Pay It Forward

It's kind of like the movie...but better because you get to ACTUALLY be involved!!The first five people to respond to this post will get something made by me! My choice--for you! This offer does have some restrictions and limitations: 1. I make no guarantees that you will like what I make! (I can only hope) 2. What I create will be just for you. 3. It WILL be done this year. 4. You have no clue what it’s going to be … it may be cards, a bookmark, something delicious or a complete surprise to you (and me!) … who knows? 5. Most importantly, you must offer the same deal on your blog - the first 5 people to comment on your blog get something made by YOU!

I'm still alive!

Wow, I knew I had taken a vacation from the computer and my blog, but I had no idea it was that long! I just dowloaded pictures from my camera from the last month! I never do that! So I resolve to do better and try and post, and check others' blogs once a week. We've dealt with a lot of illness going around and around again in the family. Bring on Spring! I've been preoccupied lately trying to finish all our home projects that have been waiting for 6 years. I've also started to declutter the house. You don't realize how you've "settled" into a home until you start to think about packing everything! When Mike gets a job as an assistant principal (hopefully within the next year), we would like to sell this house and move shortly after that. We will still be in the York area, but we would like to be near Mike's work and live in a more developed neighborhood. We also want a garage! I've had lots of fun checking out all the homes for sale and dreaming. This is Serena taking charge of the attic wall project. The stairway going up to the boys' bedroom had a damaged wall, so Mike finally tore into it a few Saturdays ago. This is our front porch as of today! It has been in bad shape for over 2 years now and I have bugged Mike and my dad to get it done. Well finally yesterday I started tearing up the stone and that's all Mike needed to take off. Demo work can be really fun! It's the fixing it part that can be tricky. (Especially with an old house where nothing is straight or matching. We found some pretty damaged wood underneath and I can't believe noone ever fell through it. Anyway, I want to keep my blog posts true to the date they happened, so you'll have to scroll down and catch up (if you want to).

Pics of Serena-Feb. '09

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It's not a great picture, but I love the lighting in this one. I need to take a photography class.

I didn't do her hair, so that bugs me, but I LOVE her facial expression! I really want to know what she is thinking.

I also love this one. Serena is excellent at putting on the pouty faces. Here she was sad because she wanted to climb in the cabinet, but Connor beat her to it. See the look of satisfaction on his face!

Valentine's '09

One day before Valentine's we had another ice storm. So we decided to make Valentine cookies. It's fun to be trapped inside when you can stay in your jammies and make cookies! Mike told me to take off work the Tues. before Valentine's for our date night. He surprised me with a concert to see The Five Browns. They are amazing! For those of you who haven't heard of them (I didn't know about them before that night), they are 5 siblings in their twenties from Utah (yes, their mormon) who grew up playing piano and all went to Julliard together. Now they tour the world playing classical pieces that have been adapted to make 5 different parts. Sometimes it was just 2 or 3 together, sometimes all 5. We had such a great evening together. At one point I turned to Mike and said, "I almost forgot that fine arts existed!" I went from being an art history major in college and working for a sculptor after graduation, to reading short stories, cleaning bodily functions and washing dishes. But I do love my life, it's just nice to escape every now and then! Thanks Brenda and Brie for staying so late and watching the kids for us!!! We didn't do much of anything special on Valentine's Day except be together as a family. I actually had to work that night. Here is a close-up of each of the kids.

Our favorite things

I just wanted to write about some of the things that the kids are really into right now. Serena's favorite thing is definitely climbing the stairs. Connor LOVES to help me in the kitchen for EVERY meal lately. He is learning a lot about cooking and I really enjoy that QT with him. I call him my little Ratatouille. Hayden has been loving his Legos since Christmas and making paper airplanes from a book. Every year just after Christmas I get excited about scrapbooking again. And Mike has a man project going on in the basement (that is a secret to me) where he just loves to escape.

My 34th birthday

This year's birthday was very low key. I worked on my actual birthday, so Mike made me dinner the night before and had my parents over. He made me yummy stuffed shrimp and twice baked potatoes. My parents bought a coconut cake. You can't ask for too much with a family of five, but I think this one is a keeper. I'll just have to photoshop a smiley picture of Serena. I received my actual birthday present from Mike a few weeks later as he still had to work in his "lair" to complete it. He took our old french doors original to the house (which were in really bad shape) and refinished them, then mounted them behind the headboard. He also bought me my IKEA duvet cover that I had been wanting. I love it. Half of our bedroom is now complete!

It was a good birthday. Thirty-three was a good year. I hope to make this next year even better. Having a birthday in January helps me to reflect on the past year and what I want to accomplish in the year ahead. (That's the ONLY good thing about a Jan. birthday!) I want to help others more, learn more about the Gospel through my Primary lessons, spend more QT with my kids, become more organized, and as always, try and get better at remembering people's birthdays.

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh...crash!

Yes, this is our perpetrator. Mike is convinced she did it because she doesn't want to share her birthday with the stupid tree.

Well, for whatever reason she did it, she will be traumatized every year we break out the tree. She'll remember her first year when the big green thing came crashing down in front of her!

Amazingly, we only lost 3 insignificant ornaments in the incident.

More updates on Serena. I took her for her one year well visit and she weighed in at a whopping 16.1 lbs.! She is in the 3rd percentile for weight and tenth percentile for height at 27 in.. People said she was tiny, but I thought she was at least 18 or 19 lbs.! She's going to be 18 months before she is forward facing in her car seat! Monica Bowman keeps telling me to watch out because her Nikki is really tiny, but feisty-she doesn't take crap from anyone!

She also accomplished climbing up the stairs today. She's been trying since she started crawling, and really worked hard since we were at Amy and Steven's house that has carpeted stairs. She, and we, are so proud of her accomplishment. I can tell she is very determined and will work hard in life to get what she wants, just like her father.