A Short Update

Right after Thanksgiving we went to the Frozen movie as the family.  We all loved the movie and we are still singing the songs and drawing pictures of the snowman Olaf.  We can't wait until the movie is released to DVD in a few months.  Holly recently drew the picture below on our whiteboard.  Holly has also learned to play some of the songs from the movie on the piano.  I sure love it when a good movie come out.                                                                                  

We recently had a break from school and so we met up with our Standage cousins at a nearby bounce house.  It was so fun for the cousins to run around there together and I loved visiting with my sister in law.

 Holly is in an after school A Capella club at her school and they recently performed in the high school talent show.  Here is Holly and her friends talking after the talent show.

And here she is posing with some of them.  

 I have been taking my kids spring shopping and here is a picture of Megan in her new Owl shirt.  I think this shirt is adorable. 

 Nathan is a bit obsessed with the lego.com online games.  I find him sitting at the computer looking like this a lot.  He doesn't have a lot of responsibilities or activities so I am finding it hard to keep him off of the computer.  Any suggestions?  Just telling him it's time to get off the computer doesn't work. 

 We went to Seattle last week to visit a cool museum and ride the monorail.  Scott made this short video to remember our experience.  You should watch it.  He did a great job with the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KP84a8Exqk8

Today I am thankful that:

*I have an exciting bunch of 10 year olds in my primary class.  They are super talkative but I like them a lot.

*Megan is working really hard to learn her lines for the upcoming school musical that she will be in next month.  She is one of 3 Cheshire cats in Alice in Wonderland.

*Scott is able to get around so well on his foot now.  He still has a bit of a limp from the sprained ankle he got 3 weeks ago but he is almost better. Hurray!

I have a 16 year old!

My daughter Holly turned 16.  Time seemed to go so slowly when she was little.  In fact when she was my only child the days were very long.  But ever since we moved here to Washington the years have been flying by.  Holly will be headed off to college in 2  1/2 years.  Holly didn't want to have a birthday party (she says she is too old for them) but I did buy her some balloons and cleaned her room for her as a surprise.

The night before her birthday it snowed.  We had one morning of snow in December but that was it.  So this snow was very exciting.  Holly helped me to make a snowman for each member of the family in the backyard.

Then Holly and I took a fun walk around our neighborhood to see everything covered in snow.  Holly wore her new birthday coat.

Of all the snowmen we saw this big one was my favorite.  They used milk carton tops for the eyes.  What a great idea!  After seeing this I started saving our milk tops.  Next year our snowman will all have great eyes and buttons.

Holly performed in a flute trio on Saturday at a special musical festival.  Here is a 1 1/2 minute video of her performance.  You'll be glad you watched it.   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBFWgiCiDeU&feature=youtu.be

This week I am thankful for many things but especially that: 
We were able to make and decorate Valentines cookies.  After the first pan of cookies was baked our oven died.  Luckily my friend Tracy was home and let me cook the rest of the cookies at her house.

Then later that night I took the rolls I was making for dinner over to my Chinese neighbor's house and she baked them for me in her oven.

There was so much Seahawks team spirit here in Washington in anticipation of the superbowl.  I think these front yard lights were my favorite.  That is a 12 at the front for the 12th man and a Seahawk head on the right.  It looked better in real life and it was as long as a school bus.  

 Scott hurt his foot a week ago.  He couldn't put any weight on it and had to work from home for a week.  But now he is walking on it (slowly) and is back at work.  I am thankful that our bodies can heal themselves.

Ready for Valentines Day

A few weeks ago I decorated our house for Valentines Day.  My new addition this year was Pom Poms on the fireplace.

I won the cute needlework in the top corner a few years ago.  I think I will paint my love sign red and pink for next year.

I made the felt Valentine cookies 3 years ago and I still really like them.  My mom made the cute Valentine card that I put in the frame.

 I added the sparkly heart to the center of my heart wreath this year.

I have had these candy heart plastic containers for about 10 years, Melissa made the foam pigs on skateboards and the banner I made some time back.

We made lots of fun Valentine pictures this week.  We got the ideas from Pinterest.

On February 1st I hung sparkly hearts from front yard tree.  I didn't want to put them out too early since our neighbors would have to see them every day.

This week I am thankful that:
*My friend Melanie and her family came to dinner and brought brownies.  Her brownies looked perfect and she told me that using parchment paper in the pan was the key.  I tried it out this week and it worked great. You can just lift the brownies right out of the pan on the parchment paper so there is no digging brownies out of the pan.

*Nathan still likes me to read him a story before bedtime.  He is such a fun little boy.  And yes, he does sleep in his clothes a lot.

 *My brother took our family out to dinner this week at Chuck E Cheese.  We chose the restaurant.

We had lots of fun there together.  Nathan made sure that his uncle got a special card with his picture on it. In the end we earned 500 tickets and got to buy a few plastic toys and lots of sweet tarts.