New Year 2011

So New Years hasn't been this exciting all important holiday for me.  Ever.  During my single years I did enjoy going to the New Years Eve dance every year.  However, it was more about being with great people rather than ushering in the New Year.  Call me a party pooper; I just don't care.  Les asked me on New Years Eve this year what I did on New Years Eve before he came along.  I was honest.  I told him other than the dances during the single years that I would watch the news at 10 to celebrate the New Year coming to our country and then sometime before midnight I would go to sleep.  I rarely stayed up to usher in the New Year in my own time zone.  I think my answer surprised him.  At the same time he looked a little relieved.  He even told me, "So I guess marrying me didn't change that for you huh?"  Honestly no.  Les is very similar in that respect to me.  Since having kids I have found that it was more important to get the sleep while I could than feel like I had barely gone to sleep when my kids come bounding into our room so they can have breakfast.  Believe me if I could have kept them up late enough to make a difference I still wouldn't do it.  I enjoy my sleep and I feel a whole lot better about myself and the world in general when I get up earlier.  For my kids this is vital.  I am very sure that they would rather me be well rested and happy than tired and get mad over every little thing they do.  Yeah, so that is the reason.  I do it all for my kids. ;) 
After talking to Les about the lack of celebrating New Years in my life I had a terrible thought.  What am I going to do now that I am on the East Coast?  The only way to continue celebrating New Years when I comes to our country now that I live on the edge is to actually stay up until Midnight!  Oh the unfairness of it all.  So this year I gave it my best try.  After getting the kids in bed I sat on the couch to watch Les play a video game.  I knew the only way to keep Les awake until midnight was to let him do something that would absorb his attention so much that the passage of time would surprise him.  However, my tired brain needed more than that.  I was soon asleep.  I didn't sleep because I remember waking up a few times and asking Les what time it was.  Then I finally woke up to the sound of fireworks and knew that the New Year had come at last.  I wished Les a happy New Year and then quickly faded off to sleep.  I still woke up from time to time to see Les playing away.  At some point (I have no idea what time it was) Les lost his game and took me to bed.  The best part was we didn't have church until 1 so sleeping in was an option.  Sort of.  The kids woke up at their usual time.  I felt like I was dragging the whole day.  In fact, we barely managed to get ready for church in time dispite all the extra time.  By the time Sacrament Meeting ended I had a massive headache.  To make that so much more attractive I also started my new calling which is in the Nursery!  Yea for me and my head.  Oh boy did I ever pray that I would make it through the day!  My prayer was anwered and my headache went away.  However, it came back with a vengence after we got home.  I know! I forgot to pray that it would stay away.  Here is a lesson to be learned: being specific when praying is very important.  Make sure you include every contingency.  Before we left church we had heard that the Bishop had gone home early due to pain from a ruptured disc in his spine.  Emma was very upset.  She had me put her hair up in piggy tails and was hoping to get some remark from the Bishop (who calls her Bacon and she is a self proclaimed PIG).  Les told her it would be a very nice thing to bring something to the Bishop's house to aid him in getting better.  It was settled that we would take over a plate of cookies the girls and I had decorated the day before.  By the time we did this I had been lying down and felt much better.  So we all went thinking it would be a quick drop off and go type thing incase the headache came back.  Instead, we were hurded into the house and we talked with the family for over an hour.  By the time we left the Bishop didn't look good and needed to lie down.  I too was quickly fading and needed to get back into a horizontal postion. 
So how is that for a New Years Day.  Anyone with a better story?  Anyone with a worse day? 
Oh almost forgot.  I don't remember much about setting New Years Resolutions when I was younger.  As I got older I set a few.  Between failing at my own and hearing of many others who had failed as well I simply stopped setting resolutions.  I figured that I could change myself anytime of the year I had a strong enough desire to do so.  I didn't need to wait for the New Year.  Well for the first time in a long time I felt the strong feelings of change at the New Year. So I set a few New Year's Resolutions.  First off, I am getting myself back on track with doing FHE.  This last week I sat down and planned out 12 lessons.  I will continue planning them out for as long as I can.  I found that trying to come up with a lesson each week was my down fall.  So now that the lessons are planned I can almost garantee that I will do at least 11 more FHE nights.  That's right I have successfully done my first FHE of the year already.  I am counting on Les helping me to get through as well.  He is much better at making sure things get done.  I am also counting on his help with each lesson.  He has this amazing ability to explain concepts in a way others will understand.  I am hoping that he will help me convey the message of each lesson in a way that our children will readily understand. 
My second resolution is to say my personal prayers morning AND night.  I have failed at doing this for quite some time.  Before Christmas I was saying one of the two prayers and I noticed a big difference in the way that I approached life.  I was calmer.  I was more collected while dealing with the fighting and pouting that my kids do each day.  It was a great feeling!  So as I set out to say my prayers both morning and night I have great hope that I can be a better mother, wife, and member of the human family.  I have been successful everyday of this year so far.  Les has been very helpful in making sure I haven't forgotten my prayer each night as we get into bed.  The mornings have been easier since I haven't set a specific time by which to do it.  If I don't get out of bed and immediately pray I usually get it done while my kids are taking turns using the bathroom.  I find quite moments in which to express my gratitude to my Heavenly Father.  Oh I also noticed that my prayers have become deeper and more meaningful.  I have been able to express myself fully to my Father in Heaven for the first time in a LONG time. 
So that is it for my resolutions.  I can't set too many at a time because I can quickly get overwhelmed and fail at all of them.  I have a plan to make these goals into a habit and then work on adding more things to it.  I feel that is the only way for me to accomplish any of my goals for this year.
May the New Year bring great things for all of us.

Christmas 2011

 A few years ago back when Emma was our only child Les and I started a tradition in our family of opening one gift on Christmas Eve.  However, it isn't just any gift.  We have given our children pajamas every year as their Christmas Eve gift.  There is just something wonderful about getting something new that you get to wear all night and have it on when Christmas morning arrives. 
I don't remember doing this when I was a child and had heard of others doing it when I was in high school. Up until now it has only been something we do for the kids.  As you can see from the pictures to the left the kids loved their pajamas.  This year with my expanding waistline and lack of any maternity clothing from previous years I was in serious need of some pjs.

 Although I knew Les would be fine without getting some as well I could hear voices (who shall not be named) in my head that would inevitably comment about how insensitive it was of me to exclude him or the general unfairness of it all.  Yes there are people in my life who can't help themselves from sticking their nose in where it does not belong.  So to save myself from tears (pregnant emotions what they are) I decided to avoid this whole problem by buying Les a set of pjs too.

 So that folk is how our Christmas Eve started.  Of course, that night we also did a family chat with my parents and siblings on google+.  In the middle those who were at my parent's house ate Christmas Eve dinner together.  After they ate was to be the reading of the Christmas story.  I must not have been paying attention well enough because when I noticed that they were back online I got on and had missed the story. 
So Les and I gathered our children and read the story to them and sang Christmas songs.  Then we were quick to get them into bed so "Santa" could get to work and still make it to bed early as to make it up in time to get ready for our early Christmas sacrament meeting.  By the way if you ask our kids who santa is they will tell you it is Daddy.  We are trying to get them away from belief in a old fat man in a suit so they can focus on the true meaning of Christmas.

Oh almost forgot!  As part of our focus on Christ for Christmas the girls asked if we could make a cake for "Jesus' Birthday."  Les and I thought it was a great idea.  Later on when I was talking with Emma about the cake I asked her what she thought Jesus would like to have the cake decorated like.  She told me that since it was winter the ckae should be white like snow and have snowflakes falling into it from the sky.  This definitely took some thought to be able to do.  To the left is the picture that shows the results.  I divided my cake mix into two cakes.  Mostly because with my waistline rapidly expanding I didn't feel that I needed the help making it go faster.  So by making two smaller cakes we would be helping me out and we would be able to share with another family.  Our girls choose to give our second cake to the Bishop's family.  So on Christmas Eve we drove over and left the cake with family members who were there visiting.  The Bishop and his family were out caroling when we got there.  Later when they returned home they called to thank us for it and said they would be speaking to us about it at church in the morning.  Turns out they were going to save the cake until we could share it with them.  I tried to protest since we had our own cake still to eat but my objections were over ruled.  So to take my revenge I brought along our cake when we went to their house and left it for them to eat.
Christmas morning shone bright and clear.  This made for one upset girl.  Emma had expected snow to be on the ground when we got up.  White Christmas' are very important to her.  We had to get ready for church right away.  I took a little extra time to make sure everything looked great since we would be getting up in front of the congregation to sing.  The song could have gone better but we recieved so many compliments on how well the girls did that it doesn't matter that everything seemed to go wrong.  Then we headed home with three little girls getting very impatient to open their gifts.

 When we got home I gave them the option of changing back into their new pjs or opening presents in their Christmas dresses.  They choose (I am sure since it would get them to their presents sooner) to stay in their dresses.  So I didn't get a picture of them in the pjs, sorry.  Pictured above are the girls in their dresses and Sammi with her stocking.

 Here are Emma and Khloe going through their stockings.  Behind each girl is actually the first present they got of the day.  They got large pillows in their colors and disney characters on them.

We opened presents from grandparents first.  Here are Emma and Samantha in the hat and scarf their Grandma Mounteer made for them.  It is hard to tell by the picture but Sammi's is purple.

Here is Khloe with her hat and scarf fro Grandma Mounteer.  The other picture is her blue bubble bath from Grandma and Grandpa Perkins. 

 Here are Sammi and Emma showing off the purple and pink bubble bath they got from Grandma and Grandpa Perkins. 

The first pic is of Emma with the gift that Les' Grandma Cheney sent.  Each girl got a set for their hair that had princesses.  I put up only one pic because I learned while looking at the pictures to put on that this is the only one with a girl being lady like in her dress.  The next pic is the gift from Les and I.  Emma got Cinderella with her horse.

 Here is Khloe with Snow White and horse and Samantha with Belle and her horse.

Here are the girls with the group gift we got them.  They got a bunch of wooden puzzles with disney characters (yes including the princesses) on them.

 This is a gift Les spontaniously bought a few days before Christmas.  It is a cotton candy machine.  The reason he bought it is because you can use a few pieces of any hard candy to make the cotton candy.  It doesn't require the special sugar.  So that was the big family present we got this year.  I almost forgot to mention we got a package from Les' sister after Christmas for the girls.  They got a playdough set.  Not only is there playdough but it comes with an ice cream parlor to make ice cream and toppings out of the playdough.  The kids loved it.

 Les took over the camera for this one.  It is the present he and the girls got for me.  It is the Nook.  I love to read.  Les was tempted to get me an Ipad but I told him I have a computer so I don't need an Ipad.  What I love about the Nook is that I can buy ebooks for it.  Ebooks are much cheaper than other books.  I will probably still buy the actual books that I love.  Les put a lot of the classic books on here for me.  Since the copyright on them is expired there are websites that have scanned them in and have them for free.  Since Christmas I have read "The Three Musketeers," "The Scarlet Letter," and have started on "Great Expectations."  I LOVE my present.  Oh not pictured was my gift from my parents.  They sent me a necklace, 3 bracelets (matching the necklace), and 3 sets of earrings (also matching the necklace).  I can wear the first items.  The thrid will have to wait until it get my ears repierced.  I stopped wearing earrings with young kids around.  I had been comtemplating on getting my ears pierced again so the earrings might help me get it done sooner rather than later.

Les didn't want any presents.  However, I love Christmas and cannot in good conscience let him go without a present on Christmas day.  So to make him feel better about the gifts he got I tried to go practical.  I got him a couple pairs of pants for work since he has so few that qualify as business casual.  The girls got him a lunch bag with a water bottle.  Oh I forgot he got himself (yes this is not only allowed apparently but it is the only way he is good about getting gifts) a chinese movie and Kung Fu Panda 2.  Oh but I did make sure his stocking had plenty of candy in it.  Oh and he got a nice pair of leather gloves from my parents. 

Another post for New Years will be done when ever I get up the time and energy to do it.  As it is this post was worked on and off for two days.  We will see if I get it done.  Of course, I didn't take any pictures so I might not take a long.  Hope you all enjoyed your Christmas.

Happy Halloween from Maryland!

As we were preparing for our move to Maryland I thought a lot about how to make Halloween special for the girls while we would be in a strange place without friends or family.   I made sure that I packed their costumes to bring on the plane.   I wanted the girls to have a great holiday and I think they did.  We started with Saturday October 29th with a Chili Cook Off and Trunk-or-Treat with our new ward.

 Emma and Les

 Khloe and Samantha

 Sammi chowing down on Chili (she was the first one to finish)

 Khloe enjoying her dinner

 Emma looks sick but she had just stuffed her mouth full of corn bread

 Les thinking about making a funny face for the camera.  Thankfully he did resist.

 Family photo at the trunk-or-treat.

I know this pic is crazy but it shows how crazy Sammi was being.  Poor girl was freezing.  She couldn't stop moving.  All through the trunk-or-treat and afterward while taking pictures she was hopping up and down.  Not to worry though we got them into the car right after this and turned on the heater. Of course, they also got to eat a few pieces of candy.
Next we go to Halloween day!  We ran some errands in the morning including sending out a letter to some of our friends.  Then for dinner I made:

 Chicken Cordon Bleu my style (meaning with what limited supplies I have).  It was super good.

 After dinner Les took the girls outside to run around,

jump like frogs (or bunnies depending on who you ask),

 run circles around each other,

 and play ring around the rosies!  Then we went in to make sugar cookies.  I do this every year with the kids.  Usually I make my own dough, have cookie cutters, frost the cookies, and drop them off to neighbors. This year was different obviously but I tried to keep the spirit of the activity.  So this is Khloe putting sprinkles on her cookies.

 Here are pics of Sammi and Emma putting sprinkles on their cookies.

 Before and after cooking.

We had apples covered in carmel with our cookies for dessert. 

It was all so good.  The girls seemed to have a great time.  After we ate we watched It's the Great Pumpin, Charlie Brown.  Then we got ready for bed and Skyped with Grandma and Grandpa Perkins.  It was a great Halloween.  We hope you all were able to enjoy family time this Halloween as well.

Easter 2011

Our Easter was great!  Since we try to keep Sunday about the resurrection of our Savior we did our egg hunt on Saturday.  After traveling to Kaysville for a baby shower we came home and had dinner.  The first one done with dinner got to start hunting for eggs.  To keep it fair we assigned an egg color to each girl.  Emma - pink eggs, Khloe - blue eggs, and Samantha - purple eggs.  Emma finished dinner first so the easter bunny quickly hid pink eggs for her.

Emma has been using this Elmo Easter basket since her first birthday.  She was so excited to find the eggs.

 Just as Emma was finishing up her hunt Sammi finished her dinner.  So the easter bunny hurried to hide her purple eggs while I got out her bag and got her ready to go out.

 Sammi was super excited when she found out there was candy in the eggs.

 When Sammi was done Khloe was getting done with her dinner (kinda nice how that worked out huh) and so the easter bunny repeated his work one more time with blue eggs.

 I could not get Khloe to be excited about the eggs.  She just walked around picking up eggs with a stoic look on her face. 

 Finally when she picked up her last egg she turned around and had this beautiful smile on her face!

 On Easter Sunday I did have the girls help me make cookies.  On Monday morning I decorated them and then we delivered them to our neighbors.   Our kids love sneeking up to the doors, set the plate of cookies down, and knocking on the door.  Mostly though they really like the part where we run.

I feel bad.  I thought I had taken a picture of the cookies after they were decorated but I couldn't find them with the other pictures.  We had a great Easter!  We hope you did as well.