Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to a family who is spread across 5 different time zones today :(

Contents of my kitchen table

1. A bag full of Oreos dipped in chocolate and rolled in crushed candy canes, toffee, and candied cereal
2. 1 bag of peanut M&M's
3. 1 bag of plain M&M's
4. 1 plate of sugar cookies
5. 1 plate of chocolate cookies, gingerbread cookies, and chocolate chip cookies
6. 1 bag of Almond Hershey Kisses
7. A jar of candy canes
8. 1 plate of banana cranberry bread
9. A box of caramel popcorn and chocolate balls
10. A tub of more caramel popcorn
11. A package of Snicker bars
12.  Mixed nuts
13.  1 plate of oranges, candy canes, and ginger cookies
14.  A giant Hershey Kiss
15.  A plate of more cookies, and pretzels dipped in chocolate
16. A bowl of Muddy Buddies

* Thanks to all of our great neighbors
*Christmas should come with a disclaimer, a free gym membership, and a free trip to the dentist.

Baby Poll

Hey guys, in case you didn't see my blog I wanted you to know that I posted a poll for when Jules will arrive. I didn't post prizes for the men, sorry I didn't think any of you would care but I was wrong, so for the men you can name your own prize, under twenty bucks. Happy Guessing!!

Mom's candy train

Make a free scrapbook

Years ago before most of you can remember, Mom made a candy train for Christmas.  After Sarah was born I asked mom for the directions.  We have made it a tradition to make one each Christmas with the girls.  They love this time with the family and excitedly make their way through the day eager to put the train together.  Yes, it is messy and frustrating.  But after a few years of trial and error we actually had little problems this year and the train looks presentable. This smile box contains Mom's directions and some pictures of our night.  So: put on some Christmas music, get really organized, have no expectations of a beautiful train, and have fun.

LOOOVE IT!

Okay, I have already shown that I love music. AND i love men that can sing...and this groups is aweome, and funny! I hope that everyone enjoys it as much as I do. I am off to search the web for their CD!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Fe11OlMiz8

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I know I'm not supposed write anything but just as a side note I HATE PREGNANCY PICTURES!!!! This is purely for Jenny. Thanks a lot!!

Chrsitmas Flash Mob

Christmas Food Court Flash Mob, Hallelujah Chorus - Must See! www.youtube.com

I don't know if the link will work- I'll try it once I post this- but I LOVE IT.
Ever since Liz posted on their blog about flash mobs I have been thinking how much it would be to "see" one in real life (sorry, liz, borrowed your dream!). I would have loved this one, I think that Hande's Messiah is one of the most amazing musical works ever. I loved this flash mob too, because there are some seriously old people! I wish I could have heard their response when the idea was first brought up!

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Hayley

I have always used one word to describe Hayley: Lovely. To me, the word embodies all things pure in every area. Here's what I mean.

First, it is easy to see that Hayley looks lovely. She is very easy on the eyes. She is gorgeous.

Second, she has a lovely smile. I am sure you have noticed. Even on the dreariest days, when Hayley smiles, the clouds break and light fights its way through to shine upon her.

Third, Hayley has a lovely disposition. She is the most Christ-like person I know. I could have never asked for a person that loves me and my children and humanity more than she.

Fourth, Hayley has a lovely sense of humor. I laugh constantly around her, as does everyone else. She is a brilliant comedian.

Finally, for this post at least, Hayley has a lovely Spirit. I know that I am supposed to be the anchor of this family, but she plays that roll completely. She is our Spiritual salvation.

Hayley is lovely. She is the love of my life. She is my tiny, my beany, my girl. Happy birthday, Hayley. I love you.

I don't know why

but this commercial makes me laugh SO MUCH

Happy Birthday Sarah!

Have a superb day!

StephaniE

Steph,

I was looking at your birth certificate spelled StephaniE with the E at the end and was wondering if you ever changed the spelling of your name or if you officially have an E at the end.

SNOW

It snowed a bunch last night.  I love it when my girls wake up to the first snow of the year.  They get a wonderful surprise and are sooo excited to go play.  Pajamas and all.  We have a tradition to play this song (see previous post) just as soon as the snow first sticks. First Snow Fall is on the older Carpenters album we listened to as kids.  It was my favorite. We will be listening to Christmas music and dancing in the kitchen all day. 

11 The First Snowfall, Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow sound clip

Things to tell your children so they behave

1.  If you run into the street a car will hit you and smash you flat.  
2.  If you chew with your mouth open you will never have a husband.
3.  Stop picking your nose or you will end up looking like a gorilla.
4.  If you hold hands with a boy you will never go back to school again.
5.  If you don't brush your teeth the sugar bugs will chew holes in them and it really hurts.
6.  If you don't comb your hair people will think we got you at the D.I.
7.  Never talk to strangers or they will take you away from us and you will never see your family again.
8.  If you don't stop I am going to roar a red red roar and fire will come out of my mouth.
9.  If you don't let me clip your toe nails you will have to have surgery on them.
10.  If you don't let me wash your cut it will get infected and your finger will fall off.

Bean's on Halloween

Snowing and the Season

Today was our first day of snow, and in our family that signifies the beginning of the holiday season. Does it seem a little odd that we are carving our Halloween pumkins while watching Santa Claus is Comin' to Town? Ahh, the fear the winter warlock inspires in the little ones. My kids love it, and I love the tradition of it.

Mom and Dad, one of the greatest things ever was your ability to create amazing traditions. Christmas being one of my favorites, but traditions at every holiday. I have lots of fun memories, but I wonder what everyone else remembers? I'll add my thoughts later, but I wanted to ask everyone to post what they remember as family traditions? What ones will you take on with you in your families, and what new ones are starting?

Egg Nog?? :)

Happy Birthday Isaac!

Go ahead and try it

Ever since I had Avery I have been struggling with acne on my jaw line and neck that spreads and never goes away.  My friend told me she had the same thing and a nurse told her to try Hydrocorisone cream.  I was skeptical at first but was on the verge of trying just about anything.  Wala.  I couldn't believe it.  Within two days of application morning and night (no make-up)  my face was healing.  Now when it flares up enough for me to be bothered, I apply it and it goes away fast.  Hope this helps for anyone else who suffers from our hereditary bad skin.

What do you say...

when your daughter comes home from her friends house and she's eating something. When asked what it is, she replies rice...and lettuce...and chicken feet. Do you try to hide the reflex gag, and the startled surprise that she can say that straight faced? And then when she goes on to describe how they even add the chopped off head to the dinner, and you can see the beak and everything- do your commend her or tell her your have to go to the bathroom so you can do the "grossed out" shudder without an audience?

Hmmm. Of all the things I thought I would face as a parent, this wasn't one of them. And yet, I am proud of her for being so open minded...as opposed to me, who wouldn't even TRY it- just as a matter of principle.

The Bar

We passed!

Twitter

I have long been fascinated with Twitter. I get these urges to delve into the enigma that is Twitter.

Finally, I think I have found a good reason to do so.

Check out my account:

www.twitter.com/tweetablessing

Join me if you wish.

Fall 2006- At the Temple

I have been going through old pictures, and thought I would share some of the fun memories. Hope you guys don't mind, but I will occasionally just throw up pictures that I think are fun...
Love you!

Happy Birthday Emma!

Whitney

Anyone up for a Whitney Houston marathon?

Men

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JEN!

From both Me and Jeff! We love you sooo much Jen! We'll call you later! Hope your day is amazing!

Mike's Day

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

What we all used to be...

I know- we aren't what we used to be, but sometimes I forget how far we have come. Brooke has been looking through our wedding pictures tonight, and has been having fun looking at what we all used to be. "boy you've changed" was blair's comment. I don't know whether to feel insulted, or complimented. For those of you who may not have known us back then- aren't we cute?

Pictures

We have amassed more than 7,400 pictures in our five years of marriage. Is that normal? Or a little overboard?

Chips

I love Tortilla chips with Salsa.

However, I love being healthy, so I hate buying regular Tortilla chips.

Additionally, I am cheap as dirt, so I hate buying baked Tortilla chips.

So, I have learned how to bake my own Tortilla chips. It is disastrously simple:

1. Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees
2. Cut up corn tortillas
3. Place on a cooking sheet
4. Spray a little cooking spray on
5. Sprinkle with salt (and pepper, or whatever else you like)
6. Bake for 11 Minutes (you may have to test different times to get the right crispiness)

That is it! It doesn't take long and your body and wallet will feel fantastic.

Here is the breakdown of the money and calories saved. Even when compared to the BAKED Tostitos, you are saving money and calories:

Baked Tostitos Scoops:

240 Calories

6 g Fat

1 g Sat. Fat

44 G. Carbs

32 cents per ounce

Homemade chips

90 Calories

1 g Fat

0 g Sat. Fat

18 G Carbs

8 cents per ounce

8/28 in Washington D.C

I was impressed to hear and watch how amazing the weekend in DC must have been. 500,000 people gathered on the Mall, crowds stretching a mile long, and not ONE arrest. It's amazing to see so many people get together with one thought- return to honor. As he promised, it wasn't a political rally. His goal was not to have God on our side, but to have us be on God's side. I have been watching the reports on it today, and I wish that I had been there!! Listening to that many people recite the pledge was inspiring- can you imagine participating in that, the amazing spirit that must have been there!

I was especially moved to hear that Martin Luther King Jr's niece was one of the main speakers. It was equally inspiring to see the pictures of rabbi's and African American preachers, pastors and imam's, all linking arms, people of all different faiths and religions coming together.

Sad though, our president didn't bother to watch, and when asked about it this was his comment

"I did not watch the rally. Given all those anxieties, and given the fact that you aren't going to fix any of those situations over night, it not surprising that a person like Mr. Beck can stir up a certain portion of our country." I don't post this to cause comment, because I can almost guarantee that my state rep would be saying the same thing. I only state it to illustrate how tragic it has become that so many of our Representatives and leaders don't find value with what the majority of people in this country believe.

A dangerous job

This is one of the HIGH VOLTAGE substations that Adam works at all day, these are the SNAKES that live in the substations that Adam works at all day, these are the TOWERS Adam has to climb by the substations that he works at all day, this is a brush FIRE burning 10 feet away from the substation that Adam had to work at all day.
Can anyone say HAZARD PAY?

The Hunger Games

If you have not read this series, I HIGHLY recommend it! It was AMAZING!

Free Photo Book

I know, I have photo book issues, I readily admit it. BUT- My Publisher (a photo book company) is offereing a free photo book, all you pay is shipping. This is NOT my favorite site, limited layouts and you can only choose solid colors for backgrounds, but IT"S FREE! This would make a great book to look at church, or just for fun to try out the photo book stuff.

Good Time

For a good time follow this link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jc20vMz0V7Q

Poll: Islamic Mosque

Please answer the poll to your right and give any feedback you wish in comments. I am interested to see what you think!

Happy Birthday Julie!

Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happpppyyyy Biiirrrthday to Julie... Happy birthday to you!!!! ;)

We all love you!

Danceable Grooves

How can life not get better when Pandora plays Madonna, Michael Jackson, and the Bangles one after the other?

Brooke's Blog

Just wanted to let all of you wonderful aunts and uncles and grandparents know about Brooke's blog. She started it last year but hasn't done much with it. She is trying to start posting more, so I thought I would let you know about it. It's always fun to see that people have looked at your blog and commented, so if you have time...could I impose upon you to comment every now and then on her blog? Thanks! Love you guys! And thanks greg for being so sweet to comment on her previous post- she was WAY excited!

http://abrooketroutslife.blogspot.com/

CAN"T WAIT!!!!

I just want everyone to know that we can't wait to see you in a week! My kids are beside themselves with excitement, and it is starting to feel like Christmas! I love all of the fun traditions- bingo, mellow-wars, water slide, candy guess...candy fight, mike losing teeth. Ahh, such good memories! Thanks for being an awesome family, and aside from missing Greg and Haylee, we can't wait to see everyone.

It is amazing how much the babies will have changed!

HELP

I need family pictures from any year but mostly 1995-now. I have them, but without a scanner they do me no good. You can e-mail them to me stephanimattson@hotmail.com or post them here and I will transfer them to my photo booth. If you could do this for me befor next Thursday I would be sooooo happy:) Thanks -Steph-

It's over . . . for now

First of all, thank you all so much for your kind words, calls, and prayers. The bar experience was that much more pleasant because I knew I had such great people holding me up throughout.

The bar was amazing, not in the sense that I did amazingly well on it, but in the sense what it was incredibly intense.

We got to Roanoke, a four hour drive from Williamsburg, the night before the event. The next morning, we reported at 8:00 AM to get instructions on how to set up our laptops for the essay portion of the exam. After an hour and a half of waiting and instruction, they passed out the questions. Five questions each in the morning and afternoon, three hours per set. It may not seem like a lot, but each question generally has three sub-parts, and the questions are incredibly difficult to parse through. Not to mention they can ask you any question embodied in 23 different subject areas.

Day two was multiple choice day: Two sessions of three hours to answer 100 questions each session. I don't know if that sounds like a lot but it was.

Anyway, this is getting much longer than I expected, but it was an amazingly humble experience and it actually gave me a great chance to reflect on my relationship with Heavenly Father, how he blesses us, and our role in receiving those blessings. I was tremendously blessed by faith and the prayers of others and myself. I am so grateful for a Heavenly Father that loves us, all of us, 6 billion of us, and I am so grateful that he smiles upon us when we are righteous.

Thanks again, Greg

A Prayer and Grats for Greg

The big days are finally here. Tuesday and Wednesday are Greg's Bar Exam. Please remember Hailey and Greg in your prayers. I'm sure they'll appreciate it. Love to you all, Mom

World's Largest Water Balloon Fight

So I know I don’t post on here often, but I wanted to give everyone a taste of my weekend because I enjoyed it so much. At BYU we had the world’s largest water balloon fight. 3,927 people showed up for the event launching over 121,000 water balloons. It was the most fun I’ve had in a while. Afterward, I got to be one of only a handful of people filmed in Kyle Andrew’s music video. It won’t be produced for a while thought. Below is a link to a news article about it and various videos from different news websites.

http://news.byu.edu/archive10-jul-balloonfight.aspx

Greg is taking his bar

GOOD LUCK TOMORROW GREG!!!!!!!!

Jeffrey Lee Bean

I know that Jeff doesnt appreciate too much attention on his birthday. But I just wanted to take a moment and say how much I truely love him. He such a loving and caring man, and always makes me laugh and know's how to make me happy. I feel so comfortable around him. He has become my best friend, and I know that I am his best friend. He tells me I'm his princess, and I do feel like a princess when I am with him. A lot of people dont get to see the Jeff I know. He's got the most amazing personality, and I LOVE his eyes.

Happy Birthday Jeff!

Opinion Requested

I know that we are all in different walks of life, so I am interested in seeing where we all sound in on my latest dilemma

Brooke wants to try out for a community play this fall. She LOVES the theatre (she's currently in her 3rd play w/ this same theatre). BUT the play this fall isn't just a kids play, it involves adults. I seriously doubt that Brooke would get a role, but she really really wants to try. Here's the rub. The try outs are on a Sunday and along with 5 other shows, there is one show on a Sunday. We wouldn't have to miss church. We haven't let our kids play many sports here in Missoula because all of the games are on Sunday (Brant will most likely miss out on playing baseball past 5th grade for this very reason...and he LOVES baseball!), but I feel like a play is different. I am going to call the Director to see about holding a special try out on Sat. or on Monday- and hopefully he'll go for that. Poor Brooke, she's sobbing because it's on Sunday but doesn't even ask or beg if she can go. She has such a sweet spirit and is always trying to make good choices.

Not all of you are parents, and if you are- your kids are too young to have you worried about this...but it is coming. For debate did you ever travel to Nationals on a Sunday? Prepare for it on a Sunday and have meetings w/ your partners? Is there any difference? Just wondering.

Love you guys, thanks for your thoughts.

Etsy.com

Have you ever been to Etsy.com? This site is amazing. Thousands of people around the world make stuff, anything, with their own hands, and then sell it to other people. There are literally hundreds of thousands of handmade objects. Its incredible. A tribute to the creativity of humanity.

A place for the artwork

Here you go Jenn. Buy four hooks to make three sections so each child has a their own space. Get a dowel small enough that a clothes pin will hook all the way around it and be able to close tight on top of the paper. Make sure you space the hooks close enough together on the wall so that the dowel has room to hang over the ends of the last hooks. Otherwise, they the dowel will get pushed off any time it is brushed against or someone tries to hang something up. Pay no attention to my patched up skewers put together with electrical tape. I didn't have time to get a dowel when I was frantically trying to put this together before someone came over.

Family Reunion

I found this great picture when I was cleaning up today. It was so fun to see Brant so little, and Brian too! With the reunion just a few weeks away, it would be fun to see what pictures you guys have, share the memories~ thanks!

Everyone needs their alone time....

Can you write the story?

This is the only family picture we have of Greg and Hayley and the kids, since Emiline was hating pictures when we did the all family picture. I wanted to post it, because don't they look so darn cute!

Question for those who will be in IF for the 4th

Hey Ya'll!!! I'm super crazy excited for the 4th this year!!! I was curious as to who all is going to be up for the 4th. Also... k this may be me really pushing everyones comfort limits... but I thought it would be awesome fun if we did a combined family thing! I know i'm really pushing this, but I just wanted to see how you all feel about it.

My family loves doing activities, such as goofy golf. Has anyone played this? if Not, I think you'd enjoy it. I may be really pushing it to even ask, but I thought it would be fun. My family usually has everyone bring some kind of food so its like a pot luck thing, and usually have leftover food for a while. I thought that if we combined the family for a day's activity would be fun, and in a way, cheaper for everyone. I dont want to make anyone upset, so if you dont feel like this would be all that fun, please let me know. I just wanted opinions. I think the Bean family would be an awesome splash of fun for my family!

(Jeff will hate me if he knew I have this picture of him posted... but I love it)

My sister, Marisa, she was telling me how she recalls you guys having the slip and slide, and volley ball and how fun she thought that would be to do! haha, anyways.... ya just lemme know!

Cailey

Finished . . . Almost.

This Girl sound bite

It is not perfect, but I have nearly completed my song for Hayley. I wrote it a few years ago and am just putting it to music. There are a few moments in the middle that sound awkward, but overall I am very proud of it and want to share. Enjoy!

Stephanie...

Hey,

So... I cannot read any of your blogs its telling me that I have to be invited. Can you invite me :D please!


Thanks,

Cailey Jean Bean :o)

A Good Watch

So I know that we are all to busy to watch movies but if you have some time I really liked this one. It's only PG and is a pretty inspiring story. It's also one that Brendan Fraser doesnt have any cheesy lines in. He actually does a really good job. Watch it. It's fabulous!! Let me know what you think. It's on Redbox now. I LOVE Redbox!!