Sunday afternoon we got to building our “snow fort” and snowmen #2 and #3.

Snowman #2 is Monte Birk with short red hair #3 is Mommy with her longer curly hair
SNOW FORT!! We shoveled the snow all the way to the grass..."the grass is the carpet" according to Monte Birk. By the end of the day Clyde was the one mosty likely to go inside and hang with Grandma.
"Just relaxin'and watchin you mom," was Seth's motto by the end

Snowman #1

Clyde, Monte Birk, "Frosty",Seth

Sunday morning we decided to build a snowman. I told Monte Birk that it wasn't good packing snow and there was no point in "rolling" the snowman's body...as I went about shoveling snow for his base he proceeded to roll anyway and BIG TIME prove his Mommy wrong...yet again!

family

Aunt Margot, Me and Grandma

Lindsey and the Brethren

Cousin Ryan

Cousin Lindsey

Sledding fun

Clyde would only go down the hill with Grandma. He only went with me twice and that took some doing...but with Grandma he went over and over and over again.

Seth took to sledding right away but after a few rides was more interested in eating the snow that riding on it. (This proved to be hazardous because he threw up later at McDonalds with his Buehler Cousins...ooooh gross!)
My Monte was born to sled! He went up and down that hill more times than I could count!
I counted myself a success going down the hill at least twice with each of my boys!

SpeCIaL DaTE!!

We told the big boys on Thurday night that Friday would be a "special date" for them with mommy and that Dad was going to take care of Jack-et. They were so excited trying to figure out what was up! We picked Monte Birk up from school early, drove out to Daddy's work to get him and went straight to the airport. I had packed our bag and gotten it into the car without them seeing so this was a real surprise! Once their imaginations really went wild we called grandma and she let them in on the secret...Utah for Grandma and Snow!

Seth Clyde

Monte Birk

Think they liked it?

MOM's fAVoRIte pREsENt

A Dress up Bag!

I am so excited for this gift! And what is pictured is just the tip of the iceberg! We've got 2 spider men, speed racer, Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker, 2 pirates, 2 ninja's, Obe Wan Kenobe, Buzz Light year...and the list goes on! Thank heavens for the day after Halloween sale at Target! Every day since Christmas Seth has woken up and "become" Darth Vader, don't ask me why this particular choice...but he loves it...I love it...and the blasted TV stays OFF! More Christmas Pics to come...

Christmas Eve

Monte and I decided long ago to carry on both of our families traditions of new PJ's for Christmas Eve. This year we decided that he and I didn't need any but, happily for me, he ignored that rule because he knows how much I LOVE PJ's! So here are all of us "lovely's" in our new duds Christmas Eve!

SpECiaL ViSiToR

Santa came and reminded the boys to be good 2 days before Christmas. Bed time stories were done and the boys were just getting the lecture on "heads down" and "NO talking" when we heard the jingle bells in our house! It was a very exciting evening! he brought them the first 25 Majic Tree House books!

Clyde

Seth

GiNgerBReaD HoUSe

Karen’s in town from Utah for Christmas…YiPPy!! We had their sweet family over for dinner and Family Home Evening. Ginger bread houses…I actually baked them myself again this year, I know I swore I wouldn’t after last year but…

Move in ready, don't ya think?

Kalena and the brethren had a great time. I swear more goes into their mouths than on the house. That’s the fun of it though…right?

CHriSTmaS, the time of GivING and CAroliNg to friends and neighbors.

An army of SaNTa'S and SnOWmeN graced our countertops until we made it out the door this year.

SaNTa!

How much longer will he Believe?!

Jack-ets first visit with Santa, as you can see he seemed a litle skeptical of the jolly old elf!

So often I start believing that the Dr's were wrong and the boys are in fact not identical and then someone snaps a picture like this! (Clyde is on the left and Seth on the right.) Santa came to their pre-school party, gave them presents and stayed for quite a while! And what a Santa he was!

Mouse soup anyone?

I am usually not one for lengthy narratives...but I promise, this one is worth it...read on my friend...

Have you ever known the type of people that just have to "one-up" you? No matter what circumstance you are in or what you are talking about they always have the worst, the best, the most disgusting story and it's always bigger and better than yours? Well, NOT THIS TIME BABY! WE WIN! We've had a little problem with mice the last month. No big deal...put out some poison...find the dead little suckers somewhere...and trash 'em...right?
DAY ONE: the boys had a friend over, the family room stunk! Me, "Does someone have to go to the bathroom? Is someone tooting in here?" I finally resorted to smelling each little boys fanny to see if they'd had an accident...friend included! Said friend sat on the couch, "Mrs. Gardiner? the smell is over here." Sure enough dead mouse behind the couch.
DAY TWO: fantastic Saturday...one of those where you actually get everything on your list done and the house is still relatively clean? I was even going to make dinner...imagine that cooking on Saturday! Into the pantry I go to get the rice...dead mouse right next to the open bag of rice. (at least he didn't smell) no chicken and rice that night.
DAY THREE: they're getting in through the pantry...they've chewed through the dryer duct...now replaced with metal
DAY FOUR: clean out the entire pantry
DAY FIVE: oh no...that familiar stench...under the kitchen sink...I was spoiling myself for my ornament exchange party by having a cleaning crew help with my house...I was under the kitchen sink (I couldn't really expose an innocent Mexican woman to my shame could I?) voila! in the very back of the cabinet. I entertained 5 sweet Mexicans, who speak absolutely NO ENGLISH, building up the courage to pick up that sucker...it finally happened after a chorus of, "uno, dos, tres!" amid a flurry of Spanish giggles
DAY SIX: "Why is that smell still under the sink?"
DAY SEVEN: "Monte it is YOUR turn, there must be another one under the sink"
DAY EIGHT: "You must not have looked close enough honey...it reeks!"
DAY NINE: "Then check under the dishwasher honey...you can't just keep the kitchen window open all the time!"
DAY TEN: I notice our dishwasher has a ton of gunk inside around the base...are we not rinsing our dishes well enough?
DAY ELEVEN: "GOSH, I just cleaned all that gunk from the dishwasher!"
DAY TWELVE: OK this is sick, now I'm scraping this crap out of the dishwasher..."by the way honey...it doesn't seem to be cleaning the dishes very well..."
DAY THIRTEEN: We have our widower neighbor over for supper..."Monte, could you unload the dishwasher?"

You see where this is going right?
We have successfully cremated, cooked, thouroughly washed, a mouse...after at least 8 loads of dishes. Our new dishwasher comes tomorrow morning at 9 am at which time all of the dishes in all of my cabinets will go through at least 2 loads in the NEW dishwasher...with a heathy dose of bleach. Until such time as everything can be sanitized we will be using paper and plastic!

Trimming the tree for Christmas!

I really should have taken before and after photo’s of our tree out front so you could appreciate the difference, difficulty and time that went into it’s transformation! Maybe it is enough to know that we had to jump on, sit on, push in, cram all of the branches into the truck to make it fit just enough to get the tarp over it to be taken to the dump.

The happier healthier final product!

What's that I see? A house behind the tree?!

family HOME? evening

We didn't spend family home evening at home this week, or last week! We were challenged by our ward missionaries to canvas the entire ward boundaries inviting people to the Mesa Temple lights display. Each family in our ward was given a street assignment to knock on doors and pass out pamphlets. I was very nervous about it but the brethren were not, and it was a very exciting family home evening for us last week as we walked from door to door and talked about why and what we were doing. We encountered all types of receptions from people on their doorsteps as we spoke to them and were rewarded with the spirit of missionary work. This week we took ourselves to the light display and had a fantastic time. Grandpa Arnett was in charge of the temple lights for many years when Monte and I were newly weds and so they will always hold a special place in our hearts. In fact, Grandpa came out with us and enjoyed the beautiful lighting on the temple grounds.

The banana tree...it is traditionally decorated in green lights ever since I can remember...on the off year that it actually has bananas growing on it they are lit with yellow lights, no such luck this year!

Grandpa, just another of the "brethren"

another personal favorite of mine are the wise men on the front lawn.