Oliver's First Bath

The Year of the Dog

The time to watch for "Hell to Freeze Over" is now...The Plowman's got a puppy and I always said that is when it would happen. I do not like dogs. Quite frankly, they scare me to death. The smell, they poop, there is nothing good to say about them in general. But after a year of strong manipulation, pleading, begging, hinting, pictures being placed on my bathroom mirror by Tyler I finally started to crack. So...we are now proud owners of a Mal-shi which is a mix between a Maltese and a Shih-Tzu. His name is Oliver and I have to say he is pretty darn cute. But I definitely feel like I have a newborn.

In addition to the new puppy, I found myself baking homemade wheat bread yesterday morning before church. My husband wonders what new thing has possessed his wife. I am doing things I swore I would never do! My nervous break down is starting to take hold.

Wish us luck...hopefully Oliver has a home longer than a month or so!

Sledding on the Sandy Hill

Well the best hill for sledding is by our old house in Sandy. So the kids spent a couple days sledding there and I think they loved that just about as much as anything else we did. I think we only came away with one bloody nose and black eye so that is pretty good!

Christmas Morning

Christmas Utah Style

We spent our Christmas in Utah this year. I think it was so much fun for my parents to have us there and it was good for my kids to be with their grandparents. My parents are getting old and it is getting harder for them to travel so it was nice for us to go there to be with them. But...the most fun for us was all the SNOW! It snowed basically everyday we were there and my little Tyler has really never been around snow and he had a blast learning how to make snowballs and snowmen, sledding and only a little skiing because it was snowing so much we couldn't ski as much as we would have liked (I know...ironic).

Utah is my home, still at heart. The moment I get there my worries disappear and I just feel like I have come home. I always say I don't miss it and would not want to raise my kids there, but when I am there I am so happy. It is my comfort zone, I miss it so very much, yet I know my life is not there nor will it ever be again I suppose. But I am still drawn to something there, I've had so many wonderful memories there as a girl, a teen and even as a married mom. I need to make those kind of memories here in Dallas because this is my home, but at heart I am a "Utah girl".

A Long Road Home

Well about every 18 months or so we somehow forget how horrendous the drive is from Dallas to Utah and decide once again to drive instead of fly. A good road trip never hurt anyone. Family togetherness, love, sharing, singing, fond memories. Why is it that that trip does not exist for us? It really is just a long twenty hours in the csr. It consists of me thinking about what junk food item I can eat next and how much diet coke I can get into my body in a 24 hour period. I have seen every disgusting bathroom in New Mexico and have honestly come to the conclusion that gas station bathrooms in New Mexico just don't get cleaned more than once a year or so. Anyway, here are some of the great pictures of the trip along the way. I am sure we will make the trip again....all too soon. We have the college daughter now with a car that has to be transported back and forth...gotta love a good road trip.

Thanksgiving in Mexico

So we went to Nuevo Vallarta for Thanksgiving with two of our best family friends. They are great friends that we have had since we first moved to Utah in 1990. We put yards in together, had children together and somehow they have managed to stay our friends even though they get to see Jeff and I kill each other when we play cards. We love them and their children dearly and hope that we can continue our yearly trips with and without kids for years to come. We had perfect weather, the kids had a blast, we ate too much, we got massages, ziplined, ate Italian food on Thanksgiving day and had no dishes to do. And of course the men still had their Turkey Bowl...it was just in a pool after the hot sand beat them on the beach.

We love them so much and feel so blessed that we have such great friends to share our lives with.

Click on the smilebox below and it will open a bigger screen and show you some highlights...which the children all concured was the surfing lessons! They all had success!

Thanksgiving 2008

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Appreciating Halloween Past

Well let me just say, that in the past I may have complained a bit about the work it takes to get the kids ready for halloween and maybe stressed about it too much. But this year was my first to experience my "future" of Halloweening and it is a tough pill to swallow. Here are some reasons why it just wasn't right this year.

1. It was 85 degrees...that is just plain right WRONG!
2. Chelsy wasn't here so right there it was quieter...she always makes the house a bit crazier
3. No one to take Trick-or-Treating..weird feeling.
4. Costume hunting begane at 4:30...the day of Halloween. Chase's girl Madison decided that he needed to be "Prince Charming" to her Cinderella so off we went to the Party American store to find the only remaining king robe left in Frisco.
5. Telling my son that this was the first of many years that he would choose to be something for Halloween to make a "girl" happy. Luckily he is secure enough in his manhood to take on the Prince Charming costume without much thought.
6. One son leaving to go to a party with "girl", the other to a birthday party...Jeff and I left home alone to navigate the empty house...even weirder!
7. Hardly any trick-or-treaters so I am now left with bags full to make my behind even larger than it already is.
8. House not decorated at all this year because of all the construction we were doing I could not get to any of the decorations this year.
9. Realizing that I am getting older and will never again have darling cute children to dress up and make costumes for. I didn't enjoy it when they were young, I stressed too much about it, and now it's over!
10. Realizing that going out alone to dinner with my husband on Halloween and being the house with no candy is NOT an option! I don't ever want to be that house!