Gratitude

So, I was reading my cousin-in-law's blog the other day and she is doing this really awesome thing. Everyday for the month of November she is writing about something she is grateful for. I love the idea of thinking of one thing everyday and focusing on that. So I thought I'd give it a try. I'm also going to ask my kids everyday. I even made up a little sheet were we can all write down one thing each day. There is even a place for Clara (I thought the kids would have fun thinking of something she could be grateful for!).


So everyday until Thanksgiving I (hopefully) will be sharing with you something I'm grateful for, and maybe even a few of my kids ideas.


Today I'm grateful that I can be a stay-at-home mom. Nothing brings me greater joy than always being here for my kids. I love being here when they get home from school. I love getting things done while they are at school and I love that I have nothing else that is "more important" to do. It wasn't' until I moved to Florida that I realized what a rare thing it is to not send your kids to daycare.

Of course, the reason I can be a stay-at-home mom is my wonderful husband. He works so hard for our family so that I can stay home. I'm grateful that he supports my desire to stay at home. I remember discussing this when we were dating--although it wasn't much of a discussion. I said I wanted to be able to stay home with the kids and he said, "me too." We spent the rest of the conversation talking about what he wanted to do for his career.

So that's it for today. Tonight for FHE we're going to start with the kids. Hopefully I can get more out of them than toys or the trampoline.

BOOOOO!!!

(This was the whole family after a fun night of "trunk or treating," eating too much candy, and staying up past our bed time. It may look like Clara was the only one having a hard time, but Tony and I are pretty good at hiding it!)

Wow! It seems like we just had Halloween and I was dressing Clara up in a cute little ice cream cone. But although I can hardly believe it another year has gone by and all 4 kids are growing so fast I can hardly stand it.

This year with Halloween being on a Sunday, our ward did a Fall Festival Friday night. We had a chili/dessert cook off, games, and truck or treating. The kids all had a blast and even though they only went to a handful of "trunks" they got a ton of candy! The weather even cooperated and it wasn't a gazillion degrees out this year. It almost felt like fall!

The story of our costumes was, as always, an adventure. William wanted to be something spooky and decided on a vampire pretty quickly (no Twilight jokes!). Gracie said she wanted to be a mummy (although I'm still not sure she knows exactly what a mummy is). So I bought a white sheet. Before I ripped it into strips I asked her several times if she really wanted to be a mummy. After several yes replies I tore up the sheet and tried it on. She looked pretty good and was excited about getting her face painted white. Two days later she decided she would be an M&M. Here's a glimpse at my thought process at this point. "Really? An M&M? Fine, I could do that pretty easy. Man, I wish I hadn't already ruined that sheet, I can't even return it now. William, are you sure you don't want to be a mummy instead?" It was at this point that Hallie decided on a ballerina. I told her we'd get the ballerina clothes, I'd do her hair up in a bun, put real makeup on her and even put glitter in her hair. Well, that changed Gracie's mind immediately. I told her over and over that M&M's can have glitter in their hair too, but she wouldn't budge. So now I had to come up with 2 ballerina costumes. Luckily, I have some pretty great friends willing to lend me the leotards and tutu's. Still I lived in fear of Gracie changing her mind again (she'd really hard to reason with!), but fortunately she stuck with ballerina to the very end. And I must say they both turned out adorable!

Hallie the ballerina

Gracie the ballerina

William the vampire

Clara was a spider (although she was also called a cute little penguin and a bee). I bought Clara's costume used when Hallie was 1 year old. Don't you love getting your money's worth!

9 years ago...

I'm not very good at writing (I'll leave that to my better half!) but since today is our 9 year anniversary I just wanted to say Happy Anniversary, honey!

I love the friend you are to me and the father you are to my children. I love that you are worthy to hold the priesthood and you so willingly use it to bless our family. I love that you try your best in everything you do. I love that you've worked so hard for your education and I love that you're almost done! I love knowing that someday it will be just you and me at home and I love looking forward to all the things we can do together.

Thanks for making me smile and laugh and for being willing to do nearly anything to make the kids laugh too.

I can't wait to see what the next 9 years brings us.

I'll love you forever.

Nicole

Vacation anyone?

Last week we returned from a nearly 2 week vacation. Jealous? You should be because we left the sweltering heat of Florida (seriously, when we got back I thought we would literally melt) and spent 12 beautiful days in Salt Lake City. We spent 6 days with my family in Kaysville and 6 days with Tony's family in Newdale. We got to see everyone in our immediate families and then some.

So here's a little recap of our adventures. At Grandma Robinson's house we spent a lot of time outside. They have a beautiful shaded backyard with lots of grass and fruit trees. We had 2 BBQ's outside, one with Tony's aunt Paula and his brother Matt's family, and one with my Grandma and Grandpa Robinson who came all the way from Pima, Arizona a day early so they could see us. Clara had never experienced grass until now (since she's been old enough it's been too hot in Florida for me to go outside!) and it was so cute watching her figure out how to get up without putting her hands in the grass.

We also celebrated Hallie's birthday with my family at Boondocks. We bowled, we mini-golfed, we go-karted, and we laser tagged. Sadly, I thought I had forgotten my camera,only to find it in my purse when we got home. So since I have no pictures to prove it, I'll tell you that I won at all of them!

After 6 quick days with my family we drove up to Newdale, Idaho for a Ricks' family reunion. Tony's brother has a ginormous house out in the boonies of Newdale which he graciously let the whole family use for 3 days. The highlight of the reunion was the trip to Moody Meadows for a little huckleberry picking/picnic. After 3 days out in the boonies some of us left for home while the rest of us returned to Tony's parents house in Newdale (slight less out in the boonies). The next day we drove 2 1/2 hours to Pinedale, WY. They have a giant aquatics center with 2 pools, racquetball courts, and indoor track, basketball courts and a rock climbing wall (which Tony and Hallie both fell in love with). The drive made for a long day, but definitely worth it! We also celebrated Clara's first birthday with a BBQ in Grandma Ricks' backyard. One year! Can you believe it? I can't!

We miss being around our family and truly enjoyed the time we got to spend with everyone. Hopefully next summer we'll be moving a little closer and our visits won't be so far between.

Our family in Grandma Robinson's backyard.

My three brothers are three of the goofies guys you'll ever meet. Obviously, Will fits right in.

One day at Grandma's we visited Temple Square. Yes, there is a tractor right in front of the temple and no, I don't know why.

Picking huckleberries at Moody Meadows. William didn't even bring a can with him to hold his, he put them right into his mouth.

Everyone enjoyed a lovely picnic lunch after a long hour of picking huckleberries.

Then all the kids (Tony included) decided to slide down the side of the mountain. The very first kid to slide down biffed it bad. You can see her parents comforting her at the bottom. Did that stop anyone else? No way (although I wish it had).

Hallie climbed this wall about 4 times and made it to the top each time.

Beach day

Alright, after all the fun we had with the toys (see previous post) we were inspired to take the kids to the beach this Saturday. There was a 50% chance of rain, but we weren't sure when we could do it again so we took our chances and won! It was a little windy and cloudy but the sun did come out and we all had a great time. Even Clara--who doesn't like the big bathtub or the swimming pool--loved the ocean. Just not at first. For the first hour she just wandered around in the sand. But after lunch she slowly ventured down to the water. By the end of the trip she was playing just as hard as the other kids. Here's some pics!

William hard at work building a sand castle.

Hallie and Gracie in the ocean. Hallie LOVES the ocean!

Clara wandering around the beach.

I wish we were awesome enough to have made this "pool", but we aren't. Someone else made it and then left, so we took it over and improved it! As you can see, Clara loves this kind of pool. At one point she was even laying down in it!

Here they are hard at work improving it. They built it up, added decorations, a.k.a. seaweed and sea shells, and Tony even added a mote that allowed more water to flow in when a big wave came up.

You know you have too many toys when...

...you can literally bury your kids in them! Yesterday Gracie was looking for a certain toy and decided to organize her toys so she could find it. So we dumped all the girls toys in a big pile on the floor. I think it's been too long since we've been to the beach because Gracie decided instead of looking for her toy she would bury herself in them. Hallie thought that would be great fun too. I guess we better get to the beach (and get rid of some toys too)!

You may not be able to see her, but Gracie IS under all that junk (uh, I mean toys)!

See?!

Now Gracie is burying Hallie

Can you spot her?

Hallie's arm update

Nearly 7 weeks ago I got the fateful phone call from the school. But today the cast is gone. I think I was more excited about getting it off than she was. Mostly I just wanted to wash her hand. When they put the splint on at urgent care and then the cast, they never washed her hand.

Hallie has been so great through all this. She really has not missed a beat. She never complained about having to eat with her left hand or write with her left hand. She still jumps off the furniture and runs all over the house.

She's such a good girl (except for the jumping off the furniture and running through the house) and I'm so grateful because I know she could have made this whole experience much worse.

So here's a few pictures of the big event today!

This is the guy that put the cast on her. When he did, he had to squeeze her wrist to make it tighter there and that made her cry. But I don't think she even recognized him today. First he used this circular saw type thing to cut through the hard part. Then scissors for the cottony layers.

Hallie holding her cast

William, Gracie (with Hallie's cast on) and Hallie--she still doesn't like to straighten her arm, but we're working on that.

Hooray! It's finally off! (Check out William in the back trying on Hallie's cast too.)