Creative Snack Time

This afternoon it's just Daniel, Audri and me at home. The weather is beautiful, so we went for a walk. Upon returning home, Daniel and Audri had a snack. They got creative, and made their names out of their snacks. I thought it was so cute and clever I had to take photos and share.

Ward Sock Hop!

Our Ward Acitivity Committee is awesome!!! They plan and carry out fantastic avtivities for our ward. Last Friday night we had a Sock Hop, and it was lots of fun. I helped put together a lip sync number with three other sisters from the ward. Here we are as the Chordettes. We performed "Never on a Sunday", and perhaps a video will come later....


I had Rick pull out his letter jacket from High School. Here's a small world story about this picture. The only two letter jackets worn that evening were the two in this picture. Rick's is from Kearns High School, Mike Payne's is from Hillcrest. The couple in the middle (who are married) recognized the two jackets, because he went to Kearns, and she went to Hillcrest. What are the odds of that!!!

The kids had lots of fun, dancing the night away!!


Here's a shot where you can see Daniel in his leather jacket. He didn't keep it on for long. Dallin didn't want to dress up, that's why there are no pictures of him. He did go with us, and he had a lot of fun, too!!

Prepositions

My kids don't seem to get prepositions. They just don't seem to understand their meanings. For example, if I ask "will you please put your dishes IN the dishwasher?", they often put them ON the dishwasher. "Please go TO bed" is often interpreted as go TOWARD bed. "Put your clothes IN the hamper" must be heard as NEAR the hamper, and "please get IN the car" seems to mean, again to only move TOWARD the car. Some other examples: Practice piano BEFORE you play= AFTER you play, again put your shoes IN the closet= NEAR the closet, keep your hands OFF your sister= ON your sister, etc. I just wandered if anyone else ever sees this phenomenon. Maybe I should look into the school's curriculum. I'm sure there must be someone to blame!!!

Reality

I read Seriously So Blessed as an escape from reality, a chance to laugh at myself, and others around me. I know I mentioned the site before. Today I read it, and it brought me back to reality. TAMN, the author of the blog (a made up person, but there IS a real person behind it, obviously), had a contest last week for a makeover. You had a chance to nominate someone to win various prizes that added up to one great makeover. She whittled the entries down to six, and is now allowing those who read her blog to vote for the winner. In today's post, you can read about the six amazing women who were nominated by others. Each of these women remind me that we can endure. It also reminds me to use compassion, and refrain from judging others (something TAMN is good at doing- poking fun at countless judgmental people out there, of which I continually strive to NOT BE), you really never know what they are going through. Oh how I wish that each of these women could win. How I wish that I could do something for each of these women, and oh how I wish that I could remember on a daily basis that there are so many strong women out there everyday living lives like these women, so that I can reach out rather than look inward and feel sorry for myself. I hope you feel uplifted by reading these as well!!

Meet Sue...

We decided to take advantage of the day off on Monday and went up to Chicago. We decided to spend the day at the Field Museum, the natural histroy museum in Chicago. The most famous thing there is Sue, the T. Rex we're standing in front of in this picture. She is the largest, most complete, best preserved T. Rex there is. She was pretty big. Those forearms sure seem pointless to me, though. Anyway, we took the camera, but forgot batteries, so the only pictures we have were taken with Rick's Blackberry.


It was really a great day, a lot of fun to be together as a family. It was cold, and we began to understand the name "Windy City" at a more personal level. I liked this night shot outside the front of the museum. It may not be very crisp, but not bad for a Blackberry.


After we left the museum we decided to be adventurous and eat in Chinatown. It took us a little while to figure out where to park, and where to go, but we did it, and we had a good time. I think the kids liked it, although I'm sure they didn't quite appreciate it as much as we wish they would. McD's on the way home would have been better in their book, but it's all about the experience, right? And seizing the day!! Carpe diem! Eliza did say, "I didn't know China was in Chicago!" We did a little explaining, and our little inquisitive one still had questions when we got home. She had been sleeping in the van for over an hour, but when I took her to her bed, she woke up and said "why are there so many Chinese people in Chicago?". I tried to explain that there's really just a lot more people overall in Chicago. Not sure how much she soaked in, but it obviously made an impression on her.

Fun times.

Bet you Wish You Were Here....

-17 this morning w/o wind chill
-34 w/ wind chill

School's canceled. We're staying inside, grateful for modern conveniences like furnaces and insulation. They've changed the high for today to -5!?!

Lots of Snow, Freezing Temps and FHE

I've been trying to think of something to post about lately. We woke up to a lot of snow. The temperatures are pretty low, and dropping even farther. The high tomorrow is 0. Wind chill is supposed to be -25 tonight. Thank goodness for our house. I can't even imagine living on the frontier in weather like this. Here's a picture of our patio table, piled high with snow:

The FHE part of the title is because I thought I'd share a little something we've found helpful. A few years ago we decided to plan out our whole year of FHE (Family Home Evening). When you first hear that, you might think we're crazy, but it's really not as hard as it first sounds. As a matter of fact, it makes things much better in the long run. We have often picked "themes", and just filled in the blanks. For example, this year we've decided to study the parables Christ. We picked out the ones we wanted to do, and stuck them in their slots for the year. Dallin needs to do a certain number of lessons for Duty to God, so we put them in. We like to do a wholesome recreational activity once a month, so that was another 12 done. We have special b'day FHEs where we focus on the member of our family whose b'day is coming up. There's another 7 for us. Before you know it, we have 52. Of course throughout the year we're flexible if something needs to be changed, but it's so much more likely to happen if there is a plan. It has worked well for us, and I just thought I'd share. What has worked well for you and your family?

Christmas and Family, What a Perfect Combination

WARNING: LONG POST AHEAD : )

I know I haven't posted since last year (hee, hee), but I've been having so much fun there just hasn't been time. Our Christmas this year can be summed up in one word: FAMILY.
We have had a great time with all of our visitors. Just for the record I'll give a summary of all those who were at our house over the holidays. It's a little tough to follow, so stay with me...

Tuesday December 23: Charity's sister Amy Taylor, husband Dave and 5 kids (Kelsie, Jeffrey, Monte, Ellie and Lizzie) arrive after their 3 day drive from Utah. We learn that Charity's brother Andy and family will not be able to make it from Wisconsin due to the winter storm. Charity's brother David and family decide to wait til morning to head over due to the icy roads.

Wednesday December 24: David and Julia and 4 kids (Tanner, Olivia, Neil, and Grant) come from Indianapolis. Charity's parents and 89 year old Grandpa come from Crawfordsville, IN. Charity's sister Rachael comes from C'ville as well, with her husband Darren and 7 kids (Kailee, Brittany, Alexis, Adam, Emily, Jacob and Mariah). We have a great day together feasting, kids playing, gift exchanging, catching up, singing a little. Good times with the Thompson family.

Christmas Day: What a Christmas morning!! With 10 kids (Amy and Dave still here), and 6 adults (Charity's parents stayed for the festivites), we had quite a busy and fun-filled morning. Nanny and Grandpa went home later that day.

We continued to enjoy the Taylor's company through Monday December 29 which brought our next change: Amy and Dave drove to Crawfordsville to visit family there for 2 days. In the meantime Rick's sister Kelly Queen came from Maryland, by way of Lafayette, IN where they were visiting her husband's family. She came with her hubby Ed and 3 kids (Caleb, Sam and Heidi). Rick's sister Wendy Sims and her 2 kids (Ethan and Emma) came over from Missouri (her hubby had to work-what a bummer, Brian; we'll catch you next time, hopefully), and brought Rick's parents who had driven to MO from Salt Lake City.

Tuesday December 30: The Queens leave in the morning to head back to IN, and the Sims and Grandma and Grandpa leave in the afternoon to return to MO. That evening the Taylors rejoin us after their trip to C'ville. In the meantime, Rick, Eliza, Daniel and Charity drive to Nauvoo so that Rick can perform the wedding of a sister in our ward.

Wednesday December 31: Charity's brother Andy plows out of 8 inches of snow in Wisconsin to visit with his wife Alesha and 4 kids (Spencer, Clark, Samantha and Eric). We welcome in the new year by letting nearly ALL of the 14 children here at our house stay up til midnight. What were we thinking? It was fun, though....

And now, today is Januarty 2, 2009. Amy and Dave hit the road early to start their long drive back to Utah. Rick returned to work today, and Andy and Alesha will soon begin their drive home to Wisconsin. Life will return to "normal", which I guess is supposed to be a good thing, but I find myself longing for the company to stay. I'll take the extra work and chaos for the joy of seeing all that family. Thanks to all of you who trekked to our home. It was wonderful.

And now for a few photos:

The gingerbread houses actually happened the Sunday before everyone arrived. Church was canceled due to a parking lot covered in ice, so we spent the day making these gingerbread house. Ok, we did a few other things as well....

The top view of mine and Audri's house.
Front view of Rick and Eliza's

Back view of Dallin and Dailie's house, titled "Winnie the Pooh meets the Christmas Carol". For a more detailed explanation, ask Dallin. They enjoyed using a variety of cookie cutters to add to their house, including 3 ghosts, labelled past, present, and future, and a turkey.

All three houses on display for the holidays.

Christmas Eve jammies with the Taylors. What fun. I got a little crazy and decided all 10 children needed matching Christmas pjs. I'm sure you all can guess what I was doing every spare minute I had on Monday and Tuesday (those spare minutes were hard to come by, too).

Daniel and Samantha having cousin fun.

The Nerf guns saw A LOT of action with all the cousins. This is Spencer, and Monte is behind him.

There was a lot of this going on as well. Dollhouse, Little Pet Shop, Sweet Streets. Along with Play-Doh, board games, the Wii, and a lot of imagination.

Yesterday Eliza, Monte, Jeffrey and Spencer built this and were pretty proud of it. Rightfully so. It was very cool. Spencer is inside. See his hands?

I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!!!!