christmas caroling

Went caroling with the kids tonight. It was freezing cold, but really fun--they had a good time singing to our friends. This is a fun time of year to look in the mailbox. Usually we just get bills, but I look forward to checking the mail for christmas cards and packages from family, etc.
I went to the post office myself today to mail cards and packages to grandparents. I was up until 2:00 a.m. getting things ready. The post office trip was a disaster--Sam and Ginny were extremely crabby and Sam especially was not cooperative at all. We survived, and the packages got mailed, but I was glad to get home.
Had a nice visit with Gladys this morning. What a great lady she is! I'll miss her a lot.
We also had the radon system installed today. I'm glad that's done. I really can't wait to get this move over with...yet I'm sad to leave our home and friends.

Theft

Well, yesterday was just a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. Yesterday morning when I was getting ready to go visiting teaching, the kids and I went out to the van, and I noticed that the contents of the glove compartment were spread all over the front seat. I immediately thought that the kids had been playing in the car or something, but then I noticed that the DVD player was gone, too, as well as the adapter for plugging it into the car. The thing that worried me most was some old cards on the front seat--insurance cards, an old debit card, swimming passes, etc. The thing is, I remembered that in that pile of cards was a credit card that we never use so I had stuck it in the glove compartment one day when I was cleaning out my wallet. Anyway, I'm not totally sure that was in there, but it definitely might have been. So, I called the bank to get a copy of our credit report with all of our account numbers, etc. and spent the whole day calling to cancel this and that just in case. I'm so glad I didn't leave my purse in the car. Mostly I just feel violated. I don't like the idea of someone creepy sitting in my car going through all of my things. I couldn't ever really find the account that I was remembering, but I called everything on the credit report--and I'm pretty sure that the credit report shows every account we have. Anyway, it's a bummer to not have the DVD player anymore, but I was far more worried about our accounts/credit being compromised right when we are trying to buy a house.
I hope I took care of it okay.
Later, I was supposed to pick up Emily from a friend's house, and couldn't find my car keys anywhere, and that's when I fell apart. I cried and called my friend Marilyn, which made me feel a lot better. Sometimes you just need to cry to feel better. Anyway, I did eventually find the keys, and Emily's friends' mom brought her home, so everything worked out okay. I guess that was just the last straw. But after the tears, I got everything together and we had dinner and the kids did their homework and practicing, etc. We even did our scriptures and prayers and read some stories, so at least the evening didn't end in disaster.
Trevor called later, and said that his new boss, Jeff, had taken him out to dinner and the movie, King Kong, and had had a really fun time. He was excited about working on the store's website, and really happy to be working for such nice people.
I think he's really thrilled with the new job, which is great news. I'm anxious to just get moved now--two weeks from today we'll be in the new house.

Emily

This morning as the kids were getting ready for school, I looked at Emily--she was wearing a pretty new pink shirt with her black pants and her hair cute from her new haircut---and I was suddenly just amazed with how beautiful and grown-up she is! How does this happen? It seems like just yesterday that she was sitting in my lap like Ginny is right now. Ginny looks so much like her sister did at the same age that I'm having lots of nostalgic moments. Speaking of Ginny...she's like her sister in other ways, too. Absolutely every time we get in the car, no matter how cold it is, she takes her shoes and socks off! It is just making me crazy! Especially because after she pulls her shoes off she starts to cry about having cold toes. What a varmint!
Ginny is a cutie, though, and gives great hugs. Yesterday she and I had fun dancing in the living room.

New week

Well, Trevor is back in St. Louis, and so another week begins. 2 and 1/2 more weeks before the move. With Christmas coming, too, I have decided to begin packing in earnest this week. It's definitely time. We're having the house appraised on Wednesday. Sam is so funny--every day he comes up to me with a very sweet hug and a kiss and says, Merry Christmas Mom! The kids are definitely counting the days. Sam has also taken to dressing up like Santa Claus. It's pretty funny--he puts on his red fuzzy pajamas, his black harry potter robe, a black belt, santa hat, and paper beard. I took a picture, which I'll post later if I have a chance. Emily went back to school today--she's finally feeling better after being sick for 6 days. Poor kid was really miserable for awhile.
I've been finding all kinds of things while i pack--it's kind of fun to look through journals, scrapbooks, and pictures, etc. I read through some things from my mission, and it really brought back a lot of good memories.

Snow and Santa

We've had lots of snow this week--and the kids love it! It's also very, very cold all of a sudden, so the adults are having a hard time adjusting. I finally decided that I would have to quit wearing my slip on shoes with no socks when I found myself freezing in ankle deep snow scraping off the van. Yesterday I tood Sam and Ginny out into the snow to play for a little while. Ginny plopped right down into the snow and played like she was sitting in a sand pile. When Sam lay down to make a snow angel, she followed suit. Sam thought it was hilarious to go sliding down the slide on the swing wet and end up --poof! in a big pile of snow at the bottom. Unfortunately, the snow was too powdery to make a snowman.
Emily has been really, really sick this week--following Sam from last week. Sam finally got an antibiotic on Monday and has been doing a lot better since then. Of course, they wouldn't believe me that Emily had the same thing as her brother until her fever and terrible cough persisted for 4 days, so this morning I was finally able to get her some medicine. But, since she is a pretty big kid now, the doctor said it was really better for her to have the medicine in pill form. Well, we got home and had 20 minutes of tears and drama before she got her pills swallowed, but then she threw them back up again. I'm waiting to see what the doctor says we should do. What a disaster--we were both crying.
We took the kids to see Santa this morning at the scout Santa breakfast at church. Max asked for a multi-function pocket knife, Sam asked for a costume, and Ginny of course, didn't ask for anything, but she did sit on Santa's lap for a picture with her brothers. It was a very nice Santa experience--no crazy lines like at the mall--free breakfast, and lots of time to sit on Santa's lap and talk to him. This is a nice service/fundraiser that the scouts provide.
Trevor is home for the weekend--yippee! Only 3 more weeks until we move and we don't have to do this anymore. I'm doing okay so far--but praying daily for extra doses of patience.
Guess that's it for now!

inspections

Well--the last big humps in the house process have been crossed today. We had inspections on both houses, and signed papers with the lender. Everything seems to be in place. I haven't got the results from the inspection here--but I did hear the inspector tell the buyer that there was nothing major wrong with structure or major systems--so if there are any repairs, they will be minor. The buyer was taking pictures and measuring for curtains after the inspection--so I'll take that as a good sign. At the new house, there was a shingle loose--and the inspector said the furnace should be serviced, but that was all, and the seller will take care of those things. So...I think we're in good shape. I'll feel better after we get the official reports, but I'm not expecting anything too drastic. The buyer did say they really liked the house because it was in a great neighborhood and had been obviously taken care of so well, so that was a nice compliment.
Trevor left today--he called from the hotel--I guess there's a nice little kitchen in his room with a few dishes, etc., toaster, full-sized fridge, stove, microwave, etc. We went shopping at Walmart last night for some easy-to-fix, but fairly nutritious groceries for him to take down with him. I'm praying for extra patience to get through the next month without him. At least he'll come home on weekends! Now I need to really start packing!
We did put up our christmas tree and some of the nativity sets and santa claus collection, but not too much. Still, it looks festive. Sam has asked me several times today if it was Christmas yet. Hard for a kid to understand that it is still several weeks away. Ginny keep pulling all the ornaments off the tree and rearranging the nativity sets. She's fascinated.

Found a house!

We found a really great house in Pacific, MO. It wasn't even one of the houses on my list, but we knew when we saw it that it was just right. The only drawback is that it's a little further away from work and church than we were hoping to be--butthe houses that were closer and in our price range were just too small, or in need of major repairs. This house, though, has 4 bedrooms, a huge yard, a 2 car garage, and is only nine years old. The roof was is very good shape. The basement was beautifully finished, and it has main floor laundry and a much bigger kitchen. Also a screened porch, and a walk-out basement with patio. Perfect. We're really excited.
Yesterday morning I had fun watching Emily and Ginny before school. Ginny was sitting in Emily's lap, and they were laughing and giggling as Emily sang little songs and rhymes to her as she bounced her on her knee. Very satisfying.
Last night we put up christmas decorations for our first christmas family home evening of the year. We read a christmas story, sang carols, and decorated the tree. we put up some of our decorations, but not very many since we are moving. Still, the kids were excited to see the christmas things up. It really is a magical time of year.
At work, Trevor's co-workers gave him a going away party yesterday. He was quite touched. They had pizza and cake for lunch, and gave him a gift of a swiss pocket knife with flash drive attached. He thought that was really cool.
I guess that's it!
Both home inspections are tomorrow. I hope they'll go smoothly.

SOLD!!!

Yippee!! We're definitely doing a happy dance today! They accepted our offer of 122,900 and agreed to drop the contingency if we would buy a home warranty. Great! We feel so blessed to have sold so quickly. Now we can go to St. Louis next weekend and start looking for houses down there! We have been SO blessed by the Lord every step of the way in this move.
I feel like His blessings have been poured down so that there was not room enough to receive it--just like it says in the scriptures. I'm just feeling so grateful!

offer

We got an offer on our house yesterday, but it was quite low, so we're still negotiating. I'm really glad we got a realtor because I definitely do not have a very good poker face. I'm not patient enough, and frankly, I'm REALLY anxious to sell!
This has been a better week at home. I'm not as stressed out, and I've been able to spend more time with the kids. Only two weeks now, and Trevor will be leaving for St. Louis.

St. Louis

We went to St. Louis yesterday and saw the music store where Trevor will be working and drove through some different neighborhoods. The store owner was really nice It seemed like Trevor would get along well with the other people in the store. The area was really nice, but the housing is expensive. I hope we'll be able to find a house we can afford. Also, I'm worried about finding Trevor a place to stay. NOne of the apartments we visited would accept a short-term lease. Definitely a big city. Lots of traffic, and not as many parks, etc. as we have in Normal. I suppose we'll get used to living in the big city. I"m not sure about what I want to do there, either. Maybe I'll take some time off before teaching again.
It's a lot to think about. If only our house will sell...

For Sale

Our house is finally up on the market. We finished most things up this weekend and signed the papers on Monday afternoon. So far we've have 5 people come through, which the realtor says is a good sign, but we'll see if anyone is seriously interested. When someone calls to come through, you pretty much just have to pack everything up and head out. Last night we ran out while I was in the middle of making dinner, which I was too exhausted to finish when we got home at 8:00 so we had cold cereal for dinner.
I praying so hard for the house to sell quickly. That would be such a blessing! But maybe we'll have to be patient on this one. I'm trying not to panic yet--after all the house has only been on the market for a few days.
The kids have been pretty good sports. Max and Emily are helping me to keep things clean, and Sam and Ginny have been fairly cheerful about spending lots of time at friends' houses so I can work on the house.
Once again, I have been blessed with many good friends who have helped me with cleaning, watching kids, laundry, and even dinner one night. It makes me sad to leave all these people we love.
We're going to St. Louis this weekend. We'll be trying to find Trevor a place to stay while we are in transition.
I think that will help us get more excited about things on the other end.

Ginny's Birthday

Happy Birthday Ginny!
Oh somebody has a birthday,
this dear little Ginny here
May Father in Heaven bless her
Through all the coming year.
Happy Birthday. Happy Birthday
May all that you wish come true.
Happy Birthday. Happy Birthday.
We're wishing dear Ginny for you.

We had just a small party for ginny at home with the family. We got take-out dinner from QDoba and McDonalds and had a birthday chocolate cream pie. She worked pretty hard at blowing out her candles! Then we gave her two new toys for presents. A fun hammer and ball game, and a unique little building set. We all played with the toys for awhile and had a lot of fun. Ginny kept saying "Toys! Toys!" Her brothers and sister were having so much fun with the new things that Ginny could hardly get a turn!
She's such a cutie, and we're so glad to have her in our family.

The rest of the day was spent painting, cleaning, taking stuff to Goodwill, trips to Menards, etc. I'm so exhausted from working so much every day to get the house ready to put on the market. It's so much work! And it doesn't help that we are already burned out from the roof.

Moving!

Well, it's official. We're moving. I think I'm getting excited, although I definitely have mixed feelings about the whole thing. I just love so many things about living in Bloomington/Normal--it will be so hard to leave! I am so attached to our ward family. So many good friends. So many people have been so kind to us during the seven years we have lived here. It's hard to live so far away from our famlies, but our ward has really become our family. On Sunday during church, I was so sad thinking about leaving all of these people that we love so much. It's hard for the kids to leave their friends--and the things that are so familiar--Oakdale school, our neighborhood, dance, preschool, Tae Kwon Do, etc. I have such a good situation with my music classes and lessons here--and it will take me time to work out things in my own career in a new area. I'll particularly miss the fun children's music classes that I teach at Parks and Rec. I've really got a good situation there--I don't know if I'll ever be able to find something as good again. I guess we'll see. To say nothing about leaving our cute house! I love this house! I've had two sweet babies here--and we've really worked hard to make this place cute--lots of painting, repairs, putting in new flooring, the ROOF! remodeling bathrooms, etc. I'm very attached to the house, and now we have to get it up for sale right away. I'm very stressed out thinking about all things I have to do immediately in order to get the house on the market as soon as possible. Trevor has agreed to start on December 1st. The plan is for Trevor to go to St. Louis then, but I'll stay here with the kids until the house sells. It will be hard, so I hope the house will sell quickly.
I have all these worries, but Trevor is really, really excited. The job will be interesting and challenging for him--combining instrument repair with computer work. A nice change--and a little higher pay as well. I really do feel good about it. I fell like Heavenly Father has blessed our family in so many ways recently. I'm just going to have to take things one day at a time during this stressful transitional time.

roof!

Well, it's done. Mostly anyway. We ran out of the ridge pieces that go at the very top , so we had to cover the last 8 feet with a tarp until we can get some more. But we finished at 9:00 p.m. and it started to rain around midnight. Last night my muscles were aching so badly that I could barely move. I took some ibuprofen and Trevor gave me a back rub, and I do feel a little better this morning. It was SO much work, but I will say that it is empowering to think that we could accomplish something like that.
We prayed before we started for Heavenly Father to bless us that we would be able to do the work in safety and that we would do it correctly, and we hAD SO many blessings throughout the week. The greatest blessing was that of our friends who helped us. The Lowe family spent 3 whole days up there helping us shovel shingles, and Chad helped Trevor to know how to do things correctly. Julie W. watched my kids for days on end, even when Ginny was sick, bless her heart. Her husband, Dave spent many hours on the roof with us, including in the crunch time last night when Trevor had to go to work, and the roof had to be done because of the impending rain. The Lowe family's neighbor, Nick, brought over some tools to help us, and then ended up staying for several hours to help us do things correctly. (He is a contractor by profession.) Then, on Monday, when it started to rain, he came back over with a friend to help us quickly get the tar paper up. On Saturday we had many, many people from the ward come over to help us for a few hours, and last night, just when we really needed it, Chris A. from the civil war band came over to help us finish up. My step-cousin Genny came over in a crunch time to watch the kids, and my new friend Wendy took the kids one day as well. It just seems like every time we had a crisis, someone would show up to help. I am just so grateful for so much service to be shared with our family. I know the Lord truly watches out for us, and has blessed us through these friends. I feel like the promise of the Lord about tithing has been truly fulfilled, where he promises that he will pour out a blessing and there will not be room enough to receive it. I'm just so grateful, to all of these sweet people, and to the Lord.

Now that it's raining, I guess we'll find out if we did it correctly! I think we did pretty well. I'm so glad we had some people who really know what they are doing to help us.
Max liked getting up on the roof. He helped pick up shingles and helped get toos, etc. He wanted to use the power tools, but of course we didn't think that was a very good idea. Emily helped on the roof some as well, and she helped watch her brothers and sisters and made dinner, etc. inside the house. We let Sam come up a couple of times just to see the view. That kid has no fear. It was definitely a family project.
Well, the book club is coming over here tonight, so I guess I better get to work cleaning up inside, now!

Civil War re-enactment

We just got back from a very lovely weekend in Princeton, IL where we attended a reenactment called Shadows of the Blue and Grey. It was very cold the first day, but pleasant today. The boys were especially excited to attend. Max brought his own money to purchase a confederate hat, so he can pretend to be a soldier from both sides of the conflict, depending on his mood. We all dressed up—which is fun. Emily has grown quite a bit. I’m not sure her dress will make it through another season. Trevor’s band played concerts throughout the day, so we listened, and walked through the camps. They had a scavenger hunt for kids to find things from the period, so we talked to all the reenactors and learned some new things. The kids were also thrilled that the hotel had a pool.
This weekend, Sam noticed the Abraham Lincoln re-enactor. He was absolutely fascinated, and said, “It’s really him, see his beard!” I explained that it was a man pretending to be Abraham Lincoln because Abraham Lincoln lived a long time ago but we wanted to remember the important things he did. Sam said, “Is he dead?” In confirmed that, yes, Abraham Lincoln died a long time ago. So then the next day, when Sam saw the same re-enactor in the camp parade, Sam turned to me very seriously and said, “Mom, I told you that Abraham Lincoln was NOT DEAD!” I attempted to explain again, but am not certain that the idea was understood.W

This and that

We're getting ready to do our roof. I got the building permit yesterday, so I guess we're committed. Sister Ruch is going to help us with ordering the materials through her contracting business, which will save us some money. I checked out some books from the library, so we could study up on how to do it. Yikes! I'm afraid we're getting in over our heads (literally), but I guess we'll just go for it and hope for the best! We'll have to have it inspected by the city when we're done, too, so I hope we'll do it right!
My classes started this week--I have two good-sized classes on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. Nice kids and fairly participatory parents. Should be a good session.
I don't know why, but I just don't seem to be able to stick to my diet these days. I need to quit having "just one more treat" and get back to getting up early in the morning to exercise. I don't want to gain back all that I lost last year.
This weekend we're going to Princeton for a re-enactment. The kids can't wait. Max especially. Tomorrow the kids are out of school, so I think we are going to go to Funks grove to wander the nature trails and play at the nature center. Should be nice weather.
I had a really nice birthday on Tuesday. The kids brought me breakfast in bed, and Trevor had made me a card which he left on my dresser for me to find first thing in the morning. There was a package in the mail from Tutu and Papasan, and a card from a friend. Wendy came by later with a birthday card and a chocolate treat, my dad and nancy called to sing to me, and we made my favorite Hawaiian ice cream for dessert. Very nice birthday. 35! Yikes!

conference

General Conference was really good this weekend. There were lots of messages about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith. Especially Pres. Hinckleys challenge to read the Book of Mormon by the end of the year. I've been working on that, but am behind. I'll try to catch up though.
We're getting ready to do our roof next week. Yikes! I'm nervous about it, because we really don't have a clue what we are doing. I guess we'll figure it out!
Trevor has a job interview in St. Louis this week. I don't know what I think about that, either.

snowflakes

Sam's breakfast request the other day was for "Sugar snowflakes". I surmised he meant frosted cornflakes. Too cute!

ginny talking

So Ginny is finally talking. Which is great, and really darling, except now we're discovering how demanding she is! Cup! Cup! Juice Juice! Bubbles (candy) Pease (please) ! Swimsuit! (She has decided she doesn't want to wear clothes, just swimsuits.) No!
She's singing a few more songs--head shoulders knees and toes, jump little froggy, and the Say BOO song from veggie tales.
She has also learned how to say Sam's name, and Emily's name. We're still learning on getting her to say Max's name.
Also, she likes to color in little notebooks, then she'll proudly hold up her picture and say, "See!" In fact anytime she has done something she is proud of she says, "See!" It's really cute!

happy moments

I was talking with a friend about happiness, and how since that is the goal of our existence, why is it that I always feel more stressed out or worried than happy. The scriptures say that man is that we might have joy. They also say that keeping the commandments brings us joy. Now, I think I do a pretty good job of keeping the commandments and living the gospel--not perfect, but I do try pretty hard. So, I got thinking about the first commandment, to love the Lord with all my might, mind, and strength, and I think that I need to work on letting go of all of the busyness and stress of the world, and re-focus on spiritual things, taking care of my relationship with God and family. Also, my friend said that she thought it was important to take a few minutes to recognize our happy moments. So here goes--my top ten, recent happy moments.

1. Sam giving me a huge hug and saying, "I have the best mommy in the whole world!"
2. Talking to Max on the phone, and hearing him tell me all the details about how he had earned his Tae Kwon Do belt (camo). He was so proud and happy--and knew that he had worked hard for a goal and accomplished it.
3. Putting Ginny to bed, and have her snuggle her head on my shoulder as I sang to her.
4. Emily's happy chatter, telling me about her stories and computer game as I wash dishes.
5. Visiting my sisters in Provo--holding Nancy's sweet baby, and hugs and kisses from my nieces and nephew.
6. Coming home from my trip, to the hugs and kisses of my own kids. And, finding the house clean and an apple pie!
7. A nice conversation with Trevor, discussing the books we were both reading--about Joseph Smith and Abraham Lincoln
8. Attending the RS session of conference, and discussing the principles afterward with a friend.
9. Playing the piano--I was practicing a lot to play for a wedding. But it was really fun to spend a lot of time at the piano.
10. Playing games with the kids--lite bright, puzzles, and coloring with Sam and Ginny--reading with Max, uno and upwords with Emily.

back from Utah

Just got home last night at about 10:00 p.m. I had a really fun time visiting Nancy and her kids. It was really fun to be there at the same time as Sandi, too. Nice to spoil my nieces and nephews--and her little baby Lance is such a snuggly little darling. He is is so TINY! I mostly played with her kids, helped with cooking and dishes, held Lance, and canned peaches. Anna and Leah really liked the liitle skirts I had made for them and their dolls. And Nancy and Sandi really liked the sweet picture of mom that I had blown up and framed for them. I wish I lived closer to both of my sisters. When I got home last night, the power was out, and it wasn't fixed until about 2:00 this morning. So we lit a whole bunch of candles and slept all together on the living room floor. I was really happy to see Trevor and the kids. The house was pretty clean, and they had made me an apple pie! It was a nice homecoming.
Too bad everybody was so crabby this morning. Back to real life! Everybody was just tired from the late night.

photos

Sam's cowboy outfit, pirate hats, etc.

Here is the cowboy costume that I sewed for Sam's birthday. Also, Sam and Ginny had fun with newspaper pirate hats one day. Tutu and Papasan sent the cute robin costume for his birthday. They love to dress up!

photos of kids

these are some recent pictures of the kids. Dressed up for church, etc.

picture of me and my sister

I've been working with some old photos, etc. Here's one of Nancy and me right after we moved to Utah in 1976. I'm about 6 and Nancy would be 3 or 4.

busy week

It's been a busy week--although not with my usual things. I was able to have some good visiting teaching visits. I also visited Suzanne M. who used to be one of the sisters I visit taught. She had a stroke awhile back and is not doing very well. Today I'm going to Peoria to visit Julie O. at the hospital. She's expecting triplets and is stuck in the hospital until their arrival--still many weeks away. It's actually been nice to not be so busy with my classes etc that I actually have time to do some of these other things. Yesterday was mado's birthday--so I baked some pumpkin bread and took it over to surprise her. I think she was pleased. Trevor and I have decided to go ahead and try to sponsor her sister and her fiance to come to the United States. I don't know if they'll approve it, because it's not like we have the greatest financial resources, but we can at least try.
So, I'm trying to get the paperwork done for that.
There was a terrible Hurricane (Katrina) in New Orleans--much of the city is under 20 feet of water! Oil reserves are affected, so the gas prices now are appalling! over $3.00 per gallon! Trevor rode his bike to work today, and I even used bikes last night to return videos and take Mado her birthday treat. Max came with me on the bike ride and did really well. Sam rode behind in the bike trailer.
Emily had her friends over after school yesterday for a book club. Reminds me of the book club I had with my friends when I was about her age. She's a lot like me. They talked about books, ate oreo cookies, and then jumped on the trampoline. Emily's always got grand ideas.
Ginny is talking so much!
New phrases--"Here it is!" "Come in!" "I want some." "Cup please." She's become a little parrot--echoing what everybody says. It's funny how kids start talking just all of a sudden. She also looks more grown up because her hair is getting longer and we can put it in pony tails, etc. She also loves to put on "make-up" when mommy gets ready in the morning. Girls are so different than boys!

Shoe Fetish, first writing, and tithing

Ginny has a real fascination with shoes recently. She wants to wear hers all the time, and come up holding them in her hand saying, "shoes!" I think she knows that when we put her shoes on her it usually means we are going somewhere. The other day she decided that we ALL needed to wear our shoes. So, she kept bringing me different pairs of shoes to put on, and when Trevor tried to take his shoes off she shrieked! Then later when I lay down on the couch for a bit I kicked my shoes off and she spent about 20 minutes trying to slide my birkenstocks onto my feet, which kept slipping off. Finally she got distracted by a bandaid on my toe, and gave up on putting on the shoes. Too funny!
Also, Sam has taken a sudden interest in writing and a little bit of letter recognition. He hasn't shown much interest at all up until this point, and so I haven't done much with him, but this week he sat down and made a puppet with 2 little eyes, nose, mouth, and hair. Pretty good! So we sat down together to make a birthday card for his cousin, and he drew some little balloons, and then I asked him to try to write his name, and he actually did pretty well! The S was backward, but he managed to get a pretty legible A and M. And then later we were reading a book with Max and he recognized the letters we had practiced together. He starts preschool in a couple of weeks.
Yesterday Max took his tithing money to church--to pay on the money he had earned from the garage sale. All week long he kept saying that he didn't want to pay his tithing because he wouldn't have very much money left, but we talked about it a lot--what Heavenly Father does with the tithing money, how we pay our tithing to help people and be obedient, show our faith, etc. Well, anyway, right before church without my asking him he went and got $1.30 out of his wallet, and brought it to me to pay his tithing. Then, Trevor helped him fill out a donation form at church, and he took his money up to the bishop before the meeting started. The great part came later after church, though. He came up to me as I was making dinner and said "Mom, I really felt the Holy Ghost when I paid my tithing." A happy moment for my mother's heart!

First day of school!

First day of school! We are ready for a more structured routine, I think. I got up and went walking with Colette this morning at 6:00 and when I got home at 7:00 Max, Emily and Trevor were all up and getting ready. It was nice because everyone was ready early, and we were able to have family prayer together before everybody left for school and work. I walked to school with the kids to help them find their teachers and classrooms, but it turned out that they had the kids find their teachers and line up on the playground behind the school. I did go in later to just see where their classrooms were, and sam and Ginny played on the new playground equipment. Both kids did have some friends in their classes, so that's a good thing for helping them make the transition.
This is Emily's last year in elementary school! Unbelievable!
And Max is already in 2nd grade. They grow up too fast!

8/20

Two more days and school starts. I'm a little sad, actually. I'm really going to miss having Emily and Max at home. Ginny and Sam love having the older kids home to play with. Emily is a big help to me. Things will be a little quieter, which will be nice in a way, but I'm going to miss the kids. Emily and I had so much fun on Saturday when we went to Chicago with her friend Amy and Amy's mom. We packed a lunch and went to the American Girl store, where we were absolutely in little girl heaven. The girls had a hard time deciding how to spend their money! It was a little overwhelming, but loads of fun! We went to the American girl broadway-style show, which was darling--good singing and a nice story about a group of friends who act out stories from the American girl books. I know Emily and Amy really loved it. Emily bought the Josefina doll, which she has been saving for for a long time. And she bought Josefina's weaving outfit. Now her doll Felicity and Josefina can dress like each other. And, this morning Emily came upstairs dressed Josefina/style herself, and wanted me to braid her hair like her doll. She looked pretty in the skirt that we made together last week, a white blouse and rebozo from one of her scarves.
Last night when I was singing to Max as we put him to bed, he said to me, "Mommy, I want to tuck you in bed tonight and read you a story, so come and wake me up when you are ready to go to bed. " Cute!

Birthday boy

WEll, today was a really busy day. WE got up early to get ready for a garage sale. The kids worked hard, both in cleaning, setting up, and managing the sale. I was proud of Emily and Max for working so hard. Max was quite the lemonade salesman. Emily did great making change and helping people find things. They didn't make a ton of money--about $12 each, but that's quite a bit of money for a kid. So I think it was a success.
then, we had a birthday party for Sam. It kind of stressed me out to get ready for it--cleaning up, preparing games, making cake etc. but it was worth it because SAm had a lot of fun. As he helped me make the cake, put up balloons etc. I could see that he was really pleased that all of this attention was for him. I had made capes and super hero masks for all the little boys, and we played super-hero games. Saving the world and all that. I think they all had fun. But now I'm completely exhausted.
Whew!

family photos

Okay, so I'm going a little nuts on these family photos--but I just thought this was a good place to have some pictures of all the people we love so much.

The "Fonnesbeck/Gardner family" (Nana's clan) summer 2004 at a picnic in Provo canyon. Aunt Judy, Rob, Sheri, Nancy, Karen, and kids, Heidi, Marilyn, Sam, Trevor--kids
Cousins in the Ellis backyared--Max, Anna, Leah, and Sam--Aunt Sandi with cute Great granddad Ellis
Grandma Carol with baby Ginny summer 2004. Ginny was about 9 months old. About 5 months before Carol passed away.

Papa and Grandma Ann with Trevor and kids at the beach in Oregon. Mo's chowder. Yum! Tide pools and sand castles, and sticking our toes in the ocean. Lots of fun!

family photos

Cousings Roman and Malcom with the kids, Grandma DeJean and Uncle Blake and Aunt Sydney. summer vacation 2004. Ellis family at Miller park zoo. summer 2004. Aunt Nancy, Papa, Leah, Adam, Sam Anna Max, Grandma Ann, Emily