Hinckley Challenge

I've joined the Hinckley Challenge at the recommendation of my good friend.(You know who you are :)) I was late joining so I'm a little behind but I'm determined to catch up in time to complete the challenge. I thought that posting my progress on the blog might help me stay motivated on those days when I could fall asleep walking and don't feel like reading my scriptures. Bad I know. If any of you would like to join go to http://www.hinckleychallenge.com/. I would do that nifty thing where you write click HERE and it sends you there, but I'm not that computer savvy.

Demo Day

So, we've started our first big home improvement project. This morning Benji and his friend tore out our plaster and lathe ceiling and wall. It was quite the mess, but we are excited to be on our way. Yeah!

Saving the World

I've returned to the land of the bloggers. We had a wonderful Christmas in Utah and Idaho visiting family, and George just had his 5th birthday. Whew! I think I'm getting old! One of the biggest highlights of our trip to Utah for me was watching Ella fall in love with Grandpa. They were pretty inseperable. She really misses her Grandpa. Another highlight was playing with cousins. The boys had so much fun! There were a million other highlights that I won't go into right now.

As you can see, dressing up is the number 1 activity at our house. The boys are always one super hero or another. So, I thought I'd share some of our most recent adventures: The Incredibles with cousin Jack, the Ninjas, and the Power Ranger.

Before I log off I just need to share our doctor experience from today. We are having an ice/sleet storm today so I had to brave the roads to get George to his scheduled check-up. When we got there the doctor told us that he would be getting some shots today to get him all set for kindergarten in the fall. You would have thought that the world ended. George was crying and screaming and fighting me. I had to pin the kid down so that the nurse could give him his shots. Is this a normal 5 year old reaction? Because I don't remember loosing it like that when I got my kindergarten shots. Anyway, in the parking lot on the way to the car we were still a little worked up and George slipped and fell in the slush. Instead of standing up quick so he didn't get more wet, he simply sat in the big cold puddle and screamed like a girl at the top of his lungs (I heard it echo off of the ice laden Susquehanna River) and then yelled for everyone to hear, "I just can't do this!" It was a pretty dramatic moment. I laughed at him, and I think every person in that parking lot thought I was a mean, terrible mother. The kicker is that after all of this he wanted to know if he had been brave enough to get his treat, because of course I had bribed him. What was I going to say? "No you weren't really brave enough." That's what I get for bribing my kids.

Snow

It's officially winter time. It has been snowing! No chance of a brown Christmas this year I think. Unfortunately, George and Ella have been sick so the kids haven't had much time to play outside. Yesterday I finally gave in and let them play for a few minutes on our way home from the post office. They loved it! Well, everyone except Ella. As she's still not walking she spent most of the time sitting in the stroller watching the boys.

We've officially packed our first suitcase for our trip to Grandma and Grandpa's house. Only one week to go! I think I'm more excited than the kids.

Thankful Day

Everyone is so quick about getting their posts up. I'm lagging a little behind here. We had a great Thanksgiving with lots of pie! B spent the first part of the day helping a family in our Branch cut wood to heat their house this winter while the kids and I started on dinner. The boys were fascinated by the idea of the turkey. We don't usually see our food in "animal form" if you know what I mean. Frozen chicken breasts don't really scream "cluck cluck" to the casual observer. So, after turkey anatomy 101 we got things rolling. For dinner we had some good friends from church and one of B's old mission companions over. The boys hit it off well with the mission companion. They both call him by his last name, like their dad (I hope he doesn't mind!), and gave him a run for his money in an all out wrestling match. The weather played us a couple of tricks throughout the day. It started out in the 60's, then it rained cats and dogs for a short while, and by evening it was freezing!!! But, B managed to get the outdoor Christmas lights up before it got too cold. Yeah! Ah winter. Kinda makes me miss CA where we ate Thanksgiving in B's uncle's back yard!

Sorry, no pictures this time. It's late and I don't have the patience to wait for them to upload with our slow connection.

Christmas here we come!!!

The Knight, the Dragon, and the Pretty Princess

So, I'm finally getting around to posting about Halloween. Sorry to all you who have asked me about a picture! The Halloween costumes really came down to the wire this year. George broke some of his armor and I had to re-do the elastic around Isaac's wrists because I made it too tight the first time. So, with all the repair work I didn't get the zipper put in Ella's dress. I ended up just tacking on a couple of hook and eyes and calling it good. But they got done and they were cute! We had fun at the Branch Halloween Party on Tuesday. The kids played games and went trunk-or-treating and then on Halloween we met Benji at the Hall and trick-or-treated up and down main street. At dusk we marched in the Halloween Parade up main street-a great tradition in my opinion. It was fun to see the different personalities of my children when it came to this holiday. George loved dressing up and imagining all kinds of knightly adventures. He didn't care so much for the candy, and was in fact the first to suggest we be done trick-or-treating. Isaac, on the other hand, is all about the candy. The only reason he got dressed up was to get the candy. He insisted on carrying his own candy bucket the entire night (George ditched his in the stroller in order to better carry his sword) and was very good at encouraging his brother on to the next doorstep. Ella just wanted to do whatever her brothers did. She was not content to sit in the stroller and held out her hand for her share of the candy at many of the stops. I don't think she quite understood that what she was getting was candy. She was quite content just to hold the brightly colored packages. All in all it was a fun night! George is already planning his costume for next year. He's fluctuating between a bat and Buzz Lightyear-specifically a plastic Buzz costume with wings that pop out when he pushes a button on his chest. Please let him choose the bat!!!

Ray of Sun

I've had a very gloomy week this week, with the exception of one day. On Monday we took a day trip to Palmyra. It was my first time seeing the church history sites and it was beautiful! We had our own small miracle in that it rained the whole drive there, cleared up and was super nice while we were there, and then rained the whole drive home. The sacred grove was amazing with the leaves just starting to change and the kids really enjoyed the visitors center at Cumorah's Hill. Unfortunately, the Temple was closed and we couldn't see it very well through the trees and such from the gate. But, there's always next time! Little shining days like these are what give me the strength to keep going.