Flashback Friday

I've been looking through my photo library and finding some little gems that throw me back to some good times, and also some bad times. So I thought I'd start Flashback Friday. Here's the first one.



When Oliver was little, he was VERY demanding of my attention. It was during my depression, and I always felt exhausted, and never felt I had the energy to help him or play with him--poor little guy--as long as he wanted (think about the over and over and over and over and over again of a learning toddler/child) and so the moments that he found to entertain himself were always glorious rest times for me...

Then I would find out, much to my dismay, that usually what he chose to entertain himself with involved making a HUUUGE mess of some kind. Here you see we narrowly avoided disaster. In this case I chose to take a picture instead of get upset, and talk to him about not clogging the drain with toilet paper. There was another time where he got my make up brushes and used the liquid handsoap to paint a masterpiece on the bathroom mirror. Didn't get a picture of that, but I still remember what a pain it was to clean up. He still to this day loves playing in the sink and making "potions" as he calls them. Here is to my creative, resourceful little Oliver, just barely two years old in these photos.

More to come in the next weeks!

festival of trees 2012

Ironically, we didn't get any real pictures of trees, we didn't really look at that many trees. Oliver enjoyed walking around the gingerbread village, and the Kids Corner is always were they want to be. Miriam had her fingernails painted for the first time in her life and was beyond the moon! They both talked to an elf on the phone. And best of all, it was really a great time this year going with cousins!

Goin' fishin:

GIANT BUBBLE! Miriam would NOT touch this with a 30 foot pole.

The adorability is hurting my eyes:


elf wand sword fight:
good cinnamon roll?

again, with the adorability and the eyes hurting...




Miriam was being a little mommy to Asher, telling him to take a drink and even trying to hold it up for him, silly girl. She also says, "when I grow up I'll be a little baby!"
Ring around the Roses:


christmas day 2011

Christmas morning at the DHQJR, 2011. good times.
We were so lucky this year, and someone did the twelve days of Christmas for us--the kids loved it. For the 12th day of Christmas we were given this awesome nativity, and here you see the littles setting it up. We were often putting the children to bed when they would come, so I'm afraid we always got the gift in the morning, so I hope whoever it was didn't stand out in the cold for too long waiting for us to get the door! Sometimes we didn't even hear the knock! I would love to be able to be in a position to do this for a family next year, I really think it would be great for Oliver to experience the giving end next time.
For Miriam's birthday, I had absolutely no money put aside for presents. So I took some old linen pants and made a rag doll body, used Oliver's old cords for a little dress, and used some yarn from a stash that was given to me when miram was born, and made a little doll. I also had just knit Miriam a sweater (from the same stash of yarn) and made a little matching sweater from the leftover scraps. I'll have to post up a picture sometime. For Christmas, I made Oliver a boy ragdoll, but as you can see, it is not finished. Currently, at least he has some pants and half of his hair--I'll have to post that up soon, too...
Here my tired little ones are yawning over the Doll bunk bed that grandpa and I worked on in the weeks leading up to Christmas. ("Making Christmas! Making Christmas!" was in my head for two weeks, heh heh.) Again, no money for anything, so it was from our old crib that was totally broken. It had been sitting out in the garden and next to the house in pieces for a year...I brought it in and started hacking away at it...brought the pieces to grandpa and told him kind of what I had in mind, and then he pretty much took it from there. He thankfully had screws and extra scraps of wood to make it suitable to stand up to childrens play. The kids really played and played with this on Christmas and the week after Christmas.
The quilts are from grandma's scrap pile--it's called a primitive heart pattern. Miriam's doll's quilt was finished first..grandma already had the orange hearts and white squares cut out, so all I had to do was assemble them. Oliver's dolls's quilt isn't quilted yet, but I finished it Christmas eve night at about 1:00 a.m. and Miriam kept waking up all night long, so I gave up at about 2:00 trying to get back to the quilt. Still not finished, but hey, I don't think Oliver or Miriam noticed.
Opening stockings, playing tic-tac-toe as they go.

daylight finally shines in on us...the tea set is from ikea, and they have really had a blast having tea party's or playing "restaurant". If you're concerned that Oliver didn't get any toys that were not "let's play house" themed...never fear, he got some lego sets and was very happy! They all got a book to read, too.
It was really a fun Christmas for me, I think the family enjoyed it, too. It was in sharp contrast to the very unhappy Christmas that we had last year. but that's another story for another post, I suppose.

Christmas Eve at the DHQ JR

I thought I'd better get Christmas up here before we get too far out. So we had just a lovely Christmas Eve. After Miri and Ollie and I spent some time at the WHQ (were I was still trying to get some gifts finished) we met back up with Kevin at home and got the fire going. I think. Did we got the the DHQ senior before we went home? I don't remember. I do remember how willing the children were to help with the cleaning up of the home so that Santa could find his way from the fireplace to the Christmas tree, heh, heh.
So with the generous donation of some Christmas flannel that Grandma J gave to me, I sewed some Christmas PJS for Kevin and the littles. Tons of fun, but took me long enough. I think I finished sewing the last stitches the Eve of Christmas Eve. Anyhoo, for some reason, Oliver felt it neccessary to open them around the kitchen table. Huh? Alright, whatever. Perhaps another tradition, eh? 





 And then came the crowning moment of singing Silent Night and putting our homemade Baby Jesus in his homemade cinnamon stick manger (Kevin's got lashing skill, yo). Both the children wanted to have a turn putting him in the manger, and they were so happy that he had a soft, cozy bed to sleep in--thanks to their acts of service and kindness throughout the month. (For each act of service or kindness, they got to place a piece of straw into his manger). You can see Oliver holding the "star" over the manger. :) It was a very lovely, peaceful Christmas Eve, and I hope these are the beginnings of some traditions for our little family for years to come.

Miri had to give the baby Jesus a kiss, but I missed it with the camera...




Build and Grow at Lowe's

I lived in Orem close to 11 years, and 5 of them with children, and I frequented the Lowe's Home Improvement store for most of those years--for gardening supplies and most of my needs when it came to projects and home improvements. In all that time, I never knew about their free kids clinics on Saturdays. It took me moving two cities away to find out about them. In any case, we went to the three that they had leading up to Christmas (they built a christmas engine, coal car, and caboose). The kids get their own apron, goggles and building kits. And when they finish their item, they get a builder's patch to sew on their apron. Needless to say, Oliver has already misplaced all of the above items. Miriam still has her apron, goggles and a one patch, but we lost her entire train. sigh.




In any case, both Oliver and Miriam LOVED it, they can't wait to go to the next two coming up in January.

Snow Man Dance

Oliver was so excited for us to see his Snowman Dance before school let out for the Christmas break. Miriam still talks about it. It was darling--I guess it's been a Valley View tradition for the kindergarteners to do this dance before the older kids' Christmas program. Here are the pictures...Where's Snowman Oliver? Hint: he's wearing a red and black scarf.


 Here's Miriam waiting semi-patiently for Oliver to do his Snowman Dance:


 I had to get a picture of his friend Abby. She's in the other kindergarten class, so they were opposite ends of the stage.
Good stuff!

bringing in the new year with a post for last year



Happy New Year. Just wanted to post something, anything, really quickly, to get this (blog) party started, yeeeeaah! So Oliver was out of school and I decided we needed to DO something, so I took the children to see the Santa Claus at the University Mall. They were charging a hefty $25 or something for a photo with Santa, and no personal photography was permitted, so I didn't get a pic of Ollie on Santa's lap (and Miri would not be within 9 feet of the poor man) but I did get pictures of their chocolate sucker faces playing in the children's play area of the mall.

 Chocolate face:







 Miri has to try out every floor, no matter how dirty, hard, lumpy, or disgusting it might be. Oliver decided to join in and make some "floor" angels. There were snowflakes, after all, right? So I suppose it's not a huge stretch of the imagination...

 More chocolate face. I didn't have any wipes or tissues or anything.