100th Day

The 100th day at school was Feb. 3 and this year Anthony needed to wear a shirt with 100 things on it.  Anthony decided to put buttons on his shirt in the shape of several smiley faces.  The 100th day was at the same time Madeline was in the hospital due to a virus that triggered her asthma. With me sitting in the hospital I thought it would be a good time to sew the buttons on his shirt.  However, after four smiley faces I realized that this was going to take a long time and reverted to crayons instead.  Anthony liked his shirt and was excited to wear it to school.  Lucky for him I was thinking ahead and suggested that he take along another shirt to wear when he was tired of wearing a 100 crayons on his shirt.

It has been awhile since I have last updated our blog.  At first our computer crashed and after looking into it and realizing that it would cost the same amount to fix our computer as to get a new one, we decided to get a new one.  We decided this time that we would go mac.  Grant and I did not want to have windows vista and we both had heard good things about mac.  Uncle Sam came to the rescue with the money that we would need to get ourselves hook

ed up with a new computer.  I love our computer!  I have been enjoying all the features as well as the big screen that we were able to get because 

of uncle sam.  Now that we have a computer, I can get caught up with the blogging world.

At the beginning of the year, I made a goal to celebrate all the holidays with the kids as well as the prophet's birthdays.  So far we have celebrated Chinese New Year, Valentines Day, and Marti Gras.  We were going to celebrate Groundhog Day, but Madeline was in the hospital due to a virus that triggered her asthma.  The kids are enjoying all the fun and I am having fun putting everything together.

For Chinese New Year we got so

me chopsticks from the local Chinese fast food restraunt and we ate spaghetti with our chopsticks.  I knew my kids wouldn't eat Chinese noodles, so I thought of spaghetti.  It was a lot of fun and the kids did a really good job!  Spencer even managed to get some spaghetti in his mouth.  For decorations we made Chinese latterns out of construction paper and drapped them across the kitchen table.  While dinner was cooking the kids color the year of the ox paper.  

For Marti Gras I bought some beaded necklases and hid them around the living room and each child went on a beaded necklase hunt similar to an Easter Egg hunt.  After our hunt each child wore their beads, and we got out our instruments and Grant put on some jazz music and we paraded around the house play

ing our instruments.  The kids really enjoyed it, but for some reason Spencer was not in a mood to enjoy the festivities.

Blast Off

This is one of my latest projects. Anthony and Spencer's closet doors stood out too much in their room, and I was having a hard time liking their room. Grant gave the suggestion that we paint a mural on the wall. I am no artist, but figured with his help and a few circles we could come up with something decent. Anthony was gone for a sleep over and while he was away his dad and I got to work. Grant drew it and together we painted. I have never painted so many coats of blue nor have I done some many touch ups. It was great to be able to surprise Anthony, and now their closet doors fit in with the room and not stand out.

Sleepy Head

Sometimes sleeping in the toy closet is more comfortable then sleeping in your own bed.

Apple Juice

Why is when your cute daughter comes home from school

bringing home leftover


her little brother

has to find it and begin to spill it all over the living room floor and then after that decides that one little puddle of apple juice is not enough and the whole living room floor and hallway needs to be blessed by his goodness. And what is his mother doing during all this you ask? Working on an outline of our Primary Quarterly Activity that is coming up in a couple of weeks and she needs to finalize the plans so she can e-mail it to the President and Bishopric for approval. Can mommy clean it up right away, no I need I to run and get daddy from work. On the way out the door, Spencer sees another golden opportunity to spread what the little puddles of apple juice around some more; however this time his mommy is faster than him and sweeps him off to the front door. Now an hour later we are home from getting daddy, Mommy who needs to make dinner so she can run off to pack meeting in an hour is on her hands and knees cleaning up Spencer's blessing while Daddy is putting in headlights so I don't kill myself while driving to and from my meeting. Where is Spencer you ask? Fast asleep in the car. I see a golden opportunity, leave him out in the car where he cannot get in trouble and the I proceed to clean up the apple juice blessing with:

Round one took me 30 minutes of being on my hands and knees and with round two I can use my handy wonderfulHopefully it will only take two rounds of cleaning up the apple juice and all its sticky residue, because I have yet been able to completely tackle his last adventure with food in my kitchen. Spencer has a very helpful sister who likes to make sure he has plenty to eat and gives him what he wants or leaves her pancakes covered in syrup for him to get and enjoy on the floor while her innocent mother is attending to other morning chores. I have now realized that there is no way I can keep up and I am now going to surrender to Spencer and his will. I am sure he watches and waits for me to be busy with other motherly duties and then goes for the attack. I wonder what blessing he will find next to spread all over our house.

Oh you ask about dinner, well you guessed it

Note to self: Tell Madeline's teachers to not allow her to bring home her apple juice or just to simplify everything give her water, at least water is not sticky.

2009

When thinking of 2009, these are the words that came to my mind. For 2009 I want:

To create memories and traditions for my family
To grow closer to my Savior, my children, and Grant
To endure whatever Heavenly Father gives me with faith and a smile
To remember my blessing
To find joy in the moment
To feel the love of my Savior, of my children, and the love Grant has for me
To learn how to be free of stress
To use my imagination and see where it takes me

I want this to be the year where I learn to create all around me as well as in all aspects of my life. So for 2009 I am going to create.

The wordle on top can be found here.

What a Holiday

Our holiday was a quiet and simple one this year. For the past few months life has been really busy and stressful and so we were looking forward to a quiet break. Grant was going to be off from work the entire time the kids were out of school and so the prospects of having no schedule no deadlines to meet was really exciting. However, what we didn't expect that at least one member of our family being sick during the holiday. I was sick Christmas Eve and Christmas day with the body aches and an upset stomach. So needless to say we weren't able to do any of usual traditions on Christmas or Christmas Eve. I was able to get up long enough to see the children unwrap their presents (which took all of 10 minutes) and then back to bed I went. I felt better then next day, but then it was Grant's turn to get sick and poor Madeline hasn't stopped her cough for at least two weeks. Took her to the doctor and they did some tests because the doctors were afraid she had a form of pneumonia. It turned out to be a virus and her Pulmonologist put her back on steriods and that seems to be helping. Spencer keeps having a leaky faucet out his nose and Anthony has been the only one that has not been sick in any form. It was still a nice quiet holiday and it was nice to do whatever we wanted whenever. I was able to get my creative juices flowing in finding ways to decorate the house without spending really any money and that has been fun. With me not feeling well and with having a kid and a husband not feeling well it has been a slow process, but I do see light at the end of the tunnel and hopefully now everyone will start to feel better and we can get rid of this bug once and for all. Because we were all sick I have no pictures to show you, because well we were too sick for pictures.

On Christmas morning, Spencer was more interested in finding food to eat (he never misses a meal or passes up an opportunity to eat), and when he wasn't looking for food he was busy playing in his room with his old toys. So the kids opened his couple of presents for him and every once in a while he would pop his head in the living room to see what we were doing and then quickly go back to his room to play. I was able to find a 4 foot dollhouse for Madeline within my budget and she is in heaven. She a little one that she would play with for hours everyday and now she has one that is taller than her. She got a couple of Dora toys which brought her excitement and a couple of Dora movies that I was able to find on e-bay. Anthony got excited when he saw a big lego star wars ship and an Indiana Jones lego set. I was also able secure him some star wars music cds on e-bay for a really good price so those have added to his imaginary star wars battles. Santa brought Anthony and Madeline digital cameras, nothing expensive but the kids enjoy taking pictures and the beauty of it is I don't have to pay to develop pictures.

Now we are embarking on a new year and we are looking forward to all that 2009 and will bring us!

Taking a Break

Taking a break from blogging; Need to get caught up on life, take care of sick kids, and other self improving matters. Will post when back.

Running Bear

Anthony recently learned about Indians and Pilgrims at school. As part of learning about Indians they did a dance for all the parents to see.

Anthony's Character

For a school project Anthony had to create a character that represented what he wanted to be when he grows up. It was an easy decision for Anthony, he wants to be an engineer just like his dad and design helicopter parts. He could use any medium that he wanted and so he choose fabric so he could use my sewing machine. He helped cut the fabric out, sewed on buttons, stuff his character as well as paint the hair and shoes on. He asked me to use my embroidery machine to write Bell Helicopter on his character's shirt. Grant also shrunk a drawing of his from work and we included it with his character. Anthony sure had a lot of fun.

Family Update

Life has been busy for our family. For Thanksgiving we drove up to Utah to spend Thanksgiving with Grant's family up at Bearlake on the border of Utah and Idaho. After Thanksgiving we all drove down to Roosevelt to see Seth get baptized and then hurried home so the kids could get back to school. Spencer really enjoyed being up in the mountains and when we went for our morning walks with Grandma and Grandpa, Spencer insisted on walking up the mountain himself, and he did!!

It was nice to get away and get a family vacation this year, even though it was a short one. It was nice just to take a break from the every day life and visit with family.

Oil Spil

PLUS

Equals No Good

What do you get when you combine Spencer and Vegetable oil? A major oil spill. That is right we had a major oil spill in our house on Thursday and we are still cleaning up from it. Spencer managed to wedge his hand into the pantry that was locked with a baby lock and knock the vegetable oil (used) down and then started to play in it as if it was water. He was having a good old time, while his mother was innocently trying to get ready to head out the door for a teacher conference. Spencer who was wearing fleece was oil's best friend and soaked right into him. Spencer then continued with his journey crawling all over the house spreading the oil around where ever he went. So within 10 minutes the kitchen floors were covered in oil, the living room floors were blessed with his generosity, as well as parts of the entry way and hall way floors. My kids could not come into the house so lucky for me a nice neighbor watched my children so I could proceed to clean up our major oil spill. With piano lessons looming ever near I knew I needed help so Grant the hero came home and helped with the mess. It took three hours to get the floors to a position where the kids would not slip and fall. Two days later and you can still see oil on the floors; so I am still mopping and Spencer is still Spencer. The clothes that he was wearing are still soaked in oil despite letting them soak in dish soap and being washed in the washing machine. The plus side is that whenever he wears those clothes his legs stay nice and smooth. Through all this what did I learn....that Spencer's good looks and charming smile saved him.

The cake

First came the butterfly cake, that was job in itself. Well after that production I couldn't just make Anthony an ordinary cake, I knew he would want something out of this world. Knowing that he loves Star Wars and that seeing a Star Wars cake would make his day, I set out to create my own death star. I first had to look up a picture of what a death star looks like and then I let the wheels in my head turn. I baked the cake in a glass bowl and sandwhich the layers together and with a little frosting and few lines here and there a death star was born. Anthony did not let me down, he was totally excited. You see he did not know that he was getting a death star cake nor did he know that he was getting a homemade death star pinata (filled with Halloween candy-he figured that one out). All this was a surprise. That night as I was tucking him into bed he told me that his birthday was the best day ever. I call that success.

A note to Anthony

Anthony you are a gift from our Heavenly Father, a gift that brings joy everyday. I still remember the day you were born and though I was tired and worn out from the work it took to get you here all that was swept away immediately after you were placed in my arms. Your big eyes were wide opened as you looked into my eyes. I remember thinking wow I am a mother! Here I was holding a brand new child who just left the presence of our Heavenly Father, and with that thought I felt the love of my Savior wrapping his arms around me. I remember when it was quiet and the nurses and doctors were finished with their business, I cradled you in my arms and quietly sang "I am a Child of God." The way you responded told me that you heard that song before. As I sang you slept so peacefully as if you were home. Now fast forward to seven years later and you still ask me to sing I am a Child of God every night before bed. As your mother I truly hope that you know and feel that you are a Child of God. I hope that this knowledge of who you are can carry through whatever you face in life. Please remember you are a Child of God.

Anthony there are many qualities about you that I treasure. I love your eyes. Your smile truly lies within your eyes. I love to see them light up. I love to see your excitement. I love to see your smile. I love to feel your hugs. I love to hear you say "I just love you Mommy." I love to hear you pray and I enjoy hearing your testimony as you express your understanding of the gospel and the scriptures.

Anthony, you were my first in every way. You were my first child to hold, the first child I was blessed with to share in all the milestones, and in every way I was able to learn from you. As you grew so did I. I love having you as my son, your love and dedication is amazing. You strive every day to do what is right. You work hard and you play hard too. I am glad for the gift Heavenly Father has given me and the best part I get to enjoy my gift forever!

Anthony remember that wherever life takes you, whatever the journey may be; I love you and most of all remember who you are-A Child of God. That is my greatest wish for you. With that knowledge you will be able to handle anything and conquer your life's dreams. I love you, my son. These past seven years have been a joy and I know that it is only the beginning. Keep doing what you are doing and you will have much success in life. I love you!!

Halloween Time

This year Madeline went as a butterfly, no surprise since she loves butterflies. Anthony wanted to be Obi Won Knobi so off the the fabric store his mother went with a mini character in hand to find the perfect fabric to transform my son into a Jedi. Was it worth it? Yes, every minute of it when Anthony smiled as he saw it all together and the excitement on his face as he headed out the door to gather his treasure. Spencer hung out with mom, he hasn't really caught on to the whole fact of walking in a line stopping to gather candy. He would much rather wander off exploring and putting himself in danger so his mother can have a heart attack. So in order to prevent him from getting into danger and from me getting a heart attack we stayed home where it would be safe. Maybe next year he will grasp the concept of walking in an orderly fashion and just not wandering off to wherever his heart desires.

Madeline's Award at school

Madeline received the citizenship award at school for the first six weeks. Madeline was able to enjoy a breakfast with the other students being honored. Each of the teachers wrote something about their student using the letters in their name. This is what Madeline's teacher wrote about Madeline. Makes us smile, Always follows the rules, Demonstrates determination, Engaged participant, Love learning, Irrepressible spirit, Never gives up, Excellent scholar. Way to go Madeline!

A Camping We A Go

Spencer's new trick