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?

Am I really this far behind?

Miss Maya started taking dance a while back. She loves it. They had an evening where we could come watch and take pictures of our little darlings while they had their lesson. It was only her 3rd lesson. MOST of the other girls had taken the year before and had also been taking for 2 months before Maya came in. I have to say she has held her own prety well. She's the one in the black leotard and tights and purplish skirt.


This first video is from Tim. He wanted to capture her teacher's accent. Maybe I've been in the south too long but I don't hear any accent. Can anyone else tell? I'm sure those of you in AR don't hear it either.

Not too bad. Sometimes a little hard to watch all those girls moving at different times but still dang cute.

Christmas Fun

Thanks for everyone's thoughtful comments and ideas for our 12 days of Christmas. We went with the idea of doing a nativity and giving her a piece every day. The kids are loving it and I have found it is helping me focus on something every day that is a little extra special as I run around frantically trying to finish everything up. (Don't tell Tim, but I just bought some fabric to make the girls skirts for Sunday - he'll give me the lecture about that I try to do too much and I stress myself out - but tradition is more important, right?)

Anyway, we had a fun Ward Christmas Party last Saturday and they had a fun little activity to do at our tables while there was a pause in between the program. I thought maybe if there was ANYONE out there that is sooo organized and everything is all done you might find the time to try and figure out the songs. It's called "Guess the Christmas Carol". Let me know how many you get right. If you want I can post the answers later. (Mom, I'm sure you don't have time to do this but I know you will do it - you can't control yourself when it comes to puzzles.)

“COLORLESS YULETIDE”
“CASTANEOUS-COLORED SEED VESICATED IN A CONFLAGRATION”
“SINGULAR YEARNING FOR TWIN ANTERIOR INCISORS”
“RIGHTEOUS DARKNESS”

“ARRIVAL TIME: 2400 HOURS, WEATHER: NOT CLOUDY”
“LOYAL FOLLOWERS ADVANCE”
“REMOTE IN A FEEDER UNIT”
“ARRAY THE CORRIDORS”
“BANTAM MALE PERCUSSIONIST”
“MONARCHIAL TRIAD”
“NOCTURNAL NOISELESSNESS”
“JEHOVAH DEACTIVATE BLITHE CHEVALIERS”
“RED MAN ENROUTE TO BURROUGH”
“FROZEN PRECIPITATION COMMENCE”
“PROCEED AND ENLIGHTEN ON PINNACLE”
“QUADRAPED WITH VERMILLION PROBOSCIS”
“QUERY REGARDING IDENTITY OF DESCENDANT”
“DELIGHT FOR THIS PLANET”
“GIVE ATTENTION TO MELODIOUS CELESTIAL BEINGS”
“THE DOZEN FESTIVE 24-HOUR INTERVALS"

Any Ideas?

Ok! So we are trying to make our Christmas more meaningful around here. We have decided that we wanted to do the 12 days of Christmas for a widow who lost her husband only a few months ago. The problem is that I've never done it before. I started looking on line for some ideas but realized that all my dear friends and family that read this blog are MUCH more creative than a lousy web site. So, if you have any clever things you have done - send them my way. Thanks for you help. Hope you are all enjoying the Christmas Season. We sure are.

WORTH READING!

So, after the whole climate-gate thing with the e-mails proving once again that global warming is a hoax, I wanted to post something but never got around to it. I was going to write about how I saw a smart car for sale by owner and how I figured he was selling it now that he realized he doesn't have to look like an idiot driving a roller skate to "save the planet." (Have you seen those things? One little fender bender and you are toast.) I also thought about posting something about how NBC has their "Green Week" so they encourage you to go green as long as you are watching TV (kind of a contradiction, huh?) Or how I just heard that it would take the whole world using no electricity or any sort of energy for 30 years to drop the earths temperature by one degree - NOT GONNA HAPPEN! Then I thought about cap and trade and how frustrating that is and how I don't want to be taxed out of my home over energy taxes - but I thought I would save everyone from my ranting and raving about that. But this morning I was looking at my brother, Bart's blog and he had this great article that makes me hopeful for not only our country but maybe even the world. Read it. I'm sure that NBC won't be covering this story.

http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=514118

Amish Store

Our friends here in NC took us to a fun Amish store a few Saturdays ago. After an entire week of awful weather, the sun came out just for that day and it was absolutely beautiful. We had such a great time. They had so many fun things to look at and buy. Yummy pastries and some AWESOME spaghetti sauce that we took home. They had a little playhouse outside for sale so the girls played in there while we sat on the front porch of the store and visited. It was such a relaxing day. Afterwards we went back to their house for lunch - yummy sliders, salad, and treats. The girls love going to their house and playing. They have lots of land to run and play (and a basement with books and toys.) That's also where I got to shoot the gun (see Tim's earlier post.)

Every General Store has to have a dog, right?

The Jenkin's and the girls!

Our family in front of an Amish buggy (not to be confused with a southern shopping cart.)

Thanks, Jenkin's for a fun day! Can't wait to do it again. You are so nice to put up with all of us.

Watch out, Cinnabon!

A few weeks ago Alexa had seen the Cinnabon store and couldn't get the smell out of her nose. One Saturday morning she woke up and told me she wanted to make cinnamon rolls. I said that was fine but I was going for a run and she would need to get started on her own. When Tim and I got back she had the dough all made but was just mixing it with a wooden spoon. We got it in the bosch and everything was fine. She did tell us that she had to start over and that was the 2nd batch. We worked together from then on with her doing most of the work. She did a great job and her reaction when they were done was, "Boy, this takes a LONG time." (Did I mention we didn't eat breakfast until 11:30 that morning?) I don't know when she'll want to try this again but I'm always proud of her when she wants to learn and try something new. It was nice to leave for a meeting the other night and ask her to make some rolls for dinner (with a little help from her dad.

The finished product - good thing I went running that morning! But, if all 4 girls want to learn how to bake - I think I'm in trouble - I may need to start running twice a day!

"I'm a Big Kid Now!'

Here again is our darling, McKenna. Back in October I MENTIONED to Tim that we probably ought to consider putting McKenna in her toddler bed and out of her crib. It was more my way of getting used to the idea by talking about it. Well, Tim took that as, he better get on it and take care of things. So while I was gone one Saturday, he took down her crib and put up her bed. I came home and he told me he had a surprise for me. Poor guy, he thought he was being such a good husband and doing what I asked but I wasn't too thrilled. In just a few hours he had taken my baby away. I had a big girl. I didn't think I would have such a hard time with it but I did. The REALLY sad part was that she was absolutely thrilled and has never looked back. She now thinks she is as big as her big sisters. Sigh!

Here she is on her big girl bed. I was having so much fun taking her picture, I thought I'd share them all. (Mostly to make the grandma's want to come and see her in person.)

McKenna with her FAVORITE elephant. She doesn't sleep WITH it she sleeps ON it like it's her pillow. Strange. I wonder if I'll ever have to buy her a pillow.

Can you tell she LOVE'S to get her picture taken.

It was time for her nap after I got through taking her pictures so she climbed in to bed ready for one more photo op!

Here she is pretending she's asleep so we could get an ACTION shot.

Halloween 2009

It feels like Halloween was forever ago now that Thanksgiving is right around the corner. Here are a few pictures of the kiddos from our ward trunk or treat and Halloween night.

McKenna

I love this picture of Livie. She can be so timid around people sometimes but this shows her cute personality.

A 50's girl, Pippi Longstocking, a smiley face and a pirate

(All recycled costumes this year - gotta love Dave Ramsey.)

"Clinging to our guns and our religion"

As I opened up our blog to share this experience I had today, I saw the last post that Tim made (without my consent.) and laughed. One week we are talking about guns, the next, prayer - I new EXACTLY what this post title needed to be. . .

Maya's class had a Thanksgiving lunch today and there were a few parents there helping. The teacher, who I really enjoy the more I get to know her, was reading to the kids while the parents were serving up plates. The teacher would send a few at a time to come get their plates and sit quietly at their desks. As it got down to the last few kids getting food the kids started getting a little impatient since they had to wait to eat until everyone was served. First, the teacher started to tell them to smell there yummy food. "Clothes your eyes and smell." Then I about fell over when I heard her say, "Think of all the things you are thankful for. Thank God for all those things you are thankful for." I was so glad. I wondered what the other parents were thinking. I looked around the room and they didn't seem to mind. The teacher continued, "Ok, what's the first thing you should do?" All of a sudden a kid shouts, "PRAY". The teacher said, "Uh, well - uh, no we can't - well, wait, yes, we can. If I make it into a lesson I can." She sort of looked around the room and looked at me. I was thinking, what in the world is she going to do? From everything I know, we are FORBIDDEN to pray in school, I mean, I think it's up there now with, Thou shalt not kill, isn't it? She then just said, "OK, bow your heads like we do for our moment of silence in the morning. Ok, Dear Father we are thankful for . . . ." And ended with Amen. The kids all had their heads down and eyes closed. I loved it. I have to say, it was the best feeling I've ever felt in a classroom and the quietest and most respectful I have ever seen a classroom of children. I can only imagine that's how it was back in the day.

By the way, to answer a few questions about my first shooting experience - I thought it was pretty cool. I think I'd like to try skeet shooting sometime. We haven't bought a gun but I seriously have been thinking about discussing it more with Tim. That's as far as I have gotten with it. I would be fine having one in our home with our children - I think I'd be most concerned about Maya though. When she came outside and saw the gun, she, of course, asked if she could have a turn. That girl can't let anything happen without her.