Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas this year. We started off on Tuesday with Jeff's brother Craig coming home from his mission. It was great to see him again. We spent the day on Tuesday with Jeff's family and enjoying time together. On Christmas Eve we took the kids to see Bolt the Super Dog. Gabe has been a big Krypto the Super Dog fan for a while so we thought this would be a fun movie for him to see. It did not fail, Gabe loved it. Even on the way out of the theater he was on all fours in the slush and muck trying to pretend he was Bolt. A family tradition I had growing up was a nice family dinner on Christmas Eve. So this is one I have carried over to our family. I cooked us a nice dinner that we dont get to have much any other time of the year. On the menu this year was Oscar Steaks (steaks with crab and a bernaise sauce), home made Coconut Shrimp with a pineapple salsa, fresh pineapple, rolls and sparking cider. We both ate until we were sick, it was all so yummy. We didn't make it to the Presidents Desert I made for us that night. We were lucky to make it through the cookies left out for "Santa", which at our house is peanut butter bars. Christmas morning was a lot of fun. Kelsi woke up once at 2:30 for a bad dream, which turned into I am excited quickly. Then they slept in until 7:30, at least Kelsi and Tory did, Gabe got woken up. Kelsi told us that she snuck out and saw Santa himself bringing in all of her new toys. Kelsi was so excited to see a great big doll house for her. It is almost as tall as her and Gabe loved the Cars race track that was set out for him and Tory loved the wrapping paper. The kids were spoiled again. Kelsi got the big doll house from Santa, a couple new games, her oven and cooking supplies and a new dress. Gabe got his new racing track, a big chest that Grandpa made for him full of wooden train tracks and lots of trains, a new dinosaur that moves and roars, lincoln logs and knex's. T0ry ended up with a baby play station, a new drum set (thanks grandma Lu... Kelsi and Gabe love making a lot of noise with them) a new outfit and some puzzles. The kids loved it all. We were given some wonderful gifts from both of our parents that we are very thankful for. I loved this Christmas and all the wonderful memories we had with it. I hope you all had a very merry Christmas as well. Enjoy the pictures of the kids!

Kelsi with her new doll house.

Gabe and his Lightning McQueen Race track

Gabe's new chest full of trains.

Tory's new noise maker!

Cute Tory!

Chef Kelsi

One of Kelsi's presents this year was an "easy bake oven". This was a part gift from my mom and part gift from us. We decided that an easy bake oven is a rip off and not worth the money, so we decided to get her a toaster oven. The food cooks much better, faster and easier to deal with. Kelsi loves it! She also got a set of her own cooking stuff, measuring cups, teaspoons, bowls, and her own cookbook. All pink so they dont get mixed up with her stuff. So Kelsi has been wanting to cook every day. I love being able to teach her how to cook and she loves being able to use her own oven. Her is a picture of her first batch of cookies she made in her oven, she made these all

her own, with supervision.

.

Chuck E Cheese

Well the kids have been begging forever to go to Chuck E Cheese and we finally caved and took them, I guess call is Christmas genorisity. Chuck E Cheese has a sign on I-15 and I swear that thing is worse then the candy aisle and the check out register. Anyways they had a lot of fun, as expected the pizza was terrible, but the kids and Jeff had a lot of fun with the games. There was some fun games and they are all one token. So the kids got to play a lot. We went Monday afternoon which was a good time since it was not overly crowded. The drawings are one of the games they have there.

Catch Up

It has been a while since I have written anything and I am not sure what to write about so I will give you an update on how each of us is doing.

Jeff is doing great, he just got his grades for his two internet master classes he did this semester and passed them both. We were nervous about one of them so I am very excited to get reimbursed for them. We are really excited for the Christmas break and to have him home for a long stretch.

I am feeling like a chicken with its head cut off trying to make sure everything gets put together and tied together nice and neat for Christmas next week. I have all of the shopping done for the kids, I am so excited for them this year, I found perfect gifts for them and they all came in under budget! Added bonus!! I helps that we only have one car and I am forced to stay home and really think about what I really want to do and how to get it done as cheap as possible. After wearing the cardioligy monitor for a month they got the results in and said that the results are good and there is nothing to be concerned about. So that is good news.

Kelsi is doing really well in school. She has moved onto the third set of books for her reading books, she has really enjoyed being back to school after she came back on track. She has lost her front tooth and it makes me smile to see that toothless grin or a big bite of the apple still left on where the tooth is missing. She is such an excitable girl and ready to help out whereever she can which is a great thing. We got the orthotics for Kelsi's feet and she says that her feet dont hurt when she walks anymore, We are really hoping this will help correct her feet and make things easier for her. The podiatrist said it would even make her run faster, if that is possible.

Gabe keeps trucking along. He is doing really well, he has such a fun, easy going, loving personality. Every day he comes up to me or Jeff to tell us that I am pretty or that I am a good mom or that he loves me. And to Jeff that he is a strong dad or the best dad ever. He is such a sweet kid. He is interesting to take on walks now a days, he loves to walk the less traveled path, and is always in the snow banks, in the gutter and wet from the waist down. As Grandma Flint found out when she took him on a walk a few weeks ago when he needs to take care of businness on a walk he does, why by shy?

Victoria is doing great. She has learned to crawl and is into everything, she loves following her siblings around and trys her best to keep up with them all ready. She is calming down quite a bit as well. Her high was Thanksgiving weekend when she was passing out 5 times a day, she has backed it back to once a day or every other day. I talked to the dr about these and he called them "holding breath spells" real scientific. Anyways he said they can last until she is 2 years old when her respiratory system gets more mature and wont let her hold her breath that long anymore. So hopefully it wont take that long! She has an infectious smile and giggle. The one thing about Tory is she gives 100% into everything she does, she makes me smile every day. I love that little girl.

I hope you are all feeling the meaning of Christmas this year and enjoying the opportunity to have Christ in your lives more. It is amazing the feelings of peace it brings to your home. Jeff had to talk on Sunday in church and it was on Mary and Joseph. We did not know a lot about them except for the stuff you normally here in the nativity story and there is some amazing things written about them in Jesus the Christ and a talk on LDS.org called Jospeh and Mary about them. If you get a chance trying reading them. You will have a newfound apprecication for them and the Christ child this season.

This is a family picture that Dad and Mom Flint took of us for their family letter and I thought it was a great picture.

Mover and a Shaker

Tory is a crawler now! She is moving all over the place, usually underfoot! Last night she even pulled herself up to stand on the couch. I love seeing these new stages but it makes me sad to see her grow up so fast. She can do a pretty good plank to, rock hard abs!

Bows!

Check out what I made this weekend! I was so excited to figure them out and make some nice ones! Esp since they charge $6.50 a bow at the boutiques for these! Me Miss Not Crafty!

Cress Creek

While we were in Idaho I took the family on a hike that is right by the the house I grew up in. It is a hike that I have been on many many times and have always enjoyed.... I was shocked when I asked Jeff if he would like to go again and he said Cress Creek what.... I had never taken him in all this time we have been married! The kids had a lot of fun. Gabe would run ahead and lay down on the trail and roll down, he rolled down the trail, off the trail and feet from the creek that ran down the trail side. Grandpa got the kids some water cress out of the creek and the kids thought that was so cool. Now I will have to be extra observant of what they are pulling out of the creek to eat on our next hike!

The top of the hike is a view of the area around Ririe.... it was a bit cloudy and well November everything is so much prettier in the spring. That is the snake river behind the kids. I'll say it again, I love the area I grew up in, it is so pretty and I miss not being there a lot.


Brody, Gabriel and Kelsi


Jeff, Kelsi, Dad, Brody and Gabriel


Gabe was fascinated with the water coming out of the tunnel and Jeff could not resist the temptation and threw a big rock in right where he was standing.


Tory enjoying the ride.

Thanksgiving

We traveled to my parents for Thanksgiving this year and had a nice relaxing break. It was so good to see my grandparents. I was a little sentimental thinking about them this trip, its hard to see them go from the big strong people you remember to seeing them sick and hurting. I love my family and I love the influence they have had on my life and my grandparents. It was nice to be able to have Thanksgiving dinner at Grandma Luthy's just like I remember it always being growing up!

First Oreo

Baby's first oreo should be one of those documented milestone that babies reach, at least it is in our house......

Lucky 7

Bonnie tagged me on this one

7 Things I can do
1. I can read a recipe and most of the time have it turn out well
2. I can read and enjoy it
3. I can complete an hour spin class with a little energy left to make dinner.
4. I can take good care of my kids and teach them well
5. I can tell you what happened in every episode of The Office... sad I know
6. I can finish what I started
7. I can eat about anything I want without gaining weight. :)

7 Things I can not do
1. I can not keep my house spotless
2. I can not eat hot cereal without gagging
3. I can not sleep without a blanket on top of me, no matter how hot it is outside
4. I can not stay awake to watch a movie if it is started late, drives Jeff nuts to listen to me snore through a movie he was excited to watch with me.
5. I can not sing...its bad I cant hit a note
6. I can not be late, it drives me insane to be running behind, I get mean
7. I can not touch my toes.

7 Things that attracted me to Jeff
1. He's a lot of fun
2. He has a good body :)
3. He made me feel safe and comfortable
4. He is very in tune with the spirit and very knowledgeable
5. He understands my weirdness and even puts up with it
6. He is a hard worker
7. He made me laugh

7 Things I say most often
1. A little quieter please... or inside voices
2. Be nice and stop hitting each other
3. I love you
4. No, not yet
5. Quiet time!!
6. Please eat your food
7. I miss you

7 Admiration
1. My dad
2. My mom
3. Jeff
4. Terry
5. Dione
6. President Hinkley
7. I find people all around me that I admire different qualities in, it would be a long post to get into them all.

7 Favorite Foods
1. Steak and Potatoes
2. Coconut Shrimp
3. Ribs
4. Brownies with Ice Cream and Hot Fudge Sauce
5. Presidents Desert
6. Warm homemade Bread with homemade raspberry jam
7. Apple Huckleberry Pie

7 People to Tag
1. Makele
2. Kami
3. Amanda
4. Angela
5. Jen
6. Andra
7. Michelle

Crazy 8

Amanda tagged me again, and I think Amber tagged me on this one a while ago also... so here we go

8 Favorite T.V. Shows
1. The Office
2. Fringe
3. Lost
4. Pysch
5. The Biggest Loser
6. House
7. Bones
8. Top Chef

8 Things I did Yesterday
1. Went visiting teaching
2. Worked on Christmas presents
3. Cleaned the kitchen
4. Made Dinner
5. Went to Activity Days
6. Made Oreo Chocolate Chip Cookies
7. Read a book
8. Played with the dog

8 Things I Look Forward To
1. The Holidays
2. Being out of debt
3. Jeff getting a promotion
4. Tory sleeping past 5:30
5. Tory to stop passing out when she is mad
6. An answer from the cardiologist and to stop wearing this monitor
7. The weekend
8. Having some quiet time

8 Favorite Restaurants
1. The Firehouse
2. Boston's
3. Training Table
4. Subway
5. Olive Garden
6. Wingers
7. Applebee's
8. Chili's

8 Things on my wish list
1. Cobblestone Ab's
2. A bigger car
3. To build a shed in the backyard
4. To re-do the kitchen
5. A Nice Vacation
6. To pay off the car
7. To pay off the credit card
8. To pay off student loans

I tag who ever would like to do it

5 days and counting!!

5 days and counting until the Holy War!! It has been a fun football season this year and I have really enjoyed watching the games, surprised me to! I have a hard time deciding what team to root for because I like them both, but I think we are both cheering Utes this year. Jeff has been having a lot of emails going around about the game on Saturday, he sent me this one and I thought it was funny so I wanted to put it on here.

Soccer Pictures

I know the season is over until the spring but I just got some pictures of Kelsi and her team for soccer. One of the moms did a lot of work with photography and offered to do some team pictures. I thought they turned out really cute. Kelsi had a lot of fun this year with soccer and is very anxious to start again this spring!

Goodbye Spike

Kelsi has had her first pet Spike the Red for over a year now. Kelsi was so proud of Spike, whenever someone would come to the door she would make sure they came over to say hi to Spike. She would color him in in her family pictures and count him in on everything. She would place pictures in front of his tank so he would not get bored, she would even sing to the fish. Well Kelsi had a hard day yesterday and to top it all off she found poor spike had passed on. I was proud of how well she took care of her fish and how well she treated her fish. It's always sad to lose your first pet.

Staycation

We had our mini staycation this week. It has been a lot of fun. We went to a Wyndham Sales pitch a couple of months ago and got a free 2 night hotel stay at Heber City and a $100 gift card to Olive Garden. So we thought we would go up and have some fun in Park City.....wrong..... The hotel that Wyndham set us up in was the crummiest hotel I have ever seen in my life. We were afraid to let the children touch anything! There was half way patched up holes in the wall, rusted over vents, the smell I dont want to even come close to describing... needless to say we walked in turned around and walked right back out... Never again Wyndham that sealed your fate! But the $100 gift card was nice, we got a really nice dinner together as a family. We coached, begged and threatned the kids as were going into Olive Garden to please behave and for the most part they did pretty good. Until the end of the meal when they started to get anxy. This is when Kelsi pushed over her chair into the table behind us, knocked her over and landed upside down under their table. The poor elderly couple behind us jumped about 5 feet, I was afraid of heartatacks. Terrible, but really funny once we got away. So since Jeff took 2 days off we decided to do a lot of fun things at home. To make up for not staying at the hotel we let the kids have a sleepover in our room and we stayed up watching goofy cartoons. The next day we went to the Treehouse Museum in Ogden. The pictures below are all from there. We had a lot of fun there. Such a fun place. There was so many fun things for the kids to do, so many hands on stations and dress up clothes for each area, China, Great Britian, Mexico, Medieveil times, ect ect. Plus of course the big tree house and drum room. We then came home and watched a movie together, well until we decided to put one on upstairs for them since we were missing all the jokes, by the way, Get Smart was so funny! Today we have been playing at the pool and gag went to McDonalds to let the kids play around there. The kids have had a very fun couple of days, I am worn out and not looking forward to detox tomorrow and Jeff going back to work. I love it when he is home with us. It has been a really nice break from our normal activites even if we did not get to go anywhere different.

Kelsi the firewomen

Mrs President

He would not leave these trains, everytime we turned around he was back at the trains.

Dunce

Our brave knight

Her knight in shinning armor

The court jester

Chicken and Wild Rice Soup

Chicken and wild rice soup is one of my favorites and I have been searching for a long time to find a recipe that was perfect. I found this recipe on my kitchen cafe and I thought it was excellent. Try it in some soup bowls it is thick enough for it. I gobbled it up! I thought maybe you would enjoy it with the snowy weather we are going to be getting in the next couple of days! Again yummy!!!

Chicken and Wild Rice Soup
from Mary G.

½ cup butter
1 finely chopped onion
½ - 1 cup frozen corn (or ½ cup chopped celery, if preferred)
½ pound fresh mushrooms, sliced
½ cup carrots, sliced
¾ cup all-purpose flour
6 ½ cups chicken broth (can use 7 bouillon cubes plus 6 ½ cups water)
2 cups cooked wild rice
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cubed
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon curry powder
½ teaspoon mustard powder
½ teaspoon dried parsley
½ teaspoon black pepper
1 cup slivered almonds
2 cups nonfat half-and-half (use normal half-and-half if you prefer, but you won't believe how delicious this is with the nonfat variety!)

Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Stir in the onion, corn, chicken and carrots and sauté for 5 minutes. Add the mushrooms and sauté 3-4 more minutes. Then add flour and stir well. Transfer mixture to large pot. Over medium heat, gradually pour in the chicken broth, stirring constantly until all has been added. Bring just to a boil and then reduce heat to low and let simmer.

Next, add the rice, salt, curry powder, mustard powder, parsley, ground black pepper and almonds. Allow to heat through and then pour in the half-and-half. Let simmer 1 to 1 ½ hours. Be careful not to let the soup come to a boil or it won't thicken properly - let it simmer on low heat, stirring occasionally.

Medical Mysteries

Well we have had a couple medical issues come up lately and I wanted to see if any of you have had any similar problems and maybe I could get some ideas on what to do.
The first one is Kelsi and a pretty simple thing. She has flat feet, really flat feet. We took her to a podiatrist last week and this is how he explained it to me. When you start walking around 1 your feet will be about 7 degrees off from normal. Each year that your child grows they should lose a degree as their feet move, so by the time they are 7 it should be a 0 degree for normal foot. Kelsi is at a 8 degree right now, she should be around a 1 or 2. They podiatrist wants to put custom molded lifts in her shoes to help "train" her feet to stay in the position they are suppose to be. But they cost over $300 for these lifts and we will have to replace them as she grows, every couple of years. We put some normal lifts in her feet now to help her with the pain when she is walking, the custom molded ones are suppose to help with the training of her foot. What I am wondering is if anyone has had any experience with flat feet and what they did. I of course dont want her in pain and if the lifts will help we will of course get them, I am wondering if there was other alternatives out there as well. Any suggestions?

The second thing is with me, for a year now I have had issues with my heart racing and spontaneous times. Walking around the house, walking up the stairs ect. I have several "small" episodes daily. These include my heart racing for a few minutes then stopping. This has been happening for a year or so so I have just gotten use to them. The "long" issues usually last a half an hour, they include my heart racing, next going to dizziness, headaches and finally burning in my chest. I only have these maybe once a month. I have seen a cardiologist and I am wearing a ECG monitor all month this month to record any events. Once I have recorded these I send them to the cardiologist and he will review the data. He is going to help me figure out what these symptoms may be. It could be nothing at all and I am making a mole hill out of an ant hill. Or it could be somthing small like the electonic signals are getting messed up. If that is the case they can go in and deaden the nerves so they stop sending the incorrect signals and it would stop. I am wondering if this is a getting older sympton and I am in denial over getting older. Have any of you had any similar experiences.

Trick or Treat Smell my Feet

We had a lot of fun trick or treating this year. Kelsi was a witch, Gabriel was Indiana Jones, and Victoria was our Sweet Pea. We started off the evening by going to the neighborhood trunk or treat, it was packed, there was cars up and down both sides of the parking lot and the back. The kids made a haul just there. My favorite part was our bishop serving up churros and hot chocolate, yummy!!! We then headed out through the neighborhood, the kids had a blast, Kelsi could have gone all night, and Gabe got a little scared of monsters once it got dark and wanted to head home. We had a lot of fun and both of the kids bags are completely full to the brim for our candy enjoyment! Enjoy the pictures of the kids in their costumes. The ones of Tory are blurry and not the best, she did not want to cooperate!

Funny kids

Well the kids said a couple of good ones again.

Kelsi as we were on our way home from the gym.
Kelsi: "I'm hungry, what are we going to eat for dinner"
Me: "Dad cooked us dinner tonight"
Kelsi: "Oh man, when we get home our house is going to be on fire"
Me: "Why do you say that"
Kelsi: "Cuz dad cooked and he's not a very good cook"
Me: Laughing all the way home


Gabe as I was watching Dancing with the Stars, we were watching Derek Hough and Brooke Burke.

Gabe: "What are they doing"
Me: "Their dancing, do you want to dance?"
Gabe: "No, but I want her to hold me"
Me & Jeff: Lots of laughing!

Crunch Crunch Crunch

As I have been walking Kelsi to school she has been so excited to see all the leaves changing and all the fun fall colors. She was telling me that her favorite sound in the whole world is hearing the crunch crunch crunch sound of the leaves as she walks on them. So she has been very anxious for the leaves to fall off of our few little trees so she could make a "big" pile and jump in it. She has been watching out the window and watching the few leaves on our little tree out front fall off. So when our friends the Moore's got out their rakes on Monday morning and started raking up all their leaves Kelsi was over in a heartbeat. She ran and jumped and threw leaves everywhere. She was so happy to finally have her favorite sound all around her! I stole these pictures from Makele (thanks Makele) and wanted to show you how much fun they had. I love that these kids are able to play together and have so much fun!

Trappers Loop

Saturday afternoon me and Jeff got a break and got on a nice date. We took a really nice motorcycle ride up Ogden Canyon and over through Weber Canyon. It was gorgeous! The temperature was perfect and it is so much nice to be ridding on a motorcycle through all these places then in a car. We got a better better look at all the scenery. To top it all off we found this fun little cafe snuggled into the trees and stopped for hot fudge sundaes. I forget my camera, but I found some shots of what we saw via google images.
I have got to say there is something so nice about being on a motorcycle together, it is so much easier to leave the world behind and just enjoy the ride!

Husband Tag

Amanda tagged me on this one, and I am excited about it, I love bragging about my husband!

1. Where did you meet? We meet at a group get together through our friend Ryan Rose. We went to quick wits and both me and Jeff had brought a friend with us and they ended up getting married as well... double whammy for the match maker!

2. How long did you date before you got married? We dated 3 months until we were engaged and 6 months until we got married.

3. How long have you been married? 8 years, we got married in 2000, so it is always easy to tell how long it has been.

4. What is your favorite feature of his? He works so hard to keep his body in shape it is hard to narrow it down to one feature... maybe arms and chest.

5. What is your favorite quality about him? Jeff is a really hard worker, he works so hard to make sure we have everything we need without complaint. He is also very caring and wonderful with our family. I know that he would do anything and everything for me or our kids.

6. Does he have a nickname for you? Not that I can think of off the top of my head, probably bean like everyone else.

7. What is his favorite color? I dont know, if I had to take a guess it would be earthy colors, greens, browns ect.

8. What is his favorite food? He has a lot of favorites, some of his recent favorites are lasagna, chicken fried steak, oscar steaks & sweet pork burritos

9. What is his favorite sport? Football, definitely.

10. When was your first kiss? I was teaching him how to country dance, which he was just humoring me with and he busted his move then.

11. What is your favorite thing to do as a couple? Jeff is my best friend, I love doing everything with him... sappy I know. We like to go to the gym together and do classes together. We also really enjoy going on motorcycle rides together. It is really nice. Tomorrow is probably our last one of the season :(

12. Do you have any children? Kelsi 6, Gabriel 3 1/2, Victoria 7 months.

13. Does he have any hidden talents? I am going to steal Amanda's answer, he puts up with me, that takes a lot of talent!

14. How old is he? He hit the big 30 this year

15. Who said "I love you" first? Jeff did, but I replied pretty quick.

16. What is his favorite type of music? Rock

17. What do you admire the most about him? Jeff is such a great man, I love him so much. He is determined to be his best, physically, mentally and spiritually.

I tag Kami, Amber, Angela and Amie and anyone else who would like to brag about their husbands

Portraits

I took the kids in to get some pictures of the three of them together, here are some of the shots

Pack's Pumpkin Patch

On Saturday Amber and I decided to take the kids to this fun pumpkin patch. They had this super fun hay maze for the kids and I think they played in it for at least an hour. They had a blast getting lost in it. Best of all it was free and fun for the kids. It is not to long like the corn mazes and there was nothing scary in it! Next they had a scarecrow exhibit with fun pictures pose moments for the kids. The sun was not cooperating with me as I was trying to take the pictures! Then we got to go pick out the perfect pumpkins! Here are some fun pictures of our outing.


Kelsi and Lexi running through the corn maze

Gabe running through the corn maze

A birds eye view of the corn maze, darn sun in their eyes.

Scarecrows! Darn sun again

Kelsi's newest crush, kissing the scarecrows!

All I could think was Charlie Brown and the Great Pumpkin

Mommy's Little Ghoul



Where the pumpkins ended up!