Christmas highlights!

We had so much fun this year! It's amazing how fast it all went!!!! Some of our favorite things to do at Christmas are:

Going to temple square to see the lights and the Nativity scenes, we try to do this early in the season so we start out right!

Going on the Polar Express with our good friends, the Jolleys. We especially love seeing Santa, Mrs Clause and the Elves!!! (Brick Oven afterwards is always a treat too!)

Santa came to our Chisholm family Christmas! We thought Jaemon would pee his pants, he was so excited! We had fun wearing fun jammies, opening gifts, sledding and eating in our new dining room with all 30 of us!

We always get Sunday best Christmas clothes, and enjoy the church the Sunday before Christmas.

The making of gingerbread houses is always something that is a gooey, ooey, yummy, messy treat!

Sleeping under the tree (or at least in the same room as our main tree) on Christmas Eve-Eve and reading Christmas stories is something the kids love! (while mom and dad wrap presents and watch Christmas vacation!!!)

We always go fishing on Christmas Eve with the Bennett's. We fish for ornaments from Grandma and Grandpa.  The paper bags they are in are tied with red ribbons and we always tie them in Josh's hair!!! That's a lot of ribbons dude!! 

After Grandma's we come home and open one present! It is always jammies and a Christmas book especially for each person! This year I made all the jammies. (finished them at 4:30 that day! :) They were fun, ( a little low waisted, but oh well)!! Then we set out cookies and carrots for Santa and the reindeer!! The kids all sleep in Josh's room and we watch the original Christmas Carol. (God Bless Us Everyone!!!!)

Christmas morning is so magical, I hope we never totally grow up!!!!

Merry Christmas Everyone!!!!!!!

A day with Grandma

My grandma Dyer is the sweetest, most amazing woman I know or have ever known. She is the finest example of service, charity, kindness, unconditional love and devotion. I fall short compared to her in a zillion different ways, but I absoloutely love being near her. The kids and I went to visit her last week and spent the afternoon listening to her play the piano (she has two grand piano's in her living room, she loves to play but has a hard time now because of her eyes and fingers). Jaemon played on the big white couch like I did as a child, it is the coolest couch EVER!!! You just sink into it like you're on a cloud!!! We talked, had lunch, looked at pictures, sang at the piano together and had cookies, (her famous chocolate chip ones that she seems to ALWAYS have on hand!) I have many incredible memories of Grandma, but mostly I just love how I feel when I'm around her. I want my kids to know and remember the feeling too. It's love, acceptance and just sweet goodness. I love her with all my heart!!!! I'm so glad to have had a great day with her!

Well, it was my birthday this week. I turned 28 again!!!

Ha!Ha! Birthdays are funny things I've decided, I really don't like them very much because I don't want to get old. But, this year I tried really hard to be happy!! In fact, this year was a different birthday altogether. I went to a funeral of one of my best friend's mom's. It was a beautiful service, and full of amazing tributes to a truly angelic lady. I felt a lot of things during the meeting, but most of all I felt gratitude. Gratitude for my life, my health, my family and friends. For freedom and so many tangible blessings. I am so very, very thankful to have a relatively easy, cushy life, which I of course, take for granted. I am thankful, so thankful for a husband who is a good provider and such a wonderful husband and father, for children who are healthy and I think, really good kids!!! For good, loving, kind parents who created a magical, happy, strong childhood and a stable home. I remember lots of fun birthdays growing up, but mostly I remember that my mom and dad loved me. When we came out of the funeral, there was a message on my phone from my dad. He said, that even though they are very busy, (which they are this week!!!) they didn't forget me and he told me how much he and my mom loved me and how proud they are of me. Even as a 28 (sort of :) ) year old, I still need to hear that!!!! I am thankful today that they are still alive and well, and that I can call and talk to them, and I hope I will not take them for granted, because someday they will be gone!!! I have beautiful sisters, cousins, and friends, who I hope know, how much I love them. They help me daily try to be a better person.

One of the final remarks at my friend's funeral was that she lived her life to the fullest. She accomplished the things on her "list" and she died with no regrets. I hope I can be like that, I hope I can touch people's lives in such a way that when I die, people remember that I did my best, that I was grateful and helped others and loved as much as I could. 

Lesson learned on this, my 36th b-day, live like today is my last!!!!! Live so that I can say, "I have no regrets", I did my best!!!!

 Our Halloween party was tonnes of fun! We have awesome friends who really get into the spirit like we do!!!
I had fun dressing up with the kids for the parties at the school!
Dad and his look-a-like!


Let the trick-or-treating begin!!! 


Josh was a basketball playerJen, a zombie thing...Brennan a mummy, Ty, a vampire, Jaemon, Frankenstein and Gracie Ruth, a beautiful butterfly! It was so much fun! Halloween is the best!!!

So we went in search of leaf piles, and finally found some at a church in Payson. Some of  my kids thought they were too OLD and COOL to play in them, but after about 2 minutes all 6 of them were rolling around, having a blast. We had a tonne of fun just wrestling, throwing, jumping and rolling in crispy yellow maple leaves. This is one of those days I'll remember as being spontaneous and fun, all of us together on a beautiful fall afternoon.  LOVE IT!!!!

7 wierd things

My sister Beckie tagged me:

Her tag is to think of 7 unusual things about myself, then tag 7 other people and see what happens!

1. I am allergic to potatoes....unusual or what?

2. I like to eat stouffers macaroni and cheese almost burnt right out of the carton....yummy comfort food!

3. I really can't stand fruit with seeds, like raspberries, blackberries, etc. strawberries are ok!

4. I have a real phobia of mice, snakes and Dr's. (bad experience when I was little, funny since I've had 6 kids!)

5. I have fainted in very bizarre places, the chapel in church; the carthage jail; a busy pizza place, all when lots of people were around and it was very obvious and VERY embarassing!

6. I still LOVE the original Star Wars, and the little girl in me still wants to be Princess Leah.

7. I love to play with play dough, but I HATE to get anything sticky on my hands, like finger paint, or raw meat or dirt.......AHHHHH!(it's THE worst!!)

I tag: Heather, Tara, Shannon, Lori, Denice, Shelley, Becky Chis

Fall Festivities

My favorite time of year is Fall! I love the crisp air, I love the beautiful fall colors and most of all, I love Halloween! I have loved it since I was a little girl. We have lots of traditions that we do for this fun holiday. Some of which include visiting at least 2 pumpkin patches, going on hayrides, Gardiner Village to visit the witches and Halloween parties galore! There's no stress involved with Halloween, just fun and treats! What a great way to start off the BIG holiday season!! I LOVE IT!!!!!!!! Happy Haunting y'all!

Cruisin' Baby!!!

We think cruises are the ultimate in vacationing!!!  Here are my top 10 reasons why they are so great!

10. Being rocked to sleep by the (mostly)gentle swaying of the boat!

9. The entertainment, the comedians are really great! I don't know how those dancers can do it on stage when I can barely walk down the hall to my stateroom! This is our 2nd cruise with Jon's staff and the 14 of us definitley make our own entertainment too!!!

8. The little Cambodian dude that cleans our room. Dang, I would love to bring him home with me, he cleans like every 1/2 hour AND leaves chocolates on the sheets every night!!

7. The shopping. On the boat is fun because I can usually persuade Jon that I really NEED those cubic zirconia rings that are 2 for $39. I think bartering off the boat is fun too, and I never need to worry about the little ladies begging to braid my hair, there's not enough of it to braid!!!!

5. Getting sunburnt on the deck and people watching all at once. There is nothing funnier than some people's idea of a sexy bathing suit....I'm telling ya!

4. All the great accents you encounter on a cruise ship, I love the Australians, Hungrians, Britains, Phillipineans, etc. Half the time we're all wondering WHAT the HECK they're saying, but I feel cultural for a few days!!!!!! (I know they're thinking we are such stupid, fat Americans!!)

3. All the exercise we do to burn off all the calories. NOT!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'd rather drink pina colada's.

2.I love the ports of call, even when there is a hurricane to interupt the plans. They are so amazing! I love learning the culture and doing things I would NEVER do, like kayaking in the ocean (10 years ago if you would've told me I would do this, I would have rather died!!!) and ziplining through jungles (THAT was very cool, except for the maneating spiders:)

1. FOOD!! It's completely out of control the amount of food we eat on cruises. My favorite, by far are the souffle's. I love them!  ( I'm pretty sure each little souffle has about 1000 calories, OH WELL!)I also had this mushroom pot pie thing on this cruise, that was delicious. I asked for the recipe and they brought me the cookbook. I was so pleased to know that it had pancreas and adrenal glands of baby calves in it.  (well, I guess if I had to know........)Hmmmmmmm, oh well, it was still dang good!!!!! (think I'll pass on making that one for Thanksgiving dinner this year:)

Anyway. cruises are so fun. I always can't wait to go, I love it when we're on the boat and in port, I get scared and feel infinitley small when looking at the immense expanse of ocean,  but I love, love, love the sunrise and sunset on the ocean too, and I'm always so happy to come home. Vacations make me love my kids more, my home more, my day to day routine doesn't seem so hard after a vacation and life seems renewed!!! We need more of them!!!!!!

Simple pleasures

So we were getting ready to go out to eat and we couldn't find Gracie or Jaemon and when we came outside, there they were jumping around in rain puddles and having a great time!

I love the simple pleasures of childhood, like rain puddles! Life doesn't get any better than that! What if we all jumped around in puddles? Wouldn't that be fun?

Well, I just loved watching them laugh and play and get all wet!

When we were driving away we noticed the beautiful rainbow and Brennan explained to the little guys the significance of it. Jaemon promptly said "so Jesus IS watching us right mom?" All I could say was, "yeah buddy, he sure is!!!"

Sept 4 2008

Do you ever have a day where the world just seems right?

Today was one of those days!

Rachael, my youngest sister got married to a great guy.

If that was all, that would be enough, but there is so much more to the story!

Rach has been through a lot in the past few years and I have been fortunate enough to have been able to be there for her, (as big sisters should, right?) during some of the hard times.

In the temple, I was just so overwhelmed with happiness for her. I don't know why, but I think sometimes, sisters share a real physical bond and they can feel each others emotions. I felt hers today. I felt the loneliness, the sadness, the insecurities, the anxieties and the doubting melt away and in their place was peace, warmth, love, hope, security, and faith. I can't describe how happy I am for her, and I hope and pray with all my heart this marriage will last forever! She so deserves it!!!

We were honored to have their wedding dinner in our backyard. We worked hard to make it nice for them and I hope they enjoyed themselves. The food was delicious, the people were so sweet and everyone was happy. 

It was a beautiful day, congrats Germ and Jared, we love you!!!!!

My 1st 10k

Well, I never thought I'd say this, but I ran (and finished!!) my 1st 10k on labor day this year!

I have to say, it was very exhilerating! And also, pretty hard!! But hey, I didn't come in last, I came in 39th, and 9th for my age group!! Not too shabby!!!!!!

My friend, Marcia and I have been working towards it all summer, she is a very experienced runner and really helped me along! I am so glad she was there for me!!!

What an amazing feeling it is to set a goal like this and actually accomplish it! 

I have really tried this year to get and stay in shape with different work outs and activities and running was probably my least favorite, but after getting the hang of it and really commiting myself to it, I have to say that I really enjoy it now. I love getting up early when the sun is just coming out over the mountains and listening to the steady rhythm of my shoes on the pavement and trying to keep my breathing steady and even. It's amazing the way I've been able to clear my head and work out things while I've been running, it's become therapy for me! So, I did it and I am proud of myself!! I hope I can do it again....maybe a half marathon next time!!! :)

David and Allies wedding

My baby brother got married on Aug 20! He married a very sweet girl named Allie and she fits in perfectly!

They got married in the Bountiful temple, it was a beautiful day.

It is really neat to have such great examples for my kids. I hope they will follow in the footsteps of their aunts and uncles, who they admire and will get married at the right time and in the right place!!! I am thankful for my wonderful family, for amazing parents, and siblings. I couldn't ask for better!!