Anniversary

Today is our 7th Anniversary!

Our journey has been full of fun, excitement, and love. I am not sure why I had my camera, but the picture above is our first date. I am sure glad that I did have the camera! We went Mini-golfing... and as you can clearly see, Chip saved me (the damsel in distress), and I guess I was loyal from that point on.. haha...

Chip asked me to marry him less than 6 weeks after that first date.
In the San Fransisco airport, on the way to see my parents in Idaho.

We were married 6 months later on Dec. 28, 2001 in the Boise, Idaho temple.
(My brother and sister in law got married a few hours later! What a fun day :o)! )

And here we are 7 years and two sweet girls later.
Still in love.
Still enjoying the journey.



* Happy Anniversary Scott and Leah too!*

Birthday Girl

Today is my sweet and sassy little Alli's 6th birthday.

From the moment that she came into our lives she has filled us with joy
(for the most part... we've had our moments... haha)

Her big blue eyes always look for adventure and fun times.
Always filled with love and concern for others.

She is able to relax and observe the world around her.
She has so much insight about others.

Sweet Alli girl, we love you, and we are grateful that you are in our family.
Happy Birthday Alli.

Christmas Time

This year for Christmas we stayed right here in Ohio. This was our second time we have ever not been near our families for Christmas. (The first time was our first year of marriage, when I actually went into labor the day after Christmas.. We really couldn't travel even if we wanted to!)

We had a wonderful semi-relaxing day together playing with our new things.
Maggie and Alli got a TON of Thomas the Trains. They love playing with these things. It is seriously entertaining.

Alli got one of these view finder things in her stocking. I forgot how totally cool they were! Alli and Mags have been fighting over this thing all day long. Who knew what a hit it was going to be!

Alli also got loaded up on Princess Make-up. After all, who can ever have enough?
Patsy and Nunnums got Alli a HUGE super-duper-way-cool-loaded-to-the-max make up kit. We have ALL been made up with it today.

Another hit were our cool 'Merv' frog/blanket and Monkey blanket/monkey things that Opa and Oma got the girls.

Maggie has been going to town on her (very quiet... thankfully) coloring books. I love quiet entertainment :o)

Aunt Molly made exercise Merv for Alli. We have really been using this today!

A rare moment of peace between the girls. I love when they play together.

A little piece of Maggie 'cheese'.

My parents got Chip a very special cowboy mirror. He is supposed to spend some time every day trying to perfect his rough-and-tumble-super-tough cowboy-ness. (He has quite a ways to go to catch up with my dad.... but he's working on it!)

After clearing away presents, playing some games, eating some dinner we put out our fun trains for the girls to play with. As you can see, we have plenty of tracks and trains! Way, Way fun!

Grammy and Papa gave the girls bed tents this year! FUN! Alli and Maggie started out the night sleeping on the living room floor in one of the tents.. It was just too exciting for Maggie though, and she couldn't calm down. She is currently still awake. In my bed.

So there is the short version of our Christmas day. We loved our fun gifts, we love all of our wonderful family, we miss being near all of you!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Christmas Pictures

Chip came across a great way to get our Christmas pictures taken this year, without all of us having to wait in line at an over crowded photo place. I thought it was brilliant, as the pictures were super great quality... you just go to this website http://photobooth.unionstudio.net/ and that's it.
Look how great ours turned out!

Alli Rose.

Breezi

Chip

Maggie

Confession #3

I know that I should be the last one to admit this... but okay, here it goes,

I love Wham!

(Ya know, that George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley Fronted band from the 80's!?)


I think it all spawns from when I was a child my mom had 2, yes two, music video's of their albums. I used to watch Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go, Careless Whisper, Last Christmas, Freedom, Roxanne, Club Tropicana, Kissing A Fool, etc... over and over and over again with my mom. We would would watch those two movies over and over again.
(I am wondering now if she still has those 'treasures'!)
Mom: Thanks for all the good memories!
( I guess it could be worse, my mom is also obsessed with Yanni. It's a good thing I didn't inherit that love too.... haha)
So now I will leave you with one of my Favs to listen too. I hope you enjoy!
This song is called Freedom.

I guess I just love dorky 80's bands!

Confession #2

I am a peeker.

I love to know before hand what I am getting for Christmas. The agony of waiting to see what I got it almost too much to bear. Chip knows this about me, and has already given me my Christmas present. Unwrapped. (Thanks Chip!!).
It is also to the point where I hate waiting to surprise the giftee. I have to tell them what I got them... or it eats me alive. Chip also knows this about me, and refuses to let me tell him what is under the tree.
As a child I always knew what I was getting. I had the 'art' of unwrapping the present down pat. I could re-seal that present as if it had never been undone before.
UNTIL:
My mom figured out that when she used her hot glue gun we couldn't peek. The paper would rip.
Stupid Hot Glue Gun.
She even wised up and coded the presents somehow, so that she didn't even put a name on the presents. She just knew which one was who's. That way if we were temped to peek, we wouldn't know who's present we'd be peeking in!
(Talk about an ultra sneaky mom!)
This picture is one of the presents that she sent to us this year.
Notice: It is sealed up by a hot glue gun.
I guess she still doesn't trust me.
(She is right after all...... she shouldn't trust me... not with presents at least!)

So my question to you is:
Are you a peeker?

Another quilt something...

Okay. I don't know what it is lately about projects becoming different than what I originally thought they'd be, but this is yet another one.
The quilt started off simple enough. There is a quilt store about a 30 minute drive from me who does a quilt block of the month. The blocks were $2 a piece and it came with pattern, fabric, and instructions. I thought to myself, Wow! A quilt top for $24 bucks! Nice! I could totally commit to that. They had two color options. Autumn and a Black and White combo. I choose Autumn (obviously). I had it in mind to make the background a neutral tan/creamy with a pretty autumn green boarder (I even bought the fabric for the boarder) with a nice floral outer boarder (same floral fabric that is in the quilt)... but when it came time to putting the quilt together I came across two obstacles :

1- I couldn't find a tan/beige fabric that would "match" or go with All of the different tans in the quilt. There are light almost yellow-ish tan's, and there are light browns.. nothing worked!
2- The fall floral fabric was all sold out and so was the manufacturer.

Plan B:
Go with my friend Tracie to the fabric store and have some really BOLD-ish women who are in their early 50's talk me into getting this BRIGHT reddish/orangeish fabric with a dark purple boarder and a striped outer boarder. It took them like an hour to talk me into it. My goal with this quilt was to get something neutral, not outrageously bold and totally not my taste. But in the end, I succumbed to peer pressure and the hope that women with 20+ years of experience EACH would guide me in the right direction.
So this is the finished top of my quilt. It is not what I had intenended for, it isn't my taste, but there it is. Big, Bold, and made by me. Now I have to send it to my wonderful mommy to do the actual quilting on her nice big quilting machine.
This quilt is for my awesome Parent's-in-laws for their Christmas present. (It'll be late, of course).

P.S. I talked my friend Tracie into doing the black and white quilt. When I finish it, I'll post pictures. It'll be fun :o)

Pay It Forward

I'm participating in a Pay It Forward Exchange. Who wants to play? I will send a handmade gift to the first three people who leave a comment on my blog requesting to join this Pay It Forward Exchange. You will receive your gift within a month from leaving your comment. The only thing you have to do in return is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog. I can't guarantee it will be anything amazing, but who cares if it is FREE! Remember, you have to have a blog to participate and must Pay it Forward on your site as well. Who's ready to play? Please leave your e-mail in a comment if I don't already have it.

Book Reviews

I read a lot of books. When I say a lot, I mean a lot. I go to the library and check out and listen to at least 3-4 books on tape/CD per week. Like most moms, I don't have time to SIT and actually READ a book... the kids are just to demanding (plus I have to have 100% total focus on the book with absolutely no noise to read.... yeah... no noise. What a joke around here!) It suits me great to listen to books. I don't have a dishwasher, so I listen to them while I wash dishes, mop, sweep, craft, iron, etc...
Books on tape are tricky though. They don't exactly have ratings on them (G, PG, PG-13, R, Smutty, etc...) I really wish they would. I get to CD#5 out of 10 and all of a sudden you get hit with this monstrous steamy sex scene and the kids are in the room! PANIC! and It irks me off because I have spent at least 4 or 5 hours listening to it and getting into the story line! Waste of my time!!
So I thought I would post some of the books that I have "read" that I really enjoy that don't have mega-swearing or steamy smutty grown-up stuff.

The Women of Genesis Series: (Three different books)
by: Orson Scott Card
Sarah
Rebekah
Rachel and Leah

Although a lot of it is fiction and the author makes a lot of personal liberties, these three books bring to light our biblical matriarchs. They make you love them and admire them. The characters are convincing and heroic. Orson Scott Card takes the basic story line right out of Genesis and embellishes it from there. Orson Scott Card is also an LDS (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, often called 'Mormon') author, and takes some parts out of the Pearl of Great Price, which is scripture only recognized within the LDS church.
(Hint: Read the back of the book for his disclaimers/author's notes. It will help you better understand what Mr. Card was going for.)

I Am a Mother
By Jane Clayson Johnson

Again, This is written by an LDS author, who just so happens to also be a famous news broadcaster (now retired to do the 'mom' thing). It is such a moving book. If ever you need a pick-me-up on your bad 'mommy days', this is the book I think you should read. It validates the very existance of mothers. If you happen to not have children yet, either by your choice or not, it also validates you. It is just a feel good, box of tissues kinda book. I highly recommend it.

The Sisterhood Series (7 books)
by: Fern Michaels

Weekend Warriors
Payback
Vendetta
The Jury
Sweet Revenge
Lethal Justice
Free Fall

This series is so good. I am hooked. It is about 7 women who have each been wronged by some way or another. They forge together and as one group exact revenge on those who have wronged them. If you like manipulative women and payback.. you'll love this series! There is now a spin-off series by the same author that I am currently listening to... we'll see if it comes to anything.

The Circle trilogy (again, Three different books)
By Ted Dekker
Black
Red
White

These books, wow, what can I say... It's just so darn good! Here is the back of the first book:
By day's end, three million people will be carriers of the deadliest virus in history. There is no vaccine. There is no anti-virus. The world's only hope is Thomas Hunter, and he has already been killed. Twice. Enter an adrenaline-laced epic where dreams and reality collide - and the fate of two worlds hangs in the balance of one man's choices.
Each book gets better and better. This guy Thomas Hunter falls asleep in the world today, and wakes up it's in the future, but when he falls asleep in teh future, he wakes up back in the world today. It is an intense series of good vs. evil. Seriously, you can't put the book down (or turn of the CD in my case!)


And last but not least (I'm sure more book reviews will follow)
Twilight
by Stephenie Meyer

I haven't read anything in the series other than the first book (the other books on CD's are at the library waiting for me to pick them up on Monday...) But so far, I'm also an addict.
What can I say, but I like Vampire love. :o)


*If anyone has any good books that they recommend, let me know! I'm always lookin' for something fun to 'read'.*

my twist to a classic song

On the first day of Christmas my subconscious exclaimed to me, you've got a lot to do before you breathe.
12 loads of laundry
11 hours cleaning
10 poopie diapers
9 unfinished projects
8 kinds of cookies to make
7 gifts to wrap up
6 hours of blogging
5 dozen cards to make
4 mouths to cook for
3 quilts that need finished
2 teacher gifts to make
1 child that needs a nap

And a partridge in a pear tree.

Spoiled?

I have never considered my children to be spoiled. Sure they have enough toys to entertain themselves with, they have plenty of clothing, and lots of treats.... but they really haven't been demanding when it comes to 'things'.

Example: I asked Alli what she wanted for Christmas from Santa. She replied: Makeup.
Yep. That is the biggest thing on her want list.
Example: I can walk the kids throughout the entire toy department and never once have them ask for anything. (most of the time.......)

However I realized the other day when I was making Alli's lunch that maybe she is a little spoiled.
The conversation went like this:

Me: Okay Alli, I am almost done packing your lunch, I just need to put in a napkin.
Alli: Okay.
(She then watches as I put a left over Turkey napkin in her lunchbox.)
Alli: Ahem. Aaahhhheeeemmmm.
Me: What?
Alli: Um.... MOOOOMMMMMM, (said very sarcastically, as only an almost 6 year old girl can)
You forgot to write a note on it (again, said sarcastically).
Me: What are you talking about?
Alli: You forgot to write a love note on my napkin. How am I going to know that you love me?

Okay, who out there knew that writing notes on napkins became a requirement? (I'm about to sound like a 80 year old....) But back in MY day, love notes were a privilege. We didn't get those every day. It was something special!

Sheesh.

Maybe I do spoil her.

Out of the mouth of Mags

Maggie has been saying more and more things lately. It is surprising me that one day she can't say what she wants to and the next day she's saying long sentences. Weird.

Today while we were at Kohl's getting one of the two remaining gifts on my list, Maggie looks up at one of the guy mannequins in the store. Her face was in total awe. She pointed at 'him' and said very loudly:

Look Mommy! It's Daddy!

Glad to see she knows who her father is.

Stories from Church

From previous posts most of you now know how much Maggie likes to pick her nose. We have tried to stop her, but pulling that hand away from her nose just makes her giggle non-stop and then she thinks that nose picking is a game.
Yesterday at church, we were sitting in Sacrament meeting and Maggie started picking her nose again. I gently pulled her finger out of her nostril, only to have to try and bite her finger with as much enthusiam as Pac Man has for eating those little dots. Finally I decided that she was laughing a little to loud and I gave up trying to keep her little finger clean. She promptly put that finger back in her nose, put that finger in her mouth and shouted this:

I put it booger in mouth! YUMMY!

Yep. This was shouted right in the middle of church.
I love kids.

Let the Christmas Times Roll

Tonight we finally put up the ornaments on our Christmas tree. I put up the tree with lights on it about a week ago, but tonight was the first night that we were all home together to do the decorating.
I realized tonight how many ornaments we actually have! We didn't even put half of them on the tree. Yikes! I guess our little 6 footer isn't going to work out very much longer!

We took some little pictures of us after the decorating. You can tell that even though the kids were the ones in PJ's... it was the parents who were the tired ones!

We are so excited to have the Christmas Spirit in our home. I love this time of year!
May the festivities begin!

Memories..... Sweet Memories.....

Can anyone who lived through the 80's look at these pictures below and not have about a million memories go through your head??

Do you remember banging the side of this beautiful machine to try and get it to work?

Who hasn't blown a burst of air into these games before? Who hasn't whacked one on the ground... trying to get the game to start?

Do you remember your first blisters on your thumbs? I do. My brother and I played for so long on Christmas Day that we literally got blisters. It was awesome.

Today, after I had been playing Super Mario Brothers for about an hour straight, I realized that my thumbs were getting a little bit sore and I am pretty sure that a blister is starting to surface. I was telling this to Chip and he stated this next fact:

Blisters lead to Calluses.
Calluses lead to greatness.

I realize now how right he truly is.

King Bowser better start shaking in his boots. I'm comming to get Princess Peach!

Party. Old School Style.

This past year Chip turned the big 3-0. To Celebrate his passing into "adulthood", I threw him a bowling party and invited a bunch of our friends here! (Sounds adult-like huh?)
Some dear friends of ours, The Koenig's, weren't able to attend the party (it was sad without them...) and they totally forgot to give Chip his gift that they had for him. That is... until now.
They gave him the best-est gift ever!
Are you ready?
It was an original NINTENDO!!!!!
We have been playing non-stop ever since they gave it to him! (Thank you Neil and Kelly!)

This is the girls playing Duck Hunt. It is by far, their favorite game.
Finally, we found something that the girls don't fight about. They just love to play it!
(Isn't Alli's face priceless? She just gets so intense when she plays)

Maggie is our natural hunter. She just goes along with the flow and laughs the whole way. She loves to shoot things up. Papa Doug would be proud.

This is the dog that haunts our dreams. We don't like that he laughs at us.
Well, really only Alli minds that he is laughing at her... the rest of us know it's just a game.

Thanks again for the awesome gift!

we all knew this day would come.

Today is the day. This is post number 100.

Sure, my posts are more sporadic now than they were before. And sure, I go for a week without posting and then BAM I post like four times. But you have kept through them all. Thank you.

I'd like to take this moment to thank my children, for without them, I would have so little to blog about. They drive me to the brink of sanity and yet I still love all their little quirks. I'd also like to thank Chip. He gives up hours of his time to be with the children while I'm up here reading blogs, posting blogs, or generally just goofing off on the internet.
And last but not least, I want to be sure to thank YOU my loyal fan base (aka: readers/stalkers) for reading all of my randomness that I post. I love your comments. Keep them commin'. :o)

Here's to the next 100 posts. May they be as awesome as the last.

Wild Lights

This picture was as close as I got to see Wild Lights at the Columbus Zoo.
Why would I stand outside the gates of the zoo to get a picture, and not go in and see the lights? Well, I wanted to.... but things don't always turn out the way you want them to.

The day after Thanksgiving, Chip and I were noticing that the girls had a case of cabin fever. They were bickering at each other non-stop. They were both miserable. Something had to change. We decided that as a family we'd go and see the lights at the zoo. It was chilly, so we bundled the girls up nice and tight. It took an hour to bundle them up because something was always "bothering" someone. It took us to the edge of our sanity. Finally we got into the car, drove up to the zoo (normally a 20 minute drive), only to discover that every single family in Columbus also had the same idea of seeing the lights. By the time we parked it was over an hour since we left the house! We get Maggie out of the car, she was rearin' to get started looking at all those wonderful lights. Go to get Alli out of the car: She was asleep. We're not talking about the 'just dozing for a minute' kind of sleep. She was OUT. Chip and I both tried to wake her up. Shaking didn't work, singing didn't work, talking sweet things in her ear didn't work. Nothing worked. She wasn't budging. I decided to be the one to cut my losses, and I told Chip to take Mags inside the zoo, and I'd just park and sit in the car with Alli. We agreed that he'd spend 30 minutes looking around the zoo before I met him up at the gates.

I decided that I'd park the car, and read the Reader's Digest that had been sitting in my car for about two years. It was about time that I had gotten around to reading it anyways. I turned off the car, but left the music on, and also the reading lamp was on. About 20 minutes into it I realized that I had also left the headlights on. Crap. Last week I had to get a jump because the battery died in my friend's drive way.... and I had totally forgotten to go and get a new one. I tried to start the car. No luck. It wouldn't even turn over. Crap. Here I was with a sleeping child, a car that wouldn't start, we are 15 miles away from home, and I had to go meet Chip at the front of the zoo in 10 minutes. Luckily for me, the good Lord sent me kindly strangers to help me out. I sheepishly walked over to a guy and asked for a jump. He had a brand new two door Honda Civic. he came over and tried to give my car a jump. The problem? His car was just too efficient to start up my beast of a car, and his battery was less than half the size of mine. It just wasn't working. We tried for 10 minutes. So he called up his friend who had just pulled up into the zoo with his mini-van. The friend came to my rescue and within 5 minutes after the friend arrived, my car roared to life. I thanked these kindly men for their time away from their families and the zoo and went to go get Chip and Mags. Through all of this, Alli slept like a log.

Maggie had a blast inside the zoo looking at all the lights. She decided that they were called "Beans". Christmas Beans. She is now infatuated with them.

Just as we arrived home, Alli woke up. She asked us when we were going to the zoo. She was so upset when we told her that she slept through it all. She threw a huge fit and didn't believe that we had gone. Poor kid.

We'll definitely have to go back and see the zoo together as a family... awake, with a fresh battery in the car, and a little happier.
(Ohh... the lessons that we learn in life!)

Super

This is what a super hero does at our house.
They climb up the bathtub walls with lots of beaded necklaces.
I always thought there was something super about them.

Thanksgiving... Kohrman Style

This Thanksgiving we were just by ourselves. We did it like this last year too. It's not our favorite way to celebrate this holiday (we'd rather be surrounded by all of our wonderful family), but we had to make due with just the four of us. Alli helped make some wonderful decorations . Nice Turkey Eh?

This was breakfast. Cinnabon Muffins. YUM! This mix used to be available to purchase at Costco in a bulk box with 3 mixes in it... but much to my protesting, they don't carry it anymore. Dang, it was good too. This was the last of our mix... I figured why not use it on a day meant to count our blessings.... like be blessing of how much my tummy said "yum" after eating this muffin.

After breakfast, the girls helped me make a veggie tray. They were really big helpers. Maggie even tried to help by making all the veggies come "pre-dipped", as the moment that I turned around she dumped the entire container of ranch dip all over the veggies. It's a good thing too, or it would have been if not for Chip's total distain for ranch.

Alli rounded off the morning by doing Maggie's hair. That was a nice change for me, as Maggie has been fighting me whenever I try to do her hair. The downside: Alli used children's perfume as detangler, and Maggie smelled of greasy bubble gum all day.

Chip studied all week on how to carve the perfect turkey. Most people don't know this about Chip, but he loves watching cooking shows. He can't cook, but he loves to watch the shows and let me know of the cool things that I could be doing. So Chip watched cooking shows this week, searched the internet high and low, and finally he found a way to carve the turkey so it looked nice and pretty. I do have to say that all of his careful study paid off... and the turkey looked lovely carved up. It even was the best turkey that I have ever made before.

So this was most of the digs that were on our table. (turkey was being carved when I took this picture, mashed potatoes were still cooking, and pies were in the fridge) And before you say it: Yes, It was just Chip, the girls and I. I realize that this is a butt load of food, however, I didn't want the girls to think it was an ordinary day by any means... so we went all out. I think we will have leftovers for a good year. Well, actually, most of it was freezable.

We ended the day with pie. Who could have Thanksgiving without pie? Certainly not us! I made this scrumptious banana cream pie, from SCRATCH! (thanks to my friend Lora's awesome recipe) It was so awesome. We also had the traditional Pumpkin... but that was store bought... nothing to write home about, or take a picture of anyway.


There are so many things in my life to be thankful for. My wonderful family. Not just the family that I have living under my roof, but Parents, siblings, cousins, my charming nephew and niece, our dear friends who are more like family to us than anything. I am thankful for our health, our jobs, our working cars, heat in our home, food in the cupboards, wonderful teachers, our church, my Savior, a living Prophet, clothes on our back, talents, love, happiness, kindness of strangers, laughter, and man... this list could go on and on... I just have so much to be thankful for!

It was a great Thanksgiving day with my family. I hope you had a happy Thanksgiving as well.

resemblance

These are the Kindergarten school pictures that are taken of Alli and I. There is only a few months age difference between us (school wise that is....)
I have often heard that Alli looks just like me. Aside from the nose/teeth, I don't see it. Do you?