Nani and Papa visit

Nani & Papa came to visit us and to be here for Corrine's baptism. They got here while we were up at school for the science fair that Simeon was in, so they got to see his project.


Rebecca wasn't sure about them at first, but really warmed up. Papa was having a great time with how well Rebecca talked and was teaching her cute phrases and teaching her to do "thumbs up". She was trying to figure it out, but would stick her pointer finger up instead of her thumb. She would crawl up on the couch with Papa to read books with him.


They were such a great help while they were here. I got a cold within hours of them showing up and was pretty tired the whole time. On Saturday they did most of the work for the dinner after Corrine's baptism.
While they were here we had a birthday party for Corrine and Ian (3 years old) at Grandma Smiths house. They got her a unicorn pillow pet and robe. She instantly fell in love with the pillow pet and loved the warmth of the robe.


It was so much fun having them come visit us!

Another lost tooth for Corrine

Corrine's front tooth had roots of steal!! It's been loose for weeks or even close to 2 months, but it just wouldn't fall out. She could push it back to the roof of her mouth, pull it forward, even twist it and it would cling on for dear life.
Her gum above it was getting bruised and the tooth was turning grey because it was so dead, so we decided the tooth had to go.


Papa tried pulling it out-didn't work. Mom tried pulling it out-no luck. Dad tried pulling it out-still stuck. Corrine gave it another shot-but it wouldn't come out.
So out came the needle nose pliers. Papa held her head still and dad used the pliers. It took some prodding to get Corrine is go for it. After the 1st try and realizing it didn't hurt she was ready for dad to keep pulling. It took a couple pulls, but then her tooth finally let go of it's last root and feel out.

Dad said since it took pliers to get the tooth out, the tooth fairy would give her more money! She liked that idea. She wrote a note to the tooth fairy telling her that it took pliers to get it out, to make sure she got her extra reward!

Since her front teeth came in she's always had a gap between her front teeth. That gap is much bigger now with a tooth missing. I wonder if it's gone for good now since her front teeth will be bigger then the baby teeth were. The gap being gone is just another sign showing Corrine is growing up.

Corrine's lost tooth count stands at 3.

Corrine's Baptism

What a beautiful day it was to celebrate the baptism of our beautiful daughter Corrine. Corrine has been looking forward to this day for a long time.


In January they had a baptismal preview for all the kids turning 8 this year. Corrine was the 2nd oldest of the group, but she had the earliest baptismal date set. At the baptismal preview they talked about getting baptized, showed them the font, talked about activity day girls or cub scouts and showed them the clothes they would wear. Hanging up was a brand new white dress. When Corrine saw the dress she knew that was what she wanted to be baptized in.

When we got to the church today we found the white dress hanging for Corrine to wear. We also found the boys bathroom flooded because the shutoff valve for the font had broken off!






Grandma Smith gave a talk on baptism. Then Corrine was baptized by dad.


Grandma Jenson gave a talk on the Holy Ghost and dad confirmed her. Also standing in the circle when Corrine was confirmed were Grandpa Jenson, Grandpa Smith, Brother Hubble, Matt Fisher, Cordell Jeppsen, Bro Hachtman and Uncle Jake.

Corrine got her new set of scriptures today, and also a necklace with a poem that talks about when the world spins that she can rely on the Holy Ghost.



After the baptismal service we headed back to our house for dinner. We had a house full of people and lots of yummy food for dinner.


I only took a few pictures of Rebecca and Audrey at our house.

Chemical Reactions

by Simeon

My friend Nick and I were in the science fair at school this year. We did an experiment about chemical reactions. We used bases: baking soda and calcium carbonate, we used acids: vinegar, citric acid and lemon juice, and we used purple cabbage juice.
We put our ingredients separately into test tubes, then we added purple cabbage juice. If it turned blue it was an acid, and if it turned red it was a base, and if it stayed purple it was an acid and a base.
Then we mixed some of the bases and acids together to see their reactions. When we put bases and acids together they would fizz. If we put 2 bases together, or 2 acids together it wouldn't react.
I enjoyed the experiment and the science fair. During the science fair Nani & Papa got here, so they got to see my experiment.

Craning

Maybe your bored with tree updates, but to me it's been a very interesting thing to watch. Today's part had my nerves going, since a crane was taking the big pieces over our house.

This morning I got a call at 7:10 and it was Dan, the tree guy. He wondered if the crane could come today. It all depended on our neighbors nieces car. Why? The only way to get a crane into our backyard, was for the truck to park in our neighbors driveway as close to their house as possible, so the driveway needed to be open. I looked out and the car wasn't there, so I gave them the green light to come over.

I rushed out to do my errands as soon as I dropped the kids off at school so I would be home to watch. Have I mentioned before how fun it's been to watch this whole tree process.

They got to the house around 10:15 and started getting the crane ready. They looked at the pieces in the back and decided that the biggest one was going to be too unsteady the way it was, so they cut a piece off and took that with the crane first.

Then came the uneven, super heavy, super scary awkward piece. They took some time making sure that the crane could handle the weight, and watching how it spun. I thought they were first going to move the piece then put the rope around it differently, but they took it as it was. After a few tests and watching it, they decided it was secure and the crane could handle the weight, so they went for it. We watched it from the back, then ran to the front to watch it come over. It spun in circles and made me super nervous. When I heard the loud thud of it in the truck I felt better.


Next came the trunk. This they did have to pull over and redo the cord around it. I wanted to video tape a piece coming over for the kids to watch, so we watched most of this piece come over from across the street. It was amazing how little the piece looks as it's dangling high above our house, when we know how large it really is.


Rebecca really liked the 'trucks' and wanted me to take a picture of her with the truck for Ammon.


The kids asked me if I would ask Dan to not come until they were home from school so they could watch. I thought it was safest if they were at school when it happened. They were bummed to miss it, but they saw a video and felt better!


What's now left of the tree. It'll get ground up sometime this week and then we'll have a HUGE whole where the tree once stood.

Party Time

by Corrine

For my birthday party this year I got to invite 4 friends to go to my favorite restaurant HuHut for lunch. I invited Olivia, Lauryn, Madelyn and Mia. It was fun having all my friends in the van with me. We didn't have school today because of President's day, so I got to have my party on my actual birthday.



At the restaurant I got a treat (cream cheese ragoons with raspberry sauce) because it was my birthday. My friends and family sang Happy Birthday to me when they brought my treat.

When we got back to my house we decorated flip flops and headbands. We decorated them with jewels, buttons, ribbon and flowers.




This year I didn't want a birthday cake, so we made dirt cups instead. Dirt cups are crunched up oreos, chocolate pudding and gummy worms. My friends and I liked them and kept making more and more.


I had a good time at my birthday party.

It's Great to be 8!!!

It's hard to believe that today Corrine is 8 years old. Time is going by so fast. This Saturday she'll be baptized and we'll have half of our kids baptized!



We always let the birthday kid pick out what we eat for the day. For breakfast Corrine picked out fresh squeezed orange juice, and homemade blueberry muffins with struessel on top.


Since February isn't the greatest month for bike riding, Corrine gets to pick out a new bike when the weather warms up, since she has way outgrown her current bike.

Today was a teacher development day, so Corrine got to have her birthday party on her birthday. She invited 4 friends to her party. We had lunch at HuHut for her birthday party, then made flip flops and headbands.

The afternoon got crazy with her birthday party, mom prepping to pick up Girl Scouts cookies, cupcakes for school being made and general birthday excitement.




We ended up having a late dinner, and as we sat down to eat the sister missionaries came by for a visit. They helped celebrate Corrine's birthday with us. We enjoyed a very yummy chocolate mint pie, then they helped her make another batch of cupcakes.

Our 1st Outdoor Picnic

Today was such a bright, sunny warmer day, that we decided to have lunch out on the deck. What a treat it was!! We had a gourmet lunch of frozen pizza and juice, but what we ate didn't matter, it was the fact that we were outside eating it that did.


Corrine was at a friends house today so she missed out. When she came home she told me "I had to eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich INSIDE at their table."
After we ate Rebecca wanted to swing, and swing and swing. She did NOT want to get out. When I'd stop pushing her she'd say "again". When I did finally take her out, I got an ear full of her crying for "MORE SWING!!"


Simeon & Ammon were playing with nerf guns running around having a great time.





We are all so excited for more days like this.

Puddle Jumping

This week the temperature has been warm enough to melt the foot and half of snow we just recently got. Since the ground is still very frozen, it doesn't soak in very quickly which leads to BIG puddles.


Our neighbor Rowan discovered the puddles on her side of the street, and when she saw Rebecca out she came over and the 2 of them together discovered a really big puddle in front of the neighbors house.
At first the girls were tentative to go into it, but soon they were stomping, running and kicking in it.







Corrine was riding her bike through it sending tidal waves towards the girls. Corrine went through 3 outfits today, ending with flip flops. It was 64 degree outside, but it still wasn't warm enough for flip flops with all the snow still on the ground. She eventually had to go inside to seek warmer ground.





Ammon came out towards the end and joined the girls, but it didn't last for long. He jumped harder and splashed higher and soon the girls were too wet, and he was soaked, so we had to go in. When Ammon came in he had to change his clothes head to toe and his boots dumped a cup of brown water out of them. Talk about playing hard!


We learned that Rebecca's "cute" winter boots were just that-cute. They filled quickly with water, so she switched to her "regular" winter boots and her feet stayed dry.


Rebecca thinking if having a big brother jumping with is all that it's made out to be!

Walking back to the house she fell down. Luckily it wasn't as big or deep of a puddle-she was wet enough already!

I'm ready for school

Rebecca LOVES to get on her jacket and "packpack" just like the big kids when we take them to school.



It's so sweet that she loves them so much and wants to be just like them. She doesn't want to be left out when they have thier backpacks on, so she needs her backpack when we take them, but she doesn't need to stay at school-right now she's perfectly happy coming home and being with mom.

Learning my colors

Rebecca is such a little sponge right now. She learns a handful of new words each day. Since she knows so many words, I decided it was time to start working on learning colors. She has so many bright colored toys in the bathtub so that's where we've been learning our colors.



We dumped extra toys in the bath to make sorting by color more fun. She needs help sometimes so I'll say "Put the little red rocket with the big red rocket" and she knows exactly what group to put it with.



She loves to name the toys as she's putting them up. Her favorites are the Little Eistein characters, firefighter Fred and the animals, with the whales making the top of the list.



It so much fun to watch how quickly Rebecca is picking up things and how much she loves to learn new things.

Valentines Day 2011

What a treat we had on Valentines day. We woke up to a bright blue sky, a shinning sun and the temp in the mid 30's. Oh it was glorious!!! Rebecca and I even went on a walk after dropping the kids off at school.
I LOVE valentines day, but this year I was very much in the midst of winter blues and doing anything for it really was such an effort. Luckily for me I must have foreseen that I would not feel like doing anything the week and days before so I planned ahead-WAY ahead. Last February (after valentines day on a super sale) I bought heart plates and bowls and last fall I found some red SF jersey's for the boys and had them waiting for today. A few weeks back I went shopping for valentines to do during our snow days, so we were done with those last week. I did wait too long to do anything cute for the teachers, so they got some homemade snickerdoodles.
Corrine was super excited about valentines Day and she made each of us a special valentine that she put on our chairs the night before. She gave us each 2 pencils that fit our personalities, playdoh, a handwritten valentine and some money from her purse. (This is a big thing because she is saving her money to help buy a bigger house. She is such a thoughtful girl.)
I like to give the kids something on valentines day because I LOVE my kids, I LOVE to shop (and find great deals), I LOVE to give presents and it's fun to say "I love you." The boys got their matching SF jerseys, and a dino dig egg. Corrine got Squikies and food erasers. Rebecca got a Curious George stuffed animal and a Curious George movie with 8 short episodes-perfect for the van!




Last fall I bought a certificate for Blackstone for $20 for $40 worth of food. It expires in a week and we still hadn't used it, so Johann, Rebecca and I went out for a nice lunch today.
The kids came home with their valentines and sat at the table showing off what they got, making some trades, and digging into the sugar. Then Grandma Smith came over with valentines treats for them.


Rebecca loves to take all the stickers off a sheet and put them on herself, then take the massive sticker off her shirt and put it on the hardwood floors. If I notice it before she does it I can redirect the stickers to paper, if not-it makes for a good picking off job for me!
I like to make a nice dinner for valentines day, but since it's during tax season we usually change the date and have it Sunday night when Johann can be home with us. This year for our family dinner we had a roast with veggies, and homemade cheesecake with homemade raspberry sauce. For the kids and I on valentines day we had heart shaped pasta with sauce and salad and store bought (don't gasp too loud!) cinnamon pull apart dessert.


And we finished the night off by playing outside together after dinner at 6pm!!! Yikes that's late for it being light enough and warm enough to play outside in February!!

I'm off this week to go get some valentines cups and placemats to go with our plates and bowls so I can be ready for next year when I know the winter blues will be heavy but I will want to do something fun for Valentines day.