My Nativity

For the past few years I have been collecting the Willow Tree Nativity Set. Every year I would buy a new peice to it. This year I was able to complete my set! A store was going out of business and actually had all the peice on sale! I love my Nativity. I think it is one of the most reverent sets out there. Above the Willow Tree set is a flannel board Nativity that was giving to my family when I was a kid. It has been up in our house every year sense then. I love Nativity sets. I have four more in my house. I guess I will have to get photos of all of them next year.

My Gift

Jake bought me a gift. A big gift. He went to great lenghts to hide it. He saved money, gave cash to my mom so she could buy it and hide it at her house. Then they hide it really well under the tree. I had a hope of what it was.




It was! It was a big Cricut! I started to cry I was so happy!!

Tears of happiness!

Isn't it wonderful?

I have the most wonderful husband on the planet!!

A wonderful time with family

My sister left this morning. I was sad. I had so much fun with them. I've missed them so much. We had a great time. We really didn't do anything much, just spend time together. It was the best. My neice, Autumn, came too. My daughter Phoebe was in hog heaven with her cousin. Those two are alll girl! They played all the time together. My Phoebe told me it was like having a sister. Christmas Day was wonderful. We spend a lot of time opening presents and laughing. Here is are some of the highlights of the day.

Christmas 2009

We had a great Christmas here in the English household. I am still spending time with sisters, mom and niece. I will post more when I am not having a blast and being really immature...LOL. You have to love your younger sisters.

Keep on Keepin' on!

Today has been a pretty hard day. The difficulty breathing is back and I have a new symptom. You know how after you have a baby you have some serious swelling in your bum area? Well I have that for some reason. It hurts something fierce too! I am still pretty drugged, but I am trying to have a good attitude. I was able to do some sewing today. It was pretty nice. I was able to teach Phoebe about how to read pattern and cut it out. I was able to make all four of the kids pj's for Christmas eve and made four doll sized ones, for all our dolls. It felt good to create something. My mom was up again this weekend and was a huge help. I really couldn't do it with out Jake and Mom. Jake and I sat down and wrote a list of questions and concerns. Tonight as I was laying on the couch, drugged and crying I told Jake that no matter what something has to be done on Tuesday, when we go tot he doctor. I will not accept a bottle of pain pills and a "lets wait and see" It is just too bad. I am very thankful that I have my sisters coming for Christmas. I know they will be a big help. Here is to making it till Tuesday!

Being Sick

I thought I would give some explanation as to why I have not posted in so long.( and also because it has taken up so much of my time!) At the beginning of November the family all got the swine flu. It has hard and not fun, but we all made it through great. Except me. It seemed to hit me really hard and longer then anyone else in the family. I just thought it had to do with me having to take care of everyone, but it I noticed all the flu like symptoms where gone and now I had pain in my left upper side. Right by my stomach and spleen and under my rib cage. The pain was bad. To make some VERY long weeks short, I ended up in the ER three times, was told I had a blood clot in my lungs, to be told right a way it was a misdiagnoses, have had x-rays and CT scans to last a life time and more blood drawn then any normal person should have, the doctors have finally found some kind of answer. I have an enlarged sleep and to cysts on my kidneys. The right kidney has a 5 ml cyst on it and the left side (the side with all the pain) as a 15 ml cyst on it. Between the enlarged spleen and the cyst I am having some pressure put on some of my organs. I can have pain from my lower back to up in my shoulder. Including really bad difficulty breathing I don't think I have ever been is so much pain. Sadly I have had to start living off pain killers. I hate how they make me feel! I feel like a slave to them. I am watching myself (as is Jake) very carefully to monitor how much and how often I take the. I really, really don't want to get dependent on them. I have not been able to drive during all of this. It is really depressing. So, you ask, what the heck are they going to do for you? Well, I really don't know. I was giving the results today and am going to meet with the doctor again on Tuesday for more tests. They need to check and see if the cysts are infected and why spleen is enlarged. (which could be from and infected cyst) It has been a very trying time for me. I am short on patients because of the pain and lack of being able to sleep. I am so drugged I am not able to craft or do much of anything. I wasn't able to make neighbor gifts, teacher gifts or co-worker gifts and there will be no Christmas card this year. The only reason my house is decorated and presents wrapped is because of Jake and mom. They have been such a huge help! Jake is playing both parent rolls right now. He is doing such a great job but I am looking forward to being able to do all of my job! I love being a wife and mother. My mom has come up every weekend through all of this. My two younger sisters and niece are coming on Wednesday and Jake has the entire week after Christmas off. I am in good hands. I think that is a pretty good over view of how my life as gone for the past six or seven weeks. I am trying very hard to keep a positive attitude and find things I can do without causing too much pain. I am very much looking forward to Christmas and spending some time with my family. I will post soon, as soon as I know more information at to what the heck they are going to do with me. Merry Christmas!

New posts comings soon. We have a new computer and need to get things set up. I have lots of fun stuff to share.

A Wonderful Day!

A lot of things are going around the Internet right now, about writing about what you are thankful for. I don't think I could do it everyday, like most of the emails and facebook posts say to do, but I did want to write about how thankful I am for today.
Yes, today was a very special National Holiday, honoring our services members, but it was a family day for us.
Phoebe and Kimball have had half days all week due to Parent Teacher Conferences. Jake was able to have today off. All morning he and Warren were able to spend some special time together. They played games and goofed off together, they ate lunch together. Warren adores his dad. I am so thankful those two got that time together.
About a half hour before school let out Jake was able to go into Kimball's class and read the class his favorite book. "The Monster At The End Of This Book". Jake does the perfect Grover voice and the kids went nuts over it. They begged him to read it a second time, which he did. Kimball was in heaven. Jake will often read that book to the kids at home, but for Kimball, to have his dad read it to all of his friends, life couldn't get better. I am so thankful that Jake had the day off to be able to read that to Kimball's class.
When we all were home we had lots of fun. Phoebe and I sat together and did all of her My Little Pony's hair. The boys played GeoTrax. We even had a family Wii tournament. I kicked every one's but when it comes to duck hunt, Phoebe kicks butt at the matching faces in the crowd game, Kimball kicks some serious butt at Boxing, Warren.. well he just kicks butt at holding the Wii mote. To him he is a winner just holding the thing! ( I really don't need to mention that Jake kicks butt at all the other games. ) Then we all worked on some puzzle games in a book Phoebe has. We did word searches, tick-tack-toe, and so many other games. I am so thankful for being able to lay on the floor with my kids and play games.
We didn't have an official dinner. We snacked most of the day. We were all having too much fun to stop and do something grown up, like cook dinner. We did all sit together and enjoy hot chocolate and toast. It was a perfect bedtime snack for this day. I am so thankful for my Cocoa Motion!
Before we could put the kids to bed we realized we forgot to play or favorite family game, Killer Bunnies, so we let the kids stay up later then normal and played the game. It was so funny to see the kids get so excited to give Daddy's bunny the Ebola Virus, or to put Phoebe's through the meat grinder! (If you haven't played the game, don't worry, it is just a card.....) No one got mad for loosing or having a bunny die. We were all laughing so much. The kids love that Daddy doesn't always win this game. I am so thankful for my family!!
After the kids were in bed Jake and I got to spend a quite evening at home. We talked and watched TV. I did a little sewing and he played a computer game. I love that we love to do things together, but that we can do two separate things, but still enjoy each others company. He is so great. I am so thankful for my wonderful husband! He is the best!

Ten years in the making!

A little over ten years ago I bought a bunch of blue fabric. I just had fell in love with it. I kept it for a few years and sense then I have been slowly working on it. I am happy to say I have finally finished it! I love it. What makes it extra special is that is I was able to use one of my great grandmothers quilts as the batting. The quilt was falling apart! It was basically rags. Granny always wanted us to use the quilts and we have been using that quilt sense I was a kid! I really like how it turned out. I was even able to find a blue fabric on the back that was similar to the the back fabric to Granny's quilt. I picked blue, hers was yellow. I really didn't want to tie they quilt, but because of the size of it I was not able to use my own machine to quilt it. Sigh.... One day I will be able to own a quilting machine! Jake and I tied it together. I was a fun date night. So please enjoy the quilt. If you ever come to visit then you just might get to sleep with it!


, The bed is a queen but the blanket is fit for a double bed. It works though. I wish I could have shown it to Granny!

This shows you an up close of the design. I wanted it to be a pinwheel design but it didn't' turn out quite how I wanted it, but still I am falling more and more in love with it.

This picture shows the back of the quilt. The quilt that I recycled was very similar to the back of this quilt, just yellow. I was able to find a craft store going out of business. I was able to get the fabric for 50% off! Whhooooooooooooo I love finding deals like that! I just might go back on payday and get some more cheep fabric to finish a few other quilt projects... Well see......

Silly Warren

Here are some random photos of Warren playing with an old mouth guard. What a cutie!

ZOO

All the way back in September My mom and I took the kids to the Zoo. Jake was gone to Florida, for business. It was a great day to spend Labor Day. The kids loved seeing King Julian and the Foosa! The elephants were cool too. It was a hard work out pushing my mom around in the wheelchair, but it was worth it. I think the thing I will remember the most is I am pushing mom up a hill, trying to keep the kids from running in different directions when the phone rings. It is Jake. I get us to stopping point and answer. It is Jake. Calling me from Disney World! I can laugh now but I wanted to hang up on him at the moment! I sure love that man!

A great find!

Back on some lonely September day I was browsing the classified trying to find an end table for my living room. I just happened to find this beauty. It is an antique mahogany table. It was love at first sight. The best part of it was it only cost me 10 dollars! The lady didn't want to fix it up and just wanted to get rid if it. I was thrilled to take it off her hands! Isn't it beautiful?


Phoebe is holding it up. I hadn't fixed the leg yet. She is such a trooper. Or maybe she was happy to be out of bed to help her mom. I don't know.

The top is really scratched up. Part of my likes it that way. It gives it more flavor. Part of me wants to totally redo it from top to bottom. I guess it depends on the history behind the table. I am still trying to find out information about it. More to come on that.


Ignore the dust please. I love the detail! The decor, the grain line and the color. It is so pretty. I don't think I took a photo if it but I has metal claw feet. Oh so cute!

Another pretty shot.

Here is another added bonus. It opens up to a card table! The hinges are loose so we don't open it up, but wont that be fun when family comes over?
Soon after I took these photos I fixed the broken leg and found the perfect spot in the living room. It is adorned with my beautiful redone lamp and fall decorations. I will try to get a photo of it up soon.

Adam's Canyon

On another Saturday in September Jake wanted to take the family on a hike. The one he really wanted to do, my knee couldn't do. We decided to split up, Jake took Kimball and Phoebe to Adam's Canyon and Warren and I got to spend some great quality time together. I loved looking at the photos from their hike. They were lucky enough to run into a friend doing the same hike and they took photos of all of them. I think they turned out great!

Ogden's Horses

Back in September Mom and I took the kids to Ogden's farmers market. It runs along Historic 25th street. Apparently they have placed about 75 painted horses all up and down the area. We took our time and found the cool horses. It was a fun way to spend a Saturday Morning.

(The John Wayne Horse.. Mom's fav!)


(I don't remember this horses name, the kids just liked it)


Go Air Force!



This one was the prettiest. It has glitter all over it!

BOLT

The. Halloween. Costumes. Are. Done.
Phoebe as Penny
Kimball as Rino
Warren as Bolt

I tried to make it easier this year then last. Sure I didn't start in August but having to find everything to match was hard enough. Maybe next year I will just buy costumes! *gasp!* Jake is going to be the villian, The green eyed man, mom is going to be Mittens the cat and I get stuck being Penny's mom. Why can't I get a cool person to be? Oh well. Here it to many more post to come!