January

I'm trying to post about the whole month of January, so I'm just hitting the highlights.  

Jan. 3rd

 Paige and Bella went to another dance camp that one of our neighbor's daughter puts on.  They have such a fun time learning a new dance and doing crafts and such.  In each of these pictures, my girls are demonstrating their favorite dance move.  I can't remember what they were.  

Later that day, Jim and Georgia took our kids and had them spend the night and hang out with them all the next day.  So Nice!!  For dinner, they made little home made pizzas.  

I had a few hours to myself until Garrett came home from work, and then we went out.  We had dinner at Vivi's and then went to see "Saving Mr. Banks".  

 Yummy!

They played games and watched some movie.  

Jan. 4th

Playing on their exercise machine that morning. 

 Playing outside.  

It was so nice to have some alone time with Garrett.  We ran errands and went out to eat.  Later in the evening, he went over to hang out for awhile and I stayed at home and had some more time to myself.  Pure heaven!  :)

Jan. 6th

The kids went back to school--first time back since before Christmas.  I knew Noah was going to be completely bored, so we had his friend Cooper come over.  They love playing play-doh.  

Jan. 7th--Paige's birthday

 We had Grandma and Grandpa meet us over at the Old Spaghetti Factory (Paige's choice) for her birthday dinner.  Then we came back to our house for presents and cake.  We made them get pajamas on first since it was getting late.  Since she had a friend party last year, we just had a little family get together this year. 

 She got a spirograph, more legos, some vinyl flower stickers to decorate her room with and the 2 'Frozen' sister barbie dolls--Elsa and Anna.  She loved those!

 And for her birthday cake, she requested cheesecake.  With strawberry topping.  Easy enough!  Happy 9th birthday!

Jan. 8th

Maggie started her basketball season.  Unfortunately, her teammates chose the name Blazettes for their team.  Maggie hates it and tried to offer other choices, but everyone else loved the name.  She has practices/games every Wed. night and Sat. morning.  She really loves it and has improved a ton since last year.  

Paige and Bella were both sick of going to their dance classes, so I let them quit.  Paige quit in November I think and Bella called it quits in January.  I'm torn--happy that I don't have to go out there twice a week, but sad that we won't get to participate in the recital.  I may still go watch it though since we know kids that are in it.  

Jan 10th and 11th

Both nights this weekend, Maggie wanted to watch Jane Austen movies to see what they were all about.  We started with 'Pride and Prejudice'.  We watched the version with Kiera Knightly and the guy that looks like John Cusack.  She loved it!  Lydia and Garrett watched them with us too.  Lydia liked them, but she really liked making fun of them with Garrett.  The next night we watched 'Emma', and the following weekend we watched 'Sense and Sensibility'.  I've really loved watching these with my girls and I'm so glad they like them.  Those are just the ones I own, so we'll have to watch the others some time.  It's been fun.  

Jan. 13th

 Playing outside one day when it wasn't raining.  

Jan. 14th

Maggie's been wanting to get her hair layered "professionally" for awhile.  The lady that cut my hair is in our ward and so I finally got an appointment with her to get it done.  It turned out cute.  She has such pretty hair. The next day, she went to the orthodontist to get her bottom braces on.  

Jan. 19th

Garrett got the stomach flu right before church, so I went to sub for his class.  He had it for about 24 hrs. and then he was fine--but it was pretty bad.  Paige and Maggie got it in the middle of the night and it lasted about the same amount of time.  It got it the next morning and had it all day and Lydia started to get it that evening.  I'm so glad that Garrett and I didn't get it at the same time because we were able to help each other out and help with the kids.  He stayed home from work that day to help out.  

Jan. 20th

All of us sickies laying around moaning.  Bella and Noah didn't get it thankfully.  

Jan. 23rd

Finally--the wood for our new floor was delivered on Thursday and then it had to sit in the house to climatize for a couple of days.  

Jan. 24th

The movie about the 2 missionaries that were serving in Russia and who were kidnapped, called 'The Saratov Approach' came to one of our Hillsboro theaters.  It was only here for a week, so we took Jim and Georgia to see it on it's first night.  It was such a powerful movie.  We all really liked it.  At the beginning of the movie, I thought I saw one of the actors there in the audience, and I thought, Naw, it couldn't be him.  But then the manager came in and said that right after the movie, one of the stars of the movie, Corbin Allred, would be there for a Q&A.  It turns out that he lives in Beaverton and is going to school here with his young family.  I was so glad that we could be a part of the Q&A.  It was really interesting. 

Jan. 27th

 This was supposedly the last week of our "remodeling".  Today they came to move the appliances out of the kitchen so that it would be ready for the floor guys to come and work.  So, from Monday until the following Monday I didn't have a dishwasher, stove/oven or fridge.  Well, I guess we still had the fridge, it was just plugged in in the living room.  Garrett went to California for Monday and Tuesday.  

 It was so funny to see our appliances in different rooms of the house.  

 My empty kitchen

 I actually tried to wash dishes by hand that night, but as I was rinsing some dishes off to get ready to fill up the sink, all of a sudden I felt warm water on my feet and I looked down and saw water running out from the cabinet under the sink.  The whole cabinet was soaked and everything that was in there.  Apparently when they took out the dishwasher, they didn't put a cap on the part that connects the dishwasher with the sink part (where the disposal is), so when that part filled up, it came out the hole.  Hope that makes sense.  Anyways, so I couldn't even wash my dishes by hand.  I was pretty fed up at that point--and that was just the first day.

They were supposed to come the next day to start tearing out the old floor, but they couldn't make it.  So, nothing was done on Tuesday.  On the 29th, they were there all day tearing it up and almost finishing the new floor.  At 6 pm, they noticed that our contractor hadn't ordered enough wood.  There was just one small part by the bathroom and office that wasn't done.  Luckily then found enough of the same wood around locally and was able to deliver it on Friday and then they came back on Monday to finish up.  

Jan. 30th

Since we were going to be without appliances all week and since people would be working here all week, we decided to go camping on Thursday and be gone for the whole weekend since the girls didn't have school on Thurs. or Friday.  Then we would be out of their way.  

This was the day we left to go camping.  Noah had preschool that morning.  In fact, it was pajama day at school which is why Noah and his friend Ethan were in their pjs.  We had Ethan come over and play for a little bit before we left.  I thought it would be a good way to keep Noah out of the way while we were packing.  They're eating lunch in the picture.  

Jan. 31st

 We just went out to Vernonia to camp.  We wanted to be close since Maggie had a basketball game on Saturday morning and we wanted to stay until Sunday.  This way, Garrett could take her to her game and then come back.  It was such a laid back weekend.  We read and played games and watched movies and played at the park.  It was really nice.  I didn't take hardly any pictures at all though.  

 Here are some at the playground.

Feb. 1st

On that Saturday (the 1st), Noah started getting sick.  He was so tired all day and was coughing.  He ended up having a fever.  I didn't have my thermometer, so I don't know what his temperature was, but he was pretty hot.  

Noah and Bella watching a movie before dinner.  Noah was so out of it.  

We sent him to bed right after dinner and he was out within a minute.  

Later that night he woke up coughing pretty bad and I thought it was croup.  He ended up throwing up a bunch of mucous and slept only so so that night.  

The next day (Sunday) we got back in time for the rest of the family to catch the last 2 meetings of church, but Noah and I stayed home.  He had fevers on and off for the next 3 days and had this awful cough.  He had diarrhea for a couple of days and then had an ear infection when I took him to the doctor on Wed. He missed a week of school, but I didn't want to spread it around to anyone else.  

Back to that Monday the 3rd--the floor guys came and finished the floor.  Yay!  Another guy came who put up the baseboards and repainted those.  

Our new floor!!  Not the best picture, but I really love it.  

Then on the 4th, they had cleaning ladies come in and clean up any dust or dirt from construction that they found.  They cleaned most of the kitchen, so that was nice.  

Then on Wed. they had a carpet cleaner come and clean the living room carpet and our black rug that we keep under our kitchen table.  And with that, we are completely back to normal!!  Yea!!

Birthdays

We were busy celebrating mine and Lydia's birthdays this month.  Garrett was going to be out of town for my birthday, so we celebrated a little early by going out to eat at the Old Spaghetti Factory and then opening gifts the next day. 

Bella got me Michael Buble's new christmas cd!

Paige got me some pretty silver earrings

Lydia got me this cool purple shirt and Garrett gave me a fancy new watch.

Maggie got me the new Harry Potter movie and she wrote me this really cute poem.  It was so sweet!

This is what it said:

Our Mom's Day

Dashing hurriedly to get us out the door

Counting quickly to make sure

All of us have made it: 1,2,3 almost 4

Sighing with a cry of relief

We're all gone like wind to a leaf.

While alone with our sister and brother

Trying hard to be a good mother

You already are, you don't have to try

The thought of you makes the school hours fly by

Now we're home, time to work

Sorry, we're surely driving you berserk.

But, we're trying too

To be good daughters

Getting good grades and helping you and our father.

Now dinner has approached

All your hard work has been acknowledged

Even if it's under camouflage

We're secretly thinking, did you go to cooking college?

Finally now the day's almost over

We're all tired and trying not to yawn

But give up to sleep 'til dawn.

You go to bed early

Because you're tired

Surely you know that you're the most admired.

You work hard each and every day at these professions:

Cook, mother, wife, daughter, maid

You absolutley don't need lessons.

With love, from: your 4 daughters, son and husband wishing you a HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

She surely had me in tears while I was reading it. 

 For Lydia's birthday, we just had a family party this year.  We're trying to switch to doing every other year for friend parties.  We celebrated by giving her 4 different clues that she had to open up one at a time and figure out where the clue was taking us.  Her first clue was a word scramble that ending up taking us to the:

BOWLING ALLEY

This is her figuring out her #2 clue in the car.  The next clue was a maze that she had to get through and home was at the end.  We had to get home for Noah's nap, so we thought it would be a good time for present opening. 

She got an alarm clock with a docking station for her itouch.  I also loaded her itouch with a bunch of country songs since she's really liking country right now.  She loved it!

She also got her very own harmonica and a book/cd to help her learn how to play it.  She is constantly playing the one in our camping trailer, so we thought she'd like to have her own.

angry bird t-shirt

new bike helmet

and a new scooter

already a pro!

The 3rd clue was a word search and she had to find all the words to the message, "Happy Birthday Lydia, love, and then each of our names.  Then she had to find two bonus words, which were "Happy Feet".  So, they got to go see Happy Feet 2.  I stayed home since Noah was still asleep. 

The 4th clue was to put together a puzzle that was a picture of food.  She got to pick where she wanted to have dinner.  Out of all the restaurants, she chose Subway.  Oh well, she enjoyed it!  Then we came home and had cake and ice cream.

Happy 9th Birthday Beautiful Lydia!!

Garrett let Noah eat his chocolate cake on top of the table.  You should have seen this kid when he was done!  Lydia got a kick out of it and was laughing her head off!  It was a fun end to a fun day!