Valentines Day

This Valentines day I gave my family the traditional Chocolate covered strawberries. This time the babies and harmony helped me make them. I was so lucky to find the most Delicious strawberries. I usually by the chocolate covered strawberries from O'malleys Chocolates in Fairlawn. However the past two years I have made them myself. Thanks to the help of good friend Jen Allred who showed me how to make them. They are easy and so much fun to make.

Chad and I went out to eat and he got me a beautiful card, he always picks out the best cards, and he bought me a cool shelf/towel rack. I got him a card and Chocolate covered pretzels and a heart shaped Reese cup. I can always please him with chocolate. We had fun. Love was felt all around this Valentines day.

Harmonys cake

Harmony made a special cake for her bake sale at church. It was auctioned off and sold to 10 year old Donavan Fisher who immediately ate all the skittles off the top. Funny. She thought of the idea and mom helped her finish it. We think it turned out pretty cute.

These are pics of Harmony and her friend. This is when bored ideas turn into action shots of jumping off the couch. I really like this friend she is so sweet and good with the babies. She is on the YES list. I have this mental NO and YES list I put my kids friends on when I have the opportunity to spend time with them at my house. The kids tell their friends to behave because you don't want to be put on my mom's NO list. To get on the No list The friend would have displayed disrespect for me or my home, be considered a threat of some kind,show to be a bad influence on my kid, or start DRAMA for no reason. I like my kids choice of friends most of the time, but when there is a friend put on the NO list my kids usually agree with me. I love the tradition personally because I have kids come over that come up to me and try to be extra polite saying yes mam and no mam to earn the YES status. They know I am serious about my home being respected and my kids keeping their values. The friends have commented many times about the good feeling in our home. That is so awesome to hear.

The 1st big snow 09

Winter came with vengeance nearly 7 inches worth and we had a couple of snow days and lots of shoveling to do. The boys geared up and went out to shovel our drive. In the middle of shoveling, a lady got her car stuck on the next street over and asked Forrest if he would dig her out he gladly helped and she gave him 10 dollars. When he saw that money he got an idea to ask people in the neighborhood if they needed help being shoveled out of their driveways. Forrest, Liam and our neighbor Matt all went out in search of work.

Hours later they came home cold and rich. It was a good day for them and they learned the value of hard work and service. Mom rewarded them with kisses and hot chocolate.

As for me and the other kids we stayed in and painted a scene where we wished we were. We pictured a sunset on the beach.

The Paintings were done on braille paper with water colors. I love the different styles of the same scene. So warm and inviting on this cold winter day.

Christmas 06 Rochester NY and Palmyra

2006 was the first year we decided to start a new Christmas family tradition. As Chad and I were discussing our Christmas list we kept coming up with the same ole gift ideas and even being stumped for some. We saw that the kids really were in not great need of anything , so we decided to take a vacation as a fun-filled gift that would create a lasting memory that they would hopefully remember more than those toys that seem to collect dust after about a month after Christmas.

The first Christmas vacation was to Rochester and Palmyra New York. Chad and I both love to travel and we think it is fun to come up ideas for new places to visit. Palmyra was our first choice and we were directed to Rochester through the website for Palmyra. We also are hooked on priceline.com it is so fun to name your own price for things like hotels and car rentals. We booked at hotel near Palmyra the first night, we booked it because it had an indoor pool., yet the day we were there the heater was broke in the pool and it was an ice bath. A couple of the braver kids still swam though. The 2nd night we decide to leave and find another hotel. We looked through the phone book and found a good deal at a hotel near Rochester called The Woodcliff Hotel. It was sooooo beautiful and we were so surprised this hotel was five star service and amenities and yes the pool was warm and wonderful. The Hotel pool towels were kept warm for you.

The Woodcliff with picture of pool.

We Chose Palmyra because our Church has a lot of history there and were able to visit the sites and enjoy learning. We went to Palmyra on Christmas eve. It was so nice and actually a little warm out so we take in some of the outdoor sites. Our Church hold a huge pageant there in the summer I would love to go back for it.

Our 4 month old twins never even new we were there. They were so good while we went sightseeing.

We are at the Hill Cumorah Visitors center in front of my favorite statue called The Christus"

Inside the Joseph Smith family home.

A pretty view of the Temple off the path by the Sacred Grove.

This is a building in Rochester. Love the Christmas tree. In Rochester we spent the whole day at their famous Children's Play Museum. It is the best one we have been to so far. Lots and lots of fun was had by all.

Mya sitting in a pretend bath tub. Harmony on a Hand chair.

Liam in the hall of mirrors.

Chad made a new friend. Me eating my enormous pretend Breakfast.

Liam doing the worm on the dance floor. "mother" Mya helping hold a baby. Mya is so bonded with the twins, and this is a good example of why. She was always wanting to help me do the stuff with the babies that help them bond to you, like feeding, soothing, and playing with them.

Hey Chad where are you? This is a shadow trapper. Silhouette of the kids dancing.

Forrest's eyes peering through. Liam bursting out of the haunted house.

Boys playing pirate dress up on their ship. Harmony playing with and air target.

Lets go shopping boys. This is why I do the REAL grocery shopping. We would end up with carts full of pop and sweets.

Girls playing grocery.

A palace fit for my two kings.

And my queens.

The kids try to knock around volley balls on the wall.

We even got to go to sesame street. Look at my little birdies in Big birds nest.

Huge Window, that's us in the foreground.

The trip was an instant hit and we had so much fun. The babies survived being lugged around and we survived having to do it. As the kids get older I am anxious to see what fun plans we will come up with. Our look back has ended for now, and the kids are already talking about our next trip. We heard ideas like "mall of America," New York City, and Disney World....We'll see.

Christmas 07 Pittsburgh PA

Christmas 07 we went to Pittsburgh, it is only two hours away and such a fun city. The first day we were there we went to the Children's Museum it was huge and they made it out of old court and government buildings. The architecture inside was really neat. The kids had fun there were a wide range of fun activities for all ages to do including an art area where the kids painted and made there own paper. We spent the whole day there and ate lunch at their food court. We were very pleased with the food it was priced well and tasted great. The next day we went to the Pitts conservatory to see the Chihuly Glass exhibit. If you have never seen this glass artists work it is a must see and its even cooler mixed in all the plants and foliage. The conservatory was big and took a long time to get through. We ate lunch in their cafe and it was also terrific. We had a happy time looking and exploring all the neat areas of the conservatory. We stayed at the Marriott in downtown Pittsburgh and it was fun, the kids swam there at night. The last day we went up the incline train to view the city from the other side of the river up top. A fun ride for only change up and down. As we traveled home we ran into a snowstorm which had us coasting on the highway and even that was too fast. We had no other choice but to pull off and find a hotel, luckily we did and the lady there gave us a great deal because of the storm. Everyone there was so nice. Chad ran out to get subway and we watched TV. The next day the roads had been cleared a lot so we could safely travel home. This was a great vacation. As usual we made some found memories and had fun doing it.



One of the cool rooms at the Chihuly Exibit.




Me and Chad

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Linnea grabbing the leaves and she was so gentle with them it was so cute.

The next pic is the neon glass piece behind some leaves.

Kids and Larissa at conservatory.

Harmony in front of her fav glass piece.

Also some pretty glass pieces floating in the water.

Forrest watching a movie on Chihuly

and a rowboat full of glass balls

A close up of the glass balls and the floor to ceiling glass sculpture. this sculpture is really amazing it is all individual glass pieces each separately attached, it takes hours to install.

liam behind a tree and Mya at the Childrens Museum.

The following pics are all from the Childrens museum.

The twins had so much fun as we all did, I am so thankful for this tradition.