Snow Day

It was all white today - Mike measured 10 inches of snow - we've never had to stay home from school for snow before!!! I'm glad we had lessons on 72 hour kits - all the kids had friends over so my milk & bread supply is almost depleted sadly - we've already been told tomorrow is no school as well. We're totally snowed in - no cars up or down the street for quite a way - they don't have plows here because they don't normally have this much snow - they said it was the most snow we've had here in 2 decades! We don't have satellite because we have too much snow on our roof, but luckily we have phones and internet!!

The kids will be staying home tomorrow as well - we'll get ready for another stay in day!!!

Our Weekend

Well Friday started our pretty low-key weekend. Lucas was special helper so he made this really cool hat at school. The teacher says Lucas always helps tell the teacher who is special helper every day - they have a wheel with the kids names on it and Lucas knows all of their names.

I finally made our Chinese New Year dinner - I don't actually have a calendar with holidays on it - I guess I haven't signed up for the right one for Ical....


I made beef & broccoli, steamed minced pork, & steamed minced pork & egg - all home-type specialties my grandma taught me when I was a girl. I luckily had some lop cheong (sausage), bamboo shoots and water chestnuts to make it more complete. Too bad I didn't have oyster or hoisin sauce! I have however seen a Chinese market not too far from here but haven't gone in yet... since these were the last of my special supplies I got from the US I better check it out! It is the Year of the Ox - my dad's year... should be a good year!


Friday Night was the 3rd grade American Indian Musical.......

Half way through Ian decided to put his feather right in front of his face - I thought it was classic...

He played the xylophone (which he didn't tell me about!) and a song flute - he did really well and it was fun to watch.

Chandler & Tyler both got to have friends over for sleep overs this weekend so we had lots of kids.

Mike went to the car store to buy one of those Thule thingys for the top of our car - we're getting ready for Switzerland next weekend....


A good thing too - we're getting a head start - it started snowing again tonight - burrrr - I can't believe I live in a place that snows! Although they tell me it is very rare, so might as well enjoy it. The kids are hoping school is cancelled tomorrow - I'm hoping not!!

Pack Meeting

I won't lie - Cub Scout Pack Meetings are NOT my favorite thing... but compounded with the fact that it falls on Wednesdays and make my life even more hectic - I'm not always feeling my best.

This past Wednesday pushed the limits of science and physics - I was literally almost in two places at once!!!! Pack meeting was at 6:30, Tyler had dance 5:45-6:45 - then YW and I had to drop her at 7

But - that's not all - I had to help the boys decorate cakes for a cake contest and help them walk them into the school....with stroller, baby, & Lucas..... but all is well. They didn't win but they loved decorating the cakes and they wanted to bring them home to show Mike instead of eating them. So we have a cool train by Cman & a Treasure Chest by Ian-Bnian....It's blue because luckily Ian didn't make me mix the food coloring into the fondant to make brown - I've had blue fingers for the last 3 days!





I think I mentioned before - one of my callings in this ward is Activities - so if you have had any fun ones please let me know I need help!!!! Mike just got a new calling too - but I'll post more about that one another day!

Of course I couldn't resist another photo of Little Miss - she had a hard day yesterday - cried most of the day - so now she is sleeping in - not going to wake her!



Tonight is the 3rd Grade Performance - more school fun - this year is really going by very fast!

Tyler's Bday

Well how horrible am I? I never posted a proper post to my sweet big girl.

Tyler was born in the wee hours of January 22, 1996.......

She was our first baby and we were sooo excited. She made us wait 11 days for her arrival and even then she made us wait all day for her to come out - something like 14 hours!

But now I wouldn't even know what to do without her - she is smart, funny, responsible, such a good girl. She's my best friend - I can always count on her. My how she is growing - 13 - it all goes so fast from here.

She had a party on Thursday - her real birthday - we didn't have school on Friday so it was perfect - 9 girls came over for a sleepover - we had a mini party - individualized - homemade individual pizzas, giant individual birthday cupcakes, triple chocolate brownies brought to school, crepes for breakfast - I was so tired of cooking!!! But they had fun - she missed her hometown friends terribly but she has made really nice new friends from here, the US, Canada, and all over. What a great experience! Happy Birthday Baby!

Wacky Wednesdays

Now that school is back we started dance for Tyler - that has thrown my schedule into a tizzy. Granted it is nothing like the wackiness we experienced at home - dancing 5 days a week - 8.5 - 9 hours a week and it would take 30 mins to get there - had 3 carpools....makes me dizzy reliving it!

But here the kids aren't doing nearly as many activities, but the ones they are doing all seem to land on one day - yes Wednesday.... here's a look at my day after school and it doesn't include dinner or homework....

3:45 - Ty & Lucas come home
4:45 - Pick up boys from Cub Scouts (every other week) OR
6:00 - Once a month - Boys - Faith in God at church OR
7:00 - Once a month - Boys - Cub Scout Pack Meeting - but wait gets better...
5:30 6:30 Tyler dance
7:30-9 - Tyler YW

All this and without baseball, soccer or football!!! Oh my!

We love visitors

Our friends Judy, Stuart, Alex & Cameron from CA came to visit us. It wasn't planned and they were just stopping through because Stuart's father passed away so they came here for family but we're so glad they could make time to come and see us even if it was short. We had plans to go out to dinner - I had arranged for Mary Poppins to come babysit the kids so it worked out really well. Judy brought us a great care package of goldfish, bath & body works & Robeez for Tristan!

(Boys and their toys...)

It seems like there is pretty much either Italian or Indian here - unless you want fish & chips or minced pies.

We had a nice weekend though just running Tyler to dance mostly and visiting with our friends. It has warmed up a little so the boys washed the cars to get all that wonderful salt off. Today was lots of rain and the LOUDEST thunder I've heard in my life!

The kids are all doing well - we got Tyler back into dancing, the boys are doing cubs and clubs at school and Lucas just goes with the flow. I went to Baby Gap the other day and cashed in on their 75% off sale - Tristan got some sweet outfits - lucky girl!

16 Years

(At Mike's 40th Surprise Party in July)

My how fast time flies - 16 years ago Mike & I were sealed in the Oakland Temple. It seems like a lifetime ago and yet seems like it was just yesterday. Here we are 16 years and 5 kids later - what an adventure. This year is low key - other anniversaries we've gone to Hawaii, Mexico on a cruise, Lake Tahoe, this year we're just going to dinner.

I wrote all the mushy stuff on Mike's birthday - he asked me this morning if I'd do it all over again...in a heartbeat (but in a different dress)

I love you Mike



This is a frozen cobweb from last week when it was -4 or so - it was so beautiful - I've never seen cobwebs frozen over like that! Have a great weekend!

More Holiday Pictures

Tristan is smiling already

There's another place to visit by our house called Painshill Park - it is a great visitor's area with lots of land and an old buildings (castle-like of course). Lot's of open space for the kids to run about as well. We went to visit while still on holiday but they were closing - we'll have to go back another day. Cman loves to take pictures.

Another fun place near our house is Garson's Farm - during the summer and fall you can pick your own fruits and vegetables but it was cold when we went so we just went shopping. Lucas found a microphone to practice his guitar hero songs - he was rockin' out to Twisted Sister I think...

Tristan's first Christmas

Weekend & SNOW DAY!

We had a fun weekend - we live very close to Hampton Court - the Winter diggs of Henry VIII - he'd ride down the Thames on the royal barge and come celebrate down here - it was dang cold - you could see why the royals needed so many footmen about too keep the fires stoked!


All of my "Other Boleyn Girl" reading has come in handy here - along with all of my Jane Austen - at least I know where places are! Hampton Court is much larger than I realized so luckily we purchased a family season pass so we can come back to explore - they even have a weekend in March to come and cook in their vast kitchens with the huge hearths - they also have an outdoor ice skating rink right now and a merry-go-round and Sugar Floss (Cotton Candy)



Later Saturday night we had our friends the Hamberlin's over for dinner. We introduced them to Wii Fit - I have some great video footage of Mark doing the Hoolahoop catch! I'm saving that for a future bargaining chip.



We also taught them the Left, Right, Center game - we didn't plan well though because we didn't have enough coins so we played with playing cards instead - however, the two littlest ones (Emma & Lucas) ending up winning!



You can't see them as well as we intended but cutie patutie Tristan has on fashion tights - the ones with that look like Mary Janes - however she also slept through church so no one got to see her fabulous outfit - oh well - there's always next week.

Today was the first day back to school - we woke up to snow!! I'm a Calfornia Girl - so weird to send the kids out to school in the snow (thank heaven school wasn't closed!) They all loved it - you wouldn't know it, but these pictures were taken at 7:45 whilst we waited for the bus to come to the house. Mike couldn't get out of the drive way in his car - luckily mine is 4-wheel drive so he ended up taking my car.
Sadly my car sits outside - we only have a one car garage if you can believe it!


The kids had a good day - it snowed all morning - Mike tried to buy salt on the way home - but their pint sized psuedo Home Depots sold out within 15 mins after they opened - we'll see how it goes tomorrow!