Sledding

Grandma and Grandpa Dahle have a perfect little sledding hill right by their house. It is tiny, but the kids love it and get their fill of playing in the now. This is a picture of the kids with their friends, Caleb and Annie, getting ready to go do some serious sledding. Parker, Caleb, Annie and Madi

My Baby is 4!

January 11th was Madi's 4th birthday. I can't believe my baby is already 4 years old. It doesn't seem like that long ago when we were traveling through a huge snow storm hoping to make it to the hospital (I still feel bad for passing someone that had slid of the side of the road, but I was in a lot of pain). I think we got about 12 inches of snow that night. We even had to wait extra long for the doctor to get to the hospital because he had to shovel himself out of his driveway. Madilyn is such a princess and loves anything that is pink or purple. She really has her dad's personality; so for those of you who know Lynn, she is very stubborn and is always teasing. "Pink" is still her favorite blanket and comfort and we are still trying to get her to stop sucking her thumb (again the stubbornness shines through). We are so glad she is a part of our family. The Friday before her birthday, we had a simple princess birthday party with some of her friends. It was very basic, but the kids seemed to have a lot of fun. Everyone came dressed as a princess, we decorated tiaras, played a princess/cake walk, played Pin the Dress on the Princess and ate cupcakes and ice cream.

Princess/Cake Walk

Pin the Dress on the Princess

Opening Presents

The whole crew. Back Row: Lexi, Parker, Madi, and Abbie. Front Row: Annie, Porter and Lillian

Sunday was her real birthday. Lynn made her a toy chest (I will have to say he did a great job) and we filled it with very girly dress-ups. Parker gave her a matching game. She also got a Tinker Bell doll and some princess books. Grandma and Grandpa Dahle gave her a Dora jacket and some Dora toys. Thanks everyone for the fun birthday!

And of course the Belle birthday cake she has been begging me for. Happy Birthday Madi!

Christmas 2008

The kids in their Christmas Sunday clothes the Sunday before Christmas.

We had a great Christmas this year. We did the traditional bowling with Kevin and Candace on Christmas Eve morning, went to lunch and then had a very relaxing Christmas Eve evening. The kids were so excited to leave Santa his cookies and the reindeer their food that they were in bed by about 8:00. They even slept in the next morning. It was great!

We made some gingerbread houses. All along I thought I would make the gingerbread myself, but when it came right down to it, I ended up just buying the gingerbread kits. It was much easier.

The kids with their traditional pair of slippers on Christmas Eve.

We told the kids to walk out of Madi's room with their eyes closed. This is how Madi was walking. It was so funny.

Sketch really enjoyed all the noisy paper.

Apparently this was my year of fitness. I go the Wii Fit, a Fitness Ball and a walking golf cart (everything I have been wanting, but funny they all came in the same year). One funny gift was the re-gift Lynn tried getting away with. He wrapped up the camera mono pod/walking stick that his sister had given me at the Dahle Christmas party. All the while thinking that he had actually boughten it and everything. Thanks sweetie!!

Lynn finally got his dream gift - Air Hogs. Yes, he is over 30.

Everyone in the family got their own light saber. I never new I would learn so much about Star Wars. Christmas day was a lot of fun. It was so nice spending that morning as our own little family. I loved seeing the look on the kids eyes each time they opened a gift. Parker even said that we wishes it could be Christmas every day. I still think once a year is plenty. My parents came down late Christmas afternoon and we had a nice Christmas dinner and of course played rummy for the dishes. It was nice to have them here.

Free Handbag from handbagplanet.com

Thanks Katherine, for this link on your blog. Check this out everyone, you can get a free handbag!www.handbagplanet.com

Happy Birthday Indiana!!

For those of you who don't know, our son's name has now changed to Indiana Jones and must be addressed as such. Needless to say, we have a huge Indiana Jones fan right now and to top it off, he just turned 6!!! I can't believe we have a 6 year old already. It doesn't seem like it was that long ago that we had him.

We decided that this year would be a good time to let him have a real birthday party with friends and if you hadn't guessed already, the theme of the party was Indiana Jones. Parker was ecstatic to be having the party and it seemed to consume our lives for the few weeks before. Finally the day of the great event came and luckily he had school the morning of the party so at least there was something to keep his mind occupied for a little while. However, they had a little celebration in his kindergarten class and when I picked him up he was determined he was now 6 even thought his actual birthday wasn't until the next day. His teacher gave him a birthday hat and pencil and he seemed shocked that everyone kept telling him "Happy Birthday". It was really cute to see how excited he was.

While he was at school Madi and I decorated his birthday cake and by the time he got home I think Madi was more excited to tell him about than he was to see. However once he did see it he told me he just wanted to stand there and stare at it all day. Unfortunately the cake didn't hold his attention for quite that long and we finally had to set the timer for 3 and a half hours just so he would stop asking how soon his party would be.

Finally the time for the party arrived and the festivities began. To start out with, I had made some Indiana Jones bags for each child and once they arrived, they were all able to color their bags while we waited for everyone to get there.

Madi and Parker's decorated bags.

Next we went on a treasure hunt and the first step of the treasure hunt was to eat Monkey Brains. The kids all laughed and thought this was a treat and then I pulled out the brains. I had them raise their hands if they wanted to try a taste and about 4 of them did, until I actually put them on a plate and gave it to them, then they changed their minds.

I know these are rather large Monkey Brains, but you should have seen the size of the Monkey.

Next we went on a walk through our backyard and trees looking for another clue. This clue showed us that we would be chased by a rolling boulder. So they all took turns running down the hill as the boulder chased them. Joshua, Stockton, Caroline, Jason, Madi and Alex

Parker, Ewan, Madi and Annie running from the boulder.

Caroline

Caleb, Alex, Garrett and Jason

Once they escaped the rolling boulder, their next challenge was to jump over the snake pit. Parker and Madi are demonstrating below.

Luckily the snake pit was cleared by all the kids and the final stop in the treasure hunt was to dig through a pile of sawdust to find the crystal skull and other fun prizes.

Finally it was time to eat pizza and open presents and then we had dirt cups for dessert. The kids seemed to have a lot of fun and it was fun to see how excited all of them were to give their gifts. They all seemed to think that the gift they brought was the most awesome. Very cute and thank you to everyone, Parker has a great bunch of friends.

Caroline, Jason, Caleb, Ewan, Stockton, Parker, Madi, Annie, Garrett, Alex and Joshua

Saturday was Parker's actual burthday and becuase of the weather seemed to be a little uneventful. Lynn took him to breakfast and then Lynn worked on the driveway and I took the kids grocery shopping. We were going to go golfing because that is what Parker wanted to do, but the weather didn't seem to cooperate long enough so we decided to go golfing another day and then Burke and Amie came over that night with their kids to have dinner.

We gave Parker a couple sets of Indiana Jones Legos, some books and he got a Rocket Bubble Gum machine from Madi. He woke up crying at 5:30 AM on the day of his birthday and I went running into his room to see what was wrong. He said "I can't sleep, I try to sleep and then I just keep waking up because I want to play with my Legos and I can't stop thinking about them." Christmas is going to be a lot of fun this year. Sunday was finally the last day of his whole birthday celebration. Karen and Kim and Kevin and Candace all came over and we had dinner, cake and ice cream over at Grandma and Grandpa's house.

Here he is with all of the gifts he received for his birthday, including the hat he got from kindergarten. His birthday was a lot of fun and I can't believe how much he has enjoyed building with the Legos. One day he spent about 3 hours straight building and he only quit because we said we were going on a walk.

Gotta Love The Office!!

I absolutely love watching The Office and here is a link to a video of some of my favorite clips. I have been laughing outloud to myself. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7PHL4HXm1o

Inspirational Thought

I recently read the book "The Last Lecture" by Randy Pausch and as some of you know, I wasn't too impressed or as impressed as I thought I would be with Randy's message in that book. I didn't find it as awe-inspiring as I had hoped it would be. Then I recently received an e-mail from a friend with this link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snAjZ8mfoYw and the message struck me like a ton of bricks that this is the so called "inspiration" I was looking for. It is a powerful message and one I should probably listen to every morning. And maybe you won't find it as awe-inspiring as I did, maybe it was just something I needed to hear, but I thought I would share it with all of you anyway and let you be the judge. Enjoy! It is by Elder F. Enzio Busche of the Quorum of the Seventy given at a BYU Devotional on May 14, 1996. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snAjZ8mfoYw