Happy Birthday Little Angel

Katherine Jane Eliza McGrath
*Kate Eliza*

Has it really been 9 years? We miss you so much. We are so grateful to have you as our daughter and are so proud of you. We love you. We can't wait until the day that we are reunited, when we can pick up where we left off.

“Joseph Smith declared that the mother who laid down her little child,
being deprived of the privilege, the joy, and the satisfaction of bringing it up to manhood or womanhood in this world,
would, after the resurrection,
have all the joy, satisfaction, and pleasure,
and even more
than it would have been possible to have had in mortality,
in seeing her child grow to the full measure of the stature of its spirit”
(Joseph F. Smith, Gospel Doctrine).

Escape to Arizona Mountain

We had a great weekend. We decided to run away from our busy lives and head up to Heber for the long weekend. We were so excited that Heber had SNOW!!! My mom has a cabin there, so we were comfy and cozy (no snow camping for us!) We found a fun snow hill and the kids played for hours. Here is Abby sliding down and everyone else climbing up.

Pretty girls (can I say that?)

Matthew the stick finder. He is expert at locating sticks wherever we go, and the snow hill was no exception.

Olivia was such a trooper! Long after Abby and I had retreated for the warm car, she was still climbing the hill and sledding down. Holes in the jeans, grandpa's gloves (which was a big improvement over the socks on the hands), Chloe's coat, irrigation boots...we were such a rag tag bunch!

Cookies, Coconut, and Carpal Tunnel

We also had time to make sugar cookies. We don't make those very often, but the kids LOVE to make them and they are Kresten's favorite. They had a lot of fun rolling and cutting them. Making sugar cookies is one of those things that I just have to force myself not to hover over and let them do it their own way.

Mmmm...which one shall I eat next?

Coconut--A Girls Best Friend

A dog has to stay warm, right? (Do you recognize that scarf from the last picture?)


So with all that cabin time, I decided to transfer all my recipes to the computer. Kresten found a great free program to store the recipes in, called Evernote. It is online as well as on my home computer. This is an improvement over google notebook which is online only. So Kresten transferred everything I had online, which was about 90 recipes. Then I went through my recipe cards and ENTERED EACH ONE into the program. 170 of them. Hence the carpal tunnel. But I am so excited about this new system. I keep my laptop in the kitchen, so now I have all the recipes in one place. It will be so nice to have the recipes searchable, and I can tag them with several categories if I would like. When I find a recipe online I can just cut and paste and voila! Sharing recipes will be easier, plus when my kids are all grown up and getting hungry I can send them my recipes so they can make their own recipe collection. That is worth a little carpal tunnel, right?

Field Trip to the Phoenix Zoo

Yesterday was the 2nd grade field trip to the beautiful Phoenix Zoo. I love my kids' school...there are so many parents who want to go to the field trips they have to have a DRAWING! I had a statistical advantage with three entries :-) and got chosen from Olivia's class. The teachers were nice and put all three of my kids in my group, plus a couple of friends. It was really nice because we were just free to go and explore the zoo on our own. I have been to zoo trips before with 30 kids all trying to stay together...not fun. This was a great way to go. From left to right....Matthew, Olivia, Mason, Hayley, and Abby.

Olivia making friends with a goat in Harmony Farm. It was so cute! The kids loved brushing the goats. I have memories of going to this very place as a child. I remember when a goat ate Jennifer's shirt. We were so shocked! It was fun to go back there with the kids. It has been a long time since we have been to the zoo.

Handwashing after petting the goats. I loved this handwashing trough! It was so cool! It had foot pedals below to turn the water on. I want one of these for the backyard!

We found a nice picnic area for lunch. It was such a beautiful day. Sunny and cool, and the desert plants smelled wonderful. Paradise found!

Tuesday

Tuesdays are busy days around here. Yesterday was especially so. Both Abby and Chloe were home yesterday. Abby had an earache and Chloe had a half day at school (which I guess in Jr. High is used mainly for completing crossword puzzles) so she stayed home too. Well, stayed home doesn't really describe it. When I got home and collapsed in a heap, I tried to remember everything we had done. Here's my list:

DOCTOR--Abby does have an ear infection. Right ear. She doesn't seem to be in much pain though--nothing a little motrin can't handle. But the doctor said it looked really bad--I'll spare you the details. I think Abby has a high pain tolerance. She was amazing when she had to have stitches on her forehead a couple of years ago.

CELLO LESSON--normally on Tuesday nights (pretty crazy--see below) so we moved it up since she was home. She is really sounding great. I love to listen to her lessons. Very relaxing 1/2 hour.

CARWASH--The poor car really needed it. Inside and out. Whenever Coconut rides in the car, he leaves his nose paintings (as the kids call it) all over the inside of the windows. Add a few old shoes of Matthew's, his leftover snack after basketball, and it was ripe and ready.

JASON'S DELI--YUM. We met Gorgus and my mom there for lunch. My kids are so lucky to have my mom, Kresten's mom, Grandma Betsy, AND Gorgus (my grandma, their great-grandma) all here. Gorgus loves to go out to lunch. She always gets a bowl of soup. Jason's Deli didn't dissapoint with 11 choices of yummy soup.

OLD NAVY--shares a parking lot with Jason's Deli. We walked over there after lunch--my mom was looking for jeans, and Chloe wanted to check out the sale rack. She found a cute charcoal-gray sweater, but it was acrylic. I had to give her a little fiber education. Pass down my distaste for unnatural fibers such as acrylic. On to the next generation. Plus she was feeling quite poor, as her money stash has dipped below the $100 mark. So we left empty handed.

WALMART--went to pick up Abby's prescription. Also found one for Olivia waiting for us too. Looked at the patterns with Chloe--found a dress pattern that looks very easy. She found a really cute trim, then some blue fabric in the dollar section, but when the fabric was rolled out it was all snagged. So we left with just the pattern. We'll definitely have to try again. She had a lot of fun designing her own dress. And with the dollar fabric--you can't go too wrong.

HOME--dropped Chloe and Hannah off at the gate

SCHOOL--picked up Olivia

HOME--dropped Olivia off

TUMBLEWEED PARK--Matt had a running club race today. Luckily he got a ride there with LaDawn. I made it there in time for the race. He finished way later than he did last time. He kind of walked a little, ran a little--I think he needed Kresten there as a pacer. He said he had a runny nose--or maybe it was a stuffy nose--the the whole time too. But he had a great time, as always. Got his ribbon and his popsicle and he was one happy boy.

HOME--dropped Matt off, loaded up little girls

HAYLEY'S HOUSE--dropped girls off for gymnastics carpool.

MADISON'S HOUSE--picked up Hannah, who had Student Council after school. Luckily Madison's mom was subbing, and I found her in the parent pickup line after school--she took Hannah home for me (since I was at the running club race).

BASHA'S--picked up 2 items for dinner.

HOME for dinner--The soup we had put in the crock pot turned out YUCK. It was a frozen soup from a discount restaurant supply place. I think it spent too much of its life in the freezer. So when I tasted it, I could tell it would not do for our main course. I switched plans and decided to make Cowboy Nachos from the Pioneer Woman's website. They were very yummy, and quick and easy to do since we had our canned shredded beef, and pinto beans. Good thing they were quick and easy, we didn't have much time!

BASKETBALL PRACTICE--Kresten left with Matthew for basketball. Kresten is the coach again this year.

HAYLEY'S HOUSE--to pick up Abby and Olivia after gymnastics

HOME--dropped little girls off, picked up Chloe

CHURCH--Chloe had her 6 month interview with Bro. Barrett from the Bishopric.

HOME--WHEW!!!

Matt and Livvy

Here comes Mr. Matt...in his first running club race this year. Kresten ran with him and said he did a great job! He kept up a steady pace the whole time. Good job, Matthew!

Coming up...on your left!

Olivia...dancing around the house. She kept turning up the music and skipping through to find the Jonas Brothers, David Archuleta, Taylor Swift, etc. 7 going on 17?

Can we do it?

About a week after Christmas we decided to figure out our vacation plans for 2009. We knew we wanted to spend a week on the beach in California in October, but other than that didn't have anything planned. So we started to think about what else we would like to do. Hmm...how about Cedar City, to go see a play at Tuacahn amphitheater? (This was a recycled idea...rejected from the family reunion planning committee. There is a KOA there that we had considered for the reunion.) Well, this thought just took on a life of its own.

We could camp!
It would be fun!
Hey...we could camp on the beach in California!
I wonder how much a used pop-up camper would cost?

Craigslist was pulled up within the minute, and the search for a camper began. One thing about Kresten and I--once we get excited about an idea we have a hard time dropping it. So we searched, studied, and pursued numerous pop-up campers for the next, oh, I'd say about 4 days. Now, mind you, neither of us have ever been huge campers. We have gone a time or two, but something about sleeping on the ground with no bathroom nearby never really appealed to us. And once we rented an RV, but thought it was a little too clausterphobic. But a pop-up camper...now that is a different story!

Beds!
A heater!
An air conditioner!
And maybe even...a bathroom!

All while still having lots of windows and fresh air.

So...here is the result of our pop-up camper obsession:

A king bed, a queen bed, and a full bed! A heater and an air conditioner! And yes, that is a little porta-potty/shower situation there. It is a little weathered on the outside, but perfect on the inside! It has hardly ever been used. We are having so much fun with this thing and we haven't even gone anywhere yet. We have lots of fun ideas of places to go. Now we hope we can actually sleep in it! Our maiden voyage/test camping trip will be February 27-28. We are going to camp out at Usery Mountain Park, not too far away. That is the weekend of Kate Eliza's birthday, and we like to celebrate her day with a fun family activity. So we know it will be a family activity...now let's hope it is actually a fun one!

Urban Fishing

Matthew got a fishing pole for Christmas so today was the day to test it out. Kresten took the trio fishing at a nearby park.

Good cast Abby!

It turns out the lake is inhabited by large, smart fish who sit at the bottom of the lake and chuckle at the children who try to catch them.

2nd grade Christmas parties

When is the last time you attended a 2nd grade Christmas party? I got to go to THREE of them this year! Here is Olivia's cute reindeer--I love it! She also made a picture frame with snowflakes and snowmen around the edges.

Abby's class made little santa hats, and a candy reindeer out of plastic cups.

Matthew's class rotated to different stations. I got there just as he was painting a little Santa.

This was in the center of the table. A little TOO much fun!

Happy 40th Birthday!

Kresten's 40th birthday was yesterday! Wow--40 years old! That just sounds so grown up! Here is the cake I made for him in the morning. Carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. It is the first layer cake I have made in a loooong time. I am so happy it turned out nice--thanks to the 10 minute video I found when I googled "how to frost a layer cake".

Here we are. It was also the night of Hannah's piano recital. Did I mention it was also the last day of school before Christmas break? That meant 4 last minute teacher gifts, 1 healthy party food tray, and then 4 parties in 60 minutes. Then home to make a birthday dinner, rush off to the piano recital, then come back for dessert and presents. How did so much fun get packed into one day? I was a bit stressed, to say the least.

Home sweet home. We had a lot of fun celebrating after the recital. Thanks Carol and Paul for getting a babysitter and coming over--on a school night--at bedtime, Rudy for stopping by, Grandma McGrath for hanging out with us for the evening, Darren for visiting and entertaining us, Gorgus and Betsy for coming to the recital and then--even farther--to our house, and Mom and Richard for coming and for taking these pictures!

Happy Birthday Kresten!!!

Gingerbread House Party

We had our gingerbread house party today. It was so much fun! We invited our good friends Paul and Carol over. We had a yummy lunch and then started working on our gingerbread (aka graham cracker) houses. Grammy and Grandpa came too...Grammy made her famous "mortar" frosting. Grandpa planted our 2 new citrus trees for us in lieu of making gingerbread houses. Nice!

Hannah had such a neat and tidy house! It was very cute. Look at that detailed red and green roof! She is working on a sleigh out of candy canes and graham crackers.

Abby decorating her house...or maybe her yard. She was totally in her element with the 3 C's...crafts, construction, and candy!

Olivia made a horse stable this year. There is even a horse stall inside. I love the walls lined with gumballs.

More gingerbread party pictures

Miles was so cute! He really got into building his little house.

Liesl was a master decorator.

Such beautiful masterpieces!