My first New Years resolution shot to hell!!

So yeah, I was really going to try and do a better job of updating the blog more frequently. But we are still in Jan, so there is still hope for a better year!

The holidays were great. We spent almost a week in Parowan which was very relaxing, but not restful by any means. We ended up staying up way too late each night playing games or talking with family. It was great having my brother Kyle and sisters Paige and Chalise there. We were also able to spend some time with friends, but it is never enough time! I think that I am now ready to cut the apron strings a little and we will start celebrating Christmas at our home (it will be the 1st time away from Parowan). I just think I want to start our own family traditions. But I have a whole year to prepare for that moment right???

New Years Eve was a lot of fun. We spent it with 4 other families in our ward and just had a bunch of yummy food and played some games. The best part was bringing the boys home early with a couple of the older kids so we could go back and play. Love the child free time!!!

Things are going alright here. Sam finally got his first tooth on New Years Day and his 2nd is ready to break through any day now. Both boys have been sick for awhile with the runny nose, cough, sneeze thing....oh yeah, they are ornery too!

Nick got a promotion at work and is now heading up a new service at the bank which is sometimes referred to as Premire Banking. Basically he is in charge of taking care of the top customers the bank has. He has been promoted faster than anyone in his department. EVER. I'm so proud of my honey!!

Here are some pictures of the highlights of the last month!

Sam having his first chat with Santa. Notice Sam's long hair?? Let me tell you about the conversation that happened at our house that night after the kids were in bed.....

Nick: "Oh Michelle, you are so observant"

Me: "What, did you get your hair cut today?"

Nick: "No, I didn't"

Me: "Did you cut Sam's hair tonight?" (I had been visiting teaching)

Nick: "Yes, and you didn't even notice, so you can't give me a hard time about not noticing things".

*****Slience******

Me: "So you cut my babies hair for the first time without me. Did you take any pictures?"

Nick: "No"

Me: "Did you save any hair?"

Nick: "Umm....no"

Me: Hmmmm (which was NOT said in a happy tone of voice)

Nick: "I'm so sorry, it is still in the garbage, let me go look for you. I know I can find some under the spaghetti that you threw out. I just know I can find some, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry..." grovel grovel :-)

Nick has now learned that you NEVER do any of the firsts without me present with the camera!

Seth decorating his first Gingerbread house.

Giving the Wise Men a ride on the ferris wheel. I'm sure it was a first for them.

We acted out the Nativity scene on Christmas Eve. I was Mary and Sam was a little lamb (we had to improvise with a couple of the costumes....)

Nick was Joseph and my nephew Kimball was baby Jesus.

Seth was a shepherd and my niece Myra was the angel. She loves playing dress-up with all of our old dance costumes and she was so excited to be the angel.

The kids with their new pajamas on Christmas Eve.

Seth was so excited about his new "Big Thomas".

Sam actually had fun unwrapping a few presents.

Our little Jedi Seth-Wan-Kanobi

My gals!!! When I lived in Cedar we had a tradition of making Chinese food on New Years Eve and since we wouldn't be there this year, we had to do it a little early. Great times!

Can you tell who likes Nutella? And really, who doesn't?

I've been tagged (which is better than being tasered)

Okay, so Chalise tagged me awhile ago, but I haven't been able to really thing of anything that interesting about me. The rules state that you are supposed to list 6 facts/habits about yourself and try to find 6 you haven't already posted about! So after much thought and deliberation, this is the best I could come up with.

1) I have an extreme case of OCD in certain areas. My closet has to be organized by color and length of sleeve. Not only that, but the shirts have to either match the color of hanger or the hanger has to be white. I find that it is easier to find your clothes that way and it just looks nicer. I have been known to sneak into my sisters closet and fix hers to my liking. Of course she got me back by screwing mine up. I also have an obsession with towels, they have to be hung straight. Decks of cards have to be facing the same direction when put away. Lightswitches have to reflect correctly if the light is on or off. If there are 2 switches to the same light and the light is off, they both need to be down. When we moved into this house, Nick had to change a bunch of outlets so they would be correct. Luckily it bugs him too. I'm also a "binky nazi" I have to know where every binky in the house is and it will drive me insane if one is missing. Same with sets of toys...you know I was going to write more, but I am realizing how insane I am. I'll stop now.

2) I have a nose like no other. One of the most common phrases in my house is "What is that smell!?!?!?" I was worried that when I was pregnant it would kill me, but luckily my sense of smell seems to diminish when I am prego instead of becoming more intense like normal people.

3) It isn't necessarily something to be proud of many times, but Dick Cheney is a relative. His wife Lynne and my dad are cousins. In fact, in her latest book she acknowledges my parents. I'm sure he is a nice enough guy, but I'm still not going shooting with him!

4) I'm a perfectionist. Not in all areas, but if I can't do something perfectly, it usually stops me from even trying. Nick says I am getting better, but if I do something and it isn't perfect, I will just complain about it unceasingly.

5) I hate shopping for gifts. Especially for close friends or family. Actually for most anybody. If it's someone that I should know really well and know what they would like and I can't come up with the perfect gift then I get totally stressed out. If there are times that I do think of something that would be great, then I love buying stuff. Like tonight, I figured out what my dad would love for Christmas and I'm excited to give it to him.

6) I am a fountain of useless celebrity knowledge. I keep up with all that crap. Yes, it is pretty pathetic, but you never know when the latest antics of Britney or Paris may help me out when I get a little too wild and forget to wear panties or drive while intoxicated.

Well, that is me. I'm sure it is very enlightening and disturbing at the same time. Whoever reads this and wants to be tagged, then I tag you. I know for sure that Paige, Jamie, Kristin, Julene, Melodie, and all the Liechty family members haven't done this, so if you feel like sharing, please do so. And Susy, I heard you found my blog (I'm guessing through Kim??) so if you haven't done this yet, then I would love to read yours as well - I love reading your blog and the pictures of the boys golfing really made me miss Cedar.

My nephew Kimball. He is the cutest little thing and this picture just cracks me up!

Me and my dog. We are hoping he will make it until Christmas. We took him back in and he has 3 tumors in his chest. He seems to be doing fine right now, but if he takes a turn for the worse and his quality of living goes down, then we will have to say our goodbyes :-(

The apple doesn't fall too far from the tree now does it?

Seth showing his excitment for his new remote control super loader that he got from grandma and grandpa for his b-day.

Sam showing that he really can crawl. Of course now that he has learned to crawl, he has forgotten how to roll over so if he somehow ends up on his back, he just lays there like a turtle, crying until someone comes and rescues him.

This is what our couch does to Seth's hair--and the picture doesn't do it justice!

Sam on the tree hunt. I've learned that it is much harder once you have kids and I'm glad at times that we have our fake tree (even though it is just not the same as the real thing).

The boys love taking baths!

Not quite sure what happened to the corner of this picture though!

Seth's 3rd b-day cake. You can't really tell from this picture, but it was actually quite twisted. I didn't have time to do anything fancy, but I didn't want it to be a plain cake either. I had a few new emergency vehicles that I was saving for Christmas, but I thought I could just make a road with frosting and put them on and he would be thrilled. Well, I also got some of his bushes, animals and signs from his old train set. Nick noticed that I had a pedestrian crossing sign so he asked if he should make a crosswalk with the frosting. That got our sickly creative juices flowing and we decided to have a truck hitting the pedestrian in the crosswalk and the ambulance, firetruck and police car there assisting. Our friends asked if counseling was one of his b-day presents. I'm sure someday it will have to be.

Sam loves to give Bo noggins.

Santa's little helper.

These are 4 of my friends in the neighborhood. We were all due within 6 weeks of each other(in order starting on the right and going left) and every one of us had a boy.

I do not want to be in Nursery this time next year!!!

Here are the boys at around 4 months old.

And again at about 8 months old

The best friends a girl could ask for.

This is on our (probably 10th) semi-annual overnight shopping/eating/staying up way too late laughing trip to St. George.

I miss you guys!!!!

Our own little personal injury lawyer

So we are working on potty training Seth and it is going pretty well--as far as #1 goes. He can go most of the day without any accidents, but we are still working on the poop. Tonight he had another problem (luckily in a pull-up) and so I was talking to him about having accidents and out of nowhere he says, "One call, that's all." Nick is like, "What did he just say?? Have you been watching a lot of daytime TV???" And of course the only thing that we ever watch during the day is Barney and the likes. So I guess you could say that Craig Swapp's advertising is catchy.
Seth's memory tends to amaze me. We read books every night before he goes to bed and he has his favorites and he can memorize them pretty quickly. Right now his favorite book is "Froggy goes to school" and he can quote most of it and if I say the wrong word he will correct me. He also loves to put his arms out and tell me he is Buzz Lightyear. This morning he wanted me to get out of bed and feed him. I was just about to get up and he said "No Mom, close your eyes and I will kiss you awake." That boy can make my heart melt or drive me to distraction.

Now Sam...he is finally starting to crawl. When we were down in Parowan in mid-Nov, he started to do the army crawl but just a little bit (of course he did it the first night I left him for the whole night...) and then he got really good at it when we came home. While we were in Parowan for Thanksgiving, he started to do a few of the regular crawling motions. Once we came home, he really took off with it. Now he does the army crawl if he wants to get somewhere fast (like the doggy dishes) and crawls if he is just cruisin around. He is a little bit happier now that he is more mobile, but if I may quote the classic movie Thumb Wars-- "that kid is sure a whiner" or something like that...it has been too long since I have seen it.

It is finally starting to look like Christmas around here. We got the tree put up on Sat and I got the lights on yesterday---which caused much grief, they kept blowing fuses--- and then Seth and I decorated it today. Seth did it first and put all the ornaments on one area of the tree and once he went down for his nap, I dispersed them more evenly around the tree. I'm pretty proud of myself for the lights. I have never done them before and I did probably 15-20 strands. It's not perfect, but it will do. Much of our Christmas is bought. We need to finish up and then start to wrap. We will be going down to Parowan again. I have yet to miss a Christmas at home. This is where I am glad that Nick comes from a dysfunctional family that doesn't spend too much time together--I don't really have to share holidays. Which is good, because I am selfish. Especially about holidays.

There's no place like home

Okay, almost a month later I am finally getting around to posting. For some reason it is so hard for me to just sit down and write--probably because it tends to be a novel each time. So I will try and keep it short and simple with a lot of fun pictures of the boys!

We have been doing great. Of course the last few nights have been a little difficult with Sam. I could have sworn that he had an ear infection since he has been a beast and playing with his ear, but the Dr. said this morning that he is fine and it is probably just his teeth working their way out (he has yet to have one break through). Hopefully he will sleep better tonight--the last couple of nights he will only sleep if I hold him and if I even move, it sets him off again. I have been understanding of it since I thought he had an ear infection but he is just going to have to sleep on his own now. I hate hearing him cry, but we are not big on spoiling the boys. Am I just mean???

Halloween (and the weekend before) was great. We had a ward party on Friday and then a neighborhood adult party on Saturday and then of course Halloween itself. Seth enjoyed dressing up and he did great with the Trick or Treating. The sad part is now he is sick and so he can't have any "special treats" until he is feeling better. He is being really great about it though. He loves suckers, but all of the good stuff (like chocolate) he doesn't really seem too interested it. Which is bad for me, because I am WAY too interested in it.

We are going to Parowan again this weekend. Chalise and Ammon are blessing their baby and I am doing my semi-annual overnight shopping trip to St. George with my best friends Kim, Larissa and Cindy. I am so excited for this trip. Not only will it be my first night without any kids (Nick is insisting that I leave both boys with him--good luck honey) but I get to spend time with my friends. As I was trying to go to sleep last night, I was just thinking that even though I am finally happy up here and actually really like my life, I really miss my many Cedar City friends. I had such a great life there and the best friends you could ever ask for and I am so glad that I still get to spend time with them and that we have traditions that we keep doing. Friends are the best and so important for me to be happy!

Oh yeah, since my last post, I took Bo to the vet and he definitely has arthritis and sadly, he could very possibly have cancer. I need to take him back to see if things have progressed, and if it has and he does have it...well, I am not ready to deal with that, so I think that is why I am taking so long to get him back. He is such a great dog and his spirit is willing, but the flesh is just weak.

So this weekend is Parowan, then we will have Seth's b-day next week (hard to believe he will be 3) and then on the weekend of the 16th, we are going to a resort up by Logan. Nick won a gift certificate and we need to use it before the end of the year. Then back down to Parowan for Thanksgiving and then we are into the craziness of the holidays. I really want to get my shopping done this weekend and be able to relax for the rest of the season, but I'm not sure how likely that will be.

Okay, so I said it was going to be short and I am already on my 7th paragraph..... instead of writing more, I will let the pictures do the talking. Hope you all are well!

We went out to our friends parents house and Seth was able to go see the cows. Of course, this was the closest he was able to get to them.

The boys in their "Spaceship"

Ignore Sam's messy face. Nick just told me to come outside and so I didn't bother cleaning him up since we were going to go back in and finish his dinner.

Seth loves playing in the leaves.

Bo and Reggie enjoying a nap in the sun

The Wizard of Oz gang.

Is this the trick or the treat???

What a cute little lion. Of course, he refused to hold still so I could color his nose and whiskers.

What a hottie! Can you see why I married him?

For the neighborhood party, I was a pirate and Nick was a fat tourist.

Seth showing the pumkin we picked from our own garden.

Carving the pumpkin.

The finished product.

Seth was quite disturbed when we tried to leave it outside, so we brought it inside at night for awhile until he lost interest.

Picture Fest!

Seth's first visit to the Dentist. His teeth were great, but he threw a fit when we left because they have a big train set in the waiting room. He now is always asking to go back to the dentist!

What a stud!


Sam loves taking baths!

This is why you never feed a child prunes when he is in a jumper (Yes Karin, I finally broke down and bought one)

We love Grandma and Grandpa's house!

Giddy-up horsey!

I don't know what exactly Sam is upset about, but Bo doesn't look too happy either (not that you can really even see Bo).

Nick had a meeting in Heber so we decided to tag along and then we drove over to Midway to look at the leaves.

While setting up the camera for the self portrait, I got all these stickers in my hair and they were a beast to get out!

So cute!

Chillin out at the Gateway fountains

Yes, I know these are terribly attractive, but Seth loves to make funny faces and take self portraits. Isn't he just so cute????

Cedar Breaks

How much can I do?

Okay, I'm going to try and get something posted while Sam is taking one of his 20-30 min catnaps. I swear that boy does not sleep. That is how Seth was as a baby, and I thought that it was just a fluke, but I guess that is just how my babies are. AAAUUUUGGGGHHHH! But he is so darn cute when he is happy, so it all evens out.

We have been great. Our last trip to Parowan was wonderful. We had a great time with most of the family there. It was nice spending time with Valerie and Matthew out from Chicago. You know how they say that imitation is the most sincere form of flattery....well, Val must just idolize me. First, she goes and marries Nick's cousin (technically his cousin's son) and then she struggles to get pregnant. Then, she has her baby on Seth's 1st birthday and decorates the nursery the same as mine. Now, she is pregnant again and due a week or so after Sam's 1st birthday. Should I be concerned or just accept that I will always be the big sister to copy? Just kidding Val, we are so happy for you guys and really hope that we have 2 kids with the same birthday. For those of you who may not have figured it out on your own, these kids are first cousins through me and Val and second cousins through Nick and Matthew. IN BREEDERS (quoted from the movie Son-in-Law).

Besides spending time with our Chicago-ites, we had a family activity where we learned a lot about our ancestors. We went 4 generations back on both sides and each child/grandchild learned about one ancestor and told everyone about them. It was great being able to visualize them as a real person and not just a name on a piece of paper. Seth even learned about one and it was so cute as he was speaking in the microphone "Everhardus Johannes Van Limburg". It was pretty amazing, because this activity was at least 3 weeks ago and on Sunday I was saying his name to see if Seth remembered. Not only did he finish his name for me, but he remembered who he was married to, how many kids he had and that he was a sharp shooter in the army. That kid is so smart. The latest of his funnies (that I can remember) is when Seth came downstairs with a diaper and asked Nick if he was poopy and said that we needed to check his pants and change his diaper. Guess we better start being a little more careful if we have gas!

Sam is doing great. Over Labor Day weekend, he finally decided that he would start rolling over consistently. But he will only go from his back to his tummy. He still won't roll from his tummy to his back (unless it is an accident). I have nieces who had babies around the same time as Sam and they are crawling all over the place. I try and get Sam on his hands and knees and he gets excited and then does a face plant. I can't remember when Seth started crawling, but I think it will be awhile for Sam. Oh well, at least he is not getting into things yet. I should just be looking at the positive aspects of it right? But he is so fun and he laughs a lot and he always gives such big smiles.

For those of you who know our dog Bo, he is not doing so great. I'm not sure if he has arthritis, or if his hips are bad, but he is really struggling lately. He can't walk without limping really bad and last night he made it up about 3 or 4 stairs when his leg gave out and he fell down. It was so sad, he couldn't even move for awhile after that. I'm taking him to the vet next week to see what we can do for him. He is almost 12 now, so he has had a good life, but he is such a part of the family that it breaks my heart to see him in pain.

I got a new calling. I am now the compassionate service leader. Luckily, I missed the big baby boom and we don't have a lot of old people in our ward so hopefully it won't be too stressful. I do love our ward so I don't mind serving.

On Monday we went up to SLC since Nick had the day off work. We rode Trax (Seth still has a fascination with trains) and then we went to Temple Square, the Church Office Building and went to the observation deck, and then went to the Gateway and played in the water fountain display thing. Both kids did pretty well.

Things coming up...I think just Halloween. For the ward party, we are going as the Wizard of Oz cast. Obviously I will be Dorothy, Nick is the Scarecrow, Seth is the Tin Man and Sam is the Lion. I've got the Lion and some of Dorothy, but I'm still working on the other 2. If you have any suggestions on how to make a Tin Man costume for Seth, please pass that on.

I think that is it for now. I'm going to post pictures in a separate posting since they are such a pain in the butt to arrange.