Saturday, January 30, 2010

KIDS HOLIDAY FESTIVITIES~ backtracking (sorry)

this is Jakob's sweet class, that i have the privilege of being the room mother for! they are all SOOOOOO sweet and always have great big hugs and smiles for me!
i am the VT to one very special girl, she is pictured in the middle wrapped in her puppy dog paws blanket.... i love visiting with wendy and i am lucky to get to spend a little time with her each month!
rob always loves telling the story of Sinter Claus.... this year his parents would be out of town, so we invited friends from church over to help us celebrate the festive occasion.
sofia and ollie eating ice cream sundays at sofia's holiday party at school.
and last, but not least..... Nico crying during his 4th grade winter performance at school. he HATES getting up in front of people and instead of singing with everybody else, he stood on the stand the entire time with this look on his face and tears streaming down his face. i think it was a good 30 minutes of misery for the kid!!

OUR FAMILY PICTURE WITH SANTA

ANNELIES' THEORY ON LIFE


Annelies is such a sweet girl, she always thinks of others and always wants the best for everybody! her prayers are pure and thoughtful. she is such a good girl, but she wines A LOT! the other day as i am lying on the couch not feeling good at all, she explains to me how disappointed she is that i slept the whole day! she then goes on to say, "i really wanted to ride my bike to get more practice, after all THESE are my learning years!" i couldn't help but to laugh..... she is so cute. i love the mind of a 7 year old!

PLEASE FEEL SORRY FOR HIM!

Rob, of course has no recollection of this picture, much less ASKING me to take it, but needless to say..... he asked, so i did! he has had lots of stomach problems lately and underwent several procedures to get some answers. unfortunately we do not have any answers, but i have this great picture to remind us of his misery!

CHILDREN'S MUSEUM




Our playgroup ventured out to the Children's Museum in atlanta where they were having a special curious george museum. Ollie had a blast with all of his friends, but wanted to stay on the tractors the whole time. he also got to be a planet (pluto) in a little show that was put by some of the employees. he did so good and had so much fun!

MY DEAR SWEET FRIENDS


before everyone got back into the groove of things after the holidays, me and a few of my high school friends decided to get together and enjoy some pizza, salad, dessert and good company! we had lots of laughs and tons of fun catching up on each others lives. three of the girls are pregnant and ALL expecting girls, one friend just got married, and the others of us are enjoying the kids and lives we have created for ourselves. to top it off, the girls surprised me with a very yummy birthday cake and a super sweet card signed by them all!

5, 4, 3, 2, 1...HAPPY NEW YEAR





my friend Rachelle had a bunch of us families over for a very fun New Years celebration for our kids. She made yummy treats and had homemade pinata's ready for the kids to bust open. the kids had a blast and felt a part of the new years festivities! after the party, we ventured to our house for our own adult count down! thanks Rachelle for a great party!

OUR NEW PUPS


the kids got to view first hand how babies are born! our dog rockette had her second litter of puppies this past week and the kids had front row seats. Nico reacted by throwing up, the other kids lost interest after awhile, but Jakob sat by her side for as long as he could stay awake. he was so excited when he woke up to 8 healthy puppies and one very tired mamma dog!

FLAG FOOTBALL FUN



Nico spent a good 2 weeks organizing a flag football game at our house with all of his friends. the girls each went to a friends house and ollie went with daddy, so Nico and Jakob had the backyard to themselves. the boys had so much fun playing, but complained that Jakob kept throwing the football into the creek!

CHRISTMAS 2009





Rob and I decided to keep Christmas simple this year, we would get a big gift for all of the kids and Santa would bring the kids one special gift each and fill their stockings. it was fun to see each of the kids really think about what they wanted for christmas. Nico asked for a bomber jacket, Jakob wanted a nerf gun (that ended up not working), Annelies wanted a book, Sofia asked for an American Girl doll and Ollie wanted a motorcycle. For the big gift, the kids got a Wii that has proved to be a very family friendly activity! Christmas was quiet and low key. we had my mom and brother over late in the afternoon and we enjoyed our annual trip to Waffle House, except it was over crowded, so we decided to venture over to iHop.... it was a fun day and the kids enjoyed the simplicity.

REINDEER FOOD

Jakob can hardly handle the anticipation of christmas. he asks EVERY night up to Christmas if this is the night that santa comes, and this starts after his birthday! it is quite exhausting to say the least, but i love seeing the excitement in his eyes. he was so excited when i FINALLY told him it was time to spread out his reindeer food. he was ready for santa now and all that was left to do was leave out hot chocolate, cookies and some carrots for the reindeer!


AWAY IN A MANGER




Ollie, his joy school friends and their families all gathered at our house for a "holiday" party. the kids all dressed in nativity costumes and acted out the night christ was born. it was so sweet and quite hilarious when our two shepherds got in a scuffle over a gun! it was quite the scene! afterwards we enjoyed a yummy potluck dinner and the kids had a great time playing.

OUR MODIFIED COOKIE BAKING DAY



with my sister being pregnant and having a two year old at her feet and me not being completely up to our traditional cookie day and my mom not having any more PTO due to the health of herself and her parents, we decided to modify our cookie day. The kids were quite happy with decorating pre-baked sugar cookies and we were happy that it only took less than an hour!

JOY SCHOOL FUN

Ollie has been involved in Joy school this year and thinks it is the greatest thing ever! i was in charge of the month of December and of course had to do a fun craft with them. our first craft was our count down to christmas craft and this craft was the best! a reindeer handprint scarf for each of the boys to keep and stay warm! so cute- we are missing a member of the class, but it is all boys and super fun!

Monday, January 11, 2010

PRAY PEOPLE!!

In Church we are taught to have faith in Heavenly Father. we are not told what trials we may have to endure to gain this faith, but we know that through prayer and scriptures, we can gain a closeness to our Heavenly Father that he desires us to have. I was able to teach a lesson in Relief Society yesterday (my birthday) that taught us about Our Heavenly Father. we learned of His attributes, His miracles, His creations and how to grow closer to Him. i felt grateful to be able to teach this lesson and share my thoughts, but mostly i LOVE to hear the experiences of my sisters that i teach. i am able to learn so much from them!

at this time in our ward, we are facing many challenges. there are many battling cancer, broken limbs, we have 9 women that are pregnant and one sister who just miscarried after finding out the sex of her baby and hearing that the baby girl she is carrying will not survive. this woman is my friend. she is strong, beautiful, creative, funny, passionate and caring. the Lord has helped her through the loss of her child, but now she herself is in the ICU in critical condition due to blood poisoning from the amniotic fluid. her family is here to support her husband and be at her side, her two little girls are being shared through out the ward by our generous sisters and meals are being brought in daily. it is amazing to me how truly and unconditionally willing we are to serve each other in times of need.
i know that all things are in the hands of our Heavenly Father. i know that the challenges he places in our lives are to strengthen our testimony and draw us closer to Him. i pray that each of us can be close to Him and know the true miracles that he can perform and have faith to pray to him every day. have faith in Him, grow from His lessons and know that there is a God and He loves us! my prayers are with the Sanders family at this time, i am also praying for my sweet nephew Beckham and my sister and scott that all will be well with him. Rob has a procedure this friday to hopefully get some results on his stomach issues. in the midst of all the gloom, i am very grateful for my family and our health. i am grateful for the gospel in our lives and for the amazing examples my sweet children are to me. we are truly blessed.

Monday, January 4, 2010

COOKING FOR PLENTY

i am not claiming to be the best cook, but i LOVE good food and i love feeding people and entertaining. i have decided to create a new blog with all of my favorite recipes. please join me there and enjoy some of my families favorite meals!


ALSO..... i will update my home blog with new pictures and holiday updates! we had a great christmas and a fun new years!

click HERE to view my new blog