a picture's worth a thousand words

of course I have to add a few more. D went to the temple today. It was wonderful, one of the best days of my life.

Happy Birthday to Nana!

Wednesday Nana and Abba arrived and we all headed up to Heber to stay at the Holiday Inn.

We went out to dinner to celebrate Nana's 60th birthday. It was very fun.

After dinner we went to Greg's parents home and met them. They were very nice and we had a nice visit about the wedding and the kids. (now I'm officially old I can call my almost married daughter and her husband "the kids". :})

The only hard thing is we want to be with everyone at the same time. H and E were SO excited to go to the airport and get their grandparents and at the same time they wanted to stay with their cousins.

Luckily we'll be able to go back and spend another day together on Sunday before we head home and we'll all be together for wedding stuff.

Utah is very cold.

Festival of Lights

We had planned on going to SLC to see the lights but Lucy was running a fever and M has a hurt leg so we drove through the festival of lights instead.

It was very, very nice. When we got there we all piled into the suburban and drove through the park. All the displays were wonderful and the kids ohhhed and ahhhed their way through, twice.

Gingerbread Houses

We made a gingerbread village. The children each picked a bag of candy to buy and share and then we let them have at it.

We saw lots of different approaches and lots of different results. All had fun.

Brother put on one piece of candy and started eating. Lucy gingerly placed one chocolate chip at a time. T build a master piece, the girls got very messy.




I wish we always lived by our cousins. It's so much fun!

We made it!

We're here. I can't believe it. Friday was very busy. We had a list of a dozen or so errands, laundry to do, rooms to leave clean, packing to finish. We also got to go to the mall and watch H dance. They had a little program and she danced to "Jingle Bell Rock". It was so cute. After we ate in the food court and looked around for a few minutes. Papa came with us and then he took S home with him. She'll be staying with him until she flies out to join us for the festivities. Saturday night she danced at school, I was disappointed to miss it but we were on the road. We didn't get everything done but most so I was happy about that.

Our weekend was spent driving. Long, long days both days. We made it to Gallup that first day. The kids did well. I packed our travel surprise bags and they enjoyed opening little treats every so often. The favorite was the Frosty the Snowman DVD.
The next day we drove to my sister's house. We stopped at Four Corners and hopped from state to state. That was more fun than I thought it would be. It's 6 miles off the freeway and I didn't think it would be worth the 12 extra minutes in the car, but it was. We watched a Navajo grandma do sand paintings, which H found very interesting. Looked at some local wares, took a short walk out into the desert and took our picture standing in four states at once! (to be posted later)

The evening drive was less pleasant by that time Lucy had had it. She was screaming, the kids were cranky and DH and I were in not very good moods as well. About 2 hours before we reached our destination Lou had a blowout diaper followed by throwing up. It was all over and quite gross. We pulled over and cleaned her up, using an entire box of baby wipes. We had to disassemble the carseat and wash it up best we could in a Burger King bathroom. DH wanted to "just throw it away" it was so gross undoing straps covered with vomit and poo (doesn't this just make you want to hop in the car and drive across the country with a bunch of kids?...no, me neither and we get to do it 3 more times this month)

Finally we made it. I was so happy to see MSV and her cute family. The kids ran around like crazed kids, after being trapped in seats for 2 days who could blame them. After a short time D and Greg came over. It was so great to see them, they are happy and excited!

So now we're here. We have wedding stuff to do, also some down time and the cousins are having a great time just being together. This afternoon we're making gingerbread houses and tonight we're going to head into Salt Lake and see the Christmas Lights on Temple Square.

SNOW!!

....okay, so it's not snowing in the Colorado ROcky Mountain high sense of the word but it's still white and falling from the sky!

love is....

looking at photos from Christmas' past!

Lucy and H at the school Christmas play 2005
Brother and Abba in Ohio 2002
Four cute girls 2001
S and J in Ohio 1998

Visit Chookooloonks for more Love Thursdays!

WFMW~ Toddler chores

It's been a while since I've done a works for me Wednesday, partly because I forget and partly because I don't have that many "great" ideas to share.

This morning, however, Lucy was helping feed Millie and I thought ah ha, the perfect WFMW! So I grabbed my handy-dandy camera snapped a couple shots and here you have it.

Toddlers and chores.

We have a lot of work to do in our house. And we're not always good at it, although it seems like we put a lot of time, energy and effort into it. I need a live in FlyLady I guess!


Of all the kids Lucy is the one who loves to help the most.

Here she is sweeping the floor after she put the dog food in the bowl.

She can pull our little rolling cart of dog food out of the pantry all by herself, and she can scoop it into the bowl. This works great until it gets about half way down, then she can't reach any more. At that point brother can and at the end someone big has feed her.
My tip is to find ways to make chores manageable for kids and then they can help you. The rolling dog food holder is one.

Lucy also loves to put her diapers in the trash, hand me stuff when I'm unloading the dishwasher (admittedly not all that helpful but it's the learning process that we're after). She can pick up trash, put toys in their bins, bring me books, get TP out of the closet and take it to a stranded sibling, carry in light groceries from the car when we are all shleping back and forth, put pool toys in the outside seat, take her dirty clothes to the hamper and clear her plate to the kitchen after dinner. There are lots of things little ones can do.

Count down's on

Things are coming together, slowly but surely. The wedding favors arrived today, yeah! Now we just have to cross our fingers that the flower girl dresses come before Saturday.

We have an incredibly long to-do list and we're busily checking stuff off. Today started at 5:40, like every day (a time I hate frankly). DH had an engine test earlier this a.m. so I dropped S off at seminary, came home and bathed H and started the kids on breakfast, drove back and got S, came home and got H on the bus, got everyone else ready to go out the door, dropped off S, took J to the dentist, took her back to school, dropped E at preschool and went to VT. All before 9:30!

I have been visiting a sister in my ward for about 6-7 months now and she is SO quiet. Today she talked more than she has before and I feel like I am finally getting to know her. I think she's really lonely and in the middle of all my wedding/holiday craziness she has been on my mind a lot. I need to find a way to reach out to her and be her friend that will be meaningful. She has a lot of struggles in her life, she's in my prayers but I need to do more.

I had lunch with H at school. She loves it when we come. I don't.

Tonight the YW had a great service project. They had free baby-sitting at the church from 6-8:30. The little kids had a lot of fun and DH and I got some trip shopping done and we vacuumed and washed the car (two checks on the list). We also got the bulletin board at church updated with chili cook off pictures.

Besides that I got some laundry done, dishes done, meals cooked, H to dance, Christmas stuff done, wedding stuff done, stories read, dog fed, dinner group sorted out for the weekend, and all the normal stuff.

Oh I got a couple Christmas presents bought (sadly my first two.) And I finished "The Time Traveler's Wife". Our book club choice for the month. It's good, it was a little slow going although the story is interesting and the characters really draw you in . It has some "adult" parts that have to be skipped over, some interesting themes, and raises some good questions about what is good and bad, moral or not, the nature of existence, and examines what is really meaningful. It should be an interesting discussion.

Today ended at ...well, technically it's not quite ended yet but it looks like it soon will be. As soon as I am done here I am going to get ready for bed. It's 10:07 and just before sitting down here I got to scrub a potty that someone had trouble in and some other routine end of the day stuff. Now I am catching up on blogs and DH is untangling lights. We'll probably make it to bed before Letterman starts.

Christmas MeMe, come play with me!

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Mmmm, both!
2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? Wrap
3. Colored lights on tree/house or white?Colored!!
4. Do you hang mistletoe? We have TX mistletoe that we hang up, chili peppers and a Christmas bow.
5. When do you put your decorations up? Early in the month.
6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)? Southern Style Sweet Potatoes
7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child: We were at Baba and Deda's house, like always, and I got a bionic woman doll and my cousin Gina got a Barbie. We played with them for a long time and it was really fun.
8. How and When did you learn the truth about Santa? I don't remember really believing in him. We always opened gifts after Christmas Eve dinner and the packages sat there for days ahead of time so we would rummage through the pile whenever the grown-ups weren't looking. So he never made sense but I didn't mind.
9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Not usually.
10. How do you decorate your Christmas Tree? With a hodge podge of this and that, ornaments I have had since I was a girl, stuff the kids made, ornaments that we have purchased or been given. It's really more a work of love than I work or art.
11. Snow! Love it or Dread it? Love it! I am a So Ca girl though and now live in TX so when do we see snow????
12. Can you ice skate? Yes, not really well but I can.
13. Do you remember your favorite gift? Christmas 1990, my 2nd daughter was born. She was the best Christmas present ever.
14. What's the most important thing about the Holidays for you? Celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ and spending time with the people I love.
15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert? Pumpkin Pie. and four layer dessert.
16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? waking up to the sound of giggling and running feet and having the kids jump on the bed and "persuade" us to get up!
17. What tops your tree? A sort of ratty looking angel, we need to replace her with something a little less lopsided!
18. Which do you prefer giving or Receiving? Both
19. What is your favorite Christmas Song? I love Christmas music, I don't know if I can pick one. I love "Angels We Have Heard on High" and "Mary did you know" and so many others.

Okay, now it's your turn if you read this please take a moment and share some holiday thoughts and leave me a link so I can read yours.

Until they forgot to be miserable and accidentally had fun.

Botanical Gardens

After our fun trip to the gardens the other day I thought it would be so nice to go back and take pictures for our Christmas cards.
You would have thought I suggested we go for a group root canal for how well the idea was received.









S complained that she didn't have any clean clothes. E cried that he didn't want to go to the park, he wanted to stay and play X-box. G just cried and H wanted to change her clothes and was then unhappy that she couldn't. There was weeping and wailing all the way there and then more complaining once we got there.
DH went around taking lovely pictures like this. Notice how nicely the children are smiling.
The kids sulked and complained.
It was SO fun.

only 2 more weeks...

and they will be Mr and Mrs. :)

Fresh Air

We decided to forgo the stores and spent the day outside. In the morning Papa and I took the kids to the Botanical Garden. We had a really fun time running around, climbing trees, looking at leaves and enjoying the fresh air.

DH went to play paintball.

We spent some time after naps playing in our own yard and then DH and I went on our weekly date. (where we did hit the sales a little and then headed downtown)

It was a fun day.

Once upon a time...

A family celebrated Thanksgiving. In some ways it was a regular day. Sunny and bright. In other ways it wasn't, because we paused to feel gratitude for our many blessings.

E and S played Happy Land on the computer.

We set a lovely table with flowers that Grandma gave me and a vase from Grandma B.
DH spent the morning staining the railing on the front porch and the back deck. J and H both helped.

E and G played blocks.

G wore her new Thanksgiving pinafore over her dress. (and threw the turkey around the room)
We ate a lot. H didn't like the yams, everyone else was happy. We have lots of food left over, but no yams.
The boys ended the evening with a friendly game of Battle field.

After the little kids went to bed we watched "Code Breaker", which was good. Sad.

It was a good day.

Today I am grateful for my health.
My family.
Our families that live too far away and that we miss a lot every day but especially on holidays.
That Anna is doing well and feeling better each day.
That D is getting married soon and will have a happy life.
That the sun shines.
That the kids are bright and fun and growing.
That I could spend a lot of time with them this week.
That the Savior atoned for my sins and I can live with Him again if I am obedient.
That Papa and Grandma live nearby.
That our country is free.
That we have soldiers willing to fight to keep it that way.
For a living prophet.
For our friends.
For Millie.
For the Book of Mormon.
For a nice husband.
For pumpkin pie.
For books.
For many many things.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Happy Thanksgiving

Our newly painted bathroom.

I bought the paint in April but was scared to actually paint it. I am really happy with how it turned out and it was really easy.