Almost Christmas...

We have been so busy getting ready for Christmas I have been really bad about posting. Yesterday was our 6th wedding anniversary. It was such a fun day. Tim took the day off of work and my sisters were nice enough to come up and babysit for us. (Thanks Jenna and Elyse!) We went out to dinner, went shopping, saw a movie, got ice cream, did more shopping...it was great. I was reminded again of what a great decision I made 6 years ago. So in honor of that here are 6 great things about Tim...

1. He is so mellow and relaxed, which is great to balance me out : ) He never yells, hardly ever even gets upset, is quick to forgive or overlook my not-so relaxed moments :) He is great with the boys too. Never yells or is harsh with them. I love that about him.

2. He puts always puts me and the boys first. I know he would do anything for us.

3. He cracks me up. He doesn't care if he looks crazy or silly or what other people think. He knows he doesn't have the best voice but he still sings loud and crazy for the boys and they love it. :)

4. He is so smart. He can figure almost anything out. He got A's in all his accounting and Macc classes at BYU and passed the CPA exam on the first try. He can also do math in his head which is so impressive to me because that is way beyond me : )

5. He is a hard worker which kind of goes along with being smart. He always finishes everything he starts and does a great job. Just come check out our landscaping which he redid/finished himself this past summer.

6. Too many other things to list all of them...patient, kind, good-looking, he has it all : )

Okay...he will be really embarrassed if he reads this but oh well. Too late. : )

Other events of the past week or so have been going on The Polar Express, Christmas parties, Uncle Tyler's birthday (24!), and getting over ear infections. ( I am just glad to get them over with before Christmas)

Two kind of funny stories to end with...

Jace woke up Wed. night about midnight crying and saying that his ear hurt really bad. (okay that isn't so funny...) I knew he must have an ear infection so I gave him some Motrin to help him get through the night. The next morning I packed the boys up and took them to the doctor to get Jace's ears checked. She said that he had an infection in the ear he was complaining about and was starting to get step throat (which I was just getting over) so he got a prescription for some antibiotics which would clear both up really quick. Braxton was there and running around and had not acted sick in anyway...sleeping and eating great, not fussy, just his happy little self, but I thought I should just have her check him really quick to see if he was starting to get anything so we could stop it before it got bad. Well, she checked him and said that both of his ears were infected...worse than Jace's! I couldn't believe it because he had been so happy. He has nerves of steel in his ears! If he falls down though and bonks anything it is major tears...I just couldn't believe he was so happy and no fever with such bad ear infections! So now they are both on medicine and feeling much better...

Since Tim's parents are in South Africa on a mission Tim uses Skype to talk to them on the computer. We have a little desktop microphone that he uses and then of course the computer speakers. Well, Jace has seen him use it and has used it a little himself and thought it was so cool. So one morning, after Tim had talked to them the night before as Jace was getting in bed, Jace got up and turned the computer on, hooked the microphone back up and said "Nana, Papa are you there? Are you there? It is me, Jace. I am on the computer. (waited a couple seconds) Where are you? I need to tell you more things I want for Christmas! It was cute. He thought they would always be there on the computer ready to talk to him : )

I will try to post some pics tonight of the Polar Express : )

E-mail address

I am trying to update my email lists... : ) when you leave a comment or something will you just leave your current email address? Thanks!

And Baby makes 5...

Yep...that's right, a new little Prusse will be joining us in May. I can't believe I will have 3 kids, but I still have a few more months to get used to the idea. I will be 16 weeks in a couple of days and am starting to feel just a little better. the end of September, October and most of November are a blur. I blame that on not posting more often. : ) They all would have said, "Today I felt pretty sick and really tired. The boys did some things, I am not sure exactly what and I think I did some things too but I can't remember really." Thankfully that is letting up just in time for Christmas. I haven't been sick for a little while and that helps with feeling tired too. I will say that handling that raw turkey was almost more than I could handle. :)

We will be able to find out what we are having right around the new year. Tim is sure we are having another boy, but most other people think it is a girl. I really don't know. Tim is 2 for 2 though so he has a pretty good streak going. I will be happy with either one this time. Tim will too even though he jokes that if it is a girl he will cry.

I don't know about other people but when I am pregnant I get intense food cravings. Not just like I kind of want it but I have to have it to be happy. This time I have been craving food from Aloha Mixed Plate, which unfortunately is a restaurant found only on Maui. We went there twice when we were there and I thought it was really good but I didn't have any unusual attachment to it but now...it is a whole different story. I told Tim one day I am just going to pick up and go for the day, eat there a few times and come home : )

The boys don't really get the whole idea yet. Jace knows there is a baby in my tummy but since I was sick in the beginning and I kept telling him it was because there was a baby in my tummy he now thinks that is the cause for anyone feeling sick to their stomachs. When he had the stomach flu he kept saying there was a baby in his tummy. : ) We were talking about the baby last week and asked Jace what he thought we should name it and he thought for a second and then said "Jesus". We cracked up : ) Braxton will turn two a week or two before this baby is born and hopefully will have learned how to be soft by then...

So any guesses? Is Tim going to be 3 for 3?

Snow Day

We had the first real snow of the season last weekend. The boys had so much fun playing in it. Here are LOTS of pictures to prove it : )

Here are the boys on their little sled. Tim was lucky enough to be the one to pull them around the yard 200 times. : )

Here they are on another trip around the track...

Jace wanted a turn to pull Braxton around, but found out it is much more fun to ride.


Jace after he fell out of the sled in the snow. He loved it and would have stayed out there all day if we let him, he never complained about being cold.

He looks cold here but still no complaints...Tim taught him how to make snowballs too and that has been his favorite activity this week. I have had to teach him it is better to throw them at the wall or a tree than at people : )

My three boys : )

Braxton happy about his ride, Jace loved to get whipped around in the back and thrown out.

This was Braxton's first real time playing in the snow...last year he was too little. He had a lot of fun.

Jace fell out and was trying to chase them down but Tim kept going faster and faster. Jace loved it : )



Here is a bunch of my cute little guy : )

This is one of the deepest parts when we first went out. It covered his boots.

This is how Brax felt about falling out of the sled.

It was a lot of fun. We are supposed to have a lot of snow this weekend too. I hope it lasts and we have a white Christmas. We have had a good week. Busy getting ready for Christmas, I think we have one or two parties each week until Christmas. I love this time of year though. Jace is really in to Santa this year and everything he sees that he wants he says "Okay, I need to tell Santa". He loves asking people what they want for Christmas. Braxton loves to take the ornaments off the tree and carry them around or try to put them back on himself. He knows who Santa is and says "Santa" when he sees him, but is a little nervous when he gets up close. : ) We are going on the "Polar Express" train ride this week and Jace is really excited. I think Brax will be when we get there too. This month is already going so fast...I hope you are all having a great Christmas month!

Thanksgiving Pictures

Better late than never...right? :)

Here is me and my turkey...the green stuff is the sage butter, you put it under the skin to cook so the breast meat is really tender : )

Here is Aunt Jenn...Jace was the dinner time photographer so that is whey the picture is at table level

Another one of Jace's pictures...this time of Aunt Kellie : )

Here is a picture of Braxton helping me get the foil ready. Ready for what I am not sure, but he sure made a big mess. : )

Here he is making sure he got every last bit off of the roll...

Here we are the day after Thanksgiving setting up the Christmas tree, Braxton loved the box. He liked to hide in it and have people look for him, then say "boo" when you found him.

Jace was really into helping decorate the tree this year so most of our ornaments were on the bottom third of the tree and in the very front. We had to redecorate it after he was done. : )

More of the tree, while we were decorating it and when we were done Jace kept telling us what a beautiful tree it was...it did look great when we finished. : )

Funny Comment Before I Forget...

Jace was pretty bored most of Thanksgiving Day. I was cooking, Tim was helping or cleaning and Braxton was napping so Jace was just kind of playing by himself. We kept telling him Jenn and Kellie were coming over soon for a fun dinner. He was so excited by the time the doorbell finally rang he jumped up and yelled "It's Kenn and Jellie" as he ran to the door. I thought it was funny and didn't want to forget it...

Happy Thanksgiving

I realize that my posts have been kind of few and far between lately. I STILL cannot post pictures onto the blog from my home computer so I have to burn them to a disk and then take it to another computer to post them. It is not the most convenient thing and I don't really like posting without some pics so...that is my excuse. I am going to my mom's house tomorrow so I will post some pictures of the things I mention.

We had a great Thanksgiving and we have so much to be grateful for. We had Tim's sisters, Jenn and Kellie, over for Thanksgiving dinner. And, yes, that means that I was in charge of cooking the turkey. I was a little nervous because I had never cooked one or even cooked a whole chicken or anything, but I found a recipe I was excited to try and bought a big bird to try it on. I have never been a fan of roast turkey but it is such a tradition at Thanksgiving that I knew I had to make one so I found a recipe for a sage butter and maple turkey that sounded yummy. I didn't have the nerve or the stomach to pull the neck and other giblets out so Tim thankfully took them out and threw them away for me. : ) The turkey turned out good despite my inexperience though, and all the other food was delicious. A big thanks to Jenn and Kellie for everything they brought and Tim for making the mashed potatoes and helping me clean up. : ) We had all the traditional things and I made my Nana's Danish Rolls which has become a Thanksgiving tradition for us. So...from my rambling, jumbled thoughts I hope you can tell it was a great day : )

The Sunday before was our Primary Program. It was so cute. Jace's part was to say something he was thankful for and draw a picture of it to hold up. He decided he was most thankful for his scooter and I persuaded him to add his family in there too : ) He loved talking in the microphone and did a great job. Later that week when I bought a turkey baster he brought it to me and asked if it was a microphone and then went around asking everyone what they were thankful for and making them answer into the "microphone".

Braxton has decided he hates nursery. He started crying as we approached the door today and we weren't even in there yet. It is only his second week so I am hoping that it grows on him soon. He is so cute though it is hard to be mad at him. He says new things everyday and loves to play with Jace. He has also discovered how to bug Jace and likes to run and grab whatever Jace is playing with and then run away with it as fast as he can. Jace chases him down and it doesn't usually end well for Brax but he keeps doing it. I think he just likes to be chased.

Tim has a great week mostly because BYU beat Utah yesterday. He left the Y flag flying in front of our house as a reminder to our Ute fan neighbors who won.

It was great to spend a long weekend with family and we are glad we got to see Ward, Janet, Chase, Annie and Jill too. I love to spend time with our great family : ) I will post some pictures of all of this tomorrow.

All About Me

My friend Lindsay asked me to write six things about myself that most people wouldn't know. This reminded me of elementary school or primary when you were the "spotlight child". I remember it being a lot easier to think of things to write about myself then...So here are 6 things about me...

1. I really like to cook and I really hate to clean up the kitchen. I love to try new recipes and make a nice meal. I love to make new things that Tim loves : ) This will come as a shock to anyone who hasn't seen me a lot after I got married because before I got married I cooked only to keep myself alive. I love to try all kinds of things, it just depends what I am in the mood for. But as much as I love to cook, I hate to clean up the kitchen. I don't mind doing any other cleaning at all, sometimes I actually like it, but I never like to clean the kitchen. I think it is because it gets dirty again so fast. To keep it constantly clean requires that I clean it about 4 times a day. Once after each meal, and an extra after the boys spill something, etc. Braxton is also at a very messy eating stage and is not in a high chair anymore (strapped in booster at the table) his area requires scrubbing after each meal. I tell Tim, one day when we are rich : ) I am going to hire someone just to come and clean my kitchen everyday.

2. I don't think this is very unusual but Tim thinks it is crazy. At the end of the day after the boys are in bed and I have cleaned up a little I am usually soooo tired, but no matter how tired I am I can't just lay down and go to sleep. I have to unwind first or I will just lay there staring at the ceiling. Tim is completely the opposite so he does not understand. He can go lay down after playing with the boys and be asleep in less than a minute. I have to watch a little TV or read (which I like even better) for like 45 minutes to an hour before I am relaxed enough to go to sleep. I have wondered what that says about me...am I a little tightly wound? : )

3. I love fun surprises. (Note fun... : ) I love to plan them, I love to be surprised, I love to watch other people be surprised. I love when I know I am going to surprise someone and they have no idea it is coming...it makes me happy for days. I am usually planning some kind of little surprise for someone all the time, it just makes me so happy!

4. I am a wimp when it comes to sad songs. I cry so easily. The other day I was driving with the boys and a song came on that I wasn't even listening that closely to, but I caught enough of it to be in tears. Jace noticed and was very concerned. He kept saying "Mommy are you crying? What is wrong? Did you get an owie? Do you need a band-aid? Okay, it is time to be happy." If there is a really good musical number at church it is the same results. I just can't help myself.

5. I guess I remember this because it is coming up, but on Christmas Day after the presents are opened and everyone is checking out their new stuff and trying stuff on I am always a little sad. It doesn't have anything to do with what I got, I just look forward to shopping for everyone and, again, the surprises and everything that I am just let down that it is over and I have to wait for a whole year to do it all again : )

6. I love being pampered. When we went to Hawaii, one of my favorite parts was getting a massage at a really nice spa. I love getting pedicures, I even love just taking bubble baths. To me it is worth a lot of money and I gladly pay it. Tim was a little skeptical but I convinced him to get a massage when we were in Hawaii too, and he really liked it. I don't know if he would do it again anytime soon, but at least he understands why I am willing to pay so much for it. : ) Unfortunately I don't get to do any of it that often right now, but that makes me love it even more when I do get the chance.

So there you go, 6 things about me that aren't that important! : )

Picture Time

Finally some pictures!!! I know it has been a long time, but I just hate posting without pictures. :)

Jace as Dash from The Incredibles. I will admit, at first I did everything I could to talk him out of this costume choice. He saw it at Target and really wanted it. I tried to talk him into being a pirate, or a doctor, or a ninja...but he was set on being Dash. I finally gave in and realized the days of me making all his decisions were over. I think he looked so cute in this costume though, so maybe he did know what he was talking about : ) (He still loves this costume and asks me to put it on a couple times a week and then shows me all his "fighting" moves in it. I let him because it cracks me up to see him try to jump kick)

Jace ready to go, and tired of me making them pose for pictures. : )

Jace dispaying all the candy he got. Brax got almost as much. We still have almost half of it. It will be going in the trash tomorrow.

I know this picture is a little fuzy but I liked it anyway. This is after we were done and Jace is enjoying some of his loot.

Tim in his costume. He actually wore this to work that day too with his business clothes. His employees thought it was so funny. I think they were just suprised that he dressed up for work.

The finished products. Tim did the two faces and I did the spider. The boys loved them, especially when they were lit.

This picture cracked me up. Jace is holding the slimy seeds and smiling because I told him too, but his eyes say "I am not enjoying this". Right after this he stared using a spoon to clean it out.

You can't see their hands really well, but they are covered in slimy pumpkin guts.

Jace and Tim cleaning out one of the pumpkins.

This is how Braxton felt about his costume before we went trick or treating. You can tell Tim felt really bad.

Jace decided that he wanted to wear the dino costume and he looked so cute.

He finally got brave enough to touch the dino face...after Tim had it on for 15 minutes.

This is how he looked at me while I made all sorts of silly faces trying to get him to smile. I can just see him thinking "Mom, what is wrong with you?"

Can you tell I just loved taking pictures of him? :)

He really wanted Tim to put on his dinosaur costume. He kept bringing it to him,but when Tim put it on he was scared of him. Maybe he just likes being scared and will grow up to love scary movies. : )

My cute little guy. Once again after we got home.

Brax in his cute little turtle costume. This was after we got done trick or treating and he decided that he liked wearing the costume after all. When we first put it on him he cried for like 10 minutes.

Happy Halloween

Thankfully everyone was recovered in time for Halloween. Jace had a party at preschool on Tuesday so he got to wear his costume which he thought was great. Yesterday we watched Halloween cartoons on Playhouse Disney in the morning, had a Halloween picnic with pumpkin shaped sandwiches for lunch, and then went Trick or Treating that night. The boys loved it! Jace was Dash from The Incredibles and Braxton was a turtle. They were so stinkin cute! As soon as I get some picture software loaded on this computer I will post some pics. Brax carried his little pumpkin bucket and went up to all the doors with Jace. He would say "treat" really loud as soon as they opened the door. Jace would wait until he was done, and then he would say "trick or treat". It was cute. We made it around 2 1/2 blocks on both sides and then started to get cold so we headed home. As soon as we got there they emptied their buckets to see what they got. Braxton loved the Kit Kats and Jace claimed all the suckers. It was such a fun day!

Not our best week ever

I feel like I have been absent from the world for a while. We have had a crazy week or so. Last week Braxton, Jace, and I all had the stomach flu. It wasn't pretty. Brax got it Tuesday night, I got it Wednesday night and Jace got it Thursday night. Tim, who hasn't thrown up in over 10 years, didn't even feel nauseous. That was a really good thing too, because someone needed to take care of us : ) That was the one bright spot of the week, I realized again what a great husband I have. Tim stayed home from work on Thursday and cleaned the house, did all the laundry, folded it and put it away, and cleaned up throw up from the boys. I think he was glad to go back to work on Friday though : )j This week I have been cleaning up and trying to get the smell of throw up out of the carpet, couches, beds, blankets, and everything else it seems like. When I did start to feel better I realized that our computer was broken. I am not sure how it happened but somehow the network card broke. So Tim just brought home a new laptop last night and I can finally be connected to the world again. : ) I hope that everyone had a much better week that we did!

Snow and Spiders

Braxton loves Nemo right now. He calls him "Mamo" or "Bish".

This was the hat they made for Jace at preschool on his birthday. He loved it!

This is Jace and his best bud Zac at Jace's birthday party. It was a Pirate party and he loved it. We had 12 4 year olds over for 2 hours. Tim and I were exhasted by the time it was over. : )


One day when I was getting Jace ready for preschool I heard Brax in the bathroom. I thought he was just splashing his hands around in the toilet, but no, he had climbed on the stool all the way in. He went straight from there to the bath. I felt like the Mother of the Year that day :)

Jace's spider hat he made.

Yesterday Tim and I went to the BYU football game down in Provo. It was the first one I had been to this season and it was so fun. One of the doctors in Tim's practice is a member of the Cougar Club and has great season tickets and so he let us use them, and that is the way to see the game. We got to go to the Legacy tent before the game and they had tons of food and drinks and desserts. They had ribs, roast, salmon, mashed potatoes, salads, and lots of desserts. Then our seats were right at the 40 yard line about 10 rows up AND they were the nice ones with the backs. :) Under our seats they had little coolers with drinks and snacks, and at half time the tent opened up again with hot dogs and popcorn and more desserts and a print out of the half time stats. Tim was in heaven. It was so nice to have a place to go that was warm and covered during half time because it was freezing during the game. I had a big blanket wrapped around me so I was pretty good as long as I didn't move much. During the third quarter they brought us hot chocolate which was good because it had started to snow and by the fourth quarter it was snowing so hard it we could barely see the players or find where the ball was. It was so fun though. If you know Tim at all you know that we didn't leave the game one second early and after we stayed so Tim could go hit them on the helmet as they ran around the stadium after the game. A big thanks to my mom and dad for watching the boys!

When we woke up this morning there was about 3 inches of snow everywhere. Jace was so excited and that made Braxton excited. We had Regional Conference early though and by the time we got home most of it had melted. There was still a little in the back yard and Jace played in it until it had tracks all over it and then he wanted to get his sled. We convinced him to wait for a little more snow :) He also made a spider hat a preschool this week which he loved. He wanted to wear it all day. Then we saw a huge spider in the house and they both loved it. They watched it crawl all over the walls while I called Tim to come home and kill it :) (he had just run over to help his sister at his parents house, he wasn't at work or anything). I don't love spiders. It was another great week!

Fun at the Pumpkin Patch

Without fail, Braxton found the mishapen, discolored ones and really wanted them.

They had lots of fun, old tractors for the kids to play on too.


Carson and Jace

Jace and Brax loading up.

This past week we have had so much fun. Our best friends from Arizona, the Ellsworths, came up for a visit and it was great to have them here. They have two boys as well, Carson and Conner, and Carson and Jace are three weeks apart and Conner and Braxton are three weeks apart too, so it is perfect. We went to the park, fed the ducks at the BYU pond, and went to a pumpkin patch and picked some pumpkins. Jace thought it was so fun that they got to sleep over and he and Carson got to sleep on air matresses in the same room. Braxton kept calling Conner "baby" even though he was like twice his size (Brax is pretty small for his age :) It was a great week. Here are some pictures from the pumpkin patch.

Our First Pet

Roger is the little tiny green thing on the table

A few days ago Tim was outside in the yard with the boys and they found a little green caterpillar. They brought it inside to show me and Jace decided we should keep it. He named it Roger (so I guess it was a boy) and we got him a little Tupperware dish to live in and Jace gave him a leaf of lettuce to eat. The boys had fun "playing" with him. They would let him crawl around on the coffee table and they would pick him up and let him crawl on their hands, Jace even let him crawl all over his shirt. Actually Jace was they only one he crawled on. Braxton wasn't as gentle as Jace and every time Brax picked him up he would curl up in a ball, probably scared for his life (with good reason, Brax thew him across the room). They were so excited. Jace and I went to the store a little while after they found him and at first he wanted Roger to come with us and when I said no, he was concerned about him the whole trip. They played with him for several hours and then I convinced Jace his real home was outside and he would be happy there. So we took him outside and watched him crawl around for a while until he went back into the grass. Jace still looks for him when we go outside. He was a great first pet! :)