Naomi's Birthday!

Naomi's birthday was on the 17th of March - I can't believe she's already two years old!  She is such a sweet little girl with a whole lot of energy.  She is learning so much, and is quite the chatterbox.  Even strangers can understand a lot of what she says.  We love her to pieces, and are so glad she's part of our family!

The birthday tradition in Dave's family is to open presents first thing your birthday morning, and we have embraced that tradition!  So, you'll have to excuse the morning hair and pj's. :)

Ouma and Oupa gave Naomi this beautiful dress - she loves pretty dresses!  She had to put it on first thing.

Grandma and Grandpa got her a push bike, which she loves!  She drives it around everywhere.

The dress and the bike together

I made some T-shirt dresses for her, so she tried those on too.  She's trying to show how old she is on her fingers.

The next day we had a little party for her.  We had snacks, blew bubbles, played on the swing set, had cake and ice cream, and opened presents.  It was low-key, and just right for a two-year old.

Opening presents

The cake - not my standard decorated cake, but Naomi LOVES chocolate, so I did a delicious chocolate cake.  This was called a Gooey Butter Cake, and it was a hit.  I'll post the recipe on This Mama Cooks.

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!

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. :)