Christmas 2011

It took long enough, but here I am. And its still not January 25th so I'm within the month after Christmas. That's good, right?

Our Christmas started a little earlier on the Weist side when we went to visit Steve's family at the first part of December. We had fun watching the kids open their gifts from their Grandma and Grandpa Weist. The kids LOVED their gifts and we had a fun time visiting.

This Christmas we had the chance to go and stay in Idaho for a week before Christmas.  We went and visited my grandma, aunt, uncle, and cousins in Idaho Falls on Saturday the 17th and stayed in Oakley for the rest of the week.

It was a wonderful break from all the craziness at home. My sister was awesome and wrapped my gifts while I held her baby. It was a great trade for both of us. 

Even our guinea pigs made the trip, and they loved the attention they got while there.  Georgy (my mom's shih tsu) really liked them!

We made a few trips to Burley and got the last of our shopping done. Below I have pictures from our stop at Dairy Queen. 

Once my sister and her family got to Idaho, we headed out to Rock Creek Canyon to see the lights. The highlight was seeing the camels! 

Christmas Eve is full of traditions at our house. Bean dip, Egg Nog, movies, and the reading of the Christmas Story.  The best part is watching the kids act out the Nativity with the cute little puppets my sister made several years ago. They love to be part of it.

Christmas Morning!! When we were little, we used to meet in my parent's room before going to see what Santa brought us.  When my parents added on to the house, it became the tradition to meet in the toy room downstairs.  Then we'd head up youngest to oldest. Since my sister did Christmas at her house (before meeting us for presents), my family got to be the first. It was kinda strange!

 The only thing that Gavin asked for was a balloon that he could bounce with the rubber band. What a cutie.

Classy

 Steve likes his Ninja turtle pants

Ashley really, REALLY wanted a girl ds game.

 Heidi loves Minnie Mouse!!

The chair was a huge hit!

Jakob and Andy share these two gifts - and they're not complaining one bit!

 I was in the line to check out on Black Friday and saw this pony set from thirty feet away. I asked my niece to grab it because I knew Ashley and Heidi would love it. 

Ashley finally got her dress up clothes!

 Nothing beats an angry bird for Ethan

 Gavin is the child I find with books in his bed each night. I figured I'd feed his hunger.

Gifts from Grandpa and Grandma Hardy

 We got Creationary and popcorn from my sister. My kids were ecstatic!

Here is the apron Jakob bought Grandma with his own money.

It was sad to leave but with storms coming, and Steve starting a new job, we knew it was time to go.  We hope everyone had a great Christmas and a wonderful New Year!!

Forgetting the Bad, Remembering the Good

Throughout the last year I've had some intense happy and sad moments.  Opening my dream bookstore, closing it, moving to Australia and and then moving home.  Anyone that's followed my blogs or Facebook posts can tell me and anyone else that the move was not an easy move. We went through a lot.  What do I remember?  The good stuff.

Let's look at the bookstore. I have always wanted a bookstore.  Its been a dream of mine for a long time, and seeing "You've Got Mail" only made me want it more.  And then my dream came true. For a full year I loved sharing books with customers.  I loved the selling, picking out books, meeting new authors,  and just being among my books.  If you know me, you know I love books.  I loved the fact that it was part of my job to know what books were about so I had to read the books. I could pick one off the shelf and read it.  That's one thing I've missed since I closed.  As we closed the store, I had a customer tell me he didn't know where to go to get books anymore because I could tell him which books were good and he didn't get that service from anyone else.  Wow. Best compliment ever.

I look at my store with fond memories.  Dates stick out even now for when we had author signings and other events.  I've ticked off the events in my mind as those date have passed this year.  For instance, today was the last time Brandon Sanderson and Dan Wells came to my store.  The week before Thanksgiving, I had thirty different authors come, which was amazing. 

With all those wonderful memories, I've forgotten the stress.  I've forgotten the many hours I spent at the store and not with my family.  I forgot how many times I saw the totals for the day, knowing that there wasn't enough to pay even a third of the bills that were due.  The tears that were spilt when I decided it was time to close.  I've forgotten how many thousands of fliers I sent out, the newspaper articles, the Facebook events and all the different activities in the store that I did to bring people in. Only to have very few people show to any of those events.   Its not until I stop and choose to remember those bad times that the memories come flooding back.

The same thing happens when I think about my move to Australia.  I miss the beach. I miss the animals there. I miss the people I met.  I miss the trains and areas we traveled to. I missed the cities I couldn't pronounce but that I fell in love with anyway.  I miss the food and I even miss walking to different stores.   I miss the cute little cottage where we squished eight people into a two bedroom house.

Never mind that every house had mold, my kids got sick, we got sick, we searched for houses nonstop for 4 1/2 months and never once unpacked until we got home.

How does our mind do this?  How can we look back on events in our lives and only remember the good things?  I think all of us are essentially optimists because the good is so much better to remember.  Think about the obituaries you see.  How many times have you ever seen "that person was the most spoiled rotten trouble maker I've ever met?"  I don't think I ever have.  You remember the good things - or sometimes at least you pretend to.

The things I'll remember most about the last two years are the things I loved about living two dreams I never thought I'd live.  I love my bookstore. I'd do it all over again if I could - only this next time it will be when my kids are older.  And I always wanted to go to Australia. I never thought I'd live there and in essence, it was really just a long vacation where everything that could go wrong did, and where Steve worked and we looked for houses. :)

So I choose to remember the good things in life and let the bad pass me by.  Onto the next dream.  What's that?  I want a book published.  And quite frankly, if it weren't for those two last adventures, I would not have the guts to even try.  After all, I've sat on a book I wrote 15 years ago because I was too afraid to send it in.  Wish me luck!! I will do my best and we'll see where that leads me.

Reflections 2011

Every year I'm excited to find out what the theme for Reflections will be. This year it was "Diversity means..."  I couldn't imagine what my kids could do but I was excited to find out.  True to form, each of them waited until the last minute to work on their projects.  Jakob drew a picture for his. Andy and Ashley both glued different kinds of beans to a piece of cardboard to show that everyone is different.  And Gavin wrote a story.  I posted his last story about a pumpkin patch.  I knew he could have quite the story to tell.  This story took a different twist than most kids would have come up with.

Because we went to Australia, Gavin got to experience diversity and being different in a different way than a lot of his peers here.  He wrote his story and we turned it in. There weren't a lot of entries in literature. I'm not even sure if there were others in his age group.  It doesn't matter though because he won! He was so excited.  Here is his entry.  I will post again if he goes any  further than the next level.

Diversity Means...

Once upon a time we were going to Australia. All the people talked different. People looked different. Everything looked different.  We went to the zoo. The zoo was different. We went to two churches and they were different. And we went to different schools. I was in Kinder. We stayed there for a lots of days. I talked different and they talked different so they weren't nice to me. I was nice to them. We decided to leave Kinder because we went to a new house. All the people had black and white faces. And it was hard to be different.  And we had a tv in one of our new houses. Ashley did Mathletics. She is my sister.  There was lots of moldy houses so we came home. Its nice to be home where we talk the same. I went to kindergarten here. Lots of people would be my friends. And they were good to me. And now I'm learning how to read.

The End.

I love my Gavin.  I don't care whether his entry goes any further. I'm just glad I got to hear his thoughts.

Gavin's Halloween Story

This year Gavin started Kindergarten. I was very sad to find out that homework was different for him than it has been for the three older kids. I was looking forward to his stories to match up with the others.  So I decided to do it anyway.  Here is Gavin's story:

The Scary Pumpkin Patch

Once upon a time, there was a scary pumpkin patch. And Gavin was in it. He saw a very creepy pumpkin. There was lots of Gavins. And Gavin was scared. And Gavin saw a great big bug. And then a bat came and then a spider and then another bat and then another spider and then a ghost. And then another ghost. and then another ghost. And then another ghost. And then 1 more ghost. And then Gavin ran away from the scary pumpkin patch.

And then he came back to the scary pumpkin patch. And then he picked out a pumpkin and it was not so scary. It just had a smile on its face.

And then he saw a very creepy pumpkin again. And then he ran away again. And then he saw lots and lots of ghosts. Then he came back to his house and he rubbed his mom's feet. He saw lots and lots of stuff under the couch. It was lots and lots of ghosts.

Then he saw a witch on his pillow and there were lots and lots of candy corns. And he put his face on it. Then he threw it up in the air and didn't catch it. Then he started to cry. And then he saw lots of clocks in his house. Then he saw a creeeeeepy picture and ran away from his house fast and fast and fast. Then he ran back to his house. And then he came back. And then he played outside.

And then he looked at his baby's face. And then he saw a very creepy picture again and he ran and ran and ran way way way way far away from his house and then he saw the pumpkin patch. Then he ran away. Then he came back to his house and rubbed his mom's feet again.

The End

I'm out of breath from all that running.  I think this our most adventurous one yet but I have enjoyed seeing our children create stories.

Eight Already?!

My sweet little Andy isn't little anymore.  He turned 8 in July, he loves sports, video games, bakugan, sports, and vegging in front of the tv.  The poor kid had a small birthday this year but got the best birthday present of us all.

Andy had a rough time with the move to Australia from the very beginning. My boy who was so excited and told everyone about our move, started missing everyone shortly after we got to Australia.  The words "I never wanted to come here!" were like a knife to my heart. Mostly because I knew how he felt  (I actually had always wanted to go there but I was just as homesick as he was)!  He had fun while we were there but he missed his friends and his teachers and his school more than anything else.  He would sob because he wanted to go home.  All I could do was hug him until he felt better, trying not to let my tears fall along with his.

We decided just a few days before Andy's birthday that it was time to go home. We'd had it with the sickness and the mold and the sickness and the mold. Oh, I already said that.  Anyway,  I took Andy and Jakob to see Harry Potter 7 Part 2 a few days before his birthday and he was so excited.  After it was over, we found out that going home was a possibility and he gave me a HUGE hug.  We started getting tickets ready for us to leave and decided to leave on the 19th - the day after Andy's birthday.  Andy had his wish come true for his birthday.  He got to go home!

We went to pick up Andy's gift from a shopping centre. He got to pick out a Nintendo DS game for himself before we headed home to pack.  Andy decided to wait for his cake until he got home because we wouldn't be able to finish it before we left Australia.  Plus he had something specific in mind and it would have been harder to do while packing!!

So off we went home, and Andy got to see all of his friends. His best friend was gone for a few weeks so he had to wait to see him but he got to see everyone else and he was happy again.

BUT the best part was that he got to be baptized with his cousin.  We had planned that for a year and then we ended up going to Australia. We had set up interviews two different times and tried to get things set up in Australia but it never worked out. And now we know why. :)

The  baptism went really well. They got to get baptized at the same time and then confirmed at the same time the next day. I was so happy and so was Andy!  We had our good friends come with us to Idaho and they were able to be there for it as well.

Last but not least, we got to make Andy's cake in OUR home in Utah.  He had wanted a hamburger cake for almost two years. Last year we didn't do it because we combined birthdays and made one big cake. So this year I went all out. It was three layers think and he was THRILLED with it.

All in all it was a pretty fantastic birthday for my Andy. He even got to be in Fiji for the day two days after his birthday!! 

My Five Year Old Gavin

It's still July right? It seems like it could be. These last few months have flown so fast and I haven't had a chance to blog for a while. I am attempting to blog on my phone with 4% power left so we will see how this goes.

Poor Gavin didn't get much of a birthday. His presents were lame little toys from the grocery store, his cake was undercooked and over buttery and what we had planned for his birthday had to be put off. But to him it was perfect.

Being born on the 5th of July means he can have some patriotic vibes to his birthday. Since we were in Australia we went searching for an American restaurant and found TGI Fridays. We celebrated both his birthday and the 4th. I got my steak, the kids got pizza and Steve got salmon. We even had an American waiter!!

On Gavin's birthday, he got to pick out a movie and he chose Despicable Me. He waited patiently for the rest of the kids and Steve to get back from the store so he could watch the movie. He opened his few gifts and we ate the nasty cake. Then we enjoyed the movie. We had planned to bowl but it's pricey there and we had to do it on a half price night. So that waited for the next night.

We all had a lot of fun bowling. We got the ramp things for Ethan and Gavin and they loved it!! The scores weren't all that great but it was still fun to see the competition between the kids.

I can't believe my little boy is five. He is such a sweetheart with a mischievous streak. He is my Calvin(from Calvin and Hobbes) that I always said I wanted. I love my sweet Gavin!!

Steve's Birthday

Your birthday comes around each year. You get a little older, a few gifts and a few 'Happy Birthdays!" from your friends and family.  Unless you have Facebook and then you get inundated with Happy Birthdays and it just makes your day awesome. But I digress.

Steve got kinda ripped off this year for his birthday.  We were in the midst of asthma causing mold issues and were being told to leave the house.  I didn't even want to bake a cake or dinner in the house after mold spray was sprayed in and around the kitchen sink and counter.  So poor Steve had to forgo his Black Forest cake and we went out for dinner instead.  He wasn't too heartbroken. We went and had Chinese food and it was YUMMY.  Duck, suckling pig, and all kinds of other yummy foods were served.

DUCK! Really, it is.

Ethan loved the food.

Bok Choy, Mushrooms and Snails.  Yummy!

Steve likes his food!

And making faces.

We had him open his gifts. He was happy for his Terry Pratchett books. Even though his wife was a moron and put the books in the same bag as a water bottle that was NOT water tight... a few pages got wet in a few books but luckily it wasn't too bad.  He also got a few things for the house and he bought himself a pizza paddle and stone.   He also got a rice cooker later and every time we use it, Gavin is happy to remind him that he got it for his birthday.   I promised him I would make him his Black Forest cake when we get settled... that hasn't happened yet...

Heidi was thrilled to be able to take the gifts to Daddy.

Posing for pictures.

Now Heidi is REALLY helping.

Its not the sharpest pizza cutter but its kinda cute.

Anyway, now its time to do a little bragging about my husband.  You see, I got the best one out there.  He cares for his wife and children like you would never believe. He cooks, he cleans, he helps with laundry or whatever else I need help with. He ran the house while he let me live my dream of owning a bookstore.  He puts us all before himself.

When we go out on house hunting missions or to the park or zoo or whatever else we might be doing, he makes sure that we have lunches made - which include fruit and a drink before we go.  I am in charge of shoes, coats, socks and other items.  Guess who usually forgets their part of the deal...

I haven't thanked him nearly enough for what he has done for all of us.  We love you Steve and I hope that even though it was a mess, you had a fabulous birthday!