8 years

On the 27th we celebrated our eight year wedding anniversary! We haven't run out of things to say to each other yet (that was one of my worries with marriage :) I'll even go so far as to say that I bet Dave sometimes wishes I WOULD run out of things to say...

I'm so glad we're family, I love this guy!

Six years...

December 19, six years ago, Alex joined our family. (Dave looks sickly pale here because of the horrible delivery...)

We love having this guy in our house. He has embarrassed me in public places so many times I can't keep track. He likes the rules and likes to enforce them... and he has this AMAZING vocabulary, probably from Dave. He never gets stage fright when he sings or talks in front of a whole bunch of people, he's actually quite a little thespian. Watching movies with Alex is always an adventure, he's so completely involved in the movie that he literally cannot watch while sitting... he's in on the action. Sometimes he'll just scream out at scary parts (in the theaters too). He loves to play with Lydia until she puts too many princess stories in the pretend play, and then he must go on kill mode...
He loves legos and star wars, but since another little boy had a star wars birthday not too long ago we chose lego theme. Dave made the cake because I was too afraid :)
We love you Alex! Happy Birthday!

hohoho

First off, Disney on ice totally rocks! Really. So much fun! We even let Alex skip school for it :) That's the kind of mom I am ;)

That piggy bank ice skater (ham) deserves a LOT of credit, he really had real ice skates on his hands, crazy. There was also a toy troll that I couldn't stop laughing at. I tried to get a picture but they skate fast...

Now for some seasonal funnies. Alex and Lydia like to point out lights on houses while we're driving in the car. They just yell, loudly, "CHRISTMAS LIGHTS". There are lots of christmas lights out there, so we were getting tired of the yelling. I told Alex to describe them instead, like "pretty lights" or "look, blue ones!". So the next house he yells "PLEASANT!"... he kind of got it :)

Lydia was telling a friend at church that "Christmas is about giving" and then she said, "I've got lots of presents under the tree, and they say Lydia, Lydia, Lydia, Lydia" So, does she get the true meaning or not? :)

christmas time!

Christmas parties have officially started! I'm surprised at how busy I am and how I choose to keep adding more and more to my to do list :) But, I'm still happy so I guess I'm good... right?

I had to monitor the "asking Santa" portion for our kids this year. They started getting very vague and obscure... like Lydia wanted a 3-D world (what???) we decided to change it to a barbie car ;) I also had to quietly remind Alex that he didn't want a Lego atlantis, he wanted Hoth. How in the world do parents just let their kids ask Santa for whatever? Does Santa ever disappoint? I don't remember.
Kids before church. Don't they look good? :) Although, I can't figure out the red-eye thing on my photoshop... hence the scary black eyes...

We hope everyone is as happy and maybe not as busy as we are :)

SKIING!!!!

I never realized how badly I wanted to go skiing with my whole family until this weekend. My family (rozeski side) loves to ski, and this weekend they invited Dave and I. Well, I worked it out that the kids could come too! YIPEE!!!

Before we hit the slopes, Elijah, Madeline, Jaxen, Lydia, and Alex

Alex looking awesome :)
Lydia looking strong :)
At the end of the day (notice Lydia, she was wiped out :) It was the perfect day. No crying, no wind, not too long of lines, and plenty of adults to help. Dave and I even got some grown up runs in. I was giddy the whole day! Thanks mom, dad, Jason, and Melissa (for getting the ball rolling :)

gold mine and big horn sheep

Last saturday we went on a tour at Phoenix gold mine. It was cold! The tour was REALLY good, and there is still a ton of gold in this mine, so we got so see some very shiny rocks :) They just don't have an environmentally safe way to separate the rock from the metal, so it's stuck in there for now

Grandma came with us... the kids' hard hats were for decoration :)
Alex doing some blasting... because it was so cold we were the only ones there for a tour, which was awesome too. The guide let the kids do a lot of stuff.
They also have a creek that you can pan for gold in. People find gold all the time in there so Dave was excited to try it. He didn't quite have to break through ice to start... but it was still freezing cold. We think we'll try again in the summer :)
We also went to a Big Horn sheep festival in Georgetown. Alex's new year's resolution was to see wild big horn sheep. We did see some, even a ram! But our camera isn't good enough to get a great picture. It was exciting to finally see one after looking for the whole year!

-isms

Lydia in Grandma Jaynie's leaf pile...

Little things Lydia does I need to write down...

She learned about baby Jesus yesterday at church. While driving home she said, "He didn't have a crib! Just a manger, where donkeys eat. But don't worry, the donkey's didn't eat him"

She also thinks she can speak spanish, and she actually attempted talking to a little spanish girl at the jump house. The little girl didn't respond. :)

She put her pants on backward and I told her so, and she replied "But my bum is in the back still" and then shook her bum at me.

She is really good at annoying Alex, singing made up songs when he just wants quiet, using the special toy before he gets to it, etc. All little sister stuff. But she also gets so excited when they play with each other nicely... it's like she can't decide if she idolizes him or dislikes him (that's pretty typical sibling stuff too :)

Halloween week

Does anyone else feel like this holiday was the longest ever? We have celebrated for three days straight... I'm beat. Thursday was Lydia's school party, then we went to the HUGE pumpkin patch. Friday was Alex's party and a friend's party in the evening. Saturday was our ward party and trunk or treat. And today is the actual holiday... phew!

This is Alex's kindergarten teacher, isn't she awesome? She just has this belle costume lying around :)
Dave at the pumpkin patch, this pumpkin was $100, and I was in no mood to carve it :) We got ours fresh from the field
Lydia the cowgirl :) I could never find reasonably priced cowboy boots, so tinkerbell shoes had to work.
Alex the cowboy. Yes, we had matching kids this year. I loved it. This outfit that Alex is wearing is pretty much all Dave's. His mom gave us all of their old costumes and we found the stirrups, boots, belt, and bandana in it! YEA Jaynie :)
At our ward christmas party we had a no-holds bar pinewood derby. Lydia really loved it. Unfortunately Dave is not as serious about this race as other dads. Our wheel fell off after the 30th race or so. So, Grandma let Lydia borrow hers (pictured above) My mom did tape a troll (remember those toys?) to the top, but he flew off pretty fast :)

I hope everyone else had a great Halloween!

Family pictures

My lovely sister-in-law did a free photo shoot for us a few weeks ago. I love that she not only thought of about 8 million poses (seriously), she also decided to bring her family along so we could take a family photo of them. And, of course, grandma had to come along too... couldn't miss out on the fun :)

We got so many good pictures, I'm afraid they didn't get nearly as many. We don't have Melissa's talent...
Lydia and Autumn... so cute
Al and his idol (Jaxen)
All the kids on grandma's car :) Melissa also brought giant lollipops for this pose. It was really cute and SO messy. Maybe if you come over you can see the good pictures :)
This one is my favorite, but it's not the one we chose. We picked a picture where Lydia was smiling too to actually hang on our wall. But isn't that background awesome! Thanks Melissa ;)

wassup?!?

I had such a fun saturday today. Some of my friends from elementary school (yes, that's over 17 years ago :) decided to get together... so fun! Here is Kayla and Brooke on the last day of 6th grade... sorry the quality is so poor, I can't work my scanner (and the photos are so OLD!)
Here's me, in the girls bathroom, man I was so cool...
And here we are now! From left to right, Brooke, Karrie, me, Kayla..
I couldn't find a before picture of Karrie, there's a million at my mom's house. We all met up with our kids at a pumpkin festival. So, the kids got to decorate pumpkins, go on a pumpkin hunt, bounce around on the inflatables, hay ride, watch dogs do tricks, and talk to the firefighters.

Our kids are already adults

Before school started we were quizzing Alex on his phone number, full name, address, etc. Lydia would often help Alex cheat (except that she doesn't know the answers herself). So I'd ask "Alex, what's your phone number?" And Lydia would lean over to Al and whisper "one". Then Alex would say to me "one?" No, there's not a one at the beginning of our phone number. Why would you listen to a three year old?

Well, yesterday I was trying to think of someone's name and Lydia leaned over and whispered, "Gina" I said, "Gina?" Nope, not right. MAN! She's just so dang convincing!
We got to go to Jaxen's football game friday night. (These pictures below will totally freak out my roommates at college who used to see pictures of pudgy Jaxen at 1 year eating everything...) Anyway, when we got there Alex said, really loud, "Boy oh boy, you sure do have to have some big poofy muscles to play this game!" Everyone that heard was cracking up. I love that kid.

First story

We went to Alex's elementary school BBQ last night and Lydia asked for an alien from the balloon artist... isn't it awesome?!? Good choice!

This next part is for recording sake, but read if you want!

Alex has always been really into stories, reading, hearing, and making them up. The other night he had Dave write his story down. So, without further ado, "The Story of David" by Alex Mauger (written by David Mauger)

David was having a nice time in his castle with his princess. When suddenly, his princess was feeling sick. She said, "I think I'm having babies." Then David thought, "This is great."

The princess went to the doctor. When she went to the room, the doctor wasn't there. David thought he should look for the doctor. So, he got on his horse. He went to a big lake. A man was carrying a flower in a boat. David called out, "Have you seen the doctor of my castle?" The man answered, "I saw him walking past the little mountain next to the 2 trees."

So, David went there and saw an eagle. David asked the eagle, and the eagle said, "I saw him next to the 5 holes under that tree." David went there and saw some moles carrying branches. David asked the moles, they said, "Yes, going down the wiggly path."

David found the doctor, and took him back. "Why were you out here?"

The doctor said, "I lost a tool, but then found it in a bush, but I got lost." The doctor helped the princess have the babies. She had one girl and two boys.

The End

Path to success

I met up with my old college friend on saturday... Cosmo. I missed that guy :) We went to the BYU vs. Air Force game in Colorado springs. Judging on the traffic...everyone else did too :) It was great to be there, sad to see them play so poorly. This was the only good picture (camera died). I might have to go again, for the pictures...

Alex also marched in the Harvest Festival in Arvada. We dressed Lydia up right so she could score us some good candy... she did not disappoint :)
He stopped and sat down when he saw us. The parade was a little too long :) His shirt has the logo for ARvada West Highschool, class of 2023. As Dave says, 'that's if he stays on track.'
Lydia had her first day of preschool. In the newly named Yellow room. It's not really yellow, just the paper outside... oh well :)
Now I have two kids in school. And 2 uninterrupted hours to myself. It still doesn't seem long enough :)

Apples, horses, and nickels

Since I had a lot of east coast roommates in college I heard a lot about apple orchards in the fall. We have one (just one) u-pick-it apple orchard in Colorado. It's a hobby farm, but they had the doughnuts, and that's all I really wanted to try :)

The grandmas came with us. They had these HUGE draft horses called Percheron. Lydia is petting the newborn.
Alex is scared to death of horses (like his mom and dad really). So we're practicing feeding these gentle giants... see the fear in his eyes? My death grip on his arm? All for his own good :)
They also had the nicest little donkeys... they were like cats they wanted to be petted so much. It was cute.

So, now we've officially enjoyed a apple orchard. Although someday I'd like to go to the east and do the real thing :) Our hay ride was fairly pitiful...

On another note... Lydia has been lifting up her shirt lately and saying "here comes the nickel show!" We thought it was so funny that we've been having her do it for friends and family. I thought maybe she got it from TV (those crazy cartoons), or maybe she thought her belly button looks like a nickel. So we would laugh and Alex would even start doing it. Well, yesterday Dave realized what she was saying. As Lydia pointed to her nipples and said "nickel"

AHHHHHH!!! Were we really encouraging a nipple show!?!? And where in the world did she get that? I swear that I have never uttered those words (until just now). Now we're quietly discouraging the practice, hopefully we'll break it before she can say the word correctly...

I'm a dork sometimes...

I never thought purses were cool when I was in junior high and high school. Not really even in college. But then I got a diaper bag and realized that they're useful... though still not cool. Until now, now I have a mom purse. Not a diaper bag but an actual fashionable purse, with little things in all the pockets :)

Lydia has made me girly, and now I like little lotions and lipstick in my bag, and gum, because moms always have gum... right?

So I grabbed sample lotions at the doctor the other day and stuck them in my cool purse. While I was waiting for a train the other day I grabbed one of the little bottles and squeezed some into my hand. Right at that moment I realized that the train was done and I'd have to rub this in quick, and then I saw that this little bottle was trial size shampoo!!!! Yup, I had squirted a generous amount of shampoo into my hand. Such a dork! Luckily I have some baby wipes in my cool purse still :)

first day of school

We are the proud parents of a fairmount firebird :) Alex is now officially in Kindergarten, so exciting!

The only tears were from Lydia because she couldn't ride the bus too. Although Dave almost cried :)
He picked out the biggest backpack he could find, maybe to haul Lydia along one day :) It's full of his supplies so it was pretty heavy too!
I'm so excited for this next step in his life. He got on the bus without looking back and went right to the back, probably to sit with the 6th grade girl that waited at the stop with us. He's no fool :)

summer summer summertime

I'm a theme song kind of gal. Whatever word you can think of, I can usually think of two songs that sing about it. There are about 800 songs with the "summer" theme. We found by a really extensive online survey, that "Summertime" by Will Smith was the ultimate summer song :)

We had another zoo marathon on friday. Here are the boys studying the map for the most efficient course :) It turns out you can see the zoo in less than 6 hours! (They might not be all THAT efficient :)

We went to Lakeside. Even though half of the rides are broken, the kids had a blast. We started out on the easy circle rides, then they rode this kiddie coaster (sidenote, Lydia thought that when we said "kiddie" rides, we meant that kittens were on all the rides.... such a disappointment!) They were all smiles until the first hill, the next time we saw their faces they were scared to death! I wish I had video :)
Alex's first trophy, from swim team. He believes it's pure gold :)
An finally, I went to a baby shower with a farm theme. This was the cake! Her sister-in-law made it... first one ever! So, Michelle & Melissa, where's my themed cake?
We have loved summer this year, especially since we put it to music :)