Our New Car

For several year ago Nate made a promise to me that when we got out bonus from his work for reenlisting we could get a new van. We decided that we would get one a little early and just get it before he goes to Iraq. We have both been researching new vehicles for a while now and have found a couple that just happened to be sold the very day that we call. We have not been having very good luck as far as that goes. Then Thursday Nate came home from work and decided that we could just fix up the van that we have now. The very van that has over 187,000 miles on it. He was convinced that for only a few thousand dollars we could fix the van and it would be good to go until it hit 300,000 miles. Needless to say with much pouting and begging Nate and I finally went out to look for a van on Saturday. And this is what we came home with. It is a Honda Odysses (that is what our old one is and we loved it). It has leather seats with seat warmers. It comes with Navigation and DVD. It has a 6 disc CD changer, a moon roof, and a back up rear camera.

I felt really bad because we were supposed to take the kids to the movie Saturday night but did not get home in time to do it. I felt so guilty all of the way home from Boise. But, as we pulled up and the kids came running out they were all so excited to go for a ride that they didn't even care that they missed the movie. It's a good thing that kids are so forgiving. I wish that all people were that way.

It really isn't dented it is just the shadow from the house that makes the van look that way.

This week

This week has been a week of ups and downs for me. I felt crappy on and off all through out the week but I survived. On Monday I went with the YM and YW sledding. I am not one for cold weather so I sat in the car and watched from a distance. The kids all had a great time and that is what is really important. Nate who was supposed to have the day off had to go into work so he took the 2 younger kids with him. They had a blast hanging out at daddy's work. I am glad that they got to share that with him. On Tuesday I got to babysit this little fella. I had such a blast having a little kid running around the house (although he wouldn't talk to me for the firs 45 minutes or so). And isn't he adorable look at that cheesier he gave the camera. On Wednesday Tyler had his Pinewood Derby. This year he decided to go for looks and not for speed. His car was a shark. He got an award for his car being "the most fintastic". He had such a great time showing off his car.

If you look closely you can see the arm that is hanging out of the sharks mouth. Nate and I have decided that we need to go out as a family every Saturday from now until he leaves (Feb 20). So bowling we went. This is the only picture that I took the whole night long. I am not sure why that is but that is what happened. Ella would have certain lucky positions that she would stand in while she was bowling this was one of them. And yes before you ask I do bowl with bumpers.

This week Ella has said some funny things to me. She said "When I grow up I am going to teach kindergarten and change my name to Miss Ytuarte" That is her kindergarten teacher. She also asked me if I had Miss Y for a teacher I told her no because Miss Y was younger than I am but she just can't wrap her head around it. Then she also told me "I don't want to marry a boy without hair on the top of his head. EWWWW" She is such a funny girl.

What I have been up to lately

I am not one to decorate my house much for the holidays. I wish I were. I am going to try harder to do at least something little to show off the holidays in my house. So this is my attempt to bring Valentine's Day into my house. I made this and they are supposed to be balls that hang down from ribbon but, I ran out of fabric so this is how I compromised. It will do for now.I also needed something to keep track of FHE. Every week the kids are asking me who's turn it is to plan the lesson (BTW the big girls teach from their Personal Progress book and Tyler teaches from either Preach my gospel or his Faith in God booklet it makes things so easy around here.) This is what I came up with.

This is what my kids had a choice from for their dinner last night. Doesn't it sound tempting to eat. Natalie and I then threw together their bowls off of what they marked to eat. Whale blubber- Chicken gravy, white chocolate- rice, worms- chow mein noodles, squash- pineapple tidbits, dandelions- green onions, play dough- cheese, cherries- tomato's, grass- green pepper's, tires- sliced olives, caterpillars- chopped celery, angel hair- coconut, sun slices- Mandarin oranges, sticks- sliced almonds. Which ended up making Hawaiian Haystacks.

The kids had to eat what they ordered (which was the first time that none of my kids complained about eating things that they don't like). Tyler had to eat rice, cheese, olives, and green onions. None of which he liked but by the end he decided that he liked rice and olives. It was a fun way to switch things up a little.

My week

I decided that I was going to document a day in a life of me and that didn't work so well especially since I started to document it after school instead of before school. Maybe I will try it next week. But this is what I did document for the day.This is what Ella does every time she eats this cracker snack. She only eats the inside and saves the rest for the dogs. It is so frustrating because I just paid for the whole snack and she only likes the insides. And she picks that snack to eat almost everyday.The weather for the week has been so weird. Some of the week it was cold and so overcast my living room was super dark (which it never is... It is the lightest room in the house). Then the next day the sun was out and it was 48 degrees outside.Ella this week has really tried my patience. This night she was throwing a fit in the living room and just wouldn't stop so I told her to go to her room to cool off. Of course she didn't want to do that so I had to take her there. But not without first chasing her around the kitchen and living room 3 times. After I got a hold of her I started to take her down the stairs and she grabbed onto the hand rails. I pulled and pulled but she would not let go so I had to pry her fingers off the railing. I then got her into her room to which she screamed like a possessed child. When I left her room I went into my bedroom. I think she thought that I was upstairs because she said "I am not alone in here you left Otis". But she did so quietly in that sneaky I am telling you but you can't hear me anyway type of way. I immediately opened her room and called Otis out of there much to his relief. My poor ears paid for it later as she screamed her lungs out.She was screaming so wildly that poor Tyler came down crying because Ella's screams were scaring him. And yes taking pictures was my way of dealing with the situation.The next day Ella woke up happy and told me that she could never be mad at me for so long and that she loved me. She got into the bath before school started. She insisted on wearing the goggles that came with one of her toy dogs she got for Christmas.Yeah she is cool like that in her goggles.

And although it was a rough week I got to end it with a bang. I got to go out on a date with my honey on Friday night and hang out with the girls (Heather and Kayleigh) on Saturday night. It was a much needed and very fun break.

My New Canvas

This awesome Canvas is the canvas that I ordered from Canvaspeople.com. They were having a special. You could get a free 8x10 or $55 off any size bigger then that. So of course I had to get one that was bigger. I have been wanting to get one of the family forever but I didn't have a family picture that I was in love with enough to spend the money on it. But lucky me I have a picture that I love AND it wasn't super expensive!!!

Year in Review

I did this on Facebook today but, I couldn't just do one I had to do three so that I could get all of the important points in for the year. It is super cute I think anyway.

Very Productive Friday

This Friday I got a lot of things done and all before Ella went to school. First thing I did was make my own instant oatmeal. I made the recipe times 20. But it only made 12 baggies for me. My kids love oatmeal so much that I doubled it to 2 servings per bag. If you are interested here is the link for it www.prudencepennywise.blogspot.com and off to the left it is in the oatmeal section.
Then I made these better then store bought granola bars. As you can see Ella and I both had to eat one before I took the picture. Here is the link for that recipe. www.makeandtakes.com/mini-chip-granola-bars I then made some wheat thins. Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures of the wheat thins although they were very yummy too. You can find that recipe on www.everdayfoodstorage.net. I prefer them made with the poppy seeds verses the sesame seeds. While all of my food was cooking I cleaned out some cupboards in the kitchen.

After I was done with those projects I still had one more project that I had to do. Ella had to decorate a snowman for school. The snowman was supposed to be decorated with at least one parent. We had fun decorating it together. Every suggestion that I made for the snowman got rejected. But of course it was her project not mine. It turned out really cute.

New Years Day

We had a pretty uneventful New Years Day! We mostly just hung around the house. The little kids had a great time playing in the freshly fallen snow. I on the other hand just stayed in the house and read my book. Which on a snowy yucky day it is the best thing to do.

Happy New Year

These pictures are all put up backward but hey I am just not going to fix them. New Years Eve was celebrated a little different this year. The big girls went to their friends house for a party so I decided to throw one of my own. But before our party could start we had to go to pick up my friend from the airport in Boise. Her flight came in at 9:00 but she told us not to worry about getting to the airport until 9:20. Because of the horrible weather we had to leave the house at 8:10. We made it to Boise just a little before 9:20. We were able to go a whole whopping 40 MPH on the freeway. My friend called to let us know that the airport security would not let anyone go and get their luggage. We had to wait for about 30 minutes until she was allowed to get her luggage. We finally made it back home at 11:15. We saw about 5 slide offs and 2 roll overs on the freeway.

After we dropped my friend off at her house we came home and finished watching Shorts the movie we were watching before we went to Boise. Then we played Pictureka and waited until midnight. At midnight we set off poppers and drank some bubbly (both the younger kids preferred the red grape to the white grape juice) and we ate some milano cookies and went to bed. We had a great time as a family. We hope that our 2010 will be as great as our 2009.

This silly girl

Ella's teacher told me a story of Ella. Ella got done with her assignment really fast like way too fast to actually of completed the work. The conversation with her teacher went something like this.

Miss Y: "Ella are you done with your work already?"

Ella: "Yep."

Miss Y: "Oh did you color, cut and paste it already?"

Ella: "My mom says that I don't have to color?"

Miss Y: "That doesn't sound like something that your mom would say."

Ella starts to rub her CTR ring that she wore to school that day.

Miss Y: "That is a nice ring what is it?"

Ella: "It is my ring that helps me to remember to Choose The Right." Continues to rub the ring.

Miss Y: "Oh is it helping you right now?"

Ella: (long pause) "I will go color my paper."

Top 9 of 2009

I wish I would of done this before the new year but oh well, no turning back. Here are the top 9 things that happened to me in 2009. These are really going in no particular order they were all fun and important to me.

9- Ella started Kindergarten. She was anticipating this for several years now and luckily it is all that it is cracked up to be.

8- Tyler earned his wolf badge. This took some last minute cramming but he got it done.

7- Natalie and Nichole started Young Women's. Although I find Y/W funner then they do. I love having them in there with me.

6- Sang in Messiah. I enjoy singing and I am not the best singer but it was fun to meet together with a group and sing once a week.

5- New Moon. Now this isn't New Moon itself it is all of the fun that I had leading up to New Moon. Hanging out with JoMama and staying up so late.

4- Broken Leg. Well this one I didn't enjoy as a matter of fact this would go on one of my all time worst experiences. But as everyone knows when you have a bad experience like that you learn from it and grow. Heavenly Father taught me some valuable life lessons that will stay with me forever. I just wish I didn't have to break my leg to learn them.

3- Seeing old friends and making new ones. I was able to go on many fun trips this year. I went to Georgia to see Lesley (who I hadn't see since my last trip over a year before this one), I went to Colorado to see my brother and Trisha (who I hadn't seen since the winter after I moved from Arizona), I went to Bend to see Tessa and my new niece Olivia. I went to Utah and was able to see Carolyn (who I hadn't seen since Christmas time) and Mindy (who I hadn't seen since she moved to Korea the previous year). It was great to see all of my friends that has been placed all over the world. (and to answer your question JoLynn I one day I will make it out to Alaska to see if you got that package for me. Plus bonus Mindy lives there too!)I also got to make new ones this year. Heavenly Father has blessed me with some amazing girlfriends. I am so lucky in that and so thankful for that.

2. The first annual girls weekend. My mom and sis came to Boise to spend some quality time with me and did some great Christmas shopping done.

1. The many temples I got to go to this year. I was to see many temples this year although I didn't always get to go inside of them. And some of them I just haven't been to in a long, long time. I got to go to the Atlanta, Georgia temple, I got to see the Denver, Colorado temple (it was closed when I went), I got to go to the Salt Lake City Temple- twice. Once with the Young Women and once with my husband and his parents and as luck would go it was closed when we went. I got to go to the Provo temple which I haven't been to since I was in Young Women's myself. It was also the temple that I was sealed to my parents in. I got to go to the Timpanogas, Utah temple (which I haven't been to since my friend Carolyn got married) and witness the sealing of my brother and my wonderful sister in law. I also got to go to the Boise temple. I know I go there all of the time but, I don't get to go there to see my girls perform Baptisms for the dead there all of the time and it was their first time going.

So those were my top memories of 2009. I challenge each of you to think back on your blessing of the year and blog about 9 of them.

Happy New Year!

While I was in Utah I looked at Nate's Grandparents fridge and noticed that the pictures of my kids that they have hanging up are about 3 years old and I figured that I should update them. I also thought that Nate needed some picture's for his wallet before he left for Iraq. So I took a couple of different pictures of the kids but I think that I will only develope the portrait pictures of the kids for the wallets. But there is no way that I can just take the portraits of my kids. I had to throw in some other poses too. The whole set of pictures took about 20 minutes for me to do. I think my kids are way to used to me doing their pictures. Oh and I threw some of the dogs in too. Poor Otis. You will see what I did to him. HEHEHE!