Saturday stuff...

We started our Saturday morning with a fun run/walk with our ward.  It was 2 miles around a neighborhood by our stake center and it was beautiful!  Emma walked half and ran half, she did great!  Kennedy even walked/ran half of it, and so did Audrey.  I tried to ride in the stroller, but nobody would push me (ha ha).  I was inspired enough by some women in my ward who are training for the London's Run 1/2 marathon.  I may go for the 2 mile walk with my kids so they can feel the race atmosphere.  That's about all my knees can handle right now, till I'm in better shape, but that is on Jan 30 in Queen Creek.  Anyway, the girls loved it and I'll probably include them at that race too.  Also, the Race for Africa's Children associated with Care For Life  should be coming up and I'll post info when I get it.

After the race there was a classic car show in the parking lot of the grocery store by our house. Tim thought it would be a great place to show off some of his, uh, hobbies/work.  He is amazing. He got this 1970 Triumph (white) that hasn't run for over 10 years and had it running and shinnied up for the show in just 10 days.  "Little Red" drew some nice attention, but who wouldn't want to look at her twice!  (MGB)

Emma and Audrey loved this pink get-up and wanted their picture by it.  There was also a fire truck there they were letting kids in to look around. Pretty fun, and absolutely beautiful overcast 70 degree day here in good ol' Gilbert.

They wanted to buy this one!

Audrey is looking nervous because there is another kid that jumped in right next to her...

So it doesn't confuse you, (where do they get the money to buy these cars?)  Tim is starting to flip cars to make some extra cash.  Tim has a great talent for buying low and selling high.  This Triumph was a good buy to try out selling on Ebay motors. I'm so glad he has a hobby that makes money rather than takes away.  We have owned more than 30 cars in our 10 years of marriage and only lost money on 2.  That's pretty good stats if you ask me.  He's happy and it gets him away from 3 (sometimes 4) whiney girls!

Stuff I saw over the Holidays...Really

and thought, nice try... or maybe you shouldn't have.

Really

Then was a bit hungry, and thought, "Gee, I could eat 501 double melts from Arbys...

dang limits of 500.

REALLY? I mean REALLY?!!!

Happy New Year! and an update...

YAY! 2010! I got a feelin' this is gonna be a GREAT year!

That is what I've been thinking about this new year, now that we're a week into it.  We have had so much fun with our girls.  We went to the Botanical garden on New Year's eve to get some pretty pictures of pretty things, and it was a beautiful day.  We had our friends over for some games and celebrating (eating) and played a game called Settlers of Catan. It's addicting. A great way to pass time an have lots of fun.

As far as New years goes, I have always been a die hard resolution setter, but this year I surprised myself by opting for little monthly goals to include my kiddos.  The reason for this, I'm not sure, but I think it is because I tend to write down the same goals every year.  Rather than set myself up for disappointment, I decided I want to help my kids do new things.  It is gonna be a great year.

First off, we are gonna cancel our cable for 2 reasons, Time and Money  It takes both. and now that I've proclaimed it, we must follow through.  Our date is set for "quit" is in February.  We spend so much time just "seeing what's on" and we want that no more.  So in so doing we will lose our home phone as well and get another cell phone. More info to come on that.

Emma has started to "get it" on her bike without training wheels. Yay!! She pretends to be scared, but then she laughs because she is so proud of herself. Go Emma!!

Audrey is a Sunbeam at Church and is a sponge for information.  She keeps us on our toes to keep her entertained and interested, and gets along with Kennedy or is her worst enemy, all in 10 seconds.

Kennedy is talking more and more.  The other night Tim asked her if she was his "buddy" and she laid her head on his shoulder and said so sweetley, "bubbeee" and it melted my heart. She has been taking her turn saying family prayer at night and repeats Tim and says family, Audrey, Emma, Daddy, Mommy, Jesus, and Amen.  I think we might be doing something right.

Tim got released from Primary.  He and I were teaching the Sunbeams (3-4year olds) and have been in primary for most of the 5 years we've been in this ward.  He is happy to talk to adults for a bit at Church. We'll see how long that lasts...  He's plugging along through school, and surfing C-list for good deals to flip and make some coinage on the side for fun in the garage.  It is a great outlet and I'm so happy he has a hobby that makes money, instead of money pit.

I switched from Sunbeams to 7yr olds.  It is so fun! They sit still, answer questions, read, and actually pay attention.  I'm really excited for my class this year.  I'm still working 3 days/week in Mesa and really like the office I'm at.  I am temping where ever I can the other 2 days and have enjoyed being home when I am.  We are so blessed with enough work to get by with our finances, and enough ambiguity that it is a great test of faith and trust in the process.

Tuff and Tillie (our long forgotten dogs) live outside most of the time, and lay around like lazy spoiled dogs.  We are going to change that eventually, like take them on walks or something. Sounds good.

Well, I've been having thoughts about what to post, and well, that's as far as they've gotten.  We'll see if they actually publish.  It'll be good.

Now, for pictures...

this tree looked like something out of a Dr. Seuss book.  Where's the Lorax?

Christmas 2009

Merry Christmas to all. I hope everyone had a nice Christmas. I got all I wanted. Healthy kids. Warm home. Knowledge and love of my wonderful Savior Jesus Christ and I'm so glad I can share the celebration of His birth with ones I love.

Some highlights of our seasonal events are that we started reading Christmas stories with the girls. We started with one of my favorites, "The Forgotten Carols" by Michael McLean. We listened to the CD as we read, Emma just loved it. When we were finishing the last chapter, she was crying and I asked her why and she said she just felt so happy and was also sad it was over. It was such a tender moment with her. I was so glad we did that, then we also read "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever" which has the same feel as the Junie B Jones books. She loved that too. We also read "twas the night before Christmas" and "The Velveteen Rabbit" and "The Christmas Box". This will definitely be a family tradition for us instead of waiting for Christmas TV specials to come on, we made such great memories with these stories.

Also, Kennedy loves to point out all the "twinkle" lights she sees when we are out driving around. Every one is like the first one. She gets so excited. I love that age (20 months) She can say Mama, Dada, Gaga, Papa, Emma, Ahhg (Audrey) as well as the "k" sound for every other word she wants to communicate.

Audrey had the most fun on Christmas morning. She gave the best squeals when she opened a few of her toys. She got some play jewelry from Grandma Jensen and amid all the noise of opening gifts, she stopped everyone with her scream of joy. It was awesome, I just wish I was rollin' tape.

Emma has been really sensitive to the Spirit of Christmas this year. She is so tenderhearted, and is such a blessing to have her in our family. She keeps us doing good things, prayers, scriptures, and the like. She truly is a spiritual giant in the making.

As far as commercialism goes this season, we have been so blessed to have what we need and just enough to help the girls have some presents under the tree. We have been soo blessed from generous family and friends helping me keep my faith in "the process" of life because as my mom taught me "life is a process, not an event" and we've been searching for more work for me and in that search I've really stretched my faith to grow and hopefully be stronger. It always seems we've had just enough work to get us through, week to week. It's all thanks to family and friends keeping us fed, scheduled, smiling, and feeling so blessed. I feel like I've had really watery eyes lately and I wondered why. I know it is my tendency, but lately I have been so blessed I can't help but let my "cup flow over."

I am thankful for these challenges. Refiners fires. Good friends, family, work, and my faith have made Christmas 2009 very memorable. Priceless. Merry Christmas.

On Christmas Eve, I played a duet with Emma, she played piano and I played violin Silent Night. She did great!  I am so proud of her.

All Emma and Audrey wanted for was Moxie Girls.  They got it. Thanks Gaga.

Christmas greetings from Audrey

Audrey was singing on the way to Church this morning and I knew I had to get it on video. And I finally figured out how to function our camera on Video, but I need to figure out the focus (baby steps right!)

candy candy candy!!!

Traditional sugar intake continued at the Harper household with sugar being cooked, boiled, baked, and best of all consumed in the sweetest manner.  This is our (count 'em) 9th year in our great tradition.  We have tried many candy recipes, but the ones that are tried and true and loved best of all are and how long we've been making them:

• peanut brittle (9Years)
• crock pot candy (3 years)
• mexican wedding cakes/russian tea cakes (9 years)
• butter toffee (3 years)
• fudge (9 years, 4 years successfully)
• caramels (6 years hit and miss success)
• divinity (9 years, unsuccessfully for the last 4 years but we still try even though it has burned out 2 electric mixers!!)

Grandma working the sugar for butter toffee

Gaga working the cake cookies

Gaga and Marissa powdering the cake cookies

Me and Tara working the fudge

Tanya and Grandma doing microwave caramels

Papa doing kiddo duty

Tanya with the final fudge trays and caramels

All of us with the finished divided candy to take home

Yummmmy!

Now there is a confession I have about divinity.  It taunts me every year.  I research it every year, trying to improve my odds of success.  Tips they give are you need low humidity or powdered sugar to get it to set, or pour so slowly your arm wants to break off!  I have tried all of this, and short of standing on my head, to no avail.  Even yesterday, the after my miserable failure (and final attempt at divinity, I'm at peace with that) we tried a "no-fail" recipe that even failed!! Bless her heart, Grandma somehow got it to work.  So I am bowing out of this challenge until later in my cooking life.  After spending too many hours and pounds of sugar on something that is consistently unsuccessful for me, I give up.  And it is okay.  I'll spend the time on Peppermint bark next time!

something about trains...

For family night last week, Tim was over at Tara's getting his neck unkinked (thank you Tara!) and for FHE we decided to decorate the house a little more and get the train out.  For some reason, this is one of those things for me I don't really get tired of.  I could watch the train go around and around for a long time and not even realize it.  So, I did with the girls.  It was sweet surrender of time with them where they were happy and giggling and not  teasing or whining for a glorious ? minutes.  Bliss.  Here is some evidence.

Emma was Conductor

Love from Kennedy

Yay!!

Kennedy would wave hello and bye-bye every time the train passed.

Holidays

Now I officially will be short on time with Holiday time taking my time.  I am making a point this year to be attentive to my kiddos and my husband.  I feel like I am spread so thin I can barely make it through the day.  Work and trying to find work takes way too much, so the leftovers belong to the family.  I apologize ahead of time for not writing a lot here, but I am pretty good about getting my pics on the computer, so I'll do my best to just keep posting those.  May we all remember the reason for the season.

Here are pictures from Thanksgiving, the Polar Express train ride, and the start of December.
Here is a link to all the pictures CLICK