Sunday, December 30, 2007

What to do with all his time?

What does your husband do when he only has one full time job instead of two? Mine does this:
Plays a little Guitar Hero III. (Okay a lot of it, we've both been up til 1 am every night this week playing this very addicting game. I have to admit, Jarom ROCKS at it.)

Cleans, organizes, and builds shelves for the garage. This place doesn't even look like the same garage. When Halle saw it she said, "What happened to the junk pile?"

Organizes and cleans the pantry. I can now see everything I have (as well as everything I need to go buy).Jarom taking time off from HP this past week has been very productive for me. Thanks for all your hard work J!!

Friday, December 28, 2007

Merry Halloween?

I keep forgetting to write this little funny from Kate down. When we were delivering our neighbor gifts all the kids would jump out of the car to go to the door. Kate was feeling completly left out as she was strapped in to her carseat. She kept saying, "I wanna trick-or-treat!" She thought the kids were getting something good without her.

Wednesday, December 26, 2007

What's that thing called?

And my final post for today (whew I'm all "blogged" up) is a funny from Carter. This morning bright and early he came in and woke Jarom and me up and said, "Wake up! I want to play the wiener!" It's called a wii son, a wii....

Santa Came!!!

When the kids came down and saw the breakfast Santa had left on the table, they were completely satisfied with that. They didn't even bother asking to go downstairs to see the toys. It was so funny, they just ran to the table and started opening juice boxes and some candy.

Carter got some tools. He's been so into helping Daddy build the basement and he's had a lot of fun with this toolbench. Aren't those goggles classic?

All the kids in their new robes and slippers. Yet another classic Christmas gift.


Don't mind my rotten little 2 year old in this video. She was upset that Halle had helped open the present. She wanted to do it herself. We have had MORE fun with this stupid thing than we probably should be having. Jarom and I can't get enough of Guitar Hero. It's just a blast!

Kate and her pretty baby. Santa could NOT pass this dolly up. It reminded him so much of little Kate. I hope Kate loves it as much a I do.

The giant aftermath aka Christmas tornado. It takes WEEKS to prepare for and only minutes to end up like this, but ahhhhh, it's SO much fun!

Christmas Eve

We had a full packed Christmas Eve, complete with shopping amongst the insane crowds for a few last minute items. We enjoyed cookie baking, snowman making, a yummy ham dinner, and opening a few presents.

I am still VERY new to this Picasa collage stuff, so sorry that some of the above pictures got repeated. On Christmas Eve we opened our ornaments. Kate got a little marshmallow smore princess just because it reminded us of her (a cute little chubby thing all dressed up). Carter got a soccer playing snowman because he took his first soccer class this past fall. Halle got a cute little mouse sleeping in a crayon box because she's our little artist. Alyssa got an Asian house and little girl because she has a new pen pal from Singapore. Jarom got a school house because he finally graduated from college and I got a Santa, just because he was cute.


We also opened our pajamas from Grandma and our gifts to each other. After the present opening we jumped in the car to look at Christmas lights. Then it was off to bed for the little ones, and surprisingly they went rather well and quickly.

Let it Snow and Snow and Snow....

We got dumped on Christmas Eve. It was so much fun to wake up to it snowing outside. (We're very grateful it waited until after we got home from Salt Lake to start though.) It just snowed and snowed all day. No doubt about having a white Christmas for us.

The kids played outside for a really long time. Worked out great for me, I got lots of wrapping and baking done. The snow was just perfect for snowman building and they worked hard.

The snow blower's belt fell off and we had to call my dad in to help us get it up and running again. Here he is giving it a whirl. He played with it almost as long as the kids worked on their snowman. (Look at all the snow in the driveway, and we had to plow two more times that day.)

A shot of my house with all the winter snow on it. (Jennifer, I took this just for you so you could see the outside of my house.) I thought it looked like a perfect winter postcard or something.


And finally, Frosty is up! A carrot nose, and oreo eyes and mouth, he got stick arms later. He's standing right out my back window, it's so fun to look out and see a great big snowman staring at me. I just love all this snow. It makes it truly feel like Christmas again to me. (But I wouldn't be opposed to it melting in February.)

Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Our Christmas Holiday

We've had such a fun holiday week the last few days. I have so much to blog about, so I thought I'd do it in stages. First up our visit to Salt Lake City. We enjoyed seeing the lights on temple square, swimming with all the cousins in the hotel, and visiting friends and more cousins.

Kate all bundled up, ready to go.

Of course, like the crazy woman I am, made it all the way to SLC without Carter's coat. (I also forgot shirts for Kate, pj's for Kate and deodorant for me. I think my brain is somewhere, just don't know where.) So we had to buy a new one for him. I just thought this was a cute shot of him and Jarom together.

Enjoying the lights on Temple Square.

On Saturday I had some time to kill so Kevin, Becky, and I took the kids to the aquarium in South Salt Lake. It's really small, but has some cool things and the kids seemed to enjoy themselves. Here we are watching the octopus put on a show for us. It was really neat.

Trying to "pet" the rays. The water was just a little too deep, but every once in a while one would pop up near the surface.

We also thought we'd take the kids to see Santa at the mall, but I have NEVER seen so many people in a mall at one time in my life! The line to see Santa was at least an hour wait. (Not worth it!) So we just cruised around a little and tried to pile as many kids into one stroller as we could so that we didn't lose anyone. Thankfully it worked.

After this we went our separate ways, and I went on to see my good friend Julie (dumb me didn't take any pictures) and then down to Orem to visit my cousin Larissa and her girls.

Halle and Madelynn playing doctor. These kids had a blast together. It's so nice to be able to get them all together once in a blue moon.

Carter, Aurianna, and Alyssa playing "Don't Eat Pete!" I think these kids ate 20 packs of smarties. And of course, we couldn't NOT have a little trauma. I heard a CRASH and then Kate start sobbing and Aurianna bawling so I ran upstairs to see what on earth had happened. When I got upstairs I saw Kate naked, her hair dripping wet and covered in fish food. Aurianna was practically on her knees she was crying so hard and in the corner, the fish tank lying on the floor with fish, rocks and water EVERYWHERE!! Kate had climbed up on the dresser and pulled the tank down on top of herself. (Thankfully it was only a small one.) Poor little Aurianna was in hysterics thinking her fish were dead. Luckily they weren't and we saved them, but I don't know that I can say the same thing about the fish tank. Arggggghhhh.....my precious little Kate. Anyway, they all ended up in the tub after that little incident.

Aside from the fish disaster and a monster migrane on the drive home, I really enjoyed myself. Thanks to Larissa for housing us and it was great to see Julie too.

Friday, December 21, 2007

We Wish You a Merry Chirstmas!

We'll be gone for the next few days, so I just wanted to leave you all with a very merry Christmas wish. I hope you all have a great holiday and I can't wait to see all the pictures everyone will take!!!!



I thought was a cute shot of poor little Johnny covered in snow. We got quite a bit of snow today. Looks like Jarom can put his new toy to use tomorrow morning!

Remembering Childhood

Yesterday after I reminisced about my childhood days, my mom called to tell me that one of my childhood friends had passed away unexpectedly. (For you Bonneville people, it was Jason Martin.) He, his sister, my brother, and I all played together quite a bit when we were kids. (They were our neighbors.) Of course as we all grew up we went our separate ways, made different friends, and they moved. So I haven't seen some of them for almost 20 years. It was so strange to go to his viewing and see pictures of the kid I remembered and the grown man that I didn't know who was taken from this earth way too early. It was so nice to reconnect with many people I knew as a child and it just really hit me hard how fragile and unpredictable this life is. It made me want to grab on to every single moment and love my hubby, kids, family and friends to the absolute fullest! Anyway, the point of this post is to tell you all I love you and am SO grateful for your existence in my life.

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

How naughty were you?

So Jennifer did a tag on all the terrible things she did as a child. It's quite hilarious to think back and remember those awful things that must have made our parents want to hide under a rock. And although this really should be Jarom's post (peeing, pouring milk, and keeping bugs in the heater vent, hiding under his bed and eating an entire gallon of mint chip ice cream and then throwing it up, etc.) here are a few of the dirty deeds I pulled as a child.

1. I filled a BIG tree hole with water and then dumped an entire pallet of red kool-aid in it. It was probably 50-100 packages of kool-aid. Then, I was afraid my parents would find out so I solicited all the neighbor kids to help me bale the water out into the gutter. (Hmmm...I am sure my parents had no idea why I was red to my elbows and red water was running down the street.)

2. I jumped out of my second story bedroom window and made my LITTLE brother try to catch me. (Don't know how any of us came out of that without broken bones.)

3. I used to play "slaves" with my younger siblings. I would find anything I could to use as a whip/beating stick and make them clean my room for me.

4. I unwrapped my presents under the tree EVERY year to find out what I was getting. I got really good at using a razor blade to slice the tape perfectly so no one even knew the present had been touched.

5. I used to stick our cat in the big garage freezer, shut the door and then pretend to freak out while the freezer door would re-seal itself. The poor cat was probably in there for a full minute or so before I could re-open the door. And the poor food.....yuck. (And mom, No it was not me that put Bob in the freezer the time he slept in it all night. No one worry he lived.)

6. I used to ride the neighbor's horse bareback and used twine around her neck for a bridle and then would make the poor horse jump the ditch at a full run. If my kids did that now, I would have a coronary!

7. I would drive my dad's front-end loader tractor as fast as it would go, with all my siblings (and neighbor) in the bucket lifted as high as it would lift. Seriously, why aren't we all dead?!


8. I used to stand at the top of the slide in the playground and make people give me "tickets" before they could go down. The "tickets" usually consisted of rocks, leaves, sticks, money, candy, just whatever the poor kid had in their pocket to give me.

I am sure I have more things that I could add, but I can't think of them now. I am tagging all of you. Please share your terrible childhood deeds. (Quin you are SO tagged!) They're great for a laugh and most of the time a cringe.

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

New Christmas clothes.

Trying to get some more family pictures. It is my New Year's resolution to get more, even if they are imperfect. (Which the following ARE.) Testing the camera, the glare from the window was too bad so we ended up moving.


Cute full shot of the girls new dresses.

Fun one of the kids.


So we either get Kate not looking or Carter being a goof. Oh-well, at least we took the pictures.

Smith Nativity

Last night was my family's Nativity production. We were all participants. There is just something about donning a towel on your head and wearing a robe that totally feels like Christmas. We traveled from room to room reenacting the Nativity story and it turned out really cute. (We'll have to do this again next year when hopefully Quin and Natalie can be with us.)
Alyssa as Mary.


Carter as Joseph (or a Jedi Knight, which ever you prefer).


Halle as an Angel.

Kate as one of the littlest angels.

A wise guy and an angel.

Mom the main angel/narrator.

Liberty as a shepherd girl.

Kayson as Caesar. (He could double for the Little Caesar's pizza guy too.)

Dad in his towel and robe.

Mimi the gorgeous towns person.

The Inn Keeper (recorder) with his news station sized video camera.

The whole crew at the stable. (Which my dad built in about 45 minutes. That's my dad, ever the handy man.)

Sunday, December 16, 2007

Carter's Funny Sayings

The other day I told Carter to do something and he said to me, "Mom you're a big boss." I said, "That's right I'm a big boss. I'm the mom." Then Carter said, "Oh, you're the big boss and I'm the little boss."

Also, Carter LOVES to say the prayer. He always prays for the missionaries, only he says, "Please bless the Americans." It cracks me up every time.

Jarom's New Toy

Jarom bought himself a new toy the other night. (Merry Christmas to him.) I asked Halle "Is Dad still outside?" She said, "Yeah he's still snow mowing the front sidewalk with his snow mower."

Saturday, December 15, 2007

Happy Birthday Ellie!


We want to wish Ellie a very happy 7th birthday today. Ellie is such a quiet, beautiful little girl. She tries her best to be very obedient. We really hope you had a great time in Salt Lake. We love you!

Progressive Dinner 2007


Last night was our annual Manwaring Christmas Progressive Dinner. It was a night FULL of great food and fun. I think it was our best one yet. (Although honestly, when is a night full of food EVER bad?) I sure wish I would think to take more pictures at these events. (I borrowed these from my father-in-law.)

We started the night out with appetizers in Blackfoot at Justin and Amber's. They served us yummy deep fried ravioli with marinara sauce, a veggie tray, and my all time favorite spinach/artichoke dip with bread. Mmmmm....so good and practically a meal in itself.

A short drive to Shelley and we met up at Brandon and Emily's for drinks. Emily has a "Grinch" themed Christmas this year and served us Grinch Punch, a lemonade slush type drink complete with sugared rims. We got to listen to Grinch music, look at her cute Grinch tree, and even her dog Addie was "Grinched" by wearing her reindeer antlers. They also read "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas", but my family had to head out early to get the next course ready.

My house was in charge of the soup and I served my new favorite Baked Potato Soup. The grand kids performed the cutest nativity ever on my new stage. It was a great debut for our recently finished basement.




Next stop, Becky and Kevin's for jello cups. She made darling layered jello cups garnished with cool whip and a cherry on top. They looked like little cupcakes or something. So fun, and everyone gobbled them up.


Finally it was time to go to Gregg and Anna's (my parents-in-law) for the main course. It was delish. A pork loin roast, rice with cranberries and pine nuts, and rolls all served on REAL dishes. (Not paper.) By this point everyone was full to their throats so we kind of lingered and let everything settle.

Then we were off to our final stop at Ben and Kaylin's for dessert. She served a chocolate torte cake with peppermint ice cream. Right up my alley!



Everything was just delicious and I think I am still full. I really love this tradition and am so glad we get to live close by to participate in it. We miss Katie's and Melissa's families who live in UT at these types of events, but we'll get to see them next week, so all is well. Thanks everyone for all the wonderful food. I think eating is just about my most favorite thing in the world!