Christmas Time!

For the past couple of years I have wanted to make picture ornaments of our family from past Christmas's.  I finally did it this year.  I made 8 ornaments for the past 8 years and also made 10 more so that as the years go by I can just add the picture and not have to re-make ornaments every year.  Here are two done and hanging on the tree.

 

I copied the idea from here.  I LOVE this blog and read it all the time.  She has great ideas and opinions.  I followed the tutorial except I used foam board instead of wood.  For $6 I was able to cut out 18 ornaments.

Just for fun, here are some cute photos of Santa baby and his siblings

Lullaby and Goodnight

I was switching a load of laundry today and set Tanner down on the dryer.  He was hungry so the next item on the agenda was to feed him.  However, after I switched the laundry he was sound asleep comforted but the soft vibration of the dryer.  I Love it!

Race Day

Jacob and David ran their first race on Thanksgiving this year.  They had a lot of fun participating and being a part of race day.  Our plan was to have one of us at the start line and one at the finish, unfortunately the race was a bit disorganized.  By the time I had ran all over trying to locate their race numbers we only had one minute to pin them on and then they were off.  Ben and I were left at the start line with two extra coats, a car seat with a baby inside(heavy), a diaper bag and a two year old.  We really tried to run to the finish line to see them cross, but we missed the big moment.  The boys still had fun and got running bags with a bunch of free stuff(garbage), snacks after, and a race day shirt.  The race this year was just .25 miles but Jacob says next year he wants to run the 5K.  We are proud of our little runners!

Sugar Anyone?

On Friday we were babysitting some of our friends kids and decided to make cookies with everyone.  When we asked one of the boys to put the sugar away, this is what happened.  When the sugar spilled I was grateful I laughed instead of getting angry.  There are times when I get really angry about things kids do but I find they are getting less often, and I am laughing more.

E-mail from my 1st Grader's Teacher

I want to bring to your attention something that happened yesterday during our indoor lunch recess.   The children could not go out because of the wind chill. If you are receiving this email, your son or daughter was involved in this situation.  I was having my lunch when this happened and the children were being supervised by two very competent teaching assistants.  

From what I understand about what happened, after a day long investigation, a group of six students were experimenting by eating hand sanitizer.  The idea I believe originated with one of my girls, when she suggested the other people in the group eat the hand sanitizer. I have spoken to all the people involved and they all tried the sanitizer and confirmed no one was forced to eat it.  They all just made a really bad choice.  The ladies watching the children realized something was not quit right when the children kept requesting to go to the bathroom in pairs or small groups.  They definitely were hiding the hand sanitizer from the teachers and after they asked the two different teachers to go to the bathroom, or go get a drink, the teachers caught on to the fact that something wasn't right, especially since they all looked guilty of something, and did not allow them to go out any more. We had used hand sanitizer to clean our hands before lunch instead of soap and water because we were running late getting to lunch. I have since put the hand sanitizer away in my cabinet.  You have my promise I will not leave it on the back counter any more.

I sent the group to the principal's office, but unfortunately he was in meetings with classroom teachers all day and wasn't able to talk with the group.  I am sure he will be talking with them tomorrow.  Some of the children were almost bragging they were going to see the principal.  I need your help to stress the seriousness of the situation.  I spoke with the entire class about the seriousness of eating the hand sanitizer. I also stressed making good choices for ourselves and not doing something because someone suggested it or told you to do it.  I told the children they needed to think before they did something to make sure it was safe, no one would be hurt and no one would be in trouble.  They all knew it was wrong,  because they were being secretive when they were doing it. I appreciate you talking with your child and helping drive home the point they need to make decisions for themselves.  All the children involved were blaming someone else and saying they did it because someone had told them to do it. No one seemed to realize they could have said no and walked away.  I asked them several times if anyone made them do it and everyone said no, that they were just all trying it. I think this can be a great opportunity to help your son or daughter learn how important it is to learn to say no to friends.  I know you all can think of a situation that might happen in a few years where your son or daughter will be tempted by friends to make a wrong decision. I think it would also be helpful if you could tell your child he/she has the power to protect others by letting a teacher or adult know when something like this happens in the future. They were more afraid of getting in trouble than of getting very sick from what they were doing. Thank you so much for your help with this and I appreciate your support. 

Houston Trip

It has been three months since I posted and a lot has happened in the past three months. I am going to attempt to blog a bit more often and keep my posts up to date.

Last week I went on a trip to Houston to visit my brother and sis-in-law, Kevin and Laurel. They wanted some help organizing their house and I love to organize so they bought me a ticket and we went to work. We worked on their office/craft room and took it from cluttered and unorganized to clean and pretty. I had a great time with them and I am excited about the way the room turned out. I wish I had remembered to take some before pictures but I didn't. Here are some after pictures.  My camera was on the wrong setting and some of the pictures are a little blurry, but you can still see the room.

Tanner Benjamin Mower

On Tuesday, August 17 2010, Tanner Benjamin Mower was born. I had a doctor's appointment in the morning and my blood pressure had been a bit high for the last week. Since I was so close to my due date the doctor told me to go to the hospital right then to get induced. It was a crazy hour trying to arrange child care for three other kids. I had people set up to help, but a lot were too far away or didn't answer their phone.

It was 2:00 when I was all hooked up to the IV and the pitocin started. Around 3:00 I got an epidural making everything wonderful and he was born at 5:40 after pushing through one contraction. It was an easy labor and delivery and I am feeling really good now. Here are some pictures of baby Tanner.


Tanner weighed 7 lbs. and was 19.5 inches tall.




Jacob, David and Madeline are very excited to have a new baby in our family!




All ready to go home!

Ben took a week off of work and it was so nice and fun to have him around. Today he went back to work, bummer. Tanner is a mellow baby and sleeps a lot. I hope he continues to be an easy baby because the rest of life(the other 3 kids) is a bit chaotic!

Could you please take the toys to the basement?

David and Madeline are so obedient and promptly took all of the toys to the basement. Aren't they great kids?

Utah Valley Marathon

Last Saturday Ben ran his first marathon. He said he wanted to run one to "check it off his list" but now that he has done one I don't think it will be his last. He was out of town the week before the race and flew into Salt Lake on Friday at 8:30 and had to wake up at 3:30 the next morning to catch a bus to the start of the race.

We went and watched Ben run by at about mile 21. Here he is running by and looking strong. The kids liked to watch for dad and see him racing.



Here he is after the full 26.2 miles. Ben said you can't forget the last .2 because it is the hardest. The first half of the race was in rain which helped contribute to the bloody nipples you see. There were a lot of men running with bloody nipples. Poor guys!



The kids didn't really want to pose for the picture, but here is the attempted family shot.


Jacob wanted to practice his photography skills with Ben's shirt and medal. Not too bad for a 6 year old.



Ben and I decided to run this race together last December and then 2 days later I found out I was pregnant. I am proud of Ben for doing it on his own, but some year we will do one together when I am not 7 months pregnant!

Daddy Daughter

I have been feeling a bit uninspired about blogging lately. But I don't want to go forever without a post so...

Ben and Madeline went to our ward's daddy-daughter activity awhile ago but I just came across this picture again today. Madeline had a great time going just with Ben. The boys and I had fun at McDonald's and getting ice cream.



It is always fun to watch children get older. Madeline has been growing up a lot lately. She now sleeps in a big bed, plays at the neighbor's house, puts her shoes and socks on by herself, and is attending her very first birthday party tomorrow. She will make a great big sister!

May 12 really??

Really it is May 12 and we woke up to snow? Where is the warm weather? We are having a birthday party this afternoon for David, I was hoping to have lots of it outside. I wonder if the sun will come out and melt all of the snow away?

It's a boy!

I had my ultrasound this past week and as you already know from the title, it's a boy! The baby looks healthy and everything is going well. Some of my friends and cousins are also pregnant and it seems like nearly everyone is having a boy. Girls are in short supply right now:)

Canyonlands Half Marathon

Last weekend I went to Moab with three friends to run the Canyonlands half marathon. It was a fun weekend! We drove through the mountains outside of Denver on Friday through a bad storm. It was scary in a few places and we weren't sure if we could make it up some of the hills. Luckily everything turned out OK and we made it to Moab in good time.

On Friday evening we picked up our race packets and then went out to dinner and had an early bedtime. This is me and my friends after we picked up our packets.



Saturday morning we woke up and got ready to run. We had to wait at the start for about an hour and a half. For one hour we had warm clothes on but when there was a half hour left we had to take our warm clothes off and put them in a drop back to pick up at the end of the race. It was so cold!

The week before the race I had a bit of spotting which concerned me a little with being pregnant. I debated whether I should run the race or not and decided to just take it easy and enjoy the run instead of getting a good time. I ran with my friend for the first 6 miles and was feeling really great. Between mile 6 and 7 I started feeling a bit more tired so I decided to slow down and let her run ahead. I put my music in, and zoned out. It was one of the BEST runs! I loved it! I didn't care how fast I was going, how many people were passing me, or any of the things I usually think about during a race. I just enjoyed the beautiful scenery, my music and a nice jog. The best part of the race came when I crossed the finish line and got a PR(personal record). I was amazed that I took it easy and still managed to beat my last half marathon time by 3 minutes. My final time was 2:06:52. Not super fast, but I keep getting better and I finished feeling great. Here is the 4 of us after the 13 miles.



After the best chocolate milk and other snack food we headed back to the hotel for showers. Then we went to Pasta Jays and enjoyed a delicious meal.



After our lunch we went to Arches and hiked a bit. Mostly just easy walking. It was good to stretch our muscles out a bit. I was thinking about climbing into this window but it was just a bit too much of a stretch.



We ended the night with a dessert party! We had tagalog ice cream and grasshopper cookies with hot chocolate. The best part of running 13 miles is all the food you get to eat after! It was a fun weekend away without kids or responsibilities. I need to do that more often.

Bedrooms and Blocks

Over the past 6 months I have been working a bit here and there on our bedrooms. Jacob and David moved to a bigger room so they could have two twin beds instead of bunk beds. There are enough night time accidents at our house that it was getting really tiresome to constantly by re-making bunk beds. Even though I am still washing sheets and making beds the same amount, it is a lot easier on a regular twin bed.

Ben painted the pattern on the walls to add a little fun and color. This is Jacob's side of the room.



This is David's side of the room. It looks a lot cuter when you see the whole thing instead of each side separately.



When we moved the beds around, the twin bed frame in Madeline's room was taken for the boys. I was really excited when I found this bed on Craig's list for $120. I love Madeline's new bed, now if she only wanted to sleep in it instead of her crib.



I got new bedding for our room last summer but it was too cheap and quickly fell apart. I really like the new bedding and pillows.



On Sunday, Ben and Jacob had a block tower building contest. Ben got 40 blocks before it toppled over.



Jacob got 30 stacked before his tower fell over.

Simple Pleasures

Yesterday at the store I splurged on a few things that really make me happy, I would like to share them with you.

1. Flowers- I love to have fresh flowers in my house and tulips happen to be one of my favorites. Ben is pretty good about bringing flowers home occasionally and sometimes I just buy them because the kitchen looks so much happier with flowers on the table.

2. Ice Cream- Yes I love ice cream but this is seriously the best kind I have had in a long time!! I didn't even know how good it was until I bought it yesterday. The actual cookies are ok, I like them but I don't have to have them. The ice cream is a different story, delicious! You should definitely try it especially if you like ice cream, peanut butter, and chocolate.

3. Aquafina flavored water- I love this flavored water! I hardly buy it because who wants to spend money on water? This kind is worth paying for once in awhile especially when it is on sale! A yummy treat for 0 calories!

Our Kitchen Makeover

I recently refinished out kitchen cabinets. They were the 90's oak look before. The real problem is that they looked old, there was sun fading and a bit of cracking in a few spots where the wood wasn't holding up really well. I sanded all the old finish off and then re-stained with the same color I did our kitchen table in. I like the new look and with the table finished in the same color, there is a nice flow.

This is the before kitchen



This is during the process


Almost half way done. I did the top half first and then the bottom so the kitchen wouldn't be in total disarray during the process.



You can see in the top right corner of this picture that we had to glue a wood veneer to the side of the cabinets. It was a cheap cardboard/plastic material that was sun faded blue. So we bought a thin wood, glued it on, and then put stain and polyurethane on. It turned out nice.



Here is the finished project. I am not a photographer and I don't think these pictures quite do it justice but that is just my lack of photography skills.





The project only cost $100 for new hardware, sand paper, wood veneer, stain, and paint to re-paint the walls. Now we just need to find some money for new stone counter tops:)

Happy Valentines Day!

Happy Valentines Day to everyone! I had a few little gifts for Ben and the kids on the table in the morning. Jacob woke up early and helped my decorate the table. He was really excited to participate but disappointed that his box of chocolates only had four chocolates in it.



Jacob made me this beautiful necklace in school and wanted me to model it so he could take a picture. I know, it is gorgeous!


There was no school last Friday, so we made sugar cookies for some of our friends. The boys had a fun time frosting and loading the cookies with sprinkles.



Ben made me a wonderful valentine with sweetheart candy sayings. What a creative guy!

Good News!

Baby Mower #4 is on its way. I went to the doctor yesterday thinking I was about 10 weeks but the ultrasound said I was 9 weeks and 2 days. Not quite as far as I had hoped but not a big deal. I am due August 20 and I am feeling great.

I was amazed how much you can actually see a baby in the ultrasound pictures.