Arabella turns 2!

Today (Nov. 21) my Peanut turned 2! She really has grown so much over the last few months. She is acting like a toddler and not like my baby. She is saying more and more words all of the time. A few great things about her: she loves horses (neighs), cheese sticks, orange juice, pancakes, Elmo and Abby, books, the Sunbeam song, her brothers, running from the back door to the front door with Jon, hugs from Joey, picking out her clothes and bows (this creates some challenges), being a complete joy!

We made #2 pancakes for her with whip cream which was not on yet in this pictures. She actually had chocolate milk (chockie as she calls it) this morning.

She recieved an Elmo and Abby doll and loved them and we let her take them to church.

Peter and I stayed up late last night finishing these cupcakes. She did not really get a cake last year due to the fact we moved on her birthday so I wanted to make a cake (or cupcakes) that would be special for her. Peter figured out Abby's hair- way to go dad! She loved them and so did the boys.

Blowing out the candles. She did one and Jon felt he should do the other because he is just helpful that way.

You will see in the video below that she is not 100% sure about the rocking horse but believe me she loves it. She dragged it all over with her. It was in the kitchen, in front of the TV and next to her chair for dinner. The neigh is loved!

On another note, today marks the one year mark of our departure from Las Vegas. The year has whizzed by. We have been happy here in Texas. We miss our friends in Las Vegas but have made new friends here. We would love our house to sell in Vegas, I really did not think it would take a year. Our final year in Las Vegas was filled with Arabella's birth and many other great blessings and the challenge of Peter's unemployment. We learned so much over that year. As I am looking back one more year it is wonderful to see how the Lord has blessed and directed our lives again. His love for me and my family is so clear to see in so many things. My heart is full of gratitude for the many blessings in my life: job, house, great children, wonderful husband, church calling, gospel, Savior, living prophet, scriptures, family, friends, challenges and trials. I wonder what the next year has waiting- I know it will be perfect.

Four Things

I saw this on a blog I like to look at and thought it would be fun to do.

Four shows I watch:
*NCIS
*The Good Wife
*Bones
*House
(All of these are watched online since I rarely watch TV unless it is with the kids.)

Four place I would like to Travel:
*France (to see Megan and her family)
*Washington DC
*New York
*Someplace tropical

Four things I did yesterday:
*Wrapped Christmas presents
*Cut out shapes from Ham for Jon's preschool thanksgiving sharing feast
*Listen to Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
*Cleaned the guinea pig cage

Four things I'm passionate about:
*Immunizations - people, those diseases still exist and are more prevelant than you'd believe.
*My Conference issue of the Ensign
*Trying harder to let my husband and children know how much I love them.
* I can not really think of another right now- it is 4 am.

Four phrases I say alot:
*"Joey, calm down."
*"Jon put your shoes away."
*"Oh snap"
*"Hurry, get in the car it is time to go..." (the list of places is endless and repetitive)

Four Things I have learned from the past:
*The Lord's timing is better than my timing.
*The Lord knows what is best for me.
*Listen to your parents.
*You will never regret taking time to spend with your kids.

Four things I am looking forward to:
*Working one shift a week starting in January.
*Our Releif Society "Women at the Well" program Dec. 2nd.
*Thanksgiving in Tennessee with Peter's family
*My parents and sister Jana and kids coming to my house for a few days before Christmas.

Four things I love about Winter:
*Hot Chocolate
*Hot showers
*Fires (in the fireplace of course)
*Snow (even though I have lived in places where it rarely snows for the last 6 years)

Four Things on my Wish List:
*To have another baby
*To be better about recognizing and acting upon personal revelation
*A trip to Disneyland-Peter said our next trip will be to Disneyworld which works for me.
*To achieve "my house is organized" state- I think this is a mythical thing, at least for me but one can dream right. :)

I hope you all enjoyed.

Friends at the Museum

So my pictures are in backwards but oh well!

On Monday, Jon mentioned how much he would love to go the museum with the gold windows (ie Fort Worth Museum of History). I decided since I did not have anyting I had to do on Tuesday during the day we would go on an adventure. We invited Jon's friend Emmerson to go with us. I found out that I can take any 4 people I want with me so we are going to have to go again sometime while Jon and Emmerson are at preschool and take Emmerson's mom and little brother.

The newest exhibit at the museum is all about Ancient Egypt. I loved this phot spot they had and each child wanted their trun in the front.
Arabella's turn!

Emmerson looks like she knows exactly what to do.

Taking a break in the dinosaur foot print.

Yippee!

We spent a great deal of time playing with the water exhibit even though it was all in the shade and a little chilly outside.

Bubbles! The kids had a good time in the grocery store and playing in the hospital area.

I would love to go back and spend more time reading all of the information about Egypt when I don't have 3 kids that just want hands on and are ready for lunch. They were really good, especially Emmerson who walked with her hand on the stroller everytime were moving. They all earned a frosty from Wendy's for being so good! It was a great day!

Busy Makers

We have not done too many exciting things lately but we have been working on a few projects.

Here Arabella is helping me to make pizza. She helped with each step and did really well.

Our Stake did roadshows with the youth and Peter helped with the scenery for our ward. You can not see it very well but he did a great job. Our youth did an even better job! It was so fun!

This is something I have been working on as a gift for someone. I am very happy with how it turned out. It took a bit more time than I would have thought at first but so worth it.

Peter had a pack meeting last Friday night and so he was busy making up some awards. He does a really good job.

The one above is for a new cub scout and is a headband.

This one is for a weblos award. And that is Parker Webster below receiving it.

They also retired a flag that night which was a neat experience. I have not seen that done since Girl's Camp and we don't need to speculate about how long ago that was!

The excitement for the holidays is mounting around our house. We are heading to Tennessee for Thanksgiving and then for Christmas my parents and a sister will be coming for a few days before. I feel so very grateful to have the chance to be around family for the holidays it helps make it seem more like home, I guess. I love my little family but you know what I mean about having your siblings and parents around it is...home.

End of October Fun!

This was an unwilling subject for this photo but I had to have a good picture of our Birthday boy! Peter's birthday was on Thursday the 28th and he says he celebrated the 6th anniversary of his 26th birthday-in other words he is 32. Sorry dear!

I am going to brag about this man for just a few minutes. He has been exercising and eating a bit more healthy and has lost 20 pounds over the last few weeks. I always think he looks good but I must say that he is looking great! He is a wonderful husband that works hard to provide for our family and do lots of extra things to help keep me sane. I am especially for his listening ear and words of encouragement as of late. My kids adore their daddy. I am grateful to be married to a man that finds so much joy in his children.
I did not have time to make a cake and Peter did not really care but the kids insisted. I did make his favorite dinner. And so Thursday marked the first of a few days of celebrations.

Friday afternoon we went on a costume parade around our neighborhood- organized by my fried Monique. She had some fun Halloween songs for the kids to sing and they made ghosts from suckers at her house. Jon was a vampire for the third year by his own choice. He has a great laugh for it.

This is the whole parade group. Joey was a front loader. Peter did a great job with the costume.

Out little Fairy Princess. She screamed when I first put on her costume that I had spent hours making but gratefully she loves her wings and so that made it better.

Another shot of the front loader. He wanted to be a crane but we didn't know how to do that so a front loader was a good compromise.

After the parade we carved pumpkins to take to our ward fall festival.

It was a chili cook-off and there were no costumes or trunk or treating (it is a "rule" in our stake). Lots of yummy chili and good desserts.

After that we went to a friends house for a Halloween Costume party. Arabella was the only one that held still long enough for me to get a picture and it is not a great one. The kids made really good use of that drum set and guitar. So funny to watch!

Saturday night the kids got a babysitter while Peter and I attended the adult session of stake conference. It was really good!

Sunday, we had the elders over for dinner. We had a halloween themed dinner. I meant to get a picture of all of it, oh well. This is our mummy meatloaf. Also on the menu were mashed potato ghosts, zombie brains (spaghetti squash), witches fingers (sweet potato baked fries), cornbread, and meringue ghost cookies. We handed out candy to trick or treaters and let the kids eat all they wanted since they did not get to trick or treat themselves.

The first day of November was spent taking care of a sick Joey. He started of complaining of a headache as we were sitting down with the elders. I felt his head and it was warm and his temp was 103.5. Oh my Joey that doesn't seem to know the meaning of low grade fever. We dosed him up a few times but in the morning he was still at 105. I doesd again and waited for the doctor's office to open. He has strep. We started antibiotics but he can not go back to school until Wednesday, which is just about the end of the world for Joey. I thought we were doing better this afternoon when I gave him medicine and he fell asleep but at 5:15 we were at 106. Urgh!! More meds, cool bath, ice packs under the arms (you will see it in his picture), I attempted to get him to eat ice cream but he did not eat much. When I left for work it was down to 103.4. After a few more doses of meds we finally got a 98 at 11. I am really hoping he is the only one who gets this and I really hope he starts to feel better today. I hate seeing my kids sick and it is really frustrating when with all of my knowledge I can not fix it!

Taken just before I left for work.

This is Jon's new smile, lower jaw jutted out. Silly kid!

My sick boy that is still smiling. I love these three kids (and the one man I mentioned earlier), they are everything to me.