It's The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

'Twas the week before Christmas and all through the house, the dishwasher leaked- a perfect job for a spouse. We pull out the washer and what do we see? The floor underneath is rotted as can be!

Pull out the wrench and warm up the drill, this is obviously much more than just a little spill. Rip up the linoleum, uncover the mold, the insurance adjustor comes Monday we're told. So for Christmas this year the kitchen's a mess, we'll be shopping for new tile and maybe new cabinets, I guess. But 'tis the season for joy, our blessings are still many, even if the "leak" drowns out our last penny.

Everybody Needs...

A Bath Buddy

A Riding Buddy

A Daddy

A Hand to Hold

A Best Buddy

Thanksgiving Update

I'm always behind on blogging! Oh well. Better late than never.

Thanksgiving was tons of fun. We were up in Logan and joined the Israelsen side for lunch. Of course we barely made it through eating before Allie decided she needed a nap and was in no way willing to compromise on that. So unfortunately our visiting was cut incredibly short. We still had a great time.

While up in Logan, Jacob surprised me with tickets to go see the Forgotten Carols-LOVED IT! However, McLean has added too much to it. I liked it better when I saw it a few years ago. But, still the perfect way to kick off the holiday season.

The 29th we celebrated Kenna's 3rd birthday with the Otte clan. It was so fun to play a few little party games with the cousins. Absolute chaos but it was a lot of fun. Yep, my little firstborn is 3! I truly can't believe it. She's knockin' at the door of the Sunbeams! Wow, we are graduating nursery. I thought it was crazy when she started nursery! Even crazier than that, Allie starts nursery in less than 2 months! Time flies. We'll hear wedding bells before we know it. Okay, whoa, slow down.... don't even want to think about that.

We celebrated with the Israelsen clan the next day, so Kenna got two cakes! She is sure blessed to have two awesome families who love her.

Before we headed down South, we stopped in at Temple Square and saw the lights. It was SO SO FUN! I haven't been there for a few years and I just ate it all up. The weather was amazing and the lights were beautiful and the Spirit was so peaceful. I love that place. Another perfect way to ring in the season.

Want to give a shout out to Grandma Shelly- she had a hip replacement last Friday (on her birthday- but what a heck of a gift, huh?) and so far is doing pretty darn good. So glad everything went well, mom. You'll be waterskiing before you know it! HA! You just keep on getting better. Sure love you.

Good luck to everyone on all the shopping and wrapping and eating and caroling and baking and eating and trimming and stressing and eating and tree-gazing and cocoa-sipping the next few weeks. I love stoking up the fireplace so our house is super toasty, then Jacob and I can snuggle on the couch and enjoy all the fun Christmas lights. Take time to enjoy the season and remember how incredibly blessed we are that the Savior came to Earth, and all the remarkable things He has done- and continues to do- for us.

Catch Up

Happy Halloween! Jacob's sister Andrea and her husband Ben blessed their baby the first Sunday in November, so we headed up north for the weekend. On Halloween, I had been doing applesauce all day with my mom (thanks mom, you're the best!) and then all of the sudden it was time to get the girls ready to go trick-or-treating. I was pooped, so the girls got a quick costume change and we headed out the door. Allie was my little lion cub and Kenna was a princess. Sort of. It's as princess as she's gonna get, anyway! She is all farmgirl, so princess almost doesn't fit. A week before Halloween she was invited to a princess tea party, so I found a cute little outfit at Family Dollar and I figured we'd get some good use out of it. Yep, I'm sure a fancy mom! As long as she got to hold her plastic pumpkin to collect candy in, life was good and she really could have cared less. We stopped in at Hayley's house up the street and not only got to see Hayley but also the whole Johnson fam! For anyone not familiar, Hayley is as close to sister as you can get without being biologically related. We pretty much grew up with the Johnson clan and I miss them a ton. It was so good to see you Hayley and Linda and the rest of the gang! Sure love you guys!

During the visit up north, Jacob was mostly out at the farm (shocker?) and that is really where Kenna wanted to be the whole time too. The camera never made it out there but they sure had a good time riding horses and doing all the farm stuff. She helped her Aunt Marlene make cookies, and I believe the cookie beaters aren't quite the same. I suppose "help" is a very subjective term, huh? The girls sure have some great Aunts and Uncles who give them lots of love. And patience!

We finally got to meet our new cousin Olivia! She was definitely worth the long drive up to Idaho. It was so fun to spend the day with family and I couldn't get enough snuggles from sweet little Olivia. Kenna especially loved holding her first Israelsen cousin. Allie really needed a nap and didn't cooperate so well with me holding a different baby, but I still managed to hold Olivia a bit. It is still just amazing to me to see a baby just lay there so content as can be. We are so happy for you Ann and Ben and can't wait to see little Olivia again! Okay, I guess we want to see you too. Ha!

Here we have Kenna who somehow managed to pop a seam and empty out the entire contents of the little green bean-bag-like pillow that used to sit on her bed. Looks like snow, but it actually is teeny tiny little styrofoam-like balls that created the stuffing for the pillow. Yep, all over her floor. Fortunately it hadn't been scattered yet. Jacob and I had just sat down to rest and have some peace and quiet for the night when Kenna came in and asked us to "come see!" The peace and quiet was delayed a bit as we roared up the vaccuum. Kinda looks fun to play in, though. I still find those little bits around my house every once in a while.

Don't have a picture, but I spent a few days up in Salt Lake with my sister this week. Jacob had to be in South Jordan for meetings Tues-Thurs, so the girls and I bummed a ride. Matt (Steph's husband) was out of town for work, so we were single moms together for a few days. Love you Steph! It was kind of a whirlwind with no husbands and 4 kids, but it was so fun to chat and stay up late. Okay, then we really paid for it. Not quite sure how we did that when we were younger. That wasn't that long ago! Let's just say we are looking forward to a girl's retreat sans kids in the near future. Thanks for being such a great hostess Steph!

A House of Order

So I walked into the living room yesterday to find this second picture. And I sighed. Yep, that's my house folks. Let me break it down for you: A) the cushions have been pulled off the couch- every single one of them. B) the Tupperware has obviously been invaded and who knows where else the other pieces have been scattered. C) this picture was taken right about high noon and my child is still in her pajamas- well, to make it even better she is actually only in half of her pajamas. D) speaking of pajamas, they are covered in chocolate milk. E) said child is covered in snot due to the cold that has been passed around to all of us. F) hair has obviously not been combed in about 3 weeks. G) This is only ONE of two children, and the one who does the least amount of damage in the house. Hmm. You always wonder what life is like at other houses? Well there you have it. Yep, usually there is some sort of mess somewhere in the house and I can really let my mind wander and feel guilty about not having things always "looking" just so. But you know what? After I took a deep breath, I took a second look at that. Just look at that cute little thing kicked back on the couch just as content as can be. So I guess I'll be just fine if my house is torn apart at high noon on a Wednesday with lots of chocolate milk and snot. Perhaps we need to just throw the cushions off more often.

First picture: What is better than a good pumpkin carve? That was FHE this week. We got the ol' punkin carved and ate M&M's. Obviously Kenna was in heaven and loves to look at her punkin all lit up. She wanted to fill up her pumpkin with M&M's. Ha! Nice try sweets, nice try.

If there was a third picture it would be of our company this past week. (Woops, guess we were having too much fun to take pics). Wednesday and Thursday we had Grandpa Clark and Uncle Benson (Israelsen) stay with us. Kenna LOVED Uncle Benson and thought life was great when she got to snuggle with him to fall asleep. Thanks for being such a good sport Uncle Bens! They were our little slaves getting in some gravel and had quite the trial getting another load of wood for us. Then Friday-Sunday Grandma Shelly and Grandpa Kerry (Otte) came down to see us. We went to see "Beverly Hills Chihuaha" and depite a few tense moments, Kenna really liked it. Other than that we just enjoyed each other and were spoiled rotten. We are always so sad when family has to go back home. We sure love you guys!! Thanks for all you do for us. We are so blessed with such awesome families.

I Hope They Call Me on a Mission....

I had the coolest experience the other day that I always want to remember, hence I add it to my little e-journal I've got going here.

I never went on a mission, but have always had such a great respect for the wonderful people in my life who did serve. I've never considered myself a missionary, and in fact have always been so nervous about sharing my beliefs with strangers. I always get to upset with myself about that, because if I truly believe, then I should have no problem sharing it with others regardless of them accepting it or not- Something I have been working on. Well, recently our ward has been doing a continous fast to help boost our member missionary efforts. Our family took our turn a few weeks ago and I KNEW that opportunities would surely come, so I am going to have to get over this little shy thing of mine. Well, the other day my doorbell rang, and there stood a cute little black lady selling some cleaner of some type. She introduced herself and was really so sweet. So I listened to her schpeel on the cleaners and throughout the conversation just tried to make small talk with her. She was actually really fun to talk with and we laughed a little bit here and there. It wasn't too long into the cleaning demo I had an instant impression I needed to make a missionary opportunity out of it. I started asking questions about her and her job and found out that this cute little black girl was 20 year-old Carmelita from Detroit, Michigan who was hoping to start nursing school in January. We laughed at how our culture out here was pretty different from what she is used to back in inner-city Detroit. As the conversation was winding down, I asked her if she had heard of the church while being out here. She hadn't, and I continued to ask her if she belonged to any church of her own. She didn't. Now was my time. Normally, this is where my heart starts thumping out of my chest and I can't get myself to talk. But this time was different, and I suddenly felt like I knew just what I needed to say and the words just rolled out. I told her we belonged to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and we believe in the Book of Mormon, another testament of Jesus Christ which is a companion to the Bible. She was so cute and pulled out a paper and wrote down the name of the church and also the church website. (This is where I needed a spare copy of the BOM, and will definitely get some). I invited her to look it up when she gets back home, and if she has a chance on Sunday to find one of our churches. (She is staying in Beaver for a few weeks while they go around selling their cleaners). She was really open to hear me out and left with a smile. As the door closed, I realized I was feeling the Spirit so strongly and that I had truly been guided through my little missionary experience. I may never know what turns out with cute Carmelita, but I pray she also felt the Spirit and that a little seed was planted that hopefully in time will grow to give her the most incredible gift she could ever have. In no way do I mean to boast, because I have a LONG way to go. I also realize there was a lot of things I could have done differently. I konk myself over my head not finding out where she lived in Michigan so I could get the missionaries to her door. But I was so grateful for this little experience, as small as it was, to teach me that I can be a missionary. I look forward to future opportunities and hope that whenever someone comes to my door, even if they are trying to sell me cleaner, they will leave with much more than they came with and hopefully will be touched by the Spirit. I challenge those of you reading this to find missionary opportunities of your own. I would LOVE to hear your stories! Thank you to all you wonderful people out there who are such great examples to me and help me strive to be better.

Where Does The Time Go?

Today I have been trying to organize my pictures while both girls are napping. Let's give a quick hallelujah to a double nap! Anyhow, I've been going through all the pictures on my computer and putting dates on the hard copies so I can put them into albums. We just won't talk about how far behind I am. I still have oodles on my memory card that need to get printed. Somewhere in the hundreds.....(groan). Anyway, back to the story. So I'm going through my pictures and started looking at the shots from when Kenna was a baby. Oh my goodness! I can't believe how I have forgotten what she was like as a little tiger. Now she's become my walking talking little angel/devil. (I say that with oh so much love, mind you.) I can't imagine what it will be like someday when we sit around as a family with teenagers laughing at all our pictures. THEN I will really wonder where the time has gone. But, just for fun I put up pictures of my babies who are no longer babies. Even my little Allie isn't really a baby anymore. NOPE, not quite baby hungry yet, don't you worry. The days of perma-scream-infant are still a little too fresh in the ol' noggin. But I definitely look forward to more sweet little ones to come. I need to have these moments to remind me that being a mom is one of the greatest blessings I will ever have. Somedays are more devil than angel, if you will, and I need some rejuvination every now and then. Ah yes. Looking at baby pictures is rejuvination for mom and redemption for the kids. Of course this double nap thing is scoring the girls some really good points too. Love you my ladies!