Kami turns 2!

As hard as it is to believe, Kami turned 2! I do not know how those two years went by so fast. 

Shaila's mom and her sister and family came down for a few days to help celebrate the event. We hosted a little party at our house, since it would be hard to have enough space at Ford and Shiala's. 

Shiala loves to think about, plan and put on parties. She likes to go all out and make it a shindig. 

It was very cute and had an Ice Cream theme. Kami got lots of gifts and had fun being the center of attention on her special day!

Opening her gifts. She understands the whole process now and was fun to watch as she ripped paper and pried open boxes to see what was inside.

Shiala had made these cute ice cream cones out of balloons and paper and put them up around the house for decor. We all enjoyed lots of ice cream with a variety of toppings and cake, of course.

Shiala really likes to bake and make cakes, trying new techniques. Her kids will hopefully realize how lucky they are to have a mom who LIKES to make their birthday cakes!

I thought this cake was awesome. It had a 'melted' ice cream cone on top which was actually chocolate ganache. It was so cute and everyone was very impressed with her cake making efforts.

Kami, we are so thankful for you and for the sweet little girl you are. You are a ray of light and life and make life fun and brighter every day. Happy Birthday, sweet girlie!!

Charles turns 7!

Again we reach the end of the winter version of the Welch family birthday season by celebrating Charlie's birthday. He has reached the ripe old age of 7. We so enjoy this boy, except we don't really love his 'frumps' lately. He has had a hard time getting up and going for school and acts really frumpy. He always tells me he's tired and I always tell him, "Join the party. We are all tired and we all have to get up and going anyway!" Aren't I a nice mom? :P

Charles had decided that we were doing foil dinners for his birthday, just like Soren and James, but at the last minute he decided he'd rather have pizza. Sweet! So much easier! 

How we miss Little Caesar's! Living here we either make our own pizza on French Bread or we buy frozen Freschetta or DiGiorgno when it's on sale. The pizza places in town are just too much $.

Following dinner, we lit up his cake and sang to him. As you can see, he wasn't sure about our singing and I'm not sure if he was laughing at us or trying not to cry by covering his mouth….

He wanted a Ninjago cake. (we did wash all those Legos before putting them on the cake, and again after we took them off. Cleanest they've ever been!)

He opened presents and was happy to get a new Star Wars t-shirt, money, a rubber band pistol, and a RC car. Oh and CANDY. Cannot forget candy. It's his most favorite thing in the world.

Kami provided the entertainment for the evening. After everyone who wanted cake got some, she pulled that cake over to her and using the server began eating the frosting off the cake. She really went to town and had it pretty much everywhere. We laughed and laughed at her, which just made her keep at it.

At the end of the night, I had no problem just chucking the rest of the cake. Kami really helped her old grandma not be tempted to finish off the cake the next day. Thank you Kami!!!!

Snow day!

We had an unusually long Christmas Break this year, not heading back to school until Jan 7. It was snowing that day and when we woke up on the 8th this is what we found! About 12-18 inches of snow had fallen overnight. Curtis got a phone call early in the morning. I knew he was dreading having to go shovel at the school, so when I heard him say "Hallelujah!" I knew it meant we were having a snow day.
So, after going back for one day of school we had another 3 day weekend. It was so nice not to have to get everyone out in it and just stay cozy and warm together at home.

back yard - deep enough to completely cover the garden boxes 

looking out our northeast door. It always piles up here due to the swirling action of the wind. 

Looking to the northwest. See how buried the trampoline and bushes are...

a better look at the trampoline. I love how the snow is lying on the trees. A winter wonderland.

I had promised the kids we would do gingerbread houses during Christmas and New Year's for something to do to fill time. But we never got to it with all our trips. So, because of the unexpected day off and no plans, we decided it was a good day to make gingerbread. However, I could not find the cookie cutter I have that makes tiny houses, so we had to settle for regular cookies. I did trek out to to the grocery store for candy to decorate the cookies with. Kami came over for a couple of hours in the afternoon and we had a good time decorating and eating cookies and candy.

gingerbread

Kami deciding whether to decorate her cookie or just eat the candy...

decided to put this piece of candy on the cookie

lots of decorating going on

Hannah got artsy with a baggy of frosting…

Hooray for a Snow Day!

Happy Birthday, Great-Grandma!

My mom's birthday is on Jan 5. It was a really busy day and I didn't get a chance to call her, but I took this funny picture of Kami and texted it to her along with all the lyrics of Happy Birthday.
I love how Kami looks like she is singing. Mom thought it was really cute!

Cute Kami

Mom and Hugh at the Jazz Game the week after Christmas. Aren't they cute?

I sure love my mom and I'm so happy she has found love and friendship again. I am thankful she chose to be a mom and to have me and my sisters and give us such an amazing childhood and raise us with the Gospel. As I look back, my childhood has such a golden glow to it. I know that's because I had great parents, sweet sisters, a wonderful extended family, the Gospel and grew up in a safe place. Thanks, Mom! Love you!!!!

Night in Bethlehem-Monticello 1st Ward Christmas party 2015

Hannah and Kami heading to Bethelehem

This year we as a Relief Society Presidency decided to buck tradition a bit. That's pretty brave because things in Monticello are not changed often. "We've always done it that way."
We discussed how we could make our ward Christmas party more Christ-centered and less "Eat and Run". The tradition has been to put up all the banquet tables in the Stake Center and then starting on the 1st Tuesday in Dec and for the next 3 days all the wards in town have their Ward Christmas party. It's efficient. I'll give it that. But it was also not very exciting or looked forward to. I don't like to bad mouth the way the church does things, but since we got rid of the Activities Chair calling, it seems like our ward social get-togethers have been lackluster. It's all about food, eating and that's it. Not much attempt at a program or meaning behind what we're doing. And I get it. The ward council is in charge of those things. They are all the Quorum and auxiliary leaders and have enough on their plates as is. They don't need to take on planning and pulling off a fancy party.
So we took it over. With permission. We formed a committee involving lots of other sisters in the ward, each over a certain portion of the planning/prep. We decided we'd like to do a Bethlehem themed dinner party. And it all came together wonderfully. We ended up rearranging the tables and putting up tents and the Primary did a program of the Nativity + music for us.
The food was fabulous. Not quite the roast beef the bishop likes, but it was good and there was oodles. The decorating was awesome. It looked really good in the cultural hall.
The nativity was so cute. Charles did awesome as Joseph, until he let Mary fall off her donkey! I hope everyone enjoyed it and will want to do it again some time in the future. Sometimes traditions need to be changed.

directional sign decor

the line at the food market tents...

Poor Kami was too tired to enjoy our Israeli supper. She's such a sweet little girl!

we had meatballs, deviled eggs, pita, hummus, bagels, fruit, veggies and apple cake!

guess we were part of the 'senior crowd' as we opted to sit at a table rather than on the floor

The Primary depicted the Nativity for us all

Charles (in blue) was Joseph, and Soren (in brown with a turban) was a wise man. 

Halloween

Another October 31. yay. 

Actually it was a pretty low-key holiday and we didn't do much beyond dressing up and doing a bit of trick-or-treating.

I made the boys clean up and sort all the Legos before they could go trick-or-treating. It's a job that we have to do about monthly. For some reason, putting them away after every time you play with them just can't happen and they get to the point where you can't see the Lego table and they start to cover the floor as well. If I didn't like the creative play they create, I'd get rid of the dang things. sigh.

I have no idea why the boys were putting used hand wax on their faces but they sure had fun playing with it.
Soren has a "drippy" nose.

Charlie has a strange beard.

Charlie wanted to be zombie so Hannah used her drama makeup skills and helped turn him into one.
I think she did a good job.

showing off her wound-creating skills

Here are my boys all ready to go collect that candy!
Charlie-zombie, James-the "shy, little kitten", Soren-Power Ranger

Theres the kitten's face

Kami joined us for trick-or-treating and everyone got plenty of candy.

We still allow the kids to eat as much candy as they want. I just want it gone and I don't want to have to police it for days/weeks. Our policy is 'Eat it all and have a good bellyache and be done with it." 

Harvest Festival

A couple of years ago the grade school stopped doing their Halloween carnival at the school. Instead the PTA teamed up with the city and they began having a Harvest festival in the city park on the Saturday before Halloween. I think the teachers at the school must be thrilled to no longer have that extra job on their shoulders. Each game and food booth is run by PTA volunteers. Since we're such great fans of Halloween around here (not) we have not ever attended it. But this year, the weather was wonderful and we thought it would be fun to take the little boys and Kami and see what it was all about. We had signed up to take some cookies for the cookie/cake walk so we plated and wrapped those up and off we went. The boys did not want to participate in the costume part so only Kami wore her costume. And I think she was probably melting, it was that warm. We bought tickets and let the kids choose how they wanted to use their tickets...

Charles chose to get his face painted…he wanted to be a cat.

Kami, the little cat, liked the sucker she got from one of the games.
She wasn't too interested in games after that, just liked the candy.

James trying to knock the pins down. See where his ball went? Not quite in the right direction.

But they let him pick a little prize anyway.

the boys loved the 'Plinko" game…
here's James watching his chip plink down

And Charles watching to see what prize he won

Kami did better at the bowling than James…she had a better spot to stand in ;)

They had this spot as a photo opp. Here are two of the cutest boys I know. And this picture perfectly shows their personalities. Charlie is a bit reserved and James is sassy. :)