Wow! What a busy Holiday! =0)

Look at my fantastic new kitchen! What cooking I've done in it so far, has been great!
Adree's artistic ability shines with her nifty new easel!
The kids ended up with several new games for their various game systems...this is Drake and Adree enjoying Boom Blox for the Wii
Seth playing with his Nintendo DS lite he received for his birthday on the 27th
I can't believe my baby is now 7! Where did the time go?
Seth and my nephew Gavin tearing up the track on Mario Kart for the Wii =0)
Aww, yes that is Sterling under all the hair! I love it! =0)
Grandma Jan and Grandpa Lloyd with all 6 of their grand kids...
Well, if that isn't a bunch of trouble makers...ha!
Puppy's idea of a good Christmas...
Drake working on his new Lego set...
Seth working on making a huge mess after opening presents! =0)
Adree creating a masterpiece with her easel...
Lee teasing Puppy by not getting right up to get him his morning treat...
and so the chaos began....

For those of you that have been brave enough to sift through all the pictures to get down to the text part of the blog, my congratulations are with you! We have been one very busy bunch of hooligans! =0) We somehow packed Christmas, a family get together, and Seth's birthday all into the span of just three days...whew!=0) Yes, and this was all accomplished with me working two of the three of them.=0)
I loaded the pictures in order of most recent back to Christmas, so I guess I'll start with Sethee's birthday...poor thing has a birthday just two day's after Christmas and no, Mom is never prepared until the day before. Christmas is just nice enough to hog up so many resources!=0) Crazy to think that my baby is now 7! Of course he'll still be my baby when he's 70...but that's neither here nor there.=0) He wanted a Nintendo DS for his birthday (Adree got one for her birthday, so of course...) he got one in red his favorite color.=0) Along with a game from Mom and another game from Grandma and Grandpa and enough birthday money from Lee and Auntie Cara to buy another, I think he's set for a while! =0) I try to make sure to make it fun and not wrap any of his presents in Christmas paper, but it always seems to take several days for all the things that go along with birthdays to be accomplished. ( There's that silly Christmas hogging all the resources again!) He wants to go to Jumping Jax (a place full of bounce houses and slides) and we won't even have time for that until tomorrow! We had chocolate cake with vanilla rainbow chip frosting and turkey burgers for lunch before I had to go to work. I'm glad he's so easy going and easy to please!=0) Happy Birthday to my little man! =0)
On Saturday after Christmas we had a bit of a family get together at our new house, yay! Mom and Dad and Cara and Nathan and their three and Sterling all came. This doesn't happen very often (where we all get together) it was short but sweet, and fun to all be together!=0) We all had sandwiches for lunch and opened presents from the gift exchange and the kids opened all their presents from Grandma and Grandpa and Aunties and Uncles. Cara put together a DVD of pictures of Mom and Dad when they were young, as well as, all of us kids growing up. We had a great time laughing and remembering all the silly things in the pictures, the bad clothes, hair, etc.=0) My niece Ainsley spent the night with us on Adree's bottom bunk and although it was short, I thought it was fun!=0) We didn't get to have a family talent show like we wanted, but I guess we'll have to do it next year.=0)
Christmas was spent opening presents, cleaning up the house for the next day and me working for part of the evening. I got a new dresser, Lee got an ottoman and clothes and a new trimmer, the kids got a trampoline from Santa, Drake and Seth got a Wii game and Lego's and clothes/shoes books... (lots of things of course!) Adree got an easel which she has put to good use already, a vintage Rainbow Bright doll, clothes/Heely's...etc.=0) Quiet together as a family, just the way it should be!=0)
And before all the chaos of the holiday, I got my kitchen completely put together and clean! It is truly a dream to work in, I keep telling Lee if I didn't have to work, I would cook for him all the time and I truly wouldn't mind...it's great! I don't even mind cooking after being at work all day and that's saying something! Ha! =0)
Like I said, it was a whirlwind of a holiday, but it was fun and I'm sooo glad it's over! I mean Wow! What a busy holiday!=0)

It's starting to feel like home...

Lee's record award wall in his office
The office put together finally...
My dining room...
Most likely the only time the boy's bedroom will be clean the entire Christmas break!
Grandma Brenda and Grandpa Dick opening presents with the kids before trekking north for the Holiday...

Alright, as you can see I've been slowly making progress in the unpacking front! This has been a slow process with working, the kid's being out of school and me attempting to be ready for Christmas! I actually just got finished shopping yesterday, horrible for someone who usually gets started in October! Oh, well!
Lee's office turned out every bit as nice as we imagined, after just working out of the dining room in the condo, Lee is ecstatic to have his own dedicated work space (of course I am too!). The feature wall with the record awards (some are even his own) turned out great! We continued the very masculine travel theme he had in the condo and it looks very rich and appropriate.
My dining room with the laminated table cloth (a must with kids) and the wipe able place mats not only look nice, are extremely practical! I still need to rescue our very large and beautiful mirror with the metal scroll work to hang in the space, but it looks great so far.
The boys bedroom need their blue and turquoise curtains hung back up, as well as, their posters put back up and their room is complete.=0) I know it will not stay clean, but at least the door shuts right? =0) The kitchen is finished and put together, but I have been attempting to do a little holiday goody making so it wasn't clean enough for a picture just yet! =0)
We love our new house and look forward to making many, many years of memories watching our children grow...Merry Christmas to you and yours for the members of the Lambsfold!=0)

Christmas happenings

Merry Christmas from the Lambsfold!
Adree playing the "Deck the Halls" at her Choir/Orffestra concert
Adree enjoying the rare Dixie snow...
Drake and Seth flinging snow balls....
Pretty site to wake up to this morning

My Christmas tree turned out nice=0)
Adree posing with her xylophone at her Christmas concert


Okay, my apologies for the pictures being all out of order! Blogger isn't uploading very well today...Anyway, here's a few pictures from the goings on in the Lambsfold!
We woke up to rare snowfall this morning! Dixie is known for it's 60 degree winter temperatures in the winter and definitely not for its snow! The kid's have been outside enjoying it, you know the whole 2-3 inches of it! If it warms up at all today it will be gone before afternoon.
I went ahead at set up my Christmas tree in my guest room at the front of the house. The door closes to keep people out, you can see it from the street and seeing as though we haven't had time for lights this year that will have to do! =0)
Adree and her choir and Orffestra (they play drums, percussion, xylophones) had a concert on Thursday, they did great! I love the music program they have a their school, it really has been fun to watch them learn instruments and harmonies in singing!=0)
We're looking forward to Christmas here at our new house and Season's Greetings from the Lambsfold! =0)

I don't get it...

I have yet to be able to understand the necessity people feel to live their lives with so much negativity. I mean, come on $#!* happens, why do you think that gives you license to go on and on and on about it? I am a realist and don't think of the proverbial glass as half full or half empty, it's just half a glass. I know bad stuff is going to happen, I don't look at the world through rose colored glasses. I also don't automatically think that the worst is going to happen either. I've lived through a lot of bad things in my life, but I don't dwell on them. I just look toward the future and live my life on day at a time and deal with the mishaps as they happen. I suffered abuse at the hand of someone who promised to take care of me and love me. I wished to take my own life to escape my abuser, until I decided I couldn't let him win. I lost custody of my kids for almost two years and had to fight to gain it back. I have been extremely poor and hungry and I have been alone and lost as well. I was teased and tormented for years just for not fitting in very well. I was taken advantage of and left to fend for myself. I have made many, many mistakes and I'm sure I will make many, many more...I just can't bring myself to hate, to wallow, to regret, or to feel sorry for myself in any way. I'm not going around saying that I haven't done any of the things, I have just moved on. Why dwell on the negative? I mean complaining about a situation or a mishap or bad thing that has happened to you isn't going to make it go away. I don't get it...

As we settle in...=0)

The view from my couch this evening...
Stars in the entry...
Well, I have one room completed...

I'll bet you can't guess who's room that is...=0)
A shot of the clean part of the kid's bathroom!
A sample of the master bath as well...

Lee's office is going to be great all finished!

Well, talk about long time no blog! With moving and working and running kids around and catching a cold and what not...I've had a bit of a hard time finding a minute to myself long enough to blog! Well, all that and the fact that I haven't been able to get a certain someone to set my computer back up for me...=0P So, seeing as though he has ditched me for the moment and ran to Home Depot for some clips to hang Christmas lights from, I decided I should take a minute to snap a few pictures and type a quick note!=0) I know there are just a few pictures, but I still have several rooms full of boxes that I've been trying to clear out and put away. The one room I've managed to finish completely has been Adree's room and I imagine the Boy's room will be the next. It's just soooo much nicer when I don't have to get up early every single morning to just to try to find clothes for them to wear!
So, far I just love the house, the neighborhood, the whole shebang! A couple of minor things I've noticed or had to deal with...The hot water didn't work in the kids shower and the first bath they had here involved Mom dumping warm water from the sink into the tub. Yeah, they weren't too impressed! We ran the dishwasher on Thanksgiving for the first time and discovered that it's much more effective if you turn the water on to it first! Nothing like steamed, dirty dishes! The shower head in the master shower is really crappy and will need to be replaced and no matter how many times we reset the thermostat it reverts back to 60 degrees in the evening and if you forget to reset it before bed, you freeze! Although it's nice that it automatically goes up to 70 for a couple of hours in the morning around 6... so, at least it's warm enough to get out of bed! It's a big house! If you forget something clear on the other side of the house, you have to really want it bad to walk all the way back for it!
I'll keep taking pictures and posting them as I get rooms finished and we sure are looking forward to making memories and watching the kids grow up here...warms thoughts and wishes from the Lambsfold as we settle in...=0)

Sorting and packing has its perks!

Lee and his band-mates during a tour (Lee is the one high up on the rock!)
Lee after being on stage while still in High School, spinning his sticks...
On stage with the same band as the first pic (Lee is behind the drums, of course!)
Another pic of Lee while still in High School, love the great 70's hair!


Okay, what can I say? Packing and moving is never fun, but finding treasures in albums and boxes is fun!=0) Lee found a few old pics of himself and I snatched them long enough to scan them! I love the great 3 Dog Night look Lee has with the band he was touring with (circa early 80's), it makes me laugh that he ever really looked like that, it's great! Babycakes, you are the best in any era!=0)
I know you're thinking...what happened to the final house pictures? Well, I've been a bit distracted with moving so I haven't taken final pictures, but I promise they are coming! The goal is to be completely moved by Thanksgiving, so seeing as though we only have a couple of weekends left...we'd better get moving!=0)

....BOO!....=0)

The Dominos Pizza delivery boy, a princess, and a pirate....
Bart-man!!
Okay, so you have to have Southern Utah roots to...
....fully understand this costume!=0)
Puppy joined the fun as well! =0)

Well, we seemed to be able to squish a few hours of Halloween fun into our busy working/moving schedule! Now who says this is just a kids holiday? Lee and I generally dress up as well...just for the fun of it! =0)
Drake asked to be Uncle Sterling for Halloween last year and okay my brother isn't a super hero or anything so, I had to think of a costume that would work! Sterling works for Dominos and so, the Dominos Pizza delivery costume was born! What an easy and inexpensive costume to make! I purchased a plain blue t-shirt from Wal-Mart for three dollars (clearance) and a blue hat (also, three dollars on clearance) and we had some plain pizza boxes that we were getting rid of at work. I just googled Dominos logo images and printed out a picture that I copied with red and white paint pens onto the shirt. The hat had a logo on it, so I took a blue iron on knee patch and ironed it over the logo and then drew the logo with paint pens. I was also able to get an image of a Dominos pizza box that I copied the print on to the plain pizza box with red and blue sharpies. The costume was a hit both this year and last year...not to bad for just a few bucks!=0)
I also made Adree's costume or the majority of it anyway! I bought a tank top ($5 for a package of two) and took some scrap material I had (red underneath and a purple sheer fabric for the top of the skirt, as well as the sleeves) and attached a skirt to the bottom of the tank and sleeves. I embellished it with ribbon, sewed on jewels and bows to make it froofy...and voila! instant princess dress! Lagoon had it's gift shop up at the front gates full of Halloween items and that's where I got the princess hat (Seth's pirate hat as well...) for just $6, so her costume was pretty cheap too! =0)
Seth's pirate accessories were all from the dollar store and I bought him a red striped shirt ($5 thank you again Wal-Mart!) and a pair of sweats ($3.50 I believe) that I cut the ends off of and frayed and the bandanna was a dollar at Wally World as well! Aside from the great hat I picked up at Lagoon, his costume was under ten bucks as well!=0)
I bought a pair of thick black tights for my Polyg costume and scarily had everything else in my closet! The denim dress is actually a long jacket, it buttons down the middle but only to the knee. I quickly basted closed the bottom of it to look like a dress and buttoned it all the way up, donned the thick black tights and plain K-mart style shoes, borrowed one of Adree's baby dolls and I was the real deal! Ha! Well, minus the whole spiritual marriage thing and being the fifth wife of some ancient old codger after being married off at 16...I teased the front of my hair up as high as my bangs would allow and French braided the back and thoroughly coated the entire "do" with a good coat of extra strong hair-spray, I really got some strange looks...I looked a little too real!
Bart-Man was supposed to be a Polyg as well, but got distracted by the Bart Simpson Mask that tumbled out of the closet and hit him in the head! I was Bart a couple of years ago and that silly mask makes you mostly blind and partially deaf! Lee was a great hit amongst the Trick-or-Treaters, but had to be led around so he didn't get left behind and he tripped over each one of the kids who continually stopped in front of him no matter how many times I told them not to!
I hope everyone else had a fun Halloween! It was great fun letting the kids Trick-or-Treat around our new neighborhood and I am sooo looking forward to next year and being able to decorate my new house for the season!

Silly stuff if you are interested!

http://sendables.jibjab.com/view/tlbkTnzQ1hJIewGd

Boo! Scary, Chilly, Fun at Lagoon!=0)

This is what we had a good time doing this weekend....Frightmares at Lagoon!=0) For those of you not familiar with Lagoon and Frightmares, it's an amusement park (Lagoon) that gets all dressed up for Halloween fun at the end of the season! =0) Frightmares is great! We are trying to make it a tradition every year (we went last year too) to take a long weekend and take the kids (yes, Lee too!) and enjoy Lagoon.
Lee, the kids, and I headed up to Cara's house on Friday and spent the weekend with her and her family. We got there after her kids had gone to bed, so we visited with her and Nathan until evening sickness got the better of my sister and she went to bed.=0) After Ainsley attended a birthday party of a friend the next morning we had lunch and rounded up all the kids (Ainsley too) and drove to Farmington to Lagoon. Other than it being pretty chilly (low to mid fifties), we really had a good time! This was Ainsley's first time attending an amusement park and she truly had a total blast!=0) Seth was totally psyched being tall enough (just barely!) to ride all the rides he wanted to go on.=0) We rode the roller coaster, (yes, it's every bit as rickety as it was when I was a kid!) the Carousel, the Screamer, (Ainsley rode it with me and the boys and then again with Adree) the Music Land Express, Adree and Lee rode the Wild Mouse and the Colossus as well. Adree and Ainsley rode the Rock 'o Plane and we all rode the train and the Sky Ride, as well as the Boomerang (bumper cars), and the Turn of the Century (my personal favorite!). =0) Of course we didn't leave the park until after 7 and stopped at Mc D's for dinner and didn't get Ainsley in bed until after 8:30....yes, I am the bad influence Auntie, but it really was fun!=0)
We hung out at Cara's on Sunday morning and got ready to go and left finally so they could go to church.=0) Now if you've been reading my blog you are all too aware that we bought a new house and have spent the last couple of months renovating it, so you know I could not pass up the opportunity to go to IKEA and pick up some treasures!=0) After spending two hours in IKEA and deciding that we definitely need to go back with an empty car and a trailer, we headed back to American Fork and enjoyed a Chinese buffet. (Lee's favorite) and spent the rest of the afternoon/evening traveling south toward home. Of course we realized, once we got close, that we were going to have to go across town and drop off our treasures for the new house at the new house because we do not have any room at our current house. (Did you follow that?) So, once we finally got home for the night it was the kid's bedtime and they were beat....Lee and I too, actually...but that was a really fun weekend trip. Obviously, I forgot my camera...so, you get to use your imagination and picture the smiling faces of the kids and Lee standing in line at various rides! Oh, well....we had a great time. A scary, chilly, Frightmares-ish great time!!=0).....BOO!! =0)

Silence is Golden...

You know the old adage, "Silence is Golden"? The term had no meaning to me as a child. Why would someone be so happy if it were silent? Making noise is so much fun!=0) Not until I reached adult-hood did I realize the power of a noiseless world. Silence helps one to enjoy all the simple things in life. Think about it, if it is quiet enough to hear rustling of the leaves in the trees and the songs of the birds, perhaps people wouldn't be so quick to dismiss the necessity of a little nature in their lives. With a little more silence, perhaps people wouldn't be so quick to build more roads in open spaces and clear trees to build things we really don't need. With a little more silence, perhaps people would be able to hear their own thoughts and take the second that is needed to calm down before their actions lead to violence. I don't need the T.V. on all the time, nor do I need it to fill up the house with useless noise. I enjoy being able to hear my own thoughts, and I enjoy being able to appreciate the life I have been given to live. I enjoy listening to my children play and create, I enjoy being able to hear the ringing of my own ears. Taking the time to reflect and learn from our own mistakes, is the only way to progress and grow as a person. I would much rather be known as a "genuine" person when I'm gone, than a person who only thought of themselves and let their mistakes hold them back in life. I know I am not a great person in the eyes of the world, I don't have a great job, I don't have a lot of money...I haven't accomplished a great deal of things and circumstances still hold me back. My words aren't revered as consequential and my presence isn't well known...I lack in the ability to attract greatness and my personal struggles don't amount to squat when compared to others. I know that I possess empathy and spirit and if you are my friend, you will remain so for life. I help with things and prayers whenever possible and truly don't hate anyone in my life, past or present. I live for my children and conversely, my children are my life. Things are just that, things...they can neither comfort you in sorrow, nor bring you everlasting joy. Family is to be treasured and appreciated above all things...they can't be replaced, things can. I have the presence of mind to appreciate help when given and be grateful for those who give it to me. Silence is Golden, use it to your advantage...seek it out when you are down, reflect and meditate. Recharge yourself on the singing of birds and the rustling of leaves. Leave the T.V. off occasionally and just enjoy the breeze as it carries the sounds of years gone by and the laughter of children past your ears and into the silence...

You have to take a look at how awesome the tile in the kitchen turned out! We LOVE it! =0)
Taking a peek into the guest bedroom, done except the carpet being laid back down...
Looking at the floor in the Master Bedroom it looks great!=0)
Looking at the actual color of the walls in the hall =0)
Looking at the red wall in Lee's office...
The new floors are great! Can you guess the material?=0)
Adree is so very excited that they got her room all painted!
Very, VERY excited! =0)


Well, well...we seem to be just about done, finally! I am sooo looking forward to getting to move into our new digs (as Lee calls them!) and clear out our cramped current quarters! There is just one more room left to floor, the counters in the master bath need to be tiled, and rehanging of doors and painting/ replacing trim throughout and that should be it for the interior of the house! Yay! This project has done nothing for my patience, but I am sooo glad we're almost done! Now if we can only get moved...anyone want to help? It'll be fun! Ha, Ha!=0)