“When it snows, you have two choices: shovel or make snow angels”

November 13, 2011

First Snow

We got our 1^st snow of the year. It melted by the afternoon. Not sure we are ready for winter!  We didn’t have enough to make snow angels, but we also didn’t have to shovel!

IPod Touch

Tyler has been saving all his money like crazy, even sacrificing bday presents. He finally earned enough to get his Ipod Touch. He thought he would DIE waiting for it to come in the mail. When it finally did, he could hardly contain his excitement and he had a posse of sisters following him around to check it out. The only thing is I’ve barely seen his face since.

Acceptance

Marisa submitted her application to BYU-Provo and BYU-Idaho this week. Two days later she received her acceptance to BYU-Idaho. It was so exciting, but she is still holding out for acceptance to BYU-Provo. I wanted to share some of the mail she has been getting lately too.

Making Christmas Cards for Cousins

For my side of the family, we are doing a Christmas Card exchange with the cousins. Here we are working hard on them.

My attempt at being “crafty”. Decorating these flowers to go on our dresses for the wedding. We fly out in exactly one week. Hope you Ribera’s are ready for us!

More Apples

Tyler and Marisa experimented and made apple pie in loaf form! Turned out super yummy!

Band Concert

Tyler has his jazz band and band concert.  He had 2 solos and did an awesome job on his trombone!

Halloween and Why Mothballs Aren’t Our Friend

Halloween and Why Mothballs Aren’t Our Friend

November 6, 2011

Halloween

This was the 1^st Halloween Bob and I didn’t have to walk the kids around to Trick-or-Treat. We hunkered downstairs watching CSI while the kids took Alayna around the neighborhood. Then the older kids took off with friends to hit more neighborhoods. They hauled in quite a stash and then Alayna and Tyler organized them (I wonder where they get that from?)

Why Mothballs Aren’t Our Friend

A sweet friend gave us a box of cute clothes for Marisa and Kayla. We realized the box had a hideous smell, finally realizing it was that nasty mothball smell. The girls tried the clothes on and as they did our house started to really stink. So, I decided to wash them. BIG mistake!!! Man, did our house, clothes, and everything stink after that!! Somehow my ONLY pair of jeans that fit got into that load and now they reek. I washed those 2 loads twice with double the laundry soap and fabric softener, and 2 dryer sheets when I dried them and NO LUCK! Have you ever seen the episode of Seinfeld where that smell attaches to Jerry’s car? This was just like it. I hopped on the internet and it says they need fresh air. I put them on the deck but it’s a wind storm out there- so it looks like someone barfed up clothes all over the yard. Ugh!

Odds and Ends

*Marisa won a contest at Hyvee (her work). She came in 2^nd place by selling these donations while she was a cashier! She was so excited and won a $50 prize, which came in handy because someone stole $40 out of her wallet the last few weeks. I guess she pulls out even?

*A potato from our garden

*After 3 more hours of shopping I think we have almost everything for the wedding. We leave in exactly 2 weeks!!

*More Alayna creativity?

*Just wanted you to see some of the daily mail we receive here for Marisa…

Vampire, Indian, Ninja, and Angry Bacon

October 30, 2011

Vampire, Indian, Ninja, and Angry Bacon

We had a ward party instead of a trunk-or-treat. I was still sick so Bob and the kids went without me. It was a chili cook off with some fun games for the kids. Alayna came home with lots of candy and by morning it was all gone. She’s a turkey.

Happy 13^th Birthday to Tyler

Tyler is now officially a teenager! We woke him up by singing him Happy Birthday and informing him that his face book was all set up and ready to go. He was so excited. He already has 216 friends! I only have 268. Anyway, we made a giant cookie to celebrate and got Captain America to watch hopefully sometime soon. He chose to have no gifts or a party because he is saving all his bday and Christmas money for an iPod touch. He is so excited he can hardly stand it.

(The girls got him this CD as a joke because he HATES kids that sing kids songs!)

 

(We suck- I only had one candle…and it was a 4)

Marisa Concert

Marisa had her final Fall orchestra concert. It was wonderful except I started crying at the beginning because I knew it was her last one and I feel like her year is already flying by.

ER visit

Right after Marisa’s concert I got super ill and had Bob race me to the ER. I am doing better now but as always, those experiences are super scary.

Date night

Bob and I finally got to go on a date night! We went to Pancheros for dinner, Coldstone for dessert, and then spent the evening watching some of our funs shows at home. I just LOVE being with him and I hope he knows that!

Red Ribbon Week

Alayna had a fun week at school. The 1^st day we sprayed her hair pink. She also got to wear pajamas and wear her clothes backwards.

Warm weather in October? What does that mean?

We had gorgeous weather this month- we even wore t-shirts. We spent time outside and Bob and the kids played football. I guess we figure we need to soak up as much sun as we possibly can!

Apples, All-State, and ALL the other stuff

Apples, All-State, and ALL the other stuff

Apples

We still have apples coming out of our ears. So, yesterday Bob borrowed a wine press from our HT and he and the kids made fresh squeezed apple juice which was to DIE for!

 

All-State

Marisa has been rehearsing like crazy to prepare for all state. She had auditions yesterday and made it!!! AND as a 1^st violinist! Congratulations!

ALL the other stuff

•I had to work on Monday but the kids had the day off, so they came up to Jefferson to see the school and the library and meet my boss. Do you wanna know how brave my kids are?? They ALL wore their Linn-Mar apparel! Brave souls indeed! They weren’t too impressed and did say that the school is much more “ghetto” than LM which is true. We do have a resident cop and it can be a little scary, but once you truly get to know the kids and develop a relationship with them, things can change.

•Alayna started Grace Notes this week and loves it. Especially when they got to sing, “Mommy made me mash my M&Ms” as the warm up.

(She wants to be “scary bacon” for Halloween.  Psycho!)

•Kayla LOVES her new culinary basics class and got to make peanut butter cookies in class this week. I am hoping this inspires her to become our resident chef.

•Spent TONS of time dress shopping but with no luck til the last day. Marisa is determined to redeem herself from the black velvet one we got for Missy wedding. Here is a preview of the one we got Alayna for the wedding.

Library Displays

Some of the displays I’ve done at work:

(Halloween Books)

(Bulletin Board I did for Banned Books Week)

(Just “some” of the 150 books I processed, catalogued, and covered this week!  I rock!)

Cowgirls and Lamanites

Cowgirls and Lamanites

Kayla and Marisa had their Stake Youth Costume dance yesterday. They went as a cowgirl and a Lamanite. They looked super cute and had a great time.

 

More Apples

So, we had another apple day yesterday. I got creative and made homemade applesauce muffins with our homemade applesauce and they turned out SO YUMMY and moist!

Then I made 8 mini apple pies. How cute are they?? I also made another big pie.

We also made 3 more jars of homemade stewed tomatoes with stuff from our garden.

Books Everywhere

I had another great week at work! I covered tons of new books this week and did about 20 new books at home. I also processed about 150 new books we received and I loved it. I am so weird! But I got 1^st dibs on the new books so I am reading Silence, Power of Six, and Shelter. I also got Son of Neptune for Tyler and he almost jumped through the roof with joy!

I’m debating taking 2 Masters classes in January, but considering I’m so exhausted I can’t stay up much past 8, how will I do that?

Odds and Ends

1. Tyler finished up tennis this week and won his last meet. He received two awards! One was for playing for two years but the other was for being undefeated this entire season! Go Tyler!!

He also was an angel and cleaned the house on Friday when I worked.  He even alphabetized my “beauty” products!  Does he know me well or what??

2. Alayna starts the school choir this week called Grace Notes and she is pretty excited.

3. BYU early admissions applications start tomorrow. Good Luck Marisa!

4. Kayla finally gets to start her Culinary Basics class this week at school and is very excited!