Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day is such a fun day. I love it. I tried to wake up with lots of extra time to get everything ready, then when the kids started creeping in, I had to send them away to get my last minute details in. I don't go utterly crazy with specialness, but we always have heart-shaped waffles (thanks to whomever gave us a heart-shaped wafflemaker for our wedding!) and I write them each a note with a special something next to their plate.We drink pink milk, which by the end of the day, the remainder looked like pepto-bismal. The color strengthens in time I learned! The kids love pulling out our "fancy cups" and just having a special out of the ordinary breakfast.
I love waffles with fruit and whipped cream, so naturally you have to have strawberry sauce for Valentine's Day.

All of my pictures are really smudged, I think I have a child to thank for that!!

We made chocolate dipped straberries, and the kids weren't all that crazy for them, perfect!! Jed and I got to share them later.
Jed surprised me with my favorite non-healthy foods!

Valentine's Day is just a lot of fun, we pretty much enjoy it around here.

I love my family. I am certainly blessed. I have a wonderful husband and wonderful kids.

You all are the BEST!!

Lots O' Love

I love Valentine's Day!! It really is becoming one of my favorite holidays. Not so much because it is thought of as such a "romantical" day, but because it gives me the opportunity to really focus on letting my family know how special they are to me. We began our celebrations on the first Saturday of the month. The kids were really excited to heart attack the house and make heart-shaped cinnamon rolls, so after we spiffied up the house we did it.

Mmmmmm....these are just too darn good. I should not make them when I am pregnant and seem to have more sugar cravings than usual!!


Everytime we mop the kitchen we take out the kitchen chairs and remove the booster seats. Lily just has a ball on those things when they are on the floor. Everyone was being so cute playing with Lily I just had to snap some pictures.

We all made/wrote....well those who had a long enough attention span....kind notes to
each other and then hung them all over the house.

Even though Valentine's Day has come and gone, these still adorn the house. I just love having hearts all around the house with the things we love about each other written all over them. Ya know, because those kinds of things aren't always what comes out of their mouths in everyday conversation! :)

I wish I could take a picture of them all. They are so sweet. It was one of my favorite simple Saturdays in a long time.

A new look

Our carpet was unravelling once again, but our dedicated carpet store again came to our rescue! We were able to replace our carpet for the second time in two years. This time we got something different. As nice as it is to have new carpet every year....it's also kind of a hassle. We're hoping this different kind will hold up better than the carpet we had before. It was nice, we just had terrible luck with bad batches and finally that carpet company pulled that particular make of carpet off the market.

Lily is giving the old stuff its last vacuum job.

old stuff:

The new stuff is darker and extremely soft!!! So far we love it. So here's to long lasting carpet!! (fingers crossed)

Seasons

A couple of weeks ago, it snowed during the night. For our extremely mild winter, this felt like the first good snowfall. I had almost forgotten how much I love waking up to a perfectly beautiful snowy morning like this:I love how the snow and frost clings to every last detail...not that you can see with my picture...but the frost will attach to even a string of a spiders web. It is so beautiful!

I love the different seasons of the year. They present something just new and fresh that I love.

I've been thinking lately that our family is in a new "season" of life now too. We are getting older....

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  we run the dishwasher every day


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  we very rarely have leftovers


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  we have 4 children that attend classes at church


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  if I don't run the laundry daily, I'm in trouble


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  we are extra busy with callings


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  the milk to sustain our family for a week and a half doesn't fit in the fridge. I have to use the chilled garage.....but that's not going to work come summer...


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  more running the kids to and from
  

Sometimes I wonder how did we get here? I remember as if it were yesterday, just having one child. Having playgroups to add a little spice to my daily routine. Actually wanting to go to Wal-Mart, to get out of the house for an outing!! Things change so quickly. And I love the here and now too. But just so I can remember what the here and now is like:

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  Lily is so cute right now. She loves to snuggle at times and likes to say "my momma" and give me hugs. She loves to be with me almost all of the time. But I know now that it won't last forever and I'm pretty good about having her with me, most of the time.


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  Madelyn just soaks up books. The school allowed her to get a library card and be part of the AR program and she eats that all up. She reads so much I have to tell her to stop and finish with her other "to-do's" before she reads for recreation.


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  Lily has unfortunately not given up her violent ways. She has kept up this biting stage longer than any of my other children, and it sure can give me gray hairs. I have tried multiple disciplinary techniques to try to put this to rest, to no avail. Hannah has probably lost 1/3 of her hair to Lily pulling it out. Sad! She has very fine hair as it is.


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  Drew and I are reading the Book of Mormon together. I have loved it. We don't read it together, but we are reading in the same general vicinity and are trying to keep each other on top of it. We're just starting Mosiah, and we started at the end of December. I think we're doing pretty good!


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  Madelyn and Drew have taken turns being little babysitters for short periods of time. They love the responsibility and I love the teeny bits of freedom.


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  Drew is preparing to be baptized in April and is very excited about it. He can't wait to join cub scouts and has passed off his bobcat already.


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  Hannah started Sunbeams at the beginning of the year. She seems to really like it. She loves to participate and volunteer. She even was quite disappointed when she was not chosen to come up and say something in the microphone, so the Primary Pres. made a special exception for her, and came up with something for Hannah to say. I think Hannah was quite pleased with herself.


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  Hannah is starting to not loathe work so much. She has a list of things she needs to do before she can use the computer (which she is adept at) and somedays she even tackles the list of her own accord. Rare-but I cheer her on when she does!


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  I am already getting ancy for summer. School takes too much time away, and the kids are already asking to do some things that we implement in the summer months. It's not the summer weather I'm ancy for, it's wanting more time with my kids!


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  Drew has created his second pinewood derby car, and even though he is not quite 8 they are going to allow him to really race this year!


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  I am not going to be able to go to Girls Camp. I was planning to work around taking a baby, but it is stake camp this year and they will not allow babies! I was disappointed at the news...big time.


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  We are working on getting our family mission statement all printed up ready to hang up on our wall. I just don't know where....I am crazy. I never can make up my mind about where to put things, so I end up putting up nothing. But I am determined to get this up and somewhere important in our house!!


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  I've been doing preschool with Hannah and Lily. Hannah and I usually take turns being the teacher (her idea of course). So far it has really been a fun way for me to spend special time with them when the others are away.


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  We have been busy with callings. We see more and more of a need to get with our children one on one. We're working on that.


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  When we have gone with the children one on one it has been wonderful. Madelyn still thinks fondly of our mommy date a month ago where I took just her shopping and then we shared a Jamba Juice. It is times like those, nothing out of the ordinary--except the jamba--made special because it is just them.


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  Lily finally loves books. It has taken her this long to not just push them away when I bring them out. I enjoy that. I love reading to my kids.


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  I love when I need a rest in the afternoons, Hannah will bring her blanket and snuggle with me. She is not a napper, but every once in awhile she will fall asleep with me.


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  All of the kids are excited for this new baby. Lily loves babies--I sure hope she is out of this violence by the time she comes.


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  I am already started to swell up, I still have a ways to go. I feel like it is way too early!!


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  Jed and I still try hang out and unwind together after a big day, but sometimes it just doesn't happen with all the things that need to be done. We do still try to make a weekly date mandatory.


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  Young Women is going really smoothly right now. The new class presidency has learned their duties pretty well and they are taking charge and it has relieved a lot of stress from me. We were without a class presidency for months, so this is like heaven!


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  Drew is very self-motivated and does his homework without my asking and pushes himself academically just because he wants to.


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  Madelyn is a good friend. She really tries to be a peacemaker with her friends and work things out.


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  I'm still trying to find the perfect solution for the kids to be more in charge of themselves as far as their daily responsibilities are concerned. I have tried a few different things.....maybe there isn't a perfect solution and I just have to keep re-working.


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  I have discovered that kindergarten for girls is like mini-high school. The drama begins!!


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  I love how Hannah and Lily pretend to do their "homework" with Drew.


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  Lily adores Drew. She loves it when he gets home from school and often calls for him when he is home.


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  Madelyn loves to be in charge of getting outfits for her younger sisters ready. I appreciate the help!

I'm sure there are lots more things I would like to remember, but that is a start. I'm sure it is mostly of interest to me, and that's ok. :)

Our Christmas

We didn't do as well as in times past of getting ready for Christmas this year. Drew and Madelyn were not asking for much...and didn't even know what they wanted for a long time. Drew wanted chapter books and Madelyn wanted a piano book. So I guess it was hard to get pumped to do any Christmas shopping at all!! Also, it seems that when I'm pregnant I come down with snippiness, impatience, and irritability. I've been trying to work on this big time, since it is no fun for any of us! Moral of the story: I just wasn't as "in" to the Christmas thing as I really wanted to be. I loved the 1st Pres. Christmas Devotional at the beginning of the season. I loved Pres. Uchtdorf's talk--and his message echoed through my mind throughout the season. We enjoyed Christmas parties, giving neighbor gifts, singing Christmas songs in the car with Hannah--she pretty much got them all down, going to a live nativity, watching the mormon message "The Coat" practically 100 times, singing Christmas carols and reading special Christmas stories by the warm glow of the tree. We made some wonderful memories.

My favorite day of all was Christmas Eve. The service activity our family planned to do kind of fell through, but on Christmas Eve I felt like the true meaning of Christmas really shone through for us. At one point in the day I saw Drew working on something at the table. Next thing I know he has a station set up: sign, cup, and bell. He was collecting money for the poor. I loved that he came up with this idea all of his own accord. He sat and rang the bell and we donated to his cup.

It turned into a great moment as we talked about what he could do with the money he was collecting, and Whom he was really serving. After our conversation, he started to work on another project. He drew the picture above, which shows him giving his money to a man with a cane, I am smiling from our house window, and above the clouds are Heavenly Father and Jesus smiling. This is what brought the Christmas spirit immediately into my heart and there to stay. Drew donated the money along with his tithing to go out into the world and do some real heartfelt good.

The girls and I cooked and cooked and cooked.

It was fun to have so many little helping hands.

We have a tradtion of making appetizers for our Christmas Eve dinner. It sure was tasty and we had plenty to eat!!

Lily cannot live without milk and practically downs a half gallon on a daily basis. We put some egg nogg in with her milk and she sucked that thing dry!!

Our children started buying gifts for each other last year, but this year we added a bit to the tradition. We drew names, the kids kept their names a secret and did lots of chores to earn a significant amount of money to buy them a pretty nice present, chose the presents themselves, and wrapped them in secret. I loved going with them to pick each other's gifts. Especially with Hannah....she immediately found Lily's gift then asked "Now which one should we get for me?" It was pretty cute.

On Christmas Eve night we read a Christmas story about the importance of giving, then we talked together about it. Afterwards, we let the children give their gifts. They were SO excited to give their gifts. Drew kept whispering in my ear "I hope Sissy likes my present. I can't wait to give it to her!"
They absolutely loved this and I loved that we went through with doing the exchange on Christmas Eve. I really wanted them to savor the spirit of giving and knew that on Christmas day those gifts would just get swept away in a heap of gifts and be more easily forgotten.

There were hugs all around as they gave each other their gifts. It was so sweet and definitely one of those things that will become a permanent tradition in our home.

Since we had done the nativity just the night before, we decided to watch the church production of the Nativity that night instead, then we piled into our car and looked at Christmas lights. We came home left out brownies for Santa and went to bed.

Drew wrote a note to Santa, and Sissy decided she finally knew what she wanted for Christmas and told Drew to add that she wanted a doll on the back. Luckily, Santa is a genius and had already placed a doll in his bag!

Drew's note is kind of hard to read since it was dark... it says, "Santa please eat the milk and cookies. have fun at our House. don't braek the tree and don't braek any thing or else my mom will be mad. love Drew look on the back (back) Sissy wants a doll.
See what I mean? Irritable mom! :) I guess everything makes me mad! It made me laugh.

Last year we had Christmas downstairs--which I liked because it kept the disastrous mess downstairs. But this year we had it upstairs--which I liked because I could listen to the children wake up around 5 AM and talk excitedly about everything they were discovering. So even though I can hardly handle the mess in my front room......I would take hearing the cuteness of my kids over a clean room any day.

After about an hour of hearing Drew and Madelyn detail what everyone got from Santa, they came and got us.

We had to wake the younger two and I had to capture some morning shots of Lily.

Lily went right over to her milk!! :) Santa knows her well.

The rest is self-explanatory. Lots of gifts, lots of mess. :)

It was a great Christmas!! I remembered Pres. Uchtdorf's message that Sunday morning (about things not having to be "perfect") as I really wanted to make a nice Christmas breakfast....but with 9 o'clock church we just decided donuts would have to do the trick!!

I played my violin in a couple of musical numbers and did my worst ever....but things don't have to be perfect and it's going to be ok. I really had to internalize that over and over because I have a really hard time when I perform and things don't go as well as I would like. I didn't want it to ruin my Christmas, so I really had to tell myself it was OK!!

I loved that Lily wanted to race Drew on his new wii game.

Pretty serious about her race here....

It was a wonderful Christmas, unfortunately I didn't post any of the pictures of our grandparents Christmas's. We had the opportunity to celebrate Christmas again this week when my parents brought over their gifts. I will have to get to that later.

I hope the Christmas spirit will linger with us throughout this new year!!

Thanksgiving

For the month of November we really did our best to focus on being grateful. We started a new tradition of crafting a long list of paper--the challenge was to fill the entire paper with things we were grateful for. We did pretty good, but we will have something to beat next year!

We kept our paper all rolled up with a pen handy for whenever anyone wanted to jot anything down. We mostly talked about it and added to it at dinner time, atleast when we remembered--we certainly weren't perfect at it. Lily and Hannah both enjoyed adding their own things. Hannah definitely is grateful for the letter "H!"
The rules were: write small and no repeating. As you can see on the close up...I guess someone didn't notice that food was written already. :) I also loved that when I heard complaining from the older children, I challenged them to come up with a certain amount of things they were grateful for and add them to the list. Gratitude really can change attitudes.
I loved doing this, it really brought the spirit of gratitude daily into our home. I love the creative things they come up with too. :) I hope we will have a whole treasure chest full of these lists from our future years!
On Thanksgiving we had a great day spent with family and very delicious food from the tables of two households. We usually join both families if scheduling permits. Our tummies definitely get full! But we really enjoy it.
My sister Pam and her family were able to stay with us for a couple nights, and it was nice to talk and enjoy each others company. We took them to the musical lightshow from our old neighborhood, the temple visitors center, and to Reed's Dairy. It was great!

It's a

GIRL!!

And we're really excited! Drew has been trying to talk to the baby and convince it to somehow be a boy the last couple of days. The only care I had one way or another, was just a glimmer of hope of a boy so Drew wouldn't be sad, but we are totally excited and happy with a girl. Drew asked me to post a colored paper on the door of the house so he could see what we were having immediately after school. I watched from the window as he slowly meandered to the house. :)

When he came in he just said, "it's a girl" with a little smirk on his face--a little disappointed, but he is ok. My Dr. is going to do a double check on my next visit as he is just 90% sure. Drew is still clinging to the 10% chance!! But Jed and I also thought it sure looked like a girl. Everything looks normal and healthy which is such a blessing. The hardest weeks of pregnancy for me, worrywise, are weeks 15-until the ultrasound. That is when I get the most worried that something bad will happen. It isn't more likely then, but that is just what our experience has been. So I'm so grateful that I am feeling the baby move and things looked wonderful on the ultrasound.

Can't wait to meet you, little miss Denning!