Kid's Prayers

I love listening to my kids pray they say the funniest things. Tayson is a very good communicator and takes his prayers very seriously. Luke on the other hand prays as fast as he can and has to start over if he gets out of his rhythm. Here are some of my favorite things Tayson has said in prayers:

• Please bless that we will all die (long pause)so that we can be resurrected someday and live with Jesus (this was at Easter dinner when he was 3)


• Please bless that no tigers will get out of the zoo and eat people (from the tiger attack this past December)


• Please bless that no-one will get out of jail and come get us at our house.


• Help us to not say bad words, even when we are at the airport.

Luke on the other hand always says the exact same prayer. Every prayer has a blessing for the food in it. He always blesses the bishop, Pres. Hinckley and the missionaries in the same order every time or he has to start over. He always blesses Mark on his mission and that Chelsea will get home safely (no matter the time of day). If someone else says a prayer and misses something that he thinks needs to be in the prayer he will loudly whisper it to them across the table/room to make sure they don't forget. He's very helpful :)

Music

I am not an exceptionally musical person (as most of you know too well). However, I love everything about music. It's amazing to me that listening to music can completely change your mood. One of my favorite things about music is how it reminds me of people or places. I love sitting in the car or at my desk with my iTunes and I will hear a song and all of the sudden I remember some absolutely hilarious time in my life. For instance I can't listen to Les Mis "On My Own" without thinking about my friend Alice and the funny High School story of when she had a solo singing the song with the choir and forgot the words so she just made her own up (I wasn't even there and it makes me smile when I think about it). I can't listen to Eminem without thinking about Todd or the fact that when we first got married I woke up in the middle of the night and sang "slam baney" instead of "slim shady". I had no idea he called himself slim shady - but Todd got a kick out of it. Abba will forever remind me of the ward talent show in the good old singles ward days. I could go on forever with songs that remind me of funny times in my life. I realize this blog is just random talking....but I don't want to be a bad blogger and only tell stories about my kids!

Let it Snow

We are on our third storm this week and today's was a big one. It is so beautiful! I love waking up in the morning and seeing fresh snow on the ground and in all the trees. I love it when the mountains are covered in snow, and not just for the skiing. Of course, I have only skied once since Tayson was born and that was right before Christmas, but it was a blast and I hope to go again this season. Claire loves the snow too. Everytime she sees it she just stands at the window saying "noooo mama nooooo". I didn't get to cuddle back into bed after I saw the snow since I had to teach spin at the crack of dawn this morning - and lots of people ventured out in the snow to join me at the gym so it was great. The parking lot at the gym was pretty funny since no-one could see the lines there were cars all over the place. Then this morning poor Tayson was at the bus stop for 30 minutes (the bus was 25 minutes late and I sent him out early since I thought it would take him longer to walk in the snow). Of course he decided not to walk and Todd was nice enough to drive him to the bus stop. The kids just played and had a big snow ball fight while waiting for the bus. Back in the days of school buses for me we never would have had school on a day like today. We would have seen the snow (even 2 inches) and turned on the radio to hear all the school cancellations. Ours almost always got cancelled because we had some "country roads" people that came to our school. I loved snow days growing up but my kids will never see them living in Utah where no-one is afraid of a few feet of snow. It's hard to sit in my office looking out the window at the snow fall, it is the perfect day to be at home in warm jammies with hot cocoa and a good book.

Girls: 2 Boys: 0

I have decided it is time to take potty training seriously. Luke is almost 3 1/2 and it's really just too much to deal with. He however has no issues with wearing the biggest size diapers they make (until you move into adult that is) and is still not motivated. So I've moved on to Claire and she is doing pretty good. She now has 2 stars on her potty chart. Maybe, just maybe, this will be the motivation Luke needs to get moving on potty training. I also bought a bunch of new "tools" to really kick start things that I am waiting for this week. A DVD for Luke - he loves TV so it might help him. If only there was a game on nickjr.com for him to play that would teach him how to go potty - he'd have it down for sure.

Girl Bonding

Claire and I bonded yesterday before church and painted our toenails. She was so excited to join in the fun I was having and just kept saying "toes...toes...toes" the whole time. The hard part of course was trying to keep her from touching them long enough to let them dry. I love having a girl! When Tayson was little he always wanted to paint his toenails with me, but I would just tell him no and that it was only for girls and he would leave crying.

Claire is such a girly girl - I love it! She loves jewelry. She loves shoes and wearing new clothes. She loves to play with my makeup brushes and act like she's putting on makeup in the mornings. She loves her baby dolls and cuddles them, shushes them and takes care of them just like they are babies. I couldn't ask for a better little girl - I just can't wait until we can start shopping!

A New Year

I thought it would be fun to look back on 2007 and list my favorite things of the year. Rather than put them in order of most important I just ordered them by time of the year.

Our new house

Finding Chelsea – the best nanny ever!

My new bike

Finishing a century and half marathon

Being in better shape in my 30’s than my 20’s

Buying new “skinny” jeans

Phoenix – Amy’s wedding and spending time with old college buddies, not to mention shopping with Kati it doesn’t get much better than that

Tayson’s first day of school

My parent’s moving so close

Mark’s mission (it’s bittersweet having him gone, but I wouldn’t want him anywhere else)

Blogging – I love being back in touch with so many friends who have moved away

Thanksgiving

My hair being as long as Sherry's - for the first time in my life

Our Cruise

Reading (what a year…Harry Potter, Twilight Series, and about 20 other books along the way)

And of course my wonderful husband and kids!!! It just keeps getting better every year.

Looking Ahead:
I'm not big on setting new years resolutions. I love Kati's idea of creating a "theme" instead, but haven't been good at that either. I always tell my spin class at the start of the year the best way to do a fitness goal is to sign up for an event or race rather than say you're going to lose 5 lbs. However, I thought it would be fun to just list some things I'm looking forward to in 2008 then just sit back and enjoy the year rather than think of all the things I'm not doing. So here goes:

Spending the summer with my kids

Lots more reading

So many babies being born this year

Having someone else clean my house

Luke and Claire getting potty trained...hopefully!!!

Merry Christmas

Here are some highlights from our fun Christmas vacation.

Schultz Christmas: We always have a night of Christmas fun with my family before people leave. My parents and Timmy actually opened all of their presents so they could go skiing on Christmas day. Claire got her first doll for Christmas (3 this night and 2 strollers) she was in heaven, Tayson got some great games which he loves playing and Luke's favorite was an armor set and when he put it on he said "look I'm a princess". David has since taught him to hold up his sword and say "by the power of grey skull...I have the power" instead.




The best Schultz Christmas tradition is that my dad always buys a bunch of Nerf guns for everyone and there is a huge battle after the presents are opened. Todd decided to wear Luke's new armor for protection and was heard yelling "are you not entertained?" (from the Gladiator for those of you who haven't seen it).



Another highlight of the night was Trent's present. For some reason unknown to us a couple of years ago Trent saw a Catwoman puzzle and it "reminded him of Todd" so he gave it to Todd for Christmas. We have kept it ever since and this year put it together and mounted it for him. :)



California: Next we hopped in the car and drove to Vegas to see Danny's family for a night, ate a yummy breakfast and headed for Cali. On our way to Todd's house we pasted through San Bernadino so we took Mark and his companion out to lunch. It was so great to see him.


That night we opened presents with Todd, Amy and kids before they took off for Utah. Todd decided to open one of his presents from me so he could play it with Todd M. before they left - Guitar Hero. It has been quite the family hit.





Christmas Morning: The kids got so many toys, books, games, etc. They were in heaven and still are with all their new presents. After having 3 different "Christmases" they were ready for more the day after too. We had to explain that they have to wait another year now.