What we've been up to...

Ben has ended up being out of town quite a bit this month so my blogging has taken a back burner to all the many other things that I have to do. I'm also reverting back to my old ways a little and have gotten a little lazy about taking pictures. For some reason, my blog is not motivating me to take pictures as much as it used too. I will be better though, I promise!

The kids had a couple of days off of school a few weeks ago so we went to Fat Cats in Ogden for miniature golfing and games. My mom and grandma went with us and so did my little brother, Matt, and his wife which was nice because they left a couple of days later for Mexico where my brother is doing an internship. It was fun hanging out with them a little while they were staying at my parents' house.

I was in a sewing mood a few weeks ago so I made skirts for the girls off of this on-line tutorial: (grandrevivaldesign.typepad.com/photos/ruffled_skirts_tutorial/skirts4000.html). I was feeling very projectless after Christmas so this was a fun little something to do!


I've gotten into the habit of browsing the DI (we have a brand new store right here in Harrisville!) while Rachel is at pre-school. I'm not sure it's such a good thing for my pocketbook, but at least everything is a great bargain! They had a whole bunch of brand new designer sunglasses there one day for $2 each. Ben (who goes through sunglasses like crazy) actually stocked up and got like 15 pairs of them. Another day I found three pairs of snow pants for a grand total of $10. They turned out to be a great investment because I've been a little concerned about my kids being cooped up in the house so much lately and since I got the snowpants they've been outside nearly everyday! Best $10 I ever spent!


This is Rachel and Brigham being silly together. These two keep each other entertained while the older two girls are at school.

I spent two whole evenings (after the kids went to bed) making this lovely poster for the girls to refer to while practicing the piano. I was quite proud of myself!


The girls had a piano recital on the 18th of January. It was the first for Eliza and she was a little nervous, but she did such a great job! They each allowed me to "accompany them" on one of their songs, which is always fun for me. I'm so proud of them both!


That's pretty much what we've been up to this month. Ben's been to both Dallas and Pheonix and went on his very first winter camp-out with the deacons. I pretty much told him he just needed to "buck up" because he complained so much prior to the camp-out, but I was definitely glad to be home in my warm bed while he was sleeping out in the snow! Maybe I should be a little more sympathetic next time...
I promise to try to take more pictures--and not the blurry, dark kind that seem to be prevalent in this post!

No more diapers in 2010!

I don't know what got into me, but on New Year's Day I decided it was time for Brigham to give up diapers for good. I've been thinking about it for quite awhile and the realization that Ben would be going back to work soon made me think that this was the perfect time to take the plunge. So we put on some underwear, went pantless for a few days and I'm happy to report that I think Brigham is done with diapers for good. Four down, one to go!

Merry Christmas!

Well our Christmas was very busy, which explains why it has taken so long to get this on our blog. My family was all together for the holidays and we spent about five continuous days with them which was a lot of fun and kind of exhausting! It was nice to get to spend so much time with my brothers and sisters-in-law and also for the kids to hang out with their cousins.

A couple of days before Christmas, we went to a live nativity that is put on by a family out west of Ogden. It was pretty neat with real live sheep, goats, donkeys and llamas.We spent a lot of time hanging out at my parents house,

playing in the snow,and enjoying cousin time.On Christmas Eve, we had a really fun time dressing up and acting out the nativity story. We haven't done this in the past because most of the cousins were too young. This year we decided we would dress everyone up, including most of the adults and everyone agreed that this should be a new tradition in our family.
We had our own little Christmas early in the morning before heading back over to my parents house for more family time. I was probably almost as excited as the kids were for Christmas morning. It's so fun to see how excited they get!

My sister spent the night so she got to witness all the excitement.
And here we all are! We tried to get a good group picture to hang on the wall so that my parents could take down the old one that had my brother's old girlfriend in it (his wife really appreciated that). Like my dad holding the camera remote?

3rd Grade Grandparent's Day

Emma got to have grandparent's day at school on Wednesday. I went to see the program and it was packed with all those parents and grandparents! They put on a cute program with all sorts of Christmas songs and Emma even got to be in a little bell choir that played a few songs. I wish I would have gotten a picture of her playing the bells but I was having trouble operating my camera while holding Hazel and keeping an eye on Brigham and Rachel! Afterwards, the 3rd graders got to have lunch with their grandparents in the cafeteria. I wasn't going to stay, but my mom and grandma talked me into it. I didn't anything done at home that day, but we had a lot of fun!

Guess who's 5?

Our little Rachel turned 5 on Tuesday. She's a tiny little girl who's full of spunk and we're so glad that she's a part of our family!
Our kids always get one present to open the morning of their birthday and Rachel got (what else?) a puzzle. She had it done in a jiffy!
Rachel chose to go McDonald's (again) for her birthday lunch with mom.Since Rachel is always wanting to use my camera she got her very own camera . She's had a lot of fun with it.

This kid...

...always seems to have some sort of bump, bruise or cut on his head. He had a black eye a few weeks ago and then last week he ran right into the kitchen table and got another big bruise next to his eye. I keep wanting to get his picture taken, but I can't seem to find a time when his face is free of owies!

Gingerbread Party!

We decided to have a gingerbread party for Rachel's 5th birthday. I was inspired one day a couple of weeks ago when Rachel and I were in the Christmas section of Walmart. We decorated graham cracker houses and it turned out to be such a fun theme!
We read The Gingerbread Baby by Jan Brett.I had so much fun looking for all sorts of gingerbread themed items. Aren't these cupcakes the cutest?Who says December birthdays are no fun? More to come on Tuesday!