Maybe next month will be better...

Since the world is ending tomorrow with the snow storm coming in, I thought I'd let you know what is filling our days now. Life is good...ordinary, and good. I'm thankful that I have not major illness to report, no monumental heartbreaks or devastation in our world. Ordinary and good.

Since the approaching storm is all we hear about right now, I wanted to show ONE of the things I love most about our great state.I'm sure there are amazing sunsets elsewhere, but can this one be topped? I just don't see how.

We are getting a new park in our neighborhood. While this is causing pain and grief for some (and not just short people in my family), I am excited about it. That merry-go-round groaned loudly when even the smallest child was on it. Let's not talk about it's complaints when I got on it! B has decided she is going to write the Mayor that she wants swings at the park since there are not any at school. I'll let you know how that goes. For now, this is how our park looks.


Brenna is helping Josh with new cake pop ideas. Here is zombie pop.

So, there you go. That is what is up with us these days. I have a feeling my next post will include snow.

Opposites

Before we get to opposites, I want to share with you that Piper has learned air quotes. Or has at least learned the action of air quotes. I have no idea where she picked this up since neither Josh nor I really use them. And in spite of her Joey Tribiani style of air quoting, to my knowledge she has never seen Friends.

The first time she did it she came running in the kitchen to see what I was working on. When I showed her dinner she said, "That is "awesome". I absolutely cracked up. And maybe it was an appropriate use of the motion, because dinner was not really awesome at all. Then on the day she stayed home sick she found me scrubbing toilets and said "When you finish "cleaning" the bathroom, can we watch a movie?" Just for the record, I was really cleaning the bathroom!!! I know I should help her figure it out, but it is too funny the way she is doing it. I figure she's got "years" to get the subtle nuances of the English language mastered.

On to opposites...
Yesterday afternoon, Brenna and I were summonsed into the living room for a Webkinz pet fashion show, complete with red carpet and rocking music. Somehow the fashion show segued into a quiz show (this is not uncommon in our house). Piper explained that the theme for THIS "quiz" was opposites. Brenna and I had already been a bit of an unruly audience for the fashion show, so I should have known this was not going to really go as Piper planned.

Piper said the answer begins with the letter L, then she got distracted (I think) and started asking me something for clarity. She said something about "when you can't go to the bathroom..." and then it went downhill.
Brenna yells "Constipation!" Piper looks at her with sassiest, sister-venum look I've seen in a while and is prepared to rip her sister a new one. I decide to save the game and say in a very enthusiastic, quiz show participant voice "The opposite of constipation is diarrhea!!!"
Piper then directs her venum at me and says "No, Ma-om, it has to start with an L!" And my oldest doesn't miss beat and jumps up and yells "LEAKING!!!!"
Piper rolls her eyes back towards Brenna and in a nanosecond decides to run with her hijacked games and says "We have a winner!"
Needless to say, the game was over because this contestant was laughing too hard to go on.

Not a strong start for the ole blog...

Sorry for the three of you who check this regularly. I have no excuse for not updated more often; it just isn't as pressing as some other things right now.

Life has been going great in our little world lately. Even the bad could be so much worse.
Last Saturday we went back to our favorite museum to learn how to make yarn dolls. This actually was a lot of fun. Daddy helped Piper and I helped Brenna.

Brenna was really surprised to find out that pioneer children had to play with yarn dolls if they wanted dolls. She can't fathom a world without American Girl ('USA Girl') dolls and Barbies, but really who of us can. Brenna named her doll Hailey the Hula dancer from Hawaii. Piper's doll gets a new name each day, depending on Piper's mood. It most often is called Sandy or Miranda.

After creating our dolls we enjoyed the museum again.

They experienced jail.

(Did you know there are still some small towns in our state that use these types of jails? This was before welding, so a blacksmith riveted the bars together. Crazy that some places haven't advanced beyond this. But I guess it works!! If my hometown had had a jail, it would have been like this, I'm pretty sure.)

Then we went to church. Just felt like we needed a little repentin' of our ways.

Sweet daddy/daughter moment.

I really do love our community and all it has to offer. And I know there is so much more for us to experience!!

On a different note: Both the girls have missed school this week due to "illness". I use quotes because I'm not sure it really is illness. Piper threw up 2 times on Tuesday morning in a 1/2 hour window (in the potty both times!) so she had to stay home from school. She was perfectly normal after that. We had a great day at home just us. Wednesday, Brenna got sent home from school at 9:30 with pink eye. I should say she came home with pink eyeS! The cafeteria lady thought she had pink eye so she sent B to the office. The office sent her home. She felt fine and we had a great day on Wednesday at home. See, even our bad could be so much worse!!!

Days gone by...

Josh found this video on our computer last night.

The more I watch it, the sweeter it gets.

Favorite quotes of the year

Late May, Josh to Sarah: "You look weird with a tan. Like something just isn't right."

Early June: Sitting in green chair, Piper on the right side of my lap. About 5 minutes after Brenna crawls up on the left side of my lap, Piper turns around, sees Bren and says, "I didn't know you were here!"

Mid June: Sitting on Piper's bed discussing random things. The conversation turned to having babies. Piper tapped my on my arm and asked; "How did you feed me when I was in your tummy?" I said that our very smart God designed a way for that to happen, then I explained about belly buttons. While Bren and I continued to discuss babies, I could tell Piper was still thinking. Then she tapped my arm again and said "Did I like chips?"

Mid June: Piper comes running naked into the kitchen needing assistance with her swimsuit. Josh says "You have such a cute bottom" and gave it a little pinch. Piper turns her bottom toward Josh, pats it twice and says "This is my tissues".

Mid June: Brenna was telling company about our family watching Dancing With the Stars. After telling what she likes about it, she said "My mom sure is sensitive about what they wear."

Mid June: While listening to "Evermore" (scroll down the link until you find the title, then click LISTEN) written by Sandra Boynton, performed by Allison Krause, Brenna says "Mom, when I get an apartment, we can listen to this song." The tears spilled over and I cried while listening to it two more times.

Mid July: Piper says from the backseat of the van, "Mom, when I get a daughter, I'm going to let her get a dog."

Mid July": Piper said first thing in the morning, "When I am a mom I'm going to let me kids wear long pants and shirts after swimming." I wonder what she was dreaming about?

Late July: "It's a skill I have at being gross." - Brenna

September: "Syrup even takes good on skin!" -Piper

September: Josh was talking to the girls about singing harmony vs. melody and explaining the difference. He said that he usually sings bass and I sing alto and those are both harmony, but Mr. Scott sings lead, which is the melody. Brenna said "Yes, I sing melody with Scott, but I sing sparrow."

So, there are these cats...

...that were born and raised in our back yard.

We found them as itty bitty kitty's in March of this year. And I took pity on them (and still do) and fed them. Twice a day. Better food than most beloved house pets would get.

We still call them wild cats even though they pretty much live on our back porch. We don't pet them. We don't let them in. We do, however, call them by their names (Sam and Sophie) and may or may not have made a bed for them so they won't get cold in the cold windy winters we have in these parts.

Sophie (whom I now think is a boy) hisses as us every time we go outside. S/he no longer runs across the yard from us, but keeps our distance. I think the hissing is her/his way of letting us know he is owned by no man.

Sam (whom appears to be a girl) is actually quite friendly (as all the Sam's in our life are). He (she) has let me pet him (her) a few times and will eat out of our hand. He (she) has gotten in the house twice when I am taking food out, but both us panicked immediately and the cat ran out. Overall, Sam is a great backyard adopted stray wild cat to have around.

Here's the problem. Sam is brave. Sam might possibly want to be an inside loved and cuddled house cat, which ain't gonna happen for many reasons. In his (her) bravery, he (she) runs in our garage as soon as the door opens. Very stealthfully (huh-that isn't a word). Twice now, Sam has spent the night in the garage. This is bad. Really, really bad. 1) I don't know how to and won't potty train a stray cat. 2) Sam is a stray cat that doesn't live in our house in any way. 3) Josh is allergic and I'd sure hate for him to have to give up lawn mowing and garage cleaning because of cat hair in the garage. Plus it makes Sophie even more cranky in the morning because s/he is even colder alone and misses her brother/sister.

So, all this to say, I need your help. I need some suggestions on how to keep the cat out of the garage. Most of the time he runs out scared when the door is going down, but twice now, he has not. And he is really sneaky about getting in. Do you know how may hiding places there are in our garage? Well, not enough room for a vehicle to hide, but plenty for a cold stray cat.

I welcome any suggestion that isn't telling me how to get dispose of cats or recipes for cats. I just wanna keep them out of my garage. I appreciate your help in this matter.

~Sarah

PS: I could also either a spay/neuter fund set up for us or the name of a really generous vet clinic who might help us keep from having lots of itty bitty kittys this spring.

Piper's first birthday (party)

Our baby turns 5 the day after Christmas, which is a pretty terrible birthday. Maybe not as bad as the day before, but pretty bad. We try to make it a special day for her by taking down all our Christmas decorations either Christmas night or the morning of the 26th. We also have a special birthday tree in her room with non-Christmas ornaments. She loves this tree so much and looks forward to decorating it like us non-christmas birthday people look forward to the Christmas tree.


Because of the timing, she has never had a friend party. (Not that B has had very many in her life either.) But we decided for the big 5 she should have one. And party we did! Piper invited her bestees from school and church for a Rock Star party. We bought blow up guitars and made a mixed tape for Piper and the Rockers to enjoy. We played a few games and had a ton of fun!! I think Piper felt it was worth the wait for her first birthday party. And I think it is worth the wait for another 5 years for a birthday party. :)

One happy birthday girl

Piper and the Rockers!!

the cake

Merry Christmas

Now these girls will make you smile!

I mentioned earlier that we let the girls do most of the decorating of the tree this year. I loved doing it together and them taking ownership of it really. Below is one of my favorite branches on our tree. Good thing I'm not "type A"! :)

Christmas lights

Last Monday night we started putting up our Christmas lights.


Josh got sick that night and we put everything on hold until he felt better. It took until Saturday before Josh felt 100% again. Saturday afternoon, we put up our tree and put a few other decorations out during the weekend.

I love decorating for Christmas. This year I really enjoyed telling the girls about the ornaments, where we got them, what we were doing, etc. They liked hearing about the ones we purchased on various vacations, ones family members bought them and on and on.

We are still not finished, and we still have Piper's Birthday Tree to put up, but that will happen through out the week.

Good bye, friend

On Thursday, we said good bye to our first family pet, Nemo. Our sweet friend, Molly, gave Bren a Betta fish for her 5th birthday, July 2008 and he lasted until December 2010. I feel that is a pretty good life for a Betta fish, but B was heartbroken. She sobbed on her bed for a long time, breaking all our hearts.

We had a little ceremony for him in the back yard. (Bren decided against flushing him.)

Bren wrote on a box "I will miss you, Nemo. Brenna"

Putting the box in the hole Daddy dug.

A moment of silence. (Bren didn't want her picture taken.)

He was a good fish and we will miss him. If anyone knows fish age, we'd like to know how old he was when he died. We are assuming he was about 2 1/2 human years when he died.

Making "ordaments"

I learned yesterday that Brenna has been saying ornaments wrong. "Ordaments" are hanging on our tree, but we'll get to that later.

Last Saturday we took advantage of some of what our great Metro area has to offer and made ornaments at one of the museums. We all had a great time. There were about 20 projects to choose from and you could as many as you wanted in the time allowed. We walked away with a LOT of ornaments!! The girls had a great time and I enjoyed watching them use their creativity.

Making holiday necklaces
(just for the record, I didn't take this picture, a volunteer did.)
I love the expressions on their faces.

Making scratch off art

This was my favorite. They made birdfeeders out of pine cones.
After they dried a little, the kids got to hang them on a fence out behind the museum.
We decided to swing by Pops for gas and sodie on the way home.
It was cool and windy!!!

The Mayor's Essay contest

Brenna was encouraged, by her teacher, to enter the Mayor's Essay Contest this year. The theme was "The Best Gift I Have Ever Given". Brenna accepted the challenge and wrote the essay completely by herself. After she was finished, we asked a few questions to fill in more details, but she simply added her answers to what she has already written.

This is what she entered:
In case you can't read it: "Saying Thanks" The best gift I ever gave was a pair of earrings to my Lunch Lady Mrs. Stephanie. I got my jewelry kit from my Aunt Mary. I made the earrings for Mrs. Stephanie because she was a nice person. Every day I sat at the end of the table and she said hi. The earrings are hoops with beads. I gave the earrings to Mrs. Stephanie aurond Cristmas time last year. She loved the earrings. When I gave the earrings she said Thank you. And that made me happy that she wore them sumtimes. The End

Josh and I were proud of her for entering the contest. There was a lot going on the week she had to work on it, but she kept herself on track. She wrote slowly to make sure it looked good and didn't ask for help from us on anything except spelling Mrs. Stephanie's name (I hope we got that right!).

Brenna won third place for 1st grade!
She received a shiny plaque (with her name on it) and was able to be in the Lighting of the Tree parade with the mayor. Here are the best of the terrible pictures I took.

Getting her award from the mayor, you'll just have to trust me on this one.

Just coming back from getting her plaque

With the mayor after the ceremony.

Riding in the Parade. Yes, she chose Dad to ride with her.

There were two other winners from our church, which was a great surprise. Congratulations to Isaac and Joel, as well.

Our good friends, Morgan and Jessica, came to see the whole thing. We enjoyed watching the parade as much as B enjoyed being in it. When it was over I asked B what she thought and she told me it was fun, but long. All that waving! haha

Piper was really proud of her sister, but a little jealous that she didn't get to ride with her. I think it helped having Morgan and Jessica there to focus on her. Then she got to meet Sparky and she was fine.

This has been coming for over a year...

We plan to donate her 8 inches to Pantene's Beautiful Lengths.
Or as she says "The factory that makes the wigs."

I really have no words. She is thrilled with her decision. I think she looks adorable, but will take a little while to get used to the two big girls at my house now.

Thank you, Ms. Katie!

I felt the need to post these pictures...

That is all.