Merry Christmas!

I won't be at the computer for a long time, so I am giving an early Christmas greeting! We decided not to do cards this year, but I will hopefully post a good New Years letter for everyone to read. We leave tomorrow morning, and so far the flight is on time (not cancelled), when we get home, I will let you know how it all went!

Now off to Virginia! :)

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all!

4 days 'til Christmas!

We are all getting so excited to get to Virginia on Thursday for Christmas! Of course this is the year that Virginia is deciding to have a "white Christmas" and may damper some of the plans (like getting there on time). Dave, Vince's brother, has already had to reschedule once and I hope we don't have to do the same--since we get in Christmas Eve.

Word has it that they may get up to 20 inches on top of the already fallen 10 inches!!

I am no fan of the snow, but especially when we have to travel. Daniel, in his prayers every night, will ask for us to "please not crash in the plane". Funny, yet I may be with him on that now that the weather is terrible. :)

Happy Thanksgiving

We had a fun Thanksgiving at our house. Ray/Julie, Mom/Dad S., Grandma D., Mike/Myla and kids all came. We had to wait a little bit for the turkey to get done, but other than that we had a wonderful time! My first ranch cheeseball was a success and we got to throw the football around a bit. In the evening, we prepared for the bittersweet shopping of Black Friday. :) I don't have any pictures except of the kids making some apple turkeys with marshmallow tailfeathers. My mom got the idea from Marci's (my sister-in-law) family and it seemed to be a big hit!

Happy Birthday Ashley!

I have been terrible about updating this lateley, but we had a very fun birthday party on November 14th. Lots of family, friends and presents!! (More than she needed of course!) She turned 3 and now loves to tell you..."Me thee!" and trys really hard to show you with her fingers. Very cute! Her favorite present was the stroller and baby which she takes everywhere.

Her cake ended up being a rainbow because I asked her what she wanted and she said "Ashley like pink, Ashley like purple, Ashley like blue, Ashley like yellow."

Hawaii pictures

If you don't want to wait around for the whole slide show, click on "View all pictures" and you can flip through them yourself. Plus, if you mouse-over each picture they have a title/description.

Don't worry, not all of them are as scary as Vince and I on the beach!! (May not be suitable for those with weak stomachs!!!) :)

Christmas in Virginia!

We just found out that every one of Vince's brothers and families were going to be there and it came to our attention that we would be holding back the family get toghether if we weren't there! After about 2 days of thought and checking Vince's days off we bought tickets (with the help of Vince's mom--THANKS).

We are so excited to see everyone and even visit a few old friends from our Manassas days. Corinne and I have decided that we will be having a girls-night-out, and boys-night-out (which translates into a girls-night-in and a boys-night-in also!!) It will be so fun, we haven't all been together since Matthew was 3, but that didn't include the spouses that have joined since then. We can't wiat!

We're Back!!

We had a GREAT week, but I don't have time to tell about the whole thing so here are a few pictures until I can get them all on a slideshow or something!

New callings...

So about a month ago I got called to teach Gospel Doctrine, (meanwhile I was still the Act. Day leader) the poor 1st and 2nd counselors had to see me breakdown right in their office! I haven't posted about it yet because it has taken this long to talk about it without crying hysterically, but I finally taught last Sunday the 20th, and I guess I did well because that's all I heard about it. (Not that I felt any better about having to do it, though) I had a few hours to relax and regroup before I had to prepare to teach for this Sunday (27th) as well! I was a complete wreck!

AND THEN....I got a call on Tues. and he said the bishopric wanted to meet with me on Wed.! And we all know what that means, so I was kind of excited, but Vince said he couldn't handle the last few weeks again so I shouldn't get my hopes up just yet, besides I only taught once! :)

So, he came and told me they were "going to release me from Act. Days, (okay, I can handle that) but they were also going to extend a calling which would require me to be released from Sunday School (YESSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!, at this point I almost cried out of joy)" Then he called me to be the 1st counselor in the Primary Presidency (Yay), I can handle that! So there you go, I think I may have won the shortest calling in the ward award.

Hawaii in 9 days!!!!

I am so excited, but scared to get too excited because then I will lose sight of things I need to get done around here and leave with a million things that I haven't done yet or forgot to tell my parents about!

Vince and I have figured out a lot of the vacation, but we are going to have a mini-date tonight to figure out some activities we want to do and make sure we aren't roaming the beach the whole time. If you ask me, that would be fine, but Vince would go CRAZY and I guess I might get bored by the 7th day. But hey, a good tan takes some time!! :)

If you have any suggestions on where to eat or play that would be great!! We are going to be on Oahu for 1 1/2 days then Maui the rest of the time. Of course we are doing the Polynesian Cultural Center, so that is already on the books, and we know of one or two little places to eat, but that is it.

Happy Birthday Matthew!

Okay, so this is really late, but I haven't been on the computer nearly as much as I usually am, so haven't gotten around to it.

Matthew turned 9 last Friday, Sept. 18! He chose a friend party instead of doing something big with the family. I was worried at first because I wasn't sure what to do with 9-year-olds at a party (too old for little games, but not old enough for "hanging out") so I was talking to one of my friends who happened to have a second-hand blow-up waterslide and I asked if I could use it. We ordered pizza, Vince made some water-weenies (surgical tubing with a pen tip at the end+ filled up with water=very high pressured water gun that shoots 20 ft.) and I made cupcakes, after the cake wouldn't come out of the pan, of course!! We ate, played and did presents all outside and it was a blast for everyone!

It ended up being the easiest party Vince and I have ever put on and Matthew plus most of his friends said "this is the best party I have ever been to!", which of course made Matthew's day!! I will get some pictures out soon.

Happy Birthday Vince!

Vince turned 32 yesterday, but I couldn't get around to the computer. We had a fun family party on the 12th for all 5 of those whose birthdays are in Sept. Yesterday we stayed home, my mom, dad, Ray and Julie came up for some dessert, and a visit.

Back to School!

Well, I finally got the pictures onto the computer and here are the kids' first days of school. Matthew is in 4th grade, Daniel in 2nd and Kaylee in Kindergarten.

One of our neighbors was kind enough to organize a doughnuts and milk thing on the first day of school for full-day kids, it was a lot of fun! The Kindergarteners started one week later, so here is Kaylee with her friend Addy. The last picture is of the ones left at home! Ashley loves her time with mom!

Happy Anniversary To Us!

Today is our 10th anniversary! Here is Vince and I outside the Chicago Temple 10 years ago. It was a very humid day, as you can see in both of our hairstyles! :)

For all those who haven't heard, we are going to be celebrating in Hawaii, but we decided to do it in Oct. for a few reasons: The kids will be in school which is easier for a babysitter and I heard it would be the "off season" so maybe not as crowded. (I am not sure if Hawaii is ever not crowded, though)

As for today, just a few dentist and doctor appts. for the kids and if I am lucky, I might get some cleaning in! :)

In MY world....

Aaaaaahhhhhhh........

Reading obsessed

Well, I have done it again. I let myself read some more books. I know I shouldn't and I just can't help myself because I think "well, I will save it for those nights that I only have a few minutes to read before bed, plus to give myself a break in between chores, etc." YEAH RIGHT! I really need a self-help book on controlling my reading habits. I just sit there and read, and sometimes I can put it down if its not that great of a book, but most of the time I am consumed to find out what happens and therefore I can't stop!

My new self-diagnosis is that I am just waiting out the next couple of weeks until school starts because I have to have something to take my mind off the constant fighting that goes on. Once the kids are back in school, then I can get my life back in order (Getting back to the gym, regular daily chores, library books back in time, etc.), therefore I have to do whatever it takes to just survive until then!

I think Vince is a little worried, but he says as long as I don't get bored of the books because then there would be nothing holding me back from getting truly depressed. I have to say that I do a pretty good "pretend clean" by the time he gets home, but I still know the truth. Besides, I told him that if I get bored with the books, I would either guilt myself back into actually cleaning and taking care of the kids or just start baking goodies!

Goodreads.com has egged me on, but at least its FREE, right? It's a website that keeps track of all the books you have read or would like to read and you don't have to remember for yourself! Plus, you get to check out all your friends' lists to see what they are reading and would like to read as well.

Wish me luck!!

Missing teeth

We went to the dentist a few weeks ago for all the kids' checkups and I asked about Ashley's bottom teeth because the spacing was farther apart than usual. They took an x-ray and turns out that she is missing both the baby and adult sets of two of her teeth on the bottom! I will have to get a good picture of her open-teeth smile so I can show you and then all you teeth people (Jana, you were a hygenist, right?) can tell me what they are actually called.

The dentist said it's not a problem and most kids have problem with spacing when they get to be teenagers anyway, so it may work to her advantage. We will wait about 10 years and then we will see if anything needs to be done like implants, etc. It is definitely an identifying characteristic! It doesn't look any different at first glance, but you sure can tell after a while.

New family picture!

These are some pictures taken from Naomi's wedding:

One of the family pictures taken--I couldn't put all of them on, but I am still up in the air about which one I like the best!

Here are a few shots of the kids. First, the boys with Brian (cousin) just chillin' and then Kaylee with Alison (cousin) getting some refreshment. It was a long day!

Finally, here is Ashley "in training" to be a princess bride!

3 down, 1 to go.....

Ashley (2 1/2)has been working on potty-training and she has been so fast! I think it took her 4 days to catch on during the day, and just yesterday I got her dressed after breakfast and her Pull-up was dry from all night!!! Yahoo!

Now, if I can only get my 5-year-old to catch on..... :) Any suggestions are welcomed, but more than likely I have tried it already!

Kaylee Tumbling Performance

Kaylee has been doing tumbling for a while, and every year they have a performance to show off their stuff. She did great and I have some video, but I haven't figured out how to transfer it yet, so here are a few pictures in her cute outfit instead! She has learned recently how to do a back handspring (with spotting help), but I was bummed that they didn't let her do it that day! Daniel has decided that he wants to try tumbling too, but we're still thinking about that.

Bear Lake

Yay! We have made it official that Bear Lake is an annual thing! This time we were supposed to stay over two nights and 3 days, but Vince ended up getting sick the second day so we cut it off early and came home. To tell you the truth, I wasn't complaining! The bugs were the worst I have ever seen--that could have something to do with the fact that we went on the first warm day after 1 1/2 weeks of rain--I think we used up a whole bottle of bug spray in 2 days, YUCK!

Besides the bugs, it was good. We ended up renting a boat for 4 hours and it came with a tube, so all the kids got to try it and LOVED it. Even Daniel, who wouldn't go very fast and made sure that we went in a straight line, couldn't wait until it was their turn again. Matthew had the most adventure with Vince steering the boat to make big waves for him to jump over, but no one fell off--Vince made sure of that. I even got to drive the boat for a little bit.

On our way home we stopped off at Bear Lake Pizza and got some pizza, but opted out of the raspberry shakes this time. I told Vince that we should do it next year, but to start saving for a small camper/trailer of some sort because tenting is no longer an option for me!

Daniel's 7th birthday

Daniel is 7 now! I gave him the choice of having a "friend" party at home or having the family go out somewhere together and after flip-flopping many times, the family outing won. We went to our local water fun park (not a big one, but perfect for the kids) for a few hours and everyone had tons of fun! After that we came home and had sports cupcakes and ice cream with Myla's family and Gma and Gpa Stewart.



Daniel had so much fun opening his presents, thanks to all of you who sent something! Vince and I finally got him a skateboard (something he has been asking to have for over a year!). Now we are hoping to see Dave and Kirk teach him a few "safe" tricks--is there such a thing?? :) Of course, we wouldn't have given it to him without the proper padding, etc. He is actually pretty good on it, but he doesn't have the dare-devil in him to make me scared about it. We finally got to our little skatepark the other day and he was in heaven!

The Wedding

Last, but certainly not least, was my sister's wedding. It was a chaotic, but wonderful day and of course I don't have pictures because I didn't take my camera, but I will have some great family pictures to post soon, whenever we get the CD from my sister. We are all glad that it is over because, with no offense to Naomi, there is always a bit of undo stress that accompanies a wedding!!

My brother, Ben, and his family got to stay with us for the week after the wedding and that was a blast! The cousins had so much fun, plus I had some company while Vince was at the JAVA conference in San Fransisco. Here are some pictures at the park with the girls and at the ice cream shop with everyone.










Alison and Kaylee tried to match as much as possible every day, so that day they both had purple and matching hair, thanks to Aunt Marci!

We love Pop's Malt Shoppe! If you are ever in town, we'll take you there.

Sponge curlers

In preperation for the wedding, we were trying to see if Ashley's hair would do well in curlers, and it worked! Except for the fact that the morning of the wedding they didn't work, oh well. She loves to do her "chicken pose", but only because she is trying to copy Kaylee's "princess pose".

Math and Science Olympiad

Matthew had the honor of representing his school as the third grade team at the Olympiad with 2 of his new friends. They played a math game called Krypto. You play it by forming equations with your number cards from your hand to equal the answer card on the table. You get extra points for using division and two-digit number cards and you have to finish in a certain amount of time. Matthew and his team placed 4th and he was disappointed, but they did awesome! Matthew gets pretty stressed out under pressure so we are extremely proud of him!

Daniel's baseball

I am back!! We have had a lot going on, so hopefully I will get everyone up to date a little on what has happened.



Unfortunately, Daniel decided that he HATES soccer. When I asked him why it was "because I don't like getting hit with the ball all the time" and I think it has to do with his less-than-enthusiastic coach that he has had two years in a row! On the flip side Daniel LOVES baseball, and he is pretty good too. He has had an amazing coach, Bryce Clark, and Daniel has been catching and throwing pretty accurately. His season just ended, but he is looking forward to next year already! Here is a picture of him in action.

Happy Birthday Kaylee!

Kaylee turned 5 on April 28. We had a very fun day and of course Kaylee didn't have a problem with being the birthday girl because all day she would say "I am the birthday girl, so I get to choose!"

I ended up having a party for her which turned out well. We had 9 girls, her grandma, great-grandma, an Aunt and uncle with cousins plus one mom that stayed. All the girls got to decorate a crown, played Hullabaloo a few times then upastairs for cake, popsicles (Kaylee's choice of dessert) and presents. Here are a few pictures of the day.

Kaylee got a few dresses for her birthday--the first dress is her "birthday dress" she wore all day, the blue one is from Grandma Stewart and the ballerina outfit is what she bought with the money Grandma Hilton gave her.

And of course, it wouldn't be my blog without a picture of the cake! Here it is before and after she is blowing out the candles.