January 2012

Well, after the busyness of December, January is a great time for me to do some deep cleaning! I got busy shampooing carpets, organizing, cleaning and clearing out. After an unsuccessful night of trying to get the girls to clean their playroom, I took matters into my own hands the next day. I put everything left out into 5 big boxes and pulled them in the playroom. I vacuumed and shampooed the carpet. The girls were ecstatic when they saw the room, but not so much when they saw the boxes! I gave them 2 minutes to save their favorite toys. Then we sat down and looked through the leftover toys and the girls got to decide if they wanted to buy them back or not. So I made some money, they learned a lesson and we ended up with a nice box for our yard sale.
American Fork Rec Center had their annual pass sale and we decided to buy a family pass. So far our resolutions have stuck, either Steve or I have gone to exercise at 6:00 AM every morning! We tried to go swimming the first day we got the pass. We got all packed up, got all dressed up, walked up to the edge of the pool and all the lifeguards blew their whistles. Turns out there was a bad diaper accident and they closed the pool for a couple hours. We were annoyed, but also glad we hadn't jumped in yet! We went back later and the girls had a blast! Steve and I took turns doing a couple laps and doing crazy stunts off the diving board! We wanted to go again last Saturday, but Ella had strep again. Then we wanted to go again yesterday, but I got ambitious and colored my hair (just slightly darker) the day before, and can't go swimming for a few days! But maybe we'll try it for family night tomorrow.
I was very sad I didn't get the chance to visit Grandma the week before Christmas. We were very busy and I figured she'd get a lot of visitors, so I'd go the week after Christmas. Jill and I planned to go to the zoo and visit her the same day, but it was the same day she got really ill and put in the hospital. So a couple weeks later, Eden and I went up for a short visit. I knew it would be my last visit with Grandma and I really felt prompted to go that day. We stopped and got her a little plant and Eden loved giving it to her. She was also very excited about the picture she colored for her. Grandma woke up when we came in the room. Although she seemed very sick, weak, bored, tired and sad, she still took the time to have a nice conversation with us. I showed her some pictures of our family and told her about everyone. She wondered what city we were in and said she wished she could go outside. She told Eden how beautiful she was and how nice my family was. It was hard for me to talk sometimes because of emotions, but I was glad to hold her hand and be with her one last time. When I gave her a hug goodbye and told her I loved her, she told me she loved me too, but didn't know how to show it anymore. I told her, I knew, she already had shown me that my whole life.
Grandma passed away less than one week later. It's sad to let her go, but knowing how much she missed grandpa and knowing how sick she was, it's more happy than sad. We were glad for one more chance to visit the green church in Payson.
It rained/snowed all day and was a pretty scary drive to Payson. The displays for grandma were beautiful and just perfect. They had the letters and cards she received while in the hospice, her mirror with the temple etched in it, photos, bread, raspberries, teaching supplies, and many more items to represent her full life. The service was just beautiful too. Chris started by piecing all the memories from the grandchildren together and filling in for mom, who was thinking of us from Japan. All her children spoke and reminded us what a loving, hardworking, fun and human woman she was. I loved the talk by her neighbors, mostly because I hope to aspire to be neighbors like them someday. They took such good care of grandma and grandpa. The icing on the cake was that they had been bringing them Sunday dinner for several years now. Wow. I was sitting right by the outside chapel doors and noticed through the stain glass windows that it was getting brighter and brighter outside. Gary had prayed that the Lord would temper the weather, and so it happened. There was not a drop of rain as we left the church, prayed at her gravesite, visited and returned to the chapel. In fact, the sun was shining through the clouds. Many mentioned how much Grandma appreciated all kinds of weather and that she must have pulled a few strings for us so we could be comfortable. At least that's a nice thought!
Martin Luther King Day includes our annual excursion to the Car show. They had a fun exhibit for kids of all ages...the little ones got to ride in power jeeps and the big kids got to ride in real jeeps through an obstacle course to show off its abilities. It was kind of nerve racking going straight up a hill, then straight down even though the driver never touched the brakes! We also tried to tip the car on its side, go over stumps of varying heights and more. Even though I'm not really into cars, I have to admit it was pretty cool! There was also a rock climbing wall and Ella was like a little spider booking her way to the top!
Only 10 more years away, daddy.
Little Eden has several meltdowns a day. She is hypersensitive and "gets sad" very frequently. When that happens she can't do anything, including walking because, "I SAD!" Then she usually ends up on the floor. Luckily after a few minutes of feeling sorry for herself, she changes just as instantly to "I happy now!" This one was after we told her we were walking another way, not the way she wanted to go.
Just dreaming!
KSL set up an area with cameras, a teleprompter and tvs to watch yourself. The kids thought that was fun while I stood in the Geico line so we could play plinko. We always have lots of fun getting in lots of cars, drooling at all the new features in minivans, getting balloon animals, and jumping in truck beds! I think Steve's a lucky guy that we'll go with him!
New year resolution. We got a new job chart. The girls get to fill in the bubbles when they finish a job and earn 5 cents for each bubble. They like seeing their allowance adding up, even though it usually doesn't add up to their previous allowance! Every Sunday we add it up, pay out and separate out the tithing. Every fast Sunday, they fill out a tithing slip and turn it in. They just earned enough money to buy those cute animal hats all the kids are wearing.
Ok, this girl has got me wrapped! I think she's just adorable! I'm so glad she's my buddy all day. She is saying the cutest things lately and has an incredible imagination. She loves little toys and likes to carry them around. She found a clean, empty peanut butter jar and thought it was the best thing ever. She put all her tiny dolls and mermaids in it and would carry it everywhere! Now she's into our little toy dog carriers. She'll stick dolls in there and tell them they are in jail. She has an infatuation with jail lately. Even when I buckle her carseat, she'll say, "My hands in jail!" She recently discovered the PBS show Super Why. The characters fly into a book in every episode. So one night when she was working off her final energy, she ran around our kitchen/living room circle about 100 times yelling, "Rapunzel, Rapunzel, I going to fly into this book. Help! I in jail!" Then suddenly she plopped to the ground. Said, "Time for bed." And went and tucked herself into bed! She's hilarious!
She totally entertains me during church. Today she used the program as a hymnbook, used her finger to read the words and sang her little heart out! If it wasn't "LA LA LA," it was, "I SINGING A SONG! I SINGING A SONG! JUST LIKE MY MOMMY! JUST LIKE MY MOMMY!" And she always sing in opera voice. Later, the baby in front of us got blessed. When I told her that she said, "Oh, his tummy hurts?" She was remembering the blessing Ella had received earlier in the week for her strep throat. She catches on to more than I realize! She just about melted everyone's hearts when she ran into Sunday school to find me so she could go to the bathroom. She was wearing her little hat and ran in and called my name and gave me a big hug. Then, right as we walked in the bathroom, right next door, she yelled at the top of her voice, "Hellllloooo!" She loves the bathroom echo. I'm sure pretty much everyone heard that! She just adores the nursery leader's husband who hangs out there. Since she still calls herself, "Ninny," he told her to call him Bubba. They are best friends. Today, he showed me how they play ball and he even taught her some Karate moves! When we left, she said, "GOOD BYE, BUBBA!"
Well, my girls all have white fur coats again! They sure look adorable! Now it's time for me to get a new winter church coat since I think I got mine before heading to college...maybe before!
And we celebrated two birthdays in our family last month! Eden was looking forward to her birthday ever since we changed the calendar to January with a big picture of her and her 2 year old cake. She always said, "My birthday coming!" Since all the family was going to be in town the weekend before her birthday, I decided to make her cake early. Luckily I had all the ingredients I needed, but since I wanted to try to use fondant, I looked up a recipe to make it. That was a lot of work! I decorated it while she was napping and she was THRILLED when she woke up! She kept saying, "I yike (like)
my monkey cake!" over and over. Even weeks later, she still says it!
I wanted to make it like Curious George, but making flesh colored fondant is HARD and it ended up too brown. Oh well, she knew who it was!
I had also made a batch of cupcakes, since there were going to be so many people. So Samantha and Steve, who share a birthday, got to blow out a candle on a cupcake. Samantha is such a good sport! I used my Kitchenaid to mix the batter and even though the cake was a day old by the time we ate it, it was the best cake I'd ever made...so moist! The family devoured the monkey, but we had cupcakes to spare.Since it was kind of a Curious George theme, we thought a bunch of balloons to carry Eden away would be fitting! She loved running around with them!
It was a fun get-together, albeit loud and crazy! I was amazed upon only finding a couple broken items! Afterall, we must have been calmer after spending all day at a funeral. We enjoyed having Mark's family stay with us. The little girls slept in the living room and stayed up late being silly. They sure love their cousins. In fact, Eden says that all the time now, "I YIKE (like) my cousins!" Eden warmed up to Mark quickly and soon wouldn't leave him alone after awhile. She kept wondering where "Her Mark" was!
Of course, we had to spoil Eden a little on her real birthday. The girls had school, and Steve and I worked all day. But we met at Chuck E Cheese and played for a little while before dinner.We headed to BK, to get her free happy meal, then to Toys R Us to get her birthday balloon and spend her birthday money. Turns out she wanted an umbrella, which promptly broke the next morning. Then we went to Cold Stone and got yummy ice cream! Gotta love almost an evening full of almost-free activities because of all the coupons they send for birthdays! She loved coming home to birthday messages from Geoffery the Giraffe and Jill's family. She learned how to push the repeat button and listened to them half a dozen times!
Steve's birthday was a little more low-key. Yes, he got streamers, cake and dinner out, but it was hard to do much more since I worked the whole day and was stuck at home the whole day before with sick Ella. But he did get a new griddle so he can continue to make "Daddy Pancakes" every Sunday morning for us!

Emily and Ella are just getting bigger and more mature. I'm constantly asking Emily when she got so big. She's getting pretty good at the piano and I'm loving that she's learning church songs. I'm getting on her more and more to learn to be more responsible. Her last report card was surprising to me since she got a B- in Language Arts - her best subject. Turns out she was missing assignments. Which was surprising to me because her teacher was continuing to let her go to the Friday Funday activities - a reward for having all your work done. Her teacher is teaching on her own for the first time this year, and I'm learning I need to be more on top on things now. I have to get after Emily to remember to bring her homework and reading books and spelling lists home. I've talked with her teacher several times and I think she's getting on top of these issues as well. I wasn't happy at Parent Teacher conferences to see that her standardized reading tests had gone down 3 points. That's not really that significant, but after 1/2 year, I'd have like to see it go UP! It's a little hard to see these things as a parent, especially when the kids are supposed to be learning responsibility as well. But we'll continue to do what we can at home and try to get a more seasoned teacher to counterbalance next year. Ella's conference was great. It's so nice to see how well Ella is reading and how hard she works on all her assignments. She works hard to do things right, even though she doesn't learn as quickly as Emily. We love her teacher. She's a former preschool teacher and I wish I could have watched her at work...she's amazing! She even calls late at night on days Ella's been sick to check on her, or to tell me something Ella is struggling with so I can help her more at home. Ella loves her and really tries to work hard for her.
Steve's plugging away at his math course right now. It's not his strong subject, but he's really working hard to understand it. Luckily, he's still at levels I can help him with.

I'm still knee-deep in preschool, signing up for next year, couponing, YW activities, family activities, working out, and trying to keep house. I was finally able to help serve a lady I visit teach. Her family received Sub for Santa gifts for Christmas and one thing was new paint for every room in their house. So she kind of went gung-ho and started every room at once! She was feeling overwhelmed, so Eden and I went over for an hour to help peel wallpaper. I hadn't done that in a while, but it seemed easier than trying to pry paneling off the wall! We'll probably try to go again next week. The lady is a talker, but I never got to know her better than I did in that one hour while serving her.

We've been having kind of an eventful time in the ward lately losing our bishop and another ward member to the new Stake Presidency. We sustained our new bishopric last week and will probably see the callings that effects in the next few weeks. We really do have a wonderful ward and are glad to be a part of it.