"Magical moments are embedded in ordinary life." I have loved this quote from the first time I read it. In the hectic and rigorous and sometimes mundane routine of being a stay-at-home mom, those magical moments are there. And I look for them, and I live for them. When I took Dallin B to school today I noticed they had Thanksgiving posters hanging on the wall announcing what they were thankful for. One was thankful for Belle, another for some toy, another for his friend Calvin. Then one displayed that he was thankful for his mom, dad, and brother. I surge of hope rose in me as I searched to see if there was a name on the paper. It did describe our little family after all. And sure enough there at the bottom it read, "Dallin". It's simple, I know. It's also just the words of a 3-year old, possibly even prompted by a teacher. But for me it is all the same- magical. This whole system of being a family works and my efforts do produce something. It's the same little feeling when one of those little boys comes climbing into my lap asking just to cuddle. "I want to be your cuddle bug" is usually how they say it. This is the pay off. Among the ordinary moments these are the ones that stand out for me.

Now onto the ordinary moments... kind of. We all know what this weekend was- BYU/Utah. Happy for some, sad for others. But when you have good food and fun people around, doesn't everyone go home a winner? Probably not. But that was the idea with having "The Bash". You're kind of forced to be a good sport and fake a good mood when you're around others. And I think it really has helped. Despite Yosh's announced "state of mourning", he has seemed to recover from the loss rather well.

Definitely some Utah representation...

but probably a lot more BYU fans.

And although BYU did not win the game they did take home the win for the half-time trivia game. That's gotta count for something, right?!!

And the kids had their own football game going on...



The bouncy house was quickly turned into a football arena and it kept them occupied for the full 3 1/2 or 4 hours. Don't quite know who the winner of that game was.

Now I would like to repost this pic and invite you to look closer. Yes, 4 Utahans were in attendance. That's right 4 of Yosh's high school girl friends (notice the space between the two words please) were here for the weekend. Lots of fun. I always enjoy watching Yosh interact with his high school friends, and always get a sense of satisfaction watching him hold a normal conversation with girls. He's a funny one. He'll sometimes tell me the story of when he was in 6th or 7th grade and knew that other boys were calling girls "just to chat." So one night he decided to give it a try. Apparently, it was a miserable attempt and he made absolutely no sense of talking with girls. Although that bafflement stayed with him for a while, possibly even through high school, he has made huge improvements!! Ha ha!! Anyways we went to Twilight of course, and critiqued the whole movie, til 2 in the morning even. That might be a record for me say in the past 4 years of how late I have stayed up. And then when they left I was in SHOCK to see a Houston's gift certificate on our table. Seriously, how did they know that the mention of Houston's hawaiian fused rib eye makes my mouth water, possibly more than any other food? I swear I never mentioned it to them. And somehow they pulled out the impossible! Loved it, thank you! And please don't tell Yosh about the gift- I will be using it all to myself! (I'm not kidding...)

Fun weekend!

What is it with this sugar coated cereal that just keeps you coming back for more? I made the mistake a couple of weeks ago of buying a box of Lucky Charms for some guests coming into town. As my habits would have it, the box was half way gone before they even got here. And then when I go to the store this week, they have the extra-king-size box on sale for a price I couldn't resist. Of course I promised renewed self-discipline and that the box would be treated as a "treat", meaning not an all day, every day intake option. Oh how I have failed myself. Every morning I make my boys and I a big bowl/plate of food and we sit on the couch and share of the goods. Now I'm pretty fair; we all get the third bite, going in the same order: Dallin B, Porter P, and then me. Well, Lucky Charms has turned me into a cheater. Now, me being the one in control, I'm sneaking bites left and right. One for B, one for me, one for Porter, 2 for me. And then when they become disinterested in breakfast, as they often do, instead of trying to hold their attention until breakfast is finished, I gladly take the opportunity to finish the rest of the bowl all by myself. This is what Lucky Charms does to me. And I must add that their increased marshmallow count is not helping the cause. I remember that it used to be by the end of the box you were fishing for marshmallows as they were far and few in between; the box was always very top heavy. Not anymore. They have the whole box packed with delicious levels of marshmallows. They keep me coming back for more. After this box is gone I will once again commit to the low sugar cereals, I promise...

Believe it or not we had to escape the heat this weekend. Who would have thought that would happen in November, I know. Actually though we are always looking for an excuse to put our Sea World passes to use. So the weather, along with a little prodding from the Nielsens and the Petersons, persuaded us to make our way down to San Diego. I forget what a pleasant ride it is (when there is no traffic that is) and luckily we didn't hit traffic. And Sea World... arguably one of my favorite places to take the kids. I love that there are almost no lines, I love the play area where they can run wild and be crazy, the Shamu show can bring you to tears almost every time, and let's not forget the funnel cakes. Which we missed out on this time cuz we were only there for three hours which is why we love our passes... not an all day commitment! Anyway the boys navigated the day for us this time. They had their maps out and came to a consensus on where the next stops would be.

This is how the trip started. And ended for that matter. We told the boys they had to close their eyes and nap before we got there and surprisingly they obeyed!

The fun did not stop at Sea World. We had dinner at Pei Wei and then, believe it or not, wen to the second half of the Utah game with our faithful Ute fans. Don't worry, apparently Dallin got into a converation with some lady telling her we don't like Utah. We want BYU to win. He won't be pushed around, even when he's outnumbered!

The real test will be Saturday. Who will come out victorious? BYU or Utah?

Here are our faux Halloween pictures. That's right, they were just taken this morning cuz I'm a bad mom and somehow didn't take a single one on Halloween Day despite the parade in the morning and the mad trick-or-treating at night. They are both- by personal choice, well maybe Dallin decided for Porter-... Cosmo the Cougar. I had suggested different costumes to Dallin a few months ago and he selected Cosmo. And then added, "And Porter wants to be a small Cosmo." Well I was having trouble pulling together costumes and kept looking for an out, "Look, you guys could be Shrek and Donkey. Or football fans," and I would show him the costume. He wasn't buying it. He would say, "No, I just want to be Cosmo. And Porter does too." So, here you have our Cosmos!

Who are they talking to? Each other. They LOVE talking on the phone in close proximity.
Like the chair I reupholstered? I do. (I didn't actually do the reupholstering, but you get what I'm saying.) Yosh and I both agreed it was never a chair we would have picked out in a showroom. Yet, we loved the fabric we picked out and love the chair in our room. So it worked out great.

Ok, so some pictures of what I have been working on in the past month and a half.

I finally finished an area! The family room, eating area, and kitchen are done. (Ok, minus a FEW minor details, but I'm considering it done!) This is one of my favorite areas in the house. I love how the kitchen opens up to the family room. It naturally becomes the place for us to do everything, so we spend a lot of time in here. It was fun putting everything together and trying to make it personal and represent us. Sarah helped me out a lot on the shelves and that was was the jump start I needed to get going on this intimidating room! (Decorating doesn't come natural to me so it can be intimidating although very fun also!) Anyway, glad to have it done.

The other room that is finished is the boys' bathroom. Ok so all it required was throwing up a pictures, painting, and a couple accessories, but it still feels good to have it done!



I've decided to take a break until after the holidays. So for now, this will have to satisfy me!!

Yosh and I disappeared for a bit. From off this continent even. We decided to take a "big trip" while we have decent size children and no babies. Thailand was the destination where we were dazzled by beautiful beaches and cheap massages. Cheap massages meaning about $7 an hour. Beat that if you can. So we made sure those were in our schedule often. I wish I had my camera with me during the Thai massage session. The Thai massage (versus the oil massage) includes a lot of assisted stretches by the massues. Well you should of seen the little Thai lady throwing Yosh into the positions. It was hilarious! And all four of us were just laughing, meaning Yosh and I and our 2 masseus.

We took one day excursion to various different islands where the real beauty and uniqueness came through. As you can see in the pics there was super clear water with gorgeous coloring with amazing greenery in the background. We went to Phi Phi Island where "The Beach" with Leonardo Dicaprio was filmed and it was amzing. There was also this bay ever-so-suitingly called "Monkey Bay" because there are just monkeys all over the island waiting for the tourists to feed them. Pretty cool. We stopped by quite a few islands. Yosh snorkeled and saw not only amazing fish but also the ocean floor was so detailed and beautiful.

We saw some beautiful view points that overlooked the island. This beach below was amazing. We spent a whole day there, at Caron Beach. The sand literally squeaked when you walked on it.



We were in Bangkok for a day and did a little sight seeing. Although sight seeing isn't at all my thing to do, it was good for a day since the whole culture is completely foreign to me. We went to the floating market which is where everyone sets up their little shop on the water. People barter in boats and get their goods that way. They have manmade canals dug through the town and that is how people get around.
We also went ahead and did the touristy thing of taking an elephant ride. I must say those are large creatures. It was ok, but to be honest they are big and slow and i don't really feel the desire to be trottin around on those things anymore. Glad we did though. Our kids were super impressed with us and that's all that really counts.

It was a fun trip. Yosh and I got some alone time although I must admit we missed the kids like crazy and will never be away from them for that long again. But they were in good hands and had a lot of fun doing different activities while we were gone. I think from now on we'll keep things closer to home and bring the munchkins with us! I know, we've turned boring but what can you do!!!