Christmas collage

Christmas

Cousins, pajamas, presents under the tree, lots of excitement, cell phone, robes, blankets, Glee, Barbie style salon, Nintendo DS (finally), books, dresses, Christmas dinner made by the man :), happy to clean up, white Christmas just in time, new snow pants and gloves, art supplies for lots of drawing, our guest put in the new kitchen faucet :), treadmill for the extreme overeating, big beanbag chair, everyone happy, everyone getting along and helping each other! It's been a great Christmas!

Thanksgiving

Richard's mother and her husband and Richard's brother were able to spend Thanksgiving with us. We had a great time visiting with them. They were a big help in putting together our new grill and putting up our Christmas tree. Check out the cranberry bowl I made. It was fun and turned out really cool. It's just an ice bowl, but Ellie really wanted to do it.
We are so thankful for everything we have. We are truly blessed.

Halloween

After we finally decided to get costumes out of the costume trunks this year this is what we came up with.
Maddie and Lauren are rockers. Lauren was just a little too comfortable in this costume. But she looks pretty darn cute.
Emma was very quiet all night. :0)
Ellie was a fairy. Yes, this is familiar, but still very cute. Why let it go to waste? I'm thrilled she chose to use this again.
Happy Halloween!!

Another Great Weekend

I was so lucky to have my parents come for a visit this last weekend. I love how they always just come and pitch in and be as helpful as possible. My dad fixed our outdoor lights and helped me figure out what to do with our unwanted wine rack. My kids had to fight and bicker about who got to sit by them. They are very loved. We went to the top of the arch and hung out at the great museum under the arch. On Sunday they were able to stay for Sacrament Mtg. and hear Richard speak and the big girls and I sing. Unfortunately I forgot to have Dad look at the closet door and have him fix it. I guess he'll have to come again.

A Fantastic Weekend

My incredible friend, Shelly, whom I haven't seen since Ellie was a tiny newborn just happened to be in my area on business and was able to spend the weekend with me. It was so great. We stayed up late and talked and talked. It was just like no time had passed since we last saw each other. We went to the butterfly house because I thought Lauren and Ellie would really like that and much to my dismay they cried and wouldn't go inside (pictured above). I never even knew a person could be afraid of butterflies and I certainly didn't know that my own kids were.
Then then the two of us went to see CATS. A touring broadway group just happened to be here. (On a side note: The music and dancing and costumes were amazing, but I have to say that I have NO idea what it was about. Is there really any sort of story line or plot to that thing? If so, please enlighten me.) And then we stopped for devilish desserts, something neither of us has probably done for 20 years. And more amazing, we ate it all. I still haven't fully recovered from that. It was so great to see you Shelly. Please, let's do it again.

Brace Face

Here are the before and after photos of the girls. Neither set is looking all that great. I can't wait until the Braces Off post. Those are sure to be looking fabulous. They all agreed that it hurt more than they expected, even though I kept trying to warn them. I guess they thought I was exaggerating. There's no better way to learn something than to experience it. And now they can add braces to their list of experiences.

Maddie's 15th

I can't believe my girl is already 15. Yikes really! She is getting more lovely everyday. For a complete post of her birthday check her blog post.

Flip Book Kids

My crazy little kids decided to take pictures of themselves in pieces so they could make mixed up body pictures. I put them together intact, but they were playing around with the different parts of each other. I thought it was a pretty ingenious way to play.

First Day of School

Here were the girls on the first day of school. Don't they look so studious? Maddie didn't feel like she needed her picture taken. Or maybe I just didn't have it together at that moment of the day. She leaves the house now at 5:45. I get up to make sure she gets something to eat at 5:30. I'm kinda liking the new routine, but I don't think she is yet.

Homemade Crackers

If you've ever seen my family with a box of Cheesitz you must have been around for a rare 2-3 hours right after I bought them. That's really about how long it takes for my girls to devour an entire box of this delicous treat. And if you've ever had them in your house while my girls happened to be there, I'm sorry. Surely I now owe you a box of crackers. So, given that I can't seem to keep them stocked I thought that perhaps I would try to make some myself. After doing a quick search I came across a cracker recipe that I thought would be great. I substituted some of the flour for cheese powder and this is what I came up with. They really were pretty good. Of course, they do NOT compare to the real thing, but were a tasty treat all-in-all. Good news: I thought it was a success. Bad news: I ate them all because noone else did.

"Our" Pool

We are so lucky to have moved into a house that has the neighborhood pool essentially in our backyard. I have to say we DID take full advantage of that this summer. It was nice to be able to look out the window and see if the pool was crowded or empty (which it often was), or see if any of our friends were swimming, or if our favorite lifegaurds were working, or just to watch for fun. Lauren and Ellie really improved their swimming this summer. Ellie can now swim the entire length of the pool. It's really amazing. The resulting bonus is that Ellie is no longer worried about getting water in her ears while in the tub (a problem that has been driving me crazy for years now).
Richard likes to point out that we were there for the closing this year. Yes, indeed, our family (and only our family) was swimming up to the very last possible moment before the close of the season. We'll see you again next year New Friend.

A Day at the Morton Arboretum

On a couple of our last days in Plainfield we decided to try to take advantage of our membership at the Morton Arboretum. It truly is a wonderful place to enjoy nature. There are children's play areas, hiking trails, picnic areas, paved walking paths, and a guided tour via shuttle bus which we took. I wish we had gone there more. But I seem to be the only one who feels that way as you can tell by the overenthusiatic expressions on the lovely faces of my children.

Summer of Family

Summer

Here are a few of the things we did this summer.
To be brief, we enjoyed:
*seeing all of our relatives
*hanging out with cousins for a long time
*playing with snakes
*boating and water-skiing (BTW-my bruise healed nicely after about 2 weeks)
*playing at the water park with cousins
*quick trip to Sacramento
*biking around Monterey Bay with Ellie
*lodging steps away from the Pacific shore (I recommend the Best Western Beach Resort)
*eating at Macaroni Grill while being entertained by my opera singing friend
*4-wheeling with Grandpa
*eating food from the garden

Did I miss anything? Probably. Please leave it in the comment section if you remember something I didn't. It was great to see most of you.

My family

I'll try to catch up on our summer activities now.

About 4 days after our move, we loaded up whatever belongings we had been able to find so far, left a house full of unpacked boxes, and headed to Utah for our much anticipated family reunion/50th anniversary for my parents.
Highlights included:
-yummy food
-singing with my family
-rope making (thank you Royce)
-candy launcher (thank you Logan)
-horseback riding (thank you Charlie)
-playing with cousins
-being all together since I don't know when

I wish we could do it again soon.

P.S. my photos are limited to whatever I could grab from other's blogs, facebook, etc. I was without camera the entire trip, but found it carefully packed in the backpack I was going to take, but decided at the last minute not to, along with my phone charger and a few other things that would have been nice to have. Darn.

Ellie's Place

A while ago a friend of mine blogged about her kids playing "getting-accepted-to-college" which included things like excitement upon receiving the acceptance letter, thinking about the school mascot, packing for college, etc. I thought that was so hilarious and totally unique play for children all under the age of 7.
Well, about one week later Ellie made this poster and a couple of menus too. She was playing "opening-her-own-business" which included a grand opening complete with ribbon cutting, thanking everyone for coming, talking to the newspapers, and making sure everyone was happy. On the menu was spaghetti, pizza, breadsticks, sandwiches, and a few other main dish items. There were also desserts like milkshakes, cookies, and cake. All items were available to order that evening thanks to Richard who couldn't let this type of play go unnoticed or unsatisfied in any way.
Thanks Ellie for the delicious meal. I'll return anytime.