Crazy Raking

We don't bother raking in the fall because the leaves don't completely fall off of the trees here until it's almost spring. Tom will do one good mow in November when it starts to cool off which will pick up alot of the leaves, but by January-Feb more leaves have fallen and we have to do it all over again. So, last week we had a lot fun raking and blowing the leaves in both the front and back. We did more playing than raking for a while. :)

Dr. Suess' Birthday

In honor of Dr. Suess' birthday yesterday we ate green eggs and ham for dinner. Kaitlyn read us a Dr. Suess book , "Hop on Pop". (We couldn't find our "Green Eggs and Ham" book) After eating that dinner we have all decided that we like Green eggs and Ham.
The ham was literally "colored" with a green food coloring pen.

Here's my attempt at making green fried eggs.

Car Wash

Yesterday the kids were out of school and the weather was beautiful and warm- low 70's I think. They were playing outside all day and at one point Sarah came in and begged me to let them wash the van. At first I thought it wasn't a good idea, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I'd get a free carwash out of it, and it was a chore that I didn't have to try to get them to do. I couldn't argue with that. :)

A song as a game

Since I have no chorister in my Primary right now, I'm acting as the chorister and teaching the kids the new songs each month. This month the song is "I Will Follow God's Plan". I thought of making the song into a game and tested it out on our family Sunday evening.

I'm not sure if it will work in Primary without a lot of changes, but it was a lot of fun for our family. I made a little "color cube" by taking a little block of wood and coloring the sides of it to match the colors in the game. We used Hershey Kisses as markers and when we got to the end everyone got to eat their playing piece. :)

Please excuse the poor quality pictures, our Family room is dimly lit and we badly need a new camera.

Homemade Rootbeer

For FHE last week we made homemade rootbeer. We've always wanted to try making it, and for Christmas my mom gave Tom a rootbeer making kit. It was a lot of fun and even though we couldn't taste it for a few days, when we finally got to, it was pretty good!!

The Pledge of Allegiance Song

I found this song to help teach Kaitlyn the Pledge of Allegiance. Good teaching tool for little ones. I know my genius nephew memorized the pledge at only 2, but we're still working on it here. :) Just thought I'd share what I found.

Clogs from the Netherlands!!

Tom just got back from a trip to the Netherlands. He always tries pick up something from the country he visits for each of our kids. For Kaitlyn and William he bought some clogs. He got the plain kind so that they could paint their own. Kaitlyn is really sick again, so she didn't feel up to painting today. Here are a few pictures of William painting his new clogs.

Sudoku Sarah

I found this Sudoku game at the Dollar store. Sarah has been playing it all morning. Good math practice.

And in other news I have let Sarah start her own blog too. I think it's good creative writing practice. So now, both Alan and Sarah have their own blogs. I am not responsible for the content of either blog. :)

For Alan

New Beds!

There's a furniture store in town that's going out of business, and we decided to go in and see what they had in the way of bunk beds. Well, we walked out with a great deal on two sets of bunk beds. One for the girls room and one for the boys room. They have book shelves, a dresser, and a desk. Very nice. They've all really loved having their new beds. After we set them up they played on them for hours.

We weren't sure how William would do sleeping in Alan's room in a new bed. But he loves it!! He's had no problem going to bed and staying asleep since he started sleeping in there. Big relief.

Now we have his old room for guests.... in case any of you want to come visit... hint.. hint..

Ice storm

It rained ice!! Everything was covered in ice, and the kids got 2 days off of school. I thought I'd share some pictures. The coolest icicles were the ones on the leaves that looked like drips of water.

Future Missionaries

On the first Sunday of the New Year, we were sitting in Sacrament meeting listening to the testimonies, when William decided to walk up to the stand to bear a testimony of his own. He didn't say anything to me before, and at first, when he left the bench, I thought he was just being wiggly and trying to get away from me, so I started after him. But then I noticed he was marching straight up to the stand. I thought he would go to his Dad (he's a counselor in the Bishopric) but he went right past him toward the microphone. Tom got up immediately to help him, but William didn't seem to notice or be seeking his Dad's help. William stepped right up on the little step they have for children, and began to speak. He still doesn't speak too well, so his words were a not really understandable, but he mentioned "presents" and "Thomas", and some other things, and then said, "Amen". After he said Amen he just walked right back to our bench and sat down. He seemed completely confident and unafraid. I was shocked. My little wild one whom we often call "William The Conquerer", who almost never sits still in Sacrament meeting, bore his testimony at just 3 years old.
Then, just last week, Alan got to speak at a baptism. A little boy in our ward who really likes Alan and looks up to him asked him to speak on the Holy Ghost at his baptism. I helped Alan find some scriptures on the Holy Ghost, and gave him some help in writing it, but I don't think I needed to. At the baptism when it was time for him to speak, he confidently went to the podium and shared his talk. It was a very good talk, and a very good experience for him. This was the first talk he's given out of primary, and he did a great job.
I'm so excited to see my kids get older and grow strong in the gospel. It makes me feel really happy to know that they are trying to do what's right.

Christmas!!

I'm a little late in posting about Christmas because Tom and I have been busy taking care of very sick Kaitlyn and William. They both have been sick since the 22nd of December with high fevers and flu like symptoms. (Kaitlyn still had a fever of 102.8 yesterday. We think it's finally broken today) They were so sick on Christmas Eve that I took them to the Emergency Room. It was a big waste of time because they told us that they just had viruses-with 104 fever in Kaitlyn and 102 in William- it was a pretty bad virus.

While I was at the Hospital with William and Kaitlyn, Tom and Alan and Sarah went over and spent Christmas Eve with our good friends the Ence's. When we got back from the hospital William and Kaitlyn and I were tired and sad and lonely without everyone else. We just ate some food from Burger King for dinner. And if anyone knows me, that is definately not what I would normally do for a Christmas Eve Dinner. :(

Then when Tom and Alan and Sarah got back, we read through the Christmas story in Luke 2, but didn't really act it out like we usually do because Kaitlyn and William were feeling so horrible. Then everyone went to bed and waited for Santa.

Christmas morning was joyful, but Kaitlyn was feeling so bad that she didn't really notice her presents, and took herself to bed after Breakfast. She slept all day with her fever never going lower than 101 even with lots of Tylenol and Motrin-alternating. William was feeling pretty bad himself, but was able to enjoy the morning and presents before taking himself to bed later that morning as well.

Here's a few of the pictures of the day.

Sarah told us that she wanted chocolate for Christmas. She got a one pound Hershey Bar in her stocking, but also this Giant Chocolate Bar Pillow which she loves.

Here they are opening a present from Uncle Mark and Aunt Spring. They got a "Grow a Frog" kit. We'll send out for the tadpole and then we'll get to watch it grow. Thankyou Mark and Spring! We'll keep you posted about how that goes. Here's Alan with his "Air Hogs" Helicopter. That was the main thing he wanted. He was so excited to fly it around the house. Even Tom has had fun playing with it. Alan also got an Mp3 player which has been filled with lots of John William's Music (the composer of Star Wars music, Indiana Jones music, and Superman music) as well as other music he likes. William is enjoying a new dart gun he found in his stocking. He also got a real talking Buzz Light Year and and a Woody Doll. He loves them. Kaitlyn got dress up clothes for her dolls and a super cute and super real looking metal shopping cart by Mellissa and Doug.

Then, later on that night Tom had to go out to get some more medicine for Kaitlyn and William, and when he opened the door, he saw snow falling!! It was the first time any of us have ever seen snow falling on Christmas. It was so fun to see, that we all piled in the van and drove with Tom over to the Wal-greens just so we could see it snow more. Here's our house on Christmas night. Our Santa decoration wouldn't stand up because the snow was so wet and heavy. He kept falling over, so we just left him like that. It was so fun to see snow and Christmas lights at the same time. It only snowed for about an hour, but it was fun while it lasted. It was a happy way to end our Christmas day.

Fun Christmas pillows

This is a fun little Christmas project we did this morning. I got some felt and some string and we made some cute Christmas pillows. I did the ornament. Sarah did the big tree, Kaitlyn and William took turns making the little tree. It was just simple sewing around the edge, and then we hot glued on the decorations. It was a good project for busy hands.

A sweet gift to give

A few years ago we received a neat Christmas gift from a friend in our ward. Instead of the usual plate of Christmas cookies and goodies, she gave us a candy house. She told us that when she was little her family would cover a new wooden bird house with candy, and they would eat from it throughout the Christmas season. They could use the house again the following year. So, her gift to us was just that- a candy house- that we've been able to reuse each year.

This year, we decided to do the same thing for our friends who have 8 children in their family. I bought a bird house from Michaels, made some royal icing, and covered it with candy. They loved it!