Welcome to our World

 Our last of 9 Christmas seasons in this home was peaceful, fun, and great in every way.  I love my house.  It will be so hard to move next summer, but whenever we have done what we prayed and felt good about, we have been happy, so move we will. Every year I vow not to send out Christmas cards, but always end up doing so.  The children had a blast with our tree made of cards and even drew pictures of presents to put on the wall with it. Meigo put up with the craziness and handled the bow we put around our neck by looking pathetic on the couch. On Christmas Eve my parents and our wonderful neighbor, Marshon, whose husband had to work that night, came over.  I am impressed with how well she is at picking out presents for my kids! I love love love this picture of my parents with my children.  Certainly going next year's calendar.  (I make a calendar as a Christmas present to my parents every year.  Tradition!)  Although not offi...

Last year on 11/11/11 we had a Polish party with my parents b/c it was Polish Independence Day.  (Dan lived in Poland for 2 years.)  It was around then I had the idea to throw a Doctor Who party for 12/12/12.  I knew the E. family & W. family were huge fans and then we found out the R. family was too!  Here are the invitations, in case any of you are Whovians too. Don't you love my "hurry and take the picture before my children run in again" look?  lol.  My friends truly made the party.  We made Adipose babies out of marshmallows, but Karen & Louis made custard (it's a BBC show), Donna & Travis brought yummy buffalo wings (from the Titanic episode), and Cassandra brought a sonic screwdriver (OJ + 7up).  We watched the season 6 Christmas special (the one after  The Wedding of River Song ), which I had been saving to see at the party and chatted about favorite characters, etc.  I'm glad we were able to have this party b/c ...

A long time ago I promised Nicole, someone I used to babysit when I was in high school, I would come to her farewell if she decided to serve a full time mission like I did when I was 21.  Well, time goes by quickly, and sure enough, Nicole began her service as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on 12/12/12.  How neat is that?  So, before she headed off on her new adventure, my mom helped me take my children back to Kansas for the first time in their lives. I wasn't very good about taking pictures, but there were some I took just to send back to Dan, who stayed home to work.  He missed out on cotton candy at the Golden Corral (way better than our local Country Buffet) and the best children's department programs I've ever seen.  We were to meet a high school friend of mine there with her daughter, and I was super impressed.  Story time isn't just reading a couple books and having a couple action songs.  It was that plus a ...

 For the first time, our family went to Flatiron Crossing for a huge party to greet Santa, who came in a fire truck, eat free food from Eggland's Best, make crafts, and be entertained by Radio Disney Live.  It was super crowded, but fun.  We needed to head down there anyway, so it was a great day to go.  We were blessed to inherit the L. family's artificial Christmas tree when they moved away this summer.    It is a great way to remember them even though we do not get to see them on a regular basis anymore.  Also was easier to store and set up than I thought and artificial tree would be.  I miss having an evergreen smell in my home, but don't miss having to water the tree or clean up the needles.  The children have loved rearranging the ornaments over and over.  Between the 3 of them we have 15 new handmade ornaments this year to boot.  They've loved crafting this season.  Kaelah took lots of pictures of our Christmas ...

Merry Christmas 2012  Kaelah, age 5 Michelle, age 2   Danny, age 3  We had a double sided Christmas card for the first time this year, and the following fun picture was on the back.  I used it to announce we hope to add another baby girl to our Christmas card next year, with her due date being April 7, 2013.  (I still haven't announced anything on Facebook, but Dan's family got to hear the news at Halloween and everyone around here knows because I carry my girls out in front.  Dan thinks it would be hilarious if the baby is born on April Fool's Day and that's when we post it on Facebook.  Then people would be super surprised and not know whether to believe us.) I'm fortunate to have such a talented husband.  He took our family Christmas pictures this year and did a fantastic job using our tripod and a remote.  So we were literally smiling at the camera and nothing else.  Here's a blooper photo to show you. ...

We didn't take any pictures on Thanksgiving Day, but I promise we had a nice, traditional dinner with my parents.  So, instead, I'll talk about some things to be grateful for this November.  Danny took a basketball class on Wednesday mornings with the same teachers as his soccer class earlier.  Michelle and I had the privilege of taking him and watching him all 4 times.  With soccer he had insisted that Grandma, Grandpa, Daddy, & Mommy all have a turn.  (:  I let Kaelah play hooky from preschool once so she could watch too.  Danny's favorite part of the class was throwing the basketball to hit a target hung on the wall.  Michelle can now buckle herself into her 5-point harness and is even happier than I am about it.  The children often have contests to see who can get strapped in first.  Makes my life more fun too!  I adored Kaelah's "How to Cook a Turkey" from Stacey's Preschool.  I think it is the perfect combin...