Key to the City

So, I'm from a really small town and who knows how many people read the county paper. But still, it was fun to be doing my weekly reading of the online version and be pleasantly surprised to see a picture of my sister-in-law featured in an article. (She's on the left.) I love her dearly, and I'm so glad that my brother met her in Spain and brought her back with him!


Now, the question is, what will she do with that ginormous key? Hmmm. . . I'm sure it really doesn't unlock anything in that "city," unless it's the key to a storage vault hiding many railroad ties. I'll look for it when I visit her in a week.

It's Official

We are currently under contract for buying our first home! I can't believe that we're actually doing this. I'm officially grown up.

Loss for Words

For our 100th post, I'd like you to know that living in Artistic Circle can be quite eventful and sometimes exciting, not to mention a little dramatic and worrisome. The only way to get in our neighborhood for a while this afternoon was to prove that you lived here and take some heat from the cop guarding the way. Here's the link to the story that happened just two blocks from our house.

Oh, and Matt spent the evening on TV on KBYU. Okay, he was in the background looking like he was answering phones explaining the whole switch from analog to digital signals. Maybe he did answer a lot of calls, I'll have to find out when he gets home in an hour.

Ken's Wedding

My youngest brother, Kenneth, was sealed yesterday to Aimee. It was a beautiful ceremony. Elder Richard G. Scott of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles was the sealer. It was a special occasion as neither the bride nor the groom are related to Elder Scott, but he was an important part of Aimee's life when she was little. It was neat to be present there at that sealing.

I can't believe my little brother is married! All of my siblings are now married. Congratulations, Ken and Aimee -- we love you!

Jackson and Christmas

Instead of giving you a play by play of what we did and what happened on Christmas, I'll just give you the "gems" of the day.

We had to wake Jackson up and tell him that Santa had come. He woke to find a new CD player plugged in and ready to go. His response, "Where's red CD player?" (His first one was red.) Luckily he soon moved on from that thought and is just happy to control his music.When it was time to open presents under the tree, Jackson refused. He pouted and whined that he couldn't go to his room and play with his CD player. What kid doesn't want to open presents?! Here he is sucking his thumb, mad at me for making him stick around for the festivities.
Of course, next year maybe he'll be more excited. We should have let him open them on his own accord, when he wanted.

Finally, our most favorite gift of all . . .




Jackson is potty-trained! Okay, so we have some fine-tuning to do, and we definitely have to work on the night-time training (but not for a little while), but my child can tell me when he needs to go, and he usually makes it. My advice to you is wait until your child is really ready. If you try once, and it's just too frustrating for you and your child, wait a few months, and try again. I wasn't really sure at first how this attempt (#2) was going to go until we started off. It's been pretty easy to deal with because HE WAS READY!! I know we all get confused at what ready means, but he was. We went cold turkey from diapers to underwear during the day (nighttime is still diapers for a while), and he could handle it. Yes, there were accidents, but not too many, and he understood what it meant to go on the potty and after three days he learned to recognize when he needs to go. He hasn't had an accident for a few days now, and I'm sure he'll have more, but they are few and far between. Hip, hip hooray!!

P.S. Matt has been soooooo helpful with all of this. I'm so glad that he's been around this week as we've been working with Jackson. What a dad!

The Christmas Post

Instead of giving you a play by play of what we did and what happened on Christmas, I'll just give you the "gems" of the day.

We had to wake Jackson up and tell him that Santa had come. He woke to find a new CD player plugged in and ready to go. His response, "Where's red CD player?" (His first one was red.) Luckily he soon moved on from that thought and is just happy to control his music.When it was time to open presents under the tree, Jackson refused. He pouted and whined that he couldn't go to his room and play with his CD player. What kid doesn't want to open presents?! Here he is sucking his thumb, mad at me for making him stick around for the festivities.
Of course, next year maybe he'll be more excited. We should have let him open them on his own accord, when he wanted.

Finally, I loved everything I received, but my most favorite gift of all . . .




Jackson is potty-trained! Okay, so we have some fine-tuning to do, and we definitely have to work on the night-time training (but not for a little while), but my child can tell me when he needs to go, and he usually makes it. My advice to you is wait until your child is really ready. If you try once, and it's just too frustrating for you and your child, wait a few months, and try again. I wasn't really sure at first how this attempt (#2) was going to go until we started off. It's been pretty easy to deal with because HE WAS READY!! I know we all get confused at what ready means, but he was. We went cold turkey from diapers to underwear during the day (nighttime is still diapers for a while), and he could handle it. Yes, there were accidents, but not too many, and he understood what it meant to go on the potty and after three days he learned to recognize when he needs to go. He hasn't had an accident for a few days now, and I'm sure he'll have more, but they are few and far between. Hip, hip hooray!!

P.S. My child is almost 4 years old, and it's not because he's an only child that he wasn't ready until now. I have a niece and a nephew that weren't trained or even interested until they were 4 and 4 1/2, and they both have older siblings and very vigilant parents who tried and tried. So, don't fret about the age so much(even though you probably will because I did), they will get it eventually!

Welcome, December!

Well, it's official. December is here, and so is the snow. Finally. My philosophy is that the sooner it gets here, the sooner it leaves. As pretty as it is, it's cold and wet and keeps me indoors. At least it's starting to look like Christmas.

When it rains, it pours

This is my Grandma holding Jackson when he was just a few months (adjusted) old in 2004.

I swear this weekend has been a weekend of prayers and holding my breath. Just after receiving the email for Geraldine, my mom called and asked me to pray for one of my brothers who is trying to stay strong and patient during a time of trial and opposition. I thought, "There sure is plenty to keep my thoughts occupied." Well, yesterday evening my mom called again and told me that my 88-year old grandmother had fallen in her home and was in need of a delicate and difficult surgery resulting from the fall. Usually, you hear of elderly women falling and breaking their hips. Not so, for Grandma. She fell, and broke her upper arm, but what's worse is that a 4-inch piece of bone broke and is "floating" in her arm. I can't even imagine that pain. Anyway, it was time to add Grandma to my prayers, and the doctors and everyone else involved. Hopefully, we'll hear some news today about her doing better. Now for the rest of you reading this, please stay healthy and strong, or I just might not be able to handle it all!