Back 2 School

There are some good aspects to it and some bad, but like it or not
Today is--

I can't believe how quickly Winter Break passed!

Our Saturday

Our Saturday

This morning the kids had a Primary Activity Day at the Church. It was a breakfast with their "new" teacher for the New Year. After I dropped them off I came home and attempted a jog through the neighborhood. Until yesterday the roads in the neighborhood had been snow packed and icy.

Not our neighborhood, but the streets were about this clear this morning when I went jogging.

But we warmed up into the 50's both yesterday and today and by this evening the roads were 95% clear and dry!! But this morning when I went running there were dry patches intermixed with wet patches that were still icy at that hour. In some places there was snow on some of the unshoveled sidewalks that was 6 inches deep.


Laren put the net up around the trampoline and Kyle and Alyssa played with S and N, the neighbor kids, either at our house or theirs most of the day. The kids are loving the "tramp" and asked me if I've posted pictures of it on my "blog." They also want me to post pictures of the Wii. So, I will try to get some pictures on here before too many days pass.



This afternoon and today I spent the majority of the day shopping and putting food away. In an attempt to save time and money I made up a menu (with the help of a friend -- Thanks Jannet! I didn't use all of your menu, but it gave me a good base! And I thought of you all throughout the day today, especially in Walmart!) and shopping list for a month! So I went to Costco in the afternoon with Kayla. We had a very full shopping cart! And then after dinner I bathed the kids and went for the rest of my groceries at Walmart.

This is not my cart, but my cart was fuller than this one!

I was surprised Walmart was not nearly as crowded as usual for a Saturday night, but I was grateful. It still took me a couple of hours in the store. And another hour before I was home and had everything put away and that was with a little help!! Grocery shopping is not an easy task when doing it for a family of 7. But if feels good to be done. My plan is to not go back to the store for 2 weeks, and then go back for fresh produce and milk. We will see if it works!

Laren spent the rest of his day fixing things around the house, staking trees, putting some tiles on the roof to replace the broken ones (that about gave the girls' a heart attack because he had to climb out on the roof to do that), and putting the kickboard moulding on the bottom of the kitchen cabinets.

We are hoping to get our house re-appraised in another month or two and we hope we will be able to get rid of some of our house payment by doing so...if we can it appraised for us to have 20% equity in it then it will reduce our payment. Though this is a terrible market. We'll see.

Christmas Elf

Christmas Elf - Mr. Peeps

Here is the Elf that I've been working on. I posted another picture of him in progress back on December 1st. You can view it in the archives. I tried to link it up, but the computer would never give me a URL for that post! I actually just finished him today. Much later than I'd hoped, but at least he's done for next year! He was lots of work, so much so that I don't think I'll ever make another one!! But I think he turned out cute!

Those little "cuffs with the bells on them" around the neck and ankles were the hardest thing on this elf to make. I remade them 3 times trying to get it right and finally the last time I did it everything fell into place. (Prayer helped.) I did learn a lot from my other mistakes the previous 2 tries too.

So next year this elf will show up at our house after Thanksgiving with this little poem:

Christmas is approaching, and this is the day
Santa has sent Mr. Peeps to your house to stay.

He send this small elf to your house and mine.
The day after Thanksgiving, He must be on time.

Mr. Peeps has a purpose. His purpose will be,
To whisper to Santa all the good that he sees.

Soon after he gets here, he moves only at night
To high places, low places, he stays in plain sight.

In the kitchen, for instance, he sits high on a shelf.
Mr. Peeps can sit anywhere, for he is an elf.

He holds very still when he thinks you are watching.
His magic is precious, it fades with on touching.

He sits on the tree on Christmas Eve day.
He knows that Santa is soon on his way.

He waits and he waits without making a noise.
He waits until Santa arrives with the toys.

So you better be nice and mind what you say
Because Mr. Peeps will tell Santa when he comes with his sleigh.

Once Christmas is here and Santa has come,
Mr. Peeps must leave, for his job is well done.

But, he will return next year on the very same day,
To watch your behavior as you work and play.

- Sharon Reynolds

Date with my Boys

Yesterday I had a fun date with my boys. I had talked to them about it a day ahead of time and told them they could choose where we go and what we do for the special time with Mom.

Tyler didn't have a preference, although he did keep mentioning sledding. He kept saying, "Not go home, okay Mom?" Referring to when we went sledding last week and we came home sooner than he wanted!

Kyle picked to go have lunch, including ice cream, at McDonald's and then to come home and play Wii Sports together. Tyler obliged. So that is what we did. It was lots of fun. The boys got Bionicles in their Happy Meals, which was satisfying to them! Kyle kicked my hiney at Wii Sports.



When I did the Wii fitness, I think it said my age was 60 the first time and 64 or something like that when I did it yesterday. The only sport I'm even good at, remotely, is bowling.

My kids love Tennis the best!! Kyle is the best at Baseball. Even though I'm no good at it, I like the tennis and the baseball. I'm sore today from playing the Wii yesterday! I almost talked myself out of the elliptical this morning because of it, then I remembered all the junk I've been eating and exercised despite my sore muscles.

Kyle and Tyler eating lunch yesterday at McDonalds. Bad pic with my cell phone, but at least it's a picture! I wanted to try for another one where they actually look like they were having fun and one with better lighting, but I opted to just enjoy the experience instead of fussing with all that instead!

Tyler took his nap while Kyle and I played Wii sports, because Tyler is too young to do the Wii just yet! He likes to pretend he's playing though, which is really cute!

I sure love my kids and having them home from school is sure a nice treat for me! I'm kind of dreading sending them back to school next week!

50 hits and 1 comment!

50 hits and just 1 comment?

Enchanted and Wig Out!

Wednesday, January 2, 2008

On New Year's Day Evening I had a date with my girls and took them to see the movie, Enchanted. I had heard good things about it and we were all excited to see it. But with me not being much of a movie watcher, I started to get disappointed when I realized it was a cartoon movie.

Then about 10 minutes into it, the movie switched and was no longer a cartoon. It ended up being a really fun movie! I'm SO glad we went to see it and we will definitely buy this one when it comes out. During the course of the movie, my girls managed to eat an entire tub of popcorn! It was, you know, the biggest that you can buy? I figured there would be no way they'd eat it all, but boy did they prove me wrong! I guess that's what I get for taking them to a movie at 4:55 pm!!!

Wig Out game

We got this game for Christmas and it is a fun AND quick little game! A friend recommended it to me a few months ago so we got it for the kids for Christmas. It says on the box that this game can be played in 12 minutes or less. I'd venture to guess that it takes less than 5 minutes per round. That is great if you don't have the time to play a long game, like Monopoly, with the kids! My kids love Monopoly too but lately Wig Out has been a hit!

New Year Refining and the Mystery of the Lost Scriptures

I don't know that I like the term "New Year's Resolution," but I do know that I need positive change in my life, always! So I'm constantly refining myself, or trying to, in various different areas.

This morning I refined myself on the elliptical for an hour and 15 minutes plus because of all the junk that went into my system yesterday. Then what did I do? I turned around and ate some gingerbread for lunch! I'm upset with myself for doing that!! So, one of my goals for the new year is not to sabotage my exercise efforts by eating bad!

Speaking of refining and goals, another something that I want to try my hand at this year is to make a bag or two. I've seen so many cute bags and totes and I've heard they can be fun to make. So I've done a bit of searching and found a bag pattern I like and a wallet pattern I like.

Three different versions of the bag I like are pictured above.

The "Wonder Wallet" made of fat quarters. I may try this too.

Mystery of the Lost Scriptures - Solved!

As it happens, Kayla lost her scriptures at Church (left them in her Primary class) and when she went for them the following week she couldn't find them in the Church anywhere. We looked there, and everywhere! And we asked around a ton and nobody knew where they were.

They were nice leather ones with her name embossed on them. Laren and I figured, lesson learned: we will no longer buying an 8 year old expensive scriptures because they can get lost or ruined. But Kayla had been reading her scriptures daily until she lost hers. I gave her a hardback blue "extra" Book of Mormon, but nope it wasn't her scriptures and so she never took to it.

Well, a miracle occured Sunday before last when Kayla found me after Church, she was so excited and had her scriptures in hand! I asked her where she got them and she said she found them sitting a top one of the coat racks at church. I found myself remembering our time in AZ where they had no coat racks at church, they were not necessary.

We are SO excited that she found her scriptures, but now her scripture tote (that is blue and rather boyish) is not longer suiting her. She wants to buy one, but the cute one's are so expensive! So, maybe one of these little handbags would be a good scripture tote for her?