Birthday Breakfast

Noelle's 6th Birthday

Noelle modeling her new cat blanket.Noelle with her maracas. Her wish was for a drum set. She settled for a tambourine, triangle, maracas, and some other noise makers!

Birthday Spankings!

Time Off and Back to School

The girls had an extra day off this weekend. So, they have been playing. The rubbermaid contains some toy wrapped in foil. The picture below I guess is self explanatory. Really, none of it makes much sense to me!





Holy long hair batman! It was high time for some new do's at our house....




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Ahh, that's better!

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Back to homework (at least for a couple more months)



I even got a new do, but this is the best photo I've got. I tried to get one of the front of me and I just don't like any of them! I do, however, like my new bangs!

Random Bits

Is it ok if I skip blogging about Christmas? Do blogger laws allow for that? It was a fine Christmas, but do you want to know a secret? Christmas is not my favorite holiday. I feel like a traitor saying that. I think it is so important that we celebrate the Saviors birth and the time spent with family is awesome, but beyond that Christmas leaves me feeling like something is missing in my life. It may be that I need to do better at losing myself in the service of others, but it may be something bigger than that too. I could write a lot about my thoughts and feelings on Christmas day, but I'll spare the occasional reader and save it for my private journal!

On to January...
Two happy girls sporting their new winter gear. How can I not just be full of gratitude with two beauties like this blessing my life?




Socks in their hair! It turns out Dad's socks make some pretty nice curls and they are nice and soft to sleep on.


In January I re-stock the 72 hour kit with new clothes for the girls and I rotate the food. The other night the girls were having a rough night. Daren was out of town and they were upset and missing him. At bedtime they both found comfort with their favorite stuffed animals. It occurred to me that in an emergency situation when we have to actually use the 72 hour kit, we may want a little bit more than just the bare essentials. I know we have to keep the it small, so as of this year I'm including two small stuffed animals and two mini card games. I think these two small items will be a huge emotional help if we ever have to go down that road.

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Noelle is making great strides in her writing and reading abilities. It's amazing to watch!



Libby was inspired by the Muppet movie and made her own Kermit puppet at school.


Last but not least...I cleaned the fridge tonight. One of my all time least favorite jobs. After the cleaning was done we sat down to eat and heard a really loud noise. It sounded like a gun shot from our front porch. Not quite a gun, just some biscuits. What the heck? They weren't even old! (like half the other stuff in my fridge I had just got done throwing out). Notice that after cleaning the fridge it's pretty much empty. That doesn't make me look very good. For that matter, the sippy cup doesn't do much for me either, considering my youngest child is almost 6. Do I possibly have an issue with letting her grow up?

Libby's Piano Recital

I was so nervous (Libby was not) as Libby was playing her piano piece that I totally forgot to film her. I was sitting there watching and holding the video camera in my hand and forgot to record! Sometimes I wonder about my mental health. I didn't even get a good picture of her at the piano. Fortunately, daddy took a photo of us before the recital. She did so great. All her practicing paid off!

Jackson Weekend

The 3rd annual Jackson Christmas/Birthday Party! What fun we had! The girls were thrilled to ride the Polar Express (more aptly named the Heber Creeper- man it moves slow- especially when you have a child that needs to go potty). I love the picture of Libby looking out the train window. It captures her excitement perfectly. We also went on a wagon ride and saw the lights at Thanksgiving point.

A lovely rendition of "Happy Birthday" was played on the chimes (Todd, I know you don't read this blog, but I am so thrilled I captured you on film so cheerfully playing the chimes!). We enjoyed the nativity and a nice meeting on Sunday. So many more pictures and stories I could post, but all things in moderation, Right?

Ear Piercing

While we were in St.George we took Noelle to get her ears pierced. She has gone a long time without getting in mom and dad's bed and that is our criteria for the privilege of getting ears pierced. So, we went to the mall with all the girl cousins (including Gracie!)and proceeded to break Noelle's heart with the pain of getting her ears pierced. I promise I didn't force her to do it! It about killed me when I saw her big tears (Libby & Savannah didn't cry when their ears were pierced). Fortunately, she quickly recovered and we spent some good girl time at the mall. We pushed Grace around in a lady bug cart. I'm telling you, if Grace lived in Utah we would have a serious problem on our hands. She would be spoiled rotten!

Thanksgiving in St. George- highly recommended

You won't see any pictures of a traditional Thanksgiving feast (although we did eat one- we just weren't sat "properly"), but that doesn't mean we didn't have plenty of fun. The weekend was filled with walks to the park, lounging on the couch (Isaak is a pro at that), playing with barbies, newspaper pirate hats, watching soccer, riding bikes and scooters, and even one garage sale!

Halloween- better late than never!

Halloween was fun this year. The girls were both old enough to walk on their own, but young enough that they were okay with mom and dad tagging along. So, we went trick or treating as a family. We were able to hit most of the houses in the ward and it was only within the last 5 minutes that Noelle's legs gave out and she wanted to be carried. They had fun sorting the candy when we got home and I had fun folding laundry.