Clearing Out

Most Saturday mornings, Jeremy and the girls get up and make muffins together for breakfast.

I usually sleep in and wake up to the yummy smell. The girls really LOVE doing this. They talk about it a lot. I know this will be a cherished memory for them when they are older. (They sit on the floor so everyone can help add ingredients and mix.)

I love Christmas and hate packing it up, mostly because it is a lot of work. I love the feeling of a clear and clean house afterwards. I usually put up the next holiday decor before packing the current stuff away. It drives Jeremy nuts, because we live in chaos for a day or two. This year I threw all the Christmas into one room. I really wanted to clean it out. It took a really long time, but I am so glad I did it. I am going to clean out all of our storage this year.

I was able to throw away two garbage bags of stuff. I also gave a couple bags to the DI. I still need a few more storage bins. Mostly because I have been getting rid of all our boxes and replacing them with bins. I think I used some of my Christmas ones for other stuff. OOPS!

So much more organized and with detailed labeling. No more ten bins with just Christmas in them. Now I can grab exactly what I need.

We are ready for Valentines! It is one of my favorite holidays. My mom always made it a big holiday growing up and so I like to decorate for my kids too.

I am ready for Spring and some SUNSHINE. I do NOT like all the dark dreary days of January. I did not put any of my drapes and curtains up in this house. I really just enjoy sunlight. More than five hours a day of it would be nice!

Resolutions

I do Not usually make resolutions. I just try and do things better than the year before. This year I really want to try and make my home a more peaceful place to be. I want to play a lot more church music. I want to teach my kids more about gospel principles and the scripture stories. We do FHE and read our scriptures at night, but I really want them to learn more through out the day. I think it will create a calm environment.
Sloane is a Sunbeam!

Last year we put her in Sunbeams because of her January birthday. We soon realized she wasn't ready and moved her back to nursery. The first Sunday of the year we were still in Utah, but it was technically her first day back in Sunbeams. She was more than ready this time and she LOVED it. I am hoping she "loves" it as much in our own ward.

Micah is in CTR 6. She is getting so big. She goes to a Baptist Preschool and really knows all her Old Testament stories really well. I want her to know the Book of Mormon stories just as well. That is one of the reasons for my resolution.

Only one more year of nursery for Emie and then all my girls will be in Primary. Where does the time go?? I can hardly believe it.

Christmas 2008

I am behind on blogging. I am way behind, it seems, on everything. Not a great way to start out a New Year!

Better late than never I guess.

The weekend before Christmas my sister Corrine and her husband came and stayed with us on their way to Seattle. It was a fun weekend filled with last minute Christmas shopping. We were so busy having fun we did not take any pictures. :0( We stayed updated with my sister Danielle's delivery through texts and phone cameras. I am glad I got to share that with Corri.

On Christmas Eve we took off for Utah to spend Christmas with Jeremy's family.

Santa came and brought dress up clothes and more Ponyville.
We let the girls buy presents for each other this year. Below is a picture of Micah with the gift Sloane picked out for her. Sloane wrapped it all by herself, not bad!
(Excuse the bed hair!)

Emie got a LARGE gift from Grandma and Grandpa. It is an art easel.
One afternoon we all took the girls sledding.
It was a small hill. We did not want to scare our kids to much. Believe it or not there were crazy stories of people in Utah pushing their kids down dangerous hills and a few ended up with major injuries.
Micah had fun!
Emie and I went down together. She was so excited!
Grandpa and Sloanie taking a turn.

The best part...returning to our car to a large thermos filled with hot chocolate. What your Grandma doesn't do that for you???

Ours does and it was Yummy!!

We hope everyone else had a great holiday too!

Christmas Performances

Micah was so excited for us to see her performance. They had practiced for a long time. She did awesome.

She is a head taller than everyone else. It is the curse of TALL parents.

When she first began her practices, the teachers requested that the girls bring a doll to school so they could rehearse being Mary. I was running late the morning of and threw her a stuffed Charlie Brown doll. She came home that day with Charlie and said she MUST have a baby GIRL doll per her peer pressuring girl friends teacher.

On the way to buy one, I told her, "You know Micah, Jesus was not a baby girl!"

Her reply, "Well Mom, Jesus was NOT Charlie Brown!"

So true.

Sloane's preschool had a little performance too. We went to a retirement home for women and the kids put on the Christmas Story. Sloane was the angel.

Here she is showing her wings. Emerson had an honorary part. The angel part deux.
It was really cute and like always they did better in rehearsal! The ladies really enjoyed it and so did the parents. After the kids had finished running in circles singing their rehearsed songs, they passed out Christmas cards and goodies to each lady.
The girls both really did a great job. I am so grateful for the wonderful teachers they have, who put so much time and effort into giving me a break teaching them so much!

THE END!