Tree choping time!

With the winter storm we had just before Christmas we had some of our trees take some pretty bad damage. One of them had the top hanging over our neighbors house. The others we were worried about them falling on our house if we had any bad wind storms. So it was time they all came down! We had 5 BIG Pine trees. They were about 100 feet tall I would guess. So Wed we had a tree removal company come and cute them all down. It was kind of fun to watch. The little boy I baby sit was thrilled watching the guys climb the trees and chop them down one piece at time!

Who wants that job! Not me I am terrified of heights!

Larry spent Friday and Saturday chopping wood, grinding the stumps, and cleaning it all up! Our yard is going to get a lot more sunshine and NO more PINE CONES and pine needles!!!!!!

Snow White and the Ho Ho's!

My girls love the Disney Princesses just as almost every other little girl does! Well my two year old is pretty funny about the whole things. A month ago she called ALL of them "Rella" (her version of Cinderella) It didn't matter what princess it was she was "Rella!" She even got a bunch of princes panties in her stocking from Santa since she had gotten potty trained that month. She loves her "Rella" panties and will ONLY wear them! Anyway this week from the library we checked out Snow White and the Seven Dwarf's on DVD from the library (I know it is shameful we don't own it! But we had it on VHS and now don't have a VCR! Now they don't have them in the store you know Disney!) Anyway we checked it out and were trying to get Hayden to differentiate between Snow White and Cinderella and she finally started saying "No Ite" The great part to me is that she must thing the dwarfs look like Santa because even before seeing the movie and only seeing the book she was calling them "Ho Ho's!" So now she brings the movie case to me and says "No Ite an Ho Ho's!" I love it! Not as funny as Claire calling Sleeping Beauty, "Freaking Bootie" But it cracks me up!

Favortite place to meet!

I have to say that one of my favorite places to run into people is the Temple. It happens quite a bit too! Two times I have gone to the temple and run into my own mom. Not knowing she was even going to be there. The amazing part is that she lives 3 hours away so it is a wonderful surprise! Once I was coming out of a dressing room and she came out of one right across from me! We could have easily missed each other! There have been many other times I have seen some of my great Aunts, people from the ward I grew up in... This past Saturday Larry and I went to the Temple and as I was coming out I sat and talked to a sister from the "other ward" (our ward split 2 years ago and it seems like you don't see all those people you know and love much after that! Even though they live 4 blocks away!) Anyway, We sat and talked till our husbands came out, then as I was walking out I ran into "Ellen" She a big sister of my Best Friend from high school. It was so exciting. I don't think I have seen her since she got married (my freshman year in college!) I honestly think that this feeling of running into those we know and love is as close to what it will feel like when we get to Heaven as I can imagine! Knowing that those you know and love are still doing all the can to even be able to go to the temple is wonderful! It strengthens me and helps me want to stay worthy to enter there! I remember the first time I went to the temple and being there with my family, and those who came to be with me from the ward I grew up in and the singles I knew then! That to is what Heaven feels like!!! Heaven on earth!

A Great Day Published!

Brock's class had a "publishing Party" last week. They all worked really hard on making their books perfect! It was a lot of fun. Lots of mom's, dad's, even grandma's and grandpa's came to the library and listened to the kids read the stories they had written. I just loved Brock's story! He was soooo proud of all the work he had put into it!

(I went to the carousel because it was close to Christmas)

I rode it 3 times because my mom was so kind. (my favorite part!)

On the exact same day. (When Brock reads this to you he tells you see there is going to be a surprise on the next page!)

I cut down my tree. Last night I decorated my tree and made it pretty.

I love his writing and how far he has come! Great job Brock!

In search of new ideas!

Every once and a while we all hit a slump in our menu. At least I think I am not alone in this. I have seen other people try having people send them recipes and they promise to try all of them and then their family picks a winner. I think it is time I give this a try! We or I am feeling like we are eating a lot of the same things to often. I love to try new recipes and like to cook. So if you email me or leave your recipe as a comment I will try it and my family will pick a winner. The winner will win a fab prize. Don't ask what it is because I haven't decided yet. While I was injured Allison brought us a wonderful Turkey thing with Cranberries and Swiss cheese! This is what brought this idea back to my mind. Anyway there are a few rules. My kids are NOT picky eaters!!! They love just about everything I make in fact people who know then know that they will beg me to buy asparagus, artichokes, and cheer when I buy broccoli! (Weird I know! In fact I saw my oldest when he was 2 push a bowl of Ice cream away to eat SALAD!!!! NOT MY KID!) Anyway The only rules are NO guts! I don't eat liver, heart, toung any of those kinds of things! And I am not a fish eater. About as far as I go with fish is a tuna noodle casserole, and MY (which is also my mom's!) clam chowder. Other then that I don't do fish. Larry and the kids love fish but they only get to eat it when I am not home or we are camping. Even then he is instructed to not cook it in the house and clean it up (throw evidence away OUT SIDE!) before I get home. So please no fish and no guts! Other then that we will try it! I do have to tell a cute story about this. I have a friend who did this and she posted the winning recipe and we tried it! It was this Thia Chicken with Spaghetti Noodles. We LOVED it! My kids were telling me that it was 100 million thumbs up they loved it then Larry said "I like the peanut butter in the sauce." The instantly told be they hated it and they didn't want to eat anymore (they were already on seconds or thirds!) So now every time I tell them I didn't put the peanut butter in it and they love it! I think they just thought it was weird that I put peanut butter in their dinner! They love peanut butter on sandwiches and celery!!! Weirdos! Anyway! I can't wait to hear your ideas and try them! Oh and don't feel like you have to only suggest "kid" food. I don't believe in that! My kids eat what ever I fix and like it, or go hungry. They are use to it and love EVERYTHING! Good luck!

And the Award Goes to!!!!

The other day I was thinking about all the things our kids have done this year, especially the fact that Hayden has become such an entertainer this year.... I thought how cute it would be to give each of the kids an "award" since it is award show time....

So Hayden gets "Entertainer of the Year"

She gets this award because at the beginning of the year she wowed us by learning to walk, through out the year she has learned new words and tricks and lately she keeps all of us on our toes by doing funny things all the time. She will dance around the living room and tell me watch mom watch mom, she loves to race, lately she is singing "ABC'S" They aren't really the abc's but she is singing that tune and trying to put the right sounds in there. What ever is going on she is in the middle of it, the instigator of it, or copying the kids jut to keep up. Not a day goes by that she doesn't make me laugh. She is the sunshine in our house!

Brock wins the "Archaeologist of the Year" Award

This year has been all about Dinosaurs with this kids. He is almost ok not almost he is OBSESSED with dinosaurs! It has been a lot of fun and we have learned a lot because of this obsession. We do kind of feed the obsession but I think it is a good one to allow since he is learning a lot and having so much fun with it. It has lead us to Museums I probably wouldn't have gone to, books I wouldn't have read, the biggest show I have ever been to, and one of the most fun birthday parties I have ever put together! I kind of hope he hangs on to this love of Dino's!

Amelia gets the "Fashion Award"

I may not always agree with her "fashion"sense but she definitely has her own taste. She loves to wear dresses and skirts and would rather be caught dead then wear pants! We even had to get her very best friend/ grandma to convince her to wear pants so she could play in the snow! She loves even getting her hair done in new "styles" so we love to look at hair blogs to get new ideas! This is all her own idea and begs me to try new things all the time. It is fun! What a sweet girl!

Ethan wins "Athlete of the Year!"

Ethan learned to water ski, skate board, and wrestle this year. If he had his way there would have been soccer and baseball in there too but a mom has her limits to what she can handle time wise! So we all made a few sacrifices this year and cut back on a few things. But he excelled in all the things he did do this year. I was so proud to see him up on his water skiis, win all three matches in wresting, and take to his skate board like it was no big deal! Way to go!!!

Busted!!!

Since I am not able to do the stairs I haven't seen the boys room since Christmas. The other night Larry wasn't home at bed time and I was struggling having my 8 year old putting everyone else to bed.... I called my wonderful friend Denise to come rescue me. She and her 12 year old daughter Anna came to my aid and got them all into bed. (Unfortunatly the next night Amelia started to demand that Anna puts her to bed!) Anyway Denise laughed and told be that the boys had made hammocks in the bunk bed! Larry took a picture of it last night so I could see. I didn't think Brock could actually sleep in it but apparently he can and so does Dotty (our dog) You will have to excusse the HUGE mess and the fact that my boys often sleep with no shirt (they aren't allowed out of their room like that though!)

Christmas day while the kids were all playing with their toys and enjoying the day I walked in the kitchen and caught this sight. As soon as Brock saw the flash of my camera he ran and hid his face. He was so embarassed to be caught playing with Hayden's new babies. But I thought it was so cute!

Santa Take Two!

Santa brought Brock a remote controlled dinosaur on Christmas morning. The sad thing was that with in the hour it wasn't working. So a few days later my wonderful friend drove me into Salem (since I can't drive with my injury) to return the wonderful dino to Toy's R' Us. (We are told this is where you can return Santa's toys! We exchanged and brought another one home. With in the hour AGAIN Dino doesn't work. This morning the boys left for school, the girls went to a friends house and my friend came to take me to get my second set of X-rays and trip to Costco. When I got home there was a wrapped present in the same Santa paper to Brock! He got home just about 20 minutes after me and was soooo excited to see a gift for him. He tore it open and was beyond excited!!!! It was like Christmas all over! So I guess Santa felt really bad about giving him a junk dino and to make up for it took it away and gave him a much much better one!!! The only sad thing was he had to wait 4 hours for the battery to charge! Right after dinner it was go time and this is the result!!! Hayden was really scared at first! It started making noise and she was far away from it. But after just a few minutes she thought he was funny, but still not willing to get to close! Brock agrees that this one is much better! They have spent the rest of the evening feeding "Spike" My little Ponies! Brock keeps telling me how nice Santa is and he even thanked Heavenly Father for it in his prayer tonight! Sweet!

Year in Review!!!

I thought I would put together a little slide show of our year. This morning Larry said, "We haven't had any major events this year have we." I said sure we went to Utah, Brock lost his first tooth... He reminded me that big meant we didn't move and we didn't have a baby. So in that case it has been a nice quiet year! But it was a good year. In Jan we took the boys to see "Walking with Dinosaurs!" Thanks to Santa last year! Feb, Hayden learned to walk and Amelia turned 4 and Larry turned 32! March was packed with Ethan's baptism and 8th birthday, Easter, a trip to Utah, and a pinewood derby! In March my Grandpa Bill and my Grandma Nola's Husband Ernie passed away. April was pretty quiet, May we had a 6th birthday for Brock and more dinosaurs! (Think this was the year of the dinosaur at our house!) June was the end of preschool for Amelia, Kindergarten and 2nd grade of the boys and the beginning of summer! We spent a lot of time on the boat, pool, and the park during the summer. We actually got a slip and slide this year too and the kids loved every minute of it! The Jones' family went on vacation with us and we had a lot of fun with friends and family on the boat this summer! September was so exciting with the boys going in to 1st and 3rd grade, Amelia doing home preschool with mommy! October was filled with the usual wonders of fall pumpkin patches, crafts, and Halloween! October was also the month that my Grandma Nola passed away leaving no living Grandparents for me. This was also the month that Larry's Grandma Sylvia Mae Judd died. He now has one Grandmother living. November Hayden turned 2! I can hardly believe it because I feel as though she should just be turning one! Plus there was Thanksgiving and lots of YUMMY food, and so so much to be thankful for!!! December was filled with a 30th birthday for me, Christmas, and a injured foot that will last well into the New Year! It was a wonderful year filled with blessings, family and friends! Aren't we lucky!