Welcome to our World

The Butterfly Pavilion gave us a chance to meet the very rare Atlas moth and demonstrate what a great dad Dan is by allowing himself to be used as a step stool. Grandma Karyl helped us enjoy the Denver Museum of Nature and Science on a free day at the Zoo that wasn't as warm as we had hoped.  We did manage to walk over and ride the train and carousel as had been promised the day before after discovered a section of the museum we had never seen before:  the Native American Culture exhibit, complete with hogan.  You would think by now we would have seen it all!

January was pretty busy for someone who is used to being a stay-at-home mom.  Other than going to Steamboat and Dan switching jobs (which means he is home about 10 hours less a week due to an increased commute), some other great things happened.  Christy and I earned our Young Womanhood medallion, she as a mom and me as a leader.  Every year the stake puts on a nice dinner and I was happy to celebrate, especially with Rebecca, Alex, Lora, and Camille as well.  I miss being able to hang around my Laurels every Sunday and Wednesday, but am loving my calling as Personal Progress advisor too. My dear husband let me throw a Chinese New Year party with the families of these Taibei missionaries.  Can you believe there are so many people in our little city who served in the same mission?  It was the biggest party I think this house has ever seen.  I was worried we would feel like sardines, but putting the dozen children in front of Ni Hao Kai Lan's Hap...

My hubby turned the big 3-5!  To celebrate we took a trip to Steamboat Springs.  The condo we stayed at was great, thanks to some vacation points my in-laws couldn't use while serving their 2nd full time mission together.  It came in handy to have such a nice place for the children and I to be in the chilly weather while Dan went skiing an extra day by himself.  Thank you, Wayne & Nita! This also provided us an opportunity to see the ice castles again in a new location, go sledding, spend an afternoon at a bounce house, go bowling as a family of 5 for the first time, children's first gondola rides, and the big event:  Kaelah & Danny's first time skiing!  They loved ski school and did a great job.  Kaelah was a natural and Danny was a full 6 months younger than anyone else in his class but managed to keep up.  It was a pure joy to watch them!  They have already asked more than once to go again.  (: And the oth...

 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 ...