the song that goes along with it (Choo Choo The Big Train is Coming Down the Track). Payton is loving pre-school and can't wait until he gets to go to the "really big school" next year for kindergarten!

Gingerbread House???

We decided to make a gingerbread house for FHE on Monday night...needless to say, I definitely shouldn't do this for a living. I don't know if it is because Ben cut the hole in the icing bag too big or what, but I ran out of icing half way through it and it was coming out in huge gobs. I kept thinking...what am I doing wrong? I have seen other peoples gingerbread houses and they are so cute, but mine is a huge mess of icing! Oh well, the kids had a lot of fun putting the candy on and I guess it doesn't matter what it really looks like anyways! Just don't look at the sides or the back of it...they didn't get any icing!

Week In Review

Last weekend it snowed a ton and the boys loved playing in the snow...Parker even helped Ben snowplow the driveway with the 4 wheeler (he reminds me of the little kid on the movie A Christmas Story in his snowsuit). Today Payton decided to go play in the snow again. After a while he came inside and said to Ben, "Dad, my hands are SO SPICY!" Ben said "What do you mean?" Payton said, "Dad, spicy means cold!" Ben said, "No, spicy means hot!" Payton said, "Oh, yeah, I forgot." Kindof funny!

They love taking bubble baths in our big tub-especially after playing in the snow all day!

The boys love rough housing with Ben...they constantly either want him to pretend he is a horse and they get to ride on his back (that is what they are doing in this picture). Payton really likes to play pretend with Ben. He likes Ben to pretend that he's Bowser the dragon from Mario and Payton pretends that he is Mario and is he is trying to kill Bowser. It is pretty funny to watch. Apparently he plays Mario too much...

Goodbye Dinner

Initially a few friends from work were going to go to dinner as a goodbye to Martie and now I guess it is a goodbye to both of us! I was so stressed out the week that I quit that I got a cold sore! Yikes!

It's Official...

It's official...I quit my job as a real estate agent for Richmond American Homes today. I cannot believe it! I've been in the real estate business for the past 4 1/2 years and I have ALWAYS had a job it seems-sometime 2 or 3 at a time. I have loved selling real estate and helping people build their 1st, 2nd or dream home. I had been thinking that I would be leaving in the next few months or so, and then my model home partner, Martie, quit this weekend and I decided it was a good time to leave also! It still feels so weird! It was actually quite spontaneous! My broker and manager were quite shocked-I am as well that I actually did it! They were really great to me and even gave me an additional day to think about it to make sure that I had made the right decision. It will be so nice to finally be able to stay at home with my boys-especially for the holidays! They are only little once so even though it feels a bit crazy right now, I am sure that I have made the right decision for our family. I will still be selling real estate, but on more of a part time basis. So if anyone is looking for a new home-just let me know! I am excited to start my new adventure with my family!

St. George/Vegas Girls Trip

We went on our annual St. George trip to Sommer's house this past weekend! It was so much fun! We went to a day spa and shopped all day in St. George on Friday (this is us at Taipan-don't ask me what I am doing with my hands...I have no idea), and then went to Vegas all day Saturday (we shopped a ton at the outlets but mostly spent our time at one of my favorite stores H&M-it is the best, I wish there was one in Utah!) and came home on Sunday! It was so great! I can't wait to go next year!





Friends since Jr. High! Hanging out at Sommer's house...our friend Lori is living in St. George right now and came over on Friday night to hang out with us! It was a ton of fun! We didn't go to bed until 3:30am! Crazy!

Lunch at Claim Jumper in Viva Las Vegas!

Audrey brought down the stuff so that we could do pariffin wax treatments on our hands before we left to come home! It was great! Thanks Audrey!

High School Musical 2 was filmed right outside of Sommer's St. George home! This is a picture of her amazing pool...too bad it was too cold to use it this time!

Pictures of our cars before we left to come home...it was packed from all of our shopping! Thanks Sommer for letting us stay at your house! It is always so much fun!