Oh my gosh!

Dan surprised me last night with an early Christmas present!

It is the nicest car! It's a Nissan Armada with everything you could think of. I am not quite sure what to think of it, I am still in shock! What a great surprise, I had no idea! Thanks Dan!!

Thanksgiving, Grandparents visit, Jake's Baptism/Birthday, Abby's broken arm

First things first. Jake's 8th birthday, he had a wonderful day that he graciously shared with two football games--Michigan and Utah games. We did, however, manage to be opening presents and eating cake and ice cream right as the first game started. So, he had lots of fun things to entertain him!

The next day Grandma and Grandpa came for a visit. It was very fun, we had a great time with them and love all the help they give us when they come. We had a great Thanksgiving Day with them, although we didn't get any pictures of G-ma and G-pa (sorry), or the main course of our Thanksgiving dinner. We did manage to get some pictures of the pies :).
We had six different pies. Pecan, pumpkin, lemon meringue, apple, double-chocolate pumpkin cheesecake, and chocolate mousse. I was trying to please everyone. Chocolate mousse for Jake (and me), pecan for Dan, apple for Grandpa, pumpkin for grandma, lemon meringue for me, cheesecake for Andy, Abby, me and Dan. Wait that's way too many for me!

This was my favorite. Wait, maybe just one of my favorites.

Fast forward a week or so and Abby was playing at the ward Christmas party behind a door. The door got pushed on repeatedly by older children and Abby's arm got smooshed and broken.
She tried telling Andy that it looked funny and he said "It looks fine to me, Abby". She then came and showed it to me. I could see a wave in her arm, that did not look right. Dan was working so I found a friend/doctor in our ward. He agreed it didn't look right and we should go the ER.

My wonderful friend Michelle, took the other three kids home and Abby and I were off to the ER. I called Dan and he met us there. The ER was packed so I was so happy to have Dan with us to move us right along :).

Abby broke both bones in her right arm just above her wrist. This picture was taken right after they set it and she was still a little loopy from the anesthesia. She looks pretty happy about the whole thing. She was saying things like she was so happy she did this because her life was exciting now, and next would be her leg.

Now that she has had some time to think about it, she doesn't think it is that great. She is bummed she can't play piano (although we are trying with the left hand to keep up her lessons), can't swim, can't play basketball, can't ski. It's also kind of a pain to write, open a locker, get dressed, zip up a zipper, unscrew a lid etc, etc.

After all the excitement of the broken arm, we had Jake's baptism the very next day! It was a very nice baptism. The ward missionaries were there and both talked, Dan talked and I gave a spotlight of Jake. Jake's toe came out the first try, but the second try was successful! Abby was planning on playing a piano piece and still wanted to try. It was a little shaky, but she did fine. Dan gave Jake some nice blessing when he was confirmed and I was glad I got to hear it all, as I was chasing Estee around and trying to shush her. I am so proud of Jake, and his decision to be baptized. He is such a good person and I hope he continues to make good choices and be the great person he is. We had some friends over to the house after the baptism for some food and celebration. We had no family here for the Baptism, so we really felt blessed to have so many friends come and share Jake's special day with us. Thanks everyone!

Twilight: 12:01

Don't ask me why I thought it would be a good idea to go to the 12:01 am showing of Twilight. I really should have said, no way after getting up yesterday at 4am to scrape the wallpaper off the walls in my bathroom.

The movie was pretty good, but it was like a teen fest! My friend, Becky and I felt like we were the old folks. The whole movie we kept wondering if we were missing something. They laughed at EVERYTHING, Edward turned his head, ha,ha,ha,ha,ha. The BOY behind me kept gasping and saying "oh my gosh" during all the lovey dovey scenes, which is a little weird. The girls sitting next to me seemed to think everything in the movie was "awkward", they said over and over.

It was fun to see the movie, I'm just not sure about sharing the theater with 200 teenagers!

Now back to mom-life, I am tired.

The "8" Tag

First of all sorry this has taken so long Nicole!

8 favorite TV shows: EIGHT! I'll try to think of eight. I might have to go back a few years.

1. Lost (Kyle Pankratz got us hooked)
2. Law and Order (this has been a favorite for a long time)
3. Law and Order SVU (what--it's a different show!)
4. Battlestar Galactica--the new one (it took a lot of coaxing by Dan to get me to initially watch this, and now I am a huge fan).
5. 24 (is this ever going to be on again? I think Kyle Pankratz got us hooked on this one too!)
6. Arthur (yes, the PBS show. When my kids watch this I love it!)
7. College football (I know I am a girl and this is unheard of, but Michigan did it to me!)
8. Masterpiece Theater (Sunday nights on PBS and it's always good).

8 things I did yesterday:
1. Got to sleep in until 7:45 with Dan next to me--this never happens and it was great!
2. Stayed home from church with coughing Estee, and Jake.
3. Made a delicious roast with cooked carrots, asparagus, mashed potatoes, gravy, and pumpkin pie.
4. Cleaned dust bunnies from under the coach.
5. Finished some projects on my sewing machine that I didn't finished at Christmas workshop.
6. Watched Nim's Island with the family.
7. Didn't put make-up on! (Andy just said this didn't count, but I informed him I can do what I want on my blog)
8. Snuggled on the coach with Dan.

8 things to look forward to:
1. Residency ending.
2. Thanksgiving and Christmas!
3. Getting my Christmas cards I just ordered, and seeing if they look good.
4. Michigan winning on Saturday.
5. Jake Birthday (also Saturday) and him getting baptized.
6. Losing those pesky ten pounds (errrr 15 lbs.)
7. Dates nights with my best friend and hubby.
8. Watching my great kids grow up.

8 favorite restaurants:
1. Mandarin Garden
2. Rio Grande Cafe
3. Grand Lux Cafe
4. Palio
5. Giordiano's
6. Pizza House
7. Gratzi
8. Miki

8 things on my wish list:
1. House would magically clean its self--daily.
2. Visit New York.
3. Downstairs shower would stop leaking or be all fixed by someone other than me.
4. Winter in Michigan was only 1 month.
5. 3 extra hours per day when kids are sleeping--and mom's don't need the extra sleep.
6. A house with 2 more bedrooms and an attached garage.
7. An unlimited amount of cash for traveling, shopping and eating out. :)
8. My family to spend two weeks at a beach house on Lake Michigan this summer.

8 friends I tag:
1. Abbi
2. Becky
3. Jenna
4. Andrea
5. Suzanne
6. Josie
7. Elizabeth
8. Emily

Halloween, 70 degrees, Ann Arbor.

If I hadn't have experienced it myself, I don't think I would believe it! Seventy degrees on Halloween in AA. Usually it's freezing cold and you have no idea what any costume looks like because we are all covered in our winter coats, hats and gloves (OK, maybe I am exaggerating a little). It was the greatest Halloween night.

I had my little fairy princess here,

a pretty scary looking viking warrior, a very nice witch and a crazy Michigan fan (not pictured).

I love, love the leaves from this tree. Such a pretty red, especially with the sun on them--the perfect photo op.

Here's my big two-year-old, trick-or-treater going up to my neighbor's house. She never got cold with her little bare arms! Unbelievable, maybe I could live here forever.

Jake pinning the "spider" on the web. I was in charge of this activity and BINGO, which we called GHOST, at his school party. Look at him getting it pretty close to the middle!

Fall is just not complete without one trip to Jenny's Farm Stand. We usually go a few times, but this year the time flew by and Halloween was almost here and we hadn't made it. Luckily, for us the weather warmed up and we got to make the trip the day before Halloween. It was so fun! The kids loved all the little animals......

the straw maze....they all loved running and climbing up, in and around this big pile of straw.

The pumpkins were almost gone, but they still had enough for a cute little picture with Estee.

Here we are swinging on this fun little swing.....right before it broke! Nice.

And the very favorite thing was riding the ponies. Estee LOVED riding the "horsey". She was so dang cute on the big ol' pony.

I almost forgot! The best part of Jenny's Farm Stand is the fresh DONUTS!! They are the best donuts of all time, hands down. If you come visit in the fall, or if you live here, you must have one! We usually get some of the peach, or pineapple salsa which is quite tasty. Almost every trip to Jenny's is followed by a stop for a burger at the A&W old time drive-in. We had a great night that ended with a home-made root beer, yummy!

Bad News

I have to admit I never thought I would be writing these words in my thirties, maybe my eighties, but never did I think in my thirties, especially my early thirties that I would be writing that my young, healthy, 32 year-old husband has pneumonia. Yeah, PNEUMONIA. Did I mention he's 32. I thought 85 year-olds who are on their death bed get pneumonia. I mean, should I be preparing myself for a bout of gout? Now I sound like Dr. Suess.

Dan was really sick all last week and progressively got sicker as the week went on. Friday night (Halloween) I thought he might die, but he went to work and finally that night started an antibiotic. Saturday morning he couldn't breathe, only a minor problem. I drove him to the ER. He ordered his own chest x-ray, which looked like pneumonia to him, but to verify, he found a radiologist friend (who happened to be on call), who took one look at the x-ray and said "Dude, you have pneumonia". The whole ER visit took about 20 minutes! SWEET! Especially since I was waiting in the car with two, 2 year-old girls yelling.

Dan has been SLOWLY getting better since and actually took Monday and Tuesday off of work, which is the first time ever he has not gone to work because of being sick. He tried going into work Wednesday and one of the other doctors had him sent to the ER in a wheelchair! He was so embarrassed! Later that night he decided he felt good enough to go to a conference (again, against MY better judgement). He came home feeling sicker than ever. Then this morning at 5 am his alarm was going off again, as he was shivering and sweating with a fever.
I know at this point most people would say, "Gosh wifey, you're right. I am sick, I should stay home from work today."
That is, however, not what happened. After a few hours at work and sweating and shivering through a presentation, several people said he should go home (who said that first?).

Are all husbands this stubborn?

And, lastly, I wrote a big rant, but decided against posting any of it. I will just leave you with a picture.

Fall, football, Suzanne's visit, scouting, food......

I love fall. Fall in Michigan has made this my favorite season. I love watching football especially if one of my kids are playing, or if Michigan, or Utah is playing.

This is Andy playing flag football, he had a really great game. He made three touchdowns, one was after and interception. The picture below is Dan coaching Andy--and leading the team to their victory!

After the game the three of us with Estee in the stroller and Jake on his bike all went for a 3 1/2 mile run. It was the most perfect weather! Look at those beautiful leaves--I love it!

In this picture below we are trying to show off our matching Asics shoes. We could sell these because we all love how comfy they are. Ever since Andy bought his first pair we are all fans of the Asics! We are also trying to see who has the best calf muscle. I also love when there is lots of time for baking! Fall and sugar cookies go hand in hand. Estee loved these "skooky" Halloween cookies. This is Abby's spooky ghost.

I also made this triple berry almond chiffon cake.

While I was cooking one day last week I looked out my kitchen window to see this cute little chipmunk eating this little berry off the bush. You have to admit it's kind of cute, even for a rodent. Then as I was taking his picture he turned and stuck his tongue out (see picture below).

I was just watching him for a minute and thinking how cute he was when along comes a big, ugly squirrel. I am sure it was one of these annoying creatures who ate the wires in my garage, ate all my tulip bulbs, and ate all the padding off the handle bars of Dan's expensive road bike (see old post for more details on my hatred of squirrels). So anyway, he comes bounding up the bush and steals the berry away from the cute chipmunk and eats it! It might be time to get my squirrel trap out again (see old post for more details on the squirrel trap).

UPDATE** Abby is climbing trees again! Apparently the big fall and seven stitches didn't scare her at all.
Estee taking my picture. She is pretending she has a camera too since I kept trying to get her to look at me while I took her picture.
My good friend Suzanne came to visit from Japan!!! I was so excited to see her and catch up. It was fun to spend a couple days with her and for Jake and Brand to get to play again (they are great friends). Max (her other son) and Estee played really good too! It was fun to eat sushi with her and our old favorite--Indian food. Thanks for coming Suzanne--we had a blast!


And, last but certainly not least, Jake had his first scouting pack meeting. He got his bobcat badge. I can't believe it! He is growing up too fast. In this picture he is telling everybody at the meeting about his favorite activity, visiting the rabbit sanctuary. I couldn't be prouder of all my kids and I am so glad I get the chance to be their mom.

Sister's Trip

I have the best sisters. I have so much fun with them and I love being around them. I am really lucky that I got to go on a fun four day trip with them. We started this fun tradition last year with a trip to the windy city. This year, we invited our mom and she picked the city. San Diego. We actually stayed out on Coronado Island and spent a lot of our time there. If you have seen how beautiful the views are--you know why we just hung out there the whole time.



First things first, when we got into our hotel room we had to take pictures! We ALL have really great husbands who really don't like taking pictures. So, we were like kids in a candy store and snapping away with all four camera's for way, way too long. Poor mom just kept taking them for us and going with the flow. She's so great.

After staying up way too late and having a great time chatting away we needed to get to our next priority--food. We of course wanted some ocean view seating, it's not everyday you have the chance for ocean view seating! After this it became a priority to see the ocean whenever we ate.





We all ordered lobster. This is this first time I have ordered lobster. It was good and looks really cool on the plate. We loved taking pictures of our food almost as much as ourselves :)


Next on our list was the Temple. The San Diego Temple is so amazingly, take your breath away beautiful. I love the many spires which are equally impressive both inside and out. It is one of the most inspiring places I have ever been. It is really spectacular. Lucky for us we got there when it was light and did a session then it was dusk and getting dark fast when we came out. So, we got to see it in the daylight and the beautiful glow the temple gives off at night. It really is striking, and we enjoyed it lots of times from the freeway because we kept getting just a little turned around and passing it again and again! No blonde jokes.

Me, my mom, and Julie.

It was so neat going to the temple with all my sisters and mom. All of us sisters look alike, and people kept asking if we were sister's and we would say yes and this is our mom. She was always just glowing with pride to be our mom! She is the greatest. She was diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease almost a year ago and her short term memory is really fading fast. But, she kept remembering how neat it was to go to the temple! She kept forgetting how often she told us about Robert Harris. He is our ancestor who was in the Mormon Battalion. The Mormon Battalion visitors center in San Diego, this was a big reason my mom chose San Diego as our destination this year. She was sad to find out that the Mormon Battalion visitors center is closed for renovations. Anyway, she kept forgetting she had told us 45 times already and telling us literally EVERY chance she got that we needed to come back and go the the MB visitors center and that Robert Harris was our wonderful ancestor. None of us will ever forget Robert Harris, I am sure.

Next, we had to check out the Hotel Del Coronado. Man, oh, man what an amazing place. It was built in 1888 and has tons of character and historical charm. The grounds are meticulously cared for and expansive. And to top it all off, it all looks out onto the Pacific Ocean! Oh, and the restaurant is to die for! Yummy!

This is the lobby of the Hotel Del. This picture doesn't really give it justice. We were just heading out for a bike ride and wore scroungy clothes and no make-up so don't look too close!

I really loved this tree, I don't know what kind it is but isn't it cool. This is Josie and Julie. Josie is my sister who is 50, yeah 5-0. I know, she looks younger than me. In fact, it's really not fair because all my sister's look younger than me. I happen to be chatting it up with some guy while waiting around at the airport and told him that my sister's all look better than me AND I am the youngest and should look the best. He told me it just means I have good genes and will look great as I age! I think he's smart! That was totally what I wanted to hear.

Oh, the surrey bike!! We had so much fun on this big bike. My mom (who is taking the picture) sat in the middle on the back row and didn't have to pedal at all. It was so fun to ride all over the island talking and getting a little exercise all while enjoying amazing views. I don't know how I lucked out, but I had the privilege of driving the big-rig bike. We only had a few little mishaps along the way (it's harder than it looks!) No blonde jokes, please. Again, our husbands probably would never do this with us, but we all loved it!

The spectacular Hotel Del Coronado from the beach at dusk.

Julie and Jill with a gorgeous sunset behind them--aren't they beautiful. I LOVE this picture of them.

My mom looked like this a lot of the time! We kept handing her our FOUR different camera's. She was a great sport, as always, she is the most patient person I know.

As you can imagine with four girls plus one mom we gabbed the days and nights away and had lots of important updates from everyone. I can't wait for next year!

Thanks to a great hubby and friends for taking over my mom duties so I could enjoy this very memorable time with my sisters and mom.