Service Auction

Our ward is doing a Service Auction for Enrichment. I am doing this (click on the image to view larger version):

Our Family Valentines

Early on Saturday I woke up to Allie and Kevin's hush-hush voices downstairs. Then Allie came up and told me to come down to see my "valentines from Dad". This year we exchanged letters instead of the usual cards -- I think this is a good tradition. I had the idea of either doing love letters (too mushy for Kev), or list of reasons why we love each other (this was better). I made a list of the top 50 reasons (rule is also that we can't repeat ourselves for next year's) and Mr. Harris decided he was going to be really creative and gave me the ABC's instead - concise, cute and definitely a keeper! I think he beat me this time (I know, we're a little competitive).

We got Pei Wei's for dinner (but I wasn't feeling too good so I couldn't even smell the food!) and then we spent the rest of the day with the kids at home. Somewhere in Time was on TV so we watched that too (well, mostly me that got into the movie). Not typical but definitely fun for all of us. Allie wrote a little something on our school room board that I found before I went to bed that went like this: "I love Valentine's because we get Valentines and candy (Fun Dip!) ...blah...blah...blah, but most of all I love Valentine's Day because I get to spend time with my family.

Happy Valentine's!

Today was a busy day. We had our preschool valentine party this morning. The boys decorated their own Valentine bag, exchanged valentines, and enjoyed a Valentine's lunch courtesy of everyone's moms. We had yummy heart sandwiches, heart sugar cookies, fruit, brownies, crackers and juice. Collin was so excited to give out the valentines he made last night.

It was also early out day for Allie, Saxon Math after school, homework, dinner, etc. And because tomorrow is Allie's class party, we made a big pan of brownies for her to take to school. I told Allie maybe she should just take a few boxes of crackers/cookies, she said, "no, we signed up to bring brownies and Ms. Griffith will be so excited, she might even do a special thank you on our newsletter." (FYI that wasn't even on the list, we just thought they would taste really good). I laughed. She thinks up really good reasons. So she whipped up a big pan of triple chocolate chunk brownies and I helped her finish her Valentine robot. I was thinking more in the lines of a valentine box -- but being the creative brain she is, she decided a pink and shiny robot would fit the bill a lot better. It turned out pretty cute! I wonder what she will come up with next year.


Not like I was already busy enough -- I decided to get the kids to do a little valentine shoot with me before the baking and painting. Impromptu, so no fancy hairdos. Collin was excited since I explained it was mostly for Kevin, so he was game for it. Maddie was good, but she was more interested in the passing cars, walking around, picking up rocks, etc. -- she wouldn't look at me! Allie was not happy because she couldn't find the little ipod looking craft she made at Activity days that she called "iLove". She didn't want anything to do with the camera. I finally got her to do just 2 minutes. Maddie took about 1 minute and Collin took 3 minutes. I figured whatever I got was as good as it was going to get. Then I spent about half an hour to do this and the new blog header.

Hope everyone has a happy V-day!

There She Goes...

Maddie walks everywhere now, which makes it very hard to get a decent shot. She is loving being able to go anywhere she wants! She took her first steps right after Christmas, but didn't really take off until a week ago. She has also taught herself how to get down the stairs - she sits down and holds on to the railing as she slides down each step. She is now officially a toddler!

14-Month Old Princess

In a few days, our little princess Maddie will be 14 months old and we can already tell she's going to love being a little princess and all things girly. The other day she got the curling iron out and put it up to her hair (how does she know that?)! She loves Allie's shiny silver shoes and sparkly hair things. And of course she LOVES glasses and hairbands, crowns -- anything she can put on her head. I have yet to capture the very pleased "I am cute!" look she gives me whenever she gets a hold of one of those. She is just plain adorable, I think I should wear my camera around my neck so I don't miss any of her precious-ness! Sometimes I wonder how a little person like her can bring so much joy to a home (even during a tantrum).

Since Maddie was so happy after we got home from Church today, I quickly took a few snapshots of her in a natural, fun, exploring mood -- the hairdo after a nap, the church clothes minus the shoes. Besides, I haven't taken any 12-month old ones, so better late than never. She happily sat on the pink chair, until of course she figured out that it was a lot more fun if she stood on it instead. I couldn't take photos of her then (safety comes first!), so I got her push cart -- but she didn't want to push it like she's supposed to, she wanted to sit in it. So with the help of Collin and Kevin pushing her back and forth, I took a few more of her in the cart. So here's my ten minutes of pure cuteness (you have to be when the camera images look like these):

My Buys at Fry's

I like the days when I get to use $20 worth of clipped coupons. Early today the kids and I went to Fry's and got:

3 4-pack rolls of Cottonelle toilet paper

4 Boxes Quaker oatmeal

6 Boxes Fiber One Granola Bars

2 Boxes Chex Mix Bars

3 64 oz. Juicy Juice

2 Philadelphia cream cheese

2 16 oz Daisy sour cream

2 20 pack Kraft Cheese Singles

1 12 oz Frank's Red Hot Sauce

1 12 oz French's Mustard

1 Kraft Mayo

4 Cans Hormel Chili

2 Boxes Nabisco Kids' Crackers

I had coupons for everything but the cream cheese, mayo, and chili. And they were out of the Green Giant vegetables, which I could have had for FREE! I paid $25.12 for 33 items, or roughly 75 cents per item. I saved a total of $80 ($35 in manufacturer coupons, and $45 in store coupons). Not bad.

Caught!

Last week Wednesday, I changed Maddie's diaper and quickly ran downstairs to throw it in the garbage. When I came back in the bedroom, I found her doing this:

My first thought was "Oh no! The wipes!" Just as I was going to clean it up (which is almost always my first reaction when I see any kind of mess), I grabbed my camera instead. How can you resist such cuteness? :)

Our Kewl Kreative Brain

...is getting older every day. She's always coming up with ideas all day, she practically needs her own office so I don't have to see her paperwork filled with ideas (HUGE mess!). Although it is quite amusing to find this randomly, in one of her many notebooks. She tried to do her own version of a poem by Langston Hughes.

Allie's Rain Song

Let the rain touch you.

Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops.

Let the rain sing you a lullaby.

The rain makes puddles on the sidewalk

The rain makes the gutter flow with water

The rain makes you fall asleep tonight.

and yes, she coined the term "Kewl Kreative Brain" (spelling and all) for her future enterprise. Sounds pretty good, don't you think?

Catch-up Post

So Christmas is over (sad!) and I haven't blogged one thing about how ours went. I'm blaming it on the hundreds of pictures on my flash card, not to mention they are all in RAW format so it was a little daunting to look at them and have them uploaded on my computer. Now that the holidays are over and we are back to the *grind*, I finally got myself together and loaded the pictures. Now if only I can just pick a few... :) The Christmas season is my most favorite season of all! I love all our family traditions, old and new, the festivities and decorations, and the time we get to spend with each other. Kevin was on vacation the last two weeks of the year and didn't have to go back to work til the 5th of Jan, so we had some downtime. My family flew up from the Bahamas and my siblings *minus Abby* flew from Las Vegas, drove from Utah and super far-away Surprise AZ :) to spend Christmas with us. We had family on both sides here on Christmas Day so it was a blast!!!

Dec 1 - We started the 24 days of Christmas Jesse Tree ornaments. I loved the fact that we read the scriptures about the coming of Christ every day this month, and got to hang the ornaments to remind us of the story.

Dec 10 - We have a new elf! Kevin's mom gave us a new elf for Christmas. The kids named him Timmy Doodle. He leaves to go to the North Pole every night to report on how the kids did that day, deliver letters, etc. and is found in a new spot every day. Can't touch the little guy though or else he loses his magic and either leaves or doesn't move for a day. We enjoyed having Timmy Doodle this Christmas season and can't wait to see him again next year.

Dec 12/13 - Polar Express Train Ride in Williams. The kids were so excited. Also went to the Grand Canyon. Allie wants to go back to the GC for her birthday next year. She definitely inherited Kevin's love of nature.

Dec 18 - Our Preschool Christmas Party. It went well and I was glad since this event marked the beginning of me getting into the whole Christmas season's prep stuff -- family gatherings, presents, etc.

Dec 20 - Kevin and I celebrated our 11th anniversary with flowers and a lunch date. I can't believe it has been 11 years already - time flies. Especially when you have had great times great kids and great adventures along the way. We truly have been blessed and I am glad to have married such a wonderful great handsome person. I never have to worry about anything with him on my side. That night, the Greene's (family in our ward, also our landscaper) house burned down. A devastating loss, but the ward pulled together and got them in a furnished and stocked house with a pool in time for them to come home to on Monday morning. Amazing!!!

Dec 22 - The Harris Family Christmas Party. We had a live nativity. I made costumes for the kids. Collin was a wiseman, Allie was Mary and Maddie was the angel. I was pretty happy with how the costumes turned out. Pop read from Luke 2 and we all got to enjoy a yummy Mexican feast.

Dec 23 - Archie came in from Las Vegas, Andrea from Utah, and my parents from the Bahamas.

Dec 24 - Last minute shopping. We took my family to the Santan Mall to go shopping. It was a busy but fun day, Kevin even enjoyed the shopping trip. We spent all night wrapping presents. Super fun! The kids left Santa a croissant, chocolate chips and milk.

Dec 25 - 3 a.m. the kids snuck out VERY QUIETLY to see if Santa had come. Luckily Grandma Beth caught them and told them to go right back to bed because it was too early! Before 7 a.m. the kids were up and woke us up with loud excited screams of "You have to come look at what Santa brought us!" So we all hurried downstairs to check out their stockings and Santa sacks. They played with those presents for a while then we ate breakfast and got dressed so we could all open our family presents. 9/10 a.m. Everyone got to pile up their presents and opened them all at the same time. Wrapping paper and ribbon flew here and there. Lots of fun! 12/1 p.m. We ate our traditional Christmas lunch. Lorraine and Jack joined us, they came and delivered presents too! 5 p.m. The Harris clan came to the house and we had a big combined Christmas dinner. We had Jack's homemade smoked pork/beef bbq (THE BEST!). We had 11 kids and 15 adults. We took photos by the tree and Allie wowed us with her hula hoop skills, and all of us took turns trying. It was way too funny to watch.

Dec 26 - The perfect Christmas present! Kevin and I had decided last month that we were going to do our landscaping for our Christmas present this year. But I think I got the MOST perfect present the day after Christmas (Boxing Day - so yes, still Christmas). I got a piano! Not just any piano -- but the PIANO that Kevin's Dad painstakingly restored, that Kevin and his siblings grew up with and learned piano with, that Lorraine sold to a kind lady 6 years ago (she offered it to us first but we were too cheap to buy), that now came full circle. I think we were meant to have it. And what better time to get it than at Christmas time? Great things happen when you least expect it.

Dec 27/28 - Todd brought over his projector and set it up for a couple of movie nights. Jack and Lorraine even brought their popcorn machine to make it all official! It was so much more fun to watch movies this way! He has since set up our TV room (thank you!!!!) so we could watch movies on the big wall and actually get good use out of the already set-up theatre room that neither Kevin or I thought much of when we moved in. For us who have had regular tv's for the last 10 years, this is a treat! It is good to have brothers who know the electronic stuff, hey? -- All in an effort to convert Kevin into thinking that a theatre room is actually better than a garage (which it was converted from - he always says it should have been left a garage. I know! He is one funny guy). Thanks Todd for your time and effort getting this all hooked up!

Dec 29 - We took my family to Anna's in Surprise so they could also spend time at their house before they went back to the Bahamas. We had TGIF's for dinner there. Good stuff.

Before landscaping

After landscaping

Dec 31 - We planned on driving up to Utah to spend the rest of Kevin's time off there, but since our landscaping didn't get done til about noon, we decided that Kevin and Collin fly up, and I stay here with the girls since Maddie and Allie were still getting over some bug. I took them to the airport around 4:30 and then went to the Harris New Year's Eve party at Chad and Megan's. We had good steak and shrimp (yay, I tried 4 this time and didn't get sick!). Kevin and I were on the phone at midnight and Allie and I stayed up watching a cute Disney show til about 2 a.m. OK I fell asleep.

Jan 1 - New Year's Day. No big happenings here. We went to get paint for the living room and Allie's room. I painted her room while Maddie napped and Allie spent the day making and frosting cupcakes with her Girl Gourmet. They tasted good for cupcakes that took 30 seconds to make in the microwave. We were going to do our spa night but I came down with the migraine after smelling paint all day.

Jan 2 - Kevin and Collin came home from Utah. They were only in Utah for two days - but got to shovel the snow off our driveway, talked to our neighbors the Coxes and Bro "Rootbeer" (Rupper), ate McRib lunches with McRib aficionados, Bishop Bliss and Zach, (whom he served with in the Bishopric in Utah) and got their haircuts at the BYU barbershop. I felt sick all night, so Kevin took care of the kids, fed them dinner and got them ready for bed. I was glad to have him back home!

Jan 3 - The tree came down and so did all the Christmas stuff. It took all day!

Jan 5 - Back to the regular schedule. What fun we had last year. Now on to 2009!

Little Sisters...

Aireen and Andrea (and my mom below). The rest are going to be on picasaweb, missies.