Our Snowy December

Who would have guessed we could have snow 3 times in one month?!! Snow started falling around 3 pm on Christmas Day. It was so pretty to watch and definitely made my Christmas! I took the kids out for a walk and ended up sledding for the first time in years (I was in a car accident at 18 while riding a motorcycle and when I went sledding later that year, the feeling of being out of control was so scary that I have never been since....UNTIL NOW!!!)

By morning, our yard looked like this....

We couldn't resist the urge to go out and play in it for awhile....we just don't get snow that often and it seemed like such a waste not to enjoy it.

We discovered that poor Caleb has outgrown all his winter clothes, so he is wearing Chris' coat....I can't believe he is finally big enough to fit into it!

Savannah is riding this fun new sled the kids got for Christmas, the Zipfy! It is a mini-luge and a blast to ride on! We were able to take it out when there was only a dusting of snow on the grass and we were cruising! It is not as fast in unpacked snow, so we will need to go back after the hill is well packed and try it again. Apparently you can ride it down sand dunes too...not that we would have any nearby to ride it on....but hey, it's versatile!

The inflatable sled was by far the most fun in the snow. It blazed a path down the hill and could outrun any sled in a race. So much fun! I can't wait to go back out!

IT'S CHRISTMAS!!!

By far, the best Christmas ever, due to SNOW that fell on Christmas day turning it into a winter wonderland! Made my Christmas! Shelby would not pose for a picture so I snapped this one of her when she was opening presents....sorry Shelby!

The boys have spent the day playing the Wii (they each got one new game), Savannah has turned into an actual "cooking mama" with her apron and packaged mixes, Shelby has been filling out her scholarship applications online, and the sister missionaries came for lunch. It was a nice quiet Christmas at home and I couldn't ask for anything better! Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

Christmas Eve

This is what happens when you get 5 giddy children together to pose for a picture in new jammies.... The homemade present exchange was a success this year, as always. Chris made me a "101 Reasons that I Love You" book.

Joshua metal-stamped a key chain. Sorry for the blurry pic; it says "best dad".

I made Samuel a body pillow and Samuel made Joshua a cup and ball game.

Caleb painted Savannah this cute rocker that we found at the thrift store (it was still drying, so she couldn't put a doll in it yet!)

He also made these adorable little sandals for her American Girl doll. Such a fun idea!

Shelby spent about 10 hrs. on Christmas Eve day making this giant Risk game for Caleb. She sent me running all over town trying to find army men which she then spray painted to be the pieces. It is very cool! However, I have decided that all Christmas presents need to be finished a week before Christmas now because I refuse to go out to Walmart on Christmas Eve ever again!

Savannah colored this little jewelry box for Shelby and also made her a potholder (for her future home....)

Once again, I realized how very important this fun family tradition is and I am so grateful for my parents for starting it when we were young!

Anniversary Celebrations

Chris and I were able to celebrate our anniversary this year by FINALLY reaching the point where we could leave the kids home alone to watch each other over night! I tagged along on a business trip with him and we stopped in at the Washington D.C. temple to see the lights. It was so enjoyable to be able to stroll through the temple grounds and visitor's center without having to keep up with younger kids (or break up arguments....which my kid's DO....anytime, any place....but that's another story!)

I LOVED the nativity display and took tons of pics, but I will spare you the rest and just show a few of my favorites.

Ukraine

Finland

Eskimo

At the hotel, the front desk clerk upgraded us to a suite since it was our anniversary, which meant I got a giant jacuzzi tub to take unlimited bubble baths in while my husband slaved away at work. I also got to shop to my little heart's content and went to my first IKEA....so cool! We spent two nights totally enjoying ourselves, and the kids actually survived the non-stop Wii-playing, frozen dinner eating, non-sleeping funfest! We just might have to do this again next year! And to all my friends with young kids: HAVE HOPE! Your time will come! One day your kids will actually grow up and be old enough to babysit themselves! :)

A Month's Worth of Posts.....

I know, the excuse of "I've been so busy" is really lame, but I REALLY HAVE, so here is a very long catch-up post..... The grass is growing and the Eagle project is a success!
Let the Christmas decorating begin....

And what I can't quite depict in pictures is how many times I had to break up fights while we decorated the tree! Please tell me it's like that at your house too or I will really feel like a bad mom!

We had our first snow of the season (followed a few weeks later by our SECOND snow, which was actually 3 inches and sorry, I don't have pics. I had to check to make sure I wasn't in Utah!)

Joshua had his band concert.....have I mentioned he is playing percussion? He was one of the lucky few who got to trade in their instruments and start on percussion!

We took a mini-vacation and went to Samuel's State Swim meet. Naturally, the party at the hotel was more fun than the meet!

It was pretty intense and I couldn't believe the caliber of kids swimming. You had to hit certain time standards to even qualify to go, so it was highly competitive. Samuel's highest placing was 22nd and his lowest was 35th, but he was thrilled to hit personal best times in every event.

I love love LOVE this skirt! Remember the "lazy days skirt"? I've made it twice before, and it is the easiest pattern. This one was my own variation on the original pattern. I found the dark brown material in the remnant bin and bought it planning to make a skirt. When I got home and held it up to Savannah, I realized it was too short, so I went back and bought 1/8 yd. of coordinating fabric, stitched it to the bottom, and covered the seam with ribbon. It turned out so cute and looks like a boutique skirt. I love that I can make it without looking at a pattern now; I just sew it! I *almost* feel like an accomplished seamstress!

Caleb at his Christmas Orchestra Concert....this was the night we learned that school was cancelled for the next day midway through the concert due to a snowstorm that was coming in. We ended up missing our last two days of school before winter break! No complaints here!

These were the cookies Savannah and I made to take to her class on the last day of school....however, we ended up snowed in, so they are happily being eaten by my family!

And last, but not least, a little bit of music from Caleb's orchestra to put you in the Christmas spirit!

What's on TV?

Today I was at Target and I had a mom approach me asking about a particular toy that her child wanted for Christmas. I didn't recognize the name of the toy, so she proceeded to tell me that it was advertised on all the channels and especially on noggin (?). I didn't admit it to her, but I have never even heard of that station! You see, we are a strange family. We do not watch TV. I don't mean that we are morally opposed to it (well, some of it, we might be, but that's another story!), we just don't choose to watch it.

I never intentionally planned to ban TV in my home (and truthfully, it is not banned). When we were first married and struggling, we couldn't justify paying for cable. It was an unnecessary expense. We lasted through 14 years of marriage without it and never knew we were missing anything. Then we moved to Richmond in the age of bundling all your services and the cost for phone and internet was the same as the introductory cost for phone, internet and cable. Always on the lookout for a good deal, how could I pass this up! My teenagers were so excited! They were certain we were the last people on the planet to get cable tv!

For two years, I watched as our life began to revolve around the tv. When the kids got up in the morning, on went the tv. When they got home from school, the tv was on. Following dinner, everyone gathered around to watch the latest shows. Quite frankly, I just did not like it. TV was having too much influence on my family, and I just couldn't see how our lives were better because we had cable. About this time, the economy was falling apart and my husband had to take a pay cut at work. We looked at all discretionary expenses and started cutting back. The first thing to go was cable tv.

The kids moped around the house for a few weeks, turning on the tv randomly and not finding much that interested them. Grumbles and complaints were the norm! Chris and I, on the other hand, found that we were happier with our family life without cable tv. There was more time spent in conversation rather than vegging out on the couch staring open-mouthed at the tv screen! The kids were playing outside more. It was all good. We still watched network tv and there were the shows that we couldn't miss (American Idol was a family favorite), but it just wasn't on as many hours a day as before.

Within a few months, all broadcasts switched to HDTV and our antiquated televisions did not receive the signal. We bought converter boxes for both of them and continued to watch network tv. Over the course of the year, the converter boxes became more and more of a pain. They would freeze the picture several times during the course of a program. The picture would get scrambled and we would have to unplug it and plug it back in multiple times a day just to get it to work.

Eventually, it became too much work, and the two tv's were never turned on. The kids still used them for movies and playing on the wii, but for the most part they were virtually unused. It has been about six months since the kids even mentioned watching something on tv. Shelby is probably the only one who really misses it, but she goes to friends houses to watch shows she likes. Everyone else has found other things to do with their time and really do not miss it. And I am thrilled that television is not an integral part of our lives.

What I Am Thankful For....by Joshua

Joshua taught our Family Home Evening lesson last night on gratitude and shared something he had written at school. With his permission, I wanted to post it on my blog, because any time an 11 year old kid can show gratitude, it is absolutely newsworthy!

I am thankful for my dad and mom, so they can provide for me. Also I am thankful for my dad not being laid off in these hard times. I am thankful for my mom because she cleans the house and makes dinner. I am thankful for a house to sleep in and clothes to wear. I am thankfulr for my family as they encourage me to choose the right.

I am thankful for sports, so I can stay fit and have fun at the same time. I am thankful for school and my many teachers as they try to get me to succeed. I am thankful for the armed forces and police officers, so I can live in a free and safe environment. I am thankful for trees, so that I can breathe clean air. I am thankful for beaches, so that I can play and make sand castles and spend time with my family.

I am thankful for rocks, boulders and mountains, so I can climb them and collect them. I am thankful for the sun, so I can stay warm. I am thankful for mashed potatoes and gravy, so I can enjoy a delicious meal. I am thankful for leaves, so I can do service by raking other people's lawns. I am thankful for snow and how beautiful it looks with no footprints in it. I am thankful for who I am.

---by Joshua

Let me just add, we are oh so thankful for Joshua! He is a great young man! I can always count on him when I need something done. Just this last week he has volunteered to rake our leaves, cut the grass and peel 8 lbs. of potatoes for me! It is important to him to be honest and do the right thing. He is a responsible, motivated kid who will grow up to be an incredible missionary one day! :)

What Matters Most

Thanksgiving week! I am so excited! I will be hosting about 35 people (but that number is ever-changing due to sickness and work schedules), so we will see who I end up with! Cooking for that many people could be daunting in and of itself, but I love having a full house at Thanksgiving. And I think I might choose cooking over travelling all day and sleeping on the floor somewhere to celebrate at someone else's house.....but I'll let you know when its all said and done!

I have had chance this week to reflect on my life and some of the things I am thankful for. Not the kind of "taking stock" that happens when you are pondering gratitude and thanksgiving, but the kind that happens when you are faced with situations that challenge your financial security and threaten to change your life. So while I am thankful for everything, let me share with you my short list....the things that do indeed matter most.....the things that would make me happy if I were to lose everything else.

1. I have a Heavenly Father who loves me infinitely and cares about me enough to give me challenges that will help me grow.

2. I have a family and we are sealed together forever. Nothing can change that but our own choices. No matter what circumstance we live in, I will always have these sweet children and my husband.
3. I have a husband who I love and who loves me. He is my best friend, my strength and my support. He has loved me and looked beyond my weaknesses and I cannot express how grateful I am to share this life with him.
4. I have an extended family who can always be counted on to provide a listening ear, cry with me, pray for me, and build me up. I would be nothing without their added support....even if, for now, it has to be across the miles!
5. I have great friends who listen and care and give good advice and a hug when needed. They lend me their strength when I don't think my own is sufficient.

That's it. That's the short list of things that matter most. And it's not things....
It's people.

Samuel's Birthday

I'm not gonna lie; with two birthdays 6 days apart, it gets a little hectic around here. As a matter of fact, on Samuel's birthday he got downstairs before I had changed the writing on the mirror from Savannah to Samuel! He was still rubbing the sleep out of his eyes when he came in to the kitchen to tell me that I forgot to put his name up! So, dishrag in hand, I headed to the mirror and wiped off the Savannah and wrote in Samuel.....a little smeary, but it satisfied him!

Rather than blow out the candles this year, Samuel wanted to "pinch" them out! He licked his fingers and pinched a few flames.....must have gotten too hot because he finally resorted to blowing! As he was leaving for school, he asked me to make him a swimming cake.....so I resorted to my traditional methods of cake-decorating and went looking for some plastic swimmers at the toy store! No luck there, so Savannah and I went to a cake decorating supply store and all they had were molds of a swimmer. So we bought some blue chocolate (white chocolate dyed blue, that is) and melted it down for the mold. It was my very first attempt, but it turned out just fine! Made for an interesting cake if you ask me, but Samuel loved it, so whatever!

Samuel's favorite present by far was this.....

Kinda nice when your sister works for a grocery store!

We had a party with friends over the weekend where we had an all out potato gun war!

If you have never played with a potato gun, I highly recommend you try it! The gun shoots little pellets of potato, and here is some of the potato carnage left over after the war. We pulled out the firepit and the boys had a great time roasting hot dogs for lunch.

Two birthdays down, one left to go and then we can say goodbye to November!

YES! We have GRASS!!!

After 13 days of watering, we are finally starting to see lots of green! This week we get to move to every other day watering, so it should cramp my style a little less......did I mention that I was at the church watering for 5 hrs. the first day? CRAZY!!! So glad we were able to get more donations of water hoses and sprinklers to cut the watering time down to 1 1/2 hrs. each day.

Birthday Girl

After waiting all day for dad to get home from work and then mom to get home from a school district meeting, Savannah was SO ready to celebrate her birthday! After begging for three long years, Savannah was thrilled to finally receive an American Girl doll! It was not without drama though.....I ordered her 2 weeks in advance of the birthday and she was delivered by FedEx to our local post office last Friday as part of their parcel post program. The post office was then to deliver it to me. Six days later there was still no package! I was so upset! So the morning of Savannah's birthday I went to the post office and they searched high and low for the package. After about 20 minutes they were able to locate it on the mailman's truck, so they went and got it for me! Who knows how long he had been carrying it around with him.....I am just glad we were able to get her in the nick of time for Savannah's birthday! She was so cute when she opened the present and sat there for about five minutes just like this:

Elizabeth is now a new and very special part of our family! She has accompanied Savannah everywhere! (Although I did have to babysit her while Savannah was at school yesterday!)

When I went up to turn off the lights, I found Savannah had created her own special bedroom for Elizabeth....

The next day after school we celebrated Savannah's birthday with her friends. I needed about 10 more sets of hands to help me out with this one! Thank heavens for Caleb....Chris was gone driving Samuel and his friend to swim practice, and Shelby backed out on me last minute to go to a football game, so I was left with 7 hyper little girls to make homemade pizza's and craft with! I didn't have a free hand to take a picture till it was almost all over! Each girl got to make her own personal pan pizza then we made princess stick puppets. Caleb was such a big help with the crafting station and then the girls recruited him to be the monster chasing the princesses! He is definitely a good big brother!

It was so fun to see how cute and individual they all turned out! The girls absolutely LOVED them!

Happy Birthday Savannah!