Mommy, today was a really good day.

That's what Lillee told me before she went to bed, tonight. She was referring to the fact that her day started with a mommy-Lillee outting to the bakery, the library and then Bizarre Bazaar. Then when we arrived home, she was thrilled to find out her cousin Max was over. She played with Max all afternoon until her other cousins Alice, Hannah and Emma arrived (well, Henry was here too but she doesn't care much for older boys, yet). She played, and played and played! Shared her Halloween candy (yes, she still has a bag of Halloween candy at the end of February) and played some more.

After everyone left we started into a furious frenzy of trying to get everyone bathed and church clothes laid out as we have to leave by 8:00am for church on Sundays. After getting clean, putting on her most comfortable pajamas and then brushing her hair, Grandma was waiting to read a book! This is when she announced, "Mommy, today was a really good day."

We have had a really awesome weekend! Our cousins have been visiting and all the kids have gotten along well and played so nice. We were excited for a chance to see the cousins, but we were really coming together to wish Uncle Andy, a farewell before he heads off next Sunday. In one week, Andy leaves for Louisianna for 3 months of training before he then heads off to Afghanistan for 7 months to train Afghans in the medical field. So this is it for 10 months.

We pray Andy and his family are blessed with comfort through the love of Heavenly Father in the coming months. Koryn is about to show us all what a strong woman she is...God bless her! I have the utmost respect for military service men and women and their spouses. And I am extremely grateful for their service to our country and as humanitarians around the world.

8 years and counting

On February 22, 2002 (2/22/02), Al and I were married in the front room of the house we currently live in. We were wearing blue jeans and only had a few attendants (Al's family, sitting on the sofa). Nothing fancy, as you can tell. I think there is only one picture in existence of the event...a little 4X6 that hangs in my bedroom and every time I look at it I think, "I'd like to be that size, again."

In 8 years, we've had some interesting adventures, but none compare to the 4 children we've had. I wonder what the next 8 years will bring.., our children will be 15, 13, 12 and 9. WHOA!!! Maybe I don't want to wonder about that just yet.

Happy Anniversary, honey.

Our Valentine's Day

We had such a nice Valentine, this year.



I stopped off at the fabric store a few days before V Day and snagged V Day prints on sale for 75% off. I knew Connor wouldn't be interested in pink hearts so I also snagged some fleece at 65% off. I made pillolws for the girls...some nice comfy memory foam pillows. And Connor got a pair of Transformer fleece pajama pants. Al bought flowers for everyone, roses for me and yellow daffodils for the kids.

We made V Day cookies on Saturday so the kids took treats to their church teachers along with the extra daffodils and some corny monkey Valentine Cards.

After church, we had a nice nap time followed by games and a family activity planned by Lillee. She was so cute directing everyone. It went something like this, "Isabel, you'll do the song. Daddy, you'll do the scripture. Mommy, you'll do the talk. I'll do the prayer. And Connor, you'll do the silly dance. Then I'll hide all the prizes and we'll all go together to find them."


Lillee took stuffed animals and other trinkets from her room and hid them, then directed us where to find them. It was a really fun evening and I love that when our kids think of fun family activities that it includes prayer, talks and scriptures :)

This guy made me smile

You'll have to click on the picture to see the stickers up close, but I'll tell you what they say starting in the upper left corner and coming down (like making the letter U).

1. Well at least the war on the middle class is going well
2. Work harder, Democrats want to spend your money
3. So how's that hopey changey thing working for you?
4. OOPS!
5. Conservative IN EXILE
6. Peace had a chance
7. O BUMMER
8. Bend Over, Here comes change

The capital O's on the bummer stickers are all the signature Obama O

Snowmageddon, Snowpocalyse or Blizzard of 2010

This is Connor sitting ABOVE the deck on a mound of snow.

And he made a 'snow chair' in the center of the yard.

Isabel couldn't even walk in the stuff. She crawled to the trampoline (you can see the snow is nearly to the top of the trampoline frame. She crawled right back and she's crawling onto the back deck...the snow eventually mounded over the top of the deck by about 1.5 feet.

Call it what you want, but I call it frustrating. It was enjoyable at times, but an inconvenience for 2 weeks and the inconveniece will continue for weeks to come. Over 40 inches of the white stuff from 2 storms just a few days apart.

This is the blanket of snow that leveled the backyard.

Here is a rail and if you look close in the background, you can see the snow is about to overtake the fence in the yard.

Our BBQ grill and it's new domed cover.

What a fun filled 2 weeks we've had

AAAARRRGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!

I'm done with snow :) We've been hit with over 40 inches of snow in two back-to-back storms and the state has no money to deal with the huge mounds of white stuff.

This is a measurement after the first storm.

We have enjoyed drinking lots of hot chocolate. Actually, I think Isabel gets all geared up to go play in the snow just so she can have hot chocolate when she comes back in because she never stays for more than 5 minutes.

Speaking of Isabel, she turned 4 years old last week and we had a great party! I stayed up late to make her Strawberry Shortcake birthday cake.

The next morning, when she hopped into bed with us, Al said, "Let's go have cake and ice cream." And he wasn't kidding. We had cake and ice cream at 7:30am

and were opening presents before 8:00am. She received some great gifts and had a fun day.

Isabel saw a cute little fabric dollhouse in a magazine and said she wanted on like it with little bunnies (just like the picture). I sewed this cute little house but wasn't able to find bunnies to live inside but thought she would still enjoy it. She's not played with it once. She wanted the bunnies and the stuffed bed and chair that was pictured in the magazine. maybe one day she'll appreciate it...when she's 30 and has her own kids to please :)

She got a new baby doll and baby bed from Grandma. This doll sucks her bottle and binky and closes her eyes and and breathes deeply when she goes to sleep.

Strawberry Shortcake was the star of the day. She received a doll, movie and 2 books all Strawberry Shortcake.

She's also been saying and doing some really funny things:

Grandma Jane has been organizing all of her hundreds, maybe thousands, of photographs. So one day, Isabel went downstairs where the sorting has been happening and said, "Where are those books with the pictures of the human beings in them?"

One afternoon, I asked the girls to clean their bedroom. After a bit of time, the girls appeared in the kitchen to announce the bedroom was clean and ready for inspection. Lillee continued to share that she cleaned the room almost completely by herself. When I questioned Isabel as to why she did not help clean the room, she spouted back, "I wanted to see how good Lillee could do by herself."

One morning at breakfast, we were having a little family chat...nothing serious, just talking. Isabel is something difficult to understand as she's lazy in her speech. On occasion, Al and I will tease her a bit to make her aware of her mispronunciations. This particular morning, I had mentioned that Connor made Isabel's cake all by himself and that he really enjoys commenting on the food I cook, with very descriptive language. Isabel wanted to chime in that she was a good cook, too. Al picked up on this and started teasing her about being a 'dood took'. Well the teasing continued in a slew of other funny word combinations. She corrected him over and over, "No, I'm a dood took!" She finally gave up, slapped her forehead and shook her head. It was hilarious!

I took her for her 4 year old check-up today and she was wonderful! Of course, I bribed her with a milkshake and chicken nuggets from McDonald's. Normally, she would scream when the Dr approaches her, but the bribery really worked! Dr. Pedriera told me how sweet and kind Isabel is and said, "Isabel, you're my favorite patient" and that made her feel so good. He always tells me what a good mom I am, that's why we really go to see Dr Pedriera :)