December 31, 2011

We got three good sized storms during the month of December. The one with the most snow came the week of Christmas, so although it didn't snow on Christmas Day, we did have a white Christmas. The snow brought all sorts of fun (and other not-so-fun) stuff with it:
*Snowmen - we built a couple good ones (Bruno kept wanting to steal their body parts or eat them, but we managed to keep them alive for a day or two)
*Sledding - we went back to the great hill we found when the Sorensens came and went up and down that hill over and over again.
*Uncle Corbin even made a little snow cave
*Snow Days - the kids have already had several days in which school started late or was cancelled altogether
*Icicles that were over 4 feet long
*Beautiful scenery - After the storm that literally DUMPED on us it looked absolutely beautiful outside.
*Snow cones and plain snow to eat - Nathan had to grab a handful almost any time we went outside
*And horrific conditions in our driveway. I am not exaggerating when I say that our van got stuck literally EVERY time we got in it for almost a week. Even our Suburban got stuck a couple of times.
(Luckily we got our heater working this year, so even in this chilly weather we are staying toasty and warm in our house)

December 30, 2011

Christmas Eve had come. We were so excited that the Sorensen gang (Grandpa, Grandma, Corbin, Kyra, Preston and Jesse) were going to come down to spend Christmas with us. They were going to leave on the afternoon of the 23rd, but the roads were so icy all over the state of NM, so they didn't want to chance driving through the night with roads like that. They left super early Christmas Eve. And then the fun began: they ran out of gas, then the battery died while they were waiting for Grandpa to get back with the gas, then they felt a vibration so they had to stop to get a new tire, then something blew in the engine which eventually led to them getting a rental car (a little 5-seater Prius for the 6 of them and ALL their stuff). They finally made it at about 11:45 Christmas Eve night. Meanwhile we were at home getting regular updates on their progress. When we found out they were going to have to rent a little car I knew I was going to have to go out and shovel the driveway down to our house as well as a little parking place for them in front of the house. The van had been stuck in the same place for almost a week (we got some serious snow earlier that week), so we tried to move it...and it got stuck. We finally got it going again and it got stuck in another spot. We resorted to buying chains so that it could get some traction on the ice and snow. While we went to get the chains we decided to check out a hill that friends had told us about - a great one for sledding....and it was. We spent an hour sledding down the hill (fun). Then we got home and tried to get the snow chains on, which became a bigger project than we anticipated since the van would not move at all. When our fingers were frozen (and Dad's toes) we decided to let it sit for the night and next day and we went in to do our Christmas Eve festivities. I had decided earlier that day to save the nice dinner for the next day when the family was all here. So that night we had appetizers for dinner: 7-layer dip, little smokies in barbeque sauce and deviled eggs (not the fanciest meal ever, but it was fun). We ate it all together in the living room and then had our Family fireside reading scriptures and stories and singing songs and ended in the bearing of testimonies. The kids got treats put out for Santa and they all dressed in the matching PJs and then we put in "Muppet Christmas Carol." We sent them off to bed when it was over and they were all asleep within a half an hour. The excitement of the Sorensens arriving woke most of them up, so it was a pretty late night for the adults, but it was great. Christmas morning came and the kids waited anxiously for the music to start and then they hurried into the living room to see what they had gotten. The big gift was a spring that Santa left in each of the kids' stockings, which went to a trampoline that was in a box covered in the back of the room. I'm sure Santa wished he could have put it up, but it just didn't quite get done in time....he he he. We ate breakfast casserole and then got ready for church (we were saving the gift opening for after church). I led the choir, which sounded WONDERFUL (there were lots of voices and the spirit was there and strong), plus all the Sorensen clan got to sing with us. The kids sang in a children's group as well: In the Stable. They did awesome (so much better than our practice). Kyra and I sang with two other women in a rendition of "O HOly Night." I was so happy Kyra made it so that I didn't have to sing the high notes. We came home and shortly after had a phone call from Caleb, the missionary, which was wonderful (especially since my dad can get a conference call going with the whole family). Then we opened presents. Megan is at the best age - every single present was "THE BEST" and she got completely and totally excited about it. Santa brought a big gift this year for the family to share: a trampoline. Can't wait to get that set up. We ate a tasty dinner that night: ham, funeral potatoes, sweet potato casserole, raspberry jello, Gullivers corn and sparkling apple cider. It was a wonderful day filled with music and worship and family and good food and fun.

December 16, 2011

"We elves try to stick to the four main food groups: candy, candy canes, candy corns and syrup." - Buddy from "Elf" (one of our favorite holiday movies). We actually bought it this year and the kids have been watching it over and over again.

Even though our holidays were a little more hectic and out-of-sorts with the surgery and such, we still managed to get in all of our sugar eating. We spent one of the kids' Snow Days making and decorating tasty treats: chocolate covered oreos with peppermint (SO GOOD), dipped pretzels, chocolate dipped cookie dough, spritz cookies, sugar cookies. Plus we still had tons of fudge left from the double batch Sean made a couple of weeks earlier, not to mention all of the goodies friends and neighbors brought over. YUM!

November 27, 2011

We had a lovely Thanksgiving yesterday, minus the knee blow out that Dad got during his Turkey Bowl (football game) that morning. Poor guy can hardly move. We had our friends, the Bucks, over for dinner. All of the kids in our two families have a "friend" that is basically the same age (Aaron and Ben, Tessa and Caelan, Jonah and Nathan)....and then there is Megan and Jacob (Megan who is 5 years old and Jacob who is 10 and a half). It's funny to watch how they pair up and are little buddies. Our feast included turkey, gravy, sweet potato casserole, green beans, peas, homemade rolls, raspberry jello salad, corn souffle, stuffing, homemade cranberry sauce, apple-ginger ale, and party punch. Later we went to some other friends' house for dessert (the table was packed with desserts: probably 15 options), and the kids all played wild together. It was a great day.

Earlier this month we had a Family Home Evening on Gratitude. Throughout the rest of the month we wrote down things we were thankful for on popsicle sticks and put them in our "Thankful Jar." Here are some of the things on the sticks:
Church
Running vehicle with no payment
Missionaries
Veterans
Jesus
Priesthood (and that we can be healed through it)
Food
God
Austin
Holy Ghost
Clothes
Nature
Daddy and Mommy
"Best Wife and Mom ever"
Holidays
Family

I also did a little photo session with the kids. I wanted to do family pictures for our holiday card, but then Sean broke himself and I didn't want to make him have to move around all over outside (we'll have to do the family one later).

November 22, 2011

Dad really wanted to try for better luck at the salmon snagging excursion (he had gone a couple weeks earlier with the scouts and got stormed out) so we decided to take a little family trip up to the lake for the weekend. We headed up after the kids got out of school on Friday. We stopped and had Blake's burgers and fixed the tail light on the van (after getting pulled over and given a warning for it) and then made our way to El Vado Lake. We reserved a little cabin right there by the lake. It was a cute two bedroom wood cabin right along the river. We hung out that night. Dad took Caelan and Ben over to lake and through in their line a couple of times. The next morning we got up and made breakfast right there in the cabin: eggs, potatoes and sausage. We caught two deer fighting in front of the cabin, which was pretty entertaining to watch. The kids played with a few dogs that were wandering around in front of the cabin. Megan basically couldn't keep away from them. Then we headed over to the Lake Heron and fished. Dad helped the kids with their rods. We stayed in one spot for a couple of hours with no luck (there were probably 20 other fishermen around us and no one was catching anything). We tried another spot and there was no luck there either. We drove by two other spots and asked around, but apparently the fish weren't out and about that day. We decided to head home. The kids had a blast playing along the water front and climbing the rocks. We stopped in Santa Fe at a Spanish foods store and picked up some spanish sausage and then got dinner in Albuquerque before we arrived home. We'll have to try it again next year. It was a fun family getaway, even if we came home empty handed.

November 7, 2011

Megan's birthday landed on the day that we blessed Austin, so it was a full day of celebrating. We even had Tom and Carolyn and Rachel over for dinner and fun after church. Grandpa and Grandma gave Megan a new Ariel doll for her birthday, which she loves.

Nov 7, 2011

Megan is now 5 years old. She's been counting down the days until her birthday for a couple of weeks now. She informed me a few weeks ago that I could get her something "beautiful or cute" for her birthday, "but not something awesome." We got a kick out of that one. Her preschool class took a field trip to Hoots (a fun place with bounce houses obstacle courses and a huge blow up slide). She took some birthday cookies with her to celebrate. Then on Sunday she woke up bright and early ready to open her presents (she had two presents wrapped from grandparents and sitting on a shelf for 2 weeks - what a temptation - but she stayed strong). She was completely and totally enthralled with everything she got: Ariel doll, a new baby doll, a panda pillow pet, a little barbie mermaid, Hello Kitty figurines and coloring book and a pony (to put on top of her cake). She asked for a "ponyland cake" and since I have no idea what that is, I made a rainbow cake with green grass and a little pond and put two ponies on top....and apparently it was just what she wanted. Her cousin Rachel came over for dinner and playing last night and brought her another little pony. She came in to me last night before she went in to bed and said, "Mom, I have to tell you something." Then she stomped her foot and said, "Best birthday ever: a present from Rachel and I get to bring my drink to bed." (I don't usually let them take their drinks of water to bed). HE HE HE. I'm glad it was great for her.

Some "AWESOME" things about Megan:
Favorite foods: Macaroni and cheese and fruits and vegetables
Not so favorite foods: potatoes
Favorite movie: Winnie the Pooh (the new one - this is what she told me). She doesn't really have one movie that she wants to watch over and over again - she likes almost all the animated shows we have
Favorite TV show (watched on Netflix): Dragon Tales, Dora, Backyardigans
Favorite color: She says brown, but she also loves pink.
Favorite song: Jar of Hearts
She is a great helper. If I ask someone else to do something, more than half the time Megan will jump and and run to do it before they can. She is also the child who will clean up rooms by herself without being asked the most (by far). There have been so many times that she walks into the house with a pile full of stuff from the van, which she has been cleaning out. She LOVES to hold her baby brother and will ask me over and over again until I finally let her. She loves to play with ponies and barbies and stuffed animals and little character figurines and on the iPad or computer. She plays make believe games with her brothers and sisters and loves to play with Bruno. She is still learning her letters (that's my fault - she must be my third child....HE HE HE), but she catches on to things pretty quick. She loves to practice writing her name, and one of her favorite past times lately is coloring (she will sit and do it for hours, literally). She is the social butterfly of the family: everyone knows her and loves her (seriously all sorts of random people in our ward will make comments to me a(bout Megan). She loves to wear skirts and doesn't mind me doing her hair every day (in fact, just the other day she asked me if I would teach her how to do hair). She is a sweet, happy, energetic, fun girl and we couldn't imagine our family without her.

This is a great picture. Nathan was picking at the frosting - look at all their expressions.

October 31, 2011

Halloween again. It seemed like the celebrating just kept on going. Megan's had a Halloween party at her school last Thursday where she got to dress up. Then we went to the kids Halloween parade at their school on Friday. On Saturday was the ward Halloween party complete with trunk-or-treating. On Monday (the actual holiday) the kids dressed up again and went trick-or-treating in the Walmart and at the Beehive Home (an assisted living home). I think we ended up going through 15 costumes between all of us. Fun times. Megan was a donkey, a princess and a clown (she actually wore the clown costume that Grandma Sorensen gave us - one she wore when she was a little girl). Dad always lets the kids choose the pumpkins that they want him to carve. Megan chose a Hello Kitty pumpkin. This year I decided to try a "free for all" with the candy, instead of rationing it out every day for a couple of weeks, I pretty much just let them have at it. I think I like it better that way - it gets it out of the house sooner and it makes for only a few days of sugar highs.

October 21, 2011

Grandma Dick came to help out when Austin was born. We also got a visit from Aunt Lindsay and her friend, Elsbeth (who Megan took a liking to right away - she's the real socialite of the family). We went to the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta while they were here. Actually we found a parking lot outside of the park and watched the balloons take off from there. It was pretty windy so there weren't as many balloons taking off as usual, but we didn't have to leave at the crack of dawn to get there, we didn't have to deal with parking, and we got to be right by our car so we could jump back in when it started to get chilly. Plus Grandma got us some cinammon rolls that we gobbled up as we waited. Afterwards we headed over to the Botanic Gardens. They were having a special Fall Festival in the farm section. I helped Megan make a doll out of corn husks, we got to watch them make apple cider (and then taste it...and buy some to take home), the kids got to pet some animals, and Grandma took a ride on a tractor with them. We ate chinese food on the way home and called it a day - Fun times.

October 12, 2011

Little Austin has arrived. Megan is a big sister...again. He came on October 2nd (right in between General Conference sessions). I started labor early that morning but it was super sporadic. At one point I had the kids take a walk with me up and down our road to see if we could get something regular happening. As we were singing the intermediate hymn during the morning session of Conference I started to feel some hard contractions and then they just kept coming. We took the kids over to the Pearce's house and then headed to the hospital. I checked in at 12:33 PM and Austin was born at 1:00 PM. Sean went and got the kids to come and visit later that evening. They were all in love at first sight. And Megan and Nathan were also quite excited about my dinner in the hospital - they wanted to eat it all. She spent the next day at her best friend, Presley's house, until we got home from the hospital. Since we have been home there is NO shortage of people to love on him and hold him and help him. The kids take turns holding him all the time. Megan is actually really good with him - she has a good handle on him. I mostly make them sit down to hold him, but occasionally she will walk to bring him to me (which she LOVES to do) and she does just fine.

September 9, 2012

Megan started preschool again. She is going to the same school that she went to last year: Parky's Pals. It's mostly a fun and social school, but she loves it. Her teachers are Mr. Chris and Ms. Darlene. Megan was very READY to start school especially since she had to wait three weeks after the other kids started. She loves that she gets to take something to show-and-tell almost every day.

August 30, 2011

Sean was gone at a Scout Training camp out for the whole weekend. He got home Sunday night. The kids were excitedly running out to the garage to meet him. Megan ran out and slipped or tripped and fell and hit her face right on our brick hearth. I ran out to help her and noticed blood running down her face. She had a good gash on the side of her eye. We checked it out, stopped the bleeding (it actually stopped pretty quick) and tried to console her while we made arrangements for the other kids so we could take her to the ER. She cried/screamed during this time. We headed down there, but by the time we got there she was doing much better, it wasn't bleeding anymore, she wasn't showing any signs of head trauma, etc. So we called Nurse Lindsay (Sean's sister) and talked to her about it. We decided to wait until Monday morning to call doctors, check out the wound again and then go to the Urgent Care if needed. She slept with us that night (so we could check up on her every so often during the night). The next day there was a good covering over the wound. I called the doctor and then the Urgent Care and asked them about it (they said the stitches would mostly be to help minimize the scarring). After getting all the opinions we decided to just butterfly it up ourselves and see how it heals. So she might end up with a little "character mark" (scar), but so far it's really been healing up well. She keeps wanting to take the bandaid off, but she's been good to listen and leave it alone. She also got a good scrape down the bridge of her nose and a few little ones on the side of her nose. Today her eye was swollen up. Poor thing - looks worse than it is. She's a trooper and is feeling great.

Aug 15, 2011

We did one final summer adventure (actually one of our only two trips this summer). And it all started with a blessing in disguise. I drove with the kids to Arizona to visit Grandpa and Grandma Dick. We were planning on me taking the Suburban. It gets a little better gas mileage than the van, and with gas guzzlers like ours every little bit counts. Two days before we were supposed to leave the air conditioning went completely out on the Suburban. Since I was driving through the dessert in the dead of summer we changed plans and I took the van. No one ever likes when something goes wrong on their car, but we were lucky with this one. I made it to Casa Grande with no problems (and we drove through three intense rain storms, which were kind of fun). The very next day Sean called and told me that the Suburban had broken down on him. He knew what the problem was right away was able to get it fixed with no trouble the next day (his boss let him use the company truck for the night). If I had taken the Suburban, however, it probably would have broken down somewhere along the way leaving me stranded with 4 kiddos in the dessert. Plus, then I would have had to have it towed and taken it to a shop to get it fixed (which always costs at least three times more). So who would have guessed a broken air conditioner would have really ended up being a blessing in disguise. Anyway, we had a great time in AZ: mostly swimming....because really what else can you do when it's 110 degrees outside. Megan learned how to swim under water and Nathan went from clinging on to me for dear life in the pool, to jumping off the edge with floaties on and wanting to do it over and over and over again. We also got some dental work done while we were there - just cleanings and check-ups and such. We saw Kung Fu Panda 2, which was super cute. After 4 days there I drove to Murrieta, CA to visit the Sorensen clan. We had lots of water fun there too. We went to Wild Rivers. Caelan and Ben wanted to go on any slide they could. I mostly hung out in the Kiddie areas with Nathan and Megan (I'm a little too big and pregnant to go down water slides). They all loved it. We also took a trip to the beach. Megan went out in the water, but never too far. She mostly liked to run out and then run back in before the wave caught up to her. She also had fun digging for sand crabs (and there were LOTS of sand crabs). We played in the water and sand and later had a fire and roasted hot dogs and yummy banana treats. Grandpa Sorensen made an awesome fort with the kids which was able to withstand most of the waves that came up on it. The kids played in the slip-n-slide in the front yard one day and went swimming in a neighbors pool another day. Dad and I went to the temple for the sealing of a friend. We got home
late Monday night.

July 27, 2011

The other day Megan started talking to me about "a beautiful ring that Daddy gave you when you got married." I showed her the wedding ring that I was wearing and asked her if this is what she was talking about. She said, "no" and ran upstairs to get the ring that my Mom left for me when she died (it is her wedding diamond along with my Great Grandma Blatter's wedding diamond). I told her it was a gift from my Mom when she died. She looked at it and said, "oh." A few minutes later she said, "Your mom is so, so nice to give you that beautiful ring. I wish she could give me a beautiful ring like that too." I thought to myself, "My mom sure would have gotten a kick out of you little one."

July 13, 2011

We had a pretty simple 4th of July this year. Dad left early that morning for Scout Camp, so he wasn't with us for the festivities. We had our traditional barbeque with homemade ice cream on Sunday as a family. On the actual holiday the girls painted our toenails in patriotic style, the kids swam in the jacuzzi and then we went to the home of a family in the ward. We had a tasty barbeque, the kids jumped on the trampoline and in the jumper castle. They also played on a slip and slide and had a blast running around with all the other kids. We didn't want to leave early to go to Albuquerque to see the fireworks, so instead we just headed home and put a couple of mattresses out on the deck and slept under the stars. We saw a few shooting stars and satellites, so that was our sky action for the day (it was the first time in LOTS of years that we didn't see fireworks, but it was a great day anyway).

June 23, 2011

Caelan got baptized last Saturday. It was a very nice program. Megan and Ben sang "I am a Child of God" and did a great job. We were extra lucky to have Grandpa and Grandma Dick, Great Grammy Dick, Grandpa and Grandma Sorensen, Kyra, Preston and Jesse all come for the big day. While they were here we went to the Botanical Gardens and the Aquarium. We played in the jacuzzi, caught a horny toad, had barbeques outside, and just had fun together.

June 5, 2011

*Cabin in the mountains with the whole Dick clan
*Riding quads and the 6-seater along trails, through running streams, down mountains, etc
*Exploring caves
*Seeing deer and deer and more deer
*Barbequing and eating tasty food
*Going to church in Alton
*Family Home Evening about being kind in word and deed
*Family talent show (of sorts) with singing by Caelan and Ben and dancing by Corbin and Bee and Hailey (and really, all of the kids)
*Swinging on swings on the porch
*Taking naps
*Playing on the tree-trunk teeter-totter
*Fishing (even though it didn't last long - it was cold and windy)
*Doing puzzles
*Having lots of FUN!
That was our trip to Duck Creek. We headed over to Cedar City for a day afterwards to visit the Bairds (good friends from college) where we played at a cool park and watched movies and played games. It was fun to catch up. Then we headed home and managed to convince Charity and her two little tots to meet up with us and come home with us for almost a week. Good times. We had a little adventure on the way home where her car overheated and a hose burst. "Super Sean" came to the rescue and fixed it all up right there on the side of the road. The rest of the ride was smooth sailing.