Looking back over 2011

Today we looked at our goals we set in January. It was amazing to see how much the kids have grown and how many goals we accomplished. We have more room to grow, so I'm sure some of the same goals will be back for 2012.

Rebecca grew 4" and gained 3 lbs. She is potty trained and sleeps in her own twin bed.

Ammon grew 5 1/2 inches, gained 3.5 lbs and went up 2 shoe sizes. He learned to ride his bike and swim, and he is an AMAZING reader. He reads a Magic Tree house book in one night.

Corrine's feet grew 3 sizes of shoes and gained 8 lbs. She grew almost 3". She is still working on not sucking her thumb.

Simeon also grew almost 3" and gained 7 lbs. He went up one shoe size. He has really improved his spelling and has become a great reader also.

Kari blasted one of her goals. This year I lost 17 lbs!!! This is the 1st time I have put that in writting. I didn't get my blog books printed or my cookbook organized, so I'm going to try those again this year.

Johann also lost 17lbs this year!!! He's been working so hard and it's really paying off. He got alot of to-do things off his list this year which helped brighten up our house.

2011 Letter & Picture

Happy 2012!! I decided that I wasn’t going to send out a picture and letter about 2011, but then we got so many wonderful pictures and letters from you that I decided to send one out after all.
Rebecca is 2 ½ and is such a talkative, happy, smart, fun little girl. She is in LOVE with Toy Story, babies, trains and animals (especially monkeys). She loves to read books, sing, dance, ride her bike, take baths, color, count and play with her siblings. Her big accomplishment this year is that she wears underwear. No more diapers in our house!! She started the year with very little straight hair and ended it with a head full of beautiful ringlets. When she grows up she wants to play animal games and be a cheerleader.
Ammon, 6 ½ is a smart, funny, silly, loving guy all wrapped in a bundle of energy! He loves to ride his bike, swim, skateboard, play tag, but he also loves to sit still for long periods of time playing Wii and Legos. He has caught onto reading with a vengeance this school year and reads everything he can. He loves to wear camouflaged clothes and to play spy. He is excited to be starting a martial arts class this month. One of his goals this year is to read all the Magic Tree House books! When he grows up he wants be a fighter pilot in the Air Force.
Corrine, almost 9, found her true love this year-running. She was in a group called Girls on the Run. She ran 3 5k’s this fall. She is such an awesome runner! She likes to do her dolls hair, make crafts, play with her iPod she earned for selling 750 boxes of Girl Scout cookies and play with Rebecca. Her favorite thing to wear are her pink cowgirl boots! When she grows up she wants to live a farm, have horses and a big garden, and sell things at the farmers market.
Simeon 10 ½ is still very much into sports, but the Hunger Game Trilogy has him talking about something other than sports 24/7. We find him so often with his head buried in a book, which is such a fun thing to see since he was struggling with reading for such a long time. This year he is getting help with writing, but other than that he has caught up with everything else. He has started his 2nd season of baseball with the Little Hawks and is really liking it. He loves to play outside on his skateboard, ripstick, scooter, bike or with a ball of some sort. He made himself his own bow and quiver like Katniss in the Hunger Games which he uses to hunt animals in the neighborhood! This year he earned his Webelos badge and just a month later earned his Arrow of Light award which is the highest award for a Cub Scout!! When he grows up he wants to be a BYU or Chargers Football player and a scientist. Simeon has been off chemo for 2 years now and he continues to be very healthy!
Kari-I have been busy keeping up with our growing family. This summer I started getting healthier and became Corrine’s running buddy for Girls on the Run. I ran 3 5k’s with her and fell in love with running all over again. Unfortunately I had an ankle injury at our last 5k right before Thanksgiving and am working my way back into running. I plan on being Corrine’s running buddy again this spring and running more races with her. Because of exercising and eating better I have been able to drop over 17 lbs this year. I am still in the Young Women’s presidency at church and am in the process of handing Corrine’s Girl Scout troop to a new leader. I still love taking pictures, and am known for having my camera ready at a moments notice!
Johann was busy this year with some home improvement projects that of course required some new tools! He made the kids a storage bench for their shoes in the kitchen, we painted our kitchen a sunny yellow and he replaced lots of dark blinds for lighter ones. He has also been working hard on eating healthier and exercising and he has also lost over 17 lbs this year. He is still the Young Men’s President at church and is busy as always at work. He has started learning how to do some work on his truck with some friends, so hopefully the rust doesn’t over take the entire thing!
2011 was such a fun, busy, fast and normal year for our family. We’re excited for 2012 and for all the new experiences and growth we will gain this year! And we promise to get a letter about 2012 out in 2012!!

Christmas 2011

Christmas was wonderful this year! I keep going back and looking at the pictures and videos at the kids reactions and I keep smiling.

Christmas Eve we had Josh and Irma over for dinner. After dinner some friends came over. The adults sat around the table talking, eating and laughing and then laughing some more. The kids played downstairs. I went down after everyone left and the tv was on so loud. The kids said it was on so high because we were so loud that was the only way they could hear!!
Christmas morning the kids were told they couldn't come into our room until 7:30. I heard Corrine in the hallway say "7 more minutes!!" It must have been 7:23. I got up to use the bathroom and when I came back out they were all on our bed ready to go downstairs to check thier stockings.
Santa is in charge of stockings, so the the cookies go down by the fireplace and stockings. Simeon got a lego set and shield. Corrine got Hello Kitty Legos. Ammon got some little lego sets and a shield. Rebecca got a Toy Story set and Tag Jr book. Everyone always gets a toothbrush, snacks and an orange that we juice at breakfast.


After stockings we went upstairs and the kids got to open thier presents they gave eachother and their cousin presents. Simeon got a Chargers hat and gloves. Corrine got a owl craft kit, Ammon got a police lego and Rebecca got a my little pony and 3 flowers barretts. Johann and I got for our sibling exchange the 1st 3 seasons of Friends and a Panera gift card.

The kids were so excited to get presents for eachother. They each picked out things that their siblings really liked. Rebecca got Simeon 2 books: Diary of a Wimpy Kid Cabin Fever and How to steal a Dragons heart. Simeon got Corrine an iTunes giftcard. Corrine got Ammon Magic Treehouse books 1-8 on Cd. And Ammon got Rebecca a Buzz Lightyear and a Jessie shirt.


Growing up I remember having a big nice breakfast on Christmas morning. Every year we change what we have because we haven't found the perfect thing yet. This year we had french toast, eggs, bacon, potatoes and fresh squeezed orange juice.

Simeon cooked the bacon at a campout in November and since then whenever we have bacon he cooks it and does such a great job.
Then we went to church. We combined with the University Married student ward. They wer so many people that they last row was almost to the stage in the gym!
After we took some pictures of the kids in thier Christmas clothes.
Then came the big moment for the kids. They got to open their present from mom and dad. We only got them one thing this year and they were all super excited for them. Simeon had a good idea what his was and he was right. Simeon got a blue Rip Stick. Corrine got a ipod dock/cd player, Ammon got a spy kit complete with a metal briefcase to hold it all, and Rebecca got a round house and train tracks for her trains.

Ammon was so cute when he opened his present. We got some spy glasses after we had wrapped his present so we had him open those first. He looked at them and said "sunglasses." Then Corrine pointed out to him that they were spy glasses. You can see a light go on and he gets super excited about what he thinks is in his present. When he opens the box and sees the metal briefcase he knows it's a spy kit, which he excitedly exclaims "This is so awesome!" It was such an excited reaction. He LOVES his spy kit!



Johann got me 2 Willow Tree statues and the kids picked out some kitchen items for me. Johann got a new gumball machine, personal blender and cereal/ice cream bowls.
In the afternoon we went to Gr & Gr Smiths house for dinner and more presents. Everyone got so many fun things.
Ammon decided to see if he could fit into this box. Silly sweet kiddo!


Simeon got a word game, Catching Fire book, Chargers shirt and football things. Corrine got some clothes, a brain game, Salon chair for her dolls. Ammon got a remote control car, Kings Ambush lego set and ninjago lego set. Rebecca got lots of kitchen things, a leapster laptop and a yellow sock monkey.


When it was all said and done the front room looked like this-

All Dressed up

I found the store Crazy 8 that has clothes for boys and girls sizes newborn to 14. I found Easter dresses for the girls there after Easter last year that I loved so I thought I'd try there again for thier Christmas dresses. I was so excited to see dresses for the girls that they both looked beautiful in. It's so fun that the girls love to dress alike. The boys have thier suits, so I just needed to get them red ties to coordinate with the girls dresses. They all looked so nice and festive.



The boys can spend hours playing legos, Hunger games, and Wii together. They are growing up so fast and before I know it I'll have 2 boys passing the sacrament in thier suits.


I LOVE this picture of the girls. Rebecca LOVES to smile, she LOVES her sister and she LOVES life. Corrine is such an amazing big sister to Rebecca. These two had to have been friends in heaven before they came to earth. They are so great together!

Homemade Marshmellows

Oh My Goodness these are so yummy!!!

Johann has always wanted to make homemade marshmellows but we were always afraid to make them. Last weekend we tasted some at a friends house and we knew we HAD to make some.
Today was the perfect day to make them since we were already having some friends over for Christmas eve and we were having hot chocolate.

We were surprised how easy they were to make and how absolutely awesome they are!!

Ingredients
3 packages unflavored gelatin
1 cup ice cold water, divided
12 ounces granulated sugar, approximately 1 1/2 cups
1 cup light corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup confectioners' sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
Nonstick spray

Directions


Place the gelatin into the bowl of a stand mixer along with 1/2 cup of the water. Have the whisk attachment standing by.

In a small saucepan combine the remaining 1/2 cup water, granulated sugar, corn syrup and salt. Place over medium high heat, cover and allow to cook for 3 to 4 minutes. Uncover, clip a candy thermometer onto the side of the pan and continue to cook until the mixture reaches 240 degrees F, approximately 7 to 8 minutes. Once the mixture reaches this temperature, immediately remove from the heat.

Turn the mixer on low speed and, while running, slowly pour the sugar syrup down the side of the bowl into the gelatin mixture. Once you have added all of the syrup, increase the speed to high. Continue to whip until the mixture becomes very thick and is lukewarm, approximately 12 to 15 minutes. Add the vanilla during the last minute of whipping. While the mixture is whipping prepare the pans.


For regular marshmallows:


Combine the confectioners' sugar and cornstarch in a small bowl. Lightly spray a 13 by 9-inch metal baking pan with nonstick cooking spray. Add the sugar and cornstarch mixture and move around to completely coat the bottom and sides of the pan. Return the remaining mixture to the bowl for later use.

When ready, pour the mixture into the prepared pan, using a lightly oiled spatula for spreading evenly into the pan. Dust the top with enough of the remaining sugar and cornstarch mixture to lightly cover. Reserve the rest for later. Allow the marshmallows to sit uncovered for at least 4 hours and up to overnight.

Turn the marshmallows out onto a cutting board and cut into 1-inch squares using a pizza wheel dusted with the confectioners' sugar mixture. Once cut, lightly dust all sides of each marshmallow with the remaining mixture, using additional if necessary. Store in an airtight container for up to 3 weeks.

Recipe courtesy Alton Brown, 2007 foodnetwork.com

Computer Issues

Right after Thanksgiving I found out how a leaking water bottle and a laptop go together-NOT AT ALL!!
Luckily Johann has his work laptop, but it doens't like to do pictures very well until he gets it tuned up. So until then updates on here will be slow and possibly pictureless.

Ammon sweetness

Today a Barnes and Noble box came to the house with a book that Johann had ordered for himself using last Christmas's gift card.

When Ammon saw it he asked if he could wrap it up for him.



After he wrapped it he wrote this sweet note to go on top.

When Johann got home that night Ammon was so excited to show him his gift and have him open it up.

I love when the kids do something like this. It melts my heart to see how much love they have for other.

Our visit with Santa

We haven't made a big deal of Santa around here, because we want him to take a small role at Christmas and have Jesus' birth take the bigger spot. Since we don't talk alot about Santa and don't have alot of Santa things around our house, Rebecca knew who he was but wasn't too thrilled or excited for him. She knows he fills our stockings at Christmas and the presents come from family.
I wanted to have her go see Santa and get a picture with him. When we talked about going to see him she was excited, until we got to the mall and she saw him. Then things changed. She clung to my legs and said she didn't want to meet Santa.
Corrine being the great big sister she is went up and sat on his lap and talked with him. But still Rebecca wasn't convinced that he was someone she wanted to meet.

The 3 big kids all got ready and posed for a picture and I handed Rebecca to Corrine. Corrine did her best to hold her screaming, trying to get away sister. This was probably the last time that I can convince Simeon & Corrine to sit on his lap.



I gave her a few minutes to calm down then came the time to get a picture of Rebecca with Santa alone. I asked Santa if he was alright holding a screaming kid. He told me it wouldn't be his 1st time doing it today. I sat her down, stepped back and got a few pictures of her screaming and kicking to get off.


I know it seemed mean to make her sit on his lap when she clearly wanted NOTHING to do with him. I don't want to look back in years and not have a picture of her with Santa when she was 2 years old, even if she's screaming and kicking in it. I think she'll look back at the picture years from now and laugh at her reaction.

I did though feel bad for the kids in line behind us who had to see a kid their age scared of Santa. Hopefully she didn't traumatize any of those kids!

Sickness

Rebecca woke up Monday morning acting a little off. She was grumpy and seemed tired, but nothing else. We thought it might have been from being out of town last week for Thanksgiving.
Tuesday she woke up and her right eye had junk in it and was red. Tuesday night it went into her left eye.
Wednesday I took her to the doctor for double pink eye. When we were there she had a low grade fever and pink eye for sure. They gave her drops and said if it cleared up quickly then it was bacterial, if it was viral it would go away when it was ready, and the drops wouldn't really help.
Thursday morning Rebecca woke up with a high fever. Ammon also woke up not feeling good. Around lunch time he spiked a high fever.

Thursday afternoon Rebecca started getting little red raised pin sized bumps on her arms, legs, and torso. It was worst in her underwear area, wrist and ankles where clothes were rubbing. Her eyes were clearing up, so she most likely had bacterial pink eye.

Friday morning she woke up with blisters and sore all around her mouth and her red bumps were brighter now. Ammon woke up with the little red pin sized bumps all over his body too. I decided to take Rebecca back to the doctor for her face.
The doctors reaction when he saw her face told me this was something more serious then I had thought it could be. Thankfully we went it. Her throat was really yucky with white patches on it. He tested her for strep throat which came back negative. He was pretty concerned about her face. He said it was an infection bordering on impetigo. He gave her a strong antibiotic ointment for her face and told me to call back if it wasn't getting better or got worse and he'd put her on oral antibiotics also. She had been drooling alot from her sore throat, so some of the bacteria from her throat got into her already dry skin around her mouth and caused an infection.


Saturday the fevers were low, then gone, but they didn't feel very good.
Sunday the redness of the blisters on Rebecca's face started to go away leaving lots of scabs and soreness. Today they both started eating some again.
Monday I called the school to say Ammon wasn't going to be there because of his rash. After talking with the secretary she said he could come if he was feeling good enough. She wanted to see the rash when we got to school so she would know what it looked like in case he came in saying it was getting worse.

Rebecca still seems really tired from being sick. This afternoon she was looking at books on the couch when she got so tired she laid down and feel asleep.
It's going to take a while for the scabs and scars on Rebecca's face to fade away. We're keeping it moistened which seems to be helping.
In the end we weren't ever given a specific diagnoses of what they got, just that it was a virus, but all their symptoms makes me think they had Scarlet fever.

Thanksgiving in Wisconsin

This year we decided to travel to Wisconsin to visit Johann's brother and his family for Thanksgiving in Milwaukee.
Our sweet friend Annalisa which we met over 5 years ago through Dance Marathon also lives there. We set up a night to meet up with her and go out to dinner. I found a restaurant called The Safe House. It's a spy themed restaurant and I remembered seeing it on a show years ago. Since Ammon is so into spies right now we thought this would be the perfect spot to go to dinner.
The front door to the restaurant is down a very boring looking alley. When you walk into the room there's a desk and a wall with bookshelves. There was also a camera looking down at you. We figured out pretty quickly what that we needed to pull on a certain level on the wall to walk through the bookcase wall and into the actual restaurant.

What I didn't realize was that if you didn't make reservations that you had to wait a long time to get a table. While we were waiting we went on a scavenger hunt of the building. The kids went into the secret phone booth, we found a piece of the Berlin wall, a door leading to a bathroom that was really just a brick wall, spy holes, hidden cameras, moving walls and more.




The food was ok, but nothing to brag about. After we ate we used the last clue on the scavenger hunt and exited through the secret door. To use this exit you go into a very small enclosed hallway and put a quarter into the pay phone. You hear the instructions to push certain numbers on the phone, and then the wall opens to a staircase leading down. We went down and found a hallway leading out to the alleyway behind the restaurant.
The kids Ok all of us thought this restaurant was so much fun!!

Thanksgiving day Johann and Simeon went and played flag football with Jake's ward. The other kids and i went to the park with their cousins. We spent the rest of the day hanging out at home eating and playing.

Friday we went to the Natural History Museum. The favorite spot was the butterfly garden. At first no one was able to get any butterflies to land on them. Rebecca didn't want any to land on her, she was ok with watching them from a distance. The other kids were trying to get them to land on them. Jonas kept getting the same one to land on his shirt. It was either the bright colors or the syrup from breakfast!





After we went to a small indoor waterpark at the hotel that Grandma and Grandpa were staying at. There was a slide and a deep end with a basketball hoop. The boys practice snorkeling with our new snorkeling gear.

Saturday we left and went to Madison to go to a Children's museum a friend had told me about. There was a really neat younger kids area with a huge climbing tree area and a water house. Rebecca really enjoyed playing in the water house.

Upstairs they had lots of areas to build with blocks and a huge art area. The highlights of the day were the gerbil wheel (Corrine and mom got it going fast-it's a great workout), Ammon climbing in the climbing structure, and the window painting in the art area.





We had a fun time on our Thanksgiving weekend away.

Girls on The Run is SO Much Fun

Today was our final run for Girls on The Run. We meet our team at the Tennis Building @ 8:30 this morning. We did some hanging out, then we stretched and walked over as a big group to the starting line.
There were over 250 girls and running buddies in pink GOTR shirts. It truly was a sea of pink at the starting line.
There were so many people at the starting line that we didn't even hear them start the race, we just saw everyone start so we followed.
The run was at the Ashton Cross Country course at the University of Iowa. It's a natural course with grass and dirt. The course was fairly easy with only a few small hills.
We started towards the back of the group, but we started passing others right away. Corrine is such a fast runner but she stayed with me the entire time even though she could have left me in the dust. This run was hard for me because I'd been sick with a cold for the last 10 days and hadn't been able to excerise much the past week and my right ankle was hurting with every step. I kept asking Corrine if she wanted to run faster without me, but she kept saying that she'd stay with me.
We crossed the finish line at 34:23, slower then I was hoping we would get, but still pretty fast for me being sick this week.
Corrine was given a medal as she finished. Once all of our girls finished running, we walked back to the Tennis building for some snacks and pictures.
This was such a fun experience that we are excited to do again this spring. We told the kids that we'll start training as a family in the spring to run a 5K together. I did fun runs/walks as a kid and I remember them being so much fun.

Nani & Papa came to town

Nani and Papa came to visit us this week. I wanted to remember the fun things we did each day, so I went day by day with pictures for that day.

Tuesday-Nani & Papa got here before school got out. Rebecca was shy at first. We looked at pictures of them holding her when she was younger. That really helped her to become comfortable with them faster. The older kids ran home from school. We had a HUGE pot of creamy chicken chowder for dinner and played.

Wednesday-Ammon & Papa went to the library to check out books. Corrine & Grace got all dressed up for their dinner with activity day girls. That night Simeon got his Arrow of Light award.




Thursday-Nani & mom went to craft night at the church. Dad & Papa played Wii with the kids. Johann and I got to go on a date to the grocery store!

Friday-Nani & Papa watched the kids while Johann and I went to 3 parent teacher conferences in the morning. In the afternoon we went to the raptor center at Lake McBride. On the road there Papa spotted a dear. We went on a hike and found 2 deer right next to the trail. We walked down to the lake and found alot of fossils in the rocks. Tonight Johann and Simeon went on a campout with the scouts. We had pizza for dinner. Corrine & Ammon put on a movie night complete with punching tickets, snacks and LOTS of rule, like no laughing or blowing your noses! We watched Tron Legacy. Then they had a sleepover in the boys room.







Saturday we went to the John Deere Pavilion. They were working on the project "Can Do". They had 40,000 lbs of canned food they were making into a life size combine. Half the area was taken up and the other half was busy. We left and went the the John Deere Headquarters. We climbed on a combine and lots of other tractors.





We then went to the Niabi Zoo since it was free. It was getting chilly by then. As we ate lunch we could hear the lion roaring. When we got over to it they were asleep. He lifted his head up and looked around, then layed back down. We saw 2 sheep head butting. We feed the goats and fish. The wolves were really active.




Sunday we went to church. We had Johann's family over for a super yummy Thanksgiving dinner.

Monday-Nani & I went shopping. Papa took Simeon & Corrine to Sycamore mall to walk around and get Dairy Queen ice cream. Corrine & Simeon got small blizzards and they were bigger then Papa's medium sundae! They went to the Dollar store. Simeon told me he saw a container of premixed cinnamon and sugar. When they got home Ammon was having some Wii time and we all watched or played with him.

Tuesday-Nani, Johann and I went to the Nauvoo Temple. Rebecca played with Joel, then came home before the big kids got home. Papa met the big kids at home. Simeon taught Papa how to play "Garbage". We had homemade carmel snack mix and hot cocoa. Pretty Pretty Princess was played by Papa and the girls. Ammon played the knight, princess & ogre game with Papa.

If Papa asked Rebecca "Am I your buddy?" She says "No, I'm YOUR buddy." She said lots of "I love you's."