Happy Birthday...

My birthday on Friday was such a great day!!

Jacob was out of school, and Jim got off work early and we started it off with a baptism of one of our friends son. He was baptized Friday and married to his wife who is a baptized member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

We are so happy for them, what a great way to start off a marriage.

They are looking forward to going to the Temple on their anniversary next year.

I got a really cool warm soft hat and scarf from my sister and her family!

Yep in purple... one of my favorite colors!

And for my sock fetish... yes, it's pretty bad.... I LOVE socks!!
A tie died pair from my SIL's collection.
Sweet!! I love them so much!!
They are the softest material made from bamboo!
I will do another post about her tie dying business... but if you just can't wait you can go see some of her creations on her website here. She has been busy traveling to craft fairs the past couple of months, but keep watching, there are some really cool creations yet to be added to the website.
One of my sweet friends stopped by and remembered me too!
How did she know I have been trying out lip color for months after an old favorite ran out and I haven't found anything I liked yet... either too sticky, too orange, not enough pink, too many sparkles, not the right size to fit in my purse. It is a painful process that only girls can relate to... but this one made me feel like Goldilocks... it was just right!! She is a great friend and always so in tune!


Some of the young women in my ward brought me over these cupcakes... totally saved the day because my boys did not think of cake. I would have had a birthday without cake had it not been for these wonderful cupcakes! And they were sooooo darn cute! It was super thoughtful and I love them dearly (the girls, not the cupcakes... well the cupcakes too).
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I got the neatest puppy magnetic bookmarks from my SIL and her family too!
So sweet, they are adorable... and you know how I love puppies!! Perfect!!
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I also got calls from my brothers and my Sister and BIL... they all sang to me!!
I got regular happy birthday, and the Dora (? I think) happy birthday song!
And a dear family friend who shares my birthday... thanks for always remembering me Royce. I can't remember a birthday he didn't track me down and call and sing to me!!
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Plus I was showered with birthday wishes on my facebook page, I couldn't even keep up with those, there were so many! Even Jacob sent me a birthday message... pretty special since all his friends can see it when he does that!!

My boys got me some new boots, I have been wanting for over a year now... I love them. I can't wait to wear them to go see my brother in SC with the tickets my Mom and Dad sent me for my birthday!

(me screaming with excitement)

and my boys took me out to dinner for some scrumptious pasta at Olive Garden!

We went home and watched movies and made a big batch of caramel popcorn with a recipe I got on my birthday card from our relief society presidency! And that would be the last of my food binging for my birthday, because the next day I needed to get back on track with my new body bugg from my MIL!!

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I know... I was sooooo spoiled on my birthday, showed with cards and gifts and LOVE! I felt so special all day, it was a wonderful special 44th birthday!

A picture is worth a thousand words...

No this is not Taylor, but don't you know if she had her own car.. this is totally what her license plate would say!

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This is why I never leave home without my camera!

Kate, my therapist...

Thanks Kate!

The torturing continues...

I told you there is always some kind of teasing, wrestling, or joking going on between my boys.

So for this weeks "torture", Jim comes walking in the house after work wearing a Vikings jacket!!!
He was all casual, and on the phone when the teenager noticed it. If you know anything about him, you know he is a diehard Minnesota Vikings fan. You can see the look of disbelief on his face as his Dad proudly acted like he was the new owner of this gem. The look was priceless!!

So the gig was up... Jim told him a salesman at his work walked into the office with it on after they Vikings beat his bosses team, riping on him about the loss.
And Jim mentioned what a huge fan his son was and the guy pulled the coat off and gave it to him... he said he will never wear it again, he pulled it out from under his bead from years of dust just to rub it in the owners face.
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He really wanted someone to own it that would love it!


Well I don't think he could have found a better home for it!
The teenager was thrilled... darn we should have saved it for Christmas, we could have scored the best parents on earth award this year!!

I would have never let him hang out with those Heckt boys at the bowling alley all those years back if I would have known they were planting such deep seeds with this kid of a love of this team.

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Keith and Kevin won him a Vikings hat out of one of those claw vending machines one night and the passion began. He still asks about those guys, he was just a little runt back then (probably 4 years old)... they would toss him up in the air and tickle him and play with him until he cried!

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I am sure he is as tall as big Keith now, and I am definitely sure he is just as awnry!

Voting November 2009

It would have been easy to go by the voting booth on my way to work, or while I was out and about yesterday when there wasn't very many people out. But I promised my "strong silent mysterious man" I would go with him after work, it's been kind of a fun tradition since he finally got me out voting after we moved to Idaho (I know, I know... I never voted before, so sad... but it was something way outside of my box that I never learned to do).

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There wasn't lines when we got there!
I was so glad I waited, it's a neat thing to do as a couple.

My boys...

The opportunity to get a decent picture of them together grows increasingly difficult as time goes by... because the standards of harrassment and payback to each other has escalated to an entire new level at my house.

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Let's just say someone innocent always gets hurt!

Happy Halloween 2009...

We were pretty slim on trick or treaters as usual...

One neighbor kittycat (I loved the tail)...

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and then like 45 kids from all the family members of one of our other neighbors that all go out together as a group... that was crazy, I couldn't even get pictures. Our neighbor was apologizing to me the whole time the line of kids was coming through "I am so sorry, I told my husband it would be too overwhelming"... ha ha it was so cute! We loved getting that many kids.

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Then the teenager thought it would be funny to put on a mask....

Hide in the closet by the door...

and as I was passing out candy... peak out from behind me like this...

and see what they do... ?

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He waited in the closet for a while, it was nice and quiet, no teenager, no trick or treaters!

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Then he gave up and went to a friends party for the night.
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After he left, we got one more surprise!

A friend stopped by in the neighborhood... great make up!!!

Jim made me get a secret stash of Giant candy in addition to the regular candy to hand out.

So I was really glad I had it for those special kids that thought about us this year!

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Of course our dogs hate Halloween, but I love it when the kids come over to show us their costumes. Especially since that season of that stressful, sugar overloaded, costume fretting as parents has passed at our house. It's bittersweet I would say!!

Happy Birthday Taylor...

Taylor turned 2 last week.

She is an absolute ball of energy, that we have come to adore at our house.

Her middle name is still "play"!

She got some new toys for her birthday, and she is so sweet, she has learned to share now. And let's our little Rudy "think" he rules the roost.

But she still goes and eats his breakfast if he sleeps in too late.

Her motto is "if you snooze you loose"!

She fits in our family so perfectly, and has so much love to share.

Her obedience is almost perfect when we don't have company around, she doesn't miss a command. We even managed to keep her from eating a cat the other day, totally off leash and she listened. But it was very tempting to her!

But she still doesn't know how to act when strangers come over,

she has some work left to do.

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Happy Birthday Taylor!

Some lost footage...

From Grandma and Granpa's visit in October...

There is probably a book written about this somewhere...

"The Incredible shrinking Grandma"

or

"The Giant and the Minature Grandma"

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We used to measure him under her chin to see how tall he was getting... he passed that up a few glasses of milk ago.

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Thanks for being such a good sport Grandma!!

And as promised...

"Egg Suckin' Dawg"

I wish the video turned out better... but you will get the idea.

If any of the family wants more... we got a few different songs on video, they are fun to watch, just let me know and I will get copies to you.