What the Wha?

I was going to write a blog post about our wonderful Thanksgiving (sorry I didn't do it yesterday to meet my once-a-week blog post goal, but I was too busy cyber-Mondaying my guts out), but apparently I have hit the limit on the number of pictures I can store for free on blogger.  Who even knew there WAS such a limit?  What the Wha?

I believe that a post is not a post without pictures.  You are with me, right?  Therefore, until a solution to this crisis is found (a solution that doesn't involve a monthly fee for additional storage space) I will have to put that post and all other posts on hold.  But fear not, Preston has promised to figure something out for me ASAP.  Stay tuned....

Little Love Notes

I am a lucky girl. 

 

I have been getting lots of little love notes from a special someone. 

 

These are some of the sweetest notes anyone has EVER received.  It is like Valentines Day every week!  I want to keep every single one.  Here are just a few examples that I have received in the last week or two:

 

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I write back too, of course.  I leave a note in Arden's lunchbox when she brings lunch from home (which so far is every day unless it is pizza day or nacho day at school).  The other day she turned the tables on me, and when I opened up her lucnhbox to throw away the leftovers and get it ready for the next day, I had my own little note waiting for me.  It said

 

"I love you so much that I love you so gladlie.  Now you see this I LOVE YOU!!  the end." 

Awwwwww. 

Was a sonnet from Shakespeare ever so sweet?

Snow Crazy

So, it snowed here last week.  Just a little.

Okay, so like 2 or 3 feet a little.  It was insane.  Lucky for me, the kids all saw some little snow shovels at Target a few weeks ago, so I had lots of help with shoveling the driveway...in teeny tiny little shovel-fulls:

Cora was actually my most consistent helper.  She would shovel with me long after the other two were wrestling in the snow and trying to remember how to use their snowball-makers.  Cora did have to take a break once in a while to make some snow angels. The snow on the driveway was pretty much the only snow that she could get to, since the snow on the actual yard was too high for her to climb up on. 

It was sad for me to shovel all her little angels up!

We have been throwing snowballs and attempting to make snowmen (the snow was just too powdery) and eating icicles and all of that good stuff.  But mostly we have been sledding down the hill that is our yard.  I don't know why I have no pictures, but I don't.  Every day since it snowed I have taken the kids out and got at least a few sledding runs in. 

Cora likes to go by herself sometimes, but she lets me go with her most of the time.  She is so fun to go down the hill with, because she giggles uncontrollably the entire time down the hill, and for a half a minute after we reach the bottom.  Dax is a big boy now and wants to go down the hill by himself.  Unfortunately, the end of our sled run is the sidewalk, then the park strip and then the road.  Dax is wisely a little afraid of going too fast down the hill and ending up in the street, so he usually rolls off his sled about half way down the hill.  Arden is, of course, a pro and goes down the hill forwards, backwards, sitting up, laying down, you name it.  Today while we were sledding, grass started showing up in our sledding track, so I think that the sledding days are almost over...at least until the next snow storm.

In the meantime, here is tonight's sunset.  Not too shabby.

Goodbye Grandpa

 

Grandpa Zaugg

Elwood C. Zaugg, 74, died Saturday, November 3, 2012, at his home, surrounded by his loving family. Elwood was born June 6, 1938, in Ogden, Utah, the son of Lewis Charles and Reva Williams Zaugg. Elwood graduated from Weber High School, Weber College, Brigham Young University, and Utah State University.

Elwood married Myrtle Kay Andersen, August 12, 1964, in the Logan LDS Temple.

Elwood was a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and served in the High Council, Bishop, Stake Presidency, Stake Patriarch and Councilor in the New Delhi India Mission Presidency. He served a mission as a young man in the Central Atlantic States. After retirement, he and his wife Kay served an LDS Humanitarian Mission in Shanghai, China and a mission in New Delhi, India.

Elwood was employed by Southern Pacific Railroad as an Engine man for seven years. After graduating from BYU, he taught one year at Granite High School and eight years at Roy High School. He was later employed as a professor at Salt Lake Community College. He served there as Division Chair, Dean of the School of Technology and Executive Dean, with responsibility for four campuses.

He enjoyed boating, gardening, camping, and travel.

Today was Grandpa Zaugg's funeral.  It was a hard day, but it was fun to hear some new stories about this good man and see family that we haven't seen in a while.  Even though we have known this day was coming for a while now, it is never easy to say goodbye to someone so special.  Elwood Zaugg was a kind, hardworking person and I feel very lucky to have had him as my father-in-law.  He was a wonderful example to us all and an amazing grandpa to my kids. 

 

He loved to have fun with his many grandkids (and even great-grandkids).  One of my favorite memories was when Grandpa would help out Santa at Christmastime.  Here is "Grandpa Claus" with Arden a few years ago:

Another favorite memory was from a couple of years ago when we dragged Grandpa and Grandma to Disneyland with us.  I am so glad we made that trip!  It was so fun.

I am sure Grandpa was glad he made the trip too, even though he might not have felt like it all the time we were there.  This is how he and Grandma waited for the "Muppets in 3-D" show after a couple of days of Disneyland:

Grandpa was such a good sport.  Things could get a little crazy when twenty-something grandkids are running around, but he never seemed to mind, and was up for just about anything.  Every Halloween my kids remember wrapping him and Grandma up like mummies using toilet paper at our Halloween parties:

I remember when Preston and I were first married, he bought some waverunners so that the family would have another excuse to spend time together.  I loved going to the lake and playing on the waverunners.  I remember Grandpa Zaugg smiling as he puttered around the lake, fully dressed!  I wish I would have taken some pictures of that. 

What I will remember most of all was how much he loved his family. 

In fact, the last words I heard him say in this life was him telling my kids that he loved them.  I hope so much that Arden, Dax and Cora will be able to remember their Grandpa Zaugg and the good man that he was.  We are really going to miss him!

Happy Halloween 2012

I can't believe another Halloween has come and gone.  And what a Halloween!  Where to start, where to start...the costumes, of course! 

 

Arden had a really hard time figuring out what she wanted to dress up as this Halloween.  She came up with a new thing every day, until we went and saw the movie "Hotel Transylvania."  If you haven't seen it, it is a pretty cute film about Dracula and his daughter, Mavis, who is turning 118 (equivalent to a human turning 18).  Mavis wants to spread her batty wings and fly out into the big world, but of course Dracula wants to shelter her in his castle and keep her safe.  The Mavis character was really cute and Arden wanted to dress up like her.  We got her some vampire teeth, but Arden wasn't much of a fan of having them in her mouth for more than 5 seconds at a time, so we skipped them for the pictures.  Here is Mavis/Arden (she looks totally goth!)

Cora was a sweet little candy corn witch.  You may remember that Arden wore this costume a couple of years ago.  Preston (who got a few hand-me-downs as a kid) kept telling Cora she could be anything she wanted to be for Halloween, and that we would gladly get her a new costume.  Nope.  She wanted to be a candy corn witch.  Good choice, baby.  You are a beatiful little witchy woman:

We had a hard time talking Dax out of being a dinosaur again, but since he is only 4 and has been a dinosaur twice already, we encouraged him to branch out.  He chose another large, fierce, toothy creature.  He is a SHARK (I am not sure what he is doing in this picture but at least he is looking somewhat in the general direction of the camera and only his arms are blurry):

The first time the kids wore their costumes was for the Zaugg Halloween party.  We ate soup in bread bowls shaped like pumpkins, we decorated cookies, we did a treasure hunt, and we smacked around a mummy pinata:

Much fun was had by all.

Next, the little kids got to wear their costumes to preschool.  They had a costume parade and sang some Halloween songs to us parents.  I love the preschool Halloween parade!  And here is Dax with his awesome preschool teacher, who makes everything so fun! 

Arden's school doesn't allow costumes for Halloween (laaaaame!) but I went and helped out with her Halloween party at schoool, and it was fun to spend some time with her at school and get to know some kids in her class better.

Next up for costumes was trunk-or-treats at the church.  Cora wanted to wear Arden's old skunk costume this time (my favorite part of this costume is the little heart next to her tail that says "Lil Stinker."  Still so true).  I decided to play along this time too:

The kids scored A TON of candy. 

Even though they were already rolling in the candy, Preston (of course) took them out around the neighborhood for some old-school house to house trick or treats.  The weather was AWESOME.  75 degrees and sunny for Halloween?  Yes, please, and keep it coming!  Arden was the only one who had to wear a jacket over her costume.  I used to HATE that as a kid.  Who likes to get all dressed up in a supercool costume and then have to wear your parka over the top?  "But moooooom!  No one will know who I am supposed to beeeeeee!"

Finally, here are the Zaugg Family Jack O' Lanterns, 2012:

This one was mine and Preston's.  Preston wanted to try to do one of those pumpkins that he has seen at the pumpkin walk (where the battery of my camera died on the first picture, sorry) that have some of the holes go all the way through the pumpkin and others only part way through.  I drew the mummy from a picture I found on the internet and Preston carved meticulously for an hour or two.  Cool!

These are the kids' pumpkins.  Cora wanted a ghost, and Daxton wanted a shark, so I drew those up and Preston carved them.  Our pumpkin carving stuff came with a couple of stencils, and Arden HAD to have the stencil of the kitty inside a pumpkin on her pumpkin.  Turned out pretty cute!

We all had such a good time this Halloween, that today I am feeling a little sad that it is over (especially since I still have a ton of Halloween decorations to take down).  A few more candy bars will help to cheer me up!