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!

merry christmas!

we've been having a great holiday season this year.  i started the month out with our ward's quarterly enrichment meeting.  we had a wonderful speaker, soup, rolls, and of course dessert.  then we were able to work on some really cute crafts.  

on thursday, the 4th, our HOA had a tree lighting party.  they had a petting zoo, balloon animals, santa, carriage rides, and hot chocolate.  we had a blast, and were very grateful for the hot chocolate - it was cold outside!  

the first sunday in december was the first presidency christmas devotional.  we had a family over for dinner that night, and watched the broadcast with them.  it was a great night.  i love starting out the season with words from the prophet.  

the 13th was our ward christmas program, and while i was a little skeptical at first (and even grumbled a bit, i must admit), it was nice.  there was a spiritual program in the chapel, and then refreshments and activities for the kids afterwards.  the only downside was the time.  i put my kids to bed early (saves my sanity!) - around 7ish, and the program started at 7.  they were tired, and pretty cranky for church the next day, but i'm glad we went.  i'm glad for the reminders of the real meaning of christmas.  we had our pictures taken that afternoon.  katie was fabulous, and offered to take them for us.  thanks!  we owe you one, katie!  

i also got released from being the 2nd counselor in our young women's program, and was called as the 1st counselor instead.  not too much of a change, just kind of switching gears.  

christopher had his preschool christmas program on the 17th, which was super cute.  he did a great job.  

we went to our neighboring town's fire safety town, which is a little town built kid-sized.  they had it all lit up, with fun activities.  it was really cold, so we didn't stay for too long, but it was fun to go and see.  

today was our yw christmas lesson, which went well, i think.  i hope it helped the girls remember Christ.  so, that's been our december so far.  

oh, and i've also been baking like crazy!  i'm pretty much caught up, and excited to enjoy this coming week.  i can't believe christmas is almost here!  merry christmas everyone!

p.s. here is a slide show of about half of our family pictures.  *warning* not for people who might get irritated at seeing our faces more that 50 times. :)

birthday party

okay, so i know it's taking me forever to get all this birthday stuff done.  one day i will have a system for blogging, and stay up to date with everything.  unfortunately, that day has yet to come!  so, i will continue with my catching up, and hope that you all understand.  

i forgot about the camera, until katie mentioned it (thanks, katie!).  so, the first half of the party is unfortunately undocumented.  there were about 14 kids in total, and they all ran out to the backyard to play while everyone arrived.  it was pretty crazy - a bunch of 4 year old boys (there were some girls too, but they arrived later) running around the yard in a pack, yelling.  pretty fun to watch, actually.  we were just glad they were letting their energy out in a constructive way.

after they got some of their energy out, we started our super-hero training.  (we had a spiderman theme, as requested by the birthday boy.  i made the invites like a comic book, and spiderman invited each kid to the birthday.)  for our training, everyone took turns climbing up a wall (the rope ladder on our swing set), to rescue the person (one of naomi's dolls) who was stuck.  the kids had a blast doing this - we all cheered for them, and called them spiderman _fill in the name___ (like christopher was spiderman christopher).   next we used their spidey senses.  i had a plate of different kinds of fruit.  they memorized what was there, and then i would take something away.  they would have to remember and tell me what was missing.  after that, we kicked a ball into a target to practice our aim.  

the craziest part of the course was the web-slinging.  i had a can of silly string for each kid, and they all tried to hit a target i had set up.  thanks to dave, it turned into a silly string war, which was a blast, of course.  we also practiced our strength with some of those blow up balloons you can punch.  the final course of our super-hero training was a strength test on a pinata. :)  this is where the camera was finally remembered (thanks for taking the pictures katie! if it wasn't for you, there wouldn't be any pictures at all!).

candy, candy, candy!

(actually, i do have to say that the kids were surprisingly good about the candy.  no fighting or anything.  we actually had candy left over)

the final product

the happy helper :) 

(dave is the guy to have at a party - he did all the outside clean up while we were doing pizza.  he even cleaned up all the silly string from the yard.  that wasn't a small job :)

the girls in the kitchen.  thanks for staying and helping melissa and holly!

naomi enjoyed the fun, but was glad for a quiet house after everyone left

after the pinata, i had pizza dough shaped into individual sized pizzas for each kid.  they got to choose their toppings, and make their own pizza.

while the pizza was cooking, they watched The Incredibles, since they're a super-hero family and everything.

christopher had a great time at his party, and i actually had a fun time too.  usually i'm running around like a crazy person, and don't get to enjoy much.  i did a bunch of prep work this time, and it payed off.  

until next year!

birthday pictures

christopher's birthday was quite a while ago, but i haven't gotten around to posting the pictures yet.  better late than never!  he is still loving his sweet ride, and always wants to go for rides on the walking paths by our house.  naomi is desperately wanting a bike of her very own (or maybe it's just the helmet and pads - not too sure on that one), and unfortunately, scout has destroyed the tricycle.  her stroller will have to do for now. :)  she won't be big enough to even reach the peddles for a while yet.  she loves her big brother, and wants to be just like him. 

isn't he handsome?

i'm 4!

i don't know why these two won't turn.  sorry :)