Thanksgiving Weekend With Visitors!

This was an early Christmas present from Jason's mom and dad. They are beautiful Polish dishes! It took Julie, and Aunt Sue her sidekick, months to collect all these pieces. They are hand-made and painted by the Polish people. Jason served his mission in Poland so this was especially amazing for him! The dishes are so beautiful, heavy, and durable. I have a piece for every occasion or need. I can't believe how much time they put into making sure they had everything. I wish I had a better picture of everything, but this was the best I got.
Thanks so much Mike, Julie, (and Aunt Sue for aiding the search!)

We had a night where we had a gingerbread building and decorating contest. This team thought they were #1 obviously.

...and so did this team. Ben actually surprised me at his amazing decorating talents!
He was very diligently icing the roof to perfection.

Brooklyn and Cambree had the same pajamas so they were very cool!

Everyone hard at work...

Notice how Jason just ate the candy more than participated in the decorating.

Ours was obviously the best though.
Especially since this is my blog :)

Ben, Emilee, and Cambree waiting their turn to bowl.
I think this little girl beat me...everyone did actually.
I just bowl for fun. In fact, I had better luck when I turned around backward and rolled the ball between my legs.

Tyler, Ciera (soon to be sister-in-law), Steele, Amanda, B-Kate, Me, Beckam, Jason

I put these pics in backward- dang it! But Steele showed up from D.C. with a hot new look...check it out.

All of us freaked out at the sight of him...except his fiance...she just oooh's and ahhhh's at him no matter what.

preparing the Pumpkin bars for Thanksgiving Day...

Dipping graham crackers in milk is one of my favorites...and now it's theirs too! It makes a huge mess but it's tasty!

High Fructose Corn Syrup!

I always like to share the latest on my "nutritional findings" and I have found yet another scary factor. I guess this is something I already knew, but did not necessarily know why. High fructose corn syrup is a monster. It's in almost everything...from a box that is. I was amazed to discover how many things it really is in. It's in fruit snacks (good luck weaning my kids from those things!), crackers, bread, pasta sauces, bacon, wheat thins and other crackers, it's even in some health products like protein bars and even sodas that claim to be "natural". What! The saddest one for me was that it's in frozen yogurt, one of my favorites.

High fructose corn syrup is extremely soluble and mixes well in many foods. It is cheap to produce, so of course that is what "they" feed us. It was derived from corn, hence corn syrup, as is much of our food here in America, which is actually not the best news. Over the course of a ten year period, it was found in double the amount of products it was used in previously. Cheap crappy products spread like wildfire in the money making world, unfortunately. You have to be so careful anymore when you are purchasing weight loss products, nutritional products, and snacks. Go ahead and read your boxes of food at home for high fructose corn syrup...you might be as surprised as I was. Although, it also hides under other names so it's probably in even more than I have found so far. Not that we can give up everything that contains this product in it, come on...frozen yogurt! no way, but just to limit ourselves where we can will be very beneficial to our health in the long run!

Fall Leaves

Back in the beautiful, warm part of November we drove around and found a school with tons of leaves all over the place...we stopped and played for a while. It was so much fun and the kids thought it was the best thing in the world. This is obviously a little out of order as it is now snowy and freezing season but since I am still playing "catch-up" a little bit, it gives me the right to post some late ones.

I was shaking leaves out of my pants all day.

Grandma Kizerian giving hugs and kisses. xoxo

Where did Grandma go?

There she is!
Is she holding up a peace sign?

Yes, this was our make-shift rake. It actually did the job quite nicely.

The kids and I would start from way back and run through a long pile of leaves that went on forever.

Brooklyn getting ready to blast us all with the leaves.

And here's Beckam's little contribution.

All you need is a dust pan and your hand...and voila!

Used vs. Loved

USED vs. LOVED

(I just got this as an email sent to me from my sister, Treva, and I liked it. Even though it is an extreme example, I know that anger sometimes controls us more than we control IT. It's a really good reminder how to live your life out of love.)


While a man was polishing his new car, his 4 yr old son picked up stone
and scratched lines on the side of the car. In anger, the man took the
child's hand and hit it many times; not realizing he was using a wrench.
At the hospital, the child lost all his fingers due to multiple
fractures. When the child saw his father.....with painful eyes he asked,
'Dad when will my fingers grow back?'
The man was so hurt and speechless; he went back to his car and kicked
it a lot of times.
Devastated by his own actions......sitting in front of that car he
looked at the scratches; the child had written 'LOVE YOU DAD'.


The next day that man committed suicide. . . Anger and Love have no
limits; choose the latter to have a beautiful, lovely life..... Things
are to be used and people are to be loved, But the problem in today's
world is that, People are used and things are loved...


During this year, let's be careful to keep this thought in mind: Things
are to be used, but People are to be loved ... Be yourself....This is
the only day we HAVE.


Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become
actions.
Watch your actions; they become habits. Watch your habits they become
character; Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.


If you don't pass this on to anybody, nothing bad will happen; if you do, you will have ministered to
someone.

The Will of God will never take you to where the Grace of God will not
PROTECT you...

Stay FAITHFUL and Be GRATEFUL

Halloween Work Party

This was actually the day before Halloween. We took the kids to daddy's work and went trick-or-treating at everyone's desks. They had it all decked out and everyone had candy to give. We had a blast.

This is Beckam roaringn like a lion

Sponge Bob made an appearance

Jason was a soccer player and I was something...not sure if it has a name...but it sure beats finding something to wear.

Brooklyn would randomly look in her bag and just start eating whatever looked interesting to her. She picked a good choice.

Beckam would look in everyone's baskets and pull out only the suckers. He's eating one in almost every picture.

Daddy and Beck-dawg.

And...another sucker.

I think the puppy was the only thing that could distract Beckam from his sucker.

Uncle Tyler, who also works there, was dressed like a SWAT member

Cornbelly's

We attempted a family outing to Cornbelly's before Halloween, but the day we had set aside to go was the colest day of October....freezing cold. You can see it in all our faces. We stayed for probably 20 minutes and got out of there.

I had to use mental power to envision the sun shining down on me!

The big rocking chair... Brooklyn said it was the giant's chair (from Jack and the Beanstalk)

Doesn't this picture just say "We are freezing!!"

Brooklyn was trying to be a good sport and not let the cold get in the way.

She walked in, stood for a picture, and walked out

There was nobody there but us pretty much, so we couldn't ask anyone to take a family picture of us with the pigs

Brooklyn going down the frozen slide with frozen mud at the bottom of it.

This jumping pillow would have been a lot of fun if they didn't make us take our shoes off...that's why I didn't.

The kids woke up exceptionally early one morning, so they snuggled up in blankets watching Baby Einstein. They were both so into it, and all I could see from where I was standing was their little profiles with their little round noses sticking out. Of course when I went to take a picture of it, they both looked over at me and smiled.

Uncle Tyler visiting his neice and nephew.

Packages from Monga and Papa. We have been trying to help Brooklyn stay in her own bed at nights, so Grandma sent her some presents that she could open if she obeyed mom and dad consistently... it was a nice try and worked once or twice, but she continues to wander into our room saying "I'm here!" each and every night!

She loves to pray....doesn't she look sweet!

Love the fall colors in the background...Brooklyn's not bad either.

While I Was Away...

Okay, so we have not had much luck in the camera department lately. Right before we moved, I lost my camera, with all my pictures in it. Then, we moved and my mother-in-law had captured most of the big events and fun stuff on her camera, so i was going to use her photos...but then she lost her camera!! Ahhhhhh. So sad. So, I don't have a picture of Brooklyn's birthday cake this year! But, as soon as I can find one, I will have to post it because it was pretty fun.

It's amazing how hard it is to get back in the habit of something when you have not done it in so long. So much has happened in these last few months, hence why I wasn't blogging, that I got completely out of the groove.

While I was away, out of blogging world, I discovered a few things:

1) I discovered how frustrating it was to hear that we can now get cancer from the BPA in our canned foods!! Even in cans that claim to be BPA-free. I've been annoyed with this, mostly because it is like the straw that broke the camels back. It's yet another way of putting toxins in our body without realizing it. Thanks to my homeopathic father, I have been trying extra hard lately to eat more of "the Maker's Diet" - all natural foods, more fruits and veggies of the organic kind and so forth. With kids, however, and energy being thrown out the window most days, I admit that mac 'n' cheese is sometimes my best friend. What can you do?

2) I have also discovered the truthfulness of losing yourself in service and how it makes you happier. There was a time period where all I had to do was sit and think of myself, my family, my own life, etc. and although I have nothing to complain about, It was rather boring. Ever since we have moved, we have jumped into our new community, our new ward, callings, and life and have found that life is so much more meaningful when you don't have time to think of yourself. I'm grateful that my new calling has kept me so immensely busy. Stressful, but productive.

3) I have also discovered that if you treat everyone like they really need a friend, that most of the time, you will be right.

4) I have discovered that the minute "summer" heat decreases by even five degrees, that my kids will get sick, then I will, then my husband. Then it will happen again the next month, and so on. This is where I have to say that LAUGHTER IS THE BEST MEDICINE! Jason and I have been up all night the past few nights, passing each other in the hallway as we switch kids. Makes me laugh...maybe I'm just delerious at this point, I don't know.

5) I have also discovered that every time life seems that it is getting too hard, there is always someone who comes to the rescue.

6) A great one to remember is that someone thinks of you before they go to sleep at night. :)

7) Oh yeah! and one more discovery! Most of you have discovered this one years ago, but Jason and I finally put our iPod to use. We've had it sitting around for a couple of years...recently we sat down like two kids in a candy shop and downloaded a bunch of songs. The other night, Jason took the kids for a little while and I cleaned the kitchen...I saw the iPod staring at me, asking me to turn it on....so I did. I ended up dancing in the kitchen while I did dishes. It's actually a nice stress reliever. For the first time ever, I didn't want the dishes to end. Okay, maybe that's going too far.