Week #6: 100th Day of School

This week...

...Paul celebrated the 100th day of school. He was so excited about going to school today because they were doing all sorts of fun things. They clapped 100 times, did 100 jumping jacks, counted out 100 snack items, and made this book of 100 different things.

...we made pizza. Jason had a lot of helpers as he made the dough. And Lainey was eating the olives off almost as fast as Jason was putting them on.

Which one?

This one,

and this one,

and this one.

Hey, you're skimping me here!

Yum!

...Grandma and Grandpa Zirker treated us to McDonald's.

Here's a group shot of everyone in our favorite spot by the window. Lainey likes to sit across from Grandpa so she can talk with him.

Here's Grandma and Grandpa with Lainey.

This is the real reason why my dad comes in. Lainey gets so excited to see him and be with him that it lifts his spirits. Half the time I joke that I'll just have Lainey ready and they can swing by and get her to take her out.

...Emma finally got to do a cool craft. Score one for mom! I saw that this cute heart craft would be really easy for Emma to do on her own and let her at it while I made dinner. Her and her friend had a blast making these.

Week #5:Sweeter by the Minute

This week we...

...had an outpouring of sweetness. Lainey dumped the sugar. She was very repentant as she walked down the hall along side Jason. "Sorry," she said sweetly, looking up at me. I had no idea what she had done. My only warning that it might not be good was Jason telling me to stay calm and bring my camera. "Oh great!" I thought. "What has she done now?" Because that day I felt like she was out to get me.

...played a game of acrobatic Sorry. I didn't know that was in the revised rules or I may have sported the move myself.


...acted like puppies. This is still the longest running past time in our home and now Lainey has learned how to crawl and pant like the rest of them.


...had fried chicken. Lainey loved it. What? You wanted her to save some?


...made tents on our sick days.

We all got hit with sick; this is how they occupied themselves. The kids made a tent in the boys room and slept there. Then they moved to the girls room and slept there. I'm not sure if you can tell by the picture (sarcasm intended), but I was ready for those tents to be cleaned up by the time we were done with them.

...attended Emma's Winter Concert. She did so great and wasn't nervous at all. It was a long night though. We had to sit through the Band, Orchestra, and Chimes performances before the second graders got up. Phew!

Week #4: A New Bus Stop

This week we...

...are enjoying our new bus stop. Now that the park is finished, they moved the bus stop. Emma and Paul can now walk out the door, across the park, and they are there. Plus, it's off the busy main street. We love it!


...tried a new hair do. She wanted ponytails down each side of her head. Quite cute, I think.


...have been feeling quite silly. Playing with the boys' shoes is actually quite enjoyable.

Paul's shoes

Ben's boots

...enjoyed free Crazy Bread and a $5 Pizza. A Little Caesars just opened up down the road from us. I didn't realize that it was their first day open when I decided to hop on over and get a pizza. It was CRAZY in there. We did get an extra, free pizza out of it because they gave me the wrong pizza at first. So I went back for a correction pizza. Yummy!

Crazy long line - It did move fast though.

Lainey kept grabbing new pieces and mangling them. One wasn't enough. She's a girl after my own pizza loving heart.

Week #3: First Snow

This week we...

...had some nice wind (nothing rivaling Ellensburg, I'm sure). So we get the dust and sand from all the neighboring yards that don't have grass yet.

Go ahead, just try and dust your feet off.

...had a little snow, finally. And of course, we had to go buy some boots. Emma was the only one that had any. We even got some for Lainey, and she's wearing hers all over the house.

We even got a two hour delay and school closure out of this winter snow drop.

...hooked up netflix through our blue-ray player. Awesome! The kids went with Jason down in the crawl space as he ran the wires. All four of the big kids went down under the house.

Week #2: Our Book of Mormon Party

This week we...

...played with Paul's new legos. Correction. I played with Paul's new legos. He got a bumblebee lego set and wanted it put together. Thus, the task fell to me. I didn't mind too much because it was like a puzzle, figuring out what went together. I like puzzles.


...did some paper folding. We were looking for something special for our BOM party and found this fun foldout book. You can write things that you're thankful for or little messages. Paper folding is the new "in" thing for Emma and her friends. So she begs me to find new ideas. We found this idea at Family Fun online.

...celebrated the Book of Mormon on Saturday the 14th. The kids were so excited to celebrate reading the Book of Mormon. It took us three long, hard years, but we made it. :) We invited my mom and sisters to join in the fun.

We played pin Moroni on the Temple. Though, we couldn't quite help ourselves from cheating. It was too easy to feel for the poster.

Lainey even wanted to have a turn.

We then had our Gadianton Robber Shoot Out. We wanted to drive those nasty gangsters our of our lands. I took a set of bowling pins that I was going to donate and let Emma draw mad faces on them. Then we loaded up our Nerf guns and shot them down.

We got them!

These are our war trophies.

We also played a Noah Blindness Obstacle Course game, but I was so involved watching and helping that I didn't get any pictures. We placed pads on the floor, blindfolded the kids, and had one person guide them through the obstacles. The rest of us mildly tried to confuse them.

A Birthday and a Baptism

We had plenty of cause for celebration today. It was Paul's birthday and Emma's baptism. Hooray!

Grandma E made Emma's beautiful, white baptism dress. She was so excited to wear it and felt so special! She said it felt "thick" as she went down into the water.

The water was warm thankfully, though I can not say the same for Jason's baptism jump suit. Right before our baptism the Elders had a baptism of their own. They baptized a family of four and used all of the adult jumpsuits in doing so. Needless to say, all of the suits were wet and cold as they dripped dry in the changing area. He tried the medium on, it was too small and very cold. He tried the large one, it was inside out and very cold. He turned it around and put it back on, it was still very cold. He was especially glad for the warm water. :)

She was baptized with another little boy from her primary class, Landon Claybrook. We planned the first half of the program and they planned the last half. My sister Shelly gave a great, simple talk on baptism, holding up pictures that corresponded to each letter in the word baptism that helped explain what it is. Grandpa Claybrook gave a great talk on the Holy Ghost. He used a lot of visuals to describe what the Holy Ghost can do for us - blanket, comforts us; compass, directs us; light, gives us light and knowledge, seashell, speaks to us in a soft voice/we have to listen carefully; a bear, to remind them to bear one another's burdens and to bear their testimony.

We had a family gathering after the baptism where we ate and celebrated Paul's birthday. His request was sugar cookies instead of a cake. So I made him a letter P and we put a candle on that. :)

Get that candle Paul!

Some of his favorites: Star Wars

Transformers and Legos

Earlier in the day, I went in to Paul's class so he could celebrate his birthday with them. He wanted to make the same treats that Emma did, where you take an empty toilet paper roll, stuff it with candy, and cover it to look like a firecracker or popper. He had fun helping me put them together.

Paul's AM Kindergarten Class

Paul chose his friend Shane to help him pass out the treats.

Week #1: Rock and Roll

This week we...

...had dinner with the missionaries. Elder Sterling and Elder Hopkins were on fire in this area. They baptized 10 people in the last month or so. Elder Sterling is now home and Elder Hopkins is now serving in Vancouver.


...finally put rock in the front flower bed. Now we're ready to roll! The kids all had a fun time hauling and pushing the rock around. I can't wait to wash it and seal it so it stays nice and dark all the time.

Thanks to Uncle Travis and the use of his truck. :)

Ben and Paul made good use of their dump trucks.

...we did some quilting. Grandma E made Ben and Claire bigger quilts to fit their twin size beds. My mom and I got to help her tie them. It was a fun day of quilting, joking and laughing.

Emma and Paul were so excited to be at the quilts and helping. Emma actually got a needle and tied several on her own. They didn't want to go to bed because they were having so much fun.

...Emma got a haircut. She was a little reluctant at first, but then she got really excited to have it done. We went down Salon Savvy and had our friendly hairdresser, Lindsey (she's my SIL's sister), cut her hair. Now she really likes it.



...Grandma Z got a haircut. Haircut? No, hair cute!

A Slow Blog Start

I think this year is just going to be a post a week. I have really enjoyed the picture and post a day, but I found that it didn't seem to be so much about quality as quantity. So I've given myself leave to relax a little bit. :) And I may still try to include a picture a day when I post weekly. I am grateful for what the photo a day project taught me about the little moments of every day: the bad ones are not worth getting mad over, laugh and take a picture; the good ones are worth remembering, take a picture; the funny ones are essential for your sanity; take a picture.

Here goes 2012!