Christmas 2008

This year was Paisley's 1st Christmas. We are here in Priest Lake at the cabin with snow, snow, and more snow. The power was out most of the day and we had to revert to the "old ways" with all the kids; no power= no bacon for breakfast, no Playstation or RockBand, no hot showers, no Internet, so yes, you can imagine the day that we had. :) Our Christmas went well and I can't wait to get home and post pictures. Beck got a basketball hoop from Santa with some giant Lego's, and Paisley got a Cabbage Patch doll from Santa. I got some way cute cowboy boots with Brad Paisley tickets! Whoo hoo! I was so excited I almost cried. 5 years ago Stephen and I had our first date at a Brad Paisley concert and now we are headed back with a daughter named after him! I gave Stephen a grill and we had many more favorites; Beck's tractors, Lightning McQueen Mac transporter truck, some embroidery stitch pictures that my mom made that say "I am a child of God" and have Beck's name and Paisley has one with her name on hers with their birth dates as well, an all-in-one printer/copier/scanner for me! (whoo hoo!) a way cute ring, Paisley's button container/toy that my mom made, and a doll that speaks Spanish to her and they got some good looking outfits! (Gotta love clothes!) Stephen got a Playstation 3 game and well the TV and Playstation 3 that he bought just a bit ago. Yep, we got spoiled and I packed up all our toys/presents and can't wait to get home and unpack and find out what we got all over again! Beck is doing great in the potty training and really doesn't have that many accidents. If Paisley isn't being toted around by one of her cousins she is scooting around in her walker and loving all the hard wood floors. She actually got up on her knees yesterday and took a few crawling "steps" today. Wow, am I ready for a crawler? Hmmm... I'll let you know in a week or so. :) So we are busy sledding and eating and playing RockBand and I really am excited when I can post some pictures! We had a great Christmas and are waiting to have an early turn in on New Years'. :)

Christmas Clothes

I remember when I was litte my mom always used to make us wear skirts. I hated it. My twin, Jakobi, and I would put leggings on underneath and pull them up to our thighs, so that we could get on the bus and mom thought all we had on was our skirts, ha! We fooled her! And picture day was awful, we knew that we would have to wear a "button up" shirt. We actually did have sailor outfits, I believe that it was in the 2nd grade, complete with big red bow. So now that I am a mom and I have two adorable kids, I would totally buy a sailor's outfit, in fact I'd probably buy the matching cap too! So my kids have large amounts of clothes, thanks to yard sales, VERY generous relatives, and my need to buy stuff that is so on sale it's a shame to leave it on the rack. So really, they need nothing, no new clothes, maybe socks and a pair of shoes every now and then, but Paisley actually has tubs of clothes up in the attic outfitting her until she's 2. So why did I spend $35.oo on two matching outfits at Macy's? Why? I ask myself that same question, especially as I am fighting Beck to even put it on, then I set them up and I take their picture, or I take them somewhere to get their picture taken, and then I remember; because it's just so darn cute!

I LOVE Christmas

I really do, I love it. When Christmas comes we go to the movies more (more times in the last 2 months then we have all year!) We went and saw the Tale of Depearoux (sp?) an animation movie about a little mouse, in Othello with the "cousins" as Beck would say. Then we went to the Basketball game and saw Baby Kylie perform. My niece, Rylee had a piano recital, but the roads were getting bad, so we decided to get on the road. I love Christmas because I love my tree decorations! I love Christmas because I can put a poinsettia on Paisley's head and one can say a darn word about it.
I love Christmas because Stephen is home more, there is a present under the tree with my name on it, and I get to eat these truffles my friend, Bethany, made for me and I get to eat them all for lunch and I didn't feel bad for one minute because they were ssssooooooo good! I love Christmas because I get to buy people stuff, especially my kids and my hubby. I bought Stephen a grill and gave it to him yesterday because we are headed to the cabin soon and I had no way of getting it up and back. I love Christmas because I get to wear Christmas socks.

Stuff We're Doing

Today was a busy day. With the help of a friend we cleaned my whole house. I think that I may invest in a house cleaner. It's just so much better with two people tackling the cleaning, add that with friendly conversation and WHAM! Clean house that smells nice. I don't know why I am actually cleaning, I guess I haven't done the carpets and I will wait on that because I am once again potty training Beck. He hasn't done half bad and I get it now when people say, "they don't like it when they are wet, so then they learn." Because he tells me right away when he has soaked his "underpants." He has 4 accidents yesterday and only 3 today, so I see progression. The 3rd one today he almost made it.Yesterday I got ambitious and finally painted Beck's room. He said he wanted blue, so he got blue. :)
This is the face of a little boy who's dad made him put his new remote control Hummer away because it was 10:00 at night. My cousin/roommate, Alexie brought it home for Beck for Christmas, but she wanted him to open it now and he is in love. He even tucked it in for the night.... Right when he woke up it was back ramming it into the walls and my feet. He hasn't figured out the remote control and how it will actually "steer," but he doesn't care.

This is Paisley and her very first eggs and boy she loved them as much as Beck loves that new Hummer remote control car. :) She scarfed them down so fast and was smiling the whole time. I think that she was finally happy to be eating the same thing that everyone else was eating. This video is of my little artist. I am so proud that he has learned how to cut! Yeah! Such a preschool mom thing to say, but it really is quite a skill to have mastered. He loves to sing the "open shut" (cerrar, abrir).....

Happy Birthday to the Captain

Happy Birthday Kortni, you old lady... :) Love you and hope you are having a good time in Idaho! (Don't worry, your house or the gym have not burned down yet!) (Me and my sister Kortni about 1983)

Bum fingers and Santa Claus!

My week started out pretty crappy and I am trying to find the good parts. My body has taken a turn for the worse, slowly giving up on me... Saturday I twisted my knuckle ( my own diagnosis) while trying to carry the podium at the gymnastics place after a very smooth running Fun Meet (see Kortni, we can survive when you are gone! :) I thought it was just gonna hurt for a minute, but it kept hurting and then swelling bigger and bigger. I taped it, so that I wouldn't move it (because I'm a baby and it hurt) But I'm glad that I never went in because now it doesn't hurt so much and it's only black and blue, no more swelling.So to add to my bum finger, blister from Paisley nursing (whole nother story) I now have ANOTHER bum finger (different hand) after slamming it in the car door at Wal-Mart on Monday. Man, that one hurt like a mother! After a full day of throbbing and lots of pressure, at 1 in the morning I finally got on the internet after I had convinced myself that all the tiny bones in my finger had been smashed to smithereens..... I heated up a paper clip and melted a hole in my nail to relieve some blood and pressure and Wow la! Relief! It still throbs, but man, it felt so much better and I can now go about my daily business.... The 6th ward Christmas party was a talent show and after Beck got in a fight with another toddler on stage while singing Jingle Bells, with the nursery, him and Paisley got to see Santa Claus. Paisley just kind of stared and played with her rattle and it was right after the fight, so Beck wasn't the happiest camper.Good think he's already getting a bunch of presents this year! After the ward Christmas party I went to Michael's on the Lake for dinner with some friends from a play group that we've had going for 2 years. I believe that all in attendance are the original play groupers. We have grown to be quite a large group (at times) with girl's coming and going. We meet at each other's houses in the winter and the at the park in the summer. It's lots of fun and it been also fun to meet new people.Katie Roylance, Jenica Heslop, Bethany Jenks, Amber Jenks, and KorbiBeck and his Grandpa Bobby Boy at Bob and Ann's house in Othello last night for a Family Home Evening.
And one more picture of Paisley, just cause she's cute! :)

Relief Society

Last night was our Relief Society Christmas Dinner and we were supposed to dress up "fancy." Stephen says that my black shoes didn't match my white dress and I tried to explain that your shoes don't have to be the same color as your dress, I could have worn turquoise shoes right? Or am I wrong? Am I so off on my fashion that I have no idea. I wonder what people think of me when I wear a turquoise cardigan, pink shirt underneath and then multicolored tennis shoes? Am I crazy? Seriously, mark your comment as "anonymous" and let me know because the odds are that I probably have no idea. :) And by this picture and how sharp my cutie hubby is looking, he's probably right, but I really just didn't want to wear my white summer heels, I mean it was freezing outside! Anyways, it was a way yummy dinner, kudos to the 6th ward Relief Society for an adult night out and peace of mind that my babies were only just right down the hall in the Primary Room. :) pictured left to right: Stephen, Korbi, Jessica and Dallas Croft, Rory and Kathy Kolste, Chris and Monte Bowen.

And also... YEAH! Our first snow! I was starting to lose hope in thinking that it would be one of those winters with no snow, just coldness, but here it is in all it's glory and boy, was Beck ever excited. He threw on his coat and pulled open the door and ran outside before I could even grab my camera.

Bananas

Makes you want to eat bananas, huh?

Christmas Card 2008

It's Christmas time, so time for the annual Christmas greeting.
I was going to try and make this rhyme, but my head hurts, so here's what ya get....

Stephen's got a new calling in the Stake Young Men's. He's home on Wednesday nights, sometimes, but gone on Sundays, so Korbi gets to take the kids to church by herself a lot. Yep, kids, there's 2 now. Paisley joined us on April 3rd and is the sweetest and cutest baby that you will ever meet. I can say that because I am her mom, but as I am typing this she is mad that I set her down, so I may have change my mind on the sweet part, but she's still pretty darn cute! Beck was in my Spanish 3/4's preschool class, but just recently I kicked him out. We started out with low numbers, so he was coming with me, but now the class has grown uncontrollably, so a child hanging on your leg crying, "Mommy," the whole time doesn't work very well. He actually did okay for an unpotty trained 2 1/2 year old. :) He is busy learning new paragraphs of words to string together and until recently one of his favorite things to say was, "get out of my room right now mom!" (even though we weren't ever really in his room) He loves his cousins and playing with his Lightning McQueen Cars and these little animals that I had when I was growing up. Paisley is very spoiled and as I mentioned before, very cute. She wants to eat what everyone else is eating and is currently trying to push up and get on her knees to start to crawl. She is 8 months old and mostly all smiles. Stephen is working hard still being a financial planner. He loves working with his dad, brothers, and brother-in-law (his mom too!) He still travels quite a bit with work, driving all the time. He went on his annual Harley ride with his brothers and a few friends in September down through southern Utah. I am still teaching my Spanish ¾ preschool class and started doing payroll in May and a little of the books down at the gymnastics center that my sister and I own (me a very small part) Hopefully I am on my way out of doing the payroll, it’s just not my cup of tea and I was only supposed to be doing it for a short time. I am also the new Activity Day Girls leader of the 8 and 9 year olds at church and those girls keep me on my toes. I started sewing and have been pretty crazy with it along with teaching myself how to knit and quilt. Put that with my obsessive picture taking and blogging and I keep pretty busy with a bunch of little hobbies.
We were able to go on a family trip to Mexico in May right after Paisley was born which was a headache to get Paisley’s passport because she was only 4 weeks old when we left. But we had lots of fun once we got there. It was hot and humid and very beautiful. Beck didn’t like the ocean too much, but thought the sand was great and he loved the pool that was at our Hotel. In July we went on another family trip through Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, and Oregon. In Wyoming we went to a Sims Family Reunion on a ranch, the Sims are Stephen’s dad’s Uncle Dick and Aunt Charlsie. Beck had his first camp out there and loved it along with the horses and of course, many cousins. After Wyoming we drove all the way to Oregon for the Beck’s Christmas in July where we stayed in some tree houses, yes, tree houses! We had lots of fun and lots of memories.
Make sure to catch up or keep up with us at our blog:
http://ashtonfamily-sarakorbi.blogspot.com/
Thanks for everything everyone always does for us and we wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Catch up

What can I say? I've been busy. I have been slow on my posting, and definitely slow on my picture taking. The posts that I have done are half thought of and uncommitted, so here's my post for the last little bit of our lives....
This is what happened to Beck like 2 weeks ago. He was trying to jump on Paisley's Jump-a-Roo toy and totally biffed it and cut his lip. By the amount of blood that I first saw I though, "stitches," but then I got him cleaned up and it kind of just bubbled up and looked nasty. By morning it was looking so much better.
Last weekend I went shopping in Spokane with sister-in-laws, Tiffanni, Mary, and my mother-in-law, Ann, to shop for Christmas presents and spend some time together. This was my attempt at a girl's weekend because the brothers take a Harley ride every summer for a week, not to mention the weekend rides that they take. I am not against the rides at all, Stephen has lots of fun and tries to get me to come along some of the times, but it's hard with kids and nursing babies, can't really strap 'em to a bike can ya? So I put together this weekend a while back and hopefully next year more of the sis in laws can come. But anyways before I left I was bound and determined to get up my Christmas decorations and get a tree. This was the day that Beck was sick, so I waited until Stephen was home and borrowed a neighbor's truck, (thanks Dallas and Jessica!) and headed to town to pick out my tree. I cam back with this beauty and was so excited and started ripping open bins and tubs to get my decorations. Beck helped me get the tree straight and tighten the tree stand. This was at about 7 PM and by 3 AM I had everything up and decorated. All my nativities were set up and lights on. Yeah! I could now pack for Spokane...
This was actually the ONLY picture that I took while in Spokane. We shopped seriously from 9AM to 10PM. We arrived Thursday night around 7 PM and went and saw the movie Australia with Nicole Kidman, GREAT SHOW! I was so loving it and excited that I had seen 2 good movies in a row! Twilight and now Australia. Seriously good flick. Then we got to the hotel and crashed and shopped for 2 more days then headed home Saturday night. I got home about 5:30, unpacked then Kortni and I took our Department Heads at AIM out to dinner at Michaels on the Lake. We had a fun time laughing and talking, then we had to race home because my niece, Alizah, had fallen over the banister while with a sitter and long story and 2 days later has a fractured skull, a nasty black eye, and a broken wrist! Yikes! We love her oh so very much and pray that she gets better soon! She is home and just has to be very careful! No fist fights or gymnastics for her for a month! I am still trying to catch up on wrapping presents and am now in the process of stuffing a bunch of envelopes for Stephen's clients, but Paisley fell asleep, so I decided to come and take a break and do a big ol' post. Today at school was our last day before the winter break and Santa Claus came to visit! The kids loved it and Santa did a great job. So here's to a busy December and hopefully me and everyone else taking the time to slow down and smell the pine needles!

Giveaways!

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My first FINISHED quilt

Here are some pictures of the quilt that I made for my twin sister's baby girl to be. (due April 1st) I am so excited to see pictures of her cuddled up in it. I was quite proud of myself. My friend, Kellee, AKA quilter extraordinaire, made me take the binding off that I had done and just sew around the edges to give it a frayed look to match the flower in the middle. I have to admit that it was a good suggestion and plus the binding I had done looked like poop.

Beck

Beck started throwing up last night, so we stayed home today, I got Jasimne to teach for me and we have had a low key morning and early afternoon, me trying to catch up on projects and Beck drifting in and out of sleep. Here's a conversation we just had;
Beck: " I love you the very more mom."
Me: "I love you the very more too, Beck"
Beck: "For my birfday I am going to be 7."
Me: "well, actually you will be 3."
Beck: "no, I want to be 7."
Me: "ok."
Then while I was copying a picture of Santa Claus onto a word document....
Beck: "Mom, who is that?"
Me: "Santa Claus."
Beck: "no, that's a snowy guy."