Everything is amazing, nobody is happy...

i saw this on my friend, wendy's blog, and thought i'd share it too. i think the world could sure use a lot more grateful people!

nature

i love nature!  i love how beautifully God has made our earth.  some of my happiest memories are of the times i've spent in nature - camping, swimming in the river, or just lying and watching the clouds.  a simple patch of sunshine coming in through the window can help me feel so peaceful and calm.  if i believed in reincarnation, i would think that i had been a cat in my previous life.  we had a couple of big windows, growing up, and i used to curl up on the floor in the patch of sun coming through them, and take a nap.  even thinking about it makes me feel warm and cozy.  i hope to pass the same love of nature on to my kids.  

dave took these pictures on valentine's day.  isn't the sky just beautiful?  he took them with his phone, so they don't have very good resolution, but they still capture the beauty.

happy valentine's day!

we had a great valentine's day!  we don't usually make a big deal about having treats or dessert around here; if we do have something, it doesn't usually get consumed too quickly, so we go kind of wild on valentine's day.  we had cookies before breakfast, chocolate cereal for breakfast, and treats afterward!  i figure it's only once a year, and it makes some great memories and fun family traditions.  

we spent the morning exercising and swimming, which was fabulous.  i am still sore from the laps i swam - i love it! :)  it's been such a long time since i swam laps, and it felt good to use those muscles again.  i need to keep at it.  after that, we took the kids and went bowling.  it was the first time they had ever gone, and we all had a great time.  we didn't take any pictures.  i would much rather enjoy the event than take pictures of it, but i do need to do better at documenting our lives.  hopefully i can find a balance somewhere.  something i am always striving for is balance!  anyway, we all had a blast bowling.  dave won (of course!), next was naomi - with the bumpers and ramp - then chris (i think the only reason he was after naomi is because dave was helping naomi, and I was helping chris :D), then me!  christopher was pretty excited that he beat me.  i am absolutely HORRIBLE at bowling, so it wasn't too much of a surprise.  

I made sugar cookies during Naomi's nap, and tried royal icing this year.  i think they turned out pretty well, especially for my first attempt at the stuff, and more importantly, they were yummy!  they got to eat them after dinner.  we had our traditional fettucini alfredo.  i couldn't have asked for a better day.  family and fun is the best combination!

p.s. for some reason, the pictures are taking forever to upload, so i'll add them another time

enjoying the moments

Our power started going in and out this afternoon.  It probably wouldn't have been an issue, except that with all of the things to plug in, in our home office, we have a surge protector box.  The box didn't like the power fluctuations, and produced a loud beep every 30 seconds.  We thought there was something wrong with the box at first, but realized it was more than that when all the lights in the house started flickering.  By the way, we don't leave all the lights in the house on - we just noticed the flickering on the ones that were on.  :)  

Okay, getting to the point of this post... The flickering lights were giving us all headaches, so we had a candlelight dinner.  Nothing fancy, just a few candles, so we could see what we were eating, without getting migraines.  Christopher thought this was pretty neat, and said, "this is a really fun party Mom!"  I love how my kids help me remember to enjoy the fun moments of life.  I hadn't been enjoying the moments today, but his comment helped me remember what is really important - my family, and enjoying the time I get to spend with them!  We had a really fun party tonight!

january's lonely post

I can’t believe January is already over!  Life kept us busy, but we managed to have some fun together.  Some of the pictures are from a Family Home Evening we had.  We read a story from the Friend about being a child of God, and then the kids colored crowns that said, “I am a child of God”.  We told Naomi she was a princess, so she wore the crown everywhere for a couple of weeks. 

 I also included pictures of Christmas morning.  My Mom and Dad sent Christopher a basketball hoop, and they both he and Naomi had a blast playing together.  Later that morning, they watched “Horton Hears A Who” together, and I just had to include the picture I took of them watching it together.  Christopher can be so protective of his little sister, and I absolutely love it!

 We also celebrated Scout’s birthday on the 20^th.  He is already a year old, but still very puppy-ish sometimes.  We all love him, and he’s definitely become part of the family.  We made cupcakes to celebrate, and even let him have one.  He loved them!