A Day to Remember!

As you may have heard, Scott Brown won the Senate seat in MA yesterday. It was proof of a grassroots movement here in our country. The people don't like the "changes" being made in WA. It gives me hope yet, that with this election we might be able to have more change like this in the near future. However, we can't sit back and not pay attention, we still have to hold people like Scott Brown accountable. We need to watch and make sure he is serving in the best interest of our country.

I don't think that it was a coincidence what I read today in my scriptures. Mosiah 29 - The people wanted a king and Mosiah was letting them know that they should have judges and not just one ruler. He could lead them down the wrong path. In the Book of Mormon study guide, I read this quote by J. Reuben Clark, Jr.:

"I have a complete confidence in the aggregate wisdom of the . . . people if they are given and made to understand the facts. The wisdom of the mass is always greater than the wisdom of the individual or of the group. The few may be more subtle, more agile-minded, more resourceful; they may for a time push to the front and scamper ahead in the march; they may on occasion and for a time entice us down the wrong highway at the crossroads. But the great slow-moving, deliberat-thinking mass plods along over the years down the Divinely appointed way. Led astray, they slowly, cumberously swing back to the right road, no matter what the toil or the sacrifice may be, and when they start the return, they crush whatever lies in their path. So has humanity come up through the ages."

Lets pray that we are slowly, cumberously swinging back to the right road.

What do you do?

What do you do when you try to build a snowman and you can't lift up the snow balls?

You make miniature ones until your dad gets home from work.

Commercial Break

I figure that with my last post some might be wondering why I was scwabbling over a few dollars. So, here goes - my sister introduced us to this awesome book:

Dave has a radio show and I enjoy listening to him. He speaks so truthfully and with such conviction. He practices what he preaches. When Maren told me about it I decided I wanted to read it and asked Tim if he'd be willing to read it with me and maybe make some changes in our lives. He agreed. We have been following this book since about May, I think, and it has made such a difference in our lives. I can hardly believe it. I always knew that Tim and I had a good marriage but after getting on this program it has made us closer as a couple and has helped us communicate so much more. I can hardly explain it but I am loving it. We are recognizing our blessings more and appreciating all that we have. Our only regret is that we didn't read this book and start working on this when we were first married. We have now gotten our kids on board. We don't want them to have to wait until they have 4 kids to get on this program so this is what they got for Christmas:
It is working like a charm. I can already see them understanding not only the choices Tim and I are making for our family but what they need to do to Save, Spend and Give when it comes to there own money! Now, instead of just asking for things, they will say, "Do you think that maybe you could put in the budget for me to get this? I really need it because . . ." They know they usually have to wait until the next month but they never complain. Awesome ! I tell you! Just Awesome.

I highly recommend this book to anyone and everyone. No matter what your financial situation is. It's not a get rich quick in any way. Just hard work, determination and faith!

Snow!

So, I'm sure I have mentioned what great neighbors we have. It's a new neighborhood so everyone is new and all developing new friendships. We are loving it. The last day of school before Christmas breack we had a great snow storm. The next day we got a call from our neighbor telling us they were going to go sledding that morning and told us to come along. Behind their house is a nice hill where some houses haven't been built yet so we all took advantage. So we just bundled up and walked between the houses and across the street (another reason it's nice not having fences.) It was so fun that I hardly noticed the cold. We had about 5 families out there just taking turns and having a great time. Even McKenna loved it - even though the first time Mom was a little nervous - it's a pretty good hill - not to mention if you didn't stop you would hit a bunch of brush, rebar, and a small stream of water. (I think Maya only ran into it.) Can't wait til next time.

Alexa

Maya

Tim

Our sweet neighbor let the girls ride down on her back.

Here's Livie!

Just Maya and Me!

I never thought I'd be the type of mom that would let their kids stay home from school but I did it. Somehow a decision was made that the first graders would go to lunch at a Mexican restaurant that is about 1/2 hour away. They had been studying holidays around the world and thought this would be a fun activity. It was going to cost $7 for lunch and the bus ride over. They were leaving at about 10:30am and returning about 1pm. I wasn't too thrilled about the idea. I think sometimes people at school forget how many times we send money in for our kids. They may think $1 here or $2 there isn't much but when I have to do that x 3 kids it gets a little ridiculous. So, the thought of sending more money right at Christmas time for my daughter to go to a Mexican restaraunt to eat a quesadilla seemed like a waste. I did however let Maya choose what she wanted to do. I told her she could go to lunch with her class or she could stay home with me and bake goodies for her teachers to give to them the next day. I was so glad she chose to stay with me. We had a great time. We got so much done - we learned about measuring, serving others and giving gifts, we had mommy/daughter time, we talked about budgeting and how we saved $7, we counted all our goodies, and even shared a little with McKenna. I think it was a much more productive day than going to lunch. Maya and all our yummies!

(Notice the chocolate covered pretzel rods - they were a big hit with the teachers.)

Maya's 7th Birthday!

December 16th we celebrated our little Maya's birthday. This girl definitely does NOT take after me. I always say she has more confidence in her little pinky than I have in my whole body. She isn't afraid to try or do anything and thinks that she's big enough to do anything her parents or big sisters do. She has so much personality and energy I can hardly keep up. I just can't keep her busy enough. Her favorite statement to me is: "Mommy, what can I do?" MY favorite present she got was a box of stamps, markers and cards to make cards and decorate paper with. She is the one that loves to write little notes to us. And now the question of what can I do seems to be deminishing somewhat since she can have paper in hand. She is creating a surprise for Tim and I right now.

For Maya's birthday we went to Time to Eat. We then came home to open presents and eat cake (her choice.) Nothing like having cake right after Thanksgiving and in the midst of Holiday baking. We planned to go ice skating but the time the rink was open was while Tim was at work so she opted to have us go on a different day so he could come (photos coming soon of that trip.)

Maya and her birthday door.

Time to Eat!

Ward Christmas Party!

This year our activities committee planned, what I thought was a great party. They had Santa at the very beginning. We came in, got in line for Santa (while those without children lined up for food), then got straight in line for the food. They served breakfast (which is one of our family favorites for dinner, we just don't do it too often.) Then they had the program and ended with a member of the bishopric read from Luke 2 and share a few thoughts. It ended on such a nice note. The other great part was that they had the kids where their jammies. I'm not such a fan of this usually, in fact when they have pj day at school I tell my kids they can wear sweats. Something about staying in your jams all day seems wrong. But I gave in this time and when we got home, we just put them to bed. AWESOME!

Maya

(I don't know what happened to their robes but they came with them on. So toasty in this FREEZING weather.)

Maya

Olivia

McKenna

(she was afraid of Santa at the beginning but as soon as I didn't have the camera she was wanting to keep getting in line to sit on his lap.)

No pics of Alexa. She's in YW's now and so was, of course helping with their part of the party. So strange. I still can't believe she's 12. And now she keeps reminding me that she'll be turning 13 this year.

Olivia's Christmas Concert/Alexa's Band Concert

Our school has a Christmas Concert every year that the 3rd graders are involved in. Livie got to participate this year. She was front row center and did a great job. She was quite nervous but didn't miss a step. Here are a few pics of the concert.

Here's McKenna getting fed up with waiting for it to start.

Little Livie. She told me the other day that there are 2 people shorter than her in her class. Woohoo!

On another note (no pun intended), Alexa had a Christmas band concert that she played the flute in. Her parents are sometimes scatterbrained and so hence no pictures of the occasion. It was the best concert ever - they only played 2 songs. Nice and short! They actually sounded pretty good considering they were all 6th graders and the fact that at the beginning of the year we went to a band orientation where a few boys that wanted to play percussion and the band teacher had them try clapping a rhythm while tapping their feet. Either they chose something else or a miracle happened in the past few months.

So what if it's January and I'm posting Thanksgiving.

We spent our Thanksgiving with my sister, Maren and her sweet family. It's always fun when they come. Our sweet new friends the Shellenberger's and their darling kids also joined us. They moved that same weekend. They were here for such a short time but I feel like we will be friends for a really long time. (We secretly are praying they'll move back here.) I usually stress out when people come for things like this (and I'm not even the one doing the "REAL" cooking.) so lately my goal has been to be relaxed and enjoy everyone. One of the outcomes of that is I didn't check the camera before hand to make sure the battery was charged. Luckily my always prepared sister, had her camera ready to go. We forgot to take a picture of all the food (which was on the island.) Here we are enjoying our food.

Did I mention that there were 12 kids under the age of 12? They were all so good and played so well together. Here were the few that were left still eating when we remembered to get the camera out.

THE DAY AFTER!

Tim enjoying his leftovers.

Thanksgiving night after the poor Shellenberger's went home (they were so tired from moving.) we stayed up and played Wii fit. I had just gotten it for my birthday and so we all spent time trying to get fit after such an awesome dinner. Here is eveyrone the next day. Still Wiiing it up. The great thing about the Wii is that even if you aren't playing, it's so much fun to watch others. As you can see, Andrew's playing and everyone around him is trying it out also.

We didn't get a picture but Maren and I took the kids to the park while Andrew did some work and Tim worked on his car. There is a track around the play area so Maren and I ran while the kids played. It was a great set up. After we got home we turned on some music and everyone went crazy. Here they are bustin' a move.

Don't ask me what this girl's doing? Looks like she's had a little too much turkey.

AAAGHHH! I missed Livie's Birthday!

This is the problem with having 3 out of 4 of your children's birthday all with in a week of a holiday! I can't keep up. I love this girl.

I can't believe she is 9 already. She gets more beautiful everyday. She is so random, we don't know what is going to come out of her mouth. She's the one that is most likely to tell the "family secrets" - she can be such a chatter box. She is such a good big sister and is turning into such a great student. She adores Alexa and looks up to her so much. She has the best facial expressions and body language. Dinner is the best time to witness those things. I KNOW she loves the gospel and tries hard to do the right thing. Although she never admits it she is a little social butterfly at school - especially with the boys. We laugh anytime there is a school function and we are walking down the hall, there are boys left and right saying hi to her. The best part is she doesn't even notice it.

For her birthday we had the big number 9 pancake to start off the day.

After school and after Daddy got home from work, Olivia opened her gifts. Here she is getting her loot from one of her grandma's. (That's always the favorite gift around this house.)

Although, I think this one might have trumped it. She wanted the Little House on the Prairie series so that's what she got. Here she is reinacting the big surprise for the camera.

All the girls at Cracker Barrell

That morning we had just completed reading the Doctrine and Covenants as a family. We had decided before we started it that we would give ourselves a little incentive. When we finished the book we would go buy Mario Cart for the Wii. So, after dinner, we took a trip to Walmart and bought it. Olivia loved that we finished reading it exactly on her birthday.

Here they are addicted already.

McKenna getting in on the action.

Birthday cupcakes! Is this girl beautiful or what?