We spent Christmas Eve at my parents house having our traditional get together. Every year everyone opens up one present and are shocked to find new pj's, every year. It is always fun. After we get dressed into our new sleepwear we eat and watch a Christmas movie. It is always hard to get all the kids to behave in anticipation for what is to come later that night. Ezra was so excited and could not wait for Santa and Rudolph.

Chandler's 1st birthday

Chandler turned a year old on Dec. 11. We had a birthday party for her on Saturday. Everyone had a good time. We had lots of food, like always. I cannot believe we have had her for an entire year. I can't imagine life without her. She brings such a good spirit into our home. She is such a happy little girl. She loves to be the center of attention, and usually is. She brings our family together and everyone enjoys her. Her brother gets a little jealous, but he loves her. She is the first person he wants to see in the morning. She is usually the only one who can wake her daddy up without him being grumpy! She has been a blessing to us since the day we brought her home.

Chandler's birthday cake

Chan in the sink

Miss Chan, a movie star

The Temple Lights

Last week we spent a couple days with in the valley with Moroni's sister Vee. We went to see the lights at the Temple. They were as beautiful as they always are. Ezra was amazed. He kept saying, "Wow! There are more than 100 lights!..." He wouldn't hold still for many pictures, but we managed to snap a couple. He mostly just ran around with his grandma. We sure were glad to have her there. She doesn't mind running with him, that is one of the many reasons he loves her so much. We also ran into tons of missionaries. Ezra did stop to take a picture with them, asking if they knew his uncle Dustin. Anyway, we had a good time. Chandler slept through the whole thing, and Moroni had to stay home to work, someone has to support my shopping habit.

5 Years (and a few days)....

5 years ago, November 7, 2003, I married my best friend. In some ways it seems like Moroni and I have been together forever, in other ways it seems like this past several years have just flown by. We have already started many things for our family including many memories, traditions, and habits good and bad. Moroni is the best hubby I could ever ask for. He is so good with the kids, they love him. He helps out around the house so much. I love coming home from work when he has been home with the kids, he has not only kept them fed and happy, the house is usually cleaner than when I left and most of the time he has cooked dinner. He does more laundry than I do. He puts up with me and my attitude all the time. I am so grateful that he is so patient with me. I truly feel so blessed to be sealed to him for all of eternity. We bring good and bad out in eachother (mostly bad from me) so the last 5 years have been exciting, fun, and dramatic. I pray the next 5 years will be filled with just as much fun and love, and maybe a little less arguing. I am going to try to not to be such a nag and be much less anal. I am going to try my hardest not to roll my eyes when he has dressed the kids and Chandler's bow doesn't match. I am going to try not to sigh when he won't tell me what he wants for dinner and insists I make whatever I want. I am going to try. I just have to say the past 5 years have been amazing. I love you Moroni.

hALLoWeEn!!

It has been a busy few weeks for us. We have been over at my parents house quite a bit. My mom was in the hospital a few weeks ago with a DVT, a blood clot in her leg. The clot is long, going from her hip to her knee. For a couple of days she noticed her leg swelling and being quite painful. About a week and a half before that she had had a cardiac catheterization where they used the artery from that same leg. She just assumed the soreness and swelling was because of that. I was bugging her to go get it checked because she had classic symptoms of DVT. She was very hesitant but after MUCH nagging she finally gave in and went to the emergency room. After she had an ultrasound of her vein and they told her she did in fact have a blood clot she was terrified. I felt terrible because she is laying there in the hospital bed, completely mortified, not wanting to talk or move because the doctor told her if the clot moved it would go directly into her heart. So she was in the hospital for 5 days on lots of blood thinners waiting for her blood to be thin enough for her to be released. Since then, she has not left her house except to go to the doctor's office. I finally got her to go with me to the store the other day... it was a miracle. Assuring her daily she is not going to die has become my calling. She is getting a little better everyday. The doctor told her now she needs to start getting up and around more, but being sure not to do anything too strenuous with that leg. I am totally shocked at how dedicated she has been to being so good.

Since she has been at home for so long she has had a lot of time on her hands. She decided to start canning a few months ago and these past few weeks we have been doing a ridiculous amount of cutting up different meats and veggies and pressure cooking. I am an old pro at it now. I think I could teach a class on "oh that needs 15 psi for 90 minutes...." Anyway, Rikki and I just about have a year supply of food just from the last few weeks. It has been crazy, but fun. So if anyone is interested in canning anything, especially meat, call my mom. She can get some great deals.

So on to HALLOWEEN!! Ezra was so excited for Halloween this year. He dressed up as Captain Jack Sparrow. He was so dang cute. He walked around for days practicing, "Aargghh!" and "I am going to sword you!" Chandler was a bumble bee. She was pretty cute herself. It all started with a yellow and black tutu. Then yellow and black striped leg warmers. . . I think I had more fun showing them off then they had.

Ezra is home!!

Well, the week went by terribly quickly, for me anyway. Ezra had a blast in California. The trip included:my Mom, Rikki and Mylee, Dillan, my aunt Kim and Ezra. He would call several times a day to tell us what was "awesome" at that time. They spent all day last Saturday driving, taking it easy, no rush to get there. Sunday they spent the day on the trolley seeing the town and at the San Diego temple. I cannot remember exactly how it all went, but I think they spent Monday at Legoland, Tuesday at the San Diego zoo, Wednesday and Thursday at Sea World and Friday at the Wildlife Park. The long drive home came Saturday. I know what you are thinking... "not even spoiled a bit, huh"... Surprisingly enough my mom reports that Ezra was well behaved. Movies, video games and bribery work wonders. That is what she tells me anyway. I am sure Dillan and Ezra enjoyed their fair share of fighting and arguing, but nothing too terrible I guess. They did tons of cool stuff from "Dining with Shamu" to riding a hot air balloon, to taking a safari ride at the wildlife park. Ezra was so excited when he would call to talk about EVERYTHING, which was okay with me. I was glad he got to go, and I was kind of on a much needed vacation myself, but I was kind of sad not to get to see how excited he was for everything. My mom came home with lots of pictures though. Here are a few of the approximately 950 pictures they took.

The San Diego Temple

The view from the balloon...

SHAMU!!!

Entering Legoland

As nice as the week was we sure missed you Ezra. Chandler crawled into your room countless times looking for you. She sure was excited to see you when you got home.

PS- I got my cell phone back! I haven't gotten my numbers and stuff transferred so I still don't know anyone's numbers but I can text, hooray!

I would lose my head. . .

I lose everything. I lose my keys, purse, phone, diaper bag, etc. daily. I leave things at Wal-Mart, at church, at restaurants, anywhere I go basically. Really, I am just unorganized and am usually yelling at Ezra or trying to calm Chandler so I don't pay attention to where I set something down. Well, anyway, a few days ago, my car was in the shop so I was sitting at my parents office waiting for it be finished. Rikki and I decided to go to lunch. I didn't see my phone so I figured it was probably shoved into the abyss of my diaper bag. Well, later my sister got a call from my mom asking, "Is Sheridan looking for her phone?" Rikki said, "I don't think so, did she leave it at the restaurant again?" Rikki got this grin on her face and I knew it couldn't be good.
Well, long story short, I dropped my phone outside at my parents office and it got ran over. It is kind of in a phone coma. It is a touch screen so I cannot send or receive texts, I sometimes catch an incoming call, and cannot see any of my contacts phone numbers because the display is gone, and can sometimes call out. So If you have called or text me since Tuesday and think I am ignoring you, it is not on purpose!! Hopefully this week I will get a new one and let this one go into phone heaven. I just am praying that I will not lose all my numbers. I mean seriously, I have every pizza place in town in there. I wouldn't want to have to get the phone book out...

Busy summer

It has been a while, huh. It has been a crazy busy couple of months. With work, the Sweet Corn Festival (which my mom is in charge of and needs plenty of help with), and trying to keep the family in check there hasn't been a dull moment. I am so glad to be out of August. Rikki and I had the brilliant idea to sell some things we have been making at our own booth in the craft fair at the festival. We have spent weeks working on things, sewing, glueing, painting and scrapbooking, not getting much accomplished on any one given day because all of our kids cannot behave at any one time. Then we sat there for 2 days, sweating in the sun, trying to keep the babies under control, trying to manage our booth. Wow, we will NEVER do that again. Can you say misery? If I ever have any similar ideas or intentions please, someone remind me of Sweet Corn Festival 2008.
The rest of the month was spent at family reunions, taking scuba lessons, and lots of time at the lake. The kids had a great time. Chandler got her first minor sunburn and ate her first piece of licorice. Ezra hasn't been inside much of the summer. He is such a fish. He would go swimming everyday if we would let him. He has enjoyed every second of this summer. Oh yeah, before we had Chandler, Ezra was almost potty trained. Well, he had a major relapse when she came along. So, a few months ago my mom promised him when he was completely potty trained and never had anymore accidents she would take him to see free Willy (he has a slight obsession- we have seen the trilogy countless times... I bet you didn't even know there was a trilogy, huh.) He is so busy playing 99% of the time, coming inside to go potty was a hassle.
Well, as you can see from the picture he figured a way around it. So my mom is taking Ezra to San Diego to Sea World for an entire week. He is so excited and this is the daily conversation,
"Am I going to see Free Willy today?"
"No, not today."
"Where is the phone, I need to call Grandma, I don't believe you.... Grandma, are we going to see Free Willy today?"
"No, Ezra not until Saturday."
"When is it going to be Saturday?..."
Anyway, you get the picture. They are also going to the San Diego zoo and Legoland. I will post about it when they get home I am sure.

SumMeR FUn- dIRt, buGs, aND eArs

Ezra and Chandler both love to be outside. Ezra loves to work with his dad, jump around, and run as fast as he can yelling, "I am a superheeerrrroooo!!" He already loves to climb trees, get dirty, and loves to get into trouble. I worry for Chandler because she is always watching him. I can just see her thinking, "I want to be just like him. . ." I hope she is a little more careful, and stays a litter cleaner. Ezra does have one fear, bugs of any sort. He refuses to wear shoes at the softball field, so last night he stepped on one of those monster beatles/crickets or whatever they are with his bare feet and cried for 10 minutes.

Chandler has had a fever for 3 days now. It started Friday when I was at work and didn't really let up until today. Even though it finally started to get better today I decided to take her in to the doctor. She has an ear infection, which seems to be clearing up, red tonsils, and may be finally cutting a tooth. She has been drooling like crazy for 4 months, seriously, so I wish the stupid teeth would just come already. She is a good sport though, she still smiled for the picture.

We just got Chandler's pictures taken this past week. They turned out pretty cute. She was in such a good mood. There were not even any tears, from her at least. Ezra was supposed to have his pictures taken as well but he decided to cut a huge chunk out of the middle of his beautiful brown hair. So the only tears were mine. It will grow back, I know, but he looks like a big dork. I guess all kids go through it. I just hope he is finished!! Here are a couple of Chan's pictures.

The Fourth of July!!

The annual Fourth of July party was on this past Weekend. It was actually the 5th of July, but hey, who cares, right? I had to work Friday the 4th, but I don't care about that either. I was getting paid time and a half, Moroni was working on our landscaping (or lack of), and my kids were with Grandma at "the pond." Ezra having a blast, as you can imagine, running around with his life jacket on, jumping in and out of the cool water as he pleased. Always a million cousins and friends swimming "with" him, he thought he was the life of the party, when actually they were probably swimming away from the obnoxious, splashing, spitting, crazy kid. It was a good day, not even a sunburn. Ezra spent the night at Grandma Tenney's house (a night Ezra spends in Heber is a night always welcome. Let Grandma get up at 4 in the morning or whenever he decides it is time to play, and she is always willing.) Man, do we love Grandmas?:) Saturday was the barbecue; tons of people, tons of food, great fireworks. Here are Ezra and Chandler. I threatened Ezra that he had to stay clean because we were going to take a picture but he didn't care. Oh, we have been working on his smile. This is an improvement, trust me.

It has been a while since I posted anything. Life has been crazy and busy for the past month or so. I have been busy helping Rikki paint at her house, gardening, playing with/yelling at chilren, working, sewing, scrapbooking, and making lots of bows. Oh yeah, and softball started, and wow am I out of shape. I pulled a muscle the first game I played and it seems only to be getting worse. Moroni has been working and putting up a new deck at Rikki's house. The old one needed to come up. It was getting pretty tattered, so he, with the help of his brother and Rikki's hubby, Jeremy, got to put in a new one made of Trex. It is expensive but has a lifetime warranty so it will be nice. The kids are crazy as always. Ezra has been extra naughty lately. I swear I have NO patience anymore. The other day he crawled under the door of a bathroom stall at a restaurant where I was having lunch with Sherawn, a "friend" of Dustin's, and said, "Sherawn, I see your underwear!!" Wow, I am a good mom, huh. He has too many bumps and bruises to count and he climbed up his dresser last week and the whole thing came crashing, literally, down on him. Like I said, he is crazy.
Chandler and Mylee are both getting so big. Mylee is so strong, I'm sure she'll be crawling soon. Chandler is getting sooooo chubby. She has a hobby already, she loves to eat. She could do without sleeping, playing or enjoying any other baby pastimes. We just started her on baby food (which she loves) and rice cereal. She can polish off 2 jars easily in one sitting and is still hungry. I am convinved she could probably finish a third jar but I refuse to let her try! Here are Mylee and Chan, about to have their lunch. Check out Mylee's crazy hair. It is dark and kind of blends with the chair but it is thick, long and wild.

Ezra is 3!!

Ezra had his third birthday on May 13th. We had what was supposed to be a small party for him the Saturday before. But, as we all know, when my mother is involved nothing is small. The gathering this year was smaller than years past (there were about 100 people at Ezra's first birthday party) but was in no way small. Moroni and the boys put 'the swingset' together for the occasion. My mom has this vision of a playground next to her house and one of the accessories is this massive swingset that has a big slide, swings, a trapeze bar, a tree house with a wooden roof, a sandbox underneath, a rock climbing wall, a net to climb up with a few other things on it as well. She also got some teeter totters including one in the shape of an airplane that holds like 7 kids. Well, anyway, the guys spent the whole week putting the swingset together for the party. We also had Ezra's bounce house (a present from his 1st birthday) set up. The theme was firefighters. Ezra has had an obsession for quite some time now with firefighters. He dressed up as a fireman for Halloween last year. Anyway, in the middle of the party my mom had a friend, Clay Wood, bring the firetruck over. Let me tell you, the kids freaked. They thought it was sooo cool. They all had their little firehats on and took about a thousand pictures with it. Ezra thought he was so cool because he got to "drive" the firetruck and turn the sirens and stuff on.

The airplane teeter totter (see prior post)

MUD FIGHT!!

Ezra decided to make a huge mud puddle behind my mom's house. He started to cry when he got mud on his shoes but once he realized he was already going to be in trouble for the muddy mess he thought he might as well make it worth while. He got Dillan and Dakota in on the fun. They were soon having a mud fight. Mud everywhere. He didn't get in trouble, I had to laugh. Especially when he told me he was drinking the "chocolate milk" from the puddle.

Chan and Auntie Vee

We went to Lalovi's baby shower in Mesa. Ezra spent the day with Uncle Jacob having a water fight (trust me, he can dish it out but definitely can't take it) while we went to the shower. It was a fun party with the usual array of games and prizes. There were 3 games, my mom won them all. She has been to a few too many baby showers I'd say. Vee and baby ended the day with lots of new clothes and supplies. We are excited for the new edition, she should be here soon!

the girlz

Chandler just hanging around

Ezra loves uncle Jacob!!

Jacob just got home from his mission in New Zealand. Ezra was very excited to see him. I'm not sure if actually remembered him or not, but he knew him from his picture.

Mylee and Chandler get their pictures taken nonstop. Between Rikki and I, one of us seems to always have a camera on, or at least in hand. These two little girls don't go a day without at least one photo being snapped.

chan and teddy