Beautiful World

"For the beauty of the Earth
For the beauty of the skies,

For the love which from our birth,
over and around us lies,

For the beauty of each hour,
Of the day and of the night,

Hill and vale, and tree and flow'r,
Sun and moon, and stars of light,

For the joy of human love,
Brother, sister, parent, child,

Friends on Earth, and friends above,
For all gentle thoughts and mild,

Lord of all, to thee we raise
this our hymn of grateful praise."
Hymn #92

"Whenever I hear the song of a bird,
Or look at the blue, blue sky,

Whenever I feel the rain on my face,
Or the wind as it rushes by,

Whenever I touch a velvet rose,
or walk by a lilac tree,

I'm glad that I live in this beautiful world,
Heavenly Father created for me."
Children's Song Book page #228

Brittany inspired me with her
"Beauty" goal this week.
How can you look at these pictures
and not see beauty,
and blessings?

Girls Night Out

Our GIRLS NIGHT OUT was courtesy of Holly

and one of the coolest Christmas presents EVER!!!
Her husband, Cory, gave her 3 pedicure gift cards,
so she could get her nails done with 2 friends...
Me and Andi!

and manicures...

and dinner at Olive Garden...

and he offered to watch all the kids!

So, we sat in the bar,
just because we could,
not because we drink.

Since we couldn't agree which picture was the best,
here's all of them! It's so rare to get a girls night out,
esp. when the husbands plan it! So much fun!

When I got home,
I found this little cheese-ball,
waiting to help me blog about my night.
Of course he couldn't stand
not being in the blog as well.
After all, my world does revolve around him...

Saxon wants to thank his Grandma Gailey for the cute new jammies too!

Snow Day with BB

We finally braved the snow to get some winter pictures...

Look at my cute boys!

Telling secrets...

Ok, so this is our glamor shots moment...
We never get cute pictures together,
but Brittany helped us out today.

What a Stud!

Saxon inherited some new clothes from Aunt BB tonight
and felt like he needed to wear them all immediately.
Once he had them all on, he says,
"Cool like Johnse!"
Thanks for influencing his fashion sense Uncle Johnse...what a stud!
He felt like the coolest kid ever in his new clothes,
listening to Daddy's IPOD.

Saxon baby

This is my Saxon baby...

He LOVES being outside...

He is 2 years old,
He loves his baby brother, swimming, and sledding,
He is collecting the whole CARS cars collection,
He still sneaks into our room in the middle of the night,
He wants to grow up to be like Mike, Jeff, and Gregor, "the boys" as he calls them,
He is very good at making cookies,
He is VERY opinionated!
He is almost potty-trained,
He can do a taco tongue,
And I love him sooooo much! He makes me laugh every day!

The potty and the plunger, I have a picture of Brookie doing the same thing when she was Saxon's age. I'll post it later if she'll let me...

Mike and Jeff came over for lunch today (Saxon and I made them homemade pizza) and they bribed Saxon with a Coke to put some undies on. He was running free today since we were stuck inside all day anyway. I should have known better...giving a baby soda is always a bad idea. It goes right through them. After the boys left, I found Saxon hiding under the crib, and the Handy Manny undies in the trash :) Another oops!

Bridger Bug

This is my Bridger bug...

He hates rice cereal...
He loves sled rides from his big brother Saxon...
He is 5 months old,
He weighs just over 16 lbs.
He can't roll all the way over yet, but he can almost sit all by himself,
He sometimes sleeps through the night,
He laughs when Saxon growls like a dinosaur,
He's happy when he's held,
He loves the bath, pizza crust, and chewing on his thumb, and lots of attention,
He has his Daddy's smile, and just looking at him melts his Mommy's heart!

Thanks Britt!

So, my fabulously talented cousin, Brittany, made me this cute new header for my blog as a surprise tonight! I LOVE it! Thanks Britt! I'm saving this old one too because Saxon's cheesy face makes me laugh every time!

Great Grandpa Roy

So, Saxon loves his Great Grandpa Roy. Grandpa Roy turned 80 on Christmas Day and gave each of us a copy of his life story and a DVD of pictures from his Surprise 80th birthday party in October. Gregor came over tonight for dinner and we decided to watch the DVD. Saxon was glued to the TV naming everyone he saw. "Pa-pa" aka Grandpa, "Ma-ma" Grandma Cathy, Brookie, Kasen, BB, Alice, "Saxy and Bubby" aka Saxon and Bridger, etc. Each time it ended Saxon would stand in front of the TV saying "more Pa-pa movie!" We've been watching it all night! I'm sure he must have it memorized now. Finally he went and got my phone and said, "call Pa-pa." Since it's late, I decided that that wasn't the best idea, and it ended in a screaming fit for Saxon. We compromised on sending Grandpa a video instead. This is Saxon sending his love to "Pa-pa Roy"...

Grandpa Roy and Jenna watched Saxon once for me when he was a baby and I had to work. Every time Grandpa would talk, Saxon's eyes would get big and he would look around and try to find "the big voice" as Jenna called it. He was happy all day as long as he could hear Grandpa's voice. Jenna said he must remember his Great Grandpa Roy and his "big voice" from the pre-existence.

Dinner with the Pope

Nate's parents are in town this week to visit after Christmas. They brought Saxon a play-doh set, which he has played with no-stop for the past 2 days. It comes in a little carrying case, so we take it everywhere. Last night we were supposed to have dinner with everyone. In true Gailey Family form, no one knew what the plans were, except Grandpa Gailey who was hunting with Uncle Jared and couldn't be reached. We finally got a call from Nate's mom saying that Grandpa and Uncle Jared had lost track of time and would be back 3 hours later than they were supposed to. So, she decided to take us all out to Buca di Beppo without them. If they were going to loose track of time, they could eat leftovers. When we got there, the manager said that they had a rare opening at the "Pope table" if we wanted it. The Pope table is a round table with the head of Pope Benedict (we think) twirling around the middle of the table on a lazy susan. It was awesome! Grandpa and Uncle Jared made it before the food got there and everyone had a blast. Saxon, however was a nightmare on the way home. He kicked my seat and screamed that he wanted to play play-doh the whole drive back. When we got home, I went straight into the laundry room to finish up, and left Saxon tantruming in the living room. When I turned around to walk out, I ran into this...

-What are you doing Saxon?
-A play-doh hat!

He knows I can't be mad at him when he's funny! So he goes ahead and climbs straight into my bed and turns on the TV to watch "Shark Boy and Lava Girl" which has been re-playing all day!

-Why do you like this movie Saxon?
a little giggle, -Lava girl cute

So, Saxon wins again, and fell asleep in our bed...

Resolutions

So, how many people actually keep their New Year's Resolutions? I'm pretty sure I usually forget mine after a few weeks. Although, it's usually something dumb, like "lose weight". This year I'm going to try to make some that actually matter, and I hope that by writing them down, I will actually keep them...

1. Enjoy my time with my kids. In his talk "Daughters of God" Elder Ballard quotes Anna Quindlin, "The biggest mistake I made as a parent is one that most of us make...I did not live in the moment enough. This is particularly clear now that the moment is gone, captured only in photographs...I wish I had not been in such a hurry to get on to the next thing: dinner, bath, book, bed. I wish I had treasured the doing a little more and the getting done a little less."
2. Date Nate. We rarely get time with just us.
3. Teach my kids. Teach them to one day be great missionaries, great husbands, and great fathers, just like their dad. Teach them by doing, by example, by reading the scriptures, by saying prayers, by going to church, by having better family home evenings...
4. To teach Saxon to swim and wakeboard
5. To take Bridger on his first trip to Chicago and Shaver Lake
Can you guess where these Resolutions are from: "To do one new thing a day; To take more pictures; to not gossip as much; to learn to play the guitar; to learn to fly a plane; to not make fun of anyone" ?
Here's a clue: The episode is called "The one with all the resolutions"
And speaking of Resolutions, here's Saxon's and Bridger's...