Snow!!

The first snowfall of the season. On Mount Timpanogos was a couple weeks ago.

Josiah was 3-1/2 and Jacque was only 1-1/2 when we moved from Cleveland, to the Deep South. Josiah remembers snow, Jacque doesn't. She asked me how the snow gets on top of the mountain, and how it grows back, if it melts... "no sweetie, it doesn't grow, it falls from the sky" Jacque loudly replied, "WHAT THE!?" {by-the-way, she doesn't say anything after that, it's just, 'what the' period...}

Last weekend, we saw the first snow-fall in 'Happy Valley'. It only lasted for 10 minutes, and melted as soon as it hit the ground, but it was a very memorable moment. The children were mesmerized, watching the snowIt was a very cold weekend and we only saw a tiny bit of snow collect on the edges of the roof-tops. My Grandfather told me it snowed almost 8 inches at his house. It was so freezing cold. I was really, really missing New Orleans. It's, of course, warmed up since, and was in the 70's today. I think this will be a very cold winter for our family in comparrison to the last 3 winters in the south, but I think it is also going to be very, very fun!!

Stuffed animals, toe-eating, and Spunk!!

Pauly is so adorable with stuffed animals. He hugs & pats them, makes a little "aww" and pouts his lip out. Then, after all this tenderness, he puts their nose in his mouth, holds them with his teeth, bites down so hard his head shakes, then runs across the room.

I love seeing the twins observe each other, I love Pauly's bed head, and the innocent look Hannah always has on her face.

Pauly is trying to bite Jacque's toe.

"Jacque don't let him bite your toe!" Mommy explains, "Pauly, we don't eat toes, no, no"

A few weeks ago, I was picking Jacque up from her friend's birthday party. Her mom told me that they had a lot of fun with Jacque, that she has a lot of "spunk". I smiled, and agreed with her. That is a wonderful word to describe Jacque's personality. SPUNKY!!!

Hey! You, get back here!!

18 months sitting in a stroller can get pretty borning for twins. I used to cringe when I saw parents using these. But, like most things, I became a mother, and knew they were invented for a good reason. It gives the care-free tots a chance to roam & walk, without me, trying to run in two opposite directions. {which, can I say, is completely exhausting!} When we are in a large crowd, people do not always see them, and knock the babies over. With the harnesses, I can stop the little ones from getting stomped on by big people. {another plus}

Josiah, Hannah, Pauly, & Jacque.

Fundraiser Carnival

Instead of requiring school children to sell products for school fundraisers,

our school has a few "fairs" to help raise money for the school.

Josiah had a fall festival at his school {a while back}.

They had games, balloon creations, treats, prizes, and more.

Our kids have been obsessed with golfing since we moved, to Paul's delight, and he had a chance to give them their first lesson.

mmm. blue snow cones! "What color is my tonge now?" is always the question after the kids have special treats. Josiah is even MORE reserved than his father. whoa.

They even had some color sprayed into their hair.

Dad: "Time for a bath kids!!"

Josiah & Jacque: "But, the color might come out"

Mom: "Yep, that's the point, it might get on your sheets tonight"

FireStation FieldTrip

Since I finally found a sitter, my first order of business was to be a chaperone for Jacque's field trip. I really enjoyed meeting Jacque's classmates. Her "buddy" that rode in the car with us, is such a cute girl! Her and Jacque just talked and talked and talked and talked some more on the way there. They were fun to listen too. ~girls!

I love their school t-shirts. They say AB/CD, w/two crayons instead of lightening!! & on the back it says, OUR SCHOOL ROCKS! {but with the actual school name}

We love you Jacque, and we are so proud of you! You are smart & beautiful & sweet too!!

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This post is of little importance. None-the-less, still demonstrates my continual clumsiness. Even if it wasn't my fault.

I was shopping at the Super-duper-Warehouse-extravaganza. {I just got my camera back, and didn't want to leave it in the van, so I put it in my purse, not expecting to take any picutres}

This, however, was not my fault. It just fell. I wasn't touching it. I was just looking at some infant clothes, and the whole bar fell. There was only one person who saw me, and she just looked at me with a blank. {it wasn't a smile, or a grimmace} Then, I didn't see any workers until I got to the cash register. I told them what happened. {only because, I didn't want them to think someone did it on purpose, or just left it there, and didn't care. Because I did care. :) ~ The woman said it was fine and would have someone take care of it. {She did, however, ask if we were alright} how sweet.

Just ask my husband; accidents always happen when I am present.

Along Came a Spider

The sun was setting in the sky,

and little children came flying by

saying, "there is a huge spider

you have to come outside-r!"

I went outside and what did I see?

But, the biggest spider I'd only seen on TV.

I ran outside to see what was going on,

Our nice neighbors were outside looking at our lawn.

I looked and then I saw it walking on the grass.

I looked and I saw it, I couldn't surpass...

I ran to house in a flash

and we all took pictures of the spider on the grass!

{Ok, now I just can't rhyme anymore.

When I was writing, I kept hearing teletubbies, and Cat in the Hat in my head.}

Our RS President was there and our neighbors' brother was visiting them too.

We had quite a crowd. Paul was in the house with the twins. Not very interested after a long, long day at work. He just wanted to get all the kids in bed, so he could go to bed too.

I was running in and out of the house, getting my camera & a container to catch it in.

Our neighbors wanted it dead, just in case it was a threat to the kids.

I thought the black widow was a sight to see, but this?

It looked like a tarantula, but smaller.

I found a large mug and gave it to the neighbor's brother.

{I got him a tall blue cup, but it was not wide enough.}

The brother trapped it in the mug, I ran back inside to get something flat to put under the mug and transport the GINORMOUS ARACHNID.

A Styrofoam plate!! {I know, that's what they said too}

But, we got it under the mug and I set on the side of the house, with rocks on it.

I was going to leave it there until the morning, but thought it might not be so stable, and what if the sprinklers came on and it fell over?

So, I me and the kids went inside I got the babies put to bed and the kids into their jammies and they had some pizza with Paul, while I was hunting for a flash light that worked. I found a flash light, and a clear, large, round, shallow Tupperware container, and the lid.

I needed to get it into the container. I brought the mug-plate to the back porch.

The kids were watching me from the doorway.

Jacque asked Paul, "what mommy was doing?"

He replied, "she wants to take pictures of the spider."

{good job! Paul, you know me so well!!}

I was so freaked out trying to transfer this creepy thing. I begged Paul to do it... he said, "I am not having any part in this, this is your thing you want to do Nicole." even Jacque asked daddy in her cute little sweet voice, "daddy. you have to help mommy. she is a girl and you are a boy." Still no.

So I sat there staring at the mug and the clear container. For a while. Then I did it!!!

I brought the captured, sealed, and secured spider into the house to let Paul actually see what all the fuss was about. He was very impressed.

I took pictures of it. Then killed it. I will not reveal how. It is a secret.

The next thing I had to do was get online and find out what kind of spider it was.

A Desert Tarantula

A desert tarantula? Now, in the more populated areas of Utah, it's not really desert-like. There is green grass, a lot of shady trees, not like a desert. I looked online again, and found that we live in the Great Basin Desert. I know I was probably taught this in the forth grade, since I did attend k-12 in the state of Utah.

I still can't believe how big it was!!

Now, I think that was a great blog-about moment!

I sure am glad I got my camera back from Cannon last week!

ugh, I still have the heebie-jeebies just thinking about it.

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I found this info online:

Tarantulas

These spiders bite but are reluctant to attack people. Usually the venom is no more poisonous than that of bees. If roughly handled this tarantula will release abdominal hairs, which contain irritating substances.

True tarantulas don't live east of the Mississippi. Several types of tarantulas call Utah home, and they are especially numerous around the Topaz Mountain area along the Thomas Range in Millard County.
"The tarantula is regarded as kind of the gentle giant of the spider world," McNally says of the hairy, fist-size spiders. "It usually has to be provoked to bite, and the bite creates only local symptoms -- redness and inflammation."
Perhaps of more concern is a little-known tarantula defense system involving the release of so-called "urticating hairs."
"They create a burning, itching type of rash on our skin," McNally says. "A tarantula might employ this form of defense before biting us and wasting its venom on something that's not a viable meal."
The male spider wanders in the dim light after sunset or near dawn searching for a mate, then hides by day in abandoned holes or under stones.

Simple Update- Caution, long post...

My camera isn't back from the shop yet. I find it difficult to blog without pictures. I am just going to post whats going on in the lives of the Child Family.

~

1-Jacque started PRESCHOOL. It's 3-half-days a week. Each day they do a different performing art. Singing, Karate, and Dance. Jacque tells me every detail of her time at school. She says that the rules are #1 no karate chopping kids!

~

2-I found a PEDIATRICIAN for the kids! The building is nice, and the office, and the staff, and the doctors! They are even open 365 days/week until 10pm. The doc told me we probably wont ever have to go to the ER in case of an emergency. GREAT!

~

3- I came across an amusing blog. GLITTER GONE BAD It makes fun of dumb, useless homemade crafts. I love it because of the humor, and that I've never been really good at the homemaking thing.

~

4- GARY COLEMAN hit someone in a Payson, UT Bowling Alley parking lot. !?!?!?!?!?

I am really not one to care much what any current or past celebrities are doing,

I was just really surprised he lives in Santaquin though!

~

5-Josiah and Jacque are still doing SOCCER. On Saturday I think our whole city had soccer games and pictures. They had a soccer game at the same times, but luckily they were at the same location. Paul was home, so he watched Jacque's game, and I watched Josiah's game.

~

6- When we first moved here I was all about our home team- LSU Tigers. Our landscaper asked me if I believed in our Lord & Savior Jesus Christ. I told him I did. He replied, then I had to believe in BYU. I really didn't have a problem with it, they are our home team now. BYU FOOTBALL has won 2 games so far. When they had their first home game, the traffic here was crazy-bad! I will remember the next time they have a home game, not to leave the house.

Go Cougars.

~

7-Our poor, sad LAWN. Our sprinkler-system-programmer-thingy died, and I didn't notice the grass wasn't getting water. Paul came home from a business trip and asked me what happened to the grass, if the sprinklers had been coming on.... ??? I didn't even notice. I checked the system and it had no power. We checked everything. We had to manually turn the sprinklers on for a few days {what a pain! it takes 6 hrs to complete a cycle} until the landscaper came over to check it and had to replace the entire box. So, now the system is working and watering the grass on schedule. It looks really yellow, but he said it should only take a week or so to come back.

I really hope it does.

~
8-I'm am currently looking for a BABYSITTER for me to have a {time-out} once a week {so I can do the shopping, go to the doctor, have lunch with a friend, go to the temple, or get my hair done} & and also once on the weekend so Paul and I can have a date night. This week I'll be interviewing a few people for the coveted position. {j/k}

~

9-The TWINS are beginning to look like little toddlers now. They are understanding us better and trying to tell us things in their own little ways. Hannah says, "baby, binki, bye-bye, & hi" it is so cute!! They both give us kisses when asked too. I brought their car-coupes into the house and washed them because they'd see them outside and cry through the window to go play. It is still very hard to have them outside running free, so inside they are. But, Hannah and Pauly just love them. Pauly knows which one is his, and gets so mad at Hannah if she gets into his car. He'll sit on her and scream, then she screams 'cause she is getting smashed and can't get out. But, they are still so much fun to watch, play with, and love!

~

10-I finally found a GROCERY STORE I like. I do most of the grocery shopping at Sam's or Costco. So, for the past few months when I've needed something little, I've been visiting a different grocery store each time, trying to find one that I like. The main problem I have is that the shopping carts that have 2 seat for the kids are always missing one strap or another, so I try to jimmy-rig it and one of the babies {usually Hannah cause she is so little} starts slipping out of the seat. Macey's had 6 different car-carts, which is perfect for the twins! Jacque and Josiah are very upset about not being able to ride in these anymore. They got promoted to be helpers, not just passengers.

~

11-I also found a radio station I like. Most of the ones I have listened to, play outplayed-older songs. But, I finally found one, with no morning show, not a lot of commercials, and new music! It makes my days much better!!!

~

12-HAIR BLOGS! A friend of mine had her 3 girls' hair done so cute one day, and she told me she found some hair blogs. They are just some mommies that post cute and creative hair do's they do on their daughters and show you how to do them! I love it because I don't even know how to french braid and I always feel bad that I don't do her hair all fancy. So, now I have been experimenting with her long dark hair. {if she would just sit still and not cry when I brushed it}

~

13-PAUL's job is going really good. We feel extremely blessed for this opportunity & I know Paul loves what he does too! Thanks for working so hard while you were in school, it was defiantly worth it.

~

14-I did a GOOD DEED. I found a thumb drive on the grass at the park last week. It sat in my car for a couple days, but I finally plugged it in to look through the documents, trying to find any kind of name or contact information. Well, I found a consistent name and luckily there was a ward picture directory saved and had the owners info in it. I contacted him and he didn't even realize it was missing {don't worry, I made him identify it}.

It felt nice to help a BYU student out!

~

That's what is going on in our lives. We will take some cute school pics of
Jacque & the babies in their car-coupes once I get my camera back.