Bring on the Love

Like a lot of families, we like to make Valentine mailboxes and hang them on our bedroom doors. For the few days or so before Valentine's Day we deliver notes and candy to each other. The kids LOVE this tradition. Here are some of us hard at work:

 I love that Dave willingly participates. He took his box to the "H.N.L.". :)

 As you can gather by his box, Derek is more anti-lovey stuff than anyone I know. He loves the tradition of writing notes, but gets grossed-out by all the hearts, pink, and red.

McKenna on the other hand...can't get enough of the holiday!

My Babies Are Growing Up!

I give up! Because I have become so behind in my blogging, I have shut down. I am too overwhelmed to start again. I have so much that I want to put on here and it's worthwhile. But I need to move on. Every time I go to make a new post I think "no, if I skip something then I'll never go back and do it". I changed my mind several times while I was creating this post. But I really want to get back into blogging, so I am giving up on the old posts and I am starting with the current times. Maybe I'll do a flashback post every once in a while. 

Ryan began going to Nursery on January 8th and McKenna left Nursery on January 1st. They just missed each other! They would have had fun together, but McKenna was more than ready to become a Sunbeam. Ryan, however, not so ready to become a Nursery goer. He cries every time Dave drops him off, but each week the crying is easing up. This last Sunday Dave said he cried for about 5 seconds. He still wants us to know that he is not okay with the abandonment. I thought he was so adorable with his little handout necklace, so I took a few pictures...okay, a lot of pictures. 

I told him to say "cheese". He's saying "eeeeessse".

Like I mentioned, McKenna finally started Sunbeams this year. Last year she missed the deadline by one month, so she has been hanging out with the babies waiting for her turn for Primary. She gave her first talk on Sunday and did so great! She told me before church that she was going to be shy, but she got right up and talked clearly and loudly into the microphone. Her teacher asked her to bring her "scripture reader" to class each week and she is very dedicated to this assignment. Such a sweet girl!

This is the face you get when you tell her that she wasn't looking at the camera for the previous pictures. :)

I just thought I'd add this one for the humor factor. I should make a whole post of Ryan outtakes. That kid make some funny faces!

And to the 2 people that still check this blog...Thanks for sticking with me. I really do hope to get this blog going again!

How to Get a New Oven

November 13- Are you ready for an embarrassing story? Dave had been out of town for a conference and was due back later that evening. I was making dinner and talking on the phone with my friend at the same time (bad idea). I had been preheating the oven for dinner, when I smelled something funny and suddenly memories of the previous day flooded my thoughts. I was expecting two ladies over to work on a project and my kitchen wasn't its cleanest so I was scrambling to hide the mess. The high chair tray was dirty and with no time to clean it, I shoved it into the oven. I've never done this before! But I remember growing up that my mom was constantly storing things in the oven. There were several occasions when things were melted (bags of tortilla chips, my brother's plastic toy truck, etc)...I hope you okay I shared that, Mom. :) Because I've never done this before it never occurred to me to check the inside before I turned the oven on. And yep, when I smelled that horrible smell I opened the oven to find the high chair tray was a dripping melted mess and it also added oxygen to the existing flames. I explained the scene to my friend and kind of laughed..."oh and there are flames". But as the flames grew my laughter turned to panic and that panic turned to fear. She started to freak out and said "do you have a fire extinguisher!". I closed the oven door and ran to the garage and put her on hold for a minute while I took two squirts of the extinguisher to the oven. You wouldn't believe the mess and the smell that came from that dang thing. Of course all the alarms in the house are going off by now and all the kids wanted to come see what was going on. So I hung up with my friend, locked the kids in the toy room, opened every window and door to the house, and fanned the alarms until they stopped screaming. Then a new emotion hit me...anger. I was SO MAD at myself. I HATE making dumb mistakes. And I was angry that the highchair tray was toast...literally. I was also mad that this might make Dave think less of me. I'd like to think that I am a capable woman, but this doesn't add to that reality at all. So I cleaned up the film of fine powder from the extinguisher and waited for Dave's return. He walked in the door and I gave him a big hug. Then I asked him "how much do you love me"? To which he replied "uh oh, what happened?" I showed him the oven and he was quiet. I could tell that he was upset, but he could also see that I was just as equally upset, so he was kind to me...like always. We tried all that we could to clean that oven. I chiseled for hours, but nothing got it all off. So we went to The Home Depot and got a great deal on a new oven. But good things have come from it. My kitchen has been clean for two months now! :) And I know that I can handle using a fire extinguisher. :) Anyone have an oven catastrophe story they want to share? It would make me feel better! 

All the tan-colored stuff is the plastic remains.

And The Award Goes To...

Last August Derek completed his Wolf badge for Cub Scouts. He loves Scouts and it's fun to see him take such an interest in something. My little guy is now in the Bear den. 

After Pack Meeting we came outside to find a double rainbow. And since people think that pictures of just scenery are boring, I made Derek get in with his new award.

All of the Young Women and leaders that received their award in September.

Last September I finally finished my Young Women Recognition Award as a leader. What a powerful experience! I completed it as a youth but it meant so much more this time. I highly recommend that everyone do it whether you have a daughter or not. Personal Progress is an amazing program.

My display table representing some of the projects I completed.

It took me two years to complete the requirements for the award. Each of the 8 values requires you to complete certain goals and a 10 hour project relating to the value. Some examples: I took a sewing class, created a fitness and healthy eating program, read the entire Book of Mormon, taught the Beehives a craft, and spent 40+ hours on a Girls Camp video montage. And best of all...my new necklace is silver instead of gold like my first one. :)

And yesterday, Derek was one of five winners of a school-wide Reflections contest. He wanted to win so badly and was so excited when they called his name at an awards assembly. He entered a film that went with the year's theme, "Diversity means...". His film was titled "Weirdos". That kid has quite the imagination. Congratulations, Derek!

Give Me Something Good to Eat!

Halloween is a busy holiday for moms. Got to get the kids up early to get the costumes on and ready, attend the school parade, help with the class party, get dinner ready early, get the kids ready again while handing out candy to the way-too-early trick or treaters, walk the streets begging for candy trick or treating, then home again to let the kids binge, and down they all go to a late bedtime. But I do love Halloween. My kids are at fun age for it and I realize that there aren't many years left when we all get to go together. Soon they'll want to go with friends on rollerblades to maximize their time, and use pillowcases instead of cute little pumpkins because it holds more candy. Right, Dave?! :) Oh and that's all hypothetical, of course. ;)

 My sweet little Snow White.

I'm sorry, but the Woopie Cushion just struck me as funny. Don't judge me! :)

 Derek had the idea to be a swat dude. This is what he came up with using church pants and Batman's mask. I forgot about my idea to make the shield thingy until I was driving them to school that morning. I raced home cut out the cardboard, spray painted it, stenciled the letters, and had to him in time for the parade. Yeah, that's the extent of my craftiness. I can spray paint cardboard. Nice.

 We just can't let this "Monkey Face" thing die. First his birthday cake and now the Halloween costume. But he's such a cute monkey!

 And it had a tail for Heaven's sake!

 We should have mapped out a begging for candy trick-or-treating route. We zigzagged haphazardly throughout our neighborhood. We did a lot of walking! The kids still ended up with plenty of candy.

Eventually I went home with Ryan, and Dave took the other three kids for another hour. They ran into McKenna's little friend and they all finished up the last hour together. Our last trick-or-treater came at 10:00 PM!! I told them it was over and they should probably call it a night. Am I a Scrooge or what...but, really? 10:00 PM!? Bah Hum Bug. :)

Brock-O-Lanterns

The night before Halloween we do the traditional carving of the pumpkins. The kids draw the face and pull out the seeds and we try to follow their lines with the knife. 

I love these kids!

Love this cute little face!

Lastest Family Photo

It had been three years since our last nice family portrait. I thought it would be fun to try them myself. I didn't factor in the stress of trying to be mother and photographer at the same time. It's hard to arrange a family when you are a member of it that needs to be arranged. :) We put the camera on a tripod and asked Dave's sister to come get the kids' attention and snap the picture for us. I think it turned out well, except for the fact that Ryan wouldn't smile for anything! It's okay, I guess we captured one of his true moods. :) Again...a classic Ryan face.

I'm madly in love with this man!!