Bryson's Baptism

Bryce turned 8 this month and was baptized. He's now an official member of the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. We were blessed to have so many family members and friends travel near and far to witness this wonderful event and want to say "Thank you all" for that! You made the weekend very special for Bryce. Bryson's Uncle Ben flew in from his research trip from England and gave a wonderful talk about Baptism and his wife Connie played the piano while daughters Cindy & Sarah sang a musical number. Brought tears to my eyes. Thanks girls! Because of communication issues we weren't able to fill the font as soon as we had hoped and so Jesse had to baptize Bryce in water that was only a few feet deep. It worked though. :) I was able to speak on the Holy Ghost which was felt very strong at the Baptism. My sister -n- law Cody made a beautiful cake which I forgot to get a picture of. I'll try to post that soon once I get a picture from her. It was so cute and she put a lot of effort into it. Here are a few pics from the Baptism.

Bryce looks so handsome in his suit.

Our gift to Bryce, a new set of scriptures
My beautiful mom and Larry

The kids getting some energy out in the gym after eating cake.
Silly boys!
Connie, I stole this picture from your blog because it's just too cute!
My sweet mom and sister. So glad you came.


Bryce's night was topped off with a cousin sleepover. Cindy & Sarah played Bionicle's with Bryce for nearly 2 1/2 hours! They put on a "show" of all their creations. They were up til midnight talking and laughing. So much fun for him.
I've noticed a difference since Bryce has been baptized. I complemented him for obeying so well and trying to help his siblings obey as well and he just said, "Well, I'm just trying to be like Jesus and Heavenly Father." I tousle his hair, "that's why where here bryce. Great job!"

Scaredy Cat!

This is just a quick one... Yesterday I took my filthy car through the car wash. Bella has suddenly found a fear for the place. Here's her look of panic. I think it's hilarious. The pure horror captured on her face. It probably didn't help that her nap was only about 45 min long. I know, I'm a horrible mother hu.

You never know when inspiration will come.

Throughout January I was painting frames and so of course the girls wanting to be "painting" something as well. With some watercolors this is what Bella scribbled.All parents know that you just can't keep every single piece of your child's artwork. I was about to toss this in the trash, but paused to look at it. I could see a lanky body with eyes setting on top of what seemed like a sharp pointy nose. To me it almost looked like this thing was grabbing his nose. His backside is obviously bony/spiky in some way. I decided to hold onto it because I'm always looking for some ideas for weird creatures for either myself to draw or my son Bryce (who also likes to draw). Well, after putting it off for almost a month last night I sat in bed and just started to sketch my own interpretation of what I saw in this painting. I had to make a few changes, but this is what I came up with. With some color I think it would be a little more interesting. It's just about the ugliest thing I've ever seen, but his eyes are kind which makes me like him.

Make a wish!!

Cameron turned 6 last week. Wow...6. Where has the time gone I say!! Cameron is something else. There's never a dull moment with him. He's a boy filled with so much energy and zest for the fun things in life. Turning six is I think a time when things change a lot in a child's life. More is expected out of them, they're learning so much at school and getting a taste as to how the world works, trying new activities, being able to read; just one of the early turning points in a child's life. Cameron seems to like school and once his teacher called us just to say that she really enjoyed having Cameron in her class. He had his first soccer game last Saturday and just dominated out on the field, scoring 4 goals. I've never seen Cameron work so hard in a game before. I guess you could say he had "the eye of the tiger." I could tell that he was exhausted, but knew he was pushing himself to work hard. Something has clicked out on the field...his competitive nature; actually, he's always been competitive, it was just amplified. :) Well, I obviously can't say enough good things about the boy. He's a joy to have in our home. We love him so much.

We were able to spend his birthday again in Ruidoso at a Condo. The first day we hung out with Abe & Cody and went sledding. The snow was abundant and the weather pleasant. The next day we took the boys and tried their legs at Snowboarding. Poor Cameron threw up twice coming up the mountain. Then again driving home from the ski resort (Connie knows how car sick Cameron can get). :) We decided to sign them up for lessons. Jesse spent the morning snowboarding elsewhere on the mountain, but I stayed with the girls in the car and we watched the boys biff it over and over. They were exhausted by the end of the day. They did really well for it being their first time and all. Jesse was done snowboarding a little bit before closing time and so I put on his snowboard and jacket and went down the bunny slop a few times. (Don't tell anyone). :) I was reminded that I'm definitely a skier and not a snowboarder, but I'm bound and determined to keep trying.

The rest of the trip was spent swimming, playing and going to the movies. We had a swell time and Cameron at one time ran through the door and yelled, "THIS IS THE BEST BIRTHDAY EVER!!" Always makes a parent happy to hear that.

Mud fight!

Yeeesss, mud fight both inside and outside our house almost everyday. I haven't seen this much snow or rain in Cruces in a long time. Normally I like all this weather because in New Mexico it doesn't last very long. But lately it's been rather wet and since we don't have grass yet I just dread when I see rain in the forecast. Thank goodness we do have tile or else we wouldn't have a dog! Bandit brings a trail of mud from his doggie door and the kids slip on their boots to play in the little pond we have in front of our house. The other day I walked out and was nearly hammered with a mud ball.

Bella making her own little mess and enjoying every minute of it.

Here's Jesse and Greg clearing out some heavy rock from the rock wall. Look at that strength! :)

Mr. Cool

I've been needing to update the boys pics and so we took off to the hills the other day. Bryce is all about looking "cool." Here's just a few snapshots. I wanted to do more in different locations, but Bella wasn't cooperating. I'll need to go without the girls next time so that I can get more creative shots. I just love my boys.

For memories sake...

I know it's been a whole month since Christmas, but I was having internet problems that wouldn't allow me to post at the time so now I'm going to quickly post about Christmas happenings for memories sake! Let's see....Christmas was great because this year my whole family including myself were all healthy!! It's seems like every year since I've been married I've either had some serious sore throat or flu which puts a damper on my mood and eagerness to bake or do all of the other things that put you into the Christmas spirit. I'd like to attribute my healthiness to focusing hard about not stressing on having everything perfect (thus, that is why you didn't receive a Christmas card from us this year or a gift for that matter! ha ha) and also anytime I got that tickle in my throat I would sip on hot water with honey or pure maple syrup with lemon juice several times a day along with a zinc losenge. The zinc pretty much ruined my taste buds, but I'd rather not be sick plus, it helped me not eat so much of the "goodies." :)

Here's just a sampling of some of the fun stuff we did...
Our little Gingerbread Family; you can guess who's who.

ummm, pickles and Gingerbread. Notice the moving boxes in the background. Sometimes you just have to keep on with the traditions regardless of what's happening in your life...like moving.

These are just some pictures I took of the girls. Claire insisted on wearing her favorite pj's because she wanted to be like Wendy in Peter Pan. She's such a cutie.

Kids playing with counsin Drew at Grandma's house.

I love these things. The kids needed some padding since our house is all tile except for the bedrooms. They get pretty creative with them.

There were some other service projects we did this year which sprouted from talks we were asked to give at church from the talk given by President Thomas S. Monson (he's the prophet of our church). I just so happen to have come across the video link of his talk so I thought I'd share it with you. The words which has stayed with me the most are when he talks about being "in the thick of thin things." I hope to keep that in my mind during this life.

Here's the link to his talk...

Have I Done Any Good in the World Today?

An adult dream come true

I love this picture, at little dramatic, but it captures to me what Cello music sounds like.

Lately my days have been a balance between getting our old house ready for sell (lots of painting & deep cleaning), unpacking at our new house and just trying to keep up with the kids. That alone fills my day until I tuck them into bed. While putting the girls to sleep I have to lay next to Bella to get her to sleep. We have been listening to Cello music (mainly Yo Yo ma) and while lying in the dark and only hearing that sound of the cello I was reminded how much of a desire I have to learn the instrument. It's one of the sounds besides the violin that can both inspire and bring a tear to my eye. I've always thought what it would be like to be able to produce a sound in which would do the same to someone else. So, I rented a cello. What a beautiful sight. Everytime I open the case I get excited about playing it. I'm basically teaching myself through books and other websites like utube and monkeysee. Unlike the violin people don't mind hearing me practice because it has such a nice low tone. Bella insists that I wear a hat of some sort while playing. I don't know why, but she's silly like that. The other day she made me wear a safari hat. I love diving into new things, I think it's important to prove to yourself from time to time that most things are possible if you want it bad enough.

Feeling 35!

Ok, Jesse is halfway through his 30's. If you ask him how he feels about turning 35 his answer would probably be something like, "yeah man...I'm getting old!" As he shakes his head. Deep down though he knows he's still got it. We had the fam over for one of his favorite dinners I make, Sun Chip Chicken. I had been in a baking mode earlier in the week for Christmas goodies so no one was really in the mood for cake. But, I just made a Texas Sheet cake with a carmel glaze over it. It's hard to see what I slapped on with the icing, but it's suppose to be his sports car peeling out past a sign that has "35" MPH on it. It's to commemorate Jesse's year which consisted of...cars! The highlight of the evening was Sam brought over his steady girlfriend "Laura" over to dinner. We were excited to finally meet her and think she's a doll. My boys always act funny and super hyper around pretty girls and Claire seems to have warmed up to her also, she always wants to sit by her. Sorry about posting this picture Jess, I couldn't pass it up. :) Love you! It's been a great year, Happy Birthday!

Family...Food...Can't get better than that!

I always look forward to Thanksgiving, but this year it snuck up on me. We moved to a different house in town. A house that my in-laws built. We've decided rather than try to sell our house while living in it that we would move out and rent from my in-laws, sell our house and then look for a bigger house or buy land and build. Right now it would have to be a pretty awesome house to get me to move again! I have a love/hate relationship with moving. I like being able to "home in" different places, yet I long to find a home that we can grow old in.

We decided to have Thanksgiving at our place this year. It wasn't a big crowd, but big enough to fill the table with laughter. I decided to cook the turkey the Martha Stewart way. You slather the turkey with butter, then drape over it 4 layers of cheesecloth that has been dipped in melted butter and chicken broth (although she calls for butter and white wine). Well, by the end of the cooking time the cheesecloth looks so brown. Jesse's brother Sam cracked me up when he sat at the table (starving) and with a bit of sarcasm said, "Yeah, I'm really looking forward to your Griswald turkey joyce!" (anyone who's seen The Lampoon's Christmas Vacation movie knows what happens to the turkey). I just laughed because he didn't know that it was the cheesecloth that looked so torched and underneath the turkey was a beautiful golden brown skin. It was the juiciest turkey! If I don't say so myself. So amongst all of the boxes that were semi unpacked we enjoyed a nice dinner. Jesse and Sam played football for almost 4 hours with a group of friends and missionaries and were soooo exhausted and sore.

The next day we packed up and headed to Hobbs to see my sisters and mom. June had me take some snap shots of her family. We always get goofy when we're around each other and we were still on our "New Moon" high and were striking some silly poses for the camera. We would take a snap shot, look at it, and laugh so hard that the tears were coming and I could barely breath! I couldn't keep a straight face with Bella trying to climb up my leg because she had enough of our photo shoot. :) We were also going for the look you see on the covers of most 80 s albums where everyone's looking in different directions. Funny stuff. I always have so much fun with June and the rest of my family. June, I hope you don't mind all of the pictures I posted of you, but you're just so beautiful inside and out that I couldn't help myself! You're always so upbeat and positive and that kind of thinking is contagious. I'm just sad that I didn't get shots of the rest of my family.

I'm thankful for my dearest husband and my little children, for my family (both blood and in-laws), I love you guys so much and miss the ones who are away! Most of all I'm thankful for being a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I would not be able to truly appreciate my family without knowing what brings us true happiness and that's the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Anyone who takes the time to study it will know as well. I hope I can live my life worthy of these blessings and more. Looking forward to Christmas!

A Vampire, a Ninja, Animals, & Elvis...OH MY!

Oh boy! Halloween was a such a marathon day this year. Our church Halloween party that we usually go to had to be moved to the morning instead of the normal evening time because of scheduling conflicts. It was an 8:30 am breakfast! I know, crazy hu. So, by the time we had our costumes all ready to go the breakfast was over and so we were all dressed up with no where to go. We ended up just piling in the car and ate breakfast with Abe & Cody at Denny's. Bryce was totally into character while at Denny's. He's usually fairly talkative, but while in his Ninja costume he just sat "stealthy" in the booth looking around at everyone while hiding behind his face wrap. Very funny, had to be there.

Jesse of course was Elvis and I was his wife, Priscilla Presley. We really didn't get too crazy this year. Jesse got his glasses at an Optometry Convention a while back and so I was stuck on him being Elvis. I would've made him a white flashy jumper, but I ran out of energy and time! But, I thought he pulled it off well.

I was able to make the kids costumes this year amongst all the chaos of moving. Claire was a Pony, Bella a chicken, Cameron a vampire & Bryce a Ninja. While eating at Denny's Abe asked Cameron, "So, are you Edgar from Twilight?" (Needless to say he got the reaction he wanted from me..."Edgar!! It's EDWARD!") ha ha. Cameron LOVED being in full makeup.

So after eating breakfast we rushed home, put the boys soccer uniforms on and went to their games. Cameron loved having his vampire makeup on during the game. He said he was going to play super good since vampires are FAST! (whatever motivates) After the double hitter we came home, put the costumes back on and went to an end of the season soccer/Halloween party for Cameron's team. After that, we rushed over to Cody & Abe's neighborhood for some trick-or-treating. Everyone and their dog was there at that neighborhood. Bella LOVED trick-or-treating. All the way up to the houses she would giggle. A few times she tried to walk into peoples' houses. They didn't mind so much because she was just too cute! As we crossed the street someone would say, "Why did the chicken cross the road!" Another funny thing that happened was when a lady tried to give Bella a pencil instead of candy. She looked at the pencil and threw it down on the floor and reached in to grab her own piece. What can I say, the girl knows what she wants! After that we went and visited Grandmother and had a nice time there. Then it was back to our home! Another exhausting Halloween, but lots of fun memories.

When Sam showed up on our doorstep it took us awhile to recognize who he was. I couldn't stop laughing! He dressed up as Hansel from the movie Zoolander. He ended winning best costume. You look swave Sam, in a hippie kind of way & my belt looks great on ya! :)

Carving Memories!

Halloween is approaching fast and so Sunday night we carved pumpkins. Nothing fancy, just your average scary triangle eyes and nose pumpkin. That night was probably the first night for it to get below 60 degrees. It's cold in the morning, hot in the day and cold again at night! I feel like I'm changing clothes all the time. I'm such a wimp I know! We'll see if our pumpkins last until Halloween. They might look a lot scarier whithered from the sun. :)

Life Long Learning

In high school I can remember talking with my Volleyball/Track coach; Pam Allen, about Hobbies and to this day I can still remember her saying to me, "yeah, Joyce I'm a jack of all traits, but a master of none." For some reason that cliche has always stuck with me...probably because I never have the patience to become a "master" of anything. There's just too many things that interest me. For instance, drawing. I've always been interested in art. I can remember driving to my grandparents house (a 4 hour drive) as a kid, all cozy in our suburban and looking out at the Capitain Mountains and trying to draw them. Plus, I'd watch the painting shows on PBS rather than watching cartoons. Then, in the eighth grade I took an art class from an awesome artist and great teacher, Mrs. White. I looked forward to that class everyday and was sad when I had to choose between art or athletics (my other love at the time).

So, I put drawing on the back burner until one day when Jesse let me have the day to myself. I spent most of it in Hobby lobby; my most favorite store! I was reading some books on sketching and just had to try it! Plus, my father-n-laws 60th birthday was coming up and I thought it would be fun to try to draw him for a gift. (I know, it's silly. Greg has an artist for a son, but I had to start somewhere). :) Here's the picture I used to look off of...

In case you're wondering about the numbers on his head, it's just a measuring tool to get the head shape right. Here's the finished product...
Like I said, this is my first sketch ever of a person and I know I have much to learn, but I think it's a great start and I'm not seeing myself ending with this one. My next model(s) will be my parents and of course the rest of my family and maybe some of my favorite places. So, life is full of surprises and I love surprising myself. There's much you can accomplish if you just buckle down and do it!

Fall Happenings

Getting ready to move is consuming my mind and energy these days. Sometimes you just have to take a break and enjoy the wonderful days of Fall. Well, after going to Apple Annie's I had to get to work canning my car load of fruit. I canned 24 QUARTS of Pears and Apples, and dried 3 gallon size zip lock bags of apples. I'm so naive when it comes to canning. While picking the fruit I was so excited about it and found myself saying, "this will be easy to can. I should be able to get it done in two days." What was I thinking! It took me close to a week to finish. Cameron tried to help me though. He was so sweet. He'd come in and peel about 10 apples and then shook his head with his hand on my shoulder and said, "mom.... I don't think I can do this anymore....sorry, you're on your own mom." And walked away. Yeah, that's about right, I thought. This was my idea in the first place. ;) I'm very thankful to have learned this area of self reliance. I love the sense of accomplishment I get after completing such a task.

Getting to know Wyatt

A few weeks ago Wyatt came and stayed with us for a week while Abe & Cody went on a cruise. We see Wyatt quite a bit, but it's always with a bunch of other adults and kids so I felt like this would be a chance to REALLY get to know him. After a day or so of getting use to our family dynamics I think he felt at home. I can honestly say that we enjoyed him and I've grown to love him more. He's always loved uncle Jesse, but he seems to like me more too. :) That boy can eat anyone under the table. Anytime I was in the kitchen he was wanting a snack and at dinner he would out eat my kids. It would be nice to do this with other cousins as well someday. It's a great way to get to know someone when they're depending on you for there every need.

Just a few random pictures

I was cooking dinner & I knew that Claire was outside looking at the clouds, but wasn't expecting her to fall asleep. Thought it was so cute and random. Love that girl.

Jeanine's Newest Toy!

My sister Jeanine and her daughter Brooke came through town on there way to a football game to show me her newest pride & joy. My brother-n-law David surprised my sister Jeanine with this beautiful new Z28. When they were engaged back in the 80's David bought her one back then also. I remember thinking I was soooo cool when Jeanine would take me to school in it while jamming out to White Snake. It was a very cool car back then, and it is very cool now! I still have yet to ride in it, will one of these days. It's black interior with orange trim on the seats. A perfect "Artesia Bulldog" color scheme. :) So, the Z28 saga has come full circle. Love it.

You might as well have one these days....

My father-n-law Greg just bought the new Camry Hybrid. He took us for a spin around the block and it seriously is sooo quiet and smooth. When it was idleing in the driveway you could barely hear it. Very cool car. Pretty neat to watch the dash board and see the battery charge up everytime you hit the brakes. Looking forward for that kind of technology in a van like ours someday. Happy 60th B-day Greg!

Just a daddy enjoying some time with his girls on a perfect Fall day.