Visual images depicting our lives (pictures)

I have to make up for being a slack blogger throughout the month of February. I'm going to show you Kira's Kindy 500, a very fun Kindergarten event in which all the kids got to parade around in home-made box cars. Kira selected the color, theme, and put on the stickers. We used Quinton's old Thomas the Train costume. That came in handy! The funny story about that is when I was trying to take Kira's picture at the school. She kept turning to face me head on, even though I was trying to shoot her from an angle to show the car better. I kept telling her to hold still, but whichever way I went to get the angle, she just turned to face me. It was loud in the gym at her school and difficult to communicate. It was pretty funny.

I also have some cute pics of Jacey all ready for church. She's way too cute.

And I have some pics of the kids making Valentines cookies. How's that for random?

Impromptu trip to Kanab

Kyle, my sister, Michelle, Kyle (older brother), Kason James (baby)

My brother, Kent, who came and picked me up and drove me to Kanab.

Home from the hospital!!!

My little sister had a baby. We have this thing in our family: we have babies fast and early. My mom had 7 babies and never once did a doctor tell her to push. Now my sisters and I are not that extreme, but we have all had our babies early. I had Kira in Vernal at 36 weeks (when I was planning to have her in Payson) but this story is even better than that. She was scheduled to be induced Monday morning in Cedar City. She lives in Kanab, but she wanted to go to her doctor and use the facilities in Cedar. Her water broke at home in the middle of the night, so her husband stayed home with their older son while she went to the hospital in Kanab. She was only at a 3 but decided to stay in Kanab. An hour or two later she was telling her husband on the phone that she was at a 4. She had to hang up because she was having a contraction. The baby was born 15 minutes later. No doctor, no husband, no epidural. Just three nurses and an anestesiologist (too late). Good news: she was only in pain a short amount of time. Bad news: it was a lot of pain. Good news: her husband was secretly thrilled he didn't have to worry about fainting on the delivery room floor. Bad news: she had to tell the nurses it was their fault. Ha ha. Good news: he's perfect, has a totally round head, and completely adorable.

My brother left from Vernal to drive to Kanab within minutes of finding out the story. He's so cool. My parents are on a mission (hi mom and dad!) so we felt she needed some sibling support. He came and picked me up and we drove down there. The trip was really fun for me, and I was happy I could go see my little sis.

Bad hair day

Happy Valentines! I'm grateful I have my family and lots of friends to love!

St. George was sooooo nice!

We went to St. George Jan 15-17, and the weather was so nice. We had so much fun. Quinton couldn't get enough hiking on the red rocks, and Kira loved our 'picnic.'

Also, I got these coupon codes through a website called Artscow.com

they do photo books and lots of other photo things. The coupon is for an 8x8 photo book for 11.99 with free shipping (20 pages). It's a pretty good deal. Use one of these if it works for you. They all expire March 17. Let me know if you use one, so I can tell others that it's used.

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Two year old with 'tude!

Plastered into her hair is Biolage Gelee, or in case some men happen to be reading this fabulous blog, Hair Gel, expensive hair gel. Is it an ounce or two? No, try every last scrap of it that was in the bottle. The house was quiet -- I can hear you all screaming "Nooooo! Rookie mom mistake...." into your computers now! Jeff and I were in the kitchen doing some Sunday dinner preps, and in walks Jacey with her hair as hard as a rock, saying "I'm done!" We said "Yep, you definitely are." By the bye, she had turned Kira's laundry basket into a stool which helped her reach the gel.

It took some serious rinsing and repeating to get it all out.

I was trying to get Jacey to wear a cute little vest she got for Christmas. I think it just kind of bothers her or something because she's never left it on. I said, "Jacey, leave it on, it's cute!" She said in such a two year old voice, "No -- ugggyyy." I had no idea she even knew the word ugly let alone that it was the opposite of cute! But she is not the opposite of cute!

Also, we learned that her tummy medicine is working out quite well because at her two-year-old appointment, she had a big increase in her growth chart. She's now in the 19th percentile for height, and the 4th percentile for weight. We were pretty happy with that! I can smell a little point guard on my hands. She's feisty enough and has no problem running the show:)

Our holidays and recipes

This year, our holidays have been full, wonderfully full, of people and friends and food... fat cells multiplying so fast, I have to get more sleep just so they can grow! I'm currently eating a nice bowl of high-fiber oatmeal with very little sugar on it. Wow.

Christmas Eve was spent with Jeff's mom, Ruth; his sister, Lisa and her two wonderful teens/young adults Annie and DJ; and the V--- family. We ate dinner crepes and dessert crepes, had a talent show, watched our very own live nativity, opened jammies, hung our stockings, and waited patiently for Santa to come.

I have to have a word about this live nativity, though, before I move on. I didn't really know what to expect of Jacey. I thought she might be an angel with Kira or something, but in our practices in previous family home evenings, she kind of took to playing baby Jesus. We used a little bin with a bath mat inside for the manger, and she just decided she kind of liked being there. If we ever tried to put a little doll in there, she marched right over and hurled that thing out of there and got in herself. When it was time to get the kids in their costumes on Christmas Eve, Jacey was dying to take her clothes off and participate. She had been in one of her very ornery moods that evening, so I was giving in to anything that might deplete some of the screaming and clinging. I took off her shirt and pants, and gave her a little white blanket to use as swaddling clothes. I was taking care of some other pre-production chores, when out comes baby Jesus all natural. She ditched the diaper and came out to ham it up. Everyone started laughing which just ignited the star in her, and she came up with some dancing and smiling antics. Then... she nicked her toe on the manger and started to cry. I was picking her up, and our lovely narrator, Siale, was asking if she could begin, when bleeeecchchchch. I was covered in puke and running to the bathroom. Classic Christmas memory. She turned out to be okay. We think she just sort of choked from the crying, thank goodness. Then, after the bathing and changing, we began the nativity. I don't think I have any pictures because I was playing the piano and Jeff was tending the sick little Jacey. We do have it on video, which will be good, because it was very, very funny. All the kids did something a little funny. We were just dying laughing. Here was the cast:

Narrator: Siale Innkeeper:DJ Mary: Keanna Jospeph: Brook Shepherd: Quinton

Angel: Kira Wise Man: Quinton Baby Jesus: Jacey

The day after Christmas we went to Cedar City and St. George to hang with Jeff's family. We had a great time with lots of games and cousins and food. Speaking of food, here's Jeff's sister's famous Chex Mix recipe. It's way good.

1 1/2 cups brown sugar, 1 1/2 cups Karo syrup, 1 cup of butter, 1 tsp. vanilla. Stirring pretty often, bring to a boil. When it comes to a rolling boil, cook 2 minutes, remove from heat. Pour over 1 box Corn Chex, 1 small can mixed nuts, 2 cups pretzels, and anything else you might want.

We came back Sunday and have just had a really nice week, topped with last night's New Years Eve Bash. We had the Vaitohis and Brackners over to play, and we just snacked. I did have some cinnamon rolls lying around, and since a few of you have asked for that recipe, I will provide it. What can I say, I'm an accomodating gal.

4 TB warm water; 1 packet yeast; 1 cup warm milk; 1 egg, beaten; 4 TB melted butter; 1 TB sugar; 1/2 tsp salt; 4 TB instant pudding; 4 cups flour (That's the dough) Knead it generously. Let it rise; yada, yada. Roll out into rectangle, smear with softened butter, top with brown sugar and cinnamon. Roll up, cut, you know. I don't like to let them rise much more than 1/2 hour after I cut them. I've found if they rise a whole hour, they get too lofty and not as soft and dense. Bake 350 10 minutes or so. For the icing, I use: 1 package cream cheese, 1 stick of butter both softened -- beat that with powdered sugar (almost a whole small package) add some vanilla.

We played last word, Sequence, Tri-Bond, and Phase 10 (it's almost a tradition around here). We had some great laughs. Quinton had previously asked us if we were going to have some of that "sparkling wine" stuff for New Year's, so we gave him some good ribbing for that. In honor of that, we took pictures of the kids enjoying their "sparkling wine/ sparkling cider". To add to the drama, Quinton put a paper towel around his because the bottle was cold.

Kira got a doctor kit and Jacey got a baby. Cute. Above is Jacey with her cute little buddy Ez, who got to come play with his fam on Tuesday night. Very fun seeing the Sturms again!