What A Tripp!

Music and More

The 5th/6th grade music performance was yesterday, so I got to go and watch both Caemlyn and Zephram sing, play the recorder and dance the electric slide.  Their music teacher is our Ward Choir Director and does a wonderful job.  After I upload the video, I’ll see if there’s anything worth sharing - until then, here’s a pic of each of them.

Pack meeting was also last night, and Zephram earned his Faith in God/religious square knot award. He got lucky and the bishop was able to come and present it to him.

And I just have to share this quick project I just put together. I decided to make these washer key chains for our Primary teachers’ birthdays this year. They’re not perfect, but I’m happy with how they turned out. Of course, this is just the first set - I still have several more to make.

Primary 2010 Theme

While my calling is certainly overwhelming at times, I am looking forward to teaching the Primary children about this year’s theme, “I Know My Savior Lives”. I am thankful for the knowledge that my Savior does live and that He loves each of us. I hope I can adequately share this knowledge with the children, and come to know my Savior better as well.
I think this video is a beautiful representation of this theme.

I hope I can stay focused on this, and not get bogged down by the details.

Goodbye Big, Red Beast!

We decided to take advantage of our New Year’s trip to CO to purchase a new family vehicle.  Our 1996 red suburban served us well enough, but we decided we needed something newer and more reliable.  We were able to trade it in for a slightly used, 2009 silver suburban.  Our car is no longer easy to find in a busy parking lot, but the ride is so worth it!  It’s truly like trading a beast of a car for a luxury SUV.  I’m loving it!  While the car has many nifty features, I think my favorite “toy” is the built-in bluetooth.  I think I’m finally getting used to “talking to the car” without giggling.  While I don’t seem to have pics of either car - this should give you a pretty good idea of what we had/have.

Pretty accurate representations, but we certainly didn’t have the rack on the front. lol

Happy New Year!

We were lucky enough to be able to drive up to Denver for a few days and spend the New Year with my sister Andrea’s family (the Runyans). A huge thanks to Cory’s parent for allowing us to stay and play at their cabin in the mountains. The kids all had so much fun playing together. Here are a few of the highlights from our visit and New Year’s celebrations.
Sledding…I think Caemlyn and Sara spent more time out there than anyone.

We all took a hike further up the road with our sleds, looking for a good hill. Tyghe was so tired, that he fell asleep early on and stayed that way past our return and beyond.

There was some cousin love…

And LOTS of creative games for the kids before ringing in the New Year (at some random time, before they were sent to bed)…
candy/spoon relays


balloon relays

balloon volleyball (boys vs. girls)

There was even some hokey pokey, but I’ll spare you the pics of that.

Thanks for such a fun time, Runyan family!

Christmas 2009

I’m going to do my best to get my blog updated from the holidays, so bear with me.
We had a very nice, low key Christmas. Traditional Chinese food for Christmas Eve dinner, and the opening of jammies from the cousins.

Thank you!

Santa came and left plenty of gifts for everyone, except maybe for daddy. I got spoiled the most though. These pics don’t show it, but I got a fancy new lens for my camera. I’m excited to learn how to use its potential and take better photos. As for the kids, they all ended up happy. Tyghe got a fancy new bike.

All of the kids got fun new sweaters from Grandma and Grandpa Stubz. Tyghe’s is a vest, and I didn’t get a pic of him wearing it.

We tried something new for Christmas dinner, just for a change. We had a shrimp and lobster boil. Covered the table with freezer paper and poured the food right onto it. No utensils, just hands. Definitely a warm weather thing, but the kids enjoyed it and thought the food was yummy.

and a closeup

You may notice there are no real pics of our tree. We were quite lazy about the holiday preparations, and didn’t buy our tree until 2 days before Christmas. Bought it for $20 from some guys basically selling them (cut from the local forest, I’m sure) off the back of their trucks. Didn’t turn out too bad, all things considered. lol

Fifth Grader

From the title of this post, you might think I was going to have a bit to say about Caemlyn.  However, in this case I have a bit to say about Zephram.  Yesterday was his first day of school - as a fifth grader.

Yes, he and Caemlyn are now in the same grade.  The school felt they weren’t able to meet his needs in fourth grade and that he would be better served to advance a grade now. Justin and I were hesitant to take this route, but in the end, it’s what Zephram really wanted to do. Let’s hope it was the right thing to do.

Merry Christmas!

I did get cards in the mail, but not until yesterday…so maybe they’ll all arrive by New Years! lol

Long Overdue

Guess I’m long overdue for an update here.  Life has been crazy busy, so I’m not even going to attempt to cover everything that has been going on.  However, here is a sampling of what we’ve been up to, in reverse order…

The kids all dressed up for church on Sunday. I’m absolutely *loving* the girls’ new skirts. Made them myself.

Caemlyn had her first band concert, playing my old flute. They did quite well for just having started in September. I didn’t take any pics, but will attempt to edit and share (eventually) some of the video I took.

Annual breakfast with Santa. No one cried this year!

Huge snowstorm at the beginning of the month - dumped a foot of snow.

I made another crocheted nativity (well, the most important pieces) for my sister.

Crocheted baby blankets for both of my counselors that had babies this year. One was just born last night.

Tyghe helped daddy build his model boat…finally! I think he got the kit from Grandma at our family reunion in 2008. He’s so proud of his boat!

I got to go to California for a few days at the end of November to celebrate Grandma Hawley’s 90th birthday. It was so nice to see so many cousins and their families. I was bummed that I wasn’t able to take my own family with me, but glad I got to go anyway.

One Whole Hand

Ada Jane turned 5 on Sunday, making her one whole hand old.  lol  She was beyond excited for her birthday.  She woke us up at 6:30am that morning telling us she was the birthday girl.  She begged all day to open gifts, even though she only had to wait until after church and lunch.  She did get to open one gift before church.

She saw this fabric at the store a few months ago and insisted she needed a dress out of it. I bought the fabric then, but finally got around to making it for her birthday. It’s just a simple pillowcase style dress, but turned out so cute.
Ada also wanted a blue butterfly cake. While the execution is quite lacking, it tasted yummy. Chocolate cake with a whipped chocolate ganache filling. yum!

Ada Jane is so full of personality and a joy to be with (when she’s not crying from being tormented by her little brother). Love my little girl with the big voice.

Let the Wild Rumpus Start!

I am quite proud of my kids’ Halloween costumes this year. They let me go with a theme that I’ve been dying to do. I think we pulled it off quite nicely.

This picture (from the book, not the movie) was our inspiration. The kids picked which “Wild Thing” they each wanted to be…and I made it happen.

I also think my little guy makes the cutest “Max” ever. Or as Tyghe put it “I king of the wild”…except when I wanted to take his picture. hee hee But, he loved Halloween and all of the trick or treating and candy. He was even willing to walk and wear his crown the whole time.

Personally, I’m relieved now that today is over since I was “in charge” of our Ward’s Annual Halloween Party and Trunk or Treat. We had a HUGE turnout and everyone seemed to have a great time.

I’m quite behind on “blogging”, but I do have some pics of what we’ve been up to. As soon as I get a chance (maybe before our Primary Program next Sunday), I will post a big update.