Christmas Carnage

We had a wonderful Christmas. Everything went much more smoothly than in years past. Maybe it's because the kids are getting older.

I got an iFlip and just had to share this great new video I took after everything was opened! :) I think I'll have a lot of fun with it. Feel free to scroll down on my blog and pause my music to better hear the video.

Up and Moving

We finally got our Windows 7 CD in the mail, but unfortunately I was too sick to do anything about it. I am just getting over being sick for 2 weeks. I came down with the flu. Then it turned into bronchitis and by the time I went to the doctor he told me it was settling into pneumonia. 11 stinking days with a fever and just being able to lay on the couch! At least I've been able to still eat through the whole ordeal, although I haven't had much of an appetite. Also, thank goodness for facebook. At least I didn't feel completely isolated!

I looked at my posts for November and it's shameful. I MUST get on top of this blog thing! I really do like to blog . . . so once I get this Windows 7 installed, I will also go ahead and install my photoshop, microsoft office, and my homesite. Then I will truly be up and running with nothing hanging over my head. :)

I've had to take a little leave from my exercising which I love so much and I hope to be able to return on Monday. Last night my visiting teachers were so kind and they brought in dinner - which was quite tasty! Also, there was so much food that we get to eat leftovers tonight and I don't have to get up and cook. It really was a relief to have one thing less to do when right now I get out of breath just standing.

I'm hoping that by the time I post again I'll be going full swing and will be able to post some nice, colorful, happy, long-awaited, already-behind-the-times pictures of my family and of our trip.

I'm All Backed Up

I just don't feel like I can get on top of anything!!! Here I sit in my very messy house with luggage still to be unpacked, an empty fridge, coupons needing to be clipped, piles of dirty laundry in various areas of the house, and Halloween costumes still where we left them when we took them off. Not to mention the phone list of people to call for primary and the shopping list for the dinner we are hosting. Oh and I also need to find some time put together a project for Athena on Rich County and prepare a spiritual message for my presentation on Friday.

I have over 750 pictures waiting to be posted and talked about, but I haven't yet downloaded Photoshop onto the new computer because I am waiting to receive my Windows 7 in the mail.

Yet . . . here I sit on facebook, IM, and blogspot. Hmph.

How is it the Christmas season already? Where did the past few months go? Does life ever really slow down or does it just continue to get busier and busier until we all just pop?

On a good note, Jeremy and I just returned home from a wonderful vacation in Mexico. We got to experience our first tropical storm turned hurricane, but still had a good time. The kids are all so happy to be back in their own environment and I am working on finding my routine again. Thankfully the Lord has blessed us all to be back together again safely and in good health. :)

I think I'll go make some lunch.

More Laundry Now :)

This little sweetheart is adding to my laundry load by being POTTY TRAINED!!!! :) I started potty training Alexandra last Monday and she is doing awesome. :) So now I get to throw a few little tiny pairs of panties into the laundry instead of having a garbage can full of dirty diapers. I'll take that for sure.

She has actually been ready to potty train for a couple of months now, but I kept putting it off. I finally found a week where we would be home for most of the time and decided to go for it. She was so excited!!! I set the timer for 45 minutes and every 45 minutes we would go into the bathroom and have her sit on her potty. For this week she has only had about 5 accidents and is even starting to go on her own. She even told me yesterday that she needed to go!

Usually I'm so ornery when I potty train a kid because it's so stressful for me. She has really been wonderful and I'm glad to see diapers coming to an end. :) Now we only have to buy them for night time.

Hooray!!

Another Member in Our Family!

I'm so happy! Last Saturday Samantha was baptized and given the gift of the Holy Ghost. :)
Everything went really well, and luckily for her, the water in the font was warm. Both of her Grandmas were able to give talks for her program because she was the only kid in our ward getting baptized for the day. It was nice!

Our bishop conducted and he also shared this spotlight about Samantha that she and I filled out that morning:

I was baptized on October 10, 2009.
Favorite food: meat and philly steak sandwiches
Favorite color: all the colors
Favorite place to go: Yellowstone and West Yellowstone
Favorite book: Horses & Ponies
Favorite primary song: Scripture Power and When I am Baptized
Favorite scripture story: Prince of Egypt
Favorite vacation: California
Favorite things to do: play barbies, My Little Pony, Polly Pockets, go swimming, vacations, learn
Some things my parents think are especially great about me:
strong testimony, always gives it her all, strong willed, loves to learn, outgoing, happy

This is a picture of all who attended Samantha's baptism (minus the primary presidency and the bishop). You can click on it for a larger view. Thank you all for coming!


Here is Samantha with the priesthood bearers who stood in the circle to assist in her confirmation.

Our little family.

Just Jeremy and I with Samantha.

I'm so grateful for the blessing we have of having another baptized member of the church in our home and for the spirit it brings into our home. I love Samantha very much and can't imagine my life without her. She is a wonderful part of our family!

We Have an 8 YEAR OLD!!!

Samantha had a birthday!!! Her birthday was really on September 25th and I'm just really late in putting together these posts, but the birthday pictures were REALLY taken on her actual birthday.

Samantha is a very unique little girl who knows exactly what she wants and isn't afraid to ask for it. She has always been this way and as she gets older she is definitely using this trait for good. She has a strong testimony of the gospel and tries her very best to do what's right. I'm proud of her. :)

One funny thing about her is that she has pulled all of her own teeth. I don't even know when her teeth are loose anymore. She just comes into the room holding a tooth and shows me the bloody gums in her mouth! She just prefers to do things on her own no matter what the results will be.

For her birthday she knew exactly what she wanted for dinner/dessert. No beating around the bush. For dinner she picked Dip Sandwiches (homemade philly steak 'n cheese sandwiches dipped in au jus). Dessert was Pumpkin Chiffon Pie with cream on top. YUM! Because of her pick, I spent most of her birthday morning in the kitchen, cooking . . . but isn't that what moms are for?

We all went for a movie in the afternoon and invited the grandparents to come over dinner and gifts in the evening. As you can see, she had a great time opening her presents. Here she is holding up some new barbie clothes. The package even includes a suit for Ken!
She was happy to be able to read the cards herself.

Until she got to the cursive! This is when Athena stepped in to help. It was so cute to watch them try to read the birthday card together. Finally neither of them could figure it out so they had to hand it to Grandma to have her read her own writing in the card to Samantha.

After presents we delved into the pie! I like that Samantha chose pie because cake has never been a favorite of mine. Little kids like decorated kids. Older kids get a little more sophisticated and request treats that actually taste good. YEAH!

Thank goodness I could only fit 3 candles on this piece of pie instead of 8. She barely got them all out.

I love having Samantha in our family. She is a blessing to us all and I love seeing her learn and grow. I'm especially excited to have another baptized member of the church in our home. I look forward to watching her take more responsibility and grow in her gospel knowledge.

Fruits of My Labor

Here are the fruits of my labor during conference.

I made grape juice for the first time unassisted! :) It was fun, but extremely time consuming. I juiced 2 bushels of grapes and came out with 38 bottles of grape juice! It's really good, we had it for breakfast this morning.

With all of my leftover time, so for one session, I worked on this puzzle. I love puzzles and that's really my favorite conference past time - not making grape juice. I guess you do what you have to do, right?

The kids were actually not too bad this time for conference. We did have plenty of moments where they got "shushed", but for the most part it didn't get out of hand to the point where I was wondering why we watch it at all. It certainly helped that we still have naptime for 2 of them! Athena and Samantha were really good about finding quiet activities and listening. All the kids were quite interested in the grape juice making process and they took turns helping me wash the grapes. If I dared turn that whole job over to them I would because it's my LEAST favorite part, but I'm too picky about how the grapes get washed. Overall, I'd have to say it was a good and productive weekend!