Christmas Greetings 2010

JOY TO THE WORLD!

Rebecca (7) rejoices in being a big sister. She is a huge help to me with the baby and is a great friend to Joseph. 7 year olds are great. She has just taken off in every area of life, including reading, writing and piano. When she reads a story out loud she is the most animated reader I've ever heard (like sighing when it says the character sighed). You could hire her to entertain kids with her stories! Rebecca is eagerly anticipating 2011 when she will finally get baptized!

Joseph (3) finds joy in Star Wars, Buzz Lightyear, pirates, and his Sunday nusery leader (whom he will sorely miss when he starts "Sunbeams" in January). He loves being a big brother and can make Theo giggle uncontrollably, including during Sacrament Meeting at church. Joseph loves using big words like: actually and similar.

Theodore (8 months) enjoys life. Period. He is the happiest baby you've ever met. People comment on how happy he is and his chunky cheeks and light blue eyes. At the rate he's going around holding onto the furniture I bet he'll be like his older siblings and be walking before he's one. We're so happy he joined our family this year.

Dorothea's biggest joys are her husband and children. Other joys include chocolate chip cookies, skype, sleep, hearing from friends and family, and any precious time she gets to spend with her husband.

Warren still enjoys being bishop even though it can be tricky juggling all of life's obligations (he does a great job at it though!). If he had any free time he would enjoy playing guitar, singing, reading and watching good movies.

As a family we rejoice in the knowledge we have of Jesus Christ, his life and mission and his role as our Savior. We look forward with hope to the many joys 2011 will bring.

May you have a wonderful Christmas this week and feel of our love for you and gratitude for your friendship.

Love,

Warren, Dorothea

Rebecca, Joseph and Theo

Joseph-isms

Mommy: "Before Theo came to our family he was in heaven."

Joseph: "Theo didn't like it in heaven."

M: "Why?"

J: "It was too dusty."

M: "What kind of dust?"

J: "Cloud dust."

----------------------

Definitions according to a 3 year old:

I was handing Buzz Lightyear to Joseph and I said: "Here's Buzz."

He must not have liked how I pronounced Buzz because he said:

"His name is not Bus. It's BUZZ. A BUS is a BUS and BUZZ is BUZZ."

And the winners are...

Nighttime wakings:

Rebecca: 1
Joseph: 2
Theo: 3
Mommy: 6
Daddy: unknown

Number of beds slept in during the night:

Rebecca, Joseph, Theo: 1
Mommy: 1 bed, 1 rocking chair
Daddy: 3

To be or not to be...a fireman, a pirate.....

Rebecca decided several months ago that she wanted to be Padme, because: "Princess Leia is kind of rude and mean. So I like Padme better." Rebecca's costume was a second hand store special. Easy peasy and she looked perfect.

I thought it would be fun to do a whole Star Wars family dress up, but one day after watching Peter Pan Joseph decided he was going to be Captain Hook. So then I bought pirate stuff at the dollar store. We were set. Or so we thought.

We were in another store and Joseph saw the fireman outfit and announced very emphatically: "I want to be a fireman for Halloween. I changed my mind." Once again we were set. Or so we thought.

Last night we were out at the toy store looking for something unrelated to Halloween, when we saw a Yoda costume for a really good price. Warren and I couldn't resist, and since Theo didn't have a costume yet, Yoda it was. We had been trying to decide what we would be. I didn't want to spend much, but I do love dressing up but time was almost out. We decided it would be cool to be jedi knights and we thought we could just make the jedi robes for ourselves.

Well, that would have been a good plan if Joann's didn't have two lines that were going to take a half hour each, plus $40 for fabric. That plan was quickly nixed and we left the fabric store. We opted for making do with the stuff we had at home. Free.

I pulled out my sewing machine (mind you, I really don't know how to sew yet), read the instructions on how to wind a bobbin and thread the needle and voila, an hour later I had completed my first bonefide Halloween costumes. Jedi knight outfits for Warren and me. Not the robes, the clothes they wear under the robes. We were literally getting down to the last minutes so I didn't even take the time to cut off the strings, but I don't think anyone noticed or cared.

As Joseph saw us get dressed he suddenly decided: "I want to be JangoFett!" which was a costume I had purchased at a second hand store just for fun for him to dress up in. But our little perfectionist was not going to let us get off lightly. He said: "I need a blaster pack." Luckily he has a creative dad who dumped the 72 hour kit out on the couch and stuck a sword coming out the back and in two minutes Joseph now had his blaster back. It was the right color and looked really cool. Wow. Are we amazing or what?

We had a fun trunk-or-treat at church and now we can relax and put all the decorations away till we do this again next year. But the pirate and fireman costumes? Don't worry, they have already gotten played with and I'm sure that's not the end of them. After all, when you're three you can be anything you want to be.



That's one cute little Yoda!






The newest Jedi council. Two Jedi's, Yoda, Padme and Jango Fett.



Rebecca and friend Emily as Mary Poppins



Truck-or-Treating with Great-Grandma Darlene

Moving right along

I have a new vacuum cleaner. Here are some of the specs:

Noise level: often quiet but sometimes out of control
Maintenance costs: monthly cleaning and refueling fees
Outer color and appearance: changes daily, usually blue, brown, yellow, red or green
Value for money: couldn't be happier!

R7: the CAKE!!!

This year's birthday cake was a rainbow cake.











One little girl asked: how did you make the cake? As I started to explain: you take two boxes of.... when Warren interjected: "She reached up into the sky and grabbed a rainbow and pulled really hard and pulled it down. Then she put it in a big bowl and stirred it up, but the colors didn't mix with each other...."

Actually, the idea came from here from a friend of mine. You can follow her link to another link etc to get to the original idea. When I saw it I knew I wanted to make it.

It's not hard, just a little time consuming. But the guest's reactions to a cake they assumed was only going to be one color on the inside was priceless. It was worth every minute.

R7: the Events

We celebrated Rebecca's birthday with our little family by eating Rebecca's dinner of choice, crepes, and opening some presents. The next day we had our friends over for a party. I try to keep things simple, but my ideas get the better of me and I keep thinking of things to make and do. We had been planning this party for a long time now. I involved Rebecca in all of the planning because I thought it would be fun for her. The party was a "doll and me Tea Party." By the time everything was said and done I ended up being pretty exhausted.

The activities: freeze dance, sherades with your doll, making a beaded bracelet for your doll, making a little story book with stickers and sparkly pens for your doll, and making and wearing crowns. We had a little tea party with mini sandwiches and fruit and popcorn and at the end had cake and ice cream and opened presents. I think the little girls loved the activities. It was fun to watch them make the books. I kept getting requests for how to spell things from one or another girl.



Present time with the family.



New clothes for little Rebecca (the doll), a pet, rubberbands, matching headbands, and accessories for little Rebecca.

THE PARTY:



I had been wanting to make Rebecca a banner for weeks, and had different ideas. I wanted it to be "perfect" so of course I didn't get around to making it. So while Rebecca was waiting for the party to start she asked if she could make a birthday banner. I thought it was adorable, spelling and all.



Aspiring authors.



THE CAKE! (It gets a post of its own.)



Friends from all over. A fun time was had by all. The best part for me was when I lifted out the first piece of cake and the girls saw that it was a rainbow cake. I heard ooos the likes of which you don't even hear at Fourth of July fireworks!



The End.


Rebecca thanked me at the end of the day and said, "I loved my party." That is what it's all about!

Joseph the engineer

Joseph loves playing, wrestling etc. with Theo. Joseph sat down with Theo like this and requested I take their picture. They are already great friends.

Today Joseph discovered blocks at a new level. It probably would have happened sooner, but they've been out of reach. I was impressed by his creations.



Joseph's ship with a diving board for diving off. (blue)



Joseph's spaceship. Please note the symmetry and the colors being used together. He also separated his screws by color and type in his little tool box cubby holes the other day.



Joseph walked into my room like this. I was pretty impressed that he got them all on his fingers by himself. He's not smiling in the picture, but he thought it was the funniest thing and was laughing when he walked in.

R7

Dear Rebecca,

I couldn't be happier when I think back to the day you were born 7 years ago. It was one of the most special days of my life. I had always hoped to start with a girl, and I got my sweet little girl!

You have grown up so much in the last year. Reading, writing, piano, helping with the boys, doing homework on your own and on and on. I am in awe of you. You are an amazing girl. You are so much fun. You have the most amazing imagination. You are kind to your brothers and other little children. You are a great story teller and fantastic story reader. You use such great inflection in your voice when you read-you are dramatic and that makes it very interesting.



You miss your Great-grandpa Ralph and talk about him a lot, even though it has almost been 2 years since he left this life.



You are incredibly caring and forgiving. I love how easily you forgive. Much better than your own momma.



You loved your thumb, but this last year you gave it up completely and are thumb free now! I was impressed by your determination.



You feel things deeply.



Rebecca on her 1st birthday.



Rebecca 2 years old in Germany.



You've always made the silliest faces without any prompting from me. You are so funny!





You are my sweet, adorable princess. Even if we are slowly leaving the "Disney princesses behind" (not completely, but we are slowly moving on...) you will always be MY princess.



HAPPY BIRTHDAY REBECCA!

Thank you for coming to ME. I will forever be grateful for you.

I love you and can't imagine life without you.

Love,

Mommy

A child's love

I bought Rebecca some new hair rubber bands for her birthday but forgot to hide them before she came home. She saw them and asked if they were for her. I said yes, and that they had been meant for her birthday. Later she wrote me this note:



In case you can't read the gold pen:

Dear Mom, you can still give me the ruforbans. But do you whant to know whant is moer inpoorntined YOU ARE! I love you mom.

Sweethearted Rebecca! I love you, too.

Gift bags DIY

I've been extremely busy getting ready for R's birthday party. The goal has been to keep it as inexpensive as possible while still having a very nice party with pretty invitations, good activities, nice goodie bags and food of course. I think with my two kids it will be a total of 9 kids. Any guesses on how much this is going to cost? I'm including every cost, including stamps etc, but not of things I already had at home. So it's not a fair guessing game, I know.

So I decided to make the goodie bags myself, since I have all this beautiful scrapbook paper going to waste (I've gone digital in that department.) I looked on the internet for easy instructions on making your own paper gift bags, but had a hard time finding anything really helpful. There was one that came close, but I still adapted it, and so I decided to post it here for any of my friends that might want to know! :)



Take a 12x12 paper and fold it in half with a small edge showing. Then fold that edge over and tape it down (or glue it if you want it to be prettier!)



Fold the bottom of the bag up a couple of inches.



Open the bottom and push the edges down (see photo).



It will then look like this.



Fold the bottom up, slightly further than the middle line.



Then fold the top down, also slightly further than the middle line. Be careful here to fold it the same amount as the bottom, so the new points you have created match up.



Then fold the sides of the bag in, making sure you only fold it so far that the diagonal line you are creating matches up with the line you already have there. This is a step you need to be precise, too.



Unfold your bags, push the sides in, cut the top off to reach the desired bag size and voila, your own handmade giftbags. Punch some holes, add some ribbon, etc. I even thought you could fold the tops over, punch holes and thread the ribbon through and tie it in a bow.

I'm quite happy with how they turned out.

Rain, rain, happy day

After an intense heatwave (112 or so), the likes of which we normally don't see around here, a few days later we had loads of rain and it even got cool. Of course "it never rains in California," but when it does, it pours! It was hard to keep my Cali kids out of the rain, so I let them enjoy for a few minutes. These pictures make me really happy. I love how they show my kids' personalities. All the poses were their own.

Ahoy Matey