New Year . . . .

New Year, new resolutions, new car, new job . . . for someone who doesn't like change, this has been a crazy start to a new year.  But before I get into all that, I have to post these pictures of the girls playing Animal Twister with their cousins.  Jenny and Richelle were visiting Grandpa with their families while we were in UT, and one night, all 4 girls played together.  It was the night I was out with friends, so I missed it, but I was so grateful for the great memories that my girls were able to make with their cousins.

A few weeks before Christmas, my employer from my hotel days in Portland, called to offer me a stay-at-home job, with hours I could set myself.  I wasn't really planning on going back to work yet, but I had been thinking a lot about how I could find a job that would let me work around kid's school schedules, and when this job was offered to me, I figured it was an answer to a prayer I hadn't prayed yet, and was too good to pass up.  So, with the promise of a 2nd income, Ken happily spent my paycheck before I got it and we bought a 2015 GMC Acadia.  I test drove one before Christmas in Olympia, but we actually ended up buying one on our trip to UT.  Drove to UT in my Honda, drove home in this . . .

I wasn't sure how I was going to like driving a much larger vehicle, but so far, it's been good.  It did take a bit of getting used to, but now I love it and am glad we have it.  And the car payments are my incentive for getting out of bed every morning at 5am!  BTW - this is not an actual picture of our car (although it looks just like it); I was too lazy to go out to the garage to take a picture, download it, and then upload it to our blog ;) 

Because I can work from home whenever I want, I figured that some of my best, uninterrupted hours would be before anyone woke up.  So I work from about 5am - 7am, and then I try to fit in 1-2 more hours somewhere else in my day.  Working has been an adjustment, especially when my position is a new one, and my new boss is trying to figure out how to keep me busy.  But so far, it's going good.

I had another birthday.  It was a quiet affair.  Every year I think about having a small party, but that just hasn't happened in the last few years.   Ken cooked me gluten-free waffles for breakfast, the girls helped me clean, and I got a brand new pencil sharpener (at my request) - one that actually works!  You'll know I'm an office supply nerd when I tell you how much fun I had sharpening a large handful of pencils to test it out :)  That afternoon Ken took the girls to the Children's Museum while I enjoyed a few hours of scrapbooking in a quiet house, followed by dinner out with the family.  

And to wrap up this not-so-exciting, rambling blog post - New Year's resolutions.  Last year I resolved to read the Book of Mormon - and I did it!  It was so great, I'm going to do it again (although I'm not off to a very good start so far).  I resolve to spend less time on Facebook (so far so good) and to talk less & listen more. 

Here's to a great 2016!

Christmas and UT Vacation

I felt so unprepared for Christmas this year, but it turned out good and I think the girls were happy with what they got.  One of the best gifts we gave the girls was a mini-trampoline.  Ken and I are so tired of them jumping on the furniture, that we got them something legit to jump on.  Now if only we could harness that energy to power something in the house.

We were all excited to have Grandpa Ernie stop by for a short visit.

And then we hit the road for a trip to UT - to play in the snow, visit cousins/aunts/uncles/ Grandpa, and experience UT in the winter.  Neither of the girls have ever been there in the winter, and I thought it was about time to experience that fun.  So, our first activity was sledding with my friend, Carol.  I loved watching my girls sledding - screaming all the way down the hill, and at the bottom saying, "that was awesome, let's do it again!".

And of course, I couldn't let the girls have all the fun.

 What do you do when you're tired of hiking up the sledding hill?  You swing, of course!

A big thank you to my friend Carol for providing winter gear for Ken and I so that we could stay warm in the very cold weather.  I think the average high while we were in UT was 10F.  Burr!

My girls love Carol too - and it didn't hurt that she provided hot chocolate and brought them gifts ;)

The next adventure was checking out the lights at Temple Square.  We met Carol and her son (and a few of his friends) for dinner at the Lion House Pantry - yummy!  And then off to brave the very cold air while we enjoyed the lights at Temple Square.  I haven't been to see the lights for years, and enjoyed it as much as the girls did.

My girls said that all the lights were their favorite, but I think Amelia's real favorite was the snow.  I couldn't keep her out of it.

Since we were in Salt Lake, we stayed overnight at my brother Paul's house.  The girls LOVED playing with and being entertained by Paul, especially when he showed them some magic tricks.  If they ask you if you have "magic armpits", just smile and nod.  A super big THANK YOU to my brother and sister-in-law for watching our girls the next morning so that Ken and I could finish the paperwork for our new car!  Who knew we'd drive to UT in my Honda and drive home in a brand-new GMC Acadia?  Crazy!  Thank goodness I had all of the girl's winter gear with us, because they spent quite a lot of time playing in the snow with Uncle Paul - snow angels, building a snow castle, eating snow (but not the "yellow snow"), and putting snow in their hair.

That evening I went to dinner with Carol and another friend, Natalie, whom I haven't seen for 15 years - before either of us were married.  It was a great evening with friends.  Great friends are those that you can talk to as if it had just been yesterday that you were together.

And on Thursday, Ken & I went to the Logan temple, with Carol, and a niece and nephew who had recently returned from their missions.  My niece, Richelle, babysat the girls and everyone had a great time.

None of us stayed up to ring in the New Year, but it came anyway.  We had a great time in UT, but ran out of time and weren't able to do everything we had planned.  Guess we'll just have to come back next year!

In a Mid December

. . . it finally dawned on me that I hadn't posted since the first of November and it's now mid-December.  It was obviously a quiet and non-eventful month.  We had a quiet Thanksgiving - just the four of us.  Amelia kept waiting for the "holiday" to happen . . . apparently we didn't celebrate Thanksgiving enough to meet her expectations.  I am thankful for 2 beautiful, healthy daughters.

Ken was in charge of the turkey and this year he tried a recipe he had heard on NPR - a turkey porchetta - basically a seasoned turkey breast rolled up and baked.  It looked a lot like a giant caterpillar, but thankfully was much tastier.  I was thankful that Ken did half of the cooking.

I am thankful for a warm, dry house - it was unseasonably cold here in November.  It was dry the day after Thanksgiving and we did our annual "hunt for a Christmas tree" adventure.  The older the girls get, the harder it is for all 4 of us to agree on a Christmas tree.  I am thankful for a patient husband.

The Relief Society was in charge of our ward's Christmas party - "How the Grinch Found Jesus" and I was very happy when it was over.  We were supposed to come dressed as a Who.  Amelia told me, "I don't do silly", so I let each girl and Ken do their own costumes and Amelia ended up winning "best costume" for her age group - go figure!

Here is Amelia the next day proudly displaying her award wreath.  I am thankful for independent thinkers . . . most of the time.

Sophia standing next to our decorated Christmas tree.  I am thankful that we haven't broken any ornaments this year . . . yet.

We have much to be thankful for and are trying to get ready for Christmas.  Despite already mailing out Christmas cards, I am so unprepared for the holiday.  And yesterday, Amelia lost her 2nd front tooth . . . so now all she wants for Christmas is her 2 front teeth ;)

Happy Halloween

We finally got around to carving pumpkins on the afternoon of Halloween.  The girls are contributing more to the actual carving process, but Sophia still refused to touch the stuff inside.  She helped me carve hers though and modeled so perfectly with it afterwards.

Amelia didn't want her picture taken with her pumpkin.  So here are the 3 final products - Ken's, Amelia's and Sophia's.

I didn't have any brilliant ideas for costumes or motivation to make them this year, so after asking the girls what they wanted to be, we headed to the thrift stores to see what we could find.  Sophia wanted to be a princess - which was easy - and it turned out we found a Princess Sofia costume.  Perfect!  Amelia didn't know what she wanted to be - which actually made it easier than trying to find something specific.  She loved the bee costume we found and the thrift store had a packaged wing/antenna accessory to go with it.  Perfect!  And I was happy that they were happy and I didn't have to stress about making costumes.

After a day of torrential downpour rain, it actually stopped raining long enough for trick-or-treating.  We started out at the ward Trunk or Treat, then headed home to visit a few of our favorite neighbors.  We called it a night and warmed up with hot cocoa and a bath.

October Happenings

Some months nothing happens, and other months, everything happens . . . and I don't have time to blog about it.  October is one of those months - too much going on, not enough time or energy to document it.  On Oct. 12, we took the girls to a pumpkin patch to pick out a pumpkin and have a bit of fun.  It was a tad cold and rainy, but we all had fun.

Then on the 22nd, Sophia went to a different pumpkin patch with her Joy School group.  The kids in that group are a great bunch of kids and everyone gets along so well.  (Sorry about the blurry picture - the wagon was moving and my camera is slow.)

My friend Jennie brought her "big girl camera" and got this fantastic shot of Sophia.

Sophia is loving Joy School - here is a cool picture of the group of kids playing with "moon sand".

And that day, the teacher (Ann) made a little treat and sang Happy Birthday to Sophia for her upcoming birthday.  She was thrilled!

We threw a birthday party for Sophia and a few of her friends.  Ken told me to keep it simple.  So I planned a simple craft (sorry no pictures), a few easy snacks, and the cake - then I put Ken in charge of games.  He totally rocked it with the games. . . . fishing for a prize . . . pin the crown on the princess . . . and the cotton-ball/ spoon race.

Ken moved a potted plant out of the way for the race and immediately the girls crowded around to see the bugs and worms that had been hiding underneath . . . that took a good 5 minutes.

And here they are at the start of the race.  The race was hilarious to watch, but I didn't include a video here because it's probably not as funny on video as it was in person.  But you can imagine with five 3-5 year olds running confidently with a cotton-ball on their spoon, only to realize it fell off back at the starting line ;)

And then it was time for cake - a gluten free, decadent chocolate cake, with chocolate whipped cream frosting.  The kids loved it and are showing us their chocolate tongues ;)

A close-up of Sophia's chocolate grin.

And finally, time for presents.  I love watching little kids at present opening time.  They're all so excited to give Sophia their gift.  One little girl was so excited, she just opened her present and handed it unwrapped to Sophia ;)

Happy Birthday to my easy-going, loves to cuddle, super, smiley 4-yr old.  We love you Sophia!

First Lost Tooth

A while back, I saw a cute idea for tooth-fairy pillows . . . the idea being that the tooth goes in a pocket in the pillow instead of tucked under a pillow where the tooth fairy has to find it in the middle of the night.  I thought it was brilliant . . . but the ones I saw advertised were around $20 each!  Crazy, right!  I knew I could make something similar, for much less money and saved the idea for when it was needed.

A few days ago, Amelia told me she thought one of her teeth was loose.  And so I made a tooth-fairy pillow . . . out of scraps I had on hand . . . to be ready for that first lost tooth.  And all it cost me was about an hour of my time . . . mostly spent unpicking and re-trimming, since I was doing it without a pattern and in a hurry to finish it before I lost momentum and energy.  Don't look too closely at the stitching (it's definitely not perfect) and Amelia helped decorate it this morning with the "A". . . but it will definitely serve its purpose and Amelia was excited about it.  (And of course I made one for Sophia too - even though it is a few years off before she will need to use hers.)

And this afternoon, Amelia said "oh, my tooth just came out" and she proudly showed it to me.  I can't tell you how excited I was that Amelia pulled it out herself, instead of me having to do it for her.  And that we somehow escaped the drama that is usually a part of everything in our house.

Family Pictures

I realized the other day, that I had posted about how awesome our new family pictures are, but that I hadn't really posted any of the pictures - other than the crazy looking one of our family for our header.  I love getting new family pictures.  But what I hate is trying to figure out what everyone should wear, and then worrying that my strong willed daughters won't actually wear what I've so painstakingly picked out. The day we got our pictures taken, the weather was off and on rainy, with the forecast being more rain and wind.  We kept changing the time of our photo shoot, and I think we timed it perfectly.  The rain and wind held off, everything was bright because of the previous rain and the overcast skies kept us from squinting in the sun.  Plus, my daughters both wore what they had agreed to wear!  And without further ramblings, here are a few of my favorites.  Thanks again Pam for a job well done.