Sweet little people

I just wanted to post on my blog how happy and proud I am of my children. They try really hard to do nice things for me and for others. My birthday was this month and it fell on a Thursday. I didn't know this at the time, but they woke up early for 5-6 days before my birthday to work together and make me this present:


Its a picture frame that they made out of cardboard, complete with a cardboard leg in the back so it can stand up. They each drew a picture of themself on it and they had Ron take a digital picture and glued it in the middle. They worked so hard on it and were so excited to give it to me, I am sure it will always be one of my most prized possessions.

We had a snowstorm on Friday. Christian, Claire and Joseph went out first into the snow but Gracie was stuck inside with me. After they'd been out there a while, I finally was able to get her all bundled up to go out. I asked if they'd help her and they helped her walk all around outside in the 12 inches of snow and took her with them wherever they went. I was so happy with their willingness to be kind to Gracie and help her have a fun time! Here's a couple pictures of it:

Here's another example. Christian letting Joseph play lightsaber with him when he had a friend over to play:

And finally, Claire and Joseph making my bed together. They left a note on my pillow that said, "To Mom, From your Secret Admirer. When I found out "someone" had made my bed, I coerced them into telling me so I could take their picture:

I am so grateful to have such sweet little people to take care of. Our house is bedlam most of the time, but I am so proud of my kids when they do kind things for others!

our little trip

Hi everyone! In order to beat the winter blues, we took a quick little trip this weekend. We drove to Philadelphia to visit the Franklin Institute (our favorite science museum) which is having a STAR WARS exhibit. Lots of the costumes, ship models, puppets and robots used in the making of the Star Wars movies. And we got to take a ride in a Millenium Falcon cockpit. The kids loved it!

Claire's favorite was the Hoth abominable snowman (complete with bloody meat refuse on the ground next to him). Should I be concerned?

Joseph loved this jawa.

We stayed that night with Bryan and Emilee Tikalsky--they live in Leesburg, VA. It was so fun to see them and their cute daughter Natalie! The next morning we got up and went to George's house. Mount Vernon has recently been redone and its the BEST president's house I've been to. Lots of interactive exhibits, a movie theater that really snows on you during the winter of Valley Forge and blows smoke at you during the battle, and of course George Washington himself was walking around.

I put together a few clips from the video we took this weekend. Our friends that used to be in our ward in New Jersey and now live in Virginia came to see us for part of the time we were at Mount Vernon. We loved seeing them! Our kids are great friends and you'll see them playing together in some of this:

After we spent most of the day at Mount Vernon, we stopped and visited the President monuments really quickly on our way out.

Ron took this of course.

Thats it!

Well we're alive in New Jersey in spite of our outrage over John McCain's trickery in Florida. I thought I'd post a few pictures of the past couple months:


Christmas family picture

Christian as wise man, Claire as angel and Joseph as sheep in the ward nativity play.


In December, I got to go on a field trip with Christian's class to the Museum of Natural History. Here's Christian in front of Dum Dum. If you don't know who Dum Dum is, watch Ben Stiller in Night at the Museum.
Here's the kids playing Harry Potter the week they all had strep throat and were home from school for 4 days.


In these pictures, the kids are wearing their pajamas inside out because their Primary teachers told them they would have a snow day if they wore their PJs inside out. However, their efforts and belief in the Primary teachers were crushed the following morning when we got hardly any snow and they went to school without so much as a delayed opening. Gracie was walking around in my shoes that night.

Thats pretty much it. Ron is a high councilor now. He'll do a great job. I still have no calling in our new ward besides that of church widow.