January has found us live and well but with a touch of cabin fever. The snow finally came on Christmas day and hasn't left us yet, not to mention the bitter cold temps we have had on top of the wind that could make you think twice about living here. I am not sure how our ancestors survived these types of conditions. O,K of the subject of weather, the girls are back to school and doing much better this semester Cecilia is trying out for the school play today and I hope she gets the part she wants and I really hope she enjoys doing this. Holly is on a count down to her eight birthday she is so excited to be getting her first slumber party and getting baptized. She tried on my baptism dress yesterday and found it to be a tad sung on her which upsets me a little since I was really hoping all my girls could wear my dress to be baptized in. I am taking it to a friend of mine next week to see if it can be let out a little to help fit her. I'm crossing my fingers in hope it works. Maggie decided to use her vocab alot more lately and has been coming up with phrases that crack us up. On our trip to St.Louis mike got to use his new GPS system and every time the GPS told us to turn Maggie would say"People that lady told my dad to turn left" if we didn't say anything to her she would just getting on saying this phrase over and over until we responded. It cracked us up to think Maggie has people we later found out that her people are her sisters. She is talking so much some days too much, luckily she has not started into the why phase yet.

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.