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 :)

An Award!

As you might, or might not, have noticed - I haven't been blogging a whole lot lately.  I haven't been posting, and I haven't been commenting on friends' blogs, and I haven't been great about even checking friends' blogs.  Sorry guys!  I still love you!  I'm coming back slowly, and just going to kind of see how much time I've got to invest in this crazy blogging world.  I really want to post regularly - it's a good way for me to journal, and I'll have to see how much else I can keep up with.  

That said, if I had been better about blogging, I would have known sooner that I've received an award!  Yay!  My first award!  Thanks, Holly!  I hope there isn't a time limit on it, since it's taken me so long. :)  I will assume there's not, and proudly proclaim that I'm the winner of the Brillante Weblog Premio - 2008 Award!

Here are the rules: I have to answer the following questions with one word answers and one word only! Then I must pass it on to seven others.

Here are the questions:
1. Where is your cell phone? purse

2. Where is your significant other? office
3. Your hair color? brown

4. Your mother? Louise
5. Your father? Brian
6. Your favorite thing? love
7. Your dream last night? none
8. Your dream/goal? improve
9. The room you're in? office
10. Your hobby? piano

11. Your fear? spiders
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? happy
13. Where were you last night? bed
14. What you're not? pessimistic
15. One of your wish-list items? travel

16. Where you grew up? Richland
17. The last thing you did? talked

18. What are you wearing? clothes

19. Your TV? off

20. Your pet? scout
21. Your computer? mac
22. Your mood? content
23. Missing someone? family
24. Your car? Explorer
25. Something you're not wearing? jewelry
26. Favorite store? outlets
27. Your summer? fun

28. Love someone? lots!
29. Your favorite color? green
30. When is the last time you laughed? today
31. Last time you cried? today

I pass the award to....

Kirsten

Sharene

Leslie

Erica

Jessica

Charlynn

Oklahoma (Andrea:D)

Preschool and birthday fun!

Since it's been so long since I've posted, this post will include a few things all in one.  Christopher started preschool this year, and is loving it.  

this is christopher at school, next to his cubby

He goes Mondays and Wednesdays from 9 till 2, which is great, because most of his friends go (to a different school) Monday, Wednesday and Fridays.  Which means we can still have playdates.  (Hey guys!  We should have a playdate :D)  He has two great teachers, and nine kids in his class.  He get to do cooking, math, movement class, music class, chapel, circle time, quiet time, lunch, and a snack.  This last weekend he even got to bring home the class stuffed animal.  Each class's name is an animal, and his is the Tigers, so he brought home Tito the tiger.  Tito came to Oktoberfest with us, and had a good time.

tito checking out the animals

tito and christopher waiting for lunch

tito got tired and decided to take a nap

He come home singing the songs, and chatting about how his day went.  He is really excited about everything, but definitely a lot more tired than usual.  Life feels kind of crazy when I think my baby is old enough to be going to preschool.  I can't believe it's been four years since he was born!

Speaking of which, Tuesday was his 4th birthday!  He had a great day, and I had a lot of fun celebrating with him.  A tradition for Dave's family is to have the presents in the morning, which is a tradition I like. :)  So, we had all his presents in our room waiting for him when he came downstairs.  He was so excited when he saw the spiderman bike in the middle of it all!  The look on his face was priceless!  That was our present to him (along with a helmet and knee/elbow pads, of course.  I'll post a picture of him riding his bike soon.  He is super cute), and he had to run upstairs and get dressed so he could ride it around.  I'm not sure why he needed to get dressed, but as soon as he was ready, he was taking a practice spin around the kitchen.  

From his Ouma and Oupa he got a super cool car (which he hasn't stopped playing with, by the way.).  Thank you!  Grandpa and Grandma and Amy sent him Thomas books for his Storyreader, which he reads every time we go anywhere in the car.  Thanks!  You guys know him well.  He loves his presents!  We went to story time at the library, and then came back home for lunch.  His requested meal was grilled cheese sandwiches, carrots, and broccoli (that's my boy!).  After lunch we got to have cupcakes with his cousins and auntie and uncle.  They got him this awesome wooden fire station with fire fighters and a fire truck and everything.  This is my favorite toy, because he goes up to his room and plays with it, quietly, for quite a while. :)  We went for two bike rides after lunch (in between piano lessons - oh, yeah, I'm teaching piano lessons.  More on that later, too.), and he got going pretty good the second time.  I might have to plan on taking a jog the next time he wants to go, either that or restrict him to going back and forth in front of our house.

My family's birthday tradition is that the birthday person gets to choose what's for dinner.  Christopher chose homemade pizza (which is great, because I make it with half whole wheat flour, so it's at least a little good for us!), which we enjoyed outside, since it's been so GORGEOUS lately!  We, of course, had cake and ice cream.  So, a great day for a little four year old!

He even got to keep celebrating today when I brought cookies to preschool for his class.  I was going to try and do spiderman themed ones, but ran out of time.  So, the kids just got plain iced sugar cookies.  They're four - they don't care, right? :)  That's what I told myself, anyway.  Today was kind of a crazy day.  Actually, my whole week has been super crazy.  I'm looking forward to the last half of the week, since, hopefully, it will be less intense.