Em's Fam

Updates

2010-01-31T14:16:00.003-07:00

Wow! It's been a year since I last updated this blog. I guess I got stuck on facebook and neglected the blog. :) There's just not enough time for everything I'd like to do. Oh well! One good thing... I still have the Valentine's theme going, so I guess I don't have to change that for a while. Well, I figured it was time to type up a quick update....

BJ is learning all kinds of stuff on the computer. He blows my mind with it every day. His latest plan is to make an app for the Ipod/Iphone. He comes up with several new ideas. The trick is finding one that's not already available. They have an app for everything!! Anyway, he plans to make a bunch of money and is already planning what to do with it. And paying his tithing is at the top of the list... what a good kid! He also just started talking about wanting to play football in high school. Hard to believe that is only a year and a half away! I think he figures he'll be able to impress the girls by playing football. :)

Zeke is in first grade and learning to read. He's doing great and learning lots of new things. He has a really good teacher, and Zeke just loves her. He struggles with listening and following directions (especially if it's more than a 1-part direction) so that's what we are working on right now. He is very outgoing and loves to play with friends. He's a cutie! He is also playing Jr. Jazz basketball right now, and loves it! He loves just about any sport really. I just went and watched his game yesterday, and he played the best so far this year. I keep forgetting to bring my camera to his games to get pics. Maybe I just need to get a good phone with a great camera on it so I always have one with me. I can never remember to bring a camera!

As for me... my new interest is yoga. I've been practicing for 3 months now and really love it! It's a hot yoga called Bikram Yoga. I can't tell you how good it makes me feel. I know it is so good for my body, and hope to keep doing it for a long time, possibly the rest of my life! It definitely has healing powers. It has also helped me to keep the weight off that I lost. By the way, I lost a total of 25 lbs! Woohoo! What a huge difference it has made for me. I feel so much better about myself.

Well, that's about it for now. I'll try and have pictures to post and post again soon!

O.C.D.

2009-02-02T21:02:00.006-07:00

Hello, my name is Emily, and I have O.C.D....

Yes, it is true. I finally figured out what it is that I suffer from. It is serious. I just finished the last book in the Twilight saga, and now I just want to read them all over again! Wow, Stephenie Meyer is awesome. Now I just have to figure out where to find Edward...

Awesome movie, too! Can't wait for the next one!

WHAT?!?!

Happy 2009!

2009-01-24T08:29:00.003-07:00

Happy 2009 everyone!
I know it's been a while since I've posted. I have no lame excuse to offer. But I did realize that I still had my Christmas theme going on and January is almost over. So I decided it was time to give my blog a little bit of attention. We got new pictures taken, and my sister was the talented photographer! You can see them on the top and sides of the blog. We also got some cute pictures of all the grandkids to give my mom for her birthday. So I'm going to post a couple of them because they are soooo adorable!!

2009-01-24T08:15:00.000-07:00

Doesn't BJ have a long tongue???

ANOTHER TIP FROM HAL

2008-12-04T17:56:00.006-07:00

Ok, I had to post this real quick. I am a big fan of Hal Runkel and have posted some of his advise before. Well, today I got a great email "Tip of the Day" from him. I'm just going to copy and past it in. It's so true!!!

Quote of the Day: "It is amazing how quickly the kids learn to drive a car, yet are unable to understand the lawnmower, snow-blower, or vacuum cleaner." — Ben Bergor, U.S. magician (1894-1981)

Hal's Take: Can I get an Amen? Isn't it amazing that kids can create power point presentations about their Christmas lists and figure out how to fix your ipod without even blinking, yet they will spend a full 15 minutes complaining about how hard it is to vacuum the living room? It is natural, though, I suppose. I would much rather spend time reorganizing my "guilty pleasures disco hits" selection than clean a toilet, but, life stinks that way (pun completely intended). My good friend John Alan Turner once said that there should be a sliding scale of freedom and responsibility when it comes to kids. As they grow, they should be given more of each, in proportion to one another. If they are given too much freedom without responsibility, they become spoiled. If given too much responsibility without freedom, they are rebels waiting to happen.

Hal Runkel, LMFT, author of ScreamFree Parenting:Raising Your Kids by Keeping Your Cool

NKOTB

2008-11-16T22:50:00.006-07:00

Well, I'm taking a quick break from the Thanksgiving theme to do a little dedication to the awesome NKOTB! We just went to the concert last night! Me and my friends... Dawn, Tammy, and Chelsea. It was great! Dawn got us some really great floor seats! Thanks Dawn! New Kids on the Block were on a reunion tour, and we had a reunion of our own. We grew up together liking these guys. Anyway, the concert was really good. They were great performers, especially considering they are all mid 30's or pushing 40. They can still dance. So, here's some pics from the concert. I went a little overboard on snapping pics. This isn't even half of them!

Natasha Bedingfield opened for them.

David Archuletta was there and sitting only feet away from us!

Here they are!!

Yes, you can be my boyfriend! :o)

Halfway though the show, they came out right in the center of the floor seats area. They were on this round platform that rose up. We were SOOO close to them! It was way cool, and I got some great pics!

Jordan

Jon

Danny

Joey

Donnie

Proof that i was there!

He kept putting his hands in the way so I couldn't get a clear shot of his t-shirt. But it says

"I LOVE MORMON GIRLS"

Too funny!

You can kind of see it here. Well, you can when it's not on the poor web quality picture.

Can you tell who my favorite one is?

This is us, all danced and screamed out.

This was a great concert. They performed for over 2 hours. And it was a lot of fun getting together with my girls!

The Pumpkin Patch

2008-11-07T20:30:00.005-07:00

Ok, I know Halloween is over.... but I never blogged about our trip to the pumpkin patch. Well, I guess pumpkins are very Thanksgivingy... so it's fine. We went to the pumpkin patch a few weeks before Halloween with Sara, Greg, and Miles. BJ also brought along his friend Aaron. {When they hit that teenage stage, there's just no getting them away from their friends. I'm just very glad that BJ has such good friends. And I guess he's not really a teenager yet, but in about a month and a half he will be. Wow, I'm getting old!!} Anyway, this pumpkin patch was way cool. Rows and rows of pumpkins with wheelbarrows to use as your "shopping cart", straw bails, tractors for the kids to sit on, and a little corn maze for the kiddies. They even had a port-a-potty (thank goodness, because of course, Zeke had to use it). Zeke even tells me now how cool the potty at the pumpkin patch was. Oh dang, I didn't get a picture of the potty. Oh well, enjoy the pics...

BJ and Aaron picked the heaviest pumpkins they could find

Inside the corn maze

All the boyz

The fam

Too tired to walk back to the car

Read my blog, IF YOU DARE...

2008-10-29T17:40:00.004-06:00

Ok, ok, so I may have gone a bit overboard on all the widgets, bling, and doo-dads, but I was having fun! Give me a break!
Happy Halloween everyone!

SPOOK ALLEY!

2008-10-28T21:05:00.006-06:00

Happy Halloween everyone!!! Tonight we had our ward Halloween party. It was lots of fun! We had trick-or-treating for the kids in the rooms of the church. People decorated doors/rooms and handed out candy to the kids. Then in the basement (our church has 3 levels) we had a spook alley for those brave enough to go through. Brother Sorenson (one of the members of our bishopric), my dad and son (BJ), and others worked really hard and did a great job. The theme was "haunted toys." I, of course, had to go through it snapping pictures of everyone. It was kinda crazy cause it was dark, but my flash lit up the pictures really good. So, it may not look so scary in the pics, but imagine it in the dark with strobe lights and fog machines. The boys had a great time scaring people. Zeke refused to even go through it, even though he knew the people in it. So, don't get scared looking at the pictures.

*Notice that we had the support of McCain and Palin at our spook alley! :o)

enter if you dare...

(above) BJ - the clown walking on his hands

dancing freaky clown and zombie

freaky Elmo (none of the kids will ask for Elmo for Christmas now)

bloody skeleton dude to jump out at you

Dad as Dumbledore

where they got their candy, if they made it that far!

freaky Elmo with spooky fog

Sarah Palin helping control the floating haunted toys

John McCain leading the kids through the spook alley

will Dumbledore give you some candy?

watch out, he'll jump out at you!

some more scary clowns

another Sarah, helping control the dropping spiders

a scary creepy lookin' dude

My New Craft Blog!

2008-10-19T22:39:00.002-06:00

Hey everyone! Please check out my new blog. It doesn't replace this one, it's my stamping, scrapbooking, crafting, etc. blog. There will always be a link for it on the side of this one. But here's a link:
http://stampinem.blogspot.com

I am planning to post different projects for fellow crafter inspirational purposes. Also, I will use it to post any classes or workshops that I have coming up.

Thanks for checking it out!

Summer Visit from Cousins

2008-10-19T21:49:00.001-06:00

Yup, this is me playing catch-up again. :o) This summer we had some of our Texas cousins (John, Natalia, Devin, Aiden, Liam), and Georgia Aunt (Marsha) and cousin (Nathan) visit. We had lots of fun with them. I didn't get the greatest pictures, and didn't even get all of them in the pics. But here are a few I took at a little get-together we had at our house. There are also some of the locals in the pics.

Zeke had so much fun playing with Liam while they were here. Too bad they aren't closer. In fact, right now, he's pointing at the picture saying, "Mommy, there's my friend!" Me and the boys went to the zoo with John and Natalia and their boys while they were here.

BJ, Jason, and Nathan went to Boondocks one of the days. They had fun, but you'll have to ask one of them about our crazy experience in the car when I was driving them there. Let's just say that all of our lives flashed before our eyes (or at least all of their lives flashed before my eyes, anyway)!

Bear Lake!

2008-10-09T21:41:00.004-06:00

So my sister Sara, the blossoming photographer, sent me these great pictures! So, of course, I immediately thought... blog! These are some pics of our last beach excursion in Bear Lake before it got too cold. These are my beautiful brown boys! Of course my tan is just as brown as theirs, I've been working on it all summer. (I can only say that because I'm not included in any of the pictures.) Seriously, I wish I could tan like they do.

BJ is seriously buried in the sand...standing up...all the way up to his neck! I was a bit nervous.
And of course, Zeke has to be just like his big brother. While the uncles were burying BJ, Zeke was scooping sand over his legs burying himself.

And then, of course, cousin Jack wanted to join in!

Number Puzzle!

2008-10-06T17:35:00.002-06:00

Ok, I'm always up for another number puzzle. Most of you probably already know that I'm addicted to Sudoku. Anyway, my son BJ showed me a new little puzzle to figure out. My cute cousin Stephanie showed it to him. So, thanks Stephanie, I had fun figuring it out. Here you go, see if you're up to the challenge...

Here's what you do: You need to place the numbers 1 - 9 in the table above. You use each number only once. Each column, row, and diagonal line has to add up to 15.

Kind of a fun little puzzle to test your math skills. Have fun!

Sweet Angel Olivia

2008-10-05T01:01:00.002-06:00

I have a new, cute little niece. She is quite the little angel! We all love her to pieces. Her name is Olivia. Here are a couple pics of her with her adoring Auntie and cousins.

Zeke's in soccer!

2008-09-24T14:06:00.000-06:00

Zeke is in soccer! He loves it! Here are some fun action pics of him.

Zeke is on the team with his friend Max.
He LOVES his cool soccer shoes!

He thinks it's pretty funny when he falls down and checks to make sure I saw him.
His favorite color is green, lucky that's their team's color.
They play 4 on 4, no positions and no goalie yet.
Their team is pretty good! Here's another cool action shot!
Go Green Dragons!

Zeke in T-Ball!

2008-09-22T11:49:00.001-06:00

Ok, so t-ball is over, but I'm playing catch-up here. Zeke was in t-ball and absolutely loved it!!! He was pretty good at it, too. The kid can really throw a ball and get it to go right where he wants it to go. He can definitely throw it better than me, but that's not saying much. He had a blast and his coaches were awesome. They were the "Bees" and had a way cute logo on their t-shirts and ball caps. Here are a few shots...

Tip of the Day

2008-09-17T09:56:00.002-06:00

Yes, I am still alive! I know I haven't posted in a while, and I have a lot of catching up to do, but I read something this morning that I really liked so I have to share. I subscribe to an email "Tip of the Day" from Screamfree Parenting and that's where I found this. I'm just going to copy and paste...

Quote of the Day: "You are worried about seeing him spend his early years in doing nothing. What! Is it nothing to be happy? Nothing to skip, play, and run around all day long? Never in his life will he be so busy again. "
— Jean Jacques Rousseau, Emile 1762

Hal's Take:
For a child, doing nothing is often much more valuable than doing something. They learn to entertain themselves, to find joy in simplicity, to problem solve, to be content. So, why is it that we spend our energy either pushing our children towards adulthood or holding them back from it?

These are two very dangerous extremes and the worst part is, many of us fluctuate between them! On one hand, we push our kids when we structure their every activity and send them for SAT tutoring before they even get into high school. Then we shake our heads when they seem to lack joy and have trouble maintaining relationships in adulthood. On the other hand, we hold them back when we overprotect them, intervene for them, and problem solve on their behalf. Then we complain when they are immature adults who don’t seem to have initiative or drive. In both cases, we overmanage our kids because of our own anxiety.

One of the best ways to truly prepare your child for a successful adulthood is to neither overprotect nor rush their childhood. Relax and teach them to live in the moment. That is a skill that very few of their peers will possess and you’ll be amazed at how they will flourish because of it.
-Hal Runkel, LMFT, author of ScreamFree Parenting:Raising Your Kids by Keeping Your Cool.

NKOTB in Concert!

2008-06-06T13:37:00.002-06:00

Yeah! We're going to see the New Kids in concert! Dawn got us floor seats!! Woohoo, I know you are jealous. :o) Check out a video clip of one of their new songs...

http://www.vh1.com/video/play.jhtml?id=1588642&vid=237920

Which Princess Are You?

2008-05-23T14:54:00.006-06:00

I am Cinderella!

Dignified and hard working. With a gentle and soft-spoken manner you have something many people don't. Patience. Even through the moments of heartbreak you're still able to hold onto all of your hopes and dreams. Bide your time; your dream will come true.

This is a cute little quiz to figure out which Disney Princess you are most like. Thanks to Chelsea, I found it reading her blog. Funny, Cinderella has always been my favorite! Anyway, try it out and tell me which one you are. Click on Cinderella to go to the quiz.

Happy Birthday Zeke!

2008-05-22T16:37:00.008-06:00

Zeke just had a birthday! Happy Birthday Zeke! I can't believe he is already 5 years old. Where does the time go? Here are some cute pictures from his birthday party. He had to have an Optimus Prime party. Optimus Prime and Iron Man are his favorites this year.

Uhhh... ya, the cake got stepped on. But it was in the box still, so it was fine to eat.

And of course.... the Optimus Prime shoes. Notice how they are sitting like they would be on the wrong feet. I thought this was appropriate since that's usually how they end up on his feet.

Lucky it was a nice warm day so they could play outside!

Attention Grabber

2008-04-30T16:26:00.004-06:00

Hey look.... it's my cousin!! Way to go Jeremy! Jeremy was featured in an article in his hometown in Georgia. To view the article, click here. Check it out!

Jeremy, choose Utah or BYU!!

New Kids On The Block

2008-04-30T16:22:00.003-06:00

THEY'RE BACK!!! ARE YOU READY? I KNOW I AM! WOOHOO!

They have already announced their first tour dates. None around here though... boo hoo. I can't wait to hear their new album. Yes, I feel like a teenager all over again. :o)

SHOE LOVE!!

2008-04-16T13:36:00.004-06:00

Ok, so I kinda have a thing for shoes! I can't help it! Good news.... I finally got a pair of my latest obsession... the Rocket Dog Gimmies. Just look at them, though. Can you blame me? They are so cute! When I discovered them, they were impossible to find. I guess Famous Footwear sold out of them in less than a week of being on the shelves. Well, now they have made more and I have ordered myself a pair. I'm so excited! I just had to share the news. :o)

Easter Baskets!

2008-03-28T10:07:00.003-06:00

BJ found his Easter Basket in the garbage can (luckily no one threw any garbage in on top of it), and Zeke found his in the oven (luckily no one started baking cinnamon rolls or something for breakfast)!

Coloring Easter Eggs!

2008-03-28T10:00:00.004-06:00

The coloring of the Easter Eggs!!

With Auntie Sara, Uncle Greg, and Cousin Miles

"Kiddieokee" Contest Update

2008-03-28T09:58:00.003-06:00

Well, Zeke didn't win the Kiddieokee contest. Thanks to everyone who voted for him. In my opinion, he was by far the cutest kid in the competition. He's my little star! Oh well, better luck next time!

Valentine's Day

2008-03-26T16:18:00.010-06:00

I know it was just Easter, but I'm a little behind on my posts and I wanted to post about Valentine's Day. My cute little boys are the best ever! Look at what they gave me for Valentine's Day. They (well, mostly BJ) had it all set out on their little table when I woke up that morning. It was so cute!! I just love them!

Leap Frog Videos are Awesome!!!

2008-03-24T15:05:00.003-06:00

No, I'm not getting paid by LeapFrog to advertise their videos, but I just have to put a little plug in here. I just love the videos that LeapFrog puts out. There is Letter Factory, Talking Words Factory, Learn to Read, and Math Circus. There may be more? I heard about these from one of my neighbors who got it for her daughter. She swore by them. So I went and got one for Zeke. We now have 3 of them. Let me just say that after owning the Letter Factory for just 1 week, and Zeke watching it several times, he knew almost all of his letters and their sounds. It was amazing! And this is a kid who has had no preschool at all before this. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who has young kids. It will give them an early start at letters and reading. We just bought the Math Circus so I can't say yet how well that one teaches numbers, but I will be able to soon!

Zeke singing Sean Kingston's "Me Love"

2008-03-18T20:18:00.003-06:00

I have entered Zeke into a contest on the local radio station 97.1 ZHT. It is a "kiddieokee" contest. The kids are supposed to sing a popular song that is played on the radio. You post a video of them on the web page, and then people vote. The video above is the one we entered in the contest. There are 2 age groups: 2-4 year olds, and 5-7 year olds. Zeke is 4 so in the younger age group. They only allow 1 vote per IP address, so I'm trying to get people to vote for him. 1 winner in each age groups wins a trip to Disneyland. If you would like to help him win, click on this link to go vote..... http://www.971zht.com/pages/kiddieokee/ Zeke is entry# 59. Every vote helps! Voting goes until March 27th at noon.

Zeke is so cute when it comes to singing along with the radio. He has several songs that he knows all the words to. When we are driving in the car and he's singing along, he really gets into it. He gets his head going, gets a serious look on his face, and sings along. Of course when I got the camera on him to record it, he wouldn't do any of that. He liked to goof around for the camera, but he's still a cutie! What amazes me, is that he will pick up on little things in the song that you don't even realize are there. Little sounds in the music, or background singer parts. He sings those parts! It's crazy! That's my little cutie pie!

BJ's computer brain blows my mind!

2008-01-31T20:47:00.000-07:00

BJ is in 6th grade this year. For their book reports, they had to make a cereal box for a made-up cereal that goes along with the book they read. Then they had to make up a commercial for the cereal. They could perform it in front of the class, or record it to play. Well, BJ being the techno junkie that he is, created this short commercial.... (It's cute)

BJ's big day

2008-01-31T14:22:00.000-07:00

BJ with Auntie Shelley and Auntie Ruth

Here are a few more pictures from BJ's big day that I didn't get on the last post. The second one is BJ holding the gift that his Great Grandpa and Grandma Smith gave him. Grandpa made it for him.
BJ had a chance last Saturday (1/26/08) to go to the temple for his first time to do baptisms for the dead. Dad had some family names that needed work done, so he and the other 2 boys in our ward that went, got to do those names. Pretty cool to be able to do family names your first time!

BJ's big day

2008-01-31T13:48:00.000-07:00

BJ on his big day!
BJ and Zeke
With Grandpa's and Uncles
With the Grandmas
With Mom and Zeke

Well, BJ turned 12 on his last birthday (Christmas 07)! Can you believe it? I am getting old! I am so proud of him. He is such a great kid. He was given the Aaronic Priesthood and ordained a deacon on January 13, 2008 by his Uncle Rob. Which, by the way, was one of the most beautiful priesthood blessings I have ever heard. Rob did such a great job! BJ's grandma and grandpa (Nancy & Terry), both sets of great-grandparents, some aunts and uncles (Rob & Shelley, and Adam & Ruth), and of course Mom and brother Zeke were all there to support him. He is getting so grown up. He looked so handsome in his white shirt and tie. He started passing the sacrament the next week. I thought he would be really nervous, but after church, he said, "Mom, I want to do it again..... today." He did a great job.

The second week of passing the sacrament, while getting ready for church, he came to me with his church clothes on and his (black) bathrobe on over them. He said, "I'm ready!" I asked him why he had his bathrobe on, and he said it was because all the other guys had black suit coats and he wanted one too. Well, not all of them wear them every week but the majority do. So I told him I'd buy him a suit coat for the next week.

In case you are wondering.... no, he did not wear his bathrobe to church. But I did get him a suit for the next week. He wore it and looks so handsome and grown up in it. I'll have to take a picture and post it!

Intro

2008-01-30T14:52:00.001-07:00

Ok, ok, so I decided to go ahead and start a family blog. I think it is a great way of keeping each other updated on what is going on. I strongly encourage my other family members to start one, too. Especially since our family is growing mapographically. (No, I didn't make up that word!) I think it will be a fun way to keep up with each other. If you still need encouragement.... I think it is a great way to keep a journal. I am no good at writing in my journal, so I'm hoping I'll be better at writing on-line. Then save or print your posts and.... voila! you have a journal! Anyway, happy reading about our great family!