New Years Resolutions

I am not really one to make resolutions each year, because who really keeps them anyways. Last year I made the resolution to run a half marathon this Janaury - seeing that I am 7 months pregnant, that goal was shot a long time ago! I did start out very promising though!

But I guess I have to at least give it a shot. So my goals for 2009 are:
1. Read the scriptures with my children
2. Have Family Home Evening every Monday night (or at least every week) whether David is home or not
3. Take at least one picture a day - The 365 Project - to document my year, even the small moments, and to better my photography style

I really hope these are more realistic than ME running a HALF MARATHON!!! Come on, really?!?!? What was I thinking? So, now that I have written them down and shared them with my family and friends, they are real goals and I must be held accountable.

Our Christmas Update

Ok, so Christmas is finally over, although remnants of it still remain strewn throughout my entire house. My goal tomorrow is to get everything, including decorations, put away. I can't wait to get that "clutter" out of the way. David gets mad that I call Christmas decorations "clutter", but that's the way I feel about them sometimes.

Overall, I think we had a great Christmas. David may be feeling a bit cheated...I overheard him chatting with a friend on the phone about gifts they had gotten and he said "oh, I got a ladder..." But we had set a budget and I tried very hard to stick to it, in fact I did overspend a little, but David way overspent! I won't complain though, because I LOVE everything he got me. He is very thoughtful in his gifts. Or should I say, he strives to get everything I ask for, and he does a great job!

My most exciting gifts this year were a Girl's weekend away with two of my best friends to Vegas. We'll be going the middle of January. And David's mom got us and David's sister and husband tickets to see "Phantom of the Opera" in the city on New's Years day. She is watching the kids. I can't wait for both of these things!! I also got some other wonderful things that I love, but the most fun was wathching the girls with their presents.

Santa had a little accident putting together Carmen's new bike, so we had to return that today and get a new one. Target was out of bikes, so we went to Walmart and got a totally different one. Carmen didn't seem to mind that the new one wasn't a princess bike, although that was all she had asked for. She was just so excited that she had money left over to buy a horn to go on the handle bars! Aliza got a baby stroller and bassinet and loves playing with her babies. She also got a Tinker Bell costume that she has worn for the past two days. And together they got a doll house full of furniture that they are having a hard time sharing.

We also got a lot of new games to play. Which is a good thing, because David has decided we are getting rid of the TV!!!! I am still trying to negotiate something, because I at least have to have movies to keep my sanity. If Aliza can't watch ELMO it's the end of the world. So, today we did pretty good. Aliza got to watch Elmo one time and Carmen got to watch one movie. Other than that we kept busy with new games and new toys the whole day. We'll see how long we can make this last...

I'm posting a lot of pictures. There are pictures of the second Joy school nativity where Carmen got to be Mary, some more tile pictures that I made, some of the girls in their new dress up clothes, and Carmen making her own lip gloss.

Joy School Nativity

In preschool these past couple of weeks, Carmen and her class have been learning about service. So we prepared the kids to do "service" for the grandma's and grandpa's at the retirement home. They preformed the Nativity for them last Tuesday. Carmen was one of the Inn keepers and had to say "NO ROOM". The kids were adorable and did a great job. They sang songs and gave the residents Christmas cards they had made. I was so proud of her!

Tonight we are having a family Joy School party and the kids will perform it again for the Daddies to see. Except tonight Carmen gets to be Mary and she is beside herself with excitement. I'll post pictures of that later.

Projects

So, Carmen has been a little bored since the weather has turned chilly. I found her Polly Pocket dancing with the ice skaters the other day. She was really stretching her imagination that day. So, she has been doing a lot of painting to help pass the afternoon when Aliza is alseep and she has no one to torture. :)


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I've also worked on a few projects in the last few weeks. Mostly for Christmas gifts for family. I still have another tile print to make for myself, but I'm waiting for the picture to come for it. I also did some family portraits for my brother-in-law.

Surprise!

So my mom sent an email requesting me to update the blog! She said she has started reading all my friends blogs, people she doesn't even know, to try to stay updated with what I am doing!

So, I will post about a surprise David got me this week. He was so proud of himself for doing this and for the phenominal deal he got it for. He bought a new crib and dresser set for the new baby. We really needed something new, and this set is just beautiful. We were able to get them both for less than we would have paid for just ONE of them alone. So, I guess as soon as the holidays are over, I can officially start "nesting" and get the nursery set up for the new baby.

So, here's online pictures of what they look like, except our set is all white.

Lots of Pictures...

So, a few months ago we bought a little compact camera that I decided to keep in the diaper bag for those spontaneous "kodak moments". I realized yesterday that I've never downloaded any of the pictures off of it. So, here are pictures from before halloween.

The Pumpkin Patch - Finding the perfect one.

More pictures....

Carmen's Gymnastics Class

Our Trip to the Bass Pro Shop

Aliza on Santa's lap at our church Christmas party

Pleasanton Holiday Parade with some of our friends

I wish....

....I had a magic wand or could wiggle my nose and make my house clean. Why can't I be lucky enough to find a magic lamp with a genie inside to grant me three wishes? My wishes would be 1. my house would be spotless (dishes done, laundry done, full pantry and fridge) 2. my kids would stop bugging each other and just play nicely like little princesses should and 3. Alice from the Brady Bunch lived at my house. She cleans and COOKS and even refereed the kids!

I can't wait to be in VIRGINIA!!!!

Pregnancy Blah's....

Why does being pregnant make me so impatient? I can't seem to tolerate anything my children do these days. I feel like my kids think they have the mean old witch as a mother! Maybe that's why Carmen won't stop singing that song, I remind her of it!

Aliza's Birthday Party

Aliza was SO excited for her party and her cake. In fact all the neighborhood kids were extremely excited for the party. I don't know why really, it was just pizza and cake. There was nothing fancy. Maybe perhaps the other moms built it up so much because they were excited to not have to worry about dinner last night. I think everyone had fun and Aliza especially had a good birthday. The party was Elmo themed, which made her day! She has the funniest "excited voice" - like the little gasp of excitement...she kept doing that all night at the party. Anyways, here's some pictures from her big day. Click the link on the right to see more of them.




I forgot to add that Aliza did have on a cute Elmo shirt all day long, but just as the guest were arriving she insisted on wearing her pj's!! Oh, well...you can't win them all.

Birthday cake

Today is Aliza's 2nd bday. I really wanted to make the same Elmo cake my cousin made for her daughter, but it was a little too ambitious for me today. So this is the cake I've decided to make. It's baking right now. I'll post pics later of the party and my version of the cake...the only problem is, I already colored all the frosting RED in hopes of the cake being a little "elmoish". Than I decided to make this one. So it will all be red.

The Fruits of our Labor

Early this spring we planted an orange tree in our backyard. We've tried to be diligent in watering it and nurturing it as much as we can. This has mainly been Carmen's responsibility. Well, this morning we realized that there were two oranges ready to pick! The girls were very excited to taste them. They were delicious! There is one more orange that looks like it will be ready in another week. I explained to Carmen that we have that yummy fruit due to her hard work of taking care of the tree. Hopefully we can continue to nurture it enough that will provide us with more yummy fruit!

Beanie Baby #3....

We had our big ultrasound today. The whole family came and we all had high hopes for a BOY. In fact, we only have BOY names picked out, so it has to be a BOY. Right? We were all wrong - It's a GIRL! That makes three girls for us. We all left feeling very blessed to be having another healthy baby. But once in the car both David and I admitted to being a little dissapointed. In fact, I haven't been able to say "it's a girl" yet without shedding a few tears. And Carmen is VERY dissapointed! She wanted a brother so badly.
So, now we have to put on our thinking caps for some girl names. We've had two boy names picked out since I was pregnant with Carmen. Hopefully we'll get to use one of them someday. So, we are taking girl name suggestions from everyone!
I really don't want to sound ungrateful....I really do feel so blessed to be a mother and love all my children. What a privelage it is to be part of our Heavenly Father's plan and be able to bring His children to earth. I can think of no greater calling than that of a mother.

A Bird's Eye View

For Father's Day David got a gift certificate to have a Pilot's First Flying Lesson. He finally redeemed it today and got to fly over Mountain House. He was given about 20 minutes of ground instruction and then the teacher made him take off the runway. He said he was very nervous! But once in the air he got to do a lot of the stearing and then the teacher did the landing. He managed to get some pretty cool shots of our house and neighborhood from the air. Ours is the peanut butter colored house on the cul-de-sac next to the one with the pool. He tried getting pictures of some of our friends houses as well - so look closely and you might see your house!



Check out the rest of his pics over on my Flicker site...The link is on the right under pictures ------->

Carmen's preschool party

Last week for Joy School we combined our group with the other group and had a parade and party for the parents/grandparents. The kids were SOOOO excited for the party. They practiced songs for a little show and made cookies to share. Then they dressed in their costumes and paraded around and then sang some songs for everyone. After the show, they shared the cookies they had made and then everyone made a pumpkin craft. It was a lot of fun, and the kids are still talking about it a week later.


They sang three songs that they had been practicing all week

This is everyone eating the cookies they had made earlier



Making their pumpkin craft


All the kids in their costumes (minus one girl who was sick that day and missed the party)

Could these be used as Blackmail?

David bought these dresses and little dolls for the girls in Budapest, Hungry. They were less than excited to wear them to church, but still play with those dolls everyday! Despite how funny they look in the pictures, they really are cute in real life.

Yes on Prop 8!

I love this picture - what a better depiction of what this all really means. Fighting for something you know is right, yet being so persecuted by those who don't understand.

Apple Dumplings

When I was growing up my ward made Apple Dumplings each Fall for a fundraiser. It was something I looked forward to eating every year. Well, it's been ELEVEN years since I've been in Virginia this time of year to partake of the delectable treat, yet each year I crave those yummy golden apples wrapped in a blanket of crust and covered with the best "secret sauce" anyone could imagine. So I finally decided to attempt to make them on my own. It was quite the undertaking, but I had success!

Now, they may not be as pretty as the ones we made as youth.



But as long as you cover them in enough of the "secret sauce", they taste like a little slice of heaven!



Now I just have the mess in my kitchen sink to clean up.



But my tummy is so full of the warm treat, that I think I'll wait until tomorrow to tackle that mess. And David is gone camping, so I can pig out on these while he's gone and he never has to know they even existed!! (of course I've shared with all my neighbors already so there aren't many left...)

Being alone is no fun...

David has been gone since last Friday and it's been fine so far. We have kept ourselves busy and enjoyed being together. But it seems everyday around 6:00 becomes the time of day that I just miss David. I get so lonely and long to have him here to entertain the girls and to give me a reason to make dinner and have a real meal. I am just feeling so lonely tonight. The girls are having popcorn for dinner because I ran out of quick kid friendly meal ideas...oh well, I don't really care about them have popcorn for dinner. This is really just a rambling of my boredom. I don't think anyone really reads this blog anyways. We can't wait to have him home!!!

What we've been up to

I don't know that I have anything really exciting to share this week. Last weekend David and I took the girls out to campaign in regards to Prop 8 - To Protect Traditional Marriage. For those not living in California, this coming election will pose the proposition to legalize and create equal rights for gay/lesbians within the state. Of course this would create long term conditions and situations that we don't want our children to have to face. I think it was important for the girls to see us doing this and understand our belief of traditional marriage. Even though they are young...I know it's important for them to see us stand up for what we know is right. We put a prop 8 sticker in our car window and I overheard Carmen talking to her friend about it. She said, "oh yeah, that sticker means we knock on doors and talk to people about being married"...so maybe she didn't get the whole concept, but at least she knows what we believe.

I spent most of today attempting to watch General Conference. It didn't go so well. David was gone and I was by myself with the girls. Of course they couldn't care less about the conference. I kept getting so frustrated with them and tried to distract them with movies in the other room, but to no avail. I was getting so hot tempered with them that I finally put them both in the car and drove around for an hour until at least Aliza fell asleep. I was going to just leave her asleep in the car (in the garage with the car door opened) so I could watch the rest of conference. She woke up as I was getting Carmen out of the car...oh well for being spiritually fed today. I hope tomorrow goes more smoothly.

Sorry to do these mega posts, but I would rather have one big post than a million little posts. Here are some cute picture I took of the girls today. I have more, but these were two of my favorites. I don't know where Carmen learned to do the peace sign, but it was pretty funny when she posed like this for the picture!