Christmas Morning!

Can I just say, "I. LOVE. CHRISTMAS!" We had a "low key" Christmas for our family. Most of my siblings were with in-laws, so it was just my parents and me and Lindy here. And none of Jacob's siblings came either, so for his family it was just him and his parents. So we just all hung out together at our house for the most part. Ky was the first one up, about 6:30, I thought I heard him. I came out and he wasn't there so I figured I must have been hearing things. I didn't notice that his "Santa" present was missing. He had taken it and ran back upstairs to play... He was so excited for it! Soon after Landon and Kennedy were up. They saw their Santa presents and played for about 45 minutes while we waited for my parents to come over and open presents. (My dad informs me that its just wrong to make them wait to open presents):) But they didn't mind. They got new Leapster games in their stockings and played those for quite a while.
When I came out Ky was so excited to show me this... Santa left a bootprint by our fireplace, which is gas.... I wonder how long till they get that there's no chimney... It was pretty cute. They were so excited by this....

Here are our stockings, which Jacob's mom has made for all of us. (And all of his siblings, spouses and grandkids!) These are one of my favorite parts of Christmas. I love these stockings so much and am so glad she, and John, have taken the time to make them.

Here is what the kids came down. Santa doesn't wrap presents at our house, so they get to come down and see them immediately and can play with them.

Kennedy's loot....

Ky got this school set (with like 100 small pieaces, ugh!) But he loves it. He has been teaching Landon all week, I've gotten many report cards. Luckily Landon is a good sport and just goes along with all of it.

Landon got a Batcave thing and then my mom got them this other castle thing. I didn't really know what they were. But they love them. We barely saw them all day, they just played and played.

Landon had gotten one of these guns for his bday from Aunt Tiff, and they both love it. So we got Ky one so they can shoot at each other. A little more fair I think!


I got this frame for my parents and put pictures in it. I thought it was so cute.

My friend did these calendars for me, for Jacob and the grandparents. I think they turned out so cute.

We had a super great day! We are so blessed and I feel so spoiled. I am so proud of my kids. We talked a few weeks before about giving up a present each and getting presents for someone else who wasn't going to get much. They did have to think about it, but they both decided that they would do that. So we went shopping and they helped pick things out. They each got only 2 presents, one from Santa and one from us. Which still seemed like a ton on Christmas morning, by the time you do grandparents and family and stuff.... but they were so excited about what they got. Its so fun to watch them.
Next is Kennedy's birthday... on the 29th! I can't believe this year is almost at an end. Hope everyone had a great Christmas. Thanks for the cards and pictures. Its so fun to see everyone's families.

PRICELESS!!!!

Tonight we had some friends over for dinner.... It was super fun! This was a priceless moment in the kitchen after we were done eating...


No worries, we were sitting down eating dessert while they were cleaning.:) Jacob is always so good about helping out and I appreciate him so much. (He's vaccumming our room as I write this...)I don't know what I've done to deserve such a wonderful husband, but I am thankful for him every day. Love you, Babe!

Hawaii Part 2!

Here are a few more pictures of our trip. So I mentioned the flooding, right? Well, here is a picture from our condo of the neighborhood below. Can you see all of the mud and stuff? Gross huh? Actually, if you look at the picture you can see a swingset in a backyard and the slide goes right into a foot of mud. I thought it was pretty funny. My kids would've had a hay day sliding into that.... YUCK!

I also forgot to mention, I think, that somehow we lucked out and got 1st class seats on the way from Seattle to Hawaii. It was so fun. They treat you so good up there. Here are pictures of the meals they serve you. Real. Meals. With real silverware and glasses. We got a kick out of it.


I mentioned Waikiki... how different it was from our beach. Here is a picture of it, and then of us at Waikiki...

Hawaii!

We got back from Hawaii today! It was another super fun trip that we did not want to end. We are trying to figure out a way to take the kids and live there for the winter next year! I love the weather there! Even though the first part of our vacation it rained so bad! The worst rain they said they've had in over 30 years. The whole area we were in was flooded. It was crazy! Although the parking lot of our condo was fine and our beach area and stuff. So besides pouring rain the first few days and dumping a bunch of waste into the ocean so we couldn't go in the water because of sharks, it was tons of fun!
We started out on Saturday heading to the North Shore to catch the big surfing competion that was going on, which when we got there we found out had been post poned, I think because of the rain. But we had fun hanging out on the beach watching not professional surfers. On our way back we had lunch at the Grass Skirt, good recommendation Despains, thanks. We all really liked it.
This is the view from our balcony. We had this whole beach pretty much to ourselves. There were never more than a few people out there. It was awesome!

This one we were watching a whale right from our balcony. I couldn't get the picture at the right time, but he was out there, blowing water, jumping and swimming along the top of the water. SO COOL!

On Sunday, we went to church, the people were all so nice, and when we got out, the sun was out! Woo hoo! So we spent the rest of the day on the beach soaking up the rays.
On Monday, we headed back to the Northshore so Jacob could go skydiving. I think they gave him the shortest instructor possible. Check out how much taller he is. It was pretty funny. He loved it. He's done upwards of 75 jumps on his own, but he said it was so "relaxing" doing it with the tandem guy. He was just along for the ride and had no responsibility. I don't know anyone else who calls jumping out of an airplane "relaxing", but that is Jacob for you!


While Jacob was waiting for his turn to jump we headed up a few miles to where they film Lost. Ok, so this is totally cool to me. I know I'm a dork. I guess when George and Wendy drove up there a few days before, they were actually filming and had crews everywhere and they saw tons of people around. However, they had no idea what Lost was or anything so didn't know what they were looking at. When we went back, there was no one there, but we walked along the beach and stuff checking it out anywhere. So look at the pictures, all of you Lost fans, and tell me if you recognize any of it. I'm pretty sure when it rained for 3 days, they picked up camp for a while...
Here is the beach...

Now these are part of a YMCA camp thing, but don't they look like The "Others" Houses. I thought they looked awfully familiar. They are right there off the road. I don't know, was I getting too excited or do they look familiar to you?

Here are the mountains... I totally wanna go back and watch episodes and see what looks familiar...

After that and Jacob's jump we drove around the island. We stopped off at the Temple, drove by BYU Hawaii and the Polynesian Cultural Center.
Here we are at the Temple...

I thought these flowers were so pretty...

We ended the day in Honolulu. We walked around, this is City Hall, it was all decked out, and check out the Santa and Mrs. Clause. I thought they were hilarious! They were huge!

While downtown, we saw this Cinderella Carriage, so hopped in a rode around downtown. It was fun!



The next two days, Jacob and I stayed at the condo mostly. I was sick of driving around. We hung out on the beach, we scuba dived a shipwreck, which was super cool. We saw tons of whales on our scuba trip. They were so awesome! Some of them were so close. I guess the day before one jumped straight out of the water just about 20 feet in front of the boat. How cool would that have been?
We did Waikiki on Thursday before we left at 10 pm. That is a world of difference from the part of the island we were on. We went to the beach there and there were hundreds of people. On the beach, in the water, walking around. It was CRAZY! Tons of shopping, miles of every store you can think of. Little did we know parking was $4./half hour. So $40.00 later.... oops...
I'll have to get more pictures off Jacob's IPhone and from our friends. But there is our week in a nutshell. It was super fun and I can't wait to go back! Maybe Kaui next time. Or Kona, a few people have said they like that one best! Whats your favorite island?
PS-Thanks so much to my sister Lindy, for watching the kids all week! They had a ton of fun!

Flirty Skirty!

So last month our "BUNKO" group decided to make these super cute aprons. (I use "'s because we haven't actually played bunko in months, but don't tell our husbands:)) I saw this apron a few months ago on a friends blog and just thought it was so cute.But I don't sew... at least not well. It was super fun though and as long as you don't look too close they don't look too bad. I was so proud of myself. I figured if I was going to make one, why not make two? They are so fun. I think my favorite part of Thanksgiving was getting to wear them all day long! They are called the "flirty skirty" and you can get the pattern online from www.theapronlady.com, I think. Anyway, I love them. Thanks Amanda for modeling them with me!

8's Tag

8's Tag

Rules:
1- Post the rules.
2- Answer the 6 "8" items.
3- Let each person know that they have been tagged.

8 Favorite T.V. Shows(in no particular order):
1-Grey's Anatomy
2-Criminal Minds
3-Bones
4-Private Practice
5-One Tree Hill
6-Prison Break
7-Biggest Loser
8-Moonlight (ok its cancelled, but I'm still holding out hope!)


8 Things I did yesterday:
1-Climbed Badger Mountain
2-Went to Mall
3-Went to lunch at Inca
4-Laundry
5-Went to work
6-Went to a Passion Party
7-Picked Ky up at school and did our weekly ice cream date
8-Read stories with the kids

8 Favorite Restaurants:
1-Cheesecake Factory
2-PF Changs
3-Anthonys
4-RedLobster
5-Red Robin
6-Rays Mongolian BBQ
7-Subway
8-Thai Spice

8 things I am looking forward to:
1-Going to Hawaii on Friday!
2-Christmas
3-Laying on the beach
4-Giving Kennedy her Bday present
5-Going out with Jacob tonight
6-Buying Twilight on DVD so I can watch it whenever I want
7-Being a size 10
8-Laying on the beach! (oh did I already say that!)

8 things on my wish list:
1-Be out of debt
2-Be more patient with my kids
3-My kids would stop arguing and play nice
4-Get my teeth fixed (I hate my spacey teeth)
5-My kids will be happy Christmas morning
6-For chocolate to make me thin
7-To have good relationships with my children, forever
8-A tummy tuck

8 people I tag:
1-Amanda
2-Sonja
3-Michelle
4-Tiffany
5-Brooke
6-Stacey
7-Dawn (did Joy already tag you?)
8-anyone else who wants to do it

Update

What a week! I feel like I haven't blogged forever because I have pictures and different things and I just can't seem to get around to uploading them and stuff... So I am just going to give an update... Screw the pictures for now. So a week ago, when Twilight came out, I went with a group of about 90 other girls! Some friends reserved the theatre and we got our own special viewing... NO GUYS NO KIDS! It was so fun... However, I was quite disappointed in the movie. I really tried to not have too many expectations so I wouldn't be disappointed... I just did not love Edward. UGH! And with a book you've read 4 times and love to have the main character not be what you pictured... well you know. But it was totally fun to go with all my friends and we had a blast.
Then over the weekend we put up all of our Christmas Decorations! I've never done it before Thanksgiving, but it was so darn cold I figured I might as well enjoy my Christmas stuff. I LOVE CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS!
Last week, on Tuesday, my brother in law and sister in law and their 4 boys came to stay for Thanksgiving. It was so fun. The kids had a blast. We had a houseful of boys and I actually thought it went very well. I am so glad I get along with Brooke so well. We have lots of fun together and I really like hanging out with her. We did Thanksgiving at my house with most of my family and some friends. I think we ended up with 14 adults and 13 kids! It went really good though. I don't know where all the kids were or what they were doing, but it was not as crazy as you'd think it would've been. We had so much food though! It was insane. We must have had at least 10 different pies or desserts! Actually 11, I just counted!
Then.. I did it! BLACK FRIDAY! I've never done the whole get up at 4 oclock in the morning thing, but this year we went. I tell you, there is some serious strategy to the whole BLACK FRIDAY! I had no idea! Brooke had all of the ads out and we were going through them figuring out what we needed from where and what time we had to be there. We were up at 3:45 and out the door by 4! She headed to Walmart and I went to Toys R Us. They had a play kitchen for half price that I wanted for Kennedy. I got there and there were already at least 100 people in line. I couldn't believe it. But I got in and got everthing I went in for... Then headed to Shopko to finish up. We were done by 7... It was loads of fun, we were calling each other and everyone was buying for everyone else, depending on where they were at. I think I may have a new tradition! That night Brooke, Tiffany, Amanda, Brooke D. and I all went to see Twilight, again. This time I knew what to expect and I LOVED IT! (I think I am going again with some other friends) Seriously I woke up the next morning wanting to go to it again. After the movie we hit some more stores... Target and Kohls and got home about 11:30! What a day! I couldn't believe I still had enough energy to keep shopping that night. After only 3 hours of off and on sleep the night before and then the full day. But it was such a blast shopping late at night with my girl friends hitting store after store. We were giddy! It was too funny!
That was pretty much last week in a nutshell, a long nutshell... Sorry! Hope everyone else had a great Thanksgiving! I can't believe tomorrow is Dec. 1st! UGH! Where is the time going? At least I am done with my Christmas shopping now. Except Jacob! He is always the hardest for me to figure out what to get! Any ideas???
Oh yea... the song playing is Bella's Lullabye, I LOVE IT! Its so pretty. I am going to try to learn how to play it, but I am pretty rusty these days! Hope you like it!

Kids

So I went a little overboard a couple of weeks ago shopping at Gymboree. They got this line of pink and brown clothes that I fell in love with, like every piece. I haven't been able to resist taking pictures of Kennedy in everything. Can you see the boots? They are about the cutest thing ever. We also did a group picture of all the cousins. It was kinda a nightmare, but I am just hoping for one or two good pictures of each kid.

Kyson turned 7!

Kyson turned 7 last week! I can't believe it. He is just getting so big! He had a party with friends on Tuesday. Then on Wednesday, his birthday, Jacob went and got him and took him out to lunch. He got to pick the place, he picked Subway. That surprised me, but I guess thats pretty much the only fast food place we take them... Then we went out with the "family" to Inca, for Mexican food. Also his pick. There were 15 of us there, we are turning into quite the group. After Inca we came home and had a family party for him. I also took cupcakes into his classroom and stayed there for the afternoon.
I felt kind bad because I always do a big special cake, that takes all day and is super cool. But we couldn't find something he really wanted and the whole party was not really themed. Transformer invites and party bags, HSM Bingo, Cars Pinata, and then the cupcake tower. We had a bouncey house thing, and then it rained all day... So the whole thing was just thrown together. Thanks to Grandma Rose who had bunches of games to play. The kids loved Pin the Tail on the Donkey, Dropping Clothespins into a jar, Bingo... They seemed like they had lots of fun. I hope he didn't mind the chaos of it all. He didn't even seem to notice. I just felt like it was not my usual well put together party. But there was lots of sugar and loud boys, so I think it all worked out.

Some of my favorite things about Kyson:
*He is so tenderhearted
*He is such a good big brother
*He takes care of us
*He plays the piano
*He loves school (most of the time)
*He loves to cuddle
*He loves to spend time with us
*He reminds us to do prayers, scriptures, etc.
*His teachers have nothing but good to say about him
*He is such a big helper around the house
*He is so handsome
*He sings church songs
*He makes up songs
*He is kind to other kids
*He is soooo smart! (sometimes too smart)
*He is so fun to hang out and play with
*He loves to be sung to at night
*He loves to be tickled
*He still lets me pick out his clothes

We sure love you Kyson and are so grateful you are a part of our family.
Happy Birthday!

Another day in the life of Annette...

So you have to be open minded to read my next post, otherwise you will probably think I am looney!!!

I had another “Dr. Kris” visit this week, and after my last post about him everyone wanted to know what it is that he does. So I’ll try to explain it, best I can, and share what I learned this week. (might be kinda personal and long) He is a Naturepath and he uses a process called “Neuro Emotional Technique” which helps to identify and help you let go of “stuck” emotional patterns. When something in our life happens and doesn’t get completely resolved naturally, later in life when we experience a similar situation the old emotional response kicks in. Most of the time, we don’t even realize this is happening. He uses muscle testing which determines if your body is in harmony with a particular concept or idea which is linked to an unresolved emotional event.

So here is what it looks like… As you all know I have been working really hard to lose weight, hopefully that wont alert any psychos to see my blog… Over the last 2 weeks I have been “stuck”. I have totally been at a standstill. Which has been soooo frustrating! So I went in and told him that I feel stuck and I that I have been unable to lose weight. So I lay down on the table and the way he does the muscle testing is by pushing your arm down while you think about different things. (This works sometimes if you hold a bag of sugar to your body and when someone pushes your arm, it will go down, because our body is weak to sugar, whereas if you held broccoli and did the same thing, you would be strong and your arm would stay up.) Just a quick snapshot of how it works. If you are strong to it, then your arm will stay up, and if isn’t in harmony with your body your arm goes down. So I lay down, with my arm up, and he says some different things, I can’t really remember what, and then all of a sudden my arm goes down. He says, “so you are relating this weight to something in your past that you are still holding on to. So think about what happened last time you were at this weight.” Immediately my arm goes down. I knew exactly what he was talking about. I was at this weight, almost to the pound, after having Kyson. Jacob and I were struggling. I was working and feeling guilty and we had a lot of disagreements about how we should be raising him, what we should be feeding him, how he should go to bed, when he should cry, whatever…. The core issue being I felt invalidated and like Jacob didn’t think I could do it right. I know all of this because we went to see a therapist and worked through it all, and I realized that it wasn’t even Jacob that was the problem, I was feeling a certain way because of things I felt when I was much younger, and him doing what he was doing was triggering all of those stored emotions. So, I got over it, we had to more kids, never had the same problems cuz I was more aware and we both loosened up… 

Now, its 6 years later… and I’m at Dr. Kris’, as I am telling him all of this I can’t even hold my arm up, at all… Down it goes, over and over and over. It was kinda funny really. Then he goes into what happened after that, because I couldn’t control what was happening with Kyson I decided that I could control my weight and to punish Jacob I started gaining weight. He said all of this while my body reacted to what he was saying, what he didn’t know was that I gained 70 pounds that year that we were going through all of this. So it just all felt so right… So me hitting this weight again, had retriggered all of those unresolved feelings I had. Even though I thought they had all been resolved back in counseling 6 years ago. One other time about 3 years ago, I got right around this weight, never got past it, and ended up gaining again.

He was releasing it for me and it took him three times, I was pretty resistant to letting it go, I was attatched to it, apparently. But I finally let it go and it felt so good. I am so curious to see if I start losing the weight again. I am such a believer in this. I just think it is so cool. I wish everyone was open minded enough to give something like this a shot. I felt so much different leaving his office then when I walked in. So cross your fingers! Hopefully I will start losing again. I still have a long way to go.

So what do you think of that??? I’ll let you know what happens next….

Greys Update!

So... I was going to cut the article about Grey's but my computer is not working very well right now... But HAHN IS GONE! Yea! They are cutting her out as of this week. Thank goodness, I was ready to quit watching, it was getting way to over the line for me. Anyway, sorry to take your time with a useless blurb, but I am so glad!

My Closet!

So, I figured 30 pounds deserved a clean out of the closet. I went through and got rid of lots of things that are too big now... I just did this this summer... I got rid of a huge pile of clothes, like 3 big black garbage bags. I didn't really think I'd have that much to take out... I have decided I have a problem with buying clothes. Quite a few of them I got rid of still have tags on them. I don't try things on in the stores and I hate returning things.(Not a good combination) I keep telling myself no more buying anything until I get to the size I wanna be, its kinda just a waste of money right now. But then I find myself shopping. Just last night I bough a new pair of pants, which I love...
So here is the pile I'm getting rid of... it was about 2 1/2 feet tall...


Then I put up some new shelves for my shoes and purses and it feels so clean now. I love it! I love to be organized...

Doesn't it look nice?! Love it!

Halloween Pics!

Halloween!

Halloween was a lot of fun this year. Early in the week we went to Billy & Amanda's house and carved pumpkins with them and the Hansen's. Not to worry, those pumpkins were 80 pounds. Neffs grew them and they were HUGE!

We did the Trunk or Treat with our ward on Thursday night. The kids had lots of fun and came home with GOOD candy. Remember when we were kids, you were LUCKY if you got one or two little candy bars or chocolate... Man, not anymore, their bags were full of CHOCOLATE! Kyson doesn't like nuts or peanut butter, so we get to take all of the candy with nuts out... PB Cups, Reeces, Snickers, Peanut M&M's, Butterfingers, pretty much all of the good stuff. Unfortunately for me its another Halloween when I am on a diet (30 pounds, by the way) So I don't even get to enjoy it...

On Halloween I really wanted to figure out a way to get around trick or treating. I just hate all of the candy in the house. So we decided to go out to dinner and take the kids to a movie. Well, there were no kids movies out this weekend, at least not any that were worth paying $9./person to go see, so we ended up at our friends' house, (Neff's). We let the kids do about 5 houses and then we put a movie on for them and we played Pinochle, which we haven't done forever. It was lots of fun.(I did snag myself a Butterfinger, Twix and Peanut Butter Cup... YUMMY! They were good.) Whoever says once you are off sugar for a while and then you eat it, it wont taste good... well, thats a lie. It had been 36 days since I'd had sugar and it was GOOD! Although I did feel a little ill afterwards...

The next morning I decided to dump all the candy on the counter, I took out all the sticky/suckory type stuff, and let the boys each pick out a few things. I didn't think this would go over very well going from tons of candy to 10 pieces, but they didn't even mind. I let them each pick out their favorite 10 pieces, and put the rest in a bag, which I was going to take to my brother Terry. But I think Jacob snagged it for the office when he saw how much "GOOD" stuff there was. Sorry Terry! I tried! What I can't believe is its been two days, and their bags of 10 pieces are still on the counter. I figured they be long gone by now. The only rule I made for their candy was that they had to brush their teeth after each piece. I figured they'd have it gone by that afternoon. I was hoping actually. Its really hard to see it every time I go in the kitchen.

I have decided to stick with my diet through the holidays. I am hoping for another 30-40 pounds by the end of the year. So far, so good. But the holidays are always hard. I guess if you can do it through the holidays I should be able to do it anytime, huh?

Hey one more thing... when did every holiday become about the candy? Have you noticed this? Halloween, Christmas, Easter, Valentines Day... Did Hersheys invent these holidays or what? I hate that its all about junk. It seems like every time you turn around we are celebrating something, with candy. Its really hard to try and raise healthy kids in this enviroment we live in. Ok, enough of that tangent, sorry... but seriously! Oh, and speaking of Seriously, what is up with Grey's? Its getting kinda disgusting! Must every show have a gay couple? No offense meant to anyone, touchy subject, I know... but remember just 10 years ago when we found out Ellen was gay, not even on the show, in real life, and ABC cancelled her show, just for her coming out? And now, I don't know if there are any shows I watch that don't have a gay couple. I can stomach the "idea" but I can't stomach them making out on tv or showing or talking about what they are doing. UGH! Its so disappointing to me. No wonder this Proposition 8 is such a huge deal... with what the media is pushing into our homes we are really at a disadvantage as families trying to raise our children with morals. You don't even want to get me started on politics right now!

That was kind of an odd post, huh? Anyway, I hope everyone had a GREAT HALLOWEEN! Thanksgiving is right around the corner and then CHRISTMAS! My favorite time of the year... at least until Obama is made president and decides to do away with it. Oops, there I go again. I am really on one today!

Pumpkin Patch

Well we finally made it to the pumpkin patch. We went with Landon's preschool class. I took Landon and Kennedy, and my sister Michelle came with her baby Camryn, and my other sister, Lindy also came with her little girl Aizlyn. We had lots of fun and got some good pictures, most of which I accidently deleted... oops!
Here is Landon, Kennedy and Aizlyn...


Here is Lindy, holding Camryn, Michelle, Aizly, Landon Kennedy and I...


Here is Kennedy looking for the perfect pumpkin. The rule is always that they have to be able to carry the pumpkin...


Landon in the pumpkin patch...


I just love this picture of Kennedy...


Me and the kids at the end of the morning...


Super fun morning... Happy Fall Everyone!

Joshua Wayne Wnks

So many of you have heard about Jacob's little sister, Joy and her husband, Collin, and their new baby... I have been forwarding pictures on to some of you, but thought others might like to see too. Its AMAZING! He was born at 26 weeks, 14 weeks early, in Idaho Falls. He weighed 14 oz. when he was born. He is the smallest baby born in Idaho to survive. It seems like he is doing well. It sounds like he has good days and bad days and they can't really give them any hope or ideas of where he should be, because there just isn't alot of history with this kind of thing. He is 3 weeks old now though and seems to be doing as good as he can be. He will be in the hospitol until at least his due date, which is Jan. 4th, I believe. Here are some pictures. Its amazing the changes in three weeks.
This is the first dAY... 14 oz. 8 or 9 inches long...

This is him lying next to a 1 pint bottle...


In these two he has Joy's wedding ring around his hand, which is probably around a size 5 or 6... He is now 3 weeks old and up to 1 1/2 pounds...


Isn't it amazing? I just can't believe what can be done these days. We are praying for you guys, Joy.