Twelve Days of Christmas

I know I posted this last year as well, but I love this song. These guys make me laugh. Merry Christmas everyone, I hope you enjoy this wonderful time of year.

This made me laugh

I found this on a friends blog and had to share, I thought it was funny...

The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the European Union rather than German, which was the other possibility...

as part of the negotiations, the British Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a 5- year phase-in plan that would become known as "Euro-English".

In the first year, "s" will replace the soft "c". Sertainly, this will make the sivil servants jump with joy. The hard "c" will be dropped in favour of "k".. This should klear up konfusion, and keyboards kan have one less letter.

There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year when the troublesome "ph" will be replaced with "f". This will make words like fotograf 20% shorter. ... See More

In the 3rd year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible

Governments will enkourage the removal of double letters which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling.

Also, al wil agre that the horibl mes of the silent "e" in the languag is disgrasful and it should go away.

By the 4th yer people wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing "th" with "z" and "w" with "v".

During ze fifz yer, ze unesesary "o" kan be dropd from vords kontaining "ou" and after ziz fifz yer, ve vil hav a reil sensi bl riten styl.

Zer vil be no mor trubl or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi tu understand ech oza. Ze drem of a united urop vil finali kum tru.

Und efter ze fifz yer, ve vil al be speking German like zey vunted in ze forst plas.

The Weather in Idaho

60 above zero: Floridians turn on the heat. People in Idaho plant gardens.

50 above zero:Californians shiver uncontrollably. People in Boise sunbathe.

40 above zero:Italian & English tic;" cars won’t start. People in Idaho drive with the windows down.

32 above zero: Distilled water freezes. The water in Pocatello gets thicker.

20 above zero: Floridians don coats, thermal underwear, gloves, wool hats

. People in Idaho throw on a flannel shirt.

15 above zero: New York landlords finally turn up the heat. People in Idaho have the last cookout before it gets cold.

Zero:People in Miami all die. Idahoans close the windows.

10 below zero: Californians fly away to Mexico. People in Idaho get out their winter coats.

25 below zero: Hollywood disintegrates. The Girl Scouts in Idaho Falls are selling cookies door to door.

40 below zero: Washington DC runs out of hot air. People in Idaho let the dogs sleep indoors.

100 below zero: Santa Claus abandons the North Pole. Idahoans get upset because they can’t start the Mini-Van.

460 below zero: ALL atomic motion stops (absolute zero on the Kelvin scale.) People in Idaho start saying…”Cold ’nuff fer ya?”

500 below zero: Hell freezes over. Idaho School Districst will open 2 hours late.

Arabella's big news

November books read

This was a very slow month for reading. I read only for the first week and then I was caught up in other things. But the books that I did read were fun.

The Bar Code Tattoo - 252
Suzanne Weyn
The Bar Code Rebellion - 272
Suzanne Weyn
I thought these stories were fun, but they seemed to get a bit out there in parts.

Generation Dead - 400
Daniel Waters
This was a lot of fun! The story is of teenagers in America that when they die, they come back as zombies. They then attend high school and go about their "lives."

The Thief of Always - 288
Clive Barker
This has been a favorite book since I was a kid. I remember reading it at a friends house one day and loving it. it took me a while as an adult to actually get a copy of it for myself, but since getting it I have read it though many times.

Total for November: 1212
Total for 2009 thus far: 30068

Just one more bite

Today at Church Annika was given some cookies and she decided that she was wanted to save one to give it to Bella. As she sat in class the one whole cookie turned into two halves, and as Bella has a smaller mouth she was to get the smaller one. That small half got nibbled on until just a small piece was left. She did indeed give the crumb to Bella, and Bella loved her for it. She was so thankful and happy for her little crumb. It is sweet how much Annika loves Bella and wants to do things for her.

To add in a more practical note, wouldn't it be great if we were all so appreciative of the crumbs that we are given instead of looking for more. I have so very much to be grateful for, and I need to be more appreciative of it.

I have shared a few of the things that I am grateful for, but her are more, and some repeats.

My family - they rock, need I say more. James is the best guy around. MacKayla is so smart and wants so much to please and do nice things. Annika is a funny, smart, witty little goofball, and I can't help but smile as she gives me her goofy grins. Arabella, the cutest baby around. I love when she gets up in the morning and smiles as she tells me "I love you momma." I also love that she has begun talking in full sentences, she can correctly articulate her needs much of the time now. I also have a wonderful and supportive extended family. What a wonderful group of people that I am privileged to know.

Friends - I am so grateful for the friends that I have. I look up to so many of you and have learned so much from you. Thanks!

Modern conveniences - as our new garbage disposal is still sitting in a box in the kitchen I have come to realize how much I miss having it. I am thankful for the many small things like it that I use every day - laundry facilities in my home, hot water, dishwasher, TV, computers, internet...

Idaho - who would have ever thought that the San Diego girl could love Idaho so much. I know it has much to do with the people that I am around, but it's also the feel of the town. I love going into any store and seeing someone that I know there. I love being able to trust that my kids can go to their friends houses. I love that the people here are kind. Heck I even like the weather most of the time, snow is fun, it's just the ice that I hate.

Last but not least, the Gospel - As a teenager I know that I could have gone in many different directions, but I know that it is because of the Gospel that I am where I am today. In 1995 President Hinckley gave a talk to the youth in San Diego and he gave us the "B's" I don't remember at the time if they were the same ones that he gave later, but I do know that it was at that meeting that I knew what choices I needed to make. I left there with the Spirit burning and I knew that the Church was true. I had many great leaders that helped my along the way and I am so grateful for them. I know that I was the ward project, but I am thankful that people cared enough to continue until they knew that I would make it.

That's enough heart on my sleeve for now...in short I have much to be grateful for, and I am!

As promised

I know I said that I would quickly get our family photos on here, well things came up, time got wasted and it didn't get done. But for being so patient and waiting nicely, here are the photos.

Weird maybe, but it's us

James and I have a habit of naming the things that we have. As I posted about my new computer I shared that I had named it Bob, and I have had some questions regarding the name. Each time we get a new computer, car, and some miscellaneous things we pick out new names for them. Here are some of the things that we have named:

Our first car, the Toyota Camry - Camy
Toyota Corolla - Cory
My first computer - My Friend Bob
James' first computer - Hal (from 2001 Space Odyssey)
Our next computer - Robby
My laptop - Bob
Toyota Sienna - Big Blue
My body pillow - George
James' body pillow - Suzy

Those are all that I can think of for now. I can't remember how the name came to be for my body pillow, but James named his to make me jealous :) We joke around about going to bed with our George/Suzy.

We might be weird, but it's still fun, and hey, it's just us.

No before, but here's an after

I forgot to take a before picture today but here's an after shot.

You get what you ask for

In the evening James and I usually sit in the office and talk, spend time together, or do our own things. James sits at the computer and I in the chair. James will usually do the things that he wants and I bug him with my comments about the day, things I want to talk about or whatever I am thinking. Well since I got the computer yesterday I was keeping myself busy with things that I wanted to do. At one point today James looked over at me and started talking and asking what I was doing, the poor guy was bored. It turns out, he actually liked being bugged by me. Oh well, you get what you ask for...

My new toy

My birthday came a month early this year. We have been saving to get me my own computer for a while. Today we decided to go ahead and get it.

This is my new friend Bob. He is a great friend and I am loving getting to know him more.

Up DVD coupon

Here is a link to get a $10 off coupon for the movie Up.

http://disney.go.com/disneyvideos/animatedfilms/up/couponoffer/

you have to buy the blu-ray version of the movie, but it does come with the DVD and the digital copy.

There it goes...

Do you ever have one of those months where it seems that you can't catch a break. James has been working a lot of extra hours lately which means a little extra pay, so time to play right? Well first we had everyone get sick and had to pay a billion in doctors and prescription costs, not fun.

Then today I was all set to wash the dishes and get dinner going. I had to put some food down the sink and wouldn't you know, the disposal is dead. Not just dead where the reset button will fix it, oh no, dead like weird burning smells coming from it. Can I just say that having to hand scrape oatmeal out of the disposal is GROSS. So off to Ace hardware for a new one. The fun question will be how long will it sit in the box on the counter!?! I am hoping it gets installed tomorrow, but I guess time will tell.

Isn't he cute

I have the cutest husband ever!
Our good friend Mary took our photos this weekend and I will be putting more up soon, but for now, here is my hot guy.

These are a few of my favorite things...

I went to a girls night last night and had to pick and bring three of my favorite things. I had a hard time at first coming up with three that I could take. Once I came up with the three though, I had a hard time stopping. I wanted to bring a ton of different things. In the end this is what I came up with...

1. The book Enchantment by Orson Scott Card. This is a modern day telling of Sleeping Beauty. I loved the story and find it to be better each time that I read it.
2. Fresh baked bread. I love the smell, flavor, texture and taste of fresh baked bread. It has been said that man cannot live on bread alone, well I could.
3. Root beer floats. I love to sit down with a good root beer float. The ice cream is the real clincher, but it has to be good ice cream. I think Bryer's French Vanilla is the best for making one. The root beet is also A&W, the smoothest and best blending root beer.
So yeah, those are a few of my favorite things, what are yours?

Grateful

A friend has been posting on the things that she is grateful for and I have enjoyed reading about them. I also read an article today that said that if you are consistent about thinking and being grateful for the things that you have you will be a happier person. I decided to share a few things that I am grateful for.

#1 my family - I know it's cliche, but I am. I have a great family! My husband works hard for us and is a wonderful man to be with. I also have the best kids! My extended family ROCKS as well!

#2 the Gospel - I am grateful to know my Savior and to know that I can return again to my Heavenly Father.

#3 my health - This is one that I often take for granted, even when I know I shouldn't. I was sick a lot as a kid, but it's easy to forget what that was like. After feeling awful for so long with the flu, it's amazing to feel good again. I am grateful that I can know what it feels like to feel good.

#4 this country - I know how lucky we are to be in this great nation. I am grateful for the many opportunities that are afforded to us here.

#5 good books - I love to read and I love to have good books. There are few things as wonderful as sitting down with a good book and disappearing into a new world.

That's all for today, but I will continue to look for the things that I am grateful for.

Dia de lor Muertos

Last year we began the tradition of celebrating Dia de los Muertos, or the Day of the Dead. In Mexico this is one of the biggest holidays and James fondly remembers the food and the fun. We were again able to celebrate with some friends last night. Had I been smart I would have gotten some pictures of the food and friends, but alas I am not. We did enjoy some great food and fun with one another.

This picture is actually of the bread that we made last year, but this years was the same. I think this bread is one of the hits of the night. It is called pan de muerto, or bread of the dead. I like the soft texture but rich flavor that it has. It also helps that is has a wonderful orange glaze on it that makes it taste awesome.

National Blogging Month

It's that time again - National Blogging Month. I was already a slacker and missed yesterday, but this is the third post for the day, so hopefully that will make up for it. So here's the challenge - blog everyday this month. Think of something small, something great, something sad, or whatever you are thinking of for the day and share it with us. I am going to try to keep it up, I really enjoyed it last year. Let's get blogging...

October books read

October was a good month for reading.

The Lost Symbol - 528
Dan Brown
I think Dan Brown is a good writer and this book did not disappoint. I thought the story was intriguing and I enjoyed learning more about the Mason's. I did think the references to Mormon's were pointless, and not just because I am a member, but they were extraneous and did not add to the story.

The Protector - 350
Dee Henderson
The Healer - 336
Dee Henderson
The Rescuer - 352
Dee Henderson
I enjoyed finishing out the O'Malley series. The stories were fun and I enjoyed being a part of their lives.

Dracula - 382
Bram Stoker
This was an interesting read. We read this for our book club this month, but I had a very hard time getting interested in it. I did manage to finish it, but it was hard. The story is overall interesting, but it is a slow read. The middle third or so of the book drove me nuts as well, I felt like it went nowhere slow.

Found - 320
Margaret Peterson Haddix
Sent - 320
Margaret Peterson Haddix
I read the first book of The Missing series Found after last Christmas and really liked it. This month the second came out and I had to reread the first one and then get to the second, and they were great. The first holds up well to a second reading and the second was very well written as well. I am looking forward to the rest of the series and seeing where the author takes the stories.

Total for October: 2588
Total for 2009 thus far: 28856

Halloween

This is the first year that we went for a theme for our family and I thought it went quite well. Here is our family.

James - Obi-Wan Kenobi
La Tisha - Jedi knight
MacKayla - Ahsoka Tano (from the Clone Wars cartoon)
Annika - Padme
Arabella - Princess Leia

Why????

This has not been my favorite week. On Monday Annika came home from school not feeling good. She had a fever and a sore throat. As she already had a doctor's appointment for the next day for her five year check up I decided to wait one day to take her in. She was diagnosed on Tuesday positive for the flu, awesome isn't it!?! She wasn't too miserable so we went ahead and finished the normal check-up as well just so we wouldn't have to come back. She is doing really well in everything, except she did not pass her eye test. They said she was seeing at 20/30 to 20/40. So we need to take her in for a full exam now. She also has severe allergies and while being put on Tamiflu for the flu was also put on Flonase for the allergies. If you have read James' blog Flonase is the same medicine that gave him bloody noses, so let's hope that Annika handles it better.

Annika is actually feeling pretty good now, she is still a bit of a lump on the couch, but she isn't complaining much anymore.

Now the bad part of the week comes in, Annika decided to share the flu with me, why oh why do we teach children to share :) I also went to the doctor on Tuesday, I had started the awful cough and could tell that I was getting the flu as well. The test came out negative while I was there, but I think that was only because the virus hadn't replicated enough yet. At this point I thought that the flu wasn't too bad, it was uncomfortable, but more of a nuisance than anything else. The doctor did give me Tamiflu though as I had all of the symptoms, have asthma and am in a house with a positive person. By 2:00 though I was hit and I was hit hard. The fevers started and I thought I was going to die. The pain is intense, the coughing horrible and overall I am miserable. Tuesday night I was hungry but I honestly did not have the strength to raise a fork to my mouth. James ended up cutting up my food for me and I laid on the couch to eat it.

Yesterday morning wasn't too bad, I thought I was getting better, but by the afternoon I was miserable again. Today I don't even seem to be getting the morning reprieve, I had a bad night sleeping and now feel miserable. I think the hardest part of being sick however is that you still have to be Mom. The kids don't accept that all you want to do is sleep, they for whatever reason still feel the need to eat and be taken care of. Oh well, such is life...

Sorry for the whine-fest, just needed to vent...

R.I.P. Annika

Well the demise of Annika has finally occurred.... For the past month or so Annika has wanted a haircut. We had agreed that she would get one next summer, we wanted long hair for dance. Well today the little, I want to say doofus, but that would be mean, I'll stick with goober, decided to cut her own hair. She took a chuck about six inches long from the front of her hair. At that point she was strung up as a lesson to the other two not to try anything like that.In all actuality, I took her in and she got a haircut. She is now the proud owner of her first pair of bangs. I think she looks cute with bangs, except that we will have to train the awful cowlick that she has. So here is the new Annika.
Here she is showing off some of our Halloween decorations.
MacKayla lounging about, anything to get out of work with that one.
Bella being her adorable self.

Fed by the Spirit...and sugar

The girls and I are enjoying Conference today, poor James is at work again. I was able to capture a great photo of them being fed by the Spirit as well as by sugar. Our conference treat for this morning was doughnuts and eggnog.

September books

The Negotiator - 304
Dee Henderson
Danger in the Shadows - 320
Dee Henderson
The Guardian - 294
Dee Henderson
The Truth Seeker - 336
Dee Henderson

The first four books in the O'Malley series were quite enjoyable. I thought the stories were fun and I really enjoyed the characterizations. I thought the O'Malley's while somewhat of superheros in their stories were still allowed to be real people that one could relate to. The flaw that I had with the stories was that the idea of converting everyone to Christianity seemed forced. Overall I would recommend the series, I am looking forward to reading the last three in the series soon.

Beastly - 336
Alex Flinn

I really liked this story and have been recommending it to everyone lately. It is a modern telling of Beauty and the Beast, but from the Beasts perspective. It is the story of a rich and snobby big-city boy and how he makes fun of a girl that is odd. She turns out to be a witch and turns him into a beast. You know the basics of the story from there, but it was done in a great way. Definitely a book worth reading.

Jacob Have I Loved - 256
Katherine Paterson

This was an interesting book of a set of twin girls and the struggle that one felt for her own identity. I thought the story was okay, but not great.

Catching Fire - 400
Suzanne Collins

The was the sequel to The Hunger Games and I have to say that the author has got "it." The story was exciting! It took turns that were unexpected and was enjoyable. I am really looking forward to the last book next year, I want to see what is in store for all of the characters.

A Wrinkle in Time - 224
Madeleine L'Engle

This is one of James' favorite books and he feels it is what really turned him onto sci-fi. For years he has tried to get me to read it, but I have had little interest in doing so. Near the end of this month I had run out of money to buy more books and had read almost every book that I own, so I finally settled on reading this one. It took about a week to read it, if that is any indication of how much I enjoyed it (I usually read a book in about a day.) The story was okay, but I was not excited to read it and am not excited to read more in the series.

Total for September: 2470
Total for 2009 thus far: 26268

I made my goal for the year, YAY! Maybe I'll extend it to 30,000 by the end of the year.

I am looking for some more good books, if you have any ideas please share!

Not the brightest move

Yesterday James and I were cleaning up the toys in the downstairs living room. James asked if I had seen the couch yet. I looked over and saw that someone had colored all over the middle portion with a marker. I got mad at the older girls because they had been leaving there markers around the living room and Bella had gotten into them before. I was ready to be annoyed at Bella for coloring on the couch, but really what could I do, she is just a baby.

I then start to really look at the coloring on the couch. I notice an "a" and the first thought was wow, somehow her scribbled strokes turned into an a, how funny. And then I saw the rest of Annika's name, including the flourishes that she does on her i and k. I could not believe that the four, almost five, year old was the one to color on the couch. I was ready to pound the child. After much wailing and gnashing of teeth, we got out of her that she thought it would be fun to do it.

Now the title of the post is "not the brightest move," if you were really going to so something so stupid, would you sign your name to it. This belongs in one of those stupid criminals posts.

The only thing that saved the child from a life of servitude and sleeping under the stairs was that the couch was stain treated and they were washable markers, so there is no evidence of the crime. All art toys have been removed for a long time though...

Special bond

Annika and Arabella have a special bond. They play together and share a great love for one another. Yesterday while Annika was at school Arabella got up on the couch to look out the window and she asked several times "where Anka?" It was one of those sweet moments that makes you happy to have kids. She was thrilled later when she got up from her nap and her "Anka" was there to play with her.

Daddy-Daughter Bonding

James and the girls have enjoyed watching the Star Wars movies and the Clone Wars TV shows together. The girls love to bond with their dad and like the things that he does. MacKayla is the one who usually gets into it the most and tries to impress her dad with how much she knows or wants to know about the Star Wars universe.

Annika came upstairs today with several lightsabers and wanted to duel with her dad. The others had to get in on the fun as well. Here are the girls and their bonding with their father.

She's so happy to be playing with her sisters and daddy.
Annika the avenger, she will destroy us all.
She couldn't wait to play, she jumped out of the bath and attempted to beat us all.
Darth Daddy has done in the mysterious MacKayla Skywalker.
The Skywalker family name will live on, MacKayla has bested Darth Daddy.
It takes two to take down the evil Darth Daddy.
I love the shear joy on each of their faces.

August Books Read

August was a good month for reading!

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - 784
J.K. Rowling
I really enjoyed reading this again and taking a bit more time to digest the story. The first time I read it I had it read in less than a day, this time I think I allowed it to take a full day. I think it was wonderful conclusion to the saga.

Izzy, Willy-Nilly - 327
Cynthia Voigt
This was the story of a girl who was in an accident and lost her leg and how she comes to comes to accept life and the accident.

Silent to the Bone - 272
E.L. Konigsburg
An interesting story of a boy who has been accused of injuring his baby sister and he is now unable to speak to tell what really happened. I had issue with it being a juvenile novel that ends up dealing up with a boy being sexually manipulated by an older woman. Besides that the story was interesting.

The MacGregors: Robert~Cybil - 536
Nora Roberts
The MacGregors: Daniel~Ian - 411
Nora Roberts
The MacGregors: Rebellion - 395
Nora Roberts
A fun set of love stories. I am not a romance reader, but these actually had a fun plot to go along with the love.

The Truth About Sparrows - 288
Marian Hale
This was an okay story about a girl living in the depression and how she copes with life after leaving her home and becoming something that she could never imagine herself to be. I though the story was fine, but it is not the kind of book that I am excited to read again.

American Gods - 592
Neil Geiman
I just finished this story and am still not certain how I feel about it. I enjoyed reading it, but the story was odd. The tale is of a man who becomes a helper for a god and has to help him get ready for a war. The was is to be between the gods of time past and the gods of today (TV, internet, computers, phones...) The story was interesting, and it certainly went places that I did not expect. I will include a warning that the story contains a lot of swearing and some sexuality. The swearing is particularly present at the beginning of the book, it continues throughout but not as bad.

Nothing but the Truth - 213
Avi
This is a fun quick read of how a teenage angst filled kid can take things too far. The kid in the story is upset at his teacher and wants nothing more than to be excused from her class. He proceeds to get into trouble and takes it to levels never dreamed of.

Total for August: 3818
Total for 2009 thus far: 23798

First Day of School

MacKayla

Monday was MacKayla's first day of first grade and boy did she love it. She came home and was so excited she could not sit still. She was bouncing, jumping, singing, dancing and everything but relaxing. It was so fun to see the excitement that she had for school. She loves her new teacher, Mrs. Jensen, and has a lot of friends in her class. She also loves that she gets to eat lunch at school every day, although I think we might have a problem there already. It's only the third day of lunch and she already asked me if her lunch was the same as yesterday because she wanted something different. Oh well, tomorrow she can have hot lunch...

When MacKayla was learning to read we made her a deal that she could have a party when she read 100 books, and she realized her goal this past week. She worked hard all summer and read all of the books. This weekend we are celebrating and going to Leo's Place.

Annika
Today was Annika's first day of four year old preschool, and boy was she excited. She loves her teachers, her friends and her class and could not wait to get back to see them. We went to the open house yesterday and when she realized that we were only staying for a minute she was a little miffed at me, until she knew that she would go for a long time today. We'll see how her day went, but I am guessing that she too will be bouncing off the walls telling me everything.

As for Annika's summer she too has been working on learning to read. I made her a copy of MacKayla's kindergarten skills book and she is about halfway though it already. She knows her numbers, letter, letter sounds and some simple words. We are excited to have another reader in the house.

Just another funny tidbit about my girls. A while ago I posted about taking MacKayla shopping for some clothes and the craziness that was that. The funny thing about that though is that she doesn't care what she actually wears. She will happily put on whatever clothes I lay out for her. Annika on the other hand is very particular about what she wears. The colors, textures, and styles have to be just right. So when I tok her to pick out a new outfit for the first day of school I was prepared for real drama. What do you know, there wasn't any. She loved the first pair of jeans that I showed her. As for the shirt I picked out a cute polo shirt with blue stripes and she liked it, but then saw the purple one and asked nicely if she could have the purple on instead. We were in and out of the store in less than ten minutes, that kid is funny.
Look how much she grew in the last year. The above photo was the first day of school last year and the bottom is this year. It seems to be a good six inches or so, and I think most of it was this summer, she outgrew all her clothes.
Arabella
Arabella had her 18 month check-up yesterday and is doing great. She only gained 2 oz in the last three months for a total of 20lbs 9ozs, how that is I have no idea, the kid eats more than anyone else in the house, it must be all the playing she did this summer. She also grew on inch this summer to be 30 1/2 in.

She is doing great developmentally. She knows her body parts, names of the people and favorite things in her life, as well as animal sounds and names. She loves to play outside, especially in the water, she is a little fish. She loves to ride her toy car and to pretend that she is big and ride the girl's bikes. Bella is a sweet little kid and we are so glad that she is in our family.
All my girls together, and they are even smiling.

One of those days...

This has been one of those days that makes you question why to ever have children. We needed to make a quick stop at WalMart, I only needed four things. We should have been able to run in, get them and leave and then we could have had fun. Well nothing can ever be that easy...

Annika asked for one of the carts that has room for all of them to sit on it. I said sure if we could find one, well as luck would have it, they didn't have any. Annika begins to scream and throw a fit because she wanted it. We went through the entire store with her screaming. I got a lot of looks from people, some were the sympathetic "I know what you feel" kind and others were the "you must be a horrible mom" kind. Oh well, it's just WalMart right.

Well we get in the car and discuss the seriousness of the offenses that have occurred, that of course brings about another loud round of screaming all the way home. Once home she is sent to her room to scream until she is ready to calm down and talk to me. Not my Annika though, no instead she starts to kick the walls and hit things. At this point I attempt to talk to her again, while being screamed at.

She then lost her blanket (her favorite thing in the world), ended up in a cold shower and was still in trouble. I was trying to get her to understand that she would not be able to continue along this course. I was frustrated when she still wouldn't give up the crying and I asked her what else she loved so that I could take that away too, and that is when I got the "end the anger answer." She looked at me with her big brown eyes and said "you, I love you." At that point she got hugs and I gave up...

We'll see if she gets her blanket back for bed though.

This is scary

How can they get away with this is my question?

In checking out Snopes.com they say that this was never intended to be used on consumers, only on dealers computers and the new privacy statement has been updated to reflect that. Either way, I still don't like it.

Aspen Grove

Last week we were able to go on a family vacation to Aspen Grove. Aspen Grove is a family camp that is operated by BYU in the mountains near Sundance. We have gone as a family twice now and have loved it each time. James' family has been going since his mom was a teenager. We are enjoying keeping the family tradition alive.

While at Aspen Grove the kids are each assigned to a group with other kids their age, even Bella had her own group to go to. It was wonderful to be able to enjoy a vacation without hearing the kids whine about being bored and having nothing to do. They were kept busy doing their own things and the grownups are allowed to have their own fun, and fun we did have...

On Monday James, his parents and I went paint balling. It was James and I versus his parents, and once you got over the fact that you were shooting your parents it was a blast. James and his dad each ended up with around 12 bruises on their bodies from being hit, James had three on the top of his head, including one the broke the skin. Mom had several really large ones as well. I ended up with only two as I stayed back and had fun just shooting, I was able to hit mom several times in the face (she had a shield) to block here shooting of James.

On Tuesday we went shooting again, this time air rifles, and that was a blast. I did fairly well and even got one bulls eye. The goal was clustering your shots, and except for the bulls eye, the rest of my shots were well clustered. James did very well on his shots as well. We also had some fun later on Tuesday racing RC cars. James' mom and I each were able to nail the car that we were chasing. I did spend much of my time though trying to keep my car on the track.

On Wednesday we went down to Provo and spent the day at BYU and eating lunch at the Brick Oven, oh how I have missed a good Brick Oven pizza, nothing can compare.

Thursday we spent the day finishing arts and crafts, swimming and talking with family.

All in all James and I had a blast. Now for the kids...

The kids were able to go on hikes, go swimming and have lots of play time with their groups. On of the highlights for MacKayla was the climbing wall, she made it about halfway up and loved it! Annika loved going swimming and making lots of new friends. Arabella on the other hand loved nothing more than when mommy would pick her up from her group, she was not happy being left for so long. They said that she was happy and played, but all I ever saw was her crying as I left, and crying when I came to get her.

Before we checked into Aspen Grove on Saturday we went to the Museum of Ancient Life at Thanksgiving Point. The museum is one of our favorites! The kids absolutely love dinosaurs and this is the largest dinosaur museum around.

On Friday after we had checked out of camp we went over to BYU to the Bean museum to see the animals they had on display. While I was a student I had gone to the museum and thought it was fun, but nothing all that great. What a change has taken place, the museum is awesome now. They have stuffed versions of tons of animals and it was a lot of fun. In some ways it beats going to the Zoo as we got to get really close to the animals and really see what they were like.

So here are some photos of our time at camp...

The girls at the dinosaur museumMacKayla the junior paleontologistAll of the kids, except BellsDigging for buried dinosAnnika the Paleontologist

MacKayla and her cousin Ben getting into their harnesses to go climbing

She's ready to climb like a proNo fear, she made it halfway upGreat form :)
The whole family together, I love how my kids are the ones who look like they are being tortured

James' parents and sister, aren't they cute

We are a happy family

The Wammacks all together

Aunt, Uncle and their family, I love the chessy grins on the kids
Another Uncle, Aunt and cousin, they are so cute

MacKayla and her trademark smile

Bella actually showing off a smile

Annika and her cute funny smile

The girls at the Bean Museum

That is one ferocious lionThis was one of the coolest displays, the burrterfly is made out of real butterflies