I.F. ( Idaho Falls for all of you non idahoans)

I.F.

So we spent part of Spring Break in I.F. Elder Buckley, he served in our area for several months, was getting married. We love to stay with our good friends down there any chance we can get. So we had Angie do our taxes, played with a lot of different animals, attended the wedding, ate, and ate, only to be out done with shopping! We had a great time and I came home with a million and one ideas of things to do with my Cricut. We all enjoyed the trip. Thank you Drew and Angie, you guys are the best!

Need Money! Will Take Donations! Please and Thank You!

Caia, I am so proud to announce, read Little Women, unabridged cover to cover! Yes she truly is an amazing young girl. She then watched the movie and at the end there was an address to buy the replica locket that was worn in the movie!! What every Louisa May Alcott admirer must have. My daughter, of whom I have instilled the value of hard work and savings, is taking DONATIONS for the cost of shipping. Your help would much be appreciated. "Please and Thank You". ( At least she is very polite in soliciting and accepting the funds, I have taught her manners.)

Pwayer is what bwings us together this day...

Mark and I were sitting together on the couch and Elyse was trying get my attention and she must have gotten frustrated that I didn't answer her quick enough and yells:
"YOUR NOT IN LOVE!!"
Mark and I laughed and laughed.


These fabulous pictures were taken by our Sis B. Not only is she a great Sunbeam teacher but she is an amazingly talented photographer!

here's the classic moment of the week from Sis B.:

In class, discussing benson's baby brother's blessing today:
Sis B: boys and girls, who saw the baby being blessed in sacrament today?
ALL: ME! I DID!!
Sis B: benson, can you stand up please? boys and girls, that baby was benson's little brother!
ELYSE: well THAT baby was cwying.
Sis B: sometimes babies cry, don't they. they can be fussy.
ELYSE: well i know WHY that baby was cwying. that baby was cwying because it got pwayed on.
Sis B: um, what?
ELYSE: those men and the daddy were pwaying on the baby and he didn't like getting pwayed on.
Sis B: the baby didn't like getting prayed on?
ELYSE: no. he didn't like it. that's why he was cwying.
Sis B: hmmm. interesting. thank you for sharing your thoughts.
ELYSE: youw welcome.

This ones for the future.

ELYSE-ISM'S

I'm just going to rename this blog for Elyse. It's not that the other two aren't so cute it's just that 3 year olds are more interesting to write about. Let me just tell you what I mean:
This last week:
Caia had friends over they started their own blog, she had different friends over and they played and cleaned the basement. (That was a condition of them coming over who knew they would agree and then do it!)

Payton; Let's see currently she is crying because she is hungry, she doesn't want yogurt, gogurt, string cheese or a banana, but she's hungry. She's even more mad because she has to put away her rack of the dishwasher. Last week she cried, like every morning that her pants don't "feel right" This is a battle we have every morning and worse after she has worn them. Funny things is that she likes her pants tight but only tight like one of her 4 pairs. She's going to love me when she gets to help Caia with trash, and do homework. OOHH I can't wait.

Elyse; You can check out last weeks blog comments for this weeks conversation with Sis Bwinkley. Her current obsession is True Love. I remember Caia going through this phase it's a favorite of mine. So our daily conversations have gone like this.

E- "what is true love?"
D- "I don't know ask your mom."

E- "Mom what is true love?"
M- "It's who you love the most"
E- "OOOHHHH!"

E-"Dad why did you marry mom?"
D- "I stole her heart"

E-"Mom did dad put you in a cage?"
M- "WHAT!?!"
E- "Did dad put your heart in a cage?"
M- "OOHH (smiling) no cage sweet heart it just means Dad loves me."
E-"OOOOHHHH!!"

E- "Did dad kiss you when you got married?"
M- "Yes"
E- "oohhh!"

E -"Mom how did dad steel your heart?"
M- "He played Pachelbel's Cannon on his violin."
E- "OOOHHHH!"

E- "Dad How did mom steel your heart."
D- "Because she's a hot momma"
E- "OOOHHH! Mom your a hot momma?!?"
M- Just hearing hot momma from her mouth made me laugh!

Payton is stilling wailing from starvation and not wanting to put dishes away, Caia is avoiding homework, and Elyse is pointing out how naughty Payton is being, and yes that is so helping the situation.

Me I'm being a good mom ignoring it all writing it down. They'll appreciate this someday! I'm off to deliver the fun news; time for homework and garbage's. But I Love my Life!

Here is an E-mail I received from Elyse's primary teacher this morning.
To Holly
From Sis Brinkley
Re: Elyse
the girl never ceases to entertain. yesterday, she sat by me in primary. she kept petting my arm, like a cat or something. frankly, it was getting a little annoying, and after repeated reminders to "please keep your hands in your lap", i finally just said, "elise, i don't like it when you pet my arm like that. will you please stop?" and she said, "but sista bwinkwey, your skin is so soft! do you use lotion??"

i recommended the bath and body works body cream to her, as it contains avocado oil and does wonders for the skin. just so you know.

also, she kept telling me the "mean man stuck her in a hole" and i was dying to hear the story behind that. and she showed me her new Ariel locker (not locket, locker, mind you) and when i asked her if she could maybe keep a cupcake in there and bring it to me next week, she said yes. so I'll be expecting one. thanks.

By way of explanation:
At home she spends all day singing the Ariel song into it. Caia got tired of hearing it and tried to convince her that the locket was full!

The "mean man" was a bad dream she had the other day. I asked her today if Sis Brinkley has soft skin, she said "yes but the mean man has pokey skin!" I had better add a couple extra bucks this month to her psych fund for when she grows up!

Slide Show.

Ok here it is. Above is the abbreviated slide show. (Yes only 50 out of 200+ pictures.) If you are looking for all the details click on the link below w/ Elyse sleeping. Then choose slide show, about 1/3 way down. If you want to read along pause it, use the arrows to the R or L of pictures to view. If you want to read all the text place your curser over the text for the full account on some of the photos. This may be more than some of you want! But Grandma's may enjoy it. Thank you to the blogg expert Wendy for you help this morning. I have been completly obsessed w/ this and now I can get on w/ my morning!

Don't forget to check out the new video's too. My favorites are the princess dance, and Elyse dancing after the Pixar Play Parade, and the girls chatting in the hotel room the first night. Elyse danceing @ Playhouse Disney Live is cute too, other wise I wouldn't have filmed it.

Monson's California Adventures.

Photobucket Album

Question of the Day

Question of the day: What are you going to do if the Cardinals win the Superbowl?

A- WE'RE GOING TO DISNEYLAND!

Pretty quiet week. My little bro. and his wife are expecting baby number 3! Their youngest is 6 so we are all excited. That will be grand baby number 9 for my parents.

OK next a post update from a couple of weeks ago. Elyse's eye apt. was cancelled due to bad roads so we'll tackle that date after we get back from Disneyland.

Elyse gave her first talk in primary. We didn't find out until Saturday when our primary secretary called:"It's only her second week in primary do you think she'll do it?" "Yeah" I told her "I think she'll do it." So I wrote the talk Saturday night and Sunday morning while we were getting ready we reviewed it over and over. On the way to church I talked to her about not touching the mic. not putting her mouth on the mic, etc. etc. This is how it went. She stood up, I stand next to her.

E-She starts, "is this on?"

M-"Yes"

E-"My name is Lyse Monson"

M- I think oh we didn't practice that so I whisper the first line.

E-Whispering, turning toward me "I don't need help"

Completely composed in the mic. "I am a Child of God and he has sent me here has given me an earthly home with parents kind and dear"

M-Wow that was good I start to feed her the next part

turning aside toward me "I don't need help!"

She proceeds flawlessly So I start to feed her the 3 part

E-Whispering with attitude "Mom I said I don't need help!!"

(Thank you Sister Brinkley for saving the day.) I called on her Sunbeam teacher to help her finish, she did it flawlessly. Never touched the mic with her hands or mouth. Said every word like she was the Bishop! I guess that's what I get for raising independent girls.

All I could do was listen and think "That's my girl!"

Well done my Pumpkin Pie.

Rummikub

So yesterday I dropped something off at my friend Amy's house, and she sent me home with a "fancy" wood version of Rummikub. I broke out in a sweat, my heart rate doubled, and my competitive edge came out. My dear husband hasn't been home long enough to humor me w/ a game so I taught Payton. She played a full game, over an hour, and beat me by one tile. Wow it was fun. ( I may have been playing both hands a little more towards the end) She really figured out how to play, I'm so happy and excited to have a friend to play with. Big kids are so much fun too! Mark and I played many games of it back in our dating days. (what was it like last week?!)

08+New+Years+Eve.jpg (image)

"Ring out the old; ring in the new."

How about them Cardinals! Go Phoenix!

It has been a relaxing week, the phone has been pretty quiet, we enjoyed the lack of structure, sleeping in until 8 am, staying in our sweats until we have to go somewhere, most days not going anywhere. But as for tomorrow it's back to school but only for 2 weeks then they have a four day weekend. Back to school for another two weeks and we are off to Disneyland. I can't believe how close it is. Back in August when we first bounced the idea around with our cousins it seemed so far off now it's right around the corner, I've already started making my lists! I had better add a few details of our week.

New years eve started off with Mindy Salomon making Chinese, very scrumptious. Mark and Aaron were off to a fireside in Pullman, when he got back we made it over to our friends the Brinkley's. Their kids were all gone for the week so they hosted a great party, we only made it for about an hour and a half of it, we had so much fun we went out with them again last night, but I digress. Here is a picture of us at the party. I see people stealing photos all of the time from other blogs, I guess I haven't figured it out yet, above is a link and you can see all of the couples who were there. They passed out party hats and as polite guests we humored them and put them on. Then we realized they were laughing at us! They opted out of the hats!

Continuing on. New Years day was great more sweats, and low key. The girls and I manage to put clothing on long enough to hit the mall. Payton even agreed to come with only one stipulation, that she get her ears pierced...again! Yes you heard me correctly again, I said no way but Mark agreed to it! Last time she got fed up with them getting gunky and the soreness and the cleanings took out the earrings and threw them away, but she decided to do it again and got her dad on board. I wish I could have video taped it. (they won't let you, something about the dang lawyers.) She had a huge grin on her face sitting waiting, the trigger was pulled, her face went straight, "that burns" and she put the smile back on w/out a blink of her eye. The ear switch, huge smile, trigger pulled, straight faced,"that burned" and the smile ear to ear was back on. It was a classic, there were teens and little girls watching her, they were impressed, I was impressed! She brings me the stuff to clean them twice a day so I guess they are keepers, and so far no gunk.

OK next we come to Friday some football game Utah and I can't remember who. I know Paul Alvey and Dan Evans left happy yeah Utah. Saturday we snuck off w/out kids to dinner with Brinkley's. They celebrated their one year sealing date and we celebrated our 14th! Wow If I had my computer I would post a picture of us 14 years ago, then everyone could have a good laugh over how skinny we both were. (my power cord to my laptop died this week, along with my car battery this morning, may they rest in peace.) I'll post make up pics as soon as I can.

Today was a big day. Ms. Elyse is a Sunbeam! Oh how I love this age. I took a picture and I'll attach a video of her singing. Caia is in Valiant 10 tBro and Sis Paul's class, Payton was happy to be in Bro and Sis Johnson's class. They are a sweet grandparent couple that I think Payton will enjoy so much. And Elyse still has her teacher Sis Brinkley. She reminds us every chance that she gets that "Sis Brinkley is my teacher". She was her teacher through nursery and they moved her up with the Sunbeams. They did this last year too it works so well if you have teachers game to do it. Our primary president did a great job. Having been in a number of presidencies I know how much work today takes. Wendy you are so smooth!!

The next two days look to be busy. Tomorrow is our actual anniversary, we are hosting a Fiesta Fiesta bowl party. Should be fun. Tuesday it's off to Spokane for Elyse's eye appointment. They are wanting to schedule surgery this time. Just this last week she has started to complain that her eyes are "bugging" her. They get stuck outward and it must feel odd. I was fine with surgery 2 years ago, but actually setting a date makes me nervous. We have been through lots of surgeries, of other ward members and friends, even my own, but just this little procedure seems big when it's your 3 year old. I hope to do better than I did when Caia had tubes put in. I got teary eyed when they took her from me. I feel so blessed that my kids are so healthy. I choke up and remember how blessed we are every time I hear that commercial "go away tumor go away", for St Judes. Or remember a friend who lost her her little son at only a few weeks old. As much as I feel blessed, and how this is minor, it stills seems big to me. It's really nice to remember our Savior, that he know my heart as a mother and he understands my rambling feelings.

Wow sorry this is so long but it's been therapeutic. And I end with a smile, A smile remembering the good of the past year and a smile thinking ahead to the good to come in 2009.
Happy New Year to you all and I pray you will achieve all of your new year resolutions.

The Miracle of M&M"s

So I was working on my Relief Society lesson for tomorrow on the couch when Elyse came and sat by me munching on M&M's.



Elyse "So there's chocolate in them?"

Me "Yes"

Elyse "so you put them in your mouth and make the chocolate pop out?"

Me w/a smile "yes I guess so."

Elyse "watch me"

And she puts one between her teeth and proceeds to "make the chocolate pop out"

Elyse "See!"

We have numerous conversations like this daily. The world through her eyes and verbal skills is such a wonder.

Day 3 of 3, Merry Christmas!

I almost forgot this one. Mark gave me a jewelry box this year. He has picked out such beautiful pieces of jewelry the past few holidays but I haven't had a good place to keep them. Well Payton had a different use for the box. She told me tonight that my jewelry box was her favorite present. I think Mark may have to open the two boxes of saws that have been sitting in my garage unopened for a year, and see if he can build Miss Payton a her own "china cabinet".

And they lived happily ever after! I wish this had turned out, Caia took this picture. Payton was snuggled right up against me. A perfect ending to a very Merry Christmas.

Our friend Dan Evans gave this puzzle game to the girls. We all enjoyed it.

Dan's mom Sis Evans sent each of the girls necklaces. Elyse's Necklace had a Dora on it. She wore that, and the bracelet, which matched exactly to her jammy's and robe, all day. She took it off for a nap and put it all right back on.

Caia and Payton's necklaces were "I am a Child of God" charms. How well she knows little girls. Mark is the only one that has met Sis Evans but she remembers the girls each holiday! Thank you Sis Evans for being so thoughtful!

(Some day I will remember to post pictures backwards first, then add text so this would all be in the correct order, I'm not great at thinking backwards, oh well!)

OK OK enough suspense for you impatient souls. I can't believe all of the flack I have gotten for not posting sooner. I hope this lives up to your expectations!

So after a late night, our morning didn't start until 7 am! I could hear Payton and Caia whispering and their little slipper feet scooting around. When they woke us they had only peeked to see if he had come, they wanted to wait for us to get up to play w/Santa gifts and stockings. I assured them it was OK to get into these things, and they took Elyse to take a peek. Elyse came back in talking 90 miles a minute. "Santa came down and stepped out of the chimney and left lots of presents, and a Diamond Castle Barbie!" She repeated this twice and I wished I had the video on. We are so bad at taking pictures on Christmas Day we start off taking them then Mark and I get to caught up in the action and get distracted. Our gift to the girls was a count down calendar to our Disneyland adventure in February. They weren't as excited as I though they would be. They couldn't get past the fact we have been telling them that we would go next summer or so. So finding out we are going this February I guess confused them!?! They got over it and excited when we watched the DVD from Disneyland.

We had time to talk to our Grandparents in Russia and AZ. We always enjoy these visits. I have to admit I feel very blessed to have two families that love us and we get to spend eternity with.

Skype is also such a blessing as well, we love that we can include them in our festivities even though they are both so far away.

Day 2 of 3, Merry Christmas

Christmas Eve packages! What could they be?P.J's like every yearl, but this year a little twist they came with a bag & slippers!

Payton, always so clever

"Oh they're so cute, oh it's noses are hearts, and they have bows!" and before bed she said thank you for the present. That's my Lyse, quick to say thank you and notice all the details.

I love that they like to match still.

Dinner at the Mosman's was wonderful as always. The kids start asking about 2 months ahead of time if we are going to the Mosman's for Christmas Eve.

Thank you Kim for another lovely evening!

Day 1 of 3, Merry Christmas.

Sister Alvey @ the piano, Caia, Payton, Joseph & Emma Hansen, Ashley Todd Clay Hansen,

Sam and Roy Patten.
Gladys Patten, Clay and Amy Hansen

Monte came and crashed the party, Sue was home recovering from surgery. We love you Sue and hope to see you on Christmas day.


Roy Patten holding Bethany Alvey, Paul, Alex, and BreAnn Alvey.

Emma, Caia, Payton and Elyse completely enthralled with Sam's yukalaylee skills.

Sam Patten in the zone!

BreAnn helped me clean up while Paul enjoyed a good literary read, "The Bean Buckets."

I love that he was laughing as hard as the kids.

I decided it would be wise to try to post each of the next three days as they happened or I will not do our fun justice. We have a tradition of a musical evening some time the week before Christmas. The last 2 years we were at Doug and Nicole Haines, this year they were out of town so we moved the festivities to our house. We of course had a lot of fun and food. The Hansen family came, along with the Alvey's, and our home teachers the Pattens, who brought along two of our friends the Todd's. My favorite addition this year was the hot chocolate bar. I have been on a quest to create the coffee stand hot chocolate and I did it. Torani's choc. sauce, milk and Torani's flavoring, yummy whipping cream, along with my favorite Christmas present ever my cocoamotion from my Sis-in-Law Mary Liz. I have great plain white mugs from Target and I put out dry erase markers so everyone could write their names on them. Of course all of our teenage friends took it to the next level and decorated their mugs, it was a stroke of FUN on my part. Then we gathered around the piano for good old Christmas carols. I love that we spent most of our time singing from the hymn book. The kids each took turns playing a piano piece, and Sam Patten brought his yukalaylee( I had to look up the spelling for that one). I think everyone had a great time. I can't begin to express how warm and happy these events make me. I guess I host them for selfish reasons but I believe this is the kind of entertainment that the spirit is able to attend and I feel blessed to have a home to host them in, and friends willing to participate. Merry Eve of Christmas Eve!

Oh The Snow, Snow, Snow, Snow!

The snow is only about 6" but this one of Elyse is off of our back deck with the wind drifts against our arcadia door.


Q. What do you do when it's too cold and snowy to leave the house?

A. Play with the Cricut of course! The sisters sign was made on my friends machine for girls camp this summer, our cabin had a Christmas theme.

Of course it's never to cold for the girls to play outside. These were taken tonight when Mark got home from tithing settlement. We heard the garage door go up but no one came in; when the girls realized that dad was not only home but he was "playing" (shoveling the driveway) in the snow they went out for the attack. My only regret was not getting a picture of our Dad, they got him pretty good. But then again you know the old saying..."you should have seen the other guy!"

He's Making His List and Checking it Twice...

Thus w/ all of the list checking we decided to make sure we are on his good side and turned to cookie making. Along w/ cooking making we learned a few lessons....

1. Cookie making is serious business.

2. What starts out neat and tidy won't last but makes a mom feel like she has some control.

3. Three little girls in black are so cute, but cookie making and decorating show up well on black. On the flip side apparently it doesn't show in a pictures so much, Who knew?

It's been a good day. The cookies are done now to see if I can get cards out tomorrow. I didn't take into account that as fun as they were to make I need them to fit into envelopes and my scrapbook store closed down since I started them. So I'm off tomorrow to hunt for envelopes.

This Week

Elyse making a cornflake Christmas wreath

So this week was filled with Christams fun. Monday night we purchased the ingredients to make gifts to take to some single sisters in our ward, we'll put them together and take them for family night/day on the Monday we get out of school. Friday we took our Joy School friends to Gritman Day Health to perform for the grandmas and grandpas. I pulled Payton and Caia out of school to participate and our friend Allison is home schooled got to come too. It turned out a lot better than I had thought it would, the grandmas and grandpas loved it. Saturday Caia danced in a Magical Peter Pan Christmas, twice. Mark, Payton, Carli, and I attended the 3:00pm performance while Elyse played w/Nik and Jordan Schwartz. We had enough time to grab Caia dinner, take it back to her, head home for Elyse, our potatoes, ham, and brownies, and to make it in time to be 10 min. late to our ward Christmas party while Caia did a second performance at 7pm. All in freezing temperatures, and blowing snow. We had one family from Genesee not make it home and have to bunk w/other members in town, and our Genesee ward members were unable to make it back into town today for church due to the highway being closed from the snow drifts. We have ended this Sabbath night just right. We watched Mr Krueger's Christmas, drank Grandma Monson's hot spiced punch and played a fun Christmas game that Caia learned at Achievement Days. The girls, including our little friend Carli whom we have adopted until her mom is done with school for the semester, are off to bed. Mark is nearing the end of tithing settlement and I still have Christmas cards to get out, teachers gifts to put together, and bishopric gifts too. But all in all it should be a fun week. Here is the link to to the kids performances if you have time. (I'll add Peter Pan soon.) http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=hmons0691&search_type=

Elyse's Sleeping Habits

So the other night I was sneaking into the little girls room before I went to bed and Payton's blanket was down like the picture above. I just thought it had fallen. Yesterday when I went to put Elyse (bottom bunk) down for a nap, as I was leaving she says "Close two doors mom." I was a bit confused and walked out closed her door and she yells, "no two doors" , that's when the vision of the night before came back to me and I realized the second door was her sisters blanket. She had actually stolen Payton's blanket while she was a sleep to create a second door. She by far has the biggest imagination. So after weeks of sleeping on the floor in a sleeping bag this is her new favorite sleeping situation! She has such a tender heart! Last night she woke up and came into our room having had a bad dream and says "Mom I had a bad dream, will you come say a prayer with me?" After she finished w/her sweet simple prayer she says "Mom I'm sorry I yelled at you to get out of my room" (this happened at bed time). Let's just say I had no problems w/that middle of the night call and the rest of the night was peaceful.