Stop and think

I know it has been awhile.  I had a "stop and think" moment today and thought I'd share.  Bare with my rambling as I usually just share pictures not thoughts.  Today I stopped and took the kids to the Children's Museum.  We had a wonderful time.  We have a membership, but haven't used it in awhile.  While we were there I looked up and they had a huge quote on the wall that said "People don't stop playing because they are old, they are old because they stop playing."  It was very appropriate to where we were at, but I had a moment and thought about how many 'fun' and active things I just don't do anymore. Not that I was ever that good. All the basketball and volleyball I used to play. Anyone remember getting in trouble for being at the church past midnight back in Conway?   Walking around half of Sherwood at all hours.   

I look at people who in no way look their age and it is because they are so active-not only physically.  But they are busily doing things that they LOVE to do.  I think sometimes I forget to remember to really enjoy and not just work and go through the motions.

I don't know if I've made any sense, but I've been thinking about this all evening and thought I'd share.

Happy New Year 2009!!!!

We got together last night with our dear friends, the Nguyens.  We had such a great time!  We munched on yummies and played lots of games!  Our new favorite is "Pounce".  Thanks Kami, Marsha, and Heidi for helping us learn this game!  It is played with Rook Cards.  So get a few sets together and give me a call and I'll explain the rules! It is lots of fun!  Erin and Emily love it, too! (probably for 8 and above)  We stayed up til midnight and banged on our pots and pans to "ring" in the New Year! We had a great time!

Emily and Anna

Erin and Amy

Aimee and Jamie

Me and my Honey! (Can you tell it is 1am??! Boy, we are getting old and tired!)

Have a wonderful New Year and I hope you enjoy catching up on our blog and what a busy December we had.  Love you all!

Grandma and Grandpa Oliver's Mission

 Mom and Dad Oliver went into the MTC on Monday, Dec 29th for their mission to the West Indies.  We are so proud of them and what they are going to be doing for the next 18 months!  We called them from Sequim after we opened our presents to let their Grandchildren show them how proud they are of them, too!  We sang "Armies of Helaman" and "Called to Serve".  We love you, Mom and Dad, Enjoy!!

Update-I've tried to get the videos to download, but am having a difficult time.  Anybody have any advice??

Christmas in Sequim

I love this picture of Katelyn, because it was the look she has given me when asking "WHEN ARE WE GOING TO SEQUIM,  MOM???"

We finally left for Sequim Friday evening and arrived just in time for some delicious Clam Chowder! (I say 'just in time", really it should be "thanks for waiting, guys!")  It was absolutely delicious and we were all thrilled to be together again!

Here are some pictures of our visit.

Erin trying to shoot me! (That's Jackson's back and Katie behind)

Opening presents together!

Katie, Freddy, Bridget, and Ian.  Freddy loves his new Bow and Arrow set!

Katelyn was so sweet with Sundance and the cats.  She has such a tender spirit and LOVES animals!

We had such a great time together.  The kids spent HOURS playing Wii, watching movies, and playing games together. Doug and Theresa were such wonderful hosts, especially with SOOO MANY People under one roof. Thanks so much!  We love you!

Christmas Night Excitement

Yep, that is a Hole in our Family room ceiling.  Why do we have a hole in our Family Room ceiling, you ask?  

I'll tell you the story... Imagine sitting in a nice, hot bubble bath after a wonderful, but kind of stressful Christmas day.  You are reading a book and enjoying a bit of solitude.  Suddenly, you hear, "Oh, no!!! Get up! Get up!" from Spencer downstairs.  You stop and listen some more, thinking "What's wrong? Is someone hurt?"  You slowly start to get up as Spencer burst into the bathroom--(Ok, you might not enjoy having Spencer burst into YOUR bathroom, so you have to imagine you are ME...ok, now I can continue).  He yells, "Aimee, you need to get out!"  "What's wrong?  Who's hurt?"  He continues"Water is coming through the ceiling!"

Now, I must say, My imagination is quite good, so I'm imagining water POURING through the ceiling.  Luckily, it was just dripping in about 4 or 5 places!  Thanks to the Simpsons, we called the Blacks, who gave the number of a company who sent someone out the next morning to help us out.  Randy told us a few horror stories of how swamped they are with roofs caving in and pipes bursting because of the weather, so we felt pretty blessed that our problem stemmed from this little bugger...

Yep, the overflow valve on the tub.  It had been loose for quite a while, just loose enough to twist around, not really a big gap or anything.  Both Spence and I had thought many times while showering, "Oh, yeah, I should get a flat head and tighten that!"  But did we? Of course not!  Now we get to pay for a hole in the ceiling after Randy tightened it!  Here are some pictures of the dripping.  Enjoy and learn from our mistake--Don't wait to do little things that might not seem that important--they could end up quite expensive!!!

Christmas Morning!!!

We had a nice Christmas morning together.  The kids loved their gifts and it was wonderful to have the time together!

What did Santa Bring us???

Katelyn finally got her guitar!!!

Ian got Kung-Fu Panda and Ninja Turtles!  Watch out for our "kung-fu, ninja master!!"

Erin was thrilled with her new "GREEN" bike.  (We had to go to 5 stores to find a nice green one!)

Emily loves her "classic jag" bike!

Getting Snowed In

After our ward breakfast, we did a bit of shopping as we heard the weather was going to turn bad.  Jen and her kids started up in the late afternoon when it started snowing.  Her church had already been canceled.  She ended up staying not one, but two nights with us as we couldn't get out of our driveway, let alone our subdivision!  We  probably got about a foot and a half of snow--maybe slightly more.  Now, I know you snowbirds in Utah and Colorado are saying, "big deal!"  You Arkies, however might understand a little better how everything shuts down when you don't have the plows or other help for this kind of weather. Many of our neighbors had to slide down our main entrance backwards, because they just couldn't make it up the hill.  We just stayed nice and cozy warm in our house with cousins playing and eating lots of yummy, fatening food!  (Jen makes awesome peppermint bark!)  

We also got to hold our own Sacrament meeting.  Pam and Hannah came over and it was kind of neat to have it all together.  

Here are some pictures of how deep the snow was!

It took Spence a couple of hours to dig out the cars.

Spence had to dig out Jen's car on Monday morning,too.

The kids went sledding on Sunday afternoon/eve.  It was soooo cold.  Even though it snowed some more, I think this last experience didn't make them want to go out again.

Mommy, WHERE'S MY HOT COCOA??? Poor thing was frozen!!

Christmas Breakfast with Santa

On December 18th, Spence's brother, Mark flew in from San Francisco.  He arrived just in time to get snowed in with us!!  We've had a great time with him and hope he's survived the cold ok, too! :)

The following are pictures from our Ward Christmas Breakfast  where the kids got to see Santa, of course. 

Emily and Mark sharing his Ipod. (Mark was quite disappointed that there weren't any cornflakes on top of the breakfast casseroles we consumed! :)

Erin with Santa.

Ian with Santa.

Katelyn after giving Santa her l-o-n-g list of things she would like for Christmas...with a big PLEASE at the end!

Fun in the Snow!!!

After the 12th, we went out and got some "early Christmas Presents" of Snow gloves, hats, boots, and sleds!  It was a good thing, because it just kept snowing and snowing!!  The kids had 3 days of "late starts" because of the snow.  Then they just decided to cancel school.  Spence took the kids and our "other daughter" Hannah up to the big park to sled quite a few times.  Here are some close ups of the kids having a GREAT TIME!!!

Katelyn having a blast!

Erin sliding all over.

Emily pushing off...

Hannah laughing!

Ian-(Do you see his big SMILE?)

Christmastime is here!!

We had our 2nd annual Christmas Progressive Dinner with our dear friends/neighbors.  We had lots of fun and loads of wonderful food!!  We began at the Sewalls for appetizers. Then, we walked through the snow to our house for our craft-Santa candy jars.  Next, was yummy clam chowder at the Cartiers.  We ended at the Von Trotha's home for our gift exchange and dessert! It was such a fun evening!  We missed John and Corin as Corin wasn't feeling well, but otherwise we had a great time!  It started getting very cold and we headed into the beginning of what would be WEEKS of SNOWY and FREEZING weather!!

Sewalls, Tobeys, Cartiers, VonTrothas, and Olivers having fun!!!

Ephraim with the Sewalls Santa jar.

Ian working on ours.  I believe he was filling his own mouth with candies, not just the jar! :)