Birthday Girl

On January 16th, Abigail Jo turned 10.  How can it be possible that this sweet, wise, insightful, quirky, creative, sensitive, bright little light of a girl has only been part of my life on earth for 10 years and yet, how it is possible that my chubby cherub, happy, burrowing little baby girl is already 10 years old?  When I think of Abby I can’t help but smile.   Abby knows exactly what she wants, she’s always working on or towards something.  Her latest project is writing a story, she’s already written lots and lots of poems.  She’ll spend hours creating things for her American Girl dolls and loves taking care of them.  When she’s determined to do something there’s no stopping her.

Not surprisingly, she knew exactly what she wanted for her birthday.  Number one on that list was a SNUGGIE!  She used to make fun of that infomercial, but a few short years later she just had to have one.

 

She wanted an Easy Bake Oven – her own, but Anna has an old one and I just couldn’t buy another one, so I found an Easy Bake cookie and cake kit that she can cook right in the microwave.

 

She also knew exactly which cake she wanted.

And, as always she was so grateful for all her fun gifts.  She got to go to a play with my parents and Grandma Bell (Cinderella) and she got to go shopping with birthday money from Grandpa John and Grandma Jamie.  Not a bad birthday at all.  We love our sweet little Abby Jo!

Behind Already

Here it is January, a time for new beginnings, a clean slate, fresh start… you catch my drift.  Here I am already wayyyyyy behind on posting.  I’ve been intending to post over the last few weeks, but wasn’t able to organize my thoughts.  I am proceeding anyway.

• Is there a better smell than homemade whole wheat bread cooking?   Is there a better sight than 5 beautiful loaves (tonight’s batch finally managed to have fairly consistent loaf sizes, yippee!) sitting on cooling racks on the kitchen counter?  Is there any better taste than a piece of light whole wheat goodness?  Hmmmmn.  I think not.
• I was asked to sing at our Christmas Relief Society meeting.  I was terrified.  I don’t really sing solos publicly anymore.  I agreed and then started to panic.  I found a song and started practicing constantly.  My family was really tired of my song, but they didn’t say that.  After practicing so much I started to relax a little, but really needed help.  I called my friend and neighbor who has more credentials than should be legal.  She came and gave me a free voice lesson and helped me sooooo much.  Mostly, I felt so much more confident.  I sang the song in a family room crammed full of 40 women right in front of me.  Terrifying, but I did it.  And, I loved it.  Music is amazing.  After that, I remembered how much I love singing and how much I had to learn and that I didn’t ever want to get to the point I can’t do it anymore because I quit using it.  I had my first official voice lesson (first in 20 years) today and loved it.  It feels great to develop and appreciate a talent.
• Along those same lines, I think I want to write more.  I feel so grateful for blogs, it’s a wonderful way to journal, and to open up or share experiences with friends and family, and is the perfect outlet when i  just feel like writing.   I have dreams of writing a book, but I have no idea what kind of book I’d write.  I always thought I would do children’s books, but I have had to face the fact that I’m just not a very creative writer.  I need to find my niche.
• I am trying to close in on some resolutions.  It’s honestly a bit daunting, because there’s a lot to do and I’m trying not to overwhelm myself, so I’m trying to really zero in on some simple, realistic goals to start with.  I think I’m almost ready to commit to some.  I also like the concept of having a theme word for the year.  One word that kind of says it all.  My contenders are “order” and “finish”.  I like “order” because it will remind me to physically put things in order, like the laundry room, aka “pit of despair”.  I like that it goes deeper than that though too, that it will help me remember to put first things first, that sometimes the right order is to let the housework go and attend to children or nourish myself spiritually etc.  I tend to get things backwards a lot and would love to have every kind of order in my life.   “Finish” would be to remind me to follow through on all my scattered ideas and tasks.  I can’t tell you how often I have an impulse to do something nice for someone and then don’t follow through.  Or, how many times I start to clean something or do some kind of project and then don’t ever complete it.  Maybe I should just have two words this year.  Hmmm
• I think next time I’ll organize my thoughts before I post.

Inauguration

I thought I already posted about this, but evidently I didn’t.   My Dad just emailed us a bunch of pictures that I really want to save and these blog books are really my best chance of getting photos any type of organized. 
So, on Jan. 3, 2011, we had the unique opportunity to attend the Governor’s inauguration.  My little family, (minus Joshy) plus Brennan’s mom, Jamie, got to go to the State Capitol and watch my Dad be sworn into office as Lieutenant Governor.  What a thrill. 

Some devoted constituents

One of the really special moments for us was meeting Pres. Dieter Uchtdorf and his beautiful wife.

I love these experiences myself, but it’s just really thrilling for Brennan and me that our kids get to be part of these moments.  I hope that this will give them a great sense of appreciation for their freedom and government.  I hope these experiences will help them feel a greater sense of responsibility throughout their lives to vote and fight for things they believe in.

Love them!

Merry Christmas

 

We had a very merry Christmas.  We spent a nice Christmas Eve at my parents’ house with Josh & Eliza, Chris & Rebecca and their kids.  We had a yummy meal, sang some songs, read Luke 2 and opened pj’s.  We got home and eventually got our kids wound down long enough for them to fall asleep.  First they had to to set out cookies and egg nog for Santa and oats, celery and apples for the reindeer. 

We tell them they can get up at 7 and wait for us to put the finishing touches together.  Ben and Nate woke up around 5:30 and could not go back to sleep.  They were both wide eyed with anticipation of the wonders awaiting them in the next room.  They kept creeping into our room to look at the clock.  We’d hear them whisper, “it says 6:03” and then run down the hall back to their room.  It was a long few hours, but 7 finally rolled around.  The girls were already awake too, so we just woke Joshua up.  They were all so excited about everything and are so cute to thank us a bazillion times for everything.  All but Joshy, that is, once he discovered a few treats in his stocking he wasn’t interested in anything else. 

I was really touched this year by our kids’ enthusiasm for giving this year.  Abby was constantly asking for extra jobs she could do to earn money to buy her siblings gifts.  We had them draw names, but they all ended up giving something to everyone and then something extra special for the sibling they drew.  Abby worked hard to save money to buy something for everyone.  Nate has a class store at school at the end of each month which they get to spend fake money they earned from their reading minutes.  If they read 200 minutes that month they get 2 fake dollars to go toward things donated to their class store.  He carefully picked something out for each of his siblings.  I was impressed with what he got for everyone.  Anna had money from babysitting and loved picking things out for everyone.  Even Ben got into the spirit by drawing pictures for everyone.  It was all really cute.

Back to that morning, Santa left each child something big and unwrapped, then we took turns opening the other presents.  Lots of happy squeals.

I love these kiddos.

After all the excitement, the big kids reveled in their loot and Brennan, Joshy and I went back to bed.   After naps, we cleaned up and headed back over to my parents’.  It was an exhausting, fun, sweet day.  Can’t believe it’s over!

 

Girls’ Christmas Gifts

The girls always like to do something homemade for their best friends for Christmas.   I looked around online and found an example of a cute ipod cozy made out of felt and knew that was the perfect thing.   I think they turned out super cute, and they actually did it.  I found some cute templates for a bird and an owl, sewed the snaps on and showed them how to get started and they ran with it.  Anna created her own designs for hers.

Here’s Abby’s first one with the owl

Abby’s second one with the bird

Anna’s soccer cozy for her soccer star friend

Her cute flower one.

Other than a fun creative craft night, I had so much fun hanging out with my two darling girls. 

Christmas Card Letter

Just thought this might be a good place to store this, so I’ll have it when I make my blog book.  Here’s this year’s Christmas letter:

December 2010

I can hardly contain my excitement for this Christmas season. The kids are at such great ages, the oldest ones are still young enough to be excited about every little thing and we'll all get to re-discover the magic through our youngest's eyes. I love that we have so many opportunities to teach them about Jesus at this time of year and I love to watch them be baffled when I can't seem to get through one single Christmas book without crying. I hope they'll fully understand someday. What a beautiful time of year!

Joshua will be 17 months old Dec. 6^th. He's a popular guy. His siblings and parents can't resist his chubby, squatty, smiley, grunty deliciousness. He loves music and loves to dance. He loves to run away from me every chance he gets. Every time he walks into the family room he points at the Christmas tree and inhales loudly with his mouth wide open. I can't get enough. We also can't get enough of his manly hearty laugh. We love Joshua.

Benjamin is 4 and is loving his first year of preschool. He takes it very seriously and assigns himself hours' worth of homework. Benny has grown up so much this last year, it kind of breaks our hearts. Fortunately, he's such a sunshine boy and is truly a huge help to me. He's so dialed in and saves Joshua's life nearly every day. My favorite thing of his lately is when he asks to watch one of the “Stoy Tory” movies. We love Benjamin.

Nate is our 7 year old 2^nd grader. He's loving his teacher and has lots of friends in his class. He tolerates homework and chores and everything else in his life as necessary evils but really wants to spend every waking moment talking about, watching, or playing sports. He currently plays basketball and takes Karate lessons and loves them both. Nate has a great sense of humor and keeps us laughing, but his most charming trait is his sincerity. We love Nathan.

Abigail will be 10 next month and is in 4^th grade. Abby is the child that we often wonder if we should just hand the reigns over to. She keeps all of us in line and I'll never need a planner or pda as long as I have her. She's also very entertaining – constantly making up one-of-a-kind dances or cracking us up with her colorful commentaries. This summer she got to be in our little town's summer theatre production of “The King and I” and LOVED it. She stays busy with homework, piano, ballet and socializing every chance she gets. We love Abigail.

Anna is the big 12 and is currently surviving 7^th grade, her first year of Junior High! It's been busy and stressful so far, but she's handling it all really well. She's playing soccer this year and is hoping to do track this Spring at school. She's a fast little thing -- on the field. Not so much when it comes to getting ready in the morning :). She has improved though and misses the bus less frequently. She and her friend, Chloe, are currently busy directing the play “Annie” with some neighborhood kids. They work so hard, and it's always fun to see the end result. She's such a creative, fun, loving girl. We love Anna.

I spend my days chasing Joshua, enjoying his and Ben's company – grateful to still have some at home. When the big kids get home from school things are hopping around here. I love it, but rely on datenights with Brennan, my bookclub, and my girls' nights out with my aunts and cousins to keep me sane, or somewhere close to sanity :).

Brennan never ceases to impress people with his endurance. He can watch college football for 10 hours straight. He feels strongly about every game, it all matters, and don't even get him started on the SEC. Seriously though, he's the best. He does a great job balancing work, recreation and family. He's such a sweet, helpful husband, and an involved, tender dad. We love Brennan.

We often talk about all the people we have come to love throughout the years and how grateful we are for all of you. We are so blessed by our family and friends and wish you each a very Merry Christmas!

Love, the Wrights

Nothing Cuter

Than cousin love…

Amelia, is just about 3 months older than Joshua and I can’t get enough of these two.  They really want to interact but aren’t sure how to, so they grunt and grab and bounce.  So cute!

Here’s a video I filmed a few weeks ago and never got around to posting of another thing that’s hard to beat, a very hardy laugh.

Joshy laughing from Andrea W. on Vimeo.