New Year...With a Sunbeam

This year is the year my baby became a Sunbeam in Primary. She has been looking forward to this for weeks. She knows her song and is so happy to be in the big girl class.

Shaylyn sitting in her row in primary with her little friend Chloe.



She is trying to watch and sing along



The kids were singing a reverent song about rolling your hands and eventually they end up quietly in your lap.



This was so cute. They were singing the smile song about turning your frown upside down and she was demonstrating.



All the sunbeams got called to the front to get their sunbeam visor and all the primary kids sang and welcomed them to primary.







Chace and Makai also had a great first Sunday of the year by being asked to give talks. What is the most amazing thing is that Chace has "FINALLY" ( chace has been waiting patiently forever!) been promoted to Valiant 9 and is officially in the senior primary. He and I put his talk together and he said, Why is mine so much longer than Makai's? I said because you are in senior primary now and you are expected to do more. He said OH! I guess he did not like that part of being in Senior Primary ,but nevertheless he is very proud of himself for being a big boy now.







I hope that the new year bring blessings to all and that even in the face of all this financial hardship with the economy etc. we remember that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is at the center of all things and that he walks beside us through our many trials. I am so grateful to have the testimony that I have of the True Gospel and the light and comfort it brings to me in my life. I don't know where I would be without it. I am grateful for the Book of Mormon and I know it to be a true testament of Jesus Christ.I feel it with all my being. I am grateful for my loving family, my husband whom although we don't always agree, he loves me and sticks by me. He is truly my soulmate and my eternal companion and as our 10 year anniversary grows closer it just reminds me how time flies when you have a good thing. I hope I never take it for granted. I love you Cr. I love my children and all the many things I learn from them every day. I look forward to our scriptures every morning and hearing their voices speak to me of love and kindness. We have our many moments of family trials and fights but I love them and would not give them up for anything.I am grateful for my extended family. I love knowing that we are all there for each other. I love you all too.I am very happy to know I have my true friends, the ones who read our blog etc. you know who you are, We send our love for a great year with many blessings. HAPPY NEW YEAR 2009 !

Christmas

Yeah Christmas. What can I say except that it was great.It was our first Christmas in our new house. We were so proud of the decorations and just the fact that we had something to call our own and enjoy the holidays in. We did just have a little tree on top of my living room wall table but it fit just fine and it was still beautiful.

This is a picture of the tree the after santa had come but before the kids woke up.


Murphy always has to stick her nose somewhere it doesn't belong!

We usually have this thing at our house where when the kids wake up whatever time that may be we get up and open presents immediately. We started that when we had kids because I remembered always going to other extended family's homes and in the morning we( the kids) would wake up early and be so anxious to open presents but we always had to wait for everyone to wake up, get dressed, eat breakfast...etc. the whole time we were just dying to open up presents and I would always be so mad( as a kid of course). So I vowed when I had kids I would never make them wait...and luckily I married an amazing guy who is game for whatever his wife wants and has always been a great sport about it and I think he has enjoyed it as much as I have. One year when it was only Chace and Makai around yet, we were opening presents at 4:30 am..No I am not kidding and we LOVED every minute of it and we were back in bed asleep by 10am!!=) Anyway, this year we went back a little now that the kids are older and we said no earlier than 6:30am. Cr and I set the alarm and got up at 6:20 and wouldn't you know it at 6:31am the boys were up and ready. We told them they could open their stocking but they had to wait for sissy to wake up. Lucky for them she was up at 7.

These are the boys literaly 5 minutes after they got up at 6:30 am...how in the world do guys do it? Looking so alive that early?





Now take a look at Shaylyn's 5 minutes awake picture and she still has morning bags under her eyes and her hairs a mess.. Its just not fair!



Opening Presents..Fun, Fun.





Santa brought a Guitar Hero Game. I have to admit I think Mom and Dad have enjoyed it the most. We wait til the kids are in bed and rock out( quietly of course ) =)

The Finished product

This is the finished product on Christmas Day. I loved it and so did the kids. It looks great and the kids have not stopped playing on it.

Shaylyn testing out the slide



These are my pups..Sabrina my lab you all know and Murphy my Golden/Lab mix both still owned by Southeastern Guide dogs but Sabrina is a Breeder now and Murphy will go back sometime this summer.



Chace and Makai use the top play area as a Fort.





Thank you grandma and Grandpa for our awesome backyard edition. We love it.

The Making Of...

This is the project we were digging up our yard for. My Dad, my brother, and CR all got together on the weekend before Christmas to put together the big swingset. I thought about it for weeks with my mom trying to figure out how to put up this huge thing in my yard without the kids noticing. Well since the kids did not have school we decided to take a trip to
grandma's for three days until Christmas eve when we would come home after dark so they could not see it. These are the pictures of the project in progress.

Florida Oranges

THE FLORIDA ORANGE!

I have to say that although I still stand by wanting to move out west because I am a cowgirl at heart, nothing beats a florida orange. Juicy, sweet and just melts in your mouth. Shaylyn and I had the great chance to enjoy one of Florida's quilty pleasures today and frankly we don't feel guilty at all.So all you people out there who wish you were here..let us know and maybe, just maybe we may share=)

We will now instruct you in the proper way to enjoy a florida orange.

Step 1: Admire said orange.. the orangey color, the squishy feel and anticipate scarfing!



Step 2: waited paitienly for mom to peel orange and now get ready for the taste test.



Step3: Take small dainty and lady like bite.



Step 4: Who cares about lady like .......dig in before it runs off your plate.




Step 5: Savor the Flavor...and that is how you eat a florida orange.Any questions?

Destroying our yard, beware hot guy doing yard work!

So for christmas this year my parents are getting the kids a beautiful wooden playset. We decided that we needed to even out the backyard in order to put it in so we decided to go ahead and take it a step further and make it pretty. We decided to till the ground to even it out and then we are going to frame it in with wood and then lay mulch to make it look pretty. WOW! we started working today and it was not easy to grind up the grass. Not to mention the fact that it is a 25 by 25 foot area. It was supposed to be a 25 by 30 foot area but I decided that was too big and that it would take a lot longer. We rented a tiller and it had to be back at a certain time. It took us the entire 4 hour period to get it done and we barely finished. We did not have time to move on to the clean up and framing yet so essentially I just have a 25 by 25 foot dirt pile in my backyard. I am very excited to see it finished though. I really think it is going to look awesome and be a great place for the kids to go play and have friends over to play. The best part of all is we lied to the kids saying that we were making a HUGE garden. Ha-Ha, jokes on them...they actually helped clean up their own christmas present area! Talk about working for your gift! We did not lie completely though. We did also till a much smaller area in order to actually plant a garden. We are so excited to start growing our own veggies and spices. We will keep everyone updated on our endeavor as often as possible so maybe you might even take the leap and do the same.We really hope it goes well. We want so much to learn skills that will help us when it comes time to be using food storage and be on our own..Oh on a side note I actually learned how to make my own laundry soap and have already made my first batch. The breakdown cost is about a penny a load!!!If you want to learn how..( so, so fast and simple I promise) then leave a comment with your e mail and I will send you the recipe. Anyway enjoy the pictures of my destroyed yard and I will update when phase 2 is completed. If you happen to see or talk to my kids( not likely I know) remember that it is just a Huge Garden!He-He!


I told you... Hot guy doing yardwork.



LOVE THE FRO HONEY!!!







See A HUGE Garden!!!!I told you we dug up a very large portion of the yard, but there is still plenty of yard not dug up and I am so excited about the play area for the kids.



Like Father, Like Son! Makai loved working on his gardens. The one he is in now is the smaller area that will actually become the real garden. He is over raking up the tilled grass and making the dirt even. It was hard work but he was so enthusiastic and loved every minute of it.

Fall Fun

This is our first Fall in our new house and we are loving it. Here in Florida we hardly ever see good leaf bearing trees. We have tons of neighborhoods in which the developers decided trees were not necessary. I completely disagree but what can you do. Oh I know...buy a house from the 1960's when trees mattered. Our beautiful tree in our front yard does not shed as much as we like but it gave us our first humble pile of leaves and we enjoyed every minute of it. The day was a gorgeous 70 degrees..yes It is ok to be jealous, and we decided to spend some quality time with Shaylyn while the boys were at school. Shaylyn had such a great time jumping in the leaves and throwing them around. Cr tried to make a makeshift foot swing but he later decided it would not work and took it down, but not before having some fun with it. Anyway it was a great afternoon.

Murphy on a nice day.














I LOVE having a mailbox with our name on it. It reminds me that it is not a dream and it really is OUR house=)



Our Humble leaf pile before it was malled by Shaylyn.





Look at that smile, you know she is 7th heaven. This is seriously the first time she has experienced a leaf pile in the fall. We have never lived someplace that had a big tree before.