Abby’s Big 11

Today is a very special day, it’s the day we celebrate welcoming Abigail Jo into our family 11 years ago.  What a difference one person can make in a family or anywhere.  She has enough personality and dreams and compassion to last several lifetimes.  She knows exactly who she is and what she wants out of life and quietly makes it happen.  She’s definitely changed our lives in just over a decade.  We’re so grateful for her.

She wanted a new bike for her birthday so that was about it, but she was thrilled.  She also got some birthday money from Grandpa and Grandma John and Jamie and is excitedly anticipating her birthday date with Grandpa and Grandma B. 

It’s the year of friend parties, so Abby kicked things off for the year wanting to take her friends ice skating.  We came up with a Winter Wonderland theme to go along with the ice skating.   What did we ever do without Google?  A quick Google search led me to a site with some darling invitation and craft ideas.   Abby made these invitations:

When the darling guests arrived we left Ben and Josh home with Chloe and drove to the ice skating rink and had a great time ice skating.  Most of them took right to it and had a great time.  Nate and one of Abby’s friends were really nervous, but by the end they were doing it without the safety of the wall or me.  It was really fun.

We came home to do make these cute little penguins out of men’s dress socks filled with rice. 

These are some of the finished penguins:

Next was cake and ice cream, of course:

She has such a cute group of friends, they always have fun and are so game for whatever we have planned.

We love Abby.  Happy 11th Birthday!!!!

The Good Stuff

Poor little Ben caught a nasty virus that came with a nasty cough.  Poor kid could not stop coughing and had a hard time sleeping.  The doctor told me to keep him quarantined for a week.  So no school all week and no friends.  The worst of it, was that he didn’t actually have any other symptom other than a cough, so he felt just fine, but had to be a shut-in.  He was a really good sport about it.  On Wednesday someone knocked and he opened the door to find a little bag full of cute little toys/activities.   I know it was just some dollar store stuff, but it was worth millions to us!  He was thrilled and spent hours that day and the next playing with the little plastic army guys, and the spongy animals that grew out of a capsule in water, and tiny little pinball machine.  He also very carefully sharpened every single pencil in his new pack of pencils.   It was from Grandma, what a great Grandma. 

By Thursday I was ready to get out of the house which was perfect because sweet Brennan offered to work from home so I could go to lunch with some friends and then to my voice lesson.  It was so cute when Ben found out Brennan was coming home he automatically exclaimed, “I’m so excited to hang out with Dad!!!” and then he added, “…and that you’re my mom!'”  I thought that was so cute that all on his own he realized he didn’t want to exclude me.  Then that night I had a RS activity, we did Zumba – so much fun, and then my beloved bookclub.  I thought it was kind of the perfect day, but Friday rivaled it.

Friday I slept in, the kids were out of school, so no rushing around getting kids out the door, just glorious sleepy, mellow morning.  I looked into the the front room to see this:

I tidied the house up a bit and then put Joshy down for a nap.  I left Anna in charge and took Abby shopping with her birthday money from Grandpa John and Grandma Jamie.  It’s always great to have some one on one time with the kids.  Abby is great to shop with because she knows exactly what she wants and is super decisive.  She found darling, cheap stuff and was so so happy.  We rushed home just in time to send Anna off to a movie with her friends.  It was Ben’s last day of isolation and definitely his hardest so I cheated a little and took him and Josh to a cute, quiet little toy store to pick out a birthday present for his friend.  Then we came home and made cookies. 

Brennan came home and we all watched Kung Fu Panda 2.  Such a cozy, family day.

Happy New Year!

I’m totally clogging up your Google Reader, sorry.  I’m on a roll though and I gotta go with it when it happens.  In our new Teachings of the Presidents of the Church, George Albert Smith the first chapter lists 11 resolutions Pres. George Albert Smith made and called is personal creed.  Here are my very favorite from his list and ones I want to adopt into my own personal creed:

1. “ I would be a friend to the friendless and find joy in ministering to the needs of the poor.”

5. “ I would not seek to force people to live up to my ideals but rather love them into doing the thing that is right.”  (Great parenting approach)

8. “I would not knowingly wound the feelings of any, not even one who may have wronged me, but would seek to do him good and make him my friend.”

10. “ I would not be an enemy to any living soul.”

11. “ Knowing that the Redeemer of mankind has offered to the world the only plan that will fully develop us and make us really happy here and hereafter, I feel it not only a duty but also a blessed privilege to disseminate this truth.”

Great stuff, right?

New Years Eve

Friday night a couple of my siblings and our spouses partied at Eliza’s house.  It was so much fun, we played games and chatted and had a great time.  New Year’s Eve we decided to stay home and have a party with the kids.  Jamie has also been in town for a couple of days and we’ve loved having her.  My cute cousin, Lindie, who is about Anna’s age also joined us.  It was a great party!

Early in the day though, Ben and our neighbor, Will, decided to see if they could learn to do backflips on the trampoline.  They got pretty good, can’t quite land them, but not bad for 5 year olds:

Anna decided if her 5 year old brother could do it, she better learn:

Back to the party:

Here’s Joshy in party mode!

Brennan let each request a treat at the store for the big party. We put Joshy to bed and played some exciting rounds of Spot it and Uno.  We finished up watching a snowmobiler and a motorcyclist make some crazy huge jump over an ocean bay.  Fortunately they didn’t die on live tv.  We sent the boys to bed after celebrating an East coast New Year and then the girls went downstairs to hang out, but they came back up at midnight and we silently screamed and cheered the New Year in.  Happy New Years!

Christmas Day

The moment our kids’ dream about and anticipate for 364 days:

We had such a great morning.  The kids are so cute and always so excited.  The girls each asked for a camera.  I felt so bad when I realized their cameras didn’t have video capability and I know they wanted that, but when we realized it I told them I would be happy to take them back.  They both just shrugged it off and have been happily taking pictures ever since.  They were all so excited and so grateful.  It was lovely.

After the gift extravaganza we got ready and went to a 1:00 Sacrament meeting.  It was so nice to be there on Christmas Day with family and friends.  I had to sing a solo I’ve been working on for awhile, it’s a really hard song, “Gesu Bambino” with a dramatic high B flat and lots of phrases way up high and no where to breathe.  Fortunately I didn’t have a lot of time to be too nervous and Brennan gave me a priesthood blessing before church which I know helped me be calm.  It was truly miraculous how much less nervous I was than I have been in a long time.  My parents, my sister, Eliza, and my brother and his wife and kids, Chris, Rebecca, Oliver and Amelia came.  Sweet Brennan was choked up (he always cried when our kids perform, and he did it for me now too!).  It’s a beautiful piece with gorgeous piano and violin accompaniments.  I felt so much good will and support from the congregation, many I’ve grown up with.  It was a sweet, sweet experience.  I so appreciate people who take the time to give kind feedback.  It means the world.  I think sometimes people don’t realize how much of yourself you feel like you’re putting on the line when doing something like that.   Most of all it was great to have it done and then be able to enjoy singing with the choir and listening to the talks and music while Brennan wrestled all the kids in the back

I love this picture of these two boys I love.

After church we went home and changed and headed to my parents’ house.  It was such a nice day of games and visiting.  My Mom wanted a really low-key program so each of the kids performed something and then all the adults went around the circle and told about a blessing we were grateful for this year.  It was so nice and a perfect way to celebrate a sacred holiday.

I managed to record Rex, Lucy and Molly singing:

and Oliver and Amelia.  I wish you could hear better on this one, 2 year old Amelia knows every word!

We came home feeling completely full of gratitude and joy.  The kids were exhausted and went right to sleep and Brennan and I talked about how much we need to enjoy every second of these sweet kids.  We are so blessed.  We love Christmas!