Christmas Eve Blah!

Christmas week started out rough for us. Gunnar started throwing up the day before Christmas Eve. Thank goodness that kid can take care of himself. He can make it to the bathroom every single time, doesn't really need a bucket and just very independent when it comes to being sick. I just have to reassure him that everything is okay, to wash his hands lots to keep away germs and help him with little things to keep him hydrated. Unfortunately, Christmas Eve early morning, I came down with the same thing. It was awful and things like that never seem to end. I had a one day stomach bug when I was pregnant with Brecken as well and it was not fun then. This baby moved TONS for the 10 hour bug that I had. I think it was partly because my insides were just messed up and awful but I also liked to think that he was telling me that I would be okay and that he was completely okay. It was reassuring to feel him so much.

Unfortunately, Gunnar and I missed out on some of our traditional Christmas Eve fun. We always go to a movie and look forward to it every year. We were bummed but better off staying home and resting while Jeff and Brecken went. I was determined to make it to the dinner later that night. Not to eat, but to give Cami our present to her. We had the Tracy's this year and I went in total overdrive for Cami. I was stoked! Unfortunately I did not get a single picture that day because I was just excited to be there. It was that bad. I sat in a recliner and didn't move at all. I could hear everyone talk about how awesome the bacon was etc and I didn't eat any of it. Instead I packed my own bananas, applesauce and 7up. Yippee! Because I wasn't feeling well, I didn't get a picture of Cami's loot. I initially bought her the movie Wee Sing Sillyville. We had this as a kid and I think everyone needs this movie. It is the best. Mindy has already requested it from me for her kids. My boys love it and apparently Cami does too. BUT then I found out she was getting a baby doll from Santa and I went crazy. I was at a craft bazaar with Paparazzi and the lady next to me made little doll clothes etc. She had little diapers with booties so I bought 2 sets and then little jammies. And then my mind went crazy. I made her scaled down burp cloths, a small baby doll blanket, wipes case and wipes and the coolest baby doll diaper bag ever! I was SO proud of myself and it was so easy to do. I really need to get a picture of everything. It sat on our counter for a while and every time I would walk by, I would look at it. Jeff teased me every time. I was that proud and excited about it. And the best part is that it was all made from scraps and just required my time. For Ren and Heidi we bought them huge cans of hot cocoa from the cannery and a big container of those dehydrated marshmallows. They loved it and I knew that they loved that kind! I loved the presents we gave this year.

They got us a season's pass to the Discovery Center!! I am SO excited. The boys and I will have fun this summer going and checking out the special exhibits they have. I hope to make it to a few of the preschool days this year as well. They also have the Bodies Revealed exhibit going right now. I want to go so bad but really didn't want to pay the price to get in. Now we can get discounted tickets into it because we are season pass holders! Double score!!

Even though I felt cruddy Christmas Eve this year, I was so thankful that I was still able to spend time with my family. I love my family so much and we always have a great time no matter what we are doing.

Santa Came To Town

We were invited to the annual Miller Christmas Party this year with all of Jeff's extended family. It was held at Jeff's Uncle Steve's house in Fruitland and it was SO much fun. Ahead of time they organized a cousin exchange so we bought for two other cousins that were assigned to our boys. And then Santa came with gifts for all of the kids. Gunnar was in complete awe. I've never seen him so mesmerized and out of it sitting on Santa's lap. This particular Santa was so funny! He said the best things ever making the adults bust up laughing. He didn't really do the typical what do you want type questions. He would make observations about the child. Like one little girl was wearing tights with flowers on them so he would ask her if they were painted on her legs making her completely laugh. Stuff like that and it was funny. He went to fist pump Gunnar about something, but he was so into sitting on Santa's lap that he hardly noticed what was going on and stiffed Santa. It was hilarious.

Now Brecken took a little prodding to get up there at first. But the nice parents that we are pretty much picked him up and threw him on Santa's lap and walked away. The awesome Santa that he was immediately gave Brecken a candy cane and he was sold. Then he got another one and he was so in to Santa. He would have sat there all day. At the very end Santa asked him to say "Merry Christmas" to everyone and he did. It was so cute and he really does say it in this cute little voice. Then he got a present and was thrilled.

All of the kids had to wait until the very end to open their presents. I was so surprised that Brecken understood and was so happy to wait. He's a good little waiter and opener when the time comes.

We had so much fun with family...aunts, uncles, cousins (many that I did not know well), their kids, Jeff's grandma and all of the spouses. We had super yummy food and desserts and great conversation. It was great and I will now look forward to it ever year.

And Then There Were...

You know those people that can get their kids to take the cutest pictures together. Not ours. They are crazy. They are either fighting each other off the entire time or one of them is doing something goofy or not paying attention. Brecken is at the age where you take one picture and he is done looking at you. So most of the time you have to take like 7 pictures all at once really fast. This series was really funny.

Get it?

A Scooby Doo and Bam Bam Too

Halloween felt like a marathon. Probably one of the most longest days of my life. It just kept going and going. Heidi and I had this great idea for the longest time to dress Cami up as Pebbles and Brecken as Bam Bam. Brecken looks and acts just like him. It was fitting. The problem is that Heidi is no crafter. We all know that. So that responsibility rested on me. Cami's outfit was pretty quick to make. No big deal. Brecken's was a little more involved and I waited until the night before to even start the thing. I had to make the skirt, hat, sash, bone and club which took me about 3 hours until 1am. I felt it the next morning badly. Gunnar also did not have school on Halloween or the two days after so that just adds to the craziness in the house.

The day before I contacted a local publication for advertising with Paparazzi. The lady wanted to me Halloween morning at 11:15am. I already technically missed the deadline for their holiday gift guide edition but they were letting me in. I needed to be in that edition so I made it work. We met at McDonald's so the boys could play and we could actually talk about everything. The interesting part was that I did a Paparazzi Open House for her last November so it felt like a full circle moment for us and made the meeting really relaxed and fun.

After McDonald's we had an hour to prepare for the Canyon County Courthouse trick or treating and I had to make 3 Paparazzi gift bags for a fundraiser Jeff's work was putting on this weekend. I should not have put that off too but I did. We got it done, dressed, and headed over to Jeff's work with Probation and the courthouse. For the last few years, it has been fun to trick or treat with Jeff while he works and his coworkers love seeing the kids all dressed up. It's very fun. We got to trick or treat all 3 floors of the courthouse where many departments decorated in Halloween fun. Total hilarious side note, one of our really good friends April went over there with her girls. Her husband also works with Jeff so she was excited. She talked to another friend beforehand who said it took about an hour to go through. It took April about 10-15 minutes to go through. Later that night as we all met up to trick or treat the neighborhood, April learned that she missed two of the floors. She seriously missed most of the fun! It was pretty funny and now she knows for next year.

After that, Brecken needed a nap SO bad if he was to make it the rest of the night. We stopped at Sonic for the $.50 corndogs and hit it just right for half off drinks and grabbed a couple of slushes and headed home. Brecken went right down after we ate. I wanted to head to our local salon and say hi at their halloween party and vote for the best dressed stylist. The winning stylist won a Kindle Fire and then one lucky person that voted would win one too. Why not. She I woke Brecken up, got them dressed, to the salon and then back home in time to meet up with everyone to trick or treat the neighborhood.

Okay, so here is my rant. I know Trunk or Treats are the thing, its safe, yada yada, yada...but I am not a fan. It's 30 minutes of speed trick or treating. Pretty much after 10 minutes the same kids go through over and over again and it drives me nuts. I guess I remember the good old days where I had to walk from house to house. Yes, it seems like that was the only thing to do (no trunk or treats) so almost every house was participating but now its hit and miss or maybe it is where we live now. We live in an older established neighborhood which I LOVE! I can see where back in its day there were kids every where but all the kids have now grown so its different now. However those many houses that do have their lights on love it when we knock. They get so excited! There was an older lady giving out cookies and fig newtons, literally out of the packaging. So sweet. Brecken thought it was great because he had an instant snack on the go. We had 5 kids total (and a baby-so six) and people thought we were a neighborhood group of sorts. Nope, just a bunch of friends and family. We had fun and the weather was in the 70's! Awesome!

Heidi and I lucked out on a shopping trip and found this Scooby Doo costume at a local kids consignment place. He was so happy. He didn't have any ideas what he wanted to be this year. He told me this is what he always wanted to be. I was worried about sizing. It looked like it worked from the neck to the crotch area but I could tell it was made for a very short child or they chopped the legs off. Thank goodness it fit overall and he work brown pants underneath which worked for warmth too.

Brecken was hilarious. He was SO excited the entire month. He LOVES pumpkins the most by far. At the courthouse, he was way into the decorations and not so much into the candy. He was the same way and every persons house. It got to the point that he was also into knowing if the owner had a dog and would look into their house for one. He is a nut. Cami kept saying "Beckie dress." Yep Cami, he has a skirt on and I used one of yours as a pattern. He is also wearing girls leggings. haha. I didn't want anything baggy. It was just there for warmth. I used a dog bone cookie cutter we have as the pattern for the bones. The club I drew freehand. I used a Paparazzi cardboard box as stability on the inside, wrapped it with the pink foam that comes in the boxes so I didn't have to stuff it a ton and then added extra stuffing to round it out. I also stitched a wood grain on it which was fun. Jeff said that is not what a club really looks like. Whatever...

Gunnar told me later in the day that everyone says Brecken is so cute and they know what he is. Nobody knows that I am Scooby Doo. They think I am a dog and that makes me sad. I told him that not everyone knows Brecken is bam bam. They think he is a caveman. Gunnar had no idea what that was and I had a good laugh and told him that he'll be fine.

 They saw each other for the first time. It was funny and they were excited! At one house, the lady said that Cami was such a cute pumpkin. What!? If anything, she could have been a watermelon. As we were walking down the step, she commented on the bone in her hair. I really don't know if she made the connection at all. We had a good laugh with that one.

I love how Cami is standing there by herself. She started out quite grumpy. Gunnar with his buds-Paige (Belle), Jayden (Batman) and Gunnar (Scooby Doo). We had such a fun group with us this year. The older kids had a blast!

Afterwards, we headed to my mom's like we always do so the kiddos can show off their costumes. With two trick or treaters, we came out with quite the haul this year.

Total rant (and Heidi and Jeff agree): It bugs when people come up with catchy little things to get rid of their kids Halloween candy. We have a local dentist that will buy back your kids candy at a certain rate. I think they donate it to troops overseas or something but still. Then I read the idea on Facebook last night of Switch Witch. Let the kids pick out their 8 or 10 pieces of candy. Then set out the buckets of candy. The next morning a present/small toy will be in its place. Okay, irritating. If you only wanted your kids to have a few pieces of candy, maybe you should have trick or treated that many houses and then stopped. Then let the kids help pass out candy or something at that point. I refuse to go out and buy a toy or something additional for something that I allowed them to do. Dumb in my opinion. What am I going to do with some of the candy, I am going to save some for their stockings at Christmas time. Then I don't have to buy anymore. Now I read that somewhere and I thought that was smart...save yourself some money...

"Our Little Family"

I'm trying, trying, trying to do more blogging for records sake. When I read posts from years past, I just love it. I forgot so many moments happened and just get so excited to read about them again and look at the old pictures. Anyway, here we go. Two posts in one week...wow!

Spirit of Boise Balloon Glow 

So this totally is a pet peeve of mine. When people use the phrase "our little family" in any type of sentence of reference it just bugs. I've thought about this many times and even talked to Mindy about it the other day. When I think of little family (which the phrase bugs in any use of it), I think of a mom and dad and one small child. But when I see people using the phrase often, they have like 3+ kids and they are all like 4 and older. Now that drives me nuts. There is no little in any sense of the word when it comes to their family. Their kids are by no means little and their family sure is not little. I don't even think two kids counts as little. That makes 4 people total. It just drives me nuts. When I see it mentioned, I just think "Here we go again...". People just need to stop using it. Period.

The month of September brought more Paparazzi fun. I did a huge women's expo in town and boy was it insane! The entire thing was our target market so it was nutso but so much fun! I can't wait to do that one again. The very next day we headed to Vegas as a family for the 1st ever Paparazzi Convention. We had to make it there by Sunday because I was a special guest to the Leadership Dinner. We stayed Saturday night at my aunts house in St. George. I just love those cousins. I so wish we all lived closer. There would never be a dull moment for sure. Sunday we headed to Vegas. Checked into the hotel and I got ready. Okay, so those casinos are ridiculous. Really not a fan. We stayed at the Rio and honestly I did not find anything really fun about that city expect for a ton of people and chaos. That's just how I felt. The hotel was so smoky gross. Pretty bad when your two year old is coughing because it's nasty. I'm pretty sure that for most people, it's all fun.

The Leadership Dinner was SO fun! My very tippy top upline invited me as her guest and boy was I thrilled. I got a fancy invitation ahead of time and everything. Then days before I got to Vegas, she let me know that we were riding in a limo to dinner! How fun is that. Plus we didn't have to figure out how to get to the restaurant and/or pay for a taxi. When we got there for the limo, we assumed everyone got a limo ride. We were wrong. She is one of the top 5 consultants in the company thus got the limo ride. Woohoo! It was so fun and I already knew some of the people in the limo so it made it even better. Dinner was at Fogo de Chao, one of those super fancy Brazilian restaurants. It was even spendier than the one here in Boise and I thought that one was expensive. We ate and ate and ate and ate some more. We got to order whatever we wanted, even dessert that was so beautiful. I am so bad at pictures, so I don't have any sadly. We got a Paparazzi ring at our place setting and mine has not been released since the very beginning of the company, so that was fun. Rachel and I had a blast. If we lived closer, I can totally see us being closer friends. We laughed and had a great time.

All ready for the night. I actually put makeup on. You can't really tell and yes this is a big deal for me. Obviously I don't put enough on to look like a drag queen in real life but pretty good in pictures.

When you rounded the corner, you saw this. All of the consultants that have ranked Director and above. It was pretty fun.

This was on the floor at the very start of the corner. It was huge and exciting! Along the windows in the background you can see the huge banners that were put up for Paparazzi.

There I am! I'm a Premier Director! I counted, there were about 90 consultants that have reached this rank out of about 9000 worldwide. I was pretty darn proud of myself after I saw this display.

Rachel Kirby, the one I went to the Leadership Dinner with. I love her!

The founders, Misty Kirby, Trent Kirby, Ryan Reeves, and Chani Reeves. The two ladies are sisters.

My boys had a lot of fun. They got to get a lot of dad time in because I was gone for something or another. He wore them out pretty good. Sunday night they went and visited Jeff's friend that he hadn't seen in about 12 years. Monday they swam all day and Tuesday they went hiking to Red Rock Canyon Interpretive Center. Gunnar was excited to tell me all of the cool things that they saw from that. Don't let this fool you. Brecken never, ever slept in his own bed. That stinker slept in ours and he is the WORST sleeper with people. It was aweful! Wednesday we left and stopped by the Las Vegas Temple before heading back to Utah.

This temple reminded us a lot of the Boise temple in design over all. We were able to walk completely around it and see the pretty landscaping.

If you don't get pictures the first time around, Brecken is pretty much done after the first shot. I just look tired and ready to head home.

We love palm trees! So neat how you can see this one trimmed up.

We wanted to make it as close to Salt Lake as we could because we figured this was a great opportunity to stay stop at Temple Square. We just never get to Utah. So we stayed with my cousin Jessica and her family. Our boys met Emma in St. George when they were there. They were SO excited to see Emma!

Taking pictures of two two-year olds is nearly impossible.

They were copying Gunnar in the background.

You can tell we stayed in a girl house. We love goofing off with girly things.

Jeff had to stop at Cabela's. They had a lot of dead animals.

On top of the Conference Center. We've never been on top. We realized that every time we tried it was winter or raining and they won't let anyone up there for safety reasons.

We had a lot of fun on our quick trip to Vegas. We made Gunnar go to school the very next day and we got back late the day before. I just had too. He had the entire week off for Fall Break and just missed almost a week. It was fun to get away and I couldn't imagine leaving my family behind.

Wow! Has it really been that long since I last posted. I find life so interesting. When Gunnar was a toddler, I found blogging and blogged all of the time. It was fairly new then and not widely known. I had friends and family all over blogging and that was the way that we stayed connected. I didn't want to miss the day to day happens of what was going on with Gunnar and I didn't want to miss that of the blogs I followed. Then Facebook came around and it seems like everyone uses that as a "journal" of sorts to share their happenings which is a total shame because, really to me, it is not...I'm trying to think of the right word...archival or long term memory keeping. That just sounds funny, but hopefully you know what I mean. I've come to realize that there is a time and season for everything. My season right now is 2 busy kiddos (poor Brecken hardly exists in our family), running a business and being a wife and mom (and all that entails). Holiday time is so busy with Paparazzi that I even had to put my Etsy shop on a long term vacation right now so that I could survive. Holiday time is also my busiest time for my shop as well but something had to go if I was going to keep my sanity and be successful so the one with long term benefits won out. I was sad. I did shed and internal tear for that decision but I know that it was the right one. All of this is much like blogging. There is a time and a season and the every day or several times a month posts are of the past right now. It sure nags at my mind all of the time how I need to get on here but I do what I can do. Finally I just sat down. Cami and Brecken has destroyed my house, thankfully they are napping (they are awesome nappers and buddies), I have apple pie filling that has been staring me down to be canned for days, I need to make Paparazzi phone calls, heck, I'm still in my jammies (I deemed this jammy day much earlier today)...the list can go on and on. But I just needed to sit down and start this.

He insisted on wearing his bike helmet to do this. We were laughing so hard!

And we did it over and over again. After a couple of tries, this boy was seriously getting the hang of it.  He knew to put his hands out for balance and everything. He will be ready to board in no time.

The mastermind behind this. The purple thing is the base to a Little Tikes Zebra that rocks when hooked onto it or rolls around when off of it. 

Our boys are daredevils. Straight up crazy, fearless little things. The fun we have some nights can be completely random and unplanned. It is interesting listening to mother's of girls talk about the differences of boys and girls (Heidi-haha). She did not realize how crazy boys were until we hung out all day on her day off a while ago to go Halloween costume shopping. I was standing around the JoAnn's cutting table f.o.r.e.v.e.r. (no joke like an hour) waiting for my number called so she decided to take Cami and Brecken around the store to keep them occupied. She eventually wondered back laughing because she did not truly realize how busy Brecken is. With Cami she can tell her that she is going to far and she can't be seen. Cami sticks around. Oh not Brecken. He looks right at you and walks the other way. Then you get to chase him down. He is just so busy. Gunnar and Brecken are both that way. They just are. Boys and girls are just so different. Maybe my boy and her girl are just so different. Who knows. I hope she has a boy one day...and I am just glad that Brecken and Cami have a buddy in each other.

I was looking for pictures and realized that I didn't even post that Gunnar headed off to 1st grade this year. He was pretty excited, I was over the top excited and Brecken was lost for about an hour before he realized that he wouldn't have to battle his brother throughout the day. Brecken was just so thrilled that he knew where Gunnar's school was and that he gets to see the school bus on most days. I think Gunnar likes the idea of school and then it gets old really quickly. He is super smart little kid, but would rather be doing other things. Jeff likes to say that he is a whole lot like him in  that area. I'm glad, because I was not like them as a student. We've had our fair share of challenges this year, and we are still battling them. I am just hoping one of these days, things click and he enjoys school and acts like he should there.

I convinced him to let me drive him to school. Not really sure why I wanted to. I just did. Remember last year he rode the bus to school on the first day as a Kindergartner. Man that boy is a brave one.

Our boys are just so different. They don't always play nicely, or get along. Not at all...part of that comes from the 3.5-4 year age gap, some of that comes from just being siblings more specifically brothers. I read on one of the ecard things you see on Facebook or Pinterest one day that having your first child makes you a parent, having your second child makes you a referee, and having three or more makes you a bouncer. I totally feel like that! I am always breaking up their two problems with each other. They can have their sweet moments too. The more I look at them, the more I think they look quite different. They have different eye shapes and face shapes, their hair color and style is different (Brecken has these large curls), Brecken is just stalkier and can tan like nobody else. He is our true beach bum with his tan skin, blond hair and totally laid back, slower personality. He is busy for sure but just so Hawaiian. He takes after my side of the family for sure. My aunt said that they used to call my dad the White Hawaiian. She said Brecken is the white Hawaiian. I had to laugh at that. 

Brecken was obsessed with this necklace and wouldn't take it off. It just solidified his Hawaiian ancestry in him.

Going totally cool style on me...

So what has kept me from updating my blog and keeping me busy in my free time. Paparazzi for sure! The end of summer was the most insane time of year for me other than the holiday season. I had 3 local fairs within a months time. It was intense to say the least. The first fair that I did was a very local, small county fair nearby for 4 days. So small and the big highlight was a rodeo. There were literally less than 10 vendors and boy were the days so incredibly long and hot! The weather was well over 100 those days for whatever reason. It was miserable with a few fun moments. It was so incredibly unorganized too which made it hard to be there. But they had the best people watching. Jeff did come out and visit with the boys which helped. 

Owyhee County Fair-this was the smallest amount of inventory I have ever had at an event. It was so weird and I was a little worried.

Canyon County Fair done with 3 of us all together-it was fun!

A short week or so later I did the Canyon County Fair for 4 days with 2 other team members. It was so much fun. The days were just right, it was indoors (however the air conditioning broke the first day and it was miserable. People were telling us that the sheep barn was cooler then here...nice). This was our first run with a larger 10x20 booth. Now that we have that set up down, we can replicate it over and over again. I think I also liked the fact that I was about 3 minutes away from my house. It was awesome. The first night I got home, Jeff asked if I left early. Nope, I just got home that fast! This fair also has concerts with fairly big names every single night. Buy a ticket into the fair and you get into the concert for free. Love it! I was able to take the boys around one of the days that I didn't have to work. It was fun! Perk to having a mom that goes to all of these things. They are always visiting me or I take them. Jeff also took them so they went twice!

I'm not sure where my picture went for the last fair, but it was the Western Idaho Fair, our big state fair. It is 10 days and very long. Thankfully 4 of us went in together. I worked 5 days and we always had two people there which helped pass the time. During this time Gunnar started school which made things even more interesting. Why the big fair is even during the time all the schools start is beyond me. It leaves all of the older people coming out during the day, making for some slow days. With all of this going on, I was SO exhausted. I felt like I pretty much shut down for a time. I received so much help with my kiddos. I really appreciate my family, friends and Jeff for sure. September did not provide any slow moments either but that has to be for another day.

I am so thankful for what I have. I have a great husband, two great boys, even a great dog (thankfully he does not dig or bark-he's a good boy). We have more than we need and then some. We are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints with a knowledge that families are forever and the most basic and central unit of the church. Knowing this makes getting through the little day to day trials that much easier.

McCall Bound

Jeff's brother and family just moved up to McCall, Idaho for work. So it only seemed logical that we would head up there for Memorial Day weekend and every one from this point on. It is only a 2.5 hour drive. Gunnar was excited to see his cousins again. Unfortunately the weekend was a little rainy but that did not stop us from having fun.

The day we got there, we went to a lake close to their house and hiked a little. It was fun to get out and breathe in the mountain air.

My niece Rubi is one tough nut to crack. It takes a miracle to get her to smile. I am so used to my babies that smile so easily but man this little girl loves to study out the situation first. I loved being able to hang out with her.

 Jeff took 5 kids on a bike ride nearby. They had a blast and it was a great workout for all of them because they had to ride up or walk up in some of their cases this massive hill to get back to the house. Stephanie and I enjoyed some quiet time with the babies.

 Dylan, Adam, Gunnar, Reese, and Bridger

 We walked a really fun loop down from their house. It was easy for the kids, with great weather and a lot of fun.

 We have a picture just like this with Gunnar in the backpack. I should dig that up to compare.

 Our family can not go to McCall without stopping at the candy shop and getting their ginormously yummy carmel apples. We bought two and headed to the sandy lake beach. The kids earned taffy for some race Jeff made up while riding bikes. They headed to the farthest rocks to eat it.

 Brecken LOVES to stick his hands in hit pockets and walk around. He looks like such a cool dude when he does it. It cracks me up because he is completely serious when he does it too. He is one cool blue eyed, blonde haired, totally tan kid.

 The town started closing off roads so we walked over to the action on the main street. We arrived just in time to take part in the Memorial Day celebration. They did a gun salute and a fly over with two jets. It was pretty awesome. The kids were all given spent shells at the end. They found that to be pretty neat.

We had a great Memorial Day weekend. It was fun to spend time with family. We've never done that before since all of our siblings and parents live in town. It was nice to get a way and we plan on doing it many more times.