UGLY SWEATER WORK PARTY 2009

Larry on the mic...

My "special" friends

Where did you get those fabulous sweaters?

Luke is frightened of the strange lady in our home

Luke is wondering what is happening.. who are all these people in our house?

Luke no longer concerned with the strangers because they brought CHOCOLATE CAKE!

Beautiful people in UGLY sweaters

Luke with Christmas birds from Wendy's sweater

Christmas Vest + scrubs= very hot

Todd with the winning sweater that Wendy made.

Had a great night with my friends from work and their families.  We ate lots and lots of really good food and enjoyed our Christmas sweaters and belted out a few numbers on Rock Band.  Mostly just laughed and talked, which is what we do best.  

Santa's Lap

Is that a whiff of a SMILE, dear Sadie??

Luke Loving his Santa Visit

Sadie was not sure about being passed off to the cute little chubby man wearing red capri's and suspenders, but at least this year there were no tears.  IMAGINE!  

I am loving this return to BELIEVING IN SANTA.  

These are the moments...

 I was going through the 

hour-long process

of putting the kids to bed,

tired, trying to not be onery.

Sadie had just finished 

her nightly "jumping on the bed" 

and was finally holding still

(for about 10 seconds).

She said, "I gonna tiss you"

(I'm going to kiss you)-

a sweet little puckered up mouth

gives me a kiss  

THEN

"you a good mommy, mom"

(sigh)

Luke and Sadie annoying Sophie

Sadie giving Sophie a shot using the hoof of a horse

I speak dog.  Translation: "Why are you just looking at me? Can't you stop this terror?"

Translation: "Thank you for grooming me with the giant alligator.  No matter what my face looks like, I thoroughly enjoy your company."

My Son, Brainiac Extraordinaire!

Tanner with his award and his cute little snow leopard (mascot of school)

Tanner and Todd with their breakfast, discussing the issues of the day

What a cute 7th grader!

Tanner, my dearest 2nd born child, was honored today at South Jordan Junior High School.  He was one of 12 students picked for Student of the Month of December.  To put it in context, when I was Student of the Quarter back at Union High School there were probably less than 500 students to chose from.  At SoJo, there are over 1500 students and they chose to honor Tanner.  I am so proud of his hard work and the good boy that he is.  He has really grown up  the last year or two and I love spending time & talking with him.  

At the breakfast that they had today for the students and the parents they asked each parent to prepare a 1-2 minute introduction of their child, what makes them special.  Of course, being the ASHBY'S we had to go first, and of course being married to my husband, I had to do all of the talking.  I had a little something typed up, but at the last minute I thought "I'll just wing it.. speak from the heart.  It seems to weird to read something, anyway"  So, I just said that Tanner my son was the best at many things.. the best eater, the best sleeper, the best video-gamer, the best texter... (laughs) Then I said he is also the best at more meaningful things.. and I continued with a few sentences on how much he helps us at home and how motivated and responsible he is with his school work and how proud we are of his efforts.   Then we got our picture taken with him and sat down.  A couple of other parents got up and spoke from their heart and then the Princess and her family got up.  I shouldn't be rude, but it was a bit much.  Her father was in a suit (Todd was in his pajamas) and Mom was all dressed up (I had no bra on).  Mom was perfectly coiffed with make-up on (7:00 a.m. in the morning!) and she had a typed up "statement" that she read from.  It was very thorough and nice, but PLEASE!!  She even had it kind of broken up into parts; she read the first part and then passed the "script" to her husband who continued with the praise, then at the appropriate time he passed it back to his wife and she concluded their address (I know I might be the rudest person on the earth!).  A few of the things that I recall from their statement is that their daughter sings (in multiple languages, NOT kidding!), dances (despite having some undisclosed health problem), plays the piano, is in plays, is perfect at home & at school, loves to travel (has been to 25 states and 5 continents, NOT kidding), and volunteers her spare time at a retirement center calling Bingo games (OK, I threw that last one in their just to make my point).  I noticed that as they finished, the well-dressed father went to the back of the room to turn off the tripoded video camera sat up at the back of the room.  I mean, they are PROUD parents!! (am I bugged because I am jealous or because they are annoying?!)

As proud of their daughter as they are, I am equally proud of my son.  He may not speak multiple languages or be well-traveled, but he cleans the toilets every week and gives me the most honest, sincere hugs and "I love you, Mom!"'s that I could ever wish for.   

Praying, Painting, Ponies. etc

Only the chill moms let their kids paint.  I am trying some new meds that may help with the chillage (jokes)

Me and Sadie at Brighton Lake Walkway..  Beautiful day.  We were able to see a moose in the lake.  Pretty awesome.  Got so involved with the moose that we left our umbrella stroller there.  Luckily, our child was not still in it.  

This is a scattered post of various pictures that I like and various things I found entertaining.  Unless you really love me, you may want to skip it cause it has nothing too special.  Basically, a journal entry..

Sadie in her fabulous farm outfit meeting new friend, Cappy (Mid-November)

Luke and Anna at Grandma Farm's house (Mid-November)

Luke being the ladies man that he is.  He is wearing a leotard and a fierce head piece.  This picture was taken right in the middle of one of his slow waltz numbers.  (Mid-November)

Cute little devils about a year ago.  I just had to post this picture because Sadie looks so funny and I remember this day very clearly.  They were in top toddler form on this day.  

Luke's prayer tonite...

"Dear Hefney Fader, Sanks for our family, sanks for our lights, and hallways, and doors, and food, and pants, and socks, and dog, and beds, and carpet, and our car, and books, and our grandma that died and Grandpa Gray..."

Grandpa Gray used to be called Grandpa Tick Tock, but now has assumed the new alias Grandpa Gray for obvious reasons I guess.  

This picture was taken at Brighton Lake this Summer.  Grandma and Grandpa were so cute together, holding hands around the lake as we walked.  

There is always screaming right before prayer time.  As if my kids don't have enough to fight about they have to fight about praying too.  Sadie thinks she is the official prayer-giver in our house.  If she doesn't get to say the prayer, she becomes the changeling from hell.  Which creates such a nice environment for family or meal-time spiritual communion.  There has been occasion when we have had to say 2 prayers to accomodate our little poltergeist.  But, if I were to be honest, she does say a real good prayer for a 2 year old.  Hopefully, she will soon learn the spirit that should felt before the prayer...

I had to post this picture of the kids post-paint party.  They thought it was quite funny... Mom had a choice to make... have a coronary or let it chill.. I am proud.  I let it chill.  As I let it chill, it did become funny.  Good choice, Mom, good choice.   

Privacies are strategically covered! 

Luke is special

Luke is helping me with my blogging and is inspecting the keyboard to find the letters of his name. All of a sudden, he got really excited and said "Mom! Look, I found a mystery!" He was pointing to the ? key.