Christmas Spirit

I have to say I had a lot of the Christmas Spirit this year. We had some friends over for Christmas and it was great. There was a lot of work but worth it. I can't find my camera but the girls were really cute Christmas morning. They got excited about so many things.

I did not get a picture of my house all lit up for Christmas and because the day after was 53 degrees Fahrenheit, I have taken it all down. I didn't want to do it with cold fingers! I was happy to have an unusually warm day after Christmas, though. The problem is that it looks so bleak around here in the winter when there is no snow to make it beautiful.

On a side note, Archie and I celebrated our tenth anniversary this year. I cannot believe it has passed so quickly. People who knew us apart couldn't see us as compatible until they saw us together, then they said we just "fit". This is true. I am so blessed to be married to my best friend. Life just works out sometimes.

Cuteness Personified

Carmen was making little notes (she can't write so she told me) that said, "I love Carmen and Kaitlin and Mommy and Daddy and Alix and Kennedi and Everybody!" She made this cute face that I wish I had caught on film and then hugged me. Sticky Sweet!

Kaitlin this morning was teaching Carmen one of those school age chants with hand/arm motions. It was ADORABLE.

December 2008

Well, no pictures right now. But we are having a good holiday season. I go a little crazy around Christmastime. I love it and love to decorate for it, etc, etc. I will take a few pictures of my decorations later. We have been busy, busy, busy.

The one note I will make is that a have heard of a lot of people getting cancer just recently, especially young kids, but it is hard to think about young people going through what I did.

Gingerbread, gingerbread, gingerbread.

All I have been doing for the last little while is Gingerbread. I am the coordinator for Lakeview Ward and, well, I got some good advice to document it all so here goes.....


This is some of the figures the Achievement Days Girls (8-11 years old) did. I think they are kind of cute!


I learned on the internet to put cans on the sides to hold the gingerbread together while the icing dries. It works pretty well.

Here is the finished church. I made the template myself and put the candy stained glass windows in too. In this picture, it is lighted from inside.


It was Mia's idea to do the roof in Big Red gum and she was right. She worked on that part and the other decorations with me. It was fun and one of my few social interactions other than on the phone for the week!

Yeah! Here I am "working" on the house. Actually, the picture was taken after it was mostly done.


The Nativity Scene part of it. Kristen did the figures and I think she did a great job. I did the stable. She did a better job than I did. Too bad her figures have such a mediocre backdrop.


Sister Roberts did this one. I think it is amazing!

Heidi A. did this one. She thought it was awful. Whatever, girlfriend!

Packing it all up to go work on it at the church. It looks pretty good already!

This is the scene before we took it to the Trail Center. I love the cobble stone road Pat, Anna Lou, and Denise did. Do you like my sugar cube fountain?

Carmen loved this little snowman on top of this icing hill where fondant kids are playing. She wanted to "buy" it.

So here is half of the finished product.

Here is the other half of it with snow powdered sugar snow sprinkled on it.

Here is a close up of my fountain. The picture doesn't look very good. I have to admit. I think it looks better in real life. This is before the sugar cube rocks were put in to surround it.

Archie's work had a huge Halloween Festival for the kids. The different floors competed. His floor did the Wizard of Oz. Here is the house on the feet of the Wicked Witch of the East

Here is the Mayor with a sign that says she is not only dead but really sincerely dead.

Here is a picture of the guys singing that they are the Lollipop Guild. Isn't it amazing how this doesn't even look like an office and they went all out.

Kaitlin is a bride and Carmen is Jasmine. They are here with the scarecrow.

Here is the tin man with a living tree. I forgot about that in the movie until I saw it move.

Here is the cowardly lion with Kaitlin saying that girls scare him. She is enjoying it.



They even did the yellow brick road with the little twirl to begin it. My girls loved all this!

This wicked witch was sprayed by the Dorothy below and pretended to melt.

This Dorothy gave us cute "melted" chocolate wicked witch hats out of this caldron. They were those cookies with chocolate bottoms had a pretzel and a curved top part dipped chocolate part. Quite original.

They even included the flying monkeys.


See, this doesn't look like an office. People are still working behind these curtains--not any with children though.

This is a great entrance to the Emerald City. The guys in the background are singing that song and getting all primped up. They had a bouncy house in there for the kids.
All in all, it was a blast and the girls had a lot of fun.

Busy Autumn

This is the smaller children on a tree branch while we were camping with our neighbors.

We had the golf course to ourselves at Mahoney Park. The girls enjoyed it a lot. Our neighbors were so nice to include us.


This is on the hike that we took. Then we climbed the tower. My neighbor, Kelly, said, "Isn't this like kids to hike so that you can climb a tower." I laughed. It is true. They DO NOT GET TIRED. Actually, they were impressed that we never had to carry Carmen. She was a trooper!


Here are the "Super Kids". They were pretending to be super heroes at the top of the tower and on the whole hike.

Lunch at School

Last week, I sent Kaitlin to the office with lunch money and she mistakenly thought I was coming to lunch. Apparently, she waited for me in the office and got to lunch late. I felt so bad, even though I never knew I was supposed to be going to lunch with her that day, that the next day I took McDonald's lunch to school and ate with her. She was happy. It was so sad to see her disappointed look.

Sunday, I was having a rare bad day and was crying. Kaitlin made a cute little skit about how I was the best mom and so good at everything. Carmen tried to comfort me too. I have to say, they did comfort me and bump me out of a sad mood. Who can stay sad with such sweetness around?

Carmen Loves Preschool

These are pictures from Carmen's Preschool Open House. She loves preschool and says, "Oh, man!" when I say it isn't a preschool day. She gets so excited when I say it IS a preschool day.

She is showing us how to play with this. I love her concentration. I volunteer for preschool but she was so excited to show Daddy and Kaitlin. Kaitlin, however, was sick and couldn't go this night.


Here is Carmen with her teacher Mrs. Craig. Doesn't she look happy?

Tag (4th picture in 4th folder)

The picture below is the forth folder labeled "Art", since it wasn't a picture, I went to the 4th picture of the 4th photograph and included it above. This is Carmen's feet while she was asleep. I take way too many pictures.

I tag Mia, Lora, Kristen and Rebecca.

Vala's Pumpkin Patch

Vala's Pumpkin Patch was fun and relatively warm. We had fun getting pumpkins from the field, seeing the not-so-scary haunted walk-through, jumping on the new jumping "mats", riding the pedal cars, playing in the hay jump/tractor area, etc., etc.

Here is their aunt Alix with the girls in from of some pumpkins. It was fun to have her along.

Carmen is concentrating hard on driving this stationary tractor. I can't believe how fun this is to children.

How much have you grown? How big are you now. Very important to know if you are under the age of, say, 16!

This is the wagon ride out to the fields to pick pumpkins. They drove us WAY out this time. We were past the house on the hill (if you have been there). Some guy said they use this to house teenagers for many educational projects during the year. We also saw the pig races. I never before realized that the pigs they race are all rare breeds.

Kaitlin is jumping into some hay here. Sooooo fun. You see her landing spot in the next picture.

Busy Week/Kaitlin's 7th Birthday/School Field Trip

So, this was a busy week.
First Kaitlin had a Field Trip to Nebraska City's Apple Festival (which I went to as well).
Then we went to Vala's Pumpkin Patch for Kaitlin's family birthday.
Carmen had her first Birthday Party invitation to Lexie Hatch's Birthday Party at the Park. She was very excited. She talked and talked about her invitation to a birthday party.
Finally, Kaitlin had an "Avatar" Birthday Party at our house. It was all very fun and very busy (for Mom and Dad). We created projects for earth, air, fire and water "bending" and had fun. For earth/water bending, we did that thing with corn starch and water where if you move it quickly in your hands or step on it fast, it is hard. However, if you hold still, you sink or it drips off your hands when holding it. Kind of fun. We had pop caps for fire "bending" (and blew out the candles), etc. etc. It was a lot of work but she loved it and so that is worth it.

This is Kaitlin's Class in the three house at the apple orchard farm we went to.


The following are a few of the many pictures we took of the Avatar birthday party.

"Earth bending" with PlayDoh.