Happy 2011!!

Things Our Family Did in 2010:

• Worked like crazy to put our house on the market, stressed trying to do school and have showings at the same time....and then took it off when our house didn't sell
• Finished our 2009-2010 homeschool year with lots of friends, parties, and fun field trips
  
• Vacationed for a week in a cabin in Wisconsin in July
  
• Visited with family at the holidays (Easter, Thanksgiving, Grandma Simpson's Birthday)
• Welcomed my parents home from their mission
• Welcomed a gorgeous new niece into the world
• Celebrated 8 years since the beginning of this wonderful ride:)
  

Things I did in 2010:

• Took a trip to Seattle to surprise my parents after their mission (this picture is in Seattle with my siblings and parents...first time we'd been together for a LONG time!)
• Went to the homeschool convention in Chicago. Parts were good...parts were weird. Not one that I will attend again anytime soon.
  
• Went on a Women's Retreat in May with some of my best friends. Fun times!
• Stayed home (at least a little:) to homeschool Natalie and Levi
• Became the ward Cubmaster for our church and continued to be the choir director
  

What George did in 2010:

• Practiced all his handyman skills to get the house ready to sell (including knocking out the wall in this closet pictured above and drywalling it)
• Wrote many computer programs for me to use in our homeschool
• Bought a gun and a membership to a shooting range
• Continued working at his software engineering job and is still loving it
• Taught Levi's primary class at church
  
• Watched the kids while I ran around the country:)

What Levi did in 2010:

• Started piano lessons with a teacher that is not Grandma:)
• Sharpened his Wii and computer game skills
• Attended Lego Club at the library
• Made lots of friends in our new homeschool group
• Loved studying about robots
• Turned 7!
  

What Natalie did in 2010:

• Tried out ballet lessons and watched the ballet of "Snow White"
• Met lots of friends at homeschool gym and swim
• Enjoyed playing outside, watching and handling bugs, climbing trees, and riding her bike
• Turned 6 on Thanksgiving!
  

What Sam did in 2010:

• Got potty trained:)
• Loved playing with toys, building with blocks and legoes, and loved playing with the neighbors
• Attended Bugs and Butterflies camp during the summer
• Spent his school time tracing letters and doing connect the dots and learning to spell his name
• Turned 4 two weeks ago!
  

What Seth did in 2010:

• Became a very rambunctious 2 year old in March
• Wanted to "do school" every day
• Loved singing, playing, destroying, chasing, and yelling and generally adding to the raucus
• Learned to climb out of his crib and changed our lives forever:)

I want to say how grateful I am for my Savior, Jesus Christ. His atonement makes my life and happiness possible. Without Him, there would be no hope. I cannot live in a world without Him. I am thankful that He loves me enough to include me in His wonderful plan. Merry late Christmas to all of you and your families, and have a fantastic 2011!

Mom and Dad do Gingerbread

Kids Gingerbread Decorating

Christmas Food Court Flash Mob, Hallelujah Chorus - Must See!

Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge

George here. Levi's piano teacher has a contest for her students, the "1 minute club", which is to be able to name the notes on both the treble and bass clefs, from shuffled flash cards, in less than one minute. Since putting something on the computer always makes it more fun... I made a program for him to practice. If you or your kids want to try it out, just download it to your PC, unzip it, double click on the "musiquiz.exe", and it will start. Hopefully. I haven't tried this on anybody else's computer yet :) Then it will show a note on the staff, and if you type the correct note name, it will move to the next one.

Download musiquiz

Cleaning off the camera

Can you tell that my floor is heated due to my hot water heating pipes? LOVE IT!

These next pics are from playing "Just Dance" on the Wii at Thanksgiving. This is Natalie and Sam.

Here's one of Grandma getting in the fun:)

Nat's bday fell on Thanksgiving this year, so we celebrated the Wednesday night before. She loved the castle cake...even though it was a bit crooked.

Here she is making a wish. Isn't that a great face?

A picture of the done cake. I really should have waited until I had the right tool to make the cuts flat, but I trimmed them myself and it didn't quite work. Also, those dumb ice cream cones are harder than than they should be to make them look nice. Boo. Natalie LOVED that it said "Princess Natalie" and she loved the hearts and the princesses. She didn't care that it was lopsided. It was a fun cake to do:)

My kids always want their picture taken with their creations, so here is Sam. He has made an ancient Egyptian pyramid:) Gotta love homeschooling!

Here's Nat's block creation.

A few weeks ago, we had some excitement in our neighborhood. A house fire started across the way in the cul-de-sac. It ended up being a 6 truck fire! The boys were glued to the front window for at least an hour and a half.

On top of the fire trucks, it was also trash and recycling day. My 2 youngest were so thrilled at all the trucks. I am sure that my neighbor was not too thrilled when to get around all the trucks, people had to drive up in his yard!

Straight vs. Curly

Yes, this is a hair post. So, as you all know, I have been a "curly girl" since March. I have not straightened my hair ONCE since then. I started this crazy hair routine and have stuck to it. But lately, I have been losing my curl and wishing I could go straight...just once!

So, I did. I decided to just try it and see if it was as easy as I remembered (compared to the curly routine). It took FOREVER! My hair has grown quite a bit since March and it was a process to blow-dry and straighten it. And it was straight. And boring. No mystery! No suspense in waiting to see what the hair would look like after it was completely dry! Just boring.

I believe that I am now officially a "curly girl" :) A convert. But I am glad that I did straighten it, because now I can stop wondering and wishing it was straight. I can just be thankful for the curls.