Sandra is 8

Yesterday was Sandra's birthday. Friday night she had a roller skating slumber party, with a few of her best friends. There was lots of falling down, a few tears, lots of friends helping each other, tons of fun, and very tired girls by the end. She even let Mindy and Cammie tag along.

She received some neat presents, from her friends and family.

She chose to have birthday brownies instead of cake.

My camera battery died, and unfortunately the new one didn't arrive before the party, so I tried to take pictures with my cell phone, but they all turned out blurry. This is about the best I got, Cammie was very proud of her roller skating abilities by the time we left. At first she fell down a lot and was sad, but after about an hour, she was having a great time.

For some silly reason, I decided that the girls needed new dresses and the boys new ties (boys are much easier) for Christmas this year. They were going to wear them the Sunday before Christmas. When I showed the girls the dresses I had picked out for them, they were happy and excited, except for Sandra, she admitted that she had a very pretty dress, but wanted to know why she had to be different. Apparently, she feels that she often gets the one thing that is a different color, and Mindy and Cammie are always the same. So to appease her, I told her that I would go buy me a green dress to wear, then there would be two green and two red. I did not have much luck in my quest for something green. Fortunately, we had Krystal came during this time. She was totally willing to go spend a day shopping, looking for something green to wear, just so Sandra wouldn't feel different.

Christmas 2008 photos

All the kids eagerly awaiting the parents getting up so they could open presents.

Trav pretending to crash, to demonstrate the cuddly effects of his new robe.

Misc. pictures of happy kids getting what they wanted.

My new play toy. A 17" notebook, that is all mine, and no one else's.

Oh, what do you do with the packing stuff?

You know how you want to avoid long lines and crowds at Christmas, so you order lots of presents on-line, so you can really get those special and perfect gifts for the ones you love. And along with your great carefully selected gifts, comes a LOT of packing stuff and tons of boxes. I know you are probably faced with the same dilemma that I have, what do you do with it all. If you dump it in your reclying bin, it will be full and there is no room for all your household reclyables, the same with the garbage.

Well, we came up with a solution.

Grandma, I hope the boxes we shipped arrive soon, and I REALLY hope you like your presents.

1 Rule

When we got Fletcher I had 1 rule that was not to be broken. I just found out that I am alone in this idea of no dog on the furniture. He secretly sleeps on my bed when I am not in the room, and apparently, is encouraged by the one other person I thought would be all for this rule.

Obligatory Twilight Post

With it being the day of the much anticipated movie finally opening, I have not yet decided if I am going to go see it. Sadly, the trailers have not made it look super-appealing to me and I am worried that it will be a big disappointment. I found this very entertaining recap of the movie. http://movies.msn.com/movies/galleryfeature/lost-twilight-script/?photoidx=1 (be sure to click through all 10 scenes) It actually had me LOL. However it may have ruined the movie even more.

Monthly Recap

For fall break, we made the trek to Utah, to spend a week up at Snowbird, so I could attend a yoga class I need for my certification. While there:

We visisted the quarry where rocks were taken from to build the Salt Lake Temple,

The kids had a lot of fun climbing on all the big rocks.

Thanksgiving Point Gardens,

Mindy is going to fight for a spot on the Ark.
Choose your grave size.
Hungry fish.
A worn out family, wishing they could jump into the water behind them.

Kyle went down with Grandpa to finish up his horsemanship merit badge.


Cecret Lake (ok, I didn't do this one, but the kids had a great time)

Again, climbing on rocks was a theme

We participated in two craft activities. The girls all colored t-shirts, and we did string art. This was so much fun that we did more at home.

On the last day of our trip, we had a shower for Christopher and Cassie. I failed to get any pictures of them, so this is stolen from Christine's blog. Thanks Christine, and I know the difficulty you had with that one person blocking you. Where are the pics from the wedding?

And finally Halloween. We had the worst weather we have ever had here, this year. It was cold and rainy. Within a few minutes of fixing the girls hair, it was flat again. Mindy wanted just a very pretty dress, and decided she was a prom girl, Sandra wanted to be Arwen from Lord of the Rings, and Cammie was Tinkerbell. Kyle wore pieces from his costume last year, because he couldn't find anything he really wanted to be, and Travis wore his graduation gown, and went out with a friend, just to get gobs of candy.