Wednesday Whimsy: We love our Grandma!

New Do's

Last Monday Ady and I got our hair cut. At the time I wasn't planning on us getting matching cuts, but they turned out pretty similar We even had two different stylists. Ady's looks so cute and has so much body. We have been having fun using the blow dryer and fixing our hair together.

Wednesday Whimsy: Merry Christmas 2004

Merry Christmas Card

This year we had a hard time getting a good photo for our christmas card, so I went with an "artsy" one. HeHe. Actually I just went with the best of the worst. I like it anyway. I liked the little circles for extra photos on this card.

Here is our annual Christmas poem that I include with our card.

2008 came and It went.
We are lucky to get a Christmas card sent.
Taking a good Picture has been such a trial.
Why can we not get 5 people to Smile!?!

We are still living here in our lovely old house,
happily celebrating 9 years as each other’s spouse.

Kyler is 8 and enjoying 2nd grade.
He loves reading, Gymnastics, Arts and Crafts to be made.
He is Excited to have been baptized and joining Cub Scouts,
He is a wizard at computers, the Wii and Lego’s – no doubt.

Tayden is 6 and loves being in grade 1.
He is a super reader and loves to have fun.
Gymnastics and Swimming are his favorite Sports,
He tells us cute jokes and is a little Sweet heart.

Ady is 4 and Our Little Princess.
She loves to dance and sing and wear a pretty dress.
This year Ady is taking Ballet.
She also enjoys reading and games we all play.

If you would like to hear more about life in our home,
Visit our blog at http://gigglinggrins.blogspot.com/

Merry Christmas to you and Happy New Year as well.
We wish you all Happiness, Love and Good Health.

It's almost here!

The snow and sleet are falling, the presents are wrapped, the gingerbread is baked. Only 2 more days and it will all be over! The kids have been so excited and eager for this day to come. We have been counting down on our two advent calendars.

This one has little doors for each day until Christmas. Behind each door I have placed either pieces of a tiny nativity, or little slips of paper. When they pull out a nativity piece we read the coordinating scripture that talks about that part of the nativity. The little slips of paper have activities and things on them. Some examples were Sing Christmas Carols and have hot chocolate, watch a Christmas Movie and eat popcorn, Make cookies, Make a Christmas craft, deliver secret santa treats to someone, and so on. The kids take turns opening the doors. They have had so much fun with it that they asked me if we could have this every month! One thing I did to make it easier on me was to make sure that the activities that I put into each door would fit into our schedule for that day and then I wrote that on my calendar so I could make sure I was prepared for that activity when it came. I loved this so much I am sort of hoping I find another one on clearance after christmas so I can have one for each kid to open or have one with activities and one with treats or something like that.

This is our other count down calendar. It has little numbered pockets and in each pocket is a little ornament to hang on the tree. I bought this and it just had a star that you move from pocket to pocket. Then I saw a friend of mine had something like this that her sister had made for them, so I found little ornaments to put in the pockets. It is much more fun that way. What I would really like is to find 24 little Christmas pins to put in the pockets that way I don't have to use safety pins to hang the ornaments. I will have to look for them for next year.

Knifty Knitting

A few years ago my sister gave me her Knifty Knitter, circle knitting looms. I never had gotten around to using them until recently when I found them again. I let Kyler pick out some yarn and started making him a scarf for his birthday. I really enjoyed making it and love how it turned out. It is very soft and I like the colors. Now I am working on one for Dave. I haven't had as much time these past two weeks, but I hope after Christmas I will be able to get ones made for all of us. I had Kyler put it on to model it and he was cracking me up with his poses.

Gingerbread houses

Every year Dave and I make Gingerbread houses for my side of the family to decorate together on Christmas Eve. This year we made extras to give to some of our friends as well. It takes a lot of work adn makes a big mess, so we can't make them for ALL of our friends. But we decided on a few families to share with this year. (If you are reading this and did not get them, it is not because we don't love you! You will get them next year!!)

We ended up making 40 houses in total. We also made Carmels, Snickerdoodles, Cocoadoodles, Chocolate Chip cookies, and Peanut Butter Oaties to give to our other friends who did not get gingerbread. I love to bake and give treats away, but next year I hope I can work it into the schedule a week sooner so we don't have the big mess in the kitchen right before Christmas.

Wednesday Whimsy: What child is this?

Kyler's Baptism

On Sunday Kyler was Baptized by Dave. He was very excited to turn 8 so that he could be baptized. Kyler's Grandparents were all there.


After the baptism we had a nice party at our house. Lots of friends were able to come and help Kyler celebrate his special day. We are so proud of you, Kyler, for making such a good decision and being a good example to your brother and sister.

Happy Birthday Kyler!!!

Today Kyler turned 8! It seems like only yesterday he was a mischevious little toddler. Now he has grown up to be a fairly responsible, fun loving, smart (and still a bit mischevious) big kid. He is getting so tall too!

This morning he woke up to a special breakfast of waffles and bacon. We put a candle in the waffles and sang to him. I also made him some fresh squeezed OJ. I even let him put chocolate syrup on his waffles. That is only allowed on special occasions. He was very excited. After breakfast we let him open his presents. Tayden got him a snow globe. Ady got a booklight for him. He was really excited about both of those. Then he opened his present from Dave and I and he was in shock. He loves to take pictures so we decided to get him his own digital camera. I found a pretty good one on Black Friday for a great price.


Hmmm... What is this?




Oh Wow, is that what I think it is?!?



It is!! Yesss!

Tonight Kyler wanted to have Pizza for his birthday dinner and he chose to get an ice cream cake.

We didnt really get any good pictures of Kyler with the cake, but the kids went crazy taking pictures. Here are some fun ones they took.

Where did November go?!?

AFter uploading the most recent things off of the camera, I realized we had only taken 2 pictures in November. How did that happen? The month flew by. Somehow we did not capture it. The 2 pictures were from Ady's observation Day at Ballet. The lighting wasn't good, so they are all blurry. Next time we will just use the video camera. Here is a picture of my cute Ballerina.

So what were we up to all month anyway? Well, for one thing we hosted Thanksgiving for my side of the family. Because of that I was busy busy busy getting things ready. We bought some new furniture. Dave has always wanted a Recliner, so for Christmas I wanted to get him one. I found such good deals that I ended up with a new couch to match. That led to lots of rearranging of the whole house. We have been wanting to move the piano for over a year, but needed to sure up the floor first. So that was a big project. Dave put some new supports under the floor and then he had to run new cable jacks and phone jacks for the new layout. Thanks for going along with my whims, honey! I love the new layout!

From Dave's parents we recieved an early Christmas present of a food storage shelf that rolls your cans and keeps them in order. I love it! I now have somewhere to store smaller cans. Setting that up funally motivated us to organize the basement (which is really more of a cellar) That is still a work in progress, but we accomplished so much down there. It feels great. That led to being able to clean out the garage as well. Now we can finally park both cars in there. With the snow we are both loving that!!

Thanksgiving was so much fun. Dave made a fantastic Turkey. It was the best Turkey I have ever tasted!! He may be making that more than just once a year now. The food was all wonderful. We had a lot of fun with my family. Afterward I went to spend the night at my friend, Candy's house in preperation for a big Black Friday Shopping trip with her and another friend, Kate. We ended up only getting 1 hour of sleep!! Somehow we survived the day and now I have nearly all of my Christmas shopping finished. Thanks for taking me along, girls. I am looking forward to next year already!!

The weekend after Thanksgiving was spent cleaning up and taking down Fall decorations. We pulled out the Christmas things and were very disappointed to find all of our christmas lights burned out, including our prelit tree. We bought some new lights and got things set up. I am so excited for Christmas this year. I love all my trees and all the lights! We have been listening to lots of Christmas music too.

Now we are getting ready for Kyler's birthday. This week he will turn 8!! He will be getting baptized next Sunday and Dave's parents are coming to help us celebrate. We will be hosting a big get together at our house following the baptism. I am excited for all of our friends and family to visit.

I have been very productive lately as far as getting things done that have been waiting years to finish. I almost feel like I am in nesting mode. I feel like most of the year waws so difficult for me and I was just coasting by and now I am playing catch up. It feels good to be able to cross things off of my list. I have even been knitting some scarves. I will post pictures of those soon.

"Its the most, wonderful time, of the year......." :)

First Snow

Our first snow of the year came and the kids were eagar to get outside. They bundled up and had a ball. Last year for christmas I bought new snow pants for the boys and "el-bos" snow mittens for all three of them. These mittens are so great. They go all the way up to their elbows and keep the snow out. I am so glad they still fit!! I had not yet gotten them new snow boots and last years were all too small or too trashed. Those have now been ordered.

Trick or Treat

Kyler was a Sith Lord

Ady was a Fairy Princess

Tayden was an Old Man

We started out Trunk or Treating at the Church. Kyler incountered another Sith Lord there and a battle ensued. The Mother of the Sith posted some pictures of it on her blog here. http://krisallen.blogspot.com/2008/11/halloween.html

Ady also encountered some other fairies. Tayden was the only little old man, though. And he was a dang cute one.

We did some more trick or treating after that and Ady had not been feeling well, so Dave stayed with her in the van. When the boys and I got back to the van it reeked of vomit. She had puked all over her tutu. Any suggestions on how to wash toull? (sp?) Its been rinsed and is now a funny shape. All crinkled up and knocked. I may have to just make a new one.

Overall it did end up being a fun night. After Ady puked she felt much better and perked up once we got home and started sorting our haul of candy.

Welcome

Welcome to my new blog. I have been wanting to make a change for a while now, but I had trouble thinking of a name. I wanted to take our last name out of our blog. I hope to get things caught up here soon. Thanks for reading! :)

There are five of us in our happy family. Dave is the Director of Facilities for a small College. He serves as the President of the Young Men's program at our church and also is the Assistant Scout Master. In addition to that he is the choir director at church.

Heather loves being a stay at home mom and having time to blog, make cards, decorate, and keep the house tidy. She loves to read and to create, whether its with paper, beads, wood, or fabric. She is the Chorister for the Primary age (3-12 year old) children at church ans also will be going to camp this year with the Young Women. We have been happily married for 9 years.

We have three lovely children. Kyler is 8 and is in 2nd grade. He loves gymnastics and computer games and is a little scholar. He is also very creative. At any given time he is creating something out of paper or found objects.

Tayden is 6 and in 1st grade. He loves to swim and is a little sweet heart. He is a super reader and loves to play with his trains and with legos. He is super helpful around the house.

Adelyn, who prefers to be called Ady, is 4 and happily helps mommy all day. She loves to dress like mommy, play with her dolls, dance, and play dress up. She is taking Ballet lessons once a week with a friend and loves to practice her moves.
All three kids love to read and be read to.

Painting Pumpkins

Since our kids are not yet able to carve their own pumpkins, we have opted to paint our pumpkins each year instead.  This way everyone gets to participate and decide what their pumpkin will look like.  In a few more years we will probably give carving a try, but for now this is working out well for us.  Everyone had a really fun time and we ended up with some very creative gourds and pumpkins.

Ady painted each of her 3 solid gray, then the next day we got the paints back out for the finishing touches and I got out more colors.  As soon as she heard the word pink she started sqealing about pink pumpkins and ended up repainting all of hers solid pink.

Tayden did a nice job painting his big pumpkin to look like a regular jack-o-lantern.  He also painted his gourd with polka dots and his small pumpkin to look like a ghost.

Kyler was very creative and turned a gourd into a penguin.  It turned out so cute.  He painted dots on his little pumpkin and his big pumpkin is a scary monster.

Dave painted a pumpkin with varying white and off white stripes and I painted stripes and dots on my pumpkin.  I also painted a small gourd to look like a ghost.

Kyler's Penguin

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Yay! Today is Ballet!

Last Tuesday Ady had her first ballet lesson.  That morning she woke up and was so excited talking about it.  She said "Today is My Ballet! Yay!  Hey, that rhymed! Yay! Today is Ballet!"  Then all day she said that over and over.  She loved her lesson and today has been saying her little rhyme again.  "Yay! Today is Ballet!"  Her friend Morgan is in her class, so that makes it extra fun.  All week she has been practicing her ballet moves and teaching a few to the boys.  She will be in lessons for the entire school year, then they perform in June.  She looks so cute, I can hardly wait for the next parent observation day so I can watch her dancing with her class again!

Pumpkin Patch

On Monday we made our Annual visit to the Priebe Pumpkin Patch.  We always have so much fun checking out all the cool gourds and pumpkins, going through the corn maze, taking fun fall pictures and picking out our pumpkins. We use it as an opportunity to take a family picture each year because its such a fun setting.  Our friends, the Allens, went with us again this year.

Here are some of my favorite pictures.

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Fall Festival

A few weeks ago we went to a Fall Festival for the kids at church.  They had a great time eating pancakes, playing games and just being with their friends.  Here are some pictures of the event.

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That night Dave Dj'ed a church dance.  I went with him to help him out.  We had a fun time.  It was a costume dance, so we went ahead and dressed up.  We were having trouble coming up with ideas with stuff we had around the house, but we finally ended up with this:

Dave was an Army Man

I was a gypsy.

Dave is getting pretty good at DJ'ing.  Maybe we should do more of this.  In the past few years they have asked him to DJ these dances about 2 or 3 times a year.  This one went the smoothest.

Tutu cute!

When I was taking pictures of Ady in her tutu that I made she happened to do the same thing she had done in a tutu as a toddler.  I thought it was so cute I wanted to share the comparison. :)

September 2008

September 2005

A lot has changed in 3 years, but Ady is still our fun, sweet girl and we love her more and more each day.

A Four Fairy Affair

On Tuesday Ady had her three favorite fairies over to celebrate her brithday.  I made tutus and hair garlands for them and then we found wings and wands at the store.  The girls had so much fun dancing, playing and eating fairy food.  They looked so cute all dressed up!!  Dave took lots of pictures and some video (which I will have to post later)

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I found little disney Fairy dolls for cake toppers, so I made a layer cake covered with flowers for the fairies to fly around on.

The Fairies