It's the most wonderful time of the year

What a great Holiday Season we have had. We have enjoyed all the lights and decorations and snow. We have spent time together as a family and remembered how much we are loved by our Savior and how grateful we are that He was born.
We are not ready however for the season to be over, its just so nice spending time at home eating good food, playing, watching movies, and being lazy.
We have done most of the fun Christmas time things such as going to see Santa and making gingerbread houses ( out of graham crackers ) listening to Christmas music non stop, going to see lights, and something new for our family this year. Killing a turkey and plucking it for Christmas Day dinner ( both the turkey and the dinner thing are new). We had Grandma Ungerman up for Christmas Eve and morning. We all got spoiled. Now we have New Years to look forward to. I am excited for all the things coming up in 2009. Including me and Steling's 10 year Anniversary and Walkers baptism later in the year.
We have a lot to be grateful for and we want everyone of our family members and friends to know that we count ourselves blessed to have you in our lives. We love you and think of you all often, though you may not hear from us or see as much as we would like. We hope you all enjoyed the most wonderful time of the year and that your new year is happy and bright.

Happy Halloween

October is my favorite month of the year, and Halloween one of my favorite holidays. When I was a kid it always seemed like it took forever for it to get here, especially since I'd been planning my costume since the year before. Did it go that way way for any of you. The day of Halloween as you are putting on your costume you've been so anxious to show off you say" I really love this costume, but next year I'm going to be such and such." Maybe its just the anticipation and the joy of getting to be creative oh yea and all the candy was pretty fun too, but I think pretending to be something different than your every day you is always inticing.
This year my kids went with pretty traditonal costumes. Walker was a Skeleton and Shelby was a Witch. Walkers costume was homemade from black sweats and glow in the dark fabric paint. Sterling drew the bones and also painted Walkers face. I have a very talented husband.
We were able to grow one smallish pumkin in our garden this year, and we decided it was shaped very similar to an animated skull we have for decoration this time of year. Sterling got out his power tools and created a very awsome skull jack-o-lantern. We bought three others and Walkers was flame eyed, Shelbys was silly and mine was rotten and couldn't be carved. (oh well)
At 4:30 on halloween we did the Trunk or Treat our ward hosted and then went trick or treating to a really cool house one subdivision over. The owners have be collecting animated decorations for about 15 years and add to it every year. It's a really awsome display. Shelby did not want to go there and acutlly fell asleep in the car on the way over there. Is 7:00 to early? Nah! The rest of us enjoyed it though.
So Ster and Walker are still out collecting sugary goodness, Shelby is sleeping and I'm blogging. We have a good friend who turns 30 today, so we are going to a surprise party for him later. It's been a really fun Halloween. Hope you all had a Spooktacular Holiday!

First Grade Fun!!

Walker is now a first grader. All summer I have been trying to get him excited for this new adventure, but he has adamantly refused to be excited. "I only like Kindergarten" he said. Well back to school night was on Wed. and we went to the school to meet his teacher and see his classroom. Earlier that week he had told me that he would want to sit up front in his classroom. I thought that was a smart comment. We got there and what do you know the desks are set up alphabetically. Walker is the last kid on the last row. He didn't seem too disappointed, but I was. So I asked the teacher if this was his permanent seat and she said they rotate. Thank goodness. His teacher seems nice. Walkers favorite part was seeing where his back pack hangs up. That night he picked out his clothes to wear, and of course didn't go to bed until 10:30. 7:30 came really early, but he was finally excited about one thing; riding his bike to school with his friends. Going to school with his friends and recess is all he talks about so far. Maybe first grade isn't so bad.

Have a laugh on me

Who doestn't love a good sing along? Well do I have one for you. My good friend Pricsilla showed me this sing along blog that is very funny, but has a weird ending. It's called Dr. Horribles sing along blog.http://www.drhorrible.com/mushortio.html Let me know what you think. Who wouldn't love a villan named Dr. Doogie Howser, I mean Dr. Horrible?

Stargazing

On August 12th I took Walker to a stargazing party at the American West Heritage Center. It went from 9pm-1am. I didn't tell him about it until the day of, because I didn't want him to get so excited and then be disappointed if it rained or something. At about 8:00pm I told him to go get some warmer clothes on because I was taking him on a date. His first reaction was that he did not want to go on a date, he wanted to stay home and play computer games. Good thing I'm the MOM and get what I want. He is actually really funny about trying new things and tries to avoid doing things that he doesn't understand. So I explained what we were going to do, and how much fun it was going to be, and that it was just him and me and that's why it is a date. So I talked him into it and we had so much fun. At the center they had crafts about space and the big telescopes to look through, and a number of planned activities. We went to a Star Lab first, which was a big dome shaped tent that was very dark and had a machine in the middle that simulated the night sky. The man in charge explained things about constalations and the north star and stories about the constalations. It was great and probably Walkers favorite part. Then we went outside and played glow in the dark ring toss. We went to another activity in a tent outside called a glow in the dark tea party. They had black lights set up in the tent and lots of bright neon balloons. We were served lemonade, cookies, cake, and played games. The woman in charge told us about why they had tea parties in 1917. ( the heritage farm is a restored 1917 working farm, it's really amazing. Everyone on the farm is a volunteer and they dress up for the part too.) Children went to tea parties to learn manners, to learn how to cook, to set a table, how to plan an event ect. They stressed the manners part and we all had to say please and thank you and use our napkins properly. I loved it, it wasn't Walkers favorite part. We ended the evening on a treasure hunt which took us all over the grounds in the dark. We started out with a mountain man guide who taught us how to find the big dipper and the north star, he also taught us about what the mountain men/trappers did in cache valley. We were then able to find our way to our clues by finding north and going from there. It was vey intresting and exciting, especially when we got to the end and found our cache. A treasure of glow in the dark stars and candy. My greatest treasure that night was the time spent with Walker. He's getting so big and starts 1st grade next week. He is a wonderful child. I am a blessed woman. For anyone looking for something to do with your children, I would definately suggest some time spent together looking at the night sky. What a great date! We got home at about 1:15 I couldn't believe we stayed the whole 4 hours. He was excited to tell dad and his friends all about it. He even shared some of his candy with his sister. I can't wait for another date.

What am I getting myself into

I have my own blog and will say and do what ever I want. Do not expect anything funny or insightful or imaginative. For those things, I lovingly direct you to Sterlings blog. To find out what the kids and I are up too have a seat. We won't take too much of your time as we don't do alot that would intrest others. We have fun doing what we do though and our time spent together is exactly what it should be, a vast learning expeirence with the blind leading the blind most days. Is it okay to say that I still don't quite know what I'm doing? Good thing I have wonderful and forgiving kids, and a very patient and encouraging husband. Never mind what I know and what I don't know. I am here to show you into my life and lucky for me you all are showing me into yours. Here goes nothing.