We Had a Great Christmas!

As I am wandering our house tonight and doing laundry, I feel as if we had a perfect Christmas this year. We werent overwhelmed. Things were just right. I feel very blessed to live in my house, in this country, with my family. Ahhh.

Happy Birthday Lexa!!

This day 6 years ago we brought our first baby girl into the world! After 18 hours of labor and a failed epidural, Alexandra Joy came it two pushes! From the time the nurse checked to see if I was ready to push to the time she was born was less than 20 min. She started to crown before the doctor was even there and they told me to stop! Lexa was 6 lbs 11 oz. Such a skinny thing. We have loved having her in our family and look forward to more years to come. :)

Boston Weekend

Nolan had an IEEE meeting in Boston last weekend and I got to tag along. He had a meeting in Boston in spring of 2007 that I also got to be at and I wanted to go back. Marilyn is a wonderful grandma and flew here from Washington for a week of fun with us and the girls. While we were gone she took them to a pumpkin farm (run by men from a rehad center) and to a discovery childrens museum in Fort Collins. Both looked like a lot of fun and tired everyone out by the end of the day.

While in Boston Nolan had meetings Friday night, a conference all day Saturday with a 30th celebration dinner Saturday night and meetings on Sunday morning. During this time I played and relaxed. We actually were staying in Cambridge and on Friday night I walked to a restaraunt called Legal Seafood. I got to walk through the MIT campus. The rest of the night I watched the season premeire of Ugly Betty and work on my cross-stitch I am trying to get done for Christmas. Saturday I slept in till about 10:45. Left the room around 12. Ate lunch at Faneuil Hall and did some shopping. Then I went to the Museum of Science. I saw a movie on their Omni Dome, like a combo of plantetarium and Imax. Then I wandered around the museum and saw a show in the planetarium before I left. The show was about the origins of the universe and how the universe seemed to work. It was very interesting and it seemed to me that the more questions they had and asked, the more it confirmed to me the existence of something bigger than ourselves, like a Heavenly Father who was smart enough to create it all!! It was very cool. I went with Nolan to the celebration dinner. I asked him before we left if I should bring along "walking" shoes or just wear my high heels. He said we would definitely come back to the hotel before going out with everyone after the dinner. So, no walking shoes. After the dinner our friend Vishnu, who lives in Boston and has a car, invited some of us to walk to a place that served amazing hot chocolate in Harvard Square. The bus to dinner really made me sick so I was willing to walk miles in heels just to get a ride back in a car! My feet were ready to fall off, but the chocolate was definitely worth it!! I even bought a couple of packs for me and Marilyn of white chocolate mix. Sunday Nolan was off to meetings and I just slept in and then got ready and packed to go. We all had lunch at Legal Seafoods after their meetings were done. Half went to the airport and half went back to the hotel. Nolan and I got some pictures on the river. It turns out there was a really big rowing competition that weekend. While waiting to go to the airport it started to snow. We were with a girl, Gigi, who grew up in Hong Kong and now lives in LA. She once saw snow already on the ground but had never been in falling snow. She was pretty cute and funny to watch running around outside the hotel. :)

Once we all got to the airport most of our flights had all been delayed. Nolan and I had to run throught the Chicago airport to make our connection to Denver, but we did it! We made it home around 2 am and took until around 3 to finally get to bed. Grandma stayed until Tuesday morning.

We had a great weekend and the girls loved having time with Grandma. :)Thanks Marilyn!!!!

My Wonderful Day

I have this problem of not returning library books on time, thus incuring large overdue fees. This kind of frustrates Nolan so we made a bet at the beginning of the summer. If I could go through the whole summer and not get a late fee, I could have a whole day to do whatever I wanted. If I did get a late fee I would have to wear a matching dress with my girls. Now you may think that I just didnt check out any books the whole summer! Not true. I did check out lots of books and turned them all in on time. I thought "summer" meant until school started. Nolan thought it meant until the official first day of fall in September. Either way you look at it, I won!! So today I was able to claim my reward. I slept in until about 10:30, read a book for a while, worked on my cross-stitch and watched movies, read and slept a little more, made dinner, helped put girls to bed and am now cross-stitching again while Nolan is watching football. We had our first big snow today so Nolan took both girls out a few times and it was pretty funny. Clara is so cute in her get up. Not once today did I have to take care of the girls, although during my nap Clara kept coming up the stairs and yelling "mama!" at my door. I had to get up and play with her then!! So, thanks Nolan for a great day!!! I should make bets like this more often!!

What A Day

I was dropping Lexa off at school today when she closed the car door on her thumb. It was black and bloody instantly so I RACED her to the emergency room at Centerra. I called my mom on the way so she could call the school and tell them Lexa wouldnt be there today. Then my mom and dad came up and watched Clara while I was with Lexa. That was really nice because I hadnt brought any shoes for Clara (thought we would just be dropping her off and then going home). Without shoes on she couldnt walk around the ER. It is pretty hard to keep her entertained and happy while Lexa was freaking out and crying. They ended up burning a hole in her nail so the blood could drain out. She felt much better after that! She had a few x-rays and her thumb was fine. We got home just in time to watch two kids. Lexa is fine but realizing how much she uses her thumb!! I was so sick today and being in the ER was fun. On the way out they gave us a flier so we could recognize the symptoms of swine flu, just in case we picked it up there. Ha!

Our Church is Awesome!

We had our primary program today at church. It was focused on families and temples. It went very smoothly and well. I was playing the piano for the primary so I got to be right in the middle of it all. Lexa even remembered her line and said it clearly and slowly.
At the end of the program one of the counselors in our bishopric said a few words. He talked about doing family history recently. When he was 19 he joined the church. No one else in his family was or is a member. In doing family history he found out that his family had joined the church in Europe and came to the US to live in Utah. The father of the family died soon after making it to Utah and the family eventually fell away from the church. He thought he was a pioneer in his family by joining but found out he was reviving his family legacy! It was very cool and powerful. Then the closing song was Families Can be Together Forever. I got to play the piano for this too. We had the primary stand up and sing. The kids were on one side of me and I could hear the strong voices of the congregation singing that they could be together forever. It was amazing and awesome. I wanted to sit and cry, but I couldnt because I had to still see the music so I kept it under control. I love that we can be together forever and that we can teach our children to have hope and love in this world.

Bragging Time

Lexa took scraps from the floor of the basement (other projects she had done) and made a person!

This bird cracks me up! Especially the tuft of feathers on its head. That was on purpose!

Lexa made a super-hero of her dad, and then covered him in his super-hero outfit complete with cape on the back.

Lexa made me a heart face. She figured out to cut the circles in half and then put them back together again with a different colored half! (for the eyes)

I am a proud mama. Everyday Lexa amazes me. I dont have any grand ideas that she is the smartest kid in the world, but I love to see her growing and discovering and being creative. Her learning to read is as exciting to me as a baby learning to walk. But I wanted to display some of her recent art work. We have a basement where we give her freedom to create, paint, cut, paste, color, etc. I love seeing how her mind works and comes up with these things!