Monday, December 29, 2008

The Year is Ending...

So, I figured for my last post of the year I'd write a short bit of what has happened in our lives over the last year. Hope you enjoy!

We started out the year with Dennis looking forward to another semester in school and Sarah being pregnant with our second child. Grandma Hover was visiting a lot to help out since Sarah has tough pregnancies and Dennis was so busy with school.

The beginning of the year just flew by soooo fast. It's hard to remember really what was going on near the beginning, Sarah started this blog in February and it's been good at keeping her busy, she sure loves to play on the computer!!! She has lots of friends online that she cares for deeply and enjoys keeping in touch with. She also discovered facebook this year and enjoys staying in contact with people that way. She was also pretty active in the Spring doing water aerobics with a friend who was due the same day as her.

Then Danielle was born on May 12th, and what a cutie she is. She has been such a good baby and just a joy in our lives. The newborn stage is so fun. Now she is seven months old and crawling! How quickly the time flies. She absolutely adores her older sister and can't get enough of her. But she is as much a Mommy's girl as Charity is a daddy's girl! Daddy's thrilled, he wasn't sure what he'd be able to do with two daddy's girls! lol. Some of our favorite moments throughout the year have been when Charity would get Danielle giggling and the two girls would just be sitting there staring at each other giggling away. Charity turned two in May and hit the terrible two's hard :) She has her terrible moments but she also has those wonderful moments where she does or says the cutest things. She is such a pretty girl and knows it :) She'll give you one of her great big grins and your heart just melts. I've gotta admit I've got two of the cutest girls.

Dennis' semester in the fall had him worried but he ended up passing it with an A- so we were thrilled with that! He finds school to be very time consuming and can't wait until it is over when he can spend more time with his family but knows (or at least hopes) it will be worth it in the end!

For a few months in the middle of the year we had Dennis' dad move in with us and then he moved back to Delta to live with Dennis' sister to help take care of her during her pregnancy but now he is back and both girls just love having grandpa around. Charity likes to go outside and play several times a day while Danielle always has a smile for him. They love their grandparents sooo much. We enjoy having him here. He's a great help around the house and loves to play with the kids.

In July the ward boundaries for our stake was redefined and we were put into a new ward. And when I say new ward, I mean brand new ward so we were there at the beginning. What a fun adventure that has turned out to be! Sarah got a calling to be the co-leader for the enrichment committee and Dennis was called to be on the Activities Committee. That was a big change for both of us but we are enjoying it!

Dennis went on his first business trip this year (of course he's hoping it's his last, he hates to travel). He went to California. Sarah would love to go with him if he goes on any more trips but plane tickets will probably always be too expensive! Maybe we'll have to set him up with something to get miles or something so she'll be able to go some day. lol.

Christmas we went to Delta and what a snowy ride that turned out to be! There were some complete white out conditions several times due to snow, fog and wind! But the girl's had a good time. They always love to go places and see people (even if they don't seem like it in the beginning because they are so shy). Danielle has hit the stranger anxiety stage a bit early so that made it fun for pictures with Santa! lol, but Charity wouldn't go near him either so, oh well. Maybe someday we'll get pictures of our kids with Santa.

We are so grateful for the many blessings that we have recieved this year and for the opportunities that we've been given. It has enriched our lives and made us realize just how much we love each other.

Saturday, December 27, 2008

Christmas Pictures

Here are the girl's Christmas pictures that I took this year. Aren't they two of the cutest girls ever?

Danielle, Christmas '08 Charity, Christmas '08

The Girls, Christmas '08 Charity, Christmas '08

Danielle, Christmas '08

Friday, December 26, 2008

Merry Christmas!!!

I know it's a day late but I never had a chance to get online yesterday so, Merry Christmas! How did our Christmas go?

We had fun in the morning opening presents although poor Charity got all presented out and didn't think presents were all that fun when the first three we had her open were wallpaper decoration things. She loves her presents though, although I think she might love Danielle's more. She's having a hard time still with the fact that it's not hers. lol. Having a sibling may be very good for her.

Oh, but Santa leaves the presents sitting out at our house and Charity just LOVED her doll house, so did Danielle. lol. But Danielle also really liked her stuff, as did Charity :) Santa also leaves our stockings full for Christmas and those were really fun. Daddy got a nifty little digital picture keychain thing. I've still got to get some of the Christmas photos loaded on for him. Which reminds me I'll do another post after thsi oen with their Christmas pictures. We got some good ones!

Anyway, so after we opened presents we had breakfast (omelettes, hasbrowns and bacon) then headed to Delta. What a drive that turned out to be! It took us quite a bit longer than normal to get there because of the weather. In several spots we had white out conditions and had an extremely hard time figuring out where the road was!!! But we arrived safe and luckily the drive home wasn't too bad. Then it was running around from one relative's house to another. The girls got even more toys that they love. It's hard to tell a favorite, I think they love them all!

And then we came home this afternoon. Oh, I got a couple of video games and Dennis got a couple of video games so we're going to be pretty busy while he's off work and before school starts playing games :) Definitely looking forward to it. Have you heard of the Harvest Moon series? He got me the new one for the Wii!!! And then Mindy gave him her old gamecube, games and controllers so I'll be able to play the one for the gamecube that we have as well. Ahh, the fun life of a gamer.

I hope everyone's Christmas' went well. Let us know how your's was!

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

It's Christmas Eve!!!

Yay!!! Today is Christmas Eve!!!

I don't think Charity really understands what that means, lol. She just doesn't want Santa to come any where near the house, but she does want to go visit him at the store, lol. I told her Santa was too busy getting ready to deliver presents that he's not at the store today to go see. Her presents from her cousin arrived in the mail today. (thanks Aurora!) and I'm surprised she hasn't been trying to open them yet, ofcourse I didn't mention to her that they were FOR her. Ever since I let her open a present from a friend earlier this week she has been ALL OVER the presents. We've already had to rewrap a present to a friend of hers. Oops, still gotta take her to go drop that off today.

Tonight after Dennis gets off work we are going to have a special Christmas Eve dinner, do some sort of special chrismtas eve activity (including opening a present, yay!) and then we're going to drive around and look at christmas lights. I think it will be fun although I'm not sure about how the lights will work since everyone won't fit into one car so we'll see about those. But I think it will be a good night. Oh which reminds me, I've got to go turn the christmas music on. And we're starting to cook for dinner. It's nice I have FIL here who will mess with the turkey for me :)

One more day 'til Christmas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sunday, December 21, 2008

What happens when you let your two year old get away with Stuff?

You get stuck staying up late by yourself with both your kids with an over tired child who refuses to sleep! It's going to be a long night. Teach me to try to be nice! She does not like to sleep and we wanted to play The Farming Game tonight so I let her lay on the couch and watch a movie while we played instead of fighting with her about going to bed. I should have fought with her and made her go to bed. Oh well, tomorrow will eventually bring another day, and I've learned a very valuable lesson.

I had a good long chat today this afternoon with Charity about Christmas and how it's important to give gifts and then we wrapped the presents she got for her friends. It was a lot of fun. We took one of them tonight and we'll finish delivering the rest tomorrow. It was cute to see her so excited to be giving the presents though...

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Well, it's time...

to put up the baby gates! Danielle is now crawling!!! She started crawling Wednesday night! WOW WOW WOW!!! My baby is getting too big. We knew she was close but I still don't think I'm ready for it yet. Charity is having a bit of a hard time dealing with her sister now being able to get whatever toy she wants. But it hasn't been too bad.

Another new development is that this week Charity figured out she can open the fridge herself. She's only done it the one time but I'm just waiting for her to start opening it all the time now. Crazy new times we're entering into here!

Less than a week until Christmas! Yay! Yay! Yay!

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Oops... Busy, Busy, Busy

Sorry I never got around to posting an update last week. I got sidetracked by kiddos. You know how busy the little people can make you :)

Ok, so It's definitely been a while since I posted. I haven't even gotten on the computer for several days. Dennis' class ended last week so that should hopefully help things slow down for a few weeks around here. Other than that I spent two weeks reading a series of books about the Noble Dead :) I borrowed them from my brother after Thanksgiving and they were pretty good. Though long and there were 7 of them! Definitely going to have to get past this reading kick, lol. I've got to get back to important things like posting on my blog, blog stalking, oh yeah and cleaning the house and such :) lol.

We've also been getting ready for Grandpa to move back in with us. Mindy had her baby, a beautiful little boy, and she's going to move in for a few weeks while she saves up some money and gets her own apartment. I don't know what Grandpa is planning. I'm not even sure he actually wants to move back in with us, just since Mindy is moving he's decided to.

I made Danielle's first christmas foot print and hand print ornaments this last week. Very cute :) Charity insisted on making some for her too but I think her's are too heavy to hang on the tree so I might let her keep them as souvenirs. She definitely had fun painting them though. And then tried to help me paint Danielle's!

Then we've got another big enrichment activity coming up in a month so I'm going to be a bit busy working on that but it is going to be a lot of fun! Well, that's all for now, I hope everyone is looking forward to Christmas, it really is a special time of year!

I'm Thankful...

I know I should have finished and posted this days ago but I've been a bit busy, I'll post an update when I'm done with this :) Here's my list of things I'm Thankful for that I compiled throughout November!

1. A healthy family
2. Happy children, it's so wonderful to have children who are so full of smiles and giggles!
3. The ability to help out family members when they need it
4. A nice comfortable home to live in
5. My testimony of the true and living prophet on the earth today.
6. A fun imagination
7. The ability to use said imagination and to play with my children.
8. The law of tithing and the security it brings into my life.
9. Good books
10. A wonderful husband who loves me
11. The zoo
12. Fun activities
13. Yoga/Pilates and exercising, though I don't do it nearly as much as I should!
14. The great friends that I have, IRL and on the internet
15. The internet!
16. My cell phone, it's my link to those who live far away from me.
17. The Holiday Season. I just love this time of year.
18. Family who can babysit :)
19. Good food, eating lots and lots on Thanksgiving
20. Music, I like noise during the day and there is nothing better to have as noise than some good music
21. New Movies, the old ones are great but it's always fun to see something new.
22. reliable car. it's nice to be able to travel to visit family and not have to worry if the car can make it
23. christmas decorations. I'm just holding off until the weekend after Thanksgiving to put up the tree!
24. Rain, ok, I hate driving in it, but living in a desert I know we need as much precipitation as we can get
25. Cartoons. I know this is terrible but there are some shows Charity really likes and I'm glad they're available to watch
26. New babies, it helps me appreciate how far mine have come but also remember how wonderful those newborn days are
27. Snow, though I really don't like it's fun to see Charity get so excited about it!
28. Christmas Tree Lights :)
30. This school semester to be almost over!
31. A steady paycheck, and not having to worry about where the next pay check is coming from