November Revisited

Okay, I'm going to do my best to do this simply.  The problem is, I should have done at least a half-dozen full posts out of all this!  So go back to the standby of skim reading or looking at the photo collages here.

1- First Snow!  The first day of November, after that beautiful Halloween night, we had our first snow fall.  As of now we've had a tiny skiff a couple of times since then, but not enough to make a snow man.  This snow was enough for Sabrina to play in while the other girls were at school in the morning, but gone by afternoon.

2. My Birthday.  I had a great birthday.  It fell on a Sunday this year.  I got salmon and oven roasted potatoes for my special dinner.  I also had a wonderfully gooey chocolatey decadent cake.

3. End of Ukulele Club.  The first set of extracurricular activities came to an end and Ukulele club did their final "concert".  Kate did a lovely job.  Lizzie parked herself on my lap part of the time (thus the picture of my view: her ponytail).  Sabrina enjoyed clapping along with some of the folk songs.

4.  Cats.  Did you think you'd get by without a batch of cat pictures?  It's a good thing I'm married or I'd probably be on of those "Cat Ladies".  Maybe I am anyway.  hmmm.  They're still funny.  Ginny (on the right) enjoys chasing bouncy balls on the foyer floor.  Sierra (upper left) tried to stow away in my suit case when we were getting ready to go to Denver.

5. Southern Family Birthday Party.  Despite growing numbers of family members, I am still the only November birthday in Michaels' family!  This year we'd missed Sabrina's October party (probably sick, I forget which one of us though) so she and I were birthday buddies this time.

6. Miscellaney.  I've finished a portion of a painting project on the living room wall.  I love it.  I just am exhausted thinking of finishing the top half!  Then there's a gorgeous bit of sunshine, and the girls playing with the new photo features on my cell phone.

7. Lost tooth!  Lizzie finally lost her... 3rd(?) tooth.  She worried that thing like crazy until I finally put dental floss on it and pulled the dang thing out.  Yay!

8. Living Planet Aquarium.  After the trip to Denver (which I DID manage to post) we took the girls to the aquarium in Salt Lake.  We even donated a couple of bucks towards the new facility they're building.  It was tons of fun!  One of the funniest parts was to do with electric eels: there was a spot where you could touch two metal dots and feel how hard of a shock an electric eel could give.  Lizzie really wanted to try it, but then decided she was too scared.  After we finally gave up waiting for her she finally gave it a try... and kept doing it over and over.  Typical >eye roll<

9. Thanksgiving!  At the last minute we had to alter our Thanksgiving plans.  Nothing new there.  Kate was sick, so Michael took her to Cracker Barrel for Thanksgiving dinner while I took the other girls to my sister Suzette's house.  My sister and her family were in town from Nebraska and we didn't want to miss out on a chance to see them.  Dinner was delicious and we had a lovely visit.  (There's also a highly festive haircut in there too.  A true turkey tail!  It came colored orange during the next event, but I didn't get a good picture of that one.)

10. Gingerbread houses.  On the Saturday after Thanksgiving we did our traditional gingerbread houses with my family at our place.  Fortunately Kate was doing better.  I think we had 30 people over!  The mothers put together a quilt for a new baby (due any day.  Come on "Jimmer"!!!) while the youngers did their gingerbread houses.  The teens actually did an impressive job on their gingerbread houses too!  I think it helped that they had their own place to hang out.  Eventually we also had a football game being watched in the basement too.  We had a great time with everyone!

11.  Tricks!  Ginger is a very playful kitty.  Get out a cat wand and she is a crazy acrobat!  I know you miss out on a lot of it in flat photos, but I try.  Also -- as we were trying to put up the Christmas tree the cats simply took up residence in it!  It wasn't until the tree was finally decorated that we could keep them out of their prickly perch!

THUS ENDS November -- looks like it should have been closer to a dozen individual posts!

October revisited

 I do realized I got horribly behind on posting pictures and moments from life in the last couple of months.  Any time I have a pharmaceutical change of any sort it takes a while to get everything back in order.  I think we're finally there though!  At least -- we're reaching the end of the year VERY soon and I want to get this year into this year!

So here are a few more pictures of our cats.  I love our kitties.  They relax me and entertain me wonderfully.  I am so glad we go them!  I no longer take allergy medication and don't have any problem with our kitties.

During October I took the girls to the BYU Chemistry Magic Show.  Unfortunately Uncle Matt wasn't doing it that night, but we still enjoyed it.  We even got a taste of liquid nitrogen ice cream!  The girls particularly liked the explosions, of course.

Our new city library opened!!!  It is a fabulous building and we are excited to spend more time here.  The old one was great... but SO small!  Apparently it was the smallest library with its work load in the state.  It was surely time for a new one.  As an added bonus: author Brandon Mull (Fablehaven, Beyonders, Candy Shop Wars) was there on the opening day.  We peeked into the room where he did a lecture thingy (it was far too crowded to go in) and we waited in line to get our last book of Fablehaven and Kate's copy of The Candy Shop Wars signed.

On Halloween Kate dressed up as a ninja (and/or cat burglar), Lizzie dressed up as Smurfette (though sadly the tights were the wrong shade of blue and by the end of the day we could tell she is apparently allergic to the cheap blue eyeshadow used to tint her skin!) and Sabrina dressed up as Batgirl (in a previously worn costume.  She was happy.)  I went to watch the elementary school parade, then took the girls downtown to the trick or treating on main street.  After dinner Daddy took the girls around our neighborhood while I sat on the porch (it was a GORGEOUS night!) and handed out candy to trick or treaters.  The girls came home with loads of top notch candy!

THE END of October. 

Christmas Lights

We finally made it the other night to see the Christmas lights at Temple Square.

We bundled up with hats, scarves, and gloves on top of the good coats and warmest boots.  Fortunately all this precaution meant that the weather was quite mild!  So mostly I spent the time counting hats and gloves.

Hot chocolate and Christmas cookies!  &  Throwing pennies into the fountain

The nativity pool was so surrounded by people we couldn't get very close to it.  It was still beautiful!  I love all the lights.

Touching the walls of the temple carved by hand all those many years ago.

Daddy explaining the history behind the seagull monument.

I paused to take this picture:

 (which didn't quite come out, as the water rippled the other way and lost the reflection on Kate's face) with Sabrina standing by me.  We turned around and Daddy and Lizzie were gone!

We sat there for probably 20 minutes waiting for them to show back up.  I kept trying to call, but Michael's phone wasn't working.  Drat!  For some reason he decided to wait for us wherever they were when they noticed we were gone so we were both standing in different places waiting.  They finally made their way back and we pressed onward.  Phew!

We peeked into the Tabernacle

and waited in the press to make it up to the Christus.  Always worth it.  (I liked the look of the shadow, bottom right, we could see where we were waiting for our turn).

I'm not sad that the waterproof quality of the snow boots wasn't needed.  They were needed to keep toes warm, and they did.  (No, Lizzie does not have a tail.  That's a bit of fringe off the end of the scarf under her coat.)

See the reflection there?  It's me!  With Sabrina and Lizzie.

Riding the elevator back down to our level in the parking garage.

Farewell until next year!

Ears

Yup.  Ears.

Fascinating, no?

Well, Kate got a pair of earrings for Christmas along with the promise that she could get her ears pierced.  So guess what we did today?  Yup.  Ears.

Kate chose a pretty pair of birthstone earrings (ruby for July) that came with a matching necklace.  The earring and necklace stones are cut in a tiny butterfly shape.  Super cute.

So first she got her necklace on.  She was very excited and VERY nervous.

When we got there another girl was getting her ears pierced, so Kate got to see how the process went (even though we'd already talked it through thoroughly many times since the time she asked if she could have it done.)  Apparently Kate was their third ear piercing in a row this afternoon!  Popular activity I guess.  Ears, ya know.

I had told her that if she said that she didnt' want it done at any point that we'd stop and try again in a year or so.  She was DETERMINED to make it through.

 But look at this little face!  Doesn't that just break your heart?  I swear by the end I was closer to crying than she was.  Mostly because she looked too grown up.

They had two people there so they were able to do both ears at the same time.  Phew!  That made it less stressful for everyone.

But still plenty stressful.

In the end she was delighted.  She declared it didn't hurt much at all (by tonight she'd exaggerated it so far she was practically equating it to a warm sea breeze in a hammock).  Grandma ran into us at the store just as we were finished up.  Kate was excited to show off her new EARS.

Cute!

Lizzie and Sabrina were there too.  Lizzie said she would wait until she is at least 16 before she wants to get her ears pierced.  I told them they could wait as long as they wanted -- even never!  Sabrina changed her mind several times.  She finally settled on 28.  I had to record this for (if/) when they change their minds ;)

On a NON-EAR topic:

We stopped by Daddy's office (he's working this week but had last week off.  We had to show him Kate's EARS, ya know.) and the girls set to their favorite activity of covering his white board with drawings.  

They stuck with a theme of Santa + Snowman.

The amusing part of this one is that little red thing in front of the snow man.  

It's a gun.

The actual story is this: the gun is a squirt gun.  It is filled with food coloring.  That's why the snowman is different colors.  If you could see more closely you'd see a little green coloring leaking out the back of the squirt gun.  Cause that's what squirt guns do, ya know.  Leak.  

It still made me laugh.  :)

(I also like how they declared "DO NOT ERASE" over their drawings.  That usually would last until the next  time the space is needed for actual WORK related stuff.  Fortunately for them (I guess?) this board is on its way out, so it just might endure!)  

Merry Christmas 2011

I am going to try to catch up all the neglected pictures / events before the end of the year (so prepare for a busy  next week on here!) but I wanted to throw the pictures from last night and today on here before heading to bed.

Every year for a long time (or maybe ever?) we've been spending the evening of Christmas Eve at my in-law's house.  We eat goodies, do a nativity for the kids, listed to Pops read the Bible story, and usually do a white elephant gift exchange of some sort.  A good time is had by all.
Well, this year I was just walking in to the kitchen to make us an early dinner so we could leave to drive out around the lake.  I saw Lizzie curled up on the couch huddled under my cozy sweater; not normal behavior.  Sure enough, she had a fever.  So.... we ran to the store to pick up a few goodies to have our own at home and had Grandma come over to our house (she was going to go with us around the lake anyway, but we're super glad we had her to be our "company").

 Grandma played Christmas hymns for us on the piano.  We played a little white elephant game.  Sierra decided that day that she HAD to cuddle with Daddy all evening.  She even shoved things out of the way so she'd get her favorite place :)  I whipped up a cheeseball and we picked up dip and vegis / crackers to eat it with. We also had homemade caramel with sliced apples and little bottles of Martinelli's sparkling cider.  Oh, and candy cane truffles!  I made those with crushed candy canes on top; stir them into hot milk and you get amazing minty hot chocolate!  We also watched "Mr. Kreuger's Christmas" which the girls really love.  (Daddy also shown here playing on his iPad -- a bonus he earned from work!!!)

 The girls got to open their new pajamas and got dressed for bed (oh, you can see the box of See's chocolate's I'd been hoarding too).  Grandma got to play with Ginny and her cat wand (that cat can do the most incredible flips!).  Then Daddy read us the story from Luke 2 and Matthew 2.  Off his smartphone.  Cause we're so technologically advanced.  Grandma told the girls the story of "The Magic Curtain" -- a family tradition; and they were off to bed!

 The girls snuggled up in bed and fell asleep pretty quickly.  Well, the younger two did -- Kate had a hard time sleeping last night (what a surprise!).  There is a little lit tree in each of the girls' bedrooms.  I love how Lizzie and Sabrina tucked theirs next to a picture of Christ with the children.

Santa made his visit.  He filled the stockings and put three little presents under the tree (because they didn't fit in the stockings -- mostly because we looked EVERYWHERE and couldn't find our stockings, so I chased Grandma home and borrowed hers.)  Since we got the kitties early the girls knew we weren't getting big presents from Santa this year.

 The girls got up about 7:30 and ate the Frito's and played in the Phineas & Ferb activity book left at the end of each bed.  Then we ate some of the fancy breakfast Santa had left and got ready for church.
It was wonderful going to church on Christmas morning!

After church we came home and opened every individually wrapped present in the stockings, then the other things under the tree.

A few of kate's highlights:  Kate got toe socks she's been asking for (her sisters each got a pair of fuzzy socks too).  She also got a water bottle (from Lizzie) to go on her new(er) bike that has a water bottle holder on it.  She was very excited about a nutcracker Santa brought and the earrings with the promise that she can get her ears pierced.  (Hopefully that goes well tomorrow!)  She also got a little planner she was hoping for (the rest of the present from Lizzie) and a jewelry making kit from Sabrina.  She's particularly excited about making earrings she can wear eventually.

 Some of Lizzie's favorites are a computer chess game (it helps teach rules and possible moves, etc. -- great since she's always begging for someone to play chess with her!), an itty bitty "muttles" puppy (each girl got a different one), some lip gloss and nail polish from Sabrina, and a bell for her bike from Kate.  Another cool thing is "story dice": 9 dice with 6 images on each.  Roll them and make up a story including all 9 elements!  She's excited to try it out.

 Sabrina got the blanket (from Kate) she was hoping for, as well as a stuffed puppy (from Lizzie).  She was ecstatic!  She had a fever today, so she spent quite a bit of time with those two gifts.  She also got her favorite candy bar (each of us did), and a new winter cap (each girl did).  She loves an old fashioned wooden top and the thing she's been asking for for weeks: ice skates!  Of course, they came as ice skates for her build-a-bear rather than for her (much more useful that way ;))

 Daddy got a several goodies (cause he's impossible to buy for!) along with a couple of card games and Hungry Hungry Hippos.  Kate picked the hippo game for him because he keep singing "I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas".  So he got TWO!  I also got him a book by Henry B. Eyring he's looking forward to reading.

 I got some jewelry in my stocking (each girl had a cute flower ring in her stocking also) as well as a nice new razor (hint, hint? ;))  and some hand warmers to use while riding my bike (yes, I've been riding a bike around the neighborhood!).  The girls got me a pair of USB powered speakers since my laptop speakers aren't very loud at all so I'm always hauling around speakers to listen to shows or audiobooks while doing chores around the house.  I'm listening to Harry Potter book 4 even as I type right now actually.
The highlight of my gifts: Michael got me a purple ukulele!!!  I LOVE it!!!!!  I hope to learn enough songs on it to use it during singing time in nursery at church.  Besides: it's SUPER cute.  Seriously.  It's purple!

 a few misc. pictures cause those are cute girls.  Wish I had some fuzzy socks about now!

The piece de resistance: under the tree there has been a largish package from daddy and me.  We weren't going to be doing anything fancy like this on account of the kitties... but we had an opportunity and the means, so we went for it.  Daddy held the large gift and the girls each held their last gift from Santa.  I love the expressions on their faces!  They could not believe their eyes!  We got a BLUE wii!  It came with one controller / nunchuck.  The gifts the girls opened was a pretty PINK controller for each of them.  They're absolutely adorable.  We borrowed a wii play disc and they've played a great deal of cow racing and billiards this afternoon.

This pretty much wraps up Christmas -- Kate with her hat and wii-mote.  This picture just turned out really pretty so I had to include it.  We have had a very merry Christmas -- sickness and all.  We feel so very blessed to have so much family and so many friends around us.  We missed out on the family gatherings, but it was really kinda nice to just "have to" relax at home!

So Merry Christmas to All!  I'm headed to bed.