Family Date

This year for Valentine's Day since it happened to fall on Saturday we decided to take the opportunity and have a family date. The kids love this event when it happens so rarely. We took everyone to Sakura for an early dinner, then off to golf n stuff for a little mini golf. All of us had such a good time that we decided that on Valentine's day we would celebrate our family love with a family date!

Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day!
Ryan made us a lovely table full of flowers and hearts and treats.

Living in the Wild

So besides the fact that Foster is wearing girls pajamas, there is an interesting story behind these pictures. When asking the girls what they were doing in the pictures, so I could write about it this is what they told me:
To set it up, I took the picture because they had put all their toys into our laundry room, which is the background. Lilly told me that they took out all their toys because they were pretending to live with nothing in the wild. I wish I had taken pictures in their room because they had their tent set up. They had also asked to have dinner in their room which I said sure to....although I am not sure what they had because I was sick and Ryan was not home (they could have eaten candy for dinner and I would have agreed to it at that point!). I took the picture to show Ryan how bad the house could get during the day when I was not constantly picking up after everyone, but lately the proof is still laying around when he gets home. He is such a good guy for enduring this season of life.

Snow...wasn't last week in the 80s?

Well it happened again. Well only for the first time this year but it was still fun. Last week all the kids were running around in shorts and flip flops. We woke up to snow over everything. My friend Julie from Idaho was visitng at the time and was laughing because we were being so crazy about it. (ie closing school for a "snow day" for a dusting of snow) Abigail saved three little snow balls that she insist that we put in the freezer so that she could make a snow man with it later. Her snowman turned out to be about four inches high. I'm not sure if he has a name or is still in the freezer, maybe you could visit him.

Road show stuff

I was so upset with myself to not take any pictures. I lugged our camera for three days all around with me in my laundry basket and not once took it out to use it! Next time if there ever is a next time I will delegate to someone standing around to become the official photographer for the event so that I get lots of pictures to remember it by.

Road Show

The road show is over! It was a roller coaster of a ride. Very exciting, thrilling, scary, and some times made me a little sick. I am sad and relieved that it is over. I hope to post some video and pictures but for now I need to make sense of my house.??? Well on to the next adventure...

Science Fair Projects

Wow, we finally finished by the skin of our teeth. We were warned by more experienced parents but didn't heed very well obviously. Andrew's project was due today and this morning before school we were gluing it together. I wanted to take a picture but there was no time. Both Ryan and I are now enlightened for next year, if there is one. All I can say is WOW. All you parents who are about to have a 4th grader, watch out!

PS I have to do a shout out to the Garcia family who saved our lives again in the eleventh hour. They loaned us the scale to perform the experiment, which we could not find anywhere!

Groundhog Day

Sometimes it seems like everyday is groundhog day. I repeat the same actions over and over. I experiment with different reactions to the same situation day after day. Sometimes I tell myself "I'm not doing it that way again!" or I say "OK, new rule!" (that's my kids favorite by the way). But everyday I get to practice. Shhh...don't tell my kids. Good thing we have a Father in Heaven that knows what we need. I think that I need to repeat things a good 1000 times at least before I get the hang of whatever it is.

Life is great even when it is groundhog day over and over. It is easy to slip into a nonsensical world with children and try new things, make a different approach, hit the pause button, react with more grace and eventually be a better mom. I think that the next time we watch Alice in Wonderland, I will find many similarities with Alice. While my kids would say that I have similarities with the Queen of Hearts. Either way, in the end we all make it home.

Blogs can look cute...even when my house can't.

I was just realizing why, when I am 10 weeks pregnant, tired, sick and tired(did I mention that one already?), I still am taking time to sit at the computer and type new posts. My blog is organized. I am desperately trying to hold on to something that can stay the way I put it. Right now I am a little overwhelmed by the mess of stuff around me. That's when I go to the computer and see my life in neat little lines. Could it be a virtual clean house? Or does it remind that I do have good times. Whatever it is, it is helping right now. I know someday I will miss the mess but right now I need a little order.

Andrew's Movie

So Monday was full of fun projects. Andrew discovered a program on the computer called Window's movie maker and decided to make himself a movie. Andrew Ingram came over and after recruiting his sisters and brother, he had a well rounded cast. I'll give you a short synopsis for your viewing pleasure. It is called "The Civil War in Action". The beginning starts with training. Next are some battle scenes. Following the victory celebration.

P.S. The movie takes awhile to buffer so I would start it and then pause it until the buffering gets ahead of the play position. Then you can push play again and it should play with out any glitches.