Mama's little helper

KL really just loves to a little helper.  It is fun to watch her.  Whether it is clearing the table, putting away the vacuum, helping to unload the dishwasher, she is always wanting to help out.  Yesterday we went grocery shopping (one of my new goals:  shop the adds--stock up when things go on sale.  I usually hate to do this because it causing planning ahead and being prepared, going to different stores, etc.  Anyway, I now pledge to do better.)  Anyway, we found cereal, wheat thins, and potato chips on sale for $1.50 each, so we really stocked up.  KL was quite happy to help bring the food in from the car.  I charged CK with the job to take all the surplus downstairs to the food room for me.  At first, it was a fun trip for her, but she quickly tired of the chore.  Not so for KL.  She was loving her responsiblity.  

Here she is trying to find a bag that wasn't too heavy for her to carry.  (By the way, her big brother--D--picked out her outfit and got her dressed :-) )

Here she goes downstairs with it.

Anyway, I'm sure the day will come where we are having arguments about doing these sort of things, but in the meantime, her help is very much appreciated!

 

The Apple (I Mean Orange) Doesn't Fall Far From The Tree

As I have mentioned in previous posts, I absolutely love oranges... the fresh ones that is.  Not the ones from the grocery store that have next to no flavor, and the flavor they do have is mostly sour.  Well, recently my brother in law and nephew went out to my aunts house to pick oranges and brought me back a big box.  I have been in heaven.  They taste better than candy!!  This is an opinion that I share with some of my kids--mostly my sweet little baby.  She just loves them.  Well, as I was sitting here at my desk, my little darling brings me the following things.  I had to be impressed by her!  She had gone into the pantry where the oranges are (not too impressive--they are on the bottom shelf), then she went to the drawer where the orange peeler is and got it out.  This one is a little bit more impressive to me because there are 4 drawers in a row and she knew which one it was in, plus she can barely reach the drawers, so she found it without looking somehow...either that... or she saw it in the dishwasher and pulled it out... still impressive that she knew what it was for, right?  Anyway, I decided that level of dedication deserves the reward she worked so hard for.   So I peeled it for her.  Here she is reaching with all her might to reach the countertop where her treasure lay.

Stuffing them in her mouth.

See how happy she is now?  What could be better than that?  I don't know either.  She must be my daughter!

The Dentist

Yesterday, the kids had their dental check ups. I know most kids may not look forward to this, but not my kids!!! They love when they get to go there, and I'll show you why!

First, we have CK, who, by the way, is wearing her tshirt the dentist gave her. When they are done with their cleanings, or whatever procedure they are getting done, they get little tokens to use in the "candy" machines--only there isn't candy in there, there are little toys. Anyway, if you wear your tshirt to your appointment, you get an extra token to spend. But, I digress. Here is CK who is sitting in the "movie theater" portion of the waiting room.
Here is KL who is just playing with one of the other toys they have out. It is a little thing with animals and sand that you use magnetic tools to drag the boats around. (She is looking a little ragged because she had been sick for a couple of days and had to get woken up from her nap.)

Here is L playing on a touch screen computer.

KL licking another toy. Don't worry, once I realized she was actually licking it, I put the camera down and got her to stop.
The "Arcade." This is just outside the movie screening room and they have a few different video games out that the boys just love.

Now then, who wouldn't love going to the dentist if this is what you associated it with? I even like it. I mean, we can sit there for 2 hours and never once do I have to listen to my kids complain about wanting to go home or try and keep them out of things they aren't suppose to be in. For those of you who have "dentist issues" I recommend checking our dentist! It is a holiday for us!

Funny Little Four Year Old

Kids really do say the darndest things! CK has been really funny lately too. I just had to write down a couple of things yesterday that had me laughing or else I knew I would forget. Of course, for those of you who have never heard her talking, it is hard to get the full picture. She has the raspiest little voice, which when added to her little pre-school speech impediments, is just hilarious! Anyway...

First, she had been helping me make some orange rolls yesterday. I got the recipe from my mother-in-law (and they are just amazing by the way), so I always tell the kids they are Grandma Shirley's rolls. Anyway, I told her she had to wash her hands before she helped me, which she dutifully did. She was just talking up a cute little storm as we were making them. I had given her a little piece of dough to roll out which took her about 10 minutes to get rolled out enough for me to knot. As she was rolling, she started telling me about different the different parts of her face, and was touching each part, including her hair and nose. So, I told her she had to wash her hands again. She really didn't understand why because she had already washed her hands. I finally told her, "because I don't want germs in my rolls." She quickly replied, "But dey not yor wolls, dey Gwama Siwley's."

Just after we finshed the rolls (and she did go and wash them again, for those of you who ate them and were worried), I was cleaning up. She kept asking me for something, I don't remember what, but I was telling her no. She finally looked up at me and said, "Don't make me tell your mom on you!"

A little while later, she was playing outside my bedroom door while Dave was watching the Cardinals/Eagles game (go Cards!) and it was the point where the Eagles came back and took the lead after being down 18 points in the last 5 minutes of the 4th quarter. Dave started angrily yelling, "Doggoneit!!" and stomping around. CK anxiously ran in the room with her eyes as big as saucers, asking, "Mom! What happened?!?!?! Did 'Doggoneit' win?!?!? Did 'Doggoneit' win?!?!?"

Dave's Big News

(no, this isn't Dave at church, this is him with his boss at the 9th Circuit Court)

Yesterday, Dave got some really huge news!  He has a case that he has been working on for sometime.  He has been through the appeals process and they have won some and lost some.  Yesterday, he found out that the Supreme Court agreed to hear their case.  Wow! Huge!  Anyway, we don't know the date yet, but we are pretty excited--the stress is starting to mount as well.  

I wrote a really long blog post this morning all about the case and it's long journey, but Dave decided it probably wasn't best to have the whole thing here, so if you want to read all about his journey, you can let me know and I will email you my first post.  :-)  Otherwise, you can read the AP report on the Supreme Court's announcement here.

Fiddler On The Roof

My nephew, Scottie was in the town's production of Fiddler On The Roof. He has been going to practices 2 hours a night, 3 nights a week for the last 2 months. He has really worked hard. Last night was opening night so we got to go and see him. Let me tell you, he was great. He was a villager. We were all really proud of how cute he looked up there! I took B and D with me. L was suppose to come too, but unfortunately, she has been sick the last couple of days, so she had to stay home. She was really quite heart broken. Luckily My sister and brother in law will be going again and she will be able to go with them.

Here we are in our seats.

After the play with our little star.Back row: Scott, Vasa, Katy, Roman (my little bros and sis)

Front row: Zach, Anna, Josh, Scottie, Sam, D

Scottie's Grandma Brown flew down from Utah to go see him. I th0ught that was so sweet! Here she is with him.

Scott, Scottie, Jill

The Fat Devil

Anyone who has ever met my daughter knows that that girl is a diva! Despite being a very pretty girl with a very sweet side, she answers to no one but herself and she feels certain that no one has the right to try and be in charge of her--least of al her parents. She will speak her mind, regardless of whether or not is appropriate, and not think twice about commanding the rest of the world around her (as, I am sure, she feels is her right).

Well, I'm not sure if any of you have heard of P90X, but it is an extreme workout program. There are often infomercials for it and whenever it would come on, Dave would stop what he was doing and just stare. So, being the kind and loving wife that I am, I got it for him for Christmas. I have been doing it with him too! (Hopefully, sometime soon, I'll have a post to say/show how wonderfully it is working.) There is a Yoga workout in there that will absolutely kill you! Dave and I did part of it last Saturday (only the first 1/3 of it) and we were both feeling it later! I mean, I've done yoga videos before, and it was nothing like this. Anyway, this last Saturday morning, while Dave was playing basketball, I decided I would do the rest of the yoga work out. It is 1 1/2 hours, so there was still an hour that I hadn't tried. As I was doing it, I'll be the first to admit, I struggled. There were some positions to hold that were just plain hard and for someone who has never tried some and others, not tried for years, it was almost impossible. As I lay on the floor struggling, L was kind of doing it with me--but selectively...only when she thought she could do it. Well, I kept falling out of one particular pose and then she said to me, "Mom, it's just because you have so much fat." I looked at her and said, "Thanks, L. That's not very nice." Her response: "Really, Mom. Jill would be able to do this." Ahhh. The sweet honesty of children. (By the way, Jill is my sister who is very slender).

About 45 minutes later after I was done and showered, I was suppose to be at the church for an activity. Dave wasn't quite home from basketball yet, but I still needed to get going because I had some of the main things were needed for the activity. Finally, I told D I would be leaving and he would be in charge till daddy got home. L immediately started making her opinions known that she didn't like that... he was to mean... he's no fun... etc. D's response was, "I don't know why you are complaining. You always say mom's the meanest." I looked at her and asked, "You think I'm mean?" She just gave me a little smile while D answered, "Yeah, she always calls you the Devil." Hmmm... I guess it is at least nice to know what they are saying about me! Also, as I do remind my kids, if they never thought I was mean, then I wouldn't be doing my job!!!

The Gift Of The Bran-gi

I'm sure you have all heard of the story of The Gift of The Magi.  Well, I would like to tell you a story about a sweet little boy who gave this Christmas with that same selfless spirit.

I'm not sure if  any of you remember this picture, but I posted it at Christmas and said there was a sweet little story to follow.

Our story actually begins in at the end of June as we prepared to celebrate cousin Z's birthday on July 1st.  We were trying to find him a very special present--after all, he is a very special boy who is with us quite a bit.  We finally decided to get him a toy guitar that you play kind of like the Guitar Hero.  It has a background beat and then it lights up the places/keys  you should play on the guitar to play the song.  You can even plug in MP3 players and learn to play along with your favorite songs.  The guitar was a big hit and all the boys loved it.  

Now, fast forward to the end of October when it was B's birthday.   Sometime before the big day,   B had been with Jill and Z shopping and had seen something that he thought was pretty cool (it was some sort of electronic Uno game).  Z cataloged this away and when it was time to pick out B's present, he knew just what to give him!  He was so specific with Jill as to what she was suppose to get.  He would remind her everyday what it was called, what it looked like, etc.  On the big day, the kids were walking home from school and Z turned to Jill to make sure she had got it.  She told him she had and then he turned to B and started telling him how much he was going to love his present and how great it was.  Then as a side note, he asked, "Do you like Uno?"  I feel I need to preface his response by saying that at this time, Uno was L's  favorite thing in the world to do(and still is actually) so he answered, "No!  That's dumb!"  (After all, how cool can it be when it is your sister's favorite game?)  Well, Z was mortified.  He ran up to Jill begging and pleading to go back to the store to pick something else out so they could give him the perfect gift.  Jill said no, because the other one would be fine and B would still love it.  This was just not good enough for Z, so he took matters into his own hand.  He went and got his precious guitar and gave it to B for his birthday.  I wish I had taken a picture of Z's face when he gave it to him.  He was so pleased with himself.  It really was sweet.

Fast forward again to the week before Christmas.  I was getting money out for the kids to take to Santa's Secret Shop at school.  I had them draw names with each other so they would know which sibling they should buy a present for.  Then I gave them the money and told them that they need to buy something for that person, plus mom and dad.  As soon as I said this, B disappeared downstairs. He came up a little while letter with 3 gift bags full of presents.  1 for me, 1 for Dave and 1 for D.  I had to rewrap some of the presents with him because they didn't quite fit in the bag so I got to see what they were.  For D, he had given him a new cool ball he had gotten from my mom for his birthday that was in the Bronco colors and of course, D loves the Broncos.   For Dave (as I am sure you have guessed by now from the story and the picture), he gave the very special guitar because he had played with it and told him how cool it was.  I just couldn't get over how sweet and selfless he was to give away these things he loved so much.  I should also point out that he didn't give these things away so he could keep the money for himself from Santa's Shop.  He did also buy us things from there.  What did I get you may ask?  Well, I was wondering too what it would be but had to wait until Christmas.  

He gave me another one of his most prized possessions.  He gave me his soccer trophy. 

I'm still just shocked about how selfless he was and it makes me think that I must be doing something right, although I know I have a lot to learn.  I know there have been times when we have cleaned out our toys and I have told the kids to pick out toys that they want to give away to kids who don't have as many.  They have picked out their newest and funnest toys and offered them up, but it was me who said no because it was still to nice or new.  Shame on me!  I'm so glad that that lesson didn't stick in!  I really hope I can always remember this spirit of giving!  Thanks for the special present and lesson, B!  

This is just a picture of L, because of course she wanted her picture taken too!  :-)

I was just going through some pictures and I came across this one.  It was taken on KL's blessing day.  I just love it!  It is actually of all the kids, but I just love the way L and D are looking at KL so I cropped it a little.  Anyway...  I just like this picture!

I Cry The Day I Take The Tree Down

I don't know how many of you are familiar with The Forgotten Carols, but there is a song on that CD called I Cry The Day I Take The Tree Down, but it is now time for me to sing that song.  There is a line in there that says, "I wish the season could last all year long."  I truly feel that way, but sadly, tomorrow the kids will go back to school and all the decorations will come down.  What a sad day it is for me.  I decided to just post a few picture here since it will be the last time I see some of  these decorations for almost a whole year!  Sniff sniff!

Our front porch.  Funny story... the sign above the door says, "Mrs Claus's Bed and Breakfast"  The day after Thanksgiving, I had my door open.  It was overcast, so I had all the Christmas lights on too.  Anyway, I was just home from the temple and still in my dress, so I guess I didn't look the way you would normally expect someone to look who is just hanging around her house.  Well,  I heard someone say,  "Excuse me?" from my front door.  I walked over and said, "Yes?"  The lady then asked, "Is this a bed and breakfast?"  "Umm...no."  "Oh, your sign says bed and breakfast."  Me: "yeah, that's just a sign I made."  In my mind I'm adding, "it also says North Pole, established 1605."  Anyway, I've been laughing about that all month!

The stockings were hung. . . with care.  We have no chimney, so they reside on our banister.

I always love when I see things that say "believe."  This house certainly believes. . .  in the spirit of Santa and what he represents and honors.  

I have always loved this statue.  When I was little, someone gave my mom one of these and I just loved it.  A couple of years ago, I decided to go on a mission to find my own and here it is.  I still love it and the message it brings!

All the snow we need here!

I have a couple of nativity scenes, but this is my favorite and and so I keep it in my kitchen for 2 reasons... first because it is where we spend the most time and can always be reminded of what this time of year is all about and second because it is up high where the kids can't reach it!

I hope everyone enjoyed their Christmas season and will have a great start to this new year!

I just got a kick out of this!  I'm a big Chris Martin fan and I also think Ricky Gervais is pretty funny too.  I just wonder how some people can keep a straight face!!!

Finally!!!

For Christmas, we got a new computer. I have been really excited about this for a while, not the least reason because I am finally following the council of church leaders and internet safety experts to get the family computer out in the open. Of course, the idea of having a new fast computer is also pretty exciting! It has been a long road getting it up and moving, but we are finally there! We got a MacBook and so I have had some difficulties trying to get back into the Mac mind set. I haven't used a Mac since college. We actually had to get it replaced 2ce beca

use the first 2 weren't working right, then we had issues with trying to get it all set up wirelessly, but 10 days and countless trips to the Apple Store and Best Buy and finally have got it all running like it should. I can even print! Yea!

So, here is my old computer set up:

Here is how my lovely set up now looks.

Here is the view from the kitchen. It really is nice to be in the kitchen and be able to see exactly what the kids are doing on the computer, but with our nice little wall, there is still a little bit of division. Loving it!

Happy New Year!

We hope everyone had a safe and happy New Year's Eve.  We kept it fairly low key here.  We just stayed at home and let the kids have friends over. 

Here we have some of the kids.  Dave, as you will notice, is already asleep.  He kept telling me he just wanted a power nap.  I warned him he wouldn't be able to get back up if he did.  This was taken just after 8.  To his credit, he did wake up again about 10:30!  In this pic, we have Vasa (my little brother), Dave, CK, her friend Sammy, and L.


Here we have some of the boys downstairs.  We have (from L to R) Carson, Chase, D, Kade, Roman (another brother of mine) and B in the back by the air hockey table.

The kids started to drop off one by one. By 9, 2 of the friends had left.  B decided to go to bed at about 9:30.  D took my brothers home about 10:30.  But, L was absolutely determined to stay awake until midnight.  She did really well too.  We played cards together for awhile, then at about 11:20 we turned on a movie to wait and she crashed at about 11:40.

Here is D with his 2 friends, Kade and Chase toasting the New Year with a glass of Martinell's.

We did get L to wake up to see the ball drop, but she wasn't interested in any Martinelli's.

Everyone pretty much crashed after that.  Dave took us all out to breakfast this morning. He started this tradition last year.  The kids always love going out to eat and getting their funny face pancakes, but B and D were quite happy to tell us to go without them this year!  We did eventually get them to wake up.  We had a great time!  I forgot to bring our camera but I did take a pic with my phone, but I can't get it to download, so for now, there is no pic.  If you care that much, you can always check back to see if I get it up!

Just as a little side note... I mean to load this video a couple of weeks ago, but I forgot.  KL really loves to help around the house.  She loves to do dishes and throw things in the trash, or any other job we can find for her.  When we had Dave's uncle over for dinner a couple of weeks ago, we got a cute little video of her helping clear the table.

Anyway, we hope you all have a wonderful and safe 2009! We love you!