Holidays 2010

We are fully into the Christmas season. Sean was out of town again last week (in Texas doing some training on how to be a trainer). The kids and I pulled out the Christmas decorations for the inside of the house (except the tree). We also made some homemade Christmas card to send to servicemen who won't be able to home for Christmas, and we've been reading a Christmas story every night. Then the weekend hit...and we had Christmas activities galore. This is how our weekend went: Friday night: I went to a Relief Society Cookie Exchange (you take a couple dozen cookies and then get to take a little of what everyone else brought....YUM). I got a babysitter (a girl from our ward)...who the kids LOVED. They had a blast with her. Sean got home later that night. Saturday: I took Caelan and Ben and Nathan to the church for a primary service activity (we tied quilts and made rice bags for a local senior center and the kids made more Christmas cards to send away). While we were there Sean took Megan to the community "Breakfast with Santa" because her little preschool group was performing there. We all got home around noon. Sean and I then put up the Christmas lights on the outside of the house (which look fantastic, by the way.....not very many people will see them because of where our house is located, but they look great to us - simple, but nice). That evening we headed into Albuquerque to a Stake Center that had over 400 nativities set up around the building (anything from snowmen nativities to crocheted blanket nativities to nativity sets from all around the world). After that we drove downtown and found a great seat on the curb to watch the light parade, which was fun. The kids especially loved when people handed out candy (we're seriously going to have a sugar fast after the holidays...). Sunday: We watched the First Presidency Christmas devotional online while we did a Christmas puzzle (which is a pretty big thing for me...I'm not a big puzzle do-er, but I worked and worked until we finished the whole thing that night). I was going to get a picture of it, but Megan and Nathan got their hands on it before I could. The next weekend we went to The Albuquerque Botanical Gardens which has an event every December called "River of Lights." Not only are there lights in the trees and bushes, but there are all sorts of other light figurines all over the place (bugs, animals, trains, dinosaurs, flowers, etc). Plus there was a big glass enclosed snowman village. We attempted to go last Saturday night, but the traffic was horrendous, so we knew that the gardens would be super crowded as well. We decided to wait until Monday, and it was perfect. The kids LOVED it. Caelan and Ben each had Christmas music performances at their school this

week. I love their music teacher (plus I just love the fact that they get to have a music class every week). The Kindergarten program was so cute, and they sang quite a lot of songs ("Up on the Housetop," "Jolly Old St. Nicholas," "Jingle Bells," "Away in a Manger," "We are Santa's Elves," a Hannukah song, another folk-like Christmas song and probably a couple that I am forgetting). I think it's so great that they performed songs not only about the fun stuff about Christmas, but also about Jesus Christ...as well as a song about Hannukah. Then the program that Caelan was in was for grades 1-3. She sang three songs: "A December to Remember," "Jammin' in our Jammies," and "Go Tell it on the Mountain."The other grades did some really cute numbers too (dancing the Hora, a little piano duet with a student and the music teacher, "Twas the Night Before Christmas (piano chopsticks- style). It was very cute. Megan and Nathan came with me, and sat really well through Ben's, but Nathan had pretty much had it by the time Caelan's program came around. So, I was pretty much holding him and taking him out in the hall throughout that part, which means I didn't get any videos of her, and I only got one picture. At least I got to be there to see it. Very cute.

Thanksgiving 2010

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We went down to Casa Grande to spend it with Dad's family. All of Dad's aunts and uncles on the Dick side of the family were down for the holiday. We had dinner at Grandma Dicks house complete with all the trimmings: turkey (SO MOIST), stuffing (YUM-O), mashed potatoes and gravy, green salad, brussel sprouts, roasted sweet potatoes (this is one of my favorite dishes at Thanksgiving), homemade rolls, peas, pumpkin pie, Sean's apple pie and a pumpkin ice cream dessert. I successfully ate myself to the brim...and loved it. Then we visited and took pictures and had a most enjoyable night. We spent the next couple of days hanging out and enjoying the Arizona sun. We even got to hear Grandma Dick (Dad's mom) speak in church on Sunday (she is so GREAT). We headed home right after church. We hit some snow in Payson and Heber (both in AZ), and then we ran into some nasty ice in Gallup, NM. We saw all sorts of semi's that had slid off the side of the freeway. We were inchin' along there for a while, but we finally made our way out of it and got home safe and sound. I LOVE Thankgiving. There's not tons of stress and events and craziness surrounding it...it's just a day to enjoy being with family and giving thanks. And honestly, we have so very much to be grateful for, it's good to really be able to reflect on those blessings.

What's Happening

* Last week for Family Home Evening we made "Tom the Thankful Turkey". We all got to think of a different blessing and write it on a feather or two and add it to the turkey. The kids wanted me to make more feathers so that they could add more throughout the week. It was a hit. It is now hanging in our living room until Thanksgiving. * Last night for Family Home Evening I decided to have the kids draw a picture of Lehi's Vision of the Tree of Life. We are reading that in our family scripture study right now, so I thought it would be fun for the kids to actually draw it all out so that they can relate to it as we read. They loved it. And I loved the posters, so I had to get a picture of them. * Dad went on a campout with the Scouts last weekend. While he was gone the kids and I went to the Family Movie Night at the school. They showed Toy Story 3 (such a cute little show). We wore our pajamas and laid out blankets and pillows on the ground and got a few snacks that were being sold there. Overall, it was a fun night. And boy, was it chilly when we got back into our car to go home. * Sunday was the Primary Program in our ward (the Sunday where all the young kids put on the Sacrament meeting program). It's one of the best Sundays of the year...especially when you have three kiddos to pay close attention to on the stand. Ben had some very awesome facial expressions. All three of them said their part clear enough for everyone to hear. I love listening to kids sing and talk about Jesus Christ. It's like pure testimony. It was a good meeting.

Halloween 2010

Delicious chili made - check. (Sean has a very tasty chili recipe that he actually won a ward chili cook-off for last year) Pumpkins carved - check. (Sean did a "barfing" pumpkin and the "dog" from Ghostbusters, and I did a silhouette of a witch in front of her cauldron) School Halloween parties - check. (3 parties to stop at this year) Everyone in costume for a church party - check. (Even Sean and I dressed up this year: the Grim Reaper and Cinderella...quite the couple...HE HE HE) Trunk-or-Treating and fun carnival games at the Ward Halloween Party - check. Lots of candy being scarfed down - check. THIS IS HALLOWEEN!

New Mexicans

I guess I am past due for an update. We made the big move. We sent our moving truck away on Wednesday, September 29 and then we left Visalia on Thursday. We drove most of the way, and then finished up the trip on Friday. We stopped in Albuquerque to run a couple of errands and get the keys to our house, and they we headed up to Edgewood. We finally got to walk through the inside of our house (we signed the contract without ever actually going inside - (we saw LOTS of pictures))...and we like it more and more everyday. We were hoping the moving truck would make it on Friday (if they didn't we knew we would have to wait through the entire weekend). It didn't. It didn't get here until Tuesday, which means that we slept on floors for 6 nights (2 in Visalia and 4 here in Edgewood). It wasn't too bad, but we were sure happy to get cozy in our own beds when they arrived. We spent several hours that first weekend at our new church building watching General Conference. We have really loved it here so far: super welcoming neighbors (we are the only house on the street with kids...and yet all the neighbors have made comments about how they like to hear those voices), a great ward with lots and lots of families, good school and teachers, a fun little preschool program that we miraculously got Megan into (which is amazingly CHEAP too), beautiful weather, etc. Every time I look out our windows I feel like I am in a cabin in the woods - I don't think that will ever get old. It's also fun to be so close to Sean's aunt and uncle (Tom and Carolyn and little Rachel). We have gotten together with them a couple of times, which has been nice.

Balloon Fiesta

We moved right as the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta was going on. It is the world's premier hot air balloon event. We got up ridiculously early on Saturday, Oct 9th and headed to Balloon Fiesta park. There was definitely traffic, but we figured that we planned it just about perfect (not too early, so we didn't have to stand around in the frigid air for too long, but just in time to get a little snack and find a place to stand to watch the balloons take off). It was pretty awesome! You stand right there on the field with all of the balloons that are taking off all around you. We saw fun-shaped balloons (Darth Vader, SpongeBob, a GIANT cow, the Wells Fargo Wagon and lots more). There were about 500 balloons that took off that morning. Well worth the wee early hours.

Trials

* About a month ago, the bishop of our ward was shot and killed in our church building shortly after our Sunday block. To say it was a "shock" really doesn't even begin to say what we all felt. It was a senseless act done by a man who wasn't well, and many people initially asked the question, "why?" And yet, as more experiences from that day have come out, it has become very apparent that the Lord has a plan and that for some reason this was part of it. Amidst the tragedy there has been so much LOVE - a literal outpouring of love for his family, for our ward, for each other. There has been more unity, there has been a very real presence of the Spirit to comfort and testify of the Atonement of Jesus Christ and it's very real power, there has been a new dedication to the things that are important, there has been increased faith. It has been humbling to watch and listen to the testimony of Julie, his wife. She is being comforted and lifted in ways none of us can see (despite the pain she must feel), and her faith is literally strengthening our ward and this community. The Lord is here. His spirit is with us to comfort and guide and direct us...and our Father's Plan is perfect. Sometimes we can't see it and sometimes we don't understand it, and yet I have had enough experiences to know that His perspective is clear and our becomes clearer as we trust and rely on Him.

First Day of School

First day of school. Ben is starting morning session of Kindergarten at Mineral King Elementary School. His teacher is a cute, older angel Kingergarten teacher. She's wonderful!

Summer Adventure

Well, we just got home (on Saturday) from our big summer trip. We were gone for 20 days (13 of which were just me and the kids), traveled about 2,400 miles and went to 3 different family reunions (plus some other visiting). Lots of fun, and now happy to be back home. Here's the condensed version of the trip: Day 1: Drove to Flagstaff, got a flat tire on the trailer, but nothing too big. Took over 12 hours) Day 2: Played at the Sorensen Family Reunion (kickball, building forts, line dancing, etc). Did a service project (clearing the property for more tent sites). Day 3: Went to Wupatki Ruins (cool Indian dwellings) Day 4: Left the Sorensen Reunion. Went to Mesa Temple. Sean met with a boss in Phoenix. Made it to Grandpa and Grandma Dick's and went swimming Day 5: Swam and swam and swam Day 6: Swam some more. Played Farkle. Day 7: Went to church with Grandpa and Grandma Dick and took Sean to the airport (Nathan cried hysterically as he watched Sean walk away). Day 8: Went to visit our favorite dentist (Grandpa). Caelan, Ben, Megan and I all got cleanings, and Caelan and Ben had some other little work done. Had a small car problem that was easily solved with a $.99 can of coke. Then swam. Day 9: Last day of swimming. Played Farkle. Day 10: Left Grandpa and Grandma Dick's at 5:30 AM. Traveled for 9ish hours to Brian Head, UT for the Grant Family Reunion. Had story time with my Grandma Grant. Day 11: Went to Bryce Canyon and Cedar Breaks. BEAUTIFUL! Had a wonderful testimony meeting that night with the family. Stayed up until 4:15 AM chatting with Charity. Day 12: Rode the Brian Head ski lift (had a small heart attack inside as all my kids rode too, but they loved it). Had a karaoke party that night where almost every person in the family participated. Caelan rocked her song, "Won't say I'm in Love" from Hercules. Day 13: Left the Grant reunion. Had lunch at Chuck-O-Rama with Brittney and Porter and their girls and Charity and Coren and the Sorensen clan. Then drove up to Charity and Chad's that evening. Day 14: Went to church with Charity and Chad (Nathan LOVED the nursery here - go figure). Had left over Cafe Rio salads from the reunion with Dan and Natalie and their family that night. YUM. Day 15: Slowly lounged around in the morning. Took a quick trip to Walmart to get food for the last reunion. Drove up to Jordanelle Reservoir near Park City. Hung out on the lake. Took a ride on the boat. Day 16: Played at the lake ALL day. Rode the boat. We all took a turn being pulled on the tube. The kids loved it. Moved our campsite up the hill. Had a family dinner and Family Home Evening that night. Day 17: Played at the lake again. Rented and rode Wave Runners. Loads of fun. The kids really liked this. Wiped out only once with Kyra and Brooke. Ate fried burritos in the rain. Ate chocolate and graham crackers and marshmallows in our tent because it was too wet for a fire. Day 18: Took down camp by 9:00 AM. Waited around with the Sorensen gang. Then headed to Jenny and Kelly's house in Layton. Day 19: Spent the day at Jenny and Kelly's. The kids had all the fun playing in sprinklers, watching movies, dressing up, playing in the backyard and enjoying time with cousins. Ate pizza with Lani and hung out for a little while. Then started the journey home. I made it to Stateline where I got things ready to fall asleep in the van, but soon realized it was WAY too hot to sleep (even at 1:00 AM). So I drove for another half hour and then found a rest stop that was much more pleasant (going up that hill makes a huge difference). We all slept in the van until 6:45 the next morning. Day 20: Finished the drive and got home at about noon. Lounged around for most of the day. So nice. What a blast!

Organization

So, the collection of stuffed animals in our house is getting slightly ridiculous (and we don't ever buy any (unless the kids buy one at a garage sale with their own money) - we somehow just accumulate them). I go through the stash regularly to thin it out, and yet it just grows and grows...and each one is "special" to one of the kids (so the soft side in me can't just load a garbage bag full and toss them, as much as I would like to). So I came up with a new idea. We have plant shelves in all of the bedrooms, so I put all of their stuffed animals on their plant shelf. I let them choose a handful of animals each Monday that they want to play with that week. All the rest stay on the shelf until the next Monday, and then I pull out the ladder and they can choose new ones for that week (and put the others back). So, now I'm not constantly finding stuffed animals EVERYWHERE...plus the kids think it's Christmas time each Monday when they get to have new animals for that week. It's a WIN-WIN.

Big Brother

Ben knows he definitely does NOT want fingernail polish on himself, but that doesn't mean he can't give his sister a nice pedicure. What a good brother.

Open House

The school Open House was last Thursday night. Unfortunately it was at the exact time that I had a Relief Society activity (and since I missed the last one and I am over these kinds of things, I thought I better be there), so Sean did major Daddy-duty and took all the kids to the school by himself. Caelan and Ben loved showing off all of their projects, and Megan thought it was pretty neat to be able to walk around in their classrooms.

Armor of God

We got these cute books from Sean's mom that tell stories about different people from the Book of Mormon. Sometimes I don't love the cartoon/kids version (they can get a little too "watered down" and miss some real important gospel principles), but these books are great. The illustrations are fun, the stories keep in sync with the scriptural accounts and then they have a great section about how kids can apply these stories to their own lives (and they are GOOD applications). So for Family Home Evening last Monday we talked about Captain Moroni and how we can fortify our selves and our homes from the enemy (like he fortified cities from the Lamanites). Then we read about the Armor of God in Ephesians. All the kids took turns putting on our "Armor of God" complete with: Loin girting - a towel Breastplate - backpack with round cake pan in front Footwear - Sean's snowboard boots Shield - a pot lid Helmet - motorcycle helmet Sword - Ben's Batman sword We talked about how we can be protected from the "fiery darts of the adversary" and then demonstrated it by throwing marshmallows at the person dressed in the armor. It was a big hit.

Birthday Continued

The birthday present that we ordered for Ben finally came in, so today we finished his month-long birthday celebration (you wouldn't believe how hard it is to find a big wheel these days). I made him his Prince Caspian castle cake and Sean put together his new big wheel bike. We took a little stroll around the neighborhood with Caelan on her scooter, Ben on his big wheel, Megan on her trike, Nathan pushing his push-car, Sean walking the dog and me just walking along (until Nathan got tired).

Birthday Family Day

So, we are celebrating Ben's birthday in stages. We were gone on April 5th - his actual birthday, but Grandma made some cupcakes for him. I asked him a few weeks ago if he wanted to have a party with friends or go somewhere fun as a family. He chose the latter. So, yesterday we did our family fun trip. We went to Adventureland - a Family Fun Center here in town. Ben wanted to ride the go-karts and the bumper boats. Once we got on the bumper boats and kids started to squirt us with their boat squirters he realized maybe that wasn't as fun as he thought (sometimes he is particular about when he wants to get wet). Caelan loved it though. Then he took a ride on the go-karts with Dad. They were the only ones on the track, so they went around and around and around and around that track. Megan was a little frustrated that she was too short to go on either of the rides (one of the photos below accurately shows how she felt about it...HE HE HE). Nathy was pretty content to run around EVERYWHERE and slurp on his drink. Afterwards we went to Me & Ed's - a pretty yummy pizza place. The kids were wired (climbing over and under the table and booths), and it was pretty ironic when a middle aged couple (just a husband and wife) sitting at a table next to us dropped their pizza on the ground. Here we are with craziness emitting from all parts of our group and this calm, quiet couple causes a big scene (oh, I'm sure they were mortified). Good times!

Food

We had a family pizza night the other day. We each made our own personal sized pizzas. The kids were pretty excited about the idea of putting whatever they wanted on it. Then we spread out a blanket on the living room floor and ate our pizzas while we watched a movie. Fun treat. Ben is a fruit LOVER. He loves almost all kinds of fruits (he's not a huge fan of oranges or grapefruits, but most everything else he will take in a second). He will ask me at least three times a day if he can have an apple or pear or grapes. Usually I say "yes" because there aren't too many things better to snack on.

Temple

Well, actually it was the temple (even better, right?). On Saturday we took a LONG day trip up to Oakland to go to our good friend, Sid's wedding to his perfect new bride, Michelle. Sid and Dad have been good friends since their freshman year at BYU, and then we all became friends when we were in the same ward (when Dad and I started dating). It was also great to see so many of the Crusaders (that's what they called each other at BYU). While Dad was in the temple for the sealing I was out with the kiddos. We walked around the beautiful temple grounds (the kids loved the water and fountains) and then we wandered around in the Visitor Center. I don't think the kids have ever been in one of those before. They enjoyed looking at the statues of the Savior inside.

Giant Sundae

After Family Home Evening last week we wanted to go out for a treat. We'd heard about a old fashioned ice cream parlor in a city about 20 minutes away, so we went to check it out. We ordered a large Sundae. They brought it out and it was literally as big as Ben's head. We all shared it together. Delicious!

Preschool

Today was Ben's first day of Preschool. I finally found and got him into a preschool at Mineral King Elementary (Caelan's school). It's right here close to home, which is nice because Ben has the afternoon schedule.

Anyway, Ben was SO EXCITED to start. We turned the last of our paperwork in yesterday (WOW - the stuff they require these days is CRAZY), and the teacher said that Ben could start today. We got in the car and I said, "Ben you get to go to school tomorrow. Are you excited?" And he said, "Yeah, but I don't have a lunch box." HE HE HE. He was great - went right in and started interacting with the other kids. When we picked him up this afternoon he told Caelan that "it was as fun as Disneyland." WOW! Now I wanna go.

Playing

My kids LOVE to play with little characters...ALL THE TIME! These characters are pretty lucky - they get to do all sorts of things. Sometimes they are families, sometimes they are enemies, sometimes they get married, sometimes they are royalty, sometimes they go to fun places like the circus or the North Pole or the ocean or Walmart, sometimes they ride in ships or in cars or on horses or spaceships, sometimes they go to war, sometimes they run from scary beasts, sometimes they live in castles (made of legos) or forts (made of blankets). There isn't much that these little guys haven't (or won't at some point) experience....and I love to quietly listen to all of their adventures (thought up in the minds of my little kiddos). Oh IMAGINATION - I love it.

Grandpa and Grandma Anderson

Sean met me after I did a session at the Fresno temple

with the kids and then we took a trip up near Merced to visit with Grandpa and Grandma Anderson. I think Caelan is the only one of our kids that has been there before (when she was a little tot). It was nice and sunny today so the kids ran around in the backyard and played with all of their character figurines throughout the house. And we managed to leave without breaking any of their valuable souvenirs that they have collected from other countries throughout the years...PHEW! It's always nice to visit with Grandpa and Grandma. We're glad we're close enough to be able to do it again soon.