Catch Up 2!

On October 27th it snowed!!! Emma was so excited and of course wanted to make a snowman. We decided to get all bundled up and go out and build one. Emma had snow pants, but I had not purchased any for Matthew yet, so he had to use Emma's old ones which are of course pink. Besides that, his coat is enormous, so he basically ended up looking like a big bundle of snow clothes. He was darling, however, he was not excited about being all bundled and not able to move. He was really excited to go outside though. Here are some pictures.

Emma loved the snow! She was having such a good time rolling around and making snow angels and helping build the snowman.

Matthew did not love the snow so much. He didn't like the fact that it was cold and he kept falling down because of the fact that he was a big marshmallow. Poor little guy. He was totally ready to go in by the end.

Here's the finished product! We had a great time building it. Of course, because of the fact that it was a fairly warm day, the snowman inevitably crumbled an hour later. Oh well, we had a great time, except of course Bubbers!

Some Serious Catch Up!

And I'm not talking about the tomato base condiment either! :)

I have needed to do several blog posts, so I am going to start back in October and work towards December. Hopefully I will catch up with a couple of quick posts.

In October, Emma's preschool class had a field trip to Hee Haw Farms. Daniel had the day off that day so we decided to take Bugsy and go as a family. We also took one of Emma's little classmates in our car. Her name was Kiersa and she was darling. Emma loved having a buddy to stick with.

They all seemed to enjoy seeing and petting the animals. Bugsy had just started doing his "cheese" face as you can see from the pictures above.

We got to go on a tractor pull. Bugsy was excited until he discovered that he did not actually get to ride on the tractor and had to sit in the trailer behind. Then he was way bugged. Emma and Kiersa had fun though. We each got to pick a pumpkin from the pumpkin patch to take home with us.

Emma LOVED the big white slide. She was even brave enough to go by herself. She also enjoyed jumping in the little hay trampoline thing they had there.

This is Emma's whole class on the tractor and then a close up of Emma and Kiersa. We all had a great time!

Inadequate!

Have you ever felt inadequate? I can tell you I have felt inadequate so many times in my life, but I don't think I have ever felt it as much as I do now. On Sunday I was sustained as relief society president in my ward, thus my feelings of inadequacy. I believe very much in revelation and I do believe that this is where the Lord wants me, but I cannot fathom why. For the 12 days after I met with the bishop until last Sunday when I was sustained, I kept thinking maybe it was just a dream, but I am quite certain now that it is not. :) I feel the weight of the responsibility that this calling entails and it makes me feel a little unhinged at times. Believe me, I have been very humbled lately. How do you wrap your mind around something like this? I know it will all come in time, but it's like getting new job and you don't know how to perform any of your duties yet. I feel quite lost at this point. However, I do believe that "whom the Lord calls, He qualifies." I know that the only way I am going to get this is with His infinite mercy and help. I do have a testimony of this work and am grateful to be able to serve in this capacity. I will just have to keep praying to understand how to do all that I need to do. :)

Fun in the Sun!

We went to California last month on a little vacation. Daniel and I had a dance competition the weekend of the 17th so we decided to take the kids earlier that week and go to Sea World. Emma loves Shamu and was SO excited to go. We started our trip on Monday afternoon.

We drove about 6 hours on Monday and 6 more on Tuesday. Matthew definitely did not enjoy it, but considering his age he did quite well.

On Wednesday we went to Sea World to see Shamu. We were lucky enough to be able to sit on the very front row. Emma was so excited to get splashed and boy did we ever get wet. It was awesome to be able to sit so close and see Shamu so close and Emma loved getting soaked.

Matthew on the other hand had no idea what was happening. He spent the first half of the show trying to escape over and under the rail in front of us. Then he spent the second half screaming and crying because he was a lot less excited about getting splashed. However, since he wouldn't let me put him under the poncho, he got soaked and was definitely not excited about it. I thought I had lost some of my hearing after he screamed in my ear for about 2 minutes straight.

However, Matthew did not mind getting soaked by the little splash pad they had there. He loved it. Then we went back again for a little while on Thursday. We saw Shamu again, but sat further away this time so we didn't get wet.

Thursday morning before we left to go to the dance event, we went to the beach for a little while. The kids did not care for the water very much but LOVED the sand! It was beautiful, but the water sure was cold!

That weekend, we went to the dance event near LA. The kids got a little board watching us dance, but we had a fun time and we even did pretty well.

It was a lot of fun and we were lucky that Melissa's parents let us stay at their house for a night on the way there and on the way back. It was so nice of them and they were so hospitable. It was especially nice to be able to save money since this was a very low budget trip.

It was great!

You Are A Strawberry

Conversation between Daniel and Emma about 1 hour ago.

Emma: "Daddy, you're a strawberry."

Daddy: "Why do you say that?"

Emma: "Because, you have pokies all over your face." (He didn't shave this morning.)

Precious Moments!

We had a very precious moment on Sunday. We were trying to get Matthew to eat breakfast so he wouldn't be quite as fussy during the conference sessions. He was being his charming self and screaming about everything we offered him. He wouldn't eat a bite! Emma suddenly jumped down, went over and grabbed "grey kitty" (the most coveted toy to Matthew because Emma does not have to share it) and her blankie and walked over and gave it to Matthew. She said she wanted him to feel happier so he would eat. It may seem a small thing, but to have Emma do that without any prompting whatsoever was amazing. Matthew always wants her kitty, and I don't think she has ever shared it with him. It was PRECIOUS! We gave her so much praise that she has done it 4 or 5 times since then and is always so sweet when she does it. I don't know if it was listening to all the conference talks the day before or what, but it was fabulous.

Another precious moment took place the night before the above mentioned one. Daniel's grandparents had come to visit that night. Emma was wonderful! She read stories with them, and showed them all of her favorite toys. She got up and sat right in between them both and was just such a doll. This was especially wonderful considering her previous shyness. She used to hide behind me and act very scared whenever most people came to visit, but she has blossomed so much, and it was the icing on the cake to see her be so sweet with grandma and grandpa!

Matthew was not quite as excited about grandma and grandpa at first. However we did have a precious moment with him as well when he ran around the room giving everyone hugs, including grandma and grandpa! Then he sat on grandpa's lap for a couple of minutes. It was so darling! He can be so sweet when he wants to be. :) He really does have such a sweet personality.

We got some great pictures, I will post them when I get them!

I'm so grateful for these precious moments! It really makes it all worth it. (As if it wasn't anyway!)

Here are the pictures!

Canning, Cross-dressing and Cookie Cutters!

I am going with a "C" theme today as you can see from the title of this post. Let's start with canning.

Mither would be proud!!! I remember mom doing spotlights on me for young women activities several times while I was growing up. Each time I remember her bringing up the time that I canned peaches all day long with her at 8 years of age. I suppose it must have been such an incredible experience that I did not do it again for 21 years. :) So, the day after my 29th birthday I decided to try my hand at it again, with a little help of course.

Jenn and I each had a small box of peaches and I had a box of pears. We started with the peaches last Saturday. Tamara was kind enough to let us use her steam canner and teach us what to do. She was very helpful and the tips and tricks she gave us were invaluable. Finally about 3 hours after we began, we had 18 quarts of lovely peaches and a very messy kitchen. It was GREAT! It was so great in fact that we did it again last night and ended up with 15 quarts of pears and 4 more quarts of peaches. I was surprised at how much I actually enjoyed it. Not that I loved pealing the slimy fruit or working over a hot stove, but I loved looking at the bottles all lined up and filled with beautiful fruit and knowing that I had accomplished something. It was awesome!

The second of my "C's" is cross-dressing. Not that I have taken up the habit, but my son certainly has. For the last several months he has wanted me to put the sparkly lip gloss on his lips like I do for Emma. Likewise, whenever he finds a hair clip he won't rest until I put it in his hair for him. He had donned both of these very manly things this morning, so of course he had to have a shirt to go with it. We were going through some clothes a friend of Janice's gave us and he saw a pink shirt with a kitty on it and had to wear it. That wass it, his cross-dressing career had officially started. I suppose however, the outfit would have been somewhat more complete had he been wearing his sister's sparkly pink shoes as he was in the previous post. Fortunately those were put away, so he didn't have the option. At any rate, here are some pictures. I love his hair falling in his eyes.

Speaking of hair falling in eyes, that brings me to my last "C" for this post, Cookie Cutters. This is a child's hair cutting place. After looking at the pictures above of Matthew's long hair, I decided to call and get an appointment to have both him and Emma get their hair cut. Emma's hair turned out about the same, just a little trim for her. However, I have not often had the opportunity of explaining what I want done with Matthew's hair. I told him I wanted the sides very short and that I liked to comb the top over. Here are some pictures of what we ended up with.

Here is Emma's "cheese" smile again! Her hair looks pretty standard.

Here she is showing her pink balloon that she got from Cookie Cutters.

Matthew on the other hand had his hair butchered! When I went to tell the lady what I wanted done with Emma's hair, I cam back and the gentleman cutting Matthew's hair had cut the top so short! It was not a good length, so he asked if I wanted it shorter. NO!!! I did not want it shorter, but it looked dumb the way it was, so I told him to go ahead and cut it shorter.

Matthew ended up with basically the same haircut that the guy who cut it had as did the little boy who had his hair cut before Matthew. Maybe that guy just liked this particular hair cut. Or maybe I just didn't communicate what my preference was very well. At any rate, his hair is quite short now. Oh well, at least it grows fast. :)