House Stuff

We finally had our front room painted. I've been wavering back and forth between colors and shades of color for a long time, but I finally decided. I went with "Ashes" in the entry area and into the kitchen and did "Fashion Gray" in the actual front room. I am happy with how it turned out. So now I am on the hunt for chairs and a couch. I think I found what I want but in my true fashion, and much to Brian's chagrin, I have to wait a while before I will actually decide for sure. I have tried my hand at a couple of spray paint projects, too. I had these metal wall things up before we painted and was going to sell them, but then one day I had the thought, "I wonder how those would work if i just painted them." So I tried one and liked it and decided to do the other. They will go on either side of the window. I also painted a couple of candle sticks. So little by little I'll get it done.
Before:

After:


We also painted the bathroom. I found a fun shower curtain, so I tried to go off that. Just need a shelf in there now!

Hazardous

I didn't realize that playing the piano could be a potentially hazardous hobby. I came into the front room the other day and found this:

Ponytail Jackpot

Whenever I clean up around the house, I am always collecting ponytails and clips. Here is what I found just this morning.


We either have a lot of girls or those said girls need to learn where to put the ponytails when they take them out. Or both. At the end of the day, it's not uncommon for me to have four or five clips in my hair. As I find them around the house, I stick them in my hair to put away when I go into the bathroom. I figured I need to document this fact of life for us!

The Healing Magic of Cookies

The other morning, I found Hattie in the pantry slyly eating a Chips Ahoy cookie. I asked her what she as doing and she said, "I'm having a cookie. My eye hurts so I am eating a cookie for it to feel better." Smart girl!

Speaking of cookies...for my young women's calling, I've been attending all the ward conferences in the stake. In one of the wards this week one of the girls did an object lesson about the commandments as our recipe in life and how we need to follow it and not do our own version or interpretation. She had made one batch of cookies and said she didn't have sugar so she used salt, she didn't have baking soda so she added baking powder, she didn't have vanilla so she used corn syrup, etc. etc. Then she asked if anyone wanted to try one. A few girls did and they could hardly bite into it because it was so gross. Then she made that connection to following the commandments, then had cookies where she followed the recipe exactly and she gave everyone one of the good cookies. Long story short to say that those cookies were SO, so good! They were just so soft and delicious. I e-mailed this girl's mom to get the recipe and I've already made a batch. In the recipe, she said she puts a piece of bread in the container where she stores the cookies to keep them soft...the cookies pull the moisture out of the bread to keep it soft. I had heard that before but just thought it was a wives's tale or whatnot...but I tried it and it totally worked! I am probably the last person to try it, but I will be doing that from now on. They kept their same softness and today is two days from when I made them. Usually by now other cookies I make start to get crunchy. So there is your tip for the day...eat cookies when your eye hurts and put bread in the container to keep them soft.

Miscellaneous

Do your cereal boxes look like this? (a.k.a. what happens when the kids open the cereal)



I am loving being able to use our fireplace again. Last year and until a week or so ago, we didn't use it because we thought it was broken. So we had someone come out and basically the pilot light just wasn't on, so he taught me how to do that and turn it off and on. So now we get to use it! Good thing since it's going to be freezing the next couple of days.



One of my girls' (Ellie and Libby especially) favorite things to do is set up their Barbies like they are having a photo shoot. They'll pose all the people and get the camera and take picture after picture. It's so funny to see what I find on the camera.

Zoo

Yesterday I went to the zoo with Ellie's preschool. I was afraid it was going to rain, but luckily it turned out to be a beautiful day. I took Hattie and Ruby, too, and they did great. I was worried to take Ruby, but she seemed to enjoy herself. We only looked at probably 1/3 of the animals. We went to the aquarium buildings, then saw some of the animals and fed (read: threw food at) the giraffes. Ellie went in to do the Lory bird feeding, but every time one got close to landing on her to eat the apple, she shook her hand so it flew away. Haha. That is exactly why I didn't go in. I don't like birds flying around or on me. I must be related to my brother...we had a bird growing up and it was so funny to watch him when we let the bird out. We got a kick out of it actually. I wasn't that bad, but I didn't go in to feed the birds. We also watched an animal show. One of the animals was a loud parrot. One time he squawked and all three of my girls jumped out of their skin and then Ruby cried and cried! I had to hold her ears until they took the bird away. After the show we had lunch, rode the train, played on the playground and watched the log ride go over and over without anyone on it. They loved watching that for some reason. I told my girls no one was riding it because it was too expensive. Later Hattie said, "No one is on it because it's not on sale." Very true! Overall, we had a great time!

Emma's Baptism

My niece was baptized earlier this month, so it was fun to go down there for that. I got to lead the music. After her baptism, they had a nice dinner for family.

Back at It

This week we started back into "extracurricular" activities. We took last fall off, so it's been a nice break. Eliza started track on Tuesday and Libby, Ellie and Hattie started gymnastics. It worked out great that they could take their classes on the same day. Way easier on me for sure!



Tonight after track, we went over to my parents' house for dinner. Last weekend they took a dutch oven cooking class, so they practiced for us. It was delicious! It was a pineapple/ham casserole dish. Tasty!

PI Field Trip

Today Eliza had a field trip for PI to the Mesa Southwest Museum. She wanted Brian to go with her, which he did. She told me, "Mom, sorry about you not going on my field trip. But you know, Dad was in PI and everything." I guess I wasn't smart enough to go with her. Haha! They seemed to have a fun time, looking at dinosaurs and rocks and such and then having lunch at a park.

More

I feel so off track with documenting what we've been up to--I got so behind over the holidays. So here is a quick little catch up to what we've been up to. And maybe I can keep up better.

New Year: It always comes with resolutions. I wrote a few down that I want to work on this year--I won't mention them all here so you can't nag me if I am not doing well on them! But some include getting to bed by 11 each night (haven't been too great on that), reading a book a month, improved scripture study, finding more joy in life and thinking more positive thoughts. There are more, but I can't think of them right now.

Moving Up--Hattie graduated from nursery to sunbeams. Chrystalyn is her teacher, so that is fun. Hattie gave the prayer last week in sharing time--it was hard to understand her, but at least she did it. I am told she is doing well and being reverent. She is the only girl in her class, so she likes to keep the boys in line.

Decorating: We've been in our house for over 5 years and it's still not decorated. I have some rooms done more than others, but I feel like it's always at a standstill. So I am trying to get some things done. We started in Eliza and Libby's room. I am trying to decide on a paint color in there. And I have squares of samples painted in the front room and a bathroom, so I just need to decide. I FINALLY bought a new shower curtain for the bathroom by Ruby's room, so I want to get that room done. Now if I can just find new kitchen rugs. It's become a joke between Brian and I because I've been looking for a while but can't find any I like!

Holy Cow: Over Christmas break, me, along with some sisters-in-law, a brother-in-law and parents-in-law, butchered a cow. Yes. I never thought I would be part of something like that. And I hope I am not part of it again for a LONG, long time. Brian's dad had a cow that needed butchering, so for some reason, it was decided we would all take part and do it. We started around 10:30--his neighbor came over and helped him start the butchering. They brought in hunks of meat to be cut. At one time, there were two huge hind quarters on the kitchen counter and we just went at it. We canned some of it but ground most of it into hamburger. I cut so much that my hand was numb and stayed that way for a few days. My thumb still feels weak because of it. It was quite an experience that was good to have I suppose but not something I am dying to do again! I got home that night around 11:45. Holy cow is right! I was going to post a couple of photos, but I decided it was best to spare any weak-stomached readers.

9

Yesterday was Eliza's 9th birthday. She started the day getting breakfast in bed of toaster strudels and milk. I took ice cream sundae cones into her classroom during the day.

I made one of her favorite dinners--garlic chicken pasta--and we had cake and ice cream for our FHE treat. In the morning she opened some of her gifts--shampoo and conditioner, mesh shorts and a t-shirt, earrings, bracelets and some Red Vines.

After school, she got a couple pairs of jeans and some more art supplies.

Over Christmas break, she had her sleepover with my parents. My mom documented it on her blog if you want to read about it. They had fun. And she'll get to sleepover at Brian's parents' in the next couple of weeks. Can't believe I have a 9 year old!

At age 9, Eliza...
--is in 3rd grade
--loves, LOVES art--she draws the cutest people
--is a good student, but doesn't love homework
--loves to have fun
--loves track
--loves to set things up and create but doesn't love to clean it up!
--has a darling smile
--is very friendly and outgoing
--loves to pick out outfits and do hair


We love our 9 year old! Happy birthday, Eliza!

Art

A while back, the Friend magazine put out a call for artwork that would be displayed in an exhibit at the Church History Museum in Salt Lake. Eliza drew a picture and we found out that it was chosen to be part of the exhibit. You can also see her art on-line on the Friend website. It's on the fifth page, third one on the last row. It's funny to see it now because she drew it several months ago--she's improved so much since then!

New Year's

I feel asleep watching Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs on New Year's. We let the three oldest girls stay up this year. We played X-Box--lots of track and field and a driving game--they did sparklers, ate and watched a movie. We even failed to turn the TV at midnight and let them see the ball drop. We heard firecrackers around, so they ran outside and yelled. We must be getting old!

Christmas

On Christmas Eve, we got on our PJs and headed out to look at Christmas lights. We went to a few in Glendale and even got out and walked around. The weirdest was one where people were allowed to go inside this person's house and see all the decorations. Our girls wanted to go in, so we obliged. It was really weird to put it mildly. There were decorations in EVERY SINGLE square inch of the house. And not cute ones either--like a hodge podge of random decorations. It was kind of creepy! Libby fell asleep on the way home and everyone else went to bed when we got home.

Everyone was up and ready (some got woken up) at 7, so we went in to see what Santa brought. We first checked out our stockings, then saw that Santa brought our family an XBox and Kinect--our first gaming system. They've been having fun with that. Some other highlights--Hattie got a scooter and an Olivia house, Libby has liked the glasses with no prescription and her converse, Eliza loves her Ugg-type boots, purse and converse, Ruby's played with her new toys and Ellie's had fun with her converse and iPod. Santa brought her a new iPod Nano, but we realized it didn't have speakers or the watching video capabilities, so we returned it and found and older version on Craigslist. Brian was excited to get new scriptures and I was ecstatic to get a new Bosch and wheat grinder as part of my Christmas. It will get a lot of use!






After opening gifts, we had breakfast. The girls wanted donuts, so we had gotten donuts the day before. Brian's parents came over and brought their gifts. Then my parents came over for a bite to eat and more gifts. It was like Christmas all over again with our visitors. The girls kept saying, "We are so spoiled!" At least they realized it! We hung out at home for a while, they went over to Brian's parents for dinner and cousin gift exchange.

Christmas is always so fun to anticipate but over so quickly!

A Little Bit Addicted

Why are these so good?

December

I think I made a record for the least amount of posts in one month. It's been a busy month! Some things I want to remember:

Eliza and Libby had their fun run at school the day we left for CA. Eliza didn't get first this time but got third. She did her best! Libby did great, too. She ended up getting fifth but ran so hard the whole time. She was pleased with her run.




Eliza coordinated every one's outfit (including my outfit and Brian's tie) to wear to church this past Sunday. She did a good job!



The other day, Eliza wanted me to curl her hair and she got all dressed up, so we took some pictures. I can't believe she'll be 9 in a couple weeks!


We had a fun ward Christmas party. It was the morning after we got home from our trip. It was a Polar Express theme. We met at the ramada and had hot chocolate. They we took a "train" ride to the building doors, where we got to see Santa. Then the kids colored pictures from the children who'll be in Phoenix Children's on Christmas. Next, we moved into the cultural hall for a big breakfast and singing, games and entertainment. A LOT of work was put into it and it showed. We had a fun time.

I got my braces off! After 9 months, it was time. Now let me tell you, it hurt so bad!!! I was ready to turn to the lady and do something mean. Not really, but it felt terrible! I guess the clear braces are nice on but a bear to get off. I can second that! Now I just have to wear retainers which is a pain but it's better than having braces.


This past Sunday we had our traditional Christmas dinner at my parents.


My mom always sets the table so nice. Everyone had a place card of a yummy rice krispie treat in a bag labeled with his or her name. Dinner was ham, potatoes, rolls, salad, stuffing, and lots of sweets! After dinner, we took the kids across the street to carol to Sister Clem. The kids really get into it and she loves having us come. We exchanged ornaments next. It was so fun for us to pick out ornaments for the person we gave to. We tried to find something that represented that person. I'll post pictures when I can get them from my mom *hint*. :) Then my parents had gotten an ornament for each grandchild and my mom made two pairs of flannel PJs for each grandkid, too. They all put them on right away! What a fun time!

And I had to post some pictures from our photo shoot in California. It was hard to pick favorites!