Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow

It is definitely going to be a "white Christmas" this year. The snow keeps falling and my kids are loving it. Sophie keeps looking out the window saying "snowman, snowman" I haven't gone outside because I am not a fan of being cold, but I think that I just need to suck it up and take my daughter out! Madilynn has loved playing in the snow with her friends. Our nice neighbor Kyle (who I happen to know is a major "blog lurker") Took the girls sledding on the back of his four wheeler. Maddie had a blast. So thank you Kyle (I know that you are reading this)!

I posted a picture of our friends Nalea and Boston, since Ashley has given up on the blogging world!

Dance Recital and visiting Santa

Madilynn had her first dance recital of the year, and I thought that she did so good. I love seeing her dance because she has so much fun, and totally shakes her booty! Her cousin Danny goes to the same dance studio, but she is in a different class, so we were able to see her dance too. They both did amazing!

A tradition that I definitely want to continue is the Live Nativity at Tuachan. It was a great way to get into the holiday spirit. Before the show the girls sat on Santa's lap. He was the cutest Santa, and I was glad for that because last year Sophie sat on a Santa's lap and screamed her head off, and Maddie yelled out really loud "That is NOT Santa!"

Going Private

Well, I am sad that I have to do this because I have loved getting comments from friends that have found me through blogspot. But, unfortunately, I have also gotten TOO many comments from strangers as well. I don't understand why someone would leave a comment on a strangers blog, but it creeps me out! Anyways, I hope that all my family and friends will leave their email address. Even if you never comment, but sometimes just check out my blog!

Things that I am scared of...

I don't know what is wrong with me, but I am literally terrified of the dark. Refer to this post for one experience http://jenandtonygrimshaw.blogspot.com/2008/05/storm.html

Tony has been out of town for work, and I almost lost my mind sleeping here all by myself. First I put Madilynn to bed She told me that she left her blanket upstairs, and asked if I would go get it for her.... It is dark upstairs. So I casually tell her that if she wants it I wouldn't care if she got out of bed to get it. So instead of me going I send my five year old! She didn't care because she is so brave! The rest of the night I was miserable. I kept hearing people walking in and out of my house! Apparently, it was just the wind mixed with my imagination, but I didn't sleep at all! So when the night comes I sleep at my mother in laws and then come back home in the morning! I know I am being lame, but I get sleep! Plus, the other night I slept right through Sophie crying, but my sweet mother in law was up most of the night with her! OOPS! (but I really had a good nights sleep!)

I am scared of hobos..(I know that "hobos" isn't politically correct, but I am scared)

I walked out of Lord of the Rings. Tony was a little upset at this one, but I was scared. So he got over it.

I am scared of cats. I think that they are going to jump on my face and claw me to death.

One time, my mom and I went out of town , and all of the Hannibal movies were on TBS. My mom watched the entire Hannibal story (she falls asleep during scary movies, they must be peaceful to her?) I was trying to ignore them, but we were in a hotel! where was I supposed to go? She will never live this down, and I hope she is happy!

Thriller and Little America

Every Halloween my family goes to "Thriller" at Kingsbury Hall. My aunt is in a lot of the dances but my favorite is "Frankensteins Bride." She is awesome and amazingly flexible! She also plays a really good dead person! Before and after the show creepy people get "all up in your grill!" They seriously get like 1/2 inch from your face with there face, and the more you try to back away the closer they get. It has been a fun tradition for our family every year. I think that this is Lisa's last year dancing in it? If so, that would be a bummer!

Lisa and my grandma and cousin Conner.

My dad, brothers, and uncles with the funny big guy (Blue shorts and shirt) who is "Lorena Bobbit's back up dancer!" in the show!

My family has tried to get into "The Pie Pizzeria" for three years now, but there is always an incredibly long wait. This year we got in. We ended up having a ton of food left over because we didn't realize how enormous the pizza's are.
After the show my parents got us all rooms at The Little America. My in laws watched the girls, so Tony and I were able to have a fun night out. We played cards with Jared and Heather until 1am. Then slept in (we got an extra hour of sleep because of daylight savings, and Sophie wasn't there!) Sunday morning we went to the Sunday Brunch at the hotel. It is amazing and another tradition of ours! If you go to Little America you have to be there on Sunday for there brunch! My favorite: The crepe table, YUMMY!
Thanks, mom and dad for a fun birthday weekend!

Halloween!

This year Madilynn was Cleopatra and Sophie was "Tinkerbell". We went Trick-or-Treating with our friends and then went back to our house and had dinner in a pumpkin (thanks for the recipe Tina.)
The weather was nice and the girls got enough candy to last a long time.

High School Musical 3, BAAAAA!!!!!!!

On opening night We all went to see Troy Bolton get his game on in the best High school Musical EVER!!
We all had a blast and Maddie and all of her friends were happy to see it together! Maddie and Sophie eyes were glued to the screen!
This is all the girls on the way to the theater. The drive there was priceless. Listening to them all scream when we got there was so funny!

11 more days!!!

One of my favorite brothers is coming home from his mission on October 25!!! I say one of my favorites hoping to make one of them jealous! you know who you are.

I do not like it when my brothers leave on their missions. (my dad said that I will never have any sons because of this) I have one more brother that just left in May. I don't write them letters because the time goes by faster for me if I don't!

Josh has been serving in the Jackson, Mississippi mission. I miss you Josh and I am so excited to see you . Even if you are chubby from Southern fried food!

I Think Someone Tagged Me?

So either Jenny R. or Carlynn tagged me! They both said Jen and Carlynn's said that she tagged Jen G. So I'm pretty sure that is me! Either way I decided to do it! So here goes...

7 Things Tag

7 Things I Can Do...
1. I can shop online all day.
2. I can do a back flip off of the diving board.
3. I can touch my tongue to my nose
4. I can snuggle my girls all day long, if they let me!
5. I can drop my cell phone on the ground every single day
6. I can read books fast.
7. I can burp on command..What do you expect, I have three brothers!


7 Things I Can't Do...
1. I can't sing
2. I can't dive
3. I can't jump on a trampoline with out going potty just a little bit! :)
4. I can't believe that I just wrote that!
5. I can't go to bed without washing my face and brushing my teeth.
6. I can't do my times tables. (more embarrassing to me then the trampoline thing)
7. I can't wait for High School Musical 3!

7 Things That Attracted Me To Tony...(I opened my journal to June 2001, and this is what I wrote)
1. His Calmness (is that a word?)
2. Smells Good.
3. wants a family.
4. Sensitive (I tease him now that he cries more than I do!)
5. Would do anything for me. ( I actually wrote "Does whatever I ask!", Well at least I'm consistently selfish...Tony finish the driveway, Tony clean the garage, Tony...)
6. He is one of the hardest workers I know. (Thank heavens due to my #5!)
7. Able to get married in the temple

7 Things I Say Most Often...
1. I love you.
2. Have you seen my car keys?
3. Yikes!
4. I'm going to Orem.
5. I can't find my phone.
6. Sophie, get out of there!
7. Hurry, we are going to be late.

7 Celebrity Admiration's- I don't have any, but I will say people that I would like to meet, past or present
1. The Prophet; I have shaken his hand once, but I could use another
2. Joseph Smith
3. My grandma that died when my mom was little
4. George Washington
5. Nephi
6. A conservative Republican that is a movie star.
7. At SUU there is a circle of statues of very important people. Anyone of them.

7 Favorite Foods...
1. Pizza
2. Honey Bunches of Oats
3. Brownies
4. Double Chocolate Chip cookie in the red package, if the store doesn't have it then nothing. (That's what I tell Tony when he asks if I want anything at the store)
5. The Melting Pot
6. Steak
7. Parmesan rolls

7 People I Tag...
1. mom (can't get anymore specific)
2. Heather (My sister in law)
3. Kristen (my friend who hasn't posted anything new for a while!)
4. Ashley (my other friend who was also tagged but still hasn't done it)
5. Stacy (my new friend)
6. Kathryn (my long time friend)
7. Tony (who probably never will do it, but I want him to)

Pumpkin Patch

This post is identical to Kelli's post!
Last night we went to the pumpkin patch in Paragonah. I invited Tony's brother Sam and his family, but when I called to tell them about it I told them it was in Panguitch. Sam's wife Katie wondered why I would drive 1 1/2 hours for pumpkins, but eventually we all figured it out!!
Tony was getting ready for the last pour of concrete that we had for our driveway (Yeah! We finally have a full driveway!) He didn't get done working until 7:00 p.m. Thankfully (unlike Kelli!) we didn't get pulled over, but by the time we got there it was dark. They shut the gate right behind us, and we were lucky to even get in. We each picked out a pumpkin except Sophie who fell asleep on the way there. It was a lot of fun.
The Hillyard's were there and Kyle picked out 15 pumpkins! He said that he was going to throw them at Trick-or-Treaters, so BEWARE! Sorry Kyle to give away your plan, but honestly, 15 pumpkins!?! We had a lot of fun. What a fun new tradition!

Riding a Two Wheeler!

I thought that it would never happen, but it did. Today at approximately 1:00 p.m. my daughter rode her bike without training wheels!! I know that it doesn't sound like much, but this is HUGE for us. I say "us" because Maddie and I have been at each others throats that last 2 1/2 weeks trying to overcome this stepping stone!! Every single day we would practice, and every single day one of us would either walk away crying, or stomp back into the house. Yes I know that she is only five and I am the parent, but this was "killing" me!! First she said "I want to ride a two wheeler" so I said okay. I took off her training wheels, and I would walk around with her while she peddled. Then she would get scared, and say "I can't do it" I would tell her that if she says that, then she never will be able to ride a bike. I walk away because at this point Madilynn has started to cry, and was yelling at me. Later, at night we would talk about it, and then I would read to her "The Little Engine That Could" then we would talk about it some more! (I'm not kidding, this is serious!!) The next day I would see her riding her friends scooter. She told me that she decided that she likes riding scooters more than anything. I would ask her if she wanted to practice riding her bike, and the whole thing would start all over again.
Well today she did it!! She was laughing and smiling so much. She couldn't wait for her friends to come home so that she could show them. (because at one point I told her other 5 year old friends to teach her how to ride, but I felt guilty watching Nalea trying to hold up the bike for Maddie!! What? she doesn't yell at them!)
But, I am very very proud of her. I knew that she could do it. I really hope that this isn't a taste of how it is going to be when she is older, otherwise Nalea is teaching her how to drive!! Or Maddie will end up throwing "The Little Engine That Could" book at me!

(By the way, I put all these braids in her hair while watching conference. It kept her in the room, and me from accidentally falling asleep.)

Lake Powell

Thank you to the Alton's for inviting us to Lake Powell. We had such a blast! It was so relaxing and fun just being with good friends! Aaron, Lacey, and I started building a sand castle with the kids and then we basically kicked them out because we didn't want anyone to ruin it! It took us about seven hours to build. Next year, we decided to make it bigger and better! I'm just getting the plans drawn up!!

Just putting the finishing touches on the castle! (I didn't post a picture of all the builders because I don't know how they feel about posting their faces on the world wide web!! Another reason to go private.)

San Diego

I should have posted these forever ago, but time got away from me, so better late than never.
We had so much fun with my Uncle and Aunt/friends Mark and Katie at Sea world and the beach. I don't have any pictures of the time we were with them, because I decided to leave it up to the professional!! We had such a good time, and the girls loved it! We had good intentions of playing card games when we got back to the hotel each night, but our days were so packed full that we all just crashed by night-time.
On the day that Tony and I were leaving we decided to first go to the San Diego Zoo. We were all going to do this with Mark and Kate, but we wanted to spend another full day at the beach. It was a good thing, because the zoo only has steep up hills (NO down hills for some reason!) And this would have made my eight month pregnant Aunt pretty uncomfortable!!
This picture is so funny to me because of the lady in the back ground! What is she doing?

G.I. Princess

I haven't blogged in a while and I have quite a bit of stuff to post about, so I better catch up. Otherwise, I will feel too far behind and blogging will be a thing of the past (ie scrap booking).
So here is a short post, just to help me get back into it!

My daughters love to play dress up. Madilynn will take Sophie and get her all dolled up. Usually in about 20 necklaces, bracelets up both arms, princess shoes, scarves, and a crown. Today Sophie came downstairs wearing a purple princess dress and her knee high black boots! I started to laugh at Sophie's outfit when Madilynn asked me what was so funny. I told her that Sophie's boots didn't really go with the outfit and my five year answered by saying "what's the big deal, mom!?"

That took me on a trip down memory lane....When I was 16 my parents took me prom dress shopping. It was a long day, mostly because my dad came and he was adamant about the dress having sleeves. (These days it would have been easy, because there are many dress shops now that sell modest dresses.) Eventually we found a dress that we all could agree on. It was a royal blue, flowy dress and just like my wedding gown all I had to say was that it "makes me feel like a princess" and my mom dropped the bucks! Thank you mama.
The dance was on Saturday, and it was tradition that everybody wear their "prom attire" to church on Sunday. So Sunday morning my hair was still in the up-do, I put on the princess dress and, using the excuse that my feet hurt from the night before, big black Dr. Martins combat boots. Needless to say, my mom flipped when she saw me walking the halls at church. My response "what's the big deal, mom!?"
I already know that I am in for some major payback dealt out from my oldest daughter who has A-T-T-I-T-U-D-E!

Family Pictures

One year for Christmas I made an appointment to get our family pictures done at a place in the mall. I vowed never to do that again!! I had spent all morning getting myself and Madilynn ready and all day trying to keep us ready. Madilynn cried all through the photo shoot because all I wanted her to do was smile. Tony and I just had fake plastic smiles plastered on our face. We spent way too much money for those pictures, and every time I see them I think "oh, that day was horrible"

This year, however, my lovely aunt Kate took our family pictures. She is an amazing photographer. I love her photos because they are "real," and those are the kind of photos that have good memories attached.
I am so happy with the way our family pictures turned out this year. Madilynn was being a little stubborn for some of the pictures and Sophie was flat out NOT cooperating, but that is just how it goes! So thank you Katie for hanging out with us and snapping your camera at the right moment when we all looked good!!


I love this picture because it is so Maddie and Sophie! My four year old not about to do something that she does not want to do, and my two year old in "la la land!"