Every Morning

I have been really, really trying to be good at several things that I'm not typically good at. Goals you might say.

1. Exercising. I hate it. I hate to sweat. I hate trying to find the time. So I just don't do it. Until now. With our Christmas money from parents (and a gift to each other) we bought an elliptical. LONG story short, we finally got it put together 2 weeks ago. 6 weeks after it was delivered! I now get up just before 6 roll my self down the stairs and do a 30 minute workout. I can't say I like it yet, but I'm doing it 5 days a week. That's gotta be good for something.
2. Family Scripture Study. With Aaron's crazy hours, family scripture study hasn't happened for a very long time. I decided at the beginning of the year that I just had to step up and do it with the kids. So I wake them up at 7 and they all roll down the stairs. We read for about 20-30 minutes and they get ready for the day. I have been very proud of them. Almost 2 months under our belt and no complaints...even from the oldest! My favorite part of our reading is listening to Hayden read. Whenever he reads Lord he stretches out the o and the r to Loooooorrrrd. Must be the little bit of Arkansan in him.

3. Personal Scripture Study. This is something I go in spurts with. Sometimes I'm really good, and sometimes I'm not. So once again I had to set a time or it doesn't happen. My daycare kids are usually here by 8, Isaac and Caite get on the bus at 8:10 and Hayden gets on the bus at 9:15. It's pretty quiet for that hour between buses. The day care kids are happily playing down stairs, Hayden does his daily reading, and that's when I can sit and do my scriptures. It works for now. I have a goal to read the Book of Mormon twice this year. That's only 3 pages a day. Easily done. I'm ahead of schedule at this point.

So with those 3 things done every morning, I start my day out right. Now to tackle laundry...the never ending battle!

10 Things

(thanks for the idea Liz)

1. Halle asked me to "call the ear piercing doctor and see if she's ready for her." This girl kills me. 4 going on 14!



2. Last week after one of my babysitting girls finished eating her whole corn dog she said, "Miss Amy, I found a stick in my hot dog!" she was as serious as could be. It made me laugh and we are still laughing about it.



3. I bugs me when my kids get birthday invitations from kids they don't know or hardly know. I understand kids from Church who's parents make them be kind and invite the whole class, but really we aren't offended if we don't know you very well. An invite came for Isaac in the mail today and he said, "Mom, whose this?"



4. My days are busy with daycare kids now. Mondays, I only have 2 extra kids. Tues 5 extra. Wed 4 extra. Thurs 4 extra. And Fri. 3 extra. I start with a newborn in 2 weeks and then things will really be crazy! Yes, I'm out of my right mind...or will be in about a month, but it helps pay the bills right now. The nice part is that the kids play really well together.



5. Kind of stinks that my husband is a doctor, works over 100 hours a week, and gets paid about the same as a MacDonald's employee (okay maybe a little more, but not much). We keep saying...it will be worth it in the end. and the end is coming quickly!



6. Hayden is missing his 2 front teeth and now another front tooth is loose. He will have 3 missing teeth all in a row. Funny looking kid. That cute little smile is still as contagious as ever.



7. Caite has been taking piano lessons for a month now. She loves it! I'm surprised at how quickly she is picking it up. Not something I passed on to her, must be from her Nana. I took lessons for several years as a kid, hated every minute of it. When I was in high school I wanted to give it another whirl, took for a year and still couldn't do it. Tried again in college, took a semester class, passed but only because the teacher saw that I was really trying, not because I could actually do it right. I have a major handicap!



8. Aaron's parents (aka Nana and Papa) are coming in April! Wahoo! we love visitors. Time to start planning fun outings.



9. I have said it a bunch, but as I look out the window and see my kids playing with all the neighbor kids, it makes me happy to know they are happy. what a great feeling!



10. It's Feb. 7 and we have only had one week of cold weather where the kids didn't want to play outside. What happened to winter? maybe I shouldn't ask, I'm happy the way it is.

12 Squared Jan and Feb.

Our 12 squared group is up and going again this year. With the new year, we lost a few friends who found they had limited time and we gained a group of new ones. I'm excited for another year to learn new skills and better the few I have.

January's Square(s) went to Emily

I love the colors and simple pattern she chose. In fact, I will be cutting out more petals for my own quilt using the same colors and adding a little red.

I think it will look great in my living room with our new rug.

February's Square went to Becca. Entitled "Love Letters" very appropriate for Valentine's Day right.

My month is in May, just in time for my birthday. Oh what fun it will be to receive little packets of love during my birthday month! Now to decide on a pattern.

Super Bowl Sunday

It's me and the kids, a bunch of kid food, and the big game. We had a menu of chili dogs, sweet potato fries (with honey lime dip), chips and salsa, cheese dip, crackers with cream cheese pepper jelly, football sugar cookies and pop. Super healthy right?

So yesterday I came down with a fever while making the sugar cookies and this morning I was sick, sick, sick. I didn't feel like cooking at all. So I opened a can of chili we had in food storage and Isaac said, "Mom! Chili can come in a can?" then Caite saw the jar of cheese dip and said, "Mom! you can buy cheese dip already made?" Then Hayden said, "you didn't even make our salsa."

Nice, really nice. I usually pride myself in making most things from scratch. But today they're lucky I even made them their Super Bowl Party dinner. Apparently my kids are spoiled with homemade food (which is a good thing and I wouldn't want it any other way). To my defense I made and frosted 9 dozen sugar cookies last night, made the honey lime dip, and the pepper jelly. So I'm not a complete failure...just sick. And I'm okay with that!

January

January is passing quickly. Life returned back to normal when we got back from Utah. Hospital, babysitting, school. You know the routine. We have only had a few really cold days. It's been nice. The kids have been able to play outside most day.

This is what I LOVE about our neighborhood. Most days you can find a group of kids (1st grade to 6th grade) in our backyard playing football or kick ball. Today, it's football. When it's kick ball, the neighborhood girls join.

Life is good to us. We are happy.

Christmas in Utah

For the first time since Caite was a baby, Aaron had more than 3 days off work at Christmas. It worked out perfectly for us to take a little Utah Christmas Vacation and also baptize Miss Caite. First things first...The baptism. Caite was surrounded by the love of family and the Spirit was strong. Little 2 year old Krewz said it best when after Caite was baptized he jumped up and said "That was AWESOME!"

The next 2 days were spend in Fairview with Grandma and Grandpa Barentsen. Susie, Darin and Maddie joined us. There was much game playing, movie watching, and eating going on. Not to mention lots of laughter while playing "Minute to Win it". We celebrated Halle's 4th birthday and did Christmas with them on Christmas Eve. Halle has quite the personality. She talks non stop, likes things her way, loves going to pre-school, will give you a million kisses (only if you tell her not to), she love Dora and baby dolls, and can do a puzzle faster than any 4 year old I know. We are happy Heavenly Father sent this cute ball of fire our way. Life would be very dull at our house without her.

The kids each got an animal, a hat (made by grandma), and a gift card. I made a Christmas quilt for Mom and we found some cool books about Sanpete County and Utah for Dad. He has had fun reading them and telling us the funny stories about the pioneer settlers of Sanpete.

Nana and Papa have started all kinds of Christmas Eve traditions since we left. The Spanish Fork and Salem Cemeteries (where both Nana and Papa's parents are buried) have a tradition where loved ones put luminaries on the graves. We were also given a hot air balloon luminary the we lit and let fly. It was way cool. Then they drive around the Salem Pond that is has floating lit up Christmas trees all over. I was really pretty. I only with there was a little bit of snow to make it even more pretty. Due to the endless line of car waiting to go through he Spanish Fork Light Parade, we pass on that and headed home for the Christmas Eve BBQ.

Christmas Morning! Santa found us. The kids were happy.

After all was said and done, one big present remained unopened. Aaron had Isaac find out who it was for. To his great surprise it was for him. He ripped it opened as fast as he could.When he only found packing peanuts, he jumped in and started swimming. It was pretty funny.

And what to his wondering eyes should appear? An iPod touch he'd asked for all year. (okay more like 3 years) He was one HAPPY kiddo!

Later in the day we met up with Mom and Dad and the Hansen's for lunch and more celebrating. Food, Food, and more food was the name of the game this year. I think my pants are a little tighter now.

The day after Christmas. More Celebrating! We couldn't exchange Christmas gifts with the Gardners until Monday morning. We waited for Sam to get back from his Dad's. The kids couldn't get enough cousin time.

The flag football set that Hayden got was a huge success. The boys and dads played all afternoon.

Christmas is always a magical time of year. It was even more magic for us because we got to spend it with our family. Every time we visit, we get a little more homesick and hope we can return for good some day.

Caite the Great is 8!

This Diva makes me happy! She's beautiful, sweet, happy, silly, creative, kind, fashionable (her favorite word), and super smart. Who doesn't want to be like Caite? We are happy she's part of our family.For her birthday she wanted her ears pierced. So now she has two crystal flowers in her ears. I had a moment of "what have I done?" when we walked into Claire's and she saw ALL the earrings. A whole new world of Diva-ness was opened to her. YIKES!We love you Miss Caite!