i backed out of my garage with the door closed last friday night.

i love where i live.

i love being alive.

i can't imagine heaven being any better,

but i know it is going to be.

WOW.

hard.to.believe.

i hope there are snowy days in heaven.

................

soooo, 

last weekend i backed out of my garage.

with

the

garage

door

closed.

yep, i'm awesome.

there was no saving the door.

the car did not have a scratch.

can't say i was too disappointed though,

b/c i've had my eye on a silent door for two years.

when sean came out to see what in the heck the loud crash was a week ago friday night,

i leaned my head out of the window and was all,

"well, that's one way to get what i wanted!"

really cute, with a great big smile.

both of our mouths were dropped open to the floor,

eyes REALLY big,

and then we burst out laughing.

b/c in situations like these you can either laugh or cry,

and we usually try to just laugh.

cry later if you must.

sean couldn't even give me a hard time b/c he did the same thing last year.

but his was so minor that we just pushed it back into place with our bums and big arm muscles.

mine pushed the entire bottom half of the door out into our front lawn.

and we couldn't even get it up or down at first.

but then muscle man sean managed to wrestle the door like a crocodile hunter up so i could get out, and then down again when i got back, but that baby wasn't going back into its track.

so clark and john 

{not the car guy john, another john} 

came over to build me a new garage door this morning.

clark has been doing garage doors with john and my uncle for over twenty years.

my uncle has a garage door business in st. george, 

and doesn't have all of his fingers b/c so many doors have chopped them off.

i'm not kidding.

he's a hard core garage door guy like that.

so if you need a guy,

I KNOW A GUY!!!

my uncle bob's guy.

like a REALLY good one.

clark steffes.

801-870-6484

{with Martin Garage Doors-the safest AND most quiet doors you can buy}.

so call him,

if you ever back out of your garage with the garage door closed.

or if your husband does.

or if your spring breaks.

or if you just want a silent door that doesn't shake your entire house when you open and close the garage.

heaven

on

earth.

HEAVEN ON EARTH!!!

while clark and john built us a new garage,

with fancy etching and antique hinges,

we all played in the freshly fallen 6" of snow.

chase ray was mesmerized.

brennan built a jenny craig snowman with our neighbor brad.

max ate about a gallon of snow.

sean shoveled the walks.

and i enjoyed the snowflakes falling on my nose and eyelashes holding chase.

the most beautiful, quiet sound,

are snowflakes falling.

ALMOST 

as quiet as my garage door.

GLORY BE!!!

i'm so sad i backed into my old garage door.

wait..........

maybe not.

i love his blonde eye lashes.

swooooooooon!!!

his bright blue eyes.

and his little button nose.

i AM certainly glad it snowed the entire day.

:):):)

HAPPY

HAPPY

snowy day:)

and no matter how hard any day gets.

no matter what catastrophe happens that i think is a big deal.

or however much i think my troubles are tough,

everything is ok,

as long as i am with my family at the end of the day.

i weap for the families in Connecticut.

and the mothers and fathers who don't get to take care of their babies tonight.

it's not the 11th day of christmas today afterall.

i'm with camillia.

way more fun to lead up to it.

although,

it might not be such a bad idea to continue giving christmas presents for 12 days after christmas,

except for the part where you will go completely broke doing it.

so that would make the 12th day of christmas on...

January the 5th.

so we get presents until then???

ok,

i've decided that if you would like to give me presents from christmas day-january 5th,

i would accept them.

you're welcome.

ha!

the 12 days of christmas {i'm confused}

"on the 12th day of christmas my grandma gave to meeeeeee,

neeeeeeeew pajaaaaaammmmmmmaaaaaas!"

so if there's 12 days of christmas,

does that mean that today is the 12th day of christmas?

so we can start giving a gift every 12 days for the next 12 days?

like 3 french hens,

2 turtle doves,

and a partridge and a pear tree?

but if it's the 13th of december and the 12th day of christmas that sounds wrong.

and then when you think of the song you start on the 1st day of christmas,

when your true love gives to you,

a partridge and a pear tree.

but if it's the 1st day of christmas wouldn't that be december 1st?

but then you'd be done with christmas by the 12th?

i'm confused, are you?

so is today the 1st day of christmas?

or the 12th?

ok, i think i've got it.

the 13th day of december is the 1st day of christmas,

and the 12th day of christmas is...

the 24th or the 25th?

i really need to count a calendar now...

ok, i'm getting somewhere,

SO,

the 1st day of christmas is the 13th of december

and the 12th day of christmas is the 24th of december,

so then what does that make christmas?

the last day of christmas, but the 25th day of december?

but it's really the 1st day of christmas b/c you don't actually hit christmas technically until the 25th anyway...

that's just what i was thinking about driving home from my mom's house tonight.

you see my point...

or not.

whichever.

i think i just need a nap.

and to stop listening to the 12 days of christmas song.

just sayin...

this is what happens when i'm not getting good sleep.

watch out cats!

just a little spilled milk

max spilled her milk.

while i went for a towel,

they started slurping it up with their tongues.

and then they had the genius idea of using their straws.

and then brennan dumped his cup of milk onto the table so there would be more to slurp up.

glutton for punishment,

bahahahahaha!!!

{and then i took away their straws and threw over two towels.}

funny brennan.

spiderMOM {i got a shot}

this mom won't be get getting whooping cough.

or running to get a tetanus shot if i happen to step on a rusty nail.

good thing, 

b/c both of those thing would really cramp my style.

"spiderMOM

spiderMOM

does whatever spiderMOM can."

the webbing over the eyes is really itchy.

REALLY ITCHY.

pain is beauty. pain is beauty.
but this beauty
is only a pain
when she throws toys when she's mad
or cries when you look at her the wrong way at the end of the day.

toilet bowl swimmers

tonight these poor chaps went for a dip in the toilet bowl.

sean and i were in the kitchen wishing we were smooching when we heard the toilet flush upstairs.

it's just not normal for people around these parts to be flushing toilets in general,

let alone the toilet bowl upstairs.

"breeeeennnaaaaannnn??? what did you flush?"

"um, nothing, NOT toys!"

and so i started making my way upstairs to get the skinny.

i found a sopping wet floor and dripping toys.

it took me a few minutes before i figured it out,

but when brennan fessed up that it was "paper toilet" they flushed when they tried to save the swimmers it all started coming together.

"did you put the toys in the toilet bowl?!"

"yes, they wanted to swim!"

look down to my left and see max sucking on the sparkle Ariel's head.

"did max put the tiny Ariel in the toilet bowl water???!!!"

"yep! she loves swimming! we want to take a bath now!"

GASP.

and so i threw all of the toilet bowl swimmers into the sink,

stripped everyone down,

including the Oreo mustache faced baby man chase ray,

and got to scrubbing.

max has had quite the year with germs in her mouth.

i guess we'll find out if our toilet bowl is actually cleaner than the kitchen sink.

gross. 

the neighbor gifts have started coming.

i almost love the giving more than receiving,

but it's a close call b/c the receiving makes me feel so warm.

i LOVE this time of year!

 a forest of chocolate with marshmallow puff frosting and poinsettias for my table.

"it's the MOST wonderful time of the year!"

the star on top

 And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn. And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us. And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger.

Luke 2:7-16

..........

last night for family home evening we taught the kids about what the star on the tree means.

max and brennan were more interested in looking at their books,

and chase was gnawing on a plastic letter envelope from his mailbox that sings.

at the very end i thought for sure no one had been listening.

but then brennan finished every sentence i was asked him about jesus, the star, and the Shepherds.

so proud:)

and then he said something about alien sheep or something. 

then sean went out into the garage for the ladder,

and he put the star up on our beautiful christmas tree.

after three tries,

we finally cut a second branch down and put the star on two branches to get it to stand up straight.

brennan whined and cried the entire time for his bow {no arrow} that sean was using to pull the top of the tree toward him without knocking the entire thing over.

and then we had chocolate peanut butter ice cream cones.

i loved all of it. even the whining.

b/c watching brennan jump up and down next to the ladder for that bow was so funny.

little boy, jumping for his bow.

cute cute cute.

my little baby brennan is a boy.

i want to drink in every minute until he is a man.

a blessed, blessed life we lead. 

fish bone. {AND it's GIGI's BDAY!}

this weekend my kids opened their letters from santa.

i just can't get over how fun it was to get a letter back from the REAL santa:)

my aunt tracy is in town for GIGI's birthday.

she came over to squish baby chase's chubby legs,

and taught me how to "fish bone."

we talked about how she says that's its real name,

but all of "us girls now" call it a fish tail.

anyway,

we all agreed it was the easiest braid you'll ever do,

and looks fancy in a jiffy.

we also talked about chicken poop for my garden soil.

she swears by it.

i promised her i would pick some up in the spring to rotatille it to fertilize my vegetables.

then we talked about how messy hair is in right now,

and about how much we love making smoothies with kale in them.

it was grand.

 "FISH BONE" tails.

aunt tracy did mom's to teach me.

i did max's to make sure i had it down.

there's just something great about braiding hair that is so relaxing.

over a nice long chat.

....

HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY GIGI!!!

can't wait to eat chocolate cake with you NEXT year too;)