A Merry little Christmas.....

Is is Halloween or Christmas? We never know at our house with Buzz and Cinderella running around. Jaelyn also told the cashier at Macey's today that she was going to be Jessie (from Toy Story2) for Halloween next year. The girl understood since Jaeln was wearing a red cowboy hat that Mac actually got for Christmas. Don't get me wrong, I am always glad to have advance notice. I can start working on costumes ASAP -- yea, right.

Anyway, Mac had a great Christmas with his Toy Story friends.

Jaelyn is still a little princess. I would love to do something other than pink, but I just know when this 'princess/pink' stage is over, I will miss it, so I am not going to wish it away.

My family came over Christmas morning for breakfast.
Rog is always in charge of the pancakes - mine are no good
and my kids will agree with me.

We also had fun sledding at Grandpa's house. The kids can't get enough, but man am I getting old. I am starting to hate the cold which has never really bothered me before. Yuck! Getting old 'is for the birds' -- as my Dad would say.

Whatch been up to??? --Having Fun!!

We haven't been doing anything overly exciting,
just enjoying the season by having fun.
We had a great ward party this year. We went 'back to Bethlehem'. The gym was decorated like old times and we had to buy our food at the market. There were pitas, cheese, breads, olives, fruit and cider. It was a struggle to get through the busy marketplace with two hungry kids who wanted to hold our tokens. Each family dressed up and brought their own blanket to sit on and eat while we watched the Christmas program.
It took a lot of work and thankfully we weren't very involved in the work, just the fun. Phew!

For FHE tonight we went to see the Nativity in town up close. Jaelyn has been wanting to do it for weeks. We braved the cold in our snow clothes and played around while a man used a snow blower nearby. The kids thought it was great to have a man-made snowstorm.
We also looked at the gingerbread houses.
This was Jae's favorite - how could anyone have ever guessed?

Jaelyn made these cute Rudolph cookies to take to her friends at school.
Easy for a 4 year old as well as her mom:)The kids got to tell Santa what they would like for Christmas. That was the easy part. The hard part is trying to be good so they will actually get what they asked for. What will mom hold over their heads when Christmas is over? Isn't this a glamour shot?

Rog made a lot of $$$ selling Twilight books on ebay. Although it was my find, he put all the work into selling and shipping. Good work Rog!

We also visited the dentist. Jaelyn did a great job. She is getting so grown up. Mackay (as you can imagine) wouldn't have any of the dental nonsense. Rog got the brunt of this check up and actually was getting his first ever root canal tonight. A friend in the ward took care of Rog since we still see a dentist in SLC. They were at his office from 9-11pm tonight. Rog reports that Brent is a great dentist, and I quote, "I didn't feel a thing". Wow! Now that is a referral.
We want to wish everyone a safe and happy Christmas!!!

Shout out for all the Griswolds out there.

Roger is the Clark W. Griswold of our street. (This picture doesn't do much justice to the way our house lights up the street). Rog seems to love hanging Christmas lights. He tells the neighbors that I make him do it, but it is a total lie. Our kids love the lights and I appreciate his hard work. The neighbor kids also appreciate the deer - there are a lot of mornings that we find them in questionable positions:) Roger is also like Clark W. Griswold in other ways. I often find myself saying, "I don't want to spend the holiday's dead" as he is speeding down an icy road. Luv ya, Rog

A 'Shout Out' to my Mexico gals!!!

It has been 10 years (this week) since we came home from our pediatric rotation in Merida, Mexico. I can't believe it has been that long. When I look at these pics, it seems like it was just last week.

This is my favorite little Mexican man, Chu-cho. Everyone expected me to return to Mexico to marry him, but sadly that never happened. Chu-cho and I had this funny connection even though we couldn't communicate that well. "Dead dog" - followed by that infective laugh.

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Does "Feliz Navidad" ring a bell, or a frijole? It should. Sing it once (or over and over) this Christmas in honor of Jodi!

One of the prettiest places I have ever seen. "How Great Thou Art". Angela (the gal with my favorite last name in the whole world) and I were taking pics and not paying attention, as usual.

Chichen Itza - I am sorry if I am not spelling things right, everything just looks wrong tonight.

The most awesome sand in the world and the clearest water - Cancun.

An odd fountain to entertain ourselves as Alberto rambled on.
Oh, Kermit and Aneesa, most of the Mexican kids were a little scared of the puppets and Aneesa. Mostly Aneesa. Their fears were warranted:) The rest of the nursing students were a tad scared as well. "I'm not scared", -- Jennie/Alisa.

[I don't know why this is suddenly underlining. It must be important:)]

I couldn't feel good about life if I didn't post a toilet shot. Notice the shower just a foot or so behind Tricia. Hey, we were just excited because we were the one room that had a seat on the toilet. Lucky us.
The next pic is of a calendar we made out of a garbage bag to count the days down until we got to go to Cancun and home. If I got a chance to do it all over again, I would never count down the days to come home. It was way too much fun. Thanks for all the memories girls. Love ya!

Another Surgery

One of Jaelyn's tubes fell out over the past few weeks. I noticed because she suddenly became hard of hearing again. Since she was having the tube replaced, we decided to have her tonsils and adenoids taken out too. She has always been a horrible snorer. The surgery was yesterday. Things went well. If anyone wants to see the gruesome picture, let me know. I know some have queasy stomachs (Jed):) Jaelyn did a great job. She came out of the OR asleep. They put her in Rogers arms and she instantly peed on him. He really wasn't too happy about it, but he got a free set of hospital scrubs out of it. What a trooper. Jaelyn woke up mad about the IV in her hand and saying, "I hate you, I hate this". Usually only sweet things come out of Jae's mouth, so this was surprising. It made me realize that down deep, she is her mother's daughter. She is also her father's daughter, because when we got home she started puking and really didn't stop until she went to be last night. Roger always professes to have a 'stomach of steel', but when it comes to anesthesia he is a lightweight. Now we know that Jaelyn is too. She is also like her dad when it comes to puking. I will do anything to keep myself from vomiting, she does it like it's no big deal, even when it is coming out of her nose and tears are streaming down her face. Hope I didn't make anyone want to hurl, but I am just keeping notes here on my blog. No one can accuse me of not keeping a journal.
Today Jaelyn is just fine. Eating everything and playing. She is so easy. Mackay on the other hand not easy. He is probably getting his tonsils out next week (we will know for sure tomorrow). I forewarned the ladies in outpatient surgery. They said that they would be ready for him. Hmmmm........ they obviously don't know Mackay.

What did you do this weekend?

We kept busy over the Thanksgiving weekend.

We decorated our (fat) tree.
Don't you just love how 95% of the ornaments
are on the bottom half of the tree. I love it.
This is definitely our 'family' tree.

We pulled 'scary' faces.

Daddy made the best "Mickey Pancakes".

We watched Jaelyn perform at Novemberfest.
She did and great job, and so did Riley.
Can you believe they are only 2.5 months apart in age?

Mackay and London had fun watching, and dancing along with the music.


And last, but not least, we went to Temple Square after picking my niece Tori up at the airport. She was our photographer, so we don't have a pic of her. Sorry, Tori:)

We had a fun, busy, and exhausting weekend all wrapped into one.

Let the Holiday Season Begin!

We had a fun day today. Jaelyn has been wanting to get ready for Christmas since Halloween. I have held her off by telling her, "After Thanksgiving". Well, it is now, 'after Thanksgiving". She thought that we needed to do everything today, like decorate the entire house, decorate a gingerbread house, and decorate the outside of the house. We got one thing done.

We also went to the Nutcracker tonight with Grandma. It has become a yearly tradition because Jaelyn loves it so much. She wants to be Clara. We saw the little girl who was Clara on our way out of the theatre. Jaelyn had to show her the Clara ornament we bought (in the pic below). The girl was thrilled because Jaelyn treated her like she was some sort of movie star.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Beautiful Weather.

Mackay got lucky today. His daddy fired up the snowmobiles which had both boys grinning from ear to ear. Whenever I ask Mackay, "What do you want to do today?" He says, "I go on da snowbil." He is a child that knows what he wants. It is hard to calm a tantrum when there is no way I can give in (even if I wanted to). I haven't figured out a sure fire way to get a snowstorm just yet, but if anyone has any advice we are ready to try anything. We are ready for snow. It seems weird to have so many beautiful sunny days in a row this time of year. I love the seasons here, because they keep me feisty. In 4 months I will be wishing the snow was gone, and be hoping for sun, but here's to 4 seasons!! Cling!
Here the kids are enjoying another sunny beautiful (55-60ish degree) day. They had a picnic in their playset. We even had to throw the tarp on to block the bright rays. Roger winterized the wave-runners way too soon:) We haven't really been able to enjoy the sunny days as much as we would like because we have all had the cold that never wants to warm up. Cough!!

Update on personalities - Mac's new saying is, "That's strange" - usually said with his pointer finger touching his lips. He doesn't quite know when to say it, so when he does it is a crack up. The past few weeks I have noticed a change in Mac. I am able to reason with him more than ever and he hasn't had a stranger outburst in a while. My baby is growing up. Phew!
Jaelyn is continuing to prove that her DNA is over-whelmingly Roundy. Her friend came over for about 5 minutes when we were outside the other day. She pulled Jaelyn in the wagon for a minute in our driveway and then she said, "It's my turn for a ride". Jaelyn jumped right out and pulled her down the sidewalk. Next thing I know she is running full speed down the driveway next door (which is pretty steep). Meg is screaming and of course there was a crash at the bottom of the driveway. As I told Jae, "You can't outrun a wagon". (pretty clever, huh?) She is so much like her dad. Extreme sports and no fear. Bigger, faster, farther. Jae recently figured out out to get herself going on the swing. The next thing I know, her dad is teaching her how to jump out of the swing at higher and higher heights. I will definitely update on any broken bones.

More Free Time!!!

Church Volleyball - who would have thought that it could be so fun. We had a great time, and took 2nd place. We started early Saturday morning and when Jaelyn showed up, she was in her full cheerleader attire, pom-poms, short skirt and all. I wish I would have got a pic of her. I wasen't going to post this pic, but I thought it would be a good place to document the all the gals names. Here goes back row - Jan, Kris Ann, Amy, Deann, Heather M. front- Kristi, me, Keri, and Heather B.

Fall Fun!

I have had some free time the past few days since the RS President is out of town, and my lesson was last Sunday. I have found time to do those things I used to enjoy, like reading, cleaning and blogging..... so here goes.
Since we don't have leaves at our house, we raked leaves at the church. No, it wasn't a service project, it was just for fun. We also bagged some leaves to put on a few of my prissy plants.

We took out the wave runners on November 1st. It was a nice day.
The kids love chasing the seagulls that hang out on Hyrum Dam.

Alice and Buzz with their Jack-o-Lanterns.

The kids didn't want much to do with pumpkin carving. Jaelyn doesn't like work, and Mackay (who is a great worker) doesn't like his hands to be dirty, so Roger and I were on our own. We came to an agreement that we wouldn't 'gut pumpkins' next year if the kids didn't help. I think we said the same thing last year. It is a good thing there are 365 days between each Halloween.


We had a get-together partial sleepover with all the friends since B and Ash were in town. The definition of a partial sleepover is that the kids fall asleep at our house and then wake up at their houses the next morning. They may or may not have recollection of being carried to the car and riding home in the middle of the night, but their parents sure do.