Christmas 2008

All the kids received robes and new pajamas this year. The robes were a first!

Although Morgan has chocolate all over her face, we love her cheesy smile!

Joel is chilling in his traditional red polo.

Merry Christmas!

We love Santa!

Here are the kids at our "Breakfast with Santa." Seth is missing from the picture because he was playing baseball with the other "big" kids. He was too cool this year to have his picture taken. He is still on the fence about Santa but I think he just afraid to admit that he knows anything for fear of losing presents at Christmas. He is growing up way too fast! This particular Santa is our wonderful home teacher Jim Power. He is amazing! He makes the best Santa!

Happy Birthday Joel!

November 27 , 2008

10 reasons why we love our Dad:

1. He loves to wrestle the minute he gets home from work.

2. He is just a big kid at heart and loves to have fun.

3. He is one big tease but we love him anyway!

4. He has a gigantic heart and would do anything for anyone, anytime.

5. He has way too much energy!

6. He loves to play baseball, basketball, four square, tennis and loves to be outside with us.

7. He makes the best peanut butter chocolate chip cookies!

8. He has read all the twilight books.
9. He won't complain when the house is a complete disaster!

10. He makes our life better each day by being our Dad!

We love you!!!!

Following in Daddy's Footsteps

I walked into the kitchen and found my little first grader reading the sports page. He makes his father very proud! One thing that wasn't surprising to me was that he was stuffing his face with rolls! He is such a picky eater that he has lived off bread and milk since he was an infant!

Morgan's Gum Addiction

No matter what I do, Morgan always manages to find my gum stash. She's like a hound dog and can sniff it out anywhere. She unwrapped every package and found a hiding place of her own. I know, I probably have too much gum anyway but I found it on sale!

Sinter Klaus

Here are a few photos of our celebration of Sinter Klaus. We love this Dutch tradition in our family! We had a lot of fun this year!

We love Facebook!

Joel and I have been introduced to the world of Facebook. Now I understand why Facebook can be so dangerous for our youth. It is so addicting!!!!!!!! I've only been on for one week and have already found long lost roommates and mission companions! I have had so much fun! Joel and I are already in competition to see who has the most friends. I'm the winner so far!!!!!! So for the the few of you that actually look at my blog, sorry I haven't posted anything lately. I have once again lost our camera but as soon as I find it I have some birthday photos of Joel to post. I have always felt bad for him when his birthday lands on Thanksgiving! Although, I feel worse when our wedding anniversary lands on Thanksgiving. I don't know what we were thinking when we picked our wedding date. We have Dutch Christmas Eve tomorrow so hopefully I'll have some cute pictures from it, if I can find my camera. Until then.....

Recall on Bottled Butter

Don't can butter!!!!!! I'm sorry to say we did a little research on the internet and although people are canning butter, it's not safe. I'm really sad because I canned so many bottles but at least now I know and I'm just glad I didn't make my family sick or worse!

I can't believe it's butter!

It has been a lazy Friday with nothing scheduled in my planner. It has been a great day! I decided to bottle butter that has been sitting in my refrigerator for some time now. By the way, melted butter starts to smell disgusting after awhile. I bottled thirty jars this afternoon. Half of them are for my mother. I owe her for all the babysitting she has been doing lately. (busy month with the YW) Don't you love the color of butter? I love it!

Meanwhile, Morgan has been watching Rapunzel while dressed up in Princess clothes. She has been dancing and prancing around and oh yeah, also yelling, "Father, Father, where are you?!" She loves to to pretend and she does this daily choosing among her princess collection. She has many pretend fathers, but no one beats the real one.

Halloween

Halloween Arizona style, with 80 degree heat! Adam and Seth ran from house to house. We had a block party that Shannon organized because our lives are not complicated enough. Grandma and Grandpa Carr came. They were dressed as themselves!

Halloween-Dog Style

Lilly, our dog was dressed as a purple witch and was less than thrilled with the idea. At one point she went to the couch and sulked. Nash, her boyfriend, was dressed as a hotdog. Officially we are sick people!!!!

Morgan's Halloween Party at Pre-school

Morgan is dressed as Alice in Wonderland. She absolutely has no clue who that is. However, she is absolutely certain she is a princess. She has demanded that Mommy dress up for Halloween as the Queen and Daddy as the King.

Adam Singing at School

Once a week a class at Adam's and Seth's School will sing a patriotic song after they recite the pledge of allegiance. Adam's class sang, "I am Proud to Be an American." Surprisingly Adam sang his heart out which is rare for our shy child. Of course he almost missed the song because he was playing on the swings. I had to go and look for him and barely found him in time before the bell rang.

Carving Pumpkins

The big rule for this year: "If you cut it open you have to take out the pumpkin guts yourself." Even Morgan had fun pulling out a large handful of pumpkin guts. Of course Morgan wanted to use the knife to help cut the pumpkins and predictably she cut herself on her finger and started wailing. I would put crying but it doesn't capture the essence of Morgan's high pitch, loud cry. I asked her if she wanted a band-aid and she said "no." I asked why? And she said while wailing, "because I just want to look at it and cry." Heaven help us!!!

My New Hobby

Does this look appetizing? Can you all guess what is in these jars?

34 Years Old!!!!!

Happy Birthday Shannon!

Weekend at Uncle Lee's Cabin

My sister Lara was in Utah for a girls only weekend , so Lara's Husband Lee and I decided to take the kids to his family cabin for the weekend in Christopher Creek, Arizona. Shannon had her own vacation at home without any kids. This is the crew with the cousins Ethan and Bryce.
We played old fashioned baseball with a bat made from a tree limb. The first limb was a little weak. I pitched, Adam hit it, the tree limb broke in two and the broken part of the bat hit me in the stomach. Adam thought that was hilarious and the best part of the trip.

We went fishing twice. The first time, Morgan and her cousin Ethan caught fish. The second time we were skunked. Even though we could see the fish in the stream, they just looked at our bait and turned away. They were so close that if we had a fishing net we could have just scooped them out. After Morgan caught her fish and pulled it out, she ran screaming into the woods, because she "didn't want to touch it." Unfortunately, she is all girl! With no one willing to eat the fish, it was catch and release. We also visited the fish hatchery. The kids were amazed at the thousands of fish!
Here is Lee and Bryce. Bryce lived off Cheetos, cookies and Starbursts! Bryce kept things real. We were constantly trying to figure out what Bryce wanted. Lee and I wondered how Lara does this every day! We probably undid in 2 days, all the parenting Lara has done in 2 years. This was our philosophy, if it kept him happy, he got it!

Morgan's Two Favorite Things

Joel and the boys went camping last night with friends from the ward and left Morgan and I home alone. I didn't complain since I'm not a big camper but everyone knows I don't like to be home alone at night. I checked all the doors and windows twice and then had Morgan sleep in my bed and locked my bedroom door. I know that's silly but it made me feel safer. I read a book for a little while before I went to sleep and as I was about to turn the light off, I noticed Morgan. One thumb in her mouth and a hand on Lilly. I wish she could stay little forever!

Yes on 102!

"Marriage between one man and one woman. Can it get any simpler than that? Prop 102 simply secures the definition of marriage through an Arizona constitutional amendment.
Prop 102 is 20 simple and clear words that define marriage as the union of one man and one woman.
A YES vote on Prop 102 does one thing and one thing only – defines marriage as the union of one man and one woman in the Arizona Constitution, the highest law in our state.
One man. One Woman. Prop 102. That's Marriage."

I hammered in my last Prop 102 sign this afternoon. The bishop called on Joel and I to help with the Prop 102 effort for our ward weeks ago and I've thought of little else since then. The hardest part was spending hours on the phone trying to find people to work at the calling center but the best part was going with Joel and Tamara Taylor and making the calls ourselves. That day will always be memorable as we were stuck in a random office with tiny little cell phones. Joel of course had the stronger voice and I couldn't hear myself speak when I actually had a real person answer the phone. Anyone that has been on the phone with me knows I sound like a ten year old girl so I can't imagine what people where thinking when they heard my recorded message. That day made me realize how important this proposition is and I pray everyday that it will pass. I love seeing my sign in my yard each day and feeling proud as I stand up for something so important to our families! Now it's time to vote!

We're painting!

It's Fall Break for the boys and Joel decided to take the week off. Yesterday he invited all the little neighborhood boys over for some football and popcorn and a movie and then back to the park for some more football. They stayed from 11 am to 5:30pm and I don't know who had more fun, Joel or the boys? Well, today the kids went over to Lara's to play so I thought Joel and I had better get to work on our downstairs bathroom. I have had this can of paint for almost a year so I thought before it goes bad we had better use it. We just finished the second coat of paint so the tape comes off tomorrow morning. I'll post the finished product once I find a shower curtain and hang up some pictures. I chose the paint before finding a shower curtain and I've been finding that a bit of a problem. I can't find one that matches! Today reminded me of the good old days in Maryland fixing up our little townhouse. I really miss all of those home improvement projects! I need to start on the upstairs bedrooms so maybe this will give me the motivation I need. In the meantime it's fun to have Joel home.

October General Conference 2008

Morgan gave the big thumbs up to Grandma Billie's special waffle recipe this morning. They are nutritious and yummy! When grandma called to invite us over for her famous waffles we went running! We stayed and watched both sessions of General Conference and probably wore out our welcome but we had a lot of fun doing it!

Blender Wheat Waffles
Blend on high, 4 or 5 minutes:
1 Cup Milk
1 Cup Whole Wheat Kernels (in their dry state)

Add and blend on low:
2 eggs
2 T Honey
1/4 t salt
2 t baking powder
1 t baking soda
1/4 Cup oil
(add cinnamon, raisins and nuts for a little variety. They are the best this way!)

Lilly finally found some refuge from Adam and Morgan. She decided to hide out in the comfort of my purse!
I think she secretly wants to be Paris Hilton's dog!








I love this time of year because I finally have a couple of hours to crochet. Joel and Seth decided to try it and show how much they loved me by learning how. Joel was not sure he wanted this posted on the blog, as it finally shows to the world just how emasculated he has really become.

Sleep in General

Since Joel returned home from his deployment in Texas he hasn't been able to catch up on his sleep. I won't hide the fact that this was during the second session of General Conference. Joel usually conks out within the first thirty minutes. Morgan is at his side as usual. She climbs into our bed every night around 2 am but Joel never looks as comfortable as this picture. Morgan is always in the middle and favors Joel's side which means he has about six inches of bed to sleep in. I have plenty of room thank goodness but I hear about it each morning. We should probably place her back into her bed, but we rarely hear her come in. She will be our one and only little girl and of course we spoil her. I have to say, Joel does most of the spoiling around here.

We did have fun today at my parent's house. We don't have cable so we crash their house every six months to watch conference. They are good sports letting Lilly hang with us too. We love this time of year and look forward to the talks (and naps). We can't wait for tomorrow when the boys will have their annual conference bingo showdown.