WINTERFEST HOFF FESTIVAL!!

Grandma and Grandpa are in Germany so we decided to go and experience some of their culture with this winter festival held at the fairgrounds. We met up with the Haggards and had a great time watching all the old people in their lederhosen and derndle's (with their funny little hats that look like Grandpa's), rotcol, spetzle, and PLENTY of yodling. I am realizing that i haven't got a clue how to spell any German word, thanks a lot Herr Jessop from 7th grade. Winerschnizel yum yum!!!Lindsy was shoveling in the spetzle, she wouldn't even let me eat off her plate. Such a passionate woman about her food!This was unfair...Haggards bought some yummy cakes and I didn't, I just drooled over them. :) it was such a fun day to hang out and play with family!

Our Holiday!
We had a great time visiting with family and friends. For Christmas eve we all went to Grandma and Grandpa Popcorn's house. it was fun to eat good food, laugh with our family, sing songs, watch grandpa play the cornet, play games, and OPEN PRESENTS!!!! yay! justin and lindsy had such a blast with their cousins running around in new jamies and "helping' everyone open their presents. It was such a special and fun night. This is Lindsy saying "cheese!"

This was grandma's great idea to make nativities with stickers, we had floating camels and wise men ha ha ha! the kiddos and adults loved it.

Christmas Day we went to Westergard's again and had breakfast at the cabin. The traditional breakfast of cherizo egg, french toast, and omelets. This year Boyd brought extra cherizo just to be sure we had enough...it is very traumatic for this family if we run out or forget this ingredient. :)After that we went to Heidi's house and played with more cousins. Well worth the drive as usual! New years was spent doing karaoke at Julie's and we had a party with Yuri. She spoiled all the nieces and nephews with her beautiful bags and purses. I can't believe how talented Yuri is to design those many bags, you are so creative!!Gary was over an hour late coming to this party because he had to go out and shoot a duck, then his truck got stuck in the mud and he had to get a tractor to pull him out....if i had a nickel for every time i heard that story.....oh wait this is actually a common story in my house sadly.
Gary and Maren at family night. what is in your mouth gary??

After Christmas Gary and I took the kids to temple square and the spaghetti factory. This used to be a tradition for my family to go here every year and since we have gotten old our family doesn't go anymore, so it was a great tradition to start with my little family. lindsy thought it was great, justin did too. we sat in the train and justin yelled at almost everyone who walked past us, and high fived strangers.

I hope your christmas was as fun and special as ours was. I really look forward to teaching my kids about Christ. The many nativities that we have at our house provides so many opportunities to talk about Jesus and the angels and why he came to earth. Every day their knowledge can increase and their testimonies can grow, and so can mine. We are truly blessed. Merry Christmas!

My favorite birthhday present!!!

So I just turned......old, and Gary got me my favorite birthday present EVER!! He found a trampoline at the DI and had it set up when I got home from work on Monday. I love it, my whole family gets on it and we wrestle around, watch lindsy try and run fast in a circle, watch the stars at night, hide from the dog when he's out and wanting to slobber on you, let Justin go outside and eat his apple on the tramp, it's got such endless possibliites!! :) Way to go Gary! I love you!!

My Justin

Every night we read Justin books, one book he loves the most is a Mercer Mayer book entitled "just a mess". In it there is a quote that talks about how messy his room is and how he asks his mom to help him clean it up, she says "you made the mess, you can clean it up". So today I am getting lunch ready and Justin is playing with the magnets on the fridge. He placed all his letters over the crack between the fridge and the freezer. I opened the fridge and they all burst off and shot around the kitchen. I yelled to Justin "you better come clean up this mess" and without missing a beat he replied " you made the mess, you can clean it up". ouch, quick kid.

Justin was being naughty tonight and got some time out. I went to talk with him and thought i'd throw some motivation his way. I asked him "Do you know who is coming to our house in 9 days?" he had no clue... "someone with a long white beard"..."BOYD!!!" I was talking about Santa and he thought it was his Uncle Boyd who usually sports a full beard. ha ha h!!!




Christmas time!


It is coming...I thought i was ready but I was wrong!! I also don't know how to handle to boy who's santa list changes daily.

Lindsy

She is getting so big! The usual position I find her in is clinging to her high chair tray holding on with all her might and her feet are on the chair. The whole tray could pop off and she would go flying, it makes me so nervous!

Her first true sentence was spoken last week when she said "Justin is being mean to me". I guess we say what we know. :)

My family!

We finally got family pictures last weekend! I was told by one of the photographers that I was smiling too big....."it looks too happy becki, my gosh" okay so I am cheesy...I'll admit it. :) I purposely didn't put the cheesy ones in here...do I look normal? :) I am just thrilled Gary is actually smiling and not doing the fake "i'm a man, and men don't smile" pose. yay!!

They are so cute it makes my heart feel great!

We also got to celebrate Grandma's 90th birthday that same day, it was great and we all took pictures with her. Justin was behaving and sat so well with grandma, he talks about her alot and loves to visit. He mostly visits with her toys he finds under her sewing table, but whatever it takes to visit with family is fine by me.

Our other big news is that my parents are going to Frankfurt Germany on their mission! we are so happy for them and can't wait to support them and enjoy the mission field with them. :)

Pesticide Bath...dun dun dun

I had a very "Plain City" moment with my family the other night. We got gung-ho and went on a family bike ride to the town square. We had the kids in the bike trailer and Gary was the only smart one to bring sun glasses. We were having a great time with great weather and visiting with neighbors as we pass, until on the way home we hear the faint buzzing of an airplane......... The mosquito abatement plane flew over our little route 4 or 5 times. It was spraying pesticide all in its path and it was bug spraying us as well. The chemicals hit our eyes and made our eyes water and BURN!!! so for about 1/2 mile we were stopping to wipe our eyes and tell the kids to stop breathing since it was EVERYWHERE!!! Moral of the story: don't go biking at dusk..EVER! :) ooh maybe i'll get to smith and edwards and get a gas mask. i would look so cool!

SO VERY MUCH...

So very much has happened and I am glad it has begun to slow down.

• Last night we finished rocking our fire place( amid alot of swearing and yelling at the rocks)
• finally named our 9 cats
• Went to the county fair and got to pet a pig!! and a waterbuffalo! "can I borrow your towel my car just hit a waterbuffalo" movie quote anyone???....it's Fletch :)
• got ready for toddler school but completely missed the parent orientation becuase I am a flake
• we got to ride on the bus with grandpa because he is a new driver and during his orientation we got this chance
• began to understand how cool garage sales are and what you can get for 50 cents
• realized how clueless I am with scouting still...i didn't give two boys their bear badge even though they earned it just because i didn't understand the requirements....yeah they brought their whole family to watch and I didn't give it to them...sorry grandmas!!
• Gary has begun his archery hunt..good luck babe!
• my coworker went to china and so I got to work more hours..good for the mortgage bad for the kids...I was a very stressed out mom, she is back now yay!
• After the dedication today realized i need to go to the temple more. It was wonderful to listen to talks about our blessings from attending the temple.
  Our swim slide she loved!
  

Annie, Jane and Lindsy with Reily

Grandpa in his new job... Justin liked the windshield wipers

Grandma on her birthday! Happy birthday!

County fair, this thing was HUGE!!
Justin's first milking...he thought it was pretty cool.

The only time we want to get into lifeflight
Before the transformation
During
And we are done with the rock which aside from the rest of the cabinet fronts...we are DONE!!!

We love baseball!!

Our family was able to go to opening night for our baseball team here in town. We got to go with my sisters family and we all had a great time. Justin was hysterical and wired, especially after the snow cone, nachos, churro, peanuts, and pretzel that uncle chris spoiled him with. He got his picture by Oggie and got to watch fireworks...yeah we found out he doesn't like those at all. He was petrified during the whole fireworks display. One of the funniest moments of the night was around the 8th inning when everyone around us was getting really wasted and began heckling the umpire and visiting team. They were yelling mean stuff and justin was mimiking what he heard, he turned in to a mean little 3 year old.

Justin lovs to play with his cousins and these two are very funny together. I talk to my mom a lot how Justin is the oldest but not really, he gets to be the youngest in all his cousins families.

Oggie still scared him to death but he stood by him this time and posed. I was so proud of him!

Gas Rodeo 2009

Gary has a pretty cool job and one of our favorite things about it is the annual gas rodeo. It is pretty unique because not many careers set up events like this. It is a whole day of relay races, digging, gas meter assembly and for justin....lotsa CANDY!!! This is one of the events, it is a sand dig. Four guys dig as fast as they can to get to the bottom of a box full of sand.

As part of the relay Gary's job was to take this backhoe and pick up an egg and put it in a small cup.

This part of the rodeo is where the whole team works together to cut a 6 inch steel pipe.

This is Justin and Lindsy at the beginning of the day, they had a great time...but notice how clean they are.

It didn't take long for Justin to get totally covered in popsicle, orange soda, cheetos, tootsie roll, licorice....etc.. oh you could go on and on with the junk he ingested. yikes I'm a bad mom!! We'll have nothing but vegetables tomorrow!!!!

Lindsy just couldn't take it anymore and fell asleep on Gary. She went to bed at 6pm tonight and thus far (knock on wood) is still snoozin'.

That little cat nap didn't last long. She had a great day!

Justin's favorite part was driving the backhoe. They got to move orange cones all over the place and he used the controls. He had such a blast...can you see the perma-grin?

This is our family by our favorite tractor. I maneuvered this tractor and came in 3rd in the "beginners" competition. I'm kind of attached. :)

Grandpa and Grandpa Great!

This past Monday my Grandpa past away he was a great man and a wonderful Grandpa to everyone. Grandpa always had time for everyone even if he had never met them before. I can remember a million times being with Grandpa at the ice rink (Weber Co. were he ran it for years) and he would measure people for skates by looking at thier hands and having these great conversations with them and I would ask Grandpa who they were and he would just say some nice people who came to go ice skating. He may or may not have ever met them before but he always made them feel like his best friend. It was always the same way when Grandpa would haul me, Ed and Blake up to North Fork, he was friends with everyone. Having my own children now I can fully understand the commitment that Grandpa had taken on by dragging us around with him all of the time it just goes to show how much he loved all of his grandchildren.

Grandpa always was a man who had a strong belief in being a good example and that someone was always watching. He would always tell us to remember who we are and to remember that we come from a good family and that we have a lot to live up to. I remember a specific trip to California where we made a stop in Nevada somewhere and we were walking through the town and there was this ginormous slot machine the size of a pop machine on the sidewalk. Well, Grandpa gathered myself, Ed and Blake together to teach us the lesson that gambling doesn't pay, he pulled a dollar out of his wallet and placed it in the machine and pulled the lever and much to his suprise won five dollars! Grandpa still gave us the lecuture but I'm sure he was smiling inside.

Grandpa was also a very patient person, WAY more so than anyone I know. He was able to sit through any first grade reading book, any type of performance (whether it be for real or just the front room special performance),listen to all of the grandkids stories and actually be interested in all of them. He always made everyone feel very special. I can think of a great example of the patience that Grandpa had. It all started so inocently with myself, Ed and Blake shooting our BB guns in the backyard and I'm sure some sort of dare or challenge must have presented its self and our usuall target practice turned into a actuall all out BB gun fight. Well everything was going great untill for some odd reason Ed and myself were unable to convince Blake that he needed to stop crying and that BB's will eventually work there way out from under the skin and that's when Grandpa came out and called us all into the front room. I knew that Grandpa was very mad but he never did yell at us although we did get a strong talking to. Grandpa would always let boys be boys, we were always encouraged to explore and learn new things. I think that is one of the great things that I will take from him. Grandpa was always bringing home new and exciting animals for everyone to play with, and I know that is one thing my family has had a great time with.

It would be easy to go on and on with all the great memories and experiences of Grandpa and I know that everyone has their own to share but this time we will all have to find someone else to share them with besides Grandpa.

We'll miss you Grandpa!

Busy Busy

What is going on in our lives right now? What isn't? My husband has turned into a miniature animal farmer, he brought home 2 baby geese and 1 baby goat in the past week. He is constantly searching ksl for more goats and when he sees a free one it fuels his crazy fetish. We recently ripped out all the brick in our basement and have grand ambitions to rock the new fire place and put it cabinets on either side of the room...it seemed like such a simple project a month ago but now I realize how huge it is and how I should have realized the budget BEFORE ripping out walls. Gary celebrated his 32 birthday and I tried my mightiest to make his beloved BANANA ROLL!!! Yeah I was up until 2am with my second attempt in the trash before I finally made it into a bowl of pudding, banana, and cake pieces...kindof a trifle disaster. So when we pulled out the candles and put in in the bowl it turned into a stunning visual affect of a FIRE BOWL!!! Gary's brother got married last week and the kids were sick so we left them with my parents....holy cow! I actually enjoyed my husband for the day. I feel guilty even saying this but I really enjoyed the day with out the kids, as much as I love them I needed a break I think. My cub scouts are just a "handful of fun" that's what I think I should call them without using explicitives. ah haah! just kiddin' but i am adjusting a lot better lately. I have an assistant and that has made all the difference in the world! Last week we rode through the town in a VERY long caravan on our bikes as I shouted "stay in single file" "I mean it!!" "stop touching the tires in front of you with your tires" " you could get hurt! be careful!!" It was all very exciting.

I am dreaming of going to Hawaii, or Seattle, or Maine, or Denver, maybe San Fran....hmmm what would it be like to vacation anywhere other than Primary Children's? Last year we had the privilege of a$70K room a night vacation and we got it again this year! GO RSV!!!! Lindsy has been in the hospital for 9 days now and we are really ready to go home.

I am so grateful for this hospital and everything it is able to do for little kiddos. I shouldn't complain about our yearly stint in its rooms because without it we would have a lot fewer kids in the world.

Linds is doing really good right now, she is chewing on one of her many monitor cords right now and thinking that she is so big. I am going to have to put her to sleep with ropes and floss in order for her to feel at home and fall asleep when we get home.

So it has been a week since we have been home and we no longer have oxygen and both kids are doing well. Lindsy has not realized she can sleep all night long. We get 2 hours of sleep at a time if we are lucky, she is used to respiratory coming in and sucking her snot out and vitals being taken. :) We took her outside today for a jaunt around the pond and she was so excited to see everything. Justin saw her new coat and it has this cone like hood on top... "it's like a witch!" he said. Well its still adorable says mom!

Thank you to all our friends and family for offering prayers on our behalf. They were truly felt and I know that our doctors were directed and we coped with this much better because of them. Thank you so very much!