Jayden's Volcanoes

Jayden has this reading homework for school, and when the two of us have read 100 books together he gets a free book from his teacher. So last week, he hit his 100th book, and he brought home his new book called Horrible Harry and the Locked Closet, and it's a story about a bunch of kids in elementary school and in their classroom there is a locked closet that hasn't been opened for over 40 years, and they solve the mystery behind why it was locked. Also, their class was studying volcanoes, which Jayden just loves, and they build a volcano, and have it blow up. So Jayden wanted me to make him a volcano that would explode too. I told him that I couldn't because I didn't know what ingredients they had mixed together to make it explode, and Jayden was so sad. Then, a few days later when we finished the book we noticed that at the end of the book the author had inserted the volcano recipe, so kids could make a volcano at home, just like Harry and his friends. Jayden was so excited, and wanted me to make a volcano, so the next night we did. We got all of the ingredients together, and Jayden and Jacklyn were watching very excitedly. Then I asked Jayden if he was ready for the final ingredient, he said yes, and I dumped the vinegar in, and it exploded and flowed over the glass like lava. It was pretty cool to watch, even Micah came to in watch the volcanic eruption. So that was our excitement for the week. We have actually had a lot of fun activities going on this week. I might post some of them tomorrow, or later, I'll have to see. Have a great weekend everyone.

Our New Years Fun

Hi everyone, and Happy New Year! Wow, Micah and I have been so busy this week, it's not even funny. Busy partying that is. Micah met some new friends on facebook, and we went over to party at their house for New Years. They have an XBOX 360, and they got me addicted to Rockband. It is really fun. I actually wouldn't ever consider myself getting into that, but it is a blast. We ended up playing Rockband and board games all night. They also have a ball pit in their basement that the kids played in with the other kids. They had a blast. Jayden cried the next day because he didn't want to go home. Fun times. We stayed until two the next day. We never expected to stay that long, but with all of the fun and excitement, and the fact that we stayed up until five in the morning; we just stayed the night. So that is what we did for New Years.

Anyways, we went to Mom's house in the beginning of December (as most of you know). And mom had this adorable snowman that I just fell in love with, and had to have, so I asked Micah if he would make me one. He agreed. So I drew up the plans, we bought the supplies, and made our snowman friend. He's adorable. I was thinking after, or more like when I was going through all of the work, that I should have just asked mom if I could buy one from her friend. My brain doesn't always keep up with me and my creativity. Oh well, here it is, and we all wish you a fun and safe Christmas break, because Monday we all have to back to school.

Merry Christmas!

Here is a slide show of how Christmas went for us. We had lots of presents and fun. Thanks everyone for the gifts that they gave us. The presents were all wonderful and greatly appreciated. Thanks again, and everyone have a MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Movies

It has been snowing like crazy here all day. It has fun and exciting. All of this snow makes me just want to stay inside and read a book. Jacklyn keeps saying, "I wanna build a snowman." So we might build one on Christmas Eve. Jayden and I are wimps and don't want to brave the cold. We have had fun over the weekend watching movies and getting ready for Christmas. We watched Hancock on Saturday night. It was ok. I couldn't figure out why no one was really that thrilled about it because the preview looked really good. Then we saw the movie, and Micah and I knew why. It really wasn't as good as I expected it to be. We also saw The Village last weekend. Absolutely loved it. I also fell in love the soundtrack. It is very pretty, Micah and I were talking about it and it is... Micah used the word intense, I prefer dramatic. Very interesting story, I don't want to say too much because if you decide to see it I will ruin the movie. It compares very well with religion, especially Mormonism, but that is not a story for here. Micah took Jayden out tonight to do some man shopping, and Micah got me the soundtrack for Christmas. He is very nice. I hope everyone has all of their Christmas shopping done, and that no one gets stuck in snow. Micah got stuck in the snow going up to his parent's house today for lunch. That crazy hill.

Oh, I forgot to tell you guys about our ward Christmas party we had last week. Our ward had a fundraiser where we donated our time or talents, and then the money raised went to help and orphanage in... somewhere in Israel. I think? Anyways, it was a lot of fun to see a lot of people giving at this time of year. I felt bad because I didn't know very much about it because we went out of town the week before, so I wish I would have know more so I could have donated something. Oh well, I guess we all do service in different ways. So don't forgot that is what Christmas is about.

Snow

I am so excited. It has been snowing like crazy this week. It wasn't snowing this morning, and then right when I went to go pick up Jayden from school it started snowing. We all went down to Wal-Mart afterward, because Jacklyn was dying for some chocolate milk. When we left the store it was snowing like crazy. When we got to our house, the snow had blown everywhere. I asked Jayden on the way home if he wanted to go sledding in the streets tonight or tomorrow. I remember we use to that all the time with Charmaine and her dad, where he would pull us behind his pickup truck in the sled. It was pretty fun. I like going sledding up at Micah's parents because they live up on a big hill. We did that one year with the Micah's brothers. I finally got the courage to go down, it was kind of scary because we went really fast and had to go over that dip in the road, but it was really fun. I wanted to do it again, and then somebody got in an accident, and the plows came. Bummer. Anyways, I need to go because I'm instant messaging Amber, and Micah wants me to get off so we can go and watch Hancock. Plus, I need to call my dad and wish him a happy birthday. Bye.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!

Slide Show of Christmas

Since Christmas is just a few weeks away; I thought it was time for a Chrismas slide show. So everyone have a great weekend, hang out with your family, and enjoy the show.

O' Christmas Tree

First of all, I am sorry that I haven't posted anything for a while. I am trying to figure out if my life has become dramatically more boring, or if I have just temporarily lost my creativity to post things on here. Micah told me I could post about the weekend we had in Idaho, but I feel since half of the people on this blog were there it feels pointless. Plus, I'm not in the mood. Then this blog starts feeling like a boring journal, and then I stop posting. I hate writing in journals, no one wants an account of how many times a day I change diapers, trust me.

I was going to do some Christmas shopping today while Jayden and Jacklyn were in school. But when Jacklyn got up this morning, she started barfing, and was still barfing when the bus came, so I decided to keep her home. And there goes Christmas shopping. I feel kind of antsy to get it done really early this year. I'm trying to figure out if it's the economy that's making me uneasy, or the fact that every single time I go to Wal-Mart or ToysRUs, they are completey out of the stuff I want to buy. I was going to get Jacklyn this Ponyville bus that she wanted, but Mich wanted me to wait until he got paid, so I waited. Then I went to Wal-Mart, and they have been sold out every since. I have been having the same problems with Jayden. ToysRUs had legos, buy one, get one half off. I went up there, and all, I'm not kidding, all of the Indiana Jones legos were gone. They said they were getting a shipment in tonight, so come back tomorrow. I did, and the selection hadn't improved much. At least they had the one set I wanted. I started talking to the guy shopping next to me, who was also complaining about the poor selection, and picked over products. At least I'm not the only one.

So I have been thinking about our Christmas tree lately. We put it up over Thanksgiving weekend, and I have been looking at it for the last couple of weeks. It looks somewhat pathetic. In Amber's terms "a Charlie Brown Christmas tree." We use to have these gorgeous beads that strung on it, but Jacklyn took a pair of scissors to the beads last year, so those are gone. Then, we had some pretty red and gold glass ornaments, those have been dropping like flies this year. After cleaning up three broken glass ornaments a day for a week, I finally just tossed the rest. There there's this Christmas ribbon I bought a few years ago; I thought: yea, something the kids can't break. But any ribbon from four feet down looks like it just went through WWII. The top of tree looks nice though. So I decided that since the ornaments are being thinned out by the kids, and I'm getting kind of tired of the look anyways, because I wanted to go more country. I have decided to decorate our tree next year in snowmen. I saw a Christmas tree in the Country Sampler that I really liked that had snowmen and santas on it, and that is what I've decided. You can buy the patterns online, so lately I've been browsing for snowmen ornaments online. They should be really fun to make. I'm excited. I've got, like 325 days or so to do them, so I should have plenty of time, right? They also have these Christmas picture frame ornaments you can buy and stick your family picture in the frame and hang it on the Christmas tree. I asked Micah if he would make some for me. He told me to just buy them, then I showed him the price and how many I wanted, and he changed his mind. I also told Micah I wanted him to make a big snowman, like the one Mom has in her entryway at her house. He said ok. I've decided that I'm in love with snowmen and just have to decorate with them at Christmas time. And with that everyone have a fantastic day.