thanks

so I just wanted to say thanks to mom and M for helping at the house and with the kids. It's been a longer process that i think we first intended, so i appriciate the willingness and support :) I picked out the shower curtain, so i needed to get the bathroom painted so everything can get installed. I called M this morning and asked if i could drop the kids off for a couple hours to get it knocked out. Ab thought it was great and couldn't wait to get there. Thanks again! How about sending me over a pic of A and A to post, M? love ya

e-mailing my friends

"Well, I think this Sunday will be our last in the ward. We are just moving to Nampa, so I don't feel like I'm really leaving. I have to come to Meridian most days(well, nights =) ) for work so I feel like I'm still gonna be around. Plus, I really feel like I have friends. Here. In this ward. So I know that i'm gonna stay in contact, and try to be better about e-mailing and calling, and coming to play groups and such.
We have a few friends that we still know from the ward we are moving back into. The other day while working on the house in Nampa, Jeramiah made a comment about wondering who will still be in the ward. "So are you planning on coming to church?" I asked him. He smiled and said, "Well at least the first week." I think it will be a blessing for our family. He went more than he ever has when we lived there, so maybe getting back into will be easier. It's a smaller ward, in an older neighborhood.
The house is smaller and hopefully our stress levels go down, and we can simplify, and within the year i won't have to work anymore. Then maybe life will resemble a little of what it was before.... lol. "

Wordless Wednesday

open for business

well, reading at least. Yes, I switched over to an open blog. No more signing in. I figure it's the least i could do, so it's less hassle to see that I haven't posted anything new ;) lol. /// We are in the process of moving back to the Nampa house. The place it all started hehe. The carpet and vinyl are getting installed tomorrow, and then we'll start taking loads over, and hopefully be sleeping there next week. "Preferrably on your nights off" says Jb, since it might be long nights with the kids getting use to the house. We feel very blessed, and humbled, that we have a place to go... and i am looking forward to simplifying. I do love this Meridian house that my husband built with his two hands, but it's always been overwhelming to me. I look forward to less time cleaning, and a backyard with a fence :) Hopefully I'll have more time, cross my fingers, to blog. I do miss it. But i feel like i've missed out on lots over the last 10 months.... of well. We're alive and healthy. And about to return to being Nampians! [so another post might be awhile ;) You still love me]

She's 4!!!!!!!!

We had a great day with our birthday girl... The house was clean with balloons and streamers and the Happy Birthday banner hung, presents on the table, and red crape paper wrapped around the kitchen chair she usually sits at. We had special birthday cereal (coco marshmallow maties) and then got dressed in a new birthday shirt before opening a couple of presents. [I had requested that night off, so I could be coherant ;)] We all got ready, and went into Meridian and went bowling at Meridian Lanes. It was a Monday, and 10:30 in the morning, so suprise! we were the only ones there!!! It was great. They had little bowling shoes for the kids and a 6 pound ball that they could carry by them selves. The kids had a blast rolling it down, and Dax would get excited when the pins got knocked over. Sometimes, they would push the ball down the lane, and it would take so long getting down there I'd kinda forget that's what we were waiting on! lol. By the 9th frame they were getting restless. So it was perfect. The kids both tied with a 74. By then we were ready for lunch, and Abby picked........ McDonalds! Didn't see that one coming ;) Then we decided to get some ice cream at Yoyo's. Abby walked in and said it was her birthday, so the lady said she could have a free one. We loaded it WAY up and the birthday girl ate the whole thing! That's my 4 year old. We went home, and while Dax napped she opened another present which was Hi Ho Cherrio, and played that and watched a movie. She wanted to have rice and corn for dinner... ok... then the Pyrahs came over with BARBIE galore, and helped us eat Abby's huge-o birthday cake. Yummy! Pj's, story, prayer and song, and it was off to birthday dream land. It was great spending the day with her. Letting her know how loved she is.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next morning at breakfast, she looks over at me and says, "Ya know mom? Thanks for the birthday cake. :) And the streamers." Your welcome my sweet Abber Doo. I feel very lucky to be your mom.

maybe she'll be a vegetarian

I got off early one morning this past week, and got to climb into bed before the kids woke up. No sooner am I drifting off, than Abby is tapping on my shoulder. "It's not light outside yet, climb in." This is our way of getting a little bit more sleepy time with her. Not sure what we will do as it's getting lighter earlier... Anyways, she climbs in and it's like Darth Vader next to me.

Me: "Ab, go get a drink of water to help your throat."

A: "Dad already gave me some medicine."

Me: "Great, but you need some water."

A: "He said I had a frog in my throat"

Me: "Yup, it sounds like you do."

A: "No, Mom! We don't eat frogs! They have BONES!!"

I just laughed, but was too tired to explain what we meant by that, and that we eat things that have bones, we just take them out first :) HAha

Happy Anniversary

Well, I missed my one year blogging anniversary!!! I just don't know how that could have happened?!?!? HA HA! Like there is nothing else going on around here...

Sorry to my family, that you had to look at a bum crack for over a month now ;) Just know, that when this isn't updated frequently, that we are just dancing in the monsoons of life. And when the rain lightens up a bit, this is one of the first places I come. :) Happy New Year. LOL

Wordless Wednesday - a crack in the snow ;) he he he

...

The funny thing about this, other than the obvious, is that Abby is always the first to point this kind of thing out. She'll say it to me about me, or about other people. Very loudly. In public.

"Mom! That person's BUM CRACK is hangin' out!"

*can't you just hear it?* :)

keep it simple

So, of course I have been stressing over the holiday season. It still seems like it should only be August. I spend too many days in zombie mode that time passes me by. So we hadn't been Christmas shopping yet, and it was 2 weeks away!!! So I cry ... :) of course .... and then we went the next day and got what we wanted for the kids, and it was all good. A couple of ends to wrap up, but nothing worth crying over any more ;) Sheesh. So after all the mood swings, I got a cleaning bug the other day to sort out the toys and piles we have around to make some room for the new coming in. I brought some boxes home from work a few weeks ago (I actually don't remember bringing them, one day JB's asked what was with all the boxes in the garage... oh "I brought them from work" HA!) so I bring a couple in for pile sorting. The kids got ahold of them and here it is.

FREE. No stress. No horns. No buttons. No nothing. Just a cereal box from Winco. This went on for a good 30 minutes.

Merry Christmas

grade school flash back

Remember read-ins?? When you got to wear your pajamas to school and bring your pillow and snacks and read ALL DAY LONG??? What was the point of that? Did the teachers just need a break? Anyways, we rotated out the books in the bookshelf and Ab spent all day over there sorting and "reading" stories.

Then Dax came over and was walking over the books she had sorted and she got mad...

Fun day. Perfect for the snowy cold weather that kept us inside. For a little while at least ;)

Thanksgiving '08

Not very stressful. We went to the church in Kuna and met up with the Hulbert side. Our Brown family were the only ones from the "Petersen" fam. Although, my dad did show up! Anyways, all we had to bring were mashed potatoes(boiled frozen cubed hash browns and then mashed! Thanks hunny!), yummy potatoes(which never got taken out of the warming oven at the church) and 2 gallon bags of cookies.(1 1/2 came home). There was so much food!! I didn't have to work that night, so I was well rested. Well, at least rested ;) JB surprised me at 11 with wanting to take the fam photo that I have been bugging him about for weeks. I'm not sure why we take it on the back steps, but here we are...


I got an e-mail about being thankful that has sorta stuck with me. It was about all the blessing that we don't always think about. Like being thankful for a large heating bill because then we were warm. Having a house payment because it means we are not out on the street. The grocery bill because then we have food... all those things that are a burden, but our blessings as well. Having a job, because it means that I can still get up and work...

Today, and everyday, I am so very grateful for my husband and the man that he was when we got married and the wonderful partner, friend, and daddy that he has become for me, and for our beautiful family. We all adore him.

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~ Saturday Nov 29th

We (JB, Tom, Dax, Abby, me) did some errands today.

me: Are we going to Cabela's? (as we pull in down towards Best Buy)

Ab: Yea! Let;s go to Cabela's! We can look at the fish

*pulling into parking spot by Best Buy with the intention of shopping our way towards Cabela's

Ab: No, not this store! Cabela's! Come oonnn! *with that tone of -come on, you know what I want!-

We all started laughing!!! it was hilarious. I am so grateful for that little girl. That, by the way, is fighting to be 4. Don't even tell her that she is 3!

Just now

Sid the Science Kid is on TV. Dax wakes up and just wants out of his crib so he can grab his binki that he chucked on the floor a few minutes before. He wanders out into the living room. "Deee!" His word for anyone in the family that he is excited to see. Abby pats her lap. "Come 'ere Bubba! Good Morning!" He goes to the couch and...

Abby: Whoa Bubba, you're big! Mama! Dax grewed!

Me: Yup, he's growing. Just like you.

Dax: Whoa

Wordless Wednesday

Well, not quite wordless. I took this the other day. Just appreciating the kids, and how big my little 1 1/2 and 3 1/2 year olds are getting. Feeling guilty that I'm mean zombie mom a lot of the time, and hoping that in the weeks to come I can be more thankful for the time and energy that I do have with them. And Jb has been rockin' on doing the dishes! What zombie mom wouldn't be grateful for that!??!

in case you are wondering...

Yes. I did actually fall off the face of the planet. I made my way back and will hopefully post something soon. I mean- at LEAST some Halloween pics, right??! lol