Happinesshoodship

I was tagged by my awesome friend Melissa.

Here are the rules: List 10 things that make you happy, one of them needs to be something that has happened to you/for you today and then pick 5 fellow bloggers that make you smile to win this awesome award. And then they hopefully pass it along to keep the smiles going 'round.

#1 - Ben. He makes me laugh when I need it. He pushes me to do things I would never be brave enough to do on my own. He helps me find my voice, my opinion, without being walked on. He notices little things like when I cleaned the pee up from around the toilet. He lets me do my hair the way I want without judgement. I even put a huge red streak in it once and he didn't say anything to me. There is a lot more, but yes...Ben makes me happy.

#2 - Taking a Bath. If I'm ever stressed out I just turn on the bathwater to really hot, crawl in, and turn on the jets. I am in heaven...until I hear the kids banging on the door and saying, "let me in". I was going to put a picture of me taking a bath on here, but then I thought "that might be inappropriate". (haha, yeah, I'm funny).

#3 - Ryan - I love when he says to me out of no where, "I love you Mom". He can defiantly be a pill sometimes so when he is really sweet and helpful I just melt. I love it when he holds Ethan's hand and says, "I'll help you Ethan". Or, "Okay mom, I'll clean up my toys, I'll be so fast". And my favorite, "thank you for making this lovely dinner Mom". Ryan makes me very happy!

#4 - Ethan. He gives lots of kisses. He even barks like a dog and licks me and it makes me super happy. I love his cute little voice. When I say "I love you Ethan", he says, "Tank you Mama". I love it when he wakes up in the morning and says, "Hi Mom, where's Dad?" Or how he calls the Polar Express, the ChooChoo Express. He is obsessed with the Jazz Bear, so he LOVES to watch sports and watch for the "baseball Bear" (every sport is baseball to him). He is a really sweet boy. He has been an easy child, and he is very easy to love!

#5 - A Good Book. I love to read. I especially love when I have an awesomespice book to read, snuggled in a blanket eating caramel popcorn. Yummo! Although reading for school makes me fall asleep, how can I remedy that??

#6 - Being with the Harris Clan. I love my family. We have so much fun together. And I can be my crazy self around them. Where as around other people I hold back my awesomeness, until I know they can handle it! :-) We have a great time no matter what we're doing.

#7 - My Camera. I love taking pictures. I take it with me where ever I go, and I USE it! I capture every moment I can on camera.

#8 - Chocolate. Enough Said.

#9 - Target. I wish I could capture the moment I walk into Target and bottle it up, and put in on my Mantel. I love Target. My favorite color is Red, so that helps. They have the cutest displays, and the cutest kids clothes, and I love their PJ's, and socks, and toys, and decorations, and kitchen stuff, and on and on and on...

If only I won a shopping spree...

#10 - What made me happy today: My Car. I love having 4 wheel drive. I came out of Wal-Mart and the roads were terrible. It was snowing like crazy, and there were a ton of accidents, and I kept slipping. So I put my car in Neutral turned on the 4x4 and off I went without any problems! I'm grateful and HAPPY I made it home safely.

Now I'm supposed to tag 5 people.

But you all know I don't like to leave anyone out. So if you read my blog, go ahead and consider yourself Tagged! I'll be waiting to hear what makes YOU happy!

Full of Trivet Goodness

This post has a lot of photos. I apologize in advance. Day 5: Trivets. Ben must have noticed my ugly hot pads I've been using since the dawn of time (I guess that makes the year 2002 the dawn of time).

Day 6: As mentioned before I freaking love Weezer. Ben said he cheated on this one because he read it on my blog, but he said he had to see the cheezy smile on my face when I listened to them. And he got his wish. Ben thought to buy all the awesome songs. Buddy Holly is my new ring tone.

Day 7: New Moon Game. Although mine is the card came, not the board game as pictured. I can't wait to play it. Anyone want to play??

On Friday night the older Clegg siblings went to Cafe Trang for dinner. I love Cream Cheese Won tons! It was also Jake's Birthday. Happy Birthday Jakey Pooh! Above: Sam & Shalleece

Jake & Shayla

I was Seth's date too. I love Seth, even though it does look like I'm about to give blood. I promise we had fun! :-)

Liz & Rick

Ben gets so mad when I break out my camera. He thinks we should all enjoy the moment, and I think we should capture the moment on camera and blog about it. So here is his sad face because we're taking yet another picture.

Rob & Kandis. Yes, Rob took Ben's advice on the pout.

Saturday night was the Harris Christmas Party. We had a great time. I love the Harris'! (I've always wondered about that...is is Harris' or Harris's??) Here I am with my cousin Chance (also my across the street neighbor). We are cool, we just sat on the couch while he showed me how to play (or suck at) games on his iPhone.

Notice #1 - My new Hair. As opposed to the lighter and more gray version above.

Notice #2 - Yes, I am wearing the same sweater I wore the night before. I do that often. I like to wear the same clothes over again. I'm awesome like that. Just ask me.

Kelly, Chance & my sister Summer

My brothers are all in town. Although I did not get a picture of them last night, I'm sure I will over the next 2 weeks. But I did get a picture with Lizzy a.k.a. SuperSpice.

Liz & Kell

We had a great time and the food was fabulous.

We have a busy week ahead (as I'm sure most of you do), I will try to post when I can.

Tomorrow: Dinner with Harris Siblings at Tucanos. Yum.

Continuation of Ben's Awesomeness

Ryan has been begging us to put up Christmas lights on our house ALL YEAR. Well, Ben has been really busy with work/school so he has not been able to do it. We decided to look for them on Monday night because Ben only had one more final to go. Well, they were pretty picked over. So we talked Ryan into getting a mini tree instead and we'll do lights next year. We got this tree decorations and all at Wal-mart for $12.50. Awesome! They were on sale obviously. We're going to look for lights after Christmas. I like the big bulb Red and White ones preferably LED. Where do I find those??

Continuing with the 12 days of Christmas. These are backwards. Here is Day 4. My favorite chocolate! Yummo!

Day 3: I LOVE colored socks. I don't care if they even match what I'm wearing, I wear colored socks anyway. Seriously, I didn't even think Ben noticed my sock fetish.

Day 2: New Pj's. He has the best taste! For realzies (yeah, that's my new made up word). Thanks Ben, you're a stud.

My baby brother (I'm sure he'll love that) is getting married the day after Christmas. I'm excited for Kit and Lynzie...they are awesome + Cinnamon = awesomespice.

Kelly's tidbit of the day: I freaking LOVE Weezer. I've loved them since the sweater song came out in 1994. Still love them. I just get a cheezy smile on my face when I hear them on the Radio. You don't want to see it, it's not pretty.

Temple Rectangle

The past couple years we've been going to see the lights with the Buchanan's. We'll meet at The Gateway to eat then ride trax (or as my boys call it, the train or the choo choo) over to Temple "Square" (because we all know it's not really a square). Above are my handsome boys.

This is what Ryan was doing while we took the family picture at the bottom. He hates pictures! He will not be in them if he gets in his "mood". So yes, we do love Ryan just as much as Ethan, but Ryan just hates pictures.

Mom and Ethan. Yeah, we're awesomespice.

So b. e. a. utiful

The "family" photo. Brr, it was cold!

___________________

Last night Ben started the 12 days of Christmas for me. It's only been day 1 and I am so excited. I just think Ben is pretty much awesome to think of this. I'm going to keep a list of all the fun things Ben thinks of. But honestly it's not about the gifts, I think it is really cool that for a few minutes every night Ben and I have time together. I'm just embarrassed I didn't think of something this thoughtful!

p.s. Ben will be embarrassed I wrote this on here. I'm not trying to embarrass him, I just want him to know how much it means to me!

Day 1:

Lady Antebellum CD

Love it!

My Texting Soap Box

I like to text. I really do. I think it is awfully convenient. But when did it become some people's entire relationship?

Thanks to everyone who wrote me a comment on texting. They were super funny and very useful. Here are times when I like to text.
1. When Ben is in an all day meeting I like to text him if I need something, or if I just need him to call me when he gets a break.
2.I like to text family/friends if I have a quick question. That way we're not on the phone for 20 or so minutes. It saves tons of time.
3. I absolutely love picture texts! If I'm at a store and want to show something to my sister I just send her a text. If I see a crazy person/thing I take a picture and send it to people so they can see how funny it was.
4. Lists, grocery or other.
5. If I'm lost in a store and I need to find out where my husband went.
You get the idea...

Texting really is awesome. I feel some people just don't know how to use the awesomeness correctly.

During dinner (I have done this before and felt SO bad after). Do not text while you're at dinner.

If I invite you to my house, do not text 3 other friends at the same time. I really makes me mad. If you're here with us, be with us. You could actually be texting something about me to whoever you're writing right in front of me. SO RUDE. Even if you're not, if you'd rather be talking to whomever is on the other text then GO OVER THERE! Now I'm okay with a question now and then. Sometimes my family will ask me a question via text, and I answer with one or two texts. Not 20! I just hate full on conversions with text messages (except when I had my tonsils out, I could not talk so texting was all I had).

This actually does not just bother me at my own house. If you are with other people at your house, my house, the park, a restaurant, a gay bar for all I care, stop texting other people and live in the moment with the people you chose to be with.

I don't think I need to discuss texting while driving. Don't be stupid! If you need to answer a text have your passenger do it for you, if you do not have a passenger, then pull over.

Forwarded texts. I hate these. Don't send me a forward saying I'm not a true friend or I don't love Jesus, or I'm going to get herpes if I don't pass it on. They are lame. And a waste of text messages.

Texting in movie theaters=Bad. We can still see the light from your phone.

When you are with friends and you don't think it's that big of a deal to carry on a conversation via text because you have it on silent, we can still hear the buzz buzz of the vibrator and your fingers clicking away.

I think that if anything requires real emotion you probably better call the person.

I looked up "Texting Etiquette" on Google. They agree with me, so I can't be that crazy. Other people must think the same thing. So please, if you are a texter (and I am), please think of the people you are actually with and how it might make them feel while you text away.

Thanksgiving 2009

Seriously, could he get any cuter?

On Thanksgiving Ben's mom put up this back drop for pictures. Yeah, this is the best family picture we had. Ryan was screaming and kicking and Ben and I were laughing. I couldn't tell if I was laughing because it was funny, or because I was embarrassed Ryan was being crazy. People without kids will always tell you what to do about it though....I'd spank him, or put him in time out, or "I'd show him who is boss". Well yeah, those people obviously have never had a child throwing a tantrum before. While you're taking a picture and other people are waiting you can't just spank him and make him cry harder, or put him in time out when you have to get the picture done now.

I hate couples pictures. What are we supposed to do? Put our arms around each other, hold hands, sit on his lap, sit up straight like we don't know each other?? So I opted for this.

Ben's siblings minus his older brother Rob. Starting at the top left: Seth, Jake, Ben, Maren (in front of Ben) Liz, Sam. Front: Marshall (who has a sweaty head from playing basketball) Linda, Bob, Peter.

Ryan's cute turkey he made at preschool.

Ethan's cute turkeys he made with Grandma Linda on Thanksgiving.

The Clegg Clan (minus Rob and family). I'm grateful Ryan is sitting still, but Ethan looks like he wants to escape.

We had a good Thanksgiving with Ben's family. I like that they do it at a church so there is room for everyone to breathe.

I am Thankful for: Turkey (with CAN berry sauce...I hate the real stuff) & My cute little family

And please still leave me a comment about Texting below. You better believe there will be a texting post coming up, and I need your opinions!

Texting Etiquette

I want opinions. Not just "I want to please Kelly" opinions. I mean your real, true opinion.

Texting Etiquette:

A. Do you think there is a "Texting Etiquette"?

B. Are there social situations where you should or should not text? What are they?

C. Are there things you should or should not text about?

Whether you know me or not, leave me a comment and let me know. Thanks a bunch!

The Letter

Ben and I teach the 6 year olds in Primary. It is a really fun age and we have grown to love all 15 kids in our class. Here is a letter from a really sweet girl named Kate. We fell in love with her the first day we had her. She would come say hi to us at Ryan's soccer games and when she broke her arm she had to have her mom drive her to our house so we could sign her cast. She said she saved us a special spot. She certainly made my day when she handed me this letter last Sunday. It reads:

to: sistr Clegg
Love: Kate
I (heart) you!
yore the
best tethr
evrvr!
thans for all
you done

No More Heels

At preschool last week Ryan made a thankful tree. The little leaves say what he's thankful for:
Mom
Dad
Grandma
Grandpa
Brother
Prophet

I like to decorate for Christmas the weekend before Thanksgiving, because I actually hate decorating (it's those dang lights). That way I don't have to dread doing it after Thanksgiving. Here are the boys helping. It was really sweet to watch Ryan help Ethan. Ryan set up the fake tree also until he could not reach.

I'm pretty darn excited we have a chimney this year that Santa gets to go down so he doesn't have to go down the exhaust vent into the furnace room anymore. I also love that I get to hang stockings up. I found these really cute stocking hooks at Target!

The entry way. Ryan convinced me to put lights in the tree. I think it turned out pretty cute.

The living room with the tree. Don't you love my tree skirt? My mom made it for me one year for Christmas. It's the best!

Here are my mom and sister's at Chicago Pizza before seeing New Moon. We had a really great time. And yes, I cried and squealed like a 13 year old. For us, it's all part of the fun. The District was packed!! I feel sorry for anyone that went there and was not planning on seeing New Moon. I loved the movie, but I knew I would. I'm not a huge fan of Kristen or Robert's acting, but Taylor did a great job!!

Summer, Mom & Kell

Stevie and Lynzie

Okay, so I have a beef. Why in the world do they make heels? Or at least uncomfortable ones. I know they make woman's legs look smokin' but come on? Ouch. I obviously don't wear them very often, but I decided this weekend I would...out with the girls on Friday, and date night Saturday with Ben. After the first night I started to get blisters, so the second night I decided to put make up sponge rounds in my socks at the balls of my feet. Yeah, it didn't help. My feet are so sore. So for all of you who wear boots, heels whatever, how do you do it??

These boots are in time out for the trouble they've caused!

On Saturday Ben and I went on a date. He said he wanted to see New Moon with me (YEA!). We had a hard time finding tickets, but found 2 pretty good seats at Jordan Commons. Yes, I saw New Moon twice this weekend. Still good the second time. Ben said he liked it, and said the wolves were actually pretty cool. I'm grateful I have a husband that supports me with what I enjoy.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
A few things I'm thankful for:
Ben's Job, Warm clothes/food/shelter, my family, chocolate, a car, TV, my kitchen aide mixer, my health, when I'm not constipated (seriously, it's an issue) :-) , being able to stay home with my boys, Christmas music.

Recapness

Let's do a recap of the day just for craps and giggles (and because I can't sleep).

*I told Ryan today I saw a space rock fall from the sky last night. He said, "you mean a meat eater?". I thought about it for a minute, then replied, "a meteorite?". He said, "Yeah mom. Like Monsters vs. Aliens. Did you get big and strong like her too?". "No Ryan, it didn't hit me, I just saw it". Ryan replied with, "ah, too bad".

*Me and the boys took the Sequoia in to get fixed. While we were in the waiting room waiting (yup, you just read that right...we were in the waiting room...wait for it, wait for it...waiting) for the rental car to pick us up, I changed the station to Sesame Street. I didn't realize it was in Spanish until 10 minutes later. I don't even speak Spanish, how did I not catch that??

*When the rental company finally did pick us up and I transferred the car seats, Ethan was freaking out. Bawling his eyes out. I thought it was because he thought I was leaving him (putting him in a different car...usually that means he's being babysat by Grandma or something). But no, I got in the car and held his hand and he kept looking at our car we left to get fixed crying and saying "bye car, bye car". So sad. I didn't think two year old's got attatched to cars.

*I put up Christmas decorations tonight (well, they're not finished...they wipe me out...I'll finish tomorrow). I put up some snowmans and Ryan said, "Mom thanks for putting the decorations up, they're SO cute". I love 5 year olds! They still think Mom is pretty freaking awesome.

*I went to bed tonight and kept thinking of how I can organize the toys upstairs, and rearrange the furniture. Which toys should I move to the basement, where should I put the love sac? What part of the room could Ryan be most creative with his train track building? Then onto downstairs with the Christmas decorating...Did I move the furniture around so it is pleasing to the eye and emotions? (that seriously ran threw my head). I rearranged the furniture many times before I was only moderatly satisfied. Rooms stress me out. I also HATE unfinished projects so I am in bed thinking of all the decorating I still have to do tomorrow (I should finish now since I'm up, but Ryan would kill me...so I'm blogging instead). Maybe this is why I can not sleep at night?

*I bought two new Christmas CD's today. Amy Grant and Sarah Mclachlan. I'm way excided to listen to them. And I love my new Wasil candle. It smells like Wasil...go figure.

*Do you ever have those moments where you are talking to someone and they look at you funny. And you have to rub your head and say, "wow, it's one of those days, I don't even know what I'm talking about...but I keep trying, and keep talking anyway". Yeah, it's been like that all day. I even tap my forhead and say, "I know I was going to say something smart...but it just escaped me."

Okay, I'm done.

The Gift * The Date * The Accident

Ben is awesome! He came home the other day from work and gave me a present. Michael Jackson's Number Ones CD. Thanks Ben, I love it! (By the way, I was a fan before Michael died).

Ben & I went on a double date with our good friends Ash & Audrey. We had my cousin Sylia come babysit all the kids and we were off... We went to Five Guys Burgers & Fries for dinner. And we ate potatoes from Sugar City (where my Dad grew up).

Audrey & Ash

Kelly & Ben

Audrey and I chatting at Starbucks after dinner.

After Starbucks we weren't ready to go home yet so we went to Target to play a game. The Game: The girls went off together and the boys went off together. We had to find a silly item for under a dollar for our significant other and the nicest thing we could find for $5.
Under $1: Kelly found for Ben Fireside Reflections a DVD that that plays a fake fire on TV
Ben found for me, Meat in a Basket (play food) Awesome!
$5 gift: Kelly found for Ben a magazine Architectural Digest (notice how he is covering the magazine with the DVD, I will explain that later). Ben gave me my favorite chocolate, Ghirardelli Squares.
Ben and Ash though it would be SO funny to fake us out and pick a weird gift for the $5 gift. Ben picked out a deer whistle thing you put on your car to tell deer to get out of the way...super weird!!

Under $1 Audrey found for Ash a travel sized baseball game. Ash found for Audrey the same Fireside DVD that I did (but it is not pictured here).
$5 gift: Audrey found for Ash his favorite magazine Dwell. And Ash found for Audrey her favorite chocolates Ferrero Rocher.
Ash and Ben's crazy prank gift for Audrey: Bottle Tops for canned sodas. As Seen On TV! :-)

This is what was on the cover of Ben's Magazine. It was about Architecture which Ben loves, but this one had an article about Neverland and Ben was embarrassed by the pose MJ was doing on the chair...hilarious! But Ash caught it on camera for Ben to see always!

On our way home we saw a bunch of deer by our house on the side of the road. So cool!

At about 10:20 p.m. I got in the car to take Sylia home. Well we barely made it to the first light in Herriman (technically Riverton) and I was telling Sylia, "this is where we saw that accident on our way home". And Sylia said, "I'm so glad I've never been in an accident". And then BOOM. We get hit from behind. This is a photo of the worst of it. I didn't want to include my licence plate in the picture so I cut it off. We got hit by a HUGE 2500 Dodge Ram. I always take the Accord when I'm going somewhere without the kids so Ben can have the Sequoia for the kids. But this time I thought I might need the 4x4 and I am SO freaking grateful I took the Sequoia. I could NOT imagine what that Dodge Ram could have done to our little Accord. I'm grateful my kids were not in the car, and I'm grateful it was not my fault (it usually is, but not this time!), the guy did get a ticket. Oh yes, and I'm grateful I just got my drivers licence renewed 3 weeks ago (it was a 1.5 years expired!! Yes, we are okay. I'm waiting to hear from insurance companies to get the car fixed. Looks like we will have a rental for a while.

Sylia and I had to take a photo because this is her FIRST accident. I'm glad we are okay, and that I will always be remembered as the person she got into her first accident with. Awesome! Needless to say, we turned around and she slept over at my house that night. I was not going to drive her home to Taylorsville after that.