Our Happy New Year!

We were excited and grateful to have my sisters family come and visit us for the New Year. We always have a great time with them. We visit, eat way too much junk food and play lots of games. This year we played a bit of scum, hearts, shang-hi rummy, catan & ticket to ride: the card game. We also enjoyed going into the "mountains" and, as Emma call is "go snowing"! If you look at the pictures, we are in snow. But check out the other side of the mountain. complete desert. If we had gone the next day we might not have had enough snow to get down the mountain.
We also went on a fun little hike. It was one that N8 and I had never been on in an area we had never been to. It was called Devil's Punchbowl. It was a nice hike that everyone could do. There was a little bit of mud and snow and a small creek at the bottom. And since we had to go through Lancaster to get home we got a Jamba Juice and Costco run out of it!!
Today we went bowling. The kids love it. They're terrible, but the love it. We should really do it more often so they can actually learn how to bowl!

Now we have to get back into life. School starts back on Monday. I'm ready for that! We have taken down part of the Christmas decor and need to get down the rest. This week I'm also going to do a little goal setting lesson at mutual for the YW. I taught a RS lesson a few years ago on the subject and they want some of that same material. Luckily I still have the file!

Have a great week!!

Did you have a Merry Christmas?

We did at our house! Last year we made graham cracker gingerbread houses. This year we took another step up and bought a kit. All premade gingerbread. All I had to do was add water to make the frosting. My kind of ginderbread house! Can you tell that Emma really enjoyed it!! (we don't normally let her sit on the countertop btw!
Christmas morning with little kids is great! They were so excited to find that Santa had drank the milk and left only crumbs behind from the cookies on the plate. It's fun that we have a fireplace that we can hang our stockings at!
Opening presents, we had to assign Bud and Emma spots that they could sit! That way they couldn't take over someone's present opening! Some of the highlights were Bud's Indiana Jones Legos- Emma's princess scooter- Mo's super bouncy ball- N8 wrist GPS and my copy of Office 2007.
On Friday and Saturday we decided to tackle 2 different home improvement projects that I have wanted to do for quite some time. First we spray painted our brass fireplace insert black! I think it's a huge improvement and it only cost $5 to do it!
Then we painted our fireplace wall a gray/brown. The color matches the grout in our fireplace. I think it looks great, but now I need to refigure my mantle decor!!
On Christmas day I got to talk to all but one of my siblings (we talked to him the next day!) and my parents in the Dominican Republic. N8 got to talk to all of his family as well. That is one thing I love about holidays-getting to talk, or see our families! This week my sisters family is coming to visit. We love having them here. We play lots of game and visit and the kids have a blast! I'll be sure to take lots of pictures.

I hope that everyone had a safe and happy Christmas!

Have a Very Merry Christmas!

One of the traditions that my mom had growing up was to get us a new Christmas dress to wear to church. I always love an excuse to buy Emma a new dress. I also try and find a new tie or shirt for Bud and now Mo as well! So we took the opportunity Sunday morning to take a few pics of us before heading off to church.

I was happy to be able to attend church this past week. Last year our ward did their special Christmas musical program 2 Sunday's before Christmas. That meant Mo was only 5 days old and not ready to venture out to church quite yet. So, I appreciated getting to listen to the beautiful music (and getting N8 to sit with us during sacrament meeting!). It was a cantata of Silent Night (some of it sounding similar to this version by Manheim Steamroller)

Stille Nacht (Silent Night) - Mannheim Steamroller
I hope that everyone has a safe and Merry Christmas!

It came and went and it turned out well...

So last night was our RS progressive "thingy". I of course stressed about the food I made and about how my house looked, but in the end I enjoyed it and I think people that came did too! My house was the dessert house and we had a cheesecake theme. We had: Pumpkin, Mint Chocolate, Peppermint, Raspberry and Plain cheesecake. Members of the RS pres and board brought these. Then I made Chocolate covered peanut butter pops and dark chocolate cake pops.

I had seen the idea for the cheesecake and cake pops on a few different blogs and I got the recipe for the peanut butter cheesecake from foodnetwork.
Here you go:
Cheesecake pops
Cake pop idea-1
Cake pop ideas-2
Peanut butter cheesecake pop recipe

Merry Christmas from us!

So, it's that time of year where we send out Christmas cards and let everyone know the in's and out's of this past year. I had fun working out our letter and our "family picture" for the year!
We actually chose 2 different pictures. Some got one and some got the other! I just didn't want to decide!

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Merry Christmas! We've had an exciting 2008!

Each of us is healthy and well
Ready for what the next year will bring
Reading, running, and recreation have kept us busy
Year-round fun with 3 little kids!

Church callings are keeping us busy; Nate is now in the Bishopric and Rachel serves on the activities committee
Hawaii got a visit from Nate, Rachel, and Matthew this year thanks to Nate's business trip to Pearl Harbor
Rachel continues to work on her vinyl lettering business and enjoys keeping up her blog (vinylchitchat.com & n8swife.blogspot.com)
In Nate's spare time he did some hiking, backpacking, and trained for his first 5K race
Sometime in there we made some trips to Idaho and Arizona to visit Rachel's parents before they left on a mission to the Dominican Republic
Time really flew by and we're now coming to the end of another year
Matthew turned one and is now walking!
All of us enjoy the great Ridgecrest weather
Soccer kept Benjamin on his toes this fall

Together we have watched movies, played games, and had lots of fun
Helping Benjamin learn all 13 Articles of Faith has been great (he has them all memorized!)
Emma's in Preschool and learning to write her name

Keeping up with Matthew's love of unloading cupboards has not been easy
Involvement in the "Yes on 8" campaign taught us be politically active & fight for what's right
Many thanks were given once the election was finally done
Benjamin is now in the 1^st grade and loving every minute of it
Laughing, singing, and dancing are some of Emma's favorites!
Every year we give thanks for those blessings we've received
Remembering our Savior's love for us all
So we hope you have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!

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'Tis the season to be busy....

This past week has been busy. N8 was on travel and I had a lot of vinyl things to get done. On top of that we had Mo's birthday. We celebrated a little late so that N8 could be there.
Do you see the fear on his face?? It took a few minutes of persuading, but he eventually dug in and loved his first birthday cake!

Opening presents consisted of me, Bud and Emma opening, while Mo walked around playing with the paper.

We also got our Christmas tree decorated. I don't know how long it will stay that way, but at least for now it has decorations!

I've been working on decorating the whole house. This week I'm one of the houses for our RS progressive thing (I'm calling it a thing, because we're not actually having dinner and we could never figure out what to call it!).
I'm almost there with everything, now I just need to clean and make cheesecake!

Since N8 flew back into LA, we decided to drive down and stay at the temple. The LA temple has apartments that you can rent so you can stay right there. They are much cheaper than any hotel nearby and it made it easy for both N8 and I to get a session in. It was also great opportunity for the kids (and us) to see the Temple lights.
I will admit that I am partial to the Mesa temple lights, but they were really nice and it was nice to stay right there at the temple.

The kids are so excited about Christmas. It's fun now that both Bud and Emma understand both the story of the birth of Christ as well as about Santa. Emma got to sit on Santa's lap this week at preschool. She was very precise in what she asked for-Little Ponies. We'll see if Santa can follow through on that one!

Mo's 1!!

So my little guy is 1! A year ago today he came into the world, much more planned than his older sister. Unlike Emma, I was induced the day Mo was born. My mom was here to help take care of the kids (although she was able to make it to the hospital and be there for his birth). Mo's a very happy baby. He's even happier now that he's learned to walk. I expect that by Christmas he'll be running. You can't help but smile when you see his smile and he's a snuggler! Everyday he does something new that just brightens my day. He is a perfect fit for our family and we love him!

Enjoy the slide show. If you want a little background music with it there's a song under it!