Kid Stuff

This year for his Pinewood Derby Car Kaleb decided to make a tank. Yeah, I know, not the most aerodynamic of vehicles. What can I say, he was going for intimidation – not speed. He was just going to scare to other cars off the track!Here is Rhyan with one of her most prized possessions, her googly-eyed monkey. She takes it with her all over the place and has to point out to everyone its big, googly eyes.

The Ice Storm

Larry left for Texas in February to go work in the office we are looking at. He didn't get off to a good start on his trip, because he ended up getting caught in the ice storm that came though and got to spend the night in the Detroit airport. After being up half the night trying to deal with getting his flight rescheduled and rental car stuff, the next morning I woke up to the most beautiful day I have ever seen in Cleveland. It was bright and sunny and beautiful, and the whole world was covered in a sheet of ice. The pictures do not even close to do it justice. Everything was sparkly and shimmering like it was covered in diamonds. I have never seen anything like it. It was gorgeous!! Too bad larry had to take the brunt of it at the airport...

Valentines Day

Valentines Day was pretty uneventful here. Larry & I went out on Friday instead and we had fun. We had reservations at a nice restaurant, which we missed due to construction traffic trying to get down there. Instead, we had a romantic dinner at Subway and then walked over to Playhouse Square to watch South Pacific. It was really good and we had a fun evening.

This is one of the perks of being the Ward Mission Leader I guess. The Sister came over and very stealthily decorated our front door. It was really cute and very sweet of them.
Larry of couse had to get flowers for his valentines. I got beautiful roses, and Mayson and Rhyan got the colorful bouquet below. What a sweet guy!

Asher is Potty Trained!!!

We have finished with our last round of potty training. Yeah!!! We have been talking about doing it for a while, but between pick-up and drop-off at the elementary school and the preschool, we are gone a lot during the day. So, we decided the two week Christmas break was the best shot we had. Can I say what a fun Christmas break it was – potty training and kids with the stomach flu! No, it wasn't that bad. Asher was all around pretty easy, and by the middle of January he was using the toilet like a champ. He has even mastered the art of waking up dry every morning. He thinks he is such a big kid and is so proud of himself. For a while, if he had a particularly good bowel movement, he insisted that we couldn't flush the toilet because dad needed to see when he got home. Thankfully we are getting past that. Can I just say how much I love the fact that I don't have to change diapers anymore – hallelujah!!!
Here he is showing off Woody on his bum. Yes, I know, he is wearing Rhyan's sparkly silver shoes. It's a good look for him, don't you think?

Campout in the Attic

Larry went to Honduras on a medical mission the middle of January. They helped a lot of very needy people and it sounds like he really enjoyed himself. He forgot to take a camera, so you won't be seeing any pictures, but he is already talking about wanting to go again. While he was gone the kids and I did lots of fun stuff to keep busy. Everyones favorite was the night we camped out in the attic. We had pizza and popcorn and watched a movie. By the time everyone got to sleep it was pretty late but it was a lot of fun. All I can say is it sure would have been nice had they slept in a little the next morning... no such luck!

Knuffle Bunny

For Christmas Asher got tickets to go see Knuffle Bunny at Playhouse Square. For anyone who has read Knuffle Bunny, it's a really cute book and the play was great. We had a lot of fun, and always thinks he's such a big boy when he gets a date night with mom or dad!

Happy New Year!

There will be no pictures of New Years this year. We stayed home and hung out, and at midnight when mom & Mark called to wish us happy New Year, we were mopping vomit up off the floor from Kaleb. It was an exciting New Year for us! Monday night Mayson came down with the stomach bug that pretty much everyone at church has had, and we figured it was only a matter of time before all the kids got it. By Thursday everyone seemed fine, so we decided to go have some fun. We went to see Megamind with Cindy and Brooklyn, and about two minutes before it ended (we almost made it) Asher lost it all over the theatre. I felt so bad for the guy coming in to clean up after us! We had talked about going to hang out with some friends for New Years Eve, but I'm glad we decided against it, because Friday night Kaleb got it. Last night was Rhyan's turn, and I guess the upside is that now all the kids have had it I don't have to worry about waking up to them sick a night, right? As for me, so far so good. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. So, now that the New Year is off to such a great start, it's can only get better from here, right! Emily says my New Years resolution should be to be a better blogger, so the goal is to be better about the blog this year. We were doing so good until summer hit and life fell apart, then it all went down hill. So, assuming nobody about dies at our house this year... the blog should be updated more frequently!! And just so you know, we are now officially all caught up. Everything from mid-April on is new, so you'll have to page back to see it all. Happy reading! And, hopefully over the next month or so we will know for sure where we're headed next summer, we'll keep everyone posted. Happy New Year!!!

Christmas 2010

Christmas Eve we did our traditional evening of having the missionaries over. They were all told ahead of time that there were to be no injuries or trips to the emergency room this year, so we made sure there was no crazy horse play! Everyone had a great time and the food was awesome! We had a full turkey dinner with pumpkin cheesecake to finish it off. In addition to the two sets of missionaries we also had Josh, a newly baptized member of our ward come over to join us. He is a really nice kid and told us all about life in Africa before he moved to Cleveland. Definitely an eye opener as to how blessed we are to live where we do and have all that we have. Our kids have no idea how good they have it. We read the Christmas story and watched Joy To The World with him and had a great night. We try really hard to keep our Christmas Eve focused solely on Christ. It is a good time for the kids to really think about it because Christmas morning I think they tend to be a little preoccupied!

So this year our nice neighbors let us borrow their extra fake tree. This is the first year we have ever had a fake tree, and after we put it up we remembered why we get a real tree. They smell so good and look so pretty - fake ones just aren't the same. Either way, the borrowed fake one was in the budget, so that's what we went with! The first picture of the kids is always my favorite from Christmas morning. We always make them wait upstairs while Larry and I come down and get the cameras ready. I always like to see the looks on their faces when they come down and see what Santa brought. They are always so excited, and the look on their face is just that innocent joy that only kids seem to get. Love it!! Of course after that it's just semi-organized chaos as we try to keep everyone take turns opening presents. We all had a fun morning, ate sticky buns and hung out in our pajamas all day relaxing. It was great!! Hopefully next year we'll get to hang with the family at least a little over the Christmas season. We'll have to see how it goes.

Our Goofy Kids

Here's Asher showing off his underwear to the world. He is so cute and thinks he's so big and cool in his undies. We decided while the kids were out of school for Christmas break was a good time to do potty training. We've been wanting to for the past few months but between four trips back and forth to schools everyday, dance, scouts and whatnot we aren't home much. I decided this was the best chance we have to be home to do it. So far he's doing pretty good. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we get him done. Can I just say no more diapers in my life, yeah!!

This poor kid doesn't stand a chance against his two adoring sisters. It's a good thing he is truly all boy or we might start to worry. When they dress him up now he has to pick out his own dress for them to put on, they don't get to pick anymore. Luckily he more than compensates by his need to jump off of, throw, tackle and fight anything he sees. Like I said, he's all boy!
Here's Mayson showing off yet another lost tooth. She's such a pretty little girl!
Asher being fashionable in his sister's cowgirl hat!
Here is Rhyan and Asher at their dance recital. Asher has started to take movement classes with Miss Lacee, the same teacher Rhyan has for dance. He loves donkey kicks and somersaults. They both have so much fun going and are so cute to watch.
Here the kids are in the cowboy hats mom and dad brought them back from the trip to Texas. They were pretending that the chairs were their horses and were playing like they were riding in a cattle train or something. I don't know, but it was pretty funny to watch!

Rhyan's Holiday Concert

Rhyan's did a holiday concert at preschool the Asher and I got to go watch. She sang songs with the rest of the preschool kids and looked so cute. We also had a little party with her class where they sang some more songs, talked about everyones holiday traditions and we ate sugar cookies that the kids made for us. Rhyan really enjoyed herself - she loves being in preschool. He little brother is forever telling everyone that he'll goto preschool too when he's bigger!

Thanksgiving 2010

We had a nice, relaxing Thanksgiving with just us this year. Larry and Kaleb went and played football in the morning in the rain and mud and had a great time. After they got back, the two girls and I went and saw Tangled while the turkey was cooking. It was really cute and the girls have been talking about it ever since. After that we set the table and then piled tons of yummy food on to make a huge mess to clean up. You can see that Rhyan was impressed with the napkin rings, but thought that they worked better for earrings! We missed being able to see the family but had a nice time here by ourselves. We realize this year we have a lot to be thankful for. We are almost done and ready to move on to the next adventure in our life. We have four great kids, and after a scary summer I can't even tell you how grateful we are to have them here with us and doing well. We're grateful for how spoiled we are to live somewhere where we have such amazing hospitals and doctors right down the street. It's going to be a hard thing to leave behind. We are grateful for our extended family who is there to help when we need it! Urs, we can't tell you how much we appreciate your willingness to come out and spend a week in chaos with our kids so we can go and work on job stuff! I know this has been a really tuff year here for a lot of reasons, and I guess I can't speak for Larry, but I know we are both grateful to have each other to lean on. I for one am grateful for Larry and the great man and father that he is. We works hard to take care of us all, and is there to lean on when I need him! We are all grateful for our savior, and I am reminded of that constantly by my sweet little Rhyan who tells me that Jesus is one of her best friends. Our kids can be such good examples. So, enough of this sappy stuff. I will say, when I walked into my house the other day from our arctic below zero wind chills, I was awfully grateful to have a warm house, and that this would be my last winter I have to spend somewhere cold!! Yeah, here we come warm and sunny!!!

Texas Trip

So Larry and I went job hunting in Texas. We met with people in San Antonio, Forth Worth and COllege Station. It was like a big road trip driving all over Texas. Wes and Emily brought the boys and came to see us while we were in San Antonio. It was a lot of fun to hang out with them. We went to the River Walk and hung out at McDonald's so the boys could play and we could just hang out & talk. Not sure where we are going yet, but it definitely looks like we have some options. It's good to know that we're employable!! The pictures with the water were taken at the Fort Worth Water Gardens. It was a really cool place. The thing you see me sitting at the top of is an interactive one where you walk down those steps into the bottom of it. It's really a wierd feeling because you have water moving all around and under you so you kind of get off balance. I also spent a day exploring the Fort Worth Stockyards. It was so much fun, I had some great barbecue for lunch, and lusted after some really pretty boots that I couldn't afford! The best part, I had a day all to myself... doesn't happen very often. And of course, while in San Antonio we had to go visit my old stomping grounds. My High School has been rebuilt into this beautiful building that looks more like a small college than a high school. They were in he process of bulldozing the old buildings the day we were there. There wasn't much left. We also drove by my old house. Yep, that beautiful residence you see there is where I spent my high school years. Nice going mom! Just kidding, it didn't have quite so much "trailer class" when we lived there.

Halloween 2010

So this year we had a Ninja, The Wicked Witch of the West, a Butterfly, and a Firefighter.

Mayson knew forever ago she wanted to be the Wicked Witch of the West, and we've had the costume since she used it for her birthday party. I think she looked pretty good. She got all ready for school the day they did their character parade and was so excited until we got to school. At that point she was feeling a little self conscious about being green and that people were going to be looking at her. Yeah, I know, Mayson not wanting attention?? After a little coaxing I convinced her that really, that was the point and that everyone would love it, which of course they did. She looked great.



Asher got some galoshes from Grandma Ursi when she was out here the end of June that he wears everywhere. Even showed up to church in them one day because he put them on himself and one of the kids helped him get in the car so I didn't realize it til we got there. He looks really cute in them though and he loves them. So, when I saw the fireman costume at Costco this year I knew he had to have it. I matched his boots perfect and he loved it. I think I found the costume the beginning of September, and as soon as he saw it he told everyone he saw everywhere we went, "I firefighter for how-ween!" he was so dang cute. He still wears it around the house, to preschool, you know... where you would typically wear a firefighter suit.


Rhyan had known the butterfly was in our bin of old costumes and knew for a while that she wanted to wear it, so hers was pretty easy. We thought she was pretty cute too!


Kaleb decided he wanted to be a ninja, again. I think he likes being a ninja because he feels tough and gets fancy swords with his costume to play with! Rhyan had known the butterfly was in our bin of old costumes and knew for a while that she wanted to wear it, so hers was pretty easy.