"The Coolest Hair in History!"

I have a favorite sound. I had never thought about it, really, until once in primary when our secretary was doing a Sharing Time, and decided to do a "get-to-know-the-presidency" game. She asked us some really interesting questions, and one of them was "What is your favorite sound?" Well, it only took me a minute to realize what mine is. My favorite sound is the sound of my kids laughing. I love it! It's better than any music. It's the best! Sunday, while I was cleaning up the kitchen, Jared and I heard that awesome sound coming from the bathroom. Jared went to see what was up, and quickly came back and motioned me to come and have a look. Bryson was combing Hayden's hair. He had come into the kitchen a few minutes earlier to show us how well he had done combing his own hair (we had already been to church, so it was no big deal that he was making it "cool"). But now here he was, comb in hand, slicking Hayden's hair back. Here was the conversation we witnessed:

Bryson: "This is gonna be the coolest hair in history."

Hayden: "Yeah!"

Bryson: "It's gonna be awesome!"

Hayden: "I know." (Then that sweet crazy laughter!)

By the time I grabbed my camera, Bryson was no longer combing Hayden's hair... both boys were busy styling their own. They were so funny.

Sweet 'dos!

Especially you, "Mini Donald Trump!"

And of course, some good old fashioned "Stafford Silliness!"

Thankful Thursday: Whew!

I decided that I need to be more grateful for the little things... so I'm going to do a Thankful Thursday post every week. This week I'm just thankful that LAST week is over. It was crazy! I do have so much to be thankful for, and that is one reason I've decided to do this. But, seriously, we were REALLY RELIEVED to get the past week and a half overwith. THANKFUL!!! Wow! Life has been crazy at the Stafford house. Let's see... what have we been up to? I'll give you a little taste of the insanity that was our last week or so. Valentine's Day came and went of course. Jared and I made a pact not to get eachother anything, but guess who is the only one who REALLY kept their end of the deal? That would be me! I got him NOTHIN'! What did he get me? Well, a dozen roses... (that's a given, he says), a bag of my favorite: RED VINES (yum... my good eating habits went out the window. I think I ate most of them the first day) and a small box of chocolates (those were to share with everyone, he said). He was really sweet. I AM THANKFUL FOR HIM! Here is a recap of our week. (Along with what I decided to be thankful for each day. Hopefully I won't ever post an entire week's worth again. Way too much!)


SATURDAY: We actually had our Vday date on Saturday night. We went to a BYU Basketball game, and out for dinner. (Forgot the camera :( ) So this day I was thankful for dates with my sweetheart!

SUNDAY: On the REAL Valentines Day, Jared made Sunday dinner, which consisted of Chicken Courdon Bleu (YUM!!) rice pilaf, and broccoli. I did contribute to the meal by making heart shaped rolls. We had raspberry sherbet for dessert. It was a great, relaxing Vday. This day I was thankful for yummy food and relaxation.

MONDAY: We went to the zoo on President's Day. It was cold and rainy, but we had a great time. It was fun to see monkeys and giraffes up close in their buildings, and some of the other animals up and active that are usually lazy and sleepy during the warm days of summer. Even the cheetah was up walking around right by the fence. The kids had a great time. I didn't take a camera. It would have just gotten wet anyway ;) Then we got back to our normal, busy life...
Thankful for warm clothes and smiling kids.

TUESDAY: ...however, Tuesday I thought it was Monday, Wednesday I kept thinking was Tuesday. My week was all kinds of messed up! I had a photoshoot with a cute girl who just got baptized (in her white dress - pics on my photo blog). That was fun. Also, on Tuesdays Eryn stays after school for play practice, and I have piano lessons. Laundry was piling up to monstrous proportions, and no matter how much I felt like I was doing, it looked as though I was doing NOTHING. I ran a million errands, and just felt exhausted by the end of the day. I'm thankful for a forgiving and understanding family. Even when they have no clean underwear!

WEDNESDAY: I started tending my cute little neice again after a few weeks off. She has started crawling, and I forgot what it was like to have a crawler! Time to re-baby-proof! Then that afternoon I had to quickly get busy sewing Eryn's costume for "Fiddler on the Roof" since she needed to take it to school by the NEXT DAY!! We had borrowed a skirt from a girl in the ward, but decided it wasn't going to work. Good thing Walmart had some cute floral fabric so I could make her one! Then I made her an apron out of an extra bedsheet, and found her the perfect blouse at D.I. Whew! Did I take any pictures of it before it got sent to school? Nope. Right as I sewed the final stitch, Kaitlyn and I headed out the door to Relief Society. They invited the Activity Day girls to learn to quilt and do a little embroidery. It was fun, but the whole time I was thinking about all I needed to still do at home. I had left the house looking like a bomb had gone off. I'm thankful to be able to do things with and for my kids.

THURSDAY: Had to cancel today's piano kids, because MY kids had SEPs (parent-teacher conferences). They got out early, but Eryn had to stay and practice for Fiddler. I had to get her costume to her. Of course the rest of us went home for lunch, and I tried to get a few things done around the house before we had to head back up to the school. All the kids are doing great! I had to wait forever to see a couple of Eryn's teachers, so we barely made it home in time for dinner and then sent Eryn and Jared off to a Stake Youth activity to kick off Youth Conference. (Yes, Youth Conference in February!) I'm thankful for great kids who love school.

FRIDAY: Jared subbed for a teacher at Willowcreek Middle School, and I tried to do a little cleaning. I felt like I'd never catch back up! Then as soon as he got home, he was packing up to leave for Youth Conference. They went up to Heber Valley Camp (just overnight). He took lots of pictures, and it looked like they had a ton of fun in the snow and cold. Friday night, I went to a Girl Scout Dinner. Kaitlyn's troop put it on for their parents. I felt bad that Jared couldn't be there, but the food was great. After that, I took the boys over to spend the night at my Mom and Dad's house (whom I'm SO thankful for). Because...

SATURDAY: We had to get up SUPER early, drop Kaitlyn off at her friend's house (before 8. It's also her Basketball coach... they would make sure she got to her game) and head over to UVU for Eryn's Ballroom Competition. She did great. I loved watching all the kids dance. Her little team won a bronze ribbon. She didn't get any individual awards, but that's okay. She still did awesome. Kaitlyn had a basketball game, but we had to miss it. We picked up the boys, picked up Kaitlyn and finally headed home! We had only been there a few minutes when Jared arrived home from Youth Conference. That night, Eryn had to prepare a talk for Sacrament Meeting the next day, and I had to prepare Sharing Time for primary. Holy cow! I just needed Sunday to come and get overwith! I was just thankful to still be somewhat sane at this point!

SUNDAY: Church at 8:30! My mom came to hear Eryn's talk. She did awesome. She spoke on Tithing. Thankfully my sharing time went well, and then we were home. Whew!! We had a nice, relaxing afternoon (all except for a little drama when Hayden got hit in the nose with a wooden board, which caused a really nasty bloody nose - it's still swollen!), then Jared and Eryn and I went to a fireside to kind of cap off Youth Conference. It was really nice. Oh, the relief of having this hectic week overwith! And to top it all off, Bryson lost two teeth over the course of this week... the poor Toothfairy. She has a hard enough time remembering to come for ONE tooth, but then you add another one? She came late for the second tooth. We were just glad she showed up, since her track record isn't exactly stellar. I'm thankful for the joy of a 6 year old who finds that dollar in his toothbox! And thankful that the bloody nose wasn't serious!

MONDAY: Well... as we all know, life really doesn't EVER slow down. We were given that sweet reminder at 2 a.m. Monday morning, as I was awakend by the sound of splashing water. WAIT! As I really woke up, I realized that it was not splashing water, but a kid throwing up in the hall. "Someone's throwing up!" I said. "It's me!" said a little voice that I recognized as Hayden's. Poor kid! Jared got him in the shower, and I cleaned up. We made him a little bed on our floor, and tried to get back to sleep. I think I finally drifted off around 4. Only to have to get up at 6. Just when I thought the craziness was over for a few days... oh well.
He felt better during the day on Monday, but Monday night he was at it again. Boy, am I thankful for carpet steam cleaners!

And just for fun, here is an example of the Valentines we did this year for the kids to take to school. Kaitlyn was the only one left with an extra, but the boys took some with suckers, too. Their pictures were of them holding a big red heart, and the sucker was off to the side where the writing was. I thought they turned out pretty cute, but I really loved what we did with Kaitlyn's with her HOLDING the sucker.

Then with the Valentine's pictures I took of all the kids, I had these cute little 3X3 accordian albums made for the Grandparents. They turned out really cool. These look SO much better in real life!

Lazy, Crazy, Creative Sunday

We had one of the craziest weeks ever... I'm working on a post about that, but for now let's just say we were BUSY!!! I've never been so happy for a Sunday afternoon. At least not for quite some time. We have church at 8:30 in the morning. No, that is not a typo. Aint no sleepin' in on Sundays here. There IS an upside to that, however. It means we are home by 11:30 a.m. The kids are so creative on Sunday. We were challenged a while back by our Stake Pres to stay in our Sunday clothes. Trust me, it's a challenge, but we manage. We also have a no TV rule (with some exceptions... like the Olympics, and gospel related things). Usually, however, our kids are just really creative and come up with something fun to do together. I love it when all four get involved. Sometimes they play "Hotel." We have a bell that they set up at the "front desk" along with a sign-in book. They even put room numbers on all the doors. It's so cute! Today, however, they wanted to do something a little different. We found a whole package of pipe cleaners in one of my neglected craft boxes a while back, and Kaitlyn pulled them out today wanting to be creative. Bryson even commented that you "can make ANYTHING with a pipe cleaner." So we got to work. Hayden was busy building a tower with his Legos, and Eryn was sitting nearby doodling in a notebook, but Bryson and KK and I started bending pipe cleaners into all sorts of things like glasses and crowns. Bryson even made a house. When they tried it all on, I decided that it was worth pulling out the camera! So we had a funny little photo shoot so we could remember what we made on this chilly but relaxing Sunday afternoon.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Hall of Fame

UVU Hall of Fame, that is! We ended up with some free tickets to any UVU Men's Basketball Home Game. We thought it sounded like a fun family activity. We started looking at the dates of the games, and realized that for one of their home games, they would be putting Ronnie Price into the UVU Hall of Fame. I remember when he played there, hearing all this hype about this amazing player, so I started watching some of UVU's games (UVSC at the time) when they were broadcast on their channel. He was REALLY GOOD. It was cool to see UVSC winning games and getting attention. Then all of a sudden he was in the NBA playing for the Sacramento Kings. "Good for him!" I thought. Pretty cool that a guy from little ol' UVSC could make it to the NBA! THEN suddenly he was coming to play for the JAZZ! I'm a Jazz fan, and being a little bit of a Ronnie Price fan, I was pretty excited. He has done pretty well here, and I always like when Coach Sloan gives him a little playing time. He usually does a great job. Anyway, we had a great time, and it was really fun to be there.


We got there early and just kinda hung out watching people...



... and watching the Wolverine. Our kids always like seeing the mascots, whether it's Cosmo at BYU, Flash the Fox at the Flash games, or the Wolverine at UVU. They wanted to get up close and meet him. He signed posters for the boys, and they even got a hug (which totally made their night!)



It was a pretty good game. UVU ended up winning!

However, I didn't see a whole lot of it. I was a little distracted. Just over to the side of where we were sitting we could see Deron Williams and Kyle Korver from the Utah Jazz. I was SO wishing I had a longer lens... and everytime I'd almost get a good view some kid would put their hand or their head right in front of me. I'm a nerd, I know. They are just so awesome! (Okay, I'm seriously a nerd!) We saw Coach Sloan, too, but I could not for the life of me get a picture of him even close to in focus.

During half time, Ronnie Price was inducted into the UVU Hall of Fame. His cute wife and baby were there, and he gave a very gracious and humble speach. It was nice :)

Hoops!

It's that time of year again... BASKETBALL SEASON! Kaitlyn is the only one playing this year. Eryn chose ballroom over Bball, and the boys aren't quite old enough (however, Bryson is the first one on the court at halftime shooting and dribbling. He can't WAIT until he can play next year!)

Jared is coaching again. It's not too bad when you only have one team to coach! The girls love him and he does SUCH a great job. And K loves playing. During her game on Saturday, she scored 10 points. She is great! It's fun to watch, especially now that the boys are bigger and I'm not chasing one of them the entire time! The girls steadily improve each week. We love basketball.

Here are a few pics from the last game...