A Celebration (or Two or Three)

Callie turned 29 on January 25th. We celebrated a few days early to accommodate work & school schedules. We were happy to have the Hardings and Petersbergers over for the impromptu party! (I'm always looking for a reason to have friends over & Spencer loves having a reason to use his charcoal grill so it was a win-win for both of us.) After a fabulous dinner of "bring your own meat + something to share with everyone", we sang Happy Birthday to Callie & ate cupcakes. Plural. Mike decided to see if he could fit an entire cupcake in his mouth. Then Spencer tried. The girls couldn't be outdone! Can you even imagine the noise level at this point? Ya, IT WAS AWESOME!!! We finished the night by taking some HORRIBLE pictures that I will not include on this blog. I will just say that if you try to take a picture when someone is blowing out their lips to make a horse sound, they end up incredibly hilarious but horrible!




Now to change gears just a bit...my Grandma Marie was best friends with her sisters. They began a tradition of going to lunch to celebrate each other's birthdays. This tradition was passed on to my mom & her sisters (including sisters-in-law). So on Callie's actual birthday, Emily & Miley, Callie, Madison, Harrison, & I went to lunch to celebrate. We went to Olive Garden for their Soup, Salad, & Breadsticks lunch and it was wonderful. Madi & Miley wore their "I heart My Aunt" shirts in Callie's honor. Harrison slept through the entire meal. LOVE MY BABIES!!! And my SISTERS!!!



And as if that wasn't enough celebrating, we got together later in the week with our cousins who live in Utah to have dinner for Callie, Hugh, Candace, and Spence McArthur's birthdays too. Good times, good memories.

Snuggies for All

Tonight I received a text from Tisa that said, "We have presents! If you are not going to be home this evening please text me back." We were home so I told her to come on over...I mean, they had presents!!! A few weeks ago she told me that she had ordered something online for everyone in the family. She was hoping they would arrive before our Christmas dinner but, unfortunately, they did not. When they walked in the door they had 5 boxes, all wrapped in Christmas paper. She told us to open them at the same time. SNUGGIES FOR ALL!!!! BTW, don't knock 'em until you try 'em...they are amazingly warm and comfortable.


As a side note, my parents asked us for Snuggies this year. So we got them matching Snuggies...and mine is the same as theirs! We should have a Snuggie party.

Eggs, Berries, & Rice

Twenty years ago Callie quit eating eggs. She was never a huge fan of eggs anyway but one day after school she was walking home from the bus stop with some of her friends (Kandice & Jake). They stopped at Jake's house and he offered them a hard-boiled egg. They were home-grown, brown eggs and when Callie bit into hers...let's just say it was not a good experience! Fast forward 20 years...

Callie & her boyfriend, Mike, were playing the Wii with the boys on Thursday night. I asked her if I should plan on them for dinner. She asked what we were having. I replied, "Breakfast." She said to count them out. Mike started encouraging her to try eggs. He told her it had been 20 years and she needed to get over it. Pretty soon my boys started in on her too. After much torment she gave in. But, she informed me, if she was going to do it, she was also going to prepare them!

So she cracked them into a bowl,

Whipped them up,

Poured them into a hot pan, added ham & cheese, and stirred them until they were done.
Then she made her plate,

Took her first bite,

And exclaimed, "They aren't that bad!"

I'm not sure when she'll eat them again but she did finish her serving that night!!!


Mike has a strong dislike for berries so to support Callie as she ate eggs, he bought a carton of berries and ate them with his meal.

We decided to give Madison & Harrison their first try at Rice Cereal that night too. Madi likes it, Harrison does not!





What a fun night of Firsts!!!

New Year's in Idaho

Since we didn't get to see my side of the family on Christmas, Spencer decided to take some time off work so we could go to Idaho for a long weekend and to ring in the new year! We planned to go through Logan and see Spencer's brother, Tom, on our way to Blackfoot. But what we had planned and what actually happened ended up being two very different things.

What we had planned was to leave Wednesday, December 29th, after Spence got home from work (around 5). Tom had tickets for Spence and the 3 boys to go to a USU basketball game so we booked a hotel for the night. The babies and I were going to check in to the hotel, relax, order Chinese food from Mandarin Garden, then pick up the rest of the family when the game was over. We'd enjoy the Chinese food then head for a dip in the pool.

Here's what really happened: Spencer called me around 11 and said that it looked like there was going to be a blizzard and he wanted to get an earlier start so we'd make it to the game on time. I was teaching piano lessons until 12:30 but thought I'd be able to get things packed and ready to go by 2. Spence walked in the door at 1 and we started packing. We did not leave our house until 4...blame it on the fact that we are now a family of 7 and more people=more preparation=more time! We started the drive to Logan just as the snow started falling. We figured the 1 1/2 hour drive may take us more like 2 hours. It took us 2 hours just to get to Kaysville! Another 2 hours to get to Logan! Harrison is a fabulous traveler but Madi is not so great. I ended up sitting in the middle seat with them and put Cam up front just to try and keep her quiet. The snow and icy conditions were horrible which made traffic horrible. At one point we were driving down I-15 and suddenly we were going sideways. We finally pulled in to our hotel at 8 pm, checked in and were just so glad to be there that we didn't want to leave (not to mention that the game was already more than half over). Gavin came down with a random virus where he just didn't feel good. He was fevered, his throat hurt, and his legs ached. So Spence, Cam, and Owen made a quick trip to the store for some medication. Uncle Tom came to our hotel and visited with us until 11. The boys were thrilled to see him and they didn't want him to leave. The next morning we enjoyed a continental breakfast and then took a drive around Logan to show the boys our first home:

We drove past Mandarin Garden:

Past Charlie's Icecream:

And then stopped at the Shuttle to visit with our previous boss & coworkers:

The drive to Blackfoot was relatively uneventful after the previous night and we were so happy to get to Granny & Grandpa's house in the regular 2 hours. Granny got a ukulele for Christmas and was quick to teach Cam a chord or two and sing a few songs (with Madi's help).


This was the first of many football games that was watched:

Some of us stayed up until (almost) midnight to welcome 2011. (Madi & Grandpa went to bed around 10, Harrison went down shortly after, Granny & I fell asleep around 11:30, Spence & the 3 boys watched a movie until midnight.)





Other highlights of the trip were
1- lunch with Dan & Krissy & their boys,
2- visiting with Gerod & Rebecca & kids,
3- playing Mormon Bridge with Ryan & No'el, Granny & Grandpa,
4- lots of fun and games with Abbie, Avery, and Jette,
5- a tour of my cousin Marie's gorgeous house
6- a visit with cousins Megan, Ashley, and Amber at Aunt Susan's
7- lots of lounging and relaxation!!!

Christmas 2010

I love this time of year! After all the hustle and bustle, it was wonderful to have a few days away from school and work to celebrate our Savior's birth and just be together. We invited Grandma & Grandpa Styer for Christmas Eve dinner. We had clam chowder, rolls, veggies & dip, little smokies, and Peppermint dessert. We watched a little football, opened one gift (pajamas from Granny & Grandpa Tew), read the Christmas story from Luke 2, and got to bed at a pretty decent time. The kids forgot to leave cookies & milk for Santa so it's a good thing their mother remembered.



Cam was the first to wake up on Christmas morning...at 5:40! He was so excited because he is sure that he heard Santa during the night. The boys really wanted a Wii for Christmas so they decided to ask Santa to bring that to the whole family. I told them they needed to ask for a back-up gift, just in case Santa didn't want to bring a Wii. Cam asked for a Millenium Falcon (which is a remote control Star Wars toy that flies), Gavin asked for a bike, and Owen asked for a Leapster. Santa decided it would be best to give them their back-up gifts...because both sets of grandparents pitched in to help us buy a Wii! We had the Wii be the last gift we opened and the kids were thrilled. We played and played and played with all the wonderful gifts we received. I'm sorry to say that I neglected my camera the majority of the day. Here are the few pics I took before the unwrapping began.

Cam's 9th Birthday

Cameron turned 9 on December 20th. We started his celebration by attending the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert featuring David Archuleta & Michael York on Sunday morning, Dec 19th. Our home teacher, Chris Metzger, is in the MoTab and got us the tickets. We felt extremely lucky as they had been sold out for quite some time. You have to be 8 years old to get into the Conference Center so Spencer, Cameron, and I left the other kids (including the babies) with our good friend Rebecca Bateman. We were told that we should be there 90 minutes early so we left the house at 7:15 am! It was pouring rain and we had to wait outside the Conference Center in a very long line. Although we parked the car around 8:00, we were not seated until 8:45! Everyone was soaking wet but happy. We got to watch the "Music and the Spoken Word" broadcast first. Then they continued singing for 45 minutes. Words honestly cannot describe how fabulous it was!!! The Spirit was so strong and we were grateful to have had this opportunity.

On Cam's actual birthday, he invited 8 friends to go to the movie, "Despicable Me." We loved the movie! So, so funny! He got some lovely gifts from his friends. We went to dinner as a family + Callie & her friend, Mike. We ate at Applebee's and Cam got his own birthday dessert and the waiters sang, "Happy, happy birthday from Applebee's to you...We wish it was our birthday so we could party too!"

Cam is growing up way too quickly! He is a good helper and big brother and we all love him!

Styer Family Christmas Party

We celebrated Christmas with the Styer Family on December 17th. We arrived first and took a few pics of the babies with the Grandparents before everyone else arrived. Doesn't Harrison look like his Grandpa with their matching Santa hats?



Dave & Tisa (okay, mostly Tisa) prepared a beautiful meal. We were missing 2 of Spencer's siblings as Tom was in California for his annual trip to Disneyland and Kate lives in Washington. But Dave (Uncle Dude), Doug (Uncle Chopper), and Niki were there. The boys really love their uncles and aunts on both sides. Since we see my family more often, it seems that they get a little out of control when they see the Styer's...they're just so excited and can't keep it inside!

Dave has a lot of tattoos and Gavin was fascinated by them. He wanted to see and touch them. He kept saying that he wanted one. I was worried that it may be getting a bit annoying to Dave so I told him to grab a pen and draw a tattoo on Gavin's arm. My only stipulation was that it could be covered up by a t-shirt. So Dave went to work...and before you knew it all 3 boys had at least 2 tattoos. They were in heaven. The downside? They were drawn in Sharpie Marker so we're still seeing the remnants. I hope these are the only tattoos my boys ever get!






As a side note, Dave & Doug/Niki give the best gifts! They always seem to know what little boys want. Dave gave them a large paper roll that was like a giant coloring book all rolled up and a huge box of crayons and a DVD of Star Wars: the Clone Wars. They started coloring with Aunt Niki right after they opened it and haven't stopped coloring since. They love it. Doug and Niki gave Cam a Star Wars Sea Creature tank where you get to hatch sea creatures and watch them grow. Cam checks their progress every morning and thinks it is great. They gave Gavin walkie talkies...what could be better? (Ten-four good buddy.) They gave Owen a bucket of plastic sea creatures. All the gifts have given the boys hours of joy! And we got an electric back massager...aaahhhh!