Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Babies, and more Babies

(Kim, Brooke, Emily, Stephanie, Nicole, LeeAnna, me!)

I threw a shower for Nicole Clawson because she is having TWINS!
When I first found out before the holidays I could barley sleep that night! I know that probably sounds crazy because I'm not having the twins, but I'm secretly (I guess not so secret anymore) so jealous she is having twins. I really want twins after what happened with my last pregnancy. Two for the price of one.... Brilliant!
I'm so happy for Nicole! Yay!

This was such a great shower because it was a few of our close friends. We were able to eat, laugh and talk for hours. I could never have pulled it off without my savvy caterer, Steph! She was amazing and brought all sorts of deliciousness to the table. We had cheese fondue with veggies, fruit and baguettes to dip. We had cucumber sandwiches and pumpkin muffins with dollops of cream cheese frosting! I made the mini cheesecakes (which is now a major weakness for me... I never even liked cheesecake until these... thanks Suz). Emily brought the pink drink which is also sooo good. My mouth is totally watering as I write this!



This was a great moment! Nicole put her arm around Kim's shoulders and asked us, "Do you notice anything the same about us?" (or something very similar to that!) Kim is pregos too! It is so funny because Nicole and Kim seem to do everything at the same time... They got engaged close together, married days apart, and now babies! Fun Stuff!
This photo is them laughing because they were trying to take a picture side by side, but Nicole kept telling Kim to make a certain inappropriate face and we all were laughing and laughing... including them!


We played shower games. Steph and I with our bibs. We had to eat applesauce quickly and I pretty muched sucked. I was so gaggy and nearly lost my lunch. We should have used the method of the other team. Each twin take a bite. It leaves time for the other to swallow!

This next photo is still killing me a week later. As we were all sitting around relaxing my friends start to tell me about the time I wore tights with seranwrap wrapped around me as a skirt to a high school stag dance. They said I had on a green tanktop and when we went to get in the jeep outside my house, my Dad came after me and said I wasn't going any where wearing that! Okay, I have no, complete zero, recollection of this event. They all remembered it as a strong memory, but me... nothing! Don't you think I would remember being yelled at in front of my friends. And my Dad didn't get mad at me very often so I would remember it if he did. But still nothing. So later that night Emily emails everyone this picture! There I am with my green tanktop and seran wrap skirt! What were we thinking? No one else is dressed up at the stag dance. If any of you girls can shed any more light on the situation that would help!

We do look pretty good though, a little slutty, but good! :)


(Nicole, Kim, Emily, Me, Steph!)

Monday, January 26, 2009

Mid-Week Vacation





I stole Marty away last week on Wednesday afternoon to spend a night at this great cabin. Our good friends Emily and Garrett let us use it for the night! (Free! Nice friends, huh?) We watched movies, made yummy food, got in the jacuzzi on the snowy deck and slept! We even took a nap after breakfast! We hardly knew what to do because it was so quiet up there and we had nothing we had to do! We had a grand time and hope to get away more often!
It was a perfect birthday celebration for Marty!

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Marty's the Birthday Boy!


In honor of Marty's 33nd Birthday I stole this party hat from Andrea's blog (thanks Awa!)
He really is 33! He is my old man that I love so dearly and because of that I will now list 33 reasons why. This is a family blog so I will consider the public as I record. And this is a noninclusive list in no particular order.

33. How he wears pj's to bed. He thinks that he has to be dressed, just in case their is an emergency during the middle of the night he doesn't was to run around in his unders.
32. How he cleans up the dishes every nights and says, "Babe! You cook the food, the least I can do is the dishes!"
31. His old man style. He likes old man shoes and old school sweaters. He pulls it off great, but a lot of the time I couldn't pull it off the rack.
30. The way he loves his civic. He will drive that car until it dies. And until then he will drive it daily to Salt Lake.
29. His ability to teach the Gospel. Any one that has ever heard Marty speak knows he has a gift in public speaking. He is so eloquent and well-spoken. He is knowledgeable and wise.
28. His dancing. It is a little embarrassing in public. But I love it at home!
27. The way he loves my little sister Suzy. He "dated" her while I was in London and they have this special bond that I will forever love.
26. He bathes Graham nightly. He gives him the best bath and makes sure he is lathered in cream in all the nooks and crannies.
25. I love to hear him read Goodnight Moon to Graham.
24. His love of Movies. We watch movies all the time and just enjoy being together with some popcorn and a blanket. The whole experience is really quite delicious.
23. Specifically, his love of the movie Pride and Prejudice. The new one! Yikes, I know we are a little out there for liking this one, but Marty points out such amazing aspects of the film. If you want to make Marty your best friend, just ask him to watch the director's commentary of P and P with you. I promise!
22. His ability to fix, clean, hang, build, you name it- he can do it or figure out how to do it!
A man's man.
21. His ability to fall asleep in seven seconds.
20. The way he tells me that I will get better; to hear no doubt in his voice. It is a gift to me!
19. To see him interact with the young men in our ward. It is very funny!
18. To know that there are so many people out there that think Marty is amazing and to know he is mine!
17. That he loves his new brown silky
16. That he spoils me rotten (even though I sincerely tell him not to)
15. That he and Graham look so much alike
14. That he calls Graham "My Son!"
13. His ability to see the best in people no matter how many times they knock on your door! :)
12. His very manly, thick brown hair
11. His devotion to the Lord and the Gospel.
10. His ability to answer my Gospel questions.
9. His tender heart
8. His patience in all things
7. His undivided love for Graham
6. His dark brown "cow" eyes
5. His hands
4. His dry and witty humor
3. His ability to see no faults in me (even though I have plenty)
2. His Christ-like Character
1. His willingness to be my daily companion and to enjoy and endure this life hand in hand.

Skiing!

me and meg, my sister

I look pretty happy in this picture, because I am! To me this was a momentous occasion. I remember last year during the holiday my family went skiing and I was still just trying to walk up stairs. I remember wondering if I would ever ski again. I tried to think I would, you know, positive energy, but I did have my doubts. So when my family planned to go skiing this year, I planned to go with them. I was actually surprised at how I felt. I was able to keep up with the others and thoroughly enjoyed my hot chocolate at the end of the day. I'm not going to say I felt great afterward, because pretty much I felt like collapsing, but I did it! I love achieving goals. It is very rewarding. I am so thankful for the things I've been able to do this last year. As I was skiing down the mountain with the cold wind on my face I thought about how invigorating it is to ski, but more than the actually skiing I was just so grateful to being doing something I had thought I never would do again!

Christmas Catch Up

Christmas Eve at the Sumsion's was a grand 'ole time! We invited the Patches so we could all be together which made for it so much easier on Marty and I. My Dad, Graham and Marty's Dad!
A happy holiday bunch!


Santa visited the Jacuzzi crowd as well! It was very nice of him!


Temple Square con mi familia
Suzy, Me, Jill, Meg, and Mama Jan

Merry Christmas! Isn't Marty cute?

Marty opening "his silky" on Christmas morning. Anyone that really knows me, knows I have a silky blanket. It is blue. It is soft and silky. I love it! Marty has tried to steal my silky nightly since being married so I decided to make his a silky for Christmas. I was only able to do it will the help of my friend Jane Ann. But I did it and now I know how to quilt. It was a very rewarding project and I'm glad that it turned out so great!

Christmas Catch Up

I just sat down at my kitchen table with a bowl of soup. My plan was to lay Graham down, heat up my soup and finally post after all these long weeks. But for some reason (teething I think) Graham has decided he doesn't want to sleep and he is crying very loudly. It is very deflating!

Now I'm back. It seems that Tylenol and a little warm milk has done the trick. At least for now.

I'm now going to try and recap a very fun and exhausting (on my part) holiday season.



One of Marty's main Christmas present was a book I made for his in iphoto. It included pictures of when he was young and he and his mom's favorite poetry. Marty and his Mom can recite many beautiful poems and I've always thought it was incredible. This photo is from Lake Powell when Marty was young. I put it next to a poem Marty's mom wrote entitled,




"Desert Sonnet."

Our passenger disclaims our landscape, "bare."
Bemused, the desert quiets down her cast
Of subtle color, withholds her perfumed air.
She shades her jewels from eyes that do not ask.
To me, her forms are home; are psalms of grace.
I've felt her tantrum storms, seen August's blight,
Known spring's and winter's pauses, shared her face
As dawn prepared a morning bath of light.
I've climbed her painted cliffs, borne sun's last arc
'Til moon the curfew called. And made a bed
To watch the stars burst over her, and marked
The wind: from breeze to gust to breeze, then dead.
Though fortune's turn has borne me from her land,
I'm quick to own my veins are filled with sand.

-Tayva Patch

This book took so much time and effort and to make a very long story short I had to recreate it three times and it still did not get here by Christmas. I ended up give it to Marty for his Birthday on January 15th, but it was still oh so sad. He did love it though so it was still worth it.



Next I will try and recap Christmas. My cousin Lauren got married just before Christmas so we were able to be with lots of family which was very fun. This is a photo of Graham enjoying his lunch at Market Street. He feels just like his mother about their clam chowder. Yummmmmy!










This is not a great photo of our Christmas tree, but it's all I got! Marty was very overwhelmed during the holiday so I decided to take the burden away from him by doing the lights myself. I started to panic because I didn't want to let him down with the lights (because he really does care so much about them) so I called his mom and she came to my rescue. She came down to my home and we put lights on the tree for four hours! We put 2700 lights on the whole tree versus 3400 lights on half last year. It looked very pretty! Thanks Tayva for teaching me the Patch way of Christmas lights!

Saturday, January 3, 2009

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!





This our Christmas Card. Click to enlarge the view so you can read the deets!

We had such a wonderful Christmas and will post details soon, but to summarize it was full of family, friends, food, movies, games, skiing, ice skating, little sleep and lots of fun! Thank you so much to everyone for making it such a wonderful holiday!

Happy New Year!