Kindergarten Graduation

Today was the kindergarten celebration!  

Our audience members

Ali received the "most imaginative" award!

Way to go Ali, we're so proud of you!

She had great teachers too!

Ms Schmidt and ms Masiello

Yeah for school almost being done!  They have a half day on Monday, then schools out!

Testing, testing...

Does this blog still work?  I've taken a short break (unintentional) and thought it would be good to start blogging again. We recently got new phones, so this is a test to see if I can make a post from my phone. If so...more pictures to come, since this now seems to double as the camera too!  

Happy Valentine's Day

I wanted to share a few quick video's of my adorable children.  We sure do have a great family and are surrounded by so much love!  Happy Valentine's Day Everyone!

These sledding videos are back from January 28th.  It was 3 or 4 days after the snow had melted some.  We have since been to the "tennis courts" where there is an awesome hill!  The big girls and I went sledding last Saturday and it was a BLAST!  We didn't have the camera, but I'll remember it next time!

I was filming from inside the kitchen.  It was so cold, like 9 degrees, but they had fun for the 30 minutes I let them play. 

Next up, I hear this everyday, all day and finally got a small video of our lovely singer.  To say her and her sister's LOVE the Frozen soundtrack would be an understatement! 

A few weeks ago, for our family night activity, we were playing Duck, Duck, Goose.  Suddenly, Caleb joined it, and we were shocked that he was saying "duck."  He mumbles a whole lot, but his vocabulary is small.  Here is some of the fun.

Finally, Caleb is so easily entertained.  It you drop anything on the floor and it bounces, the laughs are non-stop.  A few nights ago, Shawn randomly spun his spoon on the high chair, and boy oh boy.  The laughs were 10x more than in the video.  He gets camera shy.  Such a cute little man!

Snow, Snow and more SNOW!

With the recent storms down south, I've been asked a few times now, "Aren't you glad you don't live in GA anymore?"  I simply have to smile at the question.  Yes, the south has been hit this year with snow and ice.  When it snow in 2011 UGA was closed for 4 days and quiet a few people were without power for 10 days.  People aren't prepared for it, because it's not a yearly thing.  They don't sale proper gloves, hats, snow pants, or warm coats for snow, because it is so rare.  It snowed once in 2009, when we first moved there and then twice in 2011.  That was it!

So, let me share with you, in pictures, of our last 24 hours and ask yourself, "Am I glad I don't live in GA?"

 It snowed all day on the 13th, and stopped around 7pm.  We got about 5 inches, on top of the 12 inches from last Wednesday and it was a snow day for school.

 Then we woke up on the 14th - and had probably 8-10 more inches.  Of course, this shows where they have plowed and dumped, but that pile is probably 6ft. tall.

 These ones are probably 5ft. tall

It's definitely beautiful!

 I walked across to the Y this morning, and the snow was up to my knees.  Glad I had my snow pants on.  I didn't attempt to climb up the mounds from plowing the parking lot.  Rather, I walked through was it usually the "pond" area, in a bunch of bushes, keeping it knee deep. 

 I attempted to show how tall this is, but it's more in the background.  I'm 5'6" and it comes to the top of my head.

 This picture was back on January 28th, after the snow had 4 days of melting down. Needless to say, here are the other stats.  We've had 4 snow days at school (which will start to tack on to June.  Last year, Keene was in school till June 24th making up snow days...YUCK!  Church was cancelled once, and we didn't make the hour and a half drive to Stake Conference once because of the snow from the day before.

There have also been many storms on the weekends, where it was after school and before church.  We got a bit of snow before Christmas, and dumped on the 26th of December.  Then dumped on again the 3rd of January, before our youth temple trip on the 4th.  Just to give a few examples.

So, the answer to the question/comment, "Bet you're glad you don't live in GA."  Is NO!  Weather wise....I'd much rather live in GA.  Yes, it snows once and they shut down for a week - but that's the point.  Snow once every 3 years is AWESOME! 

However, I do LOVE living in New England and we have had an awesome welcome to their cold winter's and all they entail - to which I say, "bring it on!"  When equipped with the proper gear, the snow is fun, and you can't help but enjoy it.  (and yes, I'm still entitled to get tired of it, when May rolls around and we still haven't had spring!)

Merry Christmas 2013

Now, on to our Christmas Day.  This year we had a fun time coming up with ideas for gifts for the girls.  We decided that as their parents, we would give them each a book, a hobby and a movie.  Santa gave them a toy, a game and coloring books, and grandparents...like usual....spoiled them over the top!  :)  We had a wonderful Christmas and a fun full two weeks of playing with all the new toys, hobbies, games and watching movies!  Here are most of the pictures...

Here is the set up.  I think I was most excited that Santa brought us matching stockings this year!  YEAH!!  You can see the 3 we had before were still hanging on the wall.  The older girls were really worried about what Santa would do with only 3 stockings.  Good thing Santa is so smart.  :)

 

 Good Morning everyone.  Caleb wasn't sure what was going on - but the girls convinced him this little car was for him.  He has since taken many, MANY rides around the house in it.  It's fun to watch him LOVE the rides his sisters are willing to take him on.  They open the door for him to let him know they are done with the ride and he will quickly close the door to say, "Keep Going!"  They are great sisters, because they will usually take him on another round or two.  Writing this a few weeks after Christmas, Caleb is very possessive of his little car.  If friends come around or the girls try to get in, they quickly learn/hear that THAT is HIS car.  hahaha

 Beep, Beep, Beep!

 Lot's of new fun coloring books

 Thanks Aunt Tamara and family for all the fun crafts, coloring books and art projects.

Ali and her green frog from Grandma and Grandpa Broderick.  Thank you!

 Adalyn loved her Disney Princess sticker book.

 Andie has had fun with her new nail polish!  We got a LOT of new nail polish this year.  It's been fun.

 Ali loves rocks and is always trying to bring random rocks inside.  So, for her hobby, I found this Crystal Mining kit.  She LOVED it! and had fun finding, cleaning, polishing and recording/naming the different crystals she found.

 Shawn got me an Amazon gift card.  I haven't decided what to use it for yet.

 Princess Candyland is probably the MOST played game in our house as of December 25th.  Adalyn wins about 95% of the time - and she even plays with all the rules!  She LOVES it and so do we!

 Beat the parents.  This is a fun game, but Ali gets frustrated because she can't read and understand all the cards.  It will be more fun in a year or two when the girls get older.  Andie on the other hand is a competitive little sneak!  This is a trivia game and one day I caught her reading through all of the cards.  I didn't think it through until we played it that night and as we were in the middle of reading a question to the kids, she quickly blurted out the answer.  I said, "How do you know?"  she replied, "I read that card today and already know the answer!"  haha.  She has a memory like no other!  It's probably photographic.  :)

 Andie got Legos...and was so excited.  We're not the best picture takers/lookers.  :)

Adalyn's big present from Santa was a little people princess castle.  Boy of Boy....her expression tells it all!

 Grandma and Grandpa Pratt got Ali a doodle bear.  She exclaimed while opening it, "I'VE ALWAYS WANTED ONE OF THESE!!!!"  That bear has been doodled and washed on many times - and she still loves it.  The second it comes out clean clean again, she's doodling flowers on it again.  Thanks!

 Andie wanted a BIG BUTTERFLY Stuffed animal.  A butterfly pillow pet did the trick!  Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!

 Shawn got Star Trek of Catan...bummer is we need at least 3 people to play, but it was fun when we played a quick game with the missionaries on Christmas day while they were skyping with their parents.

 Ali wanted to a picture with all of her stuff.  So, she arranged it all and said, "Mom, will you take my picture?"  Sure thing.

Mining for crystals.  :)

We had a great year and are so grateful to our extended family for thinking of us too!

Merry Christmas Eve 2013

I'm FINALLY getting around to downloading pictures onto the computer....where has the month of January gone?  It's been good, but time is flying.

We had a wonderful Christmas and a relaxing Christmas break.  I realized, for the first time in 7 years, Shawn wasn't stressed with writing a Master's or Doctorate paper.  He had a true break, and we enjoyed it so much!  We had a lot of fun with the kids at home and loved spending the quality time together.

Ready for the picture overload?  The girls and I made sugar cookies to decorate and leave out for Santa.  We had a great Christmas Eve, we made our "authentic to us" Cafe Rio and had the missionaries over for dinner. 

 Little Joseph for the Nativity play

 Our little Shepherd Girl

 Baa....says the sheep

 Oh...now she's the angel

 Elder Reid helping Joseph get his costume back on.

 Mary with baby Jesus

 Here's the crew.  We read part of Samuel the Lamanite, Luke 2 and sang songs in between.

Samuel the Lamanite preaching to the Nephites about the coming of Christ.

 Assisting Joseph and Mary (by pushing the donkey aka cooler) riding into Bethlehem

 The girls prepared the cradle and cut out straw for the manger.

 The shepherd and sheep coming to see the baby Jesus

 The three wise men.

 Presenting their gifts to baby Jesus.  (which were later opened - Christmas Jammies!)

 Decorating cookies after dinner with the missionaries.

Caleb and his cookie.

It was a fun night.  We have loved having the missionaries in our home every Christmas Eve.  Since we don't live near family, and neither do they - it's become our little tradition that we've done every year since we've moved away.  We are always so grateful for the example of our Savior and Brother, Jesus Christ.  For the miracle of his birth and his life.  We try always to remember to be more like Him, to give service, and love as he would love.  It's especially easier to do around the Christmas holiday and I'm thankful for the traditions I had growing up of acting out and reading the nativity and singing Hymns to help us remember the story of our Savior's birth.  We hope each of our family and friends had a wonderful Christmas Season and will continue to remember the Savior each and every day.