Recent Happenings...

We celebrated Cameron's birthday in between various Christmas activities and friend's parties for both Landon and Austin. We kind of celebrated in stages: Friday night: presents, Saturday afternoon: Key Lime Pie and the Happy Birthday Song, and Saturday night: a trip to Boise with just Cam and I to celebrate.

This poster{s} was from the kids. The kid's are convinced that this is a "year supply" of candy! (maybe it should be a year supply :) )

After a marathon allergy appointment with Austin and {unfortunately} a severe allergic reaction at the office, we barely made it home in time to get to Landon's Christmas concert. Landon was "Country Bob". He did an AWESOME job! After the show, his teacher introduced all the speaking and solo parts. When Landon's name was called his class went crazy, cheering for him!

I love the smile he has on his face. He and his friend are laughing at each other. Landon, really did his best and we were proud of him. I even got a text from his friend's mom during one of the songs.... it looked like Landon was doing a "turtle" dance. She texted me that she was crying because she was laughing so hard at how cute Landon was!

Isaac also had a Christmas concert. He came home from preschool one day and practiced for it. He was excited to sing Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer while wearing a red nose! He made the nose himself (along with a blue one for when he wants to be a blue Power Ranger)

This was the best picture I could get of him at his party/concert. There were SO many parents there I couldn't even see him singing. It was crazy! He was sad that he only got to sing two songs and he couldn't see me while he was singing. But the PLATE-FULL of treats afterward cured him.

...and now we wait...sometimes not so patiently for Christmas Day...

Last night I took the kids to do a service project. We try to do one every year (actually, one of our family's goals is to do one once a month). We usually donate food to the homeless shelter or put allowance money together to by "toys for tots". This year, I planned an activity for the Young Women in our ward to sing at a nursing home. Since none of the Mia Maids could make it, I decided to take the kids. Unfortunately, Cameron was working during the time they wanted us there.

I couldn't take a picture because I was singing with the kids. Rest assured, though, that they were well received. Isaac wore his antlers from his preschool party the day before and sang with gusto. Austin played Jingle Bells on the piano and sang Away in a Manger, beautifully. Landon didn't want to go, but I made him. He was nervous he'd have to talk to the residents and try to think of things to say. Once he saw how happy the residents were with our songs, though, his heart melted and he was very happy. Ella did her part by clapping after every song. We had the chance to go into some of the residents' rooms and sing to them, as well. One woman was 99 and another was 103. They were SO happy to see us and hear our songs. I was proud of my kids. Their spirits were shining and their sweet voices were beautiful. They were SO SO happy after. They could tell that they made a tiny difference in the resident's lives. This definitely is a good time of year to give service. (I took this picture when we got home - after we ate dinner... :) )

ClaSsiC santa pics

We went to a Christmas Party for the Med Group on Base. Santa came in on an ambulance. I love the gotta-have Santa pictures, taken against a yellow wall, with bad light, by a point and shoot - they're not good pictures but I love them anyway.

And, just wondering has anyone ever seen a "good" santa picture?! The Coralridge Mall Santa comes to mind (all my Iowa peeps know what I'm talking about :) ha ha ha)

this picture is from last year... Ella's opinion of Santa hasn't changed much....

I promise she really did say she wanted to sit on his lap, but once she did she changed her mind fast... I can't help but laugh, especially comparing the two pictures :)

Isaac asked for a remote control car

Austin asked for a puppy, "even tough my mom and dad said no." After he told Santa about the puppy he noticed the dollar store trinkets in Santa's bag and said, "well actually I'll just have a whoopie cushion."

Landon refused to sit on Santa's lap. I guess it's about time, but still, I was wishing for one more year of Santa bliss for him

Father's Day

The last time I was in Cameron's office on base I noticed that he has some huge shelves with nothing on them. I also noticed that the only picture he has in there is his screen saver: a picture of all of us in Yellowstone - I was 10 pounds heavier than now {ugh! ella's baby weight HUNG onto me; just finally losing it} - that is enlarged to fit on his GIANT computer screen. That picture HAS to go. And his shelves need something a little more interesting on them then dust.

SO... For Father's Day I framed these pictures for him to put in his office. I'm so so happy with how they turned out...but already itching to take more...never quite satisified with my photo-skills but still learning. I think the photography learning curve I'm on is YEARS long {.ha.ha.} Landon has always been a "poser" for pictures. He cocks his head a certain way and smiles his "picture" smile. He is so sweet and tries to always make me happy. He knows I love a great smile! Austin just wanted to tell jokes. He kept saying, "don't take the picture, I have to crack myself up first!" I love that funny boy.
Isaac has been SO extremely sweet and loving lately. Even in this picture he looks... just SWEET! He comes up to me throughout the day and hugs me and tells me I'm "lovely". When I ask him to do something he usually does it right away... even if he mumbles under his breath, "I can never do anything fun!" Really, he's turned a corner, lately; mellowed out, calmed down, and become quite "lovely", himself!
I couldn't decide between these pictures. SO I printed them both and let Cameron decide which one he wanted (he chose the smiling one)
I love this baby girl. She is talking up a storm lately. We were in Boise last night standing outside of a resteraunt. Ella looked through the ground-length windows at another little girl on the other side of the glass. They were both giggling at eachother and jibber-jabbing. We said, "come on Ella." and plain as day she said to the little girl, "BYE-BYE!!" since then she's been saying bye-bye and hello in the right context and more and more clearly. She seems to learn a new word everday.
She's also really into putting things where they go. She likes to organize. She opens a drawer, pulls everything out, and then arranges it all in a straight line or a neat pile. And then moves on to the next drawer as if she's checking off her "to-do" list. So funny...and exhausting putting it all back all day long!
and of course I gave him an 8x10 of this one:
Today was a pretty good day. My parents came up for the weekend again. We are so lucky to have them and live relatively close to them. My kids need their grandparents. We all do. They make us happy. It will be good to get to Utah to see Cameron's parents again too.
I made my dad's favorite cinnamon rolls for breakfast. I also made some really awesome gluten free pumpkin muffins. I wanted Cameron to have a cinnamon roll before his early meetings at church. We went to church all together. The kids got to sing a song to the dads. I have to say...and I'm really not exaggerating...Isaac STOLE the show. You could hear his voice above all the others. He did ALL the actions - with GUSTO - he had a grin from EAR TO EAR the whole time and an even prouder, cheesier grin when it was over and he walked back to our seats and gave Cameron a huge hug...he was so proud of himself for singing in church. And he loved it...and so did we. So glad he got to sing to one of his grandpas too.
We came home and bbq'd porkchops. Then we sadly said our goodbyes to Alina and my parents. Austin cried for 15 minutes after the boys got back from following my parents car down the block on their bikes. Wish we were closer. Glad I got to see my dad on Father's Day, even though I forgot to give him his card. I'll send it.
I'm happy too that my husband is such a good daddy. The kids, even Ella, litterally stop what they are doing the second they hear the garage door when Cameron comes home from work. They run to meet him at the door.... and they really do "wrap their arms around his neck, and give him what? a great big kiss!" Really. Every day. They also tell me he's cooler than me. Austin says, "you're cool too mom. It's just, well, you have to do TEN more things, then you will be as cool as Dad. And I know you always have all the work to do so you can't play with us like Dad." Really. He said that. So... I'm happy they have him. Happy Happy Father's Day to all our dads.

Sneak Peak

A little sneak peak at Cameron's Father's Day present. This is only the second picture I've ever taken with all FOUR of them together... and I love it, even with Ella's pouty little face - that girl wants to be running all.the.time.

school is O.U.T.

The last day of school was Monday

I made these for the kids' teachers and the school office staff - they've helped me a lot this year. I got the popsicle idea from eighteen25. The "write-on" idea was my own. The "stay cool" label gave me the idea for a popsicle party.
So while the kids were finishing up their last hours at school I was setting up popsicles and cookies and lemonade - I felt like I was a kid on a corner setting up a little lemonade stand. I tried to make it fun and festive...it was windy and my decorations blew all over the neighborhood. Nice try, I told myself. I picked up the kids from school and we had a fun little "bon voyage" school party. It was fun. The kids were happy.

Last week was quite the week; every one in the entire city of Mountain Home, it seemed, wanted to squeeze every possible thing into last week. I'm serious, it was exhausting, BUT a lot of fun. {Besides all the last minute school stuff, Cameron and I were in charge of our ward BBQ - I cooked 80 pounds of BBQ pork plus a lot of other stuff for Sat. I also decided that it was a good week to can pickles - glad I did it, they are the most expensive pickles I've ever bought :) but now I know I can do it. We packed in FIVE baseball games and I did my visiting teaching. All of that on top of the extra gluten-free, etc. stuff I had to make and bring with me to all the activities we were in.}

Here's Isaac with some kids from preschool. We went to the zoo. He is shooting Rhino's with his "gun scope". I let Austin miss school so he could go with us. A trip to Sonic for slushies on the way back to Mountain Home made it a GREAT day.

Later in the week, I spent the afternoon with Austin. I loved loved loved his Kindergarten graduation. He was adorable with his arms folded, the way they make the kids walk down the hall, singing his graduation song. And he is so so happy to be going into first grade. He is ready, that is for sure.

The next day I spent the afternoon with Landon's class. He wanted me to watch his play (standing behind a mask, reading lines from a book - but still fun to watch) It was his turn for birthday treats, so I got to eat the donuts I brought in for the class with him. It was also Field Day, and Family BBQ day, so I got to hang with him all afternoon. It's fun watching him with his friends.

This week has been nice. Sleeping in. Hanging out. No one's "bored" yet. We just finished Landon's last baseball game so our evenings are a little more quiet (but don't worry, Austin starts baseball on June 7!) And we had a little Family Council this morning (minus Cameron - he was at work) and came up with some ideas of what we want to do this summer: Friday Fieldtrip Days, Science experiments, visit our Grandparents. We also made up a little schedule and decided on summer chores. The boys decided what order they would do their chores, workbooks, piano practice, and screen time in. Hopefully, this will make it so I can remind them less, we will see.

They're already working on their chores (and they're happy about it!) And, I'm not the slave-driver it might seem. We are working on this little patch of dirt together and then we'll do some planting. It's going to be a psuedo-garden. The boys each picked out their own plants; I'm hoping we will be reaping the rewards of our hard work later in the season.

Aside from this little disaster, that resulted from a fight over the step stool, we're getting along well and settling into summer vacay just fine.

Here is a little video clip from Isaac's preschool celebration. I forgot my camera but had my point and shoot video. He loves loves his preschool songs and his teachers both tell me how much they love when he sings.

Easter at Our House

Oh, Easter! It's almost as fun as Christmas. This year I wanted to capture the true meaning of the holiday, much like Christmas. We spent the week talking about Christ and the Resurrection. We had a Family Night and watched this video.

We also had plans to visit our families in Utah. We decided not to go, though, because of a number of reasons. When I called my mom to tell her she said, "okay, then we're coming there." I didn't tell the kids they were coming and when they woke up Saturday morning there was a lot of giggles and smiles and hugs when they found Grandma and Grandpa and Alina. SO FUN! We spent Saturday morning at Landon's baseball game. {Austin pulled his loose tooth out while we were there - it left his other loose tooth hanging like a moon-shiner's tooth. We laughed at it all day.} Landon was SO happy to get one of the two hits of the game. It was hilarious when he rounded third base and made it to home, paused, looked at us and posed with a huge grin, and then kept running back to the dugout. It really made him happy to have his Grandpa there watching him.

The boys and Alina spent the rest of the afternoon motorcycling at the dunes while my mom and I stayed home so I could do a couple up-dos for some girls from church going to prom. It was fun to do an up-do again...girls and prom, oh the excitement! I'm sure my mom was a little bored waiting for me to finish, sorry mom! Then we did some Easter shopping and made some GF hamburger buns so we could BBQ when the kids and dads got home. Of course we did some egg-dying after dinner. The kids are getting quite artistic. I should have taken more pictures. Landon made an egg for each of his favorite college football teams: Hawkeyes, Airforce, UofU Austin's eggs were most colorful, stamping and dying and coloring and dying again. And Isaac impressed me by writing his name for the first time on his eggs - well to be honest he spelled his name Issssss, but still, he wrote it on every egg. I love how happy they all were. And it was fun to have Alina there too. She was so cheerful and fun to be around all weekend. She's good at squelching the occasional argument between the boys too.

Sunday morning came early! It really was like Christmas. The kids were so excited to look for their baskets and eggs. Since Aust can't eat eggs the Easter Bunny hid plastic eggs with jelly beans in them; more of a hit then the hard-boiled kind, I must say. The boys had fun with their Hex Bugs and Ella fell in love with candy, especially her candy necklace. My mom described it well: she acted like we would act if we found a million dollars - she had pure joy and excitement with every lick.

I also bought some confetti-filled eggs for the kids to throw at each other outside. They braved the cold, and had a great time with the eggs. Then they got the water balloons from their Easter baskets and stayed outside until they were SOAKED! It was freezing outside, but they didn't care. They had so much fun throwing eggs and balloons at each other - I think I'm going to have to get those every year.

We had a HUGE, YUMMY Easter Dinner and then after the traditional 10 minute fight with Austin to get him out of the car so they could leave, my parents were headed home again. It was such a peaceful, enjoyable weekend. I loved it. I know it was an effort for them to come, so Thank You Mom and Dad.

Monday, the day was cloudy and cold but I put Ella in a little spring outfit anyway, because I was in the mood for spring. Later, I was cleaning my bathroom. I had gathered up all the Easter baskets and eggs to put away for next year and they were in my closet. Little Ella-girl came walking into the bathroom with a basket and looked so cute, I couldn't help myself. I had to grab the camera and a little impromptu photo-shoot. I was wishing I hadn't rolled up her pant legs, but I wasn't planning it so I didn't think to unroll them for the pictures.

Green Day 2011

The Leprechaun Traps...last year Austin came home from preschool the day before St. Patricks Day telling me how he HAD to make a trap and catch a leprechaun. He didn't get it. He's been planning this trap {no I'm not kidding} since then. He said he wanted to be rich. "I want to get that pot of gold so I will be rich and have a thousand dollars!" (if only a thousand dollars could make us rich, right?!)

He was worried about getting the trap ready for at least a week. Finally I said, well go ahead and work on it. He did the majority of the work but was having a hard time trying to make the trap door. So St. Patricks Day Eve Cameron helped him put it all together...complete with a piece of fake gold as bait.

Isaac wanted to join in the fun so we made a trap with a laundry basket. But he covered it up so the leprechaun wouldn't go in. (huh? isn't that the point, little dude?) He insisted that he didn't want the leprechaun getting into his trap so, that was that.

In the morning the kids were excited to find a dollar bill in each of their traps, along with a trail trail of green shredded paper leading them to the bathroom. They found a note written on the bathroom mirror, and a shirt, a pen, and a "sticky hand" for each of the boys. Isaac was hillarious yelling, "come out you naughty leprechaun. you are so naughty; you made a big mess!"

Austin couldn't figure out how the leprechaun got the dollar in the trap without setting it off. He also wondered why there weren't foot prints this year...oops. But he was excited for the dollar bill and begged me not to clean the note off the mirror.

Landon was the leprechaun's helper. He woke up early to make sure the leprechaun went potty after he left the gifts... (you know what I mean? green food coloring in the toilet - if you have boys do it... they LOVED it. and Landon loved being a partner in crime. who knew it would make him feel so special?!)

Even though the leprechaun didn't leave her shirt with the others, Ella wasn't left out. Cameron, himself bought this shirt for her. I love when he does things like that. You gotta know, Cam is NOT a shopper. He'd rather do almost anything than shop. So it's just kinda extra special when he brings something home and says, "I just thought she'd look cute in this!"

Landon only had school until 11:30 that day. Cameron was working late that night. So after we picked up Landon we drove out to base and did some more leprechaun pranking. We left a note in Cameron's car telling him he'd been choosen to have "good luck for the rest of his days." from Lucky and her helpers. We left a few little green treats. I wanted to call him and tell him to come look in the car but the kids just wanted to let him find it after work, so we headed back home.

Since Cameron worked until 8:30 that night, I invited a friend over. Her husband's in Afganistan so it was just the girls and kids. We had our own little Green St. Patricks Day party. I made Tortilla Chip chicken fingers for the kids and Cream of Chicken and Wild Rice Soup for us. Everything else was green (uh, except for the bannas you can see in the picture ;) )

The corn bread you see is becoming a staple at our house. Gluten-Free bread is just NOT the same as "normal" bread. But we all LOVE this cornbread. I use it for everything from just eating, to BLT's. We can't eat it more than once a week because it has mixed flour in it, but we make sure to eat a double batch that day! Here's the "normal" version of the recipe...even though cornbread season is kinda over you might like to try it - moist and not too sweet and so so good.

Buttermilk Cornbread:

1 C buttermilk ( I use 1 C rice milk and 1 TBS apple cider vinegar)

1 C cornmeal (I've been using white cornmeal, just for a change)

1 C all purpose flour (I use a combo of rice flour, potato and tapioca starch and xanthym gum)

1/4 C sugar

1 TBS baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

2 eggs, lightly beaten (I use EnerG egg replacer)

1/4 C vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 350. Grease 4 1/2 inch by 8 1/2 inch loaf pan. Whisk together dry ingredients. Stir in milk, eggs and oil, just until combined. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake until golden and a toothpick comes out clean, about 45 min.

Last Weekend and OTHER Random Moments

Cam and I got to go on a little weekend get-away last weekend. I'm now a new believer in weekend get-away's - NOT to GET AWAY from the kids but to be REJUVINATED and RECONNECTED to eachother. A night away is the perfect time for us to be away: long enough to get that just dating feeling back {again} but short enough that it's not too hard on the wallet or the kid-sitters. {Cameron's Parents; thank you, again. the kids had fun... and, we stopped over at my parents house for a night too - our kids never knew we were getting-away, they just had fun with their grandparents.}

We stayed at Little America in Salt Lake. I love downtown SLC. It's not overwhelming like Chicago but still PLENTY to do and see, easy to navigate and, since we're Utes and both lived downtown before {and after} we were married, it feels like home.

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We ate at our favorite places: Market Street Broiler and Caputos - if you're a Salt Laker stop by. Seriously. Market Street has the BEST clam chowder {you'd never know it was clam chowder, by the way, just DANG good soup} and Caputos is a little Italian Deli with THE BEST sandwiches on the planet. Really.

We went to a 9:20 movie at the Gateway. I slept through the WHOLE thing - WITH my MOUTH OPEN. Cameron's been teasing me ever since. I was TIRED!!

We tried to go to a session here at the temple but I realized my recomend was expired just before we got to the door. So we went into the remodeled visitors center. WOW. So much to learn about not just Temple Square, but the LDS church, and it's teachings, in general. Very neat. *if you want to know what we do in the temple, the above picture of a plaque from the Visitors Center pretty much sums it up. (want to know more? click here)

This little girl is growing, growing. I took this picture of her and a few days later put an outfit my Mom gave her on. She looked so cute I took some more pictures. I can't help it. I just wanna capture her cuteness!
FYI at 9 months Ella is 21 pounds, loves meat, she's rolling around to get where she wants to go and can get into a sitting position from laying down, almost crawling, smiling ALL.the.TIME. she's turned into a blanket snob - she will only sleep if she has one of her aden and anais blankets, still has only 2 bottom teeth, doesn't want to be snuggled when she's tired - just put her in her bed, loves to sing songs and play peek-a-boo, dances to music

We finally made it to a pumpkin patch - on NOVEMBER 1. We didn't get any pumpkins but we had fun in the mazes and corn "sand" box and this HUGE climbing pile of hey.

We found a little place in Glenn's Ferry with a "micro" hiking trail. Hiking is not the same here as it was in Colorado. We miss it. But this flat trail was at least {mostly} pretty and had other vegetation besides sage brush.

Landon has QUADRUPLED his AR reading goal twice. His teacher can't move him up anymore levels because the subject matter in higher level books isn't appropriate for 3rd graders. He's reading Harry Potter right now. He read the first four books in September and October. (Book 4 is over 700 pages and he got 100% on his reading test - the kid has a brain like a sponge, I tell ya, like his almost photographic memory dad. crazy) I made him take a little "Harry" break and read some other books - He likes Geronimo Stillton but he can read a whole book in a half hour. SO we're on the lookout for age-appropriate high level reading material (any ideas?). He just started HP #5 today.

While Cameron was on TDY, the last week of October, Landon sang in his Chior concert. He was nervous. He asked me to print off the words to Star Spangled Banner and sang it for 2 days straight to practice, so he wouldn't mess up.

Isaac is such a little wanna-be Big Boy lately. He trys so hard to do everything the older boys do. Earlier this week I took Austin to Target to spend his accumulated allowance money. Isaac wanted something SO much too, of course. So he "bought" these gloves with his "allowance" money. Made him so happy. He's been wearing them every day since.

Austin was the Special Person in his class last week. He got to present this poster and be the line leader all week. He picked out the pictures he wanted to put on his poster. He also drew a couple pictures for his class (the triangle picture is a drawing he drew of the mountains we stayed in when we went to Big Sky and Yellowstone - he even remembered to draw a ski trail)

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lots of fun going on around here lately