Wammack Family Adventures

Books Read in 2011

2012-01-06T21:58:00.000-07:00

So once again the year ends and I did not keep up on the blog with what I had read. I did however a few months ago, begin keeping track of them on Goodreads. I was able to figure out what I had read for most of the year, I think, so the list is fairly accurate.

In the end I read 90 books and 30,524 pages. Many of them were great and a few were only so-so. I am not up for writing a review of all of them, but I will list them in the categories of the stars that I gave them on Goodreads. Admittedly though, I was an easier reviewer before than I am now. I gave more 5's then I think I would now. I would say that the 4's and 5's are all worth reading though, and for those that live near me, I own all of them and would be happy to share.

Again I find that most of the books that I read are dystopian juvenile fiction. I find that the authors here know what they are doing. The write a convincing story, they keep the reader engaged and they have great ideas. There are a few other books that I have been reading this year, but I haven't finished them, and they have been relegated to "the drawer" with little hope that they will emerge for now. Maybe one day I will finish them, but for now, there are so many other GOOD books to read!

As for the classification system Goodreads uses the following criteria:
5 - It Was Amazing
4 - Really Like It
3 - Liked It
2 - It Was Okay

5's
I am Number Four
Matched
Pathfinder
Divergent
The Book Thief
Peter and the Starcatchers
Drought
The Help
The Power of Six
Everfound
The Son of Neptune
Everwild
The Throne of Fire
Outside In
Inside Out
Flygirls
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

4's
The Confession
Crossed
The Gardener
Water for Elephants
The Magicians
Torn
Genesis
Across the Universe
The City of Ember
Glow
Lies
Enclave
Beautiful Chaos
You'll Like it Here
Michael Vey: The Prisoner of Cell 25
Prized
The School for the Insanely Gifted
The Most Important Little Boy in the World
The Chrysalids
Half Brother
The Ressistance
The Declaration
Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer
Almost True
The Unit
When I Was Joe
The Replacements
The Girl Who Could Fly
Hunger
World War Z
Theodore Boone: The Abduction
The Dark and Hallow Places
Birthmarked
Bruiser
Legend
Carrier of the Mark
Peter and the Secret of Rundoon

3's
A Wish After Midnight
The Janitors
The Prophet of Yonwood
The Death Cure
Fire
The Diamond of Darkhold
The People of Sparks
Human.4
Dash & Lily's Book of Dares
The Dead and the Gone
A World Without Heroes
Messenger
Gathering Blue
Nightlight: A Parody
The Shadow Club
The Other Side of the Island
The Shadow Club Rises
The Witch of Blackbird Pond
This World We Live In
Juliet
Peter and the Shadow Thieves
Peter and the Sword of Mercy
Witch & Wizard

2's
Eat, Pray, Love
Deadly Little Secret
Ship Wreckers
Flux
The Sky Inside
Make Lemonade
Don't You Dare Read This, Mrs. Dunphrey
Prom
Going Bovine
Will Grayson, Will Grayson
The Walls Have Eyes
Twisted
The Friday Night Knitting Club

Christmas: Wammack Style

2011-12-26T10:08:00.000-07:00

We had a very nice Christmas yesterday. The kids slept until 7 and then stayed in their room quietly, although they did admit to sneaking out to see the presents. We all got up and they got to open their stocking and their present from Santa. We then went to church and had a nice time there. Then it was time to come home, put the jammies back on and open lots of presents.
We have a very generous and hard working family and they made this a truly blessed year for us. We were all spoiled and we are really looking forward to playing with all of our new toys, playing our new games, and reading lots of books.
We hope that you had a very Merry Christmas as well.

Christmas Jammies

Nothing says Christmas like the Dark Lord of the Sith.

Dora the Explorer for the girliest of girls.

Lala-Loopsy for the Annika bug.

The biggest goob, had Hello Kitty.

Happy kids on Christmas Eve in their new jammies, and Johnny of course trying to get to the camera.

The Christmas Tree

Santa arrived and loaded up the tree.

Everything waiting to delight the children.

Christmas morning

Coming down the hall ready to see the tree and thier presents.

Excitedly finding their stockings.

Discovering the wonders that Santa put in their stocking.

Woohoo! Candy, underwear and more candy.

Johnny had a lightsaber in his stocking.

Opening their Santa present. Annika received High School Musical Sing It! for the Wii. MacKayla received an electronic Sudoku game.

Arabella got the new Winnie the Pooh movie from Santa.

Johnny was not that interested in opening up the presents, but he received a cute number caterpillar. He did love the lightsaber though, he has chewed on that since yesterday morning.

Time for presents

The girls opening and showing off a few of their presents.

Johnny decided to play some Christmas music for us instead of opening presents.

The joy on Bella's face expresses what we all felt!

Annika's Christmas Concert

2011-12-13T20:03:00.001-07:00

The first and second graders at the school put on a wonderful Christmas concert for the parents. The kids have been practicing all year and they did a great job. Annika was so very excited to perform and she was awesome! Here are her videos:

Deck the Halls

I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas

Jingle Bells

Must be Santa

Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer

MacKayla's Christmas Concert

2011-12-12T12:50:00.000-07:00

This year MacKayla has joined the Eastern Idaho Youth Arts Council Choir. She is having a lot of fun learning new songs, learning proper technique and making new friends. The choir was recently invited to perform at the Festival of Trees. The kids had been preparing for the concert in January, so they hadn't done a whole lot of other practice. They decided to go with Christmas songs and what a great job they did. Here are the songs:

We Wish You a Merry Christmas

Away in a Manger

Deck the Halls

Frosty

Jingle Bells

O Come Little Child

Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer

Santa Claus is Coming to Town

Up on the Housetop

We Wish You a Merry Christmas (again)

Fall Catch Up

2011-11-20T19:02:00.001-07:00

Once again I have let myself get behind on the blog again...maybe this time, I will stay on top of it...

We have had a really fun fall, Annika turned 7 in the middle of October and had a fun birthday party with several of her friends. We also had a lot of fun for Halloween. The night was cold, but the kids were still able to get lots of candy.

For the most part I will just make this a photo bomb to show our Fall.

Our Halloween pumpkins.

Ms. SuperGirl, I love the attitude.

Frankie Stein and SuperGirl waiting in line for the school parade.

"Parade too long it is" according to Yoda.

Harry Potter off to save the magical world.

A friend didn't think that I would be willing to wear the tutu and bow, I guess she didn't realize that I have no shame when it's Halloween.

Our pumpkins in the light.

The cutest Yoda ever!

Annika's birthday cake. Silly mom forgot to order one before the party, luckily they had a cute Halloween cake ready when we got there.

Annika had a costume/movie party. She had a lot of fun!

Showing off a few present.

Annika's new love is all things Monster High, she was on cloud 9 when she received four dolls for her birthday.

Bella has decided she is too old for naps, but after a long day she will still crash sometimes. I thought this was particularly cute.

Johnny playing with his lightsabers. I love that smile!

Again with the adorable smile, doesn't he make you melt.

Johnny's new favorite thing is to grab a book and climb up and read it with me. He especially loves puppies and can even say "puppa" now, he also pants like a dog. Today for the first time he said "kitty, meow" as well. It is amazing how fast he is growing up.

James also wanted to capture him is his Star Trek shirt at least one more time before he grows up.

I came in to get him one morning and he had gotten his shirt this far off and was quite proud of it. Since then he has managed to get all of his jammies off, what a silly boy.

Bella's hair had reached the point that is was getting really long and she was ready for her first haircut, so this is the before from the front.


The back, I will miss those curls at the bottom. All of the girls had really cute curls until their first haircut, and those curls never come back.


During the haircut.

The haircut all done, isn't she adorable!

Showing off the ponytail that she donated to Locks of Love, she was very excited to help another little girl who didn't have any hair.

Johnny is not a big eater much of the time, so when we find something he likes it is a great day. Here we discovered that he loves pizza, he ate almost the whole slice on his own.

Walking in a Winter Wonderland

2011-10-06T19:58:00.000-06:00

A friend told me that we were going to have some snow this week, I looked at the forecast but never saw snow on it. I also couldn't believe with the good weather that we were having that we were going to be getting snow so soon, well I was wrong. Today it started out cold and rainy and a few hours later we got SNOW, not the light fluffy stuff that goes away, oh no, this was the big, wet, cold, snow that is still on the lawn.

The kids had a lotof fun with the snow though. They invited some friends over and they made a cute snowman.

The girls snowman from today. Unfortunately I didn't realize Bella wasn't looking.

All of the friends together that built the snowman.

This was the last snowman that they built from last season. It was only in April, that doesn't feel all that long ago, I don't know if I am ready to start the whole cold weather process again!

My Walking Baby

2011-09-20T19:56:00.000-06:00

Little Johnny decided this week he was ready to take his first steps. He has been crusing around the furniture for a few months now, but he was finally ready to let go. Over the last week or so, he started letting go and taking the two steps between the coffee table the couch, but today he walked the first time to me about six steps.

Later in the evening once dad was home we were able to capture his attempts on video. So for all to enjoy, here is my baby boy learning to walk. Way to go Johnny!

Bob, why did you have to leave me?!?

2011-09-07T21:44:00.002-06:00

Dear Bob,

I miss you so much! I miss your bright visage, the warm greetings that you shared with me every morning and the way you always helped me to feel connected. I know that I am spending time with Hal now, and I hope that you aren't too jealous, but see I needed someone to keep me company, and you had to go away. Things were just getting too hot when we were together. I know you were doing your best, but I needed you to be more reliable. One day, hopefully soon, you will be back in my life and we can be happy together again.

Love,
Me

(For those of you who don't remember, Bob is my computer. He has been having overheating problems and I had to take him in to get repaired. I haven't been a day without Bob since I got him, he even went to the hospital with me when Johnny was born. I was told it could take as long as six weeks until I get him back. In the meantime I am using James' computer, but it feels like I am cheating on Bob. Oh well, hopefully we get this fixed soon and can get back to our computing together.)

A look back

2011-08-31T08:49:00.000-06:00

As I posted Bella's first day of preschool photos yesterday I thought it would be fun to add the other girls first day photos as well. With MacKayla we hadn't started the tradition of photos in the kitchen in front of the door, but you can still see how little she was and how much she has grown up.

MacKayla - August 2006

Annika - August 2008


Arabella - August 2011

First Day of School

2011-08-30T14:09:00.000-06:00

Yesterday we celebrated the first day of school for the older girls and today was Arabella's first day. They had a lot of fun and each of them loved their first days.

MacKayla is in third grade with Mrs. Anderson, she said that her teacher is very nice and that they had fun doing math yesterday. She said they also learned about the Golden Rule - "something about being nice to people." MacKayla is very excited for third grade and can't wait until the book writing project so she can write her own book.

Styling!

Showing off her awesome backpack.

Annika is in first grade this year with Mrs. Jensen, and Annika said she is the best teacher ever. She said that Mrs. Jensen was so nice and never had to be mean to her, but she did have to be mean to others because they were not being good. Annika is very excited to be going to school all day now and getting to eat lunch at school.

What a beautiful grin.

Showing off her Monster High backpack, her newest obsession.

Arabella started preschool this week with Mrs. Terri, and she thinks Mrs. Terri is awesome. Bella had fun learning about school rules, learning her friends names and the color red. She is excited to go back to school on Thursday.

In all her cheesiness.

What a cutie!

Ready for the first day.

They do love each other.

Hanging out with E at the bus stop.

All set to head off to school.

Bye Mom!

Bella's first day and more love.

Family Fun Run

2011-08-27T11:54:00.000-06:00

Our pediatrician's office sponsors a family run, and for the first time we decided to join in. They broke the race into heats by age group, 0-3, 4-6, 7-9...The 0-6 group ran the short race, probable about 1/4 mile. The older kids ran a mile.

Annika was in the 4-6 group and she was the first to go. I waited on the sidelines for her to pass and at the half way point she was in the lead for the girls, there were a few boys ahead of her. She ended up crossing the finish line first for the girls and probably fifth overall. She received a trophy for first place, she was beyond jazzed! She has been excited for this for a while and was sure that she would win, I guess all that energy in her paid off.

Annika receiving her trophy.

Bella and Johnny's race was next. I skipped the first half as I was watching Annika, but Johnny and I joined Bella for the second half. Bella was in the back of the pack, but was smiling and having fun. When I joined her I asked if she wanted to run, she said no she wanted to skippy-jump the rest, so that is what she did, a bit of a sideways skip-jump. She had fun and ended with big smiles. Johnny just chilled in the stroller and was content.

MacKayla's race was last and was not the happy fun of the rest of them. MacKayla had set her sights on a trophy as well. Well I guess she got tired really fast and when I saw her at the 1/8 mile she was in tears and the very last kid. She was mad, especially when Annika showed off her trophy. She ended up walking the whole thing, she did finish and not last, but she said that she did not have any fun. Oh well, I guess in life we have to learn to take disappointment as well as success.

Summer fun

2011-08-22T13:08:00.000-06:00

As friends are starting to post their kids back to school photos, I realize that I really need to get our summer photos up before we go back to school next week. So here goes...

We started out the summer with T-ball for Annika and Softball for MacKayla. They both had a lot of fun and are looking forward to playing again next year. Annika was playing on a young team and was very good. She is a fast runner and can hit the ball really hard. MacKayla joined a team that was in its second year together, so she had a bit of work to do to catch up. By the end of the season she had gotten pretty good at hitting the ball and running the bases.

MacKayla at bat.

Woohoo, I caught the ball.

Ready for action!

MacKayla's team photo.

Annika's team photo.

Ready to play, even before she hit the field.

Nice hit, run Annika!

On first and ready to make it all the way.

In June we also took a mini vacation, the kids and I went down to St. George and spent a long weekend with Grandma, Grandpa and Kelsey. We had a lot of fun! We rented a condo and had a lot of fun swimming, playing on the toys and justt hanging out there. We also were able to take a trip to Zion's, it was our first time and we really liked it. Johnny did cry for the entire bus ride down from Zion's, but we can pretend that didn't happen. I also don't have any pictures from there, but I do have some of the kids having fun.

Annika zipping along the monkey bars.

MacKayla, the poser.

Bella having fun in the sandbox.

Johnny playing with Grandpa.

Camera is out, we all have to get into the photo.

Don't forget Bella.

I love Grandma!

What a great sport Grandpa is!

The condo had this awesome garden tub and the kids thought it was great, they had to go "swimming" in it.

July found us taking the traditional swimming lessons. You might remember that last year we skipped them as a certain child decided to break her arm. Well this year went great and all the girls went swimming. I was going to take a Mommy and Me class with Johnny, but while we were in St. George I found out that he hated swimming. Every time we took him to the pool he would just cry, so instead we sat and watched the girls swim.

Ring around the roses.

MacKayla the fish.

Annika's great star float.

Bella having fun.

Isn't she cute.

July also found us at Aspen Grove this year. We had so much fun and loved spending time with family. The vacation was marred with another bout of the stomach flu, 7 out of 9 of us got it, Dad and I were the only ones not to. Some of the highlights of the week were: Saturday - we went to the dinosaur museum and the kids had a blast. Monday - air rifles, James and I went shooting and both did really well. I would love to get a gun and do more shooting. Tuesday - Arts and crafts for James and I. James painted some dinosaurs and they look really good. I was able to make some wooden pens and I had a blast making them. Wednesday - we went down to Provo and spent time at BYU and did some shopping in the bookstore. That night we also had a small birthday party for Jonathan. Thursday - I can't think of any fun on this day, I think it was mostly spent with puking kids. Friday - we loaded up and headed home. All in all a great vacation, I love going to Aspen Grove and really hope that next time no one gets sick!

James' dinosaurs that he painted.

The before of my pens. They start as simple wood blocks.

The after, aren't they cool. The light one is Bethlehem olive wood and the red one is Paduak.

The traditional photo in front of the shark.

Hiding in a cave, what fun.

Bella finding a dinosaur bone.

MacKayla the paleontologist.

Annika the digger.

Johnny is such a cutie, he had a great time.

MacKayla ready to climb the wall.

Poor Johnny, not feeling good here.

On the wall and making good progress.

Annika's turn on the wall.

Look how far she is.

Way to go Annika.

Ready to dig in to his cake. We bought a candle, but forgot the matches.

Excited for his cake.

Made a little mess.

Loving my grandma.

Trying to be a good trooper, but feeling really awful.

The Wammack Men! Poor James was feeling sick here.

Annika feeling sick, Bella being a stinker, Johnny indifferent, and Kayla always ready to smile.

August we celebrated Johnny's first birthday. The last year went by so quickly with him and he is such a great kid. He is so much fun and we all love him to bits. He is crawling up a storm and getting into all kinds of trouble. He likes to tempt fate and then look at you as though to say "what are you going to do about it." He had his one year check up last week and he is 21 lbs 4 oz and 29 3/4 in. He is about average in height and weight.

Johnny's first birthday cake, he had a dinosaur themed party.

I'm done with dinner give me the cake.

This is interesting.

Getting messier.

The kids were calling him a Smurf, he had a lot of fun playing with the frosting.

He looks like he is about to attack someone.

It's my party and I'll cry if I want to.

He had so much blue frosting on him that he turned the bath water blue.

The girls are ready for him to open his presents.

I don't wanna do what you want me to.

Oooohhhh, so I can really rip this and you wont care?


My own smart phone, woohoo! He ended up getting a phone and several trains to go with his new train table. He loved the phone although he still likes whatever phone mommy has more.

He stole a tomato from the box and decided it would make a great afternoon snack.

The poor boy is surrounded by girls and so he has learned to brush his hair and he loves to do it.

Last but not least for August, I had knee surgery about two weeks ago. I started having problems with my knee about ten years ago. The doctors back then told me nothing was wrong and that if I was their daughter they would tell me I was fine. After ten years of pain and taking lots of meds for it I decided to go to another doctor. This one said that I had Plica Band Syndrome. In utero before the knee is formed it has these bands in place they typically dissolve but not always. In cases where they don't dissolve they can become inflamed if you ever do repetitive motion or injure the knee (ten years ago I had a job going up and down stairs all night.) So I had arthroscopic surgery done to remove the Plica. I have most of my range of motion back in the knee now, but it still has spots that hurt. Going up stairs is easy, down causes a bit of pain. I am really hoping that in a few weeks I will be better than before and pain free.


It doesn't look like much, but those are the two incision spots.

So that brings us to now and the end of summer. If you made it all the way through this, wow! Until next week and the back to school issue...

Technology, why can't you just work?

2011-08-04T21:41:00.000-06:00

Apparently the slideshow doesn't work sometimes on some machines, who knows why? So if you are interested here is Jonathan's first year in photos.

August 3, 2010 - Handsomest newborn around (okay, all newborns look weird, but I have to think he is the cutest)

August - Usually I only do one per month as the official month photo, but this was his newborn photo that we shared and it goes along with his one year photo.

September - early grins are so adorable!

October - his shirt might say he's a monster, but he is an angel.

November - I love the bright eyes and the backwards cap

December - you would think I would have a Christmas photo, but alas I don't.

January - Tummy time, he still didn't learn to roll over or crawl until he was 10 months, silly boy.

February - He looks like a little man in his "daddy" shirt.

March - Is that not the best smile in the world, I love how his whole face is animated.

April - Gotta love the pea face, every baby has to have fun with peas.

May - He started to thin out here and is looking less like a baby.

June - All grown and sporting awesome jammies, he is such a cute guy.

July - I love the mohawk, I think it makes him look even more adorable, although, again less like a baby.

August 3, 2011 - One year old and as cute as can be! It was so fun to put him back in the bomber jacket and see how much he had grown. Welcome to toddler-hood Little Man, we sure love you a lot!

Jonathan's First Year

2011-08-03T16:47:00.000-06:00

We have been truly blessed to have such a wonderful baby in our family. I can't believe how fast the last year has gone, but my little guy is 1 today. Happy birthday to the best baby, I love you Jonathan!

Here is a slideshow of Jonathan's first year.

What happens when you have three older sisters?

2011-07-11T11:17:00.000-06:00

Poor Johnny, being the fourth child is bad enough, but to have three older sisters, he is in trouble. Despite the fact that we buy him lots of dinosaurs, trucks, robots and "boy" toys, he still ends up playing with ponies, dolls, and hair things. The girls are pretty good about keeping gender stereotypes alive, they would never dress him in girl clothes or anything like that, but he still manages to find all of their toys and has a ton of fun playing with them.

The following are a few photos of what happens when you have a bunch of big sisters. Direct quotes from Johnny (or at least what he would say if he could.)

"You get to sit on a pink blanket, because that is the picnic blanket that we have."

"Your big sister declares that you have to be the baby and sit in her stroller so she can push you around."

"You get to look cute sporting a pink stroller."

"One sister gets a photo with you and the rest decide they need one as well."

"The best part though - having three sisters that love you more than anything and love playing with you, even if you end up in the stroller."

"I am still the manliest man around though, check out my cool mohawk! And I am serious with what the shirt says, as much as I love them, I would trade one of these girls for a new puppy."

End of the School Year

2011-07-07T19:04:00.000-06:00

I know that summer is half over, but I am just getting around to posting the fun of the end of the school year. The kids had a great year and loved their teachers. I feel so lucky that we are blessed to have wonderful people helping us in the teaching of our kids. The teachers and administrators at our school are awesome!

The videos are of MacKayla's end of year concert, Annika's gymnastics routines, and Annika's kindergarten graduation.

MacKayla's concert - Down by the Riverside

MacKayla's conert - Late for School. This one is hard to actually hear what they are saying, but watching how much the kids get into it is very funny.

Annika's floor routine. She scored a 8.95.

Annika's beam routine. She scored a 8.9.

Here she is receiving her medal. She won 2nd place in her category.

Annika's graduation, she is now on her way to first grade.

It's a bird...it's a plane...it's Super Johnny!

2011-06-11T19:58:00.000-06:00

He loves flying!

For many years now people have told me that I am so lucky to have girls to shop for. I have heard that boys are hard and that there is nothing good to get for them. I have always thought they were wrong! Girls are boring, everything is pink and princess. You can only buy so much of it before it starts to burn your eyes.

I have always wanted to dress a little boy, they have the coolest stuff. Years ago I found the cutest jammies that were Superman, they even had a cape! I wanted someone to dress as a superhero, yes the girls could have worn it, but by that point they had already established themselves as girly girls. I held off and didn't buy it at the time.

Check out those muscles!

About a month ago though, I found those jammies again. They only had them in a size 2, but I bought them anyway. I knew Johnny wouldn't be able to wear them for a while, but I wanted them anyways. I then had my mom look and she found a pair in size 3 and got them for him. Well today while I was out they had a pair in 18 months, a little big, but not so much that he couldn't wear them. I grabbed them and excitedly showed them to James when I got home, I mentioned before how much he hated seeing girl clothes, but he does love cute Johnny clothes.

He's such a cutie!

So long story short, here is my adorable boy in his Superman jammies, and boy do I think he is cute!

Check out that cape.

Patriotism

2011-05-27T14:18:00.000-06:00

Arabella just finished her first preschool, Tiger Tots, a class taught by the child development kids at the high school. She loved it! My favorite part was that they had the kids recite the pledge every morning and my cute little three year old knows it. I wish more people in this country would have a love of America and "pledge their allegiance"!

Little Man is Growing Up

2011-05-19T11:52:00.000-06:00

My little guy is already 9 1/2 months old, I can't believe how fast he is growing up. He had his check up two weeks ago and he was 20lbs 5oz, 28.5 in, right about the 50% for height and weight. He has graduated from his infant carrier (just too darn heavy) and is now in his big boy chair, he doesn't really like it yet, but I hope he will soon.

Today he also reached a milestone that doesn't usually happen for several years in this house, he had his first haircut. Daddy had been saying that he looked like a hippie. He did pretty well, although he did get a bit fussy about having to sit so still. The lady that did it was also a ditz. She asked me about five times in as many minutes how old he was and if it was his first haircut. Oh well, it does make him look older now.

Before


After


After

It doesn't look like much of a difference in the photos, but in person you can tell.

If you notice he has on a cool shirt, we found some really fun retro shirts and for the first time ever in parenthood, James actually likes looking at kid clothes. In the past he would humor me when I would show him cute girl clothes, but now that the boy gets awesome stuff, he really likes it.

Here are a few more of him in his cute shirts.

He looks funny, but this is his robot shirt.

This one is Daddy's favorite!

I don't think I ever mentioned when Johnny got his first teeth. His first one came in about a month ago and the poor guy got a yucky ear infection in the right ear. Well two weeks later the second tooth comes in and he got an ear infection in the left ear. The poor guy was miserable. Let's hope the trend doesn't continue for the rest of his teeth. Here you can see his little teeth, you might need to click on the photo to make it larger to really see them.


I love that smile!

One more photo, just because I love sleeping baby pictures.

Isn't he adorable!

April Books

2011-05-17T21:26:00.000-06:00

It is now the middle of May and I realized that I hadn't posted April's books, oops. Anyways, it wasn't a huge month for books. I did enjoy several that I read, I was however stuck on one book for much of the month. I was reading The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley, and while I didn't love the story it was okay, I just couldn't get myself to pick it up. As I was supposed to be reading that for Book Club, I put off reading other things.

Gathering Blue
240
Lois Lowry

Messenger
176
Lois Lowry

I read The Giver many years ago and really liked it. It wasn't until a few years ago that I heard there were sequels to the story. I put them on my Amazon wish list a long time ago, but didn't get around to ordering them until this past December. When I finally read them, I enjoyed them. I was expecting them to be more sequels than they were though. They didn't seem to tie into The Giver, but they did into one another.

As for what they are about, well they are your standard dystopian story. In the future when the world has destroyed itself the people must once again grow a society. In this particular society some of the people have special talents and those talents are exploited by others.

The Declaration
Gemma Malley
320
The Resistance
336
Gemma Malley

Again these were set in the dystopian future. What would you give to be able to live forever? In the future Longevity has been invented and it allows you to do just that. The only problem with loving forever, eventually you have too many people alive on the planet. The solution, makes those who take the drug sign a declaration that they will never reproduce. The story focuses on a girl that is a surplus, a child born to those that were not supposed to have kids. She lives in a home and is always told what a drain she is on society. When she eventually gets out she learns what life is really like.

I really liked these stories and hope the author finishes it up soon. I read them a while ago, but I am pretty sure they were clean reads.

Half Brother
384
Kenneth Oppel
This was not set in a dystopian world, yes I do occasionally read ones that aren't. Rather this was set in the '70's and is the story a boy with two scientist parents who are out to prove that chimps can learn language. They decide to raise a chimp as a member of their family and try to teach him to communicate. The boy is initially reluctant to accept this idea, but the chimp grows on him and he does come to love him as a brother.

I thought this was a fun read. I liked the ideas it presented along the lines of what makes us human. Does our ability to verbalize make us a person, to love, to think, to share?!? A relatively clean story with a bit of teenage boy growing-up-isms, I think a few minor swear words as well.

The Sky Inside
229
Clare B. Dunkle
Again a dystopian novel of a world inside of a dome. If you leave the dome you will die. That is what our protagonist has always been taught. However, his sister, who was a wonderkid (apparently all children come from the Stork, a rail car that brings them in) has been recalled as being too instable, the kids were too smart and were questioning the world. Well when his sister is taken away, he decides that he must save her, and he will brave the outside to do so.

I liked the innocence of the kid and his willingness to give everything of himself to his sisters safety. It was particularly funny as he is outside for the first time and receives a sunburn, when it blisters and peels he thinks his skin is falling off and he is dying, just as they always told him he would. Also a clean story.

Total Pages for April: 1685
Total for 2011: 11113

Cupcake Wars: Caramel Apple Cupcakes with Vanilla Bean Cream Cheese Frosting

2011-05-12T10:35:00.000-06:00

Last night I was able to join some friends for a girls night and as part of it we had a cupcake contest. I made caramel apple cupcakes with vanilla bean cream cheese frosting, and they were a hit. We had four judges (husbands) who rated the seven different cupcakes and then picked out their favorites. James was able to be one of the judges, but lest anyone call favoritism, he actually picked my cupcakes as second, he liked the key lime ones better. I did manage to win over the other judges though and took home first place.

Here is the winning recipe. [I wasn't able to find vanilla bean paste at the store, but I did find it on Amazon here for a great deal.]

Caramel Apple Cupcakes with Vanilla Bean Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients

2 cups granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 Tablespoon pure vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
4 apples, cored, peeled, and chopped into small pieces (I used 2 granny smiths and 2 pink ladies)
Vanilla Bean Cream Cheese Frosting, recipe follows
Caramel syrup, for garnish

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 regular size cupcake pans with cupcake liners.

In a large bowl using an electric mixer on low speed, combine the sugar, eggs, butter, and vanilla extract until blended. In a separate large bowl, combine the flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture, mixing on low until blended. The batter will be somewhat dry at this point. Stir in the apples.

Fill the cupcake liners three-quarters full with batter and bake until the cupcakes spring back when touched with your finger, about 15-20 minutes. Let cool in the pans for a few minutes, and then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

Either pipe Vanilla Bean Cream Cheese Frosting onto the cupcakes using a pastry bag and your favorite tip, or spread each cupcake with the frosting. Drizzle each cupcake with caramel syrup.

Vanilla Bean Cream Cheese Frosting:

1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 (8-ounce) bar cream cheese, room temperature
1 tablespoon vanilla bean paste
4 cups powdered sugar (about 2 pounds)
1/2 teaspoon salt

In a large bowl using an electric mixer on low speed, beat the butter, cream cheese, and vanilla bean paste until smooth and thoroughly blended. Slowly add the powdered sugar and salt. Mix until smooth.

Caramel Sauce:

1 cup of sugar
6 Tbsp butter
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

First, before you begin, make sure you have everything ready to go - the cream and the butter next to the pan, ready to put in.

Heat sugar on moderately high heat in a heavy-bottomed 2-quart or 3-quart saucepan. As the sugar begins to melt, stir vigorously with a whisk or wooden spoon. As soon as the sugar comes to a boil, stop stirring.

As soon as all of the sugar crystals have melted (the liquid sugar should be dark amber in color), immediately add the butter to the pan. Whisk until the butter has melted.

Once the butter has melted, take the pan off the heat. Count to three, then slowly add the cream to the pan and continue to whisk to incorporate. Note than when you add the butter and the cream, the mixture will foam up considerably.

Whisk until caramel sauce is smooth. Let cool in the pan for a couple minutes, then pour into a glass mason jar and let sit to cool to room temperature. Store in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks. Warm before serving.

Young love

2011-05-04T11:44:00.000-06:00

Arabella has a best friend named Rigdon. He was born a few weeks after her and they live across the street from each other, so they have grown up together. Bells and Riggs, as they call each other, love to play together. Recently they started attending preschool together and are loving even more time together. On Monday the two of them were watching a movie together, I came into the room to find them snuggled up on the couch together. It was too cute to not capture.

With Rigdon, Bella is pretty bossy. She will tell him what to do, where to go, and when to hold her hand, that poor boy!

One more story; yesterday we were getting into the car and Rigdon was waiting to get into his. Arabella went over to him and told him that he was her best friend. She then gave him a big kiss on his cheek. When I asked her what she had done, she smiled and said quite simply, "he's my best friend, so I gave him a kiss."

I love that she has such a great friend!

Piano Recital

2011-05-01T20:43:00.000-06:00

Here is the video of MacKayla's first piano recital. She has worked really hard this year and has done quite well at it.

Adventures in eating

2011-04-23T15:03:00.000-06:00

Just a fun photo of all of the kids at the same age, in the high chair , having eaten. Bella is the only clean one, she hated to be messy when eating.

Such a Daddy's BOY!

2011-04-14T08:44:00.000-06:00

As I have mentioned before, Johnny is a Daddy's boy, he loves his Daddy and wants him all of the time. I guess because of that he decided that dada should be his first word. I was able to get it on video, at least he is the cutest guy in the world as he proclaims his dada love.

James is so excited to have a boy, and have someone to share guy stuff with. He even let Johnny play with his pocket knife one day (of course the blade was closed!)

One day James came home from work and we realized the boys were almost twins.

Does it get any cuter than that

A to Z about me

2011-04-09T11:02:00.000-06:00

Snagged this from a friend, it's a pretty fun one...

Age: 30, I am officially out of my twenties, I guess that means I am a grown-up now.

Bed Size: Queen, but I would really love to upgrade to a king.

Chore You Hate: Moping, no matter how many times I do it, the floor never looks clean.

Dogs: None, and not really interested in getting any.

Essential Start of Your Day: A shower, the day doesn't seem to start right without one.

Favorite Color: Blue, always has been.

Gold or Silver: Silver, I've never really liked the look of gold.

Height: 5'7"

Instruments You Play: I am really good at pushing buttons to make the stereo work.

Job Title: Mom, doesn't get any better than that, at least most of the time.

Kids: Four, MacKayla, Annika, Arabella, Jonathan. Maybe more in the future.

Live: Idaho Falls, I never thought I would end up in Idaho. How does a California kid end up in the land of spuds?

Mom's Name: Barbara.

Nicknames: Neesha, Kelsey gave me the nickname and it really is the only one that I like enough to let stick. There were others over the years, but for the most part I hated them, really who wants to be called Tishy.

Overnight Hospital Stays: Four, one for each of my wonderful kids.

Pet Peeve: A sense of entitlement by people, you have to work for what you get.

Quote From a Movie: "I carried a watermelon."

Right- or Left-Handed: Righty

Siblings: Only child, and no I wasn't spoiled.

Time You Wake Up: On a school day around 7, on the weekends, as long as Johnny will let me, usually around 8:30.

Underwear: Mormon-style; over the shoulder, down to the knees

Veggie You Dislike: Peas, unless they are fresh from the garden.

What Makes You Run Late: Trying to get four kids out the door, and one invariably needs to use the potty.

X-Rays You Have Had: Lots...ankles, wrists, neck, chest, jaw, teeth...I was a very accident prone kid and teen.

Yummy Food You Make: I love to cook, so I think it's all yummy. My kids would say the sweets, cookies, cakes, cinnamon rolls. James says chicken enchiladas, chicken noodle soup, cream of asparagus or broccoli soup, and mushroom stuffed chicken.

Zoo Animal You Like Best: I like the lions, the one at our zoo here always seems to be tracking you as you walk by, it looks like he would eat you if he could.

March Books

2011-04-06T20:25:00.001-06:00

Twisted
Laurie Halse Anderson
272
This was a decent story of a kid who was tired of being a nobody. He decided to pull a prank and vandalize his school. He was caught and sentenced to community service, including the cleaning of his school. He bulked up over the summer and was "hot" when school started again. Trouble ensues and life is Twisted. This book did contain some strong language.

Going Bovine
496
Libba Bray
I really wanted to like this book, it sounded fun and I liked the ideas, however, it was another of those books where the coarseness of the language made it very hard to get through. The story is of a boy who is diagnosed with Mad-Cow disease. He is then told by an angel that the disease was brought back by a scientist who was stuck in space. The scientist was also causing a black hole and the earth was going to be destroyed, but the boy has the opportunity to save himself and the earth. The story was very surreal, and while entertaining at times, not a recommended book.

The Shadow Club
Neal Shusterman
192
The Shadow Club Rising
Neal Shusterman
200
These are the stories of the seconds, they are the kids who are always second best. They are jealous of those that always come in first and decide to do something about it, they form and club and pull pranks on those that are better than they are. The pranks of course get out of hand and things begin to turn ugly. The kids admit to what has happened but not before tragedy strikes.
In the sequel a new boy moves to town and is the best at everything, and many of the kids in school start to get bugged. Pranks start again and the Shadow Club is blamed once again. The kids then have to flush out what is really going on and save the day.
These were well written stories, and they were entertaining. The language in them is clean.

Birthmarked
Caragh M O'Brian
368
In this dystopian future the first three children born each month are sent to live in the Enclave, there they will be riased by other families and given the best of everything. Gaia, delivers her first baby independently and takes the baby to the Enclave. Life gets turned upside down when her parents are arrested and she is forced to learn the turth about her world.
I really liked this story and found it a very fast read. The world is well developed as are the characters. I found myself caught up in their lives and wanting to help them. I recommend this one.

The Unit
Ninni Holmqvist
272
This was another dystopian world where people are deemed not useful if they have not married, had children or careers that benefit society. They are sent to The Unit where they spend there final days being test subject for scientific research, giving their organs to those that need them and in the end giving their final donation. While in The Unit though, they are treated better than they have ever been before. They are given everything they want, are allowed to pursue whatever they want and they enjoy their days.
While most of the dystopian books that I have read lately are of juveniles, this one was actually adults and presented an interesting change in the dynamics. I enjoyed seeing how and adult would react to situations, and how they tend to go with the status quo more that teens do. While this was a very good story, it was written as an adult book and contains some very "adult" scenes and language.

Prom
Laurie Halse Anderson
224
This was fluff read about a group of inner-city high school kids and the prom that they are planning. The lives of the kids are pretty rough, and they feel like this is their chance to have the fairytale. That is until their advisor steals their prom money and they have to come up with something quick.
The story was okay, not great reading by any means though. I did find the attitudes of the kids to be cliched and very unrealistic. There is also some strong language in here as well.

Don't You Dare Read This Mrs. Dunphrey
Margaret Peterson Haddix
128
Another quick read, this time written in diary format about a girl living with a screwed up mother, who longs for her alcoholic husband to come home. When he does things are good for a bit, but the problems begin again. The girl has to grow up quickly and take responsibility for herself and her little brother.
This was an interesting story.

Make Lemonade
Virginia Euwer Wolff
208
Another story of inner-city life, and finding your way through it. LaVaughn befriends and helps Jolly, a teen single mother of two. LaVaughn has the plan of going to COLLEGE, the word that has a life of its own in her house.
This was our bookclub book for the month, and while I didn't dislike it, I didn't like it either. Parts of it hit too close to home and I didn't care for the writing style, it was written in free-verse.

Almost True
Keren David
445
This was the sequel to When I was Joe, here Joe is set to testify in the murder trial, but again is faced with the difficulties of being in the witness protection program. He meets his paternal grandparents as well as his father and learns more about the truth of his life. He also spends time getting to know a cousin and his girlfriend more.
I enjoyed this book a lot and thought it was a nice sequel. I did get annoyed with the characters at times and wanted all of them to grow up, I guess it's the sign of a good book though when I care enough about the characters to want them to be different. Some mild language, again it is British, so some of the slang is hard to get though.

Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer
John Grisham
263
Both of Theodore Boone's parents are lawyers and he has spent his whole life around the law and wants to be a lawyer. The kids at school know that he can help and give advice to them. Once such kid comes and shares some information that is crucial to the biggest case that their town has ever seen. Theodore must decide how to proceed and what to do with the information that he has received.
I love Grisham and was intrigued by his story idea. I think he pulled it off fairly well, he did leave a large cliffhanger at the end though.

Nightlight: A Parody
The Harvard Lampoon
160
Bella Goose moves to the town of Swithblade and falls for the mysterious Edwart Mullen.
This was a very funny parody of the Twilight novel. I read and enjoyed the Twilight books and I found the humor in this book to be spot on in many parts. After a while, the story does get tedious, but it does succeed in being a good parody.

Inside Out
Maria V Snyder
384
Outside In
Maria V Snyder
336
Trella is a scrub, her job is clean to ducts of Inside to keep them clean. She and the other scrubs work hard to keep the Inside working and running smoothly. The Uppers take care of the more technological aspects of life and the two groups are kept separate. Trella's friend introduces her to a "prophet" who preaches about outside. Trella is taken in and soon joins in and discovers some truths the will shock all of their world.
I will leave off describing the second book so as not to disclose too much of the first book. These were some of my favorite books of the month to read. The first book is pretty clean and I would recommend reading. The second book does contain some juvenile versions of adult scenes, as in the teens take a shower together, the book does not go into details, but leaves those to the imagination.

Total Pages for March: 3948
Total for 2011: 9428

That's Our Boy!

2011-03-23T11:28:00.000-06:00

Family legend holds that once upon a time my cousin, Thalia, and I were given a gallon jar of pickles and were told we could have some. When our moms came back in the room, between us we had eaten the whole jar!

I have since tried to instill the love of pickles into my children. Thus far only one, Annika, loves them. She will eat as many pickles as you will give her. While eating them the other day we decided to give Johnny a taste and see what he would do. We expected the cute, funny face that babies give when they try new foods, instead he proceeded to suck and eat at it for quite a while. He loved it, he must be my boy!

His first taste.

Arching forward to get more of it.

As the title says, That's Our Boy, I had to show a mini James in here as well.

He has a true daddy shirt on, and boy does he look adorable. And since it has been so long since I have updated here are a few of his recent milestones:

He is 7 1/2 months old
Johnny is sitting up well on his own, although he does still sometimes forget that he is sitting and will throw himself forward and face-plant.
He loves to eat! He will eat anything that I am, but he will not eat baby veggies unless I add fruit as well.
Johnny is a true daddy's boy, he loves his dad more than anyone else, even mom! Mom is great and he loves to play with me, but as soon as dad walks in the door he wants his dad. In fact if dad dares to take off his hat and coat before picking Johnny up, he will cry and yell until his dad gets him.
Along with being a daddy's boy, his first "word" is dada. He hasn't really associated it yet, but he will babble dada all day long.
Also he is still the toothless wonder. In the next picture you can see that great gummy grin. I don't mind the lack of teeth, but I hope he teethes well.

This next picture reflects his dad more though. "Woman, why are you using that flashy thing at me again, I am not going to smile."

It's GREAT to be 8

2011-03-05T17:02:00.000-07:00

We had a wonderful past couple of days. Yesterday was MacKayla's eighth birthday. She has been looking forward to this day for a VERY long time. Her grandparents and aunt came up and were able to be here for this special weekend. Today was her baptism day and it was a wonderful experience.

As part of her baptism program MacKayla was able to sing a solo. She sang the song "When I am Baptized." Here is a video of her singing it a Capella this morning. She hit all of the notes great while at the baptism, and said the only part that scared her was when she looked out at the audience and saw how many people were there, at that point she looked down at her music, but still did wonderfully.

Her birthday cake, she wanted delicious dirt (brownies, pudding, Oreo's, and gummy worms.)

She received a scripture bag, and some other baptism gifts from her grandparents.

She received a pillow pet and other things from us.

All three girls ready for the baptism, and yes I did buy all new dresses for the second time.

My beautiful MacKayla, all ready to be baptized.

The beautiful Annika, unfortunately her eyes were partially closed in all of her photos.

Cutie Bella.

My handsome men, aren't they the cutest guys in the world.

"As white as snow"

Male bonding.

All ready for the baptism.

Aren't they so cute! It was so wonderful!

Our family all together. Poor Johnny was really tired though.

Happy Wammack Family!

That's my girl!

We have also told the girls that when they were baptized they would be given the choice if they wanted to have their ears pierced. MacKayla choose to do that today and she did great with that as well. She sat there and smiled the whole time and looks beautiful with her new earrings.

February Books Read

2011-03-01T13:05:00.001-07:00

So while I had a great time reading books this month, I have had a problem with several of them, why do authors feel the need to use such obscene language in books. I understand that most of these books are for the young adult audience and that many of those in the target audience use language like that, but can't the author rise above that? I would love to see more authors try to improve the language of the reader, rather than encourage such baseness in youth today.

The Replacement
Brenna Yovanoff
352
I have a hard time saying how this books was. I enjoyed the story but I felt at times like the author was toying with the reader. The protagonist knows more of the story than the reader does and it takes a long time for the reader to figure out what is going on. The story is about a boy who is different than everyone else. He is a replacement, or in other words a changling.

Will Grayson, Will Grayson
John Green and David Levithan
304
This was an interesting story, but I will not recommend it for most audiences. The characters go the gamut from the severely depressed, over-sexed, gay, and everything in between. The end of the book was nice, but getting there was a challenge. I was actually really disappointed as Amazon had recommended this one and the premise was great.

When I Was Joe
Keren Green
384
I liked this story, this was about a boy who witnessed a murder and has been placed in the witness protection program. The author and the story are both British, so the language and the slang can be distracting at times, but it was still enjoyable.

Flygirl
Sherri L. Smith

288
This was definitely the best book that I read recently. The story is of a black girl during WWII. She and her father were pilots and she really wanted to join in the military in order to help. She has light skin and actually uses that to pass as white and to join the WASP and was able to fly missions. The story is fiction, but is based on the experiences of actual WASP pilots.

Bruiser
Neal Shusterman

336
This book was another gem in the month. This is the story of a boy misunderstood, but who has a gift. The story becomes the typical diamond in the rough type story, but the getting there was a lot of fun.

The Girl Who Could Fly
Victoria Forester

352
The cover of this book has author Stephanie Meyer review is saying that it is "the sweetest/oddest mix of Little House on the Prairie and X-Men" and I couldn't agree more. The girl in the story is from the deep south, has great morals, and speaks like a southerner, while learning to fly and use her powers. We also meet other kids with powers and get to see them grow together.

The Other Side of the Island
Allegra Goodman

272
This was a fun, quick read of another distopian world. The characters are in a world where only a few islands have survived the melting polar caps and the horrible weather that ensued. Earth Mother has come in a saved the people, but at what cost!?! If you have ever seen Futurama, Earth Mother reminded me a lot of Mom, the creator of the robots.

Total Pages for February: 2016
Total for 2011: 5480

Books that I read but did not finish yet/ever this month.

The Peacegiver
This was our book club book for the month, but I had a hard time getting into it. We'll see if it gets reshelved, or if I get around to finishing it.

Beheamoth
Still going on this one...

Going Bovine
I am emjoying this one, the story is intereseting, but I am having a hard time getting past the foul language.

Amazon Mom: How to Save a TON of Money

2011-02-21T15:05:00.000-07:00

I am a huge Amazon.com shopper! I love the convenience of it, I love the selection and I love that it gets delivered right to my door.

Recently Amazon started a new program called Amazon Mom. It is a free program to sign up for and with it you can save a ton of money. They start by giving you a Amazon Prime membership free for three months, this allows you to get free two-day shipping on all purchases on Amazon. Then for every month that you spend $25 on baby things they give you an additional month of Prime free, up to one full year.

By signing up for Amazon Mom you receive an automatic 15% off your purchase of most baby products (diapers, wipes...). They also offer a Subscribe and Save feature where you sign up to have a box of diapers (or whatever you want) shipped every month (or two, three...) and they will give you another 15% off of your purchase. You can also start and stop the Subscribe and Save at any time. I have been known to buy a bag of Pull-Ups with the deal one day and cancel the subscription until I needed another bag.

So in the end you can save 30% off of each box of diapers, have it delivered in two days to your door and never have to think about buying diapers again.

I used to wait to buy diapers until I had the best coupons and the best sales and then I would buy lots, now I can get an even better deal and I can get it anytime I want. Here are a few examples that you can buy to get an idea of the savings, I used size 3 diapers as that is the size that my kids stay in the longest.

Huggies Little Movers - 128 Count - $33.59/case or $0.26/diaper, with the subscribe and save the cost is $25.19/case or $0.19/diaper
Luvs Premium - 204 Count - $34.54/case or $0.17/diaper, with the subscribe and save the cost is $24.18/case or $0.12/diaper
Pampers Baby Dry - 204 Count - $40.88/case or $0.20/diaper, with the subscribe and save the cost is $28.62/case or $0.14/diaper
Huggies Snug & Dry - 156 Count - $31.91/case or $0.20/diaper, with the subscribe and save the cost is $22.34/case or $0.14/diaper
Pampers Cruisers Dry Max - 160 Count - $39.75/case or $0.25/diaper, with the subscribe and save the cost is $27.82/case or $0.17/diaper

This is just a small list of what you can get. They have Pull-Ups, wipes, and other brands for the same kind of deals as well. I have kids with very sensitive skin and I am limited in what types of diapers and wipes I can use, in fact I am currently using the most expensive one listed (Huggies Little Movers) as they do not irritate my kids, and I love getting the best deal possible.

One last thing, if you happen to scubscribe to any baby magazines and have seen the coupons in their for Amazon mom, you can stack those coupons onto these deals and get the diapers even cheaper.

I hope this helps, if you have any questions, let me know!

Happy 3rd Birthday Arabella

2011-02-10T10:04:00.000-07:00

I am a little late with this but my beautiful Arabella turned 3 at the end of January. She is a fun kid and brings a great deal of joy to our family.

She is the one that causes the most drama, but also can give the best cuddles.
She is the one obsessed with clothes, shoes, makeup and all things girly.
She is the one who loves to watch Mythbusters with her dad, and will beg all day to be able to do so.
She is the one who will beg all day for her sisters to be home and play with her, but will boss them around all day and get mad when they wont play her way.
She is the one who loves Johnny so much and can't wait to play with him.
She is Arabella Kylie Wammack, and she is wonderful!

Arabella had a Tangled party and loves all things with Rapunzel on them!

Here she is modeling her Tangled shirt.

I love the impish grin here. She is just waiting to cause trouble.

Long distance doesn't keep us away from families on our birthdays.

With a little bit of help she blew out all of her candles.

Her Tangled birthday cake.

Gotta love licking the frosting off!

Bella loves to be Super Bella and tie her blankies around her neck and run around saving the day. As such I asked a friend to make a cape for her so she could be Super Bella, and she loves it! She puts on her cape and takes care of the world.

Opening presents, so much fun!

Her very own Tangled doll, she was so excited for that.

In the end Annika picked out Bella's favorite present. Annika picked out a Pillow Pet for her birthday and the other kids have really wanted once since then, so Annika decided to buy one for Bella. Bella loves it so much and will not sleep without it. I love the look on her face, pure JOY!

January Books

2011-02-01T11:43:00.001-07:00

I am sad that I didn't stay up with my reading log last year. I got busy, then forgot, and then was so far behind that I never did it again. So here's to doing a better job this year. I really like keeping track of what I read, it's fun to be able to look back and see exactly when I read something and what my feelings were about it then.

I am Number Four
Pittacus Lore
448 pages
I loved this book. I bought it because it sounded interesting, then I saw that they were making a movie of it and the preview looked great. I went ahead and started reading it then and really enjoyed it. The book is about a teenager who lives here on Earth and does his best to blend in. He is however from the planet Lorien that has been destroyed by the Mogadorians. The Loric people develop legacies (powers) when they are adolescents. Nine children and their helpers were sent to Earth to grow and develop their legacies and hopefully be able to protect themselves until they can return to Lorien and revive the planet.

I am not doing the story enough justice, it was really good and if you are up for a great story, give it a shot.

Hunger: A Gone Novel

Michael Grant
608
This is the second novel in the Gone series. The kids in the town are faced with the ever growing problem of the hunger and the lack of resourses. They are also still fighting with the Coats kids and the darkness.

The story was very engaging and I really felt like I was in the town with them. The author has done a great job and I am looking forward to the series continuing.

Matched
Ally Condie
384
This was another excellent book this month. This is a typical distopian world story set in the not too distant future. Here all people are matched with someone who will be their perfect match, both to produce great DNA and to create a happy life together. Our protagonist is given her match of someone that she will do great with, but she is then given a breif glimpse of someone else and she wonders what would happen with the other boy.

Pathfinder
Orson Scott Card
672
Card is a masterful storyteller and has once again woven a tale of wonder, exploration and fun. This is the story of Rigg who is able to see the paths that everyone has ever taken. When his father dies he is given the task of finding his sister, that he didn't know he had, and finding out who he is. The story is great and my detail leaves too much out, but know that the story is worth reading. It does start out a bit slow, but once you are in the story it is hard to put it down.

The Confession
John Grisham
432
Grisham is also a wonderful story teller and can really get the reader to care about the characters and the story that he is presenting. This book is very good and the story is very engaging. If you are a fan of legal thrillers, this will not disappoint.

With that said however, I had one major problem with this book. The story is of a girl who was presumably murdered and the wrongful conviction of another boy. The murder takes place in the fall of 1998, now I remember 1998 very well. They characters were seniors in high school then, just as I was. What bothered me about the story was the use of cell phones and texting. In '98 a regular middle class kid did not have a cell phone. I cannot think of anyone that I knew that had a cell phone then. We did all have pagers, but not phones. Also texting, while it was available in '98 it was not used by many as it was still very expensive and not widely available. Now I know this is just fiction, but when a story wants you to believe it, the author has to get the little things right in order for you to accept everything else. I love a good sci-fi story and can accept any manner of space travel, teleportation, wormholes, etc., but if the author messes up the simple details it can ruin a story. This is not to say that the story was ruined, but it did take me out of the story every time the phone and texting records were used as a basis.

The Friday Night Knitting Club
384
Kate Jacobs

I have mixed feelings about this book. While the story was interesting and the idea of how women form friendships was intriguing, I cannot recommended this book. The language in it was very crude.

Witch & Wizard
336
James Patterson
This is the first book in a series about two kids who discover themselves to be a witch and a wizard in the New Order, only the New Order has declared them evil and they must be destroyed. The story was a bit slow, but it was a good book overall.

Behemoth
200 (partial)
Scott Westerfield

This is the second in Westerfields steam punk series. The book is good, and while I enjoy reading it while I am reading it, I have no desire to pick it up when I am not reading it. The story still centers on Alek and Devyn and Alek's need to be kept safe and to escape and Devyn to keep her secret.

Total Pages for January: 3464
Total for 2011: 3464

Engineering to Bridge: We have a nerd alert

2011-01-29T19:50:00.001-07:00

James found a fun Star Trek shirt on Amazon for Johnny and added it to his Christmas list. Johnny received the shirt and had to model it. Dad is hoping to make a Trekkie out of this one. And yes that is a Gojira shirt, or as the American's call him Godzilla, that James is wearing.

He is an easy going guy.

Isn't that the cutest little grin.

"Live long and prosper." He tried to get Johnny to put his hand up, but he wasn't going for that.

MacKayla has also really gotten into science and liking the things that her dad does. So for Christmas she got a circuit set. It allows her to build basic circuits and experiments. Daddy helped her with the first ones and they had a lot of fun. She now does them on her own.

That is a really goofy face.

Grandpa's Guy!

2011-01-21T09:00:00.005-07:00

Jonathan loved spending time with his Grandpa. They played, they laughed and they had fun.

Grandma's Guy!

2011-01-20T09:00:00.000-07:00

Grandma is a big Charger's fan, somehow however she ended up with a son that hates sports. She is hoping that she can change that with the next generation. Here is Grandma and what she hopes will be another Charger fan.

Jonathan's Blessing

2011-01-19T09:00:00.018-07:00

On December 26th we were able to bless Jonathan. It was a wonderful experience and we loved that we were able to have family there to be a part of it. He was blessed by James, with his Grandpa Wammack, Great Grandpa Clark, Uncle Greg, and Cousin Jacob participating.

Four generations: Great Grandpa Clark, Grandma Wammack, Daddy and Jonathan.

Everyone looking at the camera, but now with eyes closed.

Finally everyone looking and with eyes open.

Mommy, Daddy and Little Man. Isn't he the handsomest little guy around.

Christmas fun

2011-01-18T10:17:00.003-07:00

We had a wonderful Christmas this year! We were able to spend our vacation in California with our family. The kids all did great on the drive, even Johnny was a good kid. They did ask at least a few times an hour if we were there yet, and we had several "stop hitting your sister" moments as well as a few "if you don't stop we'll turn the car around and go home."

We were spoiled rotten by our family and had so much fun on Christmas morning with presents. The kids did manage to stay in bed until 6:30, but there was no holding them back after that.

Christmas Eve, getting ready to open their presents.

New jammies, what a surprise :)

The kids all modeling their new Christmas Eve jammies. Annika has Dora, MacKayla has Hannah Montana, Arabella has Tiana and Jonathan has my first Christmas jammies.

The tree after Santa arrived.

The tree on Christmas morning, just waiting for all of the excitement.

The traditional photo of all the kids coming down the hall and getting their first glimpse of the tree.

"Dude, why am I awake and why are the girls making so much noise."

Finding their stockings and seeing the great loot.

Enjoying their stocking fun.

All ready to open their first presents.

A Barbie doll for Annika, a Wii Disney Sing It for MacKayla, The Gingerbread Man book for Arabella and Charger clothes for Jonathan.

When Christmas morning was done we headed over to Grandma and Granddad's house to see that Santa had found us again. I was really bad at taking photos here, but I do have this nice shot of the four WONDERFUL Wammack men. Jonathan has a great legacy of men to look up to.

One of the gifts that MacKayla and Annika got that they really loved were roller-skates. They had to get as much use out of them while we were there as it will be a few months before we can unpack them here. Grandma and Grandpa were great sports to teach the girls how to skate. They had a lot of fun and we ended up with very few ouchies.

We have taught them well, they fought over who got to wear the helmet, they know they are not allowed normally to do anything like this without a helmet on.

It was Arabella's turn to help the kids learn to skate.

Testing out the brakes.

Bella loved spending time with Grandma.

She dropped her cookies and thought it would be fun to crunch them into the ground.

Can you spot the problem?

2010-12-21T22:01:00.002-07:00

We stopped at the Walmart at the other end of town this weekend and this sign caught my eye. Can you spot the problem with it?

The big 3-0, I guess it really isn't old.

2010-12-17T13:02:00.001-07:00

This is me on my fifth birthday!

I remember while growing up how old everyone was. I mean my mom was 30, my teachers were 30, my friends' moms were 30, and boy were they old. I couldn't fathom the idea of ever getting THAT old. What could you possibly do for fun when you're that old!!?!

Well today I am officially OLD by the standards of my youth. But guess what I am not old! My friends are not old, my husband is not old and the people that I associate with they aren't old either.

I guess you could say the assumptions of youth can only be overcome by age. I do still find it interesting to think that I am 30. I really did picture it being different. Even at 20, 30 still seemed a long ways away. But thinking back to myself at 20, I am still that same person. Maybe with a few more responsibilities and in bed a few hours earlier, but I am still me.

So here's to the 30's, may they be as fun as the 20's were, and may I never feel old!

I really did!

2010-12-12T15:31:00.001-07:00

I really did what? you might ask. Well, I took the kids shopping for Christmas outfits. I have an almost eight year old and in her eight years I have bought one dress. Yes friends, just one. The dress that I bought was the blessing gown that each of the girls have worn. That is it! I have always hated wearing dresses and therefore have no interest in buying dresses, thank goodness for Grandparents that like to shop.

But on Thursday I took the kids out and let each of the girls pick out a dress (with a bit of help and direction from me; seriously, why sell sleeveless Christmas dresses, in IDAHO.) So we found three cute dresses and one handsome little outfit. I think they all look adorable, but I may be a bit biased!

Princess in training

2010-12-03T10:31:00.001-07:00

Despite my best intention I have a little princess for a daughter. Arabella from very early on has cared more about what she was wearing, how she looked and what accessories she had than any child should.

Her first love was shoes, anywhere she went she would take the shoes and just play away. I remember being in church for her first Christmas and our cousin, Jasmine, had a cute pair of heels on. Bella was being really fussy and trying to get into everything until she saw those shoes. She was fascinated and took the shoes off of Jasmine and would not give them back. She lovingly played with the shoes and talked to them. It was a crushing day in her life when she had to give them back.

To this day Bella loves shoes and actually owns more than anyone else in the house. She will only wear certain ones with certain clothes, otherwise she says they don't match (although her idea of what matches is a whole other story.) Bella also rarely wears clothes anymore, I dress her everyday in something and usually within a few minutes she has disrobed and put on a dance dress or princess dress. Her favorite one is a pink dress with a little tutu on it.

On Wednesday we had to go somewhere and Bella had sneaked one of Annika's bracelets out of the house with her. When Annika realized that she asked for it back, well Bella very sternly replied "you can't have it, it's mine, it matches my clothes so I have to have it." She bawled when I finally had to intervene and take it back for Annika.

Today Bella comes to me very sweetly and hands me a bottle of nail polish and asks me to paint her nails. I finish her fingers and then she said that I had to do her toes too so that "they can be really pretty too."

Where did this kid come from!?!

Thanksgiving, Christmas Decorating and Misc.

2010-11-29T11:28:00.000-07:00

We had a very nice Thanksgiving here with our family. The girls actually ate most of their food without complaint and Johnny even had his first taste of food, mashed potatoes. We also had a true 21st century Thanksgiving, we were able to Skype with our family in San Diego so we were able to share the prayer and talking while we ate.

James really is happy, he just didn't look it for this photo.

Here are the girls as well as the spread of our dinner.

On Friday we began decorating for Christmas and we had a lot of fun doing so!

The stockings were hung by the banister with care. I love these stockings, I really love Jonathan's, it's fun to have a boy one now.

Our new bookcase with my collection of nativities.

Our decorated Christmas tree.

We have a tradition that each year the kids get to pick out a new Hallmark ornament to add to the tree. I intend that when they are married and have their own home they will have a nice collection to start with. It has been fun to watch their tastes change over the years as they pick the new one. We started the girls out with Winnine the Pooh for their first several years. MacKayla quickly outgrew them and has had Polar Express, Hannah Montana, Princess and this year she picked out Barbie. Annika stayed with Pooh until this year, she decided to go with Barbie this year as well. Bella also decided against Pooh this year and she wanted Cinderella, it actually has the saying "Princess in Training" on it, and that fits her. With Jonathan we decided that until he can choose for himself he is going to have a superhero theme, so to start it out he got Superman this year.

Hamming it up in front of the tree.

We have had a lot of snow and cold lately. James took some photos of the snow and the house.

Miscellaneous photo time

Johnny got a new hat from Great Grannie Crites and had to have him model it. I think he looks adorable in a ball cap! The girls of course had to join in as well.

Being Mister Cool here!

Isn't he adorable!

A little father and son bonding.

The hams wanted into Johnny's picture.

He is getting so big!

Santa gives us a message

2010-11-28T09:19:00.000-07:00

I found the coolest site that I wanted to share with everyone. This site allows you to enter information about your kids and then they recieve a personal message from Santa. He calls them by name, talks about what they are up to, reminds them to be good and even shows what present they want. The kids really LOVED this. Annika is my little skeptic, so it took a minute for her to believe it, but then the grin was huge as he talked to her. MacKayla is very innocent and believed and talked back right away. I don't know what was bigger, her eyes or her smile, she loved it. Bella was a little taken aback at first, but she loved it as well. If you want to see an example of what I mean here is MacKayla's message from Santa.

The actual site is www.portablenorthpole.tv.

Enjoy!

Taking care of baby

2010-11-23T15:00:00.002-07:00

Snow much fun!

2010-11-21T10:37:00.000-07:00

We had our first real sticking snow about a week ago and the girls had a blast playing in it.

This is their first snowman. They were very proud of him.

The first one started to fall so with Bella's help they made this one. He lasted a while and the bottom of him stuck around for a while.

Despite what the weather may be outside this is what Bella wears any chance she gets. I get her up and dressed in the morning and the minute my back is turned she will undress and put on a dance dress, she is such a girly girl.

Yesterday we were blasted with another mighty snow storm. After James shoveled the drive he decided to play with the kids. They had snowball fights. And in traditional James fashion he taught them how to fight, i.e. to hit the other person when they are down, and or not looking. The kids had a great time!

He really gets into his shots.

Someone always ends up crying though.

No he's not comforting her, he's putting more snow on her despite the tears.

He really is a nice dad, he is comforting her now.

Bella decided to get in on the action.

One of our neighbors saw the fun and got into the fight as well. Apparently she has some skills with the snowballs, James said she pelted him pretty well. She was also devilish in her attacks, she eventually took a snow shovel and would chuck snow on him, and then on his freshly shoveled driveway, just to get his goat.

Isn't she a cute little snow baby!

Yay! She got daddy.

Lest you think we forgot about Handsome, here he is as well. I love how babies sleep with their arms up over their heads.

New Family Photos

2010-11-13T22:49:00.001-07:00

Thanks to a wonderful friend we have some great photos again this year.

Family photo 2010

Annika

Arabella

Jonathan

MacKayla

All of the kids together. I was going to try to find one where Bella had her hands down, but this is more of her personality - she has to be the focus of everyone.

I love this sweet picture, my handsome men!

He is the cutest little guy around.

Just being Bella

2010-11-05T19:42:00.002-06:00

Arabella is a funny kid. She cracks me up with the way she treats the world and how she sees life. As the youngest of three girls, she is the bossiest, the most vocal and the most forceful. There will be no holding her back in life. One of my favorite things that she does, when she doesn't hurt others doing it, is to walk with her elbows out and push her way through anything; it's cute to see.

As Bella has such a strong personality, somethings she gets upset when things don't go her way. She is a serious snacker and rarely likes to eat a real meal. Well I have been trying to break her of that. This morning she had a bowl of cereal for breakfast and a cheese stick for a snack about a half hour later. Well, a few minutes after she finished it she came to me asking for more snacks. I told her she needed to wait until lunch, an hour away. She looked at me and gave me her most pouty face and stalked off. I heard her go sit in the living room at that point and mutter "fine I not play with you anymore." I started laughing at that point and had to call James to share with him. When she heard me repeat it to him she continued to tell me that she was "not gonna play with you anymore."

What a character!

Halloween

2010-11-04T12:22:00.000-06:00

Two posts in one day, wow a record :)

We had a lot of fun with Halloween this year. James and I were invited to an adult costume party and we decided to go all out. As James works with nuclear fuel we get asked a lot about radiation exposure (of which he gets hardly any at all) so he wanted to play off of that. We came up with being radioactive zombies. The jumpsuits are similar to the ones that nuclear workers wear, and the taped on gloves as well.

Zombie James

This is his scary face

My scary face.

Evil zombie.

I made a scary face at Bella and she freaked out. She had watched me put the makeup on but I guess it still freaked out. The older girls wanted to pretend to be scared as well, so here they are showing off their scared faces.

This year we asked the girls what they wanted to be for Halloween and they wanted to go with Star Ward again so that Johnny could be Darth Vader. So here is our whole nerdy Star Ward family. James is Obi-Wan Kinobi, I am a Jedi, Annika is Padme, MacKayla is Ahsoka (from the Clone Wars), Arabella is Leia, and Johnny is Vader.

We had fun with Pumpkins as well they are as follows: Dad/Johnny - Storm Trooper, Mom/Bella - Pooh Bear, Vampire Jack-o-lantern - MacKayla, Happy Jack-o-lantern - Annika.

Annika's birthday

2010-11-04T12:06:00.000-06:00

I'm a little behind, but Annika had her sixth birthday a few weeks ago. Sometimes it seems like she is so much older, but at other times I can't believe how fast the time has gone.

Annika is a fun kid to be around. She is funny, loves to laugh and is very kind. I can always count on her to nice to her little brother and sister and most of the time to her older sister as well. She loves to be moving, she has really been loving this great weather lately and has been playing outside for hours every day. This year she officially joined the Jump Rope Club at school (I say officially becusae she came with me all of last year, but wasn't a student yet) and just this week she was able to pass off her first task of 25 single jumps. She worked everyday on this and was very proud when she was able to do it. She is also working hard at school and loves her teachers and learning new things.

For Annika's birthday this year she decided to go with a Halloween theme. For her cake she had seen the commercials for a BigTop Cupcake and really wanted that. It came out okay, but I think she was a bit disappointed that it wasn't as cool as on TV, although mostly that was because her mom has no cake skills. It seems that we also forgot to get a picture of it, we have it on the camcorder but no photos, oops! She was also able to have friends over this year and she had a blast playing and hanging out with them.

Here are the kids enjoying dinner.

Annika being silly.

Opening present from her friends.

More presents.

We are so glad to have Annika in our family and love the happiness she shares with all of us. Happy 6th Birthday Annika!

More frustration

2010-10-17T21:32:00.000-06:00

Today James and I were discussing the idea of upgrading to a higher speed internet, we spend enough time on it that we might as well get our moneys worth. So I have been a user of Qwest for five years, several years ago I signed up for paperless billing and automatic payments. As such I haven't accessed the account in a while. I get an email every month telling me how much my payment will be and when it will be deducted, as I don't have to do anything I have typically ignored it, I know I should check things periodically, but I haven't. So today I click on the link in the email to log into my account and view my bill. I am able to log in, but I am then taken to a screen where I have to validate my account. The validation code that I need is printed on the bill, so in order to be able to view my bill, I need to know the code that is on my bill, anyone else see the great logic of that one. There was the option to have the code sent to me, not by email, the way that they will send you your password, no you have to wait 7-10 and get it in the mail.

Grrr....

So darn cute

2010-10-12T14:10:00.000-06:00

I'm sure the girls will come after me one day for posting so much about Johnny but he is just such a cute guy. Here are some of the most recent pictures of him. I will try to get some new photos of the girls soon so that I can post about them as well.

Some Halloween fun, I love that both of their mouths are open the same.

Just relaxing with his pet spider.

"A hand, hmmm, what can I do with that?"

"Dude, I'm not sure what to make of this flashing light that keeps going off."

The Thinker

Kinda hard to see, but the shirt says, Hi my name is Future Mr. Right

The flash was too close but I loved how big his smile was.

James loves classic monster movies and when I saw this shirt I knew we had to get it for James. He's such an angel though that we can't really call him a monster, but it's still fun.

Lousy customer service

2010-10-05T19:58:00.000-06:00

I hate when customer service is outsourced. I ordered three birth scrolls, papers with info about the day a baby was born and the world that day, and one of the ones that I ordered was not received, instead I received one with another kids name and info. When I called and talked to the company I was told to go ahead and keep the one that I received as it was the same product. Annoyed, I replied that it was a personalized one and that I would like one with my child's name, not another kids name, the woman had no idea how to help me. Finally she said that she would start a new order and send the correct one, but that I needed to send back the defective one. I asked if they were going to pay to have it shipped back, and she said that I could just mail it back, um, I don't think so, I am not paying for your company's screw up. After putting me on hold for ten minutes it was determined that I could keep the defective one and I would get a corrected one. Does anybody know a Siobhan Maria Nolan born on July 19, 2010, I have a birth scroll you can have :)

My favorite time of year

2010-10-03T20:45:00.000-06:00

Isn't he adorable, I love his smiles.

A friend of mine posted on Facebook that this was his favorite quarter of the year, and while I've never put it that way before, it is mine too. The biggest reason is that all of the best holidays are coming up.

I love October and getting ready for Halloween. We go all out on Halloween here, even having a Halloween tree and decorations for it. The kids have picked up on this love and this year have not stopped asking if we could decorate since the 30th of September. We did get a lot done yesterday and they are itching to finish.

All ready for a feast.

I love November because I LOVE making Thanksgiving dinner and then eating it. Thanksgiving has all of the best foods, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, pumpkin pie, and fresh made rolls, I am getting hungry just thinking about it. I also love that the older girls are getting to the age where they can help and they now have pride in our dinner. Annika is already planning on what kind of rolls to make and has asked if we can have the missionaries join us for dinner again.

The joys of Christmas morning.

I love December, my birthday, Christmas, our anniversary, it's the month that just keeps giving. While I do love presents, what I really love is the spirit that everyone has in December. I have been lucky the past several years to be able to help with the Angel Tree for our ward and it is always amazing to me just how generous and willing to serve everyone is. While a lot gets done the rest of the year, it seems in December it just culminates and everyone wants to do more. I also love the joy and wonder of the kids and all the fun of the holidays.

My handsome

2010-09-28T20:16:00.001-06:00

With each of the kids James' has given them nicknames that have stuck around. When MacKayla was a baby and swaddled all the time he used to call her a grub. Well as she grew up a bit she became Bug. When Annika joined the family MacKayla became Big Bug and Annika was Little Bug. Once we had Arabella we expected her to be Baby Bug, but that hasn't really stuck. I call her, Bella, Bells, Bella Boo, Bob-a-Lou, or just Bob. James calls her Beloved, and Beautiful. Now that we have Johnny he gets his own fun nicknames. James calls him Handsome, Boy and John. I never intended for him to be called John, I actually prefer Jonathan over John, but even I have found myself on occasion calling him John-John. Mostly I call him Johnny, Johnny-boy, Little Man, or Sweetie Guy. Overall you can see that the last two have been far more spoiled, I guess that's what happens when you are finally done with school and have time to relax.

This weekend I was finally able to get some cute photos of Johnny and his cute gummy smile. He will smile at me sometimes, but we found that just like when Bella was a baby it is Annika that can get the best smiles out of him. She jsut has to look at him and smile and he turns into a happy gummy mess. Oh well, at least I was able to capture the cuteness. So for your viewing pleasure, here is Johnny-boy.

I especially love the shirt he has here...gotta teach them young.

Annika's hand as she is getting his smile.

Happy guy.

Finding his Annika.

Isn't he adorable?

That's my boy!

For good measure, here are my wonderful little girls!

Name that baby: Answers

2010-09-28T19:57:00.000-06:00

I guess it was easier to identify the kids in their baby pictures than I expected. The guesses were all right. The answers are as follows:

A: Arabella
B: Jonathan
C: Annika
D: MacKayla

Name that baby

2010-09-26T20:04:00.000-06:00

It's time again for a fun round of can you name that baby. I did this with Bella, I had each of the girls in the same outfit and same position and had everyone guess which kid was which, however, I am not going to put Johnny in a dress, so that makes it a bit tough. I tried to find pictures of the kids around the same age. So here it is, can you name the baby?

Baby A

Baby B

Baby C

Baby D

Way to go Annika!

2010-09-17T12:23:00.000-06:00

Annika is loving kindergarten and is doing really well. Last Friday she came home with her kindergarten skills book (it tests the kids on letters, numbers, shapes and words), we spent about an hour working on it and she had finished the whole thing! Today she was tested by her teacher and passed the book off with her. The whale that she is holding was the prize from her teacher for finishing.

Way to go Annika! We are very proud of you and of how hard you have worked.

Moments to make it all worth it

2010-09-14T09:48:00.000-06:00

Johnny boy is six weeks old today! I can't believe how fast the time has gone by, but at the same time, I feel like he has been a part of our family forever. Johnny is a sweet little guy and is usually a really mellow kid. A few times in the last week he has been "fussy" as in he whines a bit for a few minutes. James was trying to figure out what was wrong one day and said "why is he so fussy today?" I laughed at him for that and he realized just how lucky we are with this guy.

As for his stats, Johnny is 12 lbs now. He is also long enough that he is outgrowing his clothes. He is sleeping pretty well now, he goes to sleep about 9:00, wakes to eat at 10:30 and then sleeps until about 4. He will then sleep until 6:30 and sometimes will go back to sleep for a while after that. Overall he is doing great.

This morning Johnny gave me one of the best mom moments. He gave me his first intentional smile. He has smiled before, but not really at anything or anyone. This morning I picked him up and smiled at him and he gave me the biggest gummiest grin. He has done it several more times this morning as well. My next goal is to collect a picture of my smiling guy, we'll see how long that takes to get.

Are they really mine?

2010-09-10T19:31:00.001-06:00

Do you ever have a day where you look at your kids and question whether they are really yours? How could someone related to you do something so crazy? Well we have had a few of those lately.

Looks a bit like Medusa here, but at least still cute.

On Sunday James was helping with the church service at the nursing home in the ward. While he was gone Arabella came upstairs wearing a bead necklace and talking about her beads. She then tells me that she has a bead in her nose. I thought she had just misspoke, for of course she wouldn't be a goober and put a bead in her nose. Well I looked in there and sure enough I could see a blue bead deep in her nose. When asked why she did it, she smiled and said "I don't know," her standard answer whenever she does something wrong. I then tried to see if I could push the bead out from above it, that didn't work, so I called the doctors office to see if we could get in for them to get it out. Our home teacher happened to be with James at the nursing home so I called his wife to see if he had his cell on him, because of course James who takes his any other time didn't have it. Our home teacher didn't have his, but his wife offered to go over and get James for me. When told of what was going on, James just hoped it wasn't the older girls or Johnny, the older ones because they really should know better and Johnny because he was so little. Bella was the only one that he could see doing it and not be really annoyed at. Anyways, James gets home and he decides to play doctor. He gets his Swiss army knife out and uses the tweezers to try and pry the bead out. That didn't work unfortunately. He then got out the toothpick from the knife and wiggled that into the bead. He was then able to pull the bead out and become the hero of the day. We canceled the doctors appointment and told Bella that she would get a shot if she ever did that again.

Seriously, that is what she came up with!

For the last few years I have let the girls pick out their own clothes for school. For the most part I like all of the things that they have and the combinations that they came up with passed the decency test. Today that changed however. Annika decided that she wanted to wear a skirt to school today, I said sure. She then came out of her room looking like this. The shirt is cute, the pants are cute, I even like the skirt, however the combination of the three is crazy. I let her go like this but I laughed that she would want to.

Now of course since Annika was going to wear a dress to school MacKayla wanted to as well. She picked out her really nice fancy church dress to wear, I vetoed that on account of it being a nice one. I told her she could wear one of the other dresses that she had but not the one she wanted, well the water works started at that point. She went into a full crying jag because she couldn't wear a dress to school. Again I laughed (away from her of course) at the situation. In the end she wore a nice pair of jeans and a t-shirt, now that I approve of.

When I was a kid my mom would have given anything for me to wear a dress to school. I absolutely hated to wear them, still do actually. I always thought they got in the way of having fun at school. You couldn't flip on the monkey bars, you had to sit carefully on the rug and any breeze would blow your skirt up. I loved nothing more than a nice pair of jeans and a comfy t-shirt. I guess I didn't pass such on to my girls however, oh well....

More for fun

2010-09-01T12:57:00.000-06:00

I know there's been a lot of updates lately, but here's another one with lots more fun for you to see.

This is Arabella singing Jesus Wants Me For A Sunbeam. Sorry it's kinda dark, but it was too cute not to share.

Here she is singing I am a Child of God.

Last one, this is ABC's and Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.

These are from the second day of school when the kids rode the bus to school. Annika thought the bus was the coolest thing in the world.

MacKayla and Annika were able to go to Yellowstone with their grandparents (will post those photos soon) and brought back shirts for all of the kids, so here they are modeling the shirts.

I love Panda Express and the kids decided that they wanted to try it today as well, but only if they could use chopsticks. I said sure, but was prepared for quite a mess. They were both actually quite good with their chopsticks and ate all their food that way.

Four Weeks Already

2010-08-31T10:28:00.000-06:00

My little man turns four weeks today. I can't believe how fast the time has gone by, it feels as though Jonathan has been a member of our family forever. Johnny is still a great little guy, most of the time he is mellow and just goes along with the flow. He has found his voice a bit more lately and does let us know when he needs something. He is especially fond of eating and would eat all the time if he could, in fact on Sunday I stood on the scale with him to see how much he weighed now and he was over 11 lbs already. I can't believe how fast he is growing. He is fitting well into 0-3 month clothes, he is so long that they fit perfectly and I am thinking that he will outgrow them well before he hits 3 months. Here are some pictures of him to see how big he is. The first three are from today after his bath and the last two are for comparison, they are from the day he was born after his bath.

First day of school

2010-08-30T09:05:00.000-06:00

After a very long summer, it's finally the first day of school.

MacKayla is now in second grade and is excited for everything about school. She is really hoping to learn her times tables this year as we have been working on that at home. She also loves to read and thinks that she can get over 200 AR points this year, last year she got 180.

Annika is now my big kindergartner. She has been wanting to go to school forever, as she would say. She is excited that she gets to go everyday and that she gets to ride the bus to school. Annika is also looking forward to doing math at school. She loves to practice addition and subtraction with us. Annika this summer has also worked really hard at learning to read and read almost 100 books already. She really wants to get to take AR tests and earn prizes this year.

Catching up

2010-08-27T20:15:00.000-06:00

I have gotten behind in blogging, I need to finish posting the kids visit with their first grandparents, so that I can get to the second set. So here goes with a whirlwind of photos and fun.

One of the girls favorite things to do when their grandma is with them is to play beauty shop. Well this time the girls wanted to have a fashion show and have grandma get dressed up as well. She is a great sport and the girls had a blast sashaying around the room. The paraded up and down, danced about and posed for all manner of photos. It was a lot of fun watching them play. I can't believe how grown-up Bella looks here though.

Aunt Kelsey spending time with each of the kids. They sure love to play with her and love having her visit them.

We have a bad habit of forgetting to take a lot of pictures when the grandparents are here. We usually remember to get some as they are loading up the car and getting ready to go. As such this ended up being the only picture of grandma with Johnny.

Grandpa was also such a good sport with the kids. The girls played beauty shop with him and did his hair, they played games outside and they climbed all over him. They had a blast with him!

I loved this outfit on Johnny, I thought he was adorable. This was taken on the 18th, so he was just over two weeks old. At his two week check-up Johnny showed that he was growing like a weed, he was 9lbs 12oz, and about 22in. The doctors goal was that he was at least back up to birthrate, well he certainly did that, and then gained almost another pound, no wonder the kid eats all the time.

These are my first attempts at getting group shots of the kids. Not quite perfect, but it will do for a start. The kids are all darn cute at least.

Proud dad

2010-08-17T20:54:00.004-06:00

James likes to make awesome headers for his blog. He usually takes photos of other things and adds in an "atomic spud." Well to celebrate the birth of his son, James made this photo.

If you are interested James' blog is http://atomicspud.blogspot.com/. He writes about movies, politics, his quirks and whatever else floats his boat.

Photo update

2010-08-12T21:16:00.004-06:00

Jonathan is proving to be an awesome little guy. He is almost always happy and will just lay in your arms content for over an hour. He has also been sleeping for several hour chunks at night. He is also the apple of his sisters eyes, they fight over who gets to hold him, kiss on him constantly and love to dote on him.

This was about the maddest he has ever been, he wasn't too crazy about getting a sponge bath, but even that only lasted for a few.

His first sponge bath given by mom.

Arabella loving on her Johnny.

Getting Annika cuddles.

MacKayla sure loves being a big sister.

During the day I don't swaddle Johnny and his hands always end up by his head. He likes to show how cool he is.

The big girls getting ready for Church with Grandpa.

While we didn't let Jonathan go to Church last week I wanted to get a three generation photo of Wammack men. I am getting that photo ready still, but I thought Johnny and daddy looked pretty darn cute together.

Annika just being her cute self.

A little fuzzy but this is how he usually is, bright eyed and content to be held.

Cuddling with his Grandpa.

Getting loves from Aunt Kelsey.

Bella being her adorable self.

Johnny's coming home outfit. It took a while to find the perfect one, but I loved this. The picture makes him look really chubby, but he really isn't that big, I think it's more that he is scrunched up and a weird camera angle.

First car ride, all ready to come home from the hospital.

All snuggled up and cute as can be.

Just before we got to leave the hospital, what an angel.

Father Son Bonding

2010-08-10T15:19:00.005-06:00

James has been a wonderful help with Jonathan and spends a lot of time holding and cuddling him. Today however, both of them needed a little rest, so their bonding was sleeping in the same room, I thought it was pretty cute.

Jonathan is proving to be a really good kid. He is sleeping and eating well, and is almost always happy and/or content. I am hoping he stays this way, with all the drama from the girls, it's nice to have a calm child.

I will get more pictures up later.