Christmas Holidays 2011

Getting ready for Christmas this last year was crazy. I think this year I will have to start in July if I want to get everything done. on top of working to finish decorating the boys rooms we did the following.

I was Santa's elf this year and made a fold up airport.

sorry the picture quality is bad I used my phone.

made my mom a bulletin board with old patterns, sewing stuff, and button push pins.

made my Nephew a science kit. with lab coat and science experiments in the book.

 I never took a picture of the gift i made my dad this year. it was wooden blocks painted black, with B&W pictures of each of the grand-kids and a letter on each block that spelled out "We love Grandpa"

went through ALL of the boys toys before Christmas this year. Was starting to wonder if I should give them any more for Christmas!?

Hosted Christmas Eve dinner with Rob's family.

 We also went to a rest home and sang carols one night with Rob's family.

made a ginger bread manger scene at our annual Ginger bread making with my family.

this was Dean's creation.

went out to eat and Temple square with my family, just like old times. This is all of my family except my Brother Matt who is serving a mission right now.

All the Grand-kids on my side of the family. first time they were all together!

Hosted New years party. second annual Steiner cousin party. what a bunch of crazies!

First Day of School

I know this is late, but I had to post about Dean's first day of pre-school. He started school on his birthday which was a very exciting for him.

He got to bring cookies to share with the class. He also got to pick out a book as a birthday gift. He chose The Old Woman Who Swallowed Some Leaves. It a great Fall book, you should check it out. He is going on his first field trip today. They are going to a dentist office.

Superhero Birthday party!

My two boys birthdays are 3 days a part. last year Brig turned one and we tried doing two parties. This year we got smart and threw one big party for the both of them. Super hero themed.

Invites: 

the letter states:We here at the CRIME FIGHTING SUPER HERO LEAGUE have noticed you and your special skills. Skills that are necessary and vital to crime fighters. Do you think you have what it takes to be a Super Hero? Super Dean and his side kick Super Brig seem to think so. They have invited you to our SUPER SECRET SUPER HERO TRAINING FACILITY at (address). Training begins at 17:30 hours (5:30) on the tenth day of September 2011. Please come in your Super Hero uniform (if you don't have one, one will be provided for you) and be prepared to work hard. Becoming a super hero is not for everyone, but it could be for you. We hope you decide to become a part of the CRIME FIGHTING SUPER HERO LEAGUE.

Regards, Justice Forall

As guest arrive we had felt masks and plastic table clothes (cape) available.

We had a jar of Peanut M&M's for everyone to guess how many where in there.

We also had a photo booth area. There were props; dumbbell, wham, pow, bam signs, and the backdrop had a speech bubble that said Happy Birthday Super Dean and Super Brig .

 

We then had dinner and served Superhero sandwiches, sidekick sides, Hulk juice (green kool-aid and lemon-lime soda), and iceman water.

After dinner we had a trivia sheet for the adults, to test their superhero knowledge. And the kids went out to train to be a superhero. 

 

First: they must cross a lava pit (water and red kool-aid in a pool)

second: they must find the kryptonite from the bat cave. ( blankets over chairs to make a dark cave. We then put glow-sticks in there.)

third: they had to learn how to dispose of hazardous material. (using tongs they moved green painted rocks (kryptonite) to a cooler labeled hazardous material.

Fourth: vaporize a villain (we put villain faces on Helium filled balloons and gave the kids cans of silly string (spiderman webbing) to take down the villains. You could also use a person dressed like a villain.)

some ideas I did not get around to doing were: jumping over buildings (made of boxes, blocks, or legos) learn to fly. (Jump off stool into pile of pillows), getting yourself out of a sticky/stringy situation. (have yarn strung into a web. Have each child take an end and follow it to the other side. We were going to have the silly string on the other side.)

After training we went inside for cake and Ice cream. Most years I've had my sister make the cakes, sense she is a pro, but she move across the country this past year so I took what I learned from her and went for it myself, this year. In case you cannot tell what it is we have a city scape on the bottom with the bat-symbol in the sky. Then the top is a web for spider-man with a superman cape draped off the side. The two figures on top are hulk and ironman.

While everyone ate cake and ice-cream we read off the winner of the candy jar and the answers to the trivia questions. We then opened presesnts.

We have a puppy!

Meet Neville!

Neville Longbottom Lawrence that is.

The boy's got an early birthday present the other day, a Black lab mix puppy.

He was born June 25,so about 9 weeks ago.

He is so much fun. 

We are hoping to get him a dog house soon so he will not be staying in the garage forever.

103 by 33

My sister tells me a few weeks ago that she has started a new blog and I should check it out. When i got there she had a list. 101 things to do before I turn 30. She has just had her 27th birthday, so that gives her 3 years. A few days later I was looking at some of my favorite blogs and someone else had started a similar list. I was intrigued.

source

I love to plan and make lists and dream about what's to come. I make lists about what I want to buy at the store, what I want to accomplish before a big event, or when I'm planning a name for my child. Lists make me feel prepared, accomplished, gives me peace of mind and lifts my spirits.

I have decided to do my own list 103 by 33. that gives me a little over three years to do this (I turn 30 in October). That is about 2 things a week, this will be challenging. I will post it on the sidebar and cross things off as I go. I will probably do post here and there talking about what I have done along the way.

Health
1.Get down to 200lbs again.
2. get down to 190 lbs.
3. get down to 180 lbs.
4. get down to 170 lbs.
5. get to a healthy weight between 150-170 lbs.
6. maintain a healthy weight--within 5 lbs--for a year.
7. go rock climbing on a man-made wall.
8. do pull-ups on bar (at least 5 in a row)
9. Hike Timpanogas Mtn. again, but with out feeling like I'm going to die.
10. RUN a 5K
11. Join a workout class(step aerobics, cycling, etc.)
12. do a hand stand or a cartwheel.
13. buy at least one more home workout equipment (punching bag, cycle, or treadmill)

Home
14. Decorate Front Room
15. Decorate Entryway
16. Decorate Family room
17. Decorate Kitchen
18. Decorate Dean's room
19. Decorate Brig's room
20. Decorate laundry/mud room
21. Decorate Hall bathroom
22. Decorate Master Bedroom
23. Decorate Master Bathroom
24. Finish building shelves and painting Garage
25. Do Spring cleaning 2012
26. Do Fall Cleaning 2012 (like spring cleaning)
27. do spring cleaning 2013
28. do fall cleaning 2013
29. do spring cleaning 2014
30. build a piece of furniture.
31. Organize Garage
32. Frame the basement
33. buy a piano or keyboard
34. Purchase and hang a piece of art in my home.

Family
35. Build doghouse and get a puppy.
36. Help with Dean's pre-school
37. Get Dean registered for Kindergarten
38. Get Brig into a pre-school
39. Go on another cruise for my 10th anniversary
40. Take the family to Disneyland again
41. Visit my sister in Georgia
42. Potty train Brig.
43. Make and do a summer bucket list 2012
44. make and do a summer bucket list 2013
45. make and do a summer bucket list 2014
46. plan and do a week long themed summer camp 2012
47. plan and do a week long themed summer camp 2013
48. plan and do a week long themed summer camp 2014
49. Make a family motto/theme for the school year 2012
50. make a family motto/theme for the school year 2013
51. make a family motto/theme for the school year 2014
52. try 5 new restaurants
53. find a dentist for the family and go.
54. Teach Dean how to ride a bike
55. come up with a family motto and saying
56. start a journal for each child
57. Go camping somewhere new in southern part of Utah
58. sign up Dean for a sport.
59. sign up Dean for swimming lessons

Crafting
60. Get caught up on childhood scrapbook
61. get caught up on family scrapbook
62. get caught up on Dean's scrapbook
63. start and get caught up on Brig's scrapbook
64. Try out digital scrapbooking
65. Buy photo shop
66. buy a DSLR
67. do some vinyl crafts with my silhouette machine
68. build up a stash of homemade baby gifts (10 or so)
69. create a birthday calender with extended family's birthdays
70. Start a family/personal history book.
71. put together a biography book of my Grandma Pat.

Money
72. start paying extra on condo mortgage
73. start putting double the amount into retirement each month
74. build up an 8 month emergency fund
75. buy a new vehicle

Yard
76. put garden in yard
77. put play area in yard
78. put in corner barbeque-pit area
79. plant a peach tree
80. plant an apple tree
81. landscape in front of the porch
82. re-landscape in front of house
83. landscape corner by gate in front yard
84. landscape the remaining part of the front yard.
85. build a dog pen
86. pour cement on side of Garage

Preparedness
87. buy canning equipment
88. learn to make a yummy peach salsa
89. build some square foot gardens
90. get one year food storage supply
91. renew/update 72hr, kit 2012
92. renew/update 72hr. kit 2013
93. renew/update 72hr. kit 2014
94. have canisters for all the food in my pantry
95. create a fire escape plan and practice it.

Personal
96. volunteer somewhere
97. Host Thanksgiving
98. Plan a family reunion
99. Memorize all the US presidents
100. read a classic book
101. buy a formal dress and wear it somewhere nice.

Religious
102. become a visiting teacher (this is not easy for me)
103. read the old testament.

We went to the zoo and saw...Dinosaurs?

 That's right! we saw dinosaurs. They had a traveling dinosaur exhibit come this summer. They move, roar, and some spit water at you. Dean about jumped out of his skin when I asked him to stand in-front of the first one we saw, for a picture, and it roared at him.

We saw all the other animals available to see and no zoo trip is complete with our family with out a ride on the train. They are redoing a section of the zoo, over by the bears. It looks like it will be really nice when it is finished next summer. They have little steam shovels, for the kids to use in sand, over by the construction site. very cute.

Lawrence Reunion

We got back from the Lawrence reunion a few weeks ago. The last time we had one was three years ago. We have so much fun when we get together, we are hoping that it will not be another three years before the next one.

We stayed in a 7 bedroom cabin up near Heber at a place called Timberlakes. We went boating at Deer Creek the first day and then spent time in Park City the next day. We played games, visited and ate yummy food  in the evening.

we found a house!

We are moving to Spanish Fork! we close on our house no later then April 20th! Here are some pictures.

It is 3280 square feet, four car garage, unfinished basement, .03 of an Acres. three bedrooms.
You cant see real well, but the view out the back is gorgeous. no homes behind us, just a large farmers field.

This is the side from the back.

Big back yard.

Other side yard from the front.

we have a outside door to the basement.

Front room by entry.

family room/ Kitchen

Kitchen

Nice wood floors

view from Kitchen

Master Bedroom

Vacation to Vagas and Disneyland

We went on vacation a week and a half ago and am finally blogging about it. We started our vacation in Las Vegas. We stayed two nights at circus circus. We watched some of the free acts they have there like trapeze, acrobats, and a guy who danced in air wrapped in fabric hanging from the ceiling(not sure what is called, but was very cool).

We went to Hoover Dam which was amazing. We decided that large projects like that would never happen now days with the way people are. It would be stopped if it had even gotten far enough in the approval process to even get started. many people died to get that dam complete and that would not be aloud now days. It would put it to a stop. It just makes it more amazing when you think about it.


We stopped at a small train museum. we saw the signs for it on our way to the Dam and decided to check it out on our was back. Dean is a big fan of Trains! It was really neat, It was basically a large pavilion with engines and special train cars in it. Saw one of the largest engines I had ever seen, we also saw a mail car and a caboose.

We did walk the strip a little bit and saw some of the free things available in Vegas. We went to M&M world, saw the lion exhibit at the MGM Grand, and on our way out of town we stopped at the famous Las Vegas sign!

When we got to California We decided to go to the beach first. We originally planned to get into swim suits and stay awhile but it was a little cold that day so we decided to just go wadding in our clothes. We go soaked and should have just changed. LOL! We bundled up the boys in there towels and went for a walk. We found it interesting that out of the about 7 cars at the beach 5 were from Utah. Can we say UEA?


We left the beach and headed to our Hotel. This is where we got spoiled. Rob's Brother's family has a time share and got a two room villa at Disney's Californian Grand Hotel and Spa. Wow it was amazing. We had the best view out our balconies. (picture below of California Adventure at night was taken right off the balcony. You may have to click on it to enlarge). There was a private entrance for Hotel residents to California Adventure, sense the Hotel is basically in the park, and a short cut to Disneyland.


The last time I went to Disneyland was nine years ago and it had been seven for Rob. I did not go on the large roller coaster then, I chickened out, but this time I went and basically i can say I can say I went. will I do it again maybe, but it may take some convincing. (Oh my earing busted on the ride too, from my head jerking around, good thing they were cheap!)

Dean and Brig had a blast (so did Mom and Dad). Dean tells everyone when they asked what he liked best? that he liked all of it. Brig just looked wide eyed the whole time trying to take it all in. We all loved the Pixar Parade. We could see it from our balcony the first Day and the caricatures would wave to us. The next day we had front row seating it was even better. Another big hit was the playhouse Disney show and we saw Hanny Mandy, Winnie the pooh and all the people from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.

Over all we had a blast and are excited to do it again in a few years!

Butterfly Fun!

We received a Butterfly garden kit for Christmas this past year and we decided to try it out. We ordered the caterpillars on line and they came in the mail. We received them on May 21.

They come in a cup and feed off the stuff in the bottom of it.

They seemed to almost double everyday. I was surprised how fast they grow.

Eventually they started to hang from the lid of the cup.

they started to build their cocoons.

It didn't take long to build the cocoons only about 24 hrs or less each.

We then transferred the paper lining from the lid to the butterfly cage.

I thought it would take two weeks of being in the cocoon before they would come out as butterflies. (I guess the Hungry Caterpillar book is wrong) They came out in about a week. On June 9th.

We fed them orange slices and watermelon.

Today June 14, we woke up and one of them had died, not sure why. Anyway we decided it was time to let them free. So we went to the near by park.

Dean didn't really want to let them go.

He loved to chase them after the were out.
In fact the first one landed under his feet and had a sort free life.

Check out this 2 min video of us letting them go.