Day 21: January 31, 2009

We went to the Draper, Utah temple open house today. It's gorgeous, both inside and out!

Day 20: January 30, 2009

Play, Caleb, Play!

I'm afraid to admit to but Caleb now knows more than I do at least in the subject of music-he can read it, I can't. Learning to read music and then play well enough to accompany Trevor is one of the items on my bucket list though.

Day 19: January 29, 2009

Gabriella's new favorite word is "hand". She loves to reach up and hold hands with me. In the car, she reaches over and holds Megan's hand while we drive. I know this wonderful phase won't last so I had to capture it in a photo.

Baby's Hand

Today I'll hold my baby's hand

And take time to explore.

The secrets of a baby's world

This moment has in store.

For that same hand will wave goodbye

When baby days have passed.

Today I'll hold my baby's hand

For babies grow so fast.

Ten Tiny Fingers

Ten tiny little fingers that always want to play,

That never stop exploring the wonder of today.

Ten tiny little fingers that from the very start,

Will reach out for tomorrow,

yet always hold your heart.

Day 18: January 28, 2009

Great job, Michelle!

Michelle has been studying really hard for her spelling tests the last couple of weeks. As you can see, it has really paid off!

Day 17: January 27, 2009

After not seeing the sun for a few days, this sunrise was a sight for sore eyes. It also makes me glad I'm not up there. If you look hard enough you can see the wind whipping the snow up off the mountain.

Day 16: January 26, 2009

Oh what do you do on a snowy day, when all the world is white?
Do you shovel the walks,
or sled down the backyard hill,
Is that what you do?
Well, not I.

I bake, bake, bake!

I was making Trevor's favorite meal, beef pot pie when I decided that since I was making one pie crust, I may as well make two. And what better to use a crust for then pumpkin pie. Then since only us girls like pumpkin pie, I made peanut butter bars for the guys. After eating all these goodies, I'd better get my tail outside and work off the calories shoveling the driveway.

Day 15: January 25, 2009

Caleb (middle of the 3rd row up) and his friend, Chandler (right side of the 3rd row) sang in our stake conference today. It was a wonderful opportunity for them to sing in a century-old tabernacle. The acoustics were amazing, it made the children's voices surround you and sound like angels.

Sorry about the fuzziness, I was using a cell phone camera and was in a hurry as I was trying to take a picture without being so obvious to the hundreds of people awaiting the start of the meeting.

Day 14: January 24, 2009

Doesn't this just make you want to curl up in a blanket with a huge cup of hot chocolate? I know, I should just be happy it's rain and not snow, after all is it mid-January.

By the way, this rain turned to snow later in the day. So much for wishful thinking.

Day 13: January 23, 2009

HOWDY, TEX!

Lately, Megan has been very into wearing gloves and her cowboy hat. I actually let her go into the store dressed like this-except she even had a purple sweatpants on under her skirt (after all it was just 29 degrees), and a pink jacket on with the hood up and the hat on top of the hood. Caleb was appalled that I let Megan go into public looking like that. I must admit before I had kids, I swore I'd never let my kids be seen in public wearing mis-matched clothes. Now, I'm just happy she dressed herself so I had one less battle to fight.

Her other favorite thing to do is build forts and castles with the couch cushions. This is yet one more thing we said we'd never let the kids do, after all it's a couch not a toy. But in the dead of winter where else can the kids play.

Day 12: January 22, 2009

Watch out! It's a fire breathing penguin!

This is the Megan and Gabriella's new humidifier. They got a great laugh out of watching the "steam" come out of it's mouth. Megan's skin is so dry she took off her shirt, laid down on the carpet and moved back and forth, scratching her back like Baloo on Jungle Book-that's when we realized we needed a humidifier for her room too. We have one for Michelle and Caleb, which has worked miracles with Michelle's eczema.

The red actually come from me trying to figure out how to turn off the auto flash. I got the flash off but the red eye light still came on. I did finally figure out the right way but that photo just wasn't as interesting as this one.

Day 11: January 21, 2009

Caleb is an awesome photographer!

Just can't help but start singing "America, the Beautiful":

O beautiful for spacious skies,

For amber waves of grain,

For purple mountain majesties

Above the fruited plain!

America! America!

God shed his grace on thee

And crown thy good with brotherhood

From sea to shining sea!

Day 10: January 20, 2009

Nothin's better than fresh from the oven. Makes your mouth water, doesn't it? Gimme the butter!

Day 9: January 19, 2009

This is the natural snow sculpture in our front yard.

Here's a close-up. Not too bad given that I only have a point and shoot camera.

Day 8: January 18, 2009

Doggy Kisses. Yesterday Trevor took Gabriella on her first outing with Dad. Tradition is that Trevor takes them to Toys R Us and they choose an oversized stuffed animal that will then sit on their bed and keep them company. Caleb was 9 months old for his first outing, Michelle was about 1 year, Megan was about 22 months, and Gabriella is now 25 months old. Oh well, better late then never. Hey, I was probably over 12 before my dad took me anywhere and it was probably to watch him play in a ward basketball game.

Anyway, back to Gabriella. She's really into puppies right now so it didn't surprise me when she came home with a Pound Puppy. She loves to drag him around by his collar. Of course he takes second place behind her beloved Dotty. I guess dogs and cats will have to learn to get along.

Day 7: January 17, 2009

I must confess. I forgot to take a photo today but Trevor happened to take this so I'm going to use it. As you can tell Caleb loves his Legos.

Day 6: January 16, 2009

Since I started running about 2 years ago I've started to like new foods, healthier foods too. I now like raisins, yams, and......bananas. These photos mark the first whole banana I've eaten-EVER! It's only been 3 months since I even started thinking about eating a bite of banana and now I've worked my way up to the whole thing. Don't worry about me getting all freaky about health food. This banana was preceded by a handful of Fritos and followed by an Oreo.

Day 5: January 15, 2009

Forget about one photo a day, here's 3. That's why I call my blog what I do: a day in the life, because this is what my life is all about.I guess I should've found a better angle because you can't tell that Megan made a bed for her and Gabriella in the living room, she even angled the pillows like a craftmatic bed. They had a great time watching tv in "bed". To give this photo even more reality you have to understand that Gabriella is only in a diaper since she wet through her diaper, onesie and 2 layers of jammies during the night.

While the girls were in "bed" I was able to finally have time to sew on Caleb's Wolf badge that he received 2 months ago. There wasn't a pack meeting in December, but there's one tonight, hence the reason I had to sew today. Procrastinator is an understatement.

I've spent a lot of time trying to find the right shoes for Michelle's clogging class. Do you know how hard it is to find solid white tennis shoes (in winter no less) with just the right thickness of sole?! I finally found these at Ross, which I only go to under dire circumstances, for only $8.99 too! The shoemaker put the taps on and Michelle loves the little noise makers. For all the trouble I went through she better be liking clogging for at least a couple of years. These shoes might even make her want to learn how to tie shoelaces.

Day 4: January 14, 2009

Since the first major snowfall a month ago, Gabriella hasn't gone a day without her boots, gloves and hat. Her long-john jammies make her even more adorable.

Day 3: January 13, 2009

I missed January 11 and 12 because I just simple forgot, so we won't count them in the total goal of 365 days.

Megan loves her new sweater, but not as much as she loves Bear. She actually held still long enough for me to braid her hair.

Day 2: January 10, 2009

Saturday's are special days. Megan and Gabriella, still in jammies, built a fort in the living room. Besides the fact Megan did it herself, it was wonderful she was willing to share with her sister. They played without argument for at least 20 minutes. But what little kid could resist the temptation of piled up pillows and couch cushions? I think they enjoyed knocking down the walls most of all.

Day 1: January 9, 2009

The first date with my husband since the beginning of last November. We, of course, went to eat at Brick Oven. It's our absolute favorite pizza, not to mention it's inexpensive and they serve red cream soda. If only they'd bottle and sell their salad dressing. It's a good thing we live 20 minutes away or Brick Oven pizza would ruin both our budget and our waistlines.

There is nothing greater than eating pizza while snuggled close to my husband in a booth, and enjoying the fact that not only do I get to eat in peace but a babysitter will have the kids in bed before we get home.

And so it begins

This morning I read on a friend's blog about the challenge to take a photo a day for a year. I decided to take the challenge. But what I won't guarentee it'll just be one a day, how could I tell one child they're not cute enough to count as a photo that day just because I've already taken a photo of another subject. I also don't know thing one about digital scrapbooking and I'd rather use my extra money on a race entrance fee than a digital scrapbooking program so you'll have to deal with a really boring blog design.