Draper Temple

We finally made it to the Draper Temple house, the very last week we possibly could. I have really wanted to go, Carson has really wanted to go, but the timing has never worked out. The weekend reservations were always filled up, I had school, Cam had to work late or fulfill bishopric commitments, and we just never cleared our schedules to go.

I really wanted to go as an entire family but the longer we waited and tax season started (Did I mention I HATE tax season??) I knew Cam was not going to be able to go with us. Again, by the time I looked there were no evening reservations. So I let Carson miss school, and we made reservations to go on March 10th, at 9:20am (I had to be back for my class at 3:00)

Carson was so excited to go. He really wanted to go inside the Temple. The morning of, was the day after the BIG snow storm here and I was planning on leaving our house at 7:30. I am very directionally challenged, needed to get gas, was worried about SLC traffic, and if I say we are going to leave at 7:30 we most likely won't leave until 7:45-which would still give us enough time. I wanted to make sure we were on time.

The night before, I thought to myself, that I should fill the Escape tonight with gas, I should lay out the kids clothes, pack the diaper bag, etc. But I rationalized-I was tired, I was going to wake up early and do all those things.

Well, things never work out as planned, or maybe the Adversary really wanted to work against us, but I did not wake up until 7:49! I thought, there was no way I could get all three of us 'church ready' and make it to the temple on time. I almost gave up, it would have been easier, but I grabbed the kids, hurried and got them dressed and we were out the door by 8:10.

Now for the gas, I had a little less than 1/4 of a tank left and part of me thought I could make it. As you know, we were pressed for time so I decided to try it. About 10 minutes from the temple, my gas light went on. I had to stop. I found a gas station (remember directionally challenged!?), filled the tank, and we were on our way again.

We made it to the Temple late and I was frazzled. I had heard some say that it took them 3 hours to go through the Temple and I was worried being there alone and worried about how well Hannah would cooperate. Luckily, because it was early in the morning, it did not take long at all for us and my children were perfect little saints!

What can I say about our Temple day? It is hard to put into words. Walking through the doors I felt all my anxiety and stress wash away and knew this is where I was supposed to be with my family today. I felt understanding that although I wanted my husband to be with us, he was where he had to be today as well. I felt my children knew they were somewhere special and they were blessed with the peaceful, calm, spirit that surrounded us.



We loved going to the temple. Hannah would point to all the beautiful pictures and say "Jesus, Jesus" She also loved looking at the baptismal font. Carson loved everything about the temple. He was so interested and asked so many questions. I could see his little brain and heart taking it all in. When we went into one of the rooms he said "Mom this room is made out of diamonds!" It really was that beautiful and wondrous.



The beginning of our day made the end of our day that much sweeter. I am not perfect, but I am trying and I am blessed and loved anyway. We truly could not have had a more perfect day.

My Hannah is 20 months old and Craft Giveaway

Seriously, where does the time go? It seems so strange to think my baby is almost two! At this time, some couples would be thinking about having the next baby but I just can't imagine that. Hannah still seems like a baby to me and needs so much more time being the 'baby'

I made Hannah this tutu. Completely impractical but oh so cute-too bad she hates it! :)

The proof.




Calming down and getting a bit happier-still no smiles though.



Finally a laugh after I let her jump on my bed (her favorite pastime).

I won a craft contest on another blogspot. The rules were that I had to turn around and also giveaway a craft. Unfortunately, I am laking in the craft department and can only really do "Girlie" things. The best I can come up with is to giveaway a tutu. I will randomly draw from the comments and contact you if you are a winner. You can specify what color/colors you would like and what age (so I know how big of a waist size) then I will ship it to you for free.

I am lame, and not into the giveaways-but you should see the cute craft I won and then you would know why I had to enter and now do this!

Happy Tutu entering!

Model Train Show

We have been to the Model Train show at the Union Station for the last 7 years. The first time we went was when Carson was 7 or 8 weeks old. It it a tradition now. My boy, LOVES trains. Now, we are past the "Thomas the Train" love, but it has been replaced by a love for Model trains.

Hannah also is fascinated by trains. She went around pointing, smiling, and saying "Choo Choo." Her favorite part was riding the little train they had outside of the station.

It was a fun day together. We'll continue to go until our babies don't want to anymore...which I hope is not for a very long time.

Sweet Gracie

(picture taken with permission, from the gledhill blogspot)


I have been following sweet Gracie's story since her birth. I can't remember how I came across her blog, and although I am a stranger, I have fallen in love with her.

Gracie is leaving this world to be with Jesus today. I am so sad about this, but take comfort in a beautiful plan laid out by a loving Heavenly Father.

Please pray for the Gledhill family, read her story here, and leave a comment for their family.

Hannah's new smile

Both my kids have had a 'picture smile.' And they both have cracked me up. Hannah just learned how to smile on demand and the result is truly hilarious. She does not share her picture smile as much as her brother did, but if she does you are in for a treat!

I was able to catch a few variations of the smile for your viewing pleasure.


You have to click on this one to view it larger. It is so funny and cute!

Sometimes her smile consists of 'crooked teeth' positioning. Here is that one.



She looks mad in this one, but no-just another variation of her beautiful smile. She almost always does the scrunched forhead look though.

Forever 29

Cameron celebrated his birthday yesterday. As he said, from now on he will always be 29. I think he could pull it off, because in my opinion he still looks like he is 21.


We celebrated low-key style. I made him his favorite dinner-chicken enchildas and all the fixings. I tried a new recipe for his cake...it was "Olive Garden's chocolate lasagna" It was very delicious but probably the ugliest cake I have ever made. The frosting was extremely difficult to work with!

Here are a few things I love about Cam.

He is such a hardworker.

He is handsome.

He is an excellent pianist.

He is an excellent handy-man.

He is smart.

He is a worthy priesthood holder.

He has always provided a comfortable life for his family.

He takes me to the temple.

He is a good dad.

He loves a nice home, and always makes sure that things are in order at home.

Once he starts a project-he always finishes.

Love you Honey! Happy Birthday!

Chuck E Cheese

A new Chuck E Cheese was opened in Layton recently. You can see it as your drive on I-15. Carson of course, saw it and immediately wanted to go. He has been asking for a week or two now, when we could go. I invited my sister and her family and we had a Chuck E Cheese 'date' last Friday.

The kids, of course, loved it. It was super busy, probably because it was Friday. The new facility was really nice and clean. We printed some coupons off their website so it ended up not costing much either!

We had a good time and Carson is already asking when we are going back....

Complain fest

I am finally posting a few of our happenings. I know I say this all the time, but I have been so busy these last few weeks. I really feel like most the time, I am running on empty and just working through each day-day by day.

I can not describe school any better than a love/hate relationship. One side of me really does enjoy it, I like learning, I like the clinicals, and when I think about my future I really am excited about it. The other side of me HATES the time it takes-especially when that takes time away from my family.

Besides school obligations, Cameron has started busy season at work, which means early starts and late finishes. Oh and did I mention...he just bought a triplex! I am really excited about that (heavy on the sarcasm here) We have also had a lot of church obligations (besides our usual ones) -Cam and I were asked to speak at New Beginnings, I spoke in sacrament one week ago, and we have had a baptism every Saturday for the last 3 weeks-4 counting this Saturday.

I also was asked to head up a big project for Carson's school. I said yes, when I should have said no. All of this is contributing to late nights and early mornings for me.

Wow...what else can I complain about? ;) Really, life is good here. I may not have all the time I want in the world, or be able to do all I want to, but I have the cutest kids in the world, a good supportive husband, the true gospel in my life, and too many other things to list. SO really, what else can I ask for?

Valentine Boxes

The first Monday, in February we had a family home evening lesson on love and made Valentine boxes. Each night thereafter, each family member was asked to leave a note in each others boxes, expressing love or appreciation to them. Carson really enjoyed this activity and every morning he would wake up and run to his box to see what notes had been left to him.

We will definitely do this again, but maybe wait until the second week-because towards the end, we were getting a little forgetful when it came to our Valentine boxes!

Camping Party!

Carson carpools with two little guys J and P. The three of them have become best buddies. They want to play together every day after school, and usually do have weekly play dates. Last week we hosted the boys but I wanted to do something more than just 'free play.'

That morning when I picked them up for school, I gave each boy an invitation to the camping party. They were so excited and so cute.

I had a tent/fort set up for them when they came home that they loved. Carson received a star theater for Christmas so we set that up and they watched a star show on the ceiling of the tent. I then read the boys ghost stories by our fireplace. After that we made smores and cooked them in the oven. The kids had so much fun and played in the fort for hours.


Poor little Hannah really wanted to join in all of the fun...she loves her brother and always wants to be by his side!

Carson's Photo Shot of Hannah

While I was preparing dinner the other night Carson whipped out my camera to take some pictures of Hannah.

Here are the results...





As you can see, Hannah was thrilled about this.

Ice Skating...with first graders!?!

I was 'lucky' to go ice skating at the Ice Sheet with Carson's class the last week of January. It is a yearly tradition that the ALA program goes ice skating each year for their January field trip. First of all, it has been many, many years since I went ice skating. Let alone while I was 'helping" 5 children seven year olds who had never ice skated before. Can we say wet pants, sore muscles (for me), and bambi on ice x5?

Second of all, the ice skates were all WAY to small. Each of the kids had a little note pinned on by their parents stating their shoe size-trying to make the process a little easier. But every child in my group had to go up at least TWO sizes before we could even get them on. So after 30 minutes of trying to get the right size and get them on-we were ready to hit the ice-literally.

All the children in my group (and basically the entire class) were clinging to the wall in fear for the first 20 minutes.


Slowly most of them got braver and braver and by the end we had a few who could actually "ice walk." It actually turned out to be a fun and humerous day!

This is Carson and his cute little 'girlfriend" L.

Happy 18 months Hannah!

My little one is officially one and 1/2 years old. Read all about our 18 month old...

New words and favorites: Hot, No!, Yes!, Fishes, look. Everything and everyone is now Mama too. She calls Cam Mama it is kind of funny.

Favorite foods: Sausage, peaches, grapes, potatoes, and anything she can dip. She loves to dip food in ketchup, ranch, cool whip, spaghetti sauce. If I want her to try something all I need to do is serve it with some kind of dip and she loves it. She also loves to "dip" her grahm crackers in milk.

She is now a professional climber. She loves to climb up and down the stairs, on the in-table, in the chairs, on the coach. You name it, Hannah will climb it.

She loves, LOVES, her blankies. She carries them around all the time. She loves to snuggle her face into her blankets and be wrapped up tightly in them. She can hardly stand to have them folded up and put away she always wants ALL of them out.

She has started to "pretend" play. She pushes cars on pretend roads and says "brooom." She likes to pretend to "feed" other people with her little spoon. She is a little mother to her babies. She wraps them in a blanket and lays them down on pillows and couches. She pats their backs and says "Shhh" to them. It is so cute.

She still loves animals and screams in delight every time she sees our cat. She knows where the cat food is and always wants to feed the cat. She can make these animal sounds; meow, baa, click her tongue for a pony sound, woof, quack (to her all birds quack), moo, and SSSS (for snake). Bears, Lions, Tigers, and Dinosaurs all say "Grrrr" according to Hannah.

She loves her big brother and being chased by him. She likes to wake him up in the morning.

She always wakes up so happy and easily. Once she is awake she never wants to go back to sleep-no matter how early it is!

She loves to "ride" things. Anything that looks like it could be sat on and rode, Hannah wants to do it. I can't tell you how long I have sat in the entry way to Wal-mart riding the Garfield car.

She still loves music and getting her groove on.

She likes to spin in circles until she gets so dizzy she falls down. Then she giggles and giggles.

She does a little side step gallop skipping motion to get around sometimes.

She can point to her hair, eyes, ears, tongue, teeth, hands, feet, and belly. She likes to point to them on someone else better than on herself though.

She does not like snow.

She hates any hairclips or bows in her hair. She cries when I try and fix her hair. (Any suggestions here?)

She has just started showing love for objects-she kisses the the kitty in her book. She kisses her babies and her stuffed animals. She kisses pictures of her family members.

She attends nursery and so far she is doing pretty well.

Her signature look is her hair-sticking straight up. She just doesn't look like Hannah with "flat" hair.

I got a little over anxious one day and decided to see how she did on potty training. It was a no go. She is not ready yet...we will try another day. She did however, like sitting on the potty and having everyone cheer for her!

Her little hands are always moving, trying to communicate. She points, opens and shuts for more, reaches up to hold hands, and much more.

She is sassy and sweet. Opinionated in her own little way. She is beautiful, smart, and loving.

Feeling Sad.

Spring Semester starts tomorrow. Hannah starts daycare tomorrow.

My heart hurts.

"Oh my baby, little one,
the hardest thing I do,
is hold you close then let you go,
and say goodbye to you"

Christmas

Christmas has seemed like too big of a post to tackle, but I don't want to forget it so here goes.

Our Christmas seemed even better than years past. I enjoyed my break off from school and having my little boy home again during his break. It was so nice not to have to "worry" about school, and do as we please.

We celebrated Christmas with my family on Sunday the 18th. We made and ate homemade pizza's, played games, and had fun as a family. This day, I did not bring my camera...I am hoping my sister Carrie will send me some pictures(please?).

Cam had to work the morning/early afternoon hours of Christmas Eve, right when he came home from work, we headed to Logan to spend Christmas Eve with his Mom. The weather was surprisingly good that day and the roads were fine. We had a delicious turkey, potatoes, stuffing, roll (the works) dinner. Yummy! We played some games, exchanged and opened presents, took some pictures (with his Mom's camera, alas this day I did bring my camera, but failed to remove it from its case) I am hoping to get some from my MIL (please? :), then we played rock band. I have never played rock band but it was pretty fun. I was the "singer" and then I tried to play the drums.

We left and headed to Tremonton. We had debated on how to do Christmas Day. I had to work Christmas from 11a-5p. We thought about going back home to Ogden, I would work, then we would head to Tremonton for Christmas Evening or staying at Cam's Dad's house and Cam and the kids spending Christmas day with them while I left for work, and then I would go back to Tremonton after work. We decided to stay in Tremonton.

When we got to the Greener's home they were singing Christmas songs and Carson LOVED it. He wanted to sing "I'm gettin' nuttin for Christmas" and "Santa wears a suit that's long and red"" (I can't remember the title for that second song?). We set up our cookies for Santa and carrots for the Reindeer then I tucked a very excited little boy into bed.

I woke up at 6:00 Christmas Day and jumped in the shower. I didn't want to take any time away from Christmas morning getting ready for work, once Carson woke up. I got back into bed at 6:30 and asked Cam if I could wake Carson up and "get this party started" He said "No. Not until 7:00" I laid in bed, until I couldn't stand it anymore. I didn't know what time it was so I just decided to wake Carson up. I whispered to Carson "Santa came!" He shot out of bed, eyes bright and awake in an instant.

I covered Carson's eyes past the presents and we ran to wake up Blake and Karli. Next we woke up Grayson. Carson said "Grayson, Santa came!" Grayson groaned, rolled over and said "Thanks" It was funny.

Next we ran upstairs and woke up G-pa and G-ma. Before we even got to the door, I heard Ben say "I hear little footsteps" Cute. Last we woke up Bryce and Keisha. Carson again said "Santa came!" Bryce immediately sat up in bed and with the most excited and surprised looking face said "He did!!"

Everyone in the house was awake (except for Hannah at this point) and we went down to the Christmas tree to see what Santa had brought. It was pretty much the Carson and Hannah show after that, with 9 adults oohing over my two little ones :). Carson loved his robot, Santa brought and from what they tell me, he played with it all day. Hannah received a cabbage patch doll that she could've cared less about then (she likes it now) and a cat that purrs, meows, and moves around. She loves animals and loved her little kitty.

I have to put this part in...Cam is generally not very good at present buying and I am the opposite. I love holidays and trying to find the perfect gift for someone. He is one of those guys shopping on Christmas Eve that throws the present under the tree in the store sack. Well, this year I knew that he had not gone shopping once. There were no presents under the tree for me. Silly (and selfish), I know, but I was prepared to be disappointed.

Cam hands me my present on Christmas and I open it up. It is a tow strap. I was mad, but tried to act descent because we were with his family. All I said was "you get an F for Christmas" then he hands me a smaller box to open. I open it and a turquoise box with the words "Tiffany and Co" are on the front. While Cam was in NYC for business he bought me a beautiful bracelet from Tiffany's. It was a complete surprise and his grade went from F to A! :) (Again, yes I know -I am a brat)

After opening tons of presents, we had a pancake breakfast. At this point I had not looked outside. When I did the weather was horrible! It was a blizzard out there. I had wishful thinking that work might not need me, but sure enough they were swamped. I left for work and white knuckled it until I got to Willard and then the roads were not so bad.

When I left work at 5:30, I debated about driving back to Tremonton, or staying on Ogden because the roads were so bad. I didn't want to be away from my family on Christmas Day and they had no way to get home because I had the vehicle. I started the trek back to Tremonton and the roads again were fine until I got to Willard. From Willard to Tremonton I was thinking for sure that I was going to slid of the road. The visibility was zero! I wasn't even sure where the Tremonton exit was. I prayed a lot during that drive! Luckily "Big gray" does well in the snow.

When I was about 5 miles from the Greener's house there was a car off the road. Another man was stopped trying to push this car out of the snow. I had packed my new tow strap in my Escape and offered the strap. The helping guy said "Thanks, I don't have one, and I don't think I can push them out" He hooked it to his truck and easily pulled the car out of the snow. All I did was offer the tow strap. That was a little ironic-the gift I was so disappointed in, ended up being really needed and helped someone!

We ended up staying another night at the Greener's house because I did not want to experience driving in that again. I was glad we waited, the weather and roads were much better the next day and we could spend sometime with my parents as well. I always thought that I would want to spend Christmas with just "our" family but it was more fun and even sweeter when we were together with more of our family.

Of course we could not talk about Christmas without talking about our Savior. Each year as we celebrate His birth, I am reminded of how important my family is. How important my faith and testimony of our church is. How important my children are and what a great and lucky calling I have, to raise them, teach them, and love them.











I actually did manage to get some photos of Christmas!

Nursery...Already?

This past Sunday (Jan. 4th), Hannah went to Nursery for the first time. I was sad and glad. Sad because my little one is growing up. But glad because it is difficult to do sharing time/calling responsibilities, while Cam is busy doing his Bishopric duties, with a very mobile, sometimes loud, get into everything, little lady. I was also nervous I was putting her in germ central in the middle of germ season!

So, I take my beutiful little one to nursery and go off to Primary. We had a sweet reunion about 5 minutes later (the Nursery has a great policy of a 5 min cry rule..after 5 mins, it's time to go back to Mom or Dad). She was all smiles when she saw me and clapped her hands. Somehow, I think this is the response she was after... :) Hannah stayed with me for the first hour and then we tried nursery attempt #2 and she stayed and did great (so they say...:) We will see how next week goes down...

I wanted to take some pictures of Hannah marking her first Nursery day, but also wanted to capture her beautiful dress she wore. A Christmas gift from her Nana.





(Note, we have afternoon church now and therfore nap time was missed. Hannah had tore out her pretty hairbow by picture time and also didn't really want to smile for the camera...these are the best I could do but I still love them.)

Catching Up

I am trying to catch up from the 1000 pictures I have taken over the last two weeks and this is a small start.

I have posted a few new posts...not in the correct order, but in the order that I felt like doing them! I have included the dates for my own memory and hopefully to clear things up for you. So, scroll down to catch them all and read on if your interested!

Carson's Beloved Nutcracker

The Friday (December 19th) before Christmas, Carson asked if he could "pretty please get a nutcracker". We went to good old Wally world and Carson picked out the biggest nutcracker they had (as tall as Hannah). He was so very excited about this purchase and also very grateful.

I thought the nutcracker would soon be forgotten but I was wrong. Carson has carried "Nutcracker Ray Greener" (The name he gave him-Ray is Carson's middle name) around with him everyday and to every event we have been to. He loves him, he plays with him, talks to him, and sleeps with him.

On the first night we had him he asked me if I thought that he would come alive during the night (you know from the book and the story). I said I didn't know and we would just have to see.

Well, guess what, he did! Every night the nutcracker would fall asleep at point A and every morning he would be in a different spot. There is nothing like magic and I hope we continue to have lots of magic in the Greener household for many years to come...

Carson's Choir Concert

The ALA program has their own special choir. They had a performance on December 18th. The 1st and 2nd grade classes sang together and the 3rd-6th graders sang all together.

It was quite "professional" for a grade school choir. They sang a lot of fun, new songs that I had never heard before. The older kids did a song about Christmas lights with colored flashlights that went with the song. Carson's group wore little black and white vests that were pretty cute looking.

When the Carson's group came on stage. Carson was standing pretty close to the middle of the very back row-with all the second graders! He was the only first grader in that row, and taller than most of the second graders. That child is going to be 7 feet tall at this rate. He is a head taller than most the kids in his class.

Carson's singing was fair to good :). He put in an effort for 75% of the time, the other 25% you could tell he didn't know the words and was trying to fake it-moving his mouth in different exaggerating ways. He did look super cute though, when they did a little dance thing with one of the songs.

I am so proud of my little guy and can't wait to watch him grow up and be involved in all the things he does. He is so smart, cute, and fun. We love him so!

New Year's Day Sledding

We had a bit of a tummy bug over our break so we weren't quit sure if we were up to sledding today but we decided to try it out.

We didn't stay long because of the above sentence and also because the hill was pretty crowded.

Carson loves to sled. He is very brave and just goes flying down the hill.



We took Hannah bundled up like a little eskimo in her own little sled (Or as Carson called it "Chariot for the Queen")




Hannah loved being pulled around in her little sled and riding down the "baby" hills with a great big smile on her face. As you can see in the above photo.

Cam's first time down the hill, his sled turned and he was riding down backward for most the trip. He unknowingly was headed straight for a large tree that was way off the sledding trail. I was screaming "Tree! Tree!" and luckily right before he slammed into it, his sled turned and he was able to veer to the side. He scraped by instead of getting creamed by the tree. I was scared and thought for sure we were going to have an emergency on our hands. It kinda took the fun out of it for me. As Cam says I worry to much. It's my duty as a mother, I say. :)

This picture made me laugh. It was harder than you think to pull Hannah up the icy slippery (small) hill. A longer rope would have helped out too, but we made it work and Hannah didn't mind!