Snow cookies

Every once in a while my Mary Poppins streak shines through and I can pull fun activities out of the bottomless carpet bag of my mind. Of course this only happens once in a very great while. Even so, I think I'll enjoy the moment and call myself genius for the day.

I thought that Johnny was pretty creative. He used the measuring cups and spoons to make snow molds, then he stacked them on top of each other, largest to smallest.

I had to tell Maddie more than once not to eat the snow, of course they had to pretend just to see what I would do. And of course, my reaction would be to take a picture, will they ever learn?

Homework time!

Tonight, while Johnny was doing his homework, Lucy sat next to him and did her homework too. She has the studious pose down pat, resting her head on her arm while she writes. Every time Johnny read a word outloud, Lucy followed suit and read her own "words" outloud. Don't mind the mess, that is why we have a whiteboard table :)

I just realized that Lucy is writing with her left hand here, she switches back and forth. Who knows, we may have a Lefty-Lucy.

Pokey Bear

Lucy had the song for Family Home Evening tonight, so we sang her favorite song. It was so cute that I made everyone sing it again so that I could record it. The first time Lucy really got into the growl at the end, I wish I could have recorded that.


...And yes, our kids are crazy.

Let the countdown begin!

We, at the Loveless home, have been struck head-on by the Christmas spirit! I am pleasantly surprised that I have had so much energy this year. As I was trying to pinpoint what has made this year different from all other sluggish Christmas seasons, I came to an interesting realization. For eight of the past nine Christmas seasons, I have either had morning sickness or an infant waking up to be fed through the night. Some people are very good at functioning with these minor infractions of babies, but it leached the Christmas spirit right out of me. Not this year :).




The tree is up and ready to go...almost. I spent a full day during Thanksgiving break putting the tree up and wrapping lights around every branch. Shame on me for doing it before Thanksgiving, but I just couldn't wait. This is our first year with this tree, and I had to make sure it was all there (ksl classifieds, love them). It goes so well with the ornaments we have collected through the years. It is a blue spruce style, and it reminds me of the Christmas trees we had growing up--but fake. It has the classic, vintage look that I love so much, so to play off of that style I decided to try making a popcorn/cranberry garland. I have one more strand to make for the bottom of the tree and then it will be practically perfect in every way.

(It's a bit blurry, but I love this picture of Maddie taking a break from jumping on the couch to gaze at the tree. My real project should be teaching her that our couch is not a trampoline.)

Our neighbor made this countdown candle for us, my kids are loving it. We have never had a candle countdown before, and I already have plans to make my own next year.

And the other side of their heads, and their cute smiles. I love Hannah's new "chiclets" teeth.

And here is my attempt to make our tree look "Thanksgiving-ish" to ease my guilt of putting the tree up early. We wrote the things that we were thankful for on construction paper turkey feathers, and hung them on the tree. Finally, John admitted that he wouldn't be too hurt if we decorated before his birthday on the 15th. He didn't have to tell me twice, up the decorations went!

Dinner Hinder-er

Lucy is our dinner helper this week.

She takes her job very seriously; tasting every fork, rearranging every plate and testing the structural soundness of every glass.

A jaunt through memory lane

With ten years under our belts, we feel like we have plenty of wonderful memories stored up. I thought that I would post a few snapshots of our lives together up to this point, but as I looked through our old pictures I was a little disappointed. I am sad to say that these snapshots pale in comparison to the sweet memories captured in my heart.


We were married November 6, 1999 in the Logan, Utah temple. It was a beautiful day! We spent our first year together in our first "home" a cozy little trailer in U.S.U. student housing. The only home that we have ever had to register at the DMV.

We were bracing ourselves for the tough first year that everyone warned us about, but it never came. Of course we had plenty to learn about love, communication, and happiness in the home, and there were ups and downs. For some reason, with John it all seemed easy, especially when each "fight" ended with me laughing until my sides hurt.

2000

On our first Anniversary, I told John the news, we were going to be parents! It was such a surreal time for me, I had no idea how to be a mom. Again, John and his sense of humor made it easier.

2001

After we graduated, John got his first real job as an engineer at Bently in Gardnerville, Nevada. We moved into our first real home--and had our first real baby two months later.

2002

Hannah was beautiful, life was good, but we still had more to learn.

2003

Johnny joined our family, and after much thought and many prayers we decided to make our move back to Utah only a month after he was born. We bought two fixer-upper houses in Kearns, one to sell and one to live in and fix while the other sold. Things didn't turn out how we had planned, and this was a very hard year for us. Our experiences this year only seemed to make our love for our little family and for our Heavenly Father grow.

2004

John worked hard on our little house, and slowly it got bigger and better. He landed a job as an engineer at L-3 communications, the perfect job for him. I loved seeing him happy to go to work. I learned a lot about being a mom to two adorable puzzling toddlers and John built the garage of his dreams, 1000 square feet, "from scratch."

2005

I was starting to make some wonderful friends and felt more settled in our home, neighborhood, and ward. I joked with John that if we had another child he had to sign a contract that we wouldn't move during my pregnancy or shortly after. John was still enjoying fixing up our little home, this year we finished our basement.

2006

Madeline joined our family, she has been such a joy in our lives. John continued to enjoy his job, he spent a lot of his time traveling to places all over the world. This year John remodeled our kitchen and added a dining room onto our house.

2007

Our children were growing before our eyes, and I was pregnant again! This year was full of happiness, chaos and exhaustion.

2008

Lucy was born, such a sweet girl. John built an awesome awning in our back yard, and life quickly filled up with church callings, the many duties of parents, work and friends. Hannah and Johnny were starting to be more independent and that worried me in our neighborhood, so the search started again--time to move.

2009

This time it was me convincing John to move, but after much persuasion on my part he embraced the idea wholeheartedly. He did have to grieve a little over leaving all of his hard work behind, but it didn't take long for him to start planning some new exciting projects in the places we were looking into buying. Such a wonderful husband to make such a big change for his family and never look back. Thanks John, I love you, and am excited to see what our lives will bring in the coming years.

Our big number 10

Before November is over I need to write about our tenth anniversary. Ten years ago I married my best friend. These past ten years have been the most meaningful, fulfilling and happiest years of my life. To celebrate, we did the one thing that we have wanted to do ever since we moved into our home--enjoy it! We farmed out our children, went out to dinner and a movie, and came home. With no responsibilities at home, we stayed up late and we slept in until our backs hurt. The next morning we had breakfast in bed and went for a peaceful walk through the neighborhood holding hands. It was perfect.

Thank you, John, for being who you are, and sharing your life with me.

Off to the dentist we go!

Maddie had her first dentist appointment last week. I really should have taken her in when she turned three, but with the move , a trip to the dentist was the last thing on my mind. She, did increadibly well. She loved sitting in the chair and having the dentist count her teeth.
On the way to the dentist, she kept asking with a little sly smile; Should I chomp his fingers? And I would answer every time. No, please don't chomp the dentist's fingers. I don't know where she got that idea.

Hannah and Johnny also had their dentist appointments two days later. Luckily none of them have had a cavity yet. I really do think it is luck too, because they floss by themselves, and more often than not, brush their own teeth. I hope it lasts!

Question:

What do you get when you mix "Doctor Strangelove" and a lady with three eyes?

Answer: A flamingo, a golden retriever, a cowgirl and a witch.

Aren't genetics fascinating?

Playgroup party fun!

My sister-in-law, Lori, hosted a Halloween party for children under five this year, and she graciously let me invite my playgroup. It was so nice to sit and chat and let our children play and decorate cookies. Thanks Lori! Maddie and cousin Elena.
Cute little Cowgirl


My playgroup friends. (I seriously think playgroup is just as much for me as for Maddie.)

I love Lucy's smile here, all of our children have had this "I'm not going to smile" smile at her age. Hereditary? I think so.

Our Cute little Pumpkins

We had a ball decorating and carving pumpkins this year.

Hannah, of course, decorated her's like parakeet.

Johnny's turned out to have an uncanny resemblance to the guy on the movie Goonies.



Maddie loved her "princess pumpkin" but she was jealous that it got to wear Hannah's tiara. Hannah forbade her to wear it until it broke a week before Halloween, once it broke it was too floppy to stay on her head. We decided to hot glue it onto Maddie's pumpkin. Maddie felt better when I told her that she may get a tiara for Christmas.





Here is John's Pumpkin "pie". He entered it into the pumpkin carving contest at work and got a free lunch voucher.

Hannah and Johnny had a great time picking out their pumpkins at J&J Nursery's in Layton. They have an awesome tradition every year where anybody who brings a non-perishable food item for the food bank can take a hayride to their pumpkin patch and pick out a free pumpkin--we found some beauties.

Things are growing!

Believe it or not, our yard is turning green! Just in time to go dormant. I am so excited, and hope that the young grass we have growing will survive the winter.

I can just imagine what it will look like when we have a bit of top soil, some decorative rock,

thick, beautiful grass, shrubbery, flowers...


...and kids!?

We had better weed those out before they get too big and start taking over the whole yard!


There, problem solved.

Wheeler Farm Field Trip

Last week Johnny's first grade class went to Wheeler Farm. I decided to volunteer as a helper and brave the day with my two little girls and four 1st graders. Wow, it was a busy day! Wheeler farm is a beautiful place to be this time of year, and the weather was perfect. It was also so fun to chat with Johnny's teacher and meet some of his classmates. We all had a great time. Lucy spent most of the four hours on my back in the back carrier, needless to say, by the end of the day I was exhausted.