Finished!

Our family had the goal to finish the Book of Mormon by the end of the year, and we did it! We read the very last page tonight, on New Years Eve. Hooray for us!

This is also the first time I've ever actually used the self-timer on my camera. :)

Woops

So the kids and I were hanging out at Whitmores singing a little karaoke, and Jef says he and Stacy are gonna go out flying.

OK, sounds good.

Well, about ten minutes later (maybe less), I get a phone call.

They rolled Stacy's truck.

See, they were going up a steep hill
(because you have to get the top of steep hills if you want to fly),

and the brakes went out.

They're thinkin' it rolled about three times.
They were both ok enough to hike down the hill to where we could pick them up. Jef had a cut on his head, but we brought him home, washed him off, and super glued it. The most painful part of that process was when a drop of super glue rolled off into his hair.

Woops

So then I had to cut the super-glued hair off his head.
Stacy is quite bruised and sore all over, but they just returned from the hospital, and verdict is: No broken bones.

But here's the bummer: I didn't even get to see the truck! It's still up there on the hill, and Jef says with four-wheel drive we could get to where we could see it, but he doesn't want to drive up that road again.

Apparently Stacy was able to open his door and get out, but Jef had to climb out the back window - which was only possible because the camper shell popped off and the back window shattered. So I'm not sure if my imagination is coming up with a worse picture, or if seeing the actual smashed truck would be worse.
Either way, it sounds like the truck is there to stay.
But Jef and Stacy came home, and that's the important part. :)

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12/31/07

Wow! They got the truck off the mountain! Somehow they just dragged the thing down. Makes me think of Mater. :) So now it's at the auto repair place (not that it will ever be repaired), and we went and took a couple pictures.

(It's that greenish one in the middle.)

The Skirt Completed

Well, I must say that the skirt turned out much better than I thought it would. Robyn measured how long she wanted it to be, measured her waist, then cut two kind of triangle-shaped pieces. She sewed the sides together, hemmed the bottom and the top, and Voila!

OK, so maybe there was some unpicking involved.

But it turned out quite well. You can see in this picture that her hem is a little small and so the untrimmed pieces hang down. But she's been doing some trimming since then and it looks good. Crazy enough, there is no elastic, zipper, button, or anything else on the waist. It just happens to fit just snug enough to fit over her hips and then not fall down again. It's either pure sewing genius or just dumb luck. I'm betting on the second one myself, but she has other projects planned so I guess we'll see.

Needless to say, she is quite pleased.

No, that's not it.

She's twirlingly, leapingly, gigglingly ecstatic.

Christmas Day

The rest of Christmas Day involved

Reading,
(No, this picture was not staged)

Sleeping,

More Reading,

And taking pictures.

Have you ever tried taking a picture of
yourself taking a picture of yourself?

We went up to Forsytheville and hung out, then went back the next day and hung out some more. We decided that Mike and Tom are smarter than fifth graders and that we don't like Stupid Joan.

When we were leaving, the wind was blowing ice in our faces and it was just miserable. When we got back to our place we found the weather to be downright balmy.
You know, like 15 degrees or so.

Whad'ya get?

Christmas morning dawned bright and early. Actually, dawn came several hours after Christmas morning started. At about 5:30am I heard the kids out playing with their toys, but I lingered in bed until 6:30am.
When I finally got up, I found that
Santa had been to our house!

And now to the most important after-Christmas question:
What did you get???

We'll go youngest to oldest:
Lydia got a bath sponge and a rubber ducky. She was ecstatic. :)
Jennie got a farm that makes cool animal noises and has cute little animals. Unfortunately, being the wonderful age of two, she has shown very little interest in it, and has instead claimed everyone else's toys. Which, of course, gives her the right to scream at them when they dare to play with her toys. It's gonna be a long year.


Cannon got a bike. It is what he asked for every time he saw Santa. (Quick side note here. Do you remember sitting on Santa's lap half a dozen times before Christmas when you were young? I remember it only being once. Oh well, maybe I'm getting old.) Anyway, it's what he asked for, but I'm glad I took this picture because it's the only time he's sat on the thing. He has been much more thrilled about the cars he found in his stocking. The ones that look like Lightning McQueen, the Hudson Hornet, the King, Chick Hicks, etc. Maybe he'll get back around to the bike when it's a little warmer outside.
Emily got a way cool doll. It is a Baby Alive, but she calls it Annabelle. It is quite the amazing doll. It talks, eats, poops, sleeps, laughs, and cries. Although Emily is such a good little Mommy that I haven't heard it cry yet. On Christmas Day Annabelle got her clothes a little dirty when she was eating her breakfast. Emily went and washed them by hand in the sink and then threw them in the dryer. The doll ran out of diapers very quickly, so now she's being potty trained. Emily feeds her, then sits her on the little potty in the bathroom and waits for her to go.


Ben got an electric guitar. It is really a very cool toy. It will teach you different songs. It plays a phrase, using lights to show what to do. Then it's your turn. If you make more than three mistakes, then it stops and you hear loud Boo-ing. Very unnerving. But if you do it right your hear loud cheering. There are, of course, settings where you can play whatever you want without any booing or cheering, and those are Ben's favorites. And the very best thing about this very loud toy? You can plug in earphones so that you can keep playing after the noise has driven your mom crazy.


Robyn got a sewing machine. Wow. 9-years-old, and she's getting a sewing machine for Christmas. She was THRILLED. Santa also left some various sewing accessories, including a cute skirt pattern and some fabric. Robyn, however, has chosen not to use the pattern and is at this moment sewing herself a skirt of her own creation. I'll keep you posted on how that one turns out.

One of my favorite presents was a complete surprise. Hanging above our dining room table was the ugliest light fixture you can imagine. OK, so maybe if it still had all its globes then it would just look old and mostly unattractive, but the two missing globes and thus bare light bulbs made it hang crooked and the overall effect was just, well, ugly. But now it is out by the road waiting for the garbage man to come, and this gorgeous chandelier is hanging in its place. Hooray!
I also got a new bedspread (that I bought for myself. But hey, if you want something done right...) And a fancy schmancy new Crock Pot that I am so excited to try out.

Jef got several different presents, including two new toasters, but only a couple presents were things he hadn't seen before. (He hauled his presents to the storage unit where I "hid" them, hauled them back, and watched me wrap them.) But I did manage to keep his biggest present a secret. (The other surprises were a pair of pants from M&D which he badly needed so that he could look like a math teacher instead of a pig farmer. And a CD holder from Lisa so our CD's will no longer be flying around the suburban every time we turn a corner.) And the big surprise was.... a handheld GPS! ...and compass, and altimeter, and barometer, and several other cool things all combined. So on Christmas day we went geocaching! It was so fun! This is a picture of us finding our first cache. We attempted to find two other caches near Forsytheville, but their snow it just so stinkin deep that it was pretty much impossible. So the next day we found two more in town. So cool.

Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve we made tons of cotton candy,

then went caroling and gave it away.

We had a nice dinner at Whitmores and

came home for our own little Christmas Eve tradition.

LaPrele (Jef's Mom) was with us, and she was the narrator.
Jef was, as always, the donkey.
Emily and Jennie were angels,
Cannon was a shepherd,
Lydia was the baby Jesus, and

Robyn and Ben were Mary and Joseph.
Sorry, the wise men didn't get to be in our story.

Rudolph

We went to Ben's second grade program this morning. It was lots of fun. We caught the very best part on video for you. You won't be able to see Ben at first, but don't worry- he'll show up. And you won't have any trouble deciding which one is him, either.

General Cannon

I thought it was my knight in shining armor come to find me at last, but Cannon said no. "It's a General!"

He's Got the Moves

OK, well we've got some more high quality footage for you here today. Ben's dance program was last night, and he did an awesome job. The first video is their first attempt to come out on stage and dance.

It didn't work.

The music starts, it all looks good, and then... the teacher has to kick a couple kids off the stage because they came on with the wrong class.
I hate it when that happens.

But I really included this video because you can hear Cannon and Jennie cheering in the background, and it is just so cute!


And our second video today is of Ben actually dancing.
Except for that on both dances, I started recording, had technical difficulties, had to stop and start again. So I'm afraid you don't get to see the beginning of either of his dances. Sorry, you just should've been there, is all.
But now, I present to you, Benjamin Anderson dancing hip-hop in...
Renegade Master!!!

And our third and last video is of, you guessed it, Ben dancing! But this time there's a little clogging action going on. Very cool because it's so noisy. This one is called

Go Christmas

This presentation was sponsored by the ProudMoms-LousyFilmers Association.

Dancing Girls

Last night we went to Robyn and Emily's recital. They did a fabulous job, and they even got to see Santa afterwards!

Here are some videos for your viewing pleasure. Sorry about the lousy filming job. I always think it's sad when the parents film the event, but only get to see it through the camera.
They never get to see it in real life.
So I was trying to film it, and watch it in real life at the same time. Turns out it doesn't really work so well - you should really concentrate on one or the other.
So my suggestion to all you young and future parents out there is to
have someone else film it for you.
Someone who doesn't really care so much whether they saw it in real life or not.

Anyway, here's the girls' dances. Robyn is the short one in front. :)



Emily is holding a pretend candle, in case you couldn't tell. :)

Our Own Little Language

If you ever visit our house, you might hear a few words you didn't know before. But that's ok, 'cause I'm sure you'll catch on quickly. Just set down your pack-pack and come join us for breakfast! Would you like some raisin brand or some oakmeal? And I hope you're staying for lunch because we're going to have rack-a-roni and cheese. Yum! After lunch we could watch a fooey or play with some linking logs. Do you know how to play the planno? And while mom's not looking we could snitch some smashmallows. Well, thanks for coming over! Come back on my berfday!

Cookies and Santa

Judy gave Lydia this adorable Santa dress, and Jef took this adorable picture of her. The only thing I did is post the picture, but aren't you glad I did?

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After Tom's dance program on Saturday (about which he had better put a post on his blog), there were cookies for friends and family. Tom and the parents hurried home without any, but we wouldn't have missed it!

Baptism and Blessing

Saturday was awesome.
Jef was a little nervous, I think, about doing a baptism, a confirmation, and a baby blessing all in the same 20 minutes. But he did a great job and Ben and Lydia both received amazing blessings. It just gives me goosebumps to realize what amazing children I have. After the power came back on, the luncheon was great. We are so grateful to everyone who was able to come. I wouldn't have been half as cool without you. I'm glad everyone made it home safely through the huge snow storm.

Don't my kids look great in white?

Birthdays

On Friday we had a combined birthday party for Ben and Jennie.
Ben got only clothes from his mother
(which he desperately needed),
but luckily he has Grandmas to give him toys for his birthday.

Jennie is way into Dora these days, and she was rocking and "feeding" her Dora doll. So cute! She also got a Dora book that plays music, and we have been listening to Dora music non-stop ever since.

Ben blew out all his candles in one breath.

Jennie, however, wasn't sure what was going on or what exactly we expected her to do about the cake
after we set it on fire and put it in her face.