mother to the cure. kinda.

remember when you finally got to take that much needed nap and woke up to your husband laughing at your face? and then remember when you had a dream that you were robert smith's mother and were defending him and his cosmetics to the cruel outside world?


and then remember when you woke up, your 2 year old had not only applied waterproof mascara to his babyface but he applied it perfectly? and then remember how conflicted you were with the spiral of emotions twirling through your body?
pride- shame- pride- shame----Pride!

don't worry, he made sure to share his skills with mom. i say when you've got it, flaunt it.

here's my little acorn. someday we'll discover his hidden talents.

You

Soft and only

You Lost and lonely

You Strange as angels

Dancing in the deepest oceans

Twisting in the water

You're just like a dream

oh utah. that magical world where everyone sighs in relief because their 20 year old niece got married before her eggs rotted, 6

everyone has an aunt over the age of 100, 6

grandma's show off their sledding skills 6

grandpa's teach their arizona grandchild the art of tossing snowballs (even if their groin becomes the main target), 6 and

the bucket of 1970's toys is bottomless .6

and since i was way too relaxed with my photo documenting, i decided that reenacting the highlights of the trip with fisher price people seemed to be the most accurate portrayal of the weekend. enjoy!

here we are. enjoying an afternoon on the merry-go-round.

and here's how each day ended. brando and brooks happily snuggled together, ade nursing for hours on end and me. me with my big ol' butt hanging off the bed but a smile on my face because the boys are asleep at the same time & i'm wearing my cowboy hat in bed. yee haw

we loved hanging out with the newly byu employed little bro and fam. and it was nothing shy of amazing because they know the best places to get coconut curry thai soup and all you can eat french toast. see, utah does have culture.

and then there were my in laws. what a competitive bunch of creatures. throwing out trhyme answers, baking some hardcore potato casseroles and laughing at anything and everything jason did. where did brandon come from?

introducing brooks to his first taste of winter sports was a treat.

until he realized that falling off the sled into the snow was all part of the fun. now he loves the cold as much as his mom.

but let us not neglect the best part of being with family. with grandma on hand to babysit, i Finally got my much needed 15 minutes of alone time. yes. taking a poop by myself- daily- was one of the highlights of the trip. jealous?

and although irrelevant, i had to include a picture of the "black mans" brooks insisted on taking a nap together during the photo shoot. woot woot.

-thanks for waiting

sorry about the delay in posts. we're on holiday- aka eating snickerdoodles with my adorable sister in law in springville. stay tuned for an ooo-tah recap.

-root of the problem

sleep. please. now.

-my new favorite trick

taught to me by my older brother and played on my little brothers.

hilarious. to me at least.

-the end of 08'

both babies are asleep (a rarity), the tree has been stripped down to it's lights and pine cones and i've eaten my 2lbs of almond roca for the day. time to document some of the happenings of this latest festive season.

what's a xmas party without a chubby blow-up doll? i'll tell you what it is not. it's not dean and jonelle's amazing employee party with prime rib, shiny bartenders and ipod white elephant gifts. it is also not a party where you ask yourself "how the heck did it get invited to this classy gala?" and last of all it's not a party where you ignore the burning pains from your rock hard nursing boobs to see who scores the coach purse. holy crap. i told you my neighbors were the best.

me, jonelle (you totally deserve that drink btw) & natalie.

we started some new traditions this year:

we've decided to leave the christmas eve feast cooking and clean up to the asians. brilliant!
we've also decided to squeeze a little jesus into the holidays every year hee hee. the mesa temple lights are just the place to forget about my horrible wrapping skills and get a dose of warm fuzzies. we went extra late so that the drive home would knock out the little ones and give mr and mrs clause the underestimated 3 hours to assemble a train table. oy vey.

xmas morning was fun this year. brooks was literally out of breath while playing with his trains. and cars. and batman. and tiny planes. and motorcycle. not so much with the pj's and books though. atta boy.

baby acorn was as yummy as the wrapping paper.

went hopped on a plane christmas afternoon to see grandma and grandpa in kennewick and to watch the snot on our son's face freeze during his first snow experience. ah the cold. how i've missed you.

nothing like a hot soak in the sink to warm you up.

and guess what we did for new year's eve?

guts full of granny's buffet +

3 vans full of babies+

a huge gathering of silently emotional mormons

--------------------------------------------------

missionary homecoming 08!!

welcome home elder dave!

you've gotta play bingo on new year's.

i was observing the art of how a true bingo queen rules. i am but a humble maiden in her presence.

our days were merry and bright. and as pictured above, i got everything i wanted. cant wait to see what oh nine brings!