Celebrate 2008!!

I saw this idea on my nieces blog and decided to do one too.

I took the slide show that Jon, Melanie, & Beth put together just recently.

The music is our Acapella Quartet singing the songs.

Soprano - Melanie, Alto - Me, Tenor - Jon, Bass - Doug

It's a little long...there's a lot of us to see!!

Enjoy!

Happy New Year!!

Bethanie Did It!!!

That's right!! She finally did it! What?? You say...


Pierce her ears, of course!

At first she was wondering why Dad was taking pictures...


Then they decided to send me this one... psyche!!





Anticipation is the worst!!

First ear!! She says, wow, that's not bad at all!!



Second ear, not so bad!



I have to tell the story for you to appreciate her finally doing it.


Doug and I are pretty conservative when it comes to ear piercing. We decided not to let the girls do theirs until they were old enough to take care of it all themselves and they really have to want it. Well Bethanie was the first one to actually ask and then keep asking. When she first asked, I didn't think she was old enough to keep them clean and such. But about two years ago, I decided to go ahead and let her do it. I did all the calling and found out there wasn't a place here in Bountiful. We had to go to Layton (not that far about 15 to 20 minutes drive). We took the time to pick out the earrings, got her in the chair, her ears marked, all the paperwork filled out and signed. And yup! she chickened out!! We sat there for an hour trying to talk her into it! It was horrible. I wasn't even sure I wanted her to have it done in the first place, and here I was trying to talk her into it for over an hour!! I decided to give her an ultimatum...I am leaving this store, so do it now or we're out of here, and I am not bringing you back! She tried to be brave but just didn't have it in her. The funny thing was by this time I was not happy about wasting my time. I called Doug and told him she chickened out, and he spent another 15 minutes trying to talk her into it. I said, forget it, I am leaving! So we left.


She tried to talk us into taking her again, but I wasn't convinced that she was ready to actually do it. She started talking about it again alot in the last few months, especially since Melanie went and got hers done last year for her 18th birthday.


I guess Dad was convinced she would actually do it and was willing to take the chance on her. He came home from work and took her in. I almost forgot about taking pictures...I called him about the time they were picking out her earrings, so he had to take them with his camera but here she is.



I can't believe how happy she is! She's walking around here like she's on cloud 9!! She's wanted this for a very long time. She said she wished she would have done it sooner!

"Stand a Little Taller"

Almost every morning we gather together to have Family Prayer. We found that reading the scriptures as a family works best at night for us, but I also realize we need to start the day off right. A few years ago we came across this book by Gordon B. Hinckley called "Stand a Little Taller". It has daily scripture gems and Pres Hinckley's thoughts on each one. I so love these little daily gems. Sometimes I swear they move around and come up as we need them.

Some recent entries are...

"The Blessings of Work, 'the labour of the righteous tendeth to life' Prov 10:16 Work is the miracle by which talent is brought to the surface and dreams become reality."

"He Answers Prayers, 'I know that God will give liberally to himthat asketh...Therefore I will lift up my voice unto thee' 2Nephi 4:35 Get on your knees and thank God for His goodnees to you and express unto Hi the righteous desires of your hearts. He hears, He respods, He answers. Not always as we would wish He would answer, but there is no question in my mind that He answers."

"A Positive Attitude, 'Serve the Lord with gladness; come before his presence with singing...Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise; be thankful unto him, and bless his name.' Psalm 100:2 Do you feel gloomy? Lift your eyes. Stand on your feet. Say a few words of appreciation and love to the Lord. Be positive. I do not know how anybody who is a member of the Church can feel gloomy for very long. This is the day which has been spoken of by those who have gone before us. Let us live worthy of our birthright. Keep the faith. Nurture your testimonies. Walk in righteousness and the Lord will bless you and prosper you, and you will be a happy and wonderful people."

Good stuff, huh!!?


This year I came across another book with "daily gems", it is called "Come Listen to a Prophet's Voice" by Lloyd D. Newell. I couldn't give up Pres Hinckley's book, so now we read from both. These are quotes from past and present General Authorities.

This one is from this morning...

"Do you want peace in your families?...If you do, live your religion, and the very peace of God will dwell and abide with you, for this is where peace comes from." John Taylor

'Many people long for peace in their lives but don't know where to find it. Some search for peace on the dead-end streets of selfishness or take unsatisfying detours through empty fields of pleasure-only to discover more unrest, more uneasiness. Peace is a gift of God; it comes to those who strive to live righeously, those who sincerely submit to the Lord's will in their lives. When our trust rests in the Lord and our lives reflect his teachings, we are blessed with peace of mind and courage in the face of adversity. What blessing is greater, what peace more lasting, than the peace of God! His promise is certain: "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you; not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid" John 14:27"

I so love them both. They are short enough and yet profound enough to get our spiritual fix in the morning before we start our day!

Merry Christmas!!

Wow, what a day! It is amazing that we can spend weeks, even months getting ready for Christmas day and then it's all over in a matter of hours!

I was amazed that I had to wake my kids up at 9! Yup, I had to wake them up!! Even the little ones!! The dog woke me at about 8:30 to go out, so I got up and started breakfast. We have a tradition that we eat a good breakfast before we open presents. We figure it will be the only decent meal they actually eat for at least a couple of days because of all the junk they get. Before I was done, Steven was up, he helped me get ready. Then we went and woke everyone up. We finally got everyone fed and downstairs ready to open presents a little after 10am!

We also have a tradition that we open presents one by one. It gives a chance for the kids to play with and examine each gift while someone else is opening their gifts. By the time it's their turn again, they are ready for the next one. But it can end up taking a while, especially in a big family such as ours!! We finished opening presents after 1pm. It's always a relief when everyone is happy with their gifts, and you know you did well!

It was perfect though, because then Nattie Girl was ready to go back to bed. She was safe in bed and it gave us a few hours of not having to be extra careful what was down and all over. By the time she was up again, the house was fairly cleaned up and in some kind of order.

The rest of the day, we just played games and watched movies.

We were excited the storm we were supposed to get was too warm to be snow, so it was raining in the afternoon. Unfortunately, it did turn to snow and we ended up with just about a foot of snow before morning! We finished watching Prince Caspian at 1am and decided we better shovel before going to bed because our newspaper carriers were going to have to leave soon. So we went out and shovelled for 1 1/2 hours! By the time we were done, it was 2:30am, Wow, we are crazy!!

All in all we had a great Christmas day!

It's just too hard to pick which pictures to put up!! I took quite a few!

Today we are doing much of the same thing, just being lazy and enjoying the day!!

Christmas Eve Jammies!!

You know we've been doing something for a while when even the little kids knew that the present they get to open on Christmas Eve is going to be jammies! Some of them were commenting weeks before how they couldn't wait to see what their new jammies are going to look like.

Poor Bethanie was the worst because she wears her jammies the most, and they were wearing out fast! Once they started ripping, they just kept getting bigger and bigger. I didn't realize it, but I actually got her some that were pretty much exactly the same! After a few washes, no one will ever know!!

We had to laugh, because when Nattie opened hers she kept saying "Oooo, pretty!" Later when it was Shawn's turn, he let her help him open his. When they got to the jammies, there were no exclamations! In fact, she picked them up and threw them!! I guess his weren't pretty!!

We always do the traditional poses...

One with the girls....

One with the boys...

Then of course one of everyone!!

Now we're all ready for Christmas morning!!

Cookies, Cookies, Cookies!!!

Sorry it has been so long since I've posted, I have been so busy with Christmas preparations I've hardly been on the computer at all!!

Yesterday was a big Cookie day for me. I volunteered to make cookies for Aaron's Christmas program today and decided to make them yesterday. I needed about 2 dozen. Doug found out I was making cookies and said he signed up to take treats to work for today and would I mind making some for him too. I said sure how many do you need? He said well, there's about 31 people in our department. I said okay, so you need at least 62? The look on his face was priceless...He said well some might want 3! I just had to laugh! So how many do you want me to make????

When all was said and done the final count was 195! I sent 100 to work with Doug, 12 on the neighborhood pass along plate we got the night before, 30 for the program today and the rest, the kids have been eating. It only took me six hours!!! Only?? I was bushed last night as I fell into bed!!

Anyway, I was frosting them and set them out on the counter for the frosting to set enough to put in the boxes. Doug thought he should snap a picture...I'm glad he did, it was an incredible sight!!

It was funny to have all these cookies and then, just have one little pan that were staying home for the kids to eat. Although, they did have some right off the counter after dinner before I had boxed everything up.

Doug already called me this morning, they are a hit at work! Yummy, Sugar Cookies. Whenever I make these, I think of my good friend, Gwen! Thanks Gwen!!

Here We Go Again!!

I just can't believe it... Look what Beth found in her room this morning!

I am so worried that it has brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, cousins, nieces and nephews, etc, etc!! Doug keeps saying he thinks maybe he is just a stray and just happened to get in. I think he's just trying to make me feel better, but I certainly hope he's right. I guess we need to be on the alert now for signs and evidence, uggh!!

Well, I have to go decorate the stage for the RS Christmas dinner tonight, wish me luck!! (on both counts) :)

Happy December!!

This is going to be quick.... I just wanted to say .....

Happy Thanksgiving to Everyone!! I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. Ours went waaayyy too fast!! I will post some pics soon.

I also wanted to say...

Happy December!!

I can hardly believe it's here!! This year has completely flown by!

Christmas here we come!!

Love to you all!

Tiffany Did It!!

Tiffany had her Dentist appointment this week. She did GREAT!

I guess I have to give just a little bit of background to this. A year ago she went in for her cleaning and did fine with it. They found a couple of little cavities that needed to be fixed. We went back and she was reluctant...well, more than reluctant, she sat in that chair and wouldn't let them do anything. Dr. Elmer didn't want her to have a bad experience so he said they are small enough, and she is so young let's wait the six months and try again then. We made a big deal about her not being cooperative, no treats, etc.

Anyway, 6 months later we go in for a cleaning and she sits in the chair and with a smile puts her hand over her mouth and won't even let them clean her teeth. I guess she thought she got away with it last time, she'll try it again this time. And sure enough, she gets away with it. Of course there were consequences at home. She did say she would do it when she was 4. She was too little.

Another 6 months has gone by, so now it's been a year since the first cleaning. We've been talking about the cavity bugs in her teeth and they are growing and the only way to get them out is to let Dr. Elmer get them out. We can't get them out by brushing ourselves. We even talked about how now that she's 4, she's big enough to let him. She kept saying she was going to let him. We go in there and sure enough she let them clean her teeth. She doesn't have any more than the two they found a year ago, whew!! I got some pics of Chris, the hygenist, "painting" her teeth with flouride and her "kissing" the suction straw. She thought that was funny.

The real trick is if she's going to actually let him fix them when we go back in!

Someone Special Lunch

I just found these pics on my phone, I guess I forgot to post about it.

At our Elementary School we have what we call a Someone Special Lunch. It happens once a month. They take a portion of the alphabet and they get to invite someone special to come have lunch with them at school. Ours was in Octoer.

It's really interesting to me that my kids think of their siblings first, and that their older siblings feel honored to be invited! This year both Melanie and Jon were invited but they both had to work, so they invited their younger siblings.

I don't usually get invited, but this year I invited myself since the little girls were invited!

After lunch we went out to the playground, that was a highlight for them to be able to show off their little sisters to their friends! Fun!

Dentist Appointments

The three elementary kids had dentist appointments yesterday. We went before school, I didn't think I would like that, but it actually turned out pretty good. The office wasn't very busy, they were waiting for us to show up, and the kids were only 1/2 an hour late for school, not too bad.

The best part of the dentist cleaning is the funny pictures you can get when they are doing their flouride treatments! I took these with my camera, so sorry for the lack of quality, but they are fun anyway. The hygenist said they looked like ducks because they had duck beaks!

Another thing that's funny is that Emily loves to laugh. She thought the funny toothbrush they use was very ticklish on her gums, so she laughed quite loud. She had the hygenist laughing just because he said he's never had someone have so much fun in his chair. He kept saying, "hey did you forget where you are, this is a dentist office, your not supposed to be laughing so hard!"


We found a few cavities we have to go back and fix, not happy about that. I always feel guilty when my young kids have cavities. My older kids rarely had any when they went, I don't know if it was because I took better care of them, or they just had stronger teeth. I really don't like getting my teeth fixed, so I feel bad when they have to have theirs fixed. All except for Kim, she says she loves to be numb and she's the one who doesn't have to have any fixed. She had two, but they were in baby teeth that are expected to come out in the next 6 to 8 months, so Dr. Elmer doesn't want to worry about them. Wow, I was impressed with that one!

Just for Fun!!

I just thought these pictures were too cute not to put on here for all to see...

This one is of Tiffany straight out of the bath. What a great smile!!

Then we have the bigger girls taking more pics of themselves. Some of them actually turn out pretty good!

And of course I couldn't resist this one of Natalie kissing Bethanie, way tooooo cute!!

I love their smile and her hands on her neck!!

Tiffany's Birthday!

Happy 4th Birthday to Tiffany!!

She could hardly wait for this day to come!! She kept reciting the order of birthdays since Shawn had his! Yesterday, it finally arrived!

She woke up to balloons everywhere and singing. We like to let the preschool kids open a couple of their presents before everyone leaves for school and work. That's where we started. ..

I let her open her dolls first... I have to tell the story of these dolls. About a month ago we were in Walmart shopping for the boy's bdays when we came across these dolls. They are Barbie dolls from the latest Barbie movie Barbie and the Diamond Castle. It is a musical, so these dolls not only sang two of the main songs, but if you push their buttons together they actually sing a duet! She instantly fell in love! She just had to have them, and watching her with them I knew I was going to get them for her birthday. She kept asking if we could buy them, I had to tell her no, we were shopping for the other birthdays. I'm surprised she didn't ask to get them for her own birthday, but she didn't. She just kept crying about having to leave them there. You see, this movie is her favorite right now, she not only sings all the songs, but she recites quite a bit of the dialogue as well. Whole scenes, it's pretty amazing for a 4 year old! Sometimes I think she's only 4 maybe I've miscounted, she's got to be 5 maybe even 6! But No, she's 4 years old.

Anyway...Needless to say she was mighty excited when she opened the first one, she was saying, oh I hope this one is Liana! as she was opening the second one. Then the third one was a dress up dress to match one of the dolls. She was in her glories!! She asked me, did you get these at Walmart? Too funny!!

We had our traditional Birthday Breakfast of chocolate chip waffles with ice cream and chocolate syrup. Yum! She was so excited about the dolls, she wasn't much interested in eating for a while. When she finally did, she had to take her dress off to eat, so she wouldn't get it dirty, so she only ate one. Then hurry and put the dress back on!

Nana was cleaning out some of her totes in her room and found these wings for her. That really sealed the deal. She was walking around all day with her dress, wings, and dolls singing and dancing!

She kept asking when she could open the rest of the presents, I told her that she had to wait until everyone came home. So when ever someone would show up, she would ask, now?

Finally, we had her choice of dinner, she chose chicken tacos (which she didn't really eat, she was too excited) strawberries, and broccoli. At last she got to open the last of the presents, although I don't think she was too excited, it was kind of a let down to only get a hooded princess towel and princess sheets. I thought she would be more excited about the sheets for her bed, but I don't think she really understands what they are. I put them in the wash last night and we're going to put them on the bed today. I'm hoping she will be more excited once they are on the bed.

So then we broke out the cake and ice cream. I made her a really yummy pumpkin spice cake with pumpkin cream cheese frosting. We sang her happy birthday and ate. She was excited to be able to stay up past her bed time (another bday tradition). By 10pm she was so tired she was getting grumpy because she really didn't want to take her nap after lunch and I didn't push it. She finally consented to going to bed. She fell right to sleep.

What a Happy Day!!

Carving Pumpkins

I know this is kind of out of order, I wasn't going to post these but as I was looking at them, they are too cute to pass up.

On Halloween Day we carved out our pumpkins, the kids love that kind of stuff. Well this was Nattie Girls first experience with it. Bethanie got her up from her nap and got her all ready, pulled her hair back and stripped her down so she wouldn't get goop all over her clothes. Then she promptly plopped her down on the table right in front of a big pumpkin opened up and ready to scoop out.

Nattie didn't waste any time getting in there and playing with the goop and pulling it out. She even saw that we had scoopers and had to have one too! She seemed to enjoy it! She even tried to eat it, isn't that typical of a one year old, "Hmmm I wonder what that tastes like?"

While some of us were carving the pumpkins, Ben was making some pumpkin chocolate chip cookies per Jon's request, Yum!!

We didn't have enough pumpkins for everyone to design their own, but we all worked together to get them cleaned out and then collaborated to decide on the faces. They turned out pretty good! But I haven't taken pictures of the finished products yet! Oooops, I guess I need to go do that before they get too grossed out!!

Bethanie found a sprouting pumpkin seed inside her pumpkin! I've never heard or seen that before! I wonder if we wouldn't have opened up that pumpkin, just how far it would have grown? A pumpkin vine inside a pumpkin?? Insteresting!!

Happy Halloween!

The kids were so excited for it to finally come. By the time we got to the actual day, we had already dressed up 3 timesbefore we even got to this point...

The first time was for the Primary Activity at the beginning of the month, I posted about it earlier, if you want to read it again, or if you missed it the first time just click on the link.

The second time we dressed up was for the YM/YW Carnival on Wednesday.

The third time was on Thursday for the school parade and class parties. We did it on Thurs because there was no school on Friday. So we got all dressed up and had all the fun activities, they were done by 1st recess, and then had to take it all off and have a regular school day the rest of the day. I had decided not to go all out with their costumes on these other days because it just would have been too much work!

So by Friday they were excited because they would actually dress up with the works and they got to go Trick or Treating! We decorated pumpkins during the day, ate pizza and then got ready to go!

I have to give a great big THANK YOU to Melanie and Bethanie who did all the hair and make up! They did a fabulous job!!

Although it was raining, it was warm enough to have a great time! I love it that they delayed going off Daylight Savings one more week. The sad thing was that not only were there not very many trick or treaters out and about, but a lot of the houses were dark. We covered our ward area in about an hour or so! It worked out pretty good in that when we were done they didn't ask to expand the boundaries. They were happy with their bucket full of candy!

I have to mention some of the things Tiff would say...when we first started trick or treating she would yell "Trick or Treat for the Food Bank!!!" We were laughing and had to explain to her she was not trick or treating for the food bank like for the Primary activity, but for candy. I always remind the kids to say thank you when they get their candy. Little Tiffany again, would say, "Thank You, Enjoy your treats!" After we had been walking around for about 40 minutes, she said "I am tired, we have been walking for hours!" But she didn't want to go home. She sure had us in stitches!

PS I know I'm a copy cat, because I loved this background, too, sorry GG, but I figure you wouldn't mind!

YM/YW Halloween Carnival

The Young Men and Young Women in our ward put on their annual Halloween Carnival on Wednesday. Another reason to dress up and go play games. The kids came home from school and hurried to get their homework done, because I told them I wouldn't take them unless their homework was done. Too bad I don't have an incentive like that every day!!


Anyway, When we got there it was too funny to find that Natalie wasn't the only little bee walking around. There were three little nursery age girls walking around plus an infant. We just had to get a picture of them!

Aren't they cute??!!


They had fun, but we had to hurry home and get ready for bed because it was still a school night.