Newest Happenings

My hair is red now. Santa put some Cinaberry hair dye in my stocking, so I used it. It is temporary, although will last longer than the 28 washes the box says, because it is darker than my natural color. Although, my hair is a lot darker naturally than it once was. Just something new for a change.

Alice is teething. She has been for a few weeks. Lots of drool, loves to chew on things, especially blankets, and is sometimes cranky just cuz. But that is being a baby for you. She has managed to keep sleeping through the night most nights though, Woohoo!

Simon is making real progress in potty training. Yippee! We shall vanquish the pullups yet. He is at a stage where he looks for a lot of approval. He is always saying "Like this?" when I tell him to do anything. It is kind of funny. He still loves to says prayers, always wants to say it at dinner and our family prayer. The other night I was helping him say family prayer. I said, "Please bless Nana" (my grandma), and he repeated, "bless banana." Not all he says is always intelligible, but we all heard banana, and boy did that take a lot of discipline to get through the rest of the prayer without laughing. Eli and Joe were no help, trying to muffle their own snickering. But we did it and Simon didn't even know he had said something amusing!

Here is a new word I learned at church today. "Voluntold." As in, you were volunteered to do something. Compulsory volunteerism. You were "voluntold." I think it is very appropriate in certain situations, and parents do it a lot to their kids, and teachers to students. I am adding it to my vocabulary.

Christmas Fashion Show

Alice is so much fun to dress up. Here are pictures of all the Christmas outfits she got to wear. Some are hand-me-downs, and some were new to her, because she is the spoiled princess and everyone loves to buy her clothes! She had an outfit for everyday of the week!Her Granmama couldn't resist this pretty dress, so Alice got dressed up for church.
And her Auntie (my sister) found this one while she was back east visiting my parents. (It says "All I want for Christmas is my Auntie")This one says "Baby's First Christmas."This last one wasn't a Christmas outfit, but she did get the bow in her stocking. And I just thought she was so cute dressed up in gold for church, I couldn't help taking her picture.

Also, I want to say thank you to all of you for the support and faith you have in me for my new calling. It sure makes me feel good and helps buoy me up!

And, as promised, a video of Simon's horse, whose name is Brownie.

Happy Holidays

We had a very Merry Christmas and hope you all did too. Our holidays were fairly low key, but that is fine with me. We got lots of snow the couple of days before Christmas, so it was white. Then the wind blew for several days and it was cold! So we kept to the indoors and close to home. It was fun watching the kids open their presents. We let them all go first, then set them up to play with all the new treasures, then the adults got to find out what awaited them under all the wrappings. We sure appreciate all the love and generosity of our family. I think the kids got just about everything that was on their lists! Here are a few pictures from our event. The kids "attacking" presents.

Alice mostly didn't know what was going on. But we had fun decorating her.

Eli got his own digital camera. He has been having lots of fun with it.

Simon got a pony! He was pretty excited. And it neighs, whinnies, makes gallopping noises, and its nose wiggles and its tail moves. Pretty fun. They all got a kick out of it. I will try to post a video of it soon. And some more pictures too.

Our New Year consisted of ham dinner, adults playing Scrabble while kids watched Alvin and the Chipmunks (the were completely enthralled), then a movie for the grown-ups after we put the kids to bed. And I actually stayed awake til midnight, no we didn't let the kids stay up. Don't think they really cared anyway.

I don't really have any resolutions for the new year, but there are some new things for me. I was released from my Young Womens calling a couple of weeks ago. I was in that organization for 4 years! So it will be different, and guess what my new calling is? Primary Chorister! I know, I was sure they had the wrong person. I am sure most of you know how I am not really a musical person, so this will certainly be new and different for me. Our bishop thinks callings should "stretch" us. This most definitely qualifies. We shall see how it goes. This Sunday I have to start teaching a new song. A song I don't know myself. I have been trying to learn it. Please pray for me!

So here's wishing all you the best for a new, productive, prosperous, pleasant year!

...And a partridge in a pear tree...

Happy beginning of the 12 days of Christmas! That's right, there are only 12 days left til Christmas. It seemed like it was so far away, and now it is right around the corner. A week from tomorrow, our holiday guests will start arriving. Good thing the shopping is 98% done, I am sure there are few things left to get.


In the meantime, in the last couple of weeks, I got a new camera! Yeah I finally have a good one for myself. I ordered it with money I earned taking surveys online. It is a Canon PowerShot SD1200 IS Digital Elph. So here are some pictures from it.
Our nephew Jayson got baptized last weekend, here he is with his family. Yeah Jayson!

Here is our Christmas tree. I bought it after Christmas last year on clearance, so I didn't know what it would look like. It is kind of small, but fuller and better looking than the old hand-me-down one we had. The kids helped decorate it. And have been helping "undecorate" it ever since.

Yesterday it finally warmed up around here. Wednesday morning it was -13 when I woke up and the highs didn't get above freezing til yesterday. We had snow and it packed on the ground, but today lots of it melted. Here is our Alice all bundled up for the cold! What a cute snow bunny!

Holiday Time

Could time just slow down please?! The days are just flying by. We had a nice quiet Thanksgiving at our house. Just Joe and me and the kids. We kept it simple, but it was good and we have been enjoying leftovers! Then Sunday my grandma and grandpa came for a visit. It was lots of fun to see them, wish it could have been for longer!

The weekend before Thanksgiving, my sister and I decided to go get our Christmas shopping done. It seemed like the best time, and now our work has been really busy so we are glad we got it done. We had fun, though it was a long trip. When we arrived at Toys R Us, this is what greeted us:

What a hoot! There was also Bobba Fett and the sand people things. (Sorry if I am offending any Star Wars Fanatics out there with my ignorace).

We managed to pretty much get everything we needed. We also do the shopping for my Nana, and buy what the kids want and she sends us the money. So getting it all coordinated took some brain power, but we were successful. Can't show you anything I bought now, but there will be pictures after Christmas. Oh, and I bought myself a little something, a new desk chair. I was wanting one, with all the work I have been doing, I have been needing something more comfortable. So I saw this at Staples, for 1/2 price. Leather and everything. The kids helped me put it together the next day. They love to go up and down in it.

Today, Alice is 3 months old. She is growing and changing! It doesn't feel like it has been a whole 3 months that she has been around! She is really a good girl, and smiles lots. She loves to be talked to and played with. And she is doing very well with sleeping. She has slept through the night several time, and only wakes up once if she does. We sure love her!

A Special Weekend

A couple of weekends ago, we had two special events. First, on Saturday the 7th, Ayden was baptized. It was very nice watching his dad baptize him and then watching his dad, uncles, grandpa, and great uncle confirm him and give him the Holy Ghost. We are proud of Ayden for his decision.

On Sunday, the 8th, Alice was blessed during Sacrament meeting. She was a good girl and stayed happy. Grandma bought her this beautiful blessing dress, and her great-aunt made the headwrap with the flower. She was darling!

We had lots of fun having so much family all gathered together. It was great. The rest of November sure has been flying by, Thanksgiving will be here shortly, and then Christmas will be upon us. Santa's workshop is already underway....

Happy Halloween

Here is a picture chronology of the last several years of Halloween, from '03 (Eli's first Halloween) to this year.

2003 - Here is Eli as a caterpillar. Thanks to Martha Stewart for the costume pattern. 2004 - Eli as a leopard, or whatever it is. This costume has been recycled several times, keep scrolling.

2005 - Eli was a cow, but wouldn't wear the hat. Carissa and I were a "paradise" (pair-of-dice, get it?) Rylan is wearing the leopard costume.

2006 - Simon's first Halloween, he was 2 days old. We went as Care Bears, except for Ayden. And yes, I went trick-or-treating 2 days after having a baby; I was crazy, or at least still high on the endorphins from natural birthing or something!

2007 - I made us all into M&Ms.

2008 - Somehow I got hardly any pictures this year. But I have video of it. Eli was a polar bear, Simon was the leopard. And we went trick-or-treating with some friends. 2009 - Alice as the caterpillar, Simon the Cowboy, and Eli, knight in shining armor.

A note about Simon: He loves being a cowboy and especially his boots. He put them on Friday to go to our town's Main Street trick-or-treat, then slept in them, and pretty much hasn't taken them off since!