Merry Christmas to all our family and friends!!! 

We love you and miss you, especially at this special time of year. 

Jolly Old St. Nicholas...

obviously doesn't make Abigail too jolly...

Here, Alex is feeling sorry for his baby sister and trying his best to help her out.  Analeigh just really wants a good picture...

Don't worry, these are the only two I took then I quick saved the baby! She very rarely gets too upset, so you know she was not loving the jolly elf.

More November

The end of November brought another belt ceremony for Alex (he earned his camo belt), and a great Thanksgiving!  We make a Thankful poster as a family every year.  We always have too many pictures so we do both sides. 

     Analeigh made a cute picture of our Thanksgiving dinner.  We were invited to go to our friends' house for Thanksgiving dinner this year.  It was fun to have somewhere to go, being so far away from family.  They have 4 kids, so our kids had a great time playing.  We've obviously been away from family on holidays for a long time because Analeigh actually cried when I told her we were going somewhere else to have Thanksgiving dinner this time.  She is used to just being with our little family and she was worried they might not have all of the usual Thanksgiving food dishes that we make (rolls, cranberry sauce, green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole).  After I assured her that almost everybody has those foods on Thanksgiving she warmed up to the idea of leaving our house to spend the day with another family. 

     I took Abigail grocery shopping to buy what we needed for Thanksgiving...umm, apparently someone needed a nap, ha!  She was out like a light for most of the shopping.  What a sweetie!  As long as she has that blankie, she is happy anywhere!

Alex receiving his camo belt...go Alex!

Variety Show 2009

So, I better catch up on this here bloggity blog.  The time between Halloween and Christmas is so busy it just FLIES by! 
Well, in November the kids participated in their elementary school's Variety Show.  They went to watch the variety show last year with Scott.  I had just had Abigail so I had stayed home.  But Analeigh could not stop talking about how she wanted to be in it when she started Kindergarten.  Every day on the way to preschool she would talk about what song she was going to sing when she was in it, and what it would be like, and we would listen to different songs and she would "practice" and sing along.  Well, somewhere along the year she fell in love with the musical Annie.  She loved watching it and listening to the soundtrack.  Finally she started Kindergarten, and as soon as she heard the variety show was coming up she asked if I would sign her up for it.  She had decided she would sing "Maybe" from Annie.  Well, I was a little (ok, more than a little) nervous for her, but did not want to discourage her from something she had set her sights on so long ago.  So, we signed her up and practiced at home.  Meanwhile, Alex decided he also wanted to be in the variety show, so he was working on a plan for himself.  He had great plans to do a little funny skit with one of his friends.  He really had it all planned out well (they would plan it on the bus on their way home from school), but his friend ended up not being able to do the skit with him.  He was really bummed, so I suggested he do his own thing...a comedy act.  He loves telling jokes and getting people to laugh, so it was right up his alley.  Well, both kids worked hard to get ready for the show.  The rehearsal came and I was very interested to see how it would go (especially for Analeigh who has not been up in front of people much before).  They did great!!!  Analeigh got to have another rehearsal when her teacher asked her to sing for her class so that they would all get a chance to hear her.  The night of the show finally came.  Both kids were very nervous and jittery with excitement.  And they did AWESOME (if I do say so myself)!!!  I was a very proud mama!!  Analeigh was the very first performance of the show, and she opened it up perfectly.  And Alex provided some much needed comic relief around the middle of the show (you have been to an elementary school talent show, right?).  It was a great night.  
It's too bad these are the only pictures I got of the evening!!  I must have been nervous or something......Oh, and I will post a video of their performances in the morning.  It's too stinkin' late tonight, I need to go to bed.

Halloween

We had a great halloween!  October was a very busy month for us and it ended just perfectly!  Alex had a soccer game in the morning.  Afterwards we went home and started preparing to carve our pumpkins (we got our pumpkins about a week earlier after hearing about a habitat for humanity store here in town that had a huge load of pumpkins dropped off there.  They were giving them away for FREE.  They had around 1000 and were telling people to come get them, so we did.  Of course we left a little donation for the habitat house).  Anyway, Scott got online and looked up some jack-o-lantern stencils and we found some super cool ones for our jack-o-lanterns.  Analeigh drew her face the way she wanted hers to look and Daddy was able to help her make her jack-o-lantern turn out just right (he is the pumpkin expert around here).  We think they turned out pretty great!  Then we got our porch set up for the night, got everyone in their costumes and made pumpkin milkshakes before heading out the door. 
We did some trick-or-treating and went to a house in our neighborhood that had set up a "haunted yard"  in their backyard.  I expected it to be a little cheesy, most likely done by some teenagers or something.  The closer we got to it I could tell it was better than that.  EVERYONE in the neighborhood was there.  It was obviously done by some Halloween loving adults, and it was great (and free!).  Alex was with his friends at this point, but I wanted to see it, so I talked Analeigh in to going through with me if I held her while Scott waited with Abigail.  The lady who was letting us in secretly warned the people inside that it was a little one coming through, so they went easy on the scaring.  But it was awesome...coffins, a spider lady, all kinds of fun.  It would be so fun to go all out for Halloween like that.  I made Scott go through by himself just so he could see it (as brave as Analeigh was, she didn't have any desire to go through again, ha).  After the haunted yard I took the girls home so we could hand out candy and Scott went around with Alex and his friends.  Analeigh had lots of fun handing out candy...she loved that job.  I think I'll do that with her next year instead and have Alex split his trick-or-treating candy with her (yeah, right...it might be worth trying though!).  And Abigail had her first lollipop, and oh my goodness, she wouldn't even give me the stick after it was all gone.  She had to lick it one more time! 
I love Halloween!       

Our Sweet One Year Old!

Our little sweetie is ONE!!!  We had a party for her the night before her birthday (so that neither the holiday nor the birthday got overshadowed), and it was perfect.  We had our friends over who have a boy who turns one in a couple of weeks.  We had dinner, opened presents, and then ate jack-o-lantern cake.  Before our friends arrived I let Abigail help me open her gift from Great Grandma Sims.  She got two pair of the cutest socks and a $1 bill (thanks Great Grandma!).  She had the brightest smile ever and held on to BOTH pair of socks AND the money and wouldn't let go for the longest time.  It was too cute!  So, later, when she got to open MORE presents she was so happy and excited for each one.  Thanks to the Grandmas and Papa for the really cute clothes and fun toys.  Alex even had Scott take him to the store with his own money to pick out something for her.  He was adamant that he needed to get her something.  = )   Analeigh made her a beautiful picture too!  We gave her a ride-on/walker toy (it seems to be a tradition for our kids to get one of these for their first birthday's...and they all love them!).  She has had sooo much fun with it so far and it really has encouraged her to start walking around more since she has something to hold on to.  Analeigh loves it too, and it's funny to see Abigail defending her toy.  Analeigh has to either be playing with Abigail with it or play with it while Abigail is sleeping because Abigail doesn't let anyone else touch it yet, haha (no, really, she is the sweetest thing, but she really does love this toy!).

At One Year Old, Abigail:

• is standing on her own and walks with assistance
• LOVES graham crackers
• can say mama, dada, anna, alek (once, but we're counting it...that's a hard one!), hi, nods her head to answer yes, shakes it for no, waves bye-bye, blows kisses, gives great kisses, signs more
• Is not a picky eater and has eaten all veggies and fruits we have given her with no problem
• is a mosquito magnet
• loves being in the baby backpack
• has 4 teeth
• is taking a shorter nap in the mornings and a longer nap in the afternoons 
• still sleeps through the night
• adores her brother and daddy and loves any attention they give to her
• craves the companionship of her big sister...they love spending time reading together
• is a mommy's girl
• is starting to want to feed herself (messy mealtimes, here we come)
• HAS to take all of the movies off the shelf everyday or her day is not complete

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ABIGAIL!!  WE LOVE YOU!!!!
 

Abigail in the swing at the playground

This should have gone before the last post...oh well!  Here's our little sweetie!

For the Beauty of the Earth...

Going for a Sunday walk on the Monticello trail...

Gorgeous!

Rolling down the hill

I LOVE the Fall!!

My favorite picture with my favorite people!

If you walk the whole trail it takes you up to Thomas Jefferson's famous Monticello.  Last year at this same time of year I became very familiar with the trail as I would walk it constantly with Coldplay on the iPod trying to walk Abigail out of me!  Ha!  It didn't work though.  Now I put her in the backpack and carry her up it and she loves it!  Luckily, Scott could do the carrying this day!

Playing at the Neighborhood Park

We should have gotten a picture of us playing tetherball since that's actually our favorite part of playing at the playground.  That and 4 square! 

Alex's 9th Birthday

Alex's birthday was last weekend.  It is always a struggle to celebrate around the general conference schedule.  This year we decided to let him invite his cub scout friends to go miniature golfing with him.  He LOVES going mini-golfing and had been begging to go for quite a while, so we thought he would love that idea.  We had the party at 10am (since conference starts at 12:00 out here).  One of his scout friends was sick and ended up not being able to come, so we had 3 boys there plus Alex and of course, Analeigh.  They all did really well and took turns golfing nicely.  What cute boys!  Alex even got the first hole in one!  Yay Birthday Boy!  I was impressed with how well Analeigh was doing too, and she ended up getting a hole in one!!     

I have so many things I SHOULD be doing right now, but I keep thinking it is about time for a proper update on here. So, here goes...

Third grade is really suiting Alex! He is having a really good year so far. We are making sure he has plenty to do to keep him engaged and learning, which makes a huge difference for him. He is funny and comes up with great plans and ideas. He gave a great lesson for our family home evening last night about obedience. I hadn't had time to help him come up with a lesson, so I told him I would just do the lesson. He had just gotten home from soccer practice and we were going to start right after he got cleaned up. When he came out he told me he still wanted to do the lesson and he just needed to find one of the Friend magazines that had the story he needed in it. I was so impressed. He did so great.

He also just had tae-kwon-do testing again and passed and is now a Yellow belt! And he finished all his requirements to get his Wolf badge in Cub Scouts. Plus the Leave No Trace Awareness patch and SEVERAL belt loops and arrow points and the summer activity pin. He is now on to work on his Bear requirements!

Analeigh is busy in Kindergarten! She is having lots of fun. I have been going in to eat lunch with each of the kids once a week or two weeks. It is always entertaining to eat with the kindergarteners. She has a cute little class, and her teacher always tells me how much she enjoys Analeigh (which I love!). She loves to help me cook or whatever I'm doing. She gets a lot of joy from drawing and coloring and uses it as an outlet. She can tie her shoes now! And she is reading more and writing on her own (sounding it out, then writing how it sounds). The day at school gets a little long for her and she wishes she wasn't gone so long, but she mostly enjoys it.

I can't believe Abigail is almost one!! She is standing on her own now, so it won't be long before she takes off on those two little feet! We have a great time together during the day. I LOVE her kisses, and when she blows them to me. She is the cutest little clapper you've ever seen. She loves pat-a-cake. She even claps when she hears people cheering on the tv, haha. She loves to pat Alex on the head. It seems to be her thing with him. The big kids get such a kick out of her and get so excited when she does something new. Fun!

I am trying to get more of those rocking chairs made and planning to get in on the holiday city market here. Hopefully I can sell some rockers!

We have had lots going on every weekend and the weeks are always busy! The weather has been NICE. We are grateful for that. We are really looking forward to the leaves changing in the next month!! We plan to get some family pictures taken outside while the leaves are in all their glory. We'll be sure to post them when we get them done. It probably will be around Halloween.

She got her face painted at a Work Picnic/BBQ that Scott took the kids to while I was in DC at the temple. She was so sad to have to wash it off.

Analeigh took this one at the tae-kwon-do studio

Alex and his instructors

Getting his Yellow belt

Rare moment

Scott heard a funny crunching noise coming from the kitchen area and went to investigate and found this:

The Finished Product

What do you think?
The fabric (I LOVE) - I don't think the other pictures do it justice so I had to get a close up.

Back View



It is a nice light sagey green color, but it is hard to tell in the pics

Different lighting

Service For Pres. Monson's Birthday

Anybody see this? Yep, we're famous.
http://www.ldschurchnews.com/articles/57808/Birthday-gift-Do-something-for-others.html

Something I'm working on

I am working on making little rocking chairs. I'm not finished sanding and painting and everything yet, but I wanted to show my mom how it was going (she made these same chairs when I was little and sent me the pattern). I'll post a picture when it is ALL done too.

I just had to add this little cutie too...she's teaching herself to play already, heehee

Kindergarten

I sent my little girl off to all day kindergarten today. Go get 'em, Girl!!!

Luckily, she has a good big brother who is VERY eager to show her the ropes!

Here comes that big Yellow bus!

And like many other moms before me, I had to follow her to school on her first day to get some pics (she's funny, she didn't even try to talk to me, she just smiled and waved)!

And now I am home with the babe in a very quiet house....