Alternative Title: The Boy Scouts Had it Right
Yesterday Acadia came home from school early because she was sick. Today she is still sick. Like yesterday, Cadi had really wanted to be at school today! Her class was going to watch Polar Express and have hot cocoa with mini marshmellows. Sounds fun, but she missed it.
I have been all ready for Christmas for awhile and this week has been really nice. While everyone else is stressing out because Christmas is coming so fast, I have been enjoying these last few days building up to Christmas Day. I have been able to do some extra baking, since I was in the mood. And now, with my school-age child home from school 1 1/2 days earlier than I expected, I'm REALLY glad I am all finished with my Holiday preparations! I don't have any shopping or wrapping left to do for her (or anyone else, for that matter). I don't have any packages to mail or errands to run. It's so nice that even though Cadi getting sick was unexpected and has forced me to be homebound during the last few days before Christmas, it's okay! No damage done! Ya know, there's something to this "Be Prepared" idea. ;)
Friday, December 21, 2007
Thursday, December 20, 2007
One Monkey and One in Bed
Rori has been a crazy girl lately! On Sunday, she climbed out of her crib! She climbs on everything and usually tries to use whatever she's climbed on to reach something she shouldn't. Today I found her crawling on the dining room table, right next to the burning candle. Yesterday she was on the ottoman, pulling the little drawers open on one of our "advent calendars", looking for candies that are for each day. Everyday she pulls off about half a dozen ornaments from the tree - always the same ones, they seem to be her favorites. She also likes to pull bows off of presents. Fortunately, she hasn't thought to open any gifts yet. :) When you catch her "in the act", she looks at you with that big, sweet smile, waves, and says, "Hi!"
Cadi has been looking forward to her holiday show at school for weeks! She has practiced for us, told us all about the arrangements of who is paired up with who, gone over her costume, etc. Today she headed off to school with holiday colored nails and making sure to wear an outfit that would work with the costume she would be wearing. Two hours before the first performance I got a call from school, Cadi's sick! She has a temp of 100 degrees and wasn't feeling well at all. She kept telling them she didn't want to come home - she wanted to be in the show! But, of course that wasn't really a very good idea. So I picked her up and she came home. :( I feel so sad for her! She worked so hard for this show! There is another show later tonight and she is hoping I'll let her go but I just don't think that would be smart. Poor girl!
Cadi has been looking forward to her holiday show at school for weeks! She has practiced for us, told us all about the arrangements of who is paired up with who, gone over her costume, etc. Today she headed off to school with holiday colored nails and making sure to wear an outfit that would work with the costume she would be wearing. Two hours before the first performance I got a call from school, Cadi's sick! She has a temp of 100 degrees and wasn't feeling well at all. She kept telling them she didn't want to come home - she wanted to be in the show! But, of course that wasn't really a very good idea. So I picked her up and she came home. :( I feel so sad for her! She worked so hard for this show! There is another show later tonight and she is hoping I'll let her go but I just don't think that would be smart. Poor girl!
Saturday, December 15, 2007
Picture a Christmas
As usual, I'm behind on posting pictures. However, the oldest pics are only two weeks old, so it's not THAT bad. Plus, they are all Christmas related and we're still in the Christmas Season so let's just pretend that I planned it this way, okay? ;)
I LOVE this time of year! We have so many fun traditions and activities! One of our favorite, newer traditions is attending the annual Festival of the Nativities that our stake hosts each year. I think this is their 6th year and every year it seems to get bigger and bigger, better and better. Here are some pictures from our experience this year (pictures taken two weeks ago):
First of all, we went on Sunday so we were still in our church clothes, we don't usually "dress up" to go to the nativities, it just worked out that way this time.
This room is the "Home Sweet Home" room, they make it look like you're in someone's home. It's cozy and warm and they have the cutest nativities in it!
The cultural hall has hundreds of different nativities set up. There are so many different kinds! Elegant, unique, international... It takes awhile to look at them all!
After we look at all of the displayed nativities (over 600 in all!), we go to the Children's rooms. It's the girls' reward for being patient and well-behaved in the other rooms. In the children's room, there are hand-on, kid-friendly nativities. Finally nativities we can touch and play with! Rori just loved running around (surprise, surprise!), Cadi liked dressing up and getting pictures at the stable.
And finally, before we left, we visited Joseph's Workshop where Cadi made a little decoration (Jesus in a manger) and colored a picture.
Last weekend, we visited our good friends in Idaho. This is another tradition. When we lived in Idaho, we became such close friends and since most of us didn't have family close by, we started celebrating holidays together. Now that we've all spread out a little bit and don't get to see each other as much, we make an effort to visit at least every Christmas season and have our annual Christmas Party. It's ALWAYS a blast! We keep adding more and more kids, so it's getting bigger and bigger every year - but that just means more fun, right? Here are some pics:
We started this gift exchange when there was only one kid in the group. Now we have a kids' gift exchange and an adult exchange. The stories are usually pretty fun - about Riley Right. Left, right, right, left, and... LOTS OF LAUGHTER!
The next day, on our way to church, we stopped by the Twin Falls, ID temple. It is almost finished and should be operating sometime in the next year!
Later that night, we read the scriptures about Christ's birth and let the children act it out. This is always pretty entertaining. No one dressed up to play their part this year... except for Sleeping Beauty. ;)
And that brings us to THIS weekend! Last night, we went to our ward Christmas party. The children did a great job on the Nativity...
And finally, here are some random pics from the last few weeks...
Rori LOVES playing with the Fisher Price Nativity set...
And now that we have our front room finished, I actually get to put up a tree in our front window! We have a tree in our family room that is fun and has all our ornaments that contain lots of special memories but the front room tree is my "pretty tree". I like how it turned out...
Was that enough photos? I think I've gotten us all caught up! If you actually made it through all that, you are loyal readers, for sure! We hope you are enjoying your holiday season as much as we are! :)
I LOVE this time of year! We have so many fun traditions and activities! One of our favorite, newer traditions is attending the annual Festival of the Nativities that our stake hosts each year. I think this is their 6th year and every year it seems to get bigger and bigger, better and better. Here are some pictures from our experience this year (pictures taken two weeks ago):
First of all, we went on Sunday so we were still in our church clothes, we don't usually "dress up" to go to the nativities, it just worked out that way this time.
This room is the "Home Sweet Home" room, they make it look like you're in someone's home. It's cozy and warm and they have the cutest nativities in it!
The cultural hall has hundreds of different nativities set up. There are so many different kinds! Elegant, unique, international... It takes awhile to look at them all!
After we look at all of the displayed nativities (over 600 in all!), we go to the Children's rooms. It's the girls' reward for being patient and well-behaved in the other rooms. In the children's room, there are hand-on, kid-friendly nativities. Finally nativities we can touch and play with! Rori just loved running around (surprise, surprise!), Cadi liked dressing up and getting pictures at the stable.
And finally, before we left, we visited Joseph's Workshop where Cadi made a little decoration (Jesus in a manger) and colored a picture.
Last weekend, we visited our good friends in Idaho. This is another tradition. When we lived in Idaho, we became such close friends and since most of us didn't have family close by, we started celebrating holidays together. Now that we've all spread out a little bit and don't get to see each other as much, we make an effort to visit at least every Christmas season and have our annual Christmas Party. It's ALWAYS a blast! We keep adding more and more kids, so it's getting bigger and bigger every year - but that just means more fun, right? Here are some pics:
We started this gift exchange when there was only one kid in the group. Now we have a kids' gift exchange and an adult exchange. The stories are usually pretty fun - about Riley Right. Left, right, right, left, and... LOTS OF LAUGHTER!
The next day, on our way to church, we stopped by the Twin Falls, ID temple. It is almost finished and should be operating sometime in the next year!
Later that night, we read the scriptures about Christ's birth and let the children act it out. This is always pretty entertaining. No one dressed up to play their part this year... except for Sleeping Beauty. ;)
And that brings us to THIS weekend! Last night, we went to our ward Christmas party. The children did a great job on the Nativity...
And finally, here are some random pics from the last few weeks...
Rori LOVES playing with the Fisher Price Nativity set...
And now that we have our front room finished, I actually get to put up a tree in our front window! We have a tree in our family room that is fun and has all our ornaments that contain lots of special memories but the front room tree is my "pretty tree". I like how it turned out...
Was that enough photos? I think I've gotten us all caught up! If you actually made it through all that, you are loyal readers, for sure! We hope you are enjoying your holiday season as much as we are! :)
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Christas Gifts
Our family is doing a little activity during these final two weeks before Christmas. We are each choosing something we can do as a gift for Jesus. We've talked about it for a few days and yesterday we each chose our "gift", wrote it on a paper, and we're putting it under the tree. I will report our "gifts" later, after they have taken place. :)
We feel as though we've just received an early Christmas gift though! The gift of "family" and the gift of "time". Just put those two together! :) Ryan has been offered a promotion in his company that will allow him to be on a more family-friendly schedule. It will make so many things easier for us! We will have weekends together for piano recitals and trips to the beach, Friday nights available for dates and ward activities, and most weeknights we'll have dinner together and Ryan will get to tuck his girls in bed.
His current shift, which he has had for years, has been really nice in some ways and it has been the best option he's had for the position he's in. It gave him 3 and 4 day weekends every week, he commuted less, and received OT every workday. But for the 3 or 4 days that he worked, he didn't see his girls at all. He would leave before they woke up and come home after they went to bed. And the only day he and Cadi BOTH had off from work or school was Sunday since Ryan worked every Saturday. That has made it difficult for us to have much family time.
We are very grateful for this opportunity for Ryan to grow in his company and also for us to spend more time together as a family! Congratulations, Ryan... so, when are you taking me out? ;)
We feel as though we've just received an early Christmas gift though! The gift of "family" and the gift of "time". Just put those two together! :) Ryan has been offered a promotion in his company that will allow him to be on a more family-friendly schedule. It will make so many things easier for us! We will have weekends together for piano recitals and trips to the beach, Friday nights available for dates and ward activities, and most weeknights we'll have dinner together and Ryan will get to tuck his girls in bed.
His current shift, which he has had for years, has been really nice in some ways and it has been the best option he's had for the position he's in. It gave him 3 and 4 day weekends every week, he commuted less, and received OT every workday. But for the 3 or 4 days that he worked, he didn't see his girls at all. He would leave before they woke up and come home after they went to bed. And the only day he and Cadi BOTH had off from work or school was Sunday since Ryan worked every Saturday. That has made it difficult for us to have much family time.
We are very grateful for this opportunity for Ryan to grow in his company and also for us to spend more time together as a family! Congratulations, Ryan... so, when are you taking me out? ;)
Thursday, December 6, 2007
Do you feel lucky?... Well, do you, Punk?
I never win anything. Okay, I can't say "never"... but I rarely win things. So when I saw a commercial a few weeks ago that said we could go onto Nickelodeon's website and enter a "Singing In the Ring" sweepstakes to win a Backyardigan's toy, I went ahead and entered but didn't give it another thought after that.
When I got home tonight, I had a phone message saying that a package had been delivered to the wrong address. I was surprised because I wasn't expecting a package but then, this is the Holiday season and we do have a couple loved ones who send us gifts ;), perhaps it was from one of them. My neighbor brought over the package and I opened it up, curious because I didn't recognize the return address at all! Did I order something a long time ago and forgot? Did someone order something for me/us and had it sent directly to our house from the store?
Inside the box was a Backyardigan's Musical Circus Adventure and a note that said, "Congratulations, you are a first prize winner in Nickelodeon's "Singing In The Ring" Sweepstakes. Thanks for being such a great fan and watching Nickelodeon, the place where only kids win!"
SWEET! Let me just tell you, Rori LOVES the Backyardigans!!! We watch it every single day - at least once! lol She is going to LOVE this!
When I got home tonight, I had a phone message saying that a package had been delivered to the wrong address. I was surprised because I wasn't expecting a package but then, this is the Holiday season and we do have a couple loved ones who send us gifts ;), perhaps it was from one of them. My neighbor brought over the package and I opened it up, curious because I didn't recognize the return address at all! Did I order something a long time ago and forgot? Did someone order something for me/us and had it sent directly to our house from the store?
Inside the box was a Backyardigan's Musical Circus Adventure and a note that said, "Congratulations, you are a first prize winner in Nickelodeon's "Singing In The Ring" Sweepstakes. Thanks for being such a great fan and watching Nickelodeon, the place where only kids win!"
SWEET! Let me just tell you, Rori LOVES the Backyardigans!!! We watch it every single day - at least once! lol She is going to LOVE this!
Well it's about time!
Look, I take A LOT of pictures! And when you take so many pictures, it takes awhile to edit and upload them all! Thank goodness Photobucket has a bulk uploader now! lol
Unfortunately, I'm simply not going to be able to recap our trip to Sacramento. (Well, I may do a brief - VERY BRIEF - recap.) But I will put up links to see all our pics. A warning though... I was a little sloppy as I uploaded the pics, they are not in chronological order. :( Currently, they are not even titled but I will try to get to that since some of the pictures could use some explaining. lol
Our trip down was pretty good. We even have a few pics.
We started in Lincoln, visiting my friend Heather. Heather is pretty darn amazing and I'm lucky to have a friend like her. She and her husband are slightly insane though. We joke that they've lost their minds but that their hearts are big enough to make up the difference. They adopted 3 children in the last year and just added four more to their family! If all goes well, these will all be adopted too! Pics from visiting with Heather.
The next day, we arrived in Sacramento. We stayed with my sister and her family which was a lot of fun. The kids were really cute playing together. I even did a little bit of stamping for the first time in a couple of years! Here are pics from staying at Ruth's house. (I especially love Rori trying to play the piano with her feet! lol I have NO IDEA where she got that idea but it CRACKS ME UP!!!)
On Wednesday, we took the kids to the park to meet with some of my sister's kids' playgroup. Playing at the park pics.
Thanksgiving was busy! We started the day with Ryan's family doing the Run to Feed the Hungry. We love participating in this each year and had a really nice time. We didn't exactly "run" this year, but it was still fun to participate! Ryan made sure to notice that while last year he was beat by a power walker, this year he was beat by a paraplegic. lol Run to Feed the Hungry pics.
After we took our showers and cleaned up, we headed over to one of my other sister's house to have dinner with my family. While we were there, we met my dad's fiancee. She seems really nice and it was good to visit with her. Unfortunately, dinner was delayed and then someone placed the meat thermometer in the wrong spot so it read inaccurately, delaying it even more. When all was said and done, we needed to go back to Ryan's mom's house before we got to eat dinner. That was a bummer but there are worse things. Thanksgiving isn't really about the food anyway, right? :) We had a nice visit with everyone though - both at my sister's and at Ryan's mom's. Here are pictures of us hanging out on Thanksgiving Day. Again, the pics are out of order, sorry!
On Friday, we went up to the Sacramento Temple with the girls and walked around taking pictures while some of my family were inside. Ryan and I had planned on going through a session with them, but someone (we won't mention names but his name starts with a "R", ends with an "N", and has "YA" in the middle!) forgot his recommend in Vancouver! We still had a really nice time and got some really nice pictures with the girls there. Pics at the Sacramento Temple.
After the temple, my family headed to Fairy Tale Town. It is a little park that has a Nursery Rhyme Theme. The kids had a BLAST! In fact, I suspect most of the adults did, too. ;) Fairy Tale Town pics.
We spent all of Saturday with Ryan's mom. We went to the RailRoad Museum which was really fun! They had some extra displays for the holidays that we really enjoyed! Then we took the train ride and believe it or not, Santa was on the train with us!!! It was probably the best trip to the RailRoad Museum that I've ever had! :) RR Museum pics.
And here are some other pics from when we were with Ryan's parents. These are from a few different days.
Sunday we went to church with my family and had dinner with them. And on Monday, Ryan and Cadi visited one last time with his mom while I stayed with Rori during a nap, packed up, and stamped with my sister. We left the next day and had a very uneventful ride home. :)
I'm sorry that it took so long to post this and I'm sorry that I'm cheating and making you go look at the pics instead of just posting them myself. If I posted the pics myself, I wouldn't be able to do it now and that means this blog would be even later. So, I think this is a good compromise. ;) I hope you enjoy them!
Unfortunately, I'm simply not going to be able to recap our trip to Sacramento. (Well, I may do a brief - VERY BRIEF - recap.) But I will put up links to see all our pics. A warning though... I was a little sloppy as I uploaded the pics, they are not in chronological order. :( Currently, they are not even titled but I will try to get to that since some of the pictures could use some explaining. lol
Our trip down was pretty good. We even have a few pics.
We started in Lincoln, visiting my friend Heather. Heather is pretty darn amazing and I'm lucky to have a friend like her. She and her husband are slightly insane though. We joke that they've lost their minds but that their hearts are big enough to make up the difference. They adopted 3 children in the last year and just added four more to their family! If all goes well, these will all be adopted too! Pics from visiting with Heather.
The next day, we arrived in Sacramento. We stayed with my sister and her family which was a lot of fun. The kids were really cute playing together. I even did a little bit of stamping for the first time in a couple of years! Here are pics from staying at Ruth's house. (I especially love Rori trying to play the piano with her feet! lol I have NO IDEA where she got that idea but it CRACKS ME UP!!!)
On Wednesday, we took the kids to the park to meet with some of my sister's kids' playgroup. Playing at the park pics.
Thanksgiving was busy! We started the day with Ryan's family doing the Run to Feed the Hungry. We love participating in this each year and had a really nice time. We didn't exactly "run" this year, but it was still fun to participate! Ryan made sure to notice that while last year he was beat by a power walker, this year he was beat by a paraplegic. lol Run to Feed the Hungry pics.
After we took our showers and cleaned up, we headed over to one of my other sister's house to have dinner with my family. While we were there, we met my dad's fiancee. She seems really nice and it was good to visit with her. Unfortunately, dinner was delayed and then someone placed the meat thermometer in the wrong spot so it read inaccurately, delaying it even more. When all was said and done, we needed to go back to Ryan's mom's house before we got to eat dinner. That was a bummer but there are worse things. Thanksgiving isn't really about the food anyway, right? :) We had a nice visit with everyone though - both at my sister's and at Ryan's mom's. Here are pictures of us hanging out on Thanksgiving Day. Again, the pics are out of order, sorry!
On Friday, we went up to the Sacramento Temple with the girls and walked around taking pictures while some of my family were inside. Ryan and I had planned on going through a session with them, but someone (we won't mention names but his name starts with a "R", ends with an "N", and has "YA" in the middle!) forgot his recommend in Vancouver! We still had a really nice time and got some really nice pictures with the girls there. Pics at the Sacramento Temple.
After the temple, my family headed to Fairy Tale Town. It is a little park that has a Nursery Rhyme Theme. The kids had a BLAST! In fact, I suspect most of the adults did, too. ;) Fairy Tale Town pics.
We spent all of Saturday with Ryan's mom. We went to the RailRoad Museum which was really fun! They had some extra displays for the holidays that we really enjoyed! Then we took the train ride and believe it or not, Santa was on the train with us!!! It was probably the best trip to the RailRoad Museum that I've ever had! :) RR Museum pics.
And here are some other pics from when we were with Ryan's parents. These are from a few different days.
Sunday we went to church with my family and had dinner with them. And on Monday, Ryan and Cadi visited one last time with his mom while I stayed with Rori during a nap, packed up, and stamped with my sister. We left the next day and had a very uneventful ride home. :)
I'm sorry that it took so long to post this and I'm sorry that I'm cheating and making you go look at the pics instead of just posting them myself. If I posted the pics myself, I wouldn't be able to do it now and that means this blog would be even later. So, I think this is a good compromise. ;) I hope you enjoy them!
Saturday, December 1, 2007
Coming soon to a blog near you...
I really have been wanting to blog about our trip and all the fun stuff going on right now but it has been CRAZY! (Isn't it always?)
We had a really nice trip to Sacramento for Thanksgiving and just got back earlier this week. Since then we've been decorating for Christmas and trying to recover from being gone for so long.
I have A LOT of pictures to share... but they need to be uploaded first. I will get to it soon.
In the meantime... it's snowing today! :) Since it's my youngest brother's birthday today and he loves the cold, I REALLY wish he was here for it! It isn't a lot of snow and most of it won't even stick, plus after the snow we're supposed to get rain so whatever does stick will get washed away very soon. But it is still fun to have the first snow of the season! :)
Today I'm watching my friend's kids. She is always so generous in watching mine, this is long overdue! They are good kids and everyone is playing really well together. They are loving the snow and playing with the children's nativities that I have down for them. There are random Christmas songs playing from various areas of the house due to all the Christmas toys. lol This is a great way to kick start December! :)
We had a really nice trip to Sacramento for Thanksgiving and just got back earlier this week. Since then we've been decorating for Christmas and trying to recover from being gone for so long.
I have A LOT of pictures to share... but they need to be uploaded first. I will get to it soon.
In the meantime... it's snowing today! :) Since it's my youngest brother's birthday today and he loves the cold, I REALLY wish he was here for it! It isn't a lot of snow and most of it won't even stick, plus after the snow we're supposed to get rain so whatever does stick will get washed away very soon. But it is still fun to have the first snow of the season! :)
Today I'm watching my friend's kids. She is always so generous in watching mine, this is long overdue! They are good kids and everyone is playing really well together. They are loving the snow and playing with the children's nativities that I have down for them. There are random Christmas songs playing from various areas of the house due to all the Christmas toys. lol This is a great way to kick start December! :)
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