Bryner Beat

20 minutes of silence

2011-12-22T13:39:00.000-08:00

I came home today and my middle schoolers asked if they could walk down to the store and get a new drawing pad. It's 57 degrees outside on this 22nd day of December in Hershey, PA and if I let them go right away, I have 20 minutes before my elementary schoolers get home and that gives me 20 minutes of complete silence. Yes, of course you can go to the store. Do I have about three million things to do? Of course, but I am going to sit here in silence for those 20 minutes and then try to get some things updated on here. I just sent out my Christmas cards today, so for those of you who do choose to check this out, I thought I should be ready. I'll see you in 20.

What have we been doing?

2011-12-04T22:02:00.001-08:00

This is our trip to New York. I wanted to have the family visit New York, go ice skating and I wanted to see my first Broadway play for my 40th birthday. That's what we did. This picture is of the kids and our friend Sarah at our first Geocache find. Geocaching has been a fun pastime of ours for the past year. This is the one we found in Central Park.

Here are the kids after ice-skating. It was fun and exhausting. They were great sports and enjoyed it regardless of the bumps and bruises from falling repeatedly.

Jump back to spring and our kids right before a piano recital.

Back to New York and a visit to Toys R Us in time square and the Buzz Lightyear made of legos. (The kids love Lego's and had a very Lego Christmas.)

Aaron and Nathan after skating. Aaron couldn't get enough and skated a bit longer than the rest of us. Nathan was happy to hang out on the ice with him. (This was at Bryant park)

This was a strep throat year. All the kids and parents had it at least once and here's Joshua being the first one to get the disease. Claudia had a record breaking amount of 6 times this season and resulted in her having to have her tonsils removed in the summer.

Here I am in line to see Promises, Promises. It was such a fun play. We almost had our camera taken away for snapping a picture inside. It was only of the curtain, but were caught right away. Apparently, we're felons.

We're back at Hershey Park here where all of Santa's reindeer are kept until the big night. You can see Dancer's antlers behind Claudia.

We've made it a tradition to go to Chocolate World on Christmas Eve and get Hot Chocolate and sit on Santa's lap. The kids are standing in front of the house made of all Hershey Products. It's pretty impressive.

Here they are in front of the Chocolate World Christmas tree.

Christmas Morning 2010

Happy 13th Birthday, Claudia. She's so lovely!

Grace decided to play basketball again this year....she was the smallest player on the team.

These are the trees in front of the Cookie Shop/Apt. we lived in for a year. This was after a good snow. It was so quiet and pretty on Main Street in Hummelstown, PA.

Aaron earning some of his badges for scouts. He earned his Arrow of Light and is now and 11 year old scout.

These pictures were taken at a store called Cabellas. I needed to just get out of town one day and had heard of this store with all these animals. I thought it would be fun to check out. I asked the kids to pose in front of these animals that looked like they were running in a stampede. I thought it was pretty funny what they came up with.

We took a trip down to Mount Vernon.

Here's our kitchen...not done yet but still a thing of beauty!!!!

Claudia getting ready to get her tonsils out. We didn't see this smile again for a while.

Part of our staycation was participating in the tourist activities in Hershey. Why not? They're fun and close. The kids are getting ready to make their own chocolate bar above and getting ready to see the 3-D show below.

Here's Josh just before graduating from 1st grade.

It gets hot in Hershey and here's Joshua taking a swig to cool off.

The girls and I had the opportunity to see New Kids on the Block an the Backstreet Boys concert. I never really followed the group when I was young, but I wasn't going to pass up this opportunity. It was a lot of fun.

Last year, Grace and I went to see the Jonas Brothers and Domo origato Demi Lavato. (I'm not even sure if that's how you spell her name.)

Here we are again at the New Kids/Back Street Boys concert....yes I felt old, but I'm getting used to that.

Family Photo Shoot

2011-12-04T21:16:00.001-08:00

Trying our best to be cute!

Here's some more

2011-11-27T17:24:00.001-08:00

Gracie turned 8 August 12, 2010 and was baptized August 13, 2010. Such a sweetie!!

Piano Recital 2011

Just one of the cute family pictures with my boys.

Quick catch up

2011-11-27T17:04:00.001-08:00

O.K. so I haven't written in a long, long time, so I just decided to post pictures as I found them, in no particular order, and try to share some of the fun stuff that has happened in the last year and a half. Here you will find a picture of Aaron after his first 5k. I wanted to train the whole family and we did pretty well until Claudia had her tonsils out shortly before the Ben and Tim Race. Aaron was the only one I could bribe to run the whole 5k with me and everybody else ran the mile fun run. He did great!!! I thought he'd give me an excuse as to why I was going so slow, but he blew me away. Congratulations Aaron!

This is what has kept us busy for over a year. Here is the back of our house. It started out as a ranch home and we added the upstairs and some square footage to the main floor to give us a larger kitchen. We also reconfigured the whole inside. With many setbacks, we got this far in a year. It's been a long process, but we're finally in with a lot of finishes to get done, but we're enjoying being back in our home again.

This was taken right at the beginning of the process when our master suite was just started. We decided to have a picnic in what is now our bedroom. We had to use a ladder to get up here. Fun times. (People drove by and thought we were crazy, but who cares?!)

This was taken on our trip to the Sacred Grove in Palmyra, New York. Just trying to be funny.

All the kids in the Sacred Grove, Summer 2010.

Here are the kids on our trip to Niagra Falls. My dad was able to take the trip with us.

The Middle School takes a trip with the sixth graders and I was able to chaperone. Here was a challenge given to the kids by the teachers to kiss a fish. Claudia's a brave girl!

This is Claudia's homeroom teacher. He is the one that founded this program and this was the last year he was a part of it since he retired that year. (2010)

Kids with their Grandpa at the Hill Cumorah

Claudia being gorgeous!

Aaron on his tenth birthday. July 1, 2010

Joshua lost his first tooth. October 3, 2010

Stationery card

2011-11-20T13:12:00.001-08:00

What Fun Christmas Card

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Spring'

2010-04-23T09:46:00.000-07:00

Yeah for Spring!!!! It's so nice when things start to come alive again and we get to get working in the yard again. We've continued with pulling up some tree stumps and clearing out some of the overgrowth in our yard. We now get to tear down the old playhouse in the yard and get rid of our trash. We'll see how long that takes us.

Of course that's just the outside. Nate put up a wall last September to give Claudia her own room, which we've been able to paint and decorate and it really looks cute. Now we need to work on the other side of the wall, the side in our living area, and get some repainting done. You'd think with that many months, we shouldn't have had that big of a problem getting done, but we do. Oh well, we cut the tree down in November and just got the stump pulled up last week. We need to pace ourselves I guess.

Joshua is going to be in first grade next year. This means I will have all kids in school all day. I've always planned on going back to work when my kids were all in school. I just can't believe that time has come. I went back a little prematurely a little over a year ago and it was full time. That didn't work out so well. I am now in the process of getting my teaching certification renewed here in Pennsylvania. Of course there must be jobs available for me to work and since I'm a little spoiled, it needs to be pretty perfect to take me away from a good 7 hours of "me time" during the day.

I am also going to be a chaperone for the sixth grade camp the kids are going to next month...meaning the sixth graders at Hershey Middle School. I went to a parent meeting last week and found that they use the word "camp" a little loosely. They did say it's camping Hershey style which means their sleeping quarters are pretty much like hotel rooms and they have a nice cafeteria to eat in where meals are prepared for them but they are kind of located near some woods and a stream. They've been doing this program for 22 years now and although I was hesitant when I first heard about it, I think it is an excellent program and Claudia is so excited to be going.

Nathan has been called to be the Ward Mission Leader, which means that I was released as Primary President. I will always be thankful for being called at the exact time that I was. It was the only time I could have served in the primary when all four of my kids were a part of primary and the only time in their lives that I could serve all of them at the same time and give them that example of service. That being said, I'm glad to now be serving as a ward missionary. Of course Nathan will be fantastic because he does well in everything he sets out to do.

Joshua, as I mentioned, is finishing up kindergarten. I was helping him out with his homework the other day and really have been impressed with his skills. He still seems so young and small. It's hard to believe he'll be six in June. He's becoming so much more social than he has been all his life. He usually was content playing on his own or hanging out with me. Now he is ready to invite people over the second he gets home from school.

Aaron has really been enjoying the Percy Jackson series of books. They're lots of fun to read and it's good that he's started on them, but Nathan has had a great time reading them as well. Sometimes it's been a problem when Aaron needs to do his reading and Nathan won't give up the book. So we've been trying to teach Nathan a little more about sacrifice. Aaron's earned his Bear for Cub Scouts and a couple of Arrow Points. He'll be a Webelo July 1st and is all set to go.

We've started a listening chart in our family and Gracie has really enjoyed it. It's something I used when I taught first grade and thought I would try it here so there would be less yelling. Basically the kids all have five cards that they can change when they do things they're asked without complaining or if they're caught being kind to one another. When they get to their fifth card, they earn a prize and a tally. When they get a certain number of tallies, they earn a bigger prize that they choose to work towards. Grace has just been fantastic since we've started this. She's helpful, kind, listen's the first time. She's really taken to this particular method and I'm just kicking myself for not starting it earlier. Everybody else has improved as well and they like the system, but Grace really goes out of her way to earn as many rewards as she can. We see a lot more of delightful Grace and a lot less of stubborn Grace. She continues to do well in school and has a piano recital in a couple of weeks. She's also really looking forward to being on the Summer Swim team.

Claudia is continuing to grow into such a lovely young lady. She's becoming much more independent and helpful. She sets a great example not only for her siblings but for people around her. She wants to get a little more involved in things having to do with singing and acting. The music teacher recorded her singing "The Star Spangled Banner" to be played for their school in the morning when they do the pledge. I guess they give all the kids this opportunity if they would like, but she was so excited to do it. She said a friend of hers signed her up, but I think she was happy about it. She's doing great in school, piano, swim...she's just a great kid. She gets to perform in her first Road Show this weekend. That should be fun.

We got to take a fun trip to Baltimore for Spring Break as well. I'll have to post some pictures as soon as I find our camera. We saw "The Ace of Cakes", which was pretty fun. We ate at a restaurant across the street from Charm City Cakes and just watched as all the employees came to work and hung out with their camera crew and such. I'll have to find my camera so I can post some pictures. For those of you unfamiliar with "The Ace of Cakes", it's a show on food network that we just like to watch. It's kind of fun.

We also went to the Baltimore Aquarium and then down into Washington D.C. where the traffic was just horrific. I guess we didn't take into account that it was Spring Break for many people and Washington D.C. is a big tourist area. We took the time to watch "Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief" at our kids request. It's a fine movie, but if you've read the book, don't go in expecting it to be anything like it. I hadn't read the book and enjoyed it just fine, but for the others, they couldn't believe the inconsistencies.

So, all in all, we are gettin' along great here in the east.

February already?!!!!

2010-02-10T06:37:00.000-08:00

Our first snow day from school. It's so bad that even Nathan's work was cancelled. That's really bad. So, everybody is outside enjoying the snow while I sit here with my nice cup of Ho Cho and figure it's about time for a quick update.

I'd really like to maybe post some updated pictures. Claudia has taken a new interest in photography and somehow, our camera is not working anymore. It was on it's last legs anyway, but I thought we could make it last until I could find what I really wanted in a camera. Oh well, I guess I'll have to decide quick. I'm thinking Claudia is going to need one of those indestructable kids cameras though if she's going to continue with this hobby.

Speaking of Claudia, yes she did it. She turned 12. There was no stopping it. I'm noticing lately that she's even looking very mature and oddly enough, acting mature. She got in a bit of trouble for being on the computer before her piano was practiced and her homework was done. It's something I've reminded her of regularly. So, I had had it and told her that she couldn't be on the computer for a week. She promptly replied in a louder angry tone, "I'm going to stay in my room for a week..." (O.K. this was not the mature part of the conversation.) I went about my business and then needed to check that she was doing her homework. I went in and she was listening to a book while drawing some pictures. I reminded her that she needed to do her work before she did fun stuff. She said, "I needed some 'cool down' time....you're welcome." I was irritated at the time but then thought that maybe that wasn't such a bad thing. At least we skipped the whole yelling thing and she eventually did get all her work done. Small steps, but at least she's learning...and isn't that the point? That sarcasm's starting to take shape too, the little stinker. She is loving her Young Women's group and, as mentioned earlier, really likes to use the computer.

Aaron keeps on keepin' on. He still loves Calvin and Hobbes. Every time he gets a book order, he wants to order the Calvin and Hobbes comic books they have. I keep telling him that his dad has the whole collection to which Aaron replies, "I know, but I have to have him sitting with me every time I want to read it." (Nathan really loves Calvin and Hobbes too and takes every precaution to keep his collection safe.) Aaron is interested in so many things, but what I find the most endearing is that he loves to do whatever he's doing with us, his parents. Whether it's watching a movie, playing in the snow, throwing a baseball around or playing air hockey, he wants his dad or I to join in on the activity. We need to start cherishing that a little bit more and actually stop what we're doing and participate since I'm sure it won't always be this way. Whether Aaron wants to admit it or not, he's doing very well with piano. If he can sit and focus on his practice, he can pick things up pretty easily and it sounds nice. It's just those first couple days of practice that he doesn't like. Although his interest in trombone has waned quite a bit. Aaron's relay team in swimming came in first place at his last meet too. It was really exciting.

Gracie, Gracie, Gracie...such a sweet little thing when she wants to be. Very much the socialite and tells you things you love to hear...she's got quite the stubborn streak though. Usually just over little things. This morning it was that she had to ask permission to borrow somebody's snow gloves. She has her own mittens, but wanted to borrow Aaron's gloves. Joshua was more than willing to let her use his gloves, but it had to be Aaron's gloves and she wouldn't say the words just to ask to use them. It all got worked out, but this can be awfully frustrating. Other than those brief moments of stubborness, she is a delight. She's bright and sweet and her new love is working on Rocket Math (trying to get as many facts done in a minute as she can). She also gets to have the challenge spelling list at school and consistently aces the test. She is really loving her teacher and being in the 2nd grade. She's also got a pretty mean backstroke in swimming.

Joshua continues to be easy going with pretty much everything he does. There are times when he's into a video game and can get pretty frustrated if someone doesn't follow his instructions, but those moments are short lived. He likes to play with his Mr. Potato Head and his dinosaurs. He's loved being able to sled down the big hills at the park this year. As long as he can do what all the older kids are doing he's pretty happy. There's been a new family that's moved in to our ward and their son happened to be put into Joshua's class as well. Joshua's had quite the fun time getting to know him and playing with him at recess. It's his favorite time of his school day when he gets to play Star Wars and Indiana Jones with his friend. They even have matching retro Star Wars t-shirts. It's so exciting when they make plans to wear them on the same day at school. Oh, to be a kid again:)

At home, the renovation process is pretty slow going. I have in my head the order in which I would like to get things done. For the past few weeks, it has just been to get the storage area weeded out and organized. I have thought for weeks if I could just sit and do it, I could probably have it done in a day. That's just not a possibility. So I work at it here and there in between homework and running kids to their activities and doing laundry and making beds and doing dishes...you know, the everyday stuff that always has to be done. So even though it looks as if nothing's been done, you should see my storage area. It looks great!!!! Now, as soon as I can get my bills paid and all the kids school papers sorted out for the day, we can continue with the fun stuff. First order of business is decorating Claudia's room. We've been collecting things here and there, have all the paint, now we just need to get down to business. See, this stuff is a little more satisfying because the results are so much more visable. Nobody cares about the boxes that I've sorted all our stuff into or the ten bags of trash that I got rid of that we've been carrying from state to state thinking we need to keep it "just in case". Hopefully it will start to look as if we're really doing something.

That's us in February.

Morning Humor

2009-12-18T04:54:00.000-08:00

As I was helping the kids get ready this morning, I heard Aaron laughing pretty heartily in the kitchen. I am always up for a good laugh so I asked him what he was laughing at. He replied, "They just said 'inducing vomit' on the news."

Some shots of the Fam

2009-12-14T06:02:00.000-08:00

Well, I liked our photo shoot this year, but Nate says he looks like he's wearing a life jacket. Maybe the vests weren't the best idea.

Year in Review

2009-12-14T04:35:00.000-08:00

Maybe a year in review isn't really what I should title this. The end of the year wrap up is more like it. I've tried to keep up on little things throughout the year, so hopefully I can make this a quick wrap up....although, knowing me, that will more than likely not be the case. I have a tendency to be long winded, especially when it comes to talking or bragging about my kids....I mean look at them....they're so sweet and cute, I could just talk about them forever. I used to think it would lessen as they grew older. That's simply not the case.

Joshua is in kindergarten this year. It's been quite a change at home. All morning to myself, I hardly know what to do. Oddly enough, the time is always gone quicker than I anticipate because no matter how much time I have, there's always laundry. Joshua is doing well in school. Of course every morning he brings me the thermometer in hopes that he may just be sick enough to stay home. As much as I think he enjoys school, I believe he likes the freedom to be able to play a little bit more. He also enjoys taunting the other kids with things that he's not required to do yet. For instance, he's not able to take piano lessons yet. So when all the other kids are being forced to practice, he simply reminds them that he doesn't have to play the piano. He used to do this with unloading the dishwasher as well. We took care of that by giving him his own kitchen duty and he learned pretty quick that teasing was not the way to go. We find that Josh is very easy going. He's just got this laid back attitude and takes things as they come. He gets along with everybody and his favorite thing to do is to play "Star Wars" or "Indiana Jones" with Aaron, and Aaron's always willing to participate. There are the occasional days when Josh will play the baby when Grace wants to play house, but that's becoming less of a favorite pastime since the time Grace was carrying him around and couldn't really hold him that well resulting in her running his head into the door jam. Of course this is after various warnings that she's not quite big enough to be carrying him around. She really believes she's bigger and stronger than she is. I guess there's nothing wrong with that, unless it's other kids who must suffer the consequences.

Grace....has got a lot of spunk. She is really having a great time in school. One thing about Grace is that you never have to remind her twice about getting her schoolwork done. She just sits down and gets it done and out of the way. She came to the realization early that if you just take the time and quickly get the work done, you can get on with play time. Others, who will remain nameless, haven't quite grasped this concept. We're trying to apply this same work ethic to her chores as well, but that is proving to be a little more difficult. Grace has joined the swim team this season and is really progressing nicely. She's got a mean backstroke and is becoming a girl to be reckoned with. She's improving nicely with her piano and was a little disappointed that she couldn't squeeze basketball into her busy schedule this year. She really loved playing last year, but with the conflict of swim meets on the occasional Saturday, our family couldn't keep up with the demand on their time. She's very motivated and has a pleasant disposition...most of the time.

Aaron came home early in the school year and said, "Mom, I'm a nerd," to which I replied, "Why would you say that, Aaron?" His response, "Because I like school." Yeah!!!! Finally, Aaron has been fighting school since....well, since he began school. I don't know why he has disliked it so much, but he's finally gotten to a point where it's not the most terrible thing in the world to him. He's anxious to get homework done and has really been doing well. We are just really proud of the progress he's been making. He also joined the swim team this year and never really complains to us about going, but I hear from others that he thinks it's a lot of hard work. I'm sure this is true, but hard work builds character, and in this case, muscles and skill. As much as he complains of hard work, he really is a good worker and follows through on things he has to do with not much complaining. He's continuing with piano and is really loving reading comics like Garfield and Calvin and Hobbs. This makes his dad happy since Calvin and Hobbes are one of his favorite comic strips. Nathan's got the whole collection of books as well as a compilation of all the newspaper comic strips. If Aaron's really good and the moon is just right, Nate will bring out these books and let Aaron thumb through them with adult supervision. It's quite the treat.

Claudia, sweet Claudia will be twelve next month. She will be in Young Womens. Wow, we can hardly believe it. I grow emotional every time I think about it. Since I work in primary, there's a chance I may have to announce her progression into the youth program during primary and I have seriously had to practice it so I don't break down in front of our 100 children, adults and leaders. We're trying to get all her Faith in God requirements done so she can graduate primary and it's proved to be good for me since I never did quite graduate from primary....(never got that 13th Article of Faith). Claudia's doing great though. She's having a good time in Middle School. There's a lot more independence for the kids in 6th grade than there was when I was a wee lass. One of the things that she's enthusiastic about is a "Pay it Forward" idea that they introduced to her at school. She's having a fun time thinking of nice things she can do for people. She is, however, having a difficult time applying it to her own siblings, but I'm sure that will come with time. Claudia is continuing on her swim team and doing well with her piano. She's turning into a lovely young lady.

Things are finally starting to progress with our plans on our house. As difficult as it's been to live in this old small house, I am appreciative for the time we've had to really think about what we want to do with the home ultimately. I'm still not excited about having to live like this a little longer, and really not excited about starting the construction which will surely turn our lives upside down, but I am excited about realizing the potential for what we have here. We'll have to build in stages, but I really think this home will be beautiful and unique when all is said and done.

Nate's staying busy at work. He even had a trip to California last week, which I was a little jealous of, but I'm sure we can even things out somehow.

We've had some fun opportunities to travel this year. Nate and I have traveled alone, with our family and with other families. We are continuing to really enjoy this area. There are times when we miss being out west, but really feel like we've found what we've been looking for here in Hershey.

We hope you all have a wonderful holiday season. Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

More Thanksgiving fun

2009-12-13T16:31:00.001-08:00

Just a few of the the kids favorite pastimes at the beach. Aaron and Grace loved playing in the water. Aaron has been very much into sports this year and really loves playing football. He really got into the World Series since the Phillies were playing. Oddly enough, he routed for the Yankees. Joshua loved playing in the sand. As you can see from his picture, he is in a squatting position. He would sit like this for hours and just sort through the sand. He would draw things or make little mountains or possibly pretend the shells he found were a car or an animal. Claudia loves to collect shells. She came home with bags of them along with Grace and Aaron. I suppose we'll have to figure out what we can do with all these shells.

Thanksgiving

2009-12-13T15:44:00.001-08:00

This Thanksgiving, we chose to spend our holiday with two other families. One of the families coordinated things so we were able to rent a big home in Corolla, NC. This is right on the ocean and not too far from Kitty Hawk. We had such a fun time visiting and playing games. Even the work of preparing meals was a joy as we were all able to be in the same room while each family took a turn with the menu. Thanksgiving day was a nice joint effort even though all didn't go as planned. Part of the electricity in the house went off. It just happened to be the half of the house with all the kitchen equipment. Fortunetly, not everybody was vacationing and the rental company was able to come and fix the problem. It still ended up being a great meal. When the week was over, I thought I would never feel hungry again. We ate well. As a matter of fact, each meal was so great, it almost made Thanksgiving day a little anticlimatic. The beach was our activity of choice most days. We were able to play, swim, exercise and even meet up with another family from Hershey who happened to be vacationing just a few homes down with their family. All the kids got along well, which helped the adults to be left alone most of the time. I know it's a vacation our kids will always remember. We hope your holiday went just as well.

Halloween

2009-11-15T06:12:00.001-08:00

Apparently I am not very Blog Saavy because I couldn't figure out how to switch these around so that they were going the right direction. Besides, I'm trying to post these while Nathan is making cinnamon rolls that just smell delightful and it is a little distracting. Maybe I'll figure it out later.

This year I had a little trouble getting into the spirit of Halloween. I let the kids all pick out something and this is what they came up with. Claudia is Luna Lovegood during her fight at the ministry, Aaron is....I don't really know. He just wanted to be something scary so he could sneak up behind the trick or treaters and scare them when they came up. He was pretty disappointed when they didn't get scared and when I thought they would be too scared, I told him not to do anything. Grace wanted to be a vampire witch. I don't know what that entailed, so this is what we came up with...but I loved that I got the chance to buy her faux leather pants. She looks great in them. Joshua was his beloved Indiana Jones. Should I be worried that he loves the movies so much? Especially the second one that I think is a little too dark. Oh well, I'm sure he'll be on to something different in a month or so. Lots of fun had by all, and lots of candy consumed. Good thing we have the new year coming up to set our new year's resolutions:)

Summer pics...a little late

2009-10-23T12:57:00.001-07:00

So, here are some of our summer pictures. We had Joshua's, Aaron's and Grace's birthday. We do birthdays a little like Christmas. We decorate rooms so when the kids wake up, they have balloons all over and then the table is decorated to their latest interest. We also let the kids get up and open their gifts. This explains their dishevled looks as the pictures are taken. Other highlights are our first trip to Ocean City, New Jersey and a little of our 4th of July fireworks. Yes, they're still all really cute, and again, I'm not at all biased.

Catching up

2009-10-15T08:22:00.000-07:00

You would think that having all the kids at school would make for a relaxing time. School just makes me feel like I'm always trying to catch up. My kids come home with homework and I have to keep track of what forms need to be filled out and when they are supposed to be returned as well as fund raisers and "All About Me" posters and when field trips are and even with the new organizational system I tried to create to help me remember everything, there are still many things that slip through the cracks. Then I do silly things like have piano lessons and swim team practice with cub scouts and activity days, I understand about overbooking. That's what I feel like, I'm just over booked even with 4 hours to myself in the morning. That is just my catch up time to try to get everything in order. I keep hoping I'll get this whole thing down, so I guess I'll just keep hoping.

The kids are enjoying things just fine though. Aaron came home one day and said, "Mom....I'm a nerd." I asked, "Why do you say that Aaron?" He replied, "I like school now." All I could think was finally, finally, Aaron has had such a hard time going to school. He's never really liked it and I've had many days of trying to convince him how good school is and how he can make friends and learn new things. I've always thought that it's just going to get worse as he grows older and just the opposite has happened. I guess kids will always surprise you. Yeah!!!

I think Claudia's had the easiest transition and I am so happy with that. Middle school worried me and she seems to be handling it with grace. She's made new friends and is very dedicated to her work, which is good since we're updated on a regular basis by the teachers. No getting away with anything there.

Grace just has no problem with anything. She's certainly the social butterfly. She doesn't even need to be asked to get her work done. She comes home, sits and does it and then gets on with the fun part of her evening. How do I instill that in the rest of the kids. Just get the work out of the way and all goes well.

Josh is liking kindergarten just fine. I still can't believe he's there. He looks so small compared to all the rest of the kids. His favorite subject is recess, of course, but seems to like everything else alright. His only complaint is that he has to sit at a table rather than stand. I guess that is a big adjustment.

Aaron decided to start playing the trombone and could hardly contain himself while he waited for the trombone to be delivered. Claudia is learning the "Hoedown, throwdown" to perform with with the rest of the activity day girls in our ward at our ward party at the end of the month. All three of the older kids are in piano and on the swim team and Joshua is his nice little content self and goes along with what we make him do. Such a good kid.

My biggest accomplishment was running a half marathon on the tenth of October. When I was 31 I had set the goal to run a marathon by the time I was 40. I am 38 and wanted to get started on that goal by starting with the half marathon. I trained for it and carried through last Saturday. I have decided that it was not the smartest thing I have ever done. I did not really enjoy it and I don't really think it accomplished my ultimate goal which was to get healthy. My knees hurt, my legs are still sore and I don't feel really great. I am all for exercise and eating right, but shouldn't it make you feel good? This didn't do that, so I am not going to carry on with the full marathon. I am now making the declaration that my new goal as I grow closer to 40 is to enter into my 40's healthy and try to maintain that as long as I live.

I do have to say that although I don't love the running part of the marathon, there are certain things that I really enjoyed and could get used to. One is that they close off major roads for you to run on. This allowed me to see parts of Hartford, CT that I may never have seen uninterrupted. I also enjoyed how people would hand us water and then, this was the best part of all, I could take my cup and throw it on the ground. That was very liberating. I was also handed a couple of bite sized Snicker bars, but those proved to be difficult to eat through the heavy breathing. I'm just hoping there were no cameras that caught that beautiful moment. It was alright though since it was followed up with someone handing me another cup of water and I threw wrapper and all onto the ground for someone else to clean up. Now I know how my kids feel.

The other nice thing about running was that I was able to catch up on all my downloaded episodes of "Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me" on NPR. It's so funny and kept me amused through my whole run. They also had lunch waiting for us, but I didn't like this as much. It was all healthy. I figure, after running that far, I should have a big juicy burger or at least a doughnut waiting for me at the finish line, not harvest grain cookies and some sort of rice salad with fruit. What was up with that? No problem though, I was able to endulge on my own.

I was also able to visit Yale University. I was close enough and thought it would be fun to check out an Ivy League campus. I downloaded a tour of the campus and printed out a map and went on my merry way to learn about the history of the campus. I was interuppted by a mob of students playing a game that I learned after the fact was called "Bladder Ball". This consisted of a mob of students and a ball 7 feet in diameter. The idea is to keep this ball from hitting the ground and pushing it from one college to another. I watched it when it began, then went on with my tour. By the time I returned to a spot that wasn't even a block from where it began, the students had blocked traffic and were having to be broken up by the police.

I later read that this game was played regulary in the 70's but has been banned for the last 29 years. I was there for the rebirth of this game. Quite the weekend. You can watch videos of this on YouTube. I'm in the background of one of the videos, but I just know it's me because I knew where I was. I'm basically just a blob.

Nathan is continuing to do well in all that he does. We keep busy with the house and running our kids around but have thrown regular raquetball games into the mix. It's what brought us together, so we thought we should keep it up. We're just not as resiliant as we once were, but are still pretty evenly matched.

Now we're on to the holidays. Let's see how we fare this year.

Home Alone

2009-08-31T05:27:00.000-07:00

So I got this in just under the wire for an August posting. I try to at least get in one a month, but this has been somewhat of a crazy month. The whole summer was crazy, but starting out with a quick vacation early in the month and then getting ready for school the remainder made for a busy time.

Today....all of my kids went to school. Oh how we look forward to this day once we've had little ones for so long. I held it together as I watched Claudia catch the early bus to middle school and even while I stood with the three younger ones as they waited for their bus. I laughed while I watched Joshua climb on and try to figure out where kindergartners were supposed to sit. He walked up and down the aisle listening to Grace direct him when all he wanted was to grab a seat next to her or Aaron. I was even O.K. as I walked into the quiet house....but as I sat down to the computer to gloat about my new freedom, I began to weep. I do not look forward to graduations and weddings. I don't know how I'll be able to handle that. Lucky for me, I am watching two little girls this morning. That should keep me distracted at least until Joshua returns around noon. That and drowning my sorrows in Lucky Charms should do the trick.

Onward and upward. The summer was fun. We kept busy yet were still able to relax a little. We have decided to start a little bit of renovations on our home. This home used to be a three bedroom and the owners took down some walls to open up the space upstairs. Nathan and I have been sleeping in the basement and the kids have been sharing the two rooms upstairs. I have always thought that kids should share a bedroom. I think it's a good way to learn how to get along and develop relationships. My boys do just fine. My girls...let's just say, I think they need their own space. So our first project is to make the open space back into a bedroom so that our family can hopefully stop the yelling. I'm thinking we will then put in some new floors and possibly gut the bathroom and make it a little larger and nicer. These are some things I think we can do on our own before we hire people to come in and do the big work. We're always so optimistic, but I have found that Nate and I are great project starters...it's just the finishing we have problems with. It's not as if we have huge things that need to be done, just the touch ups on paint and giving the project a clean look that we have a hard time getting around to. We painted a lot when we first moved in out of necessity, now we just have to try to follow up and make it look nice. I guess with the kids all gone, I'll have plenty of time to do that, right?

I'll try to post some pictures of the goings on of the summer. The kids are all getting so big and growing into a fine looking group. I'm not at all biased either.

Claudia's meal

2009-07-24T16:39:00.000-07:00

Claudia decided to make dinner last night. We had hot dogs, mac and cheese, corn and carrot sticks. She set the table and poured everyone water to drink. She was so excited and so cute while she got everything ready. When Nathan came home he came in and saw what was prepared for him and said, "Wow Claudia, this all looks very nice." Claudia replied, "Yeah, I really outdid myself, didn't I?!"

Interesting conversations

2009-07-06T11:07:00.000-07:00

So I think Aaron is becoming one of those not nice boys. Here was our conversation today. You need a little history first.

Last night Aaron got a call from a girl. I guess Nate teased him a little about his girlfriend, but it was dropped and Aaron didn't really say anything about it to me at all. I didn't know that Nathan had teased him last night.

So this morning she called again and I let her know that Aaron was at his Math camp and would be back this afternoon. When I went to pick up Aaron I said, "Aaron, your girlfriend called this morning," not really meaning girlfriend, but friend that's a girl. He flipped out. He says, "SHE'S NOT MY GIRLFRIEND. I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHO SHE IS. SO FOR THE LAST TIME, SHE'S NOT MY GIRLFRIEND."

I then asked what they talked about last night.

Aaron, "She wanted me to go to her birthday party on Saturday, Saturday the 18th."

Me, "What did you say?"

Aaron, "I said I could go."

Me, "But Aaron, you said you don't even know her. You didn't ask me and your Grandpa will be in town."

Aaron, "I don't know her...but maybe I could go and just ditch her. The party might be fun."

Me, "You're going to ditch the birthday girl? Um, I don't think that's a very good idea."

Aaron, "Well she won't mind."

Me, "I think you should just let her know the next time she calls that you can't go since you have family in town."

Aaron, "Alright."

On to a different conversation. This was just one I overheard in the car between Claudia and Aaron. It has nothing to do with being a rude male, but I found it funny.

Aaron is really into ACDC for some reason. So he was telling Claudia that he wanted an ACDC CD with "Back in Black" for his birthday.

Claudia said, "Why do you like that?"

Aaron replied, "Because it's awesome and it's hard rock."

Claudia, "You shouldn't listen to that Aaron because it has bad words in it."

Aaron, "Well, I don't even understand any of the words in the song anyway, so, huh. You're served Claudia."

(Translation for "You're served" It's a more current form of the slang "In your face" or "BURN".)

Interesting kids.

The spectators

2009-06-21T15:56:00.001-07:00

Luckily, at the Hummelstown pool, they let the kids swim in the big pool while the meet is taking place. Otherwise these kids would have a long day waiting in between Claudia's events. Of course they've had the opportunity to wait and watch at away meets. Not quite as fun.

Claudia's first swim meet

2009-06-21T15:50:00.000-07:00

Here's our multi-talented, beautiful daughter at her first swim meet.

New York City Trip

2009-05-25T08:57:00.001-07:00

I know that lots of people go to New York to see a Broadway show or go to the top of the Empire State Building...we didn't do either of those. I have come to the conclusion that there is a big difference between going on vacation and site seeing. I guess you can get a little of both in when you take a longer trip, but since Nate and I were just there for a couple of days, it was just site seeing. We did try to get to see a Dave Letterman show, but didn't make it. We did get to eat at the Hello Deli for those of you familiar with the show, you'll know it's significance. We also ate at yummy places, which is the fun of traveling to different places. As you can see from the pictures, we saw the Statue of Liberty, Radio City Music Hall, Rockefellar Center, The Late Show theatre formerly the Ed Sullivan Theatre, and Time Square. We also walked through central park and the upper west side, went to Ground Zero, battery park, museum of natural history...I think that's most of it. As mentioned earlier, we had lunch at the Hello Deli, cheesecake at Lindy's, Umberto's Sea Food house, had some food from street vendors (always a plus...like eating fair food without the aroma of livestock around) and finished up by eating at an Arepa bar in the East Village. This was a little restaurant that we saw on "Throw Down" with Bobby Flay. Nathan served his mission in Venezuela and has been trying to figure out how to make these arepa's but cannot duplicate it. So we travelled far and wide to find this place and were very pleased. They were yummy and it was one of those hole in the wall places which was a fun atmosphere. I'm usually a little hesitant about this food Nate thinks is so great since our taste's are a little different. We had the New York attitude down. We had to train for it beforehand. "No smiling, no looking anybody in the face and don't respond when people try to talk to you." I know, seems harsh, but if we didn't adopt this attitude, everybody would try to sell you something and the native New Yorkers would think you're naive. We did so well that we had about ten out of towners ask us for directions and we knew our way around let me tell you. Lot's of research and walkin' about helped us learn our way. We purchased a metro pass and got to many places on either the subway or the bus, depending on how quickly we wanted to get there and how many sites we wanted to see on the way. The only time we blew our cover was when Nathan saw John Lithgow over by Rockefellar Center and stopped and said, "Hey, there's John Lithgow!" He walked right past us with the New York attitude I was telling you about earlier. (He's very tall) It was a fun adventure. We found a nice hotel in Newark to stay in. I have to admit, finding a place to stay was the scariest thought. Who knew what we would run into, but we found a reasonably priced, clean hotel in Newark, New Jersey of all places and rode the train in to New York one day and took the Staton Island Ferry the next. So now that I've been to the city that never sleeps and have really seen it, I think I've come to the conclusion that cities are all the same. I'm not trying to be negative. I love traveling and I love seeing new cities and places. I really enjoyed our time in New York, but with all the cities I've seen, they're all busy areas with fun places to check out but overpriced for everything just to have the braggin' rights that "I've been there". I have decided, I'm a small town girl and a westerner at heart because when it comes down to it, San Francisco is one of the most beautiful cities I've ever seen.

One last song

2009-05-05T08:25:00.000-07:00

I thought you might be able to see her better here.

More stuff

2009-05-05T08:15:00.000-07:00

Claudia's choir concert

2009-05-05T07:56:00.000-07:00

This time she's in a white jumper with a yellow shirt underneath right there towards the end of the row. I guess she kept getting lost behind the kid next to her.

Claudia's second piece

2009-05-05T07:34:00.000-07:00

Claudia's recital pieces

2009-05-05T07:14:00.000-07:00

She was just so poised.

Aaron's recital piece

2009-05-05T07:02:00.000-07:00

Aaron doing his piano pieces

Grace's second piece

2009-05-05T06:24:00.000-07:00

Here's Grace's solo number.

Grace's recital piece

2009-05-05T06:11:00.000-07:00

Grace's teacher accidentally sat on the wrong side of the piano, so there was a little confusion. You know, you get to a performance and sometimes get a little flustered. Even the teacher sometimes gets flustered. I think Grace was her least experienced player. She played right in the middle and she looked to be the youngest there. She did a very nice job though. Grace hasn't been playing too long so this was her first recital and she was very excited and nervous. That's what she told me right before this began.

Aaron at a game

2009-05-05T05:50:00.000-07:00

Aaron does quite well at baseball...of course he should since every spare moment we have, he wants to spend it practicing. It's lucky we have the big yard to accomodate his passions.

Catching up on a few of our events

2009-05-05T05:41:00.000-07:00

Just being cute.

We try to teach our kids that it's important to support one another in their different activities if we can. This is at Claudia's choir concert. They are always excited about going, it sometimes gets a little long. In their defense, this was during the orchestra part. They were wide awake when Claudia was singing. of course that's me in the background reading a book, so I'm not the best example.

Ready for our piano recital.

Aaron being introduced

2009-04-18T16:33:00.000-07:00

Hershey Little League Opening Ceremonies

2009-04-18T15:34:00.000-07:00

This is quite the opening ceremony in Hershey. This is little league right?!!!! These kids are all introduced with their teams from majors down to t-ball. They all get a chance to give the Hershey bar and Reese's guy five after they are introduced. Then they have a guy parachute into the field with the american flag, we do your usual star spangled banner and then some important guy pitches the first ball of the season. It's not really what I'm used to. Of course Aaron has only played t-ball in Thornton, but I just thought it was pretty big for a little league program. After the ceremonies were done, I wanted to get a quick picture of Aaron. I saw the Hershey bar but there were too many kids in line to get their picture so I skipped it. As I was taking these pictures of Aaron, the Hershey Bar snuck up behind so when I turned around, he scared me half to death. We had a good laugh and then Aaron got a quick picture with the bar. The other picture is Joshua trying to grab his hand. He stood next to him and Joshua wouldn't let go. The picture is actually taken right after the bar broke free from Josh's grasp. I have a suspicion that the Hershey Bar may be a friend of mine from work. She said she was going to be one of the characters at the park this year, but wasn't sure which one. I just found it strange that Hershey would approach me like he did....Of course maybe I'm just better lookin' than I realize:) Or maybe he can sense my love of chocolate.

Easter Egg Hunt

2009-04-16T06:56:00.001-07:00

I was so excited to have an Easter Egg Hunt this year. They have town Easter Egg Hunts...or at least that's what they call them, but those are basically putting a ton of candy all over a grassy area and the kids pick up as much candy as they can. There's really no "hunt" involved. So since we have a nice large yard, I was really looking forward to hiding all the eggs in the yard and having the kids hunt for them. First problem was that it rained the morning I intended to do the hunt. So, the yard idea was out. So the hunt was moved to indoors. For those of you who don't know, we chose to purchase an old home out here with a large piece of property since Nathan has always wanted a good chunk of property. We love where the home is, just don't love the home...yet. It's small and old and we are just looking forward to selling our home in Colorado so we can start work on this place. That being said, I was thinking, where can I hide these eggs?The kids will find them no problem since there just aren't places to hide them. So I assign a color egg to each of my kids so I can hide the older kids eggs in more difficult areas and not have them take the fun away from the younger kids. So they're not allowed to "help" each other. They just look for their color egg. What I discovered was that my kids are the worst Easter Egg hunters ever. We had five very small rooms to hunt in and not many things to hide them behind or under and my kids took over an hour to find 13 eggs a piece. Of course Joshua found all of his first and the biggest problem was that I didn't make a map, so right after I had hid these eggs and the kids couldn't find them, I couldn't even give them hints because I couldn't remember where I'd put them. So I suppose I shouldn't fault the kids too much since their mother is the real dimwit. I guess it was just fun that it lasted as long as it did instead of waiting an hour in a cold parking lot somewhere to battle everybody for ten minutes and get a ton of candy that, let's face it, isn't always the prime candy choice:).

Easter Fun

2009-04-16T06:39:00.001-07:00

Coloring Easter Eggs and enjoying the lovely weather.

Aaron's so mature

2009-04-16T06:30:00.000-07:00

I was getting after one of my kids, can't remember who, for not listening very well. After I was done ranting, Aaron says, "I remember when I didn't listen. That was when I was young and foolish." How can you help not laughing after a comment like that? Of course when I was trying to remember what he had said I asked him if he could remember and he replied, "I have a hard time remembering things. I just don't have a big head like most people." What's so great about when he says these things is that he's so serious.

Another one of his gems is when he said, "If parents were never invented then we could watch cartoon network and play Wii all the time." (I just like the "if parents were never invented..." part. So funny the things he comes up with.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

2009-03-30T10:54:00.000-07:00

I've been craving chocolate chip cookies for over a week now and decided to bake some today. Now, when I make these cookies, I usually double the recipe so that I can freeze some of it and just make a sheet of cookies at a time. I also really enjoy eating the cookie dough...O.K... let's face it, I usually end up eating a lot of the dough and don't get around to making many real cookies. I've always done this, I've never been ashamed of it, and until I get sick from the raw eggs I'll probably continue doing this. But for the first time today, I was just a little ashamed of my habit when my youngest, Joshua, walked into the kitchen after eating his spoonful of cookie dough and was absolutely awestruck as I pulled the baked cookies from the oven and exclaimed, "You made coookies?! Coookies from the coookie dough?!" (His mouth agape) "Is that how you make them? You make coookies from coookie dough?! That's neat!" My poor children.

Pre-teen kids

2009-03-26T05:31:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I was singing to my rockin' eighties music in my typical Belinda Carlisle style and my four year old says to me, "Mom, can you please stop? You're getting annoying." What the heck?!...he's four. Isn't he supposed to think everything I do is magical and wonderful. I didn't think they started getting "annoyed" until later in life. I have a feeling he's heard that from my pre-teen daughter one too many times.

Another Try

2009-02-18T14:32:00.000-08:00

Eventually he did win a couple but we failed to record the successes I guess. It was a cool lookin' boat though.

Aaron's first Raingutter Regatta Competition in Cub Scouts

2009-02-18T10:47:00.000-08:00

This was his first try.

Joshua trying his hand at the piano

2009-02-17T18:43:00.000-08:00

Here's Joshua doin' a little dance. I don't know that you'll be able to hear the music because Aaron is in the background doing his flashcard practice. It is a very interesting groove he's got.

Fun stuff in January

2009-01-26T16:06:00.001-08:00

Here are a couple of pictures from Claudia's spa night/sleepover that we threw for her birthday. Quite an evening. The other is just a picture of Joshua being cute...but when is he not cute?

Grace after three weeks of lessons

2009-01-26T15:58:00.000-08:00

Grace wanted to be sure to get her song in as well.

Aaron's new song

2009-01-26T15:40:00.000-08:00

Aaron wanted to show off a little of his talent as well.

Claudia accompianing(sp?) herself on the piano.

2009-01-11T15:25:00.000-08:00

Puttin' 'em to work

2009-01-11T15:11:00.000-08:00

We just figured it's about time that the kids earn their keep. Here's Claudia makin' up a meal for the kids. Pizza Bagels, Yum!

2009-01-11T14:42:00.000-08:00

I understand that my boys are probably getting too big to wear matching clothes, but PJ elf still seems to think they're just so cute when dressed alike.

Gracie decided to try a little modeling and struck many poses for me to get a picture of. This was the one I found that I thought suited her well.

Grocery help

2009-01-11T14:36:00.001-08:00

I don't love that my kids have to grow up, but it happens whether I like it or not. Of course having them bigger has it's benefits. For instance, my kids can all now help bring in the groceries. When we moved here, we went shopping at Costco and they had a different milk container than we were used to. As Claudia carried in these containers of milk, she noticed they were different and said, "Hey Mom...nice jugs."

Gracie getting a little exercise

2008-12-29T09:35:00.000-08:00

We all got a Wii for Christmas with the Wii Fit games as well. Here is Gracie practicing the hula hoop exercise.

Balderdash

2008-12-28T06:35:00.000-08:00

We had some friends over for dinner and to play Balderdash. For those of you unfamiliar with the game, the basic idea is that the players create definitions for unfamiliar words and put those definitions in with the real defintion and everybody tries to guess which is the right meaning of the word. There were some very funny definitions, which is the nature of the game, but one we found quite humorous was Claudia's definition of the word xylivorous.

Xylivorous: a candy containing caramel, chocolate, love, paint, crayons and boots.

Other particularly funny defintitions were sygogglin: a breed of seagull that only poops on cars...and slurvian: american language mashed by carelessly slurred pronunciations such as gimme and c'mon...this is the real definition of the word.

A very fun evening.

Awesome Aaron!!!

2008-12-25T12:22:00.001-08:00

Just a taste of Claudia's first choir concert

2008-12-22T19:19:00.000-08:00

We know you can't see her very well, but she's on the end with a dark plaid skirt, a white top, and a short dark sweater. She, of course, is the most fantastic looking and most talented fifth grader in the group...and we're not at all biased. She's being considered for a chamber singing group. They select four students and they have it narrowed down to eight at this point. We'll see what happens.

What do you think Grace wants for Christmas this year?

2008-12-22T18:55:00.000-08:00

Funny things kids say

2008-12-22T18:48:00.000-08:00

Our family went out tonight for our family home evening to deliver Christmas goodies to friends. Of course all the kids were talking about Christmas and getting excited. Joshua has been having a hard time waiting for the actual day. When we put up the tree at the beginning of December, he couldn't understand why we didn't get the gifts out and open them right there. He would say, "The tree is up, it's Christmas already." We've been trying various ways to try to teach him patience and let him know that Christmas doesn't come until the end of December. He's finally getting the concept and tonight, as everybody was talking about tomorrow being Christmas Adam, followed by Christmas Eve and finally Christmas Day, Joshua chimed in saying, "Christmas is almost merried!"

Just thought this was funny

2008-11-30T18:14:00.000-08:00

First Annual Bryner Bowl, boys against the girls

2008-11-30T18:06:00.000-08:00

Summer Camping trip

2008-11-30T18:01:00.000-08:00

Jonas Brothers Concert

2008-11-30T17:54:00.000-08:00

Aaron's baptism

2008-11-30T17:45:00.000-08:00

2008-11-30T17:40:00.000-08:00

Year in Review

2008-11-30T08:46:00.001-08:00

We've had a busy year. We just celebrated our one year anniversary of being in the Hershey area in October. We really could not be more pleased with the decision...well, I guess if we had sold our home in Colorado, that would make us more pleased, but we were able to purchase a home here and really love the area.

We moved in last February. It's a nice little home, built in 1953. What really drew us here was the location and the large piece of property it sits on. The home left a little to be desired, but it's livable for the time being and we are making plans to make it nice for the future.

The neighborhood is very charming. We look out our window every morning and see a cute little stone school house complete with school bell atop the structure. We really liked our last home but are really enjoying the differences in all of the homes here and knowing that ours isn't exactly the same as one three homes down.

We like to think of Hershey as a small town with big ideas. We love how quaint the town is and how it's very family oriented, but there are lots of big things that come here to our little town. Most recently we were able to have quite a bit of action on the presidential tours. We weren't able to get to any of these speeches, but it was kind of nice to see the goings on of the campaign. The Hershey Company owns a lot of things in the area and they draw many performers as well. Heather and Nathan were able to take advantage of a concert put on by Billy Joel and Heather, Claudia and Aaron were able to see Demi Lovato, Avril Lavigne and The Jonas Brothers later on in the Summer. (Anybody with pre-teen children will know who we're talking about.) It was the loudest 4 hours they have ever experienced. You may think it was the music, no, no, no, the screaming made it difficult to hear the music. There were many screamers at the Billy Joel concert as well, but nothing to the screaming teenagers.

We've tried to make the most of our time here so far. Being so close to so many things we want to see makes it hard to squeeze them all in. We went for our first big trip last spring to the Poconos and took a day trip into New York where we were able to take the Stanton Island Ferry into the city. We spent most of that day on the Subway that took us all sorts of places. We were headed for a particular restaurant and ended up in Brooklyn, where we stayed quite briefly. We spent most of our time in Little Italy but considered our trip a success since we were able to see the Statue of Liberty and get a glimpse of the whole city from the ferry. Once we were in the city, we realized you can't really see anything since the buildings are so darn tall. We plan to make our second trip in December and plan a little bit better. Heather likes to take trips so her birthday wish was to see Rockefeller Center and possibly get in a little ice-skating...we're sure it will be crowded, but still worth a try.

Our temple is the Washington D.C. temple so we've been able to take a few trips there and get a glimpse at our nations capital. We were also able to go down to Colonial Williamsburg and our kids are really enjoying getting to learn about american history right where things took place. Claudia is really getting a kick out of it since she is in the fifth grade this year when they start teaching american history.

This year we were able to take our camping trip to Ocean City, Maryland. That was just a nice relaxing visit. It's really been a new experience to be able to travel through many states in a day out here. Much different than what we're used to but we aren't having too difficult of a time adjusting.

Nathan has had a good year at work. He's taken on new responsibilities and is looking into furthering his education. He is currently serving as an assistant ward clerk and nursery leader in church as well as the primary vice president. On top of all this, he gets the kids to their after school activities, makes meals, gets the kids to bed and has incredible patience with his nutty wife.

Heather decided to go back to work this year, which is the reason for her nuttiness and for Nathan having to take on a few more home responsibilities. Since Joshua is still at home, she wanted to find something still in teaching but would keep her with Joshua. She now teaches at his preschool at a school that's a three minute drive away from home. It's really worked out nicely and has helped her to figure out what she will do when she returns to school in a couple of years for her masters degree. She serves as primary president in the ward and loves serving there at this time since it's the only time she'll be able to serve while all four of her children are in primary.

Claudia is in fifth grade and will be turning 11 in January. She is very interested in learning new things in every category. She's especially interested in cooking and baking right now, she's come to terms with her piano practice and has really improved these last few months, and has become an excellent swimmer. She has been a great help at home. Her mom and dad have given her opportunities to take on a little more responsibility as well as earn a little cash by learning to babysit with her younger brothers and sister for short periods of time. It's amazing how patient she is when she's a babysitter as opposed to when she's their sister.

Aaron is in third grade and eight years old. He was baptized over the July 4th weekend. Aaron is interested in any sport that is in season these days. He's excited and ready to learn anything new and will work and work until he's got something mastered. We were especially impressed this summer with his determination. He's always been a little nervous about learning to ride a bike and since we've been moving around so much, we haven't been able to take the time to teach him. Heather gave him some pointers this summer and he worked all day until he was able to ride his bike. He taught himself to ride a skateboard as well. He loves anything that's in season. Right now he's back in basketball and is looking forward to baseball in the spring and hopes to start football next fall. He likes swimming as well, but doesn't love getting into the cold water. He's doing very well with his piano and it helps that their teacher lives across the street.

Gracie is in first grade and 6 years old. Grace just loves her school. She picks up on things quickly and gets right to her homework when she gets home. She knows she has to do it before she can play with the neighbors and this is one of her favorite things to do. She wanted to start basketball this year and is really getting a kick out of it. She takes her basketball and practices dribbling as much as she can. She also loves jumping rope, playing with the hula hoop, drawing, and being social. Grace loves to meet new people and will be your best friend the second you meet her.

Joshua is liking his preschool a lot better these days. He has a speech teacher as well and loved to go and see her, which he still does. He had a hard time going to his daily preschool though and now looks forward to it. Every time he does something he's proud of he says, "I'm going to show this to my friends." This is how he refers to his brother and sisters. There is nobody he would rather spend time with than his siblings. He's always very sad when they are gone by the time he wakes up. He is also very interested in drawing and does very well. He's pretty much interested in whatever anybody around him is interested in. He's really lot of fun. Joshua is now four and a half. Our baby will be in kindergarten next year...hard to believe.

So that's our year in review. We hope you are all doing well and look forward to hearing from you.

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Merry Christmas

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On occasion, we have sent a yearly Christmas update to keep in touch with our family and friends. This year, we decided to start a blog. This gives you all the option to read as much or as little about us as you care to and you don't have pages of the years happenings to keep up on. So we hope you all have a Merry Christmas and would love to hear how you and your families are doing as well.