Merry Christmas to all my Bloggy Friends :)

Make a Smilebox greeting

Let It Snow

We finally had a pretty big snow storm and boy did the kids have fun. The neighbors invited them to go sledding across the street and I wasn't sure if my kids would really get on the sleds or not since they hadn't done it before. They did ~ and they had soooo much fun!!!! I got a few shots in before the snow started coming down again. The last shot of Bubba's face has to be my favorite....he did not want to leave but alas, Mama's toes were falling off....Enjoy!

Silver Treats

Silver Treats is having an Awesome Silver Jewelry Giveaway. If you love silver like I do, then go check 'em out! I'm not sure if it turns a different color for all of you, but if it doesn't, clicking on the words Silver Treats will take you to their website....but maybe you guys already know that.

More Wise Words from Bubba...

Bubba asked Aaron this morning before we headed out to church if he could have an orange. Aaron didn't want him to get his white shirt orange so he said, "Let's wait til we get home from church and your shirt changed, then you can have your orange okay." Bubba was absolutely fine with that and patiently waited all through church.

When we got home, the first thing he says is "Mom, can I have my orange now?" Aaron overhears him and asks him to go and change out of his white shirt. Aaron is so kind and patient and begins peeling and cutting the orange into Bubba size pieces. All of his hard work paid off because as Bubba starts eating I say, "Bubba, you LOOOVE oranges huh?", to which he replies,

"MmmmHmmmm, it makes my heart feel good (chew chew, gulp, swallow) AND Happy!" (Apparently the boy knows that his heart is his "feeling" center!)

Oh Bubba, what kind of Blog material would Mommy have without you!

sidenote: About an hour after that he's caught saying these wise words to Hannah as they are tossing a balloon back and forth ~ "Hannah, I Said, Stay.STILL! How many times do I have to tell you??!!" (teeth clenched and eyes totally boring into her) Now I wonder where he got that from?....Must be from somebody WISE...hehehehehehe!

It breaks my heart....

My Bubba is the most emotional and the most interesting of my three kids...of course that'll change over the course of time but for now, he's the one that's either got me crying or laughing or both! I just had to share the "interesting" conversation I had with him as I put him to bed tonight and let me preface it by saying that by the time I did tuck him in I was totally grumpy because their bedroom was Super Messy, AND I had to ask him to get his PJ's on "like 20 times"..y'all know what I mean. Anyhoo, here's how the conversation went~

Me: C'mon Bubba GET in your bed NOW! And seriously, you DON'T need all of these stuffed animals and books in bed with you!

Bubba: (sigh) Mom, it breaks my heart when you are grouchy to me.....(sad face, but I know it's all an act...right?)

Me: Oh YEAH?? Well it breaks MY heart when I have to ask you more than two times to hurry and put your PJ's on!!!

Bubba: sorry mom....but it still breaks my heart...

Now how can you stay mad at that?? Of course I kissed him goodnight and apologized, but man oh man the kid made me want to scream and laugh all at the same time. And it didn't help that as I'm leaving Hannah adds for good measure, "Mom, maybe you should ask him 200 times next time!"

Photo Courtesy of Alvord Photography

Siblings

Just wanted to post some recent shots of the kids...'kay mostly the boys. I remember I time when I thought I would never, never, never, EVER buy matching PJ's and then you realize, some things you just can't resist.....UGH. I'll know I'm "cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs" when I get matching PJ's for ALL THREE!!

Birthday Girl

Here are a few pics of Hannah celebrating her 6th Birthday. She taught herself how to blow a bubble too so I thought I'd sneak those in at the very begining of this spiffy lil slideshow......the girl never ceases to amaze me.

6 years ago...

I had my first lil monkey! Happy Birthday Hannah Bear! We love you!

~Lookie Here~

A few posts back I posted pics of our Hannah that were taken by our Amazingly Awesome friend Randa of Alvord Photography (let your eyes wander slooowly upward and to the right...yup, that's right, you'll be taken to her site if you click on that button). Well, I wanted some pics of the boys because "Gosh Darnit" I think they are pretty cute too...oh and I wanted to shamelessly plug that one place I won a prize from (got that cute tie onsie from Little Diddle Boutique). Anyhoo, here a few shots from that session. Enjoy! I also promise to someday respond to those Tags...hehehehe! H.K.W. 8 months old
My lil Studmuffin
Big Brother Studmuffin
Bubba Against the World

Thanks Randa for putting up with me and all my requests for pics, pics, and more pics! Hopefully when we get family ones done Henry will smile for ya.

Cinco Cosas..is that even correct?

Here's one of those Tags I've chosen to respond to.....thanks for the Awesome Tag anake.al!!

five things i was doing 10 years ago:

1. Working at P.C.C. as a Japanese Speaking Tour Guide
2. Working at P.C.C. as a Photo Poly Japanese Speaking translator for the photographer and Sales.
3. Aimlessly walking around BYU-H Campus deciding if college really was for me....or not.
4. Going to ONLY my Japanese 305 class because I loved Kajiyama Sensei and his sense of humor...oh and I LOVED SPEAKING JAPANESE!
5. Pouncing on any one that would practice Japanese conversation with me because I was convinced that I would someday go back there to live.



five things to do on my list today:

1. Go to bed.
2. Fall asleep.
3. Pray that Henry sleeps through the night again.
4. Pray for other things...of course...that prob'ly should've been number 1.
5. Wake up at a decent hour.



five snacks i enjoy:

1. Snickers
2. Peanut M&M's
3. Peanut Butter Twix
4. Rocky Road Icecream
5. my S.I.L. Bob's Peach Pie!!! MmmmmmMmmmmm Goo'....wish I could have it as a snack every night, but I'm lucky if I even get it once a year...hehehehehehe!



five things i would do if i were a millionaire:

1. Pay tithing...and all our back tithing.....that's right, I said it.
2. Pay off all our debt.
3. Buy a nice lil home.
4. Help my family out.
5. Invest?........not sure what I'd invest in at this point....



five places i've lived:

1. Kekaha, Kauai, HI
2. Laie, O'ahu, HI
3. Yamagata, Japan
4. Las Vegas, NV
5. Salt Lake City, UT


five jobs i've had:

1. Cashier
2. Tutor
3. Housekeeper (you wouldn't know it by visiting our house..but aren't Hotel rooms MUCH easier to clean?)
4. Pineapple Delight Girl
5. Japanese Speaking "everything"

The next, and last part is to Tag 5 people, but I refuse to do it just because I know there are better things that y'all could be Blogging about! I learn about you guys just by reading your Day to Day posts anyhow so keep up the good work Blog Friends! :)

Tag, Blogger Award, Tag, and Catching up...

Just wanted to say, I've been Tagged, Awarded, Tagged, then probably will be Tagged again between the time this post posts, and the time it takes me to catch up on all the stuff I want to catch up on. Don't mind me, I just have other things going on (cooking class, sewing class, Puking Kids, Better Homes & Family class, bringing kids to school, life in General) to have interest in Blogging much....maybe that's why it took me forever to start one....hehehehehehe!

Stay tuned..........

I Won! I Won!!

A friend told me about this Blog called "Seriously, so blessed!.." and she was not very fond of it. About a week after that another dear friend of mine from college, who I absolutely adore ('cause she's sooooo stinkin' hilarious!!) sent me an email about it and my curiousity got the better of me so I HAD TO GO CHECK IT OUT! Well, I'm so glad I did...not only did I find it pretty darn funny (if you're one of those who don't find it funny, I really won't mind if you start judging me right abooooouut, NOW!), I also won something from one of her Give-OH-Give-Awaaaay's!! In the wise words of Ms. TAMNer, "Yay ME!" But seriously, I didn't think I'd have a chance because there were 1682 comments in all...crazy, and the "Random Chooser Thingamajig" chose me...can you tell I'm just a little excited about winning something!!???

The End

oh, and stay tuned for some "dirt" on me and Big A since I just got tagged by my friend Kristen.

Six Months going on Seven....

Where has all the time gone??....

Water Day and First Day of Kindergarten

Our cute neighbor and awesome friend Randa decided to do a Water Day with the kids here at "the Villa". It was tons of fun for my kids because we also had their cousins here with us. Hannah and Alison absolutely love spending time together. They always have a good laugh and I'm so glad that not only are they cousins, they are best friends!

Henry loves the water and I was nervous that putting him in this pool of water might kill his love for being in it....only because it was so stinkin' cold. As you can see in the picture, he just loved it!
Our lil Bubba got so tan this summer. In fact, I have a picture that my sister- in- law took of him up at Bear Lake last week that shows JUST HOW TAN he got! I'd post it here but my blog's Public, so if you're interested in seeing a cute lil picture of Tan Bubba, drop me your email addy and I'll send it along...it'll make you laugh..I know it made me laugh!!

In closing, Wednesday was Hannah's first day of "real school"...hehehe..whatever that means. She started Kindergarten this year and I told myself, "No biggie, I won't cry over it!", well you guessed right, I cried....and then cried a bit more. It was pathetic.

Hannah picked the places she wanted her pictures taken at, AND she also informed me that it needed to be "posed" pictures so that Tutu Lady would like the pictures...I'm not sure if she knows this or not, but my Mom would love it even if she were crying in the pictures!!

There's one thing I learned about my daughter in sending her off to school:

She's just like me and yet she's nothing like me.

She'll win ya over with that special charm of hers, but she's also super shy just like her Daddy! We walked into the school building and the first thing she does is grab my hand with a death grip that told me that she was pretty nervous. If you ask my mom about my first day of Kindergarten, she'll tell you that she walked me in and stayed for a while wondering (and maybe secretly hoping) if I'd even let her go back home. She says that after about 10 minutes she said "I have to go home to clean up the house now and I said to her, "Okay, BuhByyyyye", which sent her home crying, "My oldest girl is growing up too fast!! She doesn't need me anymore!" (Maybe not in those exact words, but you get what I mean; it was a bit traumatic for my mom.) I could tell by Hannah's grip that if I told her that I were going home to clean the house she'd first laugh at me and say, "Well thats a FIRST!" (hehehe, humor me people, of course Hannah is still working on her "wit" skillz), but really she'd say, "Wait, I'm coming with you!" And you know what, for as much as I thought I wanted my daughter to jump into things whole heartedly without constantly turning back for my approval (you know, be just exactly like me!!), learning about the person that she is has made me realize, that if she'll always be the shy Hannah that she sometimes can be, then that's just fine by me.

I love you Hannah Girl...just the way you are!

Oh and Happy First Day of Kindergarten (Saddy Last Day of Summer..if there's a Happy, there's gotta be a Saddy okay!)

Haircuts and Henry

So I'd write something to go with the pics in this Blog, but really, all of the pics are pretty self explanatory. ~Haircuts and Henry~ pretty much says it all!!

The things we do for love....

Have you ever been "boy sandwiched"...this is what my daughter says when she gets stuck between two boys ~ whether it's sitting between boys in Primary Sharing Time or sitting down at a table in a restaurant. I'm not sure where she got the term, but I'm quite sure I now know what it feels like.

One morning after nursing my son and deciding to lay him next to me, I hear the "stomp patter" of Bubba's feet (Hannah's feet sound more like pitter patter so that's how I knew it wasn't her) wandering the hall outside my room. He comes in telling me he's afraid of something or other and I'm waaaaaay too tired to bring him back to bed so I invite him to sleep alongside me as long as he can be quiet and go right back to sleep. Well about 30 minutes into it, I realize that this is not a very good sleeping arrangement because the only position for me would be to lay on my side, like a slice of Bologna, between my two darling boys. That's when I realized ~ "I'm being sandwiched by my two 'white with a lil bit o' wheat' bread boyz" ~. Needless to say, I climbed over Bubba to get my picture and proceeded to go back to sleep on the floor of my bedroom.

Aaaaah the things we do for love (and for just an extra hour of sleep!)

Summertime

Summer is almost over and Aaron will be home in a week!! WooooooHooooooo! This was probably one of the quickest longest summers in my entire life..okay not my entire life, but just about. It's been fun though and we've been able to do some fun things! For example, Henry got to be Huck Finn (if only for a few minutes):

We also had a dessert contest and had some yummy Pavlova (1st place winner), Lemon Bars, Baklava, Pigs Feet, Peanut Butter Brownies, Cow Tongue, Texas Cake, and some other stuff that I don't remember....


And best of all, we got a new clothesline (this ones for you D. W.). It's super long, and it's actually quite a long walk you have to take just to hang your laundry but it's well worth the walk outside to see that there is still room for your laundry too..that wasn't always the case last summer. Summer also came complete with a teenage boy that one of our WSV kids fondly called "our Giant Friend". For as much as we may have "wondered" about him, he was a big help to some of us moms who needed a "Big Kid" to pull the wagon or to hold a crying baby while we pushed another child on a swing (okay, I'll admit, he helped ME most of the time okay..ya happy? hehehehe). He and his family have since moved to Iowa and my children miss him and still talk about him quite a bit. That's him posing at the clothesline, what a funny kid!

There will be some new haircuts tomorrow too, that will close out the summer and start out the Fall Season, so I'll be sure to post pics of that when I get a chance. 'Til then TooDaLoo (how IS that word spelled anyway? Anyone..anyone...)

sidenote: For those of you who may have read a Blog I previously posted, please note that it has gone the way of Blog Heaven. Do NOT attempt to comment on it via this blog post..it too will go the way of Blog Heaven..I'm just sending out that Warning.

The Picture Game

I was on Naomi Masina's blog and saw this game. It looked like tons o' fun so I decided to give it a go too! I also have seen soooo many of "yous" playing the "What's a Memory you have of Me Game", that I had to "Stop the Madness" right here, right now..bwhahahaha! Anyhoo, this is how the game works...For each question, look up the answer in a Google Image search. Then choose your favorite image from the FIRST page of results only. You get some fun and often CRYPTIC answers (and I mean Cryptic...so cryptic I'll leave commentary on some of them, if only to attempt to get a laugh out of my small following). If you need clarification on any of them leave a comment, also let me know if you do it so we can all see yours!!

Here's mine:


MY AGE

A PLACE I'D LIKE TO TRAVEL TO
MY FAVORITE OBJECT (it's not this one exactly, but you get what I mean right?)
MY FAVORITE ANIMAL (try Googling Favorite Animal N/A...yes, that's right..N.../...A...I don't particularly have a favorite animal, unless Husband and Children Monkeys count!)
MY FAVORITE COLOR
THE TOWN WHERE I LIVE
A PAST PET
A PAST LOVE ( imagine that, I used to LOVE running down busy city streets...'kay not really, but I did love running for about a year in my "earlier life"....circa Senior Year in High School, also known as the Anorexic Year...my family should get a laugh out of that...or Not.)
MY BEST FRIENDS NICKNAME (Google Big A)
MY SCREEN NAME (Susi if you're checking this, my screen name isn't Susi, BUT if you do Google my actual screen name, quite a few familiar faces show up...yours was one of my faves AND it goes with the blog that HAS my screen name in it; "Calling KANABOKE")
MY FIRST NAME (yes, my first name IS Sexy..)
MY MIDDLE NAME (and wouldn't you know it, so is my middle name!!)
MY LAST NAME (too bad my last name is Fatty!!)
ONE OF MY BAD HABITS(no it ain't doodling kids that pick their noses..and it ain't using the word "ain't" either!!)
MY FIRST JOB
MY GRANDMOTHERS NAME (just FYI, my grandma's name ISN'T Beverly so you might assume her name is Cleary...well it isn't that either..)
MY COLLEGE DEGREE(for those of you who know, lucky you, because I'll keep everybody else guessing what I Googled to get this Lovely Google Image!!)
WHAT I'M DOING RIGHT NOW (seriously you guys, this image fit perfectly with what I am doing right now in my life...I just barely dropped that flower pot though.)

Hope you all enjoyed this Blog...I know I quite enjoyed doing it!!

The Burt-Miller Family Legacy

I thought about having the title for this be 4th of July Weekend, but really the 4th has come and gone and I have mixed feelings about the Holiday anyway, so instead I've entitled it The Burt-Miller Family Legacy.

Every 4th of July my husband's mom's Mom's family (are ya confused?) has a family reunion at the Family Ranch up somewhere in the "beauteous" Uinta Mountains. We've gone a few times before, but this year was special as it was the first time in 10 years that all of Aaron's siblings and Mom were there (unfortanately I didn't get a picture of all of us together). We had a great time!! The kids had fun walking through a little stream that runs through a portion of the land, and they enjoyed camping with the cousins. On Saturday, they had a little program that was themed around the family Legacy of missionaries and Missionary Work...they even mentioned that there were 4 other missionaries in the family of the Protestant faith. I thought that was pretty cool. The family is of Scottish descent so they also had a friend of the family come in and play "the Pipes" while they carried the American flag in. It was awesome and very touching. They had flags from different States and Countries flying. Each flag represented an area in which someone in the family had served. The reason we only have a picture of the plaque posted at the Japan flag is because 4 out of the 5 who served there are from Aaron's immediate family (yes, I'm included in that...so is my husband, his older brother, and his sister's husband....WooooHoooo!).

I am thankful that I can be a part of this family's great Legacy of faith and missionary work. I hope that my children will never forget who they are and the great people they come from.

In closing I just wanted to mention something that really has nothing, and yet something to do with with this post ~ My most favorite shot in the entire slideshow of pics is the one where Aaron is smiling and showing some teeth (as he is walking back after receiving his Missionary Certificate)!! If any of you know my hunny bunny, the man rarely smiles, let alone show his teeth. I'm so glad that we have this shot for future generations to enjoy....hehehehehehe~!! (The slideshow pics may be a little off because of the size I've chosen, so to see the pics individually just click on the actual slideshow. It'll take you to the actual Picasa Album.)

How Time Flies....

My awesome photographer friend Randa needed a subject to practice on so she called one day asking for Hannah....little did I know that her practice session would produce pictures worth a fortune!! How much do I owe ya girlie? Oh, and is it alright if I post these on my Blog? I can post your pricing list here too if you'd like :-)!!

Oh how time flies........I remember when Hannah was so little...

and so innocent...looking...I hope she stays the same!! :-)