Farewell 2009!

I love these kids. I love my Hubs. I love this life.

2009 was a good one.

See you in 2010!

Look who had a birthday

It's hard to believe it's been a year since we first got a dog. In case you don't remember, Santa brought us a puppy last Christmas; a chocolate Lab named Juno. Well, she ended up having some serious health problems and had to be put down when she was only 2 months old (so we only had her for about 3 weeks). We were fortunate to find a new dog within a few days, another chocolate Lab (from a really great breeder) and we named her Juno again. So, the "new" Juno turned a year old on December 17. She is great! Still a little hyper at times but she is much better behaved than she used to be (like over the summer when she was constantly destroying everything) and we love having her around.

Here she is playing with her "cousin" Trigger; Kate's golden retriever who is staying with us for a week. My girls say they look like they're "in love" in this picture.

This picture (below) cracks me up; usually Juno is submissive around other dogs but when playing with Trigger the other day, I snapped this "I Knight Thee Sir Trigger" shot. I think it's hilarious.

Below are two pictures from a hike she took with the dads & kids the day after Christmas. She loves going on hikes and Aaron almost always brings her when he goes hiking, hunting, or camping. These are great shots; thanks Jake!

Juno Blue Blitzkrieg, age one.
(If you want to see how much she's grown, just click on the "Juno" label at the bottom of the post to see all Juno-related posts.)


Happy Birthday Juno!



(In other pet news, the last of our fish finally died... so we are officially out of the fish business for the time being. Also, Noah's tarantula died recently [nobody shed a tear over that] so we now only have one pet... which is fine with me!)

Christmas

We had a great Christmas! Aaron's younger brother and sister and their families came down from Utah to stay with us for a few days. Apparently I was too busy cooking and hostessing to take any pictures. Hopefully somebody else did! Here are a few shots from a hike to South Mountain that all the dads and non-napping kids went on, on Saturday.

Most of the time we stayed at the house, playing with new toys and enjoying each others' company. It was great! MarioKart for the Wii was a big hit, and the grown-ups played Rockband almost every night. I made a big turkey dinner on Christmas Day, and I've posted the recipes here. Also I made cinnamon rolls the morning after Christmas. And for dinner on Christmas Eve I made fish (it was cod this time) along with sauce and rice and glazed carrots. So with all of that plus some snacks that Emily brought down and all the goodies we'd gotten for Christmas from neighbors and friends, we had a pretty good weekend of eating! After New Year's I'm going have to start cutting back again...

We had SUCH a great time with our visitors; thanks you guys for making the long drive down here! You're welcome to come any time!

My favorite present this year

This was a complete surprise to me, this present from Hubs. It's my blog, in book form, for all of 2008. 265 pages of 181 posts. It's awesome!! I was so thrilled when I opened it. I definitely want to get one of these for every year of blogging from here on out! Before I started blogging, my journal-writing was minimal and my scrapbooking on life support at best. So to have this record of my life in writing and pictures not only in digital but now also in book form, is just awesome. I love it!!

Hubs ordered this from Blurb.com. This book is 7"x7" and cost a little over $50 including shipping. Hubs spent HOURS and hours on this, with several different layouts and different page backgrounds. It looks great and it's so much fun for me to read through. Thank you Hubs!

Merry Christmas!

Where we live, the seasons are a little different.

For example, the deciduous trees around here don't know that they're supposed to change colors and lose their leaves in September or October, so they do it in December or even January. Instead of playing in the snow after school like other kids around the country, my kids have recently taken to raking leaves, just because they're there. They have spent hours doing this the past few days!

Before and After, #3 (ha ha)

This kid was long overdue for a trim!

Weekend events

Amazingly, these tiny images are the best pictures I can find online of Ballet Etude's Nutcracker, which we saw on Saturday.

Yay for the Nutcracker! It was so fun to get dressed up and go with all the girls in the family (my mom, grandma, sisters, daughters, and nieces) to see the Nutcracker at the Mesa Arts Center on Saturday afternoon. Predictably, now all the girls want to be ballerinas. The costumes and the dancing were great! My mom even had the great idea to buy each family a Nutcracker book to read ahead of time so that our girls would know what was going on when they watched the ballet. Good thinking, Mom! The girls and I loved it.

Also, something that happened at my house on Saturday morning...

A crew of two men from the LDS video production company came to our house to shoot some video of our family to add to their huge database of video clips for use in Mormon Messages, and lds.org videos such as on the Provident Living site, the Family Finances page, or the Building a Strong Family page.

So, if you ever happen to be watching a Church video in the future and see any of the following clips: Lucy and Noah sweeping the front walkway with Aaron supervising, Zoe and Molly and me reorganizing bikes in the garage, all six of us reading scriptures on the couch, or a close-up of Aaron & I "discussing finances," please let me know so I can check it out. Thanks!

Kate is the winner!

Thank you all for your votes!
Kate, whose gingerbread house was "A," won this one by a long shot!

Honorable mention:

Our mom's: B
Mine: C
Jamie's: D

Gingerbread House Contest - vote!

My kids & I, my two sisters and their kids, and my mom got together Wednesday afternoon for our annual Gingerbread House Day. In the past the kids have decorated gingerbread people; this year some of them also made graham cracker houses, which they LOVED doing.

But now it's time for the serious part: the official online blog judging of the houses made by the grown-ups. Last year only three of us made houses; this year all four of us did so the competition is tough and the stakes are high! And we even had an official festive fabric backdrop for the pictures!

I have included three different angles so that you can get a full appreciation for the incredible skill and artistic ability that went into each house. Just kidding. I felt a little rushed myself and didn't feel like I brought my "A game" this year, but even still it's fun to see what we each came up with.

(click on any photo to enlarge)

In the comments section, please tell which house is your favorite. And, even if you don't like any of them or can't decide on a favorite, any kind words and compliments in general are always appreciated.

Thank you.

2009 Christmas Recital

Woah, that's a lot of kids! (No, I don't teach that little 2-yr-old photo crasher in the front.)

Look how many students compared with two years ago...

I had my Christmas piano recital Monday night and it was a success! I have had each of the Christmas recitals at my house since I started teaching again in 2007, and I enjoy having it here. (We've had the May recitals at our church.) I knew I had a lot more students now than I used to have, but for some reason my brain didn't translate that into the increased number of parents & siblings that would be attending the recital. Last Friday morning I did a mental calculation of my 19 students' families and I estimated that there would be around 75-80 people in my house during the recital! Yikes! I panicked a little but I must be a glutton for punishment because I refused to change venues. A friend of ours has 60 padded folding chairs that we borrowed, and with my own we had a total of about 75 chairs set up. Judging by the number of occupied seats I think there at least 70 people here; one of my students was sick and didn't come so without her family here, my estimation was pretty close. It worked out really well; we moved all the furniture out of the family room and put all the chairs and the piano in there since that's a bigger space than the living room (where the piano usually is). The open floorplan of this house really came in handy for this occasion.

Anyway, the kids all did a great job on their pieces and it was a good night. I sure enjoy teaching.

Before and After, #2

I don't actually have a "before" shot of this; this is only the "after." This playroom reorganization has been in the works for a couple of weeks, which started with some necessary rearranging of TVs, due to the receipt of a new piece of furniture in my bedroom. If it matters to anyone but me, I will describe what the "before" picture would've looked like: desk and couch in different places, a different (smaller) TV between the bookshelves, all the toys were much less organized and the shelves looked, well, disheveled. We went through every single little toy: puzzle pieces, polly pockets, dolls, stuffed animals, lincoln logs, marble run, transformers, books, games... you get the idea, and now everything has a specific HOME: drawer, basket, shelf, etc. It's really quite exciting. A lot was thrown away, a few things given away. And the kids & I just finished it this afternoon. Whew!

'tis the season

Custom shirts courtesy of Pamma (my mom).

Thanks Mom! The girls LOVE them!

Before and After, #1

November update

This picture has nothing to do with anything; just a shot from when Aaron & Noah & Juno went camping a couple of weeks ago (and got snowed on ~ yes it does snow in Arizona; this was only a couple hours from our house.)

How was your Thanksgiving? Ours was lovely. Not a huge group this year (15) but we had a great time of course. And my grandma makes the best gravy.

We have been busy with a lot of projects around here; pictures forthcoming. A few "home improvement" items that have been on the back burner for years, a few spring-cleaning type projects that were long overdue, and today we got a new BBQ, which I'm SO excited to use for dinner tomorrow! It cost only $30 more than the one we bought 8 1/2 years ago (which is now broken) but it is such a huge upgrade. Bigger, more bells & whistles, and even an external side burner which I didn't have on my old BBQ.

And, I've been doing lots of Christmas shopping; to the point that I am nearly finished. I caved to the pressure! But it does feel mighty nice to be nearly done.

Annual "Thankful" FHE

step 1
step 2
step 3
and voila!


Thanks to a fun Sharing Time at church on Sunday the kids were each given a tree and 22 leaves. Which means the person in charge of sharing time (me) cut out 22 leaves for each of 45 kids. And 22 x 45 = 990. (So I hope every family in our ward did what we did last night for FHE so that all that cutting wasn't for nothing.)


But it was fun for us and it's always interesting to see what the kids come up with. Two of our girls included "diamonds" and I'm not sure why. Thinking of their future wedding rings already? I hope not! Noah kept thinking of various high-sugar-content foods until we steered him in a different direction.



Oh, and please just ignore the close-up of the dirty fingernails and the terribly beat up coffee table.

Happy Thanksgiving to you!

FYI

I just wanted to let you know that Modbe is going out of business; closing their doors forever at the end of the year. So they're getting rid of everything... it's all on clearance and while there isn't a lot of selection left, you might be able to find something! I have told you before about their swimsuits; I have 3 of them -- one of which I just ordered a few weeks ago (and it came and it fits and I love it!) -- they are good quality and good cuts.

I'll put up a "real post" one of these days... In the meantime, what percentage of your Christmas shopping is done? Because the other adult females in my family seem to be nearly finished with theirs, barely into the November 20's here. I've started mine but am in no huge hurry. And the rest of them are really giving me PRESSURE about it!

Do you see that?

That beautiful foggy mist is the steam escaping from my canner during my very last batch of applesauce. Oh that is a welcome sight. That means I am officially DONE with canning for 2009. Between the usual spring strawberries, the summer raspberries and blackberries, the late summer pears and peaches, and the fall apples, I have had my fill of canning for the year (although my mom did about twice as much as me this year; wow!) and I can't say that I'll miss it.

Until strawberry season, that is, when I will be back to making a year's worth of jam like crazy. But I'll be ready for it by then.

What's the deal with that one garish white ring on that quart of applesauce? Good heavens, I'm going to have to go replace it with a brass one. Honestly.

For Leigh & Gin

This is what the three of us did with our time while sitting in church, BYU freshman year. I don't recall why some of them rhyme, some of them don't, and some of them feature apparently left-handed writing? I do remember one of my 1" ripped paper creations for Ginny being "Gin is saccharin," accompanied by an illustration of a bowl of cereal with a Sweet n' Low packet being sprinkled on top, which resulted in a serious (but whispered) discussion over what exact type of artificial sweetener is used in Sweet n' Low. I'm pretty sure none of us really knew what we were talking about but we concluded that saccharin was probably not meant for breakfast cereal.

Those were such good times, ladies.

If you want to make a really great tri-fold,

Start by using bright colors and sweeping promises.

The reader cannot help but open it to see what's inside! "Free" is always an attention-grabber. The presence of a "trained specialist" doesn't hurt either.

Be sure to include a lot of really good quality artwork, employing every single marker in the Crayola Brights 8-pack. Terms like, "And much, much more!" spur the reader's curiosity, and telling them not to wait any longer creates a sense of urgency.

Finally, don't forget the vital information on the back; this part doesn't need to be flashy because by the time the reader gets there, they're hooked!

(summer 1991)

(I "taught" my two sisters one class, wherein they were only allowed to sew straight lines onto typing paper. I'm glad they didn't sue me for false advertising.)

It's that time again

You know, that time of year where us Arizonans gloat while the rest of you freeze. I do love it here (even when it's hot). Nothing's better than a full forecast of sunshine!

Another good idea

Last night for Family Home Evening we talked about some counsel given over the weekend at Stake Conference (a big, semi-annual local church meeting) by a visiting General Authority (Elder Sitati), which was about the importance of daily prayer. He said that morning prayer should be part of our routine, and gave the analogy, "You wouldn't leave the house without putting on your shoes or combing your hair, would you? Then why would you leave the house without first praying?"

I had recently heard from a friend the rhyming reminder, "Prayer before hair." Since Noah doesn't do a thing to his hair in the morning we decided that saying didn't apply across the board for our family, so Aaron came up with "Prayers before stairs." I made this nifty sign which, as you can see, is hanging at the top of the stairs (suspended from the ceiling) at about eye level for Zoe and Lucy... everyone will notice it when they start to go down the stairs and the idea is that everyone will be reminded to say their morning prayers before heading down for breakfast, etc.

So far, so good... it worked for all of us this morning! We won't leave it there forever but my hope is to get everyone around here in the habit of daily prayers.

Project Overload

Noah's Social Studies / Science project

{For anyone who's interested, here are the project details: Noah's assignment was to create something showing 10 specific land forms. We did eleven: ocean, island, mesa, desert, swamp, valley, lake, river, tributary, canyon, mountain range. The main material we used was that green crumbly floral foam, the kind that absorbs water and is stuck into the bottoms of pots or vases. It was pretty cheap; $3.99 for six blocks (of which we used five). Very easy to carve, lightweight, easy to glue and paint. Extremely messy... we kept the vacuum near by while carving. Aaron made the mountains, Noah made the mesa; it was a group effort. Noah did most of the painting. I had the brilliant idea (which worked really well!) to make hard candy (melted sugar) to pour for the ocean and the lake. I experimented and found that the green floral foam does NOT melt when 295 degree sugar is poured onto it! The color of the water is more green and less blue than I wanted but oh well. The base of the whole thing is half a piece of foam core, with painted balsa wood dowels for the frame. The pine trees are 1" pieces of green pipe cleaner, trimmed into skinny triangles: all the kids helped make the trees. The cactuses were made by me with salt dough, and painted. Noah typed & made all the labels himself, including one more larger "bill board" looking sign with his name & class which was added after this picture was taken. Yes, I'm giving you too many details... but ever since Tuesday, this Noah project has been front & center in my mind and kitchen, so you're getting the whole thing!}

So first it was the pumpkins. Then the other pumpkins. Then the Halloween costumes. Then on Tuesday I spent the whole day making a fake wedding cake for a fake wedding reception, except that it was a real wedding cake which is every bit as much work as a fake one. Confused? I was doing a favor for a friend who was hosting a super fun, super-involved Young Women's activity where her whole backyard was decorated like a wedding reception. I made three rounds; 10", 8", and 6", the largest being chocolate cake with chocolate mousse filling, and the smaller two being white/lemon cake with raspberry mousse filling (and I invented the recipe for the raspberry mousse). Each round was split into four layers of cake (and three layers of luscious filling). I'm not including a picture because they were lime green, very very lime green, which is what they wanted but I just don't like to look at the picture of them. Unfortunately it was a warm night and my chocolate mousse filling wished it was cold and tried to make a break for it (oozing out of the bottom tier of the 3-tiered cake) so apparently they ate it sooner than planned! Then as soon as that project was finished, Noah's big school project took center stage (and my entire kitchen table for two straight days). Now that is finished, but another project yet looms... applesauce! I have had 3 1/2 boxes of apples (four delicious varieties) sitting on my counter, ignored for eight days now, waiting for their turn to become the next project.

I will start making applesauce tomorrow, just as soon as I fold the seven loads of laundry that I washed today.

If you happen to ask me to help you with a project in the near future and I say "no," don't be offended. I bet I would really love to do it, I just need a tiny break from projects right now... I have enjoyed every one of these projects the past couple of weeks, but I would've enjoyed them more if they hadn't all come at me at the same time!

Sale on Swimsuits!

Go to Modbeclothing.com, pick out one of their swimsuits (on clearance), (or any other clothing you want), then type in FALL40 in the coupon box when you check out... that gives you an additional 40% your order, ON TOP of the clearance prices! I just ordered myself a new swimsuit for next summer, and paid a grand total of $30 which includes tax & shipping. Yay!

According to what I read, this FALL40 coupon code is only good til tomorrow, 11/3!

Halloween: the main event!

Our trick-or-treating crew!

And now for the costume breakdown:

Noah: Mummy

5 or 6 yards of cheap muslin, cut into mostly 2" strips, tacky-glued onto an old long-sleeved t-shirt and a pair of sweatpants. Easy to do but it did take quite a while. Oh yeah and $2 Halloween makeup from Walmart too. The inspiration for this costume came from here, and if you click over you will see that my strength lies in copying, not originality!

Molly: Hermione

Oxford shirt is one of Noah's old ones. Gray sweater was purchased on Tuesday at Walmart. Tie and scarf were sewn by me, in Griffindor colors of course. I actually started to knit a scarf (it turns out I sort of remember how to knit which I haven't done since I was about 12) and I got about 14" done but realized it would take way too long... so I went the fabric w/ yarn tassles route. The cloak is made of heavy felt; I just sort of draped it around Molly and pinned and cut and stitched (and used the other kids for models when Molly wasn't nearby, pinning and cutting and stitching some more) until it looked cloak-ish. It turned out okay. The wand was a dowel that I whittled and sanded and stained.


Zoe: Black Cat

Easiest costume ever! Tights & leotard were purchased at Walmart. I used about 1/4 yard of black fur to make the tail, wrist & ankle cuffs, and ears. I used wire in the tail and ears (although the ears need some fix-up before this costume is used again). I sewed about a 2" square of the black cloak felt into the back of Zoe's leotard to make a secure place to pin the tail.


Lucy: Super Girl!

I had big plans for Lucy, some of which involved sewing a big red "L" onto a yellow leotard and blinging it out with sequins, but it didn't happen. So we found this whole ensemble ready to go at Target.


Oh yeah, and at our church party Aaron & I dressed like this (at least almost just like that). I had to snap this pic of him talking to his buddy on Wednesday since they're both rockin' the full-sleeve tats.


For Halloween night, Aaron & I donned orange t-shirts and called it good. We had a fun night; an early dinner, costume assembly, pictures, a visit to a spooky yard display in a friend's neighborhood, some trick-or-treating, and when it was time to come home we watched a movie with freshly-made caramel corn. The kids didn't like the movie (and neither did we) so they ate a little more candy and then went to bed at a reasonable hour.

All in all I would have to declare this Halloween a success!