President's Day Cake

Yesterday was President's Day, so the kids were out of school. After a little morning clean-up, we packed up and went to the science museum. It was about a 45 minute drive from our house-not too bad. Max and Sam loved the life-sized models of the Tyrannosaurus Rex and Triceratops, but Ginny held onto my neck like her life depended on it. Poor kid! Our museum pass got us in free to the Discovery room, which had a lot of fun things to play with.
We came home and ate beef stew from the crockpot, which I had actually had presence of mind to start in the morning. Then after dinner Max and Sam helped me to make Nana's recipe for George Washington Cherry cake. The legend about Washington and the cherry tree may or may not be true, but the cake sure is good! Nancy and I remembered last week that she used to make that cake for president's day each year, and we decided to keep up the tradition. The best part is the homemade cherry/almond sauce that goes on top--with whipped cream of course! Yum!
After FHE and the kids were in bed, Trevor and I watched the ice dancing from the Olympics. I love the skating. Can't wait for the women's skating that starts tonight. I've always loved the Olympics.
It's been freezing cold the past few days! What a shock after we had 70 degree temperatures early last week! WE even bought a space heater because our furnace doesn't seem to be keeping up.
Trevor helped me hang up our pictures this weekend, so now I feel more "moved in". It's fun to see our family pictures, etc. again after they had been packed away for so many months.
I guess that's it for now!

remote generation

You can tell that Sam has grown up in a generation of remote controls. He thinks you can just "pause" anything! When we're reading a book, he'll say, "Pause the book mom!" this morning we were walking down the the stairs together and he said, "Pause this, mom, I need to get something." It's funny--I feel like we should all freeze so we can truly be "paused." It would be nice to have a giant remote control that would pause life when we needed a breather, wouldn't it?

Snow!

After a very spring-like January, it is snowing today! It's really beautiful. The kids can hardly wait to go outside and play.
We had so much fun at our preschool on Monday. Br. Daniel taught the kids about trees, and then showed them how to identify the trees in the yard, and then they got to tap the maple trees for sap. It was great! Next week the preschool will be at my house. I think we'll do something for Valentines day.

New calling

Yesterday at church they asked me to be the activity day leader. I"m really excited about it. Emily even thought it would be nice to have me as her leader, which made me feel good, since you never know with kids this age. Should be a lot of fun!
Also, the kids did great at their basketball games on Saturday! Max scored 8 points and it was only his 2nd game! Emily came to life and scored 10 points! She was really working together with her teammates, and having fun. She even stole the ball and scored on a fast break once! Good for her.
Trevor and I finished painting our living room/kitchen at about 1:00 a.m. sunday morning. Thank heavens. OUr bedroom is next, but it might be awhile.
I helped Emily sew a poodle skirt for her class Valentine party next Tuesday. It turned out really cute. She did a lot of the sewing and most of the cutting.
I've been having the kids practice the piano in the morning--their motivation being that if they practice in the morning, they don't have to ride the bus. It's been going better and making our evenings much less stressful. Both kids are now making progress in both piano and flute/trumpet.
Guess that's it for now.
Oh yeah, on Friday night Emily was supposed to sweep the floor after dinner and was not liking the prospect very much. She was whining and complaining, but I knew she was really serious when she said, "Mom, can't you just get it over with and ground me, and then you can sweep the floor?" I laughed, but she still swept the floor.
too funny.

this and that

Sam and Ginny are so funny playing dragon, princess, knight together. They say, "Dragon!" and run brandishing their swords, ready to fight the dragon. It's pretty funny to watch Ginny run in her little dance costume and SAm in his pajams with red cape and plastic knight helmet.
There's a good possibility that I'll be able to teach classes with Eureka Parks and REc. I had a really good meeting with them yesterday.
We've started painting, and I really love how it is coming out. It's so cheerful!
Who would've thought I'd ever paint my kitchen orange! But I love it. (It's really "dusted carrot".)
Our little preschool started this week and Kara Daniel's house. She did a darling lesson on shapes and I taught them some songs. It's going to be a lot of fun to do this each week.
Not too thrilled with Max's school teacher. I'm biting my tongue for the moment, but I did talk to the principal and I'm hoping things will improve.

trevor's trip

We picked up Trevor from the airport yesterday. He had a really nice visit with his family in Utah. I guess he sang at Grandpa Grant's funeral, and stayed with Grandma Gladys for about 4 hours the next day. She gave him one of Grandpa Grant's pocket knives, which he appreciated as a nice remembrance. Trevor was also able to spend some nice time with his brother and was there for Papasan's birthday party, so I think it was a nice weekend for him.
We had dinner last night with the Daniel family. They are very nice. Kara Daniel and I are going to start a home preschool for the kids next Monday morning. Should be fun!
I don't want to go back to work! I'm in denial about it. I know that realistically for our budget I should start teaching soon, but I am just loving the more relaxed family time. I feel like a much better mother--able to help the kids with chores, responsiblities, have their friends over to play, spend more time reading to them and playing games, sit down with Ginny to have some "learning" times, music classes, etc. Our house is better in order, too. The after school time is so much more relaxed. I guess I'm hoping for a miracle so I won't have to go back to work.

Halloween Pictures

I never wrote about Halloween--but they had the usual sugar high. It rained cats and dogs the day of Haloween, so we trick-or-treated at the mall, but then the older kids braved the neighborhood later in the evening.

Photos of Guthrie family

Here are some more cute pictures of my trip to Provo in September. What a sweet little baby Lance is! I sure had fun with her other kids, too. And I had to document the peaches!

Tracy's birthday

We had a little birthday party one evening for Tracy. Her first birthday! Her papa was here from Belgium, so we were able to meet Pascale for the first time. Mado and Tracy have become good friends. We miss them now that we are in Missouri. Gros Bisous, Tracy!

Random photos of kids

More Christmas photos

Christmas Photos

Christmas pictures. It was a fun Christmas despite being in the middle of a move. It was extra nice to open Santa presents in the morning, then have a family meeting where we read the christmas story and some stories from the friend, and then went to church. It was very quiet and worshipful. Then we came home and opened presents, and played with new toys. Lovely day.

Grandpa Grant--kids afternoon

Martin Luther King DAy so the kids were out of school. We did one of our Christmas crafts==made our own bouncy rubber balls--very colorful and fun. The kids spent the afternoon practicing a dance show and then dressed up in black and white costumes to perform. It was cute--fun to see them all playing together so nicely.
But, today was also a sad day. Trevor's dad called to say that Grandpa Grant passed away this morning. He had been in a lot of pain, so it's a blessing in a way. But I know Grandma Gladys is really having a tough time. Trevor is going to fly out on Thursday afteroon for the funeral.

Sunday

Last night I took Max to a stake baptism fireside for children who will be baptized this year. It was really very nice. The children went to different stations and learned about the Holy Ghost, what it's like to have a bishop's interview, they got to see the baptismal font, and then heard some special stories about baptism and the Holy Ghost. They gave each family some materials for some family home evenings about baptism and the holy ghost. This stake has stake baptism days--and it looks like the one for Max will be May 6th. I guess the church is doing these stake baptisms to simplify. I'll miss the nice personal family/ward baptism that we had for Emily but I can understand about wanting to simplify the demands on priesthood leaders and their families. I asked max afterward if he would like to give a family home evening tomorrow night on the things he learned at the fireside. He thought that sounded like a good idea.
One other funny thing about Max. He got it into his head that he wanted to go to work with Trevor today since there isn't any school for Martin Luther King day. Anyway, we explained that it isn't possible for him to go to work at Daddy's new job, but Max being the tenacious fellow that he is, left a note for us on my pillow. It said, "Dear Mom, I really, really, really want to go to work with Dad so it's either give me $30 or let DAd take me." Didn't work, but it was a nice try.

Sunny day!

Honestly, I can't even believe that it is January. It was over 60 degrees again today, and we played outside this morning and then took a walk around the neighborhood. This afternoon we walked to the bus stop to pick up Emily and Max and then played outside again for a little while. Max was finally able to start school today. His teacher, Mrs. Carter, seemed nice, and he made friends with a girl named Claire. Quite the little ladies man. Max is pretty easy-going about most things and makes adjustments pretty well. Now that the kids are finally getting over their sicknesses, it's me who is getting sick. I've got a sore throat and cough starting. Ick!
Today was actually a really nice day. It was nice to be back to "normal"--just Sam and Ginny at home--and since I've made a lot of progress in the unpacking and work of making the transition--we were able to read books, play outside, do laundry, and then while they watched a movie in the afternoon, I unpacked the toy room. They thought it was fun to rediscover all of their toys--especially the new ones from Christmas that they didn't have much chance to play with before they got packed up.
It was a nice day for Sam and Ginny, too. I could tell they were glad to get more attention from me again.