Life Moves Along.

So- since I last blogged, life has happened.
Jon's Grandma passed away. Grandma Ora. We went to the funeral and cried and rejoiced with family. I say rejoiced because Grandma was reunited with Grandpa. It was what she talked about for 11 years. She wanted to see Grandpa again and her father who died when she was 3 months old. We will see you again Grandma Great. We love you!
I have a new niece. Anna Jacobs was born to Jon's sister in July and we all met her (and squished her) a few weeks ago. She is lovely and such a good -natured baby.Here she is in her blessing outfit just after she was blessed. Carli and my heart are a little broken from not being able to see Anna and her family a lot more.
Carli and Carson are best buds when they are together. It is soooo sweet to see Carli take Carson around Gramma's house and play with whatever he can talk her into.Which isn't hard to do because she adores him.Do you look back at things and see the hand of the Lord in events that have transpired? In May, when Jon's grandma passed away, we were in Utah for a couple of days. Toward the end of our stay, I started talking to my brother in law about him getting married. Okay- I wasn't talking so much as teasing. I teased him a lot about it, actually. And I felt bad. I felt that maybe I should stop teasing him and start helping him. I remember when the idea popped into my head. ZING!

Our Convo went something like this:

ME- "Aaron- I am gonna put you on my mofia board" (my LDS message board of 100+ moms- called the mofia because of the first 3 initials -mof= my online friends)

AARON- um. Okay (Said with a little fear, hesitation, but also I heard a little challenge in it)

Aaron thought that what I was referring to was my blog. I don't know if he woulda let me post his name, pic and info if he realized what I was really doing- so maybe ignorance is bliss-lolBefore I left Utah, everyone on the board wanted to match Aaron with a relative or friend who lived in Utah. But when I made the post, I forgot that there where a couple of single moms on the board. One of the said that she would date him. That led to an invitation for him to email her, which led to a date, which led to dating, which led to an engagement...... I think you know where this is going. lolA Couple weeks ago, we went to St. George to see April and Aaron sealed for time and eternity in the temple. Not only do Jon and I have a new sis in law- but my kiddos have 2 new cousins. They adore Greta and Andrea. We all do.I look at things and realize how everything has just fit into place. April and Aaron now reside in Grandma Great's house and things just fit together like they were supposed to. April and her girls were such a needed addition to our family. (I said NEEDED- and I meant it!) I thank the Lord for promptings. I thank Him for timing. I know we are on his schedule and not our own. I see that so much with stories like this. Things fit together like puzzle pieces. Wow.
I also look back and realize the progression. Normally when 2 people meet on the Internet, they both get online separately and then go to the same site and chat or whatever. But in this case, the message board that I belong to, is by invitation only. I look at how many people had to be invited before me and April joined, in order for them to invite us, and I am awed. The Lord set this in motion a long time ago.
I will update with kids and such- but right now need a shower- I get precious little time to myself and this post took longer than I thought it would. lol Have a good Day!!!

Tied to be Awesome!

For Father's Day, I wanted to do something fun for Jon. I had a tie pattern, so I made him a tie outta this fun cotton fabric that I found and then, decided to make the boys ones to match. I know, Nolan needs a longer one, ugh. (When did he get so big?) But other than that, they look super adorable when they wear them altogether!

Carli's Wax Muesem #2

I have been meaning to post about this all summer. Before school was out, Carli had one more wax museum. She had to pick someone who contributed some way to science. She chose Stephanie Kwolek, who invented Kevlar. Here she is in her pose, before her name is said.

Then she stands up and starts her memorized speech about Stephanie.

I kept catching her while she was speaking, so never mind her funny expressions on her face.Her poster about Stephanie.

Miss Me?

Yeah I know, I have been MIA lately (as far as my blog goes anyway) We have been super duper busy. Mostly getting the house ready to sell! But guess what. It is now official (as of last night) Our house is now for sale!

In other news, Carli has celebrated her 10th birthday. WOOHOO! Seriously, still can't believe she is so old.

Next week Carli has her Spring Wax Museum. She is gonna be Stephanie Kwolek, inventor of Kevlar. I will take and post pics- so excited!!!

Be sure to check in the next couple of days on my craft blog for our living room transformation. Seriously, it rocks!!!!

Carli's Music Play

Carli is in Choir in school. (Mentioned before) They always do a Christmas performance and a Spring one. For the Sprng one, Carli tried out for a singing solo and got it. Okay- it was only 3 words. - but still, pretty cool. This play was about the History of rock music. Carli s the caveman in the front.

She even got to swing dance with Jacob from her class too.

Knowing Jacob is a goodsport- I asked for a picture with both of them- When we were walking away, I asked Carli if I embarrassed her and she said, "just a little" but assured me that it was okay.

Gaaaah!

I lost my camera (yeah- I know...."again?" -You ask. I can't post anything new without it and the worst part is that I don't know if Jack did something with it or if I put it up so that Jack couldn't do anything with it. Either way- I haven't seen it in awhile. It makes it hard to post things like my new pantry re-do or Jack making up his own Batman costume using a backwards bib and his brother's (clean) underwear on his head. Anyway- please enjoy these old photos of the kiddos until I do find it!

Can you tell what has been on my mind lately?

Now I need to figure out a way to tell Jonny.....Hmmmm.

(Yes- I realize this isn't the best time to go back to Hawaii tho, but I still wanna swim in that blue water while the kids build sand castles and we all enjoy slurping frsh fruit from the street stands.-aaaah)

DI Tournament

So the DI Tournament was on sat in Spokane. We placed second.

2nd place !!!!!! (Can you believe it?!?!)

I am sooooo proud of these girls. They worked so hard and helped each other. They are amazing. I am gonna miss our weekly meetings. They are so fun to be around. Technically we can go to State (in Seattle), but we have to be invited to go. I don't know if it will happen and to be honest, I don't know if I wanna. We already had the best experience just getting as far as we did!
Here are the girls right before the Instant Challenge.

And here they are in their perfomance. I don't think I am allowed to talk much about their performance and the tournament (Because it is a competition- and we still might go state) but don't think many would figure out their skit from this picture. The judges and audience laughed in all the right places and everyone really enjoyed it.

This whole experience is dear to my heart!!!
DI Rocks!!!!

Carli as Amelia Earhart!

I mentioned Carli's class'es wax muesum. Here are pics of that night (I made her take some after we came home too)

Her tri-fold of Amelia's life.

One of her props was this really pretty globe that THIS girl let us borrow and we mapped out Amelia's last flight with string and stickers.

You can see the pose she chose to stand in until someone came up and said her name (Amelia Earhart's name)

(You can also tell where I was playing with photoshop with coloring)-lolCarli's class. Some of the other kids were, Marilynn Monroe, Babe Ruth, Abe Lincoln, Harriet Tubman, Shannon Hale...can't remember the names of some of them- I will have to ask Carli.

She was so awesome! It was such a long day for all of them. They gave 4 performances during the day and even had to eat lunch in costume. After her last performance that night, you could just see how exhausted she was. I felt bad to send her to school the next day. But I am so pleased with my baby girl!

She has one more wax muesum coming up in the Spring (a science- themed one) -I wonder who she will chose for that!?!?!?!?

Valentine's Dinner

Last night we had Lasagna Soup. Of course I had to put the ricotta cheese mixture into a heart shaped mold. It was made with love- so why not show it!

Wanting everyone to eat dinner on Valentine's- I gave the option of soup or hot dogs- but what good is a hot dog on V-day without heart- shaped ketchup?

And our rolls were so much better with heart -shaped butter. Okay- so I went a little crazy on the hearts- It was a fun and refreshing change!
We topped the evening off wth Italian sodas and strawberry crepes with toffee syrup.

You can find the lasagna soup recipe HERE. (only I sub the tomato paste for plain tomato sauce and put in more dried basil than oregano) It is one of our favorites!

Hope you had a wonderful Valentine's!

Busy.

I am afraid that when I get busy, the blog is the first thing to get negleted. Just before Christmas, I found out that the DI group that Carli signed up for didn't have a leader. So I told the school that I would take that on. You may remember DI from last yr. DI stands for Destination Imagination. You can click HERE to view the official website. (Carli's team is doing the Triple Take Road Show Challenge)

It is super fun to meet with those girls 2+ times a week. They are fun to be around and it is a fun process, however, it is also a ton of work. It is taking all of my free time to get them ready for the tournament in Spokane at the end of Feb.

So, Like I said before- the blog is being avoided for awhile. If I have some down time I will come back to it. But it will be touch and go until the end of Feb.

Next to come: Carli had her Wax Muesum 2 weeks ago. This is where her class (only class that does it every year out of the whole school) each choose someone to be from history and have to dress like that person and give a short monalgue when someone says their character's name (otherwise they stand completly still in a pose, just like a wax statue). Carli chose Amelia Earhart. She did a phenomenal job. I am waiting for pics from her teacher as I think she probably got better shots than I did. But- I do want to post those soon.

Oh Nootz!

Every Year at Christmas, Santa leaves nuts in every one's stockings. (One year, Santa forgot and Daddy was not happy with Santa.-lol) Last year, I noticed that after meals, my lips where stinging and itching and had little hives on them. I didn't think much of it the first couple of times, but then one time, I wanted to scratch them off. I couldn't figure out what was going on? Then later on that day, I was moving the uneaten nuts into a smaller bowl and it dawned on me. (Slap hand to forehead) Jon likes to shell and eat mixed nuts after meals, kinda like a dessert. Then, he kisses me and thanks me for lunch. Oh wait- did I mention that I am highly allergic to Brazil nuts? It was his (nutty) kisses.

Jack came and bit me after eating nuts this Christmas and my arm itched and started to get tiny little bumps. (After, I figured it out, I made Jon thoroughly brush his teeth/ mouth after each smooch.) You can see that this year- we still have ONLY Brazil nuts on our counter. I am thrilled that my sweet Jonny chooses kissing me over dining on nuts (or nootz- it you say it like the Mr. Salt in the old Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory-lol)

Batman and Buzz by Jack

Jack Jack asked me if I could get the crayons down for him. He grabbed some paper and said he was gonna 'color.' I went into the other room and forgot all about it. The next day, I had some random papers on my counter that I was sorting and picking up and came across this one. At first, I just thought it was one of Bridger's pictures, but then I remembered Jack and the crayons. It had just struck me that my baby can draw.

I asked him what it was and he knew exactly what he was drawing. The big, round one is Buzz and the small, skinny one is Batman. Can you believe it?

Sunbeam.

My youngest is a sunbeam! (In church, when nursery children turn 3 (after the new year) they get to go to their first Primary class called Sunbeams) Jack is a maniac. He would be great except, I am not only in Primary, but have been teaching sharing time. It isn't going so well- but it is bitter sweet to think that he is my last baby to have graduate from Nursery!

(Note: No- we don't let him wear his Buzz Jammies to church- this was taken after with his new sunbeam hat on!)