Christmas

Santa did bring me a new camera and I'm sure all of you will appreciate the clearer pictures. Santa also brought our family a Wii and Caleb and Michelle wasted no time in playing.


Gabriella loved all the new clothes she got. In fact instead of carrying around her new toys she carried her clothes around all day, or at least the 2 shirts, 1 skirt and 1 pair of pants that she was already wearing.

Megan loves the new home she got for her stuffed animals. Can you believe that ALL of these animals were previously on her bed all the time - even when she slept. I'm sure she's sleeping more soundly now that she has the majority of her bed back (she still has 3 large teddy bears on her bed).

Here's the family the Sunday after Christmas. If you look close enough you can see the necklaces that Michelle made for each of us from her new kit.

Merry Christmas to all........

Kids' Programs

On Wednesday, Caleb's 3rd grade class had an afternoon Christmas program (last 15 minutes of school) and we were all amazed that Trevor was able to squeeze away from work long enough to come see Caleb sing a few songs.

Later on Wednesday night, Michelle's 2nd grade class had a sing-a-long. Her teacher played the accordion and the kids took turns leading the audience in singing Christmas carols.

Caleb and Michelle practiced their songs so frequently around the house that now even Megan and Gabriella have the lyrics memorized.

On Thursday night Michelle's clogging group had their Christmas performance. It was Michelle's first large performance and she enjoyed the limelight.

Gabriella's 3rd Birthday

I was pretty proud of my first attempt at using actual cake decorating tools...then I realized I left off the "e". Oh well, she loved the chocolate cake with pink frosting and everyone scarfed it down so fast it must've tasted pretty good too.

She looks so grown up. I can't believe my youngest is already 3!

Gabriella's own picture of Megan putting together Gabriella's new puzzle set.

It was a long exciting day. This is how we found Gabriella shortly after dinnertime...all bundled up in the bean bag chair with a good book. I hope she keeps that love of books alive for years to come.

I love you my precious Gabriella!

Gabriella

Yesterday we had a combined family birthday/Christmas party at my sister's house. We were only able to take these couple of photos due to a full memory card (Oh I so hope Santa brings a new camera with a huge memory card). Gabriella's favorite pie is pumpkin so that was her birthday "cake". She had a hard time with everyone's attention focused on her (hence the scene below) but she livened right back up as soon as the singing was done and the pie was served.

Substitute Pet

The kids woke me up this morning yelling something about a dog on our porch. We at first thought that it was Caleb's piano teacher's dog but it wasn't. It seemed content to just hang out on our porch out of the snow and wind-which was fine until I realized it shredded our welcome mat and the cushions on our porch swing. Caleb and Michelle spent a couple of hours playing with the dog in the snow and having it fetch a tennis ball. Eventually it just wondered off and we haven't seen it since-although it did leave someone's snow boot on our front lawn that it drug off of someone else's porch.

Meg: Our Budding Photographer

More often than not, I'll try to take a quick pic of something only to find there's no memory left. When I scan through the most recent photos I'll find several pictures of the couch, the fridge, or the kitchen. These are the subjects Megan most likes to photograph. I delete most of them because I need the memory space for things like birthdays, etc but here are a few of hers I've kept.

Me next to our gigantic Christmas tree.


A stolen kiss.

Megan spent lots of time posing her Bear in just the right position.

Megan was the only one that thought to take a picture of the shoes filled with goodies by Saint Nicholas.

St Nicholas

I took the kids up to The Dutch Store (owned by my Uncle Pete and Tante Mietsie) to see St Nicholas and his helper black Peter (blackened by the soot in all the chimneys he goes down seeing if kids have been naughty or nice). It brought back memories from when I was a kid and the Dutch community in Salt Lake was so strong they'd have a huge dinner celebration where St Nicholas actually rode his white horse into the dining hall. It was funny to see my kids have the same reaction I remember having as a kid: fear of these strange dressed people. Although nowadays things have softened a bit and black Peter doesn't carry around a big sack to fill up with naughty kids.

Good Times

Gabriella loves her new church shoes so much she even wore them over her footed pjs.

Gabriella and Megan had a great time playing with/in/around the box from our tv.

Scott's visit

Over Thanksgiving my brother and his kids came to visit. We had a good time catching up and the kids had a blast wrestling around.

Cinderella

Megan and Gabriella were watching tv while I was on the stationary bike this morning. Megan, in her usual self, got a pillow and blankie for Gabriella, but then I had to laugh to myself as Megan then said "Lay down Gabriella and I'll tell you a story."

"Once upon a time there was a beautiful girl named Cinderella. She wanted to go to a ball but no one letted her unless she had a beautiful dress. She was heartbroken. The End."

Road Trip

This past weekend Trevor and I along with 7 other members of his family drove to Sacramento for his nephew's wedding. We rented a 15 passenger van to accomodate everyone. It's the best road trip I've taken since having kids.

Trevor and I by the Sacramento temple.


The Reno temple. I was born in Reno so this had some sentimental value.

Halloween

Yes those are our homegrown pumpkins. The largest one weighed 35 pounds. There was no way Trevor and I wanted to scrape the guts out of those humdingers so we painted them which worked wonderfully (no knives, slime or worrying about lighting candles).

Painting

Caleb's room was so hard to paint it took us over a month to recuperate enough to even think about painting again. Michelle's room (or one wall) was MUCH easier. Each coat (one primer and 2 color) took 20 mintues to paint so that turned out to be the easy part. Washing bright blue out of paint brushes proved to be the more difficult task.

I think it looks fabulous and Michelle is ecstatic (especially the part that we decided to let her continue having her own room instead of moving Megan in with her).

This experience with painting was so easy we decided to paint one wall in Megan and Gabriella's room next. Any ideas on color choices?

Decor

It took awhile but I finally got up some Halloween decorations. Much to the kids' dismay I refuse to use scary nasty things as decorations; hence the reason no spiders, mummies, etc. We do have several cute skeletons on the windows and one even glows in the dark.

Mo Tab

We found out that Caleb's school teacher sings in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir so I took Caleb and Michelle up to Temple Square for the broadcast of "Music and the Spoken Word." I'd forgotten how wonderful the acoustics are in the tabernacle. The singing and the symphony were wonderful. My only regret was that the kids have to at least 8 years old (we fudged with Michelle) due to the live broadcast-it would've been even a better morning if we could have enjoyed it as a family.

Flag Football

Caleb wanted to play football. I thought that flag football would be a nice introduction into playing the game without him getting squashed. What I didn't know is that the rules are different enough from tackle football that it made things more confusing. I personally had a hard time watching the game since I kept wondering why the play stopped even though the opponent was still standing- - it's called they pulled his flag so the play is dead - those are the drawbacks from watching my brothers play TACKLE football. Next year he wants to try tackle football - I don't know if me or my wallet is ready for that.

Canoe trip

We decided to take the kids canoeing so we joined Trevor's sister's family for an afternoon down at Mona Lake. Strapping the rented canoe up on top of the van proved to be a monumental task, rowing the canoe was yet another wonder especially since Gabriella insisted on holding onto my paddle. We made a small tour of the lake with all of us in the canoe, then Trevor and I went out, followed by Trevor and Michelle. Yet the total time the canoe was in the water was maybe 40 minutes. It turns out it's a lot more work to paddle that thing then we had thought. The kids had more fun playing and rowing their cousins' kayaks. We made sure plenty of pictures were taken though since this will be the last time we plan on ever renting a canoe again.

Caleb's 9th birthday

Caleb really is 9 not 6 - he was just a little impatient and didn't want to wait for me to find more candles. I can't believe he's already 9. It seems like yesterday he was turning 8. But it's been so nice to have him get older and more self sufficient. He wakes up by himself and is dressed and eating breakfast by the time I get back from running.

Happy Birthday, Caleb boy!

Birthday

This is actually the day after my birthday - we just never got around to taking pictures yesterday so I had Megan take this for me. I love my new haircut and I have never worn a t-shirt with more pride than my marathon t-shirt. I'm so happy to have completed the marathon that I have no problems with turning 37 years old. I actually feel healthier than I have my whole life and I love my weight loss so much I stand on the scale all the time just to see those numbers. In fact a few months ago my mom was concerned about me and said that I looked too thin. I laughed and told her she'd just given me the best compliment I'd ever heard!
Anyway, on with the birthday. Trevor made me breakfast and the kids could hardly wait to give me their homemade gifts. For lunch, Mignonne, Jennifer and Maggie took me to lunch - they even provided a babysitter for my 2 youngest. Thank you so much ladies it was the break I needed so badly.

Snakes and Turtles

Caleb had his last Pack meeting as a Wolf. My parents were in town so my dad was able to come watch Caleb receive 7 beltloops, 1 pin, and 2 silver arrows. My dad found this garter snake skin and gave it to Caleb.

Before my parents left to go back home they came by to give Caleb and I our birthday gifts. They also brought a turtle that they'd found walking across the street. Caleb was ecstatic! He named him Tubby before I even said if we were going to keep it or not.

I did a lot of research on turtles and tortoises. We took it to the pet store and confirmed my suspicions. We would not be keeping Tubby. First of all the setup for his home, etc would be upwards of $300. Second, tortoises are not the best pet for young kids since they tend to bite and carry all kinds of parasites and worms. Third, we already have one pet and I really didn't want a second. The kids of course cried but have since almost forgotten all about him.

Marathon!

I know it's not the best photo but when we drove down Main Street in Logan and saw this sign I got chills down my back. I think that's when it finally hit me that I was running a marathon less than 12 hours from that time.
Trevor and I drove to Logan on Friday and had a peaceful relaxing day.
On Saturday we awoke at 4 am which actually wasn't too early for us, just an hour earlier than normal. Trevor was unsure about how his ankle would hold up but was confident the cortisone shot he'd received would do the trick. Unfortunately, his ankle gave out at mile 9 and he walked(rather limped) to the aid station at mile 11. He was pretty bummed - but hey he still went 11 miles. I saw him at mile 9.5. He begged for me to go on running and finish. I got choked up and had a really hard time leaving my ailing husband to fend for himself.
For me the marathon went a lot better than I was expecting. The miles seemed to go by really quickly which I was not expecting. I also thought that by the time I got to the finish line I'd be so tired I'd collapse, but my mom says of all the races she's seen me finish I looked the best after the marathon. Don't get me wrong IT WAS HARD just not as hard as my overacting imagination thought it would be.
The day was bittersweet. I was so happy that I accomplished my goal and felt good about my efforts, but I was sad that Trevor and I couldn't enjoy it together.

Service

Last Monday night I challenged to kids to do a secret service for someone in the family. Obviously I needed to better describe service because Caleb reported his service was keeping his room clean and Michelle's service was doing her homework. However, Megan didn't realize it but she actually had done service. Without my asking her to she picked up all the the books and toys that Gabriella had scattered around their room.
This is the before (taken a week or so ago).

This is the after - not perfect I know, but better than it was.

Bikes

Trevor and I finally bought ourselves a bike. The very night we bought it Caleb begged Trevor to go on a ride with him. We don't exactly have any roads around here that are anywhere near flat so it was a bit of a challenge for Caleb; nevertheless, he was able to earn his Bicycling beltloop for Cub Scouts.

Take a good look at Trevor's right foot and you'll see that he was a good sport and even rode the bike wearing a boot brace.

Paint and Rooms

One of the things Trevor and I have been discussing for over a year is the kids' room situation. We finally came to the conclusion to move Caleb into our playroom. It previously had all white walls so we thought we could spruce it up for him. We chose the colors then set to work painting while my parents were here so they could help. This is how my mom and Caleb helped.

My dad actually knew what he was doing.

Trevor's painting merit badge in scouts finally came in handy.

Now a week transpired between the above and below pictures. Trevor had to wear a boot brace on his foot and didn't couldn't move around well enough to finish the painting job. I was impatient and didn't want to wait for him so I did it myself. Mind you I have NEVER painted a room in my life so there was a huge learning curve.

Even after 2 coats the green wall didn't look very good. Trevor was able to help me with the 3rd coat so we could paint much faster and now the green walls look great.

BEWARE these are some gruesome pictures. Michelle and Caleb have serious issues with cleaning their room (hence one of the reasons we had to split them up).

Now that Caleb has his own room he has taken pride in keeping it clean (miracle of miracles!)

It took us a long day of cleaning to be able to see carpet again, and now that we can see floor I've given Michelle specific instructions of keeping her things picked up. As you can see she took that to mean things picked up off the floor but her bed is fair game for anything and everything.

As if we didn't get in enough painting yet, we're still needing to paint Michelle's window wall blue. As soon as the painting is done Megan will share this room with Michelle and Gabriella will then have her own room.

Now where do you think all the clothes from the floor of their room ended up - - you guessed it-the laundry room floor. Obviously my kids think there's a magical laundry fairy that washes and folds all their clothes. Little do they know that I'll be having a folding party and all of them will be participating.