Asahi

Went out to lunch today. It was yummy and so fun. E said it was the 2nd best restaurant he's ever eaten at :) (his first fav is Tacanos in Utah)

Tonight we're going to a go away party for the Palmers. We haven't known them very long but it will be sad to see them leave, they are an awesome family.

DC Field Trip

Sunday night I took the big girls to the airport. They both went to TX . Jenna is camping with Emma and the Venturing Crew and then visiting friends and going to the New Years Eve Dance. Sierra is visiting lots of friends. It's always weird to have them gone.

So, Monday morning we decided to try out the metro and go to DC. We drove down to the station and talked to a very nice worker who showed us how to do it and then we boarded. The kids thought it was great fun to be in an underground tunnel on a train. Beloved and I thought it was way less stressful than driving in DC and parking in DC.

We went to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History.

Then we went and walked the mall looking at monuments in the freezing weather.

The kids found this little squirrel that was so friendly. They fed him nuts and raisins and he ate right out of their hand.

It was pretty funny, when we were done we walked on and he came leaping after us begging for more...we obliged and threw him a handful of what we had left. It's so cold and he was hungry.

E trying to stay warm. Impossible, BTW

Us at the Lincoln Monument.

a sugary winterland of delight

while browsing some of my fav sites this morning I saw the CUTEST, seriously, sugariest, stickiest, yummist, most delightfully decorated house EVER! Go here and visit, it's worth a stop :)

...you are welcome :)

temple trip

Last night I went on a youth temple trip with J. It was really neat, we have great youth!

I was called today to work with the Young Women. It is my very favorite place to serve and I am super excited, but also a little nervous and feeling the weight of responsibility. Our girls are so awesome and their futures are so full of hope and promise, they just need to know who they are and stick to the straight and narrow path. I hope I will be fun and that I will help them.

quilts

for Christmas I made these two little quilts for my granddaughter Tatum and my new nephew Joneaux.
They were very fun to make and I was happy with how they turned out. They aren't perfect but I don't think the babies will mind :)

update: She liked it!

and so did he!

Christmas Day

Today was a very good day. Lucy woke up early and kept wishing for morning. 1:30 was not. Neither was 3:00...or 5:45; finally it was and she was excited!!!

The kids are allowed to open their stockings before we get out of bed, we heard laughing and fun in the bedroom as that kept them entertained for a long while :) then we headed down stairs and opened our gifts.

Everyone got things they really wanted and were happy and cheerful:)

Sierra and Jenna both got tennis rackets and balls to play with. They both got pretty pearls from Nana, white for S and black for J. J also got a much wanted lap top in preparation for going off to college in a year :(


I got what I thought was a lovely coat for Sierra. It turned out to be a rather odd cloak with what kind of looked like a dead beaver on it. We laughed for a long time as she modeled it for us. (we are going to exchange it)

Lucy really wanted this dinosaur digging kit, she also got a Barbie that she wanted and a scooter that she road around on inside for hours.

After the gifts were opened we had a relaxing day playing together, and making food and trying out the new toys and games.

I won at Querkle, which was fun. Brother also really liked it.

Speaking of Brother he got this awesome helmet and a double edged light saber as well as lots of new "guys" and some other fun things.

Everyone got books and ....

Beloved got to spend a couple of hours with the "some assembly required" gifts that everyone got.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!!

while visions of sugar plums...

danced in their heads. The kids decorated their rooms and slept under sparkly lights while dreaming of the goodies to come in the morning.

counting down the minutes

with some snow play

and a trip to the movies, we saw Avatar, which was a lot of fun.

and new jammies :)

Christmas Eve

Yeah! It's here and Beloved is off of work and the kids are EXCITED!! and we still have snow:) a white Christmas for us:)

This was taken yesterday at the museum.

cookies

we're going kind of stir crazy around here. ....can I open one present please mom! ....can we go out in the snow again mom? ......what can we do mom???

so we're baking, and singing to each other and watching movies and playing games and cleaning up and delivering treats and....

saving cookies for dad.

And this afternoon we are getting out of the house to do something fun.

Brother's favorite carol

sights and sounds of the season

I went out to drop off VT treats this afternoon. This is the view from Julie's front yard, so beautiful! I had to take a picture of the snow and water meeting it was so cheerful and Christmasy! Love it!!

and look at adorable little Tater-tot!!! Love her!

sunday walk...in the snow!

We took a little walk behind our house into the woods.

Kids and dogs and grown ups had a cold fun time.

School has been cancelled for the rest of the week so we get an extra long Christmas break! and we miss the class parties, which is fine with me.

Church was cancelled today as well, which is a bummer. I like a Sabbath day at church and I especially like the week before Christmas.

Yesterday we loaded up our wagon with some neighbor gifts and delivered them in our blizzard. It was cold, and fun, and wet and crisp.

Today some treats came our way:) I love our neighbors!

part duex

We are not really familiar with snow, we've seen it before, as visitors to it's domain, and read about it and know of the concept and understand that it is cold; what I mean is we haven't lived where it snows before. A day here or there an inch or two every few years is what we are used to.

So we behave like lunatics when it comes:)

It is cold and fluffy and pretty.

Even Millie is excited.

But now I wonder....

how much hot chocolate will we go through today?...

and how much laundry??

SNOW!!!!

it's snowing!!

looks like it will be a long cozy weekend of watching movies, eating, and playing outside!

Lu and Millie sharing a snooze in front of Julie&Julia. A movie I LOVED! It was so sweet and fun. LOVED it!!

cookies

after school today we decided to make cookies. The kids love to roll the dough and cut out the cute shapes. We made trees, and snowmen, and gingerbread men. Also the traditional Christmas pigs and goats and horses.:)

Then came the decorating.

When they were done there were no sprinkles left in the bottle but plenty on the cookies to add a little crunch:)

tree

After I dropped off Jenna at seminary this morning I came home to sparkly tree lights and a still quiet house. It was so pretty.

true confessions

Shhh! this is a secret but a part of me hates Christmas. Okay, hate is really a strong word and not the right one but doesn't "heart" really doesn't do the trick either.

I am not Mrs Scrooge. I love Christmas music and movies and treats. I love the feeling excitment in the air, the good will that abounds, the emphasis on the Savior. I love decorating the house and buying gifts and sending cards. I love getting cards and all the ho ho ho.

However, in the midst of it, I don't like the clutter...and I don't like the "I wants..." and I don't like the stress of staying on budget...or not staying on it. I want to give gifts that are loved and that make the recipient feel loved but it seems impossible sometimes. And I know from experience. When I was a kid I never got what a wanted. Of course what I wanted and asked for for as long as I can remember was a horse and that is a difficult gift to give.

Every year we went to San Fransisco and spent the holidays with extended family and that was so fun. I appreciate it even more now that I am grown and they are gone, those precious memories and fun times. I remember the huge pile of presents under the tree and being so excited and getting nice things. I remember sitting by Baba Olya at dinner and sneaking my unwanted food onto her plate:) It was a cheerful, fun time.

The first year that Dani was born we went up and spent Christmas there, that was the last time...I wish I knew then. It was fun to show off my pretty babe to my grandmother and to be with everyone.

Here she is crying with me and Papa . I needed a hair cut.

It's kind of stressful to have everything decorated and shiny and nice. Lights outside and tree inside, cards to everyone, gifts for neighbors...searching and hoping to make the family happy.

I also want to teach the children to give, to serve others and the true meaning of the season. It almost gets swamped in the glitz...thankfully we have all year for that too. Sierra and I were talking yesterday about how the Christ part of Christmas isn't that different for us than the rest of the year. We always try to think of Him, worship Him, serve His children, read His words, sing His hymns...the only kind of different part of December is the glitter and glam of Santa and the Christmas symbols you see all around.

So while I love it, I also don't from time to time. That's it....next I'll confess that I don't really like kittens either! Who am I?

friends

Lucy has a little friend who lives two streets down from us, her name is Julia. The girls like to play together each week. Yesterday it was Lu's turn to host JuJu. It was a very ADHD play-date, they ran from activity to activity, snack to snack in a frenzy of fun and frolic. When the day was over our house looked like a tornado struck it, but they had fun. (two weeks before that they were here and played quietly ~dress up and dolls.) Julia's mom is a vet and her dad flies c-130s.

Last Saturday Brother had two friends over to play. Here they are waiting for lunch (nothing broke). They mostly played wii and ran in circles until Beloved took them outside and set up a soccer goal, then they played soccer with him for a good hour. yea! for Beloved.

Justin's dad (the boy in the striped shirt) is a Col . He works at the Pentagon now, used to fly Blackhawks. John's dad is also a pilot, but I don't know what he flies. It seems like half the people we know now are pilots aviators.

How many pilots does it take to change a light bulb? One. He holds it and the whole world revolves around him. Ha

When you are on a date with a pilot how do you know it's half way over? He says "enough about me, now let's talk about my plane". Ha Ha.

I was told those by another pilot friend this weekend. Took me four days to think of how to work them into a post:)

H was invited to a friends house on Saturday. Here she is with Julia and her little sister Maria. They made a cute gingerbread train.

Julia's dad is a contractor ( the other half the people we know here ) everyone is in defense.

which brings me to how many engineers does it take to change a light bulb??

None, they are all too busy trying to design the perfect light bulb.

or only one but he needs an instruction manual.

or 5. One to design a nuclear powered light bulb that never needs to be changed, one to figure out how to power the US with that one light bulb, two to install it, and one to write the computer program that controls the wall switch.

at our house it's one, he does them all. I don't think I've changed a light bulb in 11 years! One of the many nice things Beloved does for our family.

BTW, all the pilots, and engineers, we know are very nice...it's still funny though.

we put the "fun" in dysfunctional

Last night we celebrated J's birthday. She picked our dinner menu...it was random, but she loved it!
We had
steamed broccoli
steamed asparagus
monkey bread
African baked bananas
spinach/strawberry salad
cranberry sauce
white grape juice
chow mien
and for dessert,
lemon bars.

All her favs!

S came to the table and said "you no eat no meat?"

Here the kids are waiting to open presents.

and here we are "singing" to her.