Not missing a thing!

Ok Donna, here you go:)

Jamie made cupcakes and brownies today because she was bored. She spent her Christmas break doing driver's ed, watching all 8 Harry Potters, 3 Lord of the Rings, 4 Pirates of the Caribbean, and of course hours of Gilmore Girls.

Nelson and Burke finished putting the Ikea dresser with like 100 pieces together. They did a great job and Nelson is happy to have a home for all his new Christmas clothes. Nelson had Hell Week for swim team. They had two, two hour practices a day. He is sore! Burke spent most of the break at the bike park. He was happy to take Rick's kids the day after Christmas. Rick ran through the hills pushing Porter on his tiny bike so he wouldn't feel left out!
Dean is excited to start basketball next week. He has been bugging us about it constantly since soccer ended. He was very pleased to find new basketball shoes today which he is sure will make him a better player!Buster has been driving us crazy since New Year's Eve. He ate something he shouldn't have and it has been stuck in his throat. He has been trying to hack it out for days. And he keeps us awake at night, too. We took him to the vet today and of course he stopped coughing when we got there. Just like a kid at the doctor! His hair is starting to grow out and look better, don't you think? You can't see it, but he is proudly strutting around in his new Broncos collar that he got for Christmas.

Look familiar?

He thinks I'm dumb because I keep driving right past him when I go pick him up from school. And he thinks I'm crazy because I stare at him all the time. I'm just trying to get it into my head! His best friends look him right in the eyes and keep walking without any recognition! Could you find him in a crowd?! I'm still looking for the kid below! I'll take either one, though, because they're both adorable (don't tell him I said adorable)!

Totally Awesome!!

Sometimes you just gotta love Facebook! Like last week when I logged on to see everybody's business and found out my friend and her husband had the flu. Too bad, huh? But not huge news. Well, it was a HUGE deal to me because they just happened to have tickets to No Doubt/Paramore that they were selling because they had the flu! Yay!!! Not yay that they had the flu, but YAY that we got to go to the concert! I love Paramore...great songs for running...and they sounded awesome!! Here's the self shot with the cell phone...nice!And then No Doubt came on and totally rocked!!!! They were amazing! The stage was super cool, Gwen looked rocking hot, and they sounded sooooo good. It was the most fun Jim and I have had in a long time.

It was the perfect way to celebrate our anniversary! No doubt about it...the last 17 years has been totally awesome:)

Hey!

It's been so long I had to guess on my password a few times! Haven't been in the mood for a while, it's much easier to blog when life is all haha, hehe, and good times. Anyway, I'm gonna try to ease back in. So this isn't gonna be very exciting, but it's an easy one for me...4th of July toes and pix. My sis-in-law sometimes prints my toe pix out and takes them into her pedi lady, so this one is for her...I guess for next year!And I had to laugh when I saw my fireworks pix this year. Gone are the days of watermelon-stained smiles and sparklers. Now I've got butt flames and daredevils. And Jamie took this one...it's my fav this year! 17 years and the we still got fireworks:)

Classic Dean Magic

I got a call from my friend asking if I had seen Dean's picture in the local newspaper yet. I tried to ignore the panic in my stomach generally associated with calls from adults about Dean. She said he was on the front page of the sports section at the Opening Day Ceremony for baseball. He was with a group of kids talking into a microphone or something. Oh yeah...flashback to Opening Day. The Cal Ripken president asks for volunteers who know ALL the words to "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" to come forward and sing it for everyone. A few kids come forward...including Dean who doesn't know a single word to the song, but just wants to go up in front of everyone. Whatever. And with a little Dean magic he lands himself on the front page of the sports section...for doing literally nothing!

True Birthday

Burke's guinea pig, Sami, finally had her babies...on Burke's Birthday!!! How cool is that? Not only was it his birthday, but we also missed a bunch of church; so it was like the best day ever. Poor Sami looked like she was going to burst for about the last 2 weeks. So we placed our bets on how many babies she would have (normally 1-6!). She ended up having 5 babies, but one didn't make it. So now we have Hami (the dad), and Sami, plus Brownie, Tiger, 7-up, and Nacho. They're the cutest little guinea pig family ever. We couldn't have had a better birthday for Burke. He loves animals and takes such good care of his new little minis:)

Chocolate Fairy

Tuesday is a super-busy day for me and all the running around makes me a little crazy. So when I got the mysterious "check your front door" text I was elated to find mucho chocolate! Thank you, thank you! But beware...feed me chocolate and you've got yourself a bff jill:)

Loveking Birthday Boy

A good bday for the Loveking...Rockband marathon, 3lbs. of peanut M&Ms, lots of Pepsi, no Saturday work. And lots of love from the fam..
Dean loves playing catch with Jim
Burke loves Jim because he takes him places
Jamie loves watching AI with him
Nelson loves Jim because he kids around and is funny
A few reasons I love Jim...he makes life fun, he encourages me to do the things I love to do, he is completely trustworthy, and he always helps people. So I guess we'll keep him. Happy Birthday Jimbo!

Two must-share recipes

I share so I am not the only one getting fatter by the day. The first is chocolate popcorn. My niece, let's call her Satana, made this for my fam a few years ago and it is totally addicting and easy. Pop two bags of lite-butter microwave popcorn. Empty both bags WITH NO KERNELS into a huge bowl. Melt one bag of white chocolate chips and pour over popcorn. Stir til coated. Pour out onto counter or cookie sheet. Drizzle with melted semi-sweet chocolate chips. Let dry (30 minutes-ish). Then try not to eat the whole thing in 5 minutes. Your stomach will hurt. I'm just guessing.
The next one is more time consuming but worth the effort. It is one of my favorite salads from my sister-in-law, Janet. And it's a salad. Everyone knows salads are good for you. I make the dressing and almonds in the morning and throw the salad together just before serving.

Dressing:
1/2 cup oil
1/3 cup sugar
2T lemon juice
1t salt
1/2t dry mustard
2 cloves garlic, pressed thru garlic press

Almonds:
1 cup sliced almonds
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
Mix butter and brown sugar in small pan til bubbly. Add almonds. Cook one minute. Spread on cookie sheet and broil for 1-3 minutes til browned (watch carefully). Cool. Break apart. DO NOT start snacking on this...it will gone before you realize what you've done!
Salad:
Spinach
Red leaf lettuce
Romaine lettuce
1 red onion, sliced
2 green onions, chopped
1 pint strawberries, sliced
Place all lettuce, spinach, and onions in large bowl. Add strawberries and almonds last. Pour dressing on just before serving. Great as a side, or sometimes I add sliced, cooked chicken and serve it as a main dish at chick events.
Enjoy!

Thawing out

I took Burke and Dean to Utah for a little vacation while they are off track. They had tons of fun in the snow. They thought they would be funny and throw snowballs and Grandpa while he cleared the driveway, but the funny thing was when grandpa turned the snow-blower on them and pelted them with snow. No pic...I got outta the way for that.

We also saw lots of friends and family. The boys loved hanging out with their 2nd cousins and swimming even though it was freezing outside. Utah has these amazing indoor rec centers and we spent hours at them.

Of course we had to pick up some Krispy Kreme...more than once. Did you know the drive-thru in Provo is open 24 hours?! Lucky.

And one of my favorite things was snow-shoeing. Its basically hiking in the snow, but man, it was so amazingly beautiful....and peaceful, when I went with Carl without the kids:)

Thanks everyone who let us stay and added to our fun while we were there! Hanging with family, seeing old friends, eating Indian food, the Banff Film Fest, the temple, BYU...it was a blast!

Bike rat

Nelson spends most of his free time screwing around on his bike. This weekend I thought I should check out his moves. He was totally mortified to have his mommy at the bike park taking pictures until he saw himself in all his glory! Now he's telling me where he wants me to stand next time and his friends are asking if I got any shots of them. I knew he would appreciate me one day!

Last year of unaccountabilty!

Baby Deano

1 year old

2 years old

3 years old

4 years old

5 years old

6 years old

Happy 7th Birthday Dean! You keep us laughing and brighten our lives! We love you!

Diet schmiet!

So I was gonna start that New Year's diet the Monday after our lunch....but...oh, whatever...I'm over it! I love you guys! If you can imagine...this pic was even worse in color...sorry I'm posting it!!! Time for lunch again soon...so we can take a better pic:)

Back in the saddle

Hard to beat getting rid of a brain tumor, but finally getting rid of that nasty brown tooth comes pretty close! He was hoping the Tooth Fairy would give him more for that nasty thing...but I think he was lucky to get anything at all! Things are pretty much back to normal for Dean. I have been going to school with him for the past three weeks. Very Billy Madisonish. I'm gradually cutting back my time in class each week and hope to completely stop next week. I sub in for his teacher's assignments like yard duty and I've found that my true calling in life is crossing guard. Who would have guessed? Something about the cool stop sign. Every time I lift it I want to break out into Stop! in the name of love! I can also run three copiers at the same time while laminating sight words and making bulletin boards...not something I like teachers to see me doing! I prefer to remain one of those seemingly incapable parents, but now my cover is blown! Ten years of blending in down the drain!

Call him Duke

Last week Nelson was nominated to the Winter Homecoming Court at his high school! Each grade nominates 3 guys and 3 girls and Nelson was surprised to be one of them! There was a ceremony during the basketball half-time and our whole family got to walk out with Nelson. Actually, we got to walk 3 feet behind him...which is how he thinks it should always be! Burke and Dean were excited about the free candy, cake, and soda for the Royalty and their families. And of course there was a dance! Fun times for Nelson and his friends!

We're Home!

Here's the last picture we took in the hospital! Dean got to come home last night! We are all so happy. I was worried he wouldn't be able to climb the stairs because he is still a little wobbly, but he ran right up! Seems like getting out of the hospital was the best medicine:) And consider this your Christmas card because I think it is the best I can do right now! Merry Christmas!

Thumbs up!

What a difference a day makes! Saturday was a tough day with only bad news and set backs. But on Sunday we turned a corner and Dean is feeling so much better today! Here's a big, as-excited-as-he-gets thumbs up! Looks like we'll be home in a few days! Thanks for all your meals, help, prayers, and good vibes! We're trying to come up with some good brain tumor ryhmes to go along with his new rapper look.

Dean update

As most of you know, Dean had emergency surgery last night to drain backed-up fluid around his brain and secondly to remove a tumorous cyst that was blocking the fluid from draining. Everything went very well as they were able to completely remove it.

He has been having headaches the past few months and regularly the past couple weeks. We thought he needed glasses. He has been having trouble seeing the board in school. Yesterday at school he got a severe headache and told the teacher he felt like he was falling over (while he was sitting in his chair). Then he could not walk, talk or focus on people. They took him to the ER in an ambulance. Now we know why.

He will be in intensive care probably the next couple days, hopefully only a week or so until he comes home. We appreciate everyone's well-wishes and are so grateful for your prayers and support.

T-Day Traditions

Thanksgiving is just around the corner and I'm looking forward to our Thanksgiving Day traditions...well, one in particular:

• Jimbo and the manly men play tackle football. They act all studly and spit a lot. Then they go home and ice everything while they watch football for the rest of the day.
  
• I do my run for the hungry...which is just me running more than usual so I can eat more than usual later.
  
• We usually go to my sister's for dinner and I always make the homemade rolls.
• But when we don't go to my sister's, each of my kids is in charge of making one thing for dinner. Nelson is rolls. Jamie is mashed potatoes. Burke is jello. Dean is stuffing and turkey. I'm everything else.
• During dinner we go around the table and say what we are thankful for.
  
• And while Jim is doing the dishes after dinner I am the official judge of People Magazine's sexiest men. I take my job seriously. Sometimes they get them in the wrong order.

Can you guess which tradition I'm really looking forward to? I think it's gonna be a good year! Have a happy, safe Thanksgiving everyone!

Sticky, muddy, crazy cousins

No school today, so we headed to Apple Hill with the cousins. They're always crazy when they're together, but in a good my-cousins-are-freaking-awesome way. And what can be better than eating apple donuts and caramel apples, and running around getting covered in mud and fish guts? Oh, I know...being the moms sitting at the picnic table chittin' the chat and knowing everyone is gonna sleep well that night!