Cookies and Comics

 Annabelle is selling Girl Scout cookies again.  She already has almost 300!  I want to be done, but Annabelle wants to keep going.  Her goal is 500 this year.  We shall see. 

For some reason we got the Sunday paper a week ago and Ryan immediately opened it up and got out the comics.  We really have never had the newspaper in our home, but somehow Ryan knew that there were comics in there and was excited to read them.  It reminded me so much of Grandpa Raymond. 

Sewing with my Girls

 I have been working on a quilt for awhile using lots of scraps from other quilts.  The girls have seen all the pretty fabric and wanted to make something themselves.  I did Callie's for her but Annabelle was adamant that she do her own.  She helped cut the fabric and then she laid out the squares like she wanted.  She sewed all the squares together and then i sewed it to the back.  She was SO excited.  As she was sewing she exclaimed, "This is so much fun!" and "I want a sewing machine for my birthday so I can do this all the time."  I didn't ever sew with my mother or much on my own growing up, but I thoroughly enjoyed doing this with Annabelle.  I love forward to many more sewing projects with my children.

Various Happenings around the House

 Dancing at the Museum at Thanksgiving point.

 Dog piles.

 Ryan found that a lot of his friends had received a Kendama for Christmas and while I promised he could have one for his birthday, he just couldn't wait.  He went ahead and bought it for himself.  He was SO excited when it came a few days earlier than expected.  He has gotten quite good at this Japanese yo-yo.

 We sure love games around here.  I love that our friends love them, too.

 Annabelle found this sheet of ice in our sled outside.  She thought it was pretty awesome.

Apparently the middle of the table is the perfect place to read BOB books and family photo albums.

 

 Ryan has started basketball and so we have the privilege to watch his games every Saturday afternoon.  I love watching my kids on sport teams, challenging themselves and cheering them on.

Auntie Em and Cookie kick-Off

I got to be a part of a Fancy Nancy sleuth birthday party for my niece, Eliza.  She had to change the date so it ended up being at the same time as a Girl Scout function.  Luckily we made it all work and I was able to make her birthday party extra special.

 Annabelle and her friends LOVE Girl Scouts.  They have so much energy and are always very happy at scout functions.  I really do enjoy being their leader, despite how crazy it can sometimes be.  I love how much they love me and want to impress me.  I really do look forward to doing this for a long time and with my Callie as well.

 

Ryan's Arrow of Light

 I am so proud of Ryan earning his Arrow of Light.  He has worked really hard as a cub scout and we are all excited that we only have 1 more pack meeting in our family's life. In some ways I miss cub scouts and learning and growing with these boys.

 

THE Puzzle

Our family really enjoys doing puzzles.  We have tons of kid puzzles and even Callie can do a 100 piece puzzle with a little help and a good amount of time.  We bought the family two puzzles for Christmas.  The first one was 500 pieces and everyone easily helped with this one:

 

The second puzzle was 3000 pieces and Greg and I honestly had no idea what we were getting ourselves into when we dumped it onto the table.  We immediately realized that we were going to need the leaf in our table.  Nathan and Annabelle helped sort out the edge pieces but after that we all knew it wasn't going to be a puzzle the kids would be able to help much with. 
Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

One of my friends commented on how her marriage probably couldn't survive such a puzzle.  Even though I am sure she was joking, it made me think about all the hours that Greg and I sat at the table together, working side by side.  We got along great.  We chatted, listened to music and helped each other.  We have very different puzzle making techniques and together we are an amazing team.  We mod podged the puzzle tonight and I do not foresee any other large puzzles for us in the near future, but we did it.  It was a lot of fun and I doubt we would have been able to do it had Greg been feeling better.  I guess you could say it was serendipitous that Greg was sick and we were able to spend so much time together.

2nd Week of Christmas Vacation

 Things never go exactly how you plan.  I definitely didn't plan on dealing with a sick husband for 2 weeks this Christmas.  But, looking back, it was kind of a blessing.  We were able to relax and not do more than necessary.  The kids were able to have some fun and also not worry about the normal daily pressures of life.  Monday was a blur.  I took Greg to a eye doctor appointment and heard the fabulous news that his eye is great and there will be no permanent damage.  Of course it was that morning that it had to snow and I had to drive (which I hate driving in the snow!).  I don't know where all the snow plows were that morning, but they were no where near Orem because the roads were AWFUL!  Thankfully we made it there and back in one piece (my hands were a little sore from gripping the steering wheel so tightly).  We relaxed the rest of the day.  Played with new toys, games and books.  We had a bunch of friends over but they were a little too loud for Greg so we decided not to do that until he was better.

Tuesday was Grandpa Raymond's birthday.  We decided to start a new tradition and honor him by having a birthday cake from here on out.  The kids loved the idea of having cake and I was happy Greg emerged from his dark cave for a picture and piece of yummy coconut cake. We drove Nathan up to Salt Lake to sleep over at his cousins and then I took the kids to Hang Time to give Greg some peace and quiet.  We actually were on our way to the Natural Curiosity Museum when my cousins called and invited us to Hang Time.  We took a vote and ended up there.  It was nice to chat with people instead of being along at the museum.

 

 Callie is learning to do her own hair.  She is so proud whenever she puts some pony tails in.  The problem is she only wraps the elastic around her hair once so it falls out easily.  She is trying and that is good enough for me right now.

 I love finding Annabelle's little houses around the house.  These three pictures were in 3 different rooms of my house.  While I don't love messes all over, I love listening to this girl play.  She has an amazing imagination and can play for hours on her own.  Sometimes it is hard to get her to play with her sister or friends since she would rather just play quietly by herself.

It was a crazy 2 weeks.  Not the best, but we survived.  This has been my whole house all week.  Lovely!  This morning was a little rough getting the kids up and moving, but they were a little excited to talk to friends again.  When all the kids went back to school today I tackled the house and it felt great to get it all cleaned up.  I mopped (it SOO needed it), vacuumed, dusted and cleaned.  It looked and felt so nice.  I love a clean home!  I loved talking to the kids after school again and hearing about their day.  I like the balance of school season.  I can get things done around the house and then interact with them on a more focused level when I get home.  Homework wasn't fun, like usual, but hopefully we will get back in the groove quickly.

New Years

 I saw this fabulous idea here and knew it was perfect for our family.  The night before New Year's Eve I filled a bunch of balloons (4 for each child) with little slips of paper saying things like, "Play Charades" or "Pop Popcorn."  At 4pm we started opening 1 balloon every half hour.  The kids loved it.  The boys maybe didn't like "Dance Party" and we were all stuffed when we got "Eat Ice Cream" at 11:30, but for the most part we did everything and had lots of fun. 
We started the day with some sand art and other crafts the girls had been bugging me about.  I don't mind messes so it was fun to let them go for it and make some new creations. 

  Late in the afternoon we decided to have a family come over for dinner and games.  It was a lot of fun and I am glad Greg was feeling up to being social.

 We made it to midnight again.  I am amazed at how well my kids stay up late.  That doesn't mean that they are super happy the next morning, but they do great late at night!  Our friends left around 9:30ish and so we had the rest of the night together, opening balloons and doing fun games and activities together.  I love my family and am so thankful I got to spend the evening with them.