One Decade

Wow, Nate hit double digits today! Time goes by so fast.

It seems like just yesterday I was bringing my baby home from the hospital.

Or going for our first trip to Kiddie Kandids. (He was 2 weeks old here)

Or teaching him to walk.

Or sending him off to kindergarten.

Or even watching him be baptized.

But as hard to believe as it may seem, Nate turned 10 today! He seems so young, but yet he seems so grown up. He's not your average kid. He definately thinks outside of the box. He doesn't want to be the traditional "transformer" for Halloween, he never eats sweets before he has something solid in his stomach, and he's always thinking of others before himself. He has always been a quick learner and very independent.

Nate has been through so much in his short 10 years, and I'm so proud of him. He's very smart, he loves school, and loves to read. His best subjects are math and reading. He is popular with all the neighborhood kids and loves to spend time with his friends. He's very sensitive, has a sweet heart, still loves to be tucked in at night, and thinks his mom is his favorite girl. I'm not looking forward to the day where he will be grossed out by hugging his mom, but for now, I just love and cherish the moment.

Happy birthday to my little boy... who is growing up right before my eyes.

So Much to be Thankful For...

Another Thanksgiving season has come and gone so quickly. This year was pretty quiet. We didn't have the girls this year, and we only had Nate for half the day. It was a nice day to sleep in! After that it was to Grandma Jamison's for dinner. Michelle's & Erin's families were there for dinner, and Craig and the boys came for dessert. It was so fun to see everyone.

Would you believe I forgot my camera?? So, here's a couple pictures that my aunt took.


This is 9 of the 12 Jamison grandkids. Zach, Katie, Bailee, Jacob, Nate, Jordan, Austin, Addison & Tyler. (Missing are Chris, Lauren & Holly).

After that, it was off to drop Nate off at his dad's, and then to Michaels. Yes, I said Michaels... as in the craft store! They had an awesome deal on a certain cricut cartridge that you could only get at Michaels... Couldn't pass that up! After that it was home to relax. I boutiqued and Charley watched football.

I attempted something this year that I have never done before. Black Friday!! There's something in particular that I saw (will post details later when the kids aren't reading.. LOL) that I wanted to get. Anyway, it went on sale at midnight online, so I went on and tried to buy it. The computer kept freezing, and then shut down. When the site finally came up, they were out of what I wanted... Ugh. So, by this time it's 2:20 am. So, when the store opened at 4 AM, off I went. Found the item and waited over an hour in line.

I'm still trying to figure out why people do this ... for fun... year after year?

So, onto the traditional 5 greatfuls. (Still waiting for the girls to get back to me on this one).

Nates: (Keeping in mind, he's not your average almost 10 year old little boy) He thinks mostly OUTSIDE of the box:

1. Family

2. Gift of Life

3. Friends

4. The Gospel's Help

5. My Body

Pretty impressive.

My greatful 5: (Yes, I cheat, there are more than 5 here).

1. Family & Loved ones

2. Church & Testimony of it.

3. Savior's Love & Example

4. A place to live

5. My Job

Charley's Greatful 5:

1. Family

2.

3.

4.

5.

Um. That's all I could get out of him.

We are especially thankful to all of you. Love to everyone this Holiday season.

Halloween... Finally

Halloween this year came and went so quickly that I am just now getting around to posting about it! I've been tied up in two boutiques and pretty much spending every free minute on those. Now that the second one is over, here's our Halloween update!

Lauren and Holly spent Halloween with their friends, so I don't have any pictures of them. From what I understand, Lauren didn't dress up, and Holly was corpse bride or something like that. (Sorry, I'm not a Nightmare fan, so I don't really remember).

Nate on the other hand, well, you know his creative little mind. He wanted to be some sort of food item, and his first impulse was bacon! I know, odd. After researching "Bacon costumes" online, there really wan't a wide selection... Go figure! I did find one that came with eggs, and it was pretty expensive. We didn't have anyone to dress up as the eggs, and if I would have tried to make the bacon part of it from felt, it probably wouldn't have looked like bacon! Or I also found one other one, that I'm really not sure what it looked like! LOL.



So... On to search for other creative homemade costumes. I compiled a list, printed it out, and just told Nate to decide. The list was pretty cool. Included stuff like "money bags" " Operation Game", "Undecided", etc. He chose "Dr. Pepper". this was a great costume for him. I made him a head band with a huge circle on it, and I had an old lab coat from a past murder mystery dinner. printed off a bunch of "pepper" pictures from the internet and make them into stickers with my xyron machine. It even was a great costume because Nate was able to help with it.

And here's introducing Mr. Pepper, himself.... The Dr. is IN!

Here's a couple pictures from the school halloween parade and carnival. The carnival was C-R-A-Z-Y. So many people there in a tiny school! Needless to say it was a HUGE success. the kids all had a great time.

Halloween morning was actually pretty crazy. We got up early and went to Katie's baptism in Heber. Being anywhere on time on a Saturday morning is a stretch for us, let alone getting ready in Sunday dress and driving to Heber! Of course we were running late.

I mentioned to Charley that I didnt' want to drive all the way to Heber and miss the baptism! As he casually replied that he didn't want to get pulled over, he did go a little faster. Well, as Charleys bad luck (or should I say my bad luck) would have it... YUP, we came over the hill and there was a highway patrol sitting in the median. Next thing I know, we're pulled over, and it took him so long to write the ticket, we missed the whole baptism anyway! UGH.


Anyway, after the baptism, the family went and ate at Golden Corral in Provo. So, it was Heber, Provo, shopping for candy (nope, hadn't done it until the Halloween day) and then off to the trunk or treat at the church. This is always fun for the kids. And they get such a large amount of candy in such a short amount of time (and walking). Denise was able to bring Christian & Michele out this year. They kids had a great time.
After the trunk or treat, it was off to take Nate to his dad's for a visit. Because Nate's an odd child and doesn't like a lot of candy, Aunt Nana & Uncle Marty gave nate two decorated pomogranites for his "treat". He loved them. Especially since he's been waiting all summer for them to be in season!!

And on to pumpkin carving. Who ever thought of this anyway? As you know, I'm not a fan of this, so sometimes i am greatful that I "get" to go to work! HAHA. Charley is such a good sport. He took Nate to get a pumpkin and carved it with him. I know that's why kids are here. If they weren't, I'd never carve pumpkins, never put up a tree... yada yada.

So Charley and Nate came home with what I would assume was the largest pumpkin at the store. I don't even think Nate could lift it! They chose their design and started making the mess...

But I do have to admit, the pumpkin tured out A-W-E-S-O-M-E. Great job boys!!

Here's what it looked like when it was dark and all lit up! Looks like something right out of a movie, doesn't it?

And last, but certainly the least important... Nate convinced me to dress up this year. Plus, they were having a party at work, so for the first time in 12 years at IHC... I dressed up! Simple, but it worked...

Funny thing though, after going to Idaho and bringing back all those potatoes, when I walked into work, everyone asked me if I had potatoes in my pocket!

I know this is late coming, but hope everyone had a happy and safe Halloween. This is a funny picture of Nate after the festivities. His pose here explains exactly how I feel after all the running around and boutiquing... EXHAUSTED!

Boutique Tomorrow!

Don't forget to come see me at the "Girls Day Out Boutique" tomorrow. I've got lots of projects I've been working on, and I'd love to see everyone, so stop by and say HI.

Here's a quick pic of one of the items for sale. These cards are only $1.50, or 10/$10. What a bargain! LOL. These also come in cute gift boxes... a set of 8 for $10. Makes a great gift.

You can also see more pictures on my almost NEVER (but working on updating more often!!) scrap blog here!

Boss' Day...

It's that time of year again. Here's this year's edition of Boss' Day gifts. They turned out so cute, and can't wait to make some Chrismas ones!

Details are on my scrap blog here.

Potatoes, Potatoes & more Potatoes

So I have seen potatoes, or I had thought I've seen potatoes. But this weeken, I SAW POTATOES!! We went to Idaho this weekend to bring back some potatoes for friends & family. My sister in law Hilary's husband works on a potato farm and we had a chance to buy some potatoes from the farmer. We also got to see how the harvested potatoes are sent on a the conveyor belt right to the cellar. I must say, farming is quite a process!! I never knew there was so much equipment involved. It was fascinating to watch (and some also say that I'm very easily amused).

This is a picture of the conveyor belt that unloads the huge trucks. I couldn't believe how many potatoes (and how fast) they were going by. We were just grabbing them and putting them in the bags. We filled 24 bags in an hour and a half. Look at the size of some of those things!!

And this is a picture of the inside of the cellar where they all dump to. It's literally filled from floor to celing with potatoes.

Hilary's kids are adorable. They had fun helping

Except for this little guy who was all tuckered out...

Needless to say, we had a great time this weekend. We gathered potatoes, and we also visited with family. We took Nate with us and took him swimming at Miracle hot springs. It was his first time there and he loved it. Several of the cousins also came. We also made cards and watched conference. It's always fun & relaxing to take a drive to see the in laws.

Batter Up!

Charley and I started coaching Nate's little league baseball team. As this is Nate's first crack at baseball, we signed him up for the coach's pitch. Fall ball is also pretty limited so we ended up over at Taylorsville recreation. There are only 3 teams and they are very small, with age ranges from Kindergarten to 4th grade.


The kids are great though. Most of them are first time players, but there are a couple kids on the team that have been playing for a while. They all have such a great time and look so cute in their little shirts and hats.

Nate's friend Christian is also playing on the team so it's fun for them to be able to play together. There are only 9 players on the team, so everyone gets a lot of playing time.


Nate has decided that he really likes baseball and would like to continue to play. We'll see what the rest of the season brings!

Beaches & Baseball

I love Disney, and I also love the other fun things that are around town once you're there. Our favorite place to go eat is Popeye's Chicken. We eat there twice every time we go. Something about their chicken strips and cajun red beans and rice that I love. I also love to go shopping at Sketchers. Don't know why the shoes are so much cooler in cali? Not like there's not sketcher stores here, right? HAHA.

I also like the beach. We had the opportunity to meet an old friend & neighbor, Kristen at her stompin ground this time... Laguna Beach. We met at a cozy little restaurant on the beach, it was gorgeous! You could overlook the beach from our table on the patio. She looks great, and it was fun to catch up with her.

Another one of our loves is baseball. We really like the Dodgers, but since they were on the road last week, we saw the Angels.

Funny story with our tickets!! We bought them from stub hub. We got a great deal on some great seats. They were row WC. Come to find out, when we got to the stadium and tried to find the seats, they were on the wheelchair row, and seats didn't exist. They were just spaces where you bring your own wheelchair. NICE!! Luckily the usher showed us to an empty row where we could sit, so it all worked out.

Note to self: Never buy seats on the wheelchair row! They are BYOC (Bring your own chair). The angels had a great game and it was fun just being there.

A Quick Jaunt...

... to my favorite place!!

Well, after our 1200 mile round trip drive over to Montana, the next day we turned and headed out on the road again for my favorite place... Disney!

Charley's parents were flying out for a short three day trip, and we (ok, mostly I) wanted to tag along. I felt like it would be good to get Charley out of the house. We left after work Tuesday night and drove through the night to get to the airport in time to pick up the inlaws Wednesday morning from the airport.

This is the very first ride we went on! I've decided it's my new favorite attraction. I even had to take a picture of the score, or Charley would never admit that I beat him. (Twice for that matter). LOL.

It was three short days in Disney, but we sure had a good time. It was definately HOTTER than we thought it would be, but still worth it. A lot of the rides were closed down for refurbishing, and they were also getting haunted mansion & space mountain ready for Halloween.

I love Disney!! It's so much fun, no matter what age you are. This time was a little unique. Four adults and no children. It's a different park when you don't have kids with you. Although we missed the kids, it's still so much fun to just get a few days away.

As long as I can keep going back to Disneyland, I'll be a happy camper! (And we will live Happily ever after!!