Happy 26th Birthday Aunt Nanny!

My little sister turned 26 last week. We are so blessed to live so close to them! We had a little party for her with cherry chip cake. The kids loved it (and so did we!).
Deanna and two of her favorite things - Miss E and Starbucks!

We got those sugar letter things, even though they don't taste very good, the kids loved them.

Tom was nice when he fed her wedding cake last August, but no such luck this time!

Guess who loves cake?

Teriyaki chicken and smores

This weekend, while Mr. J was away, we went to Uncle Tom and Aunt Nanny's house for a delicous dinner of teriyaki chicken. Tom was stationed in Okinawa before coming here and is excellent at making asian food. His sushi is quite delicious. He marinated the chicken and then cooked it on his homemade barbeque/ fire pit. Then we made smores with the kids. They were delicious. Did I mention I LOVE living by my sister? God is good!

Mr. T

Miss M

Uncle Tom cookin

Miss O in her new Valentines shirt. She has worn this shirt 4 days this week along with these new magenta stretch pants with white stars on them. I hid them from her today so I could wash them.

This boy LOVES things with wheels

Sunday Blessings

I thought I would tell you all about a couple sweet little blessings I got today. Mr. J has been out of town at Sandcamp (website conference) and visiting his brother in San Diego this weekend, and I have got to stay home with our sweet, sick kids. On Wednesday, Miss M came down with a fever and an awful sounding cough. Thankfully, despite this sickness she has been her normal, energetic self and being sleeping just fine at night. Miss O and Mr. J started getting this same upper respiratory infection on Friday. I have been feeling fine but if I take a really deep breath I can hear some rattling. Miss M only coughs occassionally now and I think she is almost all better. Anyways, these sicknesses changed my weekend plans a bit. Today we were planning on church, a church potluck (who doesn't love a nummy church potluck?), and AWANAS. Since I didn't feel it would be very kind of me to put my 2 sickest, Miss O and Mr. T, in Sunday School or the Nursery and Mr. J wasn't going to be there to sit with me in the service with them, I had to make the tough decision to stay home. But we had a great morning and afternoon. The kids and I used our extra time to get some cleaning done and take a nap. Mr. T took his first nap outside of his crib in his big boy bed! Isn't that exciting?

So the first blessing I will tell you about is that my super cool sister and Tom came over later this afternoon so I could take Miss M to AWANA's and I could fulfill my weekly commitment as AWANA Trek (middle school) Secretary. I am so glad I was able to go because it was triple buck night and so many of the kids had memorized verses! The best part was, when I came home the table was set and a yummy dinner of spaghetti was all made. Thanks Deanna and Tom! We love you guys! After they left and I cleaned up from dinner, I decided to end my day of cleaning with some vacuuming. I got my small oreck out to do the stairs, when little Miss M, said to her big, pregnant mommy. Oh mom, I know how to do this, I will vacuum for you. Yes, my 4 year old daughter offered to vacuum the stairs! She did a fabulous job. She is very detailed oriented so she did just as well as I would have done. I also think she thought it was super fun.

So there you go, the two highlights of my day. Now I will be praying that Mr. J makes it home safely in his Subaru (aka "the coolest car in the world" by Miss M, who said the reason why is cause the back windows roll down.. unlike our vans). Good night!

Sledding fun

On Saturday, we decided to go spend the day in the snow. We have been hearing from all our Washington friends about all the snow they have been receiving, and we didn't want to miss out on all the fun! So, we drove about an hour away to Mt. Charleston to do some sledding and snowboarding. It was about 29 degrees out up there and Mr. J built us a nice little fire. The guys built a sweet jump for Tom's snowboard and had fun doing tricks. Mr. J brought a one man life raft from work and he pulled the kiddos around in it. Here are some pictures of our adventure for you all to enjoy...

Tom

Mr. J

Notice the desert off in the distance

A happy Mr. T. The first half of the trip, he was not so excited about the cold... or being dressed in his sisters old magenta/purple or snowsuit. Note to self: by future snowsuits in neutral colors.

Christmas Day

We had a nice relaxing Christmas day at home with Deanna and Tom. It has been the first Christmas I can remember that we have not traveled anywhere. Although we missed seeing everyone, we did enjoy our time together. Tom and Deanna were in charge of Christmas dinner and made a wonderful prime rib, new potatoes and peas and raspberry pretzel salad. It was all delicious!

The kids spent the day playing (in between sneezing.. they are all getting colds). I also did a lot of reading to them of the new books they got. This year we got them the set Big Thoughts for Little Thinkers by Answers in Genesis. I highly recommend these to anyone with preschoolers. The book explains big concepts in a language the kids can understand. I love the way the book defines sin. It says "When you try to be happy without God, you do bad things called "sin." " Isn't that so true? They make for great conversations with the kids.

Deanna and I cooked throughout the day and the guys worked out in the garage a little (Mr. J is making the kids bunk beds) and raced their new remote control hummers, after the kids went to bed we enjoyed fancy hot cocoa and a game of Monopoly (where Deanna creamed us all). Overall it was a super great day!
The guys raced the cars around the island in the kitchen, Tuff was one of the obstacles they had to get around.

Tuff finally caught a car

The race was getting close

Mr. J's strategy was to chase his car around the island. It was hilarious The cheerleading squad

Merry Christmas from Miss O

The kids spent time talking to grandparents on the phone...

Tom enjoying the delicious spinach dip (made with Knorr's Vegetable soup, served in a sour dough bowl... the only way to go). Thank Aunt S for getting us hooked!

My mouth is watering just looking at this pic, I think we will have to make it again for New Years.

Deanna posed for this picture because she likes to joke that the only reason we have her over is to do the dishes. That is not true! We also like to eat the delicious food she makes.. hahaha.

Gingerbread fun with Aunt Nanny

Yesterday and today, while I was at work, Aunt Nanny and the kids worked on a very fun holiday project! On Monday I made gingerbread men and panels and we went to the store and purchased a lot of candy and sprinkles. On Tuesday, Deanna made royal icing with the kids and started constructing the house. We used a whopper container (leftover from the sweet turkey treats) and it worked very well. Today, they worked on decorating the house and all the gingerbread men. Here are some pictures of the kids working on their project.. stay tuned for more pictures of the finished product.
All ready with their aprons and sprinklesAunt Nanny coolest aunt/nanny around!
Deanna said Miss O had to go wash her hands a lot, she couldn't seem to keep them out of her mouth..... The sugar cookies they decorated, Deanna said these were before she made the 5 pieces of candy per cookie rule
So Mr. T had one job, to decorate the wreath... as you can see he was quite excited about this
Although he thought the sprinkles should go in his mouth instead of on the wreath...
The sugar is starting to get to her...
Miss O working hard to get the sprinkles just right

The house from the top, complete with trees (sugar coness), a walking path and a pond!

Deanna's Wedding!

As many of you know, my lil sis got married last week. The wedding was beautiful! She had an AWESOME photographer and he has already posted pictures on his website. You should go check them out. Also I would highly recommend him to all you in the Portland/Vancouver area.