Holidays

Christmas was a success! Santa brought the girls just what they wanted and family far and close did a great job as well. We ended up with duplicates of some presents but the girls we are aloud to return them and they were able to shop one of their favorite pastimes but not mine.They love to look at everything in the store and weight their options I on the other hand like to have a list get into the store and get out especially when I have the girls and Mike with me.

The snow finally came to Illinois and stuck around for christmas and the days after, we had fun the other day trying to make a snow man and sledding down our hill in the front yard neither activity was succesful we just ended up playing in the snow and making snow angels.

We have had a lot of fun this winter break with the kids and are enjoying having Mike home for the rest of the week. We have seen on movie and are planning on another one tomorrow. Wishing everyone a Happy and safe New Year.

This is a picture of mike'shandy work in our basement , he did a great job and I love it.

Christmas is almost here and we have been busy making lots of goodies for teachers and friends. Cecilia really enjoys making chocolates but not cookies since they need to be watched and careful done, she prefers to just throw things together and call it good she may turn out to be our chef of the family while I am still the baker. Holly has been learning to deal with partial braces she was excited to receive them then after a few days she didn't think they were so great. She does like it when she goes to the ortho and she gets to change the colors of the bands. Maggie is talking so much more and loves to imitate anything Cecilia does which of course iterates Cecilia. Mike is getting closer to finishing up our built ins but every time he starts to work on it another issue which takes priority comes up. I am not doing anything different just the mom stuff ,keeping peace in the house and making sure everyone gets to where they need to be on time. We are wishing everyone a Happy Holiday and a Happy New Year.

Not a whole lot of things happening here in Peoria, just the usually mike is hard at work and is traveling alot but at least he has a job, the girls are hard at work doing their school work and their after school activities,Maggie is hard at work finding new things to get into and talking more and more. We just took her fall pictures and she gave the photographer a run for her money she wouldn't sit still and refused to smile long enough for a picture we ended up taking 150 pictures and only four turned out well, good thing it was a friend that took all the photos. Right now we are just getting ready for the holidays I can't wait my sisters are coming for thanksgiving it should be fun, hopefully the husbands will survive the three of us together.

Here are some of the pictures we took of Maggie.

Long week

This past week has been a very tiring week for me. It all started Thursday night when Maggie woke up at midnight with a high fever, we spent most of the night tiring to cool her down and get her to sleep. I then spent Friday watching a ton of kids shows and taking care of Maggie and her fever that wouldn't go away, Saturday I went to Nauvoo with the youth on a temple trip and left the mike and the girls behind ,when I arrived home nothing had been done and I then had to get everyone going on their chores as well as make dinner and take care of Maggie, how is it a mother never gets a break. Sunday through Wednesday we pretty much the same take care of the kids and stay up half the night with Maggie while mike was gone on a business trip. Thursday I saw a little light at the end of the tunnel Maggie wanted to eat and drink something she has refused to due all week. I am hoping that this little light grows larger and we are on the way to a happy healthy Halloween. Have a Happy Halloween everyone.

Firsts

We have had a busy begining of the school year the girls are doing well and are loving the change. Being home with mom can get a little dull and they missed their friends. Cecilia has joined the drama club at school and is keeping busy with all her school work and learning to babysit. Holly just started tumbling last night and did better than I thought she would. It still amazes me on how tall she is and yet still so graceful. Maggie also started dance class and she was shy at first but towards the end she started to have fun and talked about dance class the whole way home.
My kids push every button I have but at the same time they are so amazing, Cecilia came home from school and was thrilled at her grade on her science paper, she received an 100% on her periodical tables not all of them just 20 or so but she studied very little and said it was easy just like her dad. When it comes to math or science she is just like Mike which is a great thing the bad thing is she inherited my spelling problem which her Grandma Shurts likes to tell her it has been passed down and that she comes from a long line of horrible spellers. This of course does not help my case when I tell her to study more she just replies "Grandma says it is genetic so I will never be a good speller." Thanks grandma.
We are still building a bookcase in our basement I say still because it was started the first week end in September and I am not sure when it will get done. With mikes work and church schedule as well as family things he may get it done for Christmas. I love the fact that he is trying to build it but maybe he should stick with electronics they work better for him.

Summer Fun

Our summer has been a busy one and our latest trip reassured us that the Midwest is where we should be. We drove out to Idaho for mike's grandmas funeral and enjoyed our time with his family. Maggie who loves her pa pop Shurts was very excited to go visit him and was a little taken back when it took longer than usual to get there but once she met pa pop Payne she was in love, she followed him around and loved his cabin. She was very sad when we left and has been making pictures for him everyday, they just are not always on blank paper. Maggie has also fallen in love with swimming and would swim everyday if she could. We hang out at the pool as often as we can and it helps that all her friends go there as well. Holly and Cecilia went to scout camp this summer and had fun catching frogs and learning to canoe for city girls they love the country life. We just ordered school clothes for them and started getting school things together, the summer is going fast and as much as I want them to go back to school I am not ready for summer to end.

Vaction

What a great vacation! One I hope the girls will always remember. I am going to break it down day by day to make it easier to read.

Day 1

We climbed in the car around 2:00 in the morning and we drove all day to Florida. The drive was pretty easy. In the south they have a treat called boiled peanuts, we all tried them Mike and Maggie were the only ones that actually liked them. We arrived at our hotel around 8:30 that night all we did was crash.

Day 2 We took the kids to Cocoa Beach so they can say they swam in the ocean. They had a great time collecting sea shells and getting a mouth full of salt water. Mike and I both ended up with a very bad sun burn. It doesn't matter how much sun screen we use or how often we still burn.

Day 3

Today we started our week of Disney World. Monday was Magic kingdom, Tuesday was Hollywood Studios, then Epcot and then Animal Kingdom. It was so hot on this day that the kids felt like they were melting. The lines were long but they meet Ariel and rode on alot of fun rides.

Day 4

We were able to see American Idol, little mermaid and met JoJo and Goliath , Buzz light year and Mickey Mouse. Maggie loved meeting all the characters and seeing all the shows. Mike and I rode on the Aerosmiths roller coaster. It went so fast and was great. We went to see the light show that night but instead the rain came and we were drenched. They kids were laughing about how wet they were but at least they were not hot anymore. It was good to see them laugh about it and not throw a fit.

Day5&6

We walked and walked we must of walked at least 5 miles a day and sweat about five buckets full. The kids loved it and loved seeing everything. We were able to see Epcot's light show and fireworks. It was amazing to watch the lights over the water and they displayed images on the world along with music. It was beautiful. We were able to sample food from around the world and the girls fell in love with a chocolate cake from France.

Day 7

This day was Cecilia's Birthday and we let her choose what she wanted to do. Disney World gave her a gift card since we already bought tickets and she was able to shop for whatever she wanted. That was the best gift for her, the girl loves to shop. We went back to Epcot and bought her the chocolate cake she loved and put some candles on it and sang to her. She loved it. The day was going great we met Belle, Jasmine and Snow White, we ate lunch Mexico and then Holly threw up on the bridge , the people of DW were great and sent us to first aid while they cleaned it up, Holly spent an hour cooling down while Cecilia and I went on some rides, they wouldn't let us all stay in there. We then went back to Magic Kingdom for the rest of the day. While Mike and Holly and Maggie went shopping, Cecilia and I rode on some roller coasters, while shopping Holly found 50 dollars on the ground she turned it in and the people there were so happy as they were deciding what to do Maggie peed all over the store floor, Mike and the girls quickly left. We ended the day with a great dinner and watched the light parade.They girls loved it their eyes were so big through the whole thing.

Day 8&9

We drove home, it took us two days to go home because we woke up late each day and we didn't want to push it. We also stopped and looked at things we didn't see on the way home. We went to Metropolis IL and say a very large superman and had lunch at Dip n Dots the girls love this ice cream I personally think it tasted weird. For Father's day we gave mike a can of boiled peanuts he loved it. This ends our trip to Florida, it was packed full of fun and laughs. Sorry for the long post but I did shorten it there are alot more fun stories. Until next time.