Easter Festivities

Easter weekend was pretty exciting around here. Originally, Easter festivities were going to be at my sister's place in Idaho. But because my dad is in the hospital (that is a whole other story that I won't go into here), we decided to move everything to my parent's house here in Utah. This actually worked out better for my little family, because I had to work Easter Sunday, and we would have missed out. In fact, the festivities were so big, we had to draw it out over two days, Saturday and Sunday!

The house was pretty crowded with people. All of my siblings, their spouses/significant others, and all the grandkids were in attendance, as well as my Grandma Olive, and Aunt Carol and Uncle Steve. Pretty crowded, but lots of fun! We did have a little drama, which seems to be pretty much expected in my family, but we got over it and had a fun time.

We had a spectacular Easter egg hunt with all the kids. We didn't count the eggs, but we estimated there was probably close to 200. It was quite the chore to find hiding spots for all of them. It was funny watching the kids try and find them all. Some we thought were really well hidden they found right away, while others that we thought were pretty obvious they passed by again and again without seeing.

I do have to say that I was a little frustrated with Cameron's "finding" ability. This is an on-going battle in our house. He has trouble seeing things in the most obvious places, and does not seem to understand the concept that just because you can't see it, doesn't mean it's not there. Like it might be hiding under something. Same thing with the eggs. We kept trying to hint for him to look all around, up and down, and in things. But after several minutes of him just sort of glancing around waiting for it to pop out at him, we would give up and point it out. We definitely need to start doing some more "finding" games around the house to develop this particular skill.

Easter dinner was scrumptious - BBQ ribs the first day, and ham the next, with all the best fixings:-) I think everyone was particularly enamored with my cake balls - a ridiculously easy recipe, but the most melt-in-your-mouth deliciousness:-) And the candy haul? Um, did I mention there were nearly 200 eggs? Yeah, we are going to be eating that for a while.

To round off the fun, my dad's sister flew in on Tuesday to spend some time with him. They were only here for a few hours, but it was nice to see them again. I don't think we get to see them near as often as I would like!

So here are the highlights in photos:

Being on a Budget

Craig and I are not major spenders. I think we are actually pretty thrifty. I do have a hard time saying no to the little things, but I pass up more than I buy. We rarely eat out, we buy clothes on sale, and only when we REALLY need them, and I coupon like crazy to save on the grocery bill. So we were more than a little confused to find that our expenses STILL outstrip our income! By a lot. Go figure.

We decided that the major issue is our debt. I was in debt before we even got married, and poor Craig just inherited that. Since then, we gradually added to that debt, little by little. We never really thought anything about it. Debt was just a way of life. Everyone had it, it seemed, and we were certainly no exception.

Then a couple of years ago both Craig and I lost our jobs at almost the exact same time. It was hard, because we both thought we had job security. We had no savings, and we had just bought a house. We were in trouble! We spent the next 6 months desperately looking for work, and living off our credit cards. Bad, bad, bad! Fortunately, we were both able to find work again, but by that time we found ourselves in a very sticky situation.

We still were not sure what to do. The debt was worse than ever, and there did not seem to be anything we could do about it. Until. . .

I am sure most everyone has heard about Dave Ramsey. He claims to have a solid way to get out of debt. It is not a "get rich quick" scheme, or even some new-fangled idea. We have heard it before. But Dave makes sense. I decided to check out what he has to offer and purchased his book, "Total Money Makeover". If you haven't read it yet, go check it out! I was really excited reading it, and feeling like maybe things were not as hopeless as we thought.

Yes, there will be a long and rough road ahead of us. Yes, we are still scared. Yes, we WILL get out of debt. Don't let anyone try to tell you that debt is just a way of life. Debt is BAD! All of it!! We have dug ourselves in to a deep pit, and now it is time to climb back out.

New Perspective

We recently had an experience that has changed our perspective. This past week we had the opportunity to babysit my little nephew (10 months) overnight. For the most part, he is a happy little guy, and loves to play. He was NOT happy when it was bedtime or naptime, and he really did not like when I left a room.

It was fun having him over, but it has been a looooong time since we have had a baby in our home, and we had forgotten how much work they can be! I spent a good deal of time cleaning up after him, playing with him, feeding him, etc.

For so long we have been trying to have another baby. We thought that was what we wanted. It was always our plan to have a big family. But despite all our efforts, it just hasn't happened. This has been a really hard pill to swallow, and I have had a very hard time dealing with it. I thought this was what I needed to be happy. To fill fulfilled.

I was wrong.

I have spent so much time longing for the child I don't have, that I have blinded myself to the blessings I have already been given. So many good things have happened to us. We have the most wonderful, bright, happy little boy. The joy he brings to our home in immeasurable.

Now that Cameron is in school I can focus much more attention on my career, and good things are coming from it. I really enjoy what I do, but it takes a great deal of dedication, perseverance, and hard work to run a business. Craig is also able to dedicate more of his time to the things he loves.

I always thought I couldn't really be happy with only one child. But the truth is, I AM happy. I just couldn't see it before. Now we understand what our lives could be like if there was another baby. While we would never turn away such a blessing, we no longer yearn for it like we did. Our lives have changed, and with it our perspective. I don't know that we will ever have more children, but I know that even if we don't, it's okay. I have already been given something great.

Boys and their Swords

For Craig's 30th birthday this past November I got him his first sword. He decided he wanted some photos to share with his friends online. Well, you know me, I can't do anything simply:-) I used some wicked cool dramatic lighting to really bring the images to life. I tried to convince them to change into some period clothing or something, but I think they thought that was going a little overboard. Bummer. But I think the images turned out great anyway.

I call this one "Lost".

Doesn't he look ferocious?

This one is one of my faves. I call it "Warrior's Prayer".

A Little Christmas

This time of year is always pretty busy, but I thought I would take just a moment to blog about a few a little things.

Cameron has recently taken an interest in cooking. Where he got this idea we have no idea. Craig can hardly cook at all, and while I can cook (and Craig says I cook very well), I don't really enjoy the task. I prefer baking, but even that is not very enjoyable for me. I don't like the clean-up:-)

But as Cameron grows older, I find we have fewer and fewer shared interests. He is every inch a boy, and well, I am not. But I think cooking is something we can do together. Even though it is not my favorite thing to do, I think it is much more enjoyable when I can do it with my little boy. Besides, I hope to turn him into a little chef, so that by the time he is in his teens, he can be the head chef of the family:-)

We decided to try our hands at some baking, and we chose one of my favorite Christmas cookies - M&M Chocolate Drop Cookies. Cameron did a lot of the work himself - he measured, poured, and mixed the ingredients (his favorite part is cracking open eggs!), and I helped him put the dough on the cookie sheets and put them in the oven. After they were done, I filled them with frosting, and he added all the little M&Ms. I have never seen a little boy so proud of his accomplishments than Cameron was:-) And I was a proud Mommy, too! And, in case you are wondering, they were delicious:-P

It took me a little longer than usual to get our Holiday decorations out. I usually like to get them out right after Thanksgiving, but too many other things have been going on. But, I finally got it all out, and I am thrilled to see my little home all decked out.

Christmas really is one of my favorite times of the year. I love all the glittery things, the colorful lights everywhere, and the way my home looks and feels so cozy in the glow from the Christmas tree. And I love that I have this great old piano to put things on:-)

As you can see from the photo, I have started collecting two things. The first is Santas. I LOVE Santa Claus. He was always a VERY big deal in our home, so collecting different Santas has been a lot of fun. The second thing I have started a collection of is Nativity scenes.

I received my first Nativity scene several years ago after my parents attended an estate sale. The figures are fairly small, but it was a full set - all the wiseman and their camels, all the shepherds and their sheep, the donkey, and even the angel. What it did NOT have was the BABY JESUS! I still set it all out every year, but it bothered me that it had no little Jesus. What is the point, really?

Well, I FINALLY found the little Jesus that goes with this set. There is a little ceramic shop near by, and they actually carried the pieces to this set, and were lucky enough to have a little Jesus (he is hard to find this time of year). So now my set is complete! My next goal is to paint it. I like the white, but I might add some sparkle by adding gold or silver highlights. Or maybe I will go full color. I haven't decided yet.

I have several other sets that I have acquired over the years. Right now a secret friend is leaving little Nativity pieces on our doorstep every night. We look forward to seeing what new piece we will get.

And finally, we come to the tree. My adorable little tree. Yes, it is quite small. I have had this tree since before I met Craig. For many years we lived in apartments, so it made sense to keep a small tree. But now we have our own home, and I told Craig it was high time we got something a little bigger. We are hoping to find a nice one during the after Christmas sale. This one will not gone forever, though! We are going to set it up in the basement to add a little cheer down there. And I can also use it for photo shoots with young children.

So, there is a little bit of Christmas for you. There is surely more to come later!

Thankgiving

We had a GREAT Thanksgiving this year! For a long while we thought we were not going to do anything. It was our year to spend Thanksgiving down in Vegas with Craig's family, but we were just down there last month for his brother's wedding.

But it turns out that all his other siblings were staying up here in Utah as well (incidentally, all but one of Craig's siblings live here in Utah now. We really need his parents up here, too!!). So we decided to host a little Thanksgiving get-together here in our home. In all the years we have been married, we have never hosted a holiday dinner at our home, so this was very exciting!

We kept it simple with the usual treats - turkey, stuffing, taters, and plenty of pies:-) I was a little nervous about cooking the turkey, but it turned out to be very simple, and, I must say, it was the most beautiful turkey I have ever seen. Looked like something out of a magazine:-) I forgot to take a picture of it BEFORE we started carving it, but you can still see the nice golden color it had.

And the pies! Oh, the pies! All four pies were made completely from scratch - crust and all! Even the chocolate pie was made from REAL melted chocolate and milk. My new SIL Laurel made the yummiest apple pie, and I did the cherry, chocolate, and pumpkin. Yum!!

We had a lot of fun eating, playing games, eating, chatting, and eating. All in all, it was a fantastic day, and we all had fun:-)

A little about Halloween

I know Halloween is a bit in the past, but I have been pretty swamped and have not had much time to blog about life. And I suppose it doesn't matter, since I am not sure anyone but myself ever comes to this blog. So I write more as a journal for myself than for anyone else. But just in case anyne ever does pop over here frmo time to time, I hope you enjoy these little glimpses into our family life.

Last Halloween (2009) was kind of a bust for us. We really didn't do anything at all. No parties or activities, and Cameron was tired of T&T after only one street. Bleh.

This year was tons better! Now that Cameron is in school we have a lot of school activities to look forward to. I was a little disappointed that his school did not allow costumes. That was one of my favorite things during Halloween - wearing my costume and marching around in the school parade. So much fun!

Since they could not wear their costumes to school, Cameron said he needed a "Halloween" shirt, just for fun. I was hoping to make it a fun mother/son craft experience. Just one problem. Cameron is not really big into crafts. In fact, he does not really like them at all. So I ended up making the shirt, but he was still really happy to wear it:-)

The school did have a Fall Carnival and we went for a little bit. They have a few games and activities, but the place was PACKED, and we had to wait in line for 20 min just to play one 10 sec game. We had to leave before they did T&T around the school, but they gave Cameron a bunch of candy anyway.

Later we went to one of Cameron's favorite places - the dinosaur park! They had a big Halloween event going on all month, and we decided to use our family pass to go and have some fun together. It was a lot of fun seeing the dinosaurs at night. And there was TONS of candy! Cameron had a blast, and so did Mommy and Daddy.

Speaking of Daddy, his work had a little fun for Halloween as well. They all got to dress in costumes, and they invited all the kids to come and T&T around the office. Craig decided to go as one of our favorite TV characters - Chuck. I tried curling his hair, but it was a little too short to do what I wanted it to do. Oh well, he looked great anyway!

We did do a little T&T around the neighborhood, but our area is pretty lame. A couple of years ago we lived in an area that had TONS of kids everywhere - just like when I was a kid. But our area now is practically dead (no pun intended) on Halloween. A scattering off houses passing out candy, and a few kids here and there. Still, there was plenty of booty to be had.

All in all, we had a lot of fun, and Cameron brought home more candy than we could eat in a year. And finally, I will leave you with a few more pics of Cameron in his Buzz Lightyear costume, because he is just so cute!

Family Photo Shoot

This is the first installment of our family photos this year. We did a photo swap with another photographer, Shantell Urry. There is a big park right across the street from our house, with lots of cute spots for photos. And since I live here, I know where all the BEST spots are - especially the ones that not a lot of other photographers know about.

I was a little disappointed that the leaves were still mostly green. Fall has been sporadic this year - even while some trees are still green, others have already turned color and dropped their leaves. very annoying.

I think we must have been a challenge for Shantell. She had to deal with very low light, a wiggly six year old, and a little dog!

Here are some of our faves. Sorry they are so small. I tried to resize them, but then they wouldn't fit on the blog.

So this last one shows the creek where that body was found. My house is just up to the left, a little less the 100 yards. We actually tried going back to this spot a few days later to see if the leaves had changed, but they had the whole bridge taped off.

Uncle Matthew

Okay, okay, I know it's been a long time since I have last blogged. I apologize. Life is busy, that's all I can say. But here is a post to bring you a little smile.

Cameron adores his uncles. Well, mostly Craig's brothers, as he does not know my brothers very well. Although his uncles are considerably older than him (but not too old), they still love spending time with Cameron.

One of these uncles, Matthew (not to be confused with my own brother Matthew), recently began serving a mission for our church. He will be gone for two years, which makes Cameron a little sad. So we decided to do a very impromptu photoshoot with the two of them before Matthew (aka Elder Stiles) left.
Cameron was being pretty silly, and kept wanting me to take more pictures, so I shot a few of him by himself. I love my handsome boy!

The beard

Most everyone who knows me knows that I DO NOT like facial hair. Yuck. I do not like looking at it. Or touching it. And DEFINITELY not kissing it. So why, then, did my wonderful husband decided to randomly grow a beard?

He said he wanted to try it out. He has talked about it for years. I kind of thought it would be one of those things he would try when he was forty or fifty. But he decided to try now. And no, he did not consult me on this decision (he didn't need to, he already knew what I was going to say).

I think part of this desire came with a recent visit with my family. Both of my brothers were there (very rare, btw). Matt, the younger of them, had some very sporadic growth around his chin and face. It looked awful. But when he told us it was TWO WEEKS of growing, I couldn't help but laugh! Bill, the older, has much the same problem, though I think his "beard" might be slightly better. But only slightly.

We have always known Craig could easily grow a full beard without much trouble. We have been a little curious about how long it would actually take to grow one. So for the last week he has been trying to grow a beard.

And I hate it. I mean, I REALLY hate it. Cameron isn't too fond of it, either. And it turns out, Craig himself doesn't like it either! He says he is constantly aware of it, but it never ceases to shock him when he looks in the mirror, or puts his hand on his face. So, the beard is coming off tonight. Hooray!!

I have to say that I am impressed with the growth he was able to achieve in only one week. It is not a full beard, but probably would be within another week if he continued to let it grow. I am hoping that he won't try this again for a long time. Or ever. Maybe now I can convince him to do laser hair removal on his facial hair:-)

A few shots of the beard:

Fostering

I have a new found respect for foster parents. It is HARD WORK!

Craig and I have been searching for ways to "grow" our family. We recently took a serious look at becoming foster parents. Because the state helps quite a bit, we felt this would be a great idea for us. We already had a spare room, a bed and a crib, plenty of toys, etc. Only the child was missing.

So we started going to the classes that they require as part of the licensing procedure. We learned a lot. We learned things we didn't want to know. We learned that people do terrible things, and a lot of time they do these terrible things to their own children. So sad! Heartbreaking, in fact.

We thought, "We could give these children a safe home. We could give them love. We could give them hope." But then we were told that the state ALWAYS wants to send these children back to their bio parents whenever possible. Even if we feel that is just not cool.

Some of these kids have been through way too much in their short lives. They need A LOT of attention. Which is, of course, a problem for us, since we both work full time. I even work most weekends.

Putting it all together, we decided that fostering is probably not such a good fit for us after all. It would be very difficult to spend the time with them that they really need. And we know that we will probably become attached to them, and it would be very difficult to give some of them back to their parents. I think I could handle it a little better than Craig. He is an all or nothing kind of guy. But it would still be hard.

So, here we are back at square one again. I find we are here A LOT. I don't think I like square one very much. It means there is no progress. We want more than anything to have more children, but nothing has worked out for us. In fact, fostering was pretty much the last step for us. Now that that has fallen through, we are pretty much thinking Cameron is going to be our one and only. It kills me to think that. I always wanted a big family. Never thought I would only have one. I love him like crazy, but I would give anything for him to have a brother or sister. Perhaps it is just not meant to be.

I guess she's not so bad, afterall

Many eons ago, I lived in a hole-in-the-wall place south of BYU campus. Total ghettosville. But I made a lot of friends and some good memories. But there was one person I did NOT want to make friends with. We called her the "Cookie Slut". I know. Awful. She had this name because whenever any of us tried to visit with any of the guys, invariably she was there. With cookies. And not just any cookies. These were always her best homemade, melt-in-your-mouth, died-and-gone-to-heaven cookies. Us plain girls didn't have a chance. So naturally, we hated her. Okay, hate is much to strong a word. But we didn't like her much, at any rate.

Well, as fate would have it, I ended up actually moving in with her the next year in a new apartment complex. Yes, I did know she was going to be there, and yes, I did cry a few times before the big move-in day. I was certain I was making a big mistake, but something kept telling me I needed to do this. Besides, if I lived in the same apartment as her, I was bound to get some of those cookies, right?

Turns out, Alicia (yes, she does have a name), was an awesome cook in general. Really, I think her homemade Chicken Noodle soup is impossible to beat. And those chocolate bon-bons? Yes, please.

Then here cookies made something magical happen. One night she made a batch of fabulous cookies and invited a bunch of guys a few doors down to come sample them. Too bad she forgot to tell me. So there I was in my jammies, no make-up on, hair not done, and in walks an entire apartment full of guys. Yikes! No where to run, no where to hide. So I just curled myself up on the couch, hoping I looked invisible.

Nope, not invisible. Apparently I caught the eye of one of those fellers, and he sat right down next to me and started up a conversation. And he was smart. Real smart. And I liked him. A week later he asked me out on a date, and I decided I like him even more. And he liked me, too. We've been together almost eight years now:-)

And what about Alicia? Well, turns out she wasn't so bad after all. In fact, she was downright great! I have had many roommates over the years, but she is one of the few that I have actually kept in touch with (thank goodness for blogs and facebook!). She found her Captain Awesome a few years back, and now they are expecting their first baby!

Even though she now lives in Kansas, I still keep up with her. She has been in town because her hubby Brian is an AMAZING organist (I think he played a little for MoTab), and is doing some kind of organ thing at BYU, so Alicia's mom threw her a baby shower.

It was great seeing her again (even though I was reminded how very short I am). Alicia, you are awesome. I am soo excited for you and Brian! And I envy the new little one because he will get to eat your amazing food every day. Thanks for the cookies:-)

The Great Outdoors

I have always been the outdoorsy type. Despite my cuteness and chic style, I grew up as a tomboy. I was the one climbing trees, digging in the dirt, and bringing home the local wildlife (I still do not understand why my mom would not let me keep the tadpoles).

Craig is not so much an outdoors kind of guy. He is happiest behind a computer. He says he doesn't like fishing (but he has only been once, so how can he really know?), except in the occasional video game. He mostly refuses to help me in the garden (though for our anniversary he did help with some weeding).

We always assumed Cameron took more after his dad. He is ALWAYS playing video games. Or watching youtube videos about playing video games. Or talking about things that happened in games he is playing. It never really occurred to us that hidden somewhere inside him he had the Outdoorsman gene.

A few months ago my dad offered to take Cameron for a night. My dad is a very outdoorsy kind of guy. He loves camping and fishing, and he took us out frequently when we were all kids. So when Cameron went to visit, of course he took him fishing. We weren't sure how Cameron would like it. Fishing is something that requires a lot of patience. What five year old has any of that?

Turns out, Cameron loves fishing! They stayed out all day, and Cameron caught THREE fish!! This was one proud mamma! I let my dad have the fish, though. Cameron, like me, loves to fish, but hates to eat them.
So this past weekend we planned a short camping trip with Craig's cousin Clin and his family. We have been planning this for quite some time. We decided to head up to Echo Lake in the Uintah's. For anyone that has been up that way, you know that the ONLY way up is a on a rocky road (more like small boulder road), using 4 wheel drive. It was very slow going. But so worth it! We were pretty high up (10,000ft), so it was pleasantly cool. There were no towns or highways anywhere around us, so the stars at night were spectacular. We even saw the ribbon of the Milky Way!

We roughed it for the weekend. We could not park the cars at the campsite, so we had to make a small hike, which we did several times to get everything from the cars. There were also no bathrooms, but we brought some shovels;-) Dinner was hot dogs roasted over the fire, and I made breakfast tacos in the morning.

I regret that I did not get a fishing license. Their were some small trout in the lake that would have been fun to go after. Clin brought his fishing gear and was able to catch a couple. By the time Cameron got out to the lake the fish had already gone to deeper water. Also, little Madison was so loud that she scared off all the fish. We don't really blame her, though. She's only two. I did catch a little snake though. That was kind of cool:-)

My biggest regret? No pictures. I know, sad. I brought my "big" camera, but I didn't have my tripod (it broke), so I didn't feel like getting it out. For snapshots I brought my little P&S, but Craig packed it away somewhere and I couldn't find it. Craig should know better than to touch my cameras.

All in all, it was a fun weekend, and we are hoping to do it again. BTW, Cameron's favorite part was sleeping outside in a tent. He looked so cute in his sleeping bag, and said he was "so cozy". Craig and I were not. Our air mattress sprung a small leak. And I had Orion (the dog) with me because he was freezing, so it was a little cramped in my sleeping bag.

On a final note, I am starting to harvest some of my garden vegetables. I have already had a pint or two of strawberries, which I am hoping to jam. And yesterday I harvested my first bell peppers ever! They are puney, but I am happy to have them. I left one on the bush for a little longer, and it turned red, the other is still green.

I also noticed that I have one tomato that is starting to turn red, and a whole bunch more that are starting to come out. I love fresh garden tomatoes!

Well, this post has certainly gone on long enough. But since I am not the greatest at keeping my blog regularly updated, y'all get a an extra portion:-)