Star Wars Boys

Today I had a small group leaders luncheon to attend after church, the girls had gone with friends for the day/night to a birthday party, and Jeremy took Caeden out to lunch because we had little food at home. For their Father-Son day, he let Caeden choose where to eat lunch, and wasn't surprised when he chose McDonald's. Caeden reported to me that he had his traditional chicken nuggets and fries Happy Meal and got a puppy toy in the Happy Meal, which he named "Cooper."

After lunch they went to some stores just to poke around a bit. Jeremy wanted to check out Circut City's going-out-of-business sale, and they also went to Target. Once the boys spotted a toy lightsaber, it was decidedly purchased. Jeremy says he always wanted one as a kid and was excited to get it for Caeden. (Jeremy has now been drafted to do all birthday and Christmas shopping for Caeden.) They both were carefully wielding it all evening.

This prompted Caeden's first viewing of Star Wars, the movie this evening while snuggled up on the couch with his Dad. I wasn't sure Caeden should be watching any Star Wars flicks at age 4, but this one was really okay for him. They were super cute watching it together too.

A few recent creations:

Click images to see them larger and with journaling.

Way Back When
by TarynLeah
Scrapbook.com

Flower Crowns
by TarynLeah
Scrapbook.com

ME - so they say
by TarynLeah
Scrapbook.com

snowflake ornament
by TarynLeah
Scrapbook.com

Apology and Honors

Obviously I needed something to get me to blog. I haven't taken any photos since New Year's Eve, because I'm honestly a little tired of the editing process right now. Last week I managed to get through all of the rest of my 2008 photos I still had on the computer. They were from November and December, as well as 3 portrait sessions...so still a couple thousand photos almost. Anyway, they've all been seperated (originals and ones to print), saved to DVD, uploaded to winkflash.com, printed, and are on their way to me. Whew! What a major process. Good reminder to me that I need to do it at the end of every month and not get behind! So anyway, I haven't taken any photos in the past week and a half, and it actually feels good.


I spent the better part of the weekend reading The Shack, by Wm. P. Young. I can honestly say, it is one of the best books I've read. I was completely engrossed in it, and am still pondering it. If you haven't read it yet, do.

Trying to think what else is new around here...

Jeremy has been working on things inside the house. He's put up the west wall in the den, mudded and sanded it. 2 more walls to go in there, but there are 8 6-foot windows sitting in there until spring arrives, so it obviously won't be completed too soon. He also ripped out the west wall in the upstairs bathroom, insulated and put up new drywall there this weekend. The guest room walls are patched and waiting for me to measure and wallpaper in there. (Well, technically, I suppose I need to stain the new window first.) I know, I know...wallpaper isn't cool. BUT, the walls are a mixture of 105 year old plaster and brand new drywall, and even though Jeremy did a great job matching them up while patching them, I'm going to wallpaper to cover the patching. Now, I'm not using ordinary floral print wallpaper! I'm going to use paintable anaglypta. Look it up. It's cool.


We finally decided to sign up for Netflix a few months ago, and have been loving that! We don't have cable or dish, just regular network TV, and don't even watch a lot of that. But, we've gotten into watching Heroes through Netflix. We're 3/4 of the way through Season 2 and loving it. Sometimes we even get a movie for the kids to watch.

It really is nice to be back in the routine of things again after the holidays. Of course the holidays are great, but I didn't realize how out-of-whack things had gotten around here, and it's nice to have some order back.

Caeden and I are doing school again. We hadn't done much at all for about a month, so now we are doing every day to get caught up. It's going well. He's learning about the 4th day of Creation right now, and the months and seasons.

My sweet online friend Angie has honored me with the "Your Blog is Fabulous!" blog award. It comes along with some requirements: I am to award 5 others and also list 5 addictions I have.5 blogs I think are fabulous:

• In the Dailies
• Tanya's Blog
• One Ginormous Adventure
• McBride Family Blog
• From Yesterday

And, 5 things I am "addicted" to...

1. Jesus...Absolutely can't do without Him. So, I guess that makes it an "addiction."
2. Music...My life would be so empty without it.
3. Coffee...I think I'm getting there. Yep. After swearing it off for most of my life, over the past year or 2 I've slowly gotten to the point where I can't do with out my 1 or 2 mugs a day. Vanilla coffee with fat free vanilla creamer.
4. Taking photos
5. The Internet...checking e-mail, my favorite scrappy messageboard, Facebook.

New Year's Eve

We decided to ring in the new year at home last night, just our little family, taking it easy and relaxing together.

Daddy spent some time teaching the kids to play chess and checkers
on Annah's new game board.
Then they all watched a favorite movie Caeden got on DVD for Christmas--The Incredibles, while I blew up about 75 balloons.


Growing up, my family always got together with my mom's Crabill side of the family for New Year's Eve. For part of the evening, the grown-ups and the big kids would blow up tons and tons of balloons. Then right at midnight, they would release them all into one room and we would pop them all! It was such a fun tradition that I always looked forward to, so I decided to do it with our kids this year!

We let them stay up until midnight, but little Sylvie-pie didn't quite make it. She was so tired, and at about 11:30, she decided she just wanted to go to bed. So Daddy tucked her in.
Caeden was so tired, he just kept running around to keep awake.
Annah was full of excitement, but kept saying she was sad for 2008 to end.
She and Caeden had fun running through the balloons...


...and popping them at midnight!


We are all just staying home and relaxing today. Right now, Annah and Sylvia are blowing up more balloons so Sylvia will get to pop some.

I don't have any resolutions or goals to work on yet, except that each of us would grow closer to Jesus and do His will in everything we do. I guess that's a pretty big one really!

I pray you and your loved ones will find the love of Jesus |
and many blessings in your lives in 2009!

Annah got her ears pierced!

It was a big day for Annah today! She's been wanting to get her ears pierced for a while now, and Aunt Erin & Uncle Travis gave her a gift card to Claire's for Christmas so she could do just that! Today was the day!

There were some nerves when it came time.


But, the excitement won out. Sylvia watched silently, and Caeden added to the commotion.


Annah chose little crystal daisies earrings. She wanted me to hold her hand, but I was manning 2 cameras, trying to get video clips and photos at the same time. Annah was very brave!

The first ear...1, 2, 3!

Barely a blink! She said it did hurt a little, and more a minute after they were both done.

The second ear...and Mommy forgot to stop recording while taking photos, so you see my hair for half of this clip. Oops!

She did great!

Miss Tanisha was very helpful and explained things clearly before doing each step.

Here she is showing Annah how to clean her piercings.


And she explained how to turn them 3 times each day. Annah was listening intently.


She is really, really excited!! She said it hurt for a while afterward, but by a couple hours later she said she couldn't feel them at all.

-----------------------------------

After the ear piercing, the girls and I all got our hair cut. Poor Caeden sat for an hour and a half waiting through that!

Then we drove through Culver's to get a little frozen custard and kill some time before heading to the movie theater. The girls each received new Disney movies for Christmas with free passes to see "Bolt" in 3-D! We all really liked it! It was super cute and family friendly! I would recommend it!

After that, we headed to get groceries. We got home just before 9:00, which was my intent. Jeremy is studying for a LOMA exam tomorrow, and I wanted to allow him some peace and quiet at home tonight. Ahhhhhhh...

Enjoying Christmas break

Daddy went back to work today, and Mommy and the kids stayed home all day. I thought I was going to go crazy. I get a to-do list going, and then wonder why it frustrates me when I can't get things done while trying to let the kids do fun things too. Nuts.

It was about 45-degrees outside, so I sent the kids out to play! I put together the baseball tee Caeden got from Gram & Krampa for Christmas so he could play. He was pumped to use it and his Cubs bat and ball!


He says it's thumbs way up super, super fun, Gram & Krampa! Thank you!!!


Sylvia loves to play on the swingset any chance she gets...usually on the glider. She said she was confused though, because it's supposed to be winter but it looked like fall outside.


Annah decided to stay inside and use her Easy Bake Oven. It took about an hour to make 2 chocolate chip cookies.

She loves it though. She even washed all the dishes, cleaned up all her mess, and put it all away without my asking her to.

All Day Long

So yesterday was interesting... It rained, as predicted, with big thunderstorms starting in the wee hours of the morning. By mid-morning, we knew for sure water would be coming in the basement, as the rain wasn't stopping. The weather alert radio went off continuously all morning, and during lunch we had to retreat to the basement for a little while because there was a tornado coming our way. Thankfully, it missed us, but the winds were reported up to 80-miles-per-hour! Not long after that, the sump pump couldn't keep up anymore, and Jeremy had to start running another pump as the water came in the basement. He spent the rest of the day until about 10pm pumping it out periodically. We did make the right decision to come home early though, because had we not been here, the water would have risen higher and higher. He was able to keep it under control and away from the furnace, hot water heater, washer, dryer, etc.

While all that was going on, I spent the entire day putting together Sylvia's huge new Barbie dollhouse. (It was a "Santa" gift that actually came from us, my parents, and Travis & Erin, and included all the furniture and tiny accessories like food and teeny-tiny toiletries.) I actually finished it this morning, and she has been playing with it since. She said that now, when she and Annah get home from school in the afternoons, they will just say, "Hi Mom." and go upstairs to play with it and I won't get to see them anymore. I'm glad she likes it!




She thinks it's cool that it's taller than she is. Check it out...It even has a 3-story elevator!
When I was asking her to take a couple pictures, she and Annah were trying to play with it for the first time, and she said, "Okayyyy Mom! Can we get back to playing now?!?!?!"

Gifts from Travis & Erin

Today we were supposed to celebrate Christmas with my parents and brother Travis and sister-in-law Erin back home in Indiana. Mom had bought a pork roast for dinner, and we had put off opening gifts earlier in the week, waiting until after the Christmas morning gift opening and until Travis & Erin would be back from her family's Christmas visit in Illinois.
But, we screwed it all up by having to come home early yesterday.

So, we brought their gifts home to Illinois with us and opened them while videotaping this morning.

We all love the gifts, Travis and Erin! Thank you so much!!


Annah received a HSM notebook, pencils, a cute pencil case, and a gift card to Claire's so she can get her ears pierced!!! She cannot wait to do that this week!!
Caeden received a way cool digger truck "Banshee" from Cars that eats little cars. It's awesome! And, he also received some Crayola Color Wonder Cars things too, which he can't wait to rip open and use!
Sylvia also received a Crayola Color Wonder Disney Princess kit, which she is already loving using. Also, Uncle Travis and Aunt Erin helped with Sylvia's BIG gift--a massive Barbie dollhouse with furniture!
Jeremy got 2 books he's been wanting, one about the leadership styles of Jesus, and on T.D. Jakes book. And, a giftcard to GNC, which he always loves!
I am super psyched about the box of goodies they gave me! It has some chai tea, which I LOVE, a great Pampered Chef oven mitt that matches my kitchen, and tons o' scrappy goodies!!! There are several Stampin' Up! stamp sets, lots of cardstock, ribbon, rubons, an accordian book, and I can't wait to play with it all!





Thank you Travis and Erin! You know us well!

Unpleasant Weather

Today we planned to hang out at Mom & Dad's house, let the kids play with their new toys and games, scrapbook (me), watch movies, relax, and get together with Jeremy's brother and his family tonight to celebrate Wilson's 10th birthday at Tokens & Tickets.

But, when we realized that back at our house the snow has all melted and there is to be a few inches of rain within the next 24 hours on top of all that ground wetness, we knew we had to get home immediately to make sure our basement wasn't flooded or about to flood. We quickly packed up, tried to explain to the kids why we had to leave 2 days early and miss out on more time with family and friends, and got in the car.

The roads were like a sheet of ice when we started out, and there were patches of ice in many spots on the way home. The fog was terrible for much of the trip! It was a real mess.

When we got home, we were actually very surprised there was no water in the basement--yet! But, the upstairs bathroom had some type of leak that ruined the kitchen ceiling.

We unpacked the car and are going to bed early.

Christmas Day

Although the weather and road conditions have been absolutely terrible since (well, actually before) we got here, it makes for perfect sledding! After the amazing Christmas dinner Gram made us, Daddy and the kids headed out to the nearest hill with the sleds!

Sylvia and Caeden have never been sledding before this, and Annah has only been once when she was about two! So, it was super, super fun and special!
It's so slick--completely a sheet of ice--that it's hard to walk and stay upright, let alone climb back up the hill dragging the sled! But it didn't stop them!


Grandpa even came out and played along! He even got on the runner sled and took a go after he pushed the kids a while!


I didn't have much luck on the saucer sled. It was my favorite as a kid, but apparently I'm too big for it now. Still, what a fun activity for Christmas Day!


Annah couldn't wait to bust out her new Easy-Bake Oven. Gram searched every light and lamp in the house until she found the specific type of light bulb it requires. Annah made a little yellow cake with chocolate frosting.


In the afternoon, some of us napped, I scrapbooked a little, some watched new movies,
and we all relaxed!

In the evening, we visited Grandma & Grandpa Lopshire.
Grandma made us some yummy chili, but the kids didn't tell her until after it was made that they don't like chili. So, she let them choose whatever they wanted to eat. They chose cereal--Trix, which they'd never had before, ice cream, and fruit snacks.
They were plenty happy.


Plus, they got to eat their cereal in these cool bowls with straws built right in--another
novelty to them!