Christmas WEEK

Tony and Connor didn't have any school this week, and so it really has felt like an entire WEEK of Christmas. Here are the highlights:

Monday afternoon, we headed to Salt Lake for our 2nd annual family Christmas trip. It was GREAT once again. We followed our schedule from last year, eating at the Mayan, staying at a hotel downtown (thank you, priceline!), seeing the lights at temple square, and swimming at the hotel. This year, we went equiped with 7 loaves of homemade bread to give to people who may need it around temple square, but we could only find 3 people to share our bread with! Oh well. The kids still got the spirit of it. Here are a couple pics of our fun trip.

Tuesday night, we got a babysitter and Tony and I went to an ugly Christmas sweater party. This is an annual event hosted by Tony's sister. And this year . . . drumroll . . . Tony won! The real vote-getter was his Christmas star belt buckle which stayed lit all night by his mini-generator, which he carried around faithfully throughout the party. (Connor was our photographer, and I guess he hasn't learned not to take a picture when somebody is rubbing their lips together!)

Tony's family all came to the ranch this Christmas, so the kids have had TONS of cousin time these past few days, which would probably keep them happy even without the presents. I won't bore you with any pictures of what they got, but they were excited. Mariah didn't care a bit about what was inside the presents, but she was completely obsessed with opening them!

My favorite gift was a surprise from Tony--a beautiful picture of the Salt Lake temple to go above our bed in my newly decorated bedroom. This picture, of course, doesn't do it justice, and the wall color still looks NOTHING like the real thing. Oh well. You get the idea.

Finally, today my entire family came over for dinner and a gift exchange here. It was so fun to have them. I really wish I would have taken some pictures, but I forgot. The highlight for me was a coupon from my dad for a trip to Phoenix with him and all my sisters this summer for a Phoenix Mercury WNBA basketball game. I can hardly wait! Thanks again, Dad!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas as well. I love this time of year!!!

Hair Stuff

A couple quick thoughts on hair. For nearly a year, I've been suggesting to Mylie that she cut her hair, but with no success. "No, Mom. I'm growing it down to my knees!" Well, about two weeks ago, Tony said to Mylie, "I really liked it when you had that cute short haircut. It looked so cute on you." That's all it took. The next day, Mylie and I headed to the hairdresser and she got the chop. What is it about a dad's opinion of his daughter's hair that has such power? It made me think about some of my "hair" memories growing up. I don't usually remember anything specific that anybody said 15 or 20 years later, but I remember two very specific times--one on a Sunday morning before church when I was about 9 years old, and another my freshman year in high school--when my dad told me that my hair looked nice. So, dads, compliment your daughters on their hair. I don't know why, exactly, but it matters.

Secondly, I'm having a major hair dilemma. About three months ago, I dyed my hair dark. I hated it for about a week or two, then have really liked it since then (after it toned down a bit). However, it is MUCH darker than my regular, so by mid-November, I had some nasty roots growing in, which looked gray. It looked to me like somebody had emptied their vacuum right onto my part. Yuck! So, I went to my hairdresser and she touched up the roots for me for just $20, which is much better than paying full price to have it all done again. But now it's been a month, and my hair is still growing (dang hair!) and the roots are changing much too quickly. I can't decide whether to keep paying $20 every two months to keep this up, or to just go back to my regular color (a big cost all at once), and then not have to pay for maintainance. If I hated the dark hair, this would be an easy call, but I'm having fun with the change as well as the compliments (I've never had TWO hair compliments from married men before!) so I don't know what to do. Right now I can hardly wait until my little sister, Olivia, goes to beauty school so I can let her "practice" on me and get my hair done at a fraction of the cost! But until then . . . what do I do?

My 100th blog post!

So, this is my 100th blog post! You probably figured that such a momentous occasion would warrant some amazing news, incredible pictures, or proufound insight. Sorry. Just an odds and ends type of post with a few poor quality photos. (I don't know whether to blame my camera or myself, but my photos lately are AWFUL! I thought this was a good camera back when I was taking outdoor photos this summer, but indoor, yuck!)

Anyway, December has been a wonderful month so far. I've mainly just been home and enjoying the time with my kids. It feels like every day we are focused on Christmas as we have several traditions going. It's so much fun. Here are a few pics of things we've been up to lately.

Connor had his Kindergarten Christmas program last week. He did a great job and had a great time. My camera died during the first song (bad mom moment), so I don't have any pics of him singing his heart out. But here's a picture from before we left. He looked so handsome!

For some reason, Mylie has always known how to pose. Girl thing? When I tell Connor I'm taking a picture, he does this really cheesy face and stands weird (see above photo), but I pick up my camera, and Mylie does this:

I love it! Other good news is that I FINALLY talked Mylie into getting her hair cut again. I love this cut on her. Her hair looks thicker and healthier, and it's much easier to do. No braids or ponytails. I love it.

One fun Christmas tradition at our house is "Grandma Bags." Tony's mom gives the kids a giant bag filled with gifts. There is one for each day from Dec. 1st until Christmas. Here are the kids posing with one of their Grandma gifts. These cute elf hats were actually a kit that the kids decorated and then I hot glued. It was fun.

Last Saturday, I decided to make rolls. I rarely make them, but at Thanksgiving I helped my mom. She made perfectly round circles when she rolled the dough out to cut for crescent rolls. Every time I've tried, I end up with a very sorry excuse for a circle. But she gave me a couple tips at Thanksgiving, and on Saturday, I found out what a good teacher she is (or what a fast learner I am?!?) Either way, these turned out wonderful!

Mylie also had her birthday this month. As a birthday tradition, the person with the birthday gets to choose what we have for dinner. They also get some very fancy dinnerware to eat on. I thought this looked pretty funny: Tombstone pizza on the birthday plate. Hey, it's what she ordered!

Finally, on Sunday morning, I got everybody ready a for church a little early so we could try to get a family photo. We don't have a single one since Mariah has joined our family (how embarrassing is that?) and I thought it was time. So we rushed around, I rigged up a way to set up the camera, we set the timer, and ended up with several TERRIBLE photos. Really, everybody looked great, but the lighting was just awful. They were really washed out, and even after doing everything I could with photoshop, this is the best I could get. Darn. I really wanted a good one. Oh well. Here we are. Merry Christmas!

Fathers and Sons and other Relationsihp STUFF

Tony and I like to read one talk from the past general conference each night before going to bed. Last night's talk had a powerful impact on me. It was the first talk from the Priesthood session, "Fathers and Sons: A Remarkable Relationship," by Elder M. Russell Ballard. I realize that most of my readers are women, but if any men are reading, this article is a must-read for you. You may say, "Oh, I went to Priesthood session. Ya, I heard it. Good talk." Sorry. That's not good enough. Re-read it and maybe set some goals to better follow Elder Ballard's counsel. Female blog readers, encourage your husbands and priesthood-aged sons to read this one. I just think that if fathers and sons would have the quality of relationships that Elder Ballard is describing, our families, church, and society would be so much better!

This talk also made me decide to go ahead and blog about relationships--something I've been thinking about quite a lot in the past little while. I know that I am not an overly (or even adequately) friendly person. This is something weighing heavily on my mind as I begin thinking about my new year's resolutions for the coming year. However, I do enjoy good relationships with all the members of my family. This is very important to me. There is a question about this in the temple recommend interview, and it is one that I contemplate often and take very seriously. It saddens me when I see mothers and daughters, fathers and sons, or siblings who do not have quality relationships with each other. These are the people that will always be there for us, and will be with us (hopefully) for eternity. We need to do all we can to make sure that these relationships are the best ones we have. Although I am not any kind of expert on relationships, I do feel like I have learned a lot about realtionships in the past ten years. Leaving my family and going out on my own gave me a new perspective as well as the added challenge to maintain relationships with my family members when I don't see them daily. I will TRY to briefly explain a few relationships truths that I have learned.

1. The only person you can control is you. I often hear people say that their relationship with another person could be better IF that other person would (fill in the blank). If you are going to wait around for somebody else to do something differently, you could be waiting a long time. If you want to have quality relationships, you have to be proactive.

2. The things you do and say have an impact on others' feelings, and YOU are responsible for whatever that result may be. For a long time, I was guilty of saying, "Well, she shouldn't feel like that about it," or "I wouldn't be that upset if someone said that to me." This is how I justified hurting other people's feelings. If I didn't THINK they should feel that way, then I could continue to do or say whatever I wanted. I see this happen all the time. You have to deal with the reality. I said or did something, and the result was that it hurt another person. I need to apologize and not do or say that thing again. This was a powerful realization for me.

3. When I learned the concept of a "Relationship Bank Account" from The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, it opened my eyes and I was finally able to see what the problem was with my fragile relationship with one particular sister. It seemed that our relationship was always one wrong move away from being damaged. I had justified it for years by saying, "Oh, she's just overly sensitive. My other sister doesn't get so upset about me doing that same thing to her." But the problem wasn't with my sister--it was with me. A relationship bank account works just like a regular bank account. You put in deposits and make withdrawls frequently. The difference is that you have MANY accounts. You have one with every single person you know, and the balance of that account depends on how many deposits you've made (positive words, actions, shared experiences, etc.) compared to how many withdrawls you've made (negative words, actions, attitudes, etc.). When I learned about this concept, it really clicked. My account with this one sister was always in the red--not necessarily because I was taking a huge number of withdrawls, but because I wasn't making enough deposits. Make sense? Things have improved as I have tried to make more deposits and minimize withdrawls.

4. Apologizing and forgiving are essential in fixing and maintaining quality relationships. And these two actions do NOT depend on the other person. This past summer, I was talking and laughing about childhood memories with my sisters. However, the memories began focusing a lot on how mean I was to one of my brothers. Although it was years ago, and I thought he had forgiven me, I realized that I had never really told him that I was sorry. I left the room, got on the phone, and called him. I told him I was sorry, and he said, "For what?" I then explained how badly I felt remembering the way I had treated him, and that I was truly sorry for that. He kind of laughed, and when my sisters realized what I was doing, they laughed, too. But it was actually a very serious moment for me. Although he had already forgiven me, I needed to apologize and he needed to hear me say it. I was glad I did it. Now, about forgiveness. Forgiveness is not dependent on another person's apology or admission of guilt. Forgiveness is not to bring peace to the offender--it is for the offended. We need to forgive whether or not forgiveness has been asked for. And even better, we can do our best to not get upset with others in the first place. I've heard my mom say, "You can try to offend me, but you probably can't." I like that. Also, Connor has been a great example to me this fall of giving others the benefit of the doubt. He has one boy in his class that misbehaves a LOT. Connor never says anything negative about this boy, but just tells me that he must not have gone to preschool, so maybe he's just still learning how to act at school. How often do we look past other people's actions to the possible reasons why, and give them the benefit of the doubt?

Well, that ended up being quite the epistle. But I feel like as I focus on these relationship concepts (or TRUTHS, in my book), my relationships improve. I hope that each of you have fabulous relationships with all members of your family, but if not, why don't YOU do somthing to fix them? You're the only one who can. And what better Christmas gift could you give somebody important in your life than to mend a broken relationship or improve one that needs to be better?

All is Safetly Gathered In

Today it is below zero. And the snow is falling. And if it kept falling and falling and falling for awhile, and we couldn't get out of our house, we would be okay. We FINALLY have a storage room! Full of food! Actually, I'm a little late posting these, as this project has been done for a couple months now, but I'm really grateful for it today. Here are some pics of my storage room (although it still doesn't have walls).

It has been a kind of long process. Tony framed it last winter sometime. We don't know when we'll get around to doing the sheetrock, but decided that we don't really need walls to have a storage room. So in May, we bought these great can shelves. We found them for $50 apiece (second hand, homemade, and STURDY) on ksl.com. They are two sided and rotate the cans by sliding them down the ramp. They hold a TON of cans, and we put a TON of cans on them!

Then in the summer, we stumbled upon these old store shelves. Tony was getting a tractor fixed and noticed these sitting out back behind the guy's shop. He asked if he could buy them, and the guy told him that he was about to haul them to the landfill, and that if he would haul them away, he could have them. They're really great shelves and although we have a lot of food on them, there is still the entire top shelf, the end section, and the whole other side completely empty! Great find, Tony.

Finally, in August or September (I can't quite remember when), I hit the case lot sale hard and came home with all kinds of stuff to fill our storage room. I also canned tomatoes, salsa, and peaches. Finally, we had a FHE on emergency preparedness and the kids helped us empty and refill our gallon water bottles. We put some meat in the freezer and I've tried to restock the things we've used. So for now, I feel content with it. "All is safely gathered in ere the winter storms begin."

The Grinch

The Grinch hated Christmas! The whole Christmas season!
Now, please don't ask why. No one quite knows the reason.
It could be his head wasn't screwed on just right.
It could be, perhaps, that his shoes were too tight.
But I think that the most likely reason of all
may have been that he had to listen to THIS every day in December!

My New Bedroom

After nearly four years in our house, I finally broke down and spent the money (I'm not saying how much :/) and the time (just two days) to do something great with my bedroom. I had wanted to include some before photos to help you have a greater appreciation for this wonderful transformation, but I forgot to take them until the room was completely torn apart and ready to paint. Ugh. But maybe you can just imagine a horribly boring room with chalky, white, flat finish paint, a country quilt-style comforter in beige, mauve, and forest green, wall hangings in those same colors, and a lot of clutter on top of the dressers. It looked old and tired, but not anymore. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE my new room!! I still have a couple things to get (a nice picture of the temple for above our bed, and a large vinyl letter quote for above our big dresser), but I don't know when I'll get those things and didn't want to wait to take pictures until then.

I actually bought this bed set last May, but waited until I painted to put it on.

I made this magnet board yesterday. Now I need to actually print some photos to put on it.

The curtains are very basic and CHEAP, but I think they add some elegance. I also love my new laundry basket, which replaces a white plastic one.

I really love this wreath, but the main reason for this pic is to show the actual wall color. I had to use my flash in these pictures, and this made the walls look much brighter than they actually are in most of the shots. This photo is pretty close, though. The color is called slate blue. It reminds me of the ocean on an overcast day.

WOW on the paint color in this pic, but I wanted to show the cute little vinyl lettering, and my lamp project. I bought some very cheap lamps from Walmart and stenciled this design on them. I think they turned out pretty good.

Mariah's Top Ten . . .

. . . reasons it's GREAT to be one!

1. I can feed myself.

2. I help myself to whatever I want.

3. I can entertain myself for long stretches of time in the playroom

(and make messes in there, too!)

4. Mom finally gave in and got me a cell phone. Now I can text all my friends.

5. Spending more time on my feet is giving my knees some relief.

6. I can get Mom's attention better now that I can climb on her legs.

7. I LOVE driving!

8. I can wear some really cute hairdos (finally)!

9. Funfetti cupcakes are the BEST!

10. Even though I had a birthday, and am now not a baby anymore, I'm still as cute as ever!

Why am I doing this?

Tonight I'm doing something a little crazy--I'm going to a midnight showing of New Moon. Now I know all you Twilight fans out there probably don't think this is crazy at all, but I'm not a big fan. I read the books--up to the last 100 pages of the last book. By then I was so bored of it and disgusted by the shmoozie descriptions of how in love Bella and Edward are that I just could not go any further. So why am I going? Here are a few possible reasons:

1. New Moon is my favorite book in the series (mainly because Edward is gone for most of it, and Jacob is the main man. He's definitely my favorite character in all of it.)

2. Since volleyball ended, I've only been away from all 3 kids maybe three times. I could use a break, I guess. (Although at midnight, they're all asleep, so is this really a break?)

3. I want to buy a treat and a pop without having to buy for everybody or share mine.

4. I'm a night owl anyway. I LOVE staying up late (until morning comes the next day.)

5. Maybe I just wanna be cool. You know, "everybody's going to be there!"

6. Maybe after being a mom of babies and toddlers for over six years, I actually am just a little crazy!

Not Ready for This!

So, for the third child in a row, I have believed the fallacy that once I was done nursing and the baby can do finger foods, I would suddenly have so much more time. It seems to make sense, right? If I had been spending 20 minutes 4 times a day nursing and another 15 minutes three times a day doing baby food, I should have an extra 125 minutes (over two hours!) for leisure, right? Wrong. Because here's what happens . . .

They enter THIS STAGE:

Here's the area she just left.

AAAHHHHHH!!

Laramie Weekend

This weekend we had a great little family vacation in Laramie, WY. Tony and I both went to school at UW, and we have great memories of Laramie. We wanted to share a little of that with our kids, and the state championship football games were there this weekend, so it seemed like a great time to go. Here are the highlights of the trip:

Staying in a hotel WITH a swimming pool, of course.

However, the window to the pool room was left open all night, so it was FRIGID in there.
We didn't swim for long.

We toured the UW campus and showed the kids where "Mom and Dad" went to school.The kids loved the art display on Prexy's Pasture.

The dinosaur museum was their favorite part of campus.
Playing some pool at the 'tute. This was my #1 hangout in college. It was fun to go back there. I spanked Connor in pool, but then he beat me (legitimately) in air hockey.

We went to the Cowboys game. They stunk it up and lost by about 20. But Connor thought it was GREAT, anyway. Here he is posing with Pistol Pete. (Sorry about the poor pic quality. Forgot the flash!)

Mylie cries whenever she sees a mascot. Kids are supposed to like mascots, right?

Finally, we were able to watch all 5 classes' championship games. As you can tell in this photo, the weather was NOT great. Actually, it was freezing and snowed a ton. But it was great football and a great time for Tony, Frank (Tony's brother), Connor, and me. The girls went to a babysitter during the games. Thanks again, Julie and Michelle!

Just a year away . . .

I've mentioned this before, but my father-in-law, Ron Micheli, is running for Governor of Wyoming in 2010. And it's now only one year until election time! The campaign is really starting to pick up. I've never really been into politics, but it's exciting to learn this process in such a close, personal way. My small contribution to the campaign so far has been helping with the blogging (something I love doing, anyway) on the website. To keep up to date on the Micheli for Governor campaign, go to http://www.micheliforgovernor.com/ If you're from Wyoming, go ahead and read a little so you can be an informed voter. Also, if you'd like to help with the campaign in ANY way, please let me know. Volunteers and monetary contributions are ALWAYS welcome! Also, Tony and I are in charge of organizing 5k runs throughout the state next summer to raise funds as well as campaign. If you're into running or walking, or are just looking for something fun to do, prepare now to run in one (or more if you'd like) of several 5k Fun Run for Ron events.

Inspiration

Last night was rough . . . REALLY rough. Between Mylie and Mariah crying, either Tony or I was up nearly all night long. UGH.
This morning, after Tony and Connor left for school, Mariah was still sleeping and Mylie was sitting at the table eating her breakfast. I walked into the kitchen to start cleaning, and I noticed the Friend magazine sitting on the counter. I'm a very imperfect Mom (one who does NOT read the Friend cover to cover each month with her kiddos), but I suddenly felt like I should read a story or two to Mylie while she ate. I didn't know why exactly, but I grabbed the magazine and went to the table. I opened it up and started flipping through. I soon found a story called "No Bad Dreams." This was Mylie's problem last night, and many other nights as well. In fact, it's becoming a major issue with her. We read the story, and learned that Heavenly Father can help her with the bad dreams if she will pray and ask Him. (Again, this imperfect mom hadn't come up with that solution yet.) She was excited to say her prayers and has faith that this will help her.
As I walked away from the table, I realized that it wasn't just a strange coincidence that I decided to read the Friend this morning (for the first time in months!), or that there was a story about dealing with bad dreams. I knew that my Heavenly Father cares about us, even the seemingly insignificant problems we face day to day. I am grateful for the inspiration I can receive as a mother. This is a hard job--one I certainly can't do alone. I'm just grateful that my Heavenly Father understands that, and uses the Holy Ghost to help me find the answers I need.

Cat Owner--yes. Good Cat Owner--questionable.

Meet "Mr. Sparkles." I was just informed of this title yesterday when I picked "him" up from the vet. I had asked for a "spay" but paid for a "neuter," apparently. Woops! (How embarrassing, but I saved $35.)

My Not-So-Solved Kitty Problem

MOLLY

Two years ago, we got a cat. I see this as one of the biggest mistakes of my life. However, my kids would strongly disagree with this, and so we still have Molly. (Not that I haven't TRIED to get rid of her!) And really, Molly isn't that bad of a cat. But apparently she is one hot item here on the ranch, as she has produced FOUR litters of kittens in these short two years. Last spring, after her third, I vowed to get her spayed so we could end the madness. However, before I got it done, I discovered she was pregnant AGAIN! Also, we had kept one kitten, Sparkles, from the last batch, and we wanted to get her spayed, too, so I decided to just wait until after volleyball season, when Sparkles would be 6months old, and Molly's kittens would be about six weeks old.

SPARKLES

A few weeks ago, I was beginning to wonder if the kittens had survived. Molly was up around the house quite a lot, and I hadn't seen any kittens yet. Then one day, I was in the house and heard a baby kitten's meow outside. I went out to find that Molly had brought one of her kittens up to show me. It was adorable, of course, and I was glad to see only one. Then it was gone again. A few days later, it was back, and to my relief, there was still one.

Tuesday morning, I got on the phone to the vet and made the appointment for both Molly and Sparkles. Phew! One kitten to give away, two surgeries to be done, and then we'd be kitten-free forever! I was so excited!

That excitement was subdued quickly Wednesday morning, when I went outside and discovered THIS....

and THIS....

and THIS!!!!

AAAHHHHHH!!!!! So, this morning, I loaded up Molly and Sparkles and took them to the vet. I pick them up tomorrow morning, but my kitty problems are FAR from over, it seems. So, if any of you are feeling super-duper sorry for me by now, come and get a kitten (and get her spayed ASAP!)

Happy Halloween! (Beat ya to it!)

The first week of November last year, in my opinion, was the second most painful weeks of blog reading, next to the week after Christmas. I know every mom loves to see her kids dressed up, and I don't mind seeing kids dressed up, either. However, looking at every single person's kids dressed up in the course of just a few short days left me really wanting to see anything BUT dressed up kids on somebody's blog. So, next week, I will NOT be posting pics of my kids dressed up for Halloween. No, I will do it now instead, before you're all bored stiff. (Actually, the real reason for the early Halloween pics is that I won't be with my kids on Halloween--State Volleyball--so we dressed up and carved pumpkins last night.)

My adorable little Dorothy, with Toto, too! She actually doesn't like much of anything to do with Halloween, and has been having scary dreams about everything she's seen this past month. I think trick-or-treating is going to be a horrifying experience for poor Mylie.

The Incredible Hulk posing with our jack-o-lanterns. We always do one mean one (Connor's choice) and one nice or silly one (Mylie's choice).

Mariah HATES Connor's mask. It makes her cry every time she sees it. But she does make a cute little pumpkin!