update and happenings

It's been a busy week, but nothing too noteworthy to report.  Just the typical running from place to place so here is a quick update.

Liv's been working really hard lately on learning to read.  She is doing  great job and can read pretty good for a preschooler.  My boys never showed interest reading early like Liv does.  She has a dance recital coming up next month and continues to be my best helper around the house.  (also my fiestiest)

Cole is doing great in school and continues to progress.  He is reading wonderfully and seems to get along with his friends at school and hasn't gotten sent to the principals office since he punched a 4th grader several months ago :)  I continue to volunteer in his class every Friday morning and am continually amazed aGt how well behaved his class is.  Cole is still working hard playing indoor soccer and seems to love it.  This is a portrait of Cole that he made in class.

Ethan has also made some great strides in school and is doing wonderful.  He is a typical busy, loud, and crazy 8 year old boy.  He has a particularly hard class this year and we have been struggling, but over the past month things have greatly improved.  He also is maturing and growing right before my eyes.  The other day I watched him get the door for an older lady all by himself.  Friday night Shawn and I had "The Big Talk" with him and boy I was glad we did.  He already had heard several of the terms in class and was very familiar with them.  The conversation actually ended up being really spiritual and we talked a lot about the creation of the earth, God's plan for us and Adam and Eve.  I'm really proud at how responsible he is becoming.  He continues to enjoy scouts, swimming and parkour.  Ethan has decided to quit the swim team the end of this month.  He is more interested in diving so that will be his next venture and the swim team takes up a lot of time (2-3 practices a week).

The kids school had a magic show the other day.  Shawn and I were both able to come.  Cole laughed and had a great time, Liv sat on the front row and was stunned with silence, and Ethan sat in the back convinced he knew the secret to each trick.

We haven't received hardly any snow this year.  The kids have been a little disappointed, but the temps have been really cold lately so I'm just hoping for a quick spring.

Big news for Shawn and his research at work.  His research project was selected to be presented at the big PAS (pediatric academic society) conference in Boston in April.  Shawn also got a new calling today at church, he is in the Elder's Quorum Presidency.

I continue to juggle being a stay-at-home mom and working mom.  I volunteer in the kids classes whenever possible and continue to serve in my church calling in the Primary Presidency.

Funny Liv

Liv is a fun, spunky, crazy and loud little girl.  She says such funny things.  She is also pretty stubborn.  This is just a quick post to record some of Liv's funnies.

Liv's job is to empty the dishwasher.  While doing this she always refers to the utensils as "the tinfoils"

Liv always sits on her feet causing them to fall asleep.  Whenever this happens she says, "my feet are buzzin."

Last, like I said she is loud.  Always singing and yelling.  While at Office Max the other day she needed to go to the bathroom.  There is something about being in a bathroom that echoes causes my children to sing.  While Liv was in the bathroom taking care of business I finished grabbing a few items out in the store, only to be startled by loud singing.  Shawn and I were several isles away from the bathroom, but could hear Liv loud and clear.  Several customers walked passed the bathroom wondering what was going on inside, while Shawn and I just laughed knowing that it was our sweet Liv singing away on the pot.

Parkour

Ethan start working on something from his annual goals list this morning.  He attended his first official Parkour class.  When he mentioned that he wanted to take a Parkour class at the beginning of the year I thought it was a great idea, but then I looked everywhere and couldn't find any for kids under 12.  He was pretty disappointment, but a few days ago I happened to be looking into some gymnastic classes for Liv and the gym had a Parkour class also.  Ethan was beyond excited and got up early and was anxiously awaiting the start of his class this morning.

I think he was hoping to be climbing walls and jumping over buildings by the end of class today, but I reminded him it might take a few weeks.

The kids played outside all afternoon.  They were hunting for "big foot", or as Liv said, "Pink Foot".  They were sure they saw footprints in the snow leading over to the elementary school.

We finished the night off watching the Secret Garden (which Shawn was sure the kids would hate, but too my delight everyone loved it) and eating Pazooki's.

Chinese New Year

Last year we celebrated Chinese New Year for the first time and we had so much fun we wanted to do it again.  Liv helped me all afternoon make lanterns and get the dinner table set-up and decorated.

We had fortune cookies as part of our dessert.  Ethan's fortune said something about "finding his one and only true love".  It made us all laugh!

One thing I wanted to do this year that we didn't do last was the tradition of the "red envelope".  These envelopes symbolize good luck and usually contain money (or chocolate money in our case).

I made a copycat recipe of PF Chang's Crispy Honey Chicken and everyone loved it.  

and we had Roy Rogers Cocktails to drink (cola, grenadine syrup and a maraschino cherry on top).

Beauty Salon

When I was a girl I used to go and spend a week with my grandma every summer.  She lived in Northern Utah in what I would classify as "farm town".  My aunts always make fun of me and call me a city girl.  One of the things we always got to do when we stayed with grandma was go to the "beauty salon".  It was always a highlight of the week.

Right now I'm sitting in my own little beauty salon.  Liv's salon, called Beauty by Liv, is located upstairs in her bean bag chair, where I am comfortably sitting.  Music is playing while I type and my stylist (Liv) is curling my hair.  My nails have already been done and my make-up applied with hot pink cheeks and purple eyes.  It's lovely!

Liv seems to be a little obsessed with doing hair, nails, and makeup a lot lately.  This morning she wouldn't come down for breakfast.  Finally after hollering several times she came down proclaiming that she had to finish her nails and that is why she was late.  Last night after checking on her in bed I found her sound asleep with hot pink lipgloss smeared all over her lips and then some. It was cute. I have a feeling lots of facials, manicures, and hair styles are coming my way.

Yearly Books

The day i denounced scrapbooking was a happy day for my husband.  My passion for scrapbooking was replaced by blogging and at the end of each year printing out my blog.  I've done it every year since 2008.  I just got my 2011 book in the mail.  I use Blurb.com, but there are many others that I've heard are great also.  It feels good to have a whole year completely documented and available for everyone to reminisce on the fun times we had.  (another good thing is they save all your books on file so if down the road I can't find out 2008 book I can just order another one)

I used Blurb because my books end up being around 200 pages or so.  I need LOTS of room for a decent price, but if you are looking for something with a more creative touch check out www.PaperCoterie.com.  I've done some freelance work for them in the past and I recently finished the photography for their "This Was the Year" book.  Here are a few pages.

It's a great way to wrap up the year!

Fun Monday

Remember how last Monday when the kids were out of school Shawn and I took the kids to the Domes and they were a little disappointed.  They were hoping for something with lots of running and jumping.  Well, this Monday they did not have school either (teacher inservice) so I choose something that I hoped would not disappoint....and I was right.

We went to Monkey Joe's.  Shawn and I basically just sat in the corner and relaxed while the kids jumped, ran, laughed, and had a great time.  They spent most of the time trying to avoid the "facility referee" who walked around reminding kids not to run or jump, and boring stuff like that.  She had her eye on my boys and Shawn and I thought it was hilarious how they tried to hide from her.