Little Monkeys.

Haley and Reed both have footie Monkey pajamas, which I love, and they both happened to be wearing them the other night so Haley asked me to take a picture of them.

Watch out Marylou!

One of the benefits of living in a "small town" is all the fun stuff put on for the kids. Last year, Macy took a cheerleading clinic thru the high school, and then got to perform during halftime at one of the high school games. This year, she took a gymnastics clinic and got to perform at a girls basketball game the other night. Her skills aren't all the way up there, so she was sad to only get to do somersaults and tuck jumps, but she still had a great time!

Whites or Color?

I'm doing the laundry. Have piles all over the place... and here's Haley and Reed, lying on the dirty clothes, eating cookies, just as happy as can be. So easy.

Happy Meet-a-versary!

Derrick is so the right person for me to be married to. He likes to make up holidays, as much as I like to celebrate made up holidays. Yesterday, February 8th, was our 17 year meet-a-versary. This is something that he remembers EVERY year. He's very good about it! I can't even remember what day it is, and he remembers made up holidays. Gotta love it! We went out to dinner on Saturday night and just had a nice time. I'm very thankful for this person who loves me and makes up holidays for me! What a blessing he is to me!

Cooking lessions (from a total non-cooker!)

During Sacrament meeting yesterday, Chad informs me that he has a fireside to go to that night, and oh, by the way, he needs to bring brownies. Lucky for him, brownie mix is typically one of the staples I keep in the house (isn't it in everyones' food storage?), but still... only one box, so he didn't have a lot to take, but he made them, and that's what counts!

I love New York.

Derrick goes to NY/CT for 24 hours, and this is the only picture he takes. Right out of his hotel window. But, he points out to me, that if you look real close, one of the green awnings is the Outback Restaurant where he ate dinner. Good to know, huh? Almost the Statue of Liberty (same color)... but not quite.

Nudity ahead.

So I'm in the middle of getting Reed ready for bed, and Chad, Luke and Macy are getting the garbage out. Reed, being the good helper that he is, had to help, no matter what he was wearing, until he got out the front door and realized that it was only about 35 degrees. A bit cold on his little naked bum.

Superbowl Sunday.

So, unless you REALLY like football, Superbowl is truly about all the commercials and all the snacks (although it was a good game - for the few minutes that I watched it!). We invited some people over, totally last minute, and between us, the Geigenmillers, and Bob and Susie, we had tons of snacks to go around - almost forever, and almost ever chip imaginable - thanks D!

All clean.

I love the toyroom closet. This is one of the perks of the basement. It looks crowded and full to the brim (because it is!)... but it holds most of the toys that were in Haley and Macy's room, and some from Luke and Chad as well. It's nice to have one place to try and keep most of the mess. And it's especially nice that it's not in their bedrooms. Doesn't mean their bedrooms don't still get crazy messy... but every little bit helps!

Living in a box.

Not sure who took this picture, but I found it on my camera, and it was funny, so it's definitely a keeper. Let's just hope that this doesn't lead to a life of living in boxes!!!

More helping.

Hey, I'll take all the helping I can get! One of the kids jobs is to put the trash out on trash night. All of our recycling needs to be separated - cans/glasses, paper, newspaper, boxes. It's always a fight who has to take out the boxes, which is usually the most work, but here's Macy, Haley and Reed all working together. Gotta love it!

Flat Cole.

I went to get the mail the other day, and was excited to find Flat "Cole" (Flat Stanley) in my mailbox. How excited was I???? Flat Cole came to visit! We took him to Portland to explore, and he got to visit Multnomah Falls and Mt. St. Helens. Thanks for the visit Flat Cole... he's now on his way to Washington D.C. Hope they're as nice to him there!!!

Snow surprise.

We woke up the other day to find a white world. We thought that we were done with this white... but for just one day, it was pretty nice.

Already being brainwashed.

So, as a little baby, Reed could hum the Indiana Jones song. He really likes it, and would get very excited when he heard it. We even bought him an Indiana Jones Mr. Potato Head. When you press down on the hat, it plays the song. Pretty cool.

The other day, D puts on one of the Star Wars movies, and there goes Reed. Now humming this tune... and he was totally enthralled watching it on the TV. I'm totally outnumbered in this house!

More scouts.

Having an indoor "snowball" fight. Consisted of waded up paper balls... but much easier to clean than real snow inside!

Scout mom.

I'm such the Scout mom. Kind of happens when you're the leader too. Here's Luke and I, after he earned his Webelos badge and he's given me my mom pin. D took a picture of us, and was like, "this can be your picture for the day". See... even he's involved in my mission!

Teamwork!

Come on... sing along. Teamwork, teamwork... name this song... it's from Wonderpets. I try to sing it a lot. Reed helping Haley carry a VERY HEAVY box of pictures in from the front porch. We got home to find 7 of these boxes sitting on our porch, and they tried to help me bring them in.

Catching up.

Well, I've been pretty good about taking the daily pictures... just not the posting part. I've been really busy with a scrapbook project and it's pretty much been consuming most of my time, so that's my picture for today. Some of the 350+ scrapbook pages that I've made in the past two weeks. I know... crazy, huh? But when I give myself deadlines, I can (sometimes) work with them! And, you need to know that they are not all completely different pages. I scrapbook for a family with 7 kids. If all 7 of the kids were somewhere, I recreate the page 7 times. Make sense? So... here ya go...

Time for change.

Ok, so this is my real, official post for yesterday, January 20th, Inauguration Day. So, maybe Obama wasn't my first choice... or my second choice for that matter. I'm still really excited to be around at this time, to see a black person (or... half-black as so many people are saying - does it really matter?) elected to be our president. What an amazing time we are living in!

And really, how AMAZING was that Inauguration ceremony! Me... who doesn't really care for or understand politics! But did you see all those people???? There must have been almost a zillion people there!!! Just amazing!

Now, I just want our housing market to get better, unemployment to get better, economy to get better... everything to get better. Come on Obama, make all your promises so!

It's Cookie Time!

Our house is alive with the selling of Girl Scout cookies! Anyone need some... let me know and I'll hook you up!!! Macy enjoys selling the cookies, and it's great because it pays for overnight horse camp which is lots of fun! Last year she sold 292 boxes, selling the most for her troop. This year, we're not trying so hard, but still having a great time!