Claire,her doll,and Carma's giant fit!

Oh! the reverence and stillness that the Sabbath Day brings.... that is funny! This is Claire and her American Girl doll that she loves so much in matching outfits! Claire loves to wear the same thing as her doll and this is the only true matching outfit they have. This picture was taken last Sunday before church. Claire was very excited to wear her matching dress to church. The problem started when Carma asked where her dress was? "Oh, you don't have a dress like this you have a beautiful purple dress with a long purple coat just like Madeline (she loves Madeline)" That was the wrong thing to say! This started a good 30 minutes of the following:
Carma: "You hate me and want me to be ugly."
Mike: "You could never be ugly Carma you are beautiful."
Carma: "No I not. I don't have a black dress."
Mike: "You have a pretty Madeline dress."
Carma, now screaming: " I no like you! I don't want a Madeline dress! I hate you!"
The bedroom door slams!
You get the picture. Like I said.... The joy of Sunday

Carma and Clouseau

Those of you that know my family know that 3 years ago, a few months before I had Carma my parents dog Clouseau was born. My mom is CRAZY about this dog. The weird pet people kind of crazy. He is treated very well—better than her children ever were! He has his own doggy diaper bag for traveling and going to the groomers, has special blankets, eats VERY expensive food, drinks bottled water when they are on the go, has a special relationship with people at the bank and the postman, and goes everywhere with my mom. When my mom really wants to bother me she will call him my brother! Well, Carma has taken quite a liking to her "Uncle" Clouseau even telling my mom we should trade dogs! She also told me we could buy Clouseau. I don't think Clouseau is for sale. They had a great time getting in trouble together while my parents were visiting and Mr. Clouseau will be sorely missed. At least by Carma.

Grand Targhee Trip!!

This last weekend we had a great time on a ski trip to Grand Targhee. My parents are in town and we had a great time heading up the mountain with them and our friends the McGary's for an awesome couple of days of skiing and boarding. Of course getting there was not easy. A couple of days before we left, Harrison got pretty sick with a sore throat and fever! We were starting to wonder whether or not he was going to get to go (the thought of not going was killing him) when he finally started to feel a little better. We were all set to start packing when Greyson started to bark like a seal and we had to get him to the doctor! So, Thursday morning a couple of hours before we were to leave I was in Dr. Hatch's office (my second home) listening to him tell me Greyson had Croup and giving me an RX for steroids. Oh, and he also told us that if he started to gasp for air that we were to take him immediately down the mountain to the hospital in Driggs! (Driggs has a hospital???) What the heck Dr. Hatch?? Anyway, Grey started to improve after one dose of medicine. We got to Targhee on Thursday eveing and settled into our lodge. The kids were so excited that the lodge not only had a room downstairs with 4 bunk beds but that there was also a bed that came out of the wall in the living room! Oh the things that excite kids.
Mike and Harrison spent all day Friday boarding and having a great time, and Claire and I spent Friday in ski lessons. Claire's lessons went great! This was her second year in lessons and it looks like she is really catching on! My lessons went.........not so great. Without going in to detail so I don't embarrass myself, I will just say there were skii's with not enough wax, skii's with too much wax, having to duck after falling off the chairlift and 2 instructors that have to be my friends for life because they know and have seen too much. Friday night was more my speed—we all went tubing! Sooo much fun! We were sad that Carma was not big enough to go down the tubing hill but they were nice enough to let us pull her and Grey around in a tube! She had a blast. I am waiting for Tubing to become an olympic sport, I am pretty sure I would be a medal contender. There was also some outdoor swimming and hot tubbing and movies at night. There was more skiing and boarding on Saturday afternoon and everyone was home safe but sore by Saturday evening. In all (Brett's humiliation aside) we had a great time with each other.



Harrison made countless runs over the two days, and even mastered "the box" in the terrain park. (He's even got a huge bruise to prove it.)




It was Claire's second time taking skiing lessons, and she absolutely loved it. (Almost as much as she loved her new hat!) After a full-day lesson, she was carving the bunny hill like nobody's business!


Tired of being cooped up in the Lodge, Greyson threw on his winter garb and headed out onto the room's patio where he protected the Diet Dr. Pepper from birds and a pine martin or two.


Just because the lifts are closed doesn't mean the fun has to stop. The big kids went night tubing down the big tubing hill. The not-so-big kids enjoyed a more tame ride, being pulled around by mom and dad.

TROUBLE!!

Give me the bad mom of the year award right now for saying this!—I do not enjoy this age of children. You know the age between 15-18 months when they start to really run and climb and open drawers etc..... Greyson is 16 months old and heaven help me!! Today, he climbed up a stool to get to a 64oz cup on the counter that contained water w/ a crystal light to go packet ( I know, fake sugar)in it. Cherry of course! Notice the stained hands and feet. After it spilled he just had to sit in it. So after I took off his clothes and was throwing away his red diaper I heard a very strange noise....Oh, just the sound of Greyson peeing in the middle of the red water mess! Mopping was not on my list of things to do today. I finally got a clean diaper on him and was starting to clean up the water mess when I heard another strange noise.......Oh, just Greyson with the vacuum cord AND a letter opener trying to plug them both in to the wall in the living room! Notice the plug still in his hands. Like I said, not my favorite age. Ten minutes later I heard no noises and realized I had not seen him in a while. I was trying to decide whether I needed to evacuate the other kids for fear something was about to flood,explode,or catch fire when I found him on the chair in the living room totally zonked! Thank goodness he is so cute!

Happy Birthday Susan!

Today is my sister-in-law ( I hate calling her that. She truly is like a sister) Susan's birthday. Susan is amazing. She is very talented and kind and we are so glad to have her in our family. She is the mother to our amazing nephews, Bentley and William. Trent and Susan moved to Iowa last year and things have not been the same.We miss them terribly! I love Susan to pieces even though she is 8+ years younger than me and people have mistook me for her mother before! HAPPY BIRTHDAY SUSAN!!!!

Let the boarding begin!

Friday was the first night of ski club at Harrison's school. They go about 4 or 5 times on Friday evenings. They go to Kelly Canyon and night ski and have a great time. Harrison rode the bus up with his friends and Mike went up in his car. This is Harrison with Darion (wicked boarder) and Taylor. I must say that I had a little sad mom moment when Harrison rushed home from school,threw on his ski clothes and asked me to throw an apple and a cheese stick in his back pack, then grabbed his board and headed out the door with 2 girls. It was all so fast and there was not time for me to double check things and go over all the rules and give him lots of kisses! No, we are way beyond that. I did run after them and they were nice enough to let me snap a shot of them. There was not even one eye rolled. Harrison's friend Chad McGary even found it in him to come down from the Jr High to go with Harrison and his friends. We thought this was most decent of him since he and Harrison have a great time boarding together. The Jr. High starts their ski club soon so it will probably be the only time they go together with the schools. Mike said the conditions were not great for their first time up this season. It was pretty warm in the afternoon so it was pretty much ice by night. They had a great time but came home a little beat up. Mike more so than Harrison.

Grey Grey

Hey look, Grey practices the piano more than Harrison and Claire do! He loves to get on the piano and make noise.

Brett's new blog

For those of you that don't already know, Brett is getting brave and has a new blog! You can get there from here-it is listed under our family section. Or brettslosingit.blogspot.com
Check it out and cheer her on!

Our Sunbeam!

This is Carma on her first Sunday as a Sunbeam. Can you believe it? Her new teacher is Sister Winterholler (quite a mouthful for a 3 year old) and she is awesome. Carma had a great time with no problems. Yea! Now if we could get her to sleep through the night in her own bed and be totally potty trained that would be even better!

The Boys

Greyson and Harrison snuggling in Harrison's room. Grey thinks he is so big! I found him in bed with Harrison after getting the girls to bed. I think he knew it was his turn for bed and thought Harrison would save him.

Happy Birthday Carma!!!

Carma officially had the saddest birthday in the history of 3 year olds! Carma has been waiting for her birthday all year long. Our family has birthdays in July,August,September,and November and every time there was a cake or balloons Carma would get excited and say " is it my birthday now?". We were so excited that December 29 was finally here for her! Unfortunately Carma got very sick on her birthday and her day was no fun at all. She slept all day long and we finally woke her up long enough to take her to see Darcy ( the best nurse ever) and Dr. Hatch ( the best pediatrician ever) and find out that she had an infection. She barely made it through opening presents and she didn't eat any of her pony cake! She was back to bed about 45 minutes after her party started! So sad!!! I am happy to report that she is finally feeling better. Happy Birthday Carma. We all love you so much!

Christmas Day 2008

We all had a very Merry Christmas! Harrison and Claire got up around 7:45 and were dying to go downstairs but we told them they had to wait until Carma woke up. They asked if they could wake her up and we said. Good Luck! They tried and tried and finally succeeded after about 10 full minutes. Getting Carma to sleep is a nightmare but once she is sleeping she is impossible to wake up! They all had a great morning.
Harrison was thrilled to get his fancy Vans socks. He is a true sock snob but his mom will only buy in to it at Christmas! His mimi is a lot easier to talk in to when she is here visiting.
Claire got an American Girl Doll and is in love! The doll goes everywhere with her and she really wants the $40 PJ's that she can get that match her Doll's PJ's. Funny huh?
Carma got a baby too that had short blond hair like her!
Greyson was the funniest! He didn't get a lot because he is only 1 but what he did get he loved! His favorites were his tennis balls and his broom and mop. So much fun!!! We all had a great day hanging out in our PJ's and playing games over at Grandma Holyoaks!

Christmas Eve 2008

I apologize to all family and friends for our Christmas Eve post. We were so busy having a great time that we didn't get too many pictures! We actually have a very fun Christmas Eve tradition that Mike and I love. We are lucky enough to host Mike's extended family for a dinner where the guests of honor are Evan and Ernie Cowley, Mike's grandpa and his wife. We all eat dinner then the little kids get to open a gift from their great grandpa. It is so much fun. This year we had quite a few at their in-laws so our numbers were a little low. I think we ended up with around 33. The kids had a great time and it was nice to see those family members that live other places that we don't get to see very often.
After the extended family goes home to get ready for Santa we open gifts from Grandma and siblings. Grandma always gets the kids an ornament and we all get Pajamas! So much fun. The only thing that could have made it better would have been if Trent and Susan and the boys were actually here and not just skyped in! We missed them so much this year!