Last night was the Cub Scout Pine wood Derby. I wasn't really good about taking pictures. Or rather the pictures I took didn't really turn out very well, and I didn't take the time to get it right. Last year David won the whole thing. This year Aaron didn't have a whole lot of time to spend with David on the car, and David didn't really seem motivated to work on it. So I didn't expect much. Aaron and I tried to prep David for losing. But he still thought he was going to win again. I'm hoping that it was enough because he didn't place in the top 4, and he only won 1 race, and got last place a few times. He looked like he was on the verge of tears, but I just smiled at him encouragingly every time he looked at me. He didn't have a break down, he wasn't mad, and after the races were over he had a blast racing both cars (last year's and this year's) over and over again. I'd say that was a successful night. I am really proud of the way he composed himself, even though I'm sure he was upset. Last night David was a good loser! So here are a few pictures that I did get.
Amy was a little wired for the whole evening. She kept running
around, being really silly, but it was sweet to see her climb onto David
lap for the beginning.
The only race David won
His is the blue car
Another race, he took third.
The other two races I snapped the picture too early thus no cars were in the picture
Each of the boys got a participant ribbon.
waiting for the winners to be announced
Top 3 finishers
Timothy also was running around getting into things, teasing other kids, and playing a little too rough for my liking. He really wants to be involved, but he tends to invade the personal space of others. He really needs to back off a bit. I hope that once he starts scouts this summer it will be enjoyable for him. I can't wait to work on stuff with him. First I have to get David to finish the last few requirements of his Bear.
Aaron came straight from work. He was on call and left a few things undone to make it there in time. He stayed as long as he could, but then needed to give a blessing to a couple he home teaches before going back to the hospital. He took some pictures with his phone, and if I get a chance I'll figure out how to upload them onto the computer to post them.
As for me, I thought I would get to talk to people more, but I spent the time talking with Aaron and wrangling the kids. I did get to have a good conversation with Rebecca W* though toward the end. I was really good and only ate one cookie, and a few pieces of fruit. It was very tempting to eat more, but I didn't. I even made cookies of my own, and only snacked on one of those in the afternoon. I still made it under my calorie count too!
Perhaps I should catch up on this week, but this will have to do for now. It's time for Saturday chores!
So as with many other people I have started a diet. I wasn't too thrilled with exercising and not seeing any results, other than not gaining more weight. I was hesitant to tell people I wanted to do it, but I'm glad I did. Cailean mentioned Spark People. I had heard of it, but I hadn't really checked it out. I knew what I needed to do, but I guess I lacked the motivation and the tools. Once I got on the website and set things up it was so easy. I have learned a few things already.
I already eat healthy meals. I haven't had to change what I fix for breakfast, lunch or dinner. I just eat too much of that healthy food. I needed to limit my serving size of the main course and increase the veggie serving size (without adding more dressing to the salad). And no seconds!
I snacked way too much, and snacked on the wrong things. I knew that already, but tracking what I eat really helps me to make better choices, knowing that I will have to enter in everything I eat. So instead of those delicious crackers, pretzels, granola bar etc. My snacks are apples carrots, celery, cucumbers etc. They are foods I really enjoy, the other food is just more appealing sometimes.
I didn't drink enough water. I had to measure how much water goes in the different cups we have. Now I know which ones hold 9 oz, and which ones hold 12 oz. I have a 0.5 liter water bottle that I finish during my workout - that's about 2 cups. If I fill up the 12 oz cup twice during lunch and twice during dinner that's 3 cups at each meal, and then I have my 8 cups of water. Not bad!
I added strength training to my workout. Right now I am using an exercise bike that changes the tension during the workout. So basically I ride for 40 minutes 3 days a week, and 30 minutes 3 days a week with the strength training afterward. I already have some 5 lb weights, so I didn't need to buy anything, except for a pair of shorts. My old ones got torn up in the washer because they got caught in the door for the wash cycle and I didn't notice it. I'm hoping that I will lose enough weight for me to start running again without my knees giving out on me.
I think it's really going too work this time. Mostly because I can see the effort I am putting in because I am tracking it. I can see the areas where I need to improve more. I with me cutting back on seconds I needed to add more protein without adding too many calories or fat. Like I said I haven't had to change what I eat so much as how much I eat. I have even had pizza and ice cream and still met my goals for thee day. I can also see that even if I'm having a bad day (like yesterday when I ate a few caramels because I felt like it) that I don't have to give up I can still meet my goals. It's OK to have a bad day every once in a while.
Spark People also has message boards, profiles, teams you can join community pages etc. You can earn points and trophies for the different things you track and participate in. That's not really why I am doing this. I really don't need a bunch of strangers giving me feedback, or encouragement. The best encouragement I get is from Aaron as I tell him everyday what I am doing. You can also join challenges and compete with others. That's not really what I want either.
It takes a lot of time to track my calories, especially since I make a lot of things from scratch. They have the nutrition info for basic items like milk, eggs, chicken etc. They also have a lot of name brand products, and restaurant chain menu items. However since I make it myself I have to enter in the information piece by piece. I was so glad when I found the recipe calculator. I plug in the ingredients and then say how many serving the recipes makes, and it does the math for me. Then I can add the food to my favorites so the next time I make that meal the information is already there, I just have to click on it. I can also enter in items or ingredients that aren't in their database and save them for future use. I'm hoping that will help things move along a little faster in the future.
I am much more confident this time around because I am already seeing results. I am sleeping better. Last night I never heard Aaron's pager go off. I didn't even know he was up and around until he told me he had to go in at 1:00 am. Usually I wake up at every little sound, and have trouble falling back asleep. I have more energy during the day. I'm not hungry between meals like I was at the very beginning. I don't feel like I'm starving myself. And the best result so far - I've lost 6 lbs. It's a start.
I have 45 more minutes of free time before Amy comes back. Today is the first day of preschool for her. It's not really preschool, more of a playgroup since the girls are still pretty young. So far we have 3 little girls and possibly a 4th that will meet once a week to learn together and have fun together. All the moms will take turns teaching/hosting. We were supposed to start last week, but we postponed it because of the weather. Today it is bright and sunny, and hopefully melting all the ice on the roads. I love looking at the pretty white snow on my lawn, but that ice is slick, and I do not enjoy sliding around trying to get out on the highway. Today I had to back up to gain traction and almost slid into my neighbor's fence. I really hope it's better out there when I go to pick her up.
Monday as we were getting ready to play in the mountains in the snow we were searching for Timothy's missing glove. The boys looked everywhere for it. Finally I was finished with everything I needed to do, so I started helping. I looked a couple of places and then I looked under his bed. I found a glove, but I wasn't sure if it was the one that was missing. So I called down to David to see if he had the other glove. He came running up and said, "did you find it?" When I answered "Yes." He said, "I know why. I just said a prayer. As soon as I was done you called my name. I love those faith building experiences.
Tuesday Aaron went to work and I took the boys to school. Amy and I did some things around the house and then we went to a couple stores to stock up on produce and cheese. We had already bought milk the day before. It's a good things because Wednesday is started snowing.
Tuesday night cub scouts started early so the leaders could go to the Relief Society Meeting. Unfortunately none of the Young Women could help in the nursery so I ended up doing that. At first it was just my kids, Zakary and Benjamin. I had a couple more after the older scouts got out, but then parents picked up those kids. Aaron took our kids and Zakary home, so I was left with just Benjamin and Christopher. They really wanted to play in the gym, but that gets really noisy and distracting for those in the meeting, so I made them stay in the nursery. I pulled out one of the card games I had brought. They were entertained by that until it was time to clean up. But then the meeting went longer than I expected, so they made up some games with their basketballs. It's not easy to entertain a 9 and 11 year old in a room full of nursery toys. Once the meeting was over I let them go into the gym. I heard that I missed out on a great meeting. I should be able to go next time though.
As I mentioned, Wednesday it started snowing. I kept waiting for a delay or cancellation, but none came, so we left 10 minutes early to make sure I could get them there on time. I took it really slow, and only slid getting out onto the highway, and turning the corner onto the street where David's school is. If I hadn't cranked my wheels I would have run into a car waiting at the stop sign. The kids got to school safely, and I got to my street safely, and then I headed up the long steep driveway. Then my tires were spinning. I couldn't get up the driveway. I tried numerous times. Eventually I parked the van, and carried Amy (still in her pjs) up to the house. I put on my snow boots and put chains on the tires to get up the driveway. I had never done it before, only heard Aaron talk about it. I hoped I was doing it right, but it wasn't very far, so I figured it would be OK. And it was. I was really worried they would let school out early and I'd have to pick up the kids and put the chains on again. But the van sat in the garage for 3 days.
Wednesday morning
Amy was supposed to start a preschool/playgroup on Wednesday. That didn't happen because of the snow. But this week should be better weather wise, and I'm excited for that to start. It's a good thing we didn't go because Amy came down with a fever and fell asleep just before noon. However she was fine when she woke up.
The kids made it home from school safely on Wednesday, but the bus was almost an hour late, and apparently Timothy and another kids got into a fight and the bus driver yelled at them. The other kids scratched Timothy and Timothy hit the kid with his hat - I'm pretty sure the other kid didn't get hurt, but someone tattled, and they both got in trouble - oh boy.
School was canceled both Thursday and Friday. I was relieved on Thursday, but by Friday I was going nuts. We spent Thursday morning cleaning up the play room. I did get a small reprieve with the boys went next door to play with Joe. They slid down the hill, on sleds, had hot chocolate and played inside for a bit. However while they were inside they constantly wanted me to do something with them. I played several games with them. Bingo, Scrabble, Ratuki. But I still needed to make dinner, lunch, clean up, exercise etc.
Aaron got home early from work the last three days. They closed the clinic early to makes sure people got home safely while it was still light. Wednesday Aaron couldn't make it up the driveway either, but rather than put chains on he left eh car at the bottom of the hill in case he got called in overnight. Of course that meant he had to scrape the windshield Thursday morning.
Thursday morning our usual babysitter called from her dad's house. He had noticed that Aaron had parked at the bottom of the hill and offered to come put some rocks on the driveway so we could get up and down. I was grateful for the offer. Around 2:00 that afternoon I heard a tractor and looked outside. There he was plowing our driveway with his tractor. Hurray for good neighbors. We've looked into getting a snow blade for our lawn tractor. It will cost about $600. So that's definitely not going to be purchased right now. With as rarely as we would need it I'd rather pay some one to plow it the 1 or 2 times we might need it, than to purchase the snow blades and chains needed to do it ourselves. I was shoveling the concrete slab in the driveway when he came home on Thursday.
Friday night the basketball game was canceled, so we just stayed home and played.
Saturday after chores Aaron and the boys went to the church to shovel snow and then do some sledding. Amy and I stayed inside. After going to bed really late I decided to sleep in rather than get up at 5:15 to exercise. I slept until almost 7:30! Wow that's late for me. While the boys were gone Amy watched a movie and I got in my exercise. After lunch Amy took a nap, Aaron went to the office for a bit, and I played scrabble with the boys. David and I had some fun words, so I took a picture. He beat me by 4 points.
David had the word "zit", and later added the "s" using the triple word score. I made it into the word "squirm". I mentioned that I wished I could have used the triple word score on that one. He said. If you did 'squirming' you could." That gave him an idea, and lucky for him he picked up those letters in the next couple of turns and got that triple word score.
The sun came out for a bit on Saturday and started melting the snow. I took some pictures of the house covered in snow, and the cool icicle on the eaves. But then the clouds came back and it got dark.
The house is pretty in the snow
Lots of icicles
snow covered garden
What's that? Oh, my compost pile. How am I supposed to dump out my compost now? I guess I could just dump it on top of the snow, eventually it will melt right?
As for today I tried to enjoy church, but Amy needed to go to the bathroom (she really did have to go) about 5 times, and eventually we decided not to send her to primary. Aaron took us home and then went back to church. Amy cried when I told her she couldn't go to Primary, but with a stomach ache, and using the bathroom that much, it wasn't a good idea. So we came home, she watched a movie for a bit, we had some lunch, and then I put her down for a nap. She wasn't asleep by the time Aaron and the boys got home, but she was a few minutes later.
One last thing - This morning while Amy and I were in the bathroom (one of the many many times), she asked me "Why am I a girl?" We talked a bit about it, and then she said, "I want to be a boy. Then you would have 3 boys." We talked about it a little bit more, and eventually she said, "I think being a girl is not easy." Oh this girl cracks me up! She's awake now. I'd better go.
While we are having a snow day at home I'm uploading some videos I took while sledding on Monday. I thought my day would be filled with playing with the kids, but apparently they'd rather play at the neighbors house. So here are a few videos if you choose to watch them.
We had a great 3 day weekend. Saturday I started my new diet, so far it's going well. We did our normal chores, and played around the house. David and Aaron worked on David's pinewood derby car. Amy took a nap, thank goodness. Around 4:00 we left for a temple trip. It was ward temple night, and Aaron and I really wanted to go. However since it was a Saturday evening we'd have to find a sitter for all 3 kids. Instead I asked some friends in the area if they would watch the kids while we went to the temple. I told them we'd bring in dinner. We we picked up a pizza on the way down and arrived at their place a little after 5:00. We enjoyed some dinner a quick tour of the house (they just moved into the house they had built about a month ago) and then we left for the temple - about 15 minutes away. We got there pretty close to starting time, and it was very full. It was great to see friends from the ward there. We got a late start so we didn't linger very long. We arrived back at Jessica's around 8:30, but the kids weren't done watching the movie, so we stayed a bit longer. It was a late evening, but it was fun.
Sunday was another great day. It was Ward Conference, and I enjoyed the talks given, as well as the classes. Back at home, our home teacher came over after we had a quick lunch. Then Aaron left to do his home teaching. It was David's turn to go with him. After dinner we had FHE, and enjoyed the cupcakes Hilary had made for us.
Monday after some clean up we packed up our snow gear and headed to the city. We had to stop by a few stores and then we drove up into the mountains. We knew there was snow, but we didn't know how much. There wasn't much, but it was enough to have some fun sledding. At first the kids were not listening, and they were grumpy, and I just about loaded them up and went back home. But then we had some lunch, and then some fun. Amy was cold and wanted to eat lunch in the van. After she was finally done, I convinced her to use the hand warmers, and go back outside. Then Timothy came to the van to warm up. It wasn't parked far from the sledding hill and only one other family was there. So I left him in the van. Eventually he joined us. Here are some pictures I took.
Here's the first hill we went sledding on
Timothy hiking up the hill
All Amy wanted to do was make a snow angel.
Aaron made this one
Amy made this one
Amy is being silly
Amy wouldn't go down the hill, but she loved being pulled on the sled.
We found this snowball maker at Value Village
I was very powdery snow, so the snowballs didn't stay together very well, but they were nice and round.
We took a little walk to find a snow fort that someone had built
I got a few good pictures of Timothy on the way
David found a hole in the snow fort
This is the lake that was mostly frozen over.
It snowed lightly for most of the day. We got stuck in our parking spot, and had to put the chains on to get out of it. But then we took them off. We were ready to go, but them the boys decided they wanted to go sledding some more. So they played for another 45 minutes or so, while the rest of us stayed warm inside the van. We wanted to get home before it got dark, so we left around 3:30. Amy fell asleep by 4:00. Aaron had to deal with a few work things when we got back, so the kids and I unloaded the van, and I put most of it away. I had pulled out some frozen stuffed green peppers the night before so I'd have a meal ready to go when we got back. However they were still mostly frozen when we got home. I defrosted them and baked them and we had dinner ready a little after 6:00. It was a great vacation day
I took this video Christmas morning. I think Aaron likes his new phone.
Oh, that also means I inherited the ipod touch. Now I need recommendations for a good calendar app. Oh, and maybe a calorie counting app. What other apps should I add???
I keep getting behind, but I'll try to make this quick. My evenings
have been spent watching Fringe with Aaron, and the days have been busy
with Amy, and watching too much on netflix. Otherwise during the day
I've just been doing normal stuff like reading, shopping, baking,
playing, cleaning etc. The boys have had fun playing with their new
toys, and reading books, etc. We got Phase 10 for our New Year's Gift
and David has really enjoyed playing it, any chance he gets.
I feel like we haven't done anything worthy of noting really. This
is why I shouldn't wait 2 weeks to blog! It all runs together. I;m
really having trouble remembering what we did over the last two weeks.
David and Aaron had scouts twice, Aaron had 2 call nights, we went to
church twice. Oh that sparked a couple of memories.
Amy is now in Primary. The first week she went right in and sat
with her class. She did great! She has an awesome teacher Sis. S*.
Amy loves her! She participated well in Primary, and told us all about
the things they talked about using the things she brought home. Last
Sunday Timothy gave a talk in church. Amy really didn't want to go to
Primary. I don't plan on sitting in there with her every week, but
since Timothy was giving a talk I sat with her until he was done. Then
right on cue Sis S* pulled some silk flowers out of her pocket and asked
Amy to hold them for her. Once she had Amy's attention I slipped away
and she was just fine.
Last Saturday Aaron took the boys to the kids' building workshop.
They built some banks that looks likes houses. They also went to a few
stores with Aaron. Amy and I had a quiet morning to ourselves.
Aaron and I went on another recruiting dinner with a lady who is
interviewing here. It was fun to chat with her and her fiance. It was
also nice to have another night out with Aaron. I think we need to plan
more dates that don't involve work dinners, or church meetings.
The kids are sad that there is no snow. It doesn't really feel like
winter. We've had a few chilly mornings, but the sunny days and highs
in the 40's make me wonder if there will be an early Spring, or we will
be surprised with a chilly snowy Spring. There is snow in the forecast
for next week, so we'll see.
We fed the missionaries on Tuesday and had this for dinner - delicious!
Timothy got a bump on his head after tripping on the playground at school yesterday. Amy had a bump of her eyebrow from tripping and bumping her head on my bed. I have several bumps on my head from Amy bumping into me, and a bruised toe from tripping on the hatchet Aaron had set out from scouts. Oh, and I burned myself while making cinnamon rolls yesterday, and took a slice out of my finger with my brand new, really sharp knives last week. Man we are a bunch of klutzes!
Is that it? Really can't think of anything else out of the
ordinary. So hopefully that means I don't have to play catch up any
more. Perhaps I can find some pictures to post.
OK, these pictures give me a few more things to talk about. Amy has had a couple of friends over. I watched Hadlie last week. She was sad at first, but within a few minutes Amy got over pushing her around, and Hadlie got over her mom being gone, and the two had a blast. We had a snack and I took a few pictures.
The lighting makes this picture awful, but I love Hadlie's laugh - so cute!
Amy is being really silly in this one.
I was supposed to watch Aleya and Eli on Monday. However when they arrived Aleya insisted that Eli stay and that she go with her Mom. So Celise left Eli. That cute boy has rolls to rival my boys at that age. He is mobile and very content, until I took something away from him. I think it was a scrap of paper that he almost stuck in his mouth. After that he was not happy. Some times music soothed him, or watching the boys run around after they got home, but mostly I had to hold him, and I'm sure he was well over 20 lbs!
Another part of the science kit that David got for Christmas included a crystal growing set. After a couple of weeks it looked awesome. He took it to school yesterday to show his class, since they are learning about water and land in science. By the time I arrived in his classroom to volunteer (about 20 minutes after I dropped him off) someone had bumped him and it crashed to the floor and broke. I'm glad I took this picture before he left for school. There are still a few good sized chunks left, but it's in a lot of pieces now.
This is what happens when you have thin hair, and a microfiber couch - lots of static electricity.
I've been struggling with whether or not to make New Year's
resolutions. I can't ever seem to make them stick, so lately my
attitude has been why even make them. I usually have goals that I set
throughout the year, not specifically in January. However it doesn't
seem to help at all. It seems like my goals are the same over and over
again. But if I list them here does that make me more likely to follow
through? Who knows, but at least now you know my weaknesses, or rather
the ones that I want to improve upon right now. So here goes nothing.
Exercise. I know it's something many people struggle with. I've
been using my exercise bike off and on now for a year, but I haven't
been consistent enough with it to make any real difference. I was doing
really well in December, but then all those Christmas goodies did me
in! My real goal is to lose enough that I can start running again.
Every time I try to start running I end up with injured knees, so
hopefully I can get in better shape my biking and then running will be
something I can do more consistently.
Read my scriptures everyday. I am really good about doing it most
days, but I still miss one or two days a week, and that means it's not a
habit. I need the spiritual strength that comes from the daily
searching and pondering.
Spend more time with Timothy. I spend time with my kids, I play
with them, we eat meals together. But I still feel like I need to do
better at one on one time with them. Amy gets plenty for sure. David
and I love to play games together. However Timothy is the typical
middle child that is just overlooked. He is perfectly content sitting
in his room reading a book for 2 hours with no interaction with anyone.
He will gladly draw pictures of robots, and inventions for hours. He
doesn't often ask to play with me, or anything like that, so I just
don't/ Perhaps I need to schedule that time in everyday. I do spend
time in his classroom, which helps I lot, but I think he needs more of
my attention. I still haven't found what motivates him. His teacher
asked me how I get out the door every morning with the way he acts. I
can't find anything to motivate him to get ready on his own. I have to
constantly remind him of what he is supposed to be doing. His excuse is
always, "I forgot" or "I got distracted".
Eat less. I eat healthy for the most part. I make sure we have
enough fruits, vegetables dairy, protein, and grains. However I have
come to realize that I just eat too much good stuff. Now don't get me
wrong, I love desserts, and I can pack those away too, but it's not like
we have dessert ever day. Those carbs will get me every time. Bread,
crackers, muffins, mmm! I have been avoiding signing up for one of the
calorie counting websites. It's probably what I should do though. I
just need to remember if I want seconds to have seconds of the veggies,
and leave the carbs for another day. One thing that I hope will help is drinking more water. Instead of snacking when I feel hungry I'll get myself a big glass of water, because I need to drink more, and hopefully that will stave off the cravings for a bit. MY attempt it to get my body used to eating less, so I don't have those cravings.
Meal plans. I love to cook, and bake obviously, but I hate thinking of what to fix for dinner. Sometimes I've got a plan for the day, and I prepare things ahead of time, but more often than not it's 4:00 and I still have no clue what I'm going to fix. I know that having a weekly or monthly meal plan will really help, I just haven't done it. With as much food as I have in the freezer I should have plenty of meals that I can come up with, I just need to do it.
So those are my goals as of yet. They may change somewhat, But I really hope I can work on them consistently.
After Christmas Day we still had another day to spend together before Aaron had to go back to work. Aaron spent time with the kids and I hit a bunch of Clearance sales. I got back around lunch time. When I got home the three kids were in 3 different rooms watching 3 different movies. David was watching the first Harry Potter movie (which he got for Christmas) on the portable DVD player in his room, Timothy was watching Cars 2 (which he got for Christmas) on the TV in the family room, and Amy was watching something on netflix on the desktop computer. Aaron got some things done while I was gone. We still had plenty of leftovers for lunch, although the kids really wanted something else. Now that it's been almost 2 weeks I'm struggling to remember everything we did.
The kids loved sleeping in and just playing all day long. They weren't too thrilled when they still had to put away their clothes after I did laundry, and clean up the play room etc. I had bought some new storage shelves on Monday, so we rearranged the play room so it didn't seem so cluttered. We got rid of a lot of toys too. One of David gifts was a science kit with things like this volcano set. We've done the baking soda and vinegar thing several times, but David thought it was fun to make this volcano with the plaster, and paint it. It was finally ready on Wednesday.
Aaron went back to work on the 27th. We had one last dentist appointment for the boys. After we got home the boys were invited to play over at Crystal's. I had hoped I could drop them off, put Amy down for a nap and get things done, but Amy didn't take a nap. Oh well, at the least the boys had fun. Since Monday the 26th was a clinic holiday Aaron still got his day off, however it was on Thursday so we finally took the recycle out and played basketball and soccer at the church. Later Aaron took the boys to the library. Amy hasn't been napping well, but she did take a nap that day. Aaron planned to take the boys to the library, so they had to rush out the door when she woke up earlier than expected. I made turkey rolls for dinner and the kids loved them! I'll have to do that again soon. David said next time I should made 4 dozen. Aaron made jam filled turnovers with the left over roll dough.
Aaron worked again on Friday, and we invited Sam (a friend of Timothy's) over to play. Friday morning I got a call from Aaron's brother Stephen. They were on their way back to Utah and wanted to stop by and see us for a bit. They hadn't been to our house yet. Aaron was sad to have missed them, but they stayed long enough to feed cute little Parker and see the house. The cousins played for a bit and then they were on their way again. Amy didn't nap that day either. At least I got to listen to and follow BYU's bowl game. It was a little too intense. I'm glad they pulled out a win, but did they really have to wait until the last 11 seconds to score the winning touchdown? They did that just before halftime too - scored a touchdown with 12 seconds left. But that meant I was happy for the rest of the day.
Saturday was a good day. We all slept in and a made a delicious breakfast - I don't remember what though. Then it was on to chores. That morning I boxed up a bunch of toys the kids don't play with, but that I want to keep around for future kids (and someday grandkids - yikes!). After a morning of cleaning and playing we had lunch, and I got Amy to take a nap. I knew she would need one since we were staying up late with friends for New Year's Eve. I also told her she needed to take a nap if she wanted to have some of the gingerbread house. So as soon as she woke up we got the gingerbread house ready for demolishing.
A few pictures of before
I hope the video works
Aaron and I spent the rest of the afternoon preparing food for the party and doing last minute clean up. We had stuffed mushrooms, mini quiches, stuffed jalapenos, veggie pizza, spinach dip, baguettes for the dip, cheese ball, 'lil smokies, and a veggie tray with carrots, celery, turnips, and cucumbers. We also made a drink with pineapple juice lemonade and Sprite. The D*s arrived around 7:30 and brought homemade salsa, touchdown taco dip and ceviche - delicious!!!. I had made chocolate dipped Oreos for dessert. We also had some candy cane kisses on hand. The younger kids watched a bunch of Garfield shows on netflix, and the two older D* kids and the adults played two games they brought. I was pleasantly surprised to see the the first time we ran out of was cucumbers. We cut up a few more. We played and ate until Ella was absolutely exhausted and needed to go to bed. I don't think our kids have ever stayed up that late on purpose. It was close to 10:45 by the time they were in bed, and they fell asleep almost immediately - no surprise there. Aaron and I didn't intend to stay up until midnight, but the fireworks started soon after we got ready for bed, and didn't let up until after midnight.
Sunday morning arrived too early. I wasn't really hungry for breakfast, since we had eaten so much and so late the night before. But I ended up making crepes for breakfast. Then it was off to church. For some reason we didn't have a Fast Sunday (that is this coming week), instead we enjoyed some great talks. Although a minutes into the meeting Aaron remembered that we were supposed to clean the building the day before. We had planned on going, but somehow forgot that morning. So now I've added it to the calendar so we won't forget next time. I also enjoyed Sunday School and Relief Society. After church we had some leftovers and I got Amy to take a nap, a late one, but she got up before 4:30, so it was OK. We spent most of the afternoon playing games, and playing with new toys. I can't even remember what we did for dinner. I still have a lot to catch up on, but at least I'm a little closer.
