Will's in school, Adalynn's potty trained... our anniversary

So, a quick update. It's hard to find time to post lately, but...
Here's a little about what's happened this last month.

The kids have been enjoying their new Christmas presents.



and playing dress up

being silly

and just having fun

Will started preschool.

Adalynn is potty trained!

Tessa is saying a bunch of new words every day & makes me laugh every day!


... And Billy and I celebrated our anniversary! We have been married 7 wonderful years now. I really lucked out! I have an amazing husband. And look what he got me...
:)
I love two toned roses! And this one was SO pretty- it actually had 3 colors- yellow, orange and red. So sweet!
We celebrated the weekend before and went to dinner and a movie. We actually ran into some friends of our at Carabas before we went in and ended up having dinner w/ them... funny story- this is Billy's best friend for the last 15 yrs, they are more like brothers than friends and are so much alike. I get along really well w/ his wife too. Well, anyway we have the exact same anniversary (no it wasn't planned, it's just one of the many things we have in common w/ them) and then we both celebrated this year on the same day, went to the same movie and same restraunt. We had to laugh at that! So we saw them outside and they asked if we wanted to join them, and they had like a 5 min. wait- we would have had to have waited like 45 min. So yeah! We had a lot of fun together.
Then on our actual anniversary we decided to do something fun together as a family and do a picnic in the park. The kids loved it, we all played together after and Billy and I were doing the leapfrog thing and running around on the playground w/ them. We had a lot of fun.

Lost Generation

Family pictures

Here are our new family pictures:

What Matters Most

Christmas time

What a busy couple of weeks it has been. We have had so much fun this Christmas season. It feels like we did something Christmassy (I think I just made that a word) every day. We put up the Christmas tree one day, did the count down chain the next day, read new Christmas books and sang Christmas songs every day, we went to a big Allen Christmas party (my mom's side) one day, and a get together with some of my other cousins the next day- (potluck soups, the kids acted out the nativity story, and we sang Christmas songs- it was great!) We had our Christmas program in church the Sunday before and my mom came which was so nice. Billy and I both sang in the choir. I loved singing with the choir this Christmas! Oh- and the girls had matching Christmas dresses from their Grandma. Then we did a Christmas dinner with Billy's best friend who is like a brother to him. We had a lot of fun with them playing games while the kids played together.
Two days before Christmas me and the kids had a lot of fun baking, baking, and baking some more. :) We made gingerbread cookies,sugar cookies, chocolate chip cookies and turtle things. And they helped with each one. They LOVED it! They helped me roll out the dough with both the gingerbread cookies and the sugar cookies and they helped me make the shapes (we had the gingerbread man, stars, Christmas trees, stockings, a snowman, and we made some regular round ones), they helped me put them on the pan and then I turned the light on for them so they could watch them cook in the oven. The next part was really fun too: Frosting and sprinkles! They liked that.
So my turtle receipe is so easy and so good. Adalynn loved helping me make these ones. First we put pretzels on a cookie sheet and then unwrapped a bunch of rolos and put a rolo on each pretzel. She liked that part for some reason (Tessa just wanted to eat the rolos). Then we put them in the oven at 200 for 4-5 min until the chocolate was melted a bit. Then we got them out and placed a pecan on each on. They are so good.
So we had fun that day baking and delivering goodies.
On Christmas Eve I wrapped all the presents and put them under the tree. That was exciting for them. That's the day we went to Billy's friends house.
Christmas day I loved seeing their faces as they saw the new presents from Santa. Will asked for a Robot. And he got a really cool, shiny, red robot that talks and plays games and moves all around the house. It has a remote control and you can make it go any where you want to. He loves it. Adalynn asked for a doll that talks and we gave Tessa a Tigger that rolls and does somersaults. It was so fun watching them with their new really cool presents from Santa. After we played with them for a bit we had fresh cinnamon rolls for breakfast and then we took our time opening one gift at a time. The kids had a lot of fun. The last gift we had them open was a dry erase table with two folding chairs to go with it. We set it up and they all colored on that thing for almost an hour! Billy and I were able to relax and enjoy e/o company while they drew away on that table.
Then we had to get ready to go. We got to Summer's new (big) house in Queen Creek around 11. We had lunch, and watched a nice video about our Saviour. Then we did the kids gift exchange. They got some great gifts and it was so much fun. The kids loved it and all of us adults loved watching them give their gifts and open them. After that the kids played for awhile and the adults visited, then the Dad's took the kids to the park that was around the corner while us women went through boxes of my mom's stuff. She wanted to give us all our own set of dishes (she had 4 sets to give away) and other misc. stuff. Then Tessa went down for her nap and the other two watched Christmas movies and played with their cousins and me, my mom, and my sister played games all afternoon! It was so much fun. I don't remember the last time I've played games- but then just to relax and play games for a whole afternoon was awesome. We had so much fun. Billy joined us for the last two games. When it was dark we went to look at some awesome Christmas lights. Around Summer's neighorhood there are two houses that are fully decked out w/ lights EVERYWHERE and they go in time to Christmas music. It was really cool. Will said they were magic lights.
On the way home we talked in detail about Christ, his birth and life. The kids listened to every word and participated and fully believed. The faith of a child is amazing!
This Christmas was wonderful. I have such a good family!

Family Update

I haven't written a real journal type entry in here for awhile. Things have been busy... and stressful, and hard around here lately. I have had many days in the last four months of crying... my heart has been so heavy at times, and we have all gone through many emotions.
Those of you who know my family most likely know what I am referring to, and I guess it is no secret anymore, but I still feel funny writing down any details here. But one thing I am grateful for going through this trial is that our family is sooo close knit now! We are stronger and tighter than ever before. I have always loved my family and I've always felt so blessed to have such a great family. We always have so much fun together! Now things are different... but through our tears and our heartache we have only grown closer and I am grateful for that.
I also have such a strong testimony of how important it is to not only gain a testimony but to work at it every day, because anybody can falter if they are not heeding the guidance of the prophet and apostles and doing the things they know are right.
I am so glad I have the gospel and that I have such a good husband, good kids, good brothers and sister, a great mom, uncles, aunts, cousins, friends... the list goes on. I have so much to be grateful for! I am so lucky and so blessed.

So onto lighter topics, b/c there have been a lot of good things happen recently too. Thanksgiving was fun. Ate WAY to much- infact I've been eating way too much junk in general lately and it's so hard to be good for more than... hmmm- 1/2 a day? haha. We had a lot of fun on Thanksgiving. The kids made turkeys out of apples, toothpicks, marshmellows and other candy. They loved that.
They are getting excited for Christmas! This year Adalynn is getting into it too. I bought all the Christmas presents on Black Friday, and then when I knew which one was going to come from Santa to Adalynn I planted the thought in her head to ask Santa for a Doll that talks. Now she is really excited to ask Santa for that. And Will wanted a Robot and wouldn't budge on that even after many other suggested really cool toys. But I found a great Robot for him that I think he'll love.

I joined the ward choir!!! I am so happy to be in Choir again! It's been way too long.. since HS I think. But I love the feelings of singing Christmas music. Love it!

Billy is almost done with this semester. Finals this week! Yay! Then a short break. Can't wait.

And finally, about the kids. I actually started a list of funny things they've said recently:


Will- "Mommy, when I was in heaven I had a spirit, but no body. Now I have a spirit and a body!"
Me- Surprised that he had grasped that whole concept so quickly after learning it just the other day, said "Yes, Will!"
"Yeah, but I'm still a kid."

"I don't want that fazy (crazy) Genie to break our house!" - he was talking about how big the Genie from Aladdin was.

Me- "Did you wash your face?"
Will- "Yes, and I washed my head, too- with hair on it."
Me- laughing
Will- "Some boys have short hair and some girls have long hair."

Daddy in the car asked Adalynn "Are we in the past?"
"No." She thought he was really silly.
"Are we in the future?"
"No. We in the car."

And today I asked her "Is your bear a girl or a boy."
"It's...bear."

My favorite thing to hear Adalynn say is "Is that how it goes?" It's not necissarily the phrase that is funny, but the way she says it. She'll be singing a song and she'll change the words and then say "Is that how it goes?" Really loud like she's the funniest thing in the world. And she'll do it over and over and over again. So funny.

And Tessa. Silly little Tessa. That girl has some personality. And her newly chipped two front teeth just add to that personality. She is trying to say lots of new words. She says (in order of what she said 1st) Mama, Dada, Ball, There, Bye Bye, Hi, Mine (I don't like that she already learned that), Animal noises: baaa, neigh, moo, meow, then yesterday she said Banana, but it was something like Manma. I knew what she meant. And when she was cranky today I asked her if it was time to go to bed and she said No. She is getting big. She is trying to talk more every day, and its exciting! I love to hear her little voice.
She is fitting in very well in nursery lately too. She has always loved it in there and she thought she was one of the "big kids" before but she was always the baby that wasn't really supposed to be in there, but now she really fits in. She even does the motions to some of the songs when we are singing. And she sits at the table really well for snack time and coloring.
She also gives great hugs and kisses now! Sometimes she doesn't want to stop, just kisses over and over again. And she'll give me a hug whenever I ask now- it's so nice. Last night I just wanted to hold her, and right before I went to bed I heard her let out a little cry, and I was actually thankful for the excuse to go run to her and hold her for a little while. My Grandma said something to the effect of "If you're ever sad or scared at night, just hold a little baby and you'll feel better."

Cleaning

Hey, I have a poll here with the question How Much Money Do You Spend on Cleaning Products every year. According to the research I've done, the average household spends $500-$600 a yr on household chemicals (that's bleach, window cleaner, floor cleaners, dusting supplies, disenfecting wipes, shout, carpet remover, sponges, mops, paper towels, etc. But I've even seem some statistics say the average is up to $800 a yr.
I was curious what your estimate was.

I've been doing a lot of research lately on the harmful effects of household chemicals. I never knew just how bad it was to clean the house with chemicals. Basically, most of the products you bring into your home to get rid of all that dirt and bacteria are more dangerous than the dirt and grim was to begin with.

Here's a video clip of the author of the book Holler for Your Health. She was on 3 TV.


here's another one on the news:



"On a typical cleaning day, in a typical home... levels of chemicals in the indoor air can be hundreds, even thousands of times higher than the outdoor air in the most polluted of cities. In fact, indoor air pollution levels would be high enough to trigger an inspection by health and safety authorities in any workplace setting. "(The Nature of Things, CBC-TV 2002)


I am a consultant for a company called Norwex. I am really excited about their products b/c I believe in them. After doing so much research about the harmful effects of chemicals I'm ready to be done with chemicals in my home. And with Norwex I haven't had to use chemicals since I bought one of their Enviro Cloths.
This microfiber cloth picks up all the dirt, grime, and bacteria and then kills it inside the cloth with the help of a silver based agent. It works great! It has been saving me time, $, and I feel so much better now not using chemicals in my home. The cloths are a really great price too! So worth the money ($14.50), especially when it will be saving you $500 a yr for 7 yrs (the life of the cloth).


This is just a portion of the research I have done, the things I have learned, and the new products I am excited about. BUT really I didn't mean to do this post as a sales pitch. I think it's annoying when people take every opportunity they can to try to get people to buy something.
So I didn't plan on doing this post as a way to sell a product... I just really was curious how much money people spend every year on products, and then I thought maybe I could educate you all on some interesting research I have found lately...

However I do believe in Norwex, and I am really excited to be a consultant for them. I will be having some shows soon which will be a lot of fun b/c I'll get to hang out with my friends and show them a demonstration of how these products work. :)