Quiet Time

So, we have been working on phasing out TV... One day I realized how much TV I was letting them watch. 1-2 hours of cartoons in the morning, plus a movie after lunch, another hour and a half. That's up to 3 1/2 hours a day, sometimes more, times 7 days a week! That's almost 25 hours of TV a week! What a waste of time! So over the last few months we have been really cutting out a ton of TV. At first we were having major TV withdrawals... but after a couple of weeks, the TV has really been forgotten! It's been awesome. So, now watching TV is a real treat... and a reward instead of a daily occurrence.


Anyways, to the point of this post... since watching TV and movies has become such a treat, here is a picture of the kids watching a movie at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Not only did they get to watch a movie, but they got to watch a movie all cozied up in bed!

Just Dance

This is Jorgan playing Just Dance on the Wii with Aunt Whitney. He is holding a controller, but just for show! We thought he was cute, just shakin' it!

Jorgan's Worm

So, it snowed again at the end of February... on Jorgan's birthday actually. We had planned his birthday party for the next weekend, in Ellensburg, but still wanted to give him a gift on his birthday. (When discussing what to get him for his birthday, we couldn't decide between a $50 big wheel, or a small $60 bike, or a $35 Buzz Lightyear... so when we saw this scoot along worm on Clearance at Walmart for $15, we finally agreed!) And he loves it! It's only slightly too big for him, but he can still get on and off himself and scoot along himself. He's got such short legs... which is a big problem for a little guy that wants to do everything his sisters can do! Anyways, so these are just pictures of us playing in the snow again and Jorgan riding his worm even though it's snowing and slippery!




oh, and this is, "I do NOT want to go inside yet!"

President's Day

On President's Day, we had some extra friends over to play, all day! Since I was going to have 6 kids and one me, I knew I had to plan some things for us to do. So I found online an idea for making log cabins (Abraham Lincoln was born in a log cabin that makes log cabins a president's day activity!). So, the idea was to use peanut Butter on the sides of a small milk carton and then put pretzels up the sides to look like logs.


I couldn't find the small milk cartons (individual size that you get from the school cafeteria) but I did find pint size cartons full of Chocolate milk.


So the most difficult part of our craft was each having to drink a pint of Chocolate milk :o) No one complained... I don't know why!

Grandpa

My dad had to spend a week in Kent for a conference for work. So, since he was on this side of the mountain, he drove an hour and a half in rush hour traffic, to come and have dinner with us! We loved having him here, and the kids loved having Grandpa all to themselves. So, at bedtime, Grandpa was giving the kids horsey rides! If we can't have daddy, at least Grandpa was here!

Valentine's Day

Instead of buying a box of Valentines for Elizabeth to take to school, we decided to make homemade Valentines... 25 home made Valentines is rough work... Just writing each kid's name on the envelope took us 3 days!! But Elizabeth did do them all herself! Then it took another 2 days to put the cards together... What an adventure!
Then we made a Valentine's card for daddy! That was really fun... and then hiding it was even more fun... and then keeping it a secret was the best!


We don't spend much money on Valentine's day, so Josh and I each made one another a card and the kids made their card for daddy. Then I came home to a surprise! Roses! Except that Rachel told me on the way home that her and daddy had bought me flowers and put them on the table for a surprise for me... Oh, well! It was still a surprise because I wasn't expecting it!

8 Years!!

On January 2 we celebrated our 8th Anniversary! We bought a Groupon earlier last year for an awesome deal on a hotel and dinner in Seattle. So we picked a weekend in January that Whitney, Emily, and Caitlin could come over and enjoyed a couple of days alone together! We went to the Seattle Temple, then to Archie McPhee (a ridiculously crazy store, a tourist spot in Seattle, that sells completely silly and random items), checked in at The Roosevelt, walked down to Pike's Market (Josh bought me flowers and doughnuts for breakfast the next morning), bought Josh a new pair of shoes for work at The Walking Company (hopefully they'll last a while), and had dinner at Il Fornaio in the Pacific Place Mall. The next day was Sunday, luckily we have 1pm church, so we headed home and took everyone to church. Unfortunately, this is the only picture we took the entire time... we'll have to do better the next time!

Woody and Buzz

For Christmas, Santa brought Jorgan Woody and Buzz action figures. Not the large full size dolls, just small action figures. They are just his size and he LOVES them. We had to take this video of him "flying" Woody and Buzz around the living room because this is his typical playtime activity. He often says, in his muttered baby words, "reach for the sky!" or "to infinity and beyond!" He is always very concerned about the location of Woody's Hat... in fact we did leave woody's hat at Grandma and Grandpa's house one time and when Caitlin found it, she posted a picture of Eliette (her bearded dragon) wearing Woody's hat on facebook. Jorgan was not happy to see Woody's hat on a lizard! He also calls Buzz's hat a "bubble"... not sure where that came from...

New Baby

Nope.. not mine! However, my sister, Melodie did have a baby in February! A sweet little girl that they named Samantha. My sisters threw a baby shower for her and we built our first ever Diaper Cake! It was really fun to do! Totally going to make another one some time.


The girls were so excited to hear that baby Samantha was finally born. All morning they were having a Samantha party to celebrate her finally getting here! They were so funny. By the time we got to go see Samantha she was a couple of weeks old. (We had to wait for Liz's cold sore to go away, and for Jorgan and Rachel to get over their colds, and for daddy to have some time off of work)


Each of the kids got a chance to hold her... and they loved every minute of it.


Jorgan, I think, was a little bit wary... I think he was expecting a baby doll. He really liked her though and has been carrying and loving baby dolls ever since he met her.


All in all, though, I think Rachel adored her the most... she's the baby lover in our house!

The Rest Of 2010

After Christmas it snowed again.... and again... and again... I was really surprised to see how much it snowed here. Fortunately, it snows and then melts... so we never really have snow on the ground for very long.
Here is Liz standing besides the snowman that she built to be just her height!


We've learned that since the snow comes and goes so quickly... that you have to build your snowman as soon as the snow falls! We have also had to set up rules for eating snow. My kids love to eat the snow!





We have to continually remind the kids that they can eat snow that is on top of the grass... but no snow from the street (gross!) and no snow from the cars! They will eat it off the ground in the Fred Meyer parking lot if I don't remind them of the "clean snow" rules!
And lastly, another big snowman that we built... as you can tell, the snow is really wet and it picks up the dirt and gravel from the gravel and street...


Josh had to work New Years Eve, so we celebrated it a day early... the kids don't know any better.


We even decided to let them stay up late and we planned a party! We kicked off the party with an awesome game of Pretty Pretty Princess!



The girls love this game, and were even able to talk daddy into playing with them! And the ultimate winner of Pretty Pretty Princess is.....


Then we watched a movie, had popcorn, played some games, and then at about 11:00 they were beginning to get cranky, so Josh and I announced that it just a few minutes it would be midnight and we would need to scream Happy New Years! We did a little count down, turned on some music and screamed "Happy New Years!" as we danced around. The evening ended as I tripped over Elizabeth while we were dancing and fell over while holding Jorgan falling right on top of Elizabeth again. Needless to say, 4 hours past bedtime is not the best time to crash on top of your children... lots of crying and screaming ensued as we attempted to get their teeth brushed and tucked into bed. But, we did have a great party... and no... no one slept in the next day!! Come on now!!!

I'm Back!

I kind of lost my gusto! My goal for last year was to keep a blog as a way of keeping a family journal. I did succeed! I was able to keep the blog going throughout the entire year and I was much better at photographing our memories. So at the beginning of the new year I made some goals... and I didn't include continuing with my blog.
I have occasionally thought that I should keep going, but nothing really strong enough to make me get started again and go back over the last 3 months that I have missed, until... Sunday night... Josh got out a gift I had given to him on Christmas just a couple of weeks before we got married. I made him a little book and recorded the stories of some of our firsts... First Date, First Kiss, and my Testimony. As I read the stories, I realized how much of the details I had forgotten and would be missing out on if I hadn't written it down. I can't believe that I haven't even read it again since I gave it to him over 8 years ago! So I decided that if I wanted to remember, and if I wanted the kids to remember, all we have done as a family... then I need to keep writing things down. So, I will be updating the past couple of months and then continuing! Hope you enjoy!