Overheard at the dinner table

I had promised my friend I would help her paint a room in her house in preparation for her upcoming move. After serving a dinner consisting of fish, greenbeans, and new potatoes, I quickly ate and excused myself to change into grubby paint clothes. As the kids finished eating, they one by one left the table until only Jared and Katy remained. As Jared sorted through the mail, Katy slowly picked at the fish remaining on her plate. She sighed and looked up at Jared. "Dad," she asked "Alex is allergic to fish, isn't he?"
"Yes" Jared replied.
Sighing again she remarked "He's lucky!"

Ice Princess or Ice Girl?

I found 2 posts saved under drafts from last month that I apparently never hit the "publish button on" better late than never....

Bella's opinion on the movie "Ice Princess"

That was NOT about a prince and princess. Its was about skate BOY and a skate GIRL. She did not have long hair that he did not use as a stepladder. She did not have on a pink dress or pink flowers. He did not have vines on his coat (I think she's referring to the decorations on Prince Charmings jacket) AND he was not called Prince Eric. That was not a show about prince and princesses. You said I was going to watch a Princess show!

A Valentine and a Birthday

Jared's B-day is the day after Valentine's, so its always a busy couple of days for us. This year since we had used a babysitter the previous 2 week-ends, we decided to stay home. The girls had a sleep-over at a friend's house the night before which worked in our benefit. By the evening, the were exhausted, so I gave them all baths and sent them to bed by 7. Meanwhile, Jared made a yummy dinner of ribs, salad, and loaded baked potatoes. We ate by candelight, and enjoyed the peaceful evening. The next day, I made lasagna, salad, and garlic bread for dinner. Jared loves lasagna, but I don't make it very often. For dessert, I made a mock DQ icecream cake. It was much easier than the last time I attempted to make one thanks to the springform cake pans I got for Christmas. He turned 31 this year. I didn't have 31 candles, but I did have a "1" left over from Jacob's B-day so we attempted to make a "3" with some regular candles.

Xandy's Jazz and Tap

Here are the videos from Xandy's jazz and tap class. Not bad, considering they learned 2 routines in 6 weeks.


(It starts sideways but I promise it doesn't stay that way for long)


Xandy, her friend Olivia, their teacher, and some random girl who jumped in the picture last minute
Xandy and Olivia- they're in the same Kindergarten class also. They get along great and have lots in common like being the 2nd of 4 children.

New addition to our family

This is our newest addition, joining our family on Saturday.
A 2007 Toyota Corolla with 35,000 miles.

Bella Ballerina- The Recital

After the end of each session the students put on a little "recital" for the parents. This was Bella's first session of ballet. Although she was hesitant at first, she could hardly wait the week between classes by the end. She is taking swim lessons this next session, but is already asking for Ballet again.
Ballet routine

Freeze dance

"My very own Ballet" students

A little practice at the barre

Valentine sweethearts

Jacob didn't want anything to do with a picture taking on this day


A friend gave Bella and I these matching PJ's. They are a pretty silly, but very important to Bella. I figured they were Valentine appropriate so I wore them with Bella and even posed for a picture with her.

Kindergarten Program

The Kindergarten classes at the school put on a Share Bear program. It was really cute. The second video is long, but if you skip up to about the 3 1/2 minute mark and watch from there you'll hear Alexandra's line.

Fun with Family

I'm way behind in blogging but I'm trying to get caught up. Here are some pictures from our fun when family came to visit in January.

Veggies, pasta, and garbanzo beans

Last week, in an attempt to eat healthier, I tried a new recipe off allrecipes.com. As I served it to my family, I braced myself for the complaints I was sure would follow. It was a penne pasta recipe loaded with zucchini, yellow squash, red peppers, mushrooms, tomatoes, etc. I was stunned when no complaints were issued and second helpings were requested. Finally they've come around I thought. Tonight I decided to try my luck again. I searched through the recipes on allrecipes that would use the rest of the squash, peppers, and mushrooms in my fridge. I found one that sounded a little strange but had raving reviews. I checked the pantry to be sure I had the necessary ingredients and went to work. I have to admit I was a little skeptical myself, but took comfort in knowing there were 2 frozen pizza from the school fundraiser waiting in the wings. I knew we were off to a bad start when during the prayer I heard a little voice ask "Please help us to eat this food without complaining too much". I stole a peek at my husband who looked like he was going to burst with laughter. He had already raised his eyebrows when I placed the meal at the table. It was definately not one of their favorites, but they all ate at least some of it. Personally, I thought it was pretty good. Well, one out of two is better than nothing.

Steeler Colors

I have a question, and I mean no disrespect to all the other Cleveland sports fans out there. Why does everyone hate the Steelers so much? I understand a bit of rivalry: BYU vs Utah, OSU vs Michigan. The hated "other" colors. But, I was always taught that if the rivalry team was in a championship game you should cheer for them. It makes your team look better. So why did everyone refuse to cheer for the Steelers on Sunday? Why cheer for a team all the way across the country? Also, when that sorry excuse of a pathetic little man took away our beloved Browns, Pittsburgh was the next closest team. I recall a lot of people jumping ship and rooting for the Steelers for those orange-less and brown-less years.

I always try to make "party food" for dinner on Super Bowl Sunday. We had pizza muffins, nachos, and brownie fruit pizza (I know, real healthy right?) Jacob was sleeping when we ate. When he woke up, I noticed he still had on his white church shirt with black pants. I knew that white shirt had to be changed or it would suffer a early demise, so I went to his drawer in search of another shirt. The first shirt I saw was yellow. Perfect I thought to myself. My little boy ate his food and watched the game in yellow and black. Does that makes him or me less of a Cleveland fan? I don't think so. If, by some miracle, the Browns had made the Superbowl we would've pulled out our Browns apparel, Browns bandannas, and orange pom-poms. We might have even painted our faces, and the girls would definitely have painted their nails orange. But, the Browns weren't in the Superbowl and I didn't see any harm in cheering for the neighbooring team. So, Good job Steelers! (I should probably add that my parents were both born in that area and I still have many relatives there)




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Better late than never

I told my mom about these three videos but couldn't find them to post them (forgot to check our other memory card). So, even though it is way past Christmas, these videos are for Mima's benefit. The first is of him opening his Diego toy. The other two show how he went from hating his reindeer to dancing along with it every chance he got.

Primary Pancakes

Our primary had a pancake breakfast the last Saturday in January. The kids got to come in their Pj's, slippers, and bathrobes. We made pancakes and sausage for them to eat. We had a great turn-out especially considering the single digit temps that morning. Who wants to get out of their warm bed to go outside on a Saturday? Thanks to all the parents who did just that to bring their kids to the breakfast. The children sat at tables with their teachers and classmates. Jared had to work, which meant I had Jacob with me as well. He sat at Bella's table next to her and ate his pancakes and sausage. I was actually able to help make sure everything was running smoothly.

I had to be at the church an hour early to help set-up and my kids all had to tag along. There were all children there early for the same reason. When the Bishop and his wife arrived to help, all the children swarmed to the Bishop. He kept them thoroughly entertained.

Let it snow!!

Two weeks ago, Alexandra prayed that we would get lots of snow so we could go sledding. The next morning we woke up to a light dusting. Disappointed, she remarked that "more people must of prayed for only a little snow because we only got a little snow." The next week, the kids came home from school on Monday buzzing with excitement because we were supposed to get a snow storm and probably wouldn't have school the next day. I told them not to get their hopes up and sent them to bed on time. We woke up to a snow day, but still hardly any snow (at least in the eyes of a Cleveland girl). The funny thing was they closed Jared's office down in anticipation of the storm. He came home while we were eating lunch much to our delight. I kept thinking about the blizzard 2 years ago in Cleveland when it took him 5 1/2 hours to get home (1/2 normal commute) and his office never closed. In fact he had to play hooky the following day when he couldn't get out of the driveway. But I digress, back to the story. The girls didn't lose hope. They had been told it was a two part storm, and they were sure there would be no school the next day and lots of snow. Sure enough, the call came in late that evening that school was cancelled. I looked out the window and was surprised to find several inches of snow. The following day we had at least 6 inches and Xandy got to go sledding. The park we went to ended up being too steep for the little kids. Not necessarily because they didn't like the thrill, but because the hill was too steep to climb back up. Katy and Xandy had to crawl up it and Xandy couldn't tow the sled behind her. Which left me to pull 2 sleds and 2 little tykes up the hill I could hardly climb myself. Needless to say we didn't stay long. They did spend a large part of the day sledding in their friends' backyard. The moms and little kids stayed inside and baked yummy treats to eat. Saturday was forecasted to be in the mid-40s, so we hit the slopes early in the morning to sled once more before the snow melted. We had discovered there is a perfect sledding hill behind the houses at the end of our cul-de-sac. Its perfect, we can walk to it and its not so steep. Jacob loved sledding. But, he insisted on sledding by himself on his tummy. If a sled was ever left unoccupied for even a slight second he'd pounce belly first onto it. He was so funny and he'd laugh when he got to the bottom.
The first two videos are from the first day off last week. Can you tell they're snow deprived this year? They are trying their hardest to make do. The second two videos are from Saturday when we went sledding with Dad.

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I've been in a bit of a bloggers funk lately. Hopefully, I can get back to posting on a regular basis