Jen and Ken Forever

My long time friend Jeni Starley is GETTING MARRIED, and I couldn't be happier for her!

Jeni and I served together at Academy for Girls as counselors in 1997.  We were instant friends and had a fun summer together. We have stayed in touch over the years, and I love the fact that we both live in Vegas right now.

Her fiance is Dr. Ken Nelson, and he makes Jeni very happy. They are getting married January 21, 2012 in the LDS Las Vegas Temple.

Jasper, Jasper, What Do You See?

A few of Jasper's photos from our August 2011 Disneyland trip.

"My Coat Can Be A Hood."

For Las Vegas, our weather is FREEZING!

Our high today was 46, and we are under a "freeze alert."  This is serious stuff for us!

I sent Jasper to preschool in a coat with a hat and gloves in his backpack.

He did NOT want to wear his hat at recess.

When he came home I told him that his teacher told me he would not wear his hat.

I talked to him about how I really wanted him to wear it.

He then proceeded to show me how he didn't need a hat because he could just pull his coat up over his head.

He did admit that the problem with this idea icauses is that his stomach is bare. Silly boy!



Jasper was not excited to wear a button-up coat vs. a zipper coat today.

He was worried because he thought he might need help maneuvering the buttons open and closed.

Before he left for school he told me, "Mom, my teacher is not going to help me.  When we need help she tells us to ask a friend.  My friends  are not going to be able to help me with this." 

I told Jasper that I'd email his teacher and explain that he might need help with his coat.

Turns out that Jasper was able to undo the bottons, and bless Ms. Karen's heart, she did those buttons back up for him.

Through Jasper's Eyes

Five months ago, on a whim, I gave Jasper a camera. He and his Canon are a match made in Heaven.

I thought he would have fun with it, but I had no idea how much he would love it.

If you think I'm crazy for giving a then 3 year old his own Canon Digital Elph camera, let me explain.
This camera has been sitting in our buffet drawer for years.  It works really well...sometimes.  And sometimes it doesn't turn on at all.  It has the dreaded "Lens Error, Restart Camera" syndrome that many Canon point and shoot cameras seem to be plagues with.

We can't rely on it for a regular camera.  And given the low price of small digital cameras, it's not really worth fixing.

Which makes it perfect for Jasper.  No stress about him breaking it --  it's already broken.  :)

As we were walking out the door to head to Disneyland I thought, "I should just let Jasper have our broken camera.  He might have a lot of fun with it."  Boy was I right.

I have it clipped on a lanyard, so he wears it around his neck when he is in photographer mode.  This helps him not drop it.

Jasper can entertain himself for a long time with his trusty camera. It buys me a lot of time when he and I are on a trip by ourselves and I need time to get ready, or pack up our hotel room.  He simply gets out his camera and takes pictures.  (We have A LOT of photos of Marriott hotel room various carpet and wallpaper patterns.)

It keeps him very entertained when we are waiting in line at Disneyland.  He takes a photo of the character we are waiting to meet, or people he meets in line. 

In Sept. he met two cute grammy's from Australia who are both named Maria.  They died laughing when he asked them if he could take their picture while we were waiting for the train.  We ended up talking to them for the entire trip around Disneyland and had fun hearing about their globe trotting.

On a trip, we have a tradition of looking at the photos from the day on my computer after we dump the photos onto my hard drive and clear the memory card.  We've now added looking at Jasper's photos to this tradition, and his pictures are sure to always bring a smile to both of our faces.

Why Can't I Just Go To School At BYU today?

Today Jasper wore a BYU shirt to preschool.  

He wanted to know why he couldn't just go to school at BYU today since he was wearing a BYU shirt.

Jasper loves to talk about school.  Where he goes to school now (Smalley Elementary Pre-K), where he will go to elementary school (Smalley), middle school (Mannion), high school (Foothill), college (right now he picks BYU), and graduate school (undecided.)

I have no idea where this all came from.  Several times a week Jasper wants to talk about going to school, how old he will be in each grade, and what he will learn.

Some kids in our neighborhood go to Walker International School, where they spend half a day learning in Spanish.  Jasper frequently tells me, "Mom, I want to go to Walker like Colt so I can learn Spanich."  

Obviously we are having a hard time distinguishing between spinach and Spanich in our house.

Thanksgiving Dinner

Nov. 24, 2011

This year we ate Thanksgiving dinner at Claim Jumper.

At our table we feasted with Kelly and baby Raynee Fortier and Eric, Cydnee, Taylor, Will, Regan and Lyndsee Schroeder.

Kelly's husband is deployed out of the country, and the Schroeder's left out of town on the afternoon of Thanksgiving.

Each us ladies were thrilled not to cook this year.

The food did not disappoint, and the cranberry-orange relish was a favorite.  I even had to look up a recipe for it to make to eat on leftover turkey sandwiches.

When I ordered Jasper's salad I asked for ranch dressing on the side.

Jasper quickly chimed in and asked the waiter for ranch in the middle and all over the salad too.  He loves ranch dressing and he wanted to make sure that the waiter knew that he also wanted ranch all over his entire salad.

We won't quickly forget how I told Kelly to go to the Summerlin location of Claim Jumper, which is where we went.  Trouble is we were supposed to be at the Town Square location.  Oops!

We drove over to meet the Schroeder's as fast as we could, and we were grateful that the restaurant held our reservation for an extra 45 minutes.

This Thanksgiving dinner has definitely opened my eyes about how wonderful it is to have someone else cook the turkey!

Ready for Christmas

The day before Thanksgiving Jasper kept telling me, "Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and then after this nap, it's Christmas."

"After this nap" is Jasper's catch-all phrase for "when we wake up."

I tried to explain to Jasper that it's still one more month until Christmas.  He countered with, "Mom, at school we learned that Christmas comes after Thanksgiving.  Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and then AFTER that it will be Christmas when we wake up."

He also wanted to wake up on Christmas morning (which he was sure was on Nov. 25, 2011) to SNOW! Lots and lots of pure white snow.

Now that would truly be a miracle!

I'm Thankful

For me November has been a month of reflection.

I've thought a lot about what I am grateful for, and also what I need to do in order to be even happier and more fulfilled.

I am especially grateful for Mike and Jasper and the happiness they bring into my life each day.

I have great friends, a fun family and a loving Heavenly Father who has a plan of happiness for me.

I'm thankful for my life, and for what lies ahead.

Live Nativity Las Vegas

Even though we love to ride the Boulder City Santa Train and see the lights at the Cactus Garden, my #1 Christmas tradition to attend the Live Nativity in Las Vegas.  This year you can reserve FREE tickets here.

Last year the Live Nativity they moved to a new location at the Opportunity Village on 6050 S. Buffalo Drive in Las Vegas.  If you previously attended the Live Nativity when the Las Vegas Stake sponsored it LDS Church on Charleston, you will LOVE the new location and revamped performance.  It is AMAZING!!!  My friend Lisa Nelson is a director for the event.  If you know her, then you know that everything she does has a touch of magic and is always top notch.

There is also a free Creche display that includes off 100 nativities with live Christmas music you can stroll through after the performance that you don't want to miss.

When I was in the Lakes Ward we took the Young Women, who had the tradition of bringing Krispy Kreme doughnuts and hot chocolate for a treat while we waited for the performance to begin.

We have carried on this fun tradition and adopted it as our own and Jasper LOVES it.

Jasper also LOVES to see the animals.  The donkeys they use are best friends, and they are not happy to be split up while Mary rides in on one of them.  They have to have a cast member comfort the lone donkey who gets left behind.

Make this a Christmas to remember and attend the Live Nativity.  You will thank me!  :)

2011 Live Nativity Performance schedule below:
Thursday, December 8th         6:00pm and 7:30pm (both in Spanish)
Friday, December 9th             6:00pm, 7:30pm and 9:00pm
Saturday, December 10th       6:00pm, 7:30pm and 9:00pm
Thursday, December 15th       6:00pm and 7:30pm
Friday, December 16th           6:00pm, 7:30pm and 9:00pm
Saturday, December 17th       6:00pm, 7:30pm and 9:00pm

Is the Grinch in this World?

Jasper has asked me to read him "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" several times the last 2 weeks.

When we finished reading it after lunch he begged for me to read it again.

A few hours later he asked,"Mom, Is there a guy in our world named the Grinch?"

"No," I replied.  "The Grinch is made up and he only lives in our imagination.  Why do you want to know?"

"Because if he lives in this world I'm afraid that he will stuff our Christmas tree up the chimney and take it away.  And I really like our Christmas tree."

I really like our tree too Jasper.  I think we are safe.

Crazy Hair Jasper

 My friend likes to tease me about Jasper's Justin Bieber bangs. Usually his hair is neatly combed (as much as that's possible for a 4 year old boy).

But Jasper does love to do "crazy hair" in the morning after his shower, and then announce that he is from the circus. 





Right before a hair cut his hair can definitely do some pretty crazy tricks.  That's for sure.We all got our hair cut tonight, so Jasper's crazy hair tricks are limited for now.

I'm including some "before" and "after" shots from tonight just because I want to remember how crazy his hair gets right before a hair cut.

I'm posting a photo and here's the link for similar photos of Jasper with crazy hair when we was just barely 1 year old.

Three Gifts For Christmas

Those of you who know my dear friend Katie (Wilson) Hughes, you know how ABSOLUTELY AMAZING she is.  Many of you have heard me talk about her and her spectacular talents. Besides being able to give Martha Stewart a run for her money in the craft, cooking and creativity area, she is also the owner of Artichoke Ink and Co-Owner of Vintage Rose Wraps.  I am constantly amazed by Katie and feel blessed to call her my friend.  I'm always hoping that more and more of her will rub off on me.

Her blog is private, so I can't link back to the post she wrote about the idea of three gifts for Christmas.  So with her permission I share with you her original blog post.  Her words are in black.

I've had several friends ask about our tradition of giving 3 gifts for Christmas, so I thought I would go ahead and post it here for any of you who want to give it a try. First, I wish I could take credit for the idea because it has been so, so neat for our family. Someone shared it about someone they knew at a small Enrichment meeting I attended about 10 years ago. If I ever find out about who started this thing, I would love to meet her!

I remember a story being told about a mother of eight children who was measuring out her piles for her children on Christmas Eve. She noticed one child's pile was far less than the others. Though the mother had bought the boy exactly the gift he wanted, she wanted to make sure that his pile didn't look so minimal compared to the other children. So she ran out to a store that evening and bought him a few more frivolous things to fill his pile. Well, Christmas morning came and went, and later the boy was found only playing with the one toy he had asked for. This mother, realizing that the other gifts were unnecessary, recognized a need to change the way she did Christmas in her family. So, she did what any good mother would do. She studied up, researched material, and prayed. She came up with the idea of giving three gifts at Christmas, reminiscent of the gifts of the three wise men. This would keep things focused and in-tune with the spirit of the season. Here's the idea of the gifts:

GOLD

"The Gift of Wonder"

{wrapped with gold}

These are gifts that tickle and delight. They are the gifts that are really wanted or desired--The gift that the receiver just can't go without! A wanted toy, a planned outing, a season pass… something they just HAVE to have.

FRANKINSENCE

"The Gift of Meaning"{wrapped with red}

These are gifts that have meaning and express affection. These might include: a scrapbook, a quilt, a special doll, an heirloom, a childhood memento, a CTR ring or piece of jewelry, new temple clothes, a treasure box, a framed photograph, or letters from the heart. This gift is extremely worthwhile and something that shows love.

MYRRH

"The Gift of Usefulness"

{wrapped with green}

These are gifts that are truly needed. Look at your loved one's needs and choose a gift that would be truly useful. These might include a new coat, a down comforter, or a new pair of shoes and socks. Use this gift for something practical yet worthwhile.

Bill and I started this tradition the first year we were married, and I have to say it has helped our Christmases stay focused. It's difficult to just give three gifts. Some years we have to sort of give package deals, but we do our best to keep it to three. What it does, however, is make us be really thoughtful about what we give. It's so easy to just go out and buy some stuff because you want someone in your family to have it, when it's not really what they want or need. This sets some parameters and it sure makes shopping a whole lot easier.

In our family, Santa still brings gifts as well, (1 large gift and 2 small gifts) so the tradition of Santa can be preserved.