Hart Family News

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Happy Pig Day

Alayna created and organized Happy Pig Day for our family just for fun!

We did coloring:

We did puzzles:

Alayna sang the song she wrote (lyrics and music!)

Sometimes My Brilliance Amazes Even Me

Sometimes My Brilliance Amazes Even Me

Ok so I have done some things this week which I think can be lumped into a category of brilliance on my part.

1. Have you ever wondered what to do with the end of the cereal when your kids leave like ½ a cup and it always ends up getting thrown away cause no one will eat it? Well, for some reason I was thinking of these cookies my Grandma C used to make for us when we were little and I loved them. So, I decided to try and recreate it with leftover “stuff”. So, I cooked 1 cup caro syrup with 1 cup sugar (stay with me, it gets better) and I mixed it with 1 cup cheerios, 1 cup rice chex, 1 cup chocolate chips, 1 cup mini marshmallows, and I cup rice krispies. They were amazing! Kinda defeated my workout but hey, its was brilliant.

2. Tyler has NO IDEA how lucky he is to have me as a live-in-trainer! Its like he has his own personal Bob in his home, who comes in at 5am and says “Rise and Shine its exercising Time!” And I even say, “Don’t slow down, pretend you are right next to Lara Croft and the bad guys may get you. Run, Tyler, Run!” See? Pure Awesomeness!

3. So, I work with books and paper stuff all day (which I love by the way!) But in this weather my hands get so dang dry. This week the skin started to crack. So, a great idea popped into my head. Kayla had bought some aloe-infused gloves. I bough this heavy duty Vaseline lotion for baby bums and I coated my hands, put on the gloves, and slept like that. I might have looked super-weird, but it works!

4. I have also come up with and created an almost flawless chore chart for the kids. Yep, awesomeness abounds here!

Moments where my brilliance was…um..underwhelming.

1. Ok, so one day this week, it got up to like 50 degrees and I actually wore a t-shirt to work!! It was amazing and beautiful. That night, a terrible storm hit. I thought for SURE we would have a snow day. But no such luck. {idiots!} It was -5 when I left for work. So, I had to drive and it took me 45 minutes to get there. The roads were solid ice, the wind was like 45 miles an hour with ~~drifting~~ slamming snow, and which way do I choose to go? The windiest (as in twists and turns) road! I felt like a bumbling elephant on roller-skates! The only reason I didn’t fall off in a ditch is because I didn’t drive faster than my guardian angel could fly (which in case you are wondering was 15 miles an hour which thrilled all the people behind me to no end!) I almost rear-ended a cop and a school bus fish-tailed behind me. I am so grateful I survived. And 1 HUGE question….why didn’t I get gas when it 60 degrees warmer??

2. Coming home on Friday I noticed our road had been plowed which you would think was a good thing. However, they make a giant pile on the front of the driveway. So, I, in my mini car, try to make it up the driveway. I kept spinning wheels and got stuck. Stupid snow. Thank goodness for kids you can force to shovel you out while you make them hot chocolate. That’s what they are for right?

Other People’s Brilliance

1. Pocketblue- “Pocket BLU® enables your mobile device to communicate directly with your Blu-ray™ player to extend your movie experience in ways never before possible”. Have any of you tried this before? It is so dang awesome! We watched a movie and it does all this cool stuff while we watch. Although, when you get old like Bob and I, then its tough to keep up with all that “input”.

2. Alayna LOVES the ipad. I hope Bob can attach some of the clips she has made. But the best part? Right before bed, she can read her scriptures and watch BOM videos that the church just released. How cool is that?

Extras

The girls attended the Hyvee Holiday Party. (I’ll post pics as soon as I get them)

Alayna finally got to have a friend over and they played in the snow and built an awesome snowman.

Sunday, January 08, 2012

Roses in January, a panoramic view, and the “Year of Change”

Another crazy, busy week has come to pass. I would tell you how awesome it has been to have NO SNOW and how the temperature actually got up to 60 this week, but then I would jinx us and we would get the storm of the century….so I am not telling you.

(Flowers Bob and Tyler got for me)

We started off the week with lots of individual and family goals. I told them our family motto this year is “The Year of Change”. When I started looking for a vinyl of that phrase to go on our wall- the kids really thought I had lost my mind (I didn’t find any). Anyway, Tyler has been getting up at 5AM every day to work out with me. And even though we are both dead tired, we have been working hard. We watch fun SyFy movies like “Swamp Shark” and “Anaconda”. This week we are doing disaster movies, cause we are cool like that.

I started experimenting with my new superawesome camera, so all the pictures I took this week are from that. I love that it can zoom in so much farther than my old one. I am not very good at it yet though. It doesn’t help that I shake like a leaf in a tornado…but how totally awesome is the panoramic feature??

Bob and I went on another date night to see Marisa perform at the NEISTA honor orchestra. She did a wonderful job! Now she is practicing for upcoming performance where she will be featured as the soloist.

Bob, Tyler and I watched “Apollo 18” this week. I’m not exactly sure what my response is to it? It was a little scary, I jumped like 3 times. But I was intrigued enough to watch the whole thing. When it was over we each looked at each other like we weren’t sure how to respond. Have any of you seen it?

I almost drop-kicked Tyler over the house this week. I had taped a scary movie and told them they could watch it with me and ONLY with me so I could fast-forward and they wouldn’t see the scary parts. He and Alayna started watching it without me one day when I was gone. Alayna has been in tears and sleeping by my bed since. Argh!! There is a reason you should listen to your parents AND a reason why we don’t tape scary movies. Just in case any of you were wondering.

And I finished my puzzle!

AND apparently our family is having Happy Pig Day next week…

Sunday, January 01, 2012

2011 Family Slideshow

Our 2011 Hart Family Slideshow is now available at:

http://www.photodex.com/sharing/viewalbum.html?bm=67415

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.