A Snowman of Epic Proportions

This guy is standing in my front yard right now, thanks to Dallin, Dailie and Audri.  Beware, he has six fingers on his hand.
"Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die."

They Gave Up Their Christmas

Here's a video which captures the Spirit of Christmas.  Watch it, and let me know if it touches you.  It touched me, very much.

Snowy Sunday

Since the weather outside was frightful (blizzard warning all day), and the fire was so delightful (we really did have one), and since we'd no place to go (Church was canceled), we decided it was a perfect day to make Christmas goodies.  Everyone helped (although Dallin did a large portion of all the work), and by the end of the day we had all these plates put together to take around to our neighbors.

It was a great way to spend a snowy day!!

A Visit to the Great White North

We had a great time venturing to the Great White North for Thanksgiving. We visited my brother Andy and his family in Wisconsin. We drove up late Wednesday evening and had rain most of the way, until we got about 45 miles from their house. Then it turned to snow. We made it in the the wee hours of the morning and were so thankful to Andy and Alesha. They were ready for us with beds for us to crash in. It was COLD while we were there, but the kids thought it was great!! They spent a lot of time outside on the 40 acres, despite temperatures that were in the teens most of the time. Recently Andy and Alesha dug a walkout basement, and as a result have a great sledding hill, right near their house. So there was some sledding:

Some ATV fun (that's Dallin and Dailie):

And some fun on the ice. They also very recently dug a pond on their property, and we got to experience the first freezing over of the pond. It was so well protected from the wind, that is was a beautifully smooth rink. There was makeshift hockey with ice chunks as pucks, races across the frozen pond:

Spinning around by Daddy:

And launching across the ice after the spin:

My kids were in heaven, both with the chance to be outdoors:

And the chance to play with cousins:

Thankful

Ask Dailie her favorite holiday, and she'll tell you it's Thanksgiving. Although she's a big fan of mashed potatoes and rolls, I don't think that's the reason. She's 13, but this has been her favorite holiday for a long time. And you know, I sure do like it a lot too. What is it about this holiday? This picture captures a lot of it:
Do you see any commercialization? Do you see bowls of specialty candy (although there are a lot of pies), or wrappings galore? I see family members who don't see each other so often, working together, enjoying each others company. There's something nice about the calm of Thanksgiving Day. Granted for the cooks it can be a little stressful, but really that's the only thing that has to happen that day, and even the meal doesn't have to be at any certain time. And for me, the cooking is enjoyable especially when I'm doing it surrounded by those I love. Don't get me wrong, I love the chance to focus on the Savior at Christmas and Easter. And the feeling of Christmas is magical to me, but there's something about Thanksgiving that seems the most untouched.

And of course when you get to sit down to a spread like this, it's pretty nice too : )

The feast makes me feel so grateful for all the bounteous blessings that I have. It's as if each dish, each bite, represents another treasure in my life for which I am so grateful.

So, thank you Thanksgiving, for remaining calm, peaceful and untouched by the market driven society of today. Thank you for the reminder of the blessings in my life and providing the day to dwell on them.

Visit with the Queens

It's true. We hosted royalty at our home. Here she is, Queen Heidi (well, technically her name is Heidi Queen).
Rick's sister Kelly and her family came for a quick visit before we each went our separate ways for Thanksgiving. It was so good to spend some time with them. The kids quickly became reacquainted with each other and had a great time playing with each other.

Sam and Daniel were good buddies together:

We snapped a picture of the whole crew before the Queens took off to spend some time in Indiana and we headed North to Wisconsin. Kelly and Ed, remember when we all fit in one minivan going to Fowler, IN for those fireworks on the 4th of July, way back when? When the kids enjoyed watching to see if you two held hands? This group won't fit in a minivan anymore, that's for sure.

Happy Birthday, Eliza!!

Life has been super busy and crazy here lately, but Eliza turned 9 anyway. I don't have time to share many details, but she had a party on Saturday, and we've tried to make today a special day. I love my giggly full of life girl!!

Daniel is in Heaven

We have a REAL BYU football player serving as a missionary here in Peoria right now. He started for the Cougars for 3 years prior to his mission. Needless to say, Daniel is pretty excited about it. He likes to tell us that he wants to play football with the Football Player!! Elder Dulan is super cute with Daniel. He and his companion were here for dinner tonight, and he and Daniel both seemed to enjoy playing together!!
*I should also add that we're thrilled that BYU has been winning again, and without any trouble. The team is doing awesome, and we're looking forward to an exciting game next weekend with Utah. Also, the BYU basketball team is great this year. GO COUGS!!

Audri

Free scrapbooking design made with Smilebox

Elder Richard G. Scott Artwork Goes on Display

I ran across this article about Elder Richard G. Scott's artwork and was so fascinated by the story that I wanted to share it on my blog. Particularly touching to me is the painting of his wife, who died in 1995. If you live in Utah, will you go see the display for me? Thanks : ).
ksl.com - Elder Richard G. Scott artwork goes on display

Eliza

Create a digital scrapbook

Daniel

Personalize your own free scrapbook design

Veteran's Day

The kids had the day off today in honor of Veteran's Day. Dallin marched in the parade with the Richwoods Marching Knights. We went downtown to watch. The weather was beautiful.


So, we found Dallin, and he even gave us a little wave, but in both pictures I tried to take of the moving band, he is hidden : (. Oops. He was there, really.

Gold and Green Ball

Our Stake held a Gold and Green Ball to honor it's 30th anniversary. We went, and here's proof, but I don't like the picture. In my mind I looked a lot better than that. So, either I was way off, or this picture is just really bad. I have a bad feeling about which one is right.....
But Rick looked good, I know that : ).

Happy Birthday, Mom!!

How cute is this face?

This is Mariah, my sister Rachael's youngest. I got to have lunch with her today, along with my mom, Rachael, sis-in-law Julia and niece Brittany. Tomorrow is my mom's b'day, so I drove over to Crawfordsville for a quick visit and lunch. It was a nice time, not near long enough, but I had to wedge it between DI practice for Eliza in the morning before school and parent teacher conferences after school. Not easy to do when it's a 2.5 hour drive.

Here we are:

It was fun, and I even got to stop in and see my Grandpa in the Nursing Home before heading back to Peoria. He told me "next time you're coming through, stop by and see me again". Then he grinned and added, "if I'm still here". It was a good family fix for the day.

Thanks for having a birthday, Mom!!

Happy Halloween

Friday was pretty much our day to celebrate Halloween this year. It started out with parties and a parade at the Elementary school. Daniel was Luke Skywalker this year, and it just so happened that his good buddy from school was Darth Vader. They had fun with that. As we left the classroom to go home, Daniel called out, "goodbye, Father!".
The principal, Mr. Turner, is always such a good sport. He gets a great costume every year, and leads the parade. This year he was the Big, Bad Wolf.
Here we spotted Eliza in the parade. She's a Fablehaven fairy. Did you drink the milk? (If you haven't read the books, this reference will be lost on you)

And Luke, ready to save the universe with that light saber.

That night we headed to the Church for the Ward Halloween party. Here's Daniel, I mean lLuke posing for a picture.
Luke and Leia together. Daniel was ready to protect her, although looks like Audri's ready to do a little protecting herself.

Another shot of Leia, later at home.

I worked hard and had a lot of fun with Eliza's costume this year. I know I had a picture of her in the parade earlier in the post, but here are a few more photos, including this one of her hair.

Dailie sported a dance costume, and was Miss America.

I spent my time and effort on the kids' costumes, so on Friday afternoon I was asking the kids what Rick and I should be for the party that night. Dailie came up with the idea of Salt and Pepper, and she and Audri put these together for us.
Dallin didn't dress up, but his pumpkin carving won first place in the contest at the party. I guess it should really be called a pumpkin and hedgeapple carving. Pretty clever.
Dallin also saw Alton Brown make candy corn on "Good Eats" and determined that he must make some. It was relatively simple and did not take complex ingredients. He had fun making them, and they turned out great!!
Overall, we had a very Happy Halloween!!

I'm still in shock that tomorrow is November.....

Kangaroos, Cousins, Cookies and Creativity!!

I feel like I should have spelled all of those with a K, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. Anyway, I have found that blogging hasn't been as easy to get around to lately, and that kind of makes me sad, but here's a whopper of a post that combines a few things into one (since they all sounded so great together).

Sunday night my brother David's family, sans David who had to work, came to stay with us during their Fall Break. My kids still had school, but they came to hang out with us anyway. I thought it was awful nice of them, and it was sure fun to spend a little time together. They were here Monday and Tuesday, and both days Tanner went to Seminary with Dallin. Tanner's 16 and has his license, so both mornings he drove and they went out for breakfast after, before Dallin had to be at school. Monday evening, along with some games together for FHE, we treated them to a couple of Peoria specials with Firehouse Pizza for dinner, and the Spotted Cow for dessert.

The decision making process, complete with sample spoons : ).

Audri and Grant, enjoying their selection.

Ice cream makes me smile!!

Tuesday, Julia spent painting. She is super talented, and if you've been in my house, you've seen her work in my kitchen. On Monday we stewed about what she might paint. See if you like the result.

This is my entryway, and there are a few finishing touches she'll come back later to do. I'll have to post more pictures when she does.

I don't feel like I can thank her enough for beautifying my home.

So, I've had about a gazillion things to do lately, and I've been taking them a day at a time. I've wanted to make Halloween sugar cookies ever since I found these awesome sprinkles at on Amish store on the way home from Nauvoo, and I needed to take some cookies to the 6th grade Halloween party. I LIKE to make cookies and decorate, but I just didn't have the time. So, Audri and her friend Abby made them all by themselves. I really intervened very little. They mixed, rolled, cut, baked and frosted them. The only decorating I did was to write Boo on the ghosts and add the eyes. I think they turned out great!!

And, amongst the cookie baking, dinner making, sending off to YM/YW, Halloween costume sewing, and general evening chaos, Eliza had an animal project to do. Here's her darn cute kangaroo diorama with the two kangas made of clay!! Do you see the joeys in their pouches?

I'd say we've had a lot of creative juices flowing around here lately, wouldn't you?