A Gift

My parents put together a little gift basket for Kevin to celebrate his new calling in the church and welcome him to the high priest group. Contents included: denture cleaner, a bib, cream of wheat, prunes and some Depends. I don't think there are many men who have joined the fire department and the high priest group in the same month! Kevin is now serving on the high council. And as a firefighter. I think I have just become a widow.

Crazy Hair Day

Crazy hair day for spirit week at school -- need I say more?

Starting the Year Off Right

I have a bunch of stuff to catch up on so some of this is old news but I still wanted to record it. Inspired by nienie, I put together a special family home evening for my family back in January. It began with a special candlelit dinner (candlelight has now become a tradition at every Monday night meal) of meatloaf. I know, very fancy. About as fancy as it gets around here. During which I introduced our family's theme for the year.

And then we explained the plan to the troops. As we try a little harder this year to be a little better, we will work on one aspect of improvement roughly every month. Like factories and warehouses that post a big sign announcing how many days they have been accident-free, we are trying a similar plan. Every 20 days we will have a new focus of improvement. We are keeping track of our progress on a whiteboard labeled "Incident-Free Days." If we miss a day, the count starts over again at 1. Upon completing our goal for 20 consecutive days, the whole family gets a reward of time spent together doing something fun that we don't normally do. The hope is that, by the end of the year, we will have formed some deeply-engrained habits that will make us better.

Our first focus was on reading the scriptures at 7:15 every morning. After a few setbacks, we completed our first goal just last week. And last Monday we took the kids roller skating! We had lots of fun and even Aleise wore some skates for awhile -- although she soon opted for the stroller again instead. I wish I had taken my camera. Sometimes having a big, nice camera is not the most convenient. Who wants to wear that around their neck while skating precariously along with a tight grip on the hands of two children? Anyway, we skated and played air hockey and laughed together. I don't know which were more sore the next morning, my legs from skating (an exercise I am not at all used to) or my arms from being nearly pulled off in my attempts to keep my wheeled children vertical. It was a great time and I can only hope that the rest of the year produces equally successful results.

Emilys 8!

here are some highlights of Emilys party.

she wanted to go to the upper crust that night.then we told her about the cheese hat she almost changed her mind. Too bad we were in the parking lot. Earlier we had her party with a cooking theme. Everyone wore chef hats and made lasagne. Earlier when me and mom went to the dollar store I got some silly string to see if I could get Emily with it. Needless to say, I did.

on Emilys real birthday night we watched high school musical 2.

8 things we love about Emily.

1. She is always thinking of others. She makes every person a homemade gift all by herself for their birthdays and Christmas. Very thoughtful!

2. She loves to cook and help in the kitchen. She cooks or bakes something nearly ever day. She is great at homemade bread!

3. She likes to learn. She remembers what she is taught very well.

4. She likes to teach others what she has learned. She is always trying to teach Noah and Aleise their schoolwork and likes to teach Aleise what she learns in dance.

5. She is crafty! Emily is always decorating her room, making cards and gifts.

6. Emily is an entreprenuer (no idea about that spelling!) She is constantly thinking up ways to make money. She sets up lemonade stands, makes valentine goody baskets, organizes car washes and holds yard sales in her bedroom!

7. Emily will be a great mother. She takes very good care of her little sister, sometimes too good of care. She likes to carry her all around, get her dressed, read her stories and help her with everything.

8. Emily loves life! She is a happy, bubbly little girl who likes to laugh and have fun! She always has a song and a smile. She would always rather skip or dance than walk.

We love you, Emily!!