For most of you who know me, you know that there is always a Christmas tree up in our house within a few days after Halloween. In the past this has partially been because we have always gone to visit family for Christmas, so I want to get the decorations up early enough to enjoy them before we have to leave town, but it is also because I absolutely love the Christmas season (and how it helps to make the cold, grey winters feel a little bit warmer). This year things were a little different, because we are living with my grandma and she was less than excited about the idea of having a Christmas tree up before Thanksgiving, and because of Michael’s work schedule this year we are not going to be able to go visit my family for Christmas. So, the only Christmas decorations I’ve had up for a while now are our stockings (which I hung on hooks from the bookshelf downstairs in our “living room” because the fireplace upstairs doesn’t have a mantle that we could hang stockings from). And then last week for family home evening Michael asked me to pick up a pack of construction paper so that we could make paper chains for the boys to count down the days until Christmas. Kolby, Eli, and Camden enjoyed making their paper chains, hanging them up from the ceiling downstairs, and taking one ring from their chains each night before bedtime. So, when Michael had a day off last week we decided to get the boys all ready in the morning and go looking for a Christmas tree. I had looked online, hoping to find a nearby Christmas tree farm where we could take the boys and cut down our own tree, but the nearest one I could find was about a 45-minute drive from here, and we didn’t want to go that far. So we decided to go to the Christmas tree lot on the corner. The lot was closed when we arrived, so we took the boys Christmas shopping for each other instead. After lunch we headed home, and were excited to see that the lot was open. We unloaded all the boys from the van and they started running up and down the rows and trees, as we started looking at price tags on each one. We were hoping to find a decent tree for somewhere around $20 to $30, but were surprised that all the nice looking trees were about $50. There was a row of sparse, sad-looking little trees in the back of the lot for about $25, but we decided to figure something else out. Maybe you are reading this and thinking that $50 isn’t so bad for a nice Christmas tree – I don’t know – we have never bought a fresh tree before, though. When we were first married and living in the Y-Mount apartments at BYU, the rule was no fresh Christmas trees because they were a fire hazard, so my mom got us this nice little fake tree that we have used in our apartments ever since then. I love my memories of picking out a tree with the family when I was young, though, and figured that once we had a house we would get a real tree. I guess maybe we’ll start that tradition next year. We ended up coming home and pulling my grandma’s fake tree out of her basement storage room. It already had lights on it (since I put them on for her when I visited her once before I was married and the lights got left on the tree since then), so that was one less thing we had to do. The tree wasn’t very sturdy, but switching it to a larger tree stand helped a little with that, even though it still leans to one side a bit. We found a small box of ornaments in Grandma’s closet and put those up, and then pulled out the boys’ new ornaments (I get them each a new ornament each year, and I was excited when I found these cute dinosaur ornaments when I was with my mom at Canterbury Gardens down in San Diego, and when I found that they were affordable). The boys got to open their new ornaments and put them on the tree. We tried to put all the ornaments up high enough that Isaac couldn’t reach them, so it looks a little funny with the tree being mostly bare for the first three feet or so, but it works.
Showing posts with label Dinosaurs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dinosaurs. Show all posts
11 December 2008
15 September 2007
Milwaukee Public Museum
This week Michael got Monday off, which was nice to spend the day together as a family. We planned to take the boys to the Children's Museum downtown, but we got down there and realized that they are closed on Mondays for their fall/winter schedule, so we decided to go to the Milwaukee Public Museum, since it is free to Milwaukee County residents on Mondays. They have a butterfly exhibit at the museum with live butterflies in one room, and the boys had fun seeing the butterflies there. They were also excited to see the big dinosaurs -- Eli had his picture taken with "Sara" and Kolby with "Spike" (since watching the movie, The Land Before Time, every triceratops is named "Sara," every stegosaurus is named "Spike," every brachiosaurus is named either "Little Foot" or "Long Neck," and every tyrannosaurus is named "Sharp Tooth"). Anyways, the boys really liked the dinosaurs and running from one exhibit to the next to see all the animals. We had a good time at the museum for a couple hours, then went to the McDonalds in West Allis for lunch and let the boys play in the area with the slides and tunnels, which they love. It was a very nice family day (too bad all 4 of Michael's days off for this month were scheduled in the first two weeks, so the next two weeks are going to be pretty long without a single day off -- hopefully it will go by quickly and we will all survive until a lighter rotation next month).
30 August 2007
Making Dinosaur Pictures at Art Class
Today it was my turn to teach the lesson at the weekly Toddler Art Class that Kolby and Eli attend. Since both Kolby and Eli love dinosaurs, I decided to make that the theme. I brought pictures of dinosaur skeletons for the kids, and they each got to glue different shaped pasta pieces to the papers to make their own dinosaur skeletons. As you can see from the photos, both Kolby and Eli had lots of fun with the glue, and both of them ended up with a pile of pasta glued onto their papers that didn't really resemble any kind of dinosaur that I have ever seen before -- but they sure had fun making them! We also read some dinosaur stories, and then the rest of the time was spent playing with the swing set and other outdoor toys in Eva's backyard. This little outdoor art class has been great for the boys this summer -- a good opportunity for them to spend time with other kids, play outside (in a nice, fenced-in yard where I don't have to constantly chase them), and to be creative in making their own art work (where I don't have to worry about cleaning up paint or play dough off our floor, walls, curtains, etc. when they are finished). And someone gave me the great idea to scan (or photograph) their artwork, which I have done now. So each of the boys will have a nice binder with big, colorful pictures of their own masterpieces, but I won’t have to worry about trying to protect over-sized pieces of construction paper or keep all the glitter and stickers from falling off of their pictures in some box in the closet for the next 20 years. They already like to sit down and look at their own artwork books, so it is really fun.
17 August 2007
The Boys and Their Dinosaurs
Kolby and Eli wanted me to take their picture today with their stuffed animals. These are their new dinosaurs, which they absolutely love. Eli named his Brachiosaurus 'Long Neck' and Kolby named his Triceratops 'Sara' (like the dinosaur on the movie, The Land Before Time).
05 August 2007
August is Here
This week Michael started his ambulatory medicine rotation (which doesn’t mean that he gets to go on ambulance rides, like it sounds – it’s just another outpatient internal medicine month). He was pretty sad to have to stop his dermatology rotation, but this month looks like it is going to be a good one. Michael is lucky and will often have the afternoons off on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday this month, so that will be really nice. He will have lots of time to work on his application process and to spend time with the family. It was fun, on Friday he got home around 11 am and we had a great day. We took the boys swimming to the splash pool at Enderis Park. Camden has no fear of the water and loves to crawl right in towards the middle of the wading pool which is only a couple feet deep, but still too deep for him. And Kolby and Eli had a great time – I have never seen them actually swim under the water so much before at the splash pools. Eli kept jumping up in the air, landing on his bottom, and then laying back down with his face under the water. We all had a lot of fun there. Then we went to dinner because Michael got a free meal coupon for his birthday from Noodles and Company. And then we parked over by the Ronald McDonald House across from the medical school and went on a relaxing walk through the woods. Friday was a very fun play day for our family.
This week we also got several other things done. I finally had my wedding ring repaired at a jewelry store, since one of the prongs had bent a while ago. It’s nice to be able to wear that again. And I got my report made for my visiting teaching district. I have to say, I am glad to have this new church calling after being in the nursery for almost a year. On Wednesday we went for the family history enrichment group, which I messed up because I was thinking that it started later than it really did. So, we missed the rest of the group, but I did get some more family names prepared for temple work. We also went to the splash pool that day for playgroup, and the boys had fun playing with the other kids there. And Kolby and Eli both had their swimming lessons. They continue to do great – both boys are now good at doing “bobs” (dunking their whole heads under the water). It is also fun to think that Kolby will get to start a sport at the YMCA in a few months (they have to be 4 years old), and after we get back from our December-January Christmas trips Eli will be 3, so he will be old enough to join Kolby for his preschool classes at the YMCA too. That will be fun for them to go together. Well, on Thursday the boys also had their toddler art class, and I think this art activity was the most fun yet. They got to put their hands and feet in paint and paint on a big piece of paper along the fence. We stripped the kids down to their underwear so their clothes wouldn’t get painted, and most of them ended up painting their bodies too before we were done. For some reason, Kolby seems to like eating the paint – I couldn’t convince him to stop putting his paint-covered fingers in his mouth. Oh well, at least it was the non-toxic kind. (I posted pictures from the playgroup at the splash pool and the painting at art class down below).
And I can’t forget the big announcement: Michael’s research paper was officially published in the periodical, Pediatrics, the official journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, on August 3rd. His article is titled, Language Barriers to Prescriptions for Patients With Limited English Proficiency: A Survey of Pharmacies, and I think it ended up being 11 pages long, including several charts that Michael made. If you would like to take a look at the article, you can see the journal online at: http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/
Michael’s article is the fourth one listed on this main page for this current issue of the journal.
This week I also spent a while making a family budget in an Excel spreadsheet. I have a budget that will show the whole year, and it is linked to a separate worksheet for each month. We have made some predictions for how much money we think we will spend for things in the upcoming months, and then we can enter in information from our receipts and then compare the projected and actual expenses. At the end, I had fun setting up graphs that will show our spending for each month, and one for the rest of the year. (That made me think back to middle school when I would do a school papers and then my dad would teach me how to make a graph in Excel to go along with my paper, and I was always so proud because I thought my papers looked so cool).
Yesterday we got things done around the house and then we babysat for the Rahms in the evening. After they picked up their boys, we went shopping because Michael got some birthday money from his family. We went to Kohls and he ended up getting two nice dress shirts, two new ties, and a t-shirt. The boys were patient with us, because we ended up being there until 10 pm (which is way later than we usually ever have them out at night). On the way out, there were these cute stuffed dinosaurs on sale for $5 each and the profit from their sales went to education, so we splurged and got one for Kolby and one for Eli. They love them – Eli’s is a brachiosaurus that he named "Long Neck," and Kolby’s is a triceratops that he named "Sara" (like in his The Land Before Time movie). They slept with them last night, and haven’t stopped playing with them since (the dinosaurs even waited in the car for us while we were at church). It’s pretty cute. Well, church went well today. Camden actually fell asleep during the sacrament meeting, so it was the first time in a while that we didn’t have to leave during the entire first hour. Michael said the opening prayer, and several kids got up to share their testimonies today. Kolby liked watching the other kids, and he said that he could do that when he gets bigger. When we got home, the boys went down for naps, and Michael and I made a few changes to the page that I designed for his yearbook – so now it’s ready to submit to the school once we get back his professional portrait from the studio this week. And now Michael has fallen asleep on the couch while I’ve been writing this, so all of my boys are napping. Tonight should be fun too – we are going to the Hedgecock’s house for dinner, and they always have breakfast food for dinner on fast Sunday. Well, we hope that you have all had a good week too!
This week we also got several other things done. I finally had my wedding ring repaired at a jewelry store, since one of the prongs had bent a while ago. It’s nice to be able to wear that again. And I got my report made for my visiting teaching district. I have to say, I am glad to have this new church calling after being in the nursery for almost a year. On Wednesday we went for the family history enrichment group, which I messed up because I was thinking that it started later than it really did. So, we missed the rest of the group, but I did get some more family names prepared for temple work. We also went to the splash pool that day for playgroup, and the boys had fun playing with the other kids there. And Kolby and Eli both had their swimming lessons. They continue to do great – both boys are now good at doing “bobs” (dunking their whole heads under the water). It is also fun to think that Kolby will get to start a sport at the YMCA in a few months (they have to be 4 years old), and after we get back from our December-January Christmas trips Eli will be 3, so he will be old enough to join Kolby for his preschool classes at the YMCA too. That will be fun for them to go together. Well, on Thursday the boys also had their toddler art class, and I think this art activity was the most fun yet. They got to put their hands and feet in paint and paint on a big piece of paper along the fence. We stripped the kids down to their underwear so their clothes wouldn’t get painted, and most of them ended up painting their bodies too before we were done. For some reason, Kolby seems to like eating the paint – I couldn’t convince him to stop putting his paint-covered fingers in his mouth. Oh well, at least it was the non-toxic kind. (I posted pictures from the playgroup at the splash pool and the painting at art class down below).
And I can’t forget the big announcement: Michael’s research paper was officially published in the periodical, Pediatrics, the official journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, on August 3rd. His article is titled, Language Barriers to Prescriptions for Patients With Limited English Proficiency: A Survey of Pharmacies, and I think it ended up being 11 pages long, including several charts that Michael made. If you would like to take a look at the article, you can see the journal online at: http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/
Michael’s article is the fourth one listed on this main page for this current issue of the journal.
This week I also spent a while making a family budget in an Excel spreadsheet. I have a budget that will show the whole year, and it is linked to a separate worksheet for each month. We have made some predictions for how much money we think we will spend for things in the upcoming months, and then we can enter in information from our receipts and then compare the projected and actual expenses. At the end, I had fun setting up graphs that will show our spending for each month, and one for the rest of the year. (That made me think back to middle school when I would do a school papers and then my dad would teach me how to make a graph in Excel to go along with my paper, and I was always so proud because I thought my papers looked so cool).
Yesterday we got things done around the house and then we babysat for the Rahms in the evening. After they picked up their boys, we went shopping because Michael got some birthday money from his family. We went to Kohls and he ended up getting two nice dress shirts, two new ties, and a t-shirt. The boys were patient with us, because we ended up being there until 10 pm (which is way later than we usually ever have them out at night). On the way out, there were these cute stuffed dinosaurs on sale for $5 each and the profit from their sales went to education, so we splurged and got one for Kolby and one for Eli. They love them – Eli’s is a brachiosaurus that he named "Long Neck," and Kolby’s is a triceratops that he named "Sara" (like in his The Land Before Time movie). They slept with them last night, and haven’t stopped playing with them since (the dinosaurs even waited in the car for us while we were at church). It’s pretty cute. Well, church went well today. Camden actually fell asleep during the sacrament meeting, so it was the first time in a while that we didn’t have to leave during the entire first hour. Michael said the opening prayer, and several kids got up to share their testimonies today. Kolby liked watching the other kids, and he said that he could do that when he gets bigger. When we got home, the boys went down for naps, and Michael and I made a few changes to the page that I designed for his yearbook – so now it’s ready to submit to the school once we get back his professional portrait from the studio this week. And now Michael has fallen asleep on the couch while I’ve been writing this, so all of my boys are napping. Tonight should be fun too – we are going to the Hedgecock’s house for dinner, and they always have breakfast food for dinner on fast Sunday. Well, we hope that you have all had a good week too!
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