Our Christmas Tree

Last Saturday we went to the mountains and cut down a Christmas tree.  Tony did a great job of finding a pretty full and uniform tree.  It looked small as he was carrying it down the road, but in our house it looks almost perfect (except it can't support a star-I'll post photos later). 

It was a fun adventure, but no money was really saved.  We ended up spending almost more on lights (we got the LEDs to conserve energy) and a tree stand, than we would have on a artificial tree.  Oh well, now we can say we did have a real tree.  The weird thing is it doesn't really smell.  Guess I need to get some pine tree air freshener!  

Sawyer and I waiting for Tony to come back with a tree.

The Reason for This Season

Despite our best efforts, our pocketbook seems to be constricted and I keep feeling bad that I can’t buy the gifts I would like to give to family and friends.
I found this quote and I thought it was a wonderful gift I could share without having to purchase it or wrap it.
I hope we can all remember the reason we celebrate this joyous time of year. Take time to be thankful for our Savior and to act upon these 22 suggestions!

This Christmas,
1. Mend a quarrel.
2. Seek out a forgotten friend.
3. Dismiss suspicion and replace it with trust.
4. Write a letter.
5. Give a soft answer.
6. Encourage youth.
7. Manifest your loyalty in word and deed.
8. Keep a promise.
9. Forgo a grudge.
10. Forgive an enemy.
11. Apologize.
12. Try to understand.
13. Examine your demands on others.
14. Think first of someone else.
15. Be kind.
16. Be gentle.
17. Laugh a little more.
18. Express your gratitude.
19. Welcome a stranger.
20. Gladden the heart of a child.
21. Take pleasure in the beauty and wonder of the earth.
22. Speak your love and then speak it again.
-Howard W. Hunter

Merry Christmas!

Love, Lindsey

Thanksgiving

(Cute photos of S.J.  He sat in his recliner and watched the parade.)

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving!  Since we got married we alternate Turkey day and Christmas between our families.  This year was our TD with Tony's dad.  We spent the morning watching the Macy's parade at our house, while I cooked pumpkin pies (For the first time!  I had never made just plain pumpkin pie before.  It is really hard to get in the oven without spilling.), pumpkin banana bread, green bean casserole, coconut pecan yams, and thawing our turkey.  We decided to make our own TD dinner so we could have leftovers.  In the evening Tony made his famous Chizmole dip to take to Jim & Traci's and we were off.  We spent the evening eating delicious food Traci had prepared and visiting with Tony's dad and brother and Traci's kids.  Sawyer loved being the center of attention and showing everyone his cars.

Friday I cooked our Turkey (first time for that too), made mashed potatoes, gravy, and stuffing (Stove Top for time sake).  Tony went Black Friday browsing (he never really buys much) and came home with dvd's (surprise, surprise).  We ate a scrupmtious meal (and are still eating it to this day!) and then watched Valkyrie.  It was a pretty quiet Thanksgiving and I was very thankful for it.

I'm 27

It took me a few weeks to think this over, but hen I think of birthdays, I think of waking up to a "Happy Birthday" song and a day full of special things.  My 27th birthday didn't start out that way.  Maybe I was just being childish! Even though I am getting older I still think your birthday should be special.  My husband was in a hurry to go to work and I was bummed that he hadn't remembered to make it "special" in my mind.  He said "Happy Birthday" and was out the door.
(As I write this, I feel a little selfish, because I am sure many people have much worse birthdays.)

Others would probably have been happy to have a day to do with what they pleased, but I felt, confused I guess.  I did go to a brunch at a friend's home (from church) in the morning.  She made yummy chicken salad sandwiches and a delicious avocado and pomegranate dip (it was so festive).  Later in the afternoon, Sawyer and I took Tera (she got me great hairspray and a cute nail polish-thank you) with us to Baskin Robins for a free scoop of cherry chocolate ice cream.  On your birthday, Hollywood Video gives you a free rental, so I rented The Secret Life of Bees.  In the evening, family and friends called to share birthday wishes and Tony brought home a card from him and one from Sawyer with a hot stone massage certificate (Thanks and yay!).  There was church dinner and activity that I wanted to go to, but I thought Tony would be sad, so we went and had a delicious dinner at Sizzler instead.

I guess it didn't feel like a birthday because I didn't really unwrap anything, blow out candles, eat cake, or have balloons.  There were many great things in my day and I looked past them all because I was missing these 4 things.

Mom's must know that these things are important, because Friday night my mom came up to visit and she brought homemade carrot cupcakes with candles, a ballloon, and fun gifts (they were in bags, but I loved them just as well). Thanks mom!

My little brother and aunt came with my mom so we could attend the annual craft fair on Saturday (I LOVE the craft fair).  Tony doesn't understand why this is so important, but it is a tradition that makes it feel like my birthday has come and the holidays are on the way.  He had to go to SLC to take the CPA exam again (cross your fingers that he passed).

Anyhow, I hope this doesn't sound like I am a selfish brat.  I know I am loved and the kind wishes and gifts I recieved were so wonderful.  I am grateful for so many things, I just realized how important the little things can be to make a day special.

ABC Family 25 Days of Christmas

Selling a Webcam

So last year when Tony was in Utah and I was in Idaho we tried to telecommunicate via webcam.  He bought me an Apple webcam at the Mac store and when he shipped it to me we found out it wouldn't work with my opperating system on my Mac.  I asked him to take it back and that never happened, so now we have this $130 webcam we've never used.  I listed it today on superidaho.com today, so if you know anyone who would be interested in buying it let me know.  Thanks.

Halloween 2009

The 1st 4 photos are from Tyson & Angela's Halloween party we attended on Friday, Oct. 30th.  Sawyer was the cutest dalmation puppy ever, Tony was a Rastafarian, and I was a bag of leaves.  Sawyer enjoyed the homemade witches root beer and the incredibly cute peanut butter spiders I made. 

On Halloween day we carved our punkins. Tony carved Charlie Brown and the Baby's First Pumpkin, and I carved Sally.  As always, the time it took Tony to carve both pumpkins was less than me carving just mine.  I think Sally was more difficult than Charlie Brown, but Sawyer's baby pumpkin was a challenge.  So good job honey, you made our pumpkin family look great. 
In the evening we got dressed up and stopped at a few friend's and family's houses.  After our 4 houses Sawyer's pumpkin was full and he was tired, so we went home.  It was a spooktacular night for Sawyer's 1st trick or treating adventure.

Big Boy Haircut

Before Halloween, Sawyer's hair was starting to look a little shaggy and when he would wake up from a nap it was all nappy looking in the back, so off to Great Clips we went to have (Aunt) Leslie cut his hair.  (The poor boy has no real Aunts, so we have to adopt them.)  Anyhow, he has had his hair trimmed a little before this, but I lost the photos and the hair clippings, so we are pretending this is his first big boy haircut.  He got to wear the cape and everything.  He made really funny faces as the clippers ran across his head and after it was all over he got to have a Dum Dum sucker for his good work. 

November snuck up on me

I think it was the first of the month falling on a Sunday or the time change or something, but I feel behind and the month has just begun.  I changed my playlist for the month, but there aren't very many fun thanksgiving/autumn songs.  If you know of any good ones I could add to my playlist, please let me know :)
Thanks

Halloween cards!

Hello Everyone! 

Last week while watching The Ellen Show she announced a free gift from Kodak.  I got online and recieved a $15 credit at Kodak.com.  I was so excited to make some super cute Halloween cards to send out, but when I put my code in at the checkout on Friday it wouldn't go through :(  Customer service said they would email me the code over the weekend.  Long story short I placed the order Monday, but still haven't seen the cards in the mail yet.  Such a bummer, so I thought I would give you all a preview of what is to come.  It snowed here last night, so trick or treating should be fun!  Hope you all have a splendid Halloween. 

Our cute little dalmation!

The Great Pumpkin Patch

On Monday night we took an adventure to the pumpkin patch.  Sawyer was really excited about the wagon and it's wheels.

He thought the white pumpkins were neat.  We chose a daddy, mommy, and baby pumpkin for our porch and an extra small one for Sawyer to play with inside :)  It was a crisp fall evening, but totally worth it.

Our pumpkins were purchased and we headed home!

October is here!

One of my friend's had asked me to post a photo of our house, so here it is.  It isn't fancy schmancy, but it works for us for the time being.  We planted a cute little maple tree this summer that has turned the most dashing pinkish red.  I know that we probably won't see it grow very big, but that's ok.  We have lots of things to enjoy here: a garage (even though we can't park a car in it quite yet), a perfect-sized front yard and a fence backyard, nice neighbors, and it isconveniently  located to most of the shopping we need to do (not so convenient for Tony's work, but we can't have it all).  All in all we are pretty happy with our purchase.

I wanted to post this cute photo of Sawyer.  He is wearing the camo outfit my dad got him and the jean jacket Uncle Lonnie and Aunt Kim got him.  He started signing a little bit so I am trying to hop on that wagon and get him as much access to sign language as possible.  We are off to the library to check out the Signing Time videos (after lunch ofcourse). 

Blogger Irritation

Ugghhh!  I have spent far too much time decorating my blog this morning and for some reason it keeps moving everything from the right side to the bottom.  It is making me mad.  I have customized the layout several different ways and this is how it ends up.  Does anyone have any ideas that might help or is it just blogger have issues?

Sawyer"s 1st Birthday

Saturday, September 19th was Sawyer's 1st birthday party.  I was crossing my fingers and hoping it would be nice outside.  We had to pay $53 to rent the shelter at one of the parks because our house isn't big enough to accomodate everyone.  Luckily the day turned out to be perfect and we had a fantastic turn out.  (Thanks to all the family and friends who traveled near or far to join us!)

He had lots of fun playing with all the little kids. 

Tony's Birthday & Camping

Saturday was Tony's 28th birthday.  We celebrated by giving him his gifts when he woke up, eating breakfast, and then packing to go camping.  I'm not sure if any of you have met Tony, but camping isn't something he would put on his top ten list, especially for his birthday, so with lots of coaxing/begging I convinced him it would be so much fun and we were off. 

We made it to the campsite at about 7:30 p.m.  My dad bought a brand new camp trailer so we had a very nice place to stay.  By the time we got there everyone was super stuffed and many had already eaten dessert.  I had made Tony an angelfood cake and brought strawberries and whipped cream so we sang to him and the two of us ate cake anyway.  

Sawyer had fun listening to and watching all the motorized toys everyone had.  He enjoyed sitting on them when they were parked and playing in the dirt with his cousins.  He spent lots of his time walking around through the sagebrush and rocks with anyone who would hold his hand and go with him.  The wind blew a million miles and hour so we spent most of the Sunday in the trailer watching movies (not really camping except for the lingering campfire smell in the air), but it was great to see family and eat yummy food.  

I'm not going to say I love camping like when I was a little girl, but once we got home on Monday and I took a shower and washed everything, it wasn't so bad I guess.  It made us appreciate our house and how much we like to not have that much dirt involved in our daily lives :) 

11 Months

With the warm weather, I find that Sawyer doesn't wear clothes much, so many of our photos show him only in his diaper (as seen here).  Now that he is 11 months old he is so smart! (Maybe I am a little biased.)  He loves to dance to music or any commercial that has a good beat.  He thinks the dog is the funnest thing ever.  Much to my dismay, they share lots of toys and if it were up to Sawyer they would share food too. 
We sent out birthday invitations and here is the insert to tell you more about our sweet little man.
8/20/09

Being 1 will be so much fun!

All About Sawyer James

Likes:  To chase Buddy the dog, unload the dishwasher, & play with lotion/medicine bottles

 Dislikes: When it is time to leave the park, when we don’t let him climb the stairs, & when Buddy’s food get taken away.

Favorite music:  Anything with a dancing beat

Favorite Books:  Books with animals or babies

Favorite toys: Toys w/ buttons to push or wheels to drive

Favorite past times:  Swinging at the park & walking the dog.

Clothes size: 12 months         Teeth: 4 (soon to be 6)

Weight: 18 lbs.       Height: 28 in.       Shoe size: 3

He can walk!!!

Hooray and Yikes!  On August 8th Sawyer took his first steps and has been cruising around the house, climbing the stairs, and getting in trouble ever since.

Our 2nd Anniversary

For our anniversary my mom and little brother came to watch Sawyer and we took a very long car adventure to Glacier National Park.  Even though it was hard to leave Sawyer for the first time, we had a great time.  We stopped in Deer Lodge, MT and toured the old prison and the car museum.  We stayed at Jellystone campground in a little cabin in Missoula and we drove a lot of miles to see Glacier.  It was beautiful up there and I definately recommend everyone adventure there (put it on your bucket list), but take more time than a 3 day weekend to make the trip!

August 1, 2009

10 Months

Here he is in his first lifejacket at Heise Hot Springs.  I took this just before Tony took him down the water slide. 7/19/09

I caught his happy face after Tony tossed him in the air at my grandparent's 50th wedding anniversary. 7/25/09

4th of July

Our 4th was filled with fun.  We went the parade in the a.m. (Sawyer ate a sucker, got all sticky, and fell asleep), Kathy & Terry's for Kathy's 50th birthday in the afternoon, and down to the river for the fireworks in the evening.  It was a great day and Sawyer was mesmerized by the fireworks.

What a happy baby!

9 months

At this point Sawyer was crawling like crazy and loved to avoid the camera.  As you can see he loved to play with anything that involved him standing up and exploring. I was busy packing to move from Jim's house to our new townhome, so we don't have many photos during the month of June. 

8 months

Here he is at Kari, Adam, & Jayci's house on May 20, 2009.  We were on our way home from DisneyWorld (cute photos to come) and our friends were so kind to let us stay with them.  Kari had her porch decorated so cute so we snapped a shot.

We are still without the internet!

(I saved this to my drafts on March 20, 2009. Here's the delayed post.)


I can't believe that 4 months has gone by and I haven't posted one time. That is so sad! In my defense there have been several major holidays, a baby blessing, and a very sweet baby to care for. I am going to try to update you all the best that I can. I hope I can keep it short yet full of all the important info. Let's start with Tony and me because most of you only want to hear about Sawyer :)


Tony spends almost every waking hour working! It is that time of the year when he eats, sleeps, and dreams taxes. He is working Monday-Saturday and leaves at 7:20 a.m. and returns home at about 8:30 p.m. or 9 p.m. He loves where he works, but he would prefer to not have to work so much. Luckily tax season is coming to an end in the next month and then he will be back to working normal hours and no weekends. Woo Hoo! We miss him when he is gone. He took the auditing section of his CPA exam in January, but there were too many distractions and not enough sleep involoved, so he will be taking that section again along with the tax section that expired. After tax season is over it will back to studying non-stop and trying to pass that stupid test before November when another section expires.


My update is pretty short. I have been cleaning, decorating for holidays, taking care of Sawyer, and doing all the other household chores that are the "super fun" part of being a stay-at-home mom. I also started to teach the 6 and 7 year old sunday school class at church about a month ago. After much discussion, I finally got Tony talked into letting me go back to work at the restaurant I used to work at one night a week (after tax season, ofcourse). I have lots of projects I want to accomplish (exercise, reading, Sawyer's baby book, our wedding album, etc.) so I hope someday I can start working those things into my schedule too.


Sawyer is 6 months old today. I am not sure where the time has gone and I can't believe he will be a year old in the same amount of time that has already past. He is so much fun and growing so quickly. Here's his cute little mug!



3/11/09

I stuck him in the laundry basket and he wasn't sure what to do.


(In the process of transfering photos to my computer my camera-no fault of my own ofcourse-deleted a month of photos so I don't have an exact 6 mo. photo.)