More Cold Winter

My hands are cold.  I can’t seem to get warm.  I think I have gotten too use to living in the south and don’t do well when it gets cold.  The weather has been odd this week, Thursday and Friday were cold, we even got a dusting of snow.  Then Saturday and Sunday were beautiful, sunny, high about 70 degrees, it felt like spring.  Then it got cold again.  Today is warmer, high of 45.  The ups and downs get really hard for me to deal with.

Life gets really busy.  I have been enjoying the fact that Ruth is getting older and more responsible.  There are times when I need to go somewhere and Neal isn’t home yet, but will be soon, and I can leave Ruth in charge for a short time.  It is so nice, because then it doesn’t stress me waiting for Neal to come so I can leave.  We did this twice last week.  Once so I could go to a meeting at the school and last night so I could go to book club.  She also helped out the baby sitter on Saturday.  The girls are friends and I think she has Ruth help her with things.  It was nice to go out Saturday evening.  We did a BBQ place of Neal’s choice to get in some good meat for his birthday outing.  We also went for a walk and even tried shooting some basket ball.  We enjoyed our evening together.

Friday, like mentioned, we had a small amount of snow fall.  School was delayed 2 hours.  So the kids were happy to have a slower morning and play in the snow before it was melted.  They had lots of fun with it.  Even when I was driving to the school at 9:30 there was ice on the roads, so I was glad we had that extra time to warm up things a little.  

Neal has been working less hours and he came home Friday afternoon and started a fire and we all enjoyed having that warmth in the family room.  He had a fire going Saturday morning too.  It was nice to have him home from work so much.  Yesterday Neal took some time off work to help a single sister in our ward move to Dallas.  It was nice he could help move her things in our suburban.

Saturday I tried riding Ruth’s bike.  That was an adventure.  I was trying to ride around the block but couldn’t make it back up the hill.  It really is just a gentle upward slope in the road.  I had to get off and walk.  It felt good to think that I could still ride a bike and I think it would be fun to try more.  Ruth got an adult bike for Christmas, so it did work okay for me.

Andrew has enjoyed drawing fish.  He checked a book out from the library with lots of fish pictures in it and then he drew the fish on paper.  He is really good with his drawing.  Spencer had earned a treasure box award at school and was so excited to come home and show me his little package of insect puppets.  They fit on the end of his fingers and he buzzes them around the house.  Caleb loved going to preschool and the library this week.  He loves being with his friends.

Yesterday I took Ruth to the eye doctor after school.  She had her eyes checked and all looked fine.  We ordered a new pair of glasses for her.  The boys were playing at their friends home.  When I went to pick them up they were all lively with swords and bow and arrows.  It was a house full of boys, with our 3 and the their 5, they were a crazy happy lot.  I am glad that they have friends.  

Happy Birthday to Rachel today!  I wish we could be closer to celebrate with you.

The boys had fun building this track and getting their trains to go up and down.  They love their trains. 

Happy Birthday to Neal

Last Wednesday Neal came home from work and was telling me how beautiful the weather was and that we should do something to enjoy it.  He wanted to go camping.  I told him I didn’t want to go, the nights are still too cold for me.  After talking about it he decided to really do it.  Friday Neal came home about lunch time and got the car all packed up.  Then after school he took all four kids and drove off on their adventure.  

They went camping Friday night at Colorado Bend State Park.  They had a lot of fun.  The kids loved it.  They stayed warm during the night but were shivering while they ate breakfast.  By the time the sun was up and they were running around everyone was fine and they had lots of fun hiking on one of the trails.  It sounded like a fun trip for them.

My week end was rather quiet.  Friday evening I sewed a pair of pajama pants for me and watched “Little House on the Prairie.”  I got to bed early and slept soundly.  I slept in Saturday and was hurrying to get things done.  I baked a cake for Neal’s birthday and got over to a baby shower that I was helping with.  It went well and I enjoyed visiting with the other women who came.  The food was all so good I didn’t have to eat lunch, I just came home and changed into nicer clothes to go over to the church for a Relief Society Stake leadership training meeting.  I enjoyed that meeting too.  I appreciate being able to serve the women in the church.  It is a special opportunity to serve and help others.  I got home from everything about 3:30 in the afternoon.  I went for a walk, did a few other little things and then fixed dinner, expecting my family to show up any moment.  I sat down to eat, by myself, and wondered where they were.  Then about 6:45 they showed up, tired, dirty and happy!  I am glad that they had a nice time.

Sunday was Neal’s birthday.  He made an effort to come home after church and not do too much clerk business in the afternoon.  He wanted to spend time with the family.  It was nice having him home.  The kids had lots of fun playing with him.  The kids wanted to decorate the house for the birthday.  We didn’t have any balloons and I was looking for something to decorate with and remembered I had some streamers.  I got them out and also found a bag of paper strip confetti.  I remember buying that confetti for a birthday party for my grandma.  Talking to my sister about it, I decided the party was for Grandma Anderson in about 2001.  I had to laugh that I still had the confetti.  I let the kids play with it.  They had lots of fun spreading it around.  We all had a fun day celebrating Neal in our lives.  We enjoyed turkey for dinner too.

Monday the kids didn’t have school for the holiday.  We went over to the park for a picnic lunch and to play with friends.  It was a pretty day and nice to get out.  It was a busy day getting laundry done and keeping kids busy.  Tuesday Caleb had lots of fun going to preschool.  He really loves going.  Today we went to the library and Caleb was so happy there.  I am glad that he can enjoy being around other people. 

Sunshine!

We are enjoying beautiful weather this week.  I enjoy the sun shine, even when the temperatures are cool.  The kids have been enjoying being outside after school, riding bikes and playing with their trucks.  I am once again thankful we have a yard that they can play in.

Andrew and Ruth decided that they are going to read the Book of Mormon on their own.  I found charts for them to fill in as they read and they have both been doing well.  Andrew is also motivated to read the Old Testament reading assignments for Primary that is in the Friend magazine.  He has read things from Genesis and had a good discussion with Neal about the creation.  We continue to read from the Old Testament with the kids.  I thought it was neat that Ruth noticed that the Book of Mormon talks about Moses and she thought that was cool.  I am glad that my children are learning a love of the scriptures.

I finally finished Ruth’s “Christmas” pajamas.  She has enjoyed wearing them.  The shirt ended up a little big and I had to do some adjusting to get it to work for her.  But it turned out cute and cozy.  She is enjoying playing pretend pioneer and setting up house on the back porch every day.

Andrew is excited for scouts to start back up tonight.  He loves to be a helper.  On Saturday Neal was home and worked outside to get the yard cleaned up.  They worked together to move the old leaf compost into the garden area, then rake up leaves on the lawn to make a new leaf compost area.  It was a lot of work and Andrew was there helping most the time.  Spencer also helped some with the raking.  I am glad they are learning how to work.  I think they enjoy spending time with Neal, no matter what he is doing.

Spencer has his front tooth still hanging.  It has started to hang crooked.  I have tried wiggling it and pulling at it and it is still firmly in there.  I am always careful with the kids teeth because I don’t want them to be sad that it hurts.  They are all sensitive about it.  So I don’t put too much force on it.  It is funny how it looks.  One day I found him in the bathroom pulling faces in the mirror and putting his one tooth on the outside of his lip.  It was so funny I took a picture of it.  He can be a big clown sometimes.

Caleb is still amazing me with his knowledge.  He is trying to spell things now.  He got a new alphabet magnet set for Christmas and it is on the fridge.  He will try to spell things, by looking at books or toys markings.  Today he spelled “play doh” while he had it out to play with.  He will be reading in no time I am sure.  Lately when we go somewhere in the car he likes to unbuckle quickly and climb up to the front seat with me when the car parks.  He then sits on my lap and pulls the visor down and looks in the mirror and pulls faces.  He thinks it is fun to see my face next to his.  Today I surprised him by wiggling my ears in the mirror.  I still have ways of surprising my kids with my many talents.  Yesterday we had a preschool field trip to the grocery store, HEB.  Caleb had fun walking around the store with his friends and tasting some of the things they gave the kids.  I am glad it turned out.  I was the one to schedule it and organize our group for it.  I am glad we did something different. 

Friday we got the part for the trike and Neal was able to fix it.  Caleb has been very happy with riding it all over.  Since we were ordering a part for it we also ordered a new bell to put on the handle bars.  The old bell had broken years ago and just was there, but wouldn’t ring.  Now I hear the ring often as they are outside playing.

Friday we had the electricity out for about two hours for no apparent reason.  Caleb and I had a hard time with out it.  I had planned on sewing and he wanted to watch a movie.  So we took a nap instead.  It was needed.  Especially since I have had a cold this week.  I needed the extra rest.  I am starting to feel better and getting going better today.  It is hard to be slowed down.  Friday evening we had the missionaries come over for dinner.  It was good to have them here.  They enjoy the kids too I think.

Friday evening and Saturday we had our new Stake Centers open house.  I went over Saturday morning to help set up the refreshments.  It was nice to see the displays that had been set up and the beautiful art work in the cultural hall.  I am glad I took some time to look at things by myself while it was quiet.  I brought the three older kids over later in the morning so they could see it.  Then at 6:00, at the end, we all went over to help clean up.  Neal had gone over from 4-6:00 to be in the parking lot to help with any security needed.  He ended up sitting in the car with another member of the ward talking and eating pizza.  I am glad he had some social time. 

Yesterday I had a presidency meeting.  Caleb really enjoys playing with the other councilors little girl.  They are so cute together playing and giggling.  Yesterday Caleb had brought crayons and paper to color with her.  I am happy that he can be friendly.  Today I took him to the library and story time.  He was talkative with the librarians and it was cute too.  

I am thankful for the sunshine and the happy kid sounds I hear as they play outside.

Cold Winter

It has felt like winter the last few days.  I guess we have all got hit with this cold spell.  Just down south we haven’t been as cold as up north, but it is cold for us!  I worry about my plants outside.  It looks like they might be dead from the cold.  I guess we will see what comes back in the spring.  I was sad to see my ferns looking brown, they survived the heat of summer but it looks like this cold winter is going to get them.  

We had a great vacation time with everyone at home.  Neal was able to be at home until January 2^nd.  The kids went back to school yesterday.  It was nice to have lots of family time.  We enjoyed playing games, doing projects and playing together.  We were given a nice copy of the “Narnia” books in one binding.  I started reading it to the kids and they love it.  We finished the first book last night and they are excited to start book 2 tonight.  It is fun to share the stories with them, they were some of my favorite as a child.

Monday December 30^th I took the kids to the museum.  We brought our lunch so we could stay a long time.  We met up with some friends there and enjoyed being with them.  We explored everything.  We stayed about five hours!  The boys loved the electric train exhibit and we spent about an hour just in that one room.  Near the end of our time we were in a room reading stories together and the fire alarm went off.  It was interesting to evacuate the building into the cold.  We saw a big fire truck come and then they declared the building was fine and safe.  We went back in, the kids wanted to finish the book we were reading.  We left soon after that.  It was a fun day.

Caleb watching the trains at the museum.

At the museum with friends.

The neighborhood play area is always a favorite. 

Ruth is almost too big to get in the play house.

We went back to the trains after lunch.  

Enjoying some fun building blocks.

On December 31^st we took down our Christmas things.  The kids were excited about helping and took the tree down while I went to the grocery store.  I came home and they had packed up all the ornaments and put the tree back into the box.  They are great helpers.  We were able to get everything put away and our house looking back to normal.  That night the kids wanted to sleep out side.  Neal put up the tent and slept out with Andrew and Caleb.  (Spencer had fallen asleep on the family room floor earlier in the evening and Ruth decided she didn’t want to be in the cold.)  Caleb was so excited about sleeping out, he had so much energy.  I was worried about them being out in the cold, it got down to about 30 that night, but they were okay and had fun.

Neal found the leather jacket in a box and Spencer has loved wearing it.

On January 1^st we did our annual gingerbread house building.  The kids had so much fun with it.  I like doing it on the 1^st when things have calmed down from Christmas.  It has been a fun tradition that my family did when I was growing up.  We had fun decorating the houses with all their candy (a lot from Halloween still).  We also made ginger bread boy cookies and sugar cookies which we decorated later in the day.  In the evening we had some friends over for dinner.  They are moving from the area soon and we wanted to have dinner with them one more time before they go.  They have been in our ward for about six years and we will miss them.

Spencer carefully decorating

Ruth and Andrew did their houses all by themselves this year.

Caleb enjoyed eating the candy as much as decorating with it.

The kids enjoyed wearing their new aprons too.

The final products.

Caleb was riding his trike this week and it broke.  That surprised me.  The front wheel broke completely off.  The bar that connects it to the rest of the trike broke in two.  We were able to find a replacement part on line and have ordered it.  Caleb was sad that he couldn’t ride his bike.  I am glad that we can get it fixed and he will be able to enjoy it again.

Saturday morning the kids were playing they were in a circus.  They got out the costumes and kept changing, from the lion, tiger, dog, clown, cow boy, and others.  They were trying to do magic tricks too.  It was fun to watch.  That afternoon we had friends come over to play.  They enjoyed running around outside and through the house.   Monday afternoon Ruth had a friend come over.  It is nice the kids can have friends.

Caleb was so excited to go to church Sunday and go to Primary.  He was so ready to be with the big kids and not in nursery any more.  He really liked it all, except he told me he didn’t get a snack.  They kids enjoyed their new classes.  Andrew likes that he is in senior primary now and gets to study the Old Testament this year in his class.  We have been reading the Old Testament together as a family for a few months now and it is good to learn those lessons.

It is nice to be back into a schedule with school starting yesterday.  The kids were happy to go back and excited to talk about all that they did.  Today the boys were excited to go because it was going to be a “science day” at school.  At the beginning of each term they have a day they devote to science experiments.  They rotate around to the classes in their grade and do something with each teacher.  I think it is a fun thing for them to do.  Caleb had lots of fun going to preschool yesterday.  He continues to amazes me in his knowledge.  He can count to 100 now, without help!  He is working on addition facts now and knows many of them.  He likes numbers and letters.  He is still working on writing and learning how to control a pencil, but he is getting better.  I am glad that he likes to learn things.  It is quiet this morning with just Caleb at home.

Caleb likes the computer so much, Neal made him a "lap top" to play with.

Caleb wanted his picture taken with the castle and his stuffed snake.

Spencer in his new pajamas.  I didn't get them done for Christmas, but he likes that he has them now.  I am still trying to get Ruth's done. 

Caleb likes to get his picture taken.