Our Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve with everything ready for the morning! I never did find the ornaments from last year (new ones like the sweet one Fern made in Nursery, and the R & F Aunt Mary made). Hrumph, but Christmas came anyway.
After opening Dan's family's gifts we let the kids open a gift from Grandma J. (they have not figured out that it is always PJ's they get to open). So here are my cuties all ready for bed in their new jammies ala grandma!

Grandma even made Fern a sleeping cap! How cute is she!!

~

Dan and I managed to not stay up too late, but between the wind storm (which broke one small tree out back), Fern, and my ever increasingly uncomfortable bed/body I did not get a ton of sleep. Riley woke up at 4am, I heard him go out and look at the tree then at 4:30 he was in our bed and by 5 we had sent him back to his!! Thankfully they all stayed in bed until 7:30! :)

Then it was time to open gifts!

Sorry this is blurry, but try getting a picture of a light saber wielding 7 year old!! :)

Jake got a green one too, and Fern a purple one! They soon had Dad get his out (yes Mike and Anna the one you gave him 11 years ago) and they have been "fighting" ever since! :) It was a hit, and I knew it would be that is why I bought a plastic toy for them. :)

I know silly hu, I do this every year, I arrange all of my favorite gifts and take a picture. Now no one get offended I love all my gifts because they were all given in love these are just a few that really stuck out! :) Ok, Top-picture of my mom's family outside the St. George temple when they were sealed together! A button wreath ornament my mom made, Kirsten's winter outfit I have wanted for YEARS!! A casserole dish (nice and deep) with our last name etched on the bottom I have always wanted one, tangerines, I am a So. Cal. gal living in no citrus land. The Hungry Little Caterpillar ornament, Wrap-n-mats I have always wanted these! A 12oz. Klean Kanteen bottle that will fit in my purse so now I have no excuse not to drink my water, cinnamon Glee Gum, Ina May's Guide to Childbirth I have always wanted one of her books! The Creative Family, I know you all have heard me talk about that! :) A neat etching of a Mother and Son that says "preparing her son", A caterpillar key chain, a maternity coat (but so sad the sleeves are too short, I must be gorilla-ish), an apple peeler-corer-slicer, and underneath it all a "rag" Mary Englebright quilt!

I was completely spoiled! :)

Look at this happy Christmas smile!! Fern had me take a picture of her and her doll MANY times throughout the day, but this is the cutest!! :)

And here are a few of the things the kids got that I really liked! :)

Far left- colored pencils, Riley and Jake got little combination safes, card games, card holders for little hands, ear muffs (Riley has rarely taken them off since he opened them), personalized place mats, Fern got a new doll dress, rock crayons, some fun books, and fleece blankets embroidered with their names.

~

Dan's most exciting gift was a new set of scriptures, he has had his last pair since he was a teenager! :)

~

We are so thankful for the thoughtful family and friends who made sure we knew we were loved this Christmas! We hope everyone feels the love our Savior has for all of us as we begin this new year!

Love you all!

Who's is Bigger...

St. Nick's or mine? Looking forward to June!

Our Fun Week!

This past week we got to have Daddy aka: Gran-pa, pa-pa, super duper dish washer, and let mom take naps guy visit! We had a great time even though we did not end up with too many photos, but here is a couple! Here we are out freezing to death choosing a Christmas tree from the local farm we have gone to the last couple years! Jake was grumpy because the adults (yes all three) freaked out at him when he was leaning over the bank of the VERY swollen, fast, frigid, deep river trying to stick his stick in. I know poor guy! :)
If you have been following over at our schooling blog you will know that we have been participating in the Pizza Hut Book-it program. It is a great reading program where you set goals and if you achieve them you get a ticket to get a free personal pan pizza from Pizza Hut. They now have an extension of the program for homeschoolers! So Riley achieved his goal last month and asked if he and Grandpa could go for his pizza while he was here! So brave Grandpa took my google directions and he and Riley enjoyed Pizza for lunch!

Riley snapped Grandpa too, sometimes you have to be sneaky! I had Daddy take the camera and asked him to get a good shot of Riley, and then I whispered in Riley's ear to be sure to get a good shot of Grandpa too! :)
~

More excitement to come!

Merry Christmas & Funny Fern!

We saw this in a house as we went to town for Riley's cub scout meeting, I made Dan pull over so I could take a picture!! I laughed for a while over that!! :) We just received this movie from netflix and will be subjecting the kids to it this year!! :)
Sorry all my pictures are blurry today! Here is Fern so HAPPY, Grandma sent her stick on earrings, do you see them? She loves my earrings and was so excited to have some of her own! :)

And her is Fern later that night conked out on our bed, she sleeps just like Dan!! :)

I hope all your Holiday Shopping is done, and that you are toasty warm!! :)

Another Sunday Post! :)

And another white Sunday! We got a good 3 inches last night and woke up to our own winter wonderland!
This is only like the second or third time that we have had snow that sticks to all the trees since we have been here. And that is something I LOVED in Virginia and looked forward too. It is so beautiful! The plow was out all night so the roads were clear this morning so off we went to church, it was a beautiful drive this morning!
~
Yesterday we had a fun lunch!
Riley has recently become aware that I cooked at his age and that I have "kid" cookbooks, so he has been wanting to try them out! :)
So last week I pulled out my old Winnie the Pooh cookbook out and I found some good recipes for him to start with, then yesterday we put it into action!
And I think in the process I have fixed Riley from wanting to make a whole meal for a while! :)


Here is the finished product before the party descended! :)

Here is the menu, Riley was working on writing it out, but he puttered out and so we used my copy! :)

And here is our merry little party! :)

Everyone loved having a luncheon tea party and loved everything we made! :)

Now just to work on Mom and Riley's patience for each other while working in the kitchen! :)

Today & an Answer!

So by the time I got everyone dressed and buckled, I opened the garage and this is what I saw! Between looking out the window and getting downstairs the road went from nothing on it to covered with no sight of the plow. So we abandoned the idea of sliding down our hill and driving 30 min to church.
So the kids played outside for a bit until the snow changed to freezing rain/slush.
So here we are staying warm inside, and blogging! :)
~
So after my last post I got a couple questions about my crazy plastic issue, so here is one part.
What do we use instead!


The tower in the back is where we will start, they are a great enamel ware set from Gooseberry Patch I have had them for a I think 4 years and I LOVE them! Then the white bowl with a lid is actually just a corelle ware bowl, when I bought my dish set back 10 years ago they had these lids you could buy to fit the cereal bowls! Under that is one of a set of Pyrex dishes with lids this is the smallest the other two were in the fridge! I dream of having some of their other sets! :) The green bowl is indeed plastic, it is made by Preserve from recycled yogurt containers, and contains so phthalates or BPA. I only use these for dry snacks for car trips and such. The red dish is an antique "food keeper" from Pyrex, it has a glass top as well. I have a whole set that I love dearly and use regularly, there are a few companies now making these with a rubber seal to keep things more fresh including Ikea. The the thermos, it is stainless steel made by Thermos, I bought these from Walmart a couple years ago and they go everywhere with us!

For kitchen storage I prefer glass, the hinged lid container in the back was one my mom gave me, the hinged one in front I found at goodwill for $2. Ikea has new ones but the glass is so thin and the metal clasp so thin and flimsy I really suggest watching your thrift stores. These have been dropped on the linoleum with no issues. The glass jar with the metal top is from Ikea, I have a few of these filled with beans and such they are great. The white enamelware canister is great for keeping bags of dried fruit, crackers and such, It has a rubber seal. And of course the great old stand by canning jars! Inexpensive, easy to find and so many uses!! :)

Now what about serving... to kids!!! :) In the back we have a set of "camp dishes" they are our mainstay we bought them online from a camping store, but many walmarts also carry them. The light blue set is a beautiful set my dad gave the kids, it is a little smaller so Riley is now growing out of them, you can get cute ones from Magic Cabin & Nova & more. For adults we use wide mouth canning jars for glasses (we use to have real glasses but super man Dan did not know his own strength and while washing them would stick his hand in with a dish cloth to clean and then burst the glass) The kids like glass glasses too, so I pick up these too cute little "glasses" at D.I. at my moms house for about .25 cents. They originally came with cheese in them that many people use for cheese balls! They are THICK and have been thrown and never broken! The tow little metal dishes are from Target we use them for condiments and such! The littlest came with lids!! And then the bottle, this is a Sigg bottle. It is stainless steal, we bought the "sports bottle" top they are easier to use than the one that came with it!

And then you have to carry it all in style!! :) Here are a couple metal lunch boxes we have they are pretty easy to find! But generally if I am packing a meal for the whole family I put it in a canvas grocery bag! :)

If you look at these photos of my kitchen you will notice that there is something in your kitchen that is not in mine... a microwave. This makes it no problem for me to keep my leftovers in enamelware dishes as I reheat things on the stove. Yea I have a thing about microwaves too! :) Good thing Dan loves me so much!! :) So if you do choose to use a microwave, glass is the best bet, plastic should NEVER be in your microwave (not even a lid). And I have read that if you use your correll ware in the microwave it changes the composition of it enough that it weakens the durability of it so that when you do drop it it will shatter easier.

~

So there you are! :) Have you found any great alternatives?

November Fun!

I know where have I been!!?? You know life! :)

Here is some of our fun this month so far!!

On the 9th Jacob turned 5! I cannot believe it!!!!

Jake was just a little bit excited over Grandma J.'s gift, a cowboy hat!! Jake is most often found in his cowboy boots (not for long though, he's growing too fast) and has decided among many other things he is going to be a cowboy when he grows up! :) The hat has not left his head much since he opened it! :)
Jake LOVES to listen to books and was SO excited to get two book/CD combos from Grandpa M. He had one I bought him for our trip to UT. this summer and he is very glad to have more choices now!! :)

He also got a gigantic dino puzzle, he loves dinosaurs too! And the box has a handle so he is often just toting it around the house! :)

Do I not have the cutest cowboy ever!!!

And from us Jake got a doll who is now a great friend (who needs pj's I am told often), and a green straw bottle!

A few years ago I got rid of all the plastic in our kitchen including sippys and such because of the safety concerns for my family's health. Well I found these recently and so now the kids are excited to have them!

With the COLD temperatures (today it is in the 30's, with a wind chill in the 20's and flurries expected) we have had quite a bit of dress-up time! Here is Fern our hula gal! Thanks Aunt Mary, Ryan, & Novella!! :)

Today Fern and I are on our own, the boys are out and about! I let Fern watch a little show while I took a shower and this is the comfy gal I found when I was done. It really is cold if Fern is this covered!!

Hope every one's November is going great!!

Yes it is November but...

This is what I am dreaming of.

Plus no new photos because my batteries died Halloween night and I seem to have misplaced my charger! Hrumph!

So instead you get my dream, what do you expect, look at the name of my blog, I daydream a lot!

More Halloween Fun!!

Here are the kids all dressed up ready to hand out treats this evening!

Don't worry, they went trick or treating at a church function and this morning at the library. They have PLENTY of candy!

Here are our pumpkins all ready, unfortunately Dan's is really mushy and I keep peeking outside to see if it is on fire yet!Here is a better picture of the costumes from the church activity. Fern is of course a princess, we got lucky with a dress from a friend who's girls are all older then I made the crown, Jake is a cheetah in a costume my mom made when I was little, and Riley is a wizard wearing my witch costume with a cloak I made and a wand Dan made!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

BOO!!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!

4X4

Well I was tagged by Trina to put up the 4th picture in my 4th file, so this is from August 2007. Miss Fern was standing in the front window and just looked so cute that I had to snap a load of pictures. Here are a few more from then! :)

I am bad and tag whoever reads this! :) Leave a comment so we can all see your picture! :)

Warm & Slimy!

First the warm! A sweet Miss Fern in her new coat before going out on our very chilly day! I bought this fabric in Utah and started the coat and then left it for my mom to finish, Thanks mom! Fern LOVES it!! I put the buttons on and gave it to her yesterday for our Mass. field trip. (Pictures on our school blog tomorrow!) :) * It's up!

~

Now the slimy!

Pumpkin carving!

Dan got to start with us but then jetted off for a Europe trip!

What a silly girl posing!


Look at that concentration!

Hard work!!

And the finished product, from left to right: Dan's, Fern's, Riley's, Jake's, & Mine.

I think Fern's came out the cutest! How do you like them Dan?

The Goings On!

Just a short update as my nerves are shot. Today was a fun Enrichment day at church, an all day event. So when I did get home this afternoon I was greeted by a head injury, want to guess whose head? Yep Jake! He fell onto the back of his head on a rock and was bleeding. (Still bleeding when I got home 3 hours after the injury). So thank goodness St. Mary's Hospital has a little walk-in clinic here in town so we headed over there, the Dr. was going to STAPLE Jake's head but I asked about dura-bond and thankfully the Dr. saw things my way! :) Remember you always attract more bees with honey than with vinegar! :) Jake is fine, more than fine he is quite happy the Dr. said he can not wash his hair for a couple weeks. (Yea tonight is bath night too)! That boy will be the one to give me the grey hair! On Tuesday we went to Riley's pack meeting (they could wear their costumes but Riley would not!), Riley received a patch for recruiting a new boy into our pack, (actually the kid in orange) so now Riley has a "recruiter" patch.
Fern had a fun birthday party with a couple friends, we had her favorite dinner (lentil soup), and lots of fun. Here is the gang after completing the obstacle course and finding the treasure!

Fern was so excited about the cake and candles but then got a little shy when we started singing! She kept shrinking!

We went out to a local farm this last week and ran through the pumpkin patch, Fern rode the wagon until Dan dumped her on accident! :)

HAIL THE CONQUERING HERO!

Dan and his friend Rob (who is also the mechanic on the airplane) fixed our van yesterday!!! Now I am praying it will stay fixed for a while!

~

And that is it with us! Blood, pumpkins, & cake, what an October!