Christmas

Christmas morning was its usual greatness! Brynn was SO excited, although again, as in EVERY year in the past we had to wake her up.

I had jokingly told the older kids that I didn't want to see them until 7 am and being the obedient kids that they are, I didn't see them until 7 am. I couldn't believe it! I was just joking!

It is always so fun to see the excitement in their eyes!
Opening gifts

Braden, being on the basketball team wanted/needed some new shoes. I bought him a size 12 and they were too small. Had to take them back for a size 13. Hope those feet don't keep growing or we will have trouble finding shoes!

Brynn is in love with cameras. Being that she ALWAYS takes mine, that is one of the things Santa gave her for Christmas. Now she no longer uses mine!!

It was a great day by all. This year I decided to make a blanket for all the kids and Todd, as we were always wanting the same blankets and Todd and Braden complained that they weren't long enough. So, I made 5 blankets. I won't do it again! It took forever. I didn't get Braden's finished, which turned out nice, because Todd and Braden helped me finish his blanket.

We had my cousin over for dinner~ham, and stuff and it was fun to see him.

1. Christmas

2. new blankets(I bought one that plugs in!!)

3. staying in pjs all day

Christmas Eve

Our Christmas Eve was spent in the same way as we have done most of the years we have lived in MA.

The kids act out the nativity and most of them are still really good about it. They change rolls, except for Braden who has the recurring role as Mary's donkey.
Shepards

The Star and the narrator

Mary and her donkey

Good times are always had with lots of good food and company!

1. Christmas

2. GREAT friends

3. good food

Basketball

Braden is playing basketball for the JV team at the High School!

He is loving it and it sure has been keeping us all busy. He isn't getting a lot of playing time, but he is a freshman and doesn't have a ton of experience.

In this video he misses two shots, but I pulled my camera out because he made the one right before!!!!

I absolutely love the sports and have thoroughly enjoyed going to the games. Unfortunately, my girls don't feel the love of staying for the varsity games, so we haven't stayed as long as I like, but it is fun as long as it lasts!

1. Braden 2. basketball 3. patient coaches

Let It Snow

At 5:38 AM I got the phone call. One I was expecting but the words on the other end made me a bit upset.

SCHOOL IS CLOSED TODAY due to inclement weather.

It was the closed part that disappointed me. Not that I don't love having my kids home and a day off of school is always nice, it is the fact that now we have to make up the day at the end of the school year. We weren't supposed to get out until June 18th and today just pushes us that much further into the summer.

What I was hoping for us a 2 hour delay. Didn't get it, so I am just enjoying the fact that I had something to motivate my kids to get their jobs done and quick this morning.

They wanted to play in the snow.

And playing they are doing. They have already been out for over an hour and they are in heaven!!!

The boys are totally loving the hill on the side of our house, they have their snowboards out and can't wait to get to the real mountain. Braden has been praying for snow since August.
The girls enjoyed sledding down the hill for a bit, then decided it would be fun to make a snowman. They used sticks for the arms, a towel for his scarf, carrot for the nose and sweet tarts from Halloween for the mouth, buttons and eyes!!

In their eyes, their day is pure heaven!

1. kids

2. being able to stay home in yucky weather

3. snow (only because I can stay home)

Rachel's Challenge

This is Rachel Scott.

She was the first student who died at Columbine High School in April 1999.

Rachel wanted to start a chain reaction. She wrote an essay called "My Ethics, My Codes of Life" a few months before she died.

In it she said she has a theory, that if one person can go out of their way to show compassion, then it will start a chain reaction of the same. People will never know how far a little kindness can go.

Yesterday at school, Rachel's brother, Craig, came to talk to the students about starting a chain reaction. He had an hour long presentation that he presented to students in 8-12th grade.

Last night, he presented it to the public.

Brandon and I went. Braden saw it at school, so he didn't want to go again.

It was a moving experience. There were not many dry eyes in the audience.

Rachel's Challenge is basically this:

1. Eliminate Prejudice....by looking for the best in others

2. Dare to Dream...set goals, keep a journal

3. Choose your influences...input determines output

4. Kind Words...small acts of kindness=huge impact

5. Start a Chain Reaction...with family and friends

Craig told the kids that it is ok to be nice to someone that is different.

He did it in a way that was different and cool, not a parental way!

I am taking this challenge. I will start a chain reaction.

Each day I will say something to someone that I wouldn't have otherwise.

Will you do it too??

Check out her website:

http://www.rachelschallenge.org/

1. moving experiences

2. people willing to talk about their tragedies

3. change

Marissa

This girl's mind seems to go a million miles a minute. Todd walked into the bathroom this morning and this is what he saw......

This note was on the mirror...
The sink full of water!

Where does she come from??

1. Marissa
2. funny things
3. Grandma in town...nuff said

Happy Birthday Braden

Happy 15th Birthday to my boy!

15 reasons we love him:

1. he is a peacemaker

2. he loves the gospel

3. he is a great big brother

4. he attends seminary everyday

5. he is very knowledgeable

6. he is outgoing

7. he loves lacrosse

8. he loves music

9. he plays the guitar well

10. he is kind to people

11. he usually makes his bed in the morning

12. he is usually willing to help out

13. he is responsible

14. he is a hard worker

15. he is a gentleman

Happy, happy birthday!!!!

MOS

A few weeks ago the kids were out of school for a few days, so we decided to go into Boston to the Museum of Science. What a neat museum. We could have spent many hours there.

This was neat, there are many eggs that are hatching.

1. a fun day

2. interesting places

3. no school!

We've been hit......

Just got the call.............

Marissa is confirmed with Influenza A. Which, I believe, is the nice way of saying she has the SWINE FLU, H1N1, whatever they want to call it, but either way, she got it!

And she was vaccinated last Thursday!

Maybe that is why she doesn't seem like she has the flu. I thought she had strep or pneumonia.

1. getting the last of the motrin at Walmart

2. clorox wipes

3. soap

Brynn's 1st Fishing Experience

Brynn has wanted to fish for a while. We bought her a "fishin stick" in September when we thought we were going camping. We didn't go camping, so she didn't get to use it.

Finally, a couple of weeks ago, Todd took her down the street to a lake and she had success!

It was kind of funny, because Braden was with her and didn't even get a bite!

She loved every minute of it and can't wait to do it again!

1. little pleasures

2. fishin sticks

3. having water close by~that we could walk to if we weren't too lazy!

Halloween

Kind of lame on our part, but this is the only picture we got of kids in costumes.

We had a trunk or treat this year, which was fun. The youth in our ward did games for the kids, there was donuts and juice and some candy!

I was in charge of the donuts and drinks and so Todd was in charge of the camera. This is what we got.

Not even on Halloween did I remember to take pictures.

For the Trunk or Treat, Braden was a Red Sox player(easy and he no longer likes dressing up, but since he was in charge of a game for the kids, he threw on his jersey!)

Brandon was going to be White Trash, it was a cute costume and he made it himself, but dad thought it might offend people. He took a white garbage bag and wrote Trash on crumpled up paper. As we are in the car, Todd asked him to change and so he went as a snowboarder.

Marissa was a fashion designer. Fake nails and all.

Brynn was a bat.

On the actual day of Halloween, the boys went to the homecoming game at the high school and we had some friends come to our area to trick or treat because they live in an area where houses are few and far between.

Marissa didn't want to dress up, but I told her she couldn't go out without a costume, so she put on a flannel shirt of Brandon's and a cowboy hat!

Brynn decided she wanted to be a bat princess. So she went out with her wings and a princess dress.

This is why I don't get too into Halloween. My kids only like the candy part of it. The rest they could do without!!

1. candy

2. fun activities

3. sunshine

Harlem Wizards

Last Friday evening, some of the teachers in the school district and board members and members of the town police force took on a game with the Harlem Wizards. They did this last year and we didn't go, but had heard it was a lot of fun. We decided to go and it was a ton of fun! They are like the Harlem Globetrotters. It was hilarious and fun was had by all!

Brynn got chosen to help play a half time game. As she was the youngest one picked, she got some special attention.
"Swoop" played a game with a bunch of kids and the last one to catch the ball won. He would throw it at them, and if they dropped it, the crowd would say "You've been tricked". The picture above is Brynn, after winning the game holding the spinning ball on her finger tips.

She was such a little ham. She loved every minute of it. They gave her a poster of the team and after the game all of them signed it, a Wizards t-shirt, and a necklace that lights up! What more could a girl want??

Unfortunately, as in most important cases, my camera batteries died, so I didn't get much in the way of good pictures, but the ones I did get will help preserve the memory!!!

A video of some of the tricks. Such a fun night we had! We will go again next year!!

1. fun family together nights

2. Brynn

3. good memories

FHE

I don't mind feeding the missionaries. In fact, if we have good Elders, it can be quite fun. The problem lies in the fact that Todd's schedule is not easy to predict.

So I decided that I would schedule them on a Monday night because he is always home.

This past Monday was our night to have them over and I got a hair brained idea.

I invited over 2 families that are currently investigating the church. FOR DINNER AND FHE!

That is so not normal for me. I have a hard time talking to people I don't know, let alone taking the chance that people who don't know me would want to come to my house for dinner.

I was worried that neither of them would show up, even though they both said yes at church. But come Monday, I had heard from them both and they came.

We had Cafe Rio Chicken for dinner, had a family home evening lesson~taught by Marissa, of course, she loves to do the lesson, it doesn't matter if we have guests or not. She taught about ways we can have a happy family, then we had dessert. Todd did let them know what FHE is, and they all participated and even sang the songs!

I was really nervous, but I talked to the missionaries later that night and it seemed that everyone had a good time.

Next on the list~Marissa is taking a friend to Activity Days tonite!

1. missionary work

2. being brave

3. friends

Deal on JetBlue

Today only~Flights leaving on Halloween after 12 noon are $31 one way.

I just checked it and it does exist. The fare coming back was around $119~$159, but it seemed a fairly good deal if you can leave on Halloween!

Here is the link:

http://jetblue.com/deals/halloween/

Happy Flying!!

1. good deals~not that we are going anywhere

2. investigators over for dinner

3. successful FHE

So much to update!

I have not documented so much that we have done. I seem to go through spurts. These pictures are not at all in order, but leaving a description will help me remember!

For Labor Day, we were going to do our usual Camp Joseph trip, but at the last minute had to change our plans, so we headed to Newport RI instead.

Brynn enjoying the carousel at the beach!
Brandon skim boarding

A beautiful sunset

Brynn was so proud of herself because she finally dared to swim without someone holding on to her!

She didn't love the sand at first, but after a while, she let the kids bury her legs!

Brynn ~always enjoying herself!

Braden went to EFY in NH this summer! I was looking through some of his pictures and this was one of my favorites! This is his roommate, Dan, I guess the boys did facials??!!

I guess he liked his bed!

A bunch of people from his group.

Again, not in good order, but Brynn decided one night she didn't like what I was making for dinner,

She was crying because everything fell out of the freezer as she was attempting to "get her own dinner". The above picture is her finished product. It made me laugh so hard that she would make her own dinner, that I had to let her eat it.

We did go to Camp Joseph in August, sadly, it rained THE WHOLE TIME.

I absolutely LOVED it.

Right before going home, Marissa is not feeling well. She and we had our first experience with poison ivy. Not pretty.

This is what the sky looked like the whole weekend.

Brandon after getting his haircut for school. He wasn't happy about it, but the next picture is what he looked like before.

Definitely needed a haircut.

For Brandon's 12th birthday we went to the Worcester Tornadoes baseball game. We had scheduled this on his birthday, but because of the wet start to summer we had, it got rained out. Then because we went to Utah for 3 weeks, we had to reschedule in August. Unfortunately some of his friends were out of town, but we still had a good time.

Brandon got to go out on the field during the 7th inning stretch and the ballpark sang

Happy Birthday to him.

Brandon with Twister

We also had some visitors, well we had lots of visitors, but these particular ones were NOT invited. I discovered this beehive while I was mowing the lawn. It was so big, I thought it was a toy of the kids. Upon further investigation, I discovered it was not a toy.

We didn't want to hire someone to take care of it, we had done that last summer and it wasn't cheap. We took matters into our own hands. First, I sprayed the whole hive with bee killer, didn't work, so Todd did some research on the Internet and someone said to put seam filling spray into it.

So I went out one evening(Todd is allergic to bees, so this task fell to me) and I fill the hole.

Thinking that would take care of it, I went out the next morning and the little suckers and made a new hole.

Then, Braden said we needed to get serious. The next night, all 3 of us went out. I with my not so trusty spray and Braden armed with a couple of big black garbage bags. I hurried to fill the new hole with the filler, then Braden wrapped the bags around the hive and Todd knocked it off the tree! It was kind of scary. Braden held tight to the bag and we hurried to tie off the top.

Not a very humane way to handle it, because we suffocated them, but we were running out of options. We let the bag sit for a couple of days, then threw it in the trash!

The video of Brandon on the field.

I know I have missed a bunch of stuff, but thought I would at least get started!

1. pictures

2. a fun way to document

3. not having to do a scrapbook!