New Years Eve 08

I'm playing a little catch up. It is February after all and I suppose I should finish up my posts from New Years since it was so much fun.

So let me take you back to the late night of December 30/ early morning of December 31. My mom, dad, my 2 sisters, 1 brother in law (the other couldn't make it unfortunately), 2 nephews and 2 nieces caravaned across Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York to reach our home. They had a treacherous drive once they came around Lake Erie and hit lake effect snow in the wee hours of the morning. I was up of course, getting everyone's beds ready. Sunny and Derek and Hyrum in the boys room, Holly and Jaleigh in Jillie's room, my parents in Reagan's room with a new queen sized bed that had been delivered that morning. The rest of the kids would sleep in the basement. By the time they arrived everything was ready, and they were ready to finally rest. I stood in the hallway after everyone was tucked into their respective rooms and I just felt so pleased that we could fit them all, that they were all here, and that we were all together.

The kids were up early, but we had a slow start to the day. In the afternoon I started Thanksgiving Dinner Part 2. Jillie's favorite meal is Thanksgiving dinner and sadly she could eat very little of it on the actual Thanksgiving Day due to the orthodontic expander she had in her mouth. We pressured the orthodontist to take it out Christmas Eve morning, but I had yet to make good on my promise of another turkey dinner.

After dinner we took the kids over to the church to fulfill our cleaning assignment and play.

Some basketball for the bigs...

Some baseball for the middles...

Some running laps for the littles...

Some mommy time for the littlest...

Some tricks from the littlest of the oldest...

We returned home, but the party was still going strong. It was New Year's Eve after all! Not-so-legal-Fireworks were lit, games were played, candy was eaten,and party crackers were cracked...

Then we counted down with New Years Rockin' Eve and cheered, blew horns and bubbles, threw confetti, and drank some bubbly sparkling juices.

It was a great start to the new year!

JERKY Fair 1-1-09

New Years Day got off to a slow start (not for the kids though of course).

We had a second try at a cousins photo shoot. I think Holly got much better results this time... though it wasn't perfect I'm sure, but what can you expect with 8 kids, 12 and under?

We struggled to come up with something to do. Anything we had considered doing was closed for the day. We ended up going to the movies- together- kind of. We had 3 groups in 3 different movies at about the same time. I went with most of the kids and my parents to see Bedtime Stories. I made many many trips with kids to the bathrooms and for refills in popcorn and water. Good thing I'd already seen it. Sunny, Holly and Jillie went to see Twilight. Derek and Hyrum went to Bolt. (Greg stayed home and watched college football.)

The kids had been very busy planning and advertising an activity for the whole family for that evening.

These signs were plastered ALL over the house.

The entire event was planned without a stitch of adult input. We were pretty much in the dark about what was going to happen. The fair began with a quiz for Derek only. (I think he wins the award for favorite adult in the family.) They quizzed him mostly on Wii games trivia and even a name that tune segment- identify which game this song is from... He did amazingly well.

The rest of us got to sit back and cheer him on.

The event continued with a coloring contest, Whack-a-Mole tournament, a bean bag toss game, Pin the Nose on the Snowman, snack bar, dancing party, some dress up

and even a visit from Santa! Check out Ethan 's outfit. Red shirt and pants, a Santa hat with a birthday hat under it so it stands up, and a beard made of tissue paper and tape. The littles really got a kick out of it and really felt like Santa had arrived!

The evening ended with a concert by Reagan on the cello

... and a performance from the bigs who were our event organizers.

blah

I've been hit by the blahs of January/February winter.

Cold, gray days. Nothing real pressing going on. Mixing up my days and nights. Not at all motivated. Part of my sleepiness is probably due to Jackson getting up almost every night this year so far. About 2 am he barges in (yes, there is a dent in the wall behind my bedroom door because of the way he bursts into the room). Sometimes I was already asleep. Sometimes it was my reminder that I needed to go to sleep.

He takes me back to his bed, pulls me down to lay down next to him, wraps both arms around my neck and holds me very tight until I give up and fall asleep. Can't get too upset about being loved and needed that much I suppose. :)

 

(Speaking of Jackson and gray days... We've been pretty sunny this week.  Whenever Jackson is near a window or in the car he starts screaming in pain, "my eyes hurt!!" or "turn it off!!".  That's how gray we've been. )

Things are kind of slow these days compared to the rush and busy- ness of the holidays. In the days and weeks ahead things will be picking up around here. We have lots of exciting things on the horizon and the calendar is filling up fast. Disney World, taking the girls to David Archuletta, Kobe's 8th birthday and baptism, school musical performances, Greg's 40th birthday (that's a big one and I'm totally blank as to what to do for/ get for his birthday!!), a vacation for just the two of us, and on, and on, and on... Stay tuned. :)

So this post is a bit of a blogging warm up for me. I need to get back in it because there's going to be a lot to record soon. For now though I intend to play a little catch up and finish up some posts hanging around in my "edit posts" about our New Years festivities with my family visiting. Wish me luck. :)

Happy February

The month of love c/o Jason Mraz.

"Lucky" Official Video With Colbie Caillat


"I'm Yours" Official Video

just one word

I've thought and thought about this for weeks now. I've been trying to decide what my word for 2009 will be. The word that encompasses my goal for the new year. The word that helps me to focus on the places in my life where I would like to make some  progress.

In 2008 my word was remember. Looking back it was a good word for my first year of blogging. I tried to keep up with this blog as a record of our family to help us to remember. I tried to record some of my memories that may have not been previously recorded. I did well, and I will continue with this as it has become habit for me now.

After much consideration I've settled on my new word for 2009-

  Perspective

I've tried it on for size for a little while and it seems to fit well. When I think of perspective the first thing that comes to mind is eternal perspective. I feel that as I focus on eternal things and put more priority on my own spiritual growth (personal prayers, scripture study, etc...) that the other things will fall into place much more easily... parenting, church callings, weight control, household chores, general simplifying...

I will apply perspective to my parenting.  This has already come in handy during some frustrating parenting moments. It helps me to be a little more patient. Helps me to think on a grand scale of the eternities and what is most important.... choosing my battles.  Sometimes I need to be less strict and sometimes I need to be more strict.  I will spend less time barking orders and dispensing punishments and more time listening, understanding, setting expectations, and looking for the positive.  

It's hard for me to find the right words to explain all of the ways perspective  can make a difference in my life, but I know what I mean. :) Looking at the big picture, the eternal perspective, seeing situations in a new way than I have looked at them before... This is what a strive for this year as I focus on just one word: perspective.

Habachi!

Our friends Nick and Angie B. invited our family to join theirs for dinner at a new restaurant in town and I am SO glad they did. We went to a Japanese restaurant called Fuji Grill. Oh my YUM! and oh my FUN! This was a new experience for our family.

It's always fun to hang out with Nick, Angie, and Olivia. We decided that it was Olivia and Jackson's first date. ;) Olivia likes to say that she's going to marry Jackson and they hug and kiss each other every time they are together. It's really too cute. :) Unfortunately I did not have my camera with me, so I had to use my phone camera to get some pretty worthless, bad, fuzzy pictures. Angie was smart enough to have hers. I should try to get some from her.

(Jackson is the blur next to fuzzy Olivia.)

Our family ordered Hibachi meals: chicken (Reag, Jackson & I), steak, (Greg & Kobe) and filet mignon (Jillie) with grilled veggies, fried rice, miso soup, and salad. It was so fun to have our food cooked right there in front of us. (Although now that I know how much oil, butter, and eggs they use, I should probably never eat it again.) It was especially funny to watch Nick, Greg, and Kobe trying to catch pieces of food in their mouths that our chef tossed at them. :) Jackson found the whole thing a little frightening, especially every time there was a burst of flames on the grill. The rest of us enjoyed the show and the food.

We found it such a neat experience it will definitely be a place to go again with friends and family! Thanks for the great night guys!

"Hollywood Day"

"Hollywood Day" at school today.

Here are Reagan's and Kobe's interpretation:

A new look

This morning this got a new look... Read all about it here.

History Unfolds

Today I sat at the TV

snapping pictures as if I was actually there. :)

Another inauguration. This one is more historically significant that most. Our country has it's first Black president! The peaceful transfer of power is one we may take for granted here in the USA. I found myself feeling quite patriotic and excited today while the ceremony took place. While I may not be too excited about President Barack Obama's political views, I am hopeful that he will be successful, that WE will be successful. I do not wish him to fail. After seeing the excitement and hope and positive attitudes of Americans today, I think changes will happen- and not necessarily because of Obama's actions as president- but because of the belief of the people that everything's going to be just fine now. We may restart the economy all on our own with all this happiness going on. :)

A positive attitude is going to go along way for our country. I have been so frustrated with the negative talk about President Bush. I am proud to have had him as our president. For heaven's sake, 9/11 happened less than a 9 months into his presidency! Unless your name is Rosie O'Donnell, you don't blame him for that. I remember how patriotic our country felt then. I remember how much we stood behind President Bush and supported him. Then when things got messy, as war does, people turned their backs on him. I really don't get into politics, but I don't know many who would know exactly what to do with this new threat of terrorism. Hind sight is 20/20. There may have been some things he would've done differently looking back now. I honestly believe he did what he felt was best for the country... and he has kept us safe all these years. I appreciate his service. Who would ask for this difficult of a job? Not me. That is why I can support President Obama now too. The hardest job in the entire world. All I can do is be proud to live in a democracy and pray that all of our leaders make the right choices. I'll miss the Bush's- and hope that history will redeem him.
I stole a fabulous idea today from 2Cleverblog.com. The girls over there designed the most 'clever' cards to mark the inauguration. I printed up some for our family- and you can print them up for yours too! One is a thank you note to the Bush's and the other is a "welcome to your new home" note for the Obama's. These have been very helpful with the kids. They are pretty sour on Obama due to our support of McCain and the competitive nature of the election. This has given me a chance to talk with them about how we should support him as he is OUR president. Even if we don't agree with his political views, we can still pray for him to make wise choices, and tell him so in our notes. I think the experience has softened them a little. :) Our letters will be in the mail soon.


High points today:
**Aretha Franklin singing "My Country 'tis of Thee", Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman,... all of the music was great.

**Michelle Obama's yellow dress and her ability to walk most of the parade route in freezing temps AND high heels.
**Seeing all of the former presidents hanging out in the hall chatting it up while the staff nervously paced, not sure how to get them to move along to their seats.
**The little Obama girls just so visibly excited for their dad.
** President Bush saying goodbye to the Obama's. (I did a little lip reading.) President Obama to President Bush, "Thanks a lot, man." President Bush to Michelle Obama, "You're gonna have the time of your life. I promise!"


Low points:
**Feeling bad for President Bush when it felt like all of the speakers were bagging on him for the way he lead the country while he sat right there.
** Since when do people think it's ok to cheer and whoop and holler DURING A PRAYER?? I'm not talking about an Amen shout, but when the first prayer was said, and he mentioned "the first black president", the audience went crazy with cheers. Can it wait just a sec?!
** Since when is it ok to start rhyming like Dr Suess and making everyone laugh DURING A PRAYER?? Reverence anyone?!

I guess it's a cultural thing... Mormon culture vs. the rest I guess.

Overall, a good day for America.

Waiting to see what changes are in store...