Happy Happy Birthday Nana Dear!

Happy Birthday to my mom today! Almost everyone calls her Nana or Aunt Connie! She is one of my most favorite people in the world! My kids think she is greater than Santa and all good things come from her and Papa! It's kind of true though! She went back to work this past month and I have been a little lost with out her. When she wasn't working (she was...taking care of her grand kids) I would talk to her at LEAST 3 times a day. I thought she was stalking me but it turns out that I was calling her and needed her just as much as she did me. It became apparent when she went to work because I have been a lost little lamb. :)She sews, she crafts, she's super spiritual, she is a great listener, she is a super good planner, she sings in the shower, she burps like Charlie in Willie Wonka, she is AMAZING at the face making/noises contest, she loves cooking shows/sewing shows/and home makeover shows, she loves her grand kids, she adores her husband, she talks with her hands (like me), she would give you her last 20$, she spoils you better than anyone I know, she can't keep a surprise if it is for you/she has to tell you, she whistles while she works, she takes the long way home, she models in her spare time! (I may have made that last one up) These are only a few of the reasons we love Nana! Happy Birthday Mom! We love you!

Confessions of a weak bladdered woman!

ahhhhh confessions!

1. I would rather deliver a baby, with no epidural than give up diet coke. I am not being dramatic either. I really would. (I also haven't had a diet coke for 2 1/2 weeks!)

2. I never want to have a baby with out an epidural again!

3. I let the water run when I brush my teeth. I really don't want to but I just can't stop. For what ever reason it soothes me. I also let it run to much when I do dishes too. Sorry earth friends.

4. I will let the trash stack up forever before I take it out! I hate taking out the trash. I will take it out of the can and put it on the porch but don't expect me to put it in the can outside!

5. I want to be the girl that loves to go to the beach and hang out and take my kids there and be all beachy.

6. I hate the beach. You pack your life up, you sunscreen the world, you drag it all down to the beach, you are terrified the tide will take your children or they will be abducted, THEN your kids play for 10 minutes and cry to go home cause they have sand on their balls! (sorry but that is what I had to hear for 40 minutes so you had to hear it too!) LOAD everything back up! Sand in the car, sand in the tub, sand in the bed (because they had to strip down on the bed before the tub!). I hate the beach.

7. I let the boys pee outside the van in the parking lot. It is inevitable that they have to go after a shopping trip. They can't tell you inside the store. Easier to pee by the van then load up everyone and the groceries and go back in. I know it is trashy and one day I will get a ticket.

8. clowns are disgusting.

9. I haven't seen an unedited rated R movie in over 10 years. (not bragging, just confessing.)

10. I will squeal out loud when an action movie is PG13.

A special treat

Over this holiday break our nieces Domenique and Ireland got to spend a little time with us. I love when they come over. They are amazing little babysitters (12 and 14) and they love to play with the kids. I love that they love to do goofy fun things with the kids still. They are not to cool to play store or house or tag or hide a seek. They are also really sweet. They asked me when our anniversary was. I told them it was last year. (hee hee just last week) They wanted to do something nice for us. SO they locked me out of the back yard all day. They knew Uncle B had Young Men that night and we had other things going on but they were determined. (so were all the other kids) They told me to dress up and not to eat dinner. They told my girlfriend Anna that they were planning a candle light dinner for us when everyone got home. (B wouldn't be home til after 9 and Dominique wouldn't either because she had volleyball) Anna encouraged them to tweak the menu a bit because of the time and the temperature (under 40 degrees) SO it came time and they opened the door....... flower petals leading us to our table........They had blankets for us and it was really beautiful. THere was music and they put on aprons to come out and take our orders. They made centerpieces and decorations. This is only one of them but they were all really pretty!
We were freezing and had to take some FREEZING OUR FACES off pictures!
So cold!
There were signs for us on the table. See above it says Groom Brandon and mine below says Bride Suzy. So cute! They also had a menu that I loved. Hot coco and Caramel topped ice cream. We opted only for the hot coco. They did bring us ice water and our hot coco had whip cream and 1 HUGE marshmellow! It was sooooo sweet and it just made me love them so much more! Thank you Domenique, Ireland, and Darby!

END OF 2010

THIS POST IS FOR US TO KNOW THAT THIS IS THE END OF 2010 AND HERE IS WHERE WE END THE PRINTING! WOOOOO HOOOOOO!!!!!!!! I think I even finished before Kim! YEa dog! It wasn't a competition but I did it! Now if we could only do this with our diets! ha ha!

Happy New Year!

Kat and Steve came over to celbrate the New Year with us! We always have tons of fun with them. Steve cracks me up! They were about to leave and I hurried and shot these 3 pictures of us! (why always at the end of the night do you remember to pull out the camera?)Nice one Steve! A bit of the bubbly anyone? :) Look it's so late my contacts are out and I am in glasses mode!
Brandon left in the middle of our party to give someone a blessing and that is the reason for the shirt and tie! I love this one of Kat! We really did have a great time ringing in the new year! Here's to a wonderful 2011~

Top 5 favorite Christmas gifts!

My top 5 this year! (in no particular order)

I know that the papasan that I whined for should be on here and I love it! I love it that Brandon listened (to me whine for it) but more than the papasan I love the jewelry he painstakingly picked out for me. I know it was soooo hard for him! I love it! That is #1

#2 New pillows from my mom! I love a gift that you can use every day!

#3 The gift our secret Santa gave me! Who ever shopped new exactly what I would want!

#4 The earrings a cute friend made for me! Seriously again so perfect!

#5 The apron that Mary and Anna gave me along with a compost container for my garden. I love that they knew me well enough for those gifts! The apron is cute enough to wear alone if I wanted! woo woo! It is soooo cute. I may do a blog just about it!

OK one more #6 The gift Kim gave me in letting me off the hook about her gift. I called her and said "dude, I have no money to send your gift. I suck" She said "dude, I have no money to send yours!" ahhhhhhh true friendship is the best gift ever!

I had tons of gifts I loved but I had to put those out there for my posterity!

Happy Anniversary Happy Anniversary!

Brandon and I celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary on the 27th! One of our friends came over and babysat and we got to go to dinner! It was fun to get dressed up and go out with each other! We laughed and reminisced and just enjoyed each others company! I would do it all over again tomorrow! (marry him I mean!)

13 reasons I love Brandon!

1. He makes me laugh every day and every night. Almost in every conversation!

2. He thinks I am sexy! Seriously. I am in pajamas from this morning and my glasses and messy pony tail and that is the first thing he said to me when he came home from work! "You are hot!" and he meant it!

3. He works SO hard to balance his career and his family and church. (A little therapy and your sweetie can too.....j.k.)

4. He is the most supportive cheerleader any girl could ask for. I can go to him and tell him I want to airbrush tan people and he laughs a little and then is like "of course you do! DO it"

5. He has no problem tickling my back for as long as it takes to wind down! (you know what I mean ladies!) ;)

6. He wipes the seat off when he tinkles!

7. He loves EVERYTHING I cook! For real! The man is grateful for grilled cheese.

8. He doesn't watch sports.

9. He gets up with the kids at night.

10. Sometimes he stares at me for no reason.

11. He is perpetually happy. (sometimes not my favorite thing but most of the time it is!)

12. He always thinks I smell good. Even when I offend myself.

13. He is honest. My most favorite thing of all.

Christmas Morning is finally here!

I had to get this shot because this is Brandon in the snuggy that Darby gave him. You can see it isn't a normal cheap snuggy! It is super sweet. It also un snaps so you can use it as a cozy blanket! Juliet saw the kitty Santa brought her!
Dash gets Legos! A huge thing at our house!
Max gets the Lego set he asked for and is clearly pleased!
The kids are helping Juliet discover her gifts. She looks like she got SO much because her stuff was so big but she really did only get 3 things from Santa!
Another one of Dash's gifts from Santa! I didn't know Santa went to Game Stop! I love that!
Brandon opened his gift from me. Crazy. He had no idea that I got him the same thing as he got Juliet!
ha ha ha! It was really an i pod touch! He had no idea! Very cool! (I was able to get it a very sneaky way that didn't brake the bank!) I love that!
Juliet snuggling her new Kitty!
When all the gifts were opened and we had settled down to enjoy our morning we noticed another gift tucked under the end table. That is weird. Santa only brings us 3 gifts. What is this!? There was a note on top that said "To the Jeffords From Santa. Thank you for being extra good this year!" What could it be!? Dash begins to realize what it is! Max still hasn't figured it out!
He and Darby both get it here! I wish I had it on video. One of the funnest moments ever!
Santa brought us a Wii and 4 games. WOW! I have said "no" to a Wii for a few years now. Mostly because the games are too much money! This year Santa surprised us all after it was all said and done. Santa almost brought 2 Wii's because no one was communicating! Good thing he figured it out! Thank you Santa! We love you!
A new game for a new Wii! Now maybe someone will get him a shirt!
Time to play!
Brandon gave me this SWEET new chair! It's a papasan and I have wanted one forever! I was totally surprised!
Santa brought Darby a hamster. His name is Calvin and we all love him!
She also got a Webkin mini hamster! She loved it!
Max put his Legos together all by himself. No help from daddy. (Daddy a little sad about that) Yes, that is bowling on the television for the Wii. Yes, I played it so much my shoulder hurt for 2 days.
We had an amazing Christmas this year. I felt very loved and very blessed. I went in to take a nap and cried because it was all over. I love this season and hate it every year when it ends. This year I over scheduled myself (even though I said I wouldn't) and lost some of the things that make Christmas special to me. I vow I won't do that again! Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Christmas Eve.....

We had a great day on Christmas Eve. We spent time together as a family then went out for some secret service and deliveries that night! (We were caught on all accounts either because there were a gaggle of kids running or our creative gift gave us away!) We went to dinner and tracked Santa's arrival! On Christmas Eve we open the gifts from each other. We draw names and everyone is so excited to give their gift to the person they drew! This year Max had Darby and he gave her a Ripley's book and a blanket she wanted really bad! Darby had B and he received a super fancy Snuggy thing. It turns into a blanket and it's quilted. He has secretly wished for a snuggy because he is always cold so it was a perfect gift for him. Juliet gave Dash the game Connect Four and that was tons of fun for all of us to play. Dash gave me slippers that are perfect and I love love love them (wearing them now)! Daddy gave Juliet a toy hamster in a ball. It runs on batteries and she loved chasing it and taking it out of the ball. And I gave Max a toy that he wanted super bad! It's a ball maze thing that he and B are obsessed with. It is another one of my favorite traditions. It is really fun to see everyone get excited to get someone in our little family the perfect gift. They are more excited for the other person to open up their gifts then they are their own! Santa came and left the gifts for the kids! They were super lucky this year. Guess it pays to be good! :)
Nana makes us all pajamas almost every year. (When she doesn't get to make them she buys them but we love the ones she makes!) She picks out the perfect fabric for the bottoms every year! She even makes them for me and B! We open them on Christmas eve too! We left our cookies out and carrots for the reindeer! When we were doing that we heard Santa's sleigh bells and him laughing HO HO HO! Everyone scattered and ran to their beds! (The first year we heard that Darby yelled out "NO STORY, NO SONG, NO NIGHT TIME ROUTINE! RUN RUN RUN!......I'll never forget that one!)

Christmas goodies!

This is one of the goodies we made this year to give to neighbors and friends. It was SUPER easy and SUPER yummy and the best part was I didn't do but one thing with them! I put them in and took them out of the oven. The kids did the rest! They put the pretzels on the tray. Then the hug or kiss. I put them in the oven 170 degrees for 7 minutes then took them out. Then the kids put the m&m's on. Then we let them set! My favorite were the hugs with mint M&M's! (Thanks Taryn for reminding me of these! My mom made them a few years ago!) They were so easy and so cute on the plate. The only problem was that they were perfectly pop- able! So easy to pop in your mouth when you walked by! YUM! Even Juliet helped. She would unwrap the kisses. She ate 2 for every one she unwrapped. The kid had a blast! We also made "white trash cookies" and renamed them peanut butter surprises for obvious reasons, fudge that never set and lemon poppy seed bread that was a huge hit. (It was the cafe's recipe....YUM)

Dash! Dash! Dash!

Dash was reading one of Darby's Ripley's Believe it or Not books or Guines world record books. (she collects them) There was a story of a guy that broke a record for amount of clothes he had put on! So of course he had to try too. I had no idea what he was doing. We all had a good laugh!
Including Dash!

Christmas program at Church

I wanted to take pictures before we left for church but alas we were running late so B said no. He said after church. Any mom knows that after church they will be sticky, untucked, hair undone and probably shoes off. SO before church even started, we had choir practice. (The only time I am in the choir is Christmas) By the time we were done they were all the things above. Church hadn't even started yet. While we were practicing Darby got these few shots. Here is Juliet in the beautiful dress our Secret Santa gave her. Dash! He was wearing the sweater from our Secret Santa too. He looked adorable!
More of Juliet!
She loved how fluffy her dress was!
I think this is my favorite dress ever. She looked and felt beautiful. (Brandon rushed me so I couldn't get the bows in her hair either!) grrrrrr. Max was wearing a suit, for the first time because he had a solo in Sacrament. He stole the show if I do say so myself. With his cute little raspy voice and when he stretches his neck to reach the high notes. I was so nervous for him but he really did great and was so brave. He was very excited that he got picked for a solo. He worked really hard and it was amazing. My favorite part was when he sang "gold, frankincense, and Muir" (It's my maiden name and even though it was the wrong word I couldn't correct it and I will sing that song that way forever!) :)

Secret Santa!

So we had 2 secret Santa's this year. It was CRAZY fun and CRAZY generous! It was hard to be on the receiving end. Silly I know. Humbling and Beautiful. So many emotions. We ran to the door after some pounding and scattering. On the porch we found 5 BAGS like this full to the brim of gift bags for each one of us! There was a gift bag for each one of us and some bonus goodies. We all received clothing and I got some jewelry too. It was really fun and we felt so blessed. We all wore our loot the next day to church!

This is something we do (not to this caliber) every year and we weren't able to do it this year. It is a tradition I will continue because I know how it is to be on the receiving end now. Who ever our Santa's were (we had 2 and they were both ENTIRELY too generous) We will love you forever and remember this Christmas forever.

Cute Jacket!

Tiffany gave me this super cute jacket and I wanted a cute picture of it! I got to dress up and go to Anna's Christmas party with her. (I was her plus one!) So much fun to go somewhere all showered! I was totally embarrassed because I finished eating before EVERYONE. When you are a mom of 4 you eat fast other wise you will have to share, eat cold food, or wipe a bum before you are done! (Seriously, every dinner, Dash or Juliet and sometimes even Max needs some assistance! Mom's booty duty is off during a meal! SICK!)

Ward Christmas Party

This year I went over the night before to help decorate for the party. This was the final product. I will say it was a very nice place for Santa to come BUT last year they had probably 5x the decorations. I will give them credit for going all out because after a couple hours I WAS DONE! It was still beautiful! people signed up to do centerpieces for the table. They were all so different and made the room look so festive! The one in the front here is one of mine. The santa's are old fashioned and my granny made them for me. Fake snow and Hershey kisses and the kiddos loved this table.
Me and Max Skinner. I took this picture solely to start rumors! :) He is married to one of my darling friends Mary and he is also one of Brandon's counselors in the Young Men. (and a great sport!)

Me and Miss Anna! (I really had cute curly hair but it rained all day and by the time I got to the party it was all flat and sad) :( I do adore Anna and she looked stunning!
Darby and Brandon performed! It was amazing. The only yucky part....my other 3 walking back and forth in FRONT OF THEM! Angry feelings!
Santa came for a visit. Max LOVED this because he had changed his mind on one of the three things he had asked for!
Dash just wanted the goodie bag!
Juliet had no idea and was just going along with everyone else..... I think for the goodie bag!
We had a great time at the party. The food is always AMAZING! The friends and family is great. It's a great time for all and a great way to feel the Christmas spirit!