To: Aunt Roberta

Dear Aunt Roberta,

Thank you for the fun package. I LOVED it all. My mommy took some video of me after I opened it. I wanted to eat all the candy right away. I also carry around the "lipstick" (chapstick) all day and put it on every 5 seconds. My mom LOVES that. You must know me well because it had everything I love in that cute little purse. I love and miss you.

Love, McKenna

Ice Skating

For Maya's birthday she wanted to go ice skating. With her birthday being right before Christmas, we ran out of time to go. So after the new year we finally got to go (in between all the bread baking.) Here are a few action shots from our fun. It got us ready and anxious for the Olympics to start!

Maya and Alexa ready to roll (or should I say, ice.)

Lookin' good, Tim.

Waiting for the zamboni to "fix" the ice.

All us girls!

Here I am just before I did a fabulous triple salchow. (I wish.)
I love to see smiles like this. So genuine, you know she's having a great time!

I thought this was pretty funny. Maya with her gloves and short sleeves. The girl definitely does her own thing ALL THE TIME!

Can't wait to go again next year.

6th Grade Science Project

I never liked science when I was in school and I can say the feeling hasn't changed. Alexa had to do her first science project so we made sure to do one that I could understand and help with. So here it is. We made bread and tested how the temperature of the water made the yeast react.

Pretty exciting stuff. Here is Alexa with her bread. We had to do 5 experiments. 4 Loaves of bread per experiment which means 20 loaves of bread were made. We did it all after we got back from our trip, during new years and all before she had to go back to school. The upside, we ate yummy homemade bread for a month and shared it with our neighbors.

How we rang in the New Year!

The day after we returned home from our trip was New Year's Eve. We had a great time. The girls all stayed up until midnight and we filled our time with lots of fun togetherness.

We did puzzles,

we played the Wii,

(Here's some footage of Alexa and Livie playing the new game they got for Christmas

from their cousins, the Bosley's.)

we snuggled while we watched a movie,
And we ate ice cream sundaes while we watched the ball drop. Yummy!

Happy New Year!

14 Years and Counting!

I can hardly believe that we have been married for 14 years now. Are we really that old? I know I have shared on this blog how great I think Tim is, but I can't post this without sharing a little more. Family and friends that knew Tim growing up have always shared funny and not so funny stories about Tim. It always helped me get to know who he was. I say was because now that I have known him and know him better than anyone, I think he is so much more and better than all those stories. He is the most supportive husband I know. I truly am spoiled. Not only is he ok with anything I decide to do, he knows that he will be the one watching the girls and never complains about being Mr. Mom over and over. Every Saturday we get up and clean the house. We get the girls going and then Tim instantly says, what do you need done? Pretty much anytime I feel anxious that the house isn't clean and I want to straighten up he is right there helping and getting the girls to clean up after themselves. When I am gone for the evening at a meeting, dinner is ready and warming in the oven, the kitchen is clean and the girls are all in bed asleep. EVERY TIME! Any day I can't make dinner or just don't feel like it, he comes home and makes dinner. If I want to do a project he is always there to help me. When he's not doing these things, he is working hard so I can stay home with our girls and building me up with kind words and encouragement of my capabilities. I must say my life is sweet.

For our anniversary Tim's parents graciously gave us a few nights at a hotel using their Time Share. We went to Alexandria, VA. A few miles from Washington D.C. It was FREEZING! We spent the day walking the mall, going to the capitol building and then the highlight for me was the Holocaust museum. There just wasn't enough time to see everything I wanted to see and did I mention it was FREEZING?! It was so exciting to be there. You could just feel something special being there and thinking of all the history that took place there. Tim commented that for me being at the capitol was like Fenway for him. Here are some pics. from our trip.

Just leaving for our YUMMY anniversary dinner. The next day we went to this little French Cafe for breakfast. It was so yummy. I secretly would love to live in a city like this or Charleston, SC where you can walk all over and it has tons of old buildings. I love it. The Capitol

It gave me mixed emotions. I love to think of our founding fathers and all they did to give us Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. All the hard work they put into it and then as we stood outside the building I felt sorrow thinking of all the corruption and greed that so many politicians have fallen in to.

Did I mention it was freezing!?
It was a little creepy seeing this guy. We didn't want to make any false moves. They were all over the capitol.

A Christmas tree on the lawn with a view of the Washington Monument.

We went over to the Air and Space museum but it was sooooo crowded. I figured people wouldn't be out with such cold weather but I was wrong - they were everywhere.

We didn't get to take any pictures in the Holocaust Museum but let me say, if you ever get over there, make sure to check it out. It is amazing. I have such a new respect for all those that
suffered. I learned so much more than I ever did in school. We spent about 4 hours in that museum and I can't wait to go back and take my girls (when they are older.)

In front of our Hotel room just before we were leaving to save my sweet sister and her husband from our childen. They watched them for 3 days and 2 nights. I owe her big time.

I can't wait to go back and can't wait to see what the next 14 years brings to our little family.

Christmas!

I finally downloaded our pictures so I can post about Christmas. We had a quiet Christmas Eve. Just our family. We did our little traditions of having Mexican food, reading the Christmas Story and opening one gift each (at least the girls did) The highlight of the night was after we read we asked the girls what part of the story stuck out to them the most - what meant the most. We all shared and it was so tender to hear them share their ever growing testimonies of Jesus Christ.

Livie and Maya waiting to open their Christmas eve gift.

2 of my sweet girls.
As usual they opened up pj's. (They tease me that every year I wrap them the same way. I roll them up and tie the ends like candy. Here they are in their jams along with a new game to play (after McKenna goes to bed, of course.)

These jammies were crazy. They were little tops with tight sleeves and the pants were giant. Here's Maya and Livie modeling how they truly fit. Notice how high the waist is. (What can you expect for $5 jams at Walmart.)

Christmas morning

Tim opening his gift from the girls. They all pitched in and got him a Red Sox tie. It's red with the red sox logo in the corner. They were so excited to give it to him. I thought they were going to ruin the surprise. He's sporting the new apron I made him also.

McKenna with her new ironing board. She new exactly what to do with it. Can't wait until she can use a real one.

My mom made her this blanket and this was her reaction. She loved it.

Maya

We spent Christmas day playing the

Wii and then went over to our friends, the Eckholdt's but of course forgot to take any pictures while we were there. Since they didn't have much family in town and neither did we, we decided to split the work of the meal and eat together. What fun.

Locks of Love

Alexa decided a while back that she wanted to grow her hair out to give to Locks of Love. It has been a LONG year with lots of ponytails. It was finally long enough so over Christmas break we decided to cut it. Here are some pics with the old and new Alexa.

Just before the cut. Doesn't she look a little nervous?

After the cut she wasn't too sure about the whole thing. She didn't want to look in the mirror. After about an hour of convincing she finally decided to see how she looked. I think she looks pretty cute.

The HAIR!

Side view!

Tim wanted to see how he'd look with a ponytail so he tried it on for size.

I think we'll stick with his regular hair cut.

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!