thursdays thoughts

dear weather man,
it is FREEZING! i watch you every night hoping that you will tell me that tomorrow will be better but it hasn't happened yet. i am seriously rethinking our relationship. i know what you are going to say, "i can't control the weather" but someone has to be blamed and i choose you. if there are not some changes soon i will come to the station and choke you with your tie.
love, pam

dear gall bladder,
i HATE you! i know you may think that i am being harsh but you are making my life miserable. i cant eat anything and i am pretty much starving to death. ok maybe not to death but i am hungry! i really don't need you so i am going to find someone to cut you out. then you will be out of my life forever.
love, pam

dear new red coat,
thanks for being so stinkin cute and keeping me warm. i want you to know that i don't really like coats they make me feel like i can't breath but you... i LOVE! i apologize right up front for the cheetos and boogers you may get on you. i will try to keep the little people at bay but i can't promise anything.
love, pam

dear lady at the kindergarten drop off,
i realize that you may think you are the only person in line to drop your little people off... but your not. do you not see the 50 million cars waiting behind you? we are not there just for kicks. when it says NO PARKING they are not kidding. they really don't want you parking and getting out of your car. drop off means just that, drop them off.
love, pam
p.s. i do think you have cute hair though:)

dear preston,
thanks for always going out in the mornings and shoveling the walks and starting my car. it is so sweet of you to take such good care of me. your a really good boy and i love you:)
love, mom

dear diet coke,
have you forgotten about me? i haven't forgotten about you. i just have to take a little break until the above said gall bladder gets yanked. please know that i think about you often and don't worry your cute little self about being replaced it will never happen:O)
love, pam

thanksgiving 2009

We always get to start thanksgiving out a little early. The Brown's get together the Sunday before thanksgiving which works out nice because then you don't have to alternate houses:)

We have a big group and it was really busy so not lots of pic's but it was lots of fun to hang out together!

Ella learned the olive on the finger trick this year and pretty much that is ALL she had for dinner. I am the BEST mom ever!! I also noticed in this photo that you can see she is following in Mckena's footsteps by using rubber bands as bracelets. Cute!

On REAL Thanksgiving we went to my moms house. We fed about 40 people the best food you can imagine and laughed until we were sick. Josh and I actually got a photo together. I know a rarity!

This is our ghetto living room. We had to move the furniture outside to make room for all the tables. We thought it would be funny to pose for a photo so we took our diet coke and newspapers out to the ghetto living room. We didn't last long since it was freezing but it was funny!

After dinner the ad's came out and planning started. I met Josh's sisters at 6 and we map out our black Friday shopping. Since some of the stores opened at midnight we headed out about 10:30pm. We shopped all night and most of the next day. Got some great deals and had loads of fun! Thanks Jo and Manda:)

NOVEMBER....

The month of November was a fun one!

Here are a few of the most memorable activities...

Preston got his Arrow of Light Award for scouts!!

Preston had actually earned it awhile ago but due to the pig flu it was postponed until now.

Such a cute kid with his headdress on:)

As soon as we were done celebrating with Preston I turned into a 12 year old and met up with my sister and niece and went to New Moon. We had some YUMMY mexican food and headed to the midnight showing. The whole evening was fun! Thanks Lori and Tiff:)

Last but not least the kids ran in the TURKEY TROT again this year.

Even though we had no winners this year FUN was had by all!

I really think next year they should make them gobble and wobble like turkeys!!!

JOY IN OUR POSTERITY

So, today I turned 35 years old. After waking up and getting ready for meetings, McKena gives me a gift bag. "Here Dad!!! This is a present that I made for you." I sit down on the stairs to open this little gift bag. The picture contains the contents that were inside. Yes, I can see myself wearing the purple hat with the pink belt wrapped around my thigh (because it won't work as a belt) marching down the sidewalk with my plastic kazoo whistle, my toy blocks, my used check book, cell phone battery, IPod cord, and other miscellaneous items/garbage (see the garbage bags that she was using as tissue paper).

Both Pam and I began to giggle. As I thank her for the thoughtful gift, I cannot help to think about my family. Each child has their own personalities that really are a mixture of our past, present, and future posterity. Though McKena has one volume (Thanks Aunt Amanda :O) ), she also "re-gifts" like someone else we know ( Thanks, Aunt Carly :O).

I am grateful for a wonderful family who helps me learn, laugh, live, and to keep things in an eternal perspective... to have joy in my posterity.

terrible one's???

This is what happens when mom goes down stairs and puts in 1 load of laundry.

This is the silverware and some of a left over swiss roll.

This is what happened to my super yummy candle.
I thought this was suppose to happen at 2 not 1!!!
I FEAR what 2 will bring!!!

thursdays thoughts...

1. mckena refuses to eat spanish rice because she says it will make her "talk spanish" and we wont understand her:)
2. going to the midnight showing of New Moon tonight. i am sure i will be totally trashed on friday morning but i just cant help myself:)
3. Almost finished with my blog book. I just have a few more pages that are giving me "issues" :)
4. So excited for my friend Coree who's son is coming home from a 2 year mission tonight:)
5. cant wait for the thanksgiving feast! My plate will have mashed potatoes, roll, salad, and stuffing. Then before bed I will make a turkey sandwich:)
6. I haven't bought one christmas present. I have NEVER left it to this late before! I hope that I am not in trouble:)
7. SUPER excited for BLACK FRIDAY shopping!!! I spend hours pouring over the ads then get up in the middle of the night and meet my sisters in law. Shop, eat breakfast, then home to put up the tree!!!
8. Took mckena to the dentist yesterday. 4 cavities! WHAT THE???? The other kids go on Monday we will see how that goes. I bet you can guess what I am getting for Christmas. YUP a big fat BILL! :)

HaPpy ThUrSdAy!

vegas!

On the way back from our family trip to Disneyland, Josh dropped me off to my B.F.F. Jen's house!

Jen and Dave's son Josh was getting married and I went to help out for the weekend. It was so much fun to spend the weekend with Jen and her family. I miss living so close to her but are grateful that no matter where we live we are still the best of friends.

On Friday night we had the wedding dinner at Jen house and it was beautiful! Thanks to all for your donations of glass jars it turned out so PRETTY!

The dessert table.... PIE! Yummy!

On Saturday as we were getting ready for the wedding Dave put his pants on and OOPS floods!

Thank heavens for Aunt Martha! That's right, at the time we were suppose to leave for pictures she is fixing the pants. Don't worry she was super quick and we only left 5 minutes late:)

The wedding was beautiful and Josh and Awburn were so happy. This was my favorite photo from the night.

Not the best photo, but can you see the love in Jen's eyes? So sweet!

This is Jen and Connie (Dave's sister) we had so much fun together!

Is was a great weekend. Thanks Jen for letting me come. I had a great time:)

reunited!

this past weekend i had the wonderful opportunity to reunite with some friends from my youth.

These 2 amazing women were my very best friends for years growing up. jen, nicole and i were inseparable. we did everything together.

i looked forward to this lunch for days. it was wonderful to see what amazing individuals, moms, and wives they have become. i feel blessed to have these women back in my life. i remember not being the friend i should have and i regret that but welcome the opportunity to be a better friend to them now.

thanks jen and nicole for lunch. i cant wait for many more years of friendship!

love you both!

While visiting with a friend the other day she mentioned that her husband wasn't feeling well. He was having symptoms of cold sweats and nausea. Concerned I asked if he was OK to which she replied that she was sure he was fine and moved the conversation on to something different.

At that moment envied her.

Not a moment was spent worrying that maybe someone else might get it or worse get really sick.

I know that part of my anxiety with illness stems from Abbie's diagnosis and with all we endure when an illness comes our way. For instance when Abbie gets the stomach flu it doesn't just last a couple of days and she's fine. It is a week to 10 days solid of testing blood sugars every 2 hours 24 hours a day, testing urine for ketones every time she pottys, force feeding when your kids puking is always fun, the changing of insulin doses as her body recovers and then doing it again when she is better.

As a mom it is heart wrenching to hold your child while they cry because their fingers hurt or their tired of getting shots, or they don't understand why they have to have this disease.

I recognize that we have it so much better than other individuals. There are some amazing families out there that have it far worse than we do. And for that we honor them.

So last night as I was sitting in bed thinking of this conversation I thought will I ever get to the point that I don't worry so much? Well the answers is no. Not just about Abbie but with all our children. As parents we worry about our kids because we love them. We are not different than any other parents out there we just happen to have different things we worry about. So while I thought I envied this person for her ability to not worry I actually envied her ability to keep her worry in perspective. What I needed to learn from this experience is that

1. I need to get my anxiety over illness into perspective. (obviously)
2. Recognize that as parents we are sometimes required to do things that we would rather not but we do them anyway because that is what parents do.
3. realize that my job is to teach THEM ways to stay healthy.
4. and for the times when they don't feel so good. Just do the best that we can and told them tight so they know that we love them and that they are not alone.

thursday's thought FYI

fyi....

1. my baby is teething. not the little teeth but the big dogs so there for she has been hanging on my leg for 3 days now. i love her but don't love her hanging on my leg.
2. this summer i worked REALLY hard and lost 2o pounds. so when i went through my closet the other day i pulled out all my "big girl" clothes and put them in bags. they will be taken to DI ASAP. this is my commitment to not putting it back on:)
3. i am still suffering with a zit fest on my face. wearing a mask while everyone had the pig flu made me turn into a 12 yr old. the problem is that i am 100 not 12!
4. i am going to lunch on sat with some girl friends that i grew up with in young women's. we lost track of each other for a LONG time and have recently reconnected. i am so excited. i cant wait!
5. josh's final paper for school is due in 11 days. after that he has 2 more days in class then FINISHED! i cant believe that we made it! i have to think of something we can do to celebrate!
6. my grandpa passed away this week. he was 97 and it really was a good thing. we don't see that side of the family very often if ever so it was nice to see my cousins. my crazy aunt informed me at the viewing that she wants to start her family over again. shes 65! remember when i said she was crazy? yup that proves it! CRAZY! i did have a good laugh about it though.
7. josh has been using the all purpose cleaner as laundry softener. he thought that since it was the same type of bottle, i had just switched from downy to another brand. i didn't realize that he had been doing this until a few days ago when i saw him put it in the downy ball. i am so surprised that we didn't have a fire in our dryer. we laughed really hard and then rewashed the previous load. hey at least my man helps out with laundry i cant complain too loud!

halloween 2009

This year the costumes went as follows: Josh and I were "cereal" killers:)

(thanks for the idea Q!)

Preston was a bloody butcher

Abbie was a pirate, vampire,or zombie (depending on which party)

Mckena was a rock star

and Miss Ella was Eeyore

Grandma throws an annual Halloween party and we ALWAYS have a great time. Here's Preston trying to get the donut

Abbie was the first of all the kids to put together her skeleton

It took Mckena a while but she never gave up:)

Grandma Gourley came and when they finished their word search she gave them all a dollar! They thought they were in heaven!

That night we went trick-or-treating!

Ella and I did the street next to ours and then headed home to hand out candy:)

Ella didn't want to go inside and since it was nice weather we sat on the porch eating suckers. Every time someone would come she would get all excited!

Following tradition, the kids got one sandwich baggie and filled it with their favorites and the rest went into the "Halloween witch" bowl. They left notes and went to bed.

The next morning the kids were so excited with their prizes:)

Happy Halloween everyone!

pUMpKIn cRarVInG

We got out the newspapers and got all set for our annual PUmpKIn cArVInG!!

The favorite part is the GUTS!!!

Here's prestons guts!!!

abbie's GUTS!

mckena's GUTS!!

(how do you like the tongue action?)

and ella just played in every ones GUTS!!!

NONE of my kids have ever like the guts at this age but ella went to town. She LOVED it and we just let her go !

She even thought it was yummy!

Here is the finish product

and some super cute kids:)

hAppY CArvInG!!!

DISNEYLAND:)

About a year into Josh schooling we told ourselves that for Graduation we were taking the kids on their first ever REAL vacation! So of course we picked

DISNEYLAND!!!:)

Josh had been a few times but I had only been once a REALLY long time ago. So to make this as memorable as possible we planned like crazy!!! We knew we wanted to surprise the kids so we would put the kids to bed at night and work on our trip!

On Sunday morning Oct 11th the kids woke up to a wrapped present in the family room. When they opened them up it was their own piece of luggage with a note that said, "sometimes dreams do come true! Pack your bags because we are leaving for DISNEYLAND right NOW!!!"

At first the only one who believed us was Mckena but when they were sure we were not joking they got the biggest smiles on their faces and started screaming! We packed our bags and out the door we went. We made it to Vegas and slept at Boyd and Mare's and then off to California! We checked into the Disneyland Hotel and went to the beach! Although it was cold the kids had a great time. Went back to the hotel for a shower and PJ'S while dad went and picked up dinner. Then sweet dreams! The next three days were packed full of FUN!! We were surprised at how brave Preston and Abbie were. Nothing was too scary for them!!! Preston and Abbie's favorite was Tower of Terror! (mine too!) Mckena's was the Tea Cups and Ella just LOVED everything she could go on! I was so impressed with the kids:) It was really the best vacation EVER! The look on their faces was priceless. It was so nice to leave everything behind and just enjoy ourselves. I can see why people of all ages LOVE Disneyland. I am joining that group! We made some lasting memories for our family and we will never forget this trip!

Enjoy some of our photos!

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*just click on the 1st red x and it will pull up the slideshow!

{CAUTION}

I was so hoping to be blogging about our wonderful trip to Disneyland but I don't have very much time cause I am taking care of the sickies. Yup we have been hit with the

SWINE FLU!!!

Josh called me while on his way home Friday to tell me that he wasn't feeling well. By the time I flew in on Sunday everyone but Abbie was on their death bed.

So the minute I got home I started running and haven't stopped since.

Here's how most of the days have been. Josh actually got out of bed today and got dressed. If you know anything about Josh this NEVER happens so he was really not feeling well. Poor Mckena she was pukie today and Ella just bawls and hangs on your leg if your not holding her.

Here's is what Abbie and I are doing TRYING to not get sick. We are now roommates and NO ONE is allowed in our room or the "well" people bathroom.
To be honest it is pretty awful. I am completely exhausted from only sleeping a few minutes here and there but feel SO grateful that Abbie hasn't gotten it. I am trying not to let the anxiety get the worst of me when it comes to Abbie but I have a hard time keeping that at bay. Preston started crying yesterday when we left the Dr's because he heard of a diabetic dying when they got the swine flu and was worried about Abbie getting it. Such a sweet kid. I told him that Heavenly Father loves Abbie as much as we do and He wouldn't let anything happen to her:)
My Mom came and doorbell ditched us with some groceries today which I thought was really sweet. After she left Mckena said "our Grandma sure loves us"
Thank you to all our friends and family for calling and offering to help us out.
We LOVE enough to say thank you but PLEASE stay away!:)

Thursday's thoughts...

So I am going to share a few things that I am really LOVING right now. All the new paint in my house. Here's what it looked like before...

Then I painted the white walls Raffia Cream and now they look like this...

LOVE LOVE LOVE how this wall turned out:)

My new LOVE... road biking!!! Boyd and Mare came up a couple of weeks ago and we went on a ride we went 20 miles or so and it was so fun! So if you drive by my house at night and my garage is open part way don't worry it's just me on the trainer pedaling like crazy! Thanks again Q for letting my borrow!

LOVE book club! It was my month to host. We read The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. LOVED the book and had a great discussion. I stayed with the theme of PIE. I made a Pecan, 2 Cheesecakes, Chocolate, Apple and Pumpkin. Here's how the table turned out...


I made these cute little handouts. It's a apple pie on a stick. It was super easy and I think they turned out pretty cute. I picked one of my favorite lines in the book and printed it out on the back. I had a great time and hope everyone else did too!

Especially LOVING this...

Bid Daddy dancing to Hannah Montana with the girls:) It has turned into a nightly tradition and I am LOVING it!

{august}

So this is the month of August that I never got around to blogging about so get a little sip of water and maybe a snack this might take a minute:)

Yes this is me with Captain Jack Sparrow! Just kidding! I don't really know his name and I have already repented that the gun is right in front of my baby's face!

This year I helped organize our neighborhood BBQ. We tried to make it lots of fun and family friendly so we invited Jack sparrow and his ship to attend.

The kids had a great time playing on the ship and all was going great. Then I took off my baby's clothes so she could have a cupcake. Ella then gave us her best rendition of a pole dancer. Not quite appropriate for the neighborhood BBQ but... we all had a good laugh:)

Just as we got home my BFF Jennifer pulled into my driveway!! Oh HAPPY day!

I LOVE when Jennifer comes to visit. I look forward to it every year. She was such a good sport this year. I had LOTS going on and she was great to just jump in and go with the flow. I wish my kids had behaved better ( i love you Jacob PLEASE come back!!) but regardless I think everyone had a pretty good time. One night we did an outdoor movie night on the house,

we took them to the Aquarium

to feed the Stingrays.

Ella kept trying to grab them but they were too fast for her:)

The last day we got a sitter and went shopping and out to lunch for the afternoon. It was so much fun having her here. We did however feel like someone was missing because Kati wasn't here but we thought of her often:) I don't think many people are often blessed with such great friendships but I feel like I have been SO blessed to have these 2 women in my life. I couldn't imagine life any other way!!

We also had swimming lessons this month. Abbie LOVED it,

and once Mckena realized you couldn't actually die from swimming lessons she thought it was GREAT! She even got over her fear of the water! Bonus for me!

We also had SOCCER! What the heck was I thinking letting all 3 kids sign up for soccer?? That's 3 practices and 3 games a week. NEVER again!!! I feel bad I only got 1 picture but it really was a small miracle every Tue, Wed, and Thur, just to make it let alone bring the camera.

Abbie LOVED it, Preston really LOVED it and

Mckena looked at us A LOT like this... pretty much hated it. She said "all you do is run and kick the ball.. so not fun"

At the end of the month we took a trip to St. George to have a meeting for our Non- profit Organization we are helping to start (more about that later)! When ever we stop the kids always challenge Josh to a race. I think it is a cute tradition:)

There they go!

and here's a picture of my cute baby, just cause I love her!!

Happy August!

p.s. sorry about the line under some of the words. I dont know how that happened and can't fix it. So after 4 days of trying I just let it go!