Yogurt

Our Tiny girl doesn't do anything neat or clean.  She's very much a hands-on sort of girl.  Yogurt is no exception.  She will not let me feed her, she has to do it herself.  And b/c she isn't so adept at a spoon yet her fingers are the only way to get that yogurt in her mouth.  Hence...MESS.  But, with those beautiful blue eyes I can only smile and give her a kiss...after wiping her off.  :)

Shordy was pretty proud of the word he made with his magnetic letters.  Not sure what that word was...but he thought it was a good one.  :)  He's been big into spelling things lately...which tells me we are going to start reading.  Such a smarty pants!

Flowers for His Girls

I was feeling kinda down in the dumps after my Grandma Price died and I was unable to make it to the funeral.  So one evening after Shayne got off work he came home with some flowers for me...and the lady he got the flowers from gave him a carnation for Tiny as well.  I can't believe I forgot to take a pic of my flowers, but I got a pic of Daddy and his Tiny with her flower.   It was so nice...I very much appreciated him recognizing how I was feeling and trying to let me know he was there for me.

I then had to take a pic of Shordy and the fun crafts he made at the little Soldotna High School (SoHi) child development class preschool he went to that day.  His little snowman sock was his favorite!

Thanks Babe for helping feel a little better! I love you!

Beautiful Sunset @ 4pm

I wish I could have truly taken a pic that would have shown all the pink and purple that was in this sunset.  It was pretty incredible.  But with incredible winter sunsets (this was at 4pm...10 days from winter solstice) comes cold weather.  It's a trade off you take to see some pretty stuff.

The last pic was just of my two cuties chillin' out together watching a movie after being out and about.  Notice Shordy and his coat...he will wear this all the time once he's put it on to go outside.  Kinda funny.  He either really likes his coat, or our house isn't very warm...which is probably the case.  Can't wait for my wood stove!!

Good Bye Piano

I bought this piano even before we closed on our house.  It moved in about 3 days after we did.  I enjoyed it and was very glad to have a piano in our house to play primary songs for my kids, and to just play when I needed to play.  However, in the last couple of years I played it very little.  It spent more time as a race track, and knick-knack holder than as a piano.

So...I decided I wanted a wood burning stove more than I wanted a piano and I only had room for one or the other.  So, the piano is being sold.  I'm a little sad.  I love the idea of having a piano in our home, but we definitely need a wood burning stove to make our little house warmer and safer in the winter time.

I will definitely buy another piano when we have more room in a different house.

But for now...good bye my piano.

Grandma Price

I lost my Grandma Nora Williams Price today.

It's sad she's gone but she's been sick a very long time so it's a good thing she's no longer in pain or suffering.

It's even better that she's back with my Grandpa Price who passed away 14, almost 15 years ago.

The amazing thing is she passed away on her birthday.  Yup...she was born on December 8th and she passed away on December 8th.  I can't help but think that her mother was there to take her to the other side.  How appropriate to be the one to bring her into the world and be the one to help take her to the other side.

She was surrounded by all her children and many of her grandchildren had been to see her in the last 2-3 days b/c we knew her time was short.

Unfortunately, I'm not going to make it down to Idaho for her funeral.  I said my goodbyes to her when I saw her last, and for that I'm happy.  However, I will be the only grandchild who could make it to not be there, and that makes me sad.  I wish I could be there to honor her and her pretty incredible legacy.

My Grandma Price was quite the lady.  She wasn't afraid to tell you what she thought...even if it hurt feelings.  She however, was FIERCELY loyal to her family and would do whatever she needed to do to protect or help them.
She was a fun grandma who told crazy campfire stories that would scare even the bravest grandchild.  She ate all the burned marshmallows we cooked.
She would hike with us and inform us she found Bigfoot tracks, while she traced them in the dirt.  :)
You NEVER said you were bored b/c then you would promptly be given a job of cleaning in the house.  But...as long as you stayed busy and entertained outside you were free to roam forever with the cousins. She paid us $.25 for a gopher tail and gave us the b-b's for the Daisy pump gun to hunt for them...as 8 year olds.
She gave us, the Price and Corgatelli's, dull knives to help with the chicken slaughter.  I think we ranged in age from about 10-5 and we all had a knife to help cut off legs and pluck feathers.  What a memory!
She gave us pennies to walk 2 miles to the local store down a dirt road for penny candy.
She fed us hot chocolate and burnt toast for breakfast when we spent the night with her, and you didn't expect more b/c she was NOT a morning person.
She ALWAYS had cookies of some sort in the cookie jar.
She made the best doughnuts for Halloween.
She was very hard working and was a great example to her grandchildren about what it meant to work hard and do a job right.
She loved my Grandpa...and even though she wasn't always easy to love he loved her back.
She met and held both my children and was amazed at how I had children and told me they were beautiful.

I will miss my Grandma, but I know she is in a much happier place with my Grandpa who loved her a lot.  I hope she's learning a lot and I hope I get to see her again someday.

Love you 62 Grandma!!

Ice Fishing w/ an Earthquake

After work one Monday, Shayne decided to take Shordy ice fishing with the missionary Elders in our ward and in Sterling ward.  Shayne is the ward mission leader so he spends time with the missionaries and has also supplied them with fishing gear throughout the year.

This particular day it was only like -15 degrees outside, so that's the perfect day to take your 4 year old ice fishing right?  :)  They went just down the road to Arc Lake, so it wasn't too far away.

I bundled our little Shordy up with toe warmers on his socks and hand warmers in his pockets, a down coat under his regular coat and a warm fleece hat under his down hood and his regular coat hood.  Shayne said he never really complained about being cold...which was amazing considering how cold it really was outside.  But, this kid loves to fish!

Shordy didn't catch anything, but one of the Elders did and he let Shordy play with the fish.  Which he loved.

While they were out there fishing we had quite the little earthquake.  I think it was like a 4.1.  We definitely felt it here at home and Shayne said it was a little scary being on the lake when it hit.  He said the ice started cracking and creaking and they felt like they were on a wave.  Needless to say the Elders and Shayne proceeded to quickly drive their trucks back to the parking area instead of parking on the lake.  I'm just glad the ice didn't crack to the point that anyone fell in the water.

So...what a memorable day of ice fishing.  -15 degrees...fishing with missionaries...and a 4.1 earthquake.

Just glad they were home safe and sound.  :)

Christmas Traditions

Our tiny Christmas tree with the Christmas books

Our Christmas Books

Uh-oh...she found my computer.  This isn't a good thing.

Our Christmas advent calendar.  It's a felt board with a the characters from the Nativity Scene.  The last day is obviously the little Christ Baby in a manger.  I love it.

The Christmas train is in his "shed" under the kids table.  :)

I'm trying really hard to start some new family traditions that help us focus and teach our kids what this time of year is really for.  So, all the traditions we've started all center on the Christ.  Our advent calendar is the nativity scene.  We have 2 different nativity scenes that are very child friendly.  One is from wood blocks with stickers on it, and the other is the Fisher Price nativity, and the kids love to play with them.  One of my favorite things is to hear Shordy play with them and tell the story in his words.  It's pretty amazing how much little kids know and understand.

Funny story about Shordy:  We've talked about how Christmas is about when Jesus was born and that it's when we celebrate His birthday.  We've talked about the Wise Men and how they brought gifts to the Christ child.  So, one day I hear him playing and he has the Wise Men in front of the Christ baby and he starts singing "Happy Birthday" to the baby.  He then informs me that the Wise Men sang "Happy Birthday" and brought birthday presents when they saw him, b/c it was Jesus' birthday.  :)  LOVE this little story.

I've tried to remove Santa from pretty much any of our conversation about Christmas.  He obviously knows who he is, b/c of all the commercialization in the stores, but we don't talk much about him at home.  He knows he comes Christmas Eve, but in our house Santa only brings one present.  The rest of the presents are from our family.  I REALLY want our kids to be good, not b/c Santa is watching to see if you are naughty or nice, but b/c Jesus wants us to be kind and nice all year long...not just in the month of December.

The other tradition I decided to start this year is also a count-down sort of thing as well.  I got 24 different Christmas books.  I made sure they were non-Santa commercial Christmas in nature.  They were all about being kind, or different stories of Christ, or traditional stories from other countries.  I wrapped them all up and the kids get to open a new one each night and we read it for bedtime.  I'm very excited about this tradition.

Anyway...these are a few of the new traditions we are starting in our home.  I'm really hoping that in bringing in the Christ centered traditions my children will truly begin to understand and appreciate what this time of year is REALLY about.