Elijiahs first Piano Recital

A little nervous to start....
Concentration sets in....

If only the tongue was inside his mouth hehe!!

Im soooo proud of Elijiah! He had his first piano recital and he did incredible! Hes been playing piano now for a couple of months and really is doing a great job. He practices everyday and Jonthan helps when he can. The recital was downtown at the library in one of the auditoriums and not only was it a great venue, but a great night out with the family. He mentioned that he was a little nervous and asked if we would laugh if he messed up...I told him NO way would we laugh and that we would be proud of him regardless if he did mess up or not. (which he didnt) He was adorable, you could see him counting the music as he was playing and he had his piece memorized. Great Job Elijiah! Super proud of you!!!

Lights!

So last weekend we braved the cold and took the kids to temple square to see the lights. We had a great time( at least I did) got dinner and hot chocolate before hand and went right at 5:30. Did the loop and called it a night. So glad we did it this year as its a great family tradition...
A couple of good shots that Jonathan took....

It was cold! Poor Tristan was so bundled he could hardly move! Elijiah was a trooper this year and it was a great weekend had by all!

Amazing...

Tristan slept 12 hours last night. The first time EVER! Yea!!!!!

Conversations with Elijiah

As usual the car ride to school with Elijiah is filled with questions, conversations about life and today didnt disappoint. Today we talked of memories. He was curious to what Tristan was thinking, what he dreams of, and what he is "saying" when he talks. He discussed his earliest memories: watching nascar on TV when he loved his matchbox cars, riding his bike around the condo parking loop, trips to canada. He doesnt remember his dad and I together, nor the few months after the divorce when I moved in with my friend Pati, and thats ok. It used to bother me that he didnt remember anything while his dad and I were married. But not anymore. He made a comment in the kitchen the other night (much like many other times) that he wishes we werent divorced. Oh I know this going back and forth is hard on him, but instead of sympathizing with him, I turned what looks like a negative into a positive. I mentioned that I know its hard, but he has a wonderful family with Jonathan now. How he has a safe, warm, loving home with both of us that love him. He has a brother that adores him and he agreed. He likes Jonathan he said. Elijiah came into the bathroom while I was in the shower the other night- just to talk. These are the moments with him that make it all worth it. These simple moments where Ive created a relationship with him that I know is strong, based on trust and that he can talk to me about anything. I asked him what he wanted to talk about and he immediately said: his girlfriend. Mia is in his class with him and is a darling little girl. I understand this is a secret at school between the two of them and I think that is sweet. He doesnt want me telling his dad or anyone else for that matter, and I agreed. ( this blog doesnt count- and family that reads this---DO NOT mention this to him!!! Again this blog is for us- for me so I can remember the cute things my kids do etc) There are things that I feel if Elijiah doesnt want me sharing with others- I can respect that. Afterall I hope that as he gets older he will still want to sit down, talk and share about his life, how he feels and know that I will keep his confidences. As I dropped him off at school after having the conversation of what our earliest memories were and what we are looking forward to this year, he reached over gave me a big kiss, kissed Tristan goodbye and got out of the car. He turned and waved before he got to the gym door and yelled" have a great day MOM!"....I was again reminded that its truly the simple things in life that make me happy.

My Amazing Sister!

The ONLY reason why I havent posted anything about Raegan is that I was waiting for a good picture! Oh I got a couple pics of Ian on the phone but this one is a perfect one of them both! Look! Does it look like she spent most of the day in Labor? NO! She looks beautiful, and relaxed( hate her ) and so now is the time to announce to the world- IVE GOT A NEW NEPHEW! Raegan is the best sister I could ever have( okay Jessica and Whitney are pretty cool too) but they didnt endure the wrath of what was Amber during the teen years. I will not relive the mean things I did to this woman, but I have to say she was then, what she is now....a very patient person. Someone with the ability to deal with hardship and struggles with no complaint, easy going and kind to all around her, and a heart the size of Texas. Im so sad that she is living far away and that I wont be seeing Ian grow( dang it --Tristan and he would be great buddies) but she means the world to me and Im so amazed by her ability to take care of her 5 children as well as she does. Joe travels during the week and so I know she is often stressed with the care of the kids everyday, but again, she does everything with such grace and loves being at home with them. Raegan - you are a wonderful example to me of all things good and I admire your strength more than you know. Congratulations to you and Joe- So excited to have Ian a part of the family!

8 Things...

I love tags, although I stopped tagging people because I realized that those that I tagged never did them, however I was reading Emilys blog this am, and got tagged. SOOOO because I never shirk a tag myself I will play along!( Thanks Emily!)

8 Favorite Books:
Twilight Series
The Host
Harry Potter Series
My Grandfathers Blessings
The Rice Mother
Dean Hughes Books(several of his series I really enjoyed)
Who moved my cheese?
The blue eyed girl
Cry my Beloved Country
The Kite Runner
Okay I love books so I went over the 8...

8 Things that Happened Yesterday:
Um, my life isnt really exciting...but here you go:
Dropped both kids off- Elijiah to school, Tristan to day care(does that count for one or two?)
Went to work
Pick up kids after work
Set up Tristans new( well used from Kid to Kid- Thanks MOM for early x-mas present) Jumperoo...
Played with Kids till Jonathan came home
Made Elijiah Mac and Cheese( his choice- not mine)
Took bath with Tristan( he was a grumpy boy yesterday :(
Had hopes of watching Greys but ended up so exhausted( like all days) was in bed by 8 but got a mirgraine so didnt fall asleep till after midnight...

8 Things Im looking Forward to:
Jonathan finishing up school
Tristan sleeping through the night
Getting busy at work again
Sleep( anytime - anywhere)
Getting a hair cut( someday)
Selling our house
Buying a new house
I cant think of any more- my life is in survivial mode right now sooo this is all I can think of on my sleep deprived brain.

8 Things on my wish list:
Lets see--again:
Selling our house
Buying a new house
sleep( do you see a theme here? :)
Steve Madden Bonanza boots
the impossible to find sweater dress
a new mp3 player( or ability to use my ipod)
a trip to italy with Jonathan this time, and head to greece for a week sans kids
a shopping spree at anthropologie

8 Things I love about Winter:
Ive embraced Utah as Ive succumed to the fact I cant leave so00
Skiing- which I havent done in a while but used to really love
boots and sweaters
hot tubbing(usually after hitting the ski slopes)
playing in the snow (not driving in it!)
fires
homemade soup
a reason to bake all day
having an excuse to stay in PJs all day and watch movies

people I tag:
Monica
Garian
Raegan
Casey
Laurie
Brook
Katie
Jaynann
Kristen

Food Bank

Okay, if anyone knows me I love to help others - I wish I could dedicate my life to charitable endeavors, but for some reason I was born to a middle class family- not the rockefellers...LOL---So I do what I can where I can. Being in my role at work, I am part of a small HR team that plans for company events, and decides what we do each year to help out during the holidays. We have a food drvie, and toys for tots...thats a given, but this year it seemed like we should do more. So we decided to offer our services to the food bank and got a group together and donated some time. We went for just a couple of hours but what a great few hours it was.

Now you really cant tell from these pictures how big these containers of food were, but we went through TWO of them during our time there. Our jobs were to go through these bins, and separate the food out into smaller boxes. Ie: canned meats, baby food, pasta, cereal, canned veggies, drinks, baking items etc etc.

Each box had a weight limit depending on what types of food you were packing..so once you think you reached the weight limit you had to weigh the boxes then pack them up and place them on the palate next to the table. Over and over and over again...

One of the cans of split pea soup from the above container exploded. The rancid pea soup was all over hundreds of cans....as I was pulling cans out of the container, I had to use paper towels to clean off the cans before we could sort them....it was a very messy and disgusting process ek!

Here is our group of great co-workers!

See the completed boxes??!! It was a great day of service and it was amazing to feel like what I was doing was helping. I guess the food bank( as many others across the country) are needing volunteers of all kinds...to help deliver food to home bound seniors, to help sort the food like we did, to help host food drives, and so on.

I have to say that even though it was just few hours of my time, it made me reflect on how blessed we are---and how grateful I am for ALL that I have.....