Let's Play in the Snow...Even if there is just a little bit.

When we first got to Utah for Christmas, the kids immediately wanted to play in the snow. It had snowed a week before we arrived so there was some snow. It wasn't the best snow. It was the hard, icy, patchy snow. The kids didn't care. And since there wasn't any snow on the sledding hill, Anson ran them around in the yard. They loved it! Anson...not so much...it was quite the workout.
Look at those cute happy smiles! They don't care what kind of snow they are playing in. They are California kids and are just happy to see the white cold stuff.
We had to throw my cute little niece, Lily, on board. She wasn't too sure about the whole thing but did tolerate a ride or two.
Here's a picture of my cute little Lily! I absolutely LOVE her eyes and her beautiful sweet face. It was so great to get to know the personality that goes with cute face. She is a funny little one. We love our Lily!

My Christmas Concert!

Here we go...I need to finish my December posts. It has been a whirlwind of a busy life and can't believe how behind I am.

Camden had a Christmas concert with his preschool. He was extremely excited that he was going to be performing on a stage and would tell me over and over, "If we are bad we can't be on the stage. We need to be respectful." He would tell me this everyday for about two weeks before the performance. I'm guessing the teachers were making the rules very clear.
Camden's class sang two songs. Jingle Bells and Kwanzaa! He did a great job and sang his best. Here's Camden with two of his teacher, Ms. Amira and Ms. Unis (sp?).
Ms. Ana

When we left to the school for the concert, Anson wasn't with us and still trying to get home. Camden was really worried that daddy wasn't going to make it. Anson showed up about the time the program started. Camden did catch a glance of Anson in the audience and had a huge smile. Daddy made it! Afterwards, Camden came down from the stage and gave daddy the biggest hug.
He was soooo happy that daddy made it. We were also lucky to have Kelly and Emma come and Tina, Emma and Allison attend the concert. What great friends they are to take time out of their schedule to watch Camden. Thanks girls!

Very Behind On Posting....

....but hopefully will catch up soon.

I have a great friend, Tina, who has really helped me become more involved with community events. Relay for Life and now Go Red For Women! If you didn't know, February is Go Red For Women month.
One of Tina's dearest friends and co-worker, Rebecca Herrick, pasted away a couple years ago from heart disease. As Tina shared the story and history of her dear friend, I was shocked to find that she was just like me. Early 30's, active, mother of two young children and unaware that her heart was in danger.

Please spread the word this month to all of the women in your life. Take a minute and visit the Go Red for Women website and take the short quiz. If you would like to wear a Go Red pin, you can purchase one from me for $5 (I can mail them). All monies will go to the Go Red for Women American Heart Association! The little red pin attracts a lot of attention, which causes awareness to the disease. You can make a difference!

***
Article written in the Tracy Press, February 13, 2008

In Teacher's Memory

Those who knew her considered 36-year-old Rebecca Herrick an unlikely candidate for a heart attack. But last September, the healthy, energetic sixth-grade teacher died when her heart suddenly stopped.

Unknowingly, Herrick suffered from heart disease — the nation’s leading killer of women. When she died, she left behind two kids of her own, an entire class and co-workers at Kelly Elementary School to mourn her loss.

So when February, named Heart Health Month by the American Heart Association, rolled around, a teacher and the school’s leadership class organized a fundraiser in Herrick’s memory.

Teacher and friend Tina Brown, who had worked closely with Herrick, started selling paper valentine hearts, red pins and red bracelets to raise money for the American Heart Association. By mid-month, the class raised $750.

“It’s just tragic — so shocking,” school secretary Sue Edmiston, Brown’s mom, said today. “Here’s this healthy, fit woman, with no family history of heart problems, and like that she’s gone. But I’m extremely proud of my daughter, who was such a good friend to Rebecca. This fundraiser has been very helpful in her healing.”

During announcements every morning, leadership students offer heart health tips. Walls in the school’s administration office are covered in the paper hearts the class tapes up every time someone donates.

Brown and Herrick first met five years ago, when they first got assigned to teach a class together.

“She was hilarious; she could always make you laugh,” Brown remembered. “And she loved to write; the students remember that about her.”

Leading her students to focus on heart health has been a healing experience for Brown, she said.

“It’s good. It feels good to take such a sad and unfortunate situation and try to make something good from it,” she said. “It was just this reminder that we all have to take care of ourselves.”

The Most Awesome Book EVER. The Cost PRICELESS!

Ok all you bloggers out there I strongly suggest considering, wait not consider, you MUST print your blog into a book. It is AWESOME and PRICELESS in my eyes! Look at my book!

When I started our family blog back in October 2007 my intent was to print it into a book as a family journal full stories, pictures, my kid's art, etc. About 2 years ago I went to blurb.com and downloaded their software and started working on it and to be honest the software was SOOO frustrating I stopped. I kept blogging in hopes that they would come out with something else. Well, blurb must have received many complaints because when I decided to try the updated software last month it was much better and the software bugs were far and few.

So here is what I did. I downloaded blurb software from blurb.com and then downloaded my blog to the software. Selected the 13 x 11 inch book. And bamm! It laid out one days post on one or two pages depending on the size. Now realize you might want to spend time shifting pictures, adding more and fix text boxes. For my 365+ page book, I took about 8 hours making changes to make the book the way I wanted.

My most favorite pages in the book are the full bleed photos. The picture on the left is a 13 x 11 photo of my cuties. The quality of the pictures are perfect. The paper of the book is the thickness of the pages of a coffee table book. Now stop and think how much it would cost to print all these pictures at Costco. I calculated that it would have cost me for just the pictures alone estimating 500 pictures $95.00. The $95 doesn't include any text and would still have to put the pictures into an album or scrapbook. This book cost me $120! That is with a 20% coupon and free shipping.

I love that I can scan in my kids art into the book and toss them. No more stacks of kids papers.

You can choose the color of the fabric on the outside of the book. I chose black and a dust cover. You can also chose to have a smooth hard cover minus the dust cover with a photo of your choice.

Here is an example of photos and text together. Have you figured out how much I LOVE this book. As I was going through each posts in the software, I was quite surprised how much I had forgotten. Blogging has definitely helped me keep a record of our families activities, experiences, comments or just snapping a photo with a silly smile I want to remember forever.

Here are a few pointers when you decide to download your blog (thanks Angie for summarizing my pointers. I borrowed the list from your blog):

1. If there is something you want to write or have a picture included in your book, but not sure you want everyone to see it on your blog, just hit "Save Now" instead of "Publish Post" for that particular post. It will go in as a draft. All of your draft items will download in chronically order with the published posts and you have that memory for your book!

2. You can add/delete/edit almost anything before you publish (upload) your book to blurb to be printed. I say "almost" because you can't change you book size once you have started. It messes everything up. I also heard you can't change the page backgrounds after you start. You loose all your work.

3. It really doesn't take that long to edit your work in the software. You already have a really good draft from your blog.

4. The cost is a great deal. I know that $120 sounds like a lot, but you have to think it is for a 13 x 11 fabric covered (there are other book sizes and costs to choose from), good quality paper, excellent photo quality and text for 360+ pages. Some of my pictures were full bleed where others had up to 16 pictures.

5. One more thing. Once you are ready to have blurb print your book, you only have 14 days to purchase your book once you have uploaded your finished product.

Here is the inside sleeve of the dust cover. You get to write text and include a picture on both the front and back inside sleeve.

So there you have it! I am a huge fan. I am so grateful that Liz got me blogging and Lynne encouraged me to print my blog. I am so grateful I have pictures and stories about my family whether it be good or bad and all the stuff in between. It is our family history done easy for me. Something I know I will be able to keep up with. It is a must! It could make great gifts! Do it! You will love having the book and so will your family!

Day 3 On Our Christmas Break!

I have to title this picture of Camden, "It's Snowing and Sydney and I Are Not Puking!" Doesn't he look so happy? Pure joy...I love it!
I have worried coming to Utah each year for Christmas hasn't allowed us to start our own family holiday traditions. I told Sydney that we might stay in California next year for Christmas so we can make our own traditions and she said, "Mommy, going to Utah is our tradition. We get to play in the snow, see grandma, papa, grandma Hatch, our cousins, aunts and uncles! We also get to make cookies with grandma and go bowling!"
Our kids really have a great time when we visit. It wasn't until she pointed out all of the activities we have been doing while we are here, is that going to Utah is the tradition and what we do with our family.
I guess we will have to keep an open mind on our upcoming Christmas's and let Santa know ahead of time like we do every year. It gives Santa and his elves a little extra work to reroute the sleigh full of toys each year.
I do have to say that there is something about having a white Christmas makes the holiday feel more magical. So who knows where we will spend Christmas in 2010, but I'm glad that we have made fun memories along the way for our kids. I love you Sydney! I love you Camden!

A Family Secret!

My brother, Dave and his wife hijacked my cell phone the other day and posted a status on my facebook. Something like "Lora Shaw Hatch loves seeing all the old places in Utah where I used to make out with boys..." It was a pretty good prank I'd have to say and a lot of fun and laughter came from the post.

Well I think the time has come to tell the story of how Dave and Sarah REALLY met. Everyone has been lead to believe they were set up by their mutual friend, Mike while they were all attending the University of Utah. We were all sworn as families to secrecy and as far as they knew all the pictures of their past had been destroyed. I managed to save a few for posterity. Now if you don't know, Dave and Sarah are HUGE Utah fans and both graduated from the U. I know they are both going to get a lot of flack for these pictures, but if you start playing with fire you might get burned a little. Dave, I'm only telling the truth and the truth needs to be told.

Dave and Sarah actually met through the BYU cheer squad. Dave is on the third row down and center. Sarah is on the the first row 2nd one in from the left. Love the long blond hair!

Dave and Sarah started hanging out a lot more as they would travel to away games and found that they had a lot in common. Can you tell they are flirting in this picture?
It wasn't until they were put as a cheer partnership that they started dating and fell in love. They were only both on the cheer squad for a year until Dave's 5 o'clock shadow started appearing at 10 a.m. (too annoyed to shave 3 times a day) and Sarah's frustration finding a Diet Coke on campus forced them to look for another school. Once they were accepted to University of Utah, they both feared abuse from UTE crazed fans so much that they swore never to mention their cheerleading at BYU. It was for their own protection. As a family, we too feared for them and all took a vow of silence and have been silent for the last ten years.

Dave and Sarah....I just can't keep your secret anymore. I know that your heart pumps UTE red, but your veins are still full of BYU blue. I know this secret has been tearing you apart inside, but I hope exposing your past will help to make you whole again and provide more peace to you and your family.

Yikes...What A Party!

Ok! So we had our Hatch Family holiday party yesterday and had a great time. Since several families were going to spend the night at Anson's parents home, we all moved over to the house to visit a bit more afterwards. While we were there, one of my little nephews threw up. Poor guy. His mom and dad just guessed that he had over eaten at the party and since this happens to him from time to time that is what we all thought. Well, about 30 minutes later it happened again. We grabbed our kids and took off for the night. I didn't want to get what ever he had even though we had already spent the day together.
All was good the next day and everyone felt fine. That is, up until almost exactly 24 hours after we left the house the night before. Sydney started complaining that her tummy was too full and didn't feel good. Then BAMMM! She ran to the bathroom and had to throw up. My sweet girl was so upset. All she kept saying as she was crying with huge tears rolling down her face was, "Not on my Winter break! I don't want to be sick! Today is only my 2nd day on my break! I DON'T WANT TO BE SICK!" Sydney knows what comes with not feeling good too well and was extremely upset. Anson called his mom to see how our nephew was feeling to only find out that 13 members in the house had been sick that day! He got off the phone and then BAMMMM again! It was Camden. Only 10 minutes apart and we had two sick little kiddos. It hit them both hard and fast. They were both just up and playing 15 minutes before I took the picture below.

The poor things threw up for the next 24 hours every 20 to 40 minutes all night long. Sydney slept with me that night and Camden was with daddy. And like I said, Sydney threw up at least every hour through out the night. She was pretty easy to help. Camden a whole other story. Anson would hear Camden groan and only had seconds to get him to sit up before "it" happened. Camden wouldn't wake up! He would "sleep throw up." Anson had to balance the bowl and Camden's floppy body as Camden threw up asleep every hour.
We woke the next morning and the kids were feeling better. It was a 12 hour thing gratefully. They found that our Elroy caught the flu also. We checked in with the family again to only find that the numbers had increase to 26! There was a lot of discussion if it was food poisoning, but most likely not. Those of us who didn't get sick ate the food of those who did get sick. From the time that the first person was sick to the last was about 36 hours. Once everyone was feeling well again, this little bug hit 36 of the 42 family members! That is a whole lot of sick people. Sydney stayed up-to-date with the number of people sick and each time she heard the number go up she would say, "I wouldn't have gone to the party if I knew I was going to sick." I assured her that she should be ok at next years party. It is definitely a party people will not forget and surely talk about each year. I would have to say this was an extreme way to bond as a family, but it does leave us with a good story.

Hatch Holiday Party 2009!

Each year we pack up all that Christmas brings and travel to Utah. This year we drove the 10.5 hour drive with our car super packed thanks to Anson and his ability to make it a Tetris game with all the stuff I throw at him. My family and Anson's family are both from American Fork so it makes for fun visits with aunts, uncles, grandparents and cousins.

Our first Holiday activity happened the day after we arrived. It was the Verlin Anson and Stella Colleen Lear Hatch's holiday party. Their 10 children and 9 spouses (Minus Bryce. Missed seeing you.), and 22 grandchildren ranging 8 months to 13 years old were there. That is 42 people! And since everyone was coming and the house gets a little crowded, Colleen reserved the church for the party. It was very accommodating for dinner, visiting and run around space for the kids.

Here's a picture of Verlin and Colleen's twenty-two grandkids!
Starting from the left: Kadance, Jacob, Kylie, Shelem, Cody, Carter, Tristan, Ali, Mason, Marshall, Kaden, Taylor, Camden, Syndey, Graham, Parker, Morgan, Hyrum, Audrey, Kasidy, Isaiah and Brigham

Below are all of the ten Hatch children, their spouses and families from oldest to the youngest. The Hatch children names are italicized.

Anson, Lora, Sydney and Camden. Take a close look at Camden's cute smile...oh wait, it's not there. He seems to not be loving the camera lately and smiles like this one are becoming more frequent.

Alvin, Adriana, Jacob, Shelem, Ali and Cody
Kyle, Katrina, Kylie, Kadance, and Kasidy Reid
Shane, Sonia, Kaden, and Taylor Leishman. Sonia, Anson's sister, is the person who set us up on a blind date. Thanks Sony!
Aaron, Sherri, Mason, Morgan and Marshall
Bryce (missing), Heidi and Isaiah Poole
Andrew, Melissa, Carter, Parker and Tristan
Ammon, Abby, Hyrum, Audrey plus one on the way.
Alex, Laura, Graham plus one on the way in 3 weeks.
Brian, Teresa, Brigham Hardy plus one on the way.

That is a whole lot of family and we are grateful for everyone making an effort to come, for preparing food, games, arranging the humanitarian projects, those who participated in the talent show and nativity play. It was great to catch up with everyone and a perfect start to our Christmas break!

Holy Crumb! You Have To Be Kidding Me....

First of all, you can't fully appreciate this post unless you have seen and played with Floam. I assume that very few people play with Floam and think about how nice it would be to separate the little teeny tiny pieces by color. Well, Camden was playing with Floam in the kitchen the other day while Sydney and Lora were watching a cake making show. Lora could see Camden's little legs dangling and swinging through the fireplace glass. All signs were that he was thoroughly enjoying himself thinking he was coloring. After about an hour, Camden yelled to Lora to come see. She walked into the kitchen and this is what she found...

Camden had been sorting these impossibly sticky tiny pieces of Floam out by color and was very satisfied with himself. First of all, these pieces are so small that I wouldn't have the dexterity or patience to play with individual grains. Second, sorting out 10 or so grains of Floam amounts to something about the size of a piece of rice, so I would be extremely discouraged attempting to do this.

Lora was truly speechless. She told me she just starred at the little piles and his smiling face with shock, amazement, confusion, concern and shock again. Is this normal? He was so happy and said that he is going to do the whole box of Floam. We believe he will.

So here a picture of his work space. We are not allowed to move or touch the Floam piles. They could be there for a year or two....who knows?

Where Are YOUR Shoes?!?!

Anson had to go to work early one day so Camden and I took Sydney to school that day. Anson was nice enough to get Camden dressed and ready for the ride. He even put Camden into his new "tie" shoes that Camden absolutely LOVES.
After we dropped Sydney off we drove home. I went straight for my treadmill in the garage for my morning run. I told Camden that he could watch TV in my room on the bed if he took his shoes off and put them away. That was it. I ran. He watched TV. At noon it was time to take Camden to school. I couldn't find his shoes and looked around for about 3 minutes, gave up and put on his old shoes. Didn't think much about it. Well, day 2 and day 3 came and his new shoes were missing. We looked everywhere! And I mean EVERYWHERE! I called Anson at work upset and said, "I bet they are in the garbage. They have to be."

Anson came home from work that night and retraced all of my many, many, many steps before going through the garbage. Camden just kept telling us he put his shoes in the corner over and over and over and over again. Anson finally caved and pulled the garbage bags from the garbage can outside. Well guess what we found, his shoes mixed in with Sydney's old birthday cake and party materials. This is not the first for us to find something in our kitchen garbage that Camden has misplaced. It is normally a plate, cup or silverware. It drives me crazy.

When Anson asked Camden why did he throw his shoes away he said, "Daddy, my eyes were tired and not working right." There you have it! That is why he threw his shoes away. His eyes were too tired! I can't tell you how frustrated I was looking for those new shoes. I tore the house apart. Who knows what else we are missing because of Camden's tired eyes. I guess we will never know.

I "Heart" David!

Sydney has had a little crush on a boy named David since the beginning of the school year. She talks and giggles about him all time. It has been really funny to watch these two be uncomfortable with each other. I'm not encouraging a boyfriend/girlfriend relationship in 1st grade, but I do have fun listening to Sydney talk about him when she brings him up.

For about a month a month ago, David wasn't part of her daily conversation with me anymore. I did ask her about him during that time and she told me that he doesn't talk to her anymore or runs away when she tries to play with him during recess. No big deal to her. I asked her if it hurt her feelings and she said, "Nope! He doesn't like girls. He thinks they are yucky." And that was that.

I ran into David's mom at school during the later part of the "non-speaking month" to each other and mentioned how cute I thought David was and that Sydney likes telling stories about him. She replied by saying, "I need to talk to you about Sydney." My heart stopped, I got a big pit in my stomach and felt sick. I was thinking to myself, "Does this lady think I am encouraging my 6 year old to chase a boy or have a boyfriend." I was sure that she was upset. She started telling me that David came to their bedroom one night after being in bed for 20 minutes pretty upset about Sydney. I was thinking "What did my Sydney do to this kid?" David's mom asked David what was wrong and he said, "She doesn't like me anymore. Sydney doesn't try to talk to me or chase me anymore." She told David that Sydney might not do those things anymore since you run away from her or say "girls are yucky." David's mom asked again why he is so upset (he was crying). He said, "Mom, I like it when Sydney tries to talk to me. Now that she doesn't try anymore, I think she thinks I don't have a cute face and ugly clothes." I was shocked! He was having image issues because my Sydney got bored being ignored by him.

So anyway, we laughed a bit about our kids, but she did ask if I would be willing to ask Sydney if she could at least say hi to him and David knows to say hi back. Silly kids! The pictures above are after their month of not talking to each other. You can see the little shyness and silliness in them both. David feels much better about himself. They are even P.E. partners most times. Cute kids....

Swimming Anyone?

The boy is CRAZY! A week ago, Camden came to us and said, "I want to go swimming." I replied, "Camden, it is way too cold. You won't like it." "But, Mommy I want to SO bad." He said. After several arguments back and forth I told him to go talk to his dad. Anson had the same conversation/arguments back and forth and then said, "Come help me clean out the leaves from the pool first so you can see how cold it is."

The daytime temperatures have been around the 40's and night time upper 30's. The water was freezing. It hurts your arm to just pull the leaves from the the skimmer, but it didn't seem to bother Camden and told Anson he still wanted to swim. Anson sent Camden back into the house to ask me. "Mommy, can I please go swimming?" He said jumping up and and down. I finally caved and said, "Whatever Camden, it's going to be freezing cold."

He ran off and put on his swimming suit and outside with his dad. I miss grabbing a shot of him in the pool, caught a shot after though. He took the first step into the pool and told his dad that it wasn't cold. Took the second step into his waist and said it wasn't cold either. Anson asked if he was going to get all the way in and Camden replied, "No, I don't want to get my tummy wet today, just my legs." He wouldn't admit that the water was cold but was sure to tell all of us his tummy didn't want to be wet today.

Crazy boy!

Tis the Season!

Ahhh...Preparing for Christmas this year has been so fun. The kids are the perfect age for all of the magic Christmas can bring. The month of December was full of fun projects and activities for our family.
For one of my cub scout activities, we made ginger bread houses from scratch and then decorated them . Camden and Sydney were lucky enough to each decorate a house after the 8 cub scouts disappeared to their homes. Ahhh..the peace!

Just sitting with my two kids in a quiet house filled with soft Christmas music was just perfect. They had so much fun and each created the perfect ginger bread house.

Sydney's little house is the one on the left and Camden's is on the right. Fun...fun...fun!

Tea Time With My Girl.

All dressed up and with SOMEWHERE to go. Sydney and I went to a Tracy tradition kickoff to Christmas event called Teddy Bear Tea. It is a fancy fundraiser for the local hospital in town that is sponsored by the Festival of Trees.

Tina and Emma invited us to join their table this year. I had a rough idea what I thought the Teddy Bear Tea would be like, but it was so much more than I imagined.

When we arrived, our company hadn't arrived yet so we sat at our table and looked at the beautiful decorated room of trees, lights and table settings. I asked Sydney what she thought about what she saw and she said, "Mommy, I'm kind of nervous. This is very fancy."

I guess in the past, trays of different kind of foods were just left at your table. This year, there were several servers stopping by your table with trays and trays and trays of food every 2-3 minutes. It took Sydney a minute to feel comfortable to "just take what she wanted" without asking me. Her favorite food moment was the hot chocolate and drinking it with her pinkie up just like Fancy Nancy would.

Tray after tray kept coming. Fruit, crackers, different types of tea sandwiches, cookies, cheesecakes and more.

The atmosphere of the room made the experience extra "Fancy Nancy" like and fun.

The girls were lucky to have a second with Mrs. Claus and Santa Claus.

Guess who we saw? Our friends the Riddles all dressed in their Christmas best.

Sydney's ABSOLUTELY favorite part of the Teddy Bear Tea was the Santa Secret Shop. No parents/adults were allowed into this room. I can't tell you how much Sydney loved this experience. When it is your child's turn to enter the room, they are escorted with a Santa Secret Shop Helper with the list of people your child wants to buy for and money. At this point Sydney got to walk around the secret shop to find the perfect gift on her list all on her own. Once the gifts are purchase the helpers then wrap and label the gift! Sydney was done with her Christmas shopping in 15 minutes. She felt so proud and excited! She came out of the Secret Shop beaming and giggling with her loot for her family.

A huge thank you to Emma and Tina for inviting us to join you. Sydney and I will definitely be going back each year. What a fun and special future tradition for me and my girl.

Christmas Countdown!

"Mom...Mom...how many days 'til we go to Newtah?" I get asked over and over and over and over again. "Mom, how many days 'til Sydney's birthday?" "Mom, mom, mom, mom, how many days 'til Sydney's party?" Thank goodness for the paper chain idea!

I told Sydney and Camden about a month ago, let make two paper chains one for each of you. We will do Sydney's birthday, birthday party, when we leave for Utah and Christmas with yellow paper to show you how many days.

Of course they had a great time making their paper chains. Sydney got really good at using the stapler and cruised right through hers. I got to work with Camden on his.

Ahhh...look at the smile! If you were able to see my face behind the camera, you too would see a smile. I knew the 20 thousand "mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom" questions would become far and few with the paper chains. And it has....

Thanksgiving Feast for Sydney!

I had to opportunity to help put together a Stone Soup Thanksgiving feast for Sydney's class this year before Thanksgiving break. The teachers prepped the kids by reading the Stone Soup story earlier in the week. Each child was assigned an ingredient i.e., potatoes, peas, corn, carrots, onions etc. for our stone soup. The first ingredient was put in by Mrs. Walker. The stone. The kids were very excited about the idea of have soup with a stone in it!

The classroom filled with a yummy smell from their ingredients all day.

While we were adding our ingredients, Mrs. Stewart came into the classroom to present the "Green Certificates" to those children who have stayed on green for the whole trimester. I was lucky to have been there for the little presentation and able to see Sydney receive hers.

It's a big deal to stay on GREEN! You never want to be on yellow and never, never, never, never want to be on red. You have to go to Mrs. Stewart's office and she will yell very loud at you. That is what Sydney tells us.

During the morning Language Art centers, I helped the kids make butter for the rolls our upcoming feast. I was quite surprised how much fun the kids had making the butter. We had several baby food jars half filled of whole whipping cream. Next, you just shake and shake and shake for 15 minutes. Voila...you have butter.

Sydney shaking her butter. Keep shaking girl.

You add a little salt for taste and there you have it. It was really yummy and smooth.

Before we had our Thanksgiving movie, we set up several sheets of colored leather for the kids to set on. They absolutely loved it. Dressed with either a Indian head band with colored feathers or a pilgrim hat and wearing a multi-colored macaroni necklace, they sat at the tables with a bowl of their stone soup, a roll with hand shook butter and a Thanksgiving place mat.

Sydney with her Thanksgiving Indian girls enjoying their feast. Julia, Jenna and Emma.

Sorting again...

About every other day, I find Camden in the kitchen after my run sitting at the kitchen table quietly working on Perler Beads. They are plastic beads that you place on a peg board using the different colors to make different designs and patterns. Once completed, you place a piece of wax paper over the beads and use and iron to melt the beads together to hold your design together. Camden LOVES doing this! He will sit for about an hour and sort through the colors to make either a shape with different pattern colors or a shape one whole color.

What amazes me about this 4 year old of mine is sometimes he will bump or drop his shape on the floor before we have melted the beads together and no tears or frustration comes out of the boy. He just picks it up and all the little pieces and STARTS all over. I would be soooo frustrated! This has happen a number of times for one reason or another. Sometimes it has been my fault and I will tell Camden, "I'm sooo sorry sweetie!" His reply to me, "It's ok mommy, I'll just make another one. Don't be sad."

The star that he is working on in the picture above never did get melted because he ran out of green sparkly beads. I tried to tell him to just fill in the center with a different color, but no! He just picked it up and dumped it back into the bucket. In my head, I was yelling "No, then you have to start over." So then he tried to fill the star with all sparkly blue pieces and didn't have enough and dumped it again! This is after sitting there for about 1.5 hours. The boy has a vision and will wait it out until he gets it just right.

Party Time!

Sydney has been imagining her 7th birthday party the minute her 6th year old birthday party ended last year. The invitation list was completed in August with 18 names including boys. I was able to talk her down to twelve and all girls. I don't have anything against her "boy friends," I just wasn't ready to entertain them quite yet. When I asked Sydney what kind of party she wanted she replied, "A Christmas birthday party!" What a perfect idea! Her birthday is in December. Stores a packed full of Christmas decorations, Christmas party invitations, Christmas treats and Christmas activities.

Sydney's party was on Friday, so she was at school while we prepared for the festive party. I packaged 12 hot coco packets, 12 packets of marshmallows and 12 candy canes. The plan was as the girls arrived that they would sit down and decorate their own hot coco paper cup with markers. Once the girls all arrived, we made jingle bell necklaces to wear for caroling to 3 different homes on our street to get the ingredients for the perfect hot chocolate. More pictures and info later in the post....

Here's Camden helping me out by filling up Sydney "No. 7" pinata.

For one of our Christmas crafts, we had the girls make snow globes using baby food jars, glitter, small Christmas ornaments, Kara Syrup and water. The girls absolutely loved this activity and they turned out so cute.

Kitchen ready awaiting for our birthday girl and her guests to arrive.

We also had a cupcake decorating activity. All the colors and toppings were of Christmas yummies.

Sydney arriving at home looking at all that had been done while she was away. So excited!

Happy Birthday sweet girl! She is loving every minute with her friends.

Here are our cute little carolers singing their hearts out to receive one of their hot coco ingredients.

Karen and Connor listening to the party girls and Camden singing "Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer." They did a really good job and sang loud enough you could even hear them. At the first house they earned their coco and were each given a packet to carry.

Second house the girls sang to Daryl. My kids love Daryl. He is just a good guy that loves to laugh. The girls sang "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" and each earned a packet of marshmallows.

Our third and final stop, the kids sang "Jingle Bells" loud and clear while shaking their jingle bell necklaces.

Here is a cute picture of Kelly and Sydney right after their last carol and receiving candy canes.

Once we got home, we filled their cute hot coco cups with warm milk and the girls got to add the ingredients to make the yummiest coco ever.

After presents and our last activity, each girl received a Christmas stocking for the candy they would be gathering from the pinata!

Look at that smile! What a week for my Sydney. Happy Birthday Sydney!

Happy Birthday Sydney Girl!

Happy birthday to my sweet Sydney! I know I say this every year, but I can't believe that she is a year older already. And this year she is 7! What happen to my little preschool/kindergarten toddler? She is gone and here is my sweet little 1st grade girl full of life!

As I was taking Sydney to school today I asked her if she was excited that she was 7 today? Her reply was, "Mom, I'm going to be 8 soon and I have a lot of tickles in my tummy. I'm excited!"

Sydney, the list below could be a 1000 times longer, but here are 7 things I love about you.

1. You are an extremely thoughtful person and always want to make sure that others are happy.

2. You write the cutest and thoughtful cards for people. It's like you write for Hallmark.

3. I love to watch your love for dance and piano.

4. You always try to do your best at everything.

5. I love to find all of your little notes and treasures in your room. You love to put little trinkets in little purses, drawers and containers.

6. Your love for school...everything and anything school. Your teachers, classmates, school work while always having a smile.

7. The seventh reason why I love you.....is YOU! You are treasure to have and we are lucky to have you in our family.

Happy Birthday love bug!

Our Elf is Back!

Look who we found this morning! Elroy our elf has returned. Sydney and Camden have wondered where Elroy has been. I mentioned to them that maybe Santa put him on a special assignment, but would show up soon. Sydney was still worried that he wasn't coming since Emma's elf, Eric had returned and her classroom now has an elf named Charlie.

Today is Sydney birthday so she woke up pretty excited, but I would have to say maybe even more excited that Elroy made it!

As she was reading the letter, she yelled out, "Mom, Elroy couldn't be here early because he had Elf-Asthma and was sick. He had to be in the hospital for 2 days." Wow! We now have two kids with asthma and an elf. What are the chances?

The p.s. of the letter written by Elroy stated that he couldn't help himself and took a little piece of Sydney's birthday cake. I said, "Wow, Elroy should be in trouble for that or have to go to time out (joking)." Sydney replied, "Mom, its ok. Don't get Elroy in trouble. He can have some of my cake."

What an exciting day! Sydney's birthday and Elroy is back!