Snow Day!!

The weather was quite "balmy" this week at +10 degrees, so we bundled everybody up and had a snow day outside!! I got out a little sled and pulled the girls up and down the driveway and around the backyard, we built a little snowman (the snow didn't stick together very well!), and we had fun on the swings and our playhouse! It was so nice to be outside and enjoying our winter rather than being cooped up inside and hoping for nicer weather. Maybe we can make it through this winter after all!!

It's a keeper!

I don't know whether this is truly blog worthy or not, but I was pretty impressed. On Saturday I took my watch off so I could give my girls a bath and later that evening I went looking for it and it was nowhere to be found. I asked all the kids if they had seen it, but nobody was confessing, so I figured it was in the bottom of a toy box somewhere and I would find it eventually. I wear my watch everyday and I was quite lost without it for the last couple of days. As I was doing my laundry today - - yes, yes, more laundry (10 loads to be exact!!) - - I was switching loads and lo and behold, there in the bottom of the washing machine is my watch! I must have put it in my pocket during bath time. I actually am learning - normally if I leave my watch on the bathroom counter it does end up in the bottom of a toy box!! So I guess my next lesson would be remembering what I actually do with it! Anyway - I was quite surprised to see that my watch was still ticking away and it had the right time too!! Not too shabby for a watch I have had for about 5 years and only cost $10!! It's a keeper!!

Goodbye 2008...... Hello 2009

Well, I guess I can't start a new year without finishing out the last one, so I thought I would add some pictures from Christmas! We had a great time with all our family both here and in Mountain View. Matt's mom and siblings came over to our house on the 21st and we had our Christmas dinner and shared presents with the kids.

Then we went to my mom and dad's on the 24th and spent 5 days with them. It was such a blast having everybody home for Christmas - 26 people for Christmas morning was CRAZY, but so so so much fun!! We were able to see a lot of extended family at a dinner on the 27th and also at church the next day.

We were "fortunate" to have a major snow storm hit while we were in church and we were forced to stay an extra night.

It was hard to leave knowing the festivities of the new year were going on without us. We survived though and went to a friends home and played games to bring in the new year. The one downside to our holidays was that we had to spend some time with Grace in the ER in the Cardston Hospital on Christmas day because her ear drum had burst! We were able to get some antibiotics and painkillers and she was on the mend. Then Rebecca said her ear hurt, so I did what doctors tell you never to do, and started her on Grace's medicine too. Then Anna came down with a fever and a cough, and then lo and behold, so did Sarah. I took them all to see our doctor on Tuesday this week and they ALL have ear infections! My doctor didn't seem to think that Rebecca needed any medication because she didn't have a fever at the time like Anna and Sarah did, but I just neglected to tell her that she was doing better because she had been taking medication! Anyway, two more bottles of Amoxil later, and hopefully next week we can see some improvements!!

All in all, it was a very awesome Christmas and the only thing that would have made it better would have been having it last longer. I wonder what kind of adventures 2009 will bring.......

Tis' the season.....

Well, it is that time of year again - life gets overwhelmingly busy and consequently time speeds up and I end up not enjoying my Christmas holidays. This past week has been so crazy!! I hadn't had a chance to do any laundry since we came back from Grandma's funeral, so on Monday there were 10 loads to do. Those 10 loads didn't get folded until Wednesday, and not put away until today.... the socks are still on the floor, unmatched! By today there were another four loads to do - they are washed and dried, but not folded yet. I wonder how many days until that gets done. We had Christmas concerts on Tuesday and Wednesday night up at the school for our kids - they were great by the way! I was supposed to go to my Enrichment Christmas Dinner tonight, but after spending some time worshiping the ceramic throne last night - I opted out. I had a really bad night last night and was so grateful for Matt who slept on the couch with Sarah so I could sleep, or try to sleep anyway. I was surprised at how well I felt today and was able to clean my family room, kids rooms, and kitchen! I even sewed two more Christmas PJ's. That is three done - only four more to go. Why do I do this to myself? Matt and I have a party tomorrow night, a party on Saturday night, a family dinner here on Sunday night, and friends coming for FHE on Monday night! Holy Smokes!! I am so glad tomorrow is the last day of school. Two whole weeks of not having to fight to get kids out of bed - but Murphy's Law states that for the entire two weeks they will all pop out of bed like daisy's earlier than normal, and then be back to sleeping in when it is time for school. I guess I just needed to vent tonight. I really do love the Christmas season, but it sure is crazy sometimes!!

4th picture from 4th folder

Well, here is my fourth picture from my fourth folder - - Christmas 2004! It's amazing how many changes can occur in four short years. In this picture Brendan was 7 1/2, Grace was 2 1/2, and Anna was only 9 months old. We were back in our other place, with our orange walls and scrawny Chrismtas tree (which we gave to Cub and Rachel - sorry for calling it scrawny!). I can totally see Sarah when looking at Anna - they really do look a lot alike! I am so glad for this Christmas season and for all the previous ones that we have enjoyed. I am looking forward to many many more in the future as well!

Amazing Lady, Amazing Grandma

I was very sad to hear the news that last night my Grandma Webster passed away. I started thinking back about all the influence she has had on my life. She was such a wonderful example to me and I really do wish I could be more like her. I never heard her raise her voice and she always had something nice to say about everybody. Grandma had a way about her to get her point across without making me feel bad about any decision I had made. She loved to hear everything I had to say and was always willing to listen to any new piano piece or little bit of news I had.

It didn't matter what was going on - Grandma was always there. She was part of every important event in my life, and always had something to contribute to that. I love the blankets she made for me, and the blessing outfits that she made for my children. I am grateful for the tangible evidence she left me of her love for me.

I am so grateful that my children had the opportunity to know her. I know that she was excited to see her mother again - it has been about 37 years since her own mother passed away. All I have to do is think about my own mother and I get a very small glimpse at how much she missed her! I feel very blessed to have been born into such a wonderful family with such strong, amazing women to model my life after. I love you so much Grandma! I will miss you, but I am so grateful to know that we will be together again one day.

Onward, ever onward......

As many of you may know, Rebecca loves to sing. Actually all my girls love to sing, but Rebecca has been singing since before she could talk. She would carry the tune of just about any song, not really caring about the words. Well, this morning her song of the day was "Called to Serve". Her favorite part of the song is the chorus where it sings, "Onward, ever onward as we glory in his name" which she just repeated all morning. I was glad she was happy and actually took the words to heart after having such a crazy evening the night before. It all started last week when I took the kids into the eye doctor to have their eyes checked. Anna had been tested at her preschool and they suggested following up with her eye doctor as she had failed their little exam there. I expected that we might have to get glasses for her, because when she was checked out 18 months ago, the doctor said because of the shape of her eye, she probably would need glasses in the future. So no surprise at all when lo and behold, Anna did need glasses. I was a bit taken aback at her prescription which was worse than mine - and that is pretty bad! My next surprise was that Rebecca needed glasses too!! So, $400 later, we had two new pairs of glasses on order. Yesterday the office called and said their glasses were ready, so we bundled everybody up and went to get their new glasses. I tried to get them very excited about them because I wanted them to be excited to wear them. They were both very excited and couldn't wait for their dad to get home so they could show him. Both girls had a bit of trouble at first with the glasses as the prescription is so strong it will take a bit for them to let their eyes relax and let the glasses do the work. My next surprise was 2 hours after we got home..... Rebecca came upstairs with the leg of her glasses sticking straight out from her head! She said they hurt her ear, so she moved it..... BIG TIME!! She had totally broken the hinge and twisted it at a crazy angle. Who knew a 3 year old was that strong!! I had to go back to the office this morning and thankfully there is a warranty and they ordered another leg for her glasses in and hopefully it will be in tomorrow. I hope she will get used to them soon - I don't know how long that warranty will last!! Needless to say, I guess my new song is: "Onward, ever onward!"