Yearly Archives: 2012

Happy Birthday Kirstyn (yesterday)!!!  Big 13!  🙂  We opened presents, ate a great dinner in her honor, and had baked custard (instead of cake) which is one of Kirstyn’s favorites!

Tonight Kirstyn had a birthday party with a bunch of friends from school and church.  They had a great time eating a bunch of food from a nacho bar, playing games and enjoying one another’s company.  The party theme was a Mexican Fiesta.  The basement was all decorated accordingly and the kids had a great time!

Brittany made some really cute cupcakes for the group that looked very festive (see above).  She was vary proud of them.  🙂   The kids ate these cupcakes with vanilla ice cream or rainbow sherbet and then Angela pulled out the pinata!  They had fun doing that as well.  Kirstyn then opened her presents and had to give each and every one there a thank you hug after opening each gift.  We took a group picture before people started leaving and then they all sat around for the rest of the time playing games and having fun.

As people would leave, their parting gift was a Mexican soda with a paper flower attached to it.  Angela came up with the cool idea and the girls loved it.

After everyone was gone, Kirstyn spent a ton of time cleaning up the basement (a promise she had made in order to have the party).  🙂  She really had a bunch of fun tonight and we’re glad that all her friends could come!  Happy #13 Kirstyn!

Today we had a scare…  Sarah couldn’t get her car started after Seminary (and had to have it jumped).  She then couldn’t get it started after school and so I went up in the dark thinking I would have to do all this work in the dark and cold and when I got in, it STARTED RIGHT UP!  No difficulty whatsoever!

I don’t know what was wrong but we’re all good!  I’m thinking maybe she flooded it or something but who knows?  🙂  Whew!

Today we had our Stake Youth Theme Fireside and Brittany was asked to lead the music for the event.  She was pretty nervous but she did a great job!  She was so cute up there leading and smiling!  🙂  The theme for this year’s youth is “Arise and shine forth, that thy light may be a standard for the nations.”  There is a whole bunch of cool on-line content that goes with it.  Check it out!  https://www.lds.org/youth/theme/2012?lang=eng.

There is also a new For the Strength of Youth pamphlet coming out and the on-line material is great as well:  https://www.lds.org/youth/for-the-strength-of-youth?lang=eng.  This site has some great resources for both parents and youth!

Yesterday we took advantage of the big snow storm and while Brittany and Sarah were otherwise engaged, Angela and I took the boys and Kirstyn sledding at a nearby hill.  We had a great time!

It was pretty cold so we weren’t out too long.  Kirstyn’s hands were ice cubes by the time we were done because she said he wasn’t going to sled much and brought little, thin, knit gloves.  I had to lend her my gloves so she could feel her fingers again.  🙂

After sledding, we came home and warmed up with some hot chocolate!  🙂

Today we got hit with a big storm that closed the schools early and closed work early.  Even though I left early from work, it still took me over 2 1/2 hours to get home.  The roads were a mess and I think that when it snows around here (especially the first big snow), people take their brain out of their heads and replace it with oatmeal.  🙂

Angela had a fun experience with Ben in the van when she got rear-ended today!  😐  She saw it coming and knew the lady wasn’t going to be able to stop…  She didn’t bump the van very hard and it only put a slight scratch on the bumper so she was just fine.  When she hit the van, Ben said “Mom, did we just get hit by that lady!  Why did she do that?”  It was pretty funny.  🙂  Everyone is OK and we have yet another experience to put in our vault of interesting things.  🙂

Zachary started basketball today and had his first practice!  This is the first time he has ever played and it is funny watching him.  Most of the team have played before so they know what they are doing.  They are patient with Zach, however.  🙂  When he came home, he said he loved it!  We’ll see how the season goes.  About half-way through football season, he decided he wanted to play basketball with his friends as well.  The coaches are wonderful (one is a neighbor of ours and the other is the Zach’s football coach).  They are great with the kids.

Go Zach!

Tonight we had an Art Speaks meeting at Neuqua High School.  We discussed an event we have coming up on February 9th which should be fantastic.  ARTSpeaks features prominent speakers who will share how their involvement in the fine arts as a public school student molded their way of thinking and contributed to success in their chosen field.

For our February 9th event, we will be having Professor David King from Harvard University, Sean McCollum author of 30 published books and content specialist for Kennedy Center’s ArtsEdge website and Brian Pertl former manager at Microsoft Corporation and current Dean of the Music Conservatory at Lawrence University come and speak.  We heard Brian Pertl present a few months ago and it was funny, engaging and fascinating listening to him play his Didgeridoo.

Check out ARTSpeaks on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/ARTSpeaksNaperville/104018973055732!

Well, today the kids had to get up early again after a 2 week break and go back to school!  🙁  They weren’t too thrilled about it because they wanted to sleep in.  Oh well, such is life!  🙂  It was a very nice Christmas break we had together as a family, though!  🙂

Well, today we’re back home now (although it feels good to be back in our own house after all that travel).  We left Texas yesterday and drove to Dallas to the temple there.  The freeways were incredibly hard to follow.  The signs aren’t posted until right before road splits, and I always seemed to be in the middle or far right when the road we needed split left, or in the far left when the road split right!  It took us a little bit to get up there, but overall I think we saw a more “scenic way” there!  🙂

After stopping at the temple (unfortunately the grounds were closed due to it being Monday), we started on our way again.  We decided that instead of going home the way we came, we’d drive over through Little Rock, then by Memphis, and up through Southern Illinois.  It mapped out to only be about 50 miles more and we thought it would be worth it to see something different.  🙂

When we got to Little Rock, we went to the Old Mill, what my web research said should not be missed when visiting the city.  It was very close to the freeway.  The kids complained at first about having to stop, but when we got there, they loved it!  It was an old rock mill nestled in a beautiful place along the river.  From the look of the place, it’s no wonder it’s one of the most popular places in town for family pictures, wedding pictures, etc.  Pictures can’t do it justice and we took a bunch!

By the time we finished there, it was getting dark and we really needed to hurry on so we could find a hotel in the Memphis area.  We still had a few hours to drive.  When asked if the kids liked the stop, the decision of the Old Mill was unanimous!  🙂

We kept driving across Arkansas to the Memphis area.  We couldn’t find any hotels we wanted to stay at there so we kept going north a little way until we found something and then we stopped for the night.  We had a great day spending time with each other (except the stress in Dallas on the freeways)!  🙂  The only negative was that every time we stopped, it kept getting colder and colder!  When we got up this morning for the 7-8 hour drive home, there was frost on our van and if it had feelings, I don’t think it would have been very happy!  🙂

We got home between 4 and 5 with plenty of time to unpack, start doing wash, and recoup from the trip.  The kids don’t have to go back to school until Monday, but unfortunately, I have to go back to work tomorrow.  🙁  It was a GREAT vacation that we are glad we took.  At first, I think Angela was the only one who wanted to go (due to the excessive driving), but we all are very happy we went.  The 2200+ mile driving trip wasn’t too bad, and we saw a lot of things that were new for us!

Happy New Year everybody!!!  We are excited for a great up and coming 2012!

Today we slept in (church was at 11) and I especially enjoyed not having to go to any early morning meetings!  🙂  We ate breakfast and then got ready to go to church.  The kids were a little nervous to go to a different ward, but we assured them that everything would be OK and that they would survive!  🙂  We weren’t sure how Ben would react since not only were we away from home going to church, but this was his very first Sunday out of Nursery and in Sunbeams!  😐  Everyone did great, however!  Ben was a little whiny but we left him anyway, and the Sunbeam teacher was awesome with him and although he was still nervous about being there, he did great!  Zach thought he was really cool because he went to Primary with Nate and Tanner who are more than 2 years older than him!  🙂

After church, we came home and before everyone got undressed to lounge around for the day, we took family pictures.  They turned out really good and I think that this one will be our picture for 2012!  I love my new camera!

We couldn’t wait to change into comfy clothes and relax for the rest of the day.  We were all still pretty tired from the night before!  🙂  The boys played with Legos most of the afternoon, and all the kids played games together, went on an afternoon walk, and enjoyed the 70+ degree weather!  We have to go home tomorrow, and we’ll REALLY miss that!  We won’t have 70 degree weather for the next 4 months!