I am not as nice as this makes me sound - ask my kids!

I am Easter

You are an optimistic, hopeful, and genuinely sweet person. Sensitive and affectionate, you are easily touched. You love nature, animals, and anything cute or cuddly. For you, every day is a new chance - no matter what happened yesterday. What makes you celebrate: Almost anything. You love most holidays and celebrations. At holiday get togethers, you do best as: The peacemaker. You can prevent any squabbles that might break out. On a holiday, you're the one most likely to: Remember to include everyone

What Holiday Are You?

The Best View in the House!

There are many things that I love about the new part of the house, but by far, this is my favorite thing to see in the addition...Not because of the TV, but because I get to see my spouse sit down and enjoy the TV.

"Mom, Come Wrestle!"

I have heard this several times in the last 24 hours, from all three of my children. You would have thought they have never seen carpet before in their lives! Nick & Jonathan both slept in their new rooms last night. It was a little strange to kiss them goodnight, and then walk upstairs...

It's the Best Christmas Present EVER!!

It's finally here!! CARPET!!! Troy worked his tail off these last two weeks, and the day has come! Nick is so excited. He has been counting down the days until he can sleep in his room. I must admit, it's going to be a little weird to have those boys of mine downstairs!

Back To Bethlehem

Our Ward Christmas Party this year is Back to Bethlehem. Troy was recruited to be one of the 3 Wisemen, and everyone was encourages to dress in Biblical era clothing.

Unfortunately for me...I am the last member of the family to get the stomach yuck that is going around our house, so I was going to stay home with "the little drummer boy". But he kept walking around saying "I'm going to be a shepherd", and after he got dressed up, Troy didn't have the heart to tell him he couldn't go.

I can't wait to hear all about it.

YUCK!

I didn't think that my kids would take the U loss as hard as they have, but they were so upset, they have been throwing up ever since!!

3 kids throwing up in 3 days - living the good life!!

Oh Utes...

My day started out like any typical UofU football day. I wake up, walk into my kitchen & turn on my "U" in my front window. I was on my computer, and I heard a little noise on my window. I look out, only to find my cute 80-something year old neighbor taping a blue Y on my window over my U!!! He is the nicest guy in the whole wide world, and he is a U fan - he was simply doing it to tease me!

Troy went with some friends down to the game (I still can't get that yucky Utah County smell off of him!), and the rest of us went over to my Mom's house to watch the game with my family. My Mom was in her glory with her ugly royal blue BYU shirt, while the rest of us were in all of our Utah glory! There was a little trash talk balk & forth, but in the end, it was my Mom who was rubbing it in our face (those BYU fans are terrible winners!!)

It was so close! We could almost taste the victory - and then it slipped through our fingers!! - what a crappy way to end the season! I am blaming it on my cute neighbor.

I LOVE Online Shopping!!

Ho!Ho!Ho!

There is nothing like getting most of your Christmas shopping done in just a few clicks!! I am NOT the kind of person who likes to get up at the crack of dawn to shop with the crazies!! No offense if you are one of those crazies...I love getting my shopping done in about an hour, and I was able to do it in my PJs, and my arms don't hurt from having to carry all those dang bags from store to store!! Plus, it's like Christmas, everytime I get a delivery, and see what I ordered!

I am excited for my kids to get their presents - It's going to be another electronic heavy Christmas at our house - what can I say - the Denning's love their gadgets! I can't list any items at the moment - because I have someone who likes to some read whatever is on my computer (thinking it is her business too!)

I am not really in the Christmas mood yet - knowing that I will not be getting my tree, or my decorations out on Friday, has made it seem like it is still far away, and we all not that it's not!! Let's all pray for a Christmas miracle at the Denning house - carpet to be in before Christmas!!

She really is a girl!

I love Ash - although she can really push my buttons! We got to go to the Hannah Montana concert, and as you can see from the picture (she is not looking at the camera of course), she can really look like a girl sometimes! She even had a purse with her!!

We had a blast! We went with some friends in the neighborhood, and Ash & her friend Sarah talked me into making signs for them to take - it was very cute.

Ash took her little video camera, and took some video of the concert. I will try to post it, because it is so funny to see her little video.

Trick or Treat!!

Yet another year of Halloween frenzy is over!!

Jonathan was totally into his "punchy-punch" costume, wearing it several times over the past few weeks. He was a bit dangerous when he got his gloves on - he would start punching anyone within his reach!! He LOVED trick-or-treating, and he was so excited about "the cool stuff" he got.

Nick is adorable as Quidditch playing Harry Potter - And Ashley is in yet another very girly costume - she doesn't even know who Freddy Kruger is, but thought that he looked cool.

I had a hard time with pictures this year - My default picture taking spot is no longer in exsistence - I am going to have to figure out a new spot for all of my outside pictures.

In a Funk...

I have no real excuse for not posting anything lately - I think I have just been in a funk! I think the constant stream of workers inside & outside my house, the dirt & dust everywhere, the fact that my front yard is a big pile of dirt, along with my husband working on the house any time he is not at work has started to get to me after a year...Yes, you read that correctly - IT HAS BEEN OVER A YEAR AND WE ARE NOT DONE YET!!!! I have told my children on several occasions "Mommy is going to lose it today, it may be because of something you did, it may not - but Mommy is going to lose it."

It did help that we carved pumpkins yesterday - nothing like a sharp knife in hand, and being able to pull some guts out of something to make you feel better!

We have some HUGE pumpkins that we got from Troy's parents garden - they are pretty awesome! Ash & Nick totally got into carving pumpkins this year. Doing most (if not all) of the work themselves. That left Jonathan wanting to do his own as well. He actually did cut the lid by himself - he did a pretty good job!

And, I am happy to report we still have a total of 50 fingers at our house!

Nothing New

No, there is really nothing new to tell, but after discussion the creepy people that are out there stalking blogs (No, not you Macy), I decided to make mine more private...I do not have the memory needed to call my family by fake names, and then remember that name the next time I post (I know, not often enough, and too often about my house!)...Thus, the e-mail inviting a select few of my FAVORITE people to view my blog...

And although there are days that I would gladly let anyone take my people, I guess deep down I really do love them, and want to protect them.

Rock On!!

Oh yeah!! The rock is going on, and they are starting to goop up for the stucco!!

I must say, it is looking quite nice!

Finally, I have the inside of my house back to myself - the sheet rockers finished today - as nice as they are, I was so glad to see their cars drive away!!

Paint is next - yahoo!

The Big Birthday!!

The Birthday Boy and His Bounce House!

First Day of Pre-School!

What am I going to do with myself for 2 hours every Tuesday & Thursday from 12:30-2:30...Lunch/Shopping anyone?

Back To School

Can I just say - HALLELUJIA!!

Nick was soooo excited - and Ash claimed she wasn't, but I was excited enough for both of us!! Jon & I spent a relaxing day at Costco, and running all sorts of errands, and it was just heavenly...However, I kept finding myself looking at my watch and saying "Crap, I only have 3 hours left!"

(Notice our glorious "landscaping" in the background from the trucks coming in & out of the backyard)

Beach Bums

We are home, and yes, we still like our friends!! We think they still like us too! In fact, we are already looking for places to stay next year!

We had so much fun, just spending the whole day at the beach. Nick & Ash were on the boogie boards constantly. Nick got "boogie burn" where no boy ever wants to, but he just boogied through the pain! The weather was great...in fact, it was so nice, we didn't realize how much sun we were getting, so everyone except Jon got a little burn. We played hard, and slept hard.

We took one day to go to Knott's Berry Farm. Nick was about 1/4 inch to short to go on some of the big rides, and he was a little bummed, but he loved the ones he could go on.

One day, the "big boys" decided to go out on a raft together...It was quite the sight to see 3 grown men on an inflatable raft in the ocean.

Who Us?!?

The planets must be in alignment, because we have had such good luck on the house this week!! The insulation is in & passed off by the county (we got the nice inspector again!), and then we got a call from the guy who is doing our sheet rock - he had originally told us that it wouldn't be until September 3rd - He said that he could start Saturday - yahoo! Then today, I have had calls from the concrete guys, and excavator and the guys who are going to be cutting in the window in Ashley's new room - it's spooky, but things are lining up quite nicely!! Not at all typical for our project!!

We are heading off to California. We are staying in a condo on the beach with two other families - our last get away before school...Hopefully we will still be friends when it's over!

Troy the Spudman!

This year was Troy's 2nd Spudman - he did AWESOME! He finished in 2:28 (21 min. faster than last year). He, of course, still he said he could have done better...there's always next year...

There were 8 guys from the neighborhood who all signed up, so there was a healthy dose of competition. Most of the wives came to cheer them on, needless to say, we had a BLAST!!

Moving Along...

We must have been living right last week, because we had our 4-way inspection on Friday, and we got the NICE inspector!! He passed us, and we are ready to do insulation on Tuesday! We started this project on October 25, 2006, and it has not been easy - we have learned a lot, and we will be so glad to have our project done, and not have any more projects hanging over our head!! Before, During & After pictures coming soon!

Potty Training

I want to be done with diapers!! We have been working on this for about a week now, and Jon is doing pretty good. It is amazing what you will bargain with to get a 2 year old (almost 3), to use the potty. He has had Oreos for breakfast, lunch & dinner, but hey - he is starting to use the potty!

The other day my people found the dress up box - so Jon was wearing his superman cape, and the Darth Vader voice changer. He would sit on the potty and say "I - AM - JON - I - GO - POTTY"

WHATEVER!!

I am totally following the crowd on this one!! I have had so much fun seeing what is going on in the life of all of my friends, so I thought I would just join along!