This is what AMAZING vacations are made of:

This is what AMAZING vacations are made of:

Puzzle- I have LOVED my new puzzle I have been working on. For some reason they relax me. Weird, right? I just sit and work on it while we watch movies.

Harry Potter in 3D- We watched Harry Potter 6 and then both parts of 7. No, Bob and I hadn’t seen them yet and YES its amazing on HD in 3D. So dang awesome.

 

Tyler gets braces- He was actually pretty excited to get his braces until he actually got them and couldn’t chew solids for 2 days. He has started adjusting to them now.  Here are the before and after pics.

Made family slideshow- We put together our annual slideshow and hopefully Bob will stick a link on here if you any of you want to see it.

SingStar- We got a really fun game that’s like karaoke. The kids have played it several times.

DDR- Got a new mat to do Dance Dance Revolution. It was one of the gifts Alayna got with her money.

Sewing Scout shirts- Yes, I FINALLY got a sash for Tyler and FINALLY got his merit badges sewed on. I wasn’t made to be the mom to any boys.

Osaka- We went to our favorite restaurant as a family- The Japanese place called Osaka where they cook your dinner in front of you on the grill. So fun!

Missionaries- We FINALLY had the missionaries over. Its been hard to have anyone over when I work. I just get too tired. But they came and we had a great dinner and they shared a cool object lesson with a rat trap!

Playing angry birds- We have been having a blast with the ipad and yes, I finally got the chance to play angry birds.

Maze Runner- I FINALLY had a chance to read and finish a book I have been wanting to for a long time. Its called “The Maze Runner” and if you liked Hunger Games you will really like this one. Cant wait to read the 2^nd one in the series.

Blog Book- I got all our blog entries slurped into Blurb and hope to finish the layout of all of it by this week and get it ordered.

New Years- We had a Fun Family Fondue Night where I made fondue Italiano and authentic Swiss cheese fondue. Then the kids had friends over- the boys played football on the TV and the girls did Just Dance 3. Bob and I watched CSI upstairs while I folded laundry and we were out cold before the New Year started.

We have some fun ideas to start off the new year. Always room for changes right?

Movies we Watched:

Super 8

Harry Potter 6

Harry Potter 7 (both parts)

Green Lantern

Don’t tell mom the babysitter is dead

Zookeeper

Cowboys vs. aliens

Transformers marathon

Kung Fu Panda 2

Happy New Year to you ALL!!!!

We Wish You a Very Merry Christmas

We have had an AMAZING Christmas.  I was thinking we were past the whole stay up at night forever assembling things in secret while the kids sleep.  I guess not.  Bob and I were up until 1:00AM assembling our big gift!  Our new kickbutt TV stand with a 55 inch flat screen High Def TV with a PS3, and blue ray and 3D capabilities.  AKA=Pure Awesomeness!!!!!!

(FYI- Super 8 is so dang awesome!  Just sayin)

(Dance Dance Revolution)

(Autographed pics of One Republic- thanks to the Uncles!)

* I had the BEST idea for shopping for kids this year and it worked like a charm!  Its gonna be our new tradition!

I’m SOOOO excited also for my new camera Bob bought me and our new family ipad!

(Marisa and her new lifesize Jacob!)

(I had to speak in church today)

Break is FINALLY here!

FINALLY had a chance to pull out the Lego Mindstorms where you can build and computer program your own cars.  Alayna and Tyler were glued for hours!

 

Spent 6 hours cooking Christmas Goodies!  Marisa wasn’t there to help this year because she had to work an 8 hour shift but she got to help us deliver!

(Making Cranberry jello salad- Alayna hates touching grapes.)

(Making 8 mini loaves of banana bread)

(Making oreo snowballs)

(Um…ooops?  You know our track record with fire)

(Chocolate covered pretzels)

Christmas Jar 2012

This year’s idea stemmed from an experience I had at school this week. I had a student tentatively approach me with tears streaming down his face. He whispered to me that he hadn’t eaten in 2 days and could he please have one of the study snacks and he would pay us back the next day. I gave him several snacks and told him not to worry about paying it back. I told my kids that night and we gathered several snacks from our house for me to keep at work for students who are hungry. Around this same time I became aware of Waypoint which is a shelter in Cedar Rapids for women and children who are homeless, living in poverty, or victims of domestic abuse. They have a HUGE list of immediate needs. We talked about it as a family and decided this was the way to go. We had so much fun going shopping for food and household items and then delivering them to the shelter that afternoon.