Zoe and Lucy's Baptism

The last weekend in January we had Zoe & Lucy's baptism. There were two other kids from our ward getting baptized at the same time; at first I was concerned that the day wouldn't seem as "special" as it had been for Noah's and Molly's but it was just as lovely.

We had a Saturday morning service followed by a brunch at our house, which I love doing and which we also did for the older kids' baptisms. Aaron's parents were in town and we had a lot of people there at the baptism and at the brunch to share in our excitement.

The next day the girls wore their pretty dresses to church (one is the "family" baptism dress and the other was borrowed from a friend) and I took these pictures of the girls after church.

I'm so proud of them; they were so excited to be baptized. Congratulations Zoe and Lucy!

District Bee!

Remember how Noah won the school spelling bee back in December? Well, in mid-January it was time for the District Bee! He had been given a THICK packet of study words to prepare for it; unfortunately we didn't take as much time over Christmas break as we should have to study, and we ended up "cramming" as much studying as we could the last few days before the Bee.

He was really excited about having his name on the school marquee.

There were a total of about 36 contestants: the winner of each elementary school and Junior High in the district (it's a pretty big district). Noah did a great job; made it through a few rounds and then got out about halfway through the group (about half were left when he got out).
We're so proud of our Smartypants boy!

Zoe & Lucy's birthday party

For Zoe & Lucy's 8th birthday they wanted to have a party at a fun (expensive) party place. We decided that since it's really pretty cost effective with two of them, plus the fact that with their birthday being right after Christmas they don't need much in the way of presents (less expense for us there), we would do it. They had their party at Amazing Jake's and had a fabulous time!

First they had pizza, cake (that I made), and presents in their "party room." The movie Tangled was playing (projected onto the wall) and all of the little girls were quoting and singing along with it; it was pretty cute.
Here's a better shot of the cakes if you're interested. I had fun with these. Unlimited pizza & pop! Opening presents. They got a lot really cute stuff; there were a few "craft" items that have been especially big hits.

After eating & opening presents it was time for the crazy free-for-all: Amazing Jake's is a combination indoor amusement park (small rides) and arcade. Like a Peter Piper Pizza on steroids. It's so much fun! It's also huge though, and I didn't know how we were going to keep track of the kids. We decided to have them divide into groups and that ended up working really well; we knew the basic location of each group at all times so it was easy to check on them as they went from ride to ride. Here's Lucy's group:

And Zoe's group:

Noah and Molly stuck together in their own group of two; they didn't want to hang out with the "little kids" as much anyway. Aaron and I wandered around checking on the groups throughout the evening. It was a pretty good system.

They climbed the rock wall, rode on the carousel, bumper cars, mini rollercoaster, teacups, played miniature golf, played arcade games, skeeball, ate more food... whew! It was a lot of fun; crazy, but the kids were old enough to be responsible and stay with their groups, so it ended up being a great success.

Zoe & Lucy turn 8!

I can't believe it's been EIGHT years since these little cuties were born. I've said it before and I'll say it again, twins are AWESOME!

It's been fun looking through some old pictures of them.... here they are at about 6 months: Here they're about 2 1/2:
And here they're 8!

I love you so much, my sweet girls.

Happy birthday Zoe! Happy birthday Lucy!

Family Pictures

While we were in Utah, Ruth arranged for professional pictures to be taken at the State Capitol. It was a great location! The women figured out a nice wardrobe color scheme and I think the pictures turned out really well. We had the photographer for an hour, which was plenty of time for shots of the whole group as well as individual families. The location was good because it was a nice big hall that the kids could run around in without disturbing anyone while waiting for their turn for pictures (it was a Saturday so there were no state employees there). Here are a few of my favorite shots.

New Years Trip to Utah!

This year we did something we hadn't done before; traveled to Utah for New Year's. It was a fun trip! We were still able to spend lots of time with all of Aaron's family and there was more "chill time" without it being Christmas (the hustle & bustle of presents, etc etc).

Our only complaint was that there was NO SNOW! The nerve. We brought snow clothes and had big plans to go sledding, but it wasn't meant to be. So, the snow clothes went unused and we found other thing to do that were still fun.

One afternoon, Aaron & Tom took the kids to Antelope Island. The highlight of the trip was New Year's Eve! Tiffany planned a LOT of fun activities for the kids. She had bags labeled with each hour of the night; each hour they opened a bag and got things like party hats, blowers, necklaces, sparklers, etc. She also had time capsule sheets that everyone in the family filled out; one time capsule to be opened the next time we're all together (Thanksgiving), and the other to be opened in TEN years! At "midnight" (which we celebrated at 10pm... it was midnight in New York) we all drank sparkling cider in glass champagne glasses that Tiffany had found at Ikea for 25 cents a piece! The kids loved clinking their glasses together.

There was plenty of "chill time" during the trip; here's Noah with his youngest cousin, Eli.

All the Utah families have a tradition of getting together the first Sunday of every month to eat dinner and also to celebrate any family birthdays that will occur that month. The January birthdays are Ruth, Tiffany, Zoe, and Lucy, so we had birthday cake after family dinner on January 1st and Zoe & Lucy got to blow out candles (and make wishes).

Here's a cute picture of Owen with Grandpa.

Jake & Tiffany's family, and Nate & Emily's family spent the night most of the time we were there, and Josh & Nicole's family drove back and forth a LOT so we were able to see them almost as much. The kids were in heaven playing with all of their Utah cousins that they hardly ever get to see.

Some other things we did were played a lot of games, ate a lot of good food, the men + Noah went shooting, the kids rode the downtown train, and we had professional family pictures taken at the Utah State Capitol building.

When we went home on January 3rd, we drove in two separate cars because we bought Aaron's new car in Salt Lake City while we were there (he had sold his other car back home a few weeks earlier). It was a fun trip; despite the lack of snow we still had a lot of fun and we love getting together with the Utah family.

I read a lot in 2011.

I have kept up with my "tradition" of reading plenty of books this year; I love reading! I finally discovered how easy it is to use the local library. Most times I go to the library, I have something in mind that I want to read, and if it's not available I wander over to the "classics" isle and I can always find something there. So, I've read a pretty electic mix of books this year; here they are listed in the order that I read them:

The Lord of the Rings Series, by J.R.R. Tolkien

I finished up these books in January, and just like the movies the last one is the best (Return of the King). These books are a little difficult but they're worth reading at least once.

Guardians of Ga'Hoole, by Kathryn Lasky

Okay, I am so ready to be finished with these! There are 15 books in the series (which form one long chronological story) and the kids & I started reading them together early this year. They are entertaining and the kids have enjoyed them but the story could've been written in much fewer books. We're on book 12 now and I'm just about fed up with these owls! They aren't bad, but next time I wouldn't choose them for a read-along-with-mom series; it would've been better if the older kids had read them on their own.

The Confession, by John Grisham

I read every new John Grisham that comes out because my mom buys them and then lends them to my sisters and I. This was a pretty typical Grisham; I don't remember it very well but I think it doesn't turn out the way you want it to.

Mysterious Benedict Society, 3-book series, by Trenton Lee Stewart

These books are great for kids aged 9+. I read the first one and loved it; it's a real page-turner and Noah thought so too. Not so much for the 2nd and 3rd books; I read them but they weren't nearly as good as the first one -- and Noah never even bothered to finish them.

East of Eden, by John Steinbeck

Pretty good. Worth a read. A little depressing but well-written and definitely interesting.

Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen

You guys, I'm sorry but I just don't get why everyone loves Jane Austen. It took me a LONG time to get into this book but I stuck with it and it did get more interesting the further I got. At the end I thought, "Well that turned out to be pretty good" but I wasn't madly in love with it.

Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand

A masterpiece!! This may be the best book I read this year. I really liked it and I will definitely read it again someday. It's long (1100 pages) and takes a while to get through but if you have the time & patience you should read it.

The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck

I liked this book better than East of Eden. While it is set during the depression and the main characters are usually down on their luck, there's an underlying theme of hope and resilience that makes it not such a depressing book. I rececommend it.

Sense & Sensibility, by Jane Austen

I decided to try another Jane Austen... with no luck. I could NOT get into this story! I tried, I really did, but I had other books on my nightstand that were more compelling and I gave up after about 70 pages of Sense & Sensibility. Someday I'll try it again.

The Da Vinci Code, by Dan Brown

I hadn't read this book but had seen the movie. Very good! Exciting, a real page-turner, full of action & mystery. And, full of every relevent fact in Dan Brown's head, which is a lot.

Kidnapped, by Robert Louis Stevenson

This was just a random book I picked up from the classics section one day. Robert Louis Stevenson also wrote Treasure Island, and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde - neither of which I've read, but which are both famous classics. Kidnapped is pretty good. The writing is very old-timey, written in the 1880's and set in Scotland. The language took some getting used to but it's an interesting and entertaining story.

Handle with Care, by Jodi Picoult

This was not the first Jodi Picoult I'd read. She's a good writer and all of her books deal with "real" modern-day, often-controversial issues: such as school shootings, autism, abuse, rare medical conditions, and troubled teens. They are good books but a little depressing as they delve so deeply into the characters' problems. I enjoy them, but few and far between.

The Fountainhead, by Ayn Rand

This book is similar to Atlas Shrugged, but was written about 10 years earlier and isn't quite as good. I enjoyed it, and it's not as long as Atlas Shrugged, but if you're going to read one thing by Ayn Rand I would go for the 1100-pager.

The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society, by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

This is a delightful book, well worth the read. It's set in the UK, post-WWII and the characters are very diverse and interesting. It's quick and very nice. You should read it.

Fablehaven Series, all 5 books, by Brandon Mull

These are great! I had put off reading them because I thought they'd be "kids books" and that I wouldn't enjoy them, much like the Percy Jackson series (which I thought were enjoyable but too aimed at 10-yr-olds for me to really love them). While the Fablehaven series is intended for young audiences (9+), they were also very enjoyable for me! I blitzed through them very quickly; if you enjoy fantasy at all you'll like these books.

The Lost Symbol, by Dan Brown

Similar to the Da Vinci Code, this book is a thriller! Even more so, I'd say. This is a newer book and the movie for it is currently being made. Robert Langdon returns as the main character. Very exciting book; I couldn't put it down.

1984, by George Orwell

Chekced this out from the library just because I'd never read it before. I really liked it. Spooky and entertaining. A classic everyone should read at least once.

The Lincoln Lawyer, by Michael Connelly

I haven't seen the movie but the movie is the reason I'd heard of this book. It's very good; but the language is coarse. Very entertaining and a good story.

The Brass Verdict, by Michael Connelly

This book has the same main character as The Lincoln Lawyer and is set a couple years later. It's a pretty good book but I didn't think it was as good as the Lincoln Lawyer.

The Island of Dr. Moreau, by H.G. Wells

I had seen part of the movie (the one from the 90's with Val Kilmer) and thought it was really freaky, but since the book was written in the 1890's I figured it couldn't be that bad. Since I already knew the basic premise it wasn't shocking. It's an interesting story and a good read if you like sci-fi.

War of the Worlds, by H.G. Wells

This book took me a lot longer to get into; the plot doesn't take off as quickly in the beginning as The Island of Dr. Moreau does. War of the Worlds is pretty good but I was halfway through the book before I felt really compelled to keep reading it. The most entertaining thing about it is the influence of 1890's common thought about space, Mars, and possible aliens.

Unbroken, a World War II story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption, by Laura Hillenbrand

I finished off the year with a nonfiction! Oh boy, this is such a good book. You should definitely read it. It's the true story of an Olympic long-distance runner who joins the Air Force in WWII and survives on a life raft in the Pacific after his plane goes down. But that's only the beginning! The entire story of Louis Zamperini's life is truly amazing. Laura Hillenbrand is the same biographer who wrote Seabiscuit. Her research and thoroughness in writing Unbroken are really amazing; this is SUCH a great book.

I have a few ideas lined up to read in 2012 but I'm open to suggestions too! I've just started on a serious 1200-pager that is going to take me FOREVER: Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. Wish me luck!

Homemade Christmas Presents

This year, each of my kids made presents for their three siblings. They had SO much fun doing this! It was extra work for me, but it was also really fun to spend the time with them individually while they worked on their gifts. I got all the ideas from Design Mom; her kids have made LOTS of fun crafts for each other and I think we'll do this again next year.

MOLLY made decopaged composition notebooks. She selected different scrapbook paper to cut into squares and cover the front of a plain, cheap composition notebook, and used stencils to include the recipient's name. We painted Mod Podge all over the top of the paper; they turned out cute.
LUCY made customized 12" cork boards. I hot glued heavy cardstock onto the back of each one so that the tacks won't go all the way through. Lucy chose scrapbook paper for the borders and then she used stencils to decorate each one with Sharpies. We made sure to include some push pins and the kids have already been leaving each other little notes at bedtime; so sweet. ZOE glued glitter onto cardboard letters for each of her siblings' first initials. This was the easiest and fastest of all the projects, but the glitter is getting all over the place. I think they probably need a spray of clearcoat or something to help minimize the glitter loss. But the kids love them.
Noah's project took the longest, making hair clips for his sisters. As soon as I told him there was FIRE involved, he was excited! We cut out circles from synthetic silk-like fabric, and Noah did most of the fire-work: melting the edges over a candle. Then we layered them, some with tulle in between, stitched them together so they'd stay and hot glued rhinestones in the center and then the whole thing onto a hair clip. I did most of the hot gluing and stitching while Noah did a lot of the cutting and almost all the melting. We made four different colors (I couldn't find one of the lavender ones for this picture) and enough that the girls each received one of each color. All the kids were so cute opening their homemade sibling gifts; they ooh'ed and aah'ed and were very complimentary of each others' crafting skills. It was really fun to watch!

The other homemade thing we did, I forgot to take a picture of! For the kids' AZ cousins name exchange, we made homemade snowglobes for each of the cousins that my kids gave too. I think they liked them, and they were a fun project to work on together. We followed these instructions. For three of them we used pint-sized glass canning jars, and for the 4th one we used a plastic, cleaned out mayonnaise jar because it was for a 2-yr-old and I didn't want him to break it. The only problem with them was that the glitter I'd bought for the "snow" was too fine; it didn't wasn't heavy enough to fall like snow and ended up sticking too much to the laminated photos inside. But, I think they were well-received.

Christmas Day

I hardly took any pictures on Christmas Day, and the ones I did take were mostly dark and blurry because I was using a camera whose flash has died (great planning, I know). But it was a wonderful day. We told the kids that they could wake us up at 6:30am, so of course they all came marching into our room at 6:30 on the dot.

We had a nice time opening presents with just our little family and there was plenty of time afterwards to get ready for church, which started at 10:30am.

Church was lovely; there was a LOT of music and only one 10-minute talk -- my favorite kind of meeting! I was involved in a lot of the music: sang in the choir for several pieces, sang a solo on O Holy Night with other soloists and the choir, sang Mary Did You Know in an a cappella SSAA quartet (I love singing with those ladies!), played the piano for an arrangement of O Little Town of Bethlehem for a congregational hymn, and played a fun/hard piano part of a piano/organ duet of Hark the Herald Angels Sing, which was the opening hymn.

At 1:00 we went to my parents' house with all of my family to eat, hang out, & open more presents. Then at 4:00 we all drove over to my grandma's house (just one neighborhood over from my parents'), where my uncle & cousins & their kids were, too. Every Christmas my grandma makes crab bisque and peppermint punch; such a tasty tradition! We also had dinner there, the kids opened their presents from GiGi, and we had some good time to hang out with extended family. It was a lovely day!

The day after Christmas, Aaron didn't have to go to work and the six of us sat around and did NOTHING but play and enjoy each other's company. It was great! We all stayed in our pj's until mid-afternoon. The only "work" I did all day was cooking pancakes for breakfast. Aaron helped Noah build his new K'nex set, we all took turns on the Wii, the girls played with Zhu Zhu pets and rode their new bikes, we watched new DVDs, and later that evening Aaron & I went out to dinner and a movie. Fantastic!

I hope you all had a very merry Christmas.

December Happenings

A few more things happened in December that I haven't posted about!

My Dad was asked to be in charge of the entertainment for their ward Christmas party this year. The theme was Hawaiian, and he hired a professional Polynesian dance group to come and put on a half-hour show. He asked all the girl cousins (his nine granddaughters) if they could provide the "warm-up" act! Well, most of our girls don't know how to dance very well but one of the teenaged girls from the Polynesian group taught them a fun little dance, which they worked on for about a month before the performance. I took video of the actual performance so I don't have any stills! But here are the girls in a classroom at the church that night, getting into costume and doing one last run-through of the routine. They were SO cute and did a great job. They also performed this same dance at our traditional extended family Christmas Eve Eve talent show.

Earlier in the school year Molly joined the school chorus and has loved it! She goes once a week after school to practice. In mid-December they had the fun opportunity of singing at the State Capitol, in Phoenix. Here she is in the Capitol; it was a fun experience.
The following week, the chorus sang again for their concert. But, this year they combined the Chorus, Band, and Orchestra into one big concert! They held it at a local high school auditorium; it was great to have comfortable seats and more space than when we have the concerts in the elementary school cafeteria. Having all three groups perform, it was a little long, but not too bad. Here's Molly, front and center with the school chorus. That night we had lots of cousins involved: Molly's in chorus, Brooklyn's in band, and Noah, Molly, and Tyson are all in orchestra. Aaron took some video of the orchestra playing, but no still shots! We weren't very well prepared with cameras that evening. I accompanied the orchestra on the piano, which I hadn't done before and it was really fun. I love our kids' orchestra teacher; they play really well and sound great under her direction.


On the last day of school Noah had Battle of the Books. I don't know that I've mentioned this before, but every quarter of the school year, the kids who are involved in Battle read four books, and then at the end of the quarter they have a quiz competition. They have to know those books inside and out! The kids who are really serious about it read the books several times each; Noah has only read them once each and with both the Battles he's had so far, his team has done an average job. There are two other boys on Noah's team, but this time around one of them couldn't participate. It's a pretty fun thing and Noah was excited to be on a Battle team this year. Right after Battle of the Books that day, I went to Noah's classroom to put on his class party! I was not originally going to be Noah's "room mother" but through a series of events I ended up becoming so. I had a lot of fun with the party; we had pizza & punch, did a craft, cut out snowflakes, did a holiday word scramble, had a one-handed-present-wrapping team competition (which was hilarious), and did a book exchange. It was busy for me getting ready for the party and then executing it -- but it was fun! (And I left my camera in the car.)

It seemed like there was something on the calendar every single day in December, but it was all good stuff :)

Sillies

Around here, the leaves fall from the trees in December, and into January. So, during Christmas the kids usually spend quite a bit of time raking leaves (because they love to!) This year they took some pictures of themselves on a couple of different days; they're such sillies.

Lucy.

Remember how I said recently that Lucy is funny? I have to tell you about a paper she wrote for school. They had an assignment at Thanksgiving time to take a paper turkey and dress him "in disguise" so that nobody would want to eat him for Thanksgiving. Lucy's was a Santa turkey; very cute. (Although the funniest idea I heard was another kid in her class who had their turkey disguised as Moses, holding a stone tablet that said, "Thou shalt not kill." Hilarious!)

They had to write a narrative about why their turkey should not be eaten; here's Lucy's:

The Reason not to eat Turkey

Farmer Frank, please don't eat us turkeys for Thanksgiving. Here are some good reasons not to eat turkey.

First of all, I have feathers. It would be yucky. Think about how burnt and black the feathers would be instead of beautiful feathers.

Second, I have the red waddle. If you cook me you will have a gushy turkey because if you cook me with it, the red thing will splatter all over me. So please don't eat me!

And of course, I am Santa Turkey to work for Santa! If you eat me, then we'll only get presents to half of the world! He really needs my help!

Besides, you can eat chicken! It's $7.99! Just get $8! That's it! They'll make change!

Those are a few reasons not to eat turkey for Thanksgiving. So, please don't eat me!




The part about the exploding red thing is gross but the part about the chicken cracks me up!

Instead of Gingerbread Houses

For the past few years, my mom & sisters and I have gotten together in early December to make Gingerbread houses. We usually choose a day when the kids get out of school early, and they decorate gingerbread cookies while the moms do the serious work of the houses.

This year we decided to mix it up and do "fancy" sugar cookies instead. It was so much fun! My mom and I each made a triple batch of my new favorite sugar cookie recipe, and we all helped decorate them (using just the right icing recipe), and then we packaged them up cute to give away to friends. We made about 130 cookies altogether; it went pretty quick with four of all working on them at once.

Some were more plain and some were fancy; I decorated only three like this: We had a pretty good assortment of shapes & designs. And then, we packaged them up using cute scrapbook paper and cellophane bags.

It was a lot of fun and I think we'll be doing this again!