Rainforest Cafe

While the three oldest were in school, Blake and I ran off to the Rainforest Cafe, (well we did bring Summit and Sedona, and our good friend and her little two-year-old).

The waitress was stunningly gorgeous (and I don't normally pay attention to that kind of thing).


The ambiance was amazing.


And the music was to die for.


Not to mention all the educational information we received on the rain forests. And the opportunity we had to donate to saving the rainforest.



As you might have guessed we did not actually make it to the restaurant. But what we had was even better. The entire 4th Grade put together this production called "The Rainforest Cafe" It was all about a frog who wanted to see the sky above the trees, but he could not jump that high. So he was asking all kinds of animals in the rainforest to help him and they were giving him all kinds of reasons why they couldn't help. Savannah was a sloth and did a fabulous job with her part. She even got a little animated which made the song come to life. In the end the frog helped the toucan cure her wing (cause the rainforest is like a pharmacy) and the toucan was so happy that she willingly flew the frog up to see the sky. It was a very enjoyable time. Thanks again Toni for coming. It was very sweet of you to take the time out of your busy day to gladden the heart of my child. Savannah was thrilled that you were able to make it.

On Display

Savannah's artwork was chosen to be on display at the district office for this month. So we had to go take a look.



She was so excited about it. She was told to do a lot of detail on her turkey and she did a great job.

Science

Okay, so normally I am really not much of a science girl. In fact, I really hated having to do science projects. So when Saige's kindergarten teacher made the science fair project a mandatory thing, I had to resist my desire to write her a very not-nice note about how I have a High School diploma and therefore should not have to be doing a science fair project (cause let's be real, that is who would be doing a kindergartner's project). So after griping about it to my friends and putting the whole thing off for as long as I could. This is what we came up with.



Who doesn't like rubbing balloon's on things and seeing if it will make it "stick" to the wall? The funny thing is that when I mentioned the idea to Saige this is how the conversation went....

Me: "So what are some things we could use, to make the balloon stick to the wall."
Saige: (As dead serious and totally excited as any 5-year-old) "TAPE!!!!!"
Me: (Totally loving her "cut to the chase kind of thinking") "Yeah, tape would definitely work. But what could we rub the balloon on to make it seem like it is sticking to the wall." (Very long pause) "Anything?"
Sierra: "Like your shirt."
Saige: (Completely serious) "No, that won't work!"
Then Sierra did it and the balloon stuck to the wall. Saige was totally shocked and wanted to try more right then and there, but it was bedtime. So I sent her to bed dreaming of the wonderful world of science.

The only thing we post about

Here are the latest photos of our house.


They got the windows in, painted the trim, finished the dormers, almost nearly finished framing, started the plumbing and the electrical.


They also cut out the access to our cellar. The kids thought this was totally cool. Savannah & Sierra even figured out how to get in and out by themselves. The builders are supposed to be putting stairs in so we will not have to totally rely on the kids to get down there. They just have to figure out how to make it all work.


One great thing about the cellar is that I can stand up all the way (just barely), except under the huge beam going right down the middle. And Blake can stand up between the floor joists.


This last picture is to show you how our house is really just "floating" on those helical piers. Pretty crazy!!!


We also got to spend some time the our soon-to-be neighbors. They made homemade root beer, which was very delicious. We also got to see the inside of their house, which is pretty much the same as what our house will look like. It was nice to see the house with furniture in it. We also found out that our house may not be done until about April time. Now we are approaching the time that I don't want to be moving, because of school. Hopefully they will just get it done the end of March and we won't have to worry so much about it. Now the question is, when do we put in out 30-day notice?

As of Valentine's Day

Surprisingly, we went to see our house again this weekend. We left here on Friday and spent the night at Jed & Aly's (thanks guys for letting us all crash there). Then we went out to the house and finalized a few things with the builder. Here are the latest photos of the progress they made on our house this week.


Here's a picture of them constructing the dormers (to allow natural light into our family room, upstairs).


They started working on the duct work for the heating and air conditioning.


Also, they started on the stairscase.

At Peace!

About and hour ago, my dad called and told me that my Grandma had gone home to her sweetheart just in time for Valentine's Day. When the phone rang with "the family ring," I was very worried. It has been my experience that if family is calling before 9, it is probably not just to say, "Hey, how are you?" So I was scared! My mind started racing to try to think of what horrible thing could have possibly happened. Then when I heard my dad's voice, I thought "It must be really bad." No offense Dad, but you don't really call for good news, that's Mom's job. So by this time I was really nervous. Then when he told me that Grandma had passed on early this morning I just felt at peace. I was totally okay with it! I thought, how is that bad news? Don't get me wrong, I love my Grandma. It is just that we have been expecting her to go for a long time, at least 4 years. She suffered a stroke and has really never recovered too well from that. Since then it has very much been slowly down hill. So to hear that she has finally passed is so good.
I would like to share with you all some memories about my grandma. I think every memory I have of my Grandma involves hard work and patience. Never complaining!!!! My Grandma was very soft spoken. I never heard her raise her voice, I am not even sure she could.
I remember my Grandma sweeping the carpet. She and Grandpa were babysitting for my parents while they went out of town. I remember telling her that we had a vacuum, but she didn’t seem to care, she just kept on sweeping the carpet. I guess old habits die hard.
I am not sue why this next memory hit me so hard yesterday, especially when there was no external reason for the "memory jog." I am sure it had something to do with Heavenly Father helping me to be at peace with her passing. Anyway, I remember my grandma wanting to sit down and relax (not something she got a chance to do often). She wanted to watch a movie, but did not want to be offended by anything either. She asked us to just pick out a good movie. So we picked Saturday’s Warrior’s, a quality film. As it was starting the comment I remember my Grandma making was “It is not even approved by the Church.” In my 11-year-old mind I thought, “Give me a break!!! It really is a good movie. Not everything has to be approved by the Brethren to be good.” Now that I am older and wiser, I see her point. Perhaps not everything good has the stamp of approval from the Church, but it defiantly does not hurt. At least if it is approved by the Church, you know it is held to a higher standard than what the world holds things to. Good thing we don’t really know it all at 11.
I remember my when my grandpa would be teasing us kids, there would come a point that Grandma would finally say, “Lowell, stop.” Somehow Grandma could see what Grandpa could not … that we did not find it funny anymore.
I remember spending a night or two at Grandma & Grandpa’s house. After dinner was eaten and cleaned up my Grandma really wanted to play Rook, but I had no idea how to play. My Grandma was very patient with me and taught me how to play. Because of lack of practice I then forgot, which is why to the day I am not very good. My grandma was good thought and she always allowed us time to learn. She was so full of love.
She was also very good at remember all her Grandchildren and their birthday’s. She kept everything in such order, something you have to be good at in order to keep track of 50+ Grandchildren.


My Grandma was such an example of true discipleship. Very quiet in all she did. If I could just figure out how to me more like her, I would be doing well.
I am thankful to my Grandma for the silent example she was to me. I am thankful to her for giving me time to prepare for her passing (not much like Grandpa who just up and went). I think maybe Grandma's are like that... they just give you fair warning.

Treasured Time

So this last hitch that Blake is still working has worked out so great. He is working nights, but the first three nights the helicopter was broken (not really it was just not flyable because it kept having a computer glitch) so he did not have to go into Winslow. He just drove down to the Flagstaff base, signed in and then came home. Then at 8:00 AM he would drive back down to the Flagstaff base and sign out. It has been like having "days" off. The next four nights he had to go into Winslow but could not go out because of maintenance or weather. On Monday night he did not have to go in at all because we had so much snow he could not even get out (the roads were not plowed very well). So all and all we have had him working, but not really. LOVE IT!!!!! Here are a few photos of Blake on the ground playing with his little girl.





Sedona is finally realizing that she could possibly be upright like the rest of us. She pulls herself up on just about anything. She gets a little concerned about having to come down and will start screaming for someone to help. She loves that she can get around on her own, but also loves being held.

Joy!!!

So the other day I was in the kitchen when all of the sudden I realized something was moving on the ground. I called Summit over (he's a boy and appreciates bugs, right?) to take a look. He yelled out "A spider!!" I nicely told him it was not a spider, but a nice little potato bug. I asked him if he wanted to hold it. He went running away. UM!! What happened to bravery. So I persisted. He finally came over and let me put the harmless bug in his hand. He found it was not as bad as it seemed and he actually seemed to enjoy having the bug crawl on his hand.


I then told Summit that we needed to put the potato bug outside, so he could have more room to crawl. So after only dropping the poor bug twice, we finally made it all the way to the driveway before Summit shook his hand and the potato bug went flying. We found it and helped it back onto it's feet. My question now is.... Does anyone know if a potato bug can survive 15 inches of snow fall. I was thinking they were more of a springtime bug. Which would make sense, since before the snow fell we were enjoying 50 degree weather.

House Update

Ginger and Steven went and saw our house on the 6th and snapped this photo of them hanging the trusses on our house (thanks guys, this photo adds so much to our album).


We got a little jealous and decided that we needed to make a trip to see our house too. So on Saturday morning I packed up the family van and headed down. After a quick stop in Winslow to pick up Blake, we continued on to Snowflake. We spent the afternoon looking at our house and the neighbors (by the way, the first picture on our last post about the house is of our neighbor's house, but that is close to what our house will look like). Here are a few pictures of our house.


The kids leaning on our bar in the kitchen.


Our upstairs.


The big picture. We are very excited (like I think we have said about 15 times). They have added the things that we want, so we are thrilled!

She can't be!!!!

Savannah is now into double digits. Whoa Baby!!!! I cannot believe she is 10 years old. She had a great birthday. Blake and I made breakfast burritos for breakfast. They were so good. Savannah and I had made marshmallow brownies the day before for a treat for her class, so I took them into the school around 10:00. Then for lunch I checked her out of school and we went to Sonic. She enjoyed a big thing of Popcorn Chicken, french fries and a butterfinger blast! I loved just sitting there in the car talking to her. She is so amazing and totally excited to be 10. Then I took her back to school and when she got home her and Blake got to go on a hike into the mountains behind our house. Savannah really enjoyed being able to spend some one on one time with each of us. Here are a few pictures of that night.





For dinner we had Wikiki Meatballs (which Savannah wants to learn how to make this year) and Blake made a fabulous dutch oven cake. Since it was still hot, we could not put the candles inside it. So I just held one for her.

Construction

Blake had this Saturday off work so we took a trip to our home-building site and were totally surprised to find this


next door anyway. On our lot we found this


I hear you saying, "Doesn't that look the same as it did in the last pictures we saw?" Well, no. Look back at the other pictures, I will wait...... See, now you see all the progress they have made in two weeks. When you don't have any weather issues holding you up, you can really work fast. See the stem wall is so much better. Not to mention all this


I mean, think of all the time it takes for a truck to deliver wood out to the site. Sorry, I am being a little sarcastic. We expected to see all this stuff put into place, not to mention all the other framing. We were told that by the end of last week (being January 23) that they would have all the framing done. So I did not think we were expecting too much. Apparently, we were.
Here is a picture of our "cellar." Looks like at least the kids will be able to stand up in it, for now.


We are really excited to get into our new home. And just so you all know, we would love to have visitors pretty much anytime.

WORN OUT!!!

So the other day we got a canner from our cannery and started canning. We had 300 lbs of white wheat, 35 lbs of onions, 25 lbs carrots, 36 lbs salt, 75 lbs rice, 40 lbs of sugar, and 5 lbs beans and 98 cans to fit it all into. Blake & I were just go, go, go!!! We wanted to get it all done for a few reasons. 1) because Blake only had a few days to be home to help and 2) so we were not the ones holding someone else back from getting their canning done. So after getting all our cans sealed in into boxes and labeled we had to find a place for them. We had some rearranging to do, but we made it all fit. About halfway through our finding a place for all the boxes we came out to find that Sedona was apparently tired. She found a box that seemed comfortable enough and started drooling. I guess getting a home food storage can be pretty exhausting!

French Toast for Dinner

So the other day we were kind of in a hurry to have dinner and what I had planned was not going to work, so we moved onto Plan B....French Toast!!!! The kids loved it (Blake was at work, or he would have loved it too)!! Just to show you how much it was loved, here is proof....


Doesn't this child look like she thoroughly loved dinner???? She loved it so much she wanted her hair to have a taste, or just save some for later.


She loved it so much she decided to just kick back and enjoy the full feeling, and bask it the deliciousness of the moment.

Funny Two-Year-Old Comments

Okay, so I am thinking I can probably post without having pictures. I just wanted to share some funny things Summit has been doing lately.

One of my favorites is that he spins around in a circle, running as fast as he can as he looks at the ground and says......."Mom, I'm getting busy." I keep trying to tell him it is "dizzy," but alas he will not change his ways.

He calls his belly button a "lady button." Blake finds this extremely amusing (not). One day I am sure Summit will find it as funny as we do.

At church from the moment we sit down in sacrament meeting to the closing prayer Summit calls out about every 10 minutes of so, "Is it time to go to nursery?" I am glad he loves nursery, but I am sure it can be a little disruptive to have those around us.

We have a friend here (I know shocking, that someone spends time with us) whose last name is Holland, but Summit insists on calling her Sister Larson since that is what their kids call me, but Summit does not understand that. He will also ask, "Are we going to the Larson's?" meaning the Holland's.

It is so fun to watch kids progress in their understanding. That is one thing I love about Primary. Kind of an off the subject thought, but Summit will go into Primary next January and then the following January Sedona will. YIKES!!! I am not ready for that. My three oldest were the oldest in Sunbeams. With these last two, they will be the youngest, especially Sedona.