The Zoo Lights

The zoo lights were a blast!  The girls loved it, especially the big panda that met them as we walked in.  They had a panda and fake snow falling.  The girls could have played with those two things all night and been completely happy.

Here is Daisy with one little snow flake on her nose.
They had a cookie decorating station.


Then they had lights all over the zoo.  Heidi's favorite was the castle, of course.

I love pictures like this where they are holding hands waiting together.  after we had seen all the lights we went back to the panda and they hug him over and over.  They had to wait while other people took turns.
We had a fun night and I think we will start doing the zoo lights each year.  We love having a zoo  pass.  

Gramma's in town

We have had Ben's mom in town for the past few days.  We have packed in a lot of play during her time here.  Yesterday we went to pump it up and saw the zoo lights (I will make a post about the zoo lights later).

This is Daisy right as she was sneezing.  I love it.
Today we went back to the zoo to see all the animals.  Daisy was sporting her frog hat.  I had one person ask where I got because she thought it was adorable, and another lady say she loved it.  So yes, it is a hit.
Daisy's little smile here is cute.  We were watching the elephants (one of the elephants is pregnant and I was trying to figure out which one it was.)
And then tonight we watched a movie and Daisy stayed up for the whole thing.  I will make some more post another day.  It has been busy so far.  Tomorrow we are taking a break-we have no plans.  By the way, we ate at Fat Larry's...best BBQ yet!  I loved it and recommend it to any one around Memphis.

Below you will find a video of Ben and some kid at pump it up.  I think that we need to have a boy next.  Ben could care less either way but as I watched him I was wishing that we could have a boy to play with.  Although, that kid was also trying to beat me up-he was even trying to hit me with his fists.  Maybe I prefer girls who would never think to ball their hands into fists and attack a stranger.

Daisy's First Christmas

The girls woke up around 7:30 or 8 but Daisy slept forever!  This was Daisy while we headed out to the tree.  

This was Daisy an hour later when we were half-way through.  We took the presents slow this year.  When we opened one we would stop to play with it or try it on.  I wanted the girls to appreciate their gifts a little more instead of just putting them in a pile and moving onto the next gift.  Daisy just slept right through it all.
She finally woke when there were only a few gifts left.  And Daisy's cutest gift was her frog hat made by my sister-in-law, Candy.  I love it!  Ben said she isn't allowed to wear it in public but it is so darn cute!
I think it compliments her round head. (I know, her head is round and everyone makes fun of it...this ought to be a good picture to laugh at.)  Isn't my sister-in-law so talented?  She can do just about anything.
The girls all together.  Not their best picture.
Before we started.
Kaylee's Belle dress fit perfectly.  She looks so cute.  Especially with the light-up shoes and tiara.
Heidi looks really weird-pale and washed out.  But she loved getting a new princess dress.  

Christmas Eve

We are finally to Christmas Eve!  We sat around all day and had our dinner.  This picture has nothing to do with Christmas but I love the sweater she is wearing.  I says "I love uncle joe and aunt candy."  Cute.  All my girls have worn it.  They will have to make a sweater if I ever have a boy.

Here is another of our traditions that form themselves...a picture of me and the girls in front of the christmas tree.  They aren't great pictures but I like them.

Charlie Brown Gingerbread House

I wanted to make a gingerbread house for christmas.  This is something that will become a tradition.  We used the candy from Halloween, however, after two month of Ben slowly picking through there were only smarties and dum dums left.  I also didn't find a ginger bread recipe I liked so I just made it out of sugar cookie dough.   I forgot to include the triangle along with the wall so we ended up with a shack.

Here is the finished product.  Pretty bad, I know!  We ran out of frosting for the top and the whole thing was bad.  However, I took some detailed photos of the walls so that we will be able to compare with each passing year.  We will be able to see just how bad our first one was. 
This was Ben and Kaylee while Heidi and I slaved over the gingerbread house.  Cute.

The 21st

Today is special for a few reasons.  One,only four days left until Christmas (Yes!)  Two, Only one month until the season premiere of LOST (That is even more exciting than Christmas!)  And three, today Daisy is six months old.  

Daisy joined me at the book club for some brownies.  She loved the brownies.  At six months Daisy has proven to be our slowest baby.  She is still just rolling around on the ground.  The other girls were crawling by now.  But I figure we gave up brains for beauty because she is, I think, our cutest baby.  She still has a perfectly round head, bright blue eyes and chubby legs.
She is also our happiest baby.  I love her smiles.  She is so fun to have.  

Only 10 days left!!

We are finally in the home stretch of Christmas.  Only ten days left.  I figured out what i wanted to do to make Christmas more Christ centered.  It will be the start of a family tradition and, honestly, I am quite impressed with myself for coming up with it.  I came up with it after looking at a few sites and talking with friends.  I decided to do a 12 days of Christmas with a nativity set.  Each day the girls will look through the house to find the nativity piece for the day.  The piece will have something on it, either a scripture, poem, or the meaning behind the piece.  And each day we will slowly build our nativity.  Then, on Christmas morning they will have to find the baby Jesus before we open gifts.  I really like the idea.  I found some nativity pieces at the dollar store.  They only had 8 so we will be doing the Eight Days of Christmas.  When I get a picture of them I will post it.  With only ten days until Christmas I have a lot of stuff to get done.  I will probably not make any posts until Christmas.  Merry Christmas! 

(The picture was from the Scout Pancake Breakfast Fundraiser.  The pictures with Santa were supposed to be $3.  I am so glad that we didn't have to pay for that horrible Santa picture!  I do think it is endearing since that is a typical Kaylee attitude about things)

Age of Technology

I feel like my kids are growing up with so much technology.  It is going to be so different from the way I grew up.  My girls already spend a lot of time on the computer.  They love to look at blogs.  Heidi loves to do the paint program.  But mostly they love playing on starfall.com.  They are learning a bunch from that site but I do feel bad that they spend so much time.  

The top picture was taken about two months ago when they would sit together and play on starfall.  However, the picture below shows how Kaylee can now figure out the computer by herself.   This is how they spend most of their morning while I am cleaning and getting ready for the day.  Kaylee has even figured out how to get on Itunes and listen to a few of her favorite songs.  And then there is Heidi who quit using the laptop because "It takes FOREVER to load."  Why does she even know what that means??  (Ben fixed the laptop so that it would work faster for her.)
I just feel a little sad that they are growing up so quick and that they are figuring out the computer so fast.  But it is the world we live in.  The picture below is just cute of them all eating trail mix together.  

PS-Mom and Peggy I am working on getting another video soon.  Check out the bottom to see if it is up. 

The Christmas Spirit

Most families are great about remembering the reason for the season but, after tonight's Family Home Evening, I realized our kids have completely MISSED the reason for the season.  I read a story from the ensign about one family that helped a less fortunate family.  The poor family was living in a tent with little food, no job and almost no money.  Part of the story included that the family gave the destitute family their Christmas dinner and that each kid picked one of their own presents to give the other children.  I stopped to ask the girls if they would give one of their own presents to a family in need.

Heidi: No.

Me: Well what if there was a little girl that wasn't going to get any presents.  Could you give her one of yours?

Heidi: Well we could just buy her something from the store.

Me: Why not just pick one of your own presents to give to her.  Could you do that?

Heidi: We could play with her with our toys.

Me: Wouldn't you give the Baby Jesus your best present?  Wouldn't you want to do that for the girl?

Heidi: Well, I could give her the present I don't like. (At that point we were laughing and I gave up with Heidi.  I turned to Kaylee.)

Me: Kaylee, could you give a little girl one of your presents?

Kaylee:  I could give her Dad's present.

All in all I have decided that my kids are too involved with the getting and not the giving of Christmas.  I know that they are young but I want to teach them that Christmas is not about the presents at all.  But of course this is hard to teach a child when all they hear at Christmas time is "What did you ask Santa for?"  "What do you want for Christmas this year?"  "Did you tell Santa what you wanted for Christmas?"  "Hey Heidi, what should I tell Grammy that you want for Christmas?"  You get my point?  How do you keep the Christmas spirit in your home?  What ways do you remember the reason for the season.  We definitely need help in this area.  Any ideas?

PS-My favorite picture was #4.  That was a pretty close vote though.  

The Ward Party is DONE!

I love when a ward activity is over.  It is just a nice feeling.  This week was crazy getting ready.  I was stressed and worried about not having enough food (turns out we had PLENTY-about 20lbs of potatoes left over.  Thanks to Jana and Katie for making them.)  Turns out when I have an activity coming up my body can't handle the stress and anxiety I have and I end up sick.  Once again I was sick on the day of an activity.  We are done though.  Here was my favorite part...

Kaylee learned how to cut her roll with her knife.  She made a mess cutting her roll to pieces.  

This was the backdrop we made.  I tried to get Santa's home in the north pole.  I liked the fire though.

Oh wait, this was my favorite part.  Half of the singing group was dancing and the other half wasn't.  I wasn't able to get a picture of it but it was funny.  The song was fun.  

And of course Heidi still didn't talk to Santa.  She waited in line but then chickened out at the end.  She told me later that she will try again when she is five or maybe ten.  Well I am done for the night.  I took some nighttime formula for my cold and I hope it works.  I hope I get knocked out from it!

Daisy Balooga

It's been a while since I put up pictures of Daisy and I knew it was only a matter of time before my mom complained.  They are nothing special but she was smiling in her bumbo.  I also played around with the effects on our computer.  See if you can guess which one my favorite is. (Poll on the side)  Just some quick stats on Daisy: She is now 5 months.  She can roll over but doesn't really care to.  She will scoot on her back or turn in circles on her stomach.  She kicks and gets excited whenever I am drinking a glass of water while holding her.  She weighs 18.2 pounds.  And she is starting to sit by herself for a while.  

Daisy's Blanket

I am pretty proud of myself because I made this blanket all in one night!  And it is cute!  Daisy is getting too big for her other blanket and we needed a bigger one to swaddle her in.  I saw some material that I thought was cute and put it together in one night.

I love the colors but I feel like the blanket is almost too trendy for my kids.  Heidi and Kaylee both use my old blankets that are falling apart.  They are old and plain.  This is much cuter than anything they have had.   I really like it though. (OK, after viewing it on the blog it doesn't look that cute but it is very cute in real life.)

Thankful Thursday

1. It is finally Thursday which means Thanksgiving will be over.  I am just not one of those Thanksgiving Day people.  I just want to get to Christmas.

2. My husband's honesty.  He will tell me the truth even if he shouldn't.   He thinks a thankful thursday is lame.  He thinks I should quit doing it.  Maybe I will.  Thanksgiving seems like an appropriate day to end it.

3. Riley made it back to my mom.

4. Iron Man.  We have been catching up on new movies that we haven't had time to watch.  After a disappointing Leatherheads, Twilight, Indiana Jones and Fred Clause (I did like parts of that one) it was nice to watch a good movie.  

5. The prospect of eternity.  When I was younger the idea of eternity was frightening.  I always pictured floating into the abyss like those bad guys on Superman did.  But now, when I am far away from home and from people I would like to hang out with eternity sounds nice.  Whenever I feel sad about the time I haven't gotten to spend with them I think to myself, "I have all eternity to hang out!  We will never end and we will get to spend all the rest of eternity just hanging and having fun.  The time we are apart now will be nothing when we eons of time ahead of us."

What a Day!

The girls were playing so nicely this morning.  They woke around 6 but we were able to sleep in longer because they were getting along so well.  I should have known something was wrong.  I got up and found that they had gotten into the shed and brought in a box of styrofoam peanuts.  They were dumped on the floor and smashed to bits from them running back and forth on them.  There is also a lot of static right now so the pieces that had been thrown around were sticking all over the walls and furniture.  

Then we worked outside raking the leaves. I love that Kaylee is wearing her ladybug boots.

She wasn't really any help because I raked them to the curb, Heidi then raked those into a giant pile and Kaylee raked the giant pile back onto the sidewalk.  

We also spent the day cleaning and decorating.  I am not great at home decor but I tried.  I don't have anything hanging on my walls that isn't a picture of some sort.  And most of those pictures are my kids.  

I love that I can hang our stockings on something.  Thanks to Kaylee for the mirror.

Once we got the girls in bed Ben and I watched a movie while I finished up Scotty's Christmas present.  Here is a little preview...I can't put a picture of the whole thing because my nieces and nephew are also getting the same thing.  I made a car mat thing for them to drive their cars on.  But they are a little more personalized just for each family.  It was a busy but productive day.