Elliott Expeditions

Kid Appreciation

2012-01-30T10:23:00.000-05:00

These last two - three weeks have been really interesting for me and Anna. She seemed to have turned a corner and I am enjoying her so much more. There is so much less whining and more helping and she is learning how to get away from Grace when she is being ornery. Here are a few funny things she has said this morning.

After picking up Adam and trying to put him on her lap, which she knows she is not supposed to do, because he is not allowed on the chairs, and especially while eating her breakfast, he grabbed her bowl of cheerios and made a nice, big mess all over the floor. After I told her she knows better and that he is not to be on her lap, she says, "My brain isn't right." She had to say is 3 times before I figured out what she was saying. I thought that was so funny. I know I think that all the time about my brain. I assured her her brain was fine, but she did need to use it!

A little later while playing pretend house with Grace she says in a super sweet voice, "Oh honey, there is a force field over there." If that doesn't show there are older brothers in the house, I don't know what does.

Then also this morning. Grace looks up from playing, looks out the window and exclaims, "Nice morning." I looked at her and she looks at me and then outside again and says "It's a nice morning!" It is nice out, there's just a little bit of snow on the ground to cover up all the ugly!

I watched a mormon message from President Eyring the other day. He said when his kids were younger he began a journal and before going to bed each night he would think about where he could see the hand of God in his life and write those things down. I know I see the hand of God through my children, with the fun things they say, the way they play, the questions they ask and in the things they do. I feel like all those things are evidence that God loves me and loves them.

So Sad

2011-12-17T15:12:00.003-05:00

I woke up last night to Nathaniel puking in the toilet and a while later him puking all over my bedroom carpet. Yuk! Not looking good for tomorrow. Then I woke up to my achilles tendon killing. Seriously hurting enough to wake me up multiple times. That's never happened before, so I knew I would be walking like I had a peg leg along with cleaning up throw up. Even better day. When I finally got out of bed I realized I had thrown away a birthday party invitation for Sammy today. I had no idea the name, number or address of the family, so I tried the phone book, friends in Sammy's class, my phone log because I did RSVP. Nothing worked. Then I smelled breakfast burning! Got the oatmeal out of one pan into another, added sugar, milk and crash and scream!!!! And it was a scary scream! Grace was crawling through one of our bar stools and it fell over. Blood was dripping everywhere and I go to look at her, fearing the worst...another tooth injury (not that that is the worst, just what happens most here). Nope all her teeth look good, her nose looks good and then I see her chin. She had busted it open really good, where it looks really gross and I have to keep telling myself not freak out! Called Jason, he was home a couple minutes later, dropped the kids off at Mom's and headed to the ER. Two critical cases came in after we were there and we ended up waiting for about 3 hours in a room. We had TV and good cartoons, so Grace was okay after they got it cleaned and put numbing cream on her. Then they finally came in. They had to shoot her with lidocaine and I just about lost it. I was just thinking, "This is Jason's job!," but then trying to be strong at the same time. They put a cloth with a circle cut out to go over her chin around her face, so I could just see her eyes and she screamed something horrible when they were numbing it. After that she still cried really hard but it wasn't as intense. It was so hard to see her cry and know how much it hurts and not be able to do anything to make it go away! Then it was over. She just clung to me, wrapped her arms and legs around me and held on so tight. It was so sad! We finally got home at 2:30 and got some breakfast in us and she is watching Cinderella and starting to move around, so all is well. Now on to cleaning up some puke. Atleast I can walk a little better now that the tendon is all warmed up and I have some ibuprofen in me. And I am super grateful, it wasn't any worse than is was, it really could have been much worse. And Jason was successful at finding an address so Sammy got to go to a fun birthday party.

Just Life

2011-12-15T23:04:00.001-05:00

This week has been amazing. No doctors appointments, no events to plan, no library story hour, no playgroups! I have been home ALL week getting stuff done, it's been great and much needed...although my house it still dirty.But it has been nice checking things off my mental to do list.

On Tuesday I made spelt tortillas and they were so yummy. I used coconut oil instead of Crisco and spelt instead of white flour. I was a bit nervous to taste them, but they were so good and the kids liked them. I even had a one plain today and it was still good. I am very excited because the kids love burritos, but I try to keep them off of whole wheat, so this will be a good option!

Grace had a fever yesterday and the day before. She has her dance recital tomorrow so I was a little nervous she wouldn't be up for it. She was back to her trouble-making, wanting-candy self today, although she was really tired by bedtime. She cracks me up how she loves to bug Anna. She just likes to hear her scream. Anna is getting better at dealing with her lately though.

We had to go to the dance recital practice tonight and we got home after 7:00, so I prepped the girls that the boys would be in bed and we needed to be quiet and not talk. Anna is my talker, she talks all the time. Sometimes it really amazes me how much she can talk. So she asks, "Can we whisper?" "No Anna, we can't whisper." Anna still talking,"Can we whisper I love you?" "Yes, I guess so." So she leans over and whispers "I love you" and gives me a kiss on the cheek. She is pretty cute!

Worst Meal Ever!

2011-12-12T00:23:00.000-05:00

Tonight I made Butternut Apple Bisque with Foccacia. Sounds yummy, right? It actually was, I think it needed a bit more salt or actually if I could have used cider like the recipe called for instead of juice I'm sure it would have been perfect. All the kids were complaining, I kinda figured they would. Anna could not even put a bite in her mouth. She shivered when she tried. She is a big faker most of the time, but I could tell she was for real. She welcomed going to bed instead of eating it:) I told the boys whoever finished first would get 12 nickels - the reward system we are doing right now. A normal job is usually one nickel, a huge job might be 4, so 12 is unheard of. Nathaniel started scarfing it down, although with his nose plugged. Sammy tried but after about 10 bites, he said he was going to throw up. Nathaniel kept trying so he could get those nickels but couldn't finish it either. Grace did the best at being fed four bites. She actually said, "mmm, yummy" after the first:) I think I needed to blend it longer too. The texture was the killer for the kids. But they tried and unless it's for an adult event I don't think I'll be trying that recipe again, although it really was yummy, just not for kids! As a side note, they all loved the foccacia:)

Hard Worker or not so much

2011-12-03T23:24:00.001-05:00

Nathaniel has been off for a couple weeks now. "Experts" say kids' stages last about 6 months so whenever he starts acting off I start to worry thinking it's going to last 6 months, mainly because he is my easy, happy child. I really don't need another hard one. So it was not a great day. He had a basketball game and the 3rd quarter the ball hit his finger really hard and he was really upset, so that was not good. Saturdays are our basement clean-up day and it was Anna's birthday party last night so it was more of a mess than usual and because the boys can't keep their hands off each other lately they clean up in shifts. During Nathaniel's first shift he was just sitting on the floor, then he would start crying, then put away a couple of toys...it was not going well. I was on the computer and called him in and had a good talk with him... like what is going on, you're a good kid, you don't normally act like this kind of talk. He determined it was just his finger still bothering him. A couple hours later he was upstairs and says with a smile but so sincerely, "Mommy, my body just doesn't feel like cleaning up today!" He said it like he had just had this huge epiphany. It was super cute and I laughed thinking, okay, there is my Nathaniel, while also thinking, my body feels like that every day and look what I get to do! You gotta love your kids even on their off days!

And I think I'm gonna have Jason switch the door handles on the girls' closet so I can lock it, either that or get a lock to put at the top. Grace is seriously going crazy with her clothes. I don't know how to keep her from changing them twenty times a day. I could get creative, but I think I'd rather just put a lock on it!

Today's Favorite Things

2011-11-30T20:32:00.001-05:00

It's been a long time and I miss blogging, so here's another go at it!

We woke up to school being cancelled. These are my favorite days. I can get a few extra jobs done by the boys and then they can have tons of time to play. Last night Jason got all the lights on the tree so the kids could finally put ornaments on it. They were super excited. Anna is my late sleeper, so the others got their ornaments up and were eating breakfast by the time she woke up. She got to put ornaments up by herself. When I walked in to take pictures of her, she was humming jingle bells to herself and studying each ornament before she put it up. It was so cute and a scene I definately want to remember.

We had a snow storm last night,and the first one of the year, so the kids were really excited about playing in the snow. Before Nathaniel went out I told him he could run over to the neighbors to see if they wanted to play. He came back a while later saying, "Mommy, they aren't home, but I shoveled their sidewalk." Such a good kid! They played for 3 1/2 straight hours outside and didn't come in for lunch until 2:30. They had such a great time!

Grace makes me laugh each day, even when she is being a pill. Yesterday and today she has been changing her clothes way too often. Today in 10 minutes she had on atleast 5 different outfits, so her room was a mess. I was in her closet trying to get things put away and telling her she was not allowed to wear summer clothes any longer....it's winter now. So telling her not to climb up to the top of her closet to get whatever she is wanting, she comes in with a dress and says "Mommy, who got this down?" Of course I did. But it made me realize she knows exactly what I am talking about. I can expect more out of her! We made paper chains tonight. After we had about 10 links together, she says, "How many are we doing?" like she is put out, but she if being totally compliant, so I know she is just being silly. I had her count them and when she' was done I asked her how many there were (there were more than 10), she says, there's 2 Mommy, too (2) many. I love her sense of humor.

I'll have to cheat for Sammy and go to yesterday. I love how Sammy says "I love you" each day before school. Nathaniel walks out yelling "I love you" without looking back, but Sammy most days and yesterday as he was walking out got my attention as I was sitting to watch them wait for the bus, looks straight at me and says confidently, " I love you, Mommy." I just absolutely love that. Although I kinda feel like our roles have switched as parent and child. But that's just how good it makes me feel. I hope we can continue that until he leaves for college.

Families are Forever...like it or not!

2011-04-28T10:03:00.005-04:00

Just walked into the family room with two screaming girls.

Me: What's going on?

Grace is suddenly quiet.

Anna: She says she is Anna. I am Anna.

Grace walks away since the fun is over.

Anna: I don't want her to be my sister any more.

I definately feel for her! I had way too many brothers!

Tonight Anna came out of her room with the hiccups and says "Mommy I have the hiccups. I think I'm allergic to Grace." Poor girl. I guess it wasn't a good Grace day!

We woke up to sunny skies and the news telling us that more than 200 people died last night from the massive tornadoes in the South. Our thoughts and prayers go out to those people who have been affected. Tornadoes really scare me, they can just pop up out of nowhere. When I went to bed at 11 we were under tornado watch and Jason saw they had spotted a small one somewhere close but not too close. Luckily he stayed up working until 3:30 on something he had to get done so I slept knowing he was keeping an eye on the weather. He said the winds were harder than he had ever heard (he wasn't here for our big winter storm) and I guess the rain was really loud. I sure didn't hear anything though.

Spring Day

2011-04-04T23:03:00.005-04:00

Yeah! It's Spring Break! I love Spring Break...no rushing in the morning or afternoons, lots of fun family time and I have house cleaning helpers! I love not going any where far and hanging out at or around home. Last year we did a ton of fun things because I was feeling like a huge slacker of a mom at that point of selling the house and it turned out great for me and them so I decided (and they expected) to do the same thing this year and have theme days. So today was Spring Day!

We started out by reading a book about seeds which led to googling honeybees and seeing some pretty cool hives. It's fun having older kids when they start asking questions and you can see their minds working.

Earlier in the morning we headed out to the Huntington Nursery and each kid picked out the flower seeds that they wanted to plant. Sammy knew right away he wanted sunflowers so he got the biggest sunflowers they had. Nathaniel wanted something that looked like a rose, but settled on purple morning glory and Anna's just needed to be pink. After reading we got out the soil and planted them. They all did a great job scooping up the soil, planting and watering. Nathaniel informed me earlier that he had read a book at school about growing seeds and that we needed four things: soil, water, seeds and sun. We got the ones we could and maybe we'll get some sun tomorrow to help them along. I hope they all grow!

A little later we planted grass in the shape of our names. It's a cute idea I saw in Family Fun, although I didn't quite do it like they said to, so I'll be surprised if the grass looks like the kids' names after/if it grows!

Then we decided to brave the dreariness and plant some peas outside. Anna was a great little helper and helped me plant them, although she wasn't too keen on bending over so they aren't very uniformly spaced. It's just an experiment so it doesn't really matter what they look like. And the boys did a good job keeping the dogs away from us...most of the time.

Right when we were done and running inside, Grace slipped down the hill right where the dogs had made it muddy. She was more shocked than hurt so it was more cute than tragic! I was taking a picture of Grace when Nathaniel told me to let him be in with her so we could compare them. So above we have cute clean and cute dirty! And below is just cute dirty!

Then no theme day is complete without some fun food, so we made bird's nest with little eggs. Super easy and fun for the kids.

It was a great day. Spring break helps me remember why I like to be a mom. I'll be sad when they are all out of this fun stage of doing simple activities. The day ended with my basement getting cleaned after me ignoring it for about 6 weeks and then the boys playing Wii Sports with Daddy, a favorite of Jason's. I will say Jason had a hard time working today, he hates missing out on the fun.

Day 1: Successful, I think, but really who knows!

2011-03-28T20:16:00.005-04:00

Potty Training Child #4

I have procrastinated this for a year now. Grace was my first to show signs of wanting to be potty trained, but a year ago I just couldn't. Since we've moved I tried a couple times last year and this is my second attempt this year. Those attempts I thought because she was ready a year ago it would be easy but I was definately wrong. I think she reverted and got so comfortable that it is harder than ever. I hate potty training and the thing I hate most is that it is so different for each of my kids so I know I'm not going to know how to plan it until we are in the middle of it. So after telling myself for weeks that this was the week. I woke up today and before it was too late remembered today is the day. Why I've procrastinated is because Grace has amazing bladder control. It will be great later on, but it is not great while training. After two hours on and off with me watching her every move she finally went pee and got a new doll that she was very excited about. Hopefully tomorrow we'll get the other. But it was a successful day. She only had one tiny mess when I was tickling her, and she was able to hold it and the rest got in the bowl. Yeah! Absolutely nothing else got done today. I've never had to totally devote all my time to it, but it's either she is too stubborn or I just missed the right time for her. Hopefully doing it this way she'll figure things out quickly so I don't go crazy, because I am so done with buying diapers!

Signs of Spring

2011-03-04T11:01:00.002-05:00

This has been an early spring and I am still not quite believing it may be spring. I do think after such a horrid and long winter we all deserve an early spring. These geese were camping out in our backyard this morning. Grace loved going outside to check them out especially when they were honking. I thought the puppies would love chasing them, but they just sat and watched them and then went back inside. All pretty uneventful, but it feels like spring and that is awesome! I can't wait to be hot again!

Since I've started blogging again, Grace has constucted her own computer. She usually sits by me, but Diego was on and that wins over being close to Mommy.

I love looking at this girl. I think she is so stinkin' cute. It may be one of the best things about being a mom...looking at your children when they are being creative, funny, and most times just behaving! Kids are great!

Toothless Wonder

2011-02-26T21:07:00.000-05:00

I rarely brush the boys teeth any more, but I hadn't for awhile so I brushed Nathaniels tonight. He has been working on getting a couple teeth out, but as I was brushing I found another loose tooth that he hadn't mentioned but was barely holding on. I get grossed out with anything in the mouth, but I was scared it would fall out while he was sleeping so I had to pull it out. It made his other two a little more loose so hopefully those will come out tonight. After I pulled it he started laughing as he was looking in the mirror and said, "I have the coolest smile now!" That wasn't quite what Jason and I were thinking but we love his sense of humor and his confidence!

My Toothless Wonder

This is what he called himself afterwards. I'm guessing it's something they say at school.

A Long Awaited Surgery

2011-02-26T10:55:00.002-05:00

I remember during my student teaching reading a story to the kids. I was sitting in a chair and they were sitting on a rug huddled around me. One sweet little girl says, "Why do you have bruises all over your legs?" 10 years and 4 kids later they look like a lot more than bruises. They were just gross. I was reading something in some Mormon magazine, nothing church official, but they said some crazy high number like 75% of women think their body is disgusting. I thought that was crazy, I certainly am not too happy with my body, but disgusting? That's a harsh word. But then I think of my veins and they certainly fit the bill of disgusting, so I guess I would be in that 75%. Above is what my legs looked like, and after 3 1/2 hours of surgery yesterday I hope they look normal now. I won't be able to see them until Monday, but I have high hopes. The doctor was really thorough and super nice. He even took my hand and reassured me that everything was going to be alright just before I was totally gone. So for now I'll hobble around wondering how anyone gets any kind of plastic surgery that isn't medically necessary. It hurts more than I thought it would. So I'm grateful it's the weekend and that I have a good husband to take care of everything! Yeah for new legs!

Book of the Week

2011-02-24T12:32:00.002-05:00

This is Grace's favorite book this week and last. She carries it around with her every day and sleeps with it at night. The funny thing is that she covers her eyes over half of the book when I read it to her. It's a bit "carey" for her, but she loves it:)

Sammy

2011-02-08T10:12:00.001-05:00

A couple things happened today.

Samuel in the car after piano lessons. "Animal crackers make me happy when I put them in my mouth."

And after bedtime we were doing homework that we lost last week. He wasn't too happy about it and I got a lot of dirty looks as I was helping him and telling him to erase letters because they didn't look like letters. How ungrateful, right? :) I totally understand the dirty looks, but his teacher marked two spelling words wrong last week because his u's looked kinda like a's. So I guess I needed to get on him about it.
Anyway we were trying to come up with a descriptive sentence for "riciculous." All he could think of was, "Anna is ridiculous when she yells...or cries...or pretty much anything when Sammy is involved." I explained how that wasn't very nice and gives me his dirty look and says, "What, Mom? It doesn't have to be true. It doesn't matter what it says, just that I know what it means." Although he was right I need him to learn to be nicer. So all of a sudden I had this brilliant idea (very rare, that's why I writing it down), remember he is giving me his death look by now and is on the verge of breakdown, I started singing, "The ridiculous man built his house upon the sand, the ridiculous man built his house upon the sand, the ridiculous man built his house upon the sand and the rain came tumbling down. By the third line he was fighting back a smile and by the end he thought it was funny. So rarely do these moments happen between me and him, so I had to document it. I remember very random things from childhood, some good and some bad. I hope this is one of the random things that he remembers!

Loooong Week!

2011-02-04T23:12:00.003-05:00

Jason was gone last week and it was the wrong week to be gone, although it could have been much, much worse. I was just super tired by Friday night.

Sunday we started hearing about this awful storm that was going to be coming through on Tuesday and Wednesday. Having no food and needing to go to the grocery store on Monday anyway, I made sure to plan for the storm and get plenty. Gracie wanted to talk to Daddy today. She said Daddy, daddy, daddy atleast 50 times before I could get her to be quiet and listen to Daddy. She was so excited to hear his voice!

Tuesday the storm had started and the kids were cancelled which is always fun that first day. Grace had a fever and was pretty out of it that day so we watched Dora all day. Later that night Grace felt good for a little while. She was next to me at the computer and counted in her best Dora voice, "1,2,3,4,5 Count with me!" Way too much Dora today! The kids played downstairs great by themselves with only a couple reminders that they needed to be extra good since Grace needed me. Tuesday night the storm was pretty scary, although the kids slept right through it. I was thankful to have good strong windows, because that wind was whipping. Things were creaking on the house where I didn't even know things were. The screen in our screened in porch door went flying but that's all the damage we had. That night I just prayed and prayed the lights stayed on until I went to sleep and then I prayed we'd have them in the morning and we did!

Wednesday the kids were, of course, home again. With Grace still being cranky it wasn't the most fun for me. They had fun and didn't ask to play the Wii once, which makes me happy. I really like when they just play. Dad showed up to plow us out. His Ranger had to work hard this time to move it all! The boys went outside to play, but only lasted about 20 minutes. It was just too cold!

By Thursday, I was really wanting to get back on a schedule but school was cancelled again and Grace was fevering again, so not a great day. One huge plus to having three days off school though is my house got clean. By Thursday the boys had done all their normal jobs so they learned to mop. Sammy was excited right when I told him because he thought I meant with the mop. They didn't quite understand how mopping on your knees with a washcloth was mopping but they did it and they actually did a pretty good job. Good enough for me, especially if it means I don't have to do it!

Friday they had a delay, but they did get to school! Friday night I got a babysitter so after I picked up Jason we went out to dinner. I was really wanting seafood, probably because Jason had been in Connecticut all week and could have gotten yummy seafood at lots of places. We haven't been out a lot here, but we decided on Biaggis and it was amazing! It's Italian but had fresh Tasmanian trout that is flown in every day, so I had that with whipped cauliflower and it was divine. It was even amazing the next day after warming it in the microwave. Definately a favorite now!

So many cute things happened but I'm still trying to train myself to write them down right away or I forget.

For a snack one day Grace wanted popcorn. She looked at me and said, "popcorn...popcorn tee (tree), Mommy." Those little sayings just bring a smile to my face! She has great nursery leaders!

One night at bedtime we were talking about reading the Book of Mormon. Jason told Samuel he would buy him a 4 wheeler after he read it, so he's been working on it for about 5 months now. (Not really sure how I feel about that deal, but I wasn't consulted). Samuel says, "Mommy can you tell Daddy I want something else, I don't want a 4 wheeler." Nathaniel pipes up, "Well you could still get it and give it to me." We all had a good laugh. I think Sammy figured that out. I've told him lots of times, "Go read your Book of Mormon, I want to get a 4 wheeler." So I think nows he's thinking, why am I doing this for everyone else? He wants something special to him, which I think is just fine and won't be nearly as expensive as a 4 wheeler. Although we'll be needing one of the those this summer anyway, so it won't save us that cost!

Good News!

2011-01-29T14:29:00.000-05:00

Basketball went well today! Nathaniel made two baskets and had a ton of fun. He does a great job guarding, now he just needs to rebound. And Sammy did great. He is so excited there is only one game left.

Mom volunteered to take the girls during the games and make cookies with them. That was so nice. It has been such a pain taking them and trying to wrestle them (mainly Grace) on the bleachers. So it was good to relax and just watch. They had a great time making chocolate chip cookies, smelling lots of different spices and reading The Gingerbread Man. I guess Anna determined the river of water was really milk and once the fox got in it he couldn't control himself and had to eat the gingerbread man. They had the most fun when pretending they were the fox and got to take a big bite out of a cookie. I could tell Grace had reenacted that part plenty of times by the time we got there! It was really fun for them and I'm glad she thought of it.

Shopping

2011-01-28T16:47:00.003-05:00

The sun was shining today. It was so nice to see!

I went shopping and it was so fun, which was strange because I am not a shopper. Ladonna went with me and that was the only reason it was fun. It amazed me how I could walk past something that I didn't think would work and Ladonna would pick it up and I would change my mind. Now it is here and in place and looks perfect. I just don't see things which is, I figure, why I'm not a shopper. It is kinda fun going to a store other than Wal-Mart to get a lamp or picture frame. I got two $90 lamps for $30 each and another 2 $80 lamps for $30, $20 off a magazine holder, half off a gorgeous mirror and awesome clock, which combined is less than the mirror I was eyeing. Saving money was tons of fun. I can see why some people can get in trouble because of it. I am really excited about getting my living room and kitchen functioning and decorated!

Highlights of the Day

2011-01-27T19:35:00.002-05:00

#1 DeBrand chocolate...seriously so melt in your mouth delicious. I'm eating it as I type and it is as amazing as ever!

#2 Nathaniel running out to the bus this morning. He was a little late and started running from the house as the bus was stopping at the end of the drive. He ran as fast as he could with all his gusto, which he does every day. I'm sure it scares the bus driver because sometimes she stops before getting to the lane. This morning he ran and every once in a while he raises and waves his arm just to make sure she sees him. It sounds like every other day but I just loved how he raised his arm with confidence and it was really cute for some reason:) He is just a cute kid all around.

#3 Tickling Anna and Grace. These two little girls are my perfect little girls, not saying they are perfect because they are girls, but they are all girl. Today while watching who knows what, probably Dora, Grace wanted to sit in Anna's chair. Anna had gotten up, so there wasn't a problem until Anna went to sit back down and Grace started yelling and kicking her. So I go over and tell them how much they love each other while tickling them. Of course Grace forgets anything was wrong and Anna loves the attention. It just reminded me how precious my girls are and how I need to have fun with them more often.

#4 DeBrand chocolate...oh did I already say that. No really, tonight Jason got a blessing from our Stake President and he is just an amazingly powerful, spiritual man. Jason will learn so much from him. It is very neat to be around him. And he gave us the DeBrand chocolate:)

Boys, Boys, Boys

2011-01-25T21:29:00.000-05:00

Today after school I greeted Sammy with snow covered socks and Nathaniel in tears. Great way to start the afternoon!

Why was Nathaniel crying? Because he was playing in the snow without any gloves and they were soooo cold. Hopefully he'll learn something from that.

Where were Sammy's shoes in the middle of winter? Somewhere in the snow between the house and the road. Why did they come off? I still have no idea, but he did find them hours later so the dogs didn't get to them right away. When he came in the house he had this look of surprise on his face that I was even questioning him about it like it was perfectly normal to have lost his shoes in the snow and to have his socks completely covered. Fun times!

So true!

2011-01-25T10:22:00.001-05:00

Old Friends

2011-01-24T09:53:00.001-05:00

Yesterday was Macy's birthday so on Sunday night Alana planned a little get together at my house to celebrate. This moving thing has been really hard. I know everyone thinks it should have been easy since my family is here but it sure hasn't been for a lot of reasons, although I know it would have been even worse if my family wasn't here. But today was great! There is just nothing like spending time with old friends who you've known your entire life! Talking, laughing and listening and just having a good, comfortable time! Thanks for having a birthday, Macy!

Basketball

2011-01-22T14:51:00.005-05:00

We signed the boys up to play basketball this year. They both started on the same team, but when we moved Nathaniel to Kindergarten he moved to a different team. The video is their first game they have ever played. They are both in there. Jason is the coach, which is my fault. I never would have done it on purpose, but when I went to sign the boys up they asked if Jason could help coach and I said yes. I guess I was focussing on the word help and they were focusing on coach.

Now that the season is almost over Nathaniel is loving it. He is doing really well on his new team since he is one of the bigger kids and has a little bit of understanding of what is supposed to happen. He made the first basket at his last game, so that made it a lot of fun for him.

Sammy is definately not liking it. We've told him he can't quit, but every practice and every game he complains about going. He does fine, but I'm guessing he won't choose to do it this year.

If you only want to read positive things don't read any further because I am about to go on a rant!!

Basketball is crazy out here and I can see how I sure wouldn't want to be playing with the silly parents that sit in the bleachers. Every game I go away smiling but inside I am just mad. Mad about a comment made by some stupid parent or grandparent who thinks basketball is so important. It is ridiculous. Seriously if your kid wants to do it and be the best let them. If they don't let them go play. Don't make them cry at the end of a game because they weren't aggressive enough, they are only in 1st and 2nd grade.

The very first game Sammy threw the ball in and it totally went to the other team. A man behind me gave a big disappointed groan and I knew that was not a good sign for things to come. I figured when we signed up it would be fun. I hope the boys are having a bit of fun, but sitting in the bleachers and listening those dads who weren't good enough to play high school is not fun for me.

Nathaniel who is now on the Preschool and Kindergarten team (seriously little kids) was playing in the first quarter, first 5 minutes of the game he kept getting the ball so he would run with it or shoot it. He tried to pass it a couple times and then he would get it back. A grandpa standing beside me actually said, "Man that kid is a ball hog." Seriously, he doesn't even know how to play. And it's been 5 minutes.

And then this last game the guy I sat in front of was all about winning. Jason told the boys they need to pass it 3 times before they shoot. I think that is pretty good training especially since the kids should be learning how to play, not just how to win. Since that would mean the same kid gets the ball every time and everyone else just runs and jumps around. So he says if I were coach I would just tell them to shoot it. Really, so you go be the coach. Volunteer your time since you know so much. I just think it is so super annoying and if parents can't be positive at little kids sporting events then they should just stay home. It's rude and is such a bad example for every kid sitting around them, but then they probably aren't too worried about that. Okay I'm done, back to being or faking positive:)

A First and Hopefully a Last in Mommyhood

2011-01-21T15:40:00.002-05:00

This was not the best of mornings, mostly because my sleep was interrupted by two little girls who can't seem to stay in their own bed overnight. Anna wet the bed so she was upset and slept the rest of the night with me, which was fine, but then who-knows-when Grace comes in and for some reason she had to sleep on my pillow too. So there were three of us on my pillow for the rest of the night, while Jason got to sleep on his side on his own pillow. Sometimes it isn't the best to be the nurturer, this is one of those times. I really cherish my sleep! While to me that was bad enough to make me a grump this morning (it sure doesn't take much) when I went to get up out of bed I realized my leg was completely drenched. Anna had peed on me! Not fun! Now I had two beds and two sets of sheets to clean today! Not exactly what I had planned for this Friday! Atleast I had a reason to take a shower earlier than I usually have a chance to. Jason was then nice enough to make breakfast for the kids so that made things almost all better and the girls helped me clean the mattresses by jumping on towels to sop up the water, so it all turned out fine as everyday usually does with kids. I just hope I won't have to wake up like that again!

One more thing about Anna: As I was finishing up with the beds she asked to help do something and I said no. She asked again which is common so I asked, "What did I already say Anna?" And she says, "You're driving me crazy." I had to laugh. Nope, but that is probably exactly how I said no.

Little Girls

2011-01-20T22:11:00.003-05:00

I have been noticing lately how much different boys are than girls. When Grace was born I felt like my life rewound 4 years to when Nathaniel was a baby, but instead of 2 little baby boys I had 2 baby girls. Grace was much more pleasant from the start than Nathaniel so it was noticeably easier, but I was back in that 2 baby phase which is really never easy. The girls are quieter usually and have always played with "girl" toys completely by their own free will, but not until lately have I noticed the huge difference.

On Monday they played cat, mommy, baby, dance, dress-up all morning. They were happy to be with each other and didn't come looking for me to help the entire morning. I didn't have to intervene once to break up a fight! It was seriously amazing. I could have never done that with the boys. I remember them playing for a half hour once by themselves without me having to go in and break up a fight and I thought that day was amazing. I should add they play great now together and can play for hours without fighting. But when they were little it was a different story and it was exhausting!

So today I am grateful for my sweet little girls. And although they can be loud and yell with the best of them I am so blessed that they are my little girls!

Anna loves to paint. She got this easel for Christmas and spends a lot of time at it.

Some of Anna's creations.

Cute Grace painting with watercolors.

Making it Mine

2011-01-19T23:21:00.002-05:00

Last year in RS we did a service auction and I won a session with interior designers Jill and Ladonna. I was so excited as I really need it in this house. They came over today and talked with me and moved furniture around for 2 hours. They had tons of ideas on how to bring this house together and make it fit into what I want it to be. It will require a lot of purchasing that will have to come at a better time, but there are also a lot of little things that I can do right now. Today though they changed the furniture around, put some decorations in different places and already it looks amazing compared to what it did. It was so fun, I wish I was better at decorating. I really do see the difference and appreciate when things look good and fit together, I just usually can't see it in my head. And then this is such a different style of house that I've ever lived in, so I have a hard time fitting me into it, although I do love it. After today though I am really excited to make it work and look fabulous. Time will tell. But as for now Jason is sure not happy about the high ceilings and painting!

In other news Grace has regressed back to being a true baby:) I have tried potty training her three times now, not whole heartedly, but just hoping she would pick up on it quickly. So I have talked to her about being a "big girl" and we've also just moved her into a "big girl" bed. Lately anytime she sees a baby or even a baby animal she says, "Baby (like look there's a baby)" and then points to herself and says, "me baby" and then she starts fake crying like babies do. It is pretty funny. Although I would love her to be potty trained so I wouldn't have to waste money on diapers, I would love her to stay my baby forever. She is seriously the cutest kid ever!

Nathaniel said the other day, "Mommy, why does everybody like Grace more than us." I thought that was pretty funny and tried to explain that the things little kids do are always cute just because they are little and because they are so innocent. He really just wanted to know why his girl cousins like to play with Grace more than with him. She is just too cute. Poor Nathaniel!

Winter Fun

2011-01-16T21:34:00.002-05:00

We came home from church on Sunday and noticed this big icicle hanging off our little play house. The boys tore it down right away and brought it into the house where it dripped and dripped. They decided to store it in the freezer after holding onto it for awhile.

Yummy!

Sammy giving Anna a taste!

Random Fun on Christmas Break

2011-01-03T20:22:00.002-05:00

My room was trashed after Christmas so as I was cleaning it this is what my little Grace decided to do. I have often thought about when my little girls would do this on there own. I've had a few tea parties with them, but they had never set them up themselves or used their dolls. So when Grace set this up on her own it made me so happy. I love to see her imagination and I am a big fan of tea sets and dolls.

She, of course, is sitting in a chair that she shouldn't be and playing with my dolls that I'll give her when she's a bit older, but I definately couldn't take anything away when I saw this.

Notice the pirate eye patch and dora bandade that she had to always be sporting for those couple of days.

Anna discovered the fun and wanted to join and I decided to give them lunch. I'll never understand the dipping crackers in water thing all little kids love to do.

Anna reading to Grace. Nathaniel is starting to think Anna can really read. She is a great storyteller!

And this is what the boys did for the rest of Christmas Break, atleast as much time as I let them. They love it, but that isn't a surprise!

What Little Girls do when Bowling!

2011-01-02T15:06:00.003-05:00

We had Grandma Knecht's Christmas yesterday. It was supposed to be the week before Christmas but Grandma fainted and the doctors wouldn't let her leave the hospital until she had a pacemaker. She is doing well now and we were happy she got to still have her Christmas. Every year we go bowling in North Manchester and the kids have a great time. I think this year was the best one yet. Probably because my kids are getting older which also means easier!

Grace bowled 5 frames, Anna bowled an entire game, Nathaniel bowled in the 90's and Sammy bowled a 112. I was impressed. I only bowled a 93, I think, so my boys did better than me. Although I am pretty sure I bowled better than Jason. He blamed it on weak wrists:)

This is what the girls did after they got tired of waiting their turn. Grace didn't come back to bowling after this fun began.

Ring around the rosie
Pocket full of posie
Ashes, ashes

We all fall down!

After bowling we went back to Timbercrest and sang New Year's songs to the residents in the three dining areas. You could tell this was really special to Grandma. This is where she lives and eats now. Then we went back to the snack shop and ate pizza and more pizza. Jason and I just can't believe how much our boys eat sometimes. After eating we had little program in the conference room. We sang the 12 days of Chrismas, which Grandma shared with me that they are the days after Christmas not before, so today is the 8th day of Christmas, and then the kids all shared something. Nathaniel sang Angels We have Heard on High with Lizzie and Eva and told a joke, Sammy told a made up joke, Anna sang her favorite song right now, Whenever I Hear (or I think it's called, I know my Heavenly Father loves Me), and then Grace and Anna sang Twinkle, Twinkle or tinkle, tinkle. They were super cute. Grace really wanted a turn, so I figured she could try singing since they were extremely low key performances. Anna went up to help her. Unrehearsed, Grace sings the first line, then passes the microphone to Anna, who sings the second line, passes it back and continue in that pattern til the last line that they sing together. It was so cute, but just about everything Grace does melts my heart. She is just too cute. It was a great afternoon/evening that ended with yummy Chocolate Charlie!

Ringing It In!

2011-01-01T14:23:00.001-05:00

New Years Eve brought lots of excitement to the kids. They had a great time playing with cousins and friends and they all did really well the entire evening. Toward the end Grace began to melt, but that was to be expected.

The kids started off with an exciting game of charades. They had a ton of fun acting and acting. Here Hannah and Grace are acting out something...maybe a koala, not sure. Grace just thought she was getting a horsie ride so she was more than happy.

Anna, Grace and Lizzie all have to be dressed as princesses whenever we come to Grandma's, so tonight was no different.

The real fun began at 12:00. Here is Sammy picking up the confetti and planning his next attack. It was probably the poor Bedke girls. They were his target this year!

Nathaniel with his red face shows he is well into the confetti part of the evening. It is definately what the kids look forward to. At around 5:00 Mom called over to tell me she couldn't find the confetti. She had a big bag of it ready to go. That just meant dad found it and got rid of it...she'll have to be more careful next year. She asked if the boys could make confetti before they came over. I thought, great, my boys only do craft projects when it is their idea so I was sure it would be like pulling teeth. But to my surprise they were so excited and they worked for almost an hour cutting and cutting. And I am sure it made them even more excited for 12:00!

All in action!

Anna had a great time making noise...no surprise there. I love her smile in this picture...so happy!

Grace was hilarious, as usual. She was in her own little world. She would sweep a pile, grab it, throw it above her and watch it fall...over and over and over. All the noise and excitement made her so happy.

I love the New Year. For one it ends the end of the holidays, which it's always sad to see them go, but it's nice to get back to normal life and especially normal eating. But mainly I like the new beginning that each year brings. It's a good time to change and be better. I don't have a specific New Years resolution, but it's to do what I want to do and not to make excuses for myself. I always think in my head when people complain (not always, but when it can be changed) if you don't like it, change it, do something about it. So it's my goal to stop thinking, stop talking and just do the things I need to do. I know these people who do really hard things and I don't think they are any better than me, their minds are just stronger. So this year I am working on my mind, my will to make it stronger and to continue to do hard things after they get hard and when I wonder why I am doing them.
We'll see how it goes. Happy New Year!!

My Favorite Tree

2010-12-29T22:45:00.002-05:00

This is my favorite tree on our property. I was really hoping for a nice big tree with some big branches but we didn't get one. In Connecticut we had a million trees, Jason cut down a ton of them, but not one big tree with nice branches. They were all forest trees with big branches just at the top. Here we have a little patch of woods of the same kind of trees and a few smaller trees and then some monstrous pine trees, that I have grown to really like. But this is my favorite. Its an apple tree! I have fruit tree. I was very excited when we first moved. Jason got to pruning it over Christmas break. He took atleast half of it off, so now it will be all ready in the spring to see the sun!

The boys, of course, have fun doing anything with Daddy and cutting big branches down is definately fun!

Late Christmas Cookies

2010-12-26T22:46:00.002-05:00

We didn't get to decorating cookies until today. We did do a couple earlier for Santa though. The kids didn't care that it wasn't done beforehand, so I decided not to stress about it. They had a great time and actually sat and decorated all of them before they got bored. It is very fun to have kids old enough to actually enjoy decorating cookies!

Anna decorated her cookies like she paints. She loves it and takes forever doing one!

Busy, busy! You can see what Grace's favorite part about decorating cookies is:)

Christmas at Grandma and Grandpa's

2010-12-25T22:44:00.003-05:00

We started Christmas by acting out the Nativity. Funny Grace wanted to be Jesus, since she is going through a "I'm still a baby stage." She is a little big and we thought she wouldn't lay down for more than a minute, but she laid like this the entire time. Eva even moved her around and she just zoned and didn't move the whole time. It was pretty funny! Anna and Lizzie were shepherds. And the boys were wisemen bearing gifts. The kids always have fun acting it out.

Gracie with a beautiful fairy tiara.

Anna excited to get paints. She LOVES to paint!

Can you see the excitement in his face!

And in Sammy's? They were thrilled with their gifts...a bow and a huge nerf gun.

Christmas hugs!

Santa Came!!

2010-12-25T22:43:00.004-05:00

The morning started out like this...

The boys were so excited Santa brought them a Wii. Daddy was too!

Little girls and shoes. It amazes me how those two go together. I loved how they lined them up and are just looking at them in awe. Which one should I try on first?

Grace, of course, chose the pink ones!

I was brilliant this year. Didn't know it until afterwards, but now I know the secret. I made over Jason's office when he was gone in December. I'll post more on that later or really earlier it will show up. But it was a lot of work. The end result looks great and Jason can appreciate how long it took, since he has done it all in our last house. Every year Jason takes pride in giving me a better gift than I give him. He knew a painted and redone office would be hard to top. But he remembered this bench. We saw it at a cute, little store in Roanoke and I told Jason it would look perfect in our entry. I asked if we could buy it and he said, "Ahh, Jenny, I could make something just like that." Not that he ever would without a lot of prodding from me, I thought:) So coming home to his perfectly painted room he had to think of something good, really good for me for Christmas. So to my surprise I woke up to this on Christmas morning. I think it is amazing and I absolutely love, love, love it. I'll love it even more when it is all the way finished.

Christmas Eve

2010-12-24T22:43:00.005-05:00

This was our first Christmas Eve in our own house. Every Christmas since we've been married we've come back to Indiana. It was a lot of fun this year to figure out new things to do and start new traditions. We decided to visit a few elderly people in the ward in the afternoon and go home to a yummy crock pot pork loin dinner and then open grandma's and kids' Christmas gifts. It turned out to be a great day. I just love Christmas and the feeling of happiness from just being together.

Daddy reading the Christmas story.

Anna got these from one of her siblings. She thinks they are a lot of fun.

I love when Nathaniel is like this. He was so excited to give Anna her gift. It was a fireman fire extinguisher and ax. I thought he probably had ulterior motives, but he didn't. This is him after she opened it.

Anna with her hair beauties from Grandma Gwen. I just found out that she made all of these. They are seriously beautiful! Anna was picking out her favorite one.

Grace with her new puppies from Grandma Gwen. She loves, loves, loves puppies. She has so much fun with these!

And the boys scored with new scooters. I had these on the list for my mom to buy this year when I was talking to Gwen and she had this idea on her very own. She figured now that the boys have a long driveway they have plenty of space for scooters. The boys figured the same thing and they were thrilled to open these.

Nathaniel very excited about his cool new sweater from Grandma Jeannie!

Grace loving her new shirt from Grandma Jeannie. She just had to put it on right away although she wasn't quite sure how.

All the kids loved these hats from Grandpa and Grandma Elliott. They are the first choice of the boys every day for school. I love the hat over the entire head look:)

And I had to finish up with a cute one of Grace loving her hat. She is now in the wierd smile stage when saying cheese. Hopefully it won't last long, but we love her anyway!

Cute Picture with Grandma Linda

2010-12-23T09:36:00.003-05:00

I took this to add to a Christmas present we got for mom. I thought this picture of the kids turned out so cute with their big smiles and Grace's cute dimples!

Mom is trying to teach Anna that she just has to call her Grandma now. Every time she sees her she says Grandma Linda this or Grandma Linda that. She is still getting used to living around one of her Grandmas and us not just telling her stories, talking on the phone or looking at pictures.

Puppies...Day 14

2010-12-18T12:21:00.001-05:00

I think they've already doubled in size. I love that we got 2. They can be pals and I don't have to feel so bad when I close the door and they stay outside!

Anna's Ballet Recital

2010-12-17T10:18:00.004-05:00

Tonight Anna had a her first dance recital. She was amazing! I thought maybe she would be nervous to be in front of everyone and freeze, but she was so calm and tried harder to do the routine than I had seen from her in practice. It was super cute. She loves ballet and her teacher, Miss Jill.

So cute in her costume

Playing with a new found favorite while waiting for her turn to dance.

Up on stage getting in place to start. We took a video with our new fancy video camera, but of course it takes more time than I want to spend right now to figure out how to download onto the computer. So the cute performance will come later.

After she had finished, Nathaniel looked at me and said, "Anna did really good, I thought she was going to be bad." Obviously not very nice, but atleast she surprised him:)

After hearing the first few songs and seeing the girls dance, Grace decided she needed to get in on the fun. She started just moving around in our laps, then on the floor between our knees and then decided she needed more room. She danced in the isle for most of the dances. She would copy what they were doing, not just make up her own. If they lifted their leg she would do the same. If they spun around Grace would spin right along with them. It was so funny. It was dark, so wasn't too much of a disturbance to those around us, so it was just super cute! Grace has had a natural rhythm since birth, so it's exciting to see where it goes.

Anna is 4!

2010-12-05T11:08:00.004-05:00

Anna is 4! She is growing up so fast! She is excited to be big like her mommy and her brothers. She likes to pretend to go to school when they leave. Anna's favorite things to do are to play cat. Her and Grace make a really fun game out of this. When Grace was born, the first time Anna would see her each morning she would get so excited, say her name real loud, run up to her and give her a hug. And even now 2 1/2 years later she still does this, maybe not every day, but most. I just love it and hope they can be the best of friends "foryever," (as Anna says it). Anna has a great ability to give love. She loves to give hugs, kisses and her cute closed-mouth smile. We love our Anna! Happy Birthday Sweetheart!

Opening a fairy necklace from Gwen. It was instant love!

So excited to get a real bike!

And to get her first doll cake!

First Sledding Day!

2010-12-04T09:33:00.003-05:00

We have the best little hill right beside our house. It's long enough that the kids don't have to go one at a time, small enough to be safe and big enough to have lots of fun. Today we got our first bit of snow and the kids had to go try out the hill.

Here's Nathaniel pulling Lotte up on his tube.

Grace not so sure about sliding down in a big metal bowl....a tad tipsy for her.

Samuel taking Hank for a ride. Notice the shorts on Jason, he's a bit crazy:)

Big smiles on Anna

Grace had much more fun with neighbor Hannah. She is so good with Grace!

Cute Puppies ...Day 1

2010-12-04T08:32:00.002-05:00

Isn't that adorable!

Anna loving Hank and Lotte

First Gift of Christmas!

2010-12-03T21:30:00.000-05:00

Puppies!!!

These little guy are adorable. The pretty black on we named Charlotte, or Lotte for short. And the sturdy brown little boy we named Hank. They are super cute and Grace is in heaven. Her favorite place is now the garage! Tonight Sammy took a book out to read to them. I think they were pretty scared coming to a new place with 4 little people all over them. So far Lotte seems more adventurous. She atleast walked around checking out her new surroundings. Hank didn't move when we were out there. I just hope they will be big enough and alert enough by the summer to keep the deer away from the garden. There are so many deer that run through our back yard and I would really like not to have to put up a fence that they'll just jump over anyway!

Ready to sleep!

Anna's Kid Birthday Party

2010-12-03T14:22:00.003-05:00

We decided to have a little church friend party for Anna. I am always up for an excuse to have little friends over and Anna had a great time.

I love this smile of hers.

This is the cake she picked out for this party. It was fun and pretty easy, especially if you've gotten over being a perfectionist like I now have with decorating my kid's cakes.

Friends, Friends

I love Anna's expressions. She is so excited to get glow in the dark bracelets!

I'm not sure what she's getting here, but it looks good to her. I also love how little kids just love to get dressed up. Here we have a random knight and princess at the party!

Finally!

2010-11-14T23:12:00.002-05:00

I finally got around to changing my blog, since I haven't done anything since February. I am hoping to get back to it now that I can stand to look at it again (it was looking so outdated!). I just keep thinking...where to start. Our lives have completely changed from anything we were even thinking since that last blog entry. We'll have to see, but not tonight!

Sledding Fun!

2010-02-18T23:24:00.003-05:00

It is so winter here!! Freezing cold, oh how I hate the cold!! The kids went sledding yesterday for a few minutes with daddy. Grace and I watched from the window. Grace was really wanting to go out as well. This winter has been hard on her, she loves it outside. One day she was crying and crying to go out, probably after the boys got on the bus. So I thought, fine I'll let her go out, no socks, no shoes and she'll come right back in (it was bitterly cold that day). She didn't, she walked onto the porch and would have kept going if I hadn't grabbed her. Anyway...the kids went sledding and Nathaniel is the cutest boy. Sammy and Daddy ran ahead up the hill and I see Nathaniel with his arm around Anna helping her up the hill. I really wished my camera would have been working, it was so incredibly cute. He is such a good kid! They had a great time, we have a great hill for them to slide down. Jason does have to stand by the tree stumps though, because of course we have plenty of tree stumps. Anna hit her knee on a tree and wasn't too happy about that. When I asked Jason how that happened since he was right there, he said, "I thought she was Nathaniel (they had the same snow suit on) and I thought he'd be fine." Me thinking, "So it's okay for Nathaniel to hit a tree?" She was fine and it didn't hurt when she woke up later that night.

Snow Day

2010-02-10T21:25:00.001-05:00

We had a snow day today and were supposed to get a ton of snow. We only got an inch, but the kids were out of school anyway. I was very grateful for it, because we got all the valentines done. It seriously took all day. The airport cancelled all flights so Jeannie was stuck here for a few more days as well. It turned out to be a HUGE blessing for me. So she got to join the valentine making fun also.

Sammy with his orange army of robots for his class. He loved them and did such a great job writing on each of them! It took a lot of time.

Nathaniel decided to go with some color for his army. Aren't they cute? They were a big hit in his class. I was a little worried Nathaniel wouldn't have the patience to write on them, but we split it up into 3 sessions and he did great. I think he was really proud of himself.

Gracie eying this snickers. She knows what comes in shiny packaging!

!

Grace's Valentines

Anna Valentines - Grandma got the privilege of making these

All of them together. I think I'll send this one into Family Fun. We'll see if we get in:) They have such great ideas!

Jason's Guy's Weekend

2010-02-07T22:03:00.002-05:00

Jason had an awesome weekend with some of his college buddies. They went out to Lake Tahoe to go skiing/snowboarding. He dreams to do this every year. I was happy he made it through with no broken bones and concussion free. He was pretty sore after the weekend was over, but had a great time!

From the balcony of where they stayed

A few of the Lardogs

Beautiful!

Christmas 2009

2010-01-10T19:29:00.000-05:00

We had tons of fun this Christmas and I am so happy I am finally getting this up! It is always so nice to see family and friends and strengthen our relationship. I love that as the kids get older even though they only see their cousins a couple times a year they pick up right where they left off and are such great friends.

One of my favorites was going sledding. I hadn't been since probably high school because I am always pretty miserable outside in the winter, but it was a beautiful sunny day, so it was pleasant. Anna wanted to go so that meant I got to go as well. It was great sledding down with the kids and hearing their laughter. I'm glad I didn't miss that.

Here are some pictures from the entire vacation:

Christmas Eve Santa came to visit. You can see how much Grace loved him!

She recovered quickly!

The boys in their new jammies - they are the favorites now

Lizzie and Anna being cute in their new nightgowns. Anna absolutely loves nightgowns.

Gracie's new jammies - she loves the hat!

I love the behind!

I just love these two pictures. They look so happy. Here the boys are with cousin Hannah.

And Nathaniel with Eva

Grandpa playing with Grace - she looks like she loves it, doesn't she:)

The fattest baby Jesus you've ever seen!

We decided to try Grace as Baby Jesus. She did pretty well laying in the bin for most of it, but she sure looks big!

Excited kiddos on Christmas morning.

Grace in her new chair - she loves how squashy it is - falling backwards in it has become a favorite activity

Sweet Christmas hugs

The boys with their favorite Christmas gift! They spent a lot of time on them over vacation and I was so grateful for them on the trip home. We didn't even hear them until we hit Connecticut!

Decorating Gingerbread houses

Samuel had been talking about doing this for about 2 weeks, so he is very happy to finally be doing it, especially with Hannah helping.

Nathaniel and Eva got into it as well.

And Grace loved it too, especially since she got to enjoy an Oreo and get incredibly messy!

But not too messy for kisses from Daddy

Anna needed a trim, so we were happy to let Grandma Knecht cut it for her. Grandma was so good with her!

Looking cute afterwards.

Grandma Linda reading a book before saying good night.

Gracie found a baby doll's shoe and decided she should be able to put it on. She sat here for the longest time trying. She was successful at getting it on her big toe.

New Year's Eve - Nathaniel looking mischevious. Who is he going to get?

Sammy throwing confetti on one of the Bedke girls. They love this tradition of having a confetti fight. Mom was out in Utah this year with Laura and new baby Max, so I was the keeper of the confetti until the ball dropped. Dad tried and tried to convince me to do away with the tradition, he searched my room when Grace was sleeping (and got in lots of trouble from me, it's a good thing he didn't wake her) and even tried to bribe me. Crazy guy! He didn't get it so we got to have a big mess with it at 12:00. He even got into it and had a great time as well!

Jason coveting this wood splitter. He had a great time helping Dad on one of his projects with Hannah and David.

We had a great vacation and we are grateful for all the memories and such a wonderful family!

A New Year!

2010-01-06T22:54:00.002-05:00

I've decided January might be my favorite month (except for the bitter cold, of course). There is so much hope in the air of trying to be a better person, exercising, eating right, being more spiritual and all that. But I think my favorite part is that there is nothing to do...no big holiday looming around the corner, no big event to plan, no vacation to get ready for, no garden to think about! I am extremely excited that it is here. I have been looking forward to it for many months, just saying to myself when I start thinking of all the things I need to accomplish...I can do it in January (blogging being one of those things). So January is here and I will do it! Although I have come to the conclusion that nothing but the mundane will get done if I let it happen. So tomorrow I move my mountain of stuff - pictures, papers, memorabilia out of my room to start (and hopefully finish, it really has to get done!) getting it in order so I can feel like I am all in order! Hopefully it goes well and isn't too frustrating.

Updates on the family:

Sammy had a cute multicultural night tonight. I post pictures later. He did a great job and the kids enjoyed watching him.

Nathaniel is just Nathaniel and same with Anna - I'll give more detail with pictures later as well.

And Grace is becoming such an amazing terror. She got way too much attention from family during Christmas and craves being tickled. It was definately everyone's favorite thing to do with (to) her for the last two weeks (how could it not be with her smile and big belly), and now it's just me, so I get to do a lot of tickling:) Her favorite thing today was throwing all the blocks individually down the stairs watching each one bounce all the way down (I love messes) and succeeding on climbing onto the couch only to stand and bounce on it. All the while I think... I really don't have time to follow you around all day to make sure you make it through the day, but I do, I guess that is my job. And I do love it, but love can be a strange word.

Last Week of Summer Freedom!

2009-09-20T17:00:00.006-04:00

We decided to fit every last thing in the week before school started again going to two different beaches and down to the Bronx Zoo. We had a great time with lots of memories!

The kids love to play in the warm water when it is so shallow. They loved digging, building castles, "swimming," and running through it. Rocky Neck is the best beach when the tide it low, they can stay for hours!

Cute Grace loving the water!

A quick video of our last family Rocky Neck beach day in 2009

On Wednesday we decided to go to the Bronz Zoo. It is donation day every Wednesday so we didn't have to pay the entire entrance fee and still got to experience all of it. The bad thing was that the night before there was a terrible storm. The winds blew down tons of trees. As we were driving down Crystal and I noticed that tons of branches and even entire trees were fallen. It was so strange. But because of this, there were almost no animals out. So we had a HUGE zoo, with TONS of people and like 3 cool animals, and we can't forget how HOT it was. At the end of the day, Nathaniel said, "Mommy, this is the dumbest zoo." And I actually had to agree with him because that day it was.

The boys loved climbing on the trees.

A peacock doesn't count as one of the cool animals, but it is an animal so we did take a picture with it since there were so few of them.

The also loved climbing on the rocks.

This is one of the cool animals. It was nice to us and decided to move around while we were watching it. They are pretty huge!

Grace was her happy self like usual. Too cute!

They also enjoyed climbing through the bamboo!

This was pretty funny. I just wanted to get a picture of the backside of the kids, and by the time I got them all to turn around and act like they were looking at something (there was a bird there, but we see them all the time at the beach) there was a crowd of people gathering to look at it as well. I felt like that was a sure sign that we were all pretty desperate to see any animal.

The other 2 cool animals were the giraffes and a gorilla. They moved the giraffes into a tiny room which was so hot and full of people that I didn't even want to stay in there to take a picture. I felt pretty bad for them to be stuck in there. Their usual home outside was beautiful and spacious atleast. The gorilla was really neat. It was a little baby and I was sad I didn't get a picture of it. It was incredibly cute and it looked right at me. I had a moment of thinking what an amazing animal, I wonder what he is thinking. It was pretty neat to have eye contact with a peaceful gorilla. So it was definately my favorite.

After spending the entire day walking in extreme heat and seeing almost nothing we headed home, happy to have gone, but sad we totally chose the wrong day to experience the Bronx Zoo. We stopped at a yummy pizza place on the way back and also got Baskin Robbins, so it was a good end to a long day!

On Friday we went down to Ocean State Beach with Gwen. This little girl loved playing with Anna. They had lots of fun buiding castles and wading in the water.

She ended up getting really tired, so she napped for quite a while. It was definately nice to have one less child to count.

Sammy digging a arm-length hole. This was real sand, really fine. The sand at Rocky Neck is just like its name a bit rocky.

Grace loved the sand as well.

This was so strange. She rolled her face in it and then just laid there for the longest time. I thought she was going to go to sleep.

When she stood up she looked like this. I thought she would start brushing it off because I figured it felt wierd, but she didn't touch it for the longest time. I had to take her to the water to get it off before she cared that it was covering her face. Crazy girl!

Definately the nicest splash pad that we've been to. It sprayed warm water!

Ocean State Beach was fun and it was nice to do something different. It was definately more of a beach to play on and not in. The day we went there were tons of jelly fish...the big purple kind, and they were hard to see, so we stayed out of the water. Before they came though, Sammy was sitting in the water with an innertube around him and a huge wave came up and turned him completely over. You could see he was a little bit scared but then he got a huge smile on his face and thought it was so fun. There was a hurricane coming up the coast, so it made the water really rough...another reason we didn't stay in too long.

We had an extremely fun week, but I was happy we had a couple days to relax and let the kids play at home before school started.

Grace is 1!!

2009-08-14T23:25:00.001-04:00

We went over to Bob and Gwen's for Gracie's first birthday. It was a beautiful day so the kids got to play in the pond for a little bit while the meat cooked on the grill.

Ready for some dinner!

Two little buddies

We had to separate them because they were making each other laugh too much!

Yummy food

Walking whenever she gets the chance.

Opening presents...it's nice to have helpful children

I love this picture of her...a perfect birthday shot.

She definately enjoyed her cake!

This is really long, but maybe it can make you feel like you were there:)

We love our little Grace. She makes us smile with every new thing she does and brings joy into each of our lives. I love watching the kids interact with her and how they still get so excited when she is playing around them. I love that when Anna wakes up the first person she looks for is Grace and then she repeats her name until she has given Grace many kisses. She does this every morning and after every nap. I am so thankful that she is healthy and happy and that our family got blessed with her!

Another Perfect Beach Day

2009-08-14T11:09:00.003-04:00

We've had a good streak of sun, so we went to the beach again. It was another perfect day. This time the tide was coming in after we'd been there for a little while so it was really fun for the boys to jump and ride the waves. They caught some pretty good ones.

Playing in a sand bar a little ways from the beach. Sammy dug a hole and is sitting in it.

Grace enjoying the sand.

Anna holding some sort of water plant.

Grace didn't make it all the way through the trip out today. It was wonderful that she laid down and slept for awhile.

First Beach Day - Finally!

2009-08-03T21:38:00.002-04:00

We finally made it down to the beach! This summer has been so strange...rainy and cold. I think we swapped summers with Washington. I'd like to have ours back! But we had a beautiful day today so we headed down to Rocky Neck. We love it there. The water is shallow for such a far way out. I took Nathaniel out and we found someone with a huge horseshoe crab. He wasn't too sure about walking out in the water after that as they are pretty scary looking. It was really neat seeing that in the wild though.

Getting acquainted with the ocean.

Anna is "wimming" and "wimming"

Enjoying the water

Gracie had a great time playing with the sand, water and putting shells in a bucket to throw them out again.

. She got all tuckered out. I thought she might fall asleep here, but she was just messing with the texture of the blanket. She was laying down for about 5 minutes though. It was a big day!

Yummy Cookies & Amazing Friends

2009-08-02T22:58:00.001-04:00

Can you believe some people! Peter Thomsen took us to the airport when we went to Missouri and he kept our van while we were gone so he could come pick us up. I opened the trunk of the van at the airport and noticed right away...our van is clean. Peter had cleaned it with Kathy and Emma. They said Emma had a great time cleaning. What great friends! So I made them these cookies. These were in a cookbook that Mandy got me for my birthday. Thanks Mandy, they were yummy! These are on the front cover and look so good, so I have been anxious to find a reason to make them. I think this was the perfect reason, although it sure doesn't come close to repaying back the good deed. There are definately great people out here in the East and we are so grateful to be friends with some of them.

The boys thought this was a real treat!

Nauvoo

2009-07-26T14:01:00.002-04:00

On Thursday we traveled up to Nauvoo. We got in right in time to see the pageant. It was fun to watch. I really liked how it brought in some new names that people don't typically hear. My favorite was definately the end when they lit up the temple lights and you could see it behind the stage. It is still amazing to me that we have this temple and it is almost just like it was built back in that time.

Friday we had a relaxing morning and hung around the hotel. The kids and Daddy went swimming while I put Grace down for a nap. Then Mom and Dad watched all the grandkids while we went to the temple. It is an amazing temple, just so beautiful inside. And it was especially neat to be in there with my two Grandmas.

Afterwards we went out and visited the tin shop and the burial place of Joseph, Emma and Hyrum. The kids were pretty whiny so we didn't do too much. I think they were probably hungry. Mom got us reservations at the Old Hotel Inn Buffet, that might be what it is called, but the food there was amazing. It was so good. Every single thing was the best.

On Saturday we were ready to do some sight-seeing. So we headed out to sign up for a wagon ride.

Admiring the horses

Isn't she so cute!

We then drove to Carthage to tour the jail. Nathaniel was in quite the mood.

I know, not a very appropriate picture for where we are...the window that Joseph Smith fell out of. Someday my kids will just smile and look at the camera when we ask them too...hopefully. This was a really neat tour though. It was nice to take the kids through it.

Family picture in front of the jail - there is such a neat spirit there

On the way back to Nauvoo Anna threw up and Jason wasn't feeling well so he stayed at the hotel with Anna and Grace while I took the boys to Old Nauvoo. It was great, definately the highlight of my trip. We started off with a wagon ride. It was a little long for the boys but they still had fun.

Nathaniel just looked at this picture and said, "Mommy why do I always look silly?"

Sammy with the Grandma quilting. We had a great time with the statues here. It is a beautiful tribute to women.

Making rope at the Family Living Center

Wearing their prairie diamonds

The boys in front of the temple on our way back to the hotel. We didn't meet Jason where we were planning on so we had to walk all the way up to the hotel. It was quite the hike, but it was actually fun with just the two boys. It was a great afternoon, with lots of great church conversation.

That night we went back to the pageant grounds to take part in all the festivities. It was so fun to be in Nauvoo with the excitement of the pageant.

This was trickier than it looks, but we got the hang of it.

Stick pull - I wonder who won this one

I think Nathaniel went easy on him

The kids and Daddy pulling with all their might

Victory!

Sack hop - Sammy was super fast

Trying the stilts

Showing us how it is done

Aunt Laura and new Uncle Ben giving Nathaniel a ride. He loved it!

This was a fun pioneer game. I thought it looked hard but the kids picked up on it really fast.

At each station we got a bead and if you get 10 beads you get to walk in the preshow parade. It was a great way to get the kids out of the activity area and into their seats. The kids felt pretty special being in the parade. We had already seen the show but it was fun to be there among all the fun each night.

Gracie and Daddy in the parade

Three cute kids walking in the parade

Ozark Outdoor Adventure 2009

2009-07-22T23:37:00.007-04:00

We had a wonderful reunion at the YMCA of the Ozarks. They had tons of fun activities each day that the kids stayed plenty busy with. The kids had fun playing tennis or just hitting the ball, playing mini golf, taking bike rides, swimming and going down the huge slide, kayaking by themselves, riding in the paddle boat, walking on trails, eating ice cream, riding the golf cart, eating tons of food, drinking hot chocolate and mostly playing with cousins.

I think my favorite thing was the Pirate Pontoon. They took out two pontoons, gave us water guns and we drenched each other. I hadn't laughed that hard in a long time. Jason really got into it. We didn't take the girls and the boys didn't like it so much. After the first fight they found a little cubby in the back of the pontoon and hid in it the rest of the time. We thought Sammy might get into it, but I guess it was a little much for him.

Grandma's Kindergarten Presentations

All the cousins going into Kindergarten getting their backpacks and a picture frame for their first day of school.

They had an art room that you could go into at any time and do a craft. There were a lot to choose from. Here Sammy is painting a race car.

Nathaniel with his "stained-glass" boat.

Anna painting a shell (or she liked to call it a cookie) and flag.

All ready to ride the horses

Nathaniel was pretty excited

Sammy was a little hesitant, but found out he was pretty safe.

Anna and Lizzie patiently waiting for their turns.

Anna rode Charly Brown. I think he was a horse, not a pony. She had a great time and her guide was pretty cute with her...getting her to say "yee-hah" and making her smile.

No riding for this girl, but she enjoyed watching her brothers and sister.

My daring adventure was the zip line. It was a little scary, but Christine was a little more freaked out so I think that made me less scared. It was fun, too short, but definately worth it.

Hanging at the end of the line

Hay ride

Nathaniel definately has a favorite aunt with our new Aunt Hannah. He told her she was his favorite because she was little like him. I think she is 5'1" and super little. It probably helps that she is cute too! My favorite line to her was something like...

Nathaniel: Aunt Hannah, why did you marry Uncle David?

Hannah: Because we like each other?

Nathaniel: Well I wish I could marry you when I am an adult.

He really enjoyed being around her and she was great playing with all the kids.

Anna with her Great-Grandmas. We were so happy that they both got to come. It was nice for the kids to get to know them much better.

Giving kisses. Gracie loves her Sammy.

Me & Sammy

The hay ride to us to our Chuck Wagon dinner. They had a TON of meat. Jason liked it. I don't get too excited about meat.

Playing in the river. This river reminded mom of her home growing up so she loved it. The kids had a great time playing as well.

One last golf cart ride up to the cabin after dinner. Anna loved sitting between the Grandmas.

Wet Wednesday at Lauder Park

2009-07-15T23:59:00.005-04:00

We finally got a nice Wednesday so we enjoyed it by going down to the splash pad in Willimantic. Once we got it started the kids had a great time cooling off.

Sammy with Victor

Nathaniel shooting anyone close enough

Little Grace enjoying the swing.

Water fun

Camp Joseph 2009

2009-07-12T23:02:00.008-04:00

This weekend was our 4th annual campout to Camp Joseph. We really love it up there. It is so great to go camping on church owned property with missionaries close by, a Visitor's Center across the way with the monument, clean bathrooms and fun things to do. This year more friends from the ward came up and we had a great time spending time with them while eating and around the campfire at night.

It was my turn to cook tonight. I decided on Hobos and surprised a few who weren't too excited about them!
They were yummy, especially at 8:00 at night!

Thursday night dinner, too bad she didn't want to eat any of that. Quite the pill when it comes to eating.

Anna with friend, Asher in their cute chairs. I think they are pretending to eat rocks here. I guess we should have fed them more!

Grace's first bite of ice cream. Nothing better than Ben & Jerry's. We have to start her off right.

Friday we did some sight-seeing. We went to the Ben and Jerry's Factory, hoping since it was Friday that they would be running the machines, but they were having a big company party so they weren't working that day. They definately have some perks with getting free ice cream every day and all.

Enjoying the yummy sample of the day.

Playing on their fun playground.

We also went to the Cider Mill and enjoyed some free samples of cider. It was so good.

Playing at the Cider Mill - Not sure what this is but I'm guessing they weren't supposed to be playing on it like it was on a playground. Oh, well, it was fun!

The apples of my eye

Saturday we stayed around camp to swim and play. We had planned on going bike riding in Stowe but I wasn't feeling too hot. It ended up just as well and the kids probably had more fun doing whatever they felt like doing.

Meg led the kids in making sock puppets. Anna got very attached to hers and absolutely loves it!

Sammy being silly down by the river. The water was a little high this year so we couldn't go back to swim in it.

Jumping off the dock at the Waters of Mormon. It is a great little swimming hole. With a little sand it would be awesome.

Gracie splashing

Daddy trying to convince Anna it is fun to get wet.

On Sunday after church we headed over to the Visitor's Center for a quick tour and some pictures around the monument.

Anna hugging Ethan (or maybe it is choking, they look happy though)

They boys pondering the monument

Family picture - Gracie was sleeping, you can see her feet

5th of July Fun!

2009-07-05T22:55:00.001-04:00

On Sunday night we went up to Manchester for their firework show. We got there plenty early so we would make sure to get a decent spot. The show was great. The fireworks were fast and big. We really just went for me, I love fireworks. I was so happy to find a really decent show nearby. The kids liked the first few but then were ready to go. They were so tired, this was the 3rd really late night in a row, but I figured it is okay do to something that I enjoy and not do it just because the kids will like it. They had plenty of fun playing beforehand, thanks to a good daddy.

I love this picture of Anna running through the grass

Running from daddy...playing freeze tag

Daddy telling a story about Big Foot. He decided to change the ending so the kids would go to bed at some point that night.

Watching the fireworks! Can't you tell they are thrilled!

4th of July Fun!

2009-07-04T22:45:00.004-04:00

On July 4th we went to a party at the Seal's. The kids had a great time running around and being with friends and we did as well.

Anna with Asher and Rowan. Even though they fell out of it plenty they loved playing in the hammock.

It wasn't a particularly warm evening but if water is present with kids then for sure someone is going to get wet. They had a great time. I can still hear her giggle as she played with Asher. We ask Anna who she loves and she goes through the list of her family members and then always ends with Asher. They are pretty cute together.

Excited for those fireworks to start!

Sammy hanging out with the big boys, Victor and Nate. They were nice enough to let him tag along, so he had a great time.

Watching the fireworks

Me and the girls. The blanket helped us not get eaten alive by the darn mosquitoes, of course I forgot repellent.

Newly Found Favorite

2009-06-30T22:38:00.001-04:00

Grace has now discovered the trampoline and absolutely loves it. It's pretty safe if she is the only one on there. She had tons of fun bouncing today.

Last Day

2009-06-26T16:49:00.001-04:00

We saved Sleeping Bear for the last day.

Sammy still wasn't feeling well, but really wanted to get to the top so Daddy put him on his back and started up.

That meant I got to take the backpack and pirate Grace.

We made it up. Anna walked the entire way. Daddy got off a little easy. Sammy decided he wanted to try walking it by himself. See the cars at the bottom. That is where we started.

Sammy looking tired, but he did make it. He threw up again on the way home. I think it was probably because of overexertion. He throws up great though... always making it out of the van in time.

The pirate on Daddy. She's just too cute!

All the grandkids at the top with Grandma and Grandpa.

Later that afternoon as a last hurrah Uncle Aaron took us to a little pond that he found that was only "5 minutes" down the beach which ended up being 20.

The kids had a great time in it. They played king of the mountain mostly. At the beginning our boys looked at us like "it's really okay to push them as hard as we can!?!" They were a bit timid at first, but got it figured out.

Last dinner together: Lizzie and Anna - best buds

Then a little later our cottage neighbors, whose family knew Grandma somehow, came over to sing to us. Foster Brown and his daughter were very entertaining and brought back great memories of growing up in the Midwest...there's not a better place to grow up! It was a real treat since they were actually really good!

Pt. Betsie was just perfect this year. Things were relaxed. There was no drama, everyone was just comfortable. Every single day was beautiful which is what I needed. Every morning I woke up and went running. It was my favorite time of day. I would hear all kinds of birds, I was even chased by one...freaked me out a little, and feeling that fresh lake breeze and smelling the clean air was the best. There is nothing better. I am so glad my kids love it and hope we can continue to go there for forever!!

Thursday Bike Ride and Hobo Night

2009-06-25T16:29:00.001-04:00

On Thursday morning we went on our 14 mile bike ride from Frankfort to Buelah. I love this bike ride, it is so peaceful.

Uncle Aaron took Sammy on the back with him. He said it was the easiest bike ride he had ever been on. Sammy was peddling for both of them while Aaron coasted. He said he peddled hard til the last couple of miles.

Daddy took Grace in the trailer and started with Nathaniel in the bike seat. Anna wasn't feeling well a little ways in and traded places with Nathaniel. She seemed to do better with the fresh air on her face.

This was pretty neat to see. Aunt Christine heard something and spotted this huge owl. I have never seen an owl this big in the wild so it was pretty amazing. It flew away and its wingspan was so big.

All done. He was exhausted. He went and laid down on the bench while everyone else jumped in the water. We found out a little later he caught whatever Hannah and Eva had and got pretty sick. Poor kid. I am sure using up all his energy made it come on a little faster.

That night was Hobo night. Since Sammy was sick and it was late enough for the girls to be in bed, Nathaniel was an only child that night. Jason took a ton of pictures of him. I think he really enjoyed only having one kid to watch over.

He thoroughly enjoyed that s'more.

Trying to decide if he should get in the water.

Holding the setting sun.

This is Jason's favorite. Nathaniel is holding the lighthouse:)

Lower Platte and Singing Night

2009-06-24T15:55:00.000-04:00

Today we went canoeing on the Lower Platte. We were going to take Grace, but Christy's girls got sick at the last minute and Mom took them back to the cottage, so I had her take Grace as well. That made the trip so much nicer. I know she wouldn't have liked to wear an oversized lifejacket and sit in a chair for too long. I didn't take my camera so there aren't any pictures and its a good thing I didn't. Dad was a splashing fool. He and Jason had many wars and got all of us completely soaked. Nathaniel wasn't too thrilled. He said he liked canoeing except for the splashing and couldn't figure out why Grandpa kept splashing him. Anna was in a boat with Lizzie, Aunt Christy and Uncle Shane. She doesn't like to get splashed either, so we heard a lot of screaming coming from that canoe. I'm not a big fan of it either so I know I ruined the fun more than Jason would have liked. We had a nice trip down the river even with all the splashing. I think I finally figured out how to splash. Jason is a pretty good teacher:) At the end of the river the kids had a great time swimming and running down the dunes and into the water, even Anna did great.

That night we sang our songs. We've done this since I was little and even have little songbooks that we decorated years back. It is one of my favorite things even though I might not act like it:)

I think it is secretly one of Jason's favorite traditions as well. He loves to sing nice and loud.

Anna definately got into it. I love this picture!

And I think this is just hilarious. Nathaniel sure did like this song! Crazy kid!

Crystal Lake and the Great White

2009-06-23T15:25:00.000-04:00

Today we decided to head over to Crystal Lake and let the kids play in the freezing water. I never get in and am always in awe of the kids and Jason, of course, who can actually have fun in it. Anna wasn't loving it too much either. She had a great time on the beach though.

Daddy trying to warm Anna up to the idea of getting in the water. She doesn't look too thrilled.

Sammy's not too sure about it.

Nathaniel seems to be having a great time!

Aunt Christy burying Anna in the sand. Fun, fun!

Gracie loved the sand. She let it sift through her fingers and then she would make piles of it on top of the towel. She had to eat a little but I was amazed that she played in it for a long time first. Different than all my other babies.

That afternoon toward evening we set out for our next adventure: The Great White

Off to the Great White - a big sand dune we nicknamed when we were younger.

Nathaniel made it to the top. Victorious!

Sammy ready to run down the other side.

Nathaniel ran down and needed a little help getting back up for the following picture. A couple nice cousins came to the rescue.

Nathaniel jumping off a little embankment. It took him a while to get up the nerve to do this and didn't want to do it again.

All of us at the top

Running down the other side. Always great fun!

All tuckered out after the long walk home.

Enjoying a yummy milkshake. It wouldn't be Pt. Betsie without milkshakes!

Pt Betsie Fun

2009-06-22T14:03:00.004-04:00

The week started out slow, which was nice. On Monday we took our traditional walk to Frankfort. It was great until we hit the rocks and then every step we took we thought "why do we do this every year?" Dad opted out of the walk as he is, of course, not a traditionalist. We were were all wishing we were him at that point. But then we got to Frankfort and felt that sense of accomplishment and thought of all the pretty things we saw and remembered, "This is why we do this every year." What is a tradition if it isn't a little difficult!

Before we left Anna decided Grandpa needed a little beating up!

Running down a dune before the walk.

Old breakers and cute place for a picture. Too bad I can never get all my kids looking at the camera at the same time!

Walking and walking, 1/2 mile down, 3 1/2 to go

Anna after 1/2 a mile. It wasn't looking too hopeful that she was going to get through this without a lot of help.

Grace enjoying that backpack strap:) Yummy!

She didn't do too bad. She probably walked more than half of it on her own, but once we got to these rocks it was too hard to walk so she caught a ride. I think she almost fell asleep.

Walking the plank

This is the rock where we have to take a picture every year.

My camera died after this picture so I wasn't able to take one of all the cousins on the rock or the rest of the trip. We got to Frankfort and the kids had a great time jumping in the water to cool off. The beach is nice and sandy there. After that we ate our sack lunches that Dad brought in for us and then headed down to our traditional ice cream spot, The Cool Spot, to get ice cream. Of course all three of my kids came out with Superman because it was the most colorful. It was a great day!

Later that night:

Bath with favorite cousin Lizzie

Such a good Daddy reading to all the kids!

I thought this was funny. Anna making some trouble with Lizzie. She loves to get others wet, but just can't seem to dump the water on her head. As she watched this with me today Anna said, "I love Lizzie!"

Sammy is 6!

2009-06-21T13:32:00.001-04:00

Sammy turned 6 on Sunday so we celebrated his birthday at Pt. Betsie. He wanted a pirate birthday party and picked out this cake. It was super easy and looks pretty cute. We also had a fun treasure hunt outside that the kids had to collect 5 flags in order to receive there treasure. It was a fun day for everyone.

Treasure Chest cake from Family Fun, of course.

Opening presents with cousins

Cute Grace

Placing 6 crazy candles

Everybody loves a birthday! Sammy especially loves having his with his cousins.

School's Out For Summer!!

2009-06-19T13:26:00.001-04:00

We were all so excited for the last day of school. Here is Sammy after getting off the bus that last afternoon! Finally summer break has started!

Twilight

2009-06-11T20:06:00.002-04:00

Doesn't this look awesome! I can't wait for November. It looks so much better than Twilight!

Happy Boy

2009-06-11T15:13:00.003-04:00

Nathaniel has been in such a great mood the last couple of days. Its been great to see him play and be entertained by himself. I just picked him up and threw him on the couch and he gets up with a huge smile on his face and said, "Mommy can you do that again tomorrow?"

I said, "Nathaniel, you're so funny."

"Why did you say that, Mommy."

"Because you're great!"

"Well, you're cute... Pause... Mommy, you're a wierdo."

That last one is a little more accurate!

Ice Cream Waiter

2009-06-04T22:59:00.004-04:00

We were all excited to go to the school tonight for Sammy to serve us ice cream sundaes. The Kindergarteners have been learning about money and for the end of year event they took our orders and served us. It was so cute. They all took it very seriously! It was a little scary seeing these little kids with a tray of 5 or 6 ice cream sundaes, but they all did a great job. Sammy took our orders perfectly and was very professional about it.

Taking Daddy's order. They got hats from Shady Glen and decorated them.

Sammy taking orders

The girls waiting for their ice cream.

Looks yummy! Such a big boy!

Serving us and making sure we got the right ones. Nathaniel was a little anxious to get that bite in his mouth!

After the ice cream we went back to his room and here Sammy is reading us his journal. He wrote a treehouse story, about his new cat ( pretend, of course), planting the garden and more. It was cute to see his spellings. He is doing such a good job and is learning so much in his class!

Firsts

2009-06-02T21:36:00.000-04:00

I have been in a terrible mood the last few days, I think a little overwhelmed with life, mainly life with 4 kids, a house and a husband, give me one and I'd be great, but with all three or really all 6 life gets hard. So today I decided I would just take a nap! Usually it's not even an option for me but the girls were ready to go down about the same time and Nathaniel can entertain himself and was just happy I didn't tell him he had to take a nap. He didn't bug me too much, just right when I was right at that asleep point twice, but atleast I got there. Right when I was about asleep for the second time, Nathaniel climbs into bed with me, doesn't say a word and just goes to sleep. He never takes a nap unless we threaten him and then it is only after he has said a million words about why he shouldn't take a nap or any other subject that comes to him, it was very strange. He woke up so happy, it was great. I woke up happy as well! There's just something about waking up and seeing your sleeping child next to you.

Anna is potty-training right now as well. She is actually doing pretty good as long as she doesn't have anything on. We were outside planting today and I didn't put any underpants on her and she was chasing Nathaniel over the big rock which has a lot of tall weeds on it. A little later she came crying up to me with marks all over the front of her legs and her bum. I was just hoping she didn't get into a Seven Years Itch, I forget what they are really called. She was fine. Once I put some water on them and had her sit she was back to normal. I think I'll put something on her from now on when we go outside. Poor girl!

And Grace is starting to have a bit of an attitude. It is kinda funny, but I don't know that I am ready for another attitude in this house. She mainly just gets bothered by Anna. She loves Anna's doll, but Anna will not share it. It still amazes me whenever she throws a fit. She is just so little.

why u day

2009-05-19T22:19:00.003-04:00

Tonight Anna was on my lap and she said, "why u day." Not knowing what she meant I said okay. She then put all of her fingers in her mouth, took them out and rubbed them on my face. She was washing my face. Why u day = wash your face. Next time I think I'll say no thanks, Anna. I didn't think I used that method of washing their faces that much, only in emergencies, but I guess she picked up on it and likes it.

And Gracie learned how to yell yesterday. She mainly just yells at Anna when she is "sharing" a toy with her, but I got yelled at a couple times today. I was gone a little while tonight and Jason said she started her yell at dinner and Sammy started crying because it upset him so much. I am sure he was thinking, "oh, no I can't handle another yelling girl." Not really, he loves her so much, I am sure he was just sad that she was mad. He has such a soft heart.

Make-Up Mother's Day

2009-05-17T21:54:00.002-04:00

Since last Sunday was Mother's Day and we were traveling Jason decided to make it Mother's Day for me today. It started with breakfast in bed with eggs, bacon, hashbrowns, yogurt and orange rolls. He always goes all out for this. It was great and the kids are always excited to help bring it to me. We were lucky and had a broadcast Stake Conference today so we didn't need to be at church until 11:00, once we got there we realized something must have changed because we were an hour late. So we only had church for an hour, that's kinda nice sometimes. We got home and Jason just let me take the day off. He took care of naps, dinner, bedtime, cleaning up the kitchen and even managed to take a nap himself. Isn't he amazing! I've been able to catch up a little on blogging which is great. The kids have had a great time looking at pictures, watching videos of themselves and listening to me read what I have written. So it has been a great day and I am grateful to have a husband that cares about me and appreciates me enough to give me this day off.

Golfland Spring Fun

2009-05-16T14:01:00.001-04:00

We had a great day today at the Vernon Golfland. It was a fundraiser for preschool and since I felt like I pretty much had to go, I am so glad we had so much fun. How could we not have fun with go-carts, bumper boats, games and food.

This by far is the funniest picture. I wish I would have been filming instead of taking a picture. Right after this picture Nathaniel started waving to me and while turning the corner kept his eyes on me and wham! slammed right into the side. He was a little disoriented for a second and tried to get out but after telling him he was okay he kept right on going and had a great time. He didn't wave to me again!

The kids with Daddy in the bumper boat. They loved these! Sammy even went by himself once. He wasn't out there too long though when he decided it was a lot more fun being with someone than by yourself.

Daddy took turns with the boys in the big go-carts. He definately had fun on these!

Sweet, dirty Anna. There was a little playscape where the tent was set up and so Anna played in it most the day. Anna always brushes her hair out of her face with her hands whenever she feels anything on her face and it was windy so she was constantly touching her face. After we ate I noticed Anna's cheeks were brown like she had just made a mess with chocolate ice cream. I cleaned her up and realized it was dirt from the playscape. This picture is after I cleaned her up the first time, she isn't quite as dirty but almost got there again. Everyone that looked at her said with a laugh, she is so dirty! We came home and jumped in the bath. I have never seen a bathtub of water so brown. It was pretty gross, but she sure did have fun!

Little Grace.

Everytime I look at a picture of this girl I smile. She is just so sweet. Everyone that walked by and looked at her, she smiled at. She had a great time watching everyone busy with their activities.

School Talk

2009-05-13T17:31:00.000-04:00

I helped in Sammy's class today and I got to talk to Mrs. Walter a little. She said "Sammy told me he was done with school. He just wants to be an artist and draw!" Poor Sammy, he has a lot of years ahead of him and I'm afraid Kindergarten is probably the most fun of them all!

Yesterday I was helping parent at Preschool so I was there a little while after everyone left. Miss Chris said to me, "Nathaniel said the funniest thing to me today. He was so nice. I told the class I had a headache and Nathaniel came up and gave me a hug. I said 'thank you Nathaniel,' and he said, 'I like to hug my wives. You're one of my wives.' " I thought it was hilarious, I have no idea where he thought of that (we haven't taught that part of LDS history to our kids) :), but just thinking about our religions history I thought is was pretty funny how it could be taken.

David & Hannah's Wedding

2009-05-10T16:59:00.006-04:00

Jason, Grace and I went out to Utah again for David's Wedding on Saturday. I always feel so carefree with only one baby. We got in Friday night and found a Mexican restaurant that we went to while we were dating. We didn't realize it until we walked in that we had been there before. It was so good, they just don't have Mexican like that out here in Connecticut, and of course, it brought back fun memories. Grace was asleep in her carseat the entire time too, so it was like we didn't even have a baby with us. A true date!

Saturday morning was relaxed since they didn't get married until 2:00. We went to Peter's and he had made everyone a huge brunch with some really yummy food, eggs, bacon, sausage, french toast, fruit, the works...it was great. We had a little mother's day celebration. It was fun to be with mom and both grandma's for our celebrated Mother's day. They all have played such a huge part of my life. All are women that I aspire to be!

The wedding was beautiful. Hannah's grandpa got to seal them, so that made it extra special. It is neat to be in a sealing to hear the advice given to the couple. It always takes me back to what is really important in a marriage.

Brothers and sisters with David outside the Timpanogos Temple. It was so beautiful. Spring is definately the time to get married if you want perfect pictures.

I thought this was a cute picture of all the guys with Hannah.

After the reception we all just had to go to Chuck-A-Rama. It is Matthew's favorite restaurant here in Utah and he was so upset he didn't get to go while he was here for Laura's wedding. The guys had a great time eating and eating. The Knecht's and food go together too well. It was there that Laura announced that she is pregnant! Due the end of December! It will be #25 for my mom. Yeah, Laura! I was happy that she announced it while I was there, since she could have waited until the official Mother's Day.

We were back on the plane at 7:20 the next morning. Christy and Shane were actually on the same flight and in the seats right next to us, so that was fun. There were these annoying teenagers behind us and every time there was turbulence, and there was a lot of it, would make some noise. I hate flying and their noises just made me even more unsettled. The next flight was no better. It was going well until we started to land and then this huge plane starts moving way too much and the flight attendant runs, literally runs from the front to the back to her seat to buckle up. Not a good feeling. I was holding Grace so I figure I was just too hot from her little body because I almost threw up. If I wouldn't of handed her over to Jason and if we wouldn't have landed when we did I would have been really embarassed. I was so happy to be on ground and out of that plane.

Preschool Mother's Day

2009-05-08T14:52:00.004-04:00

The preschool has a cute Mother's Day Party. I went early to help bake the cinammon twists so since she was there for practice Anna felt like she had to be right there by Nathaniel for the whole thing.

Nathaniel presenting me with a cute flower corsage. Miss Chris is such a good teacher for them and loves getting into all the details which I love.

And So It Begins

2009-05-05T17:43:00.002-04:00

You see that smile! She is so happy to be pulling off those books. As she was doing it, I just thought, oh, yeah, I forgot about this fun stage, making messes of everything within range. It is fun to see her moving around and exploring things on her own!

Better than a Baby Doll

2009-05-04T17:48:00.001-04:00

This was on Daddy's watch. Of course, they thought it was so fun! Grace is definately the perfect size for this carriage.

Daddy's Birthday!

2009-05-01T17:52:00.002-04:00

Jason turned, uh, I think, 33 today. I am not good at remembering how old someone is after they hit 20 for some reason. Kids make every birthday fun, it's great. They got him a water balloon launcher and a football, they are very excited about both. Jason asked, "They do know what I'm going to do with this, right?" I was thinking probably not if it involves a water balloon getting smacked into them. I am sure they will find out once it gets warm enough!

This is Jason's favorite cake and I think it is so funny. I made it the first few years we were married and then started making a white cake with real strawberries on it, thinking it was a lot yummier. So last night, I ran to Big Y and they were out of strawberries, crazy, but I thought I guess I'll have to make a box mix complete with the pink frosting. So I made it and when I set it on the table, Jason looked at me and said, "This is my favorite." I just had to smile. I'll take it though, it is much easier than the other.

Always have to lick the frosting off of those candles... and then dip them in to get more!

Isn't she cute! I can't get enough of that smile!

And She's Off!

2009-04-30T18:15:00.004-04:00

Grace started crawling yesterday. She is my earliest crawler at 8 1/2 months. It surprised me that she is my earliest since her legs were in braces the first three months of her life...you wouldn't know it now. I love watching her, trying with all she has to move forward. She's a little wobbly yet, but she'll have it down soon, I'm sure.

Daddy's wrestling the kids in the background, so it's a little loud. You can hear the fun!

Here is Grace with her favorite toy, dancing and jabbering. I love how she interacts with Anna.

Sammy's Queen

2009-04-26T19:12:00.002-04:00

Sammy loves his Grace. Tonight she was his Queen and I think she liked the attention too.

Boys

2009-04-18T10:50:00.000-04:00

These pictures depict our boys well

Sammy hard at work...love that tongue
And carefree Nathaniel

More Easter

2009-04-12T23:03:00.004-04:00

After church we came home and just had to take one more picture. I think they are all pictured out, but I love Gracie's smile! And you can definately see Anna's personality there! After church we did our Easter Egg Hunt. It was still so cold, but the kids had fun finding all the eggs quickly.

Anna and Ethan finding eggs on the trampoline. I think Ethan liked jumping more than finding any more eggs.

The fun part...now what's inside all of these

Making resurrection rolls with Grandma Jeannie. They all have a hole in them after they are baked, like the empty tomb. I think this will be a tradition of ours from now on. It is really fun.

Something is yummy!

The Easter centerpiece that I made. Isn't it pretty!

Easter Morning

2009-04-12T21:05:00.000-04:00

Easter morning is filled with excitement. Sammy couldn't wait to look outside and see all the eggs scattered. We actually didn't do the egg hunt until we came home from church, but the kids didn't seem to mind since they did get to find their baskets.

So exciting!

Our Easter Breakfast Feast

Getting ready for church

This was the first time that I have curled Anna's hair. It actually took really well. She wasn't sure what to think about it though.

Family picture at church. Can you tell it was a bit sunny?

Anna loving her sister

Grandma Jeannie with the kids at church

Easter Egg Hunts

2009-04-11T20:39:00.000-04:00

We always go to the Annual Ashford Easter Egg Hunt. The kids have a great time running for eggs, not really searching since they are just thrown about the ground. I stayed with Anna and watched her slowly pick up eggs. She enjoyed herself though!

Anna with some friends in the ward.

Picking up her first egg

The boys with their stash

This year we went to the Willington Hunt as well. It was about the same thing, a little less organized, but the kids had fun. Here they are with the Easter Bunny. You always have to wonder who is under there.

Grandma and Girls

2009-04-09T20:33:00.001-04:00

Grandma Jeannie is here to visit for a little while and we are thoroughly enjoying our time. I have been able to organize and start projects while she is mending for me. It is such a great feeling to get things accomplished! The kids got reacquainted quickly and are enjoying themselves as well. They love all the attention she gives them which is also great for me!

Preschool Easter Extravanganza

2009-04-08T19:55:00.000-04:00

I went to preschool today for their Easter Celebration. It is always so cute watching them sing and interacting with one another.

Nathaniel loves his bunny ears!

April Fools!!

2009-04-01T19:19:00.007-04:00

This was fun! Jeannie was here so I had some extra time to make dinner fun.

Here we have mashed potatoes, carrots and meatloaf.

Wait a second, somethings not right

Hmm, this gravy tastes a lot like caramel.

This sure doesn't smell like meatloaf!

This cupcake looks a little strange.

Yummy, juice! But wait, I can't get it up the straw.

Mommy, it's not moving.

The meatloaf was chocolate Rice Krispie Treats, the mashed potatoes and gravy was ice cream with caramel sauce, carrots were carrots, cupcakes were meatloaf with mashed potato icing (it was actually a great recipe for meatloaf) and the juice was jello. It was an eventful dinner with a lot of laughs!

Happy 7 1/2 months Gracie!

2009-03-29T22:22:00.002-04:00

Just for fun!

Grandpa

2009-03-26T16:31:00.001-04:00

My grandpa died last Thursday. I went back for his funeral last weekend and it was wonderful... just the way he would have wanted it. He was such a perfect grandpa. Christy said nobody has had a better grandpa, maybe just as good, but he was as good as you can get. I totally agree, he was the best. He made everyone feel as if they were truly his favorite. He had an infectious smile and a fun sense of humor. I wanted to post some poems that some of us kids wrote, I hope those who wrote them don't mind. I know mine was therapeutic to write and it was also to read others. Here the kids are after playing at Grandpa and Grandma's in February. I am so glad that I took this picture, so Grace could be in it with him.

These pictures are how I remember him...big and happy.

All of us before Adam went on his mission.
Not the greatest angle, but you can see his smile and how much he loved being a farmer.

I am from... by Adam

humble,

kneeling,

morning prayer

careful

never to

take your

chair

contagious

giggles,

funny

jokes

nibbling ears,

pink

cheeks,

it’s OK to cry

the King

and I

A cappella band

sweet,

stinky

aromas

it “smells like money”

ferrying house

screams,

the stench,

castrated pigs

satisfied

to do

a hard day’s

work.

pounding,

painting,

cutting,

helping

on hands and knees

learning,

watching,

listening

side by side

I love you.

Go ahead,

take another

drumstick.

Just

don’t tell

your Mom!

I love you Grandpa!!!!!

I am from... Christy
the earth,
sweet-smelling
freshly turned
life-giving

scruffy-faced kisses
earning
my ice cream

over-sized white
T-shirts
for sleep-overs

a lap
where love
and tickles
overflowed

rides
on tractors
so noisy
going up and down
in the bucket

bravery..
to travel
to find
to fulfill
all that was required

humility
is always
the way

acceptance
of all things
even the impossible

where everyone
is the favorite.

I love you Gramps!!!!!
Christy

I AM FROM . . . by Peter

scruffy-faced prayers
on my knees
under big shoulders.

deducted wages
for playing with King,

riding 3-wheelers,

and eating ice cream.

Challenges to express

my love
for my mom and dad.

Long walks in fields
with an ancient machete

Hog barns and castrating pigs

Mind over matter . . .
"I'm not ticklish, I'm not ticklish, I'm not ticklish"

Mind over matter . . .
"I'll give you $1 if you can eat this cherry tomato"

A Grandpa who I can't seem to remember
without a sweet smile,
who served with all his might, mind, strength, and heart,
who treated Grandma with so much respect and love,
who I never heard speak ill of others,
who was a great man, grandpa, husband, brother, dad,
and example to me.

I love you Gramps!!

I am from… by Jenny

Scruffy-faced smiles
Abundant and endless

Boisterous laughter
While being chased

Playful spankings
That showed love

Smelling like pigs
And liking it

Feeling the wind
Going as fast as I dared
On the three wheeler

I’m not ticklish, I’m not ticklish, I’m not ticklish
That’s about as far as I could get

Riding on the inner tube behind
Your farm truck
On the icy road

Family prayer each night
Kneeling on the couches

Learning the importance of
Never laughing during prayer
Even with my cousins
And eating all my food.

Playing in the creek
And making up all kinds of stories

Sentimental tears
From hearing anything good
About one of your Grandchildren

Keeping a sense of humor
In the hardest of times

Grandpa, I love you
You are an amazing example of living the Gospel, working hard, and playing hard. I can’t imagine how you could have been more perfect.

I Am From... by David

Sitting on your lap
Giving you kisses
Feeling your big arms
And also your big belly

Always so happy
Whatever day it was
Such an example
To me forever

Rides in the three wheeler
Rides in the tractor
Always left with ice cream
Your sweet tooth

Trips to Dairy Queen
With you and Grandma
Always there
Always smiling

Mowing the lawn
Ice cream deducted
Being so patient
Always loving Grandma

I’m not ticklish
Is what I said too
What a wonderful Grandpa
I love you

I love you Grandpa!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

2009-03-17T16:19:00.000-04:00

We had a Happy St. Patrick's Day. I went with the younger kids to Crystal's for a fun party. The kids had a great time riding on their indoor train and playing with toys, and of course eating treats. I couldn't get Anna to eat anything after tasting the jello, that is all she wanted. It's good for the nails, right! Sammy had a fun day at the school and talked a lot about leprechauns when he got home. He made this cute hat that the kids are posing in below.

Big Girl Bed

2009-03-16T20:40:00.000-04:00

We decided Grace was getting a little big for the bassinet so we set up the toddler bed for Anna so Grace could have her crib. She loves it and is so excited to go to bed and take naps. I am sure that won't last too long! She did great the first night, but tonight this is how we found her when we were going to bed. Atleast it is close to the ground!

And here she covered in my powder. She loves make-up.

McDonalds

2009-02-19T12:51:00.000-05:00

This was something fun we did when I was growing up. With 9 kids we didn't go out to eat much or ever, so we would create a McDonalds at home. I thought the kids would have fun with this so we did it today at Grandma's. They had a great time, and especially loved the milkshakes! My favorite as well.

I'd eat this any day over McDonalds!

Indianapolis Children's Museum

2009-02-17T12:20:00.000-05:00

We got to stay in Indiana for the week after Laura's reception since it was Winter Break here in Connecticut. It worked out perfectly for us! After visiting the children's museum during Christmas Break with the Corless' and seeing how much there was to do, we decided to go down again. The kids had a great time and there was a new, amazing Lego exhibit.

Dress-up in the Lego room. They were excited to be jousting, looking like their knights that we have at home.

Lego-Mania

There were lego stations set up around the room so the boys started working at this one. Nathaniel was a dragon the entire time we were there, after he decided carrying around a horse as a knight took a little too much effort.

It looks perfect to me!

Last time we were here Anna claimed this duck as hers. She saw it and all the memories came flooding back.

Grandma Linda with happy Grace

Pretending to be a race car driver

It was a long and very fun day. As we went in Sammy said, "Mommy this is where you got lost, right." My first memory is of this museum. I was three and absolutely loved dolls, so when I saw the huge doll house, that is actually still there, I forgot about everything else. By the time I came to my senses my family was no where to be seen. Good thing I cried like Nathaniel and Anna do now. My family was on the floor above me, heard me and came running, I guess. But not before a lady asked me where my mommy was, if she wanted me to call the police, I remember that terrifying me, and what my name was. Funny thing was, I didn't know my real name when I was three. I was babydoll, so that's what I told her. You have to wonder what she thought. She couldn't have thought anything for too long, because my mom, dad and 5 older brothers and sister were there soon. No wonder I got left behind with all those kids in tow:)

Dancing the Night Away!

2009-02-14T22:10:00.004-05:00

Laura's reception was a huge party. The dancing was great. My boys were hilarious with Christy's girls. They all definately danced the night away. It was amazing how much they danced and was very fun to watch.

Me and the girls...aren't they cute. I love these dresses and so does Anna. She put it on and just kept saying "pretty."Eating some yummy food.

Sammy doing a dance and following along pretty well. He had so much fun.

Anna bringing me a flower to put in her hair.

Nathaniel having a great time with Ben's mom.

Aren't they adorable? They did this for hours.

Sammy and Eva

Now that is what you call dancing...looks a little crazy!

Sammy and Hannah

This is awful video quality. It was a little too dark for the camera to pick much up, but you can see the boys and then you can also see Ben in the background dancing like crazy. Who knew Laura would get a dancer!

Laura's Wedding

2009-02-07T23:43:00.001-05:00

It was a beautiful day, a little chilly but not frigid, although Laura would probably disagree since she had to be out in it for so long taking pictures. It was great to go out to Utah and see my little sister get married. She found such a great guy, he is so perfect for her. It is so nice to see her happy! It was fun to have all of us brothers and sisters together too. I am so grateful that Jason and I were able to go!

Coming out of the temple. They were married in the Salt Lake Temple.

Laura with Gracie!

A Visit to BYU!

2009-02-07T22:53:00.000-05:00

After the wedding Jason and I headed down to BYU. We haven't been back since we left. It was fun to walk around and see all the smiling students, such a different feel there. We ate some creamery ice cream and drove through the apartment complex where we lived when we met. Fun times...it seems like a different life.

This was Jason's building. He spent a lot of time here. I think he even had a couch that he camped out on some late nights.

Overlooking the Richards building (maybe, I can't really remember). This is the way I would walk every day...lots of stairs.

Isn't this a cool new building. I think it is so pretty.

I love the library. It is so neat that you can walk on top of it and I love the wall of windows.

Fun time walking down memory lane!

Cute Kids Sayings

2009-01-14T14:18:00.002-05:00

Nathaniel says something everyday that we can laugh at. Sometime last week he was doing a project and I asked him if he needed any help while on my way to do something else. And he says matter-of-factly, "I know when I need you." As I walk away he says, "And don't waste your time." Pause, then exclaims, "And don't give up." Cooky kid, he sure didn't get that from me, although I would like to say he did.

Lately Anna's cute sayings that I love best are "Oopie" in her high, cute little voice, whenever something bad happens. And the one I love best because I don't say it all too often, but she picked up on it quickly, "Mommy, eOOO, Mommy, eOOO!" This is "Mommy, Hello!!" I say this to the boys when I am talking and getting absolutely no response. I guess she liked it because she says it a lot when she doesn't get a response right away! Two is a fun age to listen to kids talk and hear what they pick up on.