Chopped it...

We went with the A-line slightly stacked in the back. I think I like it. It will take a little getting used to and my neck is FREEZING but I'm pretty happy with the end result. Thanks Lynsey!

The New First Presidency of the LDS Church

Charlie counts

I've been worried about Charlie's speech and comprehension for quite a while. Someone told me to look into a program called "Kids Who Count." It's an early intervention program for all kids under the age of 3 within our school district. They want to make sure kids that need help receive it before they are thrown in the school system. They send several people out to test your child and then do an overall evalution to see if they qualify for the program. I figured it couldn't hurt to have him tested and see what their thoughts were on his development. To qualify for the program, a child must be in the bottom 7% of all the kids in the state. Charlie ended up testing at 2%. It was kind of bittersweet for me. I was glad that we were going to get help but I was also sad that he qualified to get help. So, we will be going to 2 75 minute playgroups a week where they teach the parents to work with the kids and a Speech Pathologist will come out and help me work with him a couple times a month. It will cost a little money but not nearly as much as it would if we were taking him to a Speech Pathologist on our own. Pretty much any amount of money is worth it if it will help little Charlie anyway. I really love all the nurses and the Speech Pathologist that I have worked with so far. They have worked with some other children that have struggled with Epilepsy and developmental delays so hopefully there will be help for us.

My week so far...and it's only Monday

The first part of this week has been interesting. Since Matt was out of town on Sunday, I went up to go to church with my parents. They are on a mission in Salt Lake. We arrived at the building and walked into their very quiet ward made up entirely of Senior Missionaries. I figured it would be a pretty interesting meeting with my two kids there. We chose the pew with nobody directly behind us and a door nearby. Unfortunately, the chapel's light switches were right there on the wall by us. Before we even had a chance to sit down, Charlie ran over and turned the lights on and off several times. I saw a lot of people look back but, luckily, most of them were smiling. So, we settle in and make it to the point where the Senior Missionary Men are passing the Sacrament without too many mishaps. My Dad was manning one end of the pew and my Mom was on the other side leaving me in the middle to wrestle the kids. Somehow, in the middle of the passing of the Sacrament, Charlie crawled under the bench between my Dad and my legs and made it to the aisle. Before I realized what was happening, he was making a beeline for the stand. He actually made it up on the stand by the Bishopric before I caught him. I grabbed him and walked down the aisle and straight out the door...totally embarrassed. While waiting in the foyer for the Sacrament to end, Charlie grabbed my necklace and ripped it off me sending black beads of all sizes flying everywhere. He found this hilarious. It was no easy task bending down to pick them up in a skirt with C trying to escape out of my arms. I went to retrieve one near a big easel with a big poster advertising some ward event and Charlie stuck out his arm and knocked it over (yes, on purpose). I got that set back up and the Sacrament ended so I decided to make my way back in to try to hear some part of what the speakers had prepared. That lasted about 5 minutes because Charlie started screaming when I wouldn't let him crawl under the bench again. I managed to find a Mother's room that was empty! That never happens at our building. Anyway, he was okay in there for a few minutes but kept trying to escape out the door. I sat on the floor in front of it and let him throw his fit. I guess my Dad must have heard him because he came and knocked on the door and offered to take him on a walk. He had been offering to take him the whole meeting but I never like to have someone else watch C because he can be such a stinker. Anyway, he took him for a walk outside and around the building until the meeting was over. I guess at one point Charlie was running down the hall and my Dad was chasing after him and one of the other Senior Missionaries said "You're going to have run faster than that, Grandpa." Pretty funny.



We made it home after that and I put Charlie down for a nap. A few minutes of peace...Yippee. My Mom and I got dinner ready and we all had just sat down to eat when Charlie saunters out of the room he was in. One of his latest tricks is getting out of his crib. My plan to eat a peaceful dinner was foiled. From there, Charlie just went from one thing to the next tearing my parent's condo apart. I was thinking about spending the night but decided I better just get him home. When he threw up on their carpet, it kind of sealed the deal for me. Anyway, it was funny because my brother was there visiting as well and he was coming up with all these ideas to slow Charlie down. He thinks we should put some of those leg weights on him and maybe he won't run around and get into as much stuff, PLUS his legs will be really strong. :) I got big laughs out of that. I wish I would have been able to visit with my brothers and parents a little more but I'm glad I was able to be there and to see everyone.



I wrote this earlier in the week but I didn't want to post it until Matt was back in town. You can never be too careful. Matt has been gone skiing in Whistler for the entire week. He's going to be home today and it is none too soon. I've had sick kids ALL week and haven't been able to go out and do anything. Not even the gym. I think I'm about to lose my mind. Thank goodness this we survived the week!

Miss Utah

I am sitting her watching the Miss America pageant that I Tivoed last week. I'm not usually interested in this competition but I was excited to watch this year because of Miss Utah. She's pretty awesome. I love how she is who she is and doesn't put on an act for the cameras and judges. There is finally a great role model for all the young LDS (and other) girls out there. Through the whole competition and the "Miss America Reality Check" shows, she was a fantastic representative of what an LDS woman is. Amazingly, she was always dressed modestly as well which is pretty rare these days. I'm bummed she didn't make it further in the competition but she's got to be proud of herself for getting as far as she did. Way to go Jill! (I keep telling my single brother to track down her phone number...he he.)

Totally Bummed

I was planning on driving up to Salt Lake today to go to President Hinckley's viewing but it doesn't look like it's going to happen. It's snowing pretty good outside and I'm really scared of driving in the snow. Winston was coughing most of the night...looks like he caught what Charlie has. Lastly, I heard they don't want you to bring strollers to the viewing...I don't know if it's because they have metal detectors or what but there's no way I'm going to try to hold Charlie for an hour while standing in line. I guess it wasn't meant to be but I'm still bummed. :(

I DID IT!

I made an appt. to get my hair cut. I'm trying to find some ideas of cuts that I like to show the stylist. I can't decide if I should do something similar to my last short haircut (below)

or I think the next two haircuts below are cute. Of course I don't look anything like Victoria Beckham, so that might pose a small problem. Any suggestions?

President Gordon B. Hinckley 1910 - 2008

He was one of my favorite prophets.

I loved his sense of humor.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MC0W0ZVI9ak

He will be missed...

Bag Tag

My friend, Mel, tagged me to show all the contents of my purse. Since I haven't owned a purse since...hmm...no idea how long, here are the contents of my diaper bag.

Here we have a real nice designer bag from Target. Yes, that was supposed to be a joke. I tried to at least get it standing up straight and tall for the picture but it was too embarrassed and tried to crunch in half. Truth be told, I actually really like this bag. It holds up well and it holds a lot of stuff comfortably. I have to be honest...I JUST barely cleaned this out. Normally, there would be all sorts of ziplock baggies of leftover snacks, fruit snack wrappers, crumbs, church and preschool papers, receipts and, well, you get the idea. But maybe we can just pretend it's always this clean and that I am a really great and organized person. So, let's have a looksie...

CONTENTS

2 tubes of Cetaphil Lotion

1 pack of Trident Gum

Checkbook

Broken cell phone for C to play with

2 Costco booklets of coupons

One For the Money church pamphlet

Coupon/Receipt organizer

My cell phone

Part of my broken necklace that Charlie ripped off my neck

2 diapers

$1 bill and some change

Book of stamps

2 pens

My wallet is usually in there but it's currently out in the van

and I was too lazy to get it for the picture.

This is a crummy picture but it shows one of the features that helps me stay a little organized. There are lots of pockets in this bag and they have labels like "diapers", "wipes", "bottle", "things", etc. It works well for me because it keeps me from randomly tossing things in every which way and I know where everything is...or should be. :) So, that's it in a nutshell.

Now I tag Natalie, Angie, Julie and anyone else that wants to do it. Have fun!

Aren't they precious?

I guess we won't be getting the Parent's of the Year Award anytime soon.

Happy Valentine's Day

I tried to make these funny cookies yesterday. The undies were supposed to reach all the way to both sides but I had a little helper pulling on my leg and getting into everything so this is the best I could do. I'll have to give it another try when C is napping. Matt had a good laugh, though, and that's really all I was going for. :)

This is a picture of what these cookies were supposed to look like. I copied them from Kira off the PYP website. Hers are much cuter. I am going to give it another go with a different cookie recipe and type of frosting and hopefully they will turn out better!

Fun in the Snow - Part, um, part 6?

Another snow storm blew into town so we went out for more fun in the snow. We decided to use the block maker Winston got for Christmas (Steff keeps asking me if it really was for Winston or if I just wanted it. Of course it was for him. I just had to show him how to use it.) and build a snow fort.

What ended up happening was Dad and Mom tried to build the fort, while Winston and Charlie made snow angels, played on the swingset, and tried to demolish the craftiness of their parents.

Winston busting out his first snow angel



Charlie only had eyes for his swingset


Bored kids abandoning the fort project


In the end, the fort didn't quite make the cut. We were about 4 feet tall and all of a sudden (thanks Charlie) the wall fell over. At that point we abandoned the fort and went for snowman heads on the fence. Best we could do.

The Great Collapse


Our only alternative


Fun in the snow is so invigorating

Christmas... Finally

So I figured it was about time we post about our Christmas fun. So here goes... get ready for mass pictures, etc.

Now, my guess is that by now, most people reading this blog know that we sometimes maybe aren't the best parents. That's not to say we abuse our kids or anything, but sometimes we opt for the easy/lazy way out of things. In this instance, our neglect was around getting a Christmas tree. We originally talked about a tree and decided that with Charlie, it was really not that practical to get a tree, decorate it and have it up all December. We figured Charlie would just demolish it so our plan was to wait until the week before Christmas and then set one up. One week of fighting to keep Charlie away from the tree is better than one month, right?

Anyway, the week before Christmas we got busy and never really got around to getting a Christmas tree. Bless Winston's little 4 year old heart, on Christmas eve he asked if he could write Santa a note to leave with the cookies and carrots (for the reindeer). We gave him paper and crayons and went about other work. Soon, he asks us to come help him write the letter. Here's the finished product:

As you can imagine, Steff and I felt like terds. All he wanted for Christmas was a tree. So we obliged with our version of the 'Charlie-proof Christmas Tree.'

As you might imagine, Winston was thrilled that Santa left him a Christmas tree AND presents. I guess he figured it was a one or the other deal.

As for the rest of Christmas, it was awesome. The family got a neato print of the Sacred Grove and Nintendo Wii with Guitar Hero, Steff got a heated massage pad (I know, I know. It is a total 'Walk through Walmart and grab anything that looks like the wife will like it because it is Christmas Eve' gift) to lay on the couch with at the end of the day, Matt got a pillow thing that allows him to sit up in bed while he reads and Mouse Trap (this is sorta a family joke, but if you have ever seen The Santa Clause 2, you may remember a part where a bunch of teachers start receiving all these gifts they've wanted since they were kids. Well, if I was one of those teachers, I would've got Mouse Trap). The kids got a whole crud load of stuff.

Edited by Steff to add: Matt also got a plane ticket to his annual skiing trip in Whistler and some new skiis.

So, now come the pictures of all the fun and games of Christmas day:

Charlie opening his Leapfrog railroad

Winston with his Clickstart

Charlie not quite sure how to show enough excitement

Winston in front of his stocking and presents

Dad after opening Mouse Trap

Dad and Winston playing Mouse Trap Christmas Night

Christmas Day at Grandma Marilyn's with the cousins

So, all in all, we had a great Christmas time and hope all of you did as well.

Family Fun at Jump On It

New Years Day, Winston and Dad went to Jump On It in Lindon. We met some of the other McGhie/Shelley crew there and had a good time... Winston most of all. Here are some of the pictures of our adventure.


Winston loving it!


Winston was a brave soul jumping back and forth across the padded dividers.


Winston started to get pretty gutsy on the slide... backwards-headfirst.


Melissa & Luc (left, niece and her son) AND Lisa & Emma (right, sister and her daughter)

On the way home, exhausted in the backseat, Winston sat in silence. After driving for awhile, out of the blue, he said, "Dad, if you ever want to, you can take me there again."

Edited by Mom to add that Charlie and I also had a great time hanging out at home with his pink eye. :)

Fun Friend Visit

So, one of my good friends from waaaaay back was in town from San Fran and came to visit. We had a great time chatting, catching up, watching our kids play together, etc. It was awesome to visit, though a little strange to have kids playing together. It makes me feel so grown up...



During the visit I was reminded of the summer between my junior and senior of high school when a friend and I went to Albequerque to visit her. The first morning we were there, we sat up in our room until about 11:45 in the morning because we were too scared of her dad to come down the stairs.

Anyways, it was fun to see them. We were glad to have them stop by.

Also, let this be a lesson to all the other long lost friends: if you come to visit us, you just may make the blog... and that's what its all about.

Sad

Our niece shared this piece of interesting info with us last night...

Top 10 'Vainest Cities,' according to Forbes:
1. Salt Lake City
2. San Francisco
3. San Diego
4. San Jose, CA
5. Miami
6. Louisville, KY
7. Nashville, TN
8. Virginia Beach
9. New York City
10. Los Angeles

***********
A few people have commented wondering what the criteria is for determining this. From what we understand, the criteria is pretty straight forward: cities with the highest number of plastic surgeries.

Here is the article if any of you are interested in reading it: http://www.forbes.com/2007/11/29/plastic-health-surgery-forbeslife-cx_rr_1129health.html

Enjoy!

Lessons Learned

We had a couple families over on Saturday evening for an omelette party and I learned two things...
1. I don't really like omelettes
2. If you have an entire party centered around a certain type of food, you should probably know how to make it before the guests are at your house.

Happy Anniversary to us!

A couple weeks ago, on Dec. 13, we celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary. It was a wonderful day including a morning trip to the temple, a couples massage at Sanctuary Day Spa and a delicious dinner at Tuscany. We had originally planned to go on a little get away somewhere close but, as it got closer, we didn't feel like the timing was right to leave the kids with a babysitter overnight. Despite the change of plans, it was the perfect day and it was great to have some time to ourselves. We were actually married on Friday the 13th. While some think this day is unlucky, we've found that is has brought the best of luck to us. The last five years have been better than we could have hoped for and we can't wait to see what the next five bring! I posted some pictures below that were taken during our engagement since we don't have any weding pics on our computer.

Hallelujah!!

We finally finished delivering the last of our neighbor and friend gifts last night! It's such a relief to be done. We are also done with the shopping for the kids with the exception of one gift that Santa's Elves had a problem with and will be delivering a week late. (The store was out of them and I ordered it online too late). :) Most of our Christmas cards have been sent as well. We hope to sit back, relax and enjoy our family the next couple of days without all the crazy hustle and bustle. Hooray! I've already made a goal for next year to have our cards and neighbor gifts done and delivered the first week of December. We'll see what happens. :) Happy Holidays!

Gingerbread House Competition, McGhie Style

Here we are at the McGhie's Second Annual Graham Cracker Gingerbread House Making Competition. This year, due to multiple scheduling conflicts with previous participants, some of the faces have changed, but the spirit of the competition remains the same... to kill and crush your opponents by making an all around superior creation. There is only one rule - everything on the thing must be edible. Oh... and there is a one hour time limit (which we sorta abandoned).
This year we were looking for revenge (since last year it was painfully obvious that we were beat out by more skilled, more creative and all around better graham contractors).

So, with the stakes high, and creative juices flowing, we set to work on our graham creations.

Disclaimer #1: Both of the other involved parties were first-timers, so cut them some slack.

Disclaimer #2: We have nothing against people living in trailers. In fact, some of our dearest friends from Provo lived in a trailer home. But as you'll see, this is no Provo trailer.... this is a good old fashion, southern redneck establishment, or at least that's what we were going for.

So, here are the results (and you can click on any of the images for bigger, more detailed versions):

Submission #1 by Sheldon and Nicole Martin - Frosty the Snowman's Mountain Retreat

Submission #2 by Rock and Whitney Permann - The Town Hall (aka the mall)

Submission #3 by Us- The Redneck Christmas Cottage

Anyways, the gauntlet has been thrown out and Sheldon has assured us they will be holding family graham cracker house building practice sessions once a month in preparation for next Christmas' competition. We say, bring it on.

So, I've included a few close up shots of our creation for anyone who is interested in taking a gander. And just to add to the spirit of the creation, all the forthcoming descriptions will be in the language you'd expect from one describing this:

This hyar is th' Driveway View. This hyar shot cappures th' essence of our li'l cottage, in a trimenjus pitcher kinda thin'.

Fum this hyar shot, yo' sh'd be able t'pick out a few of our favo'ite features:

#1 - th' profile of th' mounted deer haid
#2 - th' Jedtmas lights haphazardly strung (year roun' by th' way)
#3 - th' lawnchairs laid out in front of th' campfire
#4 - sum beer bottles strewn about th' front yard
#5 - a few frogs loiterin' about th' propuhty

Next we haf our Campfire View. This hyar sh'd give yo' a bit mo'e of a closeup t'pick outta few of th' afo'e menshuned features thet come stan'ard wif this hyar li'l baby.

This hyar is whut we refer t'as th' Crown View. Our creashun is ado'ned wif a stuffed an' mounted deer haid. "Whuffo' ain't it inside," yo' ax? Wal, it obviously'dn't fit too fine, an' shucks, eff'n it were inside th' neighbo's'dn't be able t'see it.

... OK enough of that redneck talk...

And last we have the Rear View. Now, let me just tell you, while this was totally unintentional (Steff was working on the wreath and campfire on one side, while I was mounting the deer head), it made for some of the biggest laughs of the evening. Once all was said and done, it was brought to our attention that with the strategic position of the deer head and the red, circular wreath, it almost made the back of the trailer look like we were impersonating not only the head of the deer, but also the rear end. Funny, but we can't take credit for that. We were simply adding a little more Christmas cheer to the cottage.

Until next year...

Another adventure with my kids

I stopped at the grocery store on my home from the gym this morning. I didn't bring my wallet and only brought 2 $10 bills inserted in a piece of paper in one of the zipper pockets in my bag. I wanted to go to the store then so I could come home and put C down for a nap and clean the house without having to go back out again. I was getting some stuff for a party we are having tonight and chatting on the phone with Matt trying to figure out what we needed. While I was distracted with the phone conversation, C got in my bag and in the zipper pocket and pulled out the paper the money was in. He must have thrown it on the floor along the way somewhere. After I got off the phone, I noticed he was playing with the paper the money had been in. Of course I searched and searched but the money was long gone. So, I have a bunch of groceries in my cart and no money. Out of guilt, I tried to walk around and put them all back in the right places and, of course, the store is packed with people. The whole time Winston had been whining about wanting an ice cream cone from the deli. I kept telling him no and finally got to the end of my rope and turned to him and said (in a very stern almost yelling voice) "Winston! We are not getting an ice cream cone. We don't have any money! Please stop!" Just then, I heard someone say "Hi Steff." It was the YW Pres I had served with in our old ward. I was pretty embarrassed and tried to act all happy to see her. I'm sure she heard me telling W that we didn't have any money. So, we are almost finished putting our stuff back and Winston starts yelling "We don't have any money. We can't buy any food!" Keep in mind I am in my grubby workout clothes with my hair in a messy ponytail and hardly any make-up. The kids are in some random sweat outfits I threw on them in my rush to get to the gym on time and they are covered in the frosting from the free cookie from the bakery. We were looking real nice...real nice, Clark. By this time I was on the phone with Matt and he was getting big laughs out of the whole situation. He said any minute someone was going to come up and offer me money to help buy my kids some food for Christmas. I forgave him for laughing when he offered to run to the store during his lunch hour to get the stuff we needed so I wouldn't have to venture back to the store with the kids today. Matt told me I needed to blog about it. So...there you go. :) I hope Charlie enjoyed his $20 ride in the race car cart at Macey's. Merry Christmas to him.

Our Thanks and Love to You

Dear Friends & Family,

Rather than the traditional letter of comings, goings, events and even non-events, we thought we’d change pace a bit. This year we simply want to share our love and our thanks and our wishes to each of you for your friendship, love and kindness. All this has truly made a significant difference in our lives in ’07.

For us, the year 2007 has brought pinnacles of fun and happiness, while also stretching and pulling our family beyond what we thought possible. Through it all, we’ve been backed by an all-star supporting cast of family and friends… namely – all of you. For the fun, help, support and prayers, we want to thank each of you in a much more personal and sincere way than a letter, but alas, for now, this will need to suffice.

If you’re interested in some of the happenings of this little McGhie family, feel free to browse this blog, which we’ve used to keep track of a lot of our events over the last while. You’ll find entries detailing our first cruise, a week spent skiing in Canada, our first garden, Charlie’s comings and goings, numerous camping and boating outings, swimming at the neighbors, backyard s’mores parties, Winston starting pre-school, birthdays, and a few other ‘whatevers’ thrown into the mix.

We wish all of you the happiest of holidays and again express our love and thanks for all that has been done in our behalf, from simply babysitting (which we understand really isn’t so simple with our kids) to the fasts and prayers.

With Love,

Matt, Steff, Winston & Charlie

Fun with a Snowman

Saturday morning we woke up to a winter wonderland. A good eight inches of snow covered everything as far as the eye could see. It was a vast sea of undisturbed fluffiness. So, being the appreciators we are, we bundled up the kids and headed out for some snowman fun.

Now, as some of you are aware, I have a great respect for Calvin (of Calvin and Hobbes) and his imagination. His snowmen rank high on my list of favorites. So, with all this snow and not much else to do, Steff and I decided to take our own shot at making a 'Calvin Snowman' of our own... This particular creation comes from his 'Snowman House of Horror."

Side view...

As we were wrapping up, our neighbor came over to see what we were up to. I'm pretty sure he thought we were totally demented. He did manage to chuckle uncomfortably and say something to the effect of the neighbor kids not being able to sleep at night. I'm also pretty sure the words demented and twisted were used in his dialogue as well.

Anyways, we had a pretty good time, some heated 'debate' and got really cold toes. Ah, what a season....

By the way, here is the original idea we used.... so you know its not just our demented (or twisted) sense of humor: