Greg & Heather's Family Blog

A Star is Born...Or Homemade Dino-Oatmeal

2012-01-18T15:01:00.003-07:00

Any time my girls come shopping with me I have to avoid the cereal aisle because they will inevitably see the Dinosaur Egg Oatmeal and want it. However, the price tag always dissuades me from purchasing it. So, today I decided there must be a way to create my own "dinosaur eggs" to put into oatmeal. Here are the results (which I think my girls will go for). If you want the full instructions, read to the bottom.

I had recently purchased a bottle of star sprinkles, and thought my girls would like those just as much if not more than dinosaurs. So, I started piping dots of icing along a sheet of waxed paper, but quickly decided it was NOT worth the effort, so after some brainstorming, I thought about Chex Muddy-Buddies, and decided to try a similar tactic. I warmed some icing in the microwave until it was runny, then poured a little bit (about 1/3 as much icing as sprinkles) into a zip-lock bag. When all the sprinkles were coated I scooped a bunch of powdered sugar (again, I am not a measurer, but it was about as much powdered sugar as sprinkles). Then I sealed the bag and shook it like crazy. Soon, the sprinkles were covered with powdered sugar and started separating from each other. I separated larger lumps with my fingers and continued to shake until I was happy with the size of each "egg." Then I poured the contents of the bag into a colander and gently shook off any extra powdered sugar. At this point I had a bowl full of star eggs. So I took a small scoop, put it in my oatmeal and poured the hot water on top to test it & sure enough! the stars were hatched from their eggs.

Doing Great!

2011-12-03T10:16:00.002-07:00

Thursday was quite the day around here. We woke up just after midnight to the wind. We knew it had the potential to be quite the storm, but had no idea what was in store. Sarah and Rachel both woke up around 2 a.m. and came to snuggle us in our bed due to the noise of the storm, so needless to say we didn't get too much sleep.

When morning arrived we were debating whether we should send the girls to school, but when the power went out & the cell networks were too busy to get calls through I decided I didn't want to risk sending the girls without a way to get in touch with the school should something happen. It turned out to be a good decision since their school was closed shortly after the school day started. Our house didn't suffer too greatly. Our vinyl fence on the North side of the house blew apart, but we scavenged around the yard and found all the pieces. Only a couple were cracked and we were able to rebuild it yesterday (we might need to replace a few parts eventually, but for now it should be just fine).

We also had some wandering playground equipment. I should have taken a picture, but our play land that is normally on the East side of the yard tried to escape, but couldn't fit through the gate on the West side. We also have several large piles of leaves that decided to nestle in for the storm by our front door, but that is an easy clean up.

Greg was amazing and stayed home from work on Thursday. He drove the truck around to check on all the family and clean up as necessary. I had called my grandpa in the morning and he said that he had at least 5 big trees that had fallen and were blocking his driveway (which happens to be a fairly long private drive). We went there first to see if we could at least get the trees out of the way, but his neighbors had already come and moved the trees from the driveway. It was very sad to see so many beautiful trees come down, but I was touched by the quick response his neighbors showed. He also lost almost all of the fence around his pool, but he has some insurance people coming to look at things before we start cleaning up.

After checking on my grandpa, we went to my mom's house. She had one tree that snapped in the back of her house, and had a 2-3 inch carpet of pine boughs, needles, pine cones and trash covering her entire yard. I think that emotionally that was probably worse than fallen trees for my mom because she always does such a great job keeping her yard clean & has spent countless hours doing fall cleaning making sure things were ready for spring.

Our family spent the rest of the day at her house raking and bagging the piles and piles of debris.

Following a run to the dump we stopped to check on Greg's parents' house (everything looked great) and drove past the cemetery. They had huge pines lining the entire East side and most of them were uprooted in the storm. It was quite the sight. It was really touching to see people joining together to move trees and work on cleanup immediately following the storm.

We worked through the afternoon, but stopped in time for the girls to have a shared piano lesson (it was too cold and dark to have them do more), then we went back down to my mom's house for dinner since her power was back on. We stopped by our house to see if we had power, but instead discovered that the door to the attic had blown off and cold air had been pouring through the house all day.

When our power was still out at 9:00 we decided to have a sleepover at Grandma's (which didn't disappoint my girls at all). We probably could have stayed at home because apparently the power came back on sometime between 10 & 11 that night, but the girls loved sleeping at Grandma's.

Friday we spent most of the day cleaning our yard and fixing the fence, and today we are glad that it is mostly done because it snowed last night & cleanup doesn't sound quite so fun today. It is much nicer to snuggle up by a fire and blog about the events of the week :)

Utah Museum of Natural History

2011-11-20T09:05:00.002-07:00

Friday we decided to take our girls on a mini-stay-cation. We got tickets for the opening day at the Museum of Natural History & took the girls out of school an hour early to make our ticket-time. The museum was very impressive. They have five levels and recommend that you take the elevator to the top and work your way down through time (the top floor has the most recent events & the lower you go the older the displays).
However, Sarah has been dying to see some REAL dinosaur bones and so we indulged her and started at the bottom and worked our way up. The girls had a great time digging for dinosaur bones (Sarah unearthed some bones from the bottom of the pile that quite likely had never been found before since we were there on the first day). The museum has an indoor and outdoor digging area and we were happy that it was pleasant enough outside to let them dig in the larger pit.
The museum also had some fun magnetic puzzle pottery that you try to stick back to a metal vase. Because it was opening day we were also able to go into some of the archive rooms where we saw row after row of dead snakes, lizards and toads in jars. The girls were a little put off when they found out they were real animals, and wondered if the people who work there killed all those snakes or if they found them dead. Sadly they asked the question after we left.
The museum had hours worth of entertainment. I was very impressed with the interactive displays and the amount of child-friendly hands on content provided.
So other than being grateful for dinosaurs I am also grateful to live in a community that values the arts & museums and that we have such neat places that we can visit in our own backyard.

Piano Recitals

2011-11-20T09:02:00.003-07:00

This week we went to a piano recital for Becca and Ellie. The girls did such a great job; it is also nice as Primary President to go because more than half of our senior primary takes from our girls' teacher & were all there. So, without further ado...here are the videos of the girls at the recital.

Becca Piano Recital:

Ellie Piano Recital:

Rachel's Christmas List

2011-11-15T21:07:00.003-07:00

I was asking Rachel the other day what she wanted Santa to bring her for Christmas. She stopped playing for a minute, and told me she didn't know. I said, "What about underpants?" to which she responded enthusiastically that underwear would be GREAT! I then asked if she would like Santa to bring her bedsheets. Again, her answer was a resounding YES! I continued to think of the most boring gifts I could come up with and each one received a positive response. I thought it was so cute that she would be glad with anything Santa might bring. Sadly I forgot to ask her about coal, but since she loves it when Greg builds a fire I'm pretty sure even that would have been just fine.

Exercise

2011-11-15T09:21:00.003-07:00

So while I am grateful that I can exercise, today's post is just a funny story. Today as I was exercising I felt like I was getting tired much more quickly than usual (I try to go running on the treadmill for 30 minutes a day). I kept having to adjust my speed and wondered why I was so sluggish this morning. As I was getting ready to cool down I bumped the incline button and saw that I had been running with the treadmill inclined the entire time. I suddenly felt much better about how hard my run was, and felt like I had accomplished more than I set out to do!

Laughter

2011-11-14T20:17:00.008-07:00

I think I have laughed about fifty times today. Nothing consequential. I read "Blue Hat, Green Hat" to the girls and we laughed ourselves silly. Greg came into our room offering a glass of water; I was looking at something on the computer & he LOUDLY downed the entire glass in moments. When I looked up he showed me the empty glass then switched hands and held out a full cup to me. We watched a funny show, Rachel got yogurt on her nose, and the girls looked at kangaroo pictures sent straight from Australia (which they thought were fantastic).
I love to laugh, and I love to hear the sound of my girls' laughter.
What a blessing to be able to laugh.

Family Time!

2011-11-13T21:44:00.006-07:00

In Sacrament meeting today we heard a talk about the importance of doing the simple, every day things with our families. They talked about reading scriptures, praying, and spending time together with our children. Yesterday we had a great family day. The girls were great helpers getting the house cleaned (Sarah was especially helpful)so we decided to do something fun and took the girls to the planetarium. The weather wasn't especially cooperative (it was a regular blizzard), but the girls enjoyed driving in the snow. When we got to the planetarium we gave the girls a few pennies and let them race the money around the cyclone coin shoot. We let them play around the exhibits, look around the gift shop and then we watched a movie on the IMAX. Because of our membership each of the girls gets a free popcorn when we go to a show, and they think it is the greatest thing EVER.
I love the fact that our girls are still excited to spend time together as a family. I realize that we are fast approaching the teenage years when family time won't have the same appeal it does right now, but I treasure the time we get to spend together as a family.

Happy Veterans Day

2011-11-11T10:16:00.007-07:00

Greg and the girls never knew my grandpa Hodgkinson (first and third pictures), but he was quite an amazing man. In addition to serving faithfully in the church through his entire life (he never really had the chance to summer in Utah and winter in Arizona because he and my grandma served three missions and he served in the Stake Presidency in Arizona & so they didn't get much of a chance to spend time in Utah after they moved) he was also very patriotic and served our country during WWII.
Growing up I knew that he had been shot in the hip (because my dad told me), but Grandpa never talked about the war...ever. It was not until after he passed away that I heard the story of his Silver Star.
Grandpa's platoon was in the streets of an Italian town. The Nazis had taken over two houses on either side of the street, and were shooting out at the troops on the road. Grandpa was able to somehow sneak to one of the houses where the Nazis were shooting and throw a grenade in a window. Then, he went over to the other side of the street and threw a grenade in that house.
He received the purple heart when he was shot in the hip. The Germans came along with bayonets stabbing kicking the bodies on the ground. Grandpa was kicked and rolled over, but was able to play dead until the soldiers moved on.
I feel so grateful that both of my grandfathers served in the military. I know that countless people have made it possible for us to have the freedoms that we do today, and I just want to say Thank You to those who are fighting or have fought for my freedom.
Happy Veterans Day!

Homework

2011-11-10T21:58:00.004-07:00

Thursday nights are typically the heaviest nights of homework around our house. Spelling tests and homework packets are usually due on Friday and so Thursdays are often the catch-all for homework that hasn't been taken care of. Some nights I feel rushed trying to get it all done, but tonight as Sarah and I sat at the kitchen table working on her homework packet it was quite delightful.
Watching her get excited about handwriting, addition, and creative writing (claiming to be the smartest person in her WHOLE class) was so much fun as a parent. I love seeing the girls' confidence grow as they learn new concepts, do well on tests, and feel the excitement of getting a good report card.
So, knowing that there will be times that I get bogged down in the monotony of helping the girls with the same lessons night after night, I just need to remember how great it is to look back on their accomplishments.

Skype

2011-11-09T08:52:00.003-07:00

Last night we were able to visit with Greg's parents for the first time using Skype. It was SO great to see them and talk with them...It was hard to believe that they are actually half way around the world. What a blessing it is to live in a time when technology is "Jettson-esque" and we can see and talk to each other whenever we want.

On the missionary front, Steve and Lorna are doing great. They are jumping in with both feet and it was fun to hear how things are going. Already they have purchased a new bed and bedding, they plan to visit all the elderly ladies in their branch, they have yard projects in the works (time set aside each day for weeding and planting flowers), pruning bushes and trees, and just getting things up to par. They are getting the house sprayed for spiders (they had spiderwebs ALL over their house apparently), visiting new members and planning a service project to unite the members of the branch.

The girls thought it was absolutely wonderful to see and talk to their grandparents. It really makes them seem close when you can just call and visit whenever the time difference allows (I don't think they would appreciate a call right now since it is the middle of the night there).

Ordinary Mary

2011-11-07T13:46:00.004-07:00

I love the story Ordinary Mary's Extraordinary Deed. In the book, Mary does something kind, which prompts the recipient to do something for someone else until eventually everyone in the world has been touched by kindness thanks to Mary's good deed. I love the idea that we can pass along kindness, but I am afraid I am seriously in debt.

Yesterday I only left my house to go to church and my parents' house, but as I think of the people who have touched my life, the list seems huge compared to how few places I have been. Here are a few of the people that did "extraordinary deeds" in just one day:

-My Primary Presidency: We had a presidency meeting yesterday, and they are such an amazing support as we get ready for the new year in Primary (There is SO much to be done)

-The Primary Teachers/Leaders: I have such a wonderful, reliable Primary Board; I never worry that a class will be left alone, or that we won't have anyone to play the piano/lead the music.

-The Elder's Quorum: We had a Visiting Teaching Conference during the third hour of church yesterday and the Elder's Quorum took over the combined Sharing Time and Singing Time so all of the sisters who serve in Primary could attend.

-The Relief Society Presidency (Stake and Ward) During the Visiting Teaching Conference I had two members of the Stake Relief Society Presidency approach me to see how I was doing and just say Hello. I also was able to visit with someone from the Ward RS presidency to talk about the best way to get messages about RS to those who serve in Primary. They have so many people to look after I am amazed at how much time they take to lift and serve the sisters in the area.

-The Stake Presidency: The Stake President spoke in the conference yesterday, and hearing the sweet simple message he shared (Be a PRO--Pray Read & Obey every day) reminded me that if I do the simple things the Lord will take care of the difficult things. I can only imagine the hours he and his counselors spend on their knees praying for the members of the Stake. What a blessing it is to have such a great Stake Presidency.

-My family (immediate and extended): Where would I be without my family? We were able to go to my parents' house for dinner, and I didn't have to bring a thing! It was such a wonderful, relaxing evening, and I was reminded how grateful I am for my family.

-My neighbors: Attending Relief Society with all the women in the neighborhood was such a nice experience. It always feels so great to hear a friendly "hello" when you enter a room. As much as I love the children in our ward it was really nice to see friends that I don't always get to talk to since I am usually in the Primary room.

So, as you can see it would take me a lifetime to try to pass along all the kindness that has been shown to me in just one day. I feel so blessed to have such wonderful people in my life, and I would be remiss if I didn't at least say THANK YOU! to everyone who blesses my life in so many ways!

An Extra Hour

2011-11-06T01:00:00.000-07:00

There is something very nice about the psychological benefits of a little more time. I don't know why 25 hours in a days seems so much more alluring than 24; maybe it is just that it is the one bright spot in the knowledge that we are heading into a dark winter, but I love taking advantage of the extra time. I remember going to dances in high school during the daylight saving switch & convincing my parents to bump curfew an hour so I could stay out a little later. Now, I like knowing that I have an extra hour to get everything ready for church. Somehow being a little more aware of the extra hour also helps me be aware of the time I always have, and hopefully it will help me take advantage of the 24 hours I have every day.

Cozy Days

2011-11-05T19:35:00.004-06:00

We woke up this morning to a white world. The girls were thrilled to spend the morning making snow angels, sledding and having a snowball fight. Then we got cleaned up and headed to Greg's sister's house for the perfect lunch...soup and bread sticks. Yum! The reason for the get together was even better; my niece, Lindsey, got baptised today. It was the first event Greg's parents have missed, and we sure missed them, but we took pictures and had them in our thoughts and prayers. After the baptism there was more snow filled fun around the yard followed by some hot chocolate and a fire. After the girls watched a Christmas movie Greg took them over to the church to shovel, and I was lucky enough to curl up by the fire with a good book. It was very relaxing, but it was even better when the girls came home and sat next to me at the fire and told me about their adventures shoveling. So today I am grateful for cozy days that help me slow down and enjoy my family a little more.

Teachers

2011-11-04T23:14:00.004-06:00

Today the kids received their report cards. They did a great job. I also had the chance to volunteer at the school, and I was reminded about how great the girls' teachers are. As I finished volunteering, Ellie's class was headed out to recess and her teacher hurried past to get fifty cents from her car so that the star of the week could choose a soda from the faculty room. I was reminded of the little details the teachers put in to make their students feel loved. Sarah's class recently put on a Halloween program, and it was soo cute. After finishing the primary program I know first hand the countless hours that go into a successful program, and watching the kids sing and use the props they had made was so much fun. It made me so grateful for her teacher. As I watch my kids and see their progress year after year I am continually in awe at the wonderful teachers they have. It is such a blessing to see the happiness my girls have knowing they have teachers who care about them so much.

Quakies

2011-11-03T13:24:00.005-06:00

I have always loved nature, and there is something thrilling to me about fall. Today as I was picking up Rachel's room I was feeling a little tired and took a moment to sit on her bed. While I was sitting there a light breeze picked up and the aspen trees right outside her window started shaking. I stood up, opened her window and leaned up to the sill. As I stood watching the golden leaves raining down to the ground, smelling the cool autumn air and listening to the quaking leaves rustle in the wind my heart was lightened and I felt overwhelming gratitude for the beauties of nature, and for the opportunity I have to enjoy them right out my windows.

COUSINS!

2011-11-02T12:15:00.004-06:00

Growing up I didn't have many cousins my own age which had certain advantages and disadvantages. I was often included at the 'adult' table for meals, I was the chosen babysitter, and always felt very grown up, but I never really looked forward to "playing" with my cousins (the only cousins my age lived in Alaska for most of my growing up years). However, my kids have been blessed to have cousins to play with on both sides of the family & they LOVE it. My girls' best friends are all cousins. We have holiday parties, birthday parties, vacations, and Sunday dinners together regularly, and just get together to play, go to the zoo or other outings as well. We had a Halloween party on both sides of the family, and I can't count the number of times I heard the girls compliment and be complimented on their costumes. There was never any jealousy, but sheer excitement for each other.
How grateful I am that my kids have been blessed with such wonderful friends in their cousins!

Happy November

2011-11-01T09:45:00.005-06:00

I know I have been terrible about posting, and I make no guarantee that I will ever catch up on the last few months, but yesterday Greg's parents flew out to Australia and in an effort to keep better track of our lives here in order to report to them on the happenings of our world, I am going to try to revive the blog. :)
I also wanted to repeat what I did a couple years ago where in November I try to mention a blessing a day. If it is too cheesy for you, feel free to pretend I haven't started writing again, but today at the front of my mind I am so grateful for wonderful in-laws. They are setting such a great example to my family as the set off on their mission. I am so thankful for their love, kindness and goodness. I am so grateful for the important role the gospel plays in their lives, and I look forward to hearing the stories they have to share with our family. We have already had the chance to sit down and visit with them about their experience in the MTC, and were able to feel a tiny piece of the spirit that is there. So today, I have to share with everyone how grateful I am for Steve & Lorna. They really are the best in-laws anyone could ever have!

This is the Night We've Waited For

2011-07-18T21:17:00.004-06:00

Tonight for FHE we had a lesson on obedience (specifically on being first-time minders) and then went to practice our obedience at the Art Museum. On the third Monday of each month they hold a family night activity for the kids & this month they had all the winners of the Pioneer Day competition on display, so we got to have a Pioneer mini-lesson as well. After looking at all the exhibits we took the kids down to the basement where they had craft tables set up to make international paper dolls. Here are the girls' beauties...

After the art lesson, we went out for frozen yogurt then practiced first-time minding again to see if the girls could get ready for bed without having to be asked repeatedly...I now get to go find out :)

Becca's Fairy Party

2011-06-30T15:18:00.005-06:00

We have officially reached double digits. It is hard to believe that Becca is 10, but ready or not I have a full-fledged tween. The impact coming full-force since Becca got a new CD player & mixed CD for her birthday & has spent the last 24 hours in her room playing with her new gifts and listening to her music emerging only for meals. Crazy!

Yesterday we had a fairy party for our little bug & her friends...not a Tinkerbell fairy party though; it was a woodland fairy party based on the Fablehaven books. We tried to make things a little more "grown up" by avoiding Pin the Wings on the Fairy & instead serving lunch.

Here is the table we set for lunch. We tried to keep things earthy as much as possible with "spider web" linen napkins, flower-etched glasses, and mossy green, brown and red colors.
When the girls arrived they made their own flower clips for their hair. Here is a small sample of their creations...I think each girl made about 5 clips each.

When the girls were finished with their hair clips we had a Woodland Fairy Feast. The menu included raspberry filled chocolate nests, snail crescent rolls, Panko breaded-pepper chicken (Birch Bark Chicken) Broccoli Saplings, radish toadstools on a bed of fresh spinach, and some magical milk a.k.a. vanilla milkshakes, dew drops (water), fairy nectar (invisible kool-ade) and birthday cake for dessert.

After lunch the girls went on a treasure hunt. This was supposed to happen at my grandpa's house, where his huge wooded yard borders the golf course and is amazingly Fablehaven-esque; however, with threatening thunder storms I decided to keep the girls in our house & so I had to mix things up. In the Fablehaven series there is a secret journal written in a magical ink that can only be read with an umite candle. So, I wrote the clues to the treasure hunt with bleach and then we used a UV flashlight to read the secret messages. Each clue was in a different volume of the Fablehaven series, so the clues read: B 4; P 454; L 18; W 7 Or, Book 4, Page 454 Line 18 Word 7. I scanned each of the books to find corresponding places in our house...the bathroom, a hedge, the refrigerator, Becca's bedroom desk, etc. then I hid the clues really well (in an empty sour cream container in the fridge for example). and included a small 'treasure' for the girls to use to decorate a fairy house.
Each house was different & the girls did a great job decorating them. It was fun to see their creativity shine through as they decorated their houses.

After the fairy houses were finished, we had some cake and ice cream. Becca helped me design her birthday cake this year; a toadstool fairy house complete with strawberry flavored toadstool cake pops.

As the girls were leaving they received a fairy necklace in a little muslin fairy pouch. All things considered I'd have to say the party was a success...even with the more 'mature' girls who have given up on fairies.

Shake It

2011-06-01T09:54:00.002-06:00

One quick funny...despite the fact that there are about a thousand posts that I should catch up on.

I walked in on Rachel today pumping her fists and singing at the top of her lungs "Shake Shake Shake A-Snore-A!"

then she said, "but they aren't really a-snore-ing, are they mom?"

Happy Birthday Rachel!

2011-04-22T08:59:00.002-06:00

It is hard to believe that my little girl is already four years old. She is such a sweetheart! As far as celebrations go, we are keeping it pretty simple with a trip to Chuck-E-Cheese's (my kids have never been & have been asking to go for years), a tea party brunch with mom, a ride on her new bike and a recital for the big girls.

We also got a new camera so hopefully I can get some pics up here again :)

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss

2011-03-02T09:39:00.002-07:00

Rachel gets to watch "The Cat in the Hat" every morning after her sisters leave for school before she gets ready for the day and this morning was no exception. I turned on her show and told her that as soon as it was over she needed to get dressed. I got ready and started doing a few things and kept checking in on her and she was still watching. I did a few more things and checked on her again, but the show was still on. I thought I was being REALLY efficient today until I looked at the clock and realized that the show had been on for over an hour...Yep, today is Dr. Seuss' birthday and I guess they are celebrating on PBS with a "Cat in the Hat" marathon.
Nice! Now I'm not sure she'll ever get dressed :)

fleeting childhood

2011-02-24T11:10:00.002-07:00

Today I was given a great reminder about how quickly time passes. For the last few weeks my mind has been bent toward my little sister & her baby. Haylee's baby has a brain cyst & has had to have one surgery already and is back at the hospital scheduled for another.

Well, this morning, I was getting Rachel some strawberry milk when the phone rang. My mom was calling to give me the update from Haylee and when I came back from the phone call to see how Rachel was enjoying her milk this was the scene in the kitchen.

It was such a visual reminder to me to enjoy the moment and be there for my kids. I love being around when my kids have flavored milk because they enjoy it so much and it is a sure way for me to get a compliment on being the "best mom ever!"

So, seeing the empty cup when I came back just reminded me how important it is to be there to enjoy my kids & to be there with them whenever I can.

Ellie's Baptism

2011-02-08T09:08:00.004-07:00

Saturday Ellie turned 8 and was able to be baptized on her very birthday! She was so excited & we had a wonderful experience. When Becca got baptized, she wanted to follow up on the theme "Black-White-Choose the Right" that the primary started, so we had black and white decorations and black and white treats for dessert.
True to Ellie's personality, she decided that it would be much more fun to alter the theme a little bit and have a "Be BRIGHT Choose the Right" party. We had rainbow pinwheels in the flowerpots, and decorated the tables with Jelly Bellies, balloons, crayons, markers and all things BRIGHT.
The baptism itself was wonderful. We were so grateful for the support of our family, neighbors, friends, and teachers (both Ellie's primary teacher & 2nd grade teacher attended).
What a wonderful experience it was for her to be surrounded by so many people on such an important day.
We had her bear her testimony last night at family home evening, and she said that getting baptized and getting the Holy Ghost made her feel warm inside all through her body. She felt so happy and was all smiles that day (as evidenced by the lousy picture I tried to grab with my phone).

Sarah's Homework

2011-02-02T10:54:00.002-07:00

I was helping Sarah sound out some words in her homework & she said, "Mom, I don't really need to do my homework. It's just reading & I like looking at the pictures more anyway."

Silly girl!

My friend Rabbit

2011-01-06T08:34:00.002-07:00

To ease Rachel's sadness at being the only child who doesn't get to go to school every morning, we have a tradition that as soon as the older girls leave the two of us snuggle on the couch and watch the last 15-20 minutes of a show. Usually Rachel picks The Cat in the Hat but today she wanted to watch something different. So we checked to see what her options were and I found a show called My Friend Rabbit. I asked her if she wanted to watch My Friend Rabbit, and she said, "Yes! I love your friend Rabbit. . . but can he be my friend, too?"

The New Naughty

2011-01-03T19:56:00.002-07:00

So, I guess it is in answer to my concern that I haven't had much about which to blog lately, but Sarah has proven herself completely capable of filling a post or two today.
Today was the first day back to school for the girls & I had a lovely morning getting the "Monday" checklist under my belt. I thought I was pretty much on top of things until miss Sarah arrived home from school.
She asked if she could play with a friend & since she hadn't had a friend over since Christmas, I said that sounded great. She had cleaned her room and there was nothing stopping her from having a wonderful time.
Sadly, while playing I gave her a little too much space & she decided to paint the couches with coconut oil (for the popcorn machine), color on her comforter with a permanent marker and hide her friend's coat so she couldn't leave when the time came.
I have already cleaned up the popcorn oil, and I fortunately found the missing coat shoved in the back of Sarah's closet, but despite my best efforts I was unable to clean the ink from the quilt, so I should be able to post pictures tomorrow (Sarah is currently in bed & I don't want to wake her).
But, if this keeps up, I will certainly have plenty of fuel for the writing fire...so Welcome 2011...BRING IT ON!

Happy New Year!

2011-01-01T14:42:00.002-07:00

With a new year I suppose I should renew my efforts to blog consistently about our lives. The past few months have been filled with the usual day to day chaos that goes with life, but it has been just great. Our Christmas was wonderful. The girls were sick early in the week of Christmas, but managed to get healthy by the time all the family parties started. It made for a rather uneventful Christmas break from school, but I am thrilled that they didn't need to do any make-up work either!
I have to laugh at our Christmas this year. I thought I was doing such an amazing thing, but Sarah's response turned out to be a little anticlimactic. For the last three years the girls have been ogling over the American Girl catalog that comes in the mail. They would always choose which doll they would pick if they could have one (knowing full-well it would probably never happen). Well, the doll that Becca has been looking at for the last few years was being retired, so I decided to take the plunge and get each of my older girls an American Girl doll.
It was the only "parent" gift they would receive & I thought it would be the hit of Christmas. On Christmas morning the girls opened their presents, including the dolls, and were thrilled with everything, but when asked what they received for Christmas, Sarah excitedly tells everyone about the Dollar-Tree harmonica and butterfly sticker earrings she received.
I guess it just goes to show that Christmas REALLY isn't about the expensive gifts at all!

On the upside, all the girls do seem to be enjoying their dolls & have carried them happily around the house.

As for the new year, today we spent the afternoon sledding in the FREEZING temperatures, but it was really fun to watch the girls get more and more daring as time went on. I have really enjoyed having the girls home from school, and I'm not quite ready to turn them back over to their teachers yet, but I'm sure that getting back into a routine will be beneficial for the whole family.

I guess the next goal I should have is to dust off the old camera & get some more pictures for this blog. I didn't even think about taking pictures of sledding but it would have been great!
Hopefully we'll be able to hit the snow again in the next few days & I'll remember the camera!

Happy New Year to all, and to all a great football game & cheese ball tonight!

SURPRISE!....Again!

2010-12-09T09:55:00.004-07:00

I have come to the conclusion that it is impossible to surprise Greg at Christmas. A couple years ago I wrote a post about the fact that I tried unsuccessfully to surprise Greg with a popcorn machine for Christmas (you can read about it here).
Well, once again Greg has somehow managed to discover a surprise well before it was supposed to be revealed. Greg has been talking excitedly about the upcoming release of TRON, the Disney sequel to the movie from the early eighties. It is not a movie I would typically choose to see, so he wasn't convinced that we would ever see it in the theater, but has mentioned that it would be really neat to see it at the IMAX theater in 3D.
So, this morning, I decided that it would be the perfect stocking stuffer to grab a couple of tickets online and plan a date where we could go watch it.
Greg was at work, and I sat down at the computer to order the tickets. I got to the payment page and ran upstairs to get my wallet. By the time I got back the computer had timed out & I had to log back in. I thought it was surprising that it had locked me out so quickly since it took me less than a minute to grab my wallet, but I didn't give it much thought. I ordered the tickets, and started back upstairs to call my mom to make an excuse so Greg didn't make any plans for the date & time of the movie. As I walked up the stairs the phone started to ring & it was none other than Greg apologizing for logging in to a virtual desktop of the very computer I had been using to get tickets at the very moment I was on the purchase page.
We both burst out into laughter that he would choose that moment to log in because he hasn't logged in remotely from outside our house for a VERY long time.
Well, at least I don't have to worry about Greg double booking something for the same day now!

Romantic Mystery

2010-11-07T17:46:00.003-07:00

We went out to dinner last night as the kids received their report cards and did very well. Sarah was incredibly pleased as she got "Straight Threes" - which for those unfamiliar with the grading scale is getting perfect marks in each area. One of the girls favorite places to go is a local Chinese restaurant. They love it for the wontons they serve as appetizers, their choice of soup, and of course the fortune cookies. The picture above is taken shortly after Ellie had finished her dinner and cracked open her fortune cookie. Words can't accurately express, well, the words on the paper so I had Greg snap a picture of it as well:

She exclaimed to Greg: "I think I got your fortune" and then proceeded to steal his unopened cookie. Becca then agreed with Ellie and stated that I was in fact the "Romantic Mystery" for her dad.

Kristy's Shower

2010-09-03T09:20:00.005-06:00

I need to preface this post by saying that all these pictures were stolen from Haylee's blog...and I didn't even ask!

Last Saturday I got to throw a shower for my sweet sister-in-law, Kristy... who is due in less than two weeks (and I just can't wait!)
We kept the shower small so we could invite the little girls, who are all waiting on pins and needles to meet their new cousin.

I had so much fun with the decorations for this shower...Kristy's nursery is so darling I thought it would be a fun way to decorate. Her nursery is bright pink damask & polka-dots, with accents of chartreuse green. SO CUTE! I also knew (after seeing them hanging at our fav. book store "All Tucked In") that Kristy was a fan of the giant pom poms, so I decided to try my hand at making a few:On the counter, I put pink polka-dot cupcake candles in a row because Kristy is our cupcake favorite! For lunch, we had Lemon-Tarragon-Chicken-Pasta Salad, sourdough rolls, watermelon & kiwi, and fruit tarts (with the optional pb&j homemade uncrustable for the little ones).
The centerpiece was a diaper cake complete with a wrist-rattle topper (which ended up looking surprisingly similar to Haylee's wedding cake), and I was pleasantly surprised with how it turned out & how easy it was...I won't mention the fact that I cheated & used cake forms in the middle!

Since our family isn't big on shower games, I tried to keep it pretty simple (or at least simple for me). I asked Haylee to gather baby pictures of everyone who was coming to the shower & then I copied & reduced them to fit in some white frames. I tried to take a picture, but my lighting wasn't very good & I had a terrible glare...so I'll just have to describe it. I went to D.I. and picked up all of their fifty cent frames. Then I took out the glass & spray painted all of them antique white, put the pictures back in the frames, backed them with green striped, pink damask, and pink polka-dot scrapbook paper, then inserted all the little baby pictures and arranged them on my fireplace. Everyone had darling baby pictures, although Aunt Kathy's picture was by far the most memorable! :) (she told me that she would bring a cute picture next time she comes).

If only you could see that picture up close!
Kim, Jenna and Maddie guessing Who's Who!
Haylee, Sarah & Becca as the shower was starting.
Mom, Kristy & Haylee with the left-over diapers from the diaper cake.

Welcome Back!

2010-08-24T22:19:00.002-06:00

Well, the summer has officially come to an end. Our summer was packed with fun...boating, swimming, hiking, playing, celebrating birthdays and holidays, reading, relaxing and watching the squirrels in our backyard. It was also filled with a fair share of naughtiness...Rachel cutting her hair (to the scalp in back), someone putting a baby outfit on my nightstand lamp & burning it just before I was supposed to go to a baby shower, a honey slip & slide (or should I say Stick-Not-Slide) and a waterfall/pool from the faucet being left on in the kitchen as well.
But, we are now back on track for a full school-year of fun. Sarah started kindergarten yesterday, and she was in seventh heaven. Her report after a full two hours (it was early out) lasted very nearly two hours, and was filled with exclamations of "and there's more!...and that's not all!"
Becca and Ellie both had a great first day as well, and were thrilled to be back in school.

Greg's Birthday

2010-07-09T18:35:00.002-06:00

The girls were very excited for Greg's birthday this year, so we decided to make him a banner. I had a roll of BIG paper in the basement and so we made the poster about 5 feet by 25 feet. I was very smart and didn't put it up until two minutes before Greg got home because it only lasted about five minutes before it was blown up on the roof & torn to pieces.

Greg got himself a couple of fun gifts including a new back-lit keyboard, and I surprised him with the game "Life" (which he had seen at my sister's house & was reminiscing about how much he enjoyed playing it as a kid).

All I know is that I am sure grateful for him & think the world of him!

Happy Birthday Becca & Happy 4th of July

2010-07-04T09:41:00.003-06:00

Becca turned nine last week. We had a perfect "summer day" birthday. She started the morning going to grandma's house for a sewing lesson with her cousins, played with her birthday presents (that she opened at breakfast) then we had the grandparents over for dinner before going swimming.
Becca wanted Hawaiian Haystacks for dinner & decorated her own birthday cake (flip flops) after watching an hour of cake decorating videos. She received a cake decorating kit from her grandparents & used it for two hours the next morning practicing everything from star tip to basket weave. She also got a Zhu Zhu pet which has been a hit around our house this last week (it's a hamster that runs around its house and makes little squeaky noises).

Yesterday we started our Independence Day celebrations with the annual trip to Aunt Charlene's breakfast. It was great to see the extended family, as always. We then went swimming at Grandpa's house, and had lunch back at our house where Lego Guitar Hero played a prominent role in our entertainment. We ended the day by watching fireworks at the park and as Greg said, "Maybe we should keep our kids up late every night just so they will go to bed this well every day!"

Today Becca and Sarah are both giving talks in Primary & I'm doing Sharing Time, so I had better make sure everything is ready, but I hope everyone is having a wonderful Fourth of July weekend.

Mount Rushmore and Martin's Cove

2010-06-11T16:39:00.003-06:00

We just got back from a wonderful vacation to Martin's Cove and then Mount Rushmore. I have to start by thanking Emily for the FABULOUS pioneer clothes my girls wore. The missionaries up at the Visitor's Center were snapping pictures as fast as they could & we thought they looked pretty cute, too!
We felt extremely lucky to have beautiful weather up there. It rained only when we were in the tent or in the car & it was not even very windy for the better part of our trip.
We left our house Sunday afternoon, and drove to Rawlins where we stayed in a hotel that happily had a suite big enough to fit our family. We were very pleased that we didn't have to wake up at 4:00 on Monday morning to pack the car and get on the road...not to mention the fact that our girls love to sleep in hotels.
Monday we slept in, had breakfast at the hotel, got cleaned up and picked up some Subway sandwiches before heading up to Martin's cove. I had thought that it would be fun to play travel bingo on the way up, but there was really NOTHING to see (other than an old school bus and a few cows) so the girls just watched a movie.
After setting up camp and eating lunch, we drove back to the visitor's center where we went on a tour, watched a video and had an orientation and picked up our handcarts. I was glad that we had taken our equipment to the campground earlier because it enabled us to pull our girls along instead. The walk back to camp made me grateful that Ellie was not born a pioneer...I don't think I've ever heard her say "I'm tired" so many times :) but she was a trooper & walked most of the way back to camp.
The trail was far enough from the road that it felt very authentic walking along with nothing in sight but the mountains, Sweet Water River, antelope, bunnies and snakes.
I think my girls especially realized exactly what it meant to be a pioneer (Rachel couldn't believe there wasn't a potty anywhere).
The next morning, after a noisy night of wind and rain (but being extremely grateful for a warm, waterproof tent) we walked up to Dan Jones & Martin's coves. The feeling in the coves was very special, and again, we felt grateful to have the chance to be there. We had a wonderful lunch provided by the ward, and then felt fortunate to be able to reenact the "Valley-Boys Rescue" crossing the Sweet water (the river was 18 inches higher the previous day & they didn't think we would be able to do it) and then we had the women's pull. By the time we finally walked into camp that afternoon, Rachel and Sarah considered it home & ran to play in the sand by the campfire.
That night the weather was a little more quiet & we were able to sleep a little bit better. We packed up camp the next morning and then drove half way to Mt. Rushmore after breakfast. We found a hotel & showered and cleaned up before driving the rest of the way to the monument. The girls enjoyed seeing both Mt. Rushmore & Crazy Horse & Greg indulged my "car game addiction" by driving around the parking lot to find as many license plates as we could (we found more than 40 states plus Washington D.C. and Ontario).

We then spent a little time in the tourist town Keystone before driving back to the hotel. On the drive home we experienced a rainstorm like I never have in my life. There was constant lightning (not 2 seconds went by that the sky was dark) and we very nearly had to just pull over and wait it out a few times because of our lack of visibility.
Thursday morning, we checked out of the hotel & made the long drive home. The girls did really well in the car for so long, but we are all very excited to be home.

All is Well

2010-05-21T10:32:00.004-06:00

Our next door neighbor passed away last Friday, so we have had a rather emotional week. He was like another grandpa to my girls...he let them help plant and harvest his garden, came over regularly for pizza and movies with Greg and the girls when I was at Mutual, took us to the Church Museum, had us over for barbecues, let the girls not just see, but run his amazing model train setup in his basement, let the girls feed the fish in his aquarium, had combined family home evenings with our family, helped us with our yard (and pulled countless loads to the dump in his truck and trailer, which always included a trip to Paces for rainbows on the way home), attended Becca's Baptism, and just loved us like family.
We were so fortunate to be able to have some of the grandkids come to our house to play when the kids came to visit/help, and it was a real blessing for us to be able to be of service to their family in some small way.
Yesterday was the funeral and we let our kids come with us. There are few funerals outside of family that I would take the girls to see, but this was one exception.
The funeral was very nice. All of the children spoke & the oldest grandchild from each of his children briefly told their favorite memories of their grandpa. I think my favorite quote from one of the granddaughters was, "even though my grandpa only had one arm, that didn't stop him from giving great hugs."

Our former Stake President (under whom he served) also spoke. He read the section of President Eyring's talk that spoke about my neighbor, prefacing it with "I know if President Eyring could be here, he would."

I don't think I can express any better than President Eyring what a great man he was, so to close this post, here is the quote from General Conference that had to do with my neighbor:

This is the Lord’s Church. He called us and trusted us even in the weaknesses He knew we had. He knew the trials we would face. By faithful service and through His Atonement, we can come to want what He wants and be what we must be to bless those we serve for Him. As we serve Him long enough and with diligence, we will be changed. We can become ever more like Him.

I have seen evidence of that miracle in the lives of His servants. I saw it a few weeks ago in the living room of a faithful priesthood holder.

I had known him as a deacon, a father, a bishop, and a member of a stake presidency. I had observed for decades his diligence in serving God’s children with his priesthood.

His family was gathered around him in his living room. He was smiling, dressed in a white shirt, suit, and tie. I was surprised, since I was there because I had been told that he was in the midst of painful medical treatments that had not yet cured him.

Yet he had greeted me as he must have greeted hundreds of other visitors over a lifetime of priesthood service, smiling. I had come to help him in the trials he faced, but as so often happens in priesthood service, I was helped and I learned.

We sat and chatted pleasantly. He told me how his father had tended to my mother as she approached death. I had not known that. I realized then that he had learned as a boy from his diligent priesthood father how to give succor. That thought made me grateful for the times I had taken my little boys with me on priesthood visits to comfort and bless.

After a few minutes, he asked quietly, “Would it be appropriate to ask if you could give me a blessing?” His former stake president, with whom he had served for years, anointed his head with oil consecrated by the power of the Melchizedek Priesthood.

As I sealed the blessing, I was taught by the Holy Ghost at least part of what the Lord had already done for this faithful priesthood holder. He was clean, his sins washed away. His nature had been changed to want what the Savior wanted. He had no fear of death. The desire of his heart was to live to give service to his family and to others of Heavenly Father’s children who needed him.

I walked out into the night grateful to have witnessed the Lord’s kindness to His unfailingly diligent priesthood servants. He changes their hearts to want what He wants and to act as He would act.

Mother's Day Review

2010-05-11T15:59:00.004-06:00

On Thursday, Ellie had a Mother's Day program at the school. Me being the slow-thinking person I am didn't register the fact that all the videos I was taking were "portrait" instead of "landscape" (Oops!) until half way through the last song. So here is a glimpse of the program with the camera being rotated half way through. Oh well!

On Sunday I told Greg I felt like I had had an entire "Mother's Weekend" rather than just one day. Greg had Friday off, and we were able to get my mom some flowers, and run errands together. Saturday, Greg spent the entire day in the yard getting it ready for spring. It was a great gift!

Sunday morning I woke up early & decided to take a leisurely bath & read a book. When I was finished, Greg made breakfast & helped me get all the girls ready for church. We were able to visit all the mothers and grandmothers and had a yummy dinner (and I didn't have to cook anything!) and I couldn't be more pleased with the wonderful day!

Dance Recital

2010-05-02T14:10:00.001-06:00

Ellie and Sarah had their first dance recital last night. It was SO cute. Sarah was a cute cowgirl and Ellie was a darling dutch girl. I took video of the dress rehearsal since I was on the front row. Sarah did even better on the night of the performance (and her cute teacher was back stage instead of right in front of the camera) but this gives a good idea of what we watched.

Sarah's dance:

My Future Chef

2010-04-27T13:03:00.002-06:00

This morning I decided to make myself some split pea soup for lunch. It is one of my favorite meals and the only reason I don't have it more often is that I don't usually plan my lunches far enough in advance to start the peas simmering. But this morning I did. I checked on the peas about 30 minutes ago and decided to check my email & let them soften a tiny bit longer before eating them, but when I came upstairs I discovered an odd smell.
I opened the lid to the soup and saw flecks in it and asked Sarah if she had put something in the soup.
"Yep. I added marshmallows and a bunch of stuff from the cupboards."
Sadly, it wasn't salvageable, but I am happy to see that another generation of creative cooking has already begun.

A little Catching Up

2010-04-23T09:46:00.003-06:00

I mentioned earlier that I had some pictures of Easter and the "Met-i-tay-shun" Sarah and her friend did, and so here are the pictures. the meditation pictures crack me up because we were all riding bikes when the neighbors' granddaughter came to play. I was watching everyone ride bikes and the next thing I knew she had climbed up on our mailbox and was saying "ah-omm." Sarah thought it was pretty cool and joined suit, and I had to take some pictures.