Everyday In January 2010

January 3, 2010

Well, three days into my goal and no pictures. Camera is dead, I've used it all up in a matter of days. So I guess I can sum up the day with a word picture. We woke up to a snowy morning. Church was cut short because of the snow, but when we came out, it was sunny and beautiful. The snow glistened from having ice crystals in it and it was a beautiful sight.

We enjoyed our traditional Sunday crepes, Kyle was chief chef and did well, although he struggled with the math a bit. He brings us many smiles in different ways. After our crepe feast, I took a nice long nap. Boy did it feel good to take a much needed rest. The holidays have caught up with all of us I think.

The girls kept themselves busy working on the crafts they were given for Christmas. Baylie worked away at her Shrinky Dinks and Mikenzie made beautiful beaded necklaces. It was fun watching the plastic melt into new shapes, as well as Baylie's face as she watched the transformation. Mikenzie sewed a new fur purse for her piano books, she did a great job and is becoming quite the seamstress.

The boys??? Well, the stayed in the basement for most of the day, as usual. I did force them to watch an uplifting video, hopefully something sunk in that will help them somewhere along the way.

We enjoyed a nice Sunday meal together and zipped off to what would be our final missionary committee meeting-- thank heaven!! It was getting to be a little too late on Sunday evenings for our family.

We topped the evening off with scripture study, which for the most part was enjoyable. We have a goal of finishing the Book of Mormon by January 15. I am excited to reach the goal.

I am now enjoying the quiet atmosphere of having all of the children finally resting in their warm beds. The weather outside is definitely frightful and I am so very thankful for simple things. Warm beds for my children, a heated home and lights to keep our home bright. It is such a peaceful and content place to be tonight.

Be Grateful!!

Everyday In January 2010

January 2, 2010

Baby it cold outside!! Today was a very cold day. We spent most of the day indoors with the exception of a quick trip to a very busy gym for a workout and a few short errands. James, Alex and Kyle had the pleasure of shoveling the snow at the church in freezing temperatures. Here are a few activities we enjoyed today:

Jeremy unloaded the dishwasher while he cleaned the kitchen. Yeah, the kitchen was about as clean as this spatula when he was done. Can you believe he actually put this away, thus deeming it clean??? He definitely needs some more training.

I was watching the food channel and saw some delish cinnamon rolls. I can make something close to what I saw, couldn't resist the temptation and whipped us up a batch. This picture was taken maybe 30 seconds after I announced the rolls were ready.

Boy trapped!! I was surrounded by the men in my life tonight as my girls were off playing. Alex cooked up a batch of spaghetti which was devoured immediately. It is fun to be with all the boys once in a while.

Brandon is eager to help with the re-do on our entry way. It has extended to replacing all of the covers on all of the outlets in the home. This kept him busy for a good while.

Well, that is our day in a nutshell. Until tomorrow--
Be Grateful!!

Indoor Hockey... I mean Soccer
" If soccer was easy they would call it football "

Other fun stuff we did on New Year's Eve

They are the CHAMPIONS!!
Way to go Extreme Blue

Happy New Year 2010!!

December 31, 2009

Here is a snap shot of what our New Year's Eve was like:

Very Cold Weather
Snow
Snowmen
Good Friends
Lots of Kids
Lots of Noise
Lots of Fun

James worked most of the day, bringing home the bacon. Jeremy went to a Stake Youth Dance. Kyle spent the night at a Deacons Quorum Party. Alex was stuck home babysitting ( he did choose not to go to the dance, he was in one of his funky teenage moods and felt antisocial last night. Regretting the decision, he moved from moody to grumpy and cynical by nights end ). Baylie and Brandon both had friends over for the night, which proved to be fun and chaotic. We only had one broken glass object-- not too bad. James and I enjoyed the company of a group of good friends and came home to very hyper children at 12:30 a.m. We settled them down and were all in bed by 2:30 a.m., not too bad for a great new start to a great new year.

Everyday In January 2010

January 1, 2010

To chronicle the first year of our new decade, I decided to take a picture that represents each day and post it to my blog. Hopefully the excitement won't wear off too soon. With many projects, trips and other goals in mind for 2010, it should be a pretty colorful year. As they say a picture is worth a thousand words.... so here we go:

Baylie thought this was a beautiful bird, sitting out in the cold snow. She always looks for the brighter side of everything. Even a plain old bird, sitting in a barren tree on a cold winter day made Baylie take a moment and enjoy.


Brandon found out the after party clean up isn't too fun. He and his friend Ben pitched a tent in our family room to sleep in last night. Taking it down proved to be quite a challenge, especially with the sleeping bags and pillows still inside of the tent.


Good thing he has a trusty Eagle Scout for a big brother

Last but not least, our ambitious project for the weekend. Replacing all of the molding along our entry way. Our $20 project is proving to be more than we had originally anticipated, isn't that how it always goes? The bright white already has us excited and itching to spread light through out the home... wait to see the finished project soon!!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Christmas Shopping with the Cuties and the Crazies

Yesterday was my first official Christmas shopping day. Mainly due to a major lack of ideas, my kids already have so much stuff, it is difficult to purchase a bunch more. With list in hand, I set out to accumulate more worldly goods.

Along the way, I ran into various fellow shoppers that had me say hmmm...

First off was the throw back to the 80's lady. If the holiday season were Halloween instead of Christmas, I would have guessed she was on her way to a costume party. She had the big bleached blond hair, blouse with a matchy-matchy vest, the ever so popular levi skirt ( straight of course ) brown socks to match the brown stitching in her blouse and clogs. What more could you ask for? A tad too much make-up? No worries, that was the frosting on the cake. It was such a flash from the past, she reminded me of my 9th grade Spanish teacher. I hope I didn't stare to much, but you really mush enjoy a leap back in time.

Then I moved onto the Sam's Club sampler seniors. Where else do you run into a sweet old man, wearing his dress pants and jacket, with a baseball cap to complete the outfit, all while he is handing out half of a cracker with immitation crab salad on it. Scoot down the aisle a bit and you can get a tiny little cup of an energy drink from what may be his wife. She has the hair net, the white smock and a bit of an attitude. She is the one that insists a parent be with every child before doling out her goods.

The other seniors at Sam's Club made me smile as well. One little group of three ladies in particular. They were amazed at the huge amount of goods offered in a single package. It is a wholesale store, but they seemed amazed at every turn. To think, you can buy 24 cans of peaches as well as 46 rolls of toilet paper. I wondered if they were amazed that anyone could go through so much... which my family can do quite easily... or amazed at the abundance. These are WW II, depression era survivors, it begs the question of what their perspective is, thankful I don't have some of their memories, but grateful for the lessons learned from them.

I still smile thinking about the jacket and baseball cap. Our seniors have so much more class than we do. When they go out, they are usually dressed to impress. How many times have you passed a sweet grandma in the grocery store with dress pants, nylons and pumps? Her hair and make-up are done, and she has matching gloves and purse. They are so appreciative and kind. They know where America has been and yet found joy in their everyday lives, even when it wasn't so joyuful. We have a lot to learn from their examples, in more ways than one.

Onto the bus full of children. Not the bratty ones pulling faces and jumping over seats while a poor bus driver is mentally in another place while trying to endure the eternal bus route. This was a tiny school bus, full of wheelchairs, holding special children. I looked over at a sweet little brown haired girl looking out her window. She had sparkly elastics holding her hair out of her face. She was trying to look out at the world, all the while smiling with a crooked smile. It made me think of the crooked smiles I look at everyday and I was immediatly grateful for the blessings of tiny trials compared to some. Grateful my children are healthy, happy and home with me everyday.

So, as I wade through the holiday season, trying to make everyones wish list a reality-- although I won't be buying Brandon a " lab-top", we will all have a Merry Christmas as we realize what our true blessings are.

BE GRATEFUL!