Assembly and Santa

Brynn was Citizen of the month for the theme of generosity. She was so excited to get her award. Way to go Brynn!
Here's Abby and Leah waiting in line to see Santa at our ward Christmas Party. Leah waited in line to realize she really didn't want to sit in Santa's lap.
Abby saying her lines for the Nativity Program. Brynn was scared of Santa. I don't think she has ever sat in his lap. She told me that's not the real Santa and wanted no part in it. This reminds me of last year's Christmas party. Santa was our home teacher and Brynn said "That's not Santa, that's Brother Price."

Shea sitting up by herself.

December Doings

Here is Leah cutting some green beans for dinner. She worked so hard to snip the beans, she got about 5 beans in the pot in about 5 minutes.


We made gingerbread cookies. Leah wanted to sprinkle the sugar on. Do you think there is enough?

Abby loves to shovel snow. She did a great job shoveling our driveway. Then she went on to do the sidewalks.

Here is Shea enjoying her toy.

Wouldn't you love to spend Sunday afternoon under the Christmas tree?

We got our Christmas Tree last Saturday. Trent took the Abby, Brynn, and Leah sledding and then they went to get a tree. They all enjoyed getting it ready and decorating the tree. If you look closely you can appreciate Leah's decorating at the bottom of the tree. She put most of her ornaments down there.

Snowy Saturday

It's a snowy Saturday, Trent took the girls to go see the Nutcracker. I stayed home with Shea who is conviently taking a nap. Trent put up Christmas lights in our front yard today with lots of "help" from the girls. I also had lots of help when we made brownies.

Here are some recent funny quotes from the girls.

Abby: "If they didn't invent Barbies we wouldn't play nicely."

This was said after I commented on how nice they were playing together.

We had our Primary Program a few Sundays ago. I was trying to work with Brynn on her part she was all frustrated, crumpled up her part and said "I just want to throw it in the garbage." Which she did. By the way, she said her part beautifully.

One Saturday our next door neighbor was mowing his lawn. Abby, Brynn and Leah were out on the deck conspiring. The older two were whispering things for Leah to say. This is what she was yelling at our neighbor: "HEY MAN, SHOW YOUR BOOBS." (He usually mows his lawn without a shirt on, but for some reason he didn't this time.) Classic Leah.

Outings

Saturday we were able to go to Wisconsin and visit the Jelly Belly center. They show you how they make Jelly Bellies and of course give you Jelly Bellies to eat.

Tuesday we went to Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. We decided to take the train into the city. That was a lot of fun, the kids thought that was great. Then we took a city bus to get to the aquarium. After seeing everything, we took a taxi to get back to the train station. During the taxi ride, I couldn't get Leah to sit down. She kept sticking her head through the opening to the front of the cab. Playing with all the buttons I am grateful she has to sit in a car seat in our cars. Brynn said it was the funnest day of her life. I think they all liked being able to ride on all the different forms of transportation more than the aquarium itself. It was a fun experience to go into the city like that.

I'm thankful for....

What a great time of year it is to stop and think about all the things we have to be thankful for. I'm thankful for the gospel of Jesus Christ and the many blessings that come into my life as a result of the gospel: Eternal families, temples, the priesthood, commandments that keep us happy through our obedience, scriptures, my testimony of Jesus Christ.

I am thankful to be a wife and mom. I have the greatest family, from my parents & siblings to my spouse and kids! There is so much that I learn from each one of you.

We listed the things we were thankful for in FHE this week I thought I'd share some of the thoughts around our house: Leah: grapes, candy, blankies

Brynn: toilets, house, family, toys, clothes, fireplace, friends, back & front yard, Jesus

Abby: clothes, furniture, bed, pillows, house, Webkins, electricity, songs

Shea: Although she is too little to say anything here are the things we know Shea loves, baths, her passy, rice cereal.

Halloween

Sorry for the delay in our posts, we've been working on our office and the computer was disconnected for awhile. We had a fun Halloween. Brynn and Abby had a Halloween parade at their school. We went trick or treating...Leah was skeptical at first but once she realized that she was getting candy from everyone, she was running from house to house. We are glad to know that everyone is safe in California, there were many prayers said for our cousins!

By the way, Leah is out of candy yesterday I overheard her ask Brynn for a piece of candy this is the conversation:

Leah: Brynn can I have a piece of candy?

Brynn: (Silence)

Leah: Brynn say yes.

Grandpa Comes!

Dad came last week to visit with us. It was so much fun having him here. We went to the Rainforest Cafe for my birthday. We rode bikes with him Leah recently was put on the training wheel bike she thinks it's so great. Everytime she rides, she tells me she goes fast. Please check out Leah's mankle here.

Unfortunately we did not get to see Dad's mankle, we were privledged to see this classic Sunday look of shorts with black socks.

We did show Dad Lake Michigan. For those who haven't seen it, it looks like the ocean. All you can see is water on the horizon. Thanks for coming to visit us Dad or should I say Grandpa.

CUIM

The answer to CUIM is children under the influence of missionaries.

My kids go crazy whenever we have the missionaries over for dinner. It doesn't matter what we say anytime they are over it's like we have a bunch of monkeys in our house? Why is this? Last time the missionaries were over, I was putting the food on the table and Leah pulled down my skirt! Luckily, I stopped it before it got too far.

The crazy thing is I can remember being crazy when the missionaries were over when I was growing up.

CUIM (pronounced quim)

Since Dad is here visiting, we had to post an acronym...Can you guess what a CUIM is?

Examples:
Sara crying at the sight of a black missionary.

Leah eating dinner under the table when missionaries are over for dinner.

Lincoln Park Zoo

Last weekend the girls had a four day weekend. I took them to the Lincoln Park Zoo which is in Chicago. I was really proud of myself for being able to get down there and back without any problem. Thanks to my parents for teaching me how to drive in a big city with lots of interchanges. The zoo is located by Lake Michigan and tons of skyscrapers around it. It was really neat. The girls loved all the animals, I think I heard the most about the apes. They thougt it was funny that they could see the gorilla's butt-crack. That's the first thing they told Trent about the zoo...nice. I have to mention that Leah has been working on the number three and was very excited to see that there were 3 zebras.

Picture Day

Picture Day was last week at Thompson Elementary. I thought I'd take some pictures before they went to school.

Water Tower

Out here in the midwest, every town has a water tower. A few weekends ago, we walked to ours. Here's some of the pictures. Notice how excited Brynn is about walking.

What did you say?

As every parent know, sometimes your kids say the funniest things. I've been trying to write some of them down lately. Here are some of the winners:

Abby: "Parents are so annoying"

Leah: "She's ugly" (This was said in the chapel while she was pointing at some lady)

Brynn said the funniest thing the other day while Leah, Brynn, and I were in the office in our house. Here's the conversation.

Brynn "How come it smells?"

Carin "What does it smell like?"

Brynn "Like rotten eggs that came tooting out of a butt."

The Fitzgeralds

Yesterday we had the Gary Fitzgerald and his family over for dinner. They live about 30 minutes away and we are in the same Stake. My kids were happy when they found out there was some kind of family nearby. We had a fun time getting to know them. They have 3 girls 14, 11 and the youngest (Emmie) just turned 8. Abby and Emmie were best buds right away. I thought it was funny that Gary described Grandpa Fitzgerald as "scary grandpa". We had fun remembering the glittery ceilings, not touching the plastic fruit, and having major pressure to be on your best behavior. Gary's wife Michelle said that whenever she was over there Grandpa always spoke fondly of "The Harts." There was lots more to our conversation...but I better not post it all.

Two-Wheeling

Abby and Brynn have been in school for 3 weeks now. Brynn is loving Kindergarten and Abby is having fun with 3rd grade. This past week Brynn learned to ride a two-wheeler. Which is a big moment in a kid's life. She had been using training wheels, then she asked Trent to take them off, and she took off. She just rode on up the street like it was nothing! You can check the pictures to see how excited she was.

School Days

Leah's birthday was also the first day of school for Abby and Brynn had kindergarten orientation. Brynn's first day of school was the next day. Brynn was so excited to go to school she was up at 6:00, she comes into my room all dressed and ready to go! Abby and Brynn both ride the bus to school. The bus stop is at the top of our street (It is so awesome!) Kindergarten is just half day here so they come home separately. When Brynn came home after her first day she told me it was too short and she wanted to go back and stay longer. Her teacher seems very nice her name is Mrs. Monson. I got a little emotional when she got on the bus and it pulled away. She's now starting to have her own experiences. I know she will do great! Abby loves her teacher. She is also excited to have a locker and says she doesn't play during recess, she just hangs out and talks. She is growing up fast, loves school, and has made some friends in our neighborhood already.