Merry Christmas!

We had a very nice Christmas this year. Two days before Christmas we had friends over to make sugar cookies. The kids had lots of fun cutting out different shapes. Especially Shirley. This was the first year I let him since he is allergic to wheat. He loved playing in the flower a little too much and I finally had to stop him and tell him no more since he started scratching his wrists and around his mouth where he kept touching his floured hands.














































Then some of the kids painted the cookies with colored egg yolk and sprinkled with sprinkles before the cookies were cooked. They turned out really cute. I meant to take pictures but I forgot. We made other cookies and treats and delivered them Christmas Eve day to our friends. Christmas was nice and quiet. The kids slept in till 7PM (yeah) and then we opened up our presents. My favorite were the blankets my Grandma made for the kids. She always makes them presents and I love that. The kids get to open up their Christmas jammies on Christmas Eve.




I bought this Barbie carriage with 6 ballerina barbies and horse for Rilla at a yard sale for three dollars a few months ago at a yard sale. She loved it. We even had a white Christmas. It wasn't a lot of snow, but it was still white.

































































The kids had lots of fun playing with their new toys. It was also nice spending the day together. Here are a few more pictures from Christmas Day.

Sentences!

My favorite discipline when my kids get older is writing sentences. I like that they have to think about what they are writing. My boys haven't been putting the toilet seat up when they pee and It is really annoying to sit on a wet toilet seat. Rilla was constantly having to wipe off the toilet seat before she could sit on it. Finally, after several times telling them to lift the seat up I came up with the consequence of writing sentences. Their first offense was 20 sentences. Their second time was 30. I told them I would add 10 sentences each time they "forgot". They only had to write sentences twice and have been putting up the toilet seat.

About 6 months ago I was having trouble with Walter lying. He kept doing it so I finally made up 2 weeks of sentences for him. He had to write 100 sentences a day and each day what he wrote was different. I even looked up scriptures about being honest so some days he wrote a partial scripture. I would real him the scripture and talk with him about it. Twice during the end of the two weeks he went to get the papers for writing sentences and found that his sentence for the day was already written 100 times (by me). I told him I wrote then for him because I love him and that is what Jesus did for us when he atoned for our sins. He payed the price so we can return to live with Heavenly Father again. It worked great and he stopped lying.

Shirley turns 3!

Shirley turned 3 years old at the end of November. We didn't have a party, Just let him open his present in the morning and he got ice cream (soy ice cream) for the first time. He was so excited to have ice cream. We put a candle in it and sang him Happy Birthday and he got to blow the candle out.



It is amazing how quickly grow up. The second picture was taken right after he was born and the first one was when he was a couple weeks old.

In Memory!

I haven't posted about this yet because it has been a very hard for me, emotionally. In September My friend's husband was killed in Afghanistan. He had only been deployed there for two weeks when his HUMV was hit. He and the driver were killed instantly. My husband has been in the army almost 10 years and been deployed three times, but no one that I knew personally has died, let alone one of my friend's husband. I cried a lot for the first couple of weeks. I could easily imagine how my friend, Janelle, must be feeling. What it would be like to have my husband killed. She has four children, too, ages 18 months to 7 years old. Janelle has been so strong through it all and has such strong faith. I really enjoyed getting to know her better and becoming better friends. We got together quite often after and I am sad that she just moved back to Texas to be close to family (which I completely understand as I would do the same). I will miss her. I wanted to do something to help out that would make it a little easier on her kids so I made them Daddy pillowcases and blankets. They really liked them and it made me feel so good to give them to them.

R&R!

We had so much fun having Gil home for two weeks. We didn't do much traveling, we just hung out at home for the most part and it was wonderful. The kids were so happy. The first couple of days Daddy had to do everything. Shirley even said, "Daddy wipe my bottom" and wouldn't let me wipe when he used the bathroom. It was so cute and funny.

I was able to volunteer more than normal and Gil went to have luch with them a few times and checked them out early on his second to last day. Gil and I even volunteered together once.

After Thanksgiving we had fun decorating for Christmas together.





The only part of R&R that I did not like was getting Strep Throat. I HATE Step Throat. When I get it I get it bad and get so sick. This time I even got a really high fever that left me so cold and my body ached so bad. It was so nice that Mike was home to take care of me and the kids. He did a wonderful job and of taking care of them. They had lots of fun. I must admit that I have a wonderful husband. It was sure hard to say good bye to him. The kids are handling it great, though. I hear a lot of , "I miss Daddy". especially from Shirley. I really looking forward to him being home for good (at least a while-you never know with the military).

Snow!

Monday and Tuesday of last week the boys had no school due to snow. Sunday it began snowing and continued till Monday. It wasn't a lot of snow but enough to get school cancelled. If there is any ice on the roads or school parking lots, school gets canceled. We had a fun two days with the boys home. Rilla, Jem, and Shirley bundled up and played in the snow but Walter had no desire to go out in the cold (a boy after my own heart). I hate cold weather so I stayed inside where it was nice and warm.

Family Pictures!

We get family pictures every year. We were able to get them taken while Gil was home on R&R.