Threety-3

This is a silly post. A somewhat frivolous post. Perhaps a slightly vain post because I'm writing about myself...

But, oh well!

I had a birthday.

For me, it happens every year on April 28th at 8:48 P.M. It could have happened sooner, but when do I ever do anything on time? My mother reports that that day was the FOURTH time she'd gone in to be induced. I'd been due to come 3 weeks earlier. (And oh how grateful this makes me that doctors don't let a woman go so long past her due date anymore!)

Waaaay back in 1993, I put together a photo album for a Personal Progress project in Young Women at church. Personal home computers were still not the norm and so I went to my Uncle Jim's house to use his. He helped me with some of the title pages for each section and it made me laugh when for the section containing pics of my birthday over the years he put this:

"Birthdays are good for you. Statistics show that the people who have the most live the longest!"

So for that reason, I am thankful each year to reach another birthday. Getting older is a blessing despite the grays sneaking into the brown of my hair and the crinkly lines beginning around my eyes. Let's be honest. I still fight pimples every once in a while, so that keeps me feeling youthful, right? haha

My day started with wishes for a happy day from my children and husband. Ross and Samantha headed out the door and while the kids watched Sesame Street, I indulged myself by finding some romantic movie quotes I've been wanting for a while. Find of the day? From The Princess Bride, Westley and Buttercup saying this:

"Hear this now: I will always come for you. -But how can you be sure? -This is true love. Do you think this happens every day?"

You can get it at http://www.moviesoundscentral.com/princessbride.htm.
Because you know you want to.

I then spent the morning baking myself a cake. There was a show-stopping one on the cover of my December/January issue of the Taste of Home magazine. Alas, my attempt only sort of resembled that beautiful picture, but it turned out tasty enough. :o)

I called my mom around lunch time and she said she'd come into town and take the kids and I to The RB for lunch. It's a little drive-in restaurant that been in town since 1945 and was originally called The Root Beer Stand. My family lived right behind it on Warren Street for a couple of years and I remember walking over often for their delicious fish and chips or hamburgers. Definite favorite.


(Old school photo from about 1967)

Ross got home around 4:00 and we got ready for our date. My cousin Jared's darling 14 year old daughter, Jayden, came and watched the kids for us so we could go out on a Wednesday night. I guess I have this thing about doing something to celebrate a birthday on the actual day, so it was nice of her to come on a school night!

Before we left I got some presents from my husband and children. They gave me a bag filled with a new pair of shoes, some fun new pajama pants, and the movie "The Young Victoria". I said this on my Facebook page, but -- WOW! -- did I love that movie! So fabulous. I'd done a report on Queen Victoria my senior year in high school and so I knew some about her life. It was amazing to see it on screen. It only covered a few years, but it was romantic and dramatic and the costuming was exquisite! It's no wonder that it won the Oscar for Best Costume Design. It was also very clean which is such a rarity these days that I'm grateful to find a movie that is.

In the spirit of being picture happy, which I have a tendency to be on this blog, here's a few examples of the gorgeous dresses and romance from the film:








(And yes, 3 of them are just of her wedding dress, but I love all three. And perhaps I should have just done a post on this movie all by itself!!!)

Ross and I went to a restaurant in town called On Broadway. Yes, it is on Broadway Street. Clever. ;o) It's a place I've always wondered about since I was a little girl, but I'd never been. I'm pleased to say I enjoyed it and it was nice for a fancy-ish date. We drove around town and did a little shopping afterward and that was our simple, but pleasant birthday evening.

The internet is a fun thing and as silly as it is, I really love getting birthday wishes from people on my Facebook page that I wouldn't normally hear from. I love staying connected and it was fun to check my page all day to see who sent me a little well-wishing note.

Here's the kids and I with my cake. I had to put up two pictures because Luke's face is so funny in both of them. There were a couple where he was smiling or laughing, but these are classic.



This next one is my girls and I with Jayden in the background. Those new shoes I'm wearing are 4 inch heels! Never had any quite that high. It was an adventure walking as I worked to break them in, but they are fun anyway.


And last of all, here's me being silly. I had to get a pic of these great pajama pants. My boys have Batman and Superman jammies and now I have some of my own BatGirl pj's! And they are purple to boot! The lace detail on the bottom is awesome because I know that when I think of superheroes lace is usually what comes to mind. Doesn't it for you? ;o)

Hooray for 33!

Rebecca's Birthday Bash!

It's hard to believe, but Rebecca is 2 now! We celebrated her birthday on Monday. We've been working to get her to answer the question, "How old are you, Becky?" She replies when she's in the mood. :o) When that happens, it is cute to hear her say, "I two."
Rebecca was born three days before her cousin Brady, so my sister-in-law Kathy and I decided to combine parties this year. One party, one cake to join us all. My parents were kind enough to let us get together at their house. Ryan and his family came too and as always it was good, cleanish fun.


Rebecca and the kids on the way to Grammy and Papa's house

The two years old cuties

Grandma Lay made them this cute sign. We were thrilled they held hands for the picture!

Ross and Ken holding Becky and Brady up next to their decorations. (Balloons strung that high courtesy of Uncle Ryan and his tallness.)

Opening gifts. Papa Lay picked out this Angel Kitty for Becky.

Hooray! A new tea set, a wand that lights up, and a hat to match a darling new outfit

Post present ripping. Love the expressions on both kids' faces here!

We couldn't get Brady to kiss Becky back, but Becky was more than willing to kiss Brady even if he wasn't lovin' it!

Both Kathy and I forgot to bring any birthday candles, so my mother found these huge tapered candles and we went with it. Unfortunately, my brother Ken started cutting the cake before we'd gotten any pictures of it or done the candle thing. Oh well! The cake is still cute, but seriously, why do they make the balloons so thick with frosting????

Yummy Costco cake

She loves to share and offered her daddy a drink right as he took the picture. He calls it "This Bud's for you." (And by "Bud" we of course mean juice.)

We opened Grandma and Grandpa Wilkins' card when we got home because even though I'd taken it with us, I forgot to give it to her at the party.

Rebecca has been making life fun for us in a lot of ways.
She really, really loves taking baths and would be willing to do it multiple times a day if we let her.

She loves, loves, loves her Grandpa Lay and calls him Papa. When Grandma Lay comes to visit, the first thing out of her mouth is usually, "Papa?" Grandma took my kids out to her house one day. My dad and Ross were doing a surveying job in the area in the work truck, so my dad's white truck was sitting in his driveway. My mom told Becky when she asked about him that Papa was at work, but she kept insisting he was there by saying, "Papa Truck!!!" Too funny.
I also loved that when we were watching the DVD Ross made for his parents' 50th anniversary when Grandpa Wilkins came up on the screen she also starting yelling, "Papa! Papa!"

She is doing this funny thing now when she doesn't particularly like something that you're doing with or for her. She'll bow her head a little and look up at you with a furrowed brow, then lower her voice and say a drawn out, "Hey!"

She got good at pointing out all her body parts as we started teaching them to her. One day I realized that even though we hadn't meant to teach it to her she happily also pointed out where her bum is. Silly girl.

And just for fun, here's some of our favorite pics of Rebecca over the last two years. She is such a doll and has grown up so much!

Newborn Baby Rebecca (Isn't the hat great?)

Pretty baby on her Blessing Day

Looking darling in her flower swimsuit just after her first trip to the beach.

What's not to love about this one? The smile! The baby toes! So cute!

Lady in Red -- Christmas dress 2008

First visit with St. Nicholas

Don't hate me because I'm beautiful...

Splish Splash, I was takin' a bath! (Which she'll do ANY time you even say the word.)

First Birthday

Hard at work watching Daddy work

She's got all the right moves

These are the moments I love as a mother. Sleeping children are so sweet.

Mischief Maker. She was right in front of me and I still didn't notice she was playing with my nail polish...

Boo for Halloween 2009

You can tell she enjoyed the Boysenberry Pie we'd just made from California berries that Grandma Wilkins brought from her garden up to Montana for us! YUM! YUM! YUM!

Her little mouth is so adorable in this picture. You want to come kiss her now too, right?

Our Gorgeous Girl on her 2nd Birthday. (Yes, she preferred the bunny card to the money that came in it.) :o)

The Birthday Song. I love Ken's "indignation" at the end that we sang to the kids without him. :o)


HAPPY BIRTHDAY REBECCA!!!!

Merry Christmas! (From an April Fool?)

There's a perfectly good explanation for why it has taken me so long to post our Christmastime activities. I am a big procrastinator! But, for a while I had another good reason. Our computer was dying and trying to use iPhoto was excruciatingly painful. Everything would freeze and then a bunch of our photos seemed to suddenly be gone. (Thankfully they weren't and Ross managed to back them all up!) It was too much of a hassle to try and import, so I waited until the tax return came and we were able to buy a new Mac. Hooray!
But, yeah, pretty much after we got it, I've just been slow about finishing this post. Oh well. I'm sure I'll get over this procrastination weakness I have soon. I'll do it tomorrow? :o)
So, now presenting the official post. Be excited! Here it goes:

A few days after we got back from Utah (see here), we went up to my parents house to find our Christmas tree. When I was little we would have winter picnics as a family while my dad found us the perfect tree. Sledding and hot chocolate and fun times. The older I got, the less that happened, so it had been a super long time since I'd had anything at all to do with choosing a Christmas tree.
When we got to my parents house, however, I decided I wanted to go with Ross while my folks were nice enough to watch the kiddoes. My dad hooked me up with his gators so that I didn't soak my jeans in the snow and we were off. (Thanks, Dad.)

We drove up to some property my dad owns and walked around for 20-25 minutes looking. I had my silly iPod on and was perfectly content. I probably drove Ross a little crazy, though, as I fussed over which tree looked the fullest, least diseased, the right height, and all around suitable for our home. I'm just sure he enjoyed getting to spend some alone time with me however.

Ta-Da! Here it is, folks!

And down it comes!

Yes, I decided I needed to pose with it.

Do I look like I'm about to rob a bank with my Christmas tree?

We had our ward Christmas party that night. It's always a fun time. I especially love the fact that the kids get their visit with Santa Claus in.

Samantha giving Santa her wish list

Becky wondering who this guy in the red suit is...

Luke and Santa (It is so hard to get my kids to look at the camera!)

Logan and Santa bonding over presents

As ususal, during clean-up, the basketballs came out and the boys were playing around. Somehow, Logan convinced the big boys that he needed to make a basket, so here he is on Elder Heywood as they both attempt to make the shot.

Going up

Standing on the missionary's face to get some height. (Poor guy had a big red mark from Logan's shoes!)

Taking the shot...

Success! Or something like it. :o)

We decorated our tree the next day. A couple of years ago we somehow never finished putting all the ornaments on, so I've been trying to avoid that. We really enjoy it. Ross isn't a fan of having to fuss with the getting the tree in the stand and stringing the lights up, but he's a good sport about decorating.

Lifting Logan to a tall branch

Samantha's silly grin

The finished product! Not fancy, but oh-so-homey and sweet.

As a little girl, I loved to turn all of the lights off and just gaze at the twinkly tree.

That night as we decorated, we got a knock on the door. We opened it to see no one standing there, but a box was left on our front step. It was a gingerbread house! I was excited because I hadn't yet purchased one like I'd intended to. It was darling and we were excited that someone was nice enough to secretly get one for our family.

Then on further inspection, I realized there was more to it than just the gingerbread house. The card attached read: "On the first day of Christmas my Secret Santa left for me ONE gingerbread house with a little tree!"

I looked at Ross, feeling a little stunned. This wasn't just a one time delivery. Someone had chosen our family to do the "12 Days of Christmas" to. I think I practically started bawling. For 12 years, from the time I was 9 years old, my family did the "12 Days" at Christmastime to a family. Oh, the fun we had! My brothers would stake out the family's house and we'd dress up in black, sometimes even using hunting make-up to darken our faces, so that we could be as sneaky as possible as we delivered each day's present. One night, my brother Jeff even used my dad's long surveying measuring pole, slipping the grocery sack holding the gift onto the end. He and my brother Ryan hid behind the neighbor's fence, slid the pole through a hole until it reached the family's side door, gently dropped the sack, lifted the pole to ring the doorbell, then yanked it back as fast as they could before the family came to the door. No footprints in the snow and they got to watch the whole thing! Clever.

Another year, we did the family of Jeff's best friend. He figured it out at the very end and had all his little brothers staked out around their yard including their roof, I think, as we went to drop off the last gift. I remember watching Ryan struggle with them as the tried to yank off his ski mask.

We have many other fond memories of bringing those families a little extra Christmas cheer. I'd really love to start listing them all, but I'll spare you.

To get to my point, the fact that someone else had chosen my little family to do this to really meant a lot to me because of the tradition I participated in growing up. My family would always deliver the last gift on Christmas Eve, sometimes teasing the family that we were doing it for someone else, and occasionally arguing that it wasn't us (it always seemed to be the 10 year old sons that did that...), and finally revealing that we'd done it and swearing them to secrecy.
Our "Secret Santas" didn't reveal their identity, nor did I expect them to, truthfully. We just waited every evening for a little package to arrive and my small kids were always so excited for it to come! It truly made the Christmas season so memorable and special for us. Thank you to our Secret Santa, whoever you are!!!

ONE Gingerbread House

TWO Decks of Cards (Crazy Eights and Old Maid)

THREE Packs of Gum (Mmmm...Strawberry Trident)

FOUR Colors of Clay

FIVE Pretzels with Cheese packs

SIX Punch Balloons

SEVEN Hot Cocoa packets (And a few Andes Mints too!)

EIGHT Boxes of Cereal

NINE Christmas Tree Peeps

TEN Candy Canes

ELEVEN Christmas Pencils

TWELVE Cinnamon Rolls

Our 12 Days of Christmas. It was so wonderful!!!!!!!!

We had a great time decorating the gingerbread house. I bought one last year, but we didn't get it put together and it ended up being a Valentine's Day house! So obviously since we got it done in December this year, I'm getting better at the not procrastinating so much thing. Hooray!
These pics are cutest of the kids, but somehow I ended up in a bunch of them, wearing the ribbon off the gingerbread house box in my hair, no less. Goofy me. Just look at my children instead. ;o)

Love the hand on the face and those smiles

Cuddling up to say "Cheese!"

I love how you can see how few teeth she had. A whopping 12!

I'm only including this shot because it shows that we were actually working on the house that night!

Now for you viewing enjoyment, here's a couple pictures of our little squirrel visitor. He decided to hang out in our window well one day. We miss him.

Hello, Mr. Nutty!

So long!

On the 18th, we attended Samantha's program at Smith School. Um, I'm gonna try really hard to be nice about this, but it may not work. Unfortunately, this year's program was not up to the level that it has been for the last 24 years. Mrs. Barbara Berg, the music teacher who came to Smith when I was in 3rd grade there, is on her way toward retirement and only teaches one class right now. The new teacher has really, really big shoes to fill. Mrs. Berg rotated 6 Christmas stories every year. Things like "How the Grinch Stole Christmas", "Mickey's Christmas Carol", "Yes, Virginia. There is a Santa Claus", and others. She always included Hanukkah and sometimes Kwanza songs too. She taught songs to about 10 different classes, assigned the big kids to set decoration, stage managers, and gave individual parts to kids that tried out. Yes, it's only elementary school, but it was on their level and the kids did a great job handling it all! Mrs. Berg would be playing the piano with one hand, directing the actions to the songs that classes come in to sing, and be doing 40 other things all at once. SHE IS AMAZING! She did other plays and "Share Days" (talent shows) during the rest of the year as well. (Pete's Dragon my 4th grade year.) When I transferred to Central School for 5th grade, the Christmas Program was not quite the same.
This year, it was a "Winter Program". The kids barely did actions to songs. None of them were along the spiritual side of Christmas. Hanukkah and Kwanza were still included, however. Weird.
The kindergarten kids didn't even sing one of their numbers. It was kind of a chant. The 4th and 5th graders had been learning guitar chords. There was not one, but about FOUR performances of the SAME song (Not a Christmas or even "winter" song, mind you.) in supposedly different styles. I think there was a recording going of the actual song and the kids were just strumming the one or two chords they'd learned.
The lights in the gymnasium weren't even turned down as they normally are. No spotlights. No grand finale. It was a let down. I feel bad for the new teacher because all the parents I've talked to had the same frustrations. (Seriously, I don't have anything against her personally. She just must not have known the high standard this school is used to!) Some of the students even said the same thing to me. It was like the kids just got up and showed a few things they'd been learning in music. Oh well. Hopefully next year will be better.

My Samantha, however, did a good job singing what she was supposed to. The lights and motion and large crowd have been too much for her to handle in years past. She did just wonderfully this year and is growing up!

It's a cruddy quality pic, but this is Samantha's class on the risers.

Here's our pretty girl on her way out of the gym with her class.

I put Samantha's hair up in pink foam curlers the night before the Sunday before Christmas. It was a fun and silly "project" and she was nervous about sleeping on them, but she did look darling anyway.

The front view

The back view

Ross works as the financial clerk in our ward at church, so for the past four years, it's just me bringing the kids home from church while he stays for a while to take care of tithing. That Sunday I wanted to get pictures of the kids in their fancy Christmas duds. It's always an adventure to try and get the shots I want. Here's the results:

Sweet Samantha

I told her to tell me a joke and then tried to catch the laugh.

Logan Boy

I did the same joke trick with him. Doesn't this picture make YOU want to laugh?

Cute Lukey

Darling smiler

Rebecca in her darling dress. I bought it the year before on sale because I loved it so much. I was very excited to finally put her in it! (Note the matching pink sparkly shoes.)

My goofy boys. Logan's face isn't actually dirty. He was going through a licking his lips stage and had some scabs from it. :o(

Brotherly love

Logan and Rebecca posing for me

This was my attempt to get a photo with all four of them in it. Yeah, it didn't work out...

And this was the best shot I could get of the other three instead.

We've started a tradition in our family without really meaning to. I've got picky eaters (who are getting SO much better thanks to Samantha's successful eating steps that she got in Occupational Therapy. WOO-HOO!), so we decided last year to have tacos for Christmas Eve dinner thinking that the kids would eat that well. My husband decided he liked that plan for every year. So I guess for a while at least we'll be doing Taco Night on December 24th. It's all good. I'm planning on learning how to make empanadas or something cool like that to add to the meal.

I have no style, but I attempted to class up my table just a little. This year I put our Christmas centerpiece on the table along with a table cloth and I put the cranberry juice in a glass pitcher. It helped. I'm sure I'll get better as the years go by, but somehow in my heart I know I'll never pull together a table in the same amazing way that my former roommate Nissa-Lynn can. Go here and see what she did for her dinner group at Valentine's Day. AMAZING! And go here to see what she did just for her kids that day! No, seriously, go look. It's unbelievably fabulous!

Our Christmas Taco Feast! (Apparently I'm just a floating head...)

We drove out to our Stake Center to see the Live Nativity that is presented every year and to drop off our cans of food to the Food Share truck. The neighborhood by the church is the only one in Helena where almost all of the houses decorate with lights and other props. There's luminaries lining the street and lots of traffic. It's fun to see the creativity of others and I love talking to my kids about Christ's Birth as we drive by the Nativity.

Silent Night

We had my brother Ken's family for Christmas this year, so we drove to their house on our way home. My parents happened to be there too. We gave them their presents and looked at all their decorations I hadn't seen and talked and shared a little family love.

Samantha, Caleb, and Spencer

My parents came home with us and dropped off some presents for us and took this photo for us.

Merry Christmas 2009!

While they were there, we got to share with them the amazing thing that happened to us that day. We were just hanging out at home in the middle of the day when there was a knock on the door. Ross answered it and I could see from the top of our stairs that it was a guy neither of us knew in a Santa hat. He said, "Merry Christmas!!!" and handed Ross a great big basket wrapped in red plastic paper. Dumbfounded, Ross managed to say thanks and then looked up at me. I shrugged and we put the package on the coffee table. We opened it and found tons of wrapped gifts inside. There was three per kid. They were just labled "Girl, 7", "Boy, 5", "Boy, 3" and "Girl, 1". We suspected that perhaps someone had put our family on an Angel tree maybe? We really don't know. I'm sure so many other families are worse off than us. Work has been really slow at my dad's office, but we were doing okay, I guess. Whoever did this for us knew us on some level it seemed though. There was also a gift bag FULL of gift certificates to restaurants, stores, the local carousel, and even an evelope labeled "Babysitting Money". It was so extremely generous and had to be the work of more than one family. We were overwhelmed and so filled with gratitude! Christmas is not about what you get and we know that. We would have had a wonderful celebration and strived to focus on Christ as much as possible no matter what. It did make us feel very loved and gave us a desire to pass this kind of special thing to someone else in the future. Thank you again to the people who did this for us. It is something we will never ever forget.


Ross and I read the Christmas story from Luke 2 to the children, let them open their Christmas pajamas, and put them to bed. Then we put on the movie "A Christmas Story", followed by "Mr. Krueger's Christmas" and finished getting ready for the next day.

Here's our tree just waiting to be seen by four little kids in the morning. We wrapped the red package back up and finished opening it Christmas morning. It's on the side table in the picture.

I told you I loved the twinkling Christmas tree look. Had to take another picture!

Maybe it will get worse as our kids get a little older, but thankfully they woke up about 7:30 or 8 like they normally do instead of 5 or something horrid like that. We passed around the Santa hat and passed around the gifts. I popped the cinnamon rolls from our Secret Santa in the oven and we had a lovely morning.

Daddy doesn't look very awake. He still has a nose strip on in fact! I love how Becky's feet are lifted off the floor here.

Hooray! Santa brought Samantha Princess Tiana!

Yippee! Santa brought Logan Gator Golf that he's wanted for 2 years!

How fun! Santa brought the kids Hungry, Hungry Hippos! It was fitting that I happened to find a song this year called "I Want A Hippopotamus For Christmas". It's a 50's novelty song and it's funny and cute. Look it up on YouTube. Or if you really want, let me know and I'll put it on a CD for you because I also have a fun song called "Dominick the Christmas Donkey" and other good ones. :o)

In the afternoon, we went out to my parent's house for dinner. We were there with my brother Ken and his family and the kids and dads and Papa Lay went sledding there in the subdivision. Papa brought his 4-wheeler and a chilly, but happy time was had by all.

Samantha and Logan on the sled. I think he's uncomfortable here.

Ross said Luke was a little cold and ready to go back to the house pretty quickly.

Spencer pulling Samantha up the hill

The ride home. What a way to travel!

Phew! I'm done. That's the whole story, folks. It was a really fun season. Believe it or not I even left out a few parts. Not many though. I hope your Christmas season was as joyous and as unforgettable as ours was!