Editing

Friends and Family...

I am in the process of editing my blog in order to have it printed. So... you may receive notifications about new posts that are really old news, but I need to get it done, so bear with me.

You should see some new posts, too, so don't throw the baby out with the bath water!

Sorry for any inconvenience...

Love to you all!

My Funny Valentines

A compilation of our various Valentine's Activities:

Homemade Honey Oat Bread Hearts for Breakfast!

Heart Shaped Bread for after school:

Valentine's FHE: Water Color Painting Hearts:

More FHE... Frosting Valentine Sugar Cookies!

Isaac and Daphne ran the cookies around to neighbors and then came back for baths and a little impromptu dress up... one of Daphne's newest creations:

Finished Heart Paintings:

We had a blast celebrating the love of Christ for us all... we hope you felt of His love on this Valentine's Day, too!

Guess What Daphne Did at School Today?

Yep, that's right! Her first missing tooth! When we first noticed the loose tooth quite some time ago and she wiggled it night at day, day and night.
She also asked me to wiggle it day and night. If I wasn't checking her tooth, she was asking when we could pull it and saying, "I'm the only one in my whole class who hasn't lost a tooth!"
However, when we gently informed her that if she needed to wiggle it the opposite direction if she wanted to pull it sooner, she freaked out. "But that hurts!"
After that, any time she bit a piece of food that remotely brushed up against her loose tooth, she would yelp and howl and cry. Matt and I would exchange a look that suggested that we would never be able to pull this tooth.
So when she came home from school like this:
I was shocked! Thrilled for her, but shocked! When I asked her why she decided to pull it, she said she really wanted the little plastic tooth-shaped necklace that her teacher gives out when you lose a tooth. "So, I just pulled it!" she said.
I think it just goes to show how unpredictable our Daphne can be. You never know if her intense emotion or her persistent determination will win out.
Today.... the determination won out! We are so proud of you, Daphne Faith! I know you will go and do great things, brilliant girl! You have the tenacity, the talent and the beauty... we can't wait to see where you go!

Nine Years Old....

Isaac is Nine Years old now....
Can you even believe it? He's had a tremendous year and has made so much progress. He's mastered soccer and basketball and school- just aces all around! I feel so grateful to God for providing us with inspiration to seek help and find some solutions to things... I feel like now he is the happy, successful and thriving boy I always knew he was inside. So year eight was a big one for us.

We told him he could pick any restaurant he wanted for his birthday... any restaurant at all. And he picked.... drumroll, please.....

Arby's.

Not my favorite choice, but well, he IS the birthday boy.
Then we came back home for some cake and presents!

My mom got Isaac the movie :Diary of a Wimpy Kid, which he had been asking to see. This book series has been a lifesaver for us, Isaac reads and re-reads the books over and over again. I have heard good things about the movie; Matt watched it with the kids and they all laughed and laughed.

And here he is with his Hoth Wampa Cave thingy Lego Set. (That's a Star Wars set for all of those who need a translation!)

And a new video game.... Unfortunately, the evening before his family party at Nanny and Papa's, Isaac sliced his ear open!! Ick!

He was playing at a neighbor's in the backyard. He was holding a very long piece of vinyl fencing on his back like a ramp and Daphne and the neighbor jumped on and somehow it shoved up into his ear, slicing it very badly. He was pretty calm when He came home to show me... he didn't even start crying until I saw it and gasped as if I had seen a ghost! (I'm sorta famous for over-reacting) Unfortunately, the urgent care clinics won't do stitches on ears, so Matt and he waited for over 3 hours at the Emergency Room. Boo. Happy Birthday to Isaac.

So, after we got him all stitched up, we headed to Nanny and Papa's the next day for a family celebration.

As you may remember, Isaac and Corbin celebrate together as Corbin is born on the 9th and and Isaac on the 10th of February. Well, last year, God sent sweet Penelope to Raegan and Dave on February 11th, so now their brithday event is a celebration for three!

Now since it was Penny's first Birthday, she was (rightly) really the star of the show... she wasn't sure about the cake at first but was thoroughly enjoying it after a few minutes!

Victoria and cousin Zach enjoying their cake and ice cream!

Daphne and Abby:

and the birthday boys!

Isaac got lots of fun stuff from family that day, including a $100 bill from Nanny and Papa! He wanted money to go snow boarding (which he does pretty well, but what an expensive hobby!)

Thanks, everyone! Isaac had a great day/week and we feel so very loved to have everyone care so very much. I am incredibly grateful to be the mother of such a precious, helpful, thankful and genuinely kind boy. I cannot imagine life without our precious Isaac, and we thank God for him every single day. We love you, Isaac!!

Super Bowl Partay!

Matt's parents can throw a party. We have dinner with them almost every Sunday, and Super Bowl Sunday is no different. In an attempt to keep the family time going on Sunday, Matt's parents established a contest on Super Bowl Sunday many moons ago (before I came along!) Basically, everyone guesses a score and the top three winners get prizes. (it's much more complicated than that... there is a mathematical formula to determine the winner- and David has it all set up on his laptop to keep track of who the winner is)
And these are not dollar store favors. Calving and Marsha give out PRIZES. Like... AMAZING prizes. I got my gorgeous Wolfgang Puck set of cooking pans when I won the Superbowl Contest one year. No kidding. But there is also a pool for children with prizes as well. It is so much fun, even if you aren't a big football watcher.
David and Raegan made their colors very clear: That's Penny- she's so adorable!

Isaac won $10 for choosing the Packers:

And Tori was the winner of the Kid's Pool: $50 and a box of Ring Pops!!! When it came time for her to pick the score, we asked her how many points the Steelers would get. She said, "1, 2, 3, 4,5 ,6 7,!" So, Matt added all those together for a score of 28. Then, when we asked her who would win, she said, "The green team get the ball". So, we gave Green Bay a score a little higher than Pittsburgh. And she won!! Isaac could not believe that a 2 year old had won, so he kept complaining and whining that she won so much money. So, when I put Tori in the bath after the game, she kept saying, "It's not fair I win Fitty dollas."

Thanks, Nanny and PaPa! We had a blast!

Samson

A few weeks ago, during Sacrament meeting, Daphne asked me to tell her the story of Samson. I tried, but during that part of Church, it's a little tricky to get through something like that. So, I promised her we could learn about Samson at Family Home Evening the next day.

That particular Monday happened to be our first day back to school from Christmas Break. The first day of a semester is always a little crazy for us. This particular day, I woke up with a burning, red eye. ick! I was planning on dropping off my new contact prescription that day, but that wouldn't help me much ( I'm kind of weird so I have a freaky special prescription that always takes a few weeks to come in...) I thought I could tough it out, but threw some contact solution and an old pair of contacts into my purse, got the kids breakfast and headed off to meet my new student teacher. About 10 am, my eye was on fire! I put in the old contacts, which calmed things down for a few hours and made life manageable.

I left school, drove to Bountiful, went to Costco and made it back in time to take out my contacts before my eye exploded. By this point, my eye was red swollen and felt as if it had been lit on fire!! After taking out my contact, I laid down on my bed and closed my eyes to get a little relief. Well, thirty minutes later, the phone rings and I jump- realizing that my kids should have come home from school about ten minutes before that. (YIKES!!!) Thankfully, it was my amazing neighbor, Toni, who had graciously welcomed my kids in when they couldn't get into our house. And the Mother of the Year award goes to..... Toni Johnson and NOT me. Thanks. This was only January 5th, people, so hold onto your seats. I have 11 more months of parenting mistakes to live through in 2011. Sigh.

Anyway, that was a really long way of saying that since my eye was swollen and on fire, Matt helped me out and took care of FHE for me, which would explain the tech-savvy approach. He pulled up a power point presentation on the PS3, which worked beautifully! Thanks, Babe! You're awesome!

Anyway, we had a good discussion of spiritual strength and spiritual nourishment and physical strength. They seemed to really understand the meaning of the story- the idea that our spiritual nourishment is even more important than having strong bodies. They loved it, and we had fun watching them flex their muscles! So, you know what is the most amazing thing about this picture? Isaac, my baby, is getting man arms. Look at that!!!

We have had an amazing year. I keep saying to Matt that I wish I could just freeze time so that we could keep them at these ages for longer. I know that in 2 seconds Isaac will be driving and I won't have little girls playing dress up and leaving plastic high heels on the stairs for me to trip over. I know that as soon as our life is calm enough for me to finish a blog post in one sitting, I will wish one of them would come interrupt me. I know that these are some of the best moments of our lives and I just wish I could hold them here a little longer.

I feel utterly and completely and thoroughly blessed. I have everything I really need and He has given me not only contentment, but joy. Everlasting Joy. The kind of joy that comes from knowing that my perfect, spotless Savior paid the price for my sins so that I can have this family forever and live with Him again.

It's seems easy to praise His name in the good times, I know. But the truth is, the natural man in us could easily manifest in pride; allowing us to think that our "good fortune" or current status is due to some measure of obedience or something that WE did. We are no strangers to hard times. We know, and we pray that you know, that Jesus Christ is our Savior at all times- He is encouraging us through the good times and supporting us through the sorrows. Matt and I both wanted to take this opportunity to acknowledge His hand in all things. A little for you... but mostly for our children. While it is fun to have our friends and relatives read this blog, it is intended as a record for them. When they look back and read about this stage of life for our family, I want them to know that our faith is in Him; that our strength comes from Him, and not ourselves.

"When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;

What is man, that thou art mindful of him?...

For THOU hast made him a little lower than the angels and hast crowned him with glory and honour.

O Lord, Our Lord, How excellent is Thy Name in all the earth!"

Psalm 8:3, 4, 5, 9

Wordless Wednesday

The Littlest Pet Shop

For one of Matt and Daphne's recent Daddy- Daughter Dates, Matt took Daphne to the Pet Shop. She loved it. That's an understatement. Ever since that date, Daphne had been begging for all of us to go see the Pet Shop together. So, for her next Daddy- Daughter date, we all went to the Pet Shop and Matt took her to eat after...

Since we have no pets and will never have pets (at least not furry ones) this is an extremely exciting event. You'd think we were headed to the zoo. Poor Kids. They had a blast and the girls in particular were giggling and running back and forth between the cages.

We are a little sheletered, I know.

Fish: Turtles:

I think the ferrets are in this cage:

Birds:

Bunnies:

We're easily amused, I know. But whatever works, right?

Matt and Daphne went to Sill's and had fantastic scones (yum!) afterward. I took Isaac and Tori to Sonic and let them get their first ever chili-cheese coney. (ick!) Isaac declared that he has a new favorite food. Great.

The Goods

Is it totally inappropriate to write a post about everyone enjoying their Christmas gifts?

Well, if so, then just call me inappropriate.

In defense of my completely inappropriate behavior,

I started out taking pictures as a way to show my family in Texas and it just sort of spiraled out of control...
Here are Daphne and Tori listening to music on Daphne's awesome media player. (Check out Daphne's singing face- she'sgot such a great little voice!)

And Daphne using her Easy Bake Oven from my Mom!

By the way, she LOVES this thing. She is so proud of it. But don't get too excited- we are literally baking cookies with a light bulb. See that cookie right there? It took thirty minutes to bake that ONE cookie. No kidding. But we are having lots of fun in the kitchen... she's such a great girl. Thanks, Mom!! She loves it!

Tori was a big fan of the Easy Bake Oven as well....

Daphne with Molly, her American Girl Doll (who sat and dutifully watched Daphne use a lightbulb to bake 6 cookies one at a time!)

Daphne taking pics with her media player/ camera! (Are you starting to get the idea that Daphne wanted me to take pictures of her using all her Christmas stuff?)

Tori playing with 3 Christmas gifts at the same time... she's reading her new Cinderella book to her Doctor Barbie (from GiGi) and her new dress up doll:


Isaac and his plethora of Lego creations. He got a kit to make the castle on the right, and then he designed the castle on the left himself (I think his is better- there are really cool spirally stairs inside, too!)

My handsome boys:

So... I kept thinking I would get a picture of us enjoying bread fresh out of my new breadmaker from Matt. But, apparently, once we get the bread out, we are incapable of anything other than smothering it with butter and shoving it into our faces as quickly as possible. I just can't remember to take a picture 'cause the bread is too darn good! Thanks, Babe!

I don't think I mentioned before, but I gave Matt a little Christmas overnight getaway to the Anniversary Inn. We had such a great time in July that we didn't want to wait another 10 years. There is definitely something to be said for uninterrupted couple time-- it's so nice to make it through a conversation! (Thanks to Marsha for watching our kiddos for the night!)

Here we are in front of the fireplace- Matt took the pic with his super-long arms!)

No Christmas gifts in this pic... just Tori being adorable!

I realize I'm ridiculously behind posting this... but I hope you have all had a fantastic New Year!