Cruisin' Together..

My parents have made roller skating a weeklyritual.. they keep us informed of the discount days so that we don't miss any opportunities. It has probably become A and I's biggest passions even over gymnastics and pretending they are princesses.. and that says alot! This week we were informed of $.28 day so we jumped on that deal! We decided to take Harrison and Zane along. To our surprise, everyone came! We had Meno, all of his friends, Angela, Addison, Yia Yia, Grandma Coy, and Aunt Kathy tag along. It was great fun.

It was really interesting to observe Harrison's reactions to skating. He is super athletic so it was very difficult for him to understand why there were kids much younger than him cruisin' around the rink with no problems. By the end of the night, Harrison could skate around the rink by himself. Zane was also a trooper. He would not give up and really enjoyed this new sport! Meno and his friends put on a great show while Addison kept asking for a snack bar break! Harrison is determined to become good at skating. He went so far as to even borrow Isabel's skates to practice!!

Cool Runnings!

This past weekend Michael joined the scouts in their annual sledding events so us girls were left to fend for ourselves. Regardless of the snow, we couldn't just waste a perfectly good weekend in the house. Yia Yia and myself decided to take the girls sledding.. something we did quite often growing up! The best hill in the area for 2 little girls was the York College Hill.. woohoo! Isabel and Alexandra had been tramatized when they have went sledding with Daddy! He would send them down our hill in the backyard which was very very steep and it always ended in disaster.. so Yia Yia and I should not have been surprised that the whole trek up this large hill was whining from Isabel. When we finally reached the peak, an older man noticed Isabel was screaming and refused to go down the hill so he pointed to one of the less steep areas of the hill.. he was pretty surprised when I continued with my plan to go down the steepest part. Isabel screamed the whole way down the hill.. scream for fear or fun i'm not sure.. however when we came to a holt she yelled, "That was fun can we do it again!" Needless to say, we had the best time! We spent most of the time bob-sledding in one sled.. it gave us much more momentum and distance!

A Little Thought..

This week I was doing alot of thinking about our little ones and why there are times that bad things happen to them. I thought alot about how I would feel if something happened to my little girls and felt uneasy the more I thought of this. I picked up one of the great books we happen to have in our little library.. When Times Are Tough by John Bytheway. I felt inspired to share two thoughts that put me to ease. John shared this thought, "The Lord takes many away even in infancy, that they may escape the envy of man, and the sorrows and evils of this present world; they were too pure, too lovely, to live on earth; therefore if rightly considered, instead of mourning we have reason to rejoice as they are delivered from evil, and we shall soon have them again.The only difference between the old and young dying is, one lives longer in heaven and eternal light and glory than the other, and is freed a little sooner from this miserable, wicked world. Only through mortality can we achieve immortality."

And why are some little children sent into homes where they are beat, molested, abused, and neglected?
"They are the ones who volunteered in the preexistence to be a savior on the Mount, to come to a family drowning in sickness and sin and to be the means of purifying that lineage. Before them in that line were generations of ugly, destructive, family relationships. Downstream from their purifying influence every generation would be blessed with light and love. The role of a savior is to suffer innocently for the sins of others. There can be no higher calling."

This is a good book to have. It helped to shed just a little bit of light for me and was actually a talk prepared for those youth who attended the Columbine Seminary during their tragedy.

Home Improvements..

Where have we been.. many have asked?! With us now both working full time, weekends are gold! Along with just trying to get the normal stuff done around the house we have been making home improvements. Our biggest improvement yet has been our bathroom. It has taken months and much help from my Dad and Meno! Thanks so much!

The biggest eye sores of our house were both the bathroom and kitchen. With remodeling being a hobby of mine, we decided to buy our house anyways and take on the projects. So here we are with our most recent home improvements. Our next tasks are refinishing the remodeling the kichen!

Before

After

Before

After

Before

After

Roller Skating..

One of my favorite things to do growing up was rollerskating. We roller- skated in our basement, outside, at the park, at the rink, at the school parking lot.. let's just say it was a family favorite! Last year Alexandra received rollerskates from Grandma Coy and this year she has really begun taking interest in roller skating. So, when my parents heard about this new interest, they asked us to go to a rink. The girls thought the roller skating rink was the coolest thing. They even ran into a few school kids having a birthday party there! Isabel was able to skate with the help of one or two of us! Alexandra took YiaYia down once but by the end was able to skate by herself. We had a fabulous time! Practice Practice because I see a roller skating party in the future!

Christmas 2007

Christmas this year for our family was a whirlwind. Isabel was ill on Christmas Eve so we had to forgo our plans of spending time with extended family. Our big Christmas feast consisted of Chicken Noodle Soup.. wooh..i'm being sarcastic :P Luckily the next morning, Isabel woke up feeling pretty darn good. We found a huge gift out on our doorstep from a dear old neighbor we think. Seconds later we noticed the house across the street was on fire with the owners standing outside wrapped up in blankets. It was very hard to get into theChristmas Spirit and focus on gift giving knowing that there were people across the way watching everything they had burn. Everyone did make it out of the house safely.

When our street was no longer blocked off we ventured out to have breakfast with family at Andy and Jamie's house. It was very nice to finally get out of the house and see everyone. After a very enjoyable time there we received an urgent call that my Mom was in the hospital and was critically ill. So, much of the night was spent in the hospital. We had a lot of time to think about the Savior and Family.

I have never been so glad to start a new year! I quite honestly never want another one like this! Christmas was a real eye opener. I learned how material Christmas is! It doesn't matter how much you have, how much you receive, and how many gifts you give.. it never will make up for health, safety, and time lost with a loved one. The only thing we will take with us after this life is the knowledge and memories we have gained here on earth. My Mom is doing much better however, it was very difficult to have come too close to losing a best friend! It's amazing how much more our family now cherishes our time with family and dear friends! God Bless!

Christmas Nativity..

Our family has been so blessed to have the girls attending a Christian School. Their teachers have been great examples to them. Alexandra and Isabel are so excited to come home sharing the bible stories as well as scriptures they learn every day. The school also holds a Christmas program in which Alexandra was asked to be Mary and Isabel asked to be a lamb during the Nativity Story. Everyday they practiced and memorized their parts, scriptures, as well as poems. We were so very proud of them and all that they accomplished.

A Pirate Party for Spencer

What a nice break!! It was such a relief to spend time with pirates rather than princesses for once. Alexandra and Isabel were so excited to be invited to Spencer's birthday.. and quite frankly, I was too. I got to see my very good friends whom I don't see very often. The girls almost didn't know how to react to the very masculine boys when they arrived! Bridgette as always was quite creative.. we really liked the sailboat hotdogs! He enjoyed listening to the talking parrot as well as watching Pirates of the Carribean :)