O Tannenbaum.

Every home we have lived in one of the first things we do is plant trees.  My mom usually smuggles them from her garden in Utah to ours via her suitcase.  When we first moved here my mom brought 3 little fir trees and we planted them in the garden.  This year our little tree is a toddler and so we decided it could hold some lights.  Every night it turns on and we love looking out our windows at it.  All of the kids bedroom windows look out on our little tree glowing in the darkness.  It is so fun to look out their windows with them and see the little tree.  This is what we saw tonight.  Beautiful.

Family Pictures

Here are the rest of our family pictures. They aren't a surprise anymore since Grandmas should have received them in the mail.

I love each of my kids at this age.  Sarah is at an age that I feel like we can have nice conversations.  Alex is at the age where everyday he surprises me with the funny things or word he will say.  Words like "Fantastic", or "Amazing".  Lily is sweet and silly.  She likes to laugh at everything we do.  If we are eating dinner and laughing Lily will be laughing with all of us. I am really trying to enjoy each of my kids at the stages they are in.  

Don't let that smile fool you...

She means trouble.  It makes me weak in the knees whenever my children learn to climb stairs.  She has already fallen down them.  She has been working on it a lot, but last night she finally reached the top.  What was she working so hard to get to at the top of the stairs?  The bathroom.  I have already seen her standing looking into the bowl.  :)

Comments Fixed

A few people have e-mailed me and said that my comments weren't working.  I hopefully fixed the problem, so feel free to comment.  I love getting the feedback and knowing someone is out there.

Love,
Tauna

Big storm, cozy and warm.

We got a big storm last night. We have around 12 inches this morning and large snow drifts. It took Dave a little while to dig a path out from the back door. The kids have tested it out and loved it.

I love hunkering down in the warm house and listening to the wind howl around me.

Notice on our tree how there are no ornaments on the bottom branches.  Yes Lily LOVES to pull down ornaments.  We hope you all are staying warm and enjoying this winter as much as we are.

Family Pictures

We just got our family pictures back yesterday.  They turned out very cute.  I don't want to show all of them because some are for grandmas for Christmas, but here is a little preview.  The photographer made Alex look like an angel.  Some days, being a 3 year old,  he isn't such and angel.  :)  I love it!

A New Milestone

All of my children have been fascinated by the dishwasher and climbing in and on it.  Lily is no different.  She loves to pull herself up and in. Alex eventually learned to climb into the top rack.  Probably another month and Lily will do the same.

p.s.
Don't look too closely at our ancient dishwasher. Circa 1989.  It came with the house and refuses to die.  So we keep using it.

I might loose half of my readers for this....

 

Go Utes!

Pass the Turkey, Please.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  Sarah made appetizers of apples and marshmallows while mommy cooked the dinner. 

During our feast we each had to say what we are thankful for here is the list:

Mommy:

My kids and having nice walking paths and the nature center close by.

Sarah:

Being able to get an education and George Washington Carver and his inventions of ways to use Peanuts.

Daddy:

My job and being able to buy a nice car this year.

Alex:

My pig and My food.

Cute Picture of Lily

Dave took this picture of Lily playing with the green Teletubbie.  They could be twins in their green outfits.  I sure love my little Lily.  She is so fun and such a good baby.  She has gotten all 4 of her top teeth this past week.  Which made for some long nights and lots of chewing.  But, we still love her!

Additional Blog

I created an additional blog to post my decorating projects and craft projects.  I figured it would be easier to have a separate site so it doesn't take up all of the family blog..  I am going to keep this site for pictures of the family and all of our exciting adventures.  So check it out when you get a chance.

http://mommygarumi.blogspot.com/

matchy matchy

So we are getting our family pictures taken on Saturday. When I talked to the photographer he seemed very old school. At the end of our conversation he told me to make sure we all wore dark colors and were matching. What? As in all wearing the same color shirts? UGGGHHH. I guess I will have to see what I can come up with. This should be an interesting experience. ;) Maybe we could do something like this....

http://awkwardfamilyphotos.com/category/awkward-family-photos/page/14/

A little note.

Alex told me tonight he loved me. I need that sometimes.

"Feeling the security and constancy of love from a spouse, a parent, or a child is a rich blessing. Such love nurtures and sustains faith in God. Such love is a source of strength and casts out fear (see 1 John 4:18). Such love is the desire of every human soul." Elder David A. Bednar

2 Chairs

We got two new chairs this week.


One Sarah made for Lily.



One mommy made.

Boo!

We had a fun Halloween. We started the celebrations with the Halloween Parade at Sarah's school on Friday. It was fun to see so many friends and all of their cute kids. Then we surprised Daddy at work and he took Lily in to show her to some of his coworkers. She looked pretty cute in her bumble bee costume. Her little chubby face squeezing out!

Saturday Sarah had a party at her friends house in the afternoon and I made some yummy Pumpkin Curry Soup. The smell of curry cooking in the crock pot all day was wonderful. Later that night we went out Trick-or-treating. It was Mommy's turn to go with the kids and Daddy stayed home. We have an awesome neighborhood that turns into a neighborhood block party on Halloween night. We had one neighbor with a disco tech in their garage, another with a spook alley, and another with a HUGE pumpkin. It was a very fun night.

This weeks project...

I refinished this chair this week. I only paid 5$ for it and then 10$ for the fabric. It was so fun, and turned out very cute.

Amigurumi

Amigurumi is the Japanese art of knitting or crocheting small stuffed animals and anthropomorphic creatures. The word is derived from a combination of the Japanese words ami, meaning crocheted or knitted, and nuigurumi, meaning stuffed doll.^[1] Amigurumi are typically cute animals (such as bears, rabbits, cats, dogs, etc.), but can include artistic renderings, and inanimate objects endowed with anthropomorphic features. (From Wikipedia)

New Hats

Oma sent some new hats she knitted in the mail for baby Lily. Here are some pictures. Too cute for words.

I won!!

A couple weeks ago there was a sad occurrence here in Rochester. You can read about it here:

http://www.postbulletin.com/newsmanager/templates/localnews_story.asp?z=2&a=418248

For some reason the emphasis was put on that he was a man from SLC, Utah whenever they reported it. I heard on the news that the library was having a contest to get back at the drunk from Utah, so being a Utah native who loves Rochester, I decided we better lighten up the mood and enter something not so serious.

So I entered on the Library's Facebook page and today I found out I WON! Who knew? The prize is just a little flash drive est. value around 10$, but knowing I turned an ugly event a little lighter...PRICELESS.

Here's the winning quote:

I'm sorry to say so, But, sadly it's true, That bang-ups and hang-ups, Can happen to you." -Dr. Seuss , Oh, the Places You'll Go

From my Opa

These are from my Opa in Luxembourg. One for each of my kids. They make me happy just looking at them. (This is another post mostly for my Mom)

More pictures from the marathon...

Here are a few more pictures from the race that we just got today. They show all of the beautiful fall colors...and my cute husband. Enjoy.

Today's Project

Sarah wants to be Mary Ingalls Wilder for Halloween, so we have been working on her costume. She was off of school today for MEA. We went shopping this morning and got our supplies and then I made her bonnet this afternoon. It turned out very cute. It rained/snowed all day. A perfect day for staying inside and getting creative.

It's starting to get cold.

That means I start feeling like I need a project. I have been toying with some ideas. I will keep you posted on what it might be. Hmmmmmm.

A post for my Mom...

We found a little box on our front porch when we came home. I love packages. Here is one of the fun things that was in it.





Thanks Omi! Ich leibe dich!

Whistlestop Marathon

Dave ran the Whistlestop Marathon this weekend, so we packed up the minivan and headed further north. We knew it would be cold so we packed warm blankets, coats, gloves, and hats. I am glad we did because we spend a lot of time outside watching the marathon and shopping. The first night we got there we met up with some friends and enjoyed the pasta feed and fish boil. The fish was a little questionable. But the pasta was good and it was fun to talk with friends.

Dave ran the marathon with a time of 3:24. He beat his goal time by 6 minutes. He was really excited. His friend Kevin that he trained with came in just a little after him. They both did really good considering it was 34 degrees.

The kids and I found some fun shops to visit. Our favorites were the old school JCPenny's store (aka Pennys), the Gabrielle's German Chocolates, and The New England Store.

Here are some pictures of our trip.