God bless us, every one!

I've watched four different versions of A Christmas Carol, read an illustrated version of the book to the boys, told the story with a really intricate pop-up book, and I am not reading the abridged version to the boys that was included with the pop-up book. Last year I read Jacob T. Marley, and it's been interesting to see different interpretations with the "Jacob T. Marley" explanation in the back of my mind. So don't be surprised that this post is entitled with a line from the book. :)

Welcome to Christmas.

Christmas Eve dinner is always appetizers.

Santa hats and a theme. This year was Mickey Mouse in honor of S since she loves Minnie and Mickey so much.

 (I swear those gray pants of mine have Mickey on them!)

Festival of Trees, NOT auction night...

So after auction night is over, there are four days of open doors. You pay a small fee to get in, but again, every penny goes to charity. It's tradition for us to take the kids and see all the trees, wreaths, performances, quilts, gingerbread houses, etc. They open up a kid section also, with crafts, little prizes, and a bubble machine! This is the kids' favorite area, of course. We always buy them elf wands (plastic sticks with a bunch of long tinsel on the end) and let them do the bubble machine, but they've never wanted to do a craft.

Kai didn't want to get in the bubble machine by himself, so I stepped in with him. It's fun being inside a bubble!

Festival of Trees

Last year we were at the Festival of Trees, as we are every year. It's a tradition. But last year, we had a fake tree that had been given to us by my uncle. It didn't come with a fake tree stand. So I'd had my father fashion a real tree stand so that it would hold our donated, fake tree. It worked for five years. Last year was year six, and it wasn't working anymore. At one point the kids had put something under the tree, and I had gone under the tree to retrieve it. I bumped the tree while I was under there, and the whole thing started to topple. I grabbed the "trunk" and held up this huge, heavy tree by just the base of the bar. The kids were so fascinated by what was happening that they wouldn't move away, and my fear was that I was going to drop the tree on one of them. So I held it. And held it. And held it. I don't know how long I was under that tree. It seemed like a long time. Jason was upstairs doing something and couldn't hear my pleas for help. By the time I was rescued, my arms and back were so sore! I swore I would never put that tree up again in my house. When we took it down at season's end, I gave it away. So at the Festival of Trees last year, we almost bought a tree because there were several still waiting to be purchased. We decided against it since none of the trees available were really calling to us. But then this year rolled around, and we didn't have a tree...

Everything breaks down.

Everything breaks at some point. Everything. And that's okay. It's hard, and there's no way to see the light at the end of the tunnel most of the time. And that's okay. Recently, both of the cars broke down, my computer just shut off and never turned back on, my phone died slowly, our router went out. We just replaced a TV and had to work on a computer. ETC. I'm sure there's more. Everything broke down at once. And that's okay.

But it means I haven't posted in a long while. I feel like I've let down a connection, one I can't pinpoint and don't know personally, but one I want to know. Maybe there is no one out there reading this, but maybe there is. Maybe that person is the biological parent of my future son or daughter. That's my hope. I hope the connection has been made already. Maybe... Please tell me you're still reading if you're out there. I would hate for a broken computer to sever such an important connection.

So I don't have my pictures on this new computer, and I don't  have any blogs written to post. I will do my best to get something up to date on this new computer so you can ACTUALLY know what's going on around here, though it's nothing too special: weeding, mowing, cleaning, organizing. Just the usual, which is how I like it. :)

A very spiritual day

My sister is amazing. I have one sister, and I couldn't have hand-picked a better one. She is wonderful. Did I mention how much I love her? After my husband and kids, she's my favorite person in the whole world, and that's saying something since one of my sons is named after Jason's grandma and after a couple of uncles. (I've never had a little girl to name after my sister. Not yet anyway.) Well, this fantastic woman is serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints! There are many many things that need to happen to prepare missionaries before they head out, and I had the pleasure of being a part of some of her preparation.

Tooth Fairy!

Seth lost his first toooooooooooth!!!!! Right before we pulled it, Seth said, "Mama, do you want one last picture of my baby tooth?" OF COURSE I wanted one last picture! So here it is:

Zoo with Uncle K and Aunt E!

The Hogle Zoo just redid a large portion of their displays, and it's pretty awesome. So when my brother and his wife asked us to go to the zoo with them, we were really really excited. But mostly because I got to spend time with my brother and his wife. Yay! They live in another state so it seems like ages between visits, and it's compounded by how much their sweet baby girl grows every time I see her!

When the zoo remodeled, they brought back the LION FOUNTAINS!!!! :D :D :D Pictures with the lion fountain are tradition. I think I have pictures of ME at that age doing this exact same thing.

Spending time

We've filled our time with some fun things lately. The bigger things get their own post, but here are a few of the day-to-day things that we've enjoyed.

City Creek. Love this mall. Wish we lived closer to it. These monkeys wouldn't stop pulling faces, and the more I laughed, the more faces they pulled!

School time!

Time for school! My kids are uber amazing at this school thing, and they love doing it. We have fun reading and writing together. They both have their subjects that they aren't a big fan of, but we can work through those. And when they master the hard parts, it's so fun. Their little faces light up and they are always so happy they can't contain it. It comes out as a squeal, or jumping, or a booty-shaking dance. I LOVE IT.

So this was Seth's first assignment as a kindergartener. He colored the flag at school, and we were told to practice the Pledge of Allegiance with him at home. Gladly!

Kai and I at the Ogden Temple Open House!

Kai and I got to have a day just for the two of us! It was so nice. And the funniest thing was the difference in conversation between when I went with Seth and when I went with Kai. Kai's conversation was very sporadic. He kept asking questions I couldn't answer, such as, "Where do you stand in Salt Lake City?" "Which building is the Salt Lake City building?" etc. He even interrupted himself several times with a completely different thought. It's obvious that he is soaking in his world right now. He notices everything and has a question for everything.

Happy 7th Anniversary

Happy 7th Anniversary to us!  This is Jason by the way.  We have had seven WONDERFUL years together.  And I can honestly say that I haven't felt closer to my wife since we got married.  I was actually leaving for a work trip today and teared up that I had to leave her.  lol...  I know.  A grown man shouldn't tear up at the idea of leaving for four days lol...

Well, Ashley got to plan this year's anniversary and it was great.  We kept it simple this year since very few people can babysit S overnight and mostly it is people that she doesn't know so we definitely weren't going to do that.  So we went to Ruth's Chris for lunch and it was magnificent as always.  We don't go here very often but when we do we LOVE to get the Porterhouse for two.  It's way too much money, but it is so good.  When they carve it and put it on the 500 degree plate and your meat starts sizzling your mouth will just start drooling.  It's so good.  Oh and the broccoli al gratin is awesome...

So after our @mazing lunch, we headed out to Olympic Park in Park City and went up the mountain to ride the Alpine Slide.  It was super fun and they let us go twice which was nice of them.  You can get those little carts moving fast and it's pretty liberating.  I wish we had a video of that.  Here's a video of our goofy selfs riding up the lift:

Seth's First Day Of Kindergarten!

My sweet, kind Seth is in Kindergarten. I'm not old enough to have a kid in actual school, right? RIGHT??

Kai's first day of school ever!

I don't know how to feel about this! He's really a great kid and so very smart. He's ready for school.

But could my baby really be going to preschool? 

It breaks my heart a little, and it makes me excited for him all at the same time.

Here's my handsome boy! He's so anxious to get in there and go to class already. :)

100 Posts!

We've passed 100 blog posts! Yay! (This is number 102 technically.) The 100th post was about Seth and I going to the Ogden Temple together, which is just perfect. Thanks to everyone who looks at this blog. It makes the effort feel worth it, and it's kind of exciting knowing our lives are going out into the void, not knowing who's watching and who's not. I know our lives are very ordinary and simple, and that's exactly what I want it to be. My idea of excitement is watching my child's eyes light up on Christmas or watching their minds spin when they finally put that first word together and read. Or finally getting a date with my wonderful husband sans kids! We're happy here, and there's a lot to be said for that.

Last T-ball game of the season!

I ask the boys what they want to try as far as sports or instruments or theater or whatever. So far, Kai has tried gymnastics and didn't like it much. We are signing him up for a little kid's intro to football class that will start several weeks from now.

Ogden Utah Temple Open House

Seth and I had a date to the Ogden Temple Open House! EEEEE! I'm so happy. It was a perfect perfect perfect little date. I got to hear all his 5 year old thoughts on the drive up and back, and it was precious, every moment of it. These are the days that make the long days worth it forever and ever.

our garden harvest

This is Jason.  So our garden is awesome!  About every third day we have a harvestvlike this.  Though the green beans are new.  And this is missing many green beans, almost all the peas, and about 10 tomatoes or so that the kids ate.  I truly enjoy our garden and I love that I now feel confident in my ability to plant seeds and reap a harvest if we ever need to do that for our sole source of food.  We'll need to take pictures of the pumpkins soon as they are beautiful and huge. Love it!

It's always fun when Grandpa comes!

The boys had so much fun with Grandpa here. He had some training to do for work so he was in town for almost a week. We didn't see much of him between his classes and studying, but every second he got he was entertaining the kids. They loved having him here, and so did Jason and I. On the last day he was here, he had to get up early enough that the boys didn't get to see him before he left. The looks in their eyes when they found out they weren't going to see Grandpa that day were pretty heartbreaking. Luckily, Grandpa's training was short so we all went to lunch together. The kids almost couldn't believe it when I told them we got to see Grandpa one last time.

Fun Stuff We Did, by Jason Case

Hey everyone, this is Jason.  Just wanted to update you on the last few days.  Last week we were able to get a babysitter and Ashley and I made it to an Adoption Resource Fair.  It was a lot of fun.  We got to go with a few friends which makes everything better and then we got to talk to several agencies and other resources about foreign and domestic adoption.  Ash and I found that we really wish we had the funds to just get out there and start adopting both on the domestic and international fronts.  Adoption is simply a wonderfully opportunity to grow for everyone.

We also had some fun with the kids building blanket forts:

Pioneer Day

The 24th of July is Pioneer Day in Utah. We celebrate the Mormon Pioneers that crossed the plains to give us the religious freedom we were being denied within the boundaries of the United States. What courage that must have taken to pack a few of the most important possessions for your entire family into one wagon or handcart and start walking to somewhere wholly unknown to anyone except Native Americans who didn't speak your language and mistrusted all white people (for good reason).

That is true faith.

To celebrate, we dressed in our favorite red, white, and blue outfits and headed to This Is The Place Heritage Park.

Foster Care Day at Cowabunga Bay!

I LOVED being there for Foster Care Day at Cowabunga Bay. Only families who have a placement through foster care or who have adopted a child through foster care within the last year could go. We had such a wonderful time, and all the families there were so wonderful. The kids were so great, and everyone was really patient. It definitely felt different than a normal trip to a water park. (All the faces have been blurred out so everyone can stay safe since I don't know anyone's situation in these pictures.)

S had a birthday! Shout hurray!

I've waited to post this so that you couldn't really know when her birthday was. It was so great. I got to give a pink and purple princess party! (That's a lot of 'P's.) I've given a lot of blue and red birthdays. (Thomas the Train, Spiderman, etc. etc.) And it's been so very fun, but this was really different, which is always wonderful. The challenge was getting pictures of S's birthday without posting pictures of S on here. It's a little difficult to not post pictures of the sweet birthday girl, but I'll give it a try.

Our neighbor saw all the presents wrapped up and ready for her birthday, and he said it looked like a unicorn had thrown up on our entertainment center. My response was, "Good!"

 My parents gave S one of those presents, which I thought was very sweet and thoughtful of them. They're amazing like that; they always remember birthdays and holidays.

Sealings

So last week was the endowments for Aunt J and Uncle S. This week they got sealed! :D

This is Aunt J and Uncle S with their younger son's family.

I told you about endowments, so here is my brief explanation of sealings. When two people are sealed together, it means their marriage is for "time and for all eternity" instead of just "until death do us part". When children are born to two people that are already sealed, they are automatically counted as being sealed to their parents. This is called being "born into the covenant". If the parents are not sealed already when a child is born, they must go to the temple with that child to be sealed together, making their family an eternal family. That was my case. My earliest memories are of being in the temple with my family as we were sealed together. What a wonderful way to start remembering life, right?

Endowments

My Aunt J and Uncle S are amazing people. No joke. I love them. We call them Grandma J and Grandpa S because they have been there for my children in so many ways. My boys love them as much as I do.

And a few days ago they got their endowments out in the temple! :D :D :D

From left to right: my parents,  Uncle J, Aunt S, Aunt J, Uncle S, and us.

If you don't know what endowments are, I'll fill you in. (I know the LDS religion has a vocabulary of our own.) ;) Endowments are just promises/covenants that we make with our Heavenly Father. They are very very sacred to us, and they only happen in the temple. A member of the church must be keeping all of the commandments of the Lord in the best way they can to enter the temple and get their endowments. It's kind of a huge step for us. The only larger covenant we make with God is being sealed as husband and wife for all eternity.

We got our family pictures!

Every year we get professional family photos, and we just got ours back from the photographer! :D This year we went through Lou La Belle Photography, and she did such an amazing job. The reason I picked her is because my cousin got pictures taken, and in my cousin's pictures, the photographer obviously knew how to handle kids. I came to find out later that she used to be an elementary school teacher (or something like that. It could have been a preschool teacher. I forget...) So here are the pictures I can post. There were a lot more with S in them that I can't post here, but I'm excited to pick a picture with her in it for our family wall in our living room!

The other things we do.

There are about a million things that haven't fit into other blog posts, so I'll post them in one glob of a post here.

The garden is amazing. We had our first harvest!

 Kai loves tomatoes (as do I,) so he got the very first tomato from the vine.

I love just sitting in the garden and smelling the plants. Fruit and veggie plants just smell different than other plants.

Happy Independence Day!

 I love Independence Day! (The movie and the holiday. Lol!) We always have fun. The Flag flies outside our door, and we get the opportunity to tell our kids about this great country. If you don't know how good we have it in the good old USA, I'd love to have a vacation with you and go see what things are like elsewhere! :)

Waiting for the parade!

When the parade started, there was obviously an American Flag carried to start the whole thing off. It was wonderful to hear the hush that fell over the crowd and to stand with our hands over our hearts along with everyone else. It was so quiet as it passed, and then the throng rang out in applause. I loved it. Every Flag we saw after that, Seth had his hand on his heart. It was so so sweet.

 S decided she needed to sit on Jason's lap halfway through the parade. It was so adorable.

This is what an amazing Daddy looks like.

We've been putting together a new swing set and climbing dome for the kids. I threw my back out working on it yesterday, so Jason has been working on it by himself as much as possible since then. He discovered that one pole we installed at the very beginning of the process was backward, and he had to undo a lot of his hard work to turn it around. It's dark out, and he is still at it, working under a flood light and an army of mosquitoes. Why? Because he loves our children. He can't wait to see them playing, being carefree, and basically being kids.

Nerd moment

Jason and I got a babysitter and went to the Parade of Homes. It was so fun to get away together. We are going to design and build our next home (barring any tragedies or big expenses) so the Parade of Homes is like a huge playground full of ideas for us. Last year, we got a ton of photos of specific details in various houses so that we could remember them. This year? 4 photos...

An exact replica of a Nimbus 2000

EBLT!

Where do I even start? This trip was awesome! My brothers nicknamed it the EBLT, the Epic Bear Lake Trip! We went to celebrate my father's 60th birthday. It's been a great 60 years, so we had to do something awesome to commemorate.

On Wednesday, we got permission from a judge to take S into Idaho with us! Hurrah! We would have taken her to the cabin either way because the cabin is on the Utah side of the boarder. The good beaches are in Idaho though, so S and I would have missed out on a lot of family fun by staying in Utah. Luckily, the judge was kind and we got some fun, action-packed days as a family. :)

We stopped on the way up just to give the kids a break, and they loved the view! (This picture is like a "Where's Waldo?" but I would call it a "Where's Seth?" Lol!)

 The cousins were a blast! And the cabin was amazingly beautiful inside and out. This picture is of a very serious discussion, by the way.

Seth's first T-ball game

So on Facebook, I asked where would be best to sign Seth up for T-ball. I'd asked Seth earlier and he said he wanted to try T-ball more than anything else. The comments were less than stellar on some parts. I heard a lot about how boring T-ball is to watch, and that I should just not sign him up. Well I'm glad to report that they were wrong! We had a blast watching Seth play! And our amazing neighbors showed up to support him. Isn't that awesome?!?

Happy Father's Day!

I have a fantastic father...

...a wonderful father-in-law...

...and an @mazing husband!

Aren't I the luckiest woman? :D