Happy 10th Anniversary to us!

Ten years ago today I was married for time and all eternity to the man I love. Some days the time has gone by really fast. Someone told us recently, "You look too young to have been married for 10 years."Years ago I was planning on finding a babysitter and taking a cruise with just the two of us for the big 10 year anniversary. But then we got a position in Paris. While we are still in a hotel, and eating out all the time, it's not the same. We still got a babysitter for the evening and were able to enjoy ourselves. And we will be in Paris, so I can't complain. Maybe we'll still take a cruise, but on the Mediterranean instead. Does anyone want to come over to be our babysitter?!

I am grateful that we are moving to Paris. I am very excited to get back to the French people and the wonderful bread. I am also looking forward to a different way of life which will include less processed food and more walking. Although things are stressful in order to get there, I am still very excited.

I am very proud of Doug for all that he has accomplished. When I got to visit his work for his farewell party, people had nothing but praise for him. He is a hard worker and very dependable. When he says he's going to do something, he will. And he will do it very well. I do love that he is such a great example to many around him. I hope that I can raise my boys to be as dependable, hard working, and trustworthy as he is. I never did get to thank his mom for doing such a wonderful job raising him. I wonder how she did it so I can do the same. Thank you to everyone who has been such a great influence on my husband in order to make him the wonderful man he is today.
For past Wedding anniversary tributes check out the blog archive:
2009: http://jenos-h.blogspot.com/2009/03/happliy-ever-after.html
2008: http://jenos-h.blogspot.com/2008/03/happy-anniversary-to-us.html

Happy Birthday Matt!

Today is Matt's 7th birthday. Wow! Seven years ago I became a mom. I can't really say that it's gone by quickly. Tonight Matt is having a sleep-over with a friend, and then tomorrow he's having a video game birthday party. He just wanted to invite over a couple friends from his class and have pizza, cake and ice cream, and play video games for 2 hours. Sounds more like a play date than a birthday party. Works for me! He's requested a light saber birthday cake this year.
I love how much Matt has grown up in the past year. He's learned so much at school. I love watching him pick up books and settling in a chair to read them. (he even reads in his head, so it's nice and quiet). I like having him read things and then ask questions about them. He really wants to understand more and more. A simple, "because" doesn't suffice anymore. He's becoming a good friend to his peers and his brothers. He teaches Thomas how to play video games and they are just about equals now. He loves to make Timmy laugh and smile. He really is very gentle with his baby brother.

He is a big helper and will gladly help with the laundry and gets excited when I let him help load the dishwasher. Someday when he's able to reach the faucet life will be great! (more for me than for him!). He's excited to move to France and we keep learning more and more french words. I think he'll adapt quite nicely.

Matt is becoming Dad's boy.He will sit by his side and play video games together. He is learning to love sports and will watch them with Doug anytime they're on TV. In fact the other day Doug was watching a soccer game, and then went out. Another soccer game came on and Matt recorded it for Doug (just in case he wanted to watch that one too). He loves sports and Star Wars. He is all boy.

Happy Birthday Thomas!

Thomas turned five years-old today. Five seems so old, but when I look at him I still think he's around 3 sometimes (not from how he acts but from how cute he is!) This past year Thomas has been going to preschool and really learning a lot. He's working hard to be able to write his letters and numbers to be prepared for Kindergarten.

This past year Thomas has become even more car savvy (if that were possible for someone his age). He developed a love for Ford Mustangs. He can also identify almost every make and model of car we see. If he sees one that he doesn't know then he asks about it and remembers it for the next time. He has a great memory for things. He still has a great smile and I love to see his little dimple. He is very theatrical and can turn on the charm (or the crying) at a moment's notice. He's been a great big brother to Timmy and he's learned to play quite well with Matt. Thomas has become quite good at playing video games with his older brother.

Thomas did not want to have a birthday party. The only person he wanted to share his birthday with was hos older brother. He did, however, want to go to IKEA and play in the play area. So we made the 45 minute drive and we ate lunch, played in the play area, got ice cream, picked up Doug at work, went to Pizza Hut for dinner and then came back and had cake and ice cream. We went out later and got some balloons as well. He requested a Monster Truck cake.

I made it by baking 2 loaf pans and cutting one of the loaves in half for the cab. I hooked them together with frosting and trimmed it a little. Then I made some fondant ( I needed to make it more red. Once again Thomas has a pinkish car for a birthday cake), and covered it with fondant. Then I cut out flames and painted them orange with food coloring. The final and most appreciated touch were the chocolate donuts for the big wheels. It was a huge hit.

Timmy is 18 months old!

Timmy is officially 1 and 1/2 years old. He can now officially go into the nursery at church, although he's actually been going for the past 3 months anyway (Doug and I are nursery workers). He is measuring 31 inches and weighing in at 21 lbs 11 oz (although according to the Wii Fit he weighed 23 lbs a few weeks ago after a hearty spaghetti and meatball dinner). Let's see if I can remember important events of his life since he turned 1.

We went to Utah over Halloween weekend. he did a great job on the airplane. He ended up getting sick in Utah with a really high fever that resulted in taking him to Instacare. I was sad to miss out on some family activities, but I did end up getting to take a few naps while we stayed behind. (how often does that happen on a family vacation?!)

We enjoyed having Grandma and Grandpa over during Christmas. It was fun watching Timmy being able to participate in the festivities and present unwrapping. We attempted to act out Luke 2 on Christmas Eve. Everyone dressed up. We turned one of Timmy's coats inside out to look like the white wool of a sheep. Matt and Thomas were shepherds and they were having a difficult time trying to herd Timmy to stay in one place while we were reading the account of Christ's birth. It was very entertaining.

Timmy got to enjoy some time playing in the snow. He just crawled around and ate it. Oh well.

Timmy has mastered walking and is now attempting to run. He's getting more and more teeth, he got his first haircut (he squirmed a lot) and he can throw temper tantrums with the best of them. He is learning more and more signs to be able to communicate with us better. He is gradually weaning himself out of his adventurous eating phase and trading it for a more picky phase. I still don't know what to do to get him to stop throwing his food on the floor. I always take away the tray, but not before it's too late. He still loves spaghetti and meatballs as well as macaroni and cheese. He shovels it in by the fistful. Halloween 2009.

Reading scriptures

Walking around by the Washington Monument. He loves pushing around the stroller. He did this a lot before he really walked on his own.

"I can't put my arms down!..." Getting bundled up for first time playing in the snow.

I finally got my hands on Mom's phone!

(he ended up breaking it more than it was already broken and I had to get a new one)

His silly "cheese" smile for the camera. This is the "before the haircut" picture.

AFTER I gave him a haircut. He looks so grown up!

Merry Christmas! He's happy to get presents.

This was one of the many attempts to get a picture of all three boys in their matching outfits.

Timmy was less than cooperative.

It's more important to give than to recieve

A Death Star Story

Matt came home with this story and I wanted to share it. Happy reading.

"The Death Star Is"

"A powerful space station"

"It can destroy one planet"

"The Empire is going to attack the Rebel base"

"Rebel Attack!"

"The Rebels are protecting their base"

"The Rebels are going to destroy the Death Star"

"When they try to fire, it explodes"

I wonder if Matt's teachers ever get tired f hearing about Star Wars. I know we don't.

Halloween 2009

I thought I'd put up a picture of our Halloween costumes this year. I wanted to do Little Red Riding Hood, the Big Bad Wolf, and 3 little pigs. Except that I mentioned to the boys about cute pink curly tails and then they instantly vetoed that idea. Mental note: never mention cute and pink in the same sentence and tell boys you want them to wear something like that. Oh well. Maybe next year.

Instead they all wanted to be ninjas. So I had to go search for something for me. What goes with ninjas? Well, a geisha. (a modest one!). Here we are at our ward Halloween party.

I hope you all had a great Halloween. I look forward again to next year. Granted, we'll be in Paris and I'm not entirely sure they celebrate Halloween. I do know that the Paris Embassy does activities. And I'm sure that we can find someone who will appreciate our annual Halloween dinner. ( I think I might have to have someone mail me the Halloween cookbooks next year when they are at the checkstands. I'll deal with that next year.)

Halloween dinner

We had our annual Halloween dinner with friends last night. (Check here to see last year's menu). Here is what was on the menu this year.

Tostada faces. We let the kids decorate their tostada's with silly faces.

Unfortunately I didn't get too many pictures. This one is mine.

Spider Fajita Pizza. The spider is made with breadsticks from a tube.

Taco Tarts. These "pumpkins" had taco meat and cheese inside.

They are painted with an egg yolk wash.

Crunchy Mummies. These tasty appetizers are made with celery, Boursin cheese,

strips of ham, and tiny Craisin eyes. Doug made these all by himself.

Tortilla/vegetable dip. This is a cream cheese/salsa mixture layered with

guacamole and a piped sour cream web.

Spider cookies. These were a pain to make so I only made a few. The boys really liked them. They are Double Stuff Oreos with licorice legs, sprinkles and Nerds for eyes

We also had our peach smoothies with pumpkin faces drawn on the cups and the always child friendly Jello Jigglers. This year I actually put black food coloring in my jello to make it black. I made some Cream Puffs with a pumpkin filling. I also didn't get a picture of that, but they weren't as good as I thought they would be. I'll have to experiement with cream puffs and get better at it.

Have I mentioned that I love Halloween? Later this week I'll get out my sewing machine to make some last minute costume additions. I'm so excited.

Miniature golfing on Tattooine

Today we celebrated Doug's birthday. (Because he had the day off). We went miniature golfing. At the 18th hole after the balls disappeared out of sight, the boys raised their golf clubs above their heads and started making weird noises...just like the Tusken Raiders. I wish I got a picture. They were raising their clubs up and down just like the Tusken Raider did when he was going to attack Luke. Pretty good imitations. Of course the more Doug and I laughed, the more they did it.

Arise and Walk

Yesterday Timmy took his first solo steps. It's about time. Maybe now he'll slow down while walking because that little boy is so fast when it comes to crawling. On more than one occasion I had to round up the troops to locate him. The last time he headed downstairs. At least he's pretty good about going down the correct way.

I wanted to get some footage of him walking but he is not cooperating. Maybe later.