Erik's (not first) haircut

Erik's hair was getting too long. He was getting a rooster tail in back, and I was wondering where his ears had gone, so Tim got the clippers out and gave him a buzz. It was pretty cute, Erik loves getting his hair cut. Usually I take him to a salon, and he sits there nice and quiet and let's the beautician cut his hair. (His idea of leaning his head forward so she can get to his neck, is to open his mouth wider :) ) Erik didn't appreciate the fact that he was COVERED in hair. But he is a pretty smart little boy, he recognized the resemblence between him, with his arms, legs, and stomach covered in hair, and Daddy. Tim may not appreciate the fact that this is now public knowledge...sorry honey! This isn't the first time Tim's hair has been discussed by our children. My 5 year old daughter, who is also a smarty pants (too smart for her own (or our?) good sometimes), once told him that he is a mammal because he is covered in fur. We got a real laugh from that one.

About 8 inches

Well, we got some snow last night. This is a view out the front door of our house, Tim definately got his exercise shoveling this morning. I love the beauty of snow and how it lays such a pristine blanket over the world. It makes everything seem so clean, and pure. MELT ALREADY!! My mom is driving down from Missoula tomorrow morning, and I'm VERY concerned about her safety driving that stretch between Butte and DuBois. Very Trecherous. If you have a second, say a little prayer that she gets here safe. If this snow could just go away for 24 hours, and come back after that, it'd be great, in fact we could have a blizzard after that and I'd be happy. That's not too much to ask is it??? Well, I may not be appreciating the snow as much as I should, but the kids sure are. They love it! I think they especially love that they get a mug of hot chocolate after playing in the cold. I think Erik has taken to putting on all the gear (hat, gloves, snowpants, snowboots), stepping out the door, coming right back in and asking for hot chocolate with marshamallows. He hasn't realized yet that he can just ask, and not have to go through the wardrobe fiasco. Oh, well, it's cute. Ashley has been wanting badly to make a snowman, unfortunately the snow we've been getting is the dry powdery type. Not at all suitable for making snowmen. :(

All Music-ed out!!!

After this Sunday I refuse to have anything else to do with music until after the holidays. Usually the music is one of my favorite things about Christmas. This year I'm all music-ed out! I have 8 piano and voice students that I work with (which I get a break from until the 5th of January!), and....I participated in the choir for our Stake Christmas Music Program, helped organize and plan our Ward Music Sacrament Meeting for Christmas as well as am singing in the choir for that, singing in a small group, and conducting the YM and YW in a song. I also helped organize and plan our Relief Society Christmas Music Program which is also this Sunday, and am singing in a trio for that program. Ahhhh! I LOVE music, but there is such a thing as too much of a good thing. On our sleigh ride next week, we're required to sing for our supper. I told Grandma she could count on me for some loud clapping and whooping, but I'm not going to sing a note after this Sunday. I refuse!

SNOW!!

Yea!! Finally, snow! Well, only a couple of inches, but still...SNOW! I am of the mindset that if it's going to be cold...it better be snowin'. Just cold is miserable, especially here in Idaho. I don't know what it is that makes Idaho so bitterly cold in the winter, but it's the kind of cold where you step outside, inhale, and your nose hairs freeze over. Don't go outside with wet hair, it'll break off at the ends. When Tim and I first got married, we spent Christmas down here with his family. His mom gave us one of those fish bowls that have a plant in it and a beta fish, telling us that if we could keep the plant and fish alive for a year we'd be ready to have kids. I'll bet you can see it coming. We stepped outside her house, walked to our car and got in. In the time it took us to get to the car......the plant died. So far I'm doing better with my kids, Ashley's made it 5 years. Cross your fingers.
Tim's family has a tradition of going up to Mountain River Ranch for a sleigh ride and dinner every year after Christmas. We've experienced the gammot- no snow so they put the wheels on for a wagon ride, wet rainy mud bogging rides, and beautiful snowy sleigh rides. I'm PRAYING for the beautiful snowy sleigh ride this year. Keep the snow coming!!!

Makes 15 Dozen??!!

So, the other day I went to Sam's club to get some groceries. I saw a box of sugar cookie mix, and was immediately craving sugar cookies (that happens a lot lately) so I bought it. Well I got the box home and noticed it said: Makes 15 dozen cookies. What in the heck am I going to do with 15 dozen cookies, I thought to myself. I know....Have a sugar cookie decorating party! So I called up about 8-10 of my friends who have little kids who aren't in school yet, and invited them over decorate sugar cookies! We had a blast. These pictures were taken soon after we started, so SOME of the kids are still at the tables instead of up playing in my kids' rooms. About halfway through the kids decided that would be more fun, and the sugar cookie decorating became the duty of the moms, which is how it's supposed to be I think. Mom's in the kitchen decorating cookies and chatting and kids playing....sounds like the right dynamic. Anyway, it was a blast! May have to become an annual event.

Amy's Christmas list

So for the benefit of my husband, who has absolutely no idea what to get me for Christmas, here it is....The published copy of Amy's Christmas list.
- the baby to quit kicking my organs and stick with the front of my belly
- Mitt Romney to be president
- a clean house with no effort by me
- perfectly behaved children
- 2 (count em...2) workable showers
- my family to live closer to me
- more snow
- shipping to be cheaper to Mongolia
- world peace
- and I guess if those other things aren't workable....a bosch mixer would be okay.

Random Thought

What's the point of writing down birthmarks and especially locations of birthmarks when kids are little. My son has a freckle on the back of his leg that keeps moving closer and closer to the back of his knee. I used to have a freckle right under my bellybutton, but after 3 pregnancies, that freckle is about 3 inches to the right now. Tacee has a birthmark on her.....well, anyway, you get my drift. I sure hope cops don't put too much stock in birthmarks as identifying information when they're looking for a suspect.

Twilight is worth it

Okay, so I'm writing this half asleep, so sorry if it doesn't make much sense.
I went to the 12:30 showing of Twilight last night, which was somewhat foolish considering I knew I'd have to get up at 6:30-7:00 with the kids. Well, my friends and I got there at 10:30 and.....didn't have to wait in line! They were showing the movie on all 13 screens and some of the screens were empty so they let those people who had those theatre numbers on their tickets in early. Our friend was holding our place in line and called us letting us know she was in the theatre, so we drove over, parked, and walked in. NICE! Not a bad wait when you get to sit in comfy chairs in a warm theatre chatting with a bunch of friends. Anywho, the movie didn't actually get started until 1:00 because of technical difficulties linking the projectors in order to play the movie throughout the whole theatre. They said there were around 3,000 people there for that showing!!
So, anyway, the movie was worth it. It started out a little cheesy and I got a little worried, but by the end....wow! I even read the books first and still loved it. I was a little distracted at the end (during some really intense, dramatic parts) because of a full bladder and a child kicking said bladder. But even so, two thumbs up, highly recommended, 5 stars.

Prop 8 backlash

I don't know what everyone else is experiencing in regard to prop 8 backlash, those of you in CA and UT are probably getting the worst of it. Well, we had a group of protestors come into the church yesterday during the ward before ours. I haven't heard details of what happened, but I do know that the bishop from our ward had some of the heftiest men in the ward sit in the foyers during our meetings, just to be on the safe side. We're pretty lucky we have a police officer in our ward who was patrolling the foyers too. Crazy stuff. You know, I'm all for protesting and demonstrating, I wouldn't take away someone's freedom of speech for anything. When it comes to trespassing and vandalizing I get pretty upset though. It's hard for me to voice much of an opinion when it comes to controversial things like gay rights, because we have a couple of relatives who have chosen that path, and it's kind of a situation of love the sinner but hate the sin. I will say however, and have said to them, that I don't have a problem with people, whether they be homosexual or not having "rights", being able to be in the hospital together, or sign contracts together. I DO have a problem with a redefinition of marriage. I cannot support it. I'm sure most of you feel similar.

And so it begins

Wahoo!!! We've finally got our contractor here working on the bathrooms!! We've only been trying to get this done since May. Has anyone else had problems with reliable contractors? No offense to any of you contractors reading this, I'm sure you're excellent.
I'm very excited to get my master bathroom fixed....finally. We haven't been able to use the shower in that bathroom for about 3 years. Because of water damage caused by a poorly sealing shower door, the sub-floor needed to be replaced, so the whole thing basically needed to be gutted. We decided if we have to fix it anyway, why not go for greatness, so we're completely remodeling it. I wish I had some before pictures, but as soon as I take some I'll post some "during" pictures and an after.
Anyway, because we couldn't use the master shower, Tim and I were using the basement shower, until......that one was put out of commission too. I'm thinking the plumbers who did the house cut some major corners, or maybe it was the owners finishing the basement, who knows. I was preparing to get in the shower, and was leaning my hand against the back wall while I turned on the faucet and......my hand went right through the tile. Well, Tim started pulling the tile off, and apparently whoever did the bathroom didn't tile on cement board, or even water-proof dry wall, but right on regular dry wall. There was black mold all in the walls and under the tub and everything. GREAT! So that had to be ripped out. And now we're going for greatness on that bathroom too. I've never been so happy for lots of bathrooms though. We did have one other tub to shower in (the kids bathroom), and we're hoping that one doesn't have to end up being fixed before the others are done, or we're up a creek without a paddle. I'll never again complain about having to clean 4 toilets.

The Chuck-a-rama

So, I happen to like tradition. For example, for Thanksgiving I picture a big family dinner with a turkey and all the fixin's sitting around afterward groaning over the pain in your belly and then seeing if you can add more to the enormous pile in your gut by eating at least 2 peices of pie. Now, in my traditional mind, this ritual takes place at the home of a family member (grandma, mom, etc.) . Now, apparently not everyone agrees with me. My husband's family has a tradition for Thanksgiving. They (and they includes me apparently) go to the chuck-a-rama for Thanksgiving Dinner. Now, this is a tradition I'm having a hard time getting behind.
And why does no one sympathize with me??? Everyone I've complained to expecting sympathy thinks it's a great idea!!! No clean up, no prep. What could be better.
I guess it could be worse, and I should be thankful for a meal at all. And I suppose the Chuck-a-rama still fulfills all of the food, pain, pie criteria.

Update

Sooo.....I'm not so good at keeping up with this, although I've written more frequently here than in my journal so I'll pat myself on the back. Here's the update: I'm pregnant, due in April. They thought it might be twins because I was measuring big. I had an ultrasound this morning to find out and....only 1. But I'm two weeks further along than we thought (woo hoo!), and....it's another BOY. Oh, geez. I'm not buying anything new for my home for a VERY long time. And I think my home is going to be a very noisy place. I can't WAIT (really!) I'll try to keep up to date as much as possible on this pregnancy.

Halloween was fun, I guess. I'm not a huge fan of spending money on cheap costumes kids wear once, and on tons of junk food. Not a Halloween person. My kids loved it though, and I have to admit they looked pretty cute. We're candy re-gifters. All the candy my kids got at parties and trunk-or-treats went right into a bowl and out to trick or treaters on halloween night. My kids got to keep what they collected on Halloween, which wasn't much, since a 5 year old and a 2 year old don't hit too many homes. Hope everyone else had a good holiday.....on to the next.

Segment 2 : "The Aquarium"

On the 14th we went into Newport, Oregon and went to the Aquarium. So, you know how they say that a picture is worth a thousand words....well here you go. I'll just give a couple of short explanations here and there. Everywhere you went you could hear kids (mine included) referencing "Nemo".

seahorses

octopus

the kids LOVED the touching pools- they were both obsessed with the anemones.

jellyfish

these were the BIGGEST crab I had ever seen. They were WEIRD!

some kind of fish

They had the coolest shark tank. It was a tube that you walk through, so the sharks are swimming all around and above you. They even had glass in the floors so you could see the sharks below.


It was a long day!

Vacationing isn't a vacation

So, have you ever noticed that while big vacations are tons of fun they ARE NOT relaxing!!! Especially if you're "mom". We took a vacation last month to the Oregon Coast and Washington- and we had a ton of fun. It'll probably take me a couple of posts (or more) to get everything in. So here is segment one: "The Beach"

We got to Lincoln City, Oregon on July 11th and checked into our condo. The view from our patio was BEAUTIFUL!!






Unfortunately is wasn't quite as warm as we would have liked. In fact is was pretty windy and foggy most of the time.



We still spent as much time as possible playing on the beach. We spent NO time in the ocean.(FREEZING)





And we did play a few rounds of "wave-tag"



Lincoln City is the kite flying capital of the world. So, needless to say- it was WINDY! We were smart enough to have brought OUR kites though!!

Us, by me

Okay, so the first post. I guess I should tell you a little bit about each of us.

Timothy Aaron Tremayne. Tim works for the Social Security Administration and is the Elder's Quorum President in our Ward. He's a great husband and dad! One of Tim's favorite things to do is to drool over every "big boy toy" there is. He'd really like to own: a truck, a boat, jet skis, snow mobiles, a motorcycle, a big screen tv, etc. etc. etc.

Amy Lynn Tremayne. Amy is an overly busy mom, who doesn't necessarily have to be so busy, but for some reason likes to overbook herself. Amy teaches Voice/Piano lessons, and is the all around "music person" in church. Amy likes to try to make money on every craft imaginable.

Ashley Nicole Tremayne. Ashley is our highly-motivated-too-smart-for-her-own-good 5 year old. She has been working on reading and doing addition and subtraction and won't be starting Kindergarten until Fall of '09. I KNOW!! She has the vocabulary of a sixty year old english professor. She is starting tumbling and violin this fall as well as her third and final year of preschool.

Erik Timothy Tremayne. Erik is our two foot flash bolt of lightning. He just turned two and gets into EVERYTHING!!! His favorite pastime lately is emptying the salt and pepper shakers onto the table and floor. He is into everything male: cars, balls, guns, dirt, pulling hair, kicking and spitting. He keeps us on our toes.

? Tremayne. Scheduled to arrive in April. More to come on this one.