My New Toy!

This is my new toy...






I have been researching camera's lately because my old one recently broke. I was really wanting a DSLR, however they are just so pricey! So when looking around I decided on the Nikon P90. It seems to be a pretty good camera, and my favorite feature is the 24x optical zoom! WOW!!! I am in awe of how good the zoom is on this thing. Anyway, I still have a lot to learn about this camera and photography in general. I would like to start taking and editing pics, maybe one day I can get good enough to charge! ;) No, really I just love taking pictures so much, I appreciate photo's that others take and I want to be able to provide some quality pictures of my family. Here are a couple shots I have taken with the camera just on the automatic setting... I am excited to learn how to customize the settings and really see what this camera can do!

Thanksgiving 2009

This year was yet another wonderful year with family! We spent this Thanksgiving at my sis-in-law Stephs along with the Tomlin side, and her BF's family. We were all reminded just how many blessings we have, and one of the biggest things we all have to be thankful for this year was being able to spend Thanksgiving with my mom-in-law Julie as she is fighting the ever so dreaded "C" word... Cancer. We are so greatful to have had this time with her, and as she continues on this journey of chemo and radiation, everyday for the rest of our lives is one to be thankful for because she is here and fighting!

The food was great, well everything that I wasn't responsable for... I think I got my drink on a little too early. I put too much salt in the deviled eggs, and burnt the marshmellows on they sweet potatos (however they were still yummy cause we scraped the burnt ones off and added new ones.) Steph did a wonderful job on the turkey... it was falling off the bones! MmmmmmMmmm! In fact, she did a wonderful job with everything! Thanks Steph for having us all there! Nothing better than good food and even better company... So much to be thankful for in life!

Getting Laid Off???

So the past couple months Bill's job has been a littl up in the air. We were informed that Kennecott (who his company is contracted by) is kicking all contractors off the mine and will be using only Kennecott employees; however, they didn't have the man power to run his shop so they would be hiring on 12 of them as Kennecott employees. We were then informed by his company that they were going to do there best to save their jobs and Komatsu, but weren't going to be able to save all of them. Being that Bill is pretty high up on the totum pole, it was implied that either way he didn't have anything to worry about. When we heard that it was a relief. Bill would love to stay with Komatsu, they have been a great company... or so we thought. This morning Bill came home in somewhat a panic. He said I needed to complete a resume and get it submitted to Kennecott today because Komatsu didn't intend on keeping any of them!!! WHAT?!?!?! I don't understand why a company would put peoples lively hoods at stake full knowing that they are misleading their employees. Kennecott has already started filling the 12 positions that are to be filled with Komatsu employees... five slots are already filled, and there are still 10 employees awaiting their interview... Bill is included in those 10. With only 7 more slots available this means 3 people are going to be without a job; just in time for the holiday's. I understand that Komatsu would like to hang on to these guys as long as they can because the sooner the 12 positions are filled the sooner they loose out on that revenue, but really... Have a FREAKIN' HEART!

Sam's got NEW carpet

This past weekend my wonderful husband and father in law laid carpet in Sam's room. We painted his bedroom over the summer and I have been slowly adding decor to his room (as I come across it at the DI) He has an "At sea" or "pirate" or "spongebob" theme room... right now it is a little of all three until he is old enough to drop the spongebob obsession. I still have a Pirate map to frame and hang, but it is coming together. I am still keeping my eye open for an anchor and a Helm (steering wheel of the ship). Here are a few pics of what we have thus far. I am thinking of gluing some moss to the netting, and possibly finding some greenery that looks like seaweed and gluing that up too. We will see.

Sykes 2009 Turkey Dinner

For as long as I can remember we have gotten together with my mom's side of the family the Sunday before Thanksgiving. Tradition has always been that dinner is at my Aunt Sandy's house being that she is in the middle of those in Salt Lake and those in Utah County. This year however, we had it at a church in orem. Our family is growing at such a rapid pace that it is becoming crouded doing these dinners at a house. It was nice to have the space for the kids to run amuck, but I will admit that I did miss the intimate setting that there is at a house. And when it is at a house the food is usually warm (sorry fam, but there was quite a bit of cold food.) Next year I think we should deffinately meet in the middle as it took me an hour to get down to Orem, and then it began snowing so the drive home was low visability for me (I'm night blind as it is, and the wet roads and snow doesn't help any.) It didn't take me too much longer to get home, I was just white knuckled most of the way. After this dinner last night, I am reminded at what a great family we do have. Reguardless of our flaws, we love eachother!

Suzi the Snow Bear...

Today the kids and I headed outside to make a snowman. I spent the last 2 days painting the kitchen (pics to come soon)and they were showing diffinate signs of abandonment from mom. So I took the day off from painting and as much as I HATE snow, I gave in to their begging to play in the snow. As I was teaching the kids how to roll the balls for the snowman, I was shocked to see how good they both were doing. I made the big bottom ball, and Brenna made the second ball that ended up nearly as big as mine. The neighbor boy Hunter quickly joined in the fun and he rounded out the snowman with the head, only when I put it on top of the snowman the head slightly resembled a bear's head. So I suggested that we make a snow bear! The kids were thrilled with this idea. Although we got about two inches of snow yesterday it was quickly melting as we worked. So I sent the kids out to the neighbors houses to gather snow in a bucket and bring it back to me... they did awsome. They went back and forth for about 45 minutes gathering snow as I sat and sculpted our Suzi the Snow Bear! I was shocked to see the final result myself... I will admit, I think I may have enjoyed myself a little more than I had expected!

Where did you put your gum???

So Sam has become quite addicted to bubble gum, thanks to Halloween. He searches the house high and low for it... and I have found my purse dumped out several times in a random corner of the house because Sam is hiding out trying to find gum. He has a BAD habbit of playing with it... Which is why he has been banned from gum. I decided last week that I would be super mom and allow him to have just one piece of gum... And when I didn't hear a peep out of him for about 3 minutes I called to him from the kitchen..."Sam, where is your gum?" I could hear him quickly scurry to another room... and you wonder why I found him hiding in his room behind his door???





Yep, that is a big old WAD of bubble gum in his hair... I couldn't help but giggle. I handed him off to Bill and said, "Dear, your dealing with this one!"

Not your average housewife...

I would like to think of myself as...





Wish my booty looked that good!

Now among my routinely daily, weekly, and monthly duties as mom and wife I have added yet another thing to juggle. SCHOOL!!! At this point I am thinking "What was I thinking getting into this?" Class discussions, reading, homework, essays... It has all become a bit overwhelming. I am beginning to question whether or not getting my degree is a realistic thing for me to try to achieve right now... however, it is a little late to back out now. I don't want to start paying back the student loans quite yet...

I learned quickly that I set too high of expectations for myself when I got my final grade back from my first class... a B. My first thought was, "Really, just a B... I ruined my chance at my much wanted 4.0 with my first class..." Then reality hit me... I should be proud of a B. I am juggling raising a family, maintaining a clean, healthy household, and now school... I should be proud of this B! Today I am looking at that grade in a new light! I want to shout it.... "I GOT A B!!!"

Now, I hope that my attempt of trying to do all these things at once doesn't set the stage for me to just find myself falling short in the future. I am now coming to the end of my second week of my second class and I am finding this class to be much more challenging than the first... I am just hoping to pass this one!

Cast Free!!!

Today we went in to have Brenna's hand x-rayed to see if she could have the cast removed. On Saturday she jammed her fingers while playing and really hurt her hand. I was assured that because she had a cast on, it couldn't have done any more damage to her broken bone. When they x-rayed her hand this morning I got a quick peek at the picture. I nearly started to cry! It looked as if her broken bone had shifted to the point that it was lodged under the bone next to it... I was freaked out! After the doc got a look at the same pic I saw she said they needed to remove the cast and re x-ray it. So we did and the second set of x-rays looked much better. The doc said that when she jammed her fingers it probably shifted her hand just enough in the cast that it was effecting the way her bone was laying. When the cast was removed it showed that she hadn't re-broken it and in fact she had built up enough new bone that she didn't need to be re-casted! YAHOO! They say we can expect for her to favor that hand for a few days. They showed us some simple exercises to do with her to help with the stiffness from being in a cast. She is to avoid activities such as jumping on furniture or trampolines... basically anything that she can fall and rebrake it... I am pretty sure she is going to listen because this has not been a very fun experience! Oh, and the first thing we did when we got home was wash her arm and hand with anit-bacterial soap and lotioned it up. The amount of dead skin that is coming off is quite nasty!