Valentine's Day, a little early

The kids have school off on Monday, so they had their Valentines school parties today. Maggie was responsible for making her own box and she knew exactly what she wanted to make after a few minutes of playing around with the tissue paper...a Valentine's squid. She was mighty excited to show Brian when he got home.

Maggie and the squid

Currently, Sam has emptied out his bag on the floor and is sifting through the pieces, deciding what he will eat next. That kid definitely has a sweet tooth. Maybe he got that from me, but I am cured of it, unless it comes to homemade sugar cookies or Brian's chocolate chip cookies.

The cookie jar was full earlier in the week...

I have always enjoyed Valentines Day. As I kid, the Valentine Heart would visit us leaving a simple gift for each of us on the front porch...and surprisingly, she still comes to my kids :). February is also a busy birthday month for us as grandparents and our little Sadie will be celebrating birthdays in the next few days...I can't believe she will be turning 1!!

I decorated a few places with hearts and Sadie has just loved seeing them around. She eats them if she gets ahold of them, but of course, it seems she eats everything these days.

These jars had more candy in them until the kids filled their Valentines.

Busy

She's busy, therefore I am busy. How do you like that simple theory?

Sadie started crawling right around Christmas. She started out rather slow and tackled climbing our stairs sometime in mid-January. Since then, our lives as we know them have changed...all because of this little baby who wants so much to be big. She isn't walking yet, but she has figured out how to stand and balance on her own, two-little feet and she is mighty proud of herself for that accomplishment. One of us is always on either stairs patrol or small-items-on-the-floor patrol and when it's just me and Sadie at home during the day, the patrolling becomes a full-time job. I am really enjoying her and I've again been reminded that there will always be another load of laundry to fold and another counter to wipe off and another bathroom to clean, but not always a little one to love and to hold. 

The balancing act

Everything in her mouth

The Stairs!

The nightlight in the hall, fascinating.

I have loved watching Sadie explore her world.

Watching the rain

The Kitchen Table

This is what Christmas, kids, Cubscouts (I am a den mother), and having a crawling baby will do to the kitchen table. 2011 is definitely in full swing...the kitchen table is a good indicator of our busy lives (or my lack of order and cleanliness)...and what we've been up to in January.

Homework, Legos, Cubscouts and keeping everything up and away from Sadie. She is not only crawling, but she puts everything in her mouth including Legos. She has tackled going up the stairs, but definitely not down...she laughs as she dives head first down a few of them, laughing all the while as I catch her before she falls. Sadie is a tease. She has the cutest little toothless, (although a few are poking through), eyes-closed grin. She makes us laugh and keeps us busy, very busy.

I was called to be a Den Leader for the Bear Scouts in our ward/church...what a challenge, trying to teach and entertain 9, 9-year old boys. I get anxiety before every meeting...and there is a great sense of relief when the night is over. We all enjoy the last 15 minutes of gym time where we play indoor soccer or basketball or running games, they enjoy any time where they can run wild and beat each other up. Last week we made bird feeders out of 2-liter soda bottles and bagels covered in peanut butter and dipped in bird seed. Last night, they chose an animal and made posters about the animal along with three interesting facts. Although Cubscouts is a challenge for me, I have to appreciate the fact, that some Den mother will be doing this for Samuel in a couple of years and that some other mother does this for Maggie right now, as Activity Days, for her.

Sickness and Health

We had a lot of sickness in our family during the month of December and because of that, we missed out on seeing family during the holidays and taking part in a lot of the holiday festivities we normally enjoy. We didn't get up to see the lights at Temple Square, we didn't go skiing after all that snow, and we didn't have our traditional New Years finger food and celebrations. We did, however, manage to throw a few boxes of snaps with the kids and light a few sparklers to celebrate the coming of 2011, but that didn't last long with the freezing, below-zero temperatures. The fireworks were short-lived when we started to feel the tips of our fingers freeze. My point in relating all of this is not to bah-hum-bug the holidays, but to express an appreciation for the better health we have been blessed with in 2011. 

Being unhealthy, makes me more grateful and more appreciative of the times when we are healthy. We really take forgranted our health until we don't have it. So as much as I hate sickness, I am also grateful for it as it helps us step back and see our blessings more clearly. I look back at our time with Caleb in the hospital and can't help but see the miracles we experienced of healing while he was there, I also can't help but remember how we were lifted and supported and strengthened throughout the trials and how although there was a heavy burden weighted down with worry and waiting, we were able to carry on. I know that it is through the atonement of our Savior, Jesus Christ, that we were carried through the trials and that because of Him, we have received healing in our hearts and in our minds and I know that it is through Him that we continue to receive healing in our lives.

Wrapping Up 2010

November 2010

It has been a busy year and I am still wondering where the time has gone and how it can already be the week before Christmas 2010. It seems like yesterday that we were putting the Christmas decorations away and preparing for the arrival of Sadie...and now not many months down the road and our little Sadie is becoming a more independent-then-ever  almost 10-month old who has just started to crawl (i.e. rather slither) across the floor to get what she wants. Today, I went to get her out of her crib after her nap and she was standing in her crib, throwing her pacifier at her rocking horse. She also decided (this week) that she is done nursing and just this morning I noticed she is getting a mouthful of teeth.

Speaking of teething, Maggie is teething as well. She is losing teeth as fast as Sadie is getting them. She wiggled and pulled, and "twisted" as she referred to it, all day and worked another tooth out. It is crazy to me how quickly they change, really from one day to the next. Sam is getting so tall, all of his pajama pants are floods and his size 4 T-shirts have been donated because he fills them out. I have to stop and step back everyone-once-in-awhile to realize that they are really growing up right in front of my eyes.

So what have we been up to...Maggie and Sam just completed an art class offered through the Draper Art Council and we attended their art show where they displayed 5 of their works of art, Brian and I were very impressed and it was fun to see them so pleased with their pieces. Along with all the homework Maggie has at night, she has been busy with school choir, piano lessons and ballet, which she seems to enjoy most of the time and both Maggie and Sam are gearing up for another season of soccer and ski lessons.

We are always excited when it snows and it looks like more of the white stuff is headed our way which may also include a White Christmas. The Christmas's I remember the most were the ones when the earth was blanketed in snow. I remember many winters looking out our front windows and watching the snow pile up on our lighted, brick pillars outside the front door. There is something very beautiful and simple about new fallen snow. I love the quiet, stillness it brings as it falls.

I've tried to get my shopping done early this year so I can focus on the importance of Christmas, that of Christ and the simple, grandeur of His birth...the hustle and bustle of Christmas can be so distracting at times. A friend of mine expressed a thought to me a few weeks ago that I have thought about a lot lately. She said to ask myself the following question: how do I make room for the Savior in my life? I've thought about this a lot and I am looking forward to the new year as a good time to recommit to goals and set new ones. I am grateful for our Savior, Jesus Christ and for his birth and his life. I am grateful for beautiful music that testifies of Him at this time of year. I am grateful that He lives and that we can feel His love.

May your days this holiday season be truly Merry and Bright...and hopefully not too crazy!

A Recap in photos

The last couple of weeks have been a whirlwind of events. Enjoy the photos.

Maggie celebrated her 8th Birthday. We threw her a Favorite Things party and she chose to do two of her favorite things for the party: pedicures and pancakes. We took the girls to get pedicures (I have never seen them so quiet and so relaxed, it was hilarious to watch them sink deeper and deeper into their chairs). Then we came back to the house for the eating of pumpkin pancakes...yum!

A day after Maggie's birthday, we flew to northern California for the week of Thanksgiving to visit friends and family and some of our favorite places. It was a memorable, enjoyable trip for sure.

The beach trail in Half Moon Bay

Tidepools

A little bungalow at Indian Springs in Calistoga, CA

Indian Springs Seahorse and two barnacles

The hot spring pool at Indian Springs

Brian and the kids on the pool stairs

A little window shopping in St. Helena and yes, that turkey is all chocolate!

Sadie loving her carseat for once

Wine Country

Anna and Sadie, cousins!

McKayla and Maggie, cousins!

 After we got back there was of course all the laundry, but then also Christmas decorating and preparing for Maggie's baptism. Her baptism day was full of joy for her and for us.

Decorating for Christmas

Brian and Maggie before her baptism

Leaves

Saturday was cleanup-the-leaves-and-finish-all-of-the-projects-around-the-house-day.

Busy at work

As I cleaned up the last-night's-dishes-left-in-the-sink, I watched the kids out the window play in the leaves. If I had to choose one experience in life that was to capture the essence of childhood it would be watching my children play in the leaves...there is something very simple and very beautiful about fall leaves.  It brought back my own childhood memories of fall and the plethora of leaves that always fell and piled up in our front yard.

There is something hidden

And there is something found

She emerges

Now he agrees to be hidden

The covering...

and the emerging again.

Donut Falls

The kids were out of school last Friday and so to say goodbye to our warm days in November, we decided to hike up to Donut Falls. There was a little snow on the trail and a lot of ice. The kids enjoyed breaking the iced-over pot holes in the road and carrying the sheets of ice. When we got up to the falls, it was still flowing. Maggie and Sam were amazed at the falling water and the ease of the trail...the last time we hiked there we snow-shoed in....it was not easy and the falls were frozen. It was an enjoyable afternoon. We celebrated our hike with donuts when we finished.

Sheets of ice, like glass

Sadie loved every minute

Iced trails on the way up and mush on the way down

Sam eating beef jerky

Halloween

We had a busy week leading up to Halloween. I made blankets again for babies in the heart unit in San Francisco where Caleb had been and we celebrated his birthday on Halloween. He was born on the evening of Halloween and will always be our little spook. We had a peaceful day on Sunday remembering him. We visited his graveside and left our traditional jack-o-lantern and flowers in honor of him...he would have been three this year, but instead he is busy in heaven where time has no meaning and the eternities reach on forever. 

Our sweet Caleb

Thank you Karen!! for this beautiful arrangement in memory of Caleb

While at UCSF, Caleb received many blankets as gifts, so now, we make them for others.

The kids celebrated Halloween early this year as they were out of school on Friday. They had their annual Halloween parade followed by class parties. As Sam is into costumes lately, I wasn't sure what he was going to be. He chose two different costumes this year, one for school and one for Trick-or-Treating. Maggie was a beautiful, pumpkin queen and Sadie was our little Bee.

The Pumpkin Queen

Costume 1

Costume 2

My Mom made this spooky graveyard ghoulash

Maggie made monster eyes and monster mouths

Sadie wasn't so sure about Halloween

The lute and booty