Keeping Up With the Joneses

We had a great time in Canada this Christmas despite the extremely cold weather (the first night it was -35 degrees and killed our car battery). Here are a few pictures: My sister Jessica made cute matching aprons for all of us, including my niece Elaine. Santa Claus payed a visit to our house on Christmas Eve. He looked a lot like Grandpa Goates. While Myles is absolutely fascinated by Santa on tv or in pictures, when he sees him in real life he is petrified. This was no exception. But as soon as Grandpa Goates came downstairs a few minutes later Myles stopped crying and ran to Grandpa for comfort. Mason was thrilled that Santa would visit him and later told Grandma Delta on the phone "poor Grandpa Goates was taking a nap when Santa Claus came to our house." Myles and Elaine loved their Great-Grandma Milne. Christmas morning we had no shortage of presents. Myles got his Elmo Live and an Elmo book among other things, further feeding his Elmo obsession. Mason got 2 Stan...

We left for Canada on Saturday after crazy snow storms on Friday evening. I had to give a final Saturday from 8-9 and then we hit the road. The roads were okay but not great, and since we got such a late start and the roads were rotten in Montana, we stopped for dinner in Helena and stayed in Hampton Inn. It was a great decision. The boys went swimming and had a blast, love sleeping in the same room as mommy and daddy, and it split up the trip enough that the kids were awesome in the car the entire time. Here are the boys getting ready to swim: We've had an excellent time in Canada the last few days. Mason is obsessed with violins and his grandma took him to the house of a 6-year-old who is learning to play. She gave him a little recital and then let him try the violin. He took it all very seriously and was great. Mason and Myles have been having so much fun at Grandma and Grandpa's. Grandpa is indulging Myles' love for chocolate and reading stories and Mason can't sto...

Today was one of those days that exhausted me to the core. We are leaving for Canada on Saturday and I have a list a mile long of things to do, so I got a big start on them today. However, the big twist came when I was in the middle of doing a billion loads of laundry and had laundry spread out all over the basement, was making fudge, nanimo bars, cookies, and divinity for the traditional treat tray for Marshall's work, had all my grading out to do, and had the 25+ neighbor/friend gifts out on the kitchen table to deliver. Right when the house was a complete disaster, our real-estate agent called and said that someone wanted to come look at our house. So I spent the rest of the day rushing through all my tasks, adding onto it cleaning the house top to bottom and shovelling the 3 inches of snow that fell last night. Looking back I really don't know how I got everything done, especially considering the boys took much shorter naps than usual. Anyway, point is, I can't wait un...

We had a busy weekend of holiday parties. Friday night was my work party and was very nice. Saturday night was the ward party and Mason was bursting with excitement because Santa was coming. Sunday we had all of Marshall's family over for a family Christmas party and had the kids act out the nativity. Here are some highlights: New Year's Resolution: Not talk so much when taking videos!!! And learn how to rotate them.

I think I've been reminding Mason a little too frequently that Santa is watching him and wants him to be nice. After telling me he wants Santa to bring him Stanley and Bullseye for over a month, last night he said: "mommy, I don't want Santa to watch me anymore, why don't you just buy me Stanley and Bullseye?"

I often joke with Marshall that the best thing about being married to him is his mother. You really couldn't ask for a better mother-in-law. Marshall left for Denver Friday morning and won't be back until tomorrow night. I teach a class Saturday mornings and so I asked my mother-in-law if she would be in town to watch the kids for a few hours. Well, instead she came up Friday morning at 7:30 AM and took the kids to play with their cousins while I went to a meeting at work and then went up to Salt Lake to have lunch and shop with my cousin Christina. Then she took them to Delta and they have spent the day seeing "baby Jesus" in the park, taking backhoe rides, and playing with their cousin William. I was expecting them back today but my mother-in-law called to ask if she could keep them for another day. The kids love her to death and love nothing more than a trip to grandma's house which helps so much to alleviate the guilt I sometimes feel for letting them go for s...

We are so lucky to have many talented neighbors who have started side businesses for themselves lately. Our neighbor Janette has started making these adorable and functional Chore Boards and our other neighbor Michele has an amazing photography business. Another one of our neighbors, Cassi , recently also started a photography business and offered to take pictures of our family to use in her portfolio. We had a hectic, crazy photo shoot but ultimately there were some really good shots. Thanks Cassi!

A woman in my neighborhood is starting a photography business and took some pictures of our family to add to her portfolio. Check them out at http://poststudio.blogspot.com/ .

spend $25 on a limited edition collector's item Thomas train that should only be $5 just because Mason asked Santa for Stanley. Grrrr. . .