Teddy Bear Day - January 18, 2013

Friday - January 18, 2013

On January 18th Brinley's class had teddy bear day.  They got to bring their favorite stuffed animal to school.  Brinley picked the biggest stuffed animal that we have.  It looked really funny when we stuffed it in her backpack.

A funny thing just happened.  The power went out for a little while, then turned back on.  Parker was in the bath, Brinley was in her bedroom, and Alissa was downstairs in her bedroom.  I was upstairs in the hallway by the bathroom when it went out.   Brinley and Parker both started to scream.  Parker was yelling, "What's happening?"  I told them to calm down as I went towards Brinley's room.  I asked her to come towards my voice.  She jumped up and ran to me.  As she was hurrying towards me, she tripped on a box.  She immediately started to cry again.  Parker started screaming again at this point also.  Then I remembered that Alissa was downstairs all by herself with no light.  I was trying to remember where a flashlight was when the power came back on.  I went downstairs to check on Alissa.  She was fine.  She had been playing the tablet, so she had a light with her.  She thought her brother or sister had been playing a trick on her, so she wasn't very scared, just a little confused.  she couldn't figure out how they had snuck in and turned off her light and got out of her room so quickly and quietly.  Their reactions to it all were just so funny.  Now I can't get them to leave my side and go to bed.  I have some funny children!

Another thing that has happened this month is that I taught the young women in our ward some cake decorating.  Next week, I will be teaching the young women in our old ward.  I'm really happy to be cake decorating again.  I have a lot of ideas for some cakes I want to try.



We're Sick and Wall Art - January 12, 2013

Saturday - January 12, 2013
We have been sick a lot this month.  It's yucky!  So we haven't done too much.... just a lot of sitting around the house feeling icky.  I've hardly taken any pictures.

The only highlight was that my sister, Shelley, came and stayed for the weekend. That was nice.  I felt bad, though, because I wasn't a lot of fun.  I was extremely tired the whole time she was here and I couldn't get myself motivated to do anything.  I was tired from the lack of sleep when I was taking care of my sick children last week and also tired because I was getting sick.  I was sooo.... sick yesterday!  It was horrible!

We keep these maps hanging up in our kitchen.  I'm surprised at how often we use them.  I've never liked the way they looked taped to the wall.  Well, I had an idea!  I decided to turn them into art!  The only problem was that I ran out of mod podge and I haven't been to the store to get any more so I can finish my project.  I was only able to get one map turned into art.  At least this way you can see how I had the map hanging on the wall before I turned it into art.  I will make the other one beautiful as soon as I get the chance.

 At our old house, we had a wall that we designated for marking our heights on the wall.  When we moved, I was so sad that we had to leave it behind.  I used a papers to taped together to trace the heights and names with the plan to recreate something that I could mark our heights on and it could move with us, until we get settled somewhere again.  This was my idea.  It doesn't look as amazing as I had envisioned it, but it's not bad and it does the job.  It had been a year and a half since I marked any of the kids' heights.  It's also fun to see the heights of their friends and people that we used to babysit.  We're happy to have our height wall again!

The craziest thing is that Alissa only has 3 more inches to grow until she is as tall as me!

Wedding Cake - January 2, 2013

Wednesday - January 2, 2013
After my mom passed away, I quit cake decorating.  I just had no desire to ever cake decorate again.  I don't fully understand why I felt the way I did about cake decorating.  I think it was because I learned everything I know from my mom and I guess I always felt like that was our thing...  so cake decorating after she was gone, was just too sad and painful for me.

A friend of mine had a daughter who was getting married and I really wanted to help her out if I could, so I volunteered to make a wedding cake for them.  I was a little unsure about it.  I wanted to help, but I was still feeling hesitant about cake decorating.  So I did the cake and it turned out really nice...and...I loved doing it!  I'm all better!  I can cake decorate again!  And I'm excited about it!  Here are some pictures of the cake.

And here it is on it's stand at the wedding reception. 

New Years Eve 2012

Our nieces and nephew, Becca, Missy, and Jonny came to spend New Years Eve with us.  Rebecca had to work, so they couldn't start heading to our house until after 3:00pm.  So, the kids spent the morning playing.  Their friend, Sydney came over.  They spent some time sledding in the backyard then they came in and got really involved in some make believe game.  I wasn't paying close enough attention to figure out what was happening in their game.  I know there was a bad guy, because a few times, they all had to yell and scream and run away from him.  They had a lot of fun playing and it helped the time go by fast for them while we were waiting for their cousins to get here.

Becca and Roger were talking on the phone before they left and Becca said that she wished Crystal Hot springs was open.  They thought it would be fun to go when it is soooo... cold outside.  Roger called and found out that they were open.  So we decided to meet at Crystal Hot springs.  The kids and I were all ready to go and sitting in the living room waiting for Roger.  I told the kids that this was the last time that we would be going to Crystal Hot springs this year.  The looks on their faces were so sad.  I started to laugh and their sad faces turned to confused faces.  Then I explained that next year starts tomorrow.  I am just too funny!  Anyway, so we went to Crystal Hot springs and it was very cold and a lot of fun.  The water was warm, but because of the extreme cold, the outer edges of the pool weren't as warm as we are used to. 

We spent the rest of the night hanging out at our house.  Parker and Roger, showed Jonny their new car game.  They played that for a long time.  Becca made us some drinks.  She made margaritas, and some other normally alcoholic drinks that I can't think of the names.  She, of course, made it with out the alcohol.  I really didn't like two of the drinks.  There was one of them that I enjoyed, I just really can't think of the names right now.

We turned on the TV 10 minutes before the new year and watched the ball drop.  Then we ran to the door to bang pots and pans and yell "Happy New Year!"  Some neighbors were lighting fireworks, so we spent a little time watching them through the windows.

Tuesday - January 1, 2013
These are the first pictures taken this year.  I took them before we all decided to head to bed, around 1:00am.  Parker rarely stays awake until midnight.  I don't know if he's ever actually done it.  He just gets way too tired.  So, the first picture of Parker this year is a picture of him sleeping.

December 26th - Our Little Sledding Hill

Wednesday - December 26, 2012
We are so excited to have snow!  First thing in the morning we went outside to play in the snow for a little while.  Alissa built something over at the park.  Parker and Brinley got too cold pretty quickly, so we didn't play outside for very long in the morning.  After lunch we headed back outside to play.  This time, we had a fun idea to make a sledding hill.  We spent some time shoveling and pushing snow into a hill so we could go sledding on it.  It's not the biggest hill - we plan to keep adding to it every time it snows - but it is a lot of fun!