Early Christmas

Christmas came a little early for me this year. Ben decided that he wanted to buy the car I have wanted since I was in highschool for me. He went and bought it on Monday and was going to surprise me on Christmas day. Then he got a little nervous about what my reaction would be, so he tried to feel it out a little and got the opposite reaction he was hoping for. I was trying to be the responsible adult by saying I would rather just pay off the car we have, rather than start all over with another one. Of course, that is easy to say when I think that the possibility of getting the car of my dreams is years in the future. So, then he showed me the keys and said, I guess I will take these back then. I quickly started to back-peddle on my earlier declarations of not wanting to get a new car, especially when I learned it was a Toyota 4Runner.

I LOVE IT!!

So, last night we went to pick it up and traded-in our Lancer. What a sweet husband I have! Now I don't feel so bad going over our budget for his gift :)

And the winner is . . .

AMY!!!!!!!!!  Congratulations Amy!  You were the closest in the "guess what in the world Josi is saying" contest.  For those of you that want the answer to this crazy contest; here it is . . . (Press pause on the christmas music and play on the blog entitled "Josi reading scriptures" - 3 blogs back)

" . . . and that’s because everybody and everybody wants to go, everybody and sometimes then Jesus told the any things and sometimes then they wanted to do and only sometimes when they get to go they really really and that’s because they’re really old and that’s because they’re really old and really old and really old and that’s because it’s really old and everybody goes because anything is to go and not or yes and does or not because it’s really happy and that’s because everybody’s happy in the world and that’s because it’s so happy and so smiling and they can do that with Jesus likes to do that but all those things just become and then they everyday and Jesus does that and that’s because it’s not fair and that’s when and then when you do it or not there’s something out there doing then and that’s because everybody wants to go because Jesus is only dead and everybody wants to go because everybody . . ."

Only the true parents of kids can tell what they say 100% and even then sometimes we have to guess but with this one we're pretty sure that's what she said and that's because we know her all so well and that's because she's really really happy and that's because . . .

Anyways, the true winner is the one that can interpret this mess and tell us what the MEANING of it all is.  Good Luck!

Ever played the game Quelf?

A challenge to Grandpa!

Yesterday the Clarks came over and dug up some buried treasure. Someone who once lived here made a treasure map. It is quite challenging to figure it out. Brandon spent the most time cracking the code and finally, with the help of all, found the X that marked the spot. See the video on how it went from there . . .

The loot has now been put back and the challenge is extended to Grandpa Harlow when he comes in December to also figure out and find the buried treasure!

Josi reading Scriptures

Please put in your comments the subtitles you think belong to this clip!

Photos

I have been wanting to get pictures of the kids this year. I finally got a few, outside the theatre on Josi's birthday. I don't really like all of the buildings in the background, but the grass was so green and the palm trees were great. The kids just wanted to run around so I only got a few that turned out at all. Here are the best of them. I think I may have to try again later though.

Josi's 4th Birthday

For Josi's birthday she wanted to go to the theatre to watch Bolt. Unfortunately it didn't come out until the next week. She settled for Madagascar 2, which she was still super excited about. The kids and I went and had a lot of fun. It was really cute.
I also decided to give the icecream cake another shot. This time I decided to put real cake in it, not just icecream. So Josi picked out the cake mix, which was strawberry and I used strawberry swirl icecream. She found a tinkerbell candle in the baking section when she picked out her cake so I got that for her too.
My second attempt turned out much better and I also gave myself more time.


She got Sleeping Beauty from us, a couple of Dora card games and Strawberry Shortcake figurines from Grandma and Grandpa Baird and she chose this horse with her money from Nana.


She is so happy to be 4. She tells everyone that she comes across, including the cashiers at every store we go to that she is four now. She tells me all of the things she can do now that she is bigger because she is four. Wow, I can't believe I have a 4-year old.

Twilight

I, like a lot of other girls/women have read the 'Twilight' series by Stephanie Meyer. The movie for the first book just came out yesterday. I haven't been terribly excited to see it, because the movie people always ruin it and I think the actor they chose to play the lead guy isn't as good-looking as the character is supposed to be. But, I have wanted to see it just for curiosity's sake. Last night my sweet husband surprised me with tickets to go see it. He arranged for Karin to watch the kids and told me we were just going to go hang out with the Clarks for the evening. When we got there I started to get settled in and Karin looks at the clock and says, "you two should probably get going". I was quite confused and looked over at Ben for some clarification. He just gets a big grin on his face and says "surprise!" and pulls out a folded up paper. It was the online tickets to go see the 8pm showing of Twilight. So we went, just the two of us, to the theatre and we got popcorn and drinks and candy! That hasn't happened since before Josi was born. We rarely go to the theatre anyway and even then we drag the kids along so we don't have to find and pay for a babysitter. (Thank you so much for that Karin. Not many people will work for cold movie theatre popcorn:)

It is probably good that I went in with such low expectations for the movie because I actually enjoyed it more than I thought I would. It did have it's issues for me (like all novel to movie adaptations) but overall I was pleased with it. Thanks Babe, I love you so much! Thanks for this great surprise.

Hyrum's 2nd Birthday

For Hyrum's Birthday we had pizza and let the kids play Mario Kart by themselves. Hyrum rarely gets to play it. He is just so little still. He was so happy that we let him do it by himself.

I made an ice cream cake for him. This was my first. I decided a little late to do it, so I didn't get to let it set up enough between layers so it was a little melty. The next day it was much more yummy.

When we started singing happy birthday to him he was a little embarrassed. It was so cute.

He liked his icecream cake so much, he licked the bowl clean.

Hyrum got two Veggie Tales DVDs from Grandma and Grandpa Baird, 'Cars' jumbo crayons from us and 'Word World' playdough with fruit molds with the money that Nana sent him.

He was so excited by it all.

THANK YOU NANA, GRANDMA AND GRANDPA!

The molds are so cute. Each fruit is made up of the letters that spell the word.

For My Mom and Rooster

This post is for my mom and little brother, Andy. This is the handywork of my little man Hyrum about 3 weeks ago. He dumped half a can of comet (which was the whole can) all over the bathroom floor. Andy did the same thing when he was about Hyrum's age.
Here are his cute little handprints.

More Home Improvements

With the holidays drawing near and the potential of many visitors during them, Ben and I decided we should get a couple of the little projects done that we had been putting off, because we could live with them. The first was in the kids bathroom upstairs. We haven't used the toilet since we moved in, because we were told that it leaked. So we replaced the wax seal under it, which looked like it had never created a seal at all. Because we have tile floors, we had to use two seals. We also replaced the handle which had been broken and the fill valve because it made a terrible sound each time the toilet was filling back up.

Our next project was in the 1/2 bath on the main floor. The sink in there was not attached to the wall so it wobbled. This first picture is from before we painted the house. It had nasty yellow stuff dripping down behind the sink.
After we took

the sink off we found that

the bathroom wasn't built to have a pedestal sink there. We had to cut out the drywall, put in a backer board to attach the bracket that holds the sink to the wall, and then replace the drywall. This is after we had done that and I was just starting to re-spackle it.

Here is more of that nasty yellow stuff. It looked like someone tried to glue the sink to the wall, so we had to scrape all of that gunk off.

Here is the finished job. It appears that I am a genius with spackle :) You can barely tell we had cut a hole in the wall. And now it doesn't budge at all.

Our last project was to paint our dining room table to match the chairs we got. Karin was kind enough to come and help me with it. I had never done anything like repainting a table so I was nervous to do it myself. First we sanded it then painted it. I got the blackest black that Lowes had but when we opened the can of paint, it looked navy blue! I decided that it was just the reflection of the sky because we were outside. That made Karin laugh:) Ben helped me bring it back inside when he got home from work. The first thing he said was "It's blue". When the light bounces off just right, it does look a little blue.
So here are the before and after pictures. You can be the judge(s).

And here the table is (minus the leaf) back in the dining room. It looks pretty good, but I think I will put a coat of polyurethane to protect it better and make it easier to wipe off.

Here is my crack-up little Josi. She touched the table right after I had finished one of the coats. Karin always gets the best pictures!

Hyrum's New Do

For Hyrum's Halloween costume we actually shaved his head like Mr. T.'s, then used mascara to make it black and stand up straight. Saturday morning I fixed it. I think he looks pretty cute with a mohawk.

Immediately after these pictures were taken I had to completely shave his head because we were going to a barbeque for Ben's work that a customer was putting on. He didn't think he should take his kid with a mohawk when he is trying to impress a customer. So now he is a little cue ball.

Halloween

For Halloween Josi was Tinkerbell and Hyrum was Mr. T. This is just before we left for our ward Halloween Hulla-boo-lo. They had a chili dinner, mini carnival for the kids and then a costume parade with trick-or-treating. In the costume contest Hyrum won the "Most Clever Costume". Everybody loved his costume. Grown men were awed.

Afterward we took them around our block to do a little real trick or treating. I couldn't find the other trick-or-treating basket we had for Hyrum which was a jack-o-lantern so he had to use that yellow basket which looks more like an Easter basket.
Here is my last minute costume choice. It was definately one of a kind.

Chicago O'hare Airport

The trip home from Toronto we had a 4 hour layover in Chicago. To pass a little time Ben and I walked to another Terminal to see the light tunnel. It was pretty cool. These pictures don't do it justice.

On the way there, we passed a dinosaur and this neat Lego display. The Statue of Liberty is actually made of legos. She is holding a windmill instead of a torch though. The display was basically an add for the wind power energy company.

Canada Day 2- Casa Loma

Sunday was our last day and we had the entire day to do whatever we wanted. Our flight didn't leave until 2:30. Ben's boss, Kenneth, and his wife invited us to go with them to Casa Loma (house on the hill). It is a 98 room mansion that they call a castle. Sir Henry Pellat built it and eventually when bankrupt, before it was even finished. He began the project of building it in 1911. It took 3 years and $3.5 million. The Kiwanis Club owns it now.

This fountain is right out front.

This is the swimming pool in the basement. It didn't get finished. In the basement there was also a space that was supposed to be a bowling alley. It just has a cafe in it now for the tourists.

My favorite room was the conservatory. It was Canadian Thanksgiving and they were setting up for a brunch so we couldn't go inside.

This is Sir Pellat's room.

When the house was built he had top of the line everything, including this shower that sprayed from every direction when most homes barely had running water.

This room belonged to Lady Pellat. She was in a wheelchair so she spent most of her time in her room. Looking at these pictures, Josi said she wanted this room. I have to agree with her. I wouldn't mind have a bedroom like this.The closet was amazing too.

This room is called the Round Room. It is perfectly round and all of the doors and windows were specially made to fit with the curve of the walls. Look at the detail on the ceilings too! This was intended to be a sitting room for when royalty was visiting.

Ben's favorite part were the secret passages.

There was one on each side of this fireplace. One went up to his room on the second floor and the other went down to the wine cellar in the basement.

There was also a passage that went from the basement to under the stables/garage/potting shed. It felt like it was a mile long. You couldn't really see the other building from the main house, so it was far even if it wasn't a mile.

You could go up into the towers of the castle. To get there you climbed 4 sets of stairs, two of which were these spiral stairs. It was tough for me going up and even worse coming down.

And this is a view from the tower.There was only a tiny window to look through. The other tower was closed for repairs, but normally you could go out on top of it.

This is the back patio and a view of the grounds from it. I love the fountain.

The grounds were so beautiful, probably my favorite part of the whole thing. This is a little of the formal part of them.

You'll need to click on the photos to see them better. The one on the left has a a cool gazebo in it.

And this is a path to the informal part of the grounds.



This is a really neat sculpture that was on the grounds.

When we got closer I discovered just why is was so neat. And then I read the plaque.