These are a few of my favorite things

Judging by the lack of comments from my last entry, and rereading it, I have determined it may have been a little negative! Come on, like you don't have those kinds of days! That entry helped me see just what makes me happy, so here it is for your enjoyment:
1. My boys- I cannot get over how sweet all three of them are. I know it sounds a little cheesey, but they surprise me everyday. Sammy is nearly one, crawling, trying to walk everywhere and yelling out "words". Max is so perceptive and told me when I pat his head it means he's doing something good. Dustin plugs away at school day after day and comes home happy to see us. I don't think I could ask for a better situation.

2. My van- it has remote controlled doors so I can get my groceries and kids in without having to fumble with the handles!

3. Sunshine. this helps with my seasonal affective disorder- and may be why I'm a lot happier than last week. Daylight Savings!

4. Good friends. I have a sweet girlfriend who called today just to see how I was doing and then brought supper for us. I was so amazed at her ability to be so kind. You're an inspiration, Lauren!

5. Mom and Dad. Brothers and sisters. All have a great way of making us feel special.

At the risk of sounding ridiculous, I just want to say how lucky and blessed we are. We have a beautiful family and a wonderful home with room to stretch out in! We have a loving Father in heaven who knows us and wants us to succeed.

stuff that makes me crazy

I think I have been a little on edge lately. I would like to think it is because I have a husband in school and is gone for hours and days at a time. Also, I have two small (and may I say, rather energetic) children who require my constant attention. All work and no play makes Lindsey a crazy person. I wish I could find a picture of Jack Nicholson breaking through the door and have my face photoshopped in, but leave his freaky smirk...Anyway, so I have been thinking about what is possible making me a little mad, and maybe this will help me a little. I'm also hoping you might get a chuckle from my neurotic rants.

1. going to bed late and waking up ridiculously early. Why do I do this to myself? I can't control when my kids wake up in the morning so you would think I would go to bed early. Nope. I love watching Dust play Zelda at night, in fact I ask him if he'd like to play so I can "participate". If he's still at school when normal people go to bed, I make excuses in my head to stay up and wait because what if he was beheaded on the bus. It happens!

2. not enough dessert. i think that should explain most of my problems.

3. my incessant need for cleanliness. why do i have to have my bed made for the front cover of better homes and gardens before i can do anything else in the morning? why do i have to group clothes together in order of color and cut? why does it bother me that thinking of things that I like clean are, in my mind, still messy!!!???

4. my ability to see things a little on the negative and not always positive. i reeeeeaaally need to work on seeing things in pink!

5. i don't see my sister enough. we talk on the phone a lot, but i miss her. in fact, i don't see any of my brothers enough either. that makes me crazy.

This list could go on and on, I think. I also think it's funny that I originally intended on this being a completely different post. Something about my philosophies on life- our family's in particular. Oh well, I don't do enough for me anyway. This post should be the beginning of something beautiful. And crazy.

What about you? What stuff makes you crazy? I'd like to know, just for validation. I can't be the only crazy one!

I can't forget this, so I will blog it

Max has said some crazy funny things in the last little while. I can't find his baby or scrap book so the blog will have to do.

A friend of ours who serves in the primary in our ward told me she called on Max to answer a question on Sunday. She said "Max, where did we live before we came to live on Earth?" Max thought for a while and messed up his face a little before he said, rather loudly, "Outer space". I don't think we have ever taught Max about outer space, but I'm sure in FHE somewhere along the line, we HAVE taught him about where we came from. Just goes to show ya that kids remember what they want.

The same friend came with us to IKEA this week. Max was really excited that we got to eat there. We finally got our food and settled down when Max started sneezing. He looked at me and said very matter-of-factly " I'm sneezing. In IKEA." It was very important for me to know where he was sneezing. A little ways into his mac and cheese, I was anxious to show this friend that Max did indeed know where we came from. I asked him the same question as she had and he didn't even take a second to think about it, "IKEA".

Lately...

I have neglected to keep all of our faithful readers (ok, maybe this is mainly for grama's and grampa's) apprised of our kids' happenings. So here is the latest stuff our little darlings have been up to.

Max is becoming more articulate. He seems to over- annunciate, which makes us laugh. The other day he asked if he could play with "play-toe". Also at lunch today he asked me for Ichi-dan. I asked if he knew an itchy Dan and he looked at me like I was nuts.

He is always making new games for us to play, and as ever, they most often involve some kind of train. Thomas is his favorite right now, so we are immersed in Thomas books, videos etc. Thanks Grama Wilde! We took the boys tobogganing last week and Max absolutely loved it. HE couldn't stop talking about sledding down the fast hill.

Max has also been in the habit of telling me "I really wish Dad would come home" about a thousand times a day. He really likes playing with Dustin. It is really funny to watch when he comes home from school just how quickly Max gets to the door. This week before bed the two of them have been playing super mario brothers and Max is way better at it than me! A sign of things to come....

Sammy is all over the place. He's crawling and yelling. He pulls himself up on the furniture and walks all around it. We always know where Sam is because he's always talking, or yelling. Its really fun! He has the 2 front bottom teeth as well as his 2 top side teeth. He looks like a little vampire when he smiles- which is quite often. He loves his brother and follows him everywhere- maybe he'll stop soon because Max mauls him - with love- any chance he gets! I think he'll be walking soon just trying to escape Max! Sam is also eating lots and gaining weight, so he is very happy and healthy. We're very happy to have such sweet little boys.

For those who didn't know, we moved the beginning of this month to a house. We love it here! This is a little old house with lots of character and lots of space! It's still close to the school and in the same neighborhood we were in before. We live a block from an elementary school and a cute little park. We can't wait to utilise it once we get a little bit warmer weather.

We've been very blessed to have these amazing tender mercies in our lives. We can't wait for all of you to come visit us here.

No time like the present...

We've been thinking about resolutions this week. Neither of us are really gung ho on the idea because a positive change can be made any time of the year. We've made an exception this year as our joint resolution is to NOT be like this guy.

Happy New Year- Aim high for 2009!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XURRzofbMc0

Christmas Bells are Ringing

I can't help but feel jittery at this time of year. When I was little-until I was married- my brothers and sister would all make fun of me because I was the first to "be excited for Christmas". It was like the worst thing to be labeled then, let me tell you. So I was thinking what makes me excited for Christmas and here is my list of my favorite things!

1. Christmas Trees- totally unoriginal, maybe, but so wonderful. I can't help feel happy when I smell that evergreeny goodness. Growing up, we put up real trees each year and some years we had multiples - because the early one would die so we would have to replenish.

2. Knit slippers- this is mainly a memory of my gram. I still see her wearing those ugly orange and brown knit slippers, zipping around the kitchen while she baked. One day, I will learn to knit and make the same ones.

3. Christmas baking- FUDGE! CHOCOLATES! CARAMEL! Need I say more?
4. Stockings- my favorite part of Christmas morning growing up. Santa would leave unopened presents out beside the sock so we could sneak a peek before anyone else was awake! Today, this is still my favorite part- now I can think of things my kids would peek at and be so happy! I also love all the different colors of them and picking out where we leave them to be filled. The orange in the toe was always left until the candy was gone so sometime into January! Santa also left hard tack candy in ours and, as a kid, there are so many other awesome treats out there aside from that. Now, as an adult, I definitely appreciate it a lot more. YUM!

5.Big Bulb christmas lights- We had beautiful red ones, my gram had multi colored from the 50's with tart shells behind. So fun, I love them, but now I can't seem to find them for our tree!




6. Rudolf the Red-Nosed reindeer Claymation special on ABC- I have always loved the little elf who wants to be a dentist instead of a toy maker! The island of misfit toys has creeped me out since I can remember, but I still can't get enough of it. When that comes on, I know Christmas is close!


7. SNOW- I loooooooooooooooove a white christmas. However, growing up in Southern Alberta I didn't always see one! When we have white christmases I think about Bing Crosby...and twinkies?

8. Toboggans! I got one almost every christmas-at least when it was a white christmas. Not the lame plastic ones but the nice wooden toboggans! My dad took me out to the ridge on our occasional white christmas to play on the big hills, or just to gram's coulee. It was always so fun. Dad also like to hook the toboggan to the hitch on the truck and pull me behind. That was cool because I was frozen before we even got to the hill.....

9. Stuffing and raspberry jell-o salad- I generally don't go crazy over big dinners at Thanksgiving and Christmas. Every year, though, my mom's stuffing makes me anxious for eating! The salad is awesome because it's a "salad" and not a dessert, so you get double the treats for half the embarassing portions!

10. My family- So what if I'm sentimental? We had such great christmases, can you blame me for looking forward to seeing all in my famiy? I also look forward to building traditions with our own little family. I can't wait for them to get EXCITED FOR CHRISTMAS!

Making old things new...ish

We're students. We're incredibly cheap. Thus, we have to make old things that may look crappy into newish looking things that look better. Here is our latest project. We bought this table and chairs set from an estate sale because it had 8 chairs. In case you're wondering, yes, we live in a basement suite and no, we don't have room for a gigantic table and 8 chairs. I digress. The previous owner- shall I say elderly woman, shut in type, with or without cats I can't be sure- took such good care of the chairs, they were in perfect condition. When I say perfect condition I mean the synthetic scratchy orange church pew material was wearing well. (Like a pig's nose, our friend says. He's our age too, not the same age as the last owner though you'd never know by his addage) Anyway, they were yucky so we needed a change. Dustin and I set off to the fabric store with completely different visions in our heads-unknowingly of course- He wanted something 'not femmy' and I wanted something very feminine because the set itself is very dark and masculine. After an hour of getting nowhere in Fanny's ( the fabric store) Dust proposed a solution. I got to pick my 8 favorite fabrics, even the femmy ones. So instead of being overwhelmed with one fabric, he let me do 8. I don't know how he came up with that, but it was a truce I could embrace. and, with that, Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you our chairs