Double Survey

So, I've been wondering about a couple things and am just looking for some outside opinions.
First, I've been thinking a lot about the privacy thing and the internet. This blog isn't password protected, but it isn't on the blogger searchable list or whatever it's called either so only people who I give it to can find it as far as I can tell. Hence my first question.

How careful are you about what you put on your blog ie identifying information? Why do you feel the way you do about whatever your idea of a "safe" amount of information is?

Second is a Christmas based question. I am curious how you keep things "equal" with your kids presents. Do you do a certain amount of money? If so, what is reasonable?? Or do you do a certain number of actual gifts? If you get one kid a movie do you get the others one too? etc...I think I'm extra careful about 'fairness' since I have twins and probably do more of buying a movie for both or whatever just to keep the peace. What do you do that works? How much is too much at Christmas? Okay, I know there's a lot more than one question here, but humor me and answer them anyway. ;)

Happy holidays!

Giving Thanks

I have so many things to be thankful for I don't really know where to begin.

I'm so incredibly grateful for my wonderful husband. He is so good to me. He takes care of all of my needs and never fails to tell me that I'm beautiful and that he loves me. I'm so lucky to have him. I love when he tells me a joke or something funny he saw and he laughs so hard he can hardly breathe.

I'm lucky to have my amazing 9 year old twins too. They are really great kids and I love them more than I could ever have imagined before they came. I love their creativity and their caring for others and their fun loving personalities. I love that the first thing they do in the morning is come see the baby and the first thing they do when they get home from school is ask where the baby is. Their love for him is adorable.

Our wonderful birth mom is a huge blessing to our family. I can never thank her enough for letting us have Liam as part of our family. That brings me to Liam...he is our most recent blessing and none of us can imagine our lives without him. I honestly don't know what we'd do without him. I love to look into his eyes while I'm holding him and I love to see him smile and hear him laugh. He is seriously the most adorable baby I've ever seen and I love him so much sometimes it almost hurts. He is and amazing blessing to our whole family.

I am so lucky to have a testimony of the true gospel. I know that God lives and that he loves me and cares if I'm happy or not. I know that he answers my prayers.

I have amazing friends and family who love me and support me through all of my ups and downs.

Happy Thanksgiving and don't forget to count your blessings!

Urkel pants and a big smile

Yesterday Liam had on these jeans and somehow while we were eating dinner I looked at him and his pants were pulled WAY up like Steve Urkle. (NO, I do not pull his pants up like this on purpose.)



Now this has happened before and I told Jason that he had Urkle pants and the kids of course asked me what that means. I explained it, but it makes me want to find a picture or a clip of that show so they understand what I mean when I say Urkle pants. What fond memories of childhood. ;)






While I was taking pictures of the Erkle pants Liam was really happy so I had to get few extra shots of him happy just for fun. Enjoy!

Karate test, new belt, kick-a-thon, and my work of art

Jason tested for a new belt week before last and did great in his test. This is him doing one of the forms for the test.














This is also part of one of the forms but I liked that he is kicking right at me. :)










This is when he received his new blue belt from one of the black belt instructors at his karate studio







Each year his karate studio hold a kick a thon where the students get pledges for how many kicks they can do. They have one minute to do as many as they can. I didn't get any good pics of him kicking, but this is his demo. This year they did a sparring demo where they rotated quickly through sparring partners. Jason is on the left. He did a great job that night





I just had to throw this picture in. Jason is always willing to take Liam for me when I need to get something done. He doesn't even care if Liam is cranky. This pic is of him trying to calm his brother down--it worked well right after I took this picture. :)




So, ever since Liam joined our family I've been looking for a dresser for his room. I was having a really hard time finding what I wanted for his room at the price I was willing to pay. Finally as I was at the RC Willey outlet and saw this dresser I had a great idea. I knew this dresser would go great in my room and then I could refinish the dresser in my room for his room. I'm brilliant aren't I? lol So, I bought it and it looks fantastic in our room and matches well with the bookshelves that we had to put in there when Liam took over the office as his bedroom. If I can find somewhere besides the top of this nice dresser to put our old ugly tv I'll be even more happy!


Now, this is where my work of art comes in. I only regret that I didn't take a before picture of this dresser and that this picture just doesn't do it justice either. Imagine that this used to be 70's brown fake wood with REALLY ugly drawer pulls. So, I sanded, painted, varnished, and put new pulls on and I couldn't be more happy with the results!! It looks good if I do say so myself and I got it all done in one day! THAT to me is an accomplishment considering that I have a small baby to take care of. :) Don't worry I did it while he was napping so he wouldn't be neglected. :) So, this is my work of art for the week. ;)

Camera survey

Okay all of you faithful blog readers. ;) I need some advice. I am doing some research so hopefully 'Santa' will bring me a new camera for Christmas since mine is a dinosaur in technology terms. lol So, I wanna know what kind of camera do you have? Do you love it? Why do you love it? Is there anything you wish it could do?? Any and all comments are appreciated!

Happy Halloween!

We had a fantastic Halloween week. Monday we carved these pumpkins. The one on the right is Em's and the one on the left is Jason's. Jason did his whole thing himself and did a great job. Em wanted a lot more help so she didn't ruin it. :)










Jason at the school costume parade











Em at the school costume parade








We went to our ward trunk or treat and then headed over to Grandpa's for our annual trick or treating with Grandpa. This is a picture of the kids with their cousin Brooklyn






My brother and his wife moved here not too long ago and they drove down from Ogden to have Halloween festivities with us. They came to the trunk or treat and then to our Grandparent's house with us. This is the kids with Bryannah and Shayla. We had a fabulous time and the kids got way too much candy. Probably the highlight of the night though was the box of 1 dozen krispy kreme donuts each that the kids got at one house earlier in the evening.