Tuesday, April 28, 2009

The cutest sound E.V.E.R!!!!!!!!

So Maya and Eden decided to do some exercising after school yesterday. They found my ipod and picked out some music. I'm not quite sure what prompted them but this is what they looked like.

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Now go to my sidebar and pause the music.

This is what Camden thought about his crazy sisters...


It was the first time he really laughed. I'm so glad we captured it on film. Isn't it the cutest sound ever!

Friday, April 24, 2009

Eden's First Book Report

This was just too good. I had to blog about it. The assignment was to do a report on a sea animal. Well Eden didn't want to focus on just one animal so this is what she came up with...

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"I love sea shells. They are cool. I love 'em."

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"Sea weed is a plant that grows in the ocean. It is food for fish and people can eat it too."

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"Octopuses have two eyes, three hearts and eight arms. They don't have bones."

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"Sharks have lots of teeth. They are very sharp."

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"Dolphins are really smart. They can hear better than humans."

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The best part was when she was finished she said "I couldn't have done this without you mom. Thanks for your help."

Yes I helped with the research, I didn't know octopuses had three hearts!...but most of the facts she already knew. As we were stapling it together this quote came to my mind. My friend Kerry shared it with me just the day before...

"Motherhood is the ideal opportunity for life-long learning. The mother's learning grows as she nurtures the child in his or her development years. They're both learning and maturing together at a remarkable pace. It's exponential, not linear. Just think of the learning process of a mother throughout the lifetime of her children. Each child brings an added dimension to her learning. For example, in the process of rearing her children, a mother studies such topics as child development, nutrition, health care, physiology, psychology, nursing with medical research and care, educational tutoring in many diverse fields, such as math, science, geography, literature, English and foreign languages. Development of gifts such as music, athletics, dance, public speaking, and... the learning examples could continue endlessly! ....

... A mother's opportunity for life-long learning and teaching is universal, my point is, my dear sisters, don't ever sell yourselves short as a woman, or as a mother. It never ceases to amaze me that the world would state that a woman (mother) is in a form of servitude which does not allow her to develop her gifts and talents. Nothing, absolutely NOTHING, could be further from the truth."

~Taken from a talk by Elder Robert D Hales BYU Education Week 2008

So think about that the next time you do a homework project with your kiddo.

Monday, April 20, 2009

Just Because...


...Because this is what my kids look like playing OUTSIDE after school. Yes...that would be sunshine, which means no jackets! YAY!
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...Because we made a goal to read scriptures as a family for thirty days, we did it so we got to go out to eat.
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...Because every time I see this precious face I am reminded of the miracle that he is and that I get to be his mom.
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...Because I ran ELEVEN miles and didn't stop even though I wanted to really, really bad.
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Friday, April 17, 2009

Maya's Talk

Before you go any further you will need to scroll down to my music player and pause it so you can see/hear this.

A couple of months ago Maya was asked to give a talk at church in front of all the kids 8-11 yrs old. Her topic was "Heavenly Father sent me to my family". She wanted to write her talk all by herself. This is her talk. She is sideways because I filmed her sideways and I can't figure out how to make it right side up. So once you get passed that minor little detail, you will need to brace yourself for some serious preciousness....yes that is a word.


Tuesday, April 14, 2009

I'm not making this up...

Back in August my brother in law and sister in law decided to buy us a couple of fish, they were named "Li'l Aric" and "Li'l Jess".

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We are not pet people, I'm more of a human person vs. animal. But since they were a gift I took care of them as best I could. Within the first week or so Li'l Jess committed suicide. I was cleaning out the fish bowl when she took a giant leap straight into the garbage disposal. I screamed when she did it and called Aric right away to tell him. He wanted me to put my hand in the garbage disposal to see if she was still in there. Yeah Right!

So for the past eight months Li'l Aric has been all alone. He even survived being ignored for nine days while we were in South Carolina. We thought for sure he would have starved to death...but nope.

Last night while I was doing the dishes we had a crazy storm roll in. So I thought I would take a couple of pictures...

This was the sight just outside my kitchen window. That is snow.

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Ten minutes later it looked like this. That is sunshine.

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Just after I took that picture, I looked down and saw this:

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I have to admit it, I screamed like a little girl and called for Aric. But seriously...how does this happen! How many goldfish have you known that have committed suicide? He jumped right out and landed on the counter...so CRAZY!

I had Aric carry the stiff little sucker and put him in the toilet to be flushed out to sea.

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You would think that the story ended there...but no. As soon as Li'l Aric hit the toilet water his fins perked up and he started moving.

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So we quickly took him out and put him back into his bowl.

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He seemed a little slow, which Aric attributed to brain damage from being deprived from the water for so long.

Unfortunately, by this morning, he was a goner.

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Aric flushed him this time, even though Eden could see his fins barely moving. It was just the right thing to do. Clearly he would of had a DNR order if he could've.

So we are back to being a no pet family and that's the way it should be. We obviously are not cut out for it, as our only pets have taken their own lives because we are so bad.

Now I just have to convince Eden that it is okay to use that toilet again. She's afraid that he might come swimming back and she might find him in our toilet...while she is on it.

Monday, April 13, 2009

Easter Festivities

Here is the rundown of our weekend...
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It started off with our first soccer games of the season. Of course it was freezing and raining.
Eden's was first at 11am.
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Maya's  game was at 1pm, the rain had stopped but it was still cold.
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By 4pm it was actually pretty nice outside. Which made it perfect for our Easter egg hunt that we had in my sister's backyard.
Here is a picture of the crew before they took off for the hunt.
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These are my favorite pictures of the egg hunting.
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We had some pizza courtesy of Pizza Hut and then some Ten Commandments courtesy of abc.  That show is like 20 hours long so only a third of it was actually watched.
Then back home to make some preparations for the feast that was going to take place on the morrow.
This is a picture of the girls and Camden with their movies that they got in their Easter baskets.
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And here are the dreaded Easter pics...
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My hair looked way better before church but Aric wasn't around for pre-church pictures due to church responsibilities so we had to wait until after. It was cold, the girls were complaining and I wasn't in the mood for a fight, so this was the best of three.  Everyone matched and that's what really counts right?....
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Speaking of matching...I found the girls navy/white polka dot dresses at the Gap when I was in Utah repo-ing my car. They were only $11 a piece! The only problem was that they had some funky gold, old lady buttons and they needed a pop of color. So for seven bucks I got some fuscia buttons and satin fabric. They had sandals that already matched so that was easy.
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Camden had khaki's so I bought him a navy/white plaid tie for $3.50 and a white shirt for $5.50 at The Children's Place.  They always have the best deals!
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And then Aric already had the suit so I found his navy/white polka dot tie at Macy's for...get this...FIVE DOLLARS! I had a coupon, used my Macy's card and went during the door buster sale.
My dress is about three years old and shorter than I remember it. I usually hand wash it but I sent it to the cleaners and I swear that it shrunk! Oh well...I found a fuscia scarf and called it good. I just made a conscious effort to bend at the knee all day.
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We had a great feast that I was too busy making to take pictures of , but trust me it was GOOD! We had mom and Joe, the Stockies, the Sampsons and my Grandpa Bob over to eat.
Having my Grandpa here was a fun surprise.
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We don't get to see him very often so it was good to spend time with him. He hadn't met Max or Camden so it was fun for them to meet their great-grandpa.
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After dinner Maya and Eden had prepared a lesson on the symbols of Easter. They had been working on it for weeks and they did a great job.
So that's about it. That was our Easter weekend. Now I must go and finish putting my house back together...I was too tired to do it last night.

Saturday, April 11, 2009

This is what it's all about...

I have made an earnest effort to teach my children that Easter isn't about bunnies and candy. Since Maya could talk she has known the reason we celebrate Easter. In the weeks before Easter we have Family Home Evening lessons based on Christ and his atonement and resurrection. In the past I would use pictures from the Gospel Art Kit and use them to teach Primary songs that focused on Christ and his atonement. We have done lessons on the symbols of Easter and their meanings. This year I decided to really focus on the sacrament prayers:
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O God, the Eternal Father, we ask thee in the name of thy Son, Jesus Christ, to bless and sanctify this bread to the souls of all those who partake of it; that they may eat in remembrance of the body of thy Son, and witness unto thee, O God, the Eternal Father, that they are willing to take upon them the name of thy Son, and always remember him, and keep his commandments which he hath given them, that they may always have his Spirit to be with them. Amen.
Moroni 5:3
O God, the Eternal Father, we ask thee, in the name of thy Son, Jesus Christ, to bless and sanctify this water to the souls of all those who drink of it, that they may do it in remembrance of the blood of thy Son, which was shed for them; that they may witness unto thee, O God, the Eternal Father, that they do always remember him, that they may have his Spirit to be with them. Amen.
We hear these words every Sunday so I wanted the girls to understand better what it means when they partake of the sacrament. It was a good reminder for me too.
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So tomorrow we will all get dressed up in our Easter best. We will go to church to worship, sing and be taught. We will host dinner for eight adults and ten children. We will eat, we will visit, we will have fun.
But we will not forget what we are celebrating.
Christ lived on this earth. He was sent by his father, God. He accepted his divine calling, to come to earth and atone and suffer for all mankind. He preached. He taught. He loved. He suffered. He died. He rose from his tomb and was resurrected. He still lives. He still loves.
This is not just a story. It really happened.
I am grateful for my knowledge of Christ and his gospel. I am so grateful that Jesus suffered and died for me, and that he broke the bands of death so that I can be with my family forever.
I am grateful that Christ is there for me everyday...the good days and especially the bad days. He is real, I know him and I love him.

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

What rhymes with "Mall and Coats Smartie"?


...Hall and Oats Party!
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A few months ago Aric decided to introduce our kids to the smooth sounds of the 80's pop duo. I'm still not sure what prompted this but I have a feeling it has to do with Aric's goofy sense of humor and you tube. He found some old Hall and Oats videos and showed them to the girls. The girls thought they were so funny. I have found myself saying "If you get all your work done you can watch a Hall and Oats video..." not even joking.
So even though we didn't own any of their music I would hear both Maya and Eden singing "Kiss on my List and Maneater".
A couple of weeks ago I was talking to the girls about what we should do for Aric's birthday. Around here we always have a theme, This year Eden came up with a "Hall and Oats" theme. So here's what we did...
This is the Hall and Oats mobile I made.
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And this is the very special Hall and Oats cake I made.
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So I totally missed a photo op while Aric opened up his presents. The girls very excited to give him their presents. Aric has a major sweet tooth so my mom took the girls out to buy some of Aric's favorite treats. Maya wrote on all his little packages, one said "old man pills"...they were M&M's. So cute! The best present was the Hall and Oats greatest hits album that I got for him. He and the girls have been enjoying it thoroughly. Maybe I'll recreate the moment and take a picture tonight...
So I've been kind of bummed that I missed the present opening photo op, This picture makes me feel better...at least I didn't miss this precious little moment.
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So that's how you have a Hall and Oats party. Feel free to use these fabulous ideas for your next Hall and Oats party.
*Oh and Tia Ana I know you are dying right now...weren't you hoping to marry Oats? I think Uncle Al resembles Hall a little more than Oats...I'll keep my eye out for a curly black wig and black moustache.

Sunday, April 5, 2009

Has it already been a year!

Yes it has. It is Aric's birthday and last year I did a special tribute to him on my blog. Click here to be reminded. I really outdid myself last year on the tributes so this year isn't going to be as fabulous....sorry.


Today is still special, and just because my post isn't as mushy as last years doesn't reflect how happy I am that Aric was born.
So here's to you, my....



Sports loving...
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Oasis music/memorabilia collecting...
 This song is for you!



Silly T-shirt wearing...
Micah and Sara Wedding 049
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Hall and Oats singing...
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Household chores hating...
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Meat and potato eating...
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Just like a little kid playing...
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And loves to keep people laughing, husband.
August 2007 131
August 2007 148

Happy Birthday Aric!
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Thanks for keeping life fun and exciting...
I LOVE YOU!