Summer

I am enjoying the idea of summer right now since we are in the thick of a bitter cold winter. (This is probably in answer to Cynth's post today) I have been going through old pictures and found this one. It is from this past summer when we were lucky enough to go spend time with our Oregon/Washington family. . I love the kiss of sun on their faces and the blonde in their hair. Ah summer : )

Hamsters Everywhere!

As some of you may know I work at the Y. Every weekend, I am the one that checks people in, gives tours and signs people up for memberships. It is a fun job. I really enjoy being around all the people. This is New Year Resolution time. That means that I get to take a lot of people on a lot of tours. They always start out fine. But, when we get to the fitness center there are always a bunch of people doing this:But what I see are hamsters everywhere!

It is starting to haunt me.

Not feelin the homework

Often times blogs are filled with their kids great achievements, huge spelling lists and impressive projects. But what about those days that the kid doesn't want to do anything. Ryan came home with the assignment to write a sentence for each spelling word. Once he finally sat down it took him at least an hour to come up with these sentences. Don't tell Ry but I think they are pretty funny. Yes, he has picked all easy words. That is a different issue though. I tried to slide through 4th too..in fact I was still trying this stuff my Sophomore year at the Y.
1. A writer writes.
2. An inventor invents.
3. A treasurer treasures.
4. A pitcher pitches.
5. An editor edits.
6. A listener listens.
7. An actor acts.
8. An auditor audits.
9. A senator senits.
Yes, we made him write better ones. Don't you wish you were Ry's teacher. He can be such an easy kid sometimes.

Cousin visit

Hi everyone. This is Fiona. I was invited to spend some time at my cousins' house last night so that my parents could go see the movie Marley and Me.
I had a great time. I got to drive this cool steering wheel. I especially like the nice dog button feature. It made me happy. Dad's FIVE doesn't have that one. Of course his car does have doors and wheels.

Uncle Erik let me play his guitar.

Emily was a great help to me. She made sure I was happy and didn't fall backwards the entire evening.

I think this snow man followed me here. When I did get a little upset, Ry was able to hug me and help me feel better. I had a great time at my cousins' house. They had fun with me too. I cannot wait for my next visit.

Resolutions

My sister Laurie is in town for the holidays. We thought it would be fun to have a ladies lunch. It is great spend time with fun family. We decided to go Houlihans. While eating we decided that Owen Wilson could be my boyfriend. I think that Hugh Jackman is Laurie's. You can all fight her for him. We also got on the topic of new year's resolutions. I am resolutionless. There are is a ton of things for me to work on...patience, house cleaning, weight loss. You know all the regular stuff. I am constantly at least trying to improve on those things. I want to think of something fun...something about not loosing perspective on life..and then in turn being a kinder happier person. I know that is too vague to be a real resolution. I am working on it. What are your goals? How is life going to get better in 2009?

Marley and Me

Christmas night we went to see Marley and Me. We are one of those families that hits the movies on Christmas. When I first saw the previews for this movie my heart jumped. I was so excited about it. It did not let me down. It was real life...many scenes hit close to home. It made me laugh and OF COURSE made me cry. Best of all it made me love my family and Ashley that much more. I completely recommend this move. I sat in front of Ryan in the theater. Toward the end Ryan leans forward and tells me it is going to get sad. A few minutes later I hear sobbing behind me. No matter how prepared you are...it is hard not to be touched.

Owen Wilson is really fun to watch : ) The puppy is cute too.

Great Christmas

I hope you all had a great Christmas. We have been surrounded by family and friends. Just the way it should be, right? On Christmas Eve we went to my parents' house and had a feast and fun. The food was delicious. Last year we started a new tradition. We had a family talent show. It happened again this year. We had somersaults (Andrew), recorders(Ryan and Emily), jokes(Louise), poems(Laurie), magic(Grandpa Bill) and singing(Ben) and songs(Grandma Ginger). Yes, Aunt Edna (Erik and me) showed up and ate some pudding. I am related to some crazy talented people. (check back for pictures)

Christmas Morning

Santa comes..and we have some happy kiddos. Emily is carefully listening to the plan of attack on opening presents. I was awaken by sounds of organizing presents. The presents were already in piles by the time I made it to the scene.
They got new PJs Christmas Eve night.
Excitement was in the air. Ryan was thought it was neat to open presents in new comfy pajamas. Can you guess what Santa brought Andrew? Santa shops Craig's List
Emily was found playing her new games
Family showed up Christmas afternoon.
We had a family gift exchange
This was Fiona's first Christmas.
Baby also got new soft chewable blocks...yummy

This is the second year that we have taken the kids to the dollar store, give them a shopping cart and let them pick out presents for each family member. It gets them thinking about the family, practice independently choosing gifts for others, and a chance feel good about giving gifts. (we stole this idea from friends) I have gotten a kick out of what they find.
Ry found these great teeth for Grandpa.
Andrew chose a heart shaped night light for Fiona..and called it a "Love Light"
Other fun gifts given...a whoopi cushion for Grandma Ginger and lots of the squishy stress balls.