A beautiful thought

I've been thinking about our little niece constantly lately. I want to share this poem that someone posted on her website. It isn't meant to make anyone cry, (although I still haven't stopped crying about it). But the images it brings up are so beautiful to me. It really put Christmas into perspective. I hope you enjoy!

My First Christmas In Heaven

I see the countless Christmas trees around the world below.With tiny lights, like heaven's stars,reflecting in the snow.The sight is so spectacular! Please wipe away that tear, for I am spending Christmas with Jesus Christ this year. I hear the many Christmas songs that people hold so dear. But sounds of music can't compare with Christmas Choir up here. I have no words to tell you,the joy their voices bring,for it is beyond description to hear the angels sing. I know how much you miss me. I see the pain inside your heart, but I am not so far away. We really aren't apart. So be happy for me dear ones,You know I hold you dear,And be glad I'm spending Christmas with Jesus this year. I send you each a special gift from my heavenly home above. I send you each a memory of my undying love. After all "Love is the gift", more precious than pure gold. It was always most important in the stories Jesus told. Please love and keep each other as my Father said to do. For I can't count the blessings or love He has for you. So, have a Merry Christmas and wipe away that tear. Remember, I'm spending Christmas with Jesus Christ this year.

My blog is hideous...

So, I realized my blog is hideous. I don't know why it took me so long, after all I look at other blogs alot. Everyone else has cute backgrounds, etc. So any advice on how to do that would be wonderful! I tried to cute it up, but this is the best I could come up with.....

My decorating theme this year.....

Our tree is up, decorations out. My theme this year? Mis-matched, hodgpodge, "tacky". It was surprisingly easy to achieve. No really, I am so bored with perfect white lights and a tree that looks like it should be in the white house, I want Christmas with soul.... Really, what is more interesting and fun; perfect white lights so even straight and perfect? (although that does give me a rush as well) Or, Griswald lights? I must say without hesitation, I love the Griswald lights. Speaking of, the neighborhood next to us has the house called the "Greeley Griswalds". They even have their own radio station. Here is the link. www.greeleygriswalds.com Now that's my kind of Christmas decorating.
But don't worry, I'm sure this phase won't last, so I'll enjoy it while I can. I'd better go, I need to go outside and toss one strand of lights in our tree.

And here it is..... if you dare

Here is the link to the worst and most disturbing thing ever!!
gotta go


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDp2JOmSOC0

Pretty much the most disturbing thing ever.....

I have to vent about this, even though it will make me admit that I love dancing with the stars. I have yet to find a picture but tonight Marie Osmond danced in a baby doll costume. It's bad enough that she is the worst dancer ever. But even worse, she thinks she is the best! Anyway, in a tribute to her dolls, she danced as one, all I can say is that if that was my mom, I would have committed suicide. GO Away Marie!!!

A wonderful surprise on a Sunday morning

So we wake up Sunday morning to Hot air balloons right outside our window! The past few years we have always gone to the nearest balloon festival, so we were so excited to have one here in Greeley. There were actually close to 30 balloons, but I could only get these few in the picture. Some floated right over our house. I think one of the best things about having kids is getting excited with them over things like this. It makes you feel like a kid again!

halloween and hamburger cookies

We had a great halloween around here. It seemed that the most exciting part of Halloween this year was hairdo's. ( well a crown for Abbey) I also made a long lost recipe of cookies that look like a hamburger. My mom made them when we were kids and I thought they were pretty much the coolest thing ever. I believe that I still do! It's amazing what sorts of things make you happy. Hamburger cookies really made my day. We went to the costume parade at school, it is always so cute. I went out trick or treating with the kids, which I love to do, Abbey was tired at the end and said that she already had enough candy. Where did this kid come from? I was the candy stealer in our family, which Anja recently found out, and she was really mad. I think I owe her a shipment of candy!!

House project

We've had computer problems the past month, so I haven't been able to post anything.. So I thought I'd post a picture of the cornices Jim made for the windows! He did such a good job.

A really bad deja vu

Last night my mom and dad were in an airplane accident in Utah. They are both beat up and bruised but no injuries! It was exactly 22 years ago last week that they had their first accident. Thankfully there is no comparison to the first one as far as injuries go. All of us kids were really really upset. I still feel like the first accident was yesterday. But my strongest feeling is that if gratitude. It could have been so very much worse. I am sad it happened to them again. And it has been a deja vu in so many ways. The exact same thing happened with the engine. Jim came to tell me at work and he used the exact same words that I heard the first time. The words my dad used as they knew they were going to crash were nearly the same. I am grateful that my moms parents and Uncle Glen could go to them, as well as my uncle Kerry who was in the first accident!
I am just so grateful that they are ok, and it is a miracle that they walked away!
They were on the news, some reports the plane was experimental, and that isn't true. But I'll post the picture that was on the news.http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=148&sid=1952832

In memory of Hannah...

I am posting today from Houston, as we are here for our niece Hannah's funeral. She passed away monday at midnight. We have felt such sadness at the loss, yet peace as well. It has been really nice to see her family, and they are doing well. The viewing was especially hard, but so beautiful. She looked like a princess, she even had a crown on. The funeral was so sweet, there were plenty of tears, but also plenty of laughs and smiles. Kimrie and Mallory were able to sing with all of Hannah's cousins, and some close friends. The kids sang 2 of Hannah's favorite songs. "A child's prayer" and "love is spoken here". One of the biggest surprises for me, was that Marvin Goldstein, wrote a song for Hannah. It was played at the funeral with a slide show. He had come over to the house a few months ago, to meet Hannah, and the Binns'. It just blew me away that he was as touched by Hannah as we were. She taught us all so much, I hope we can remember all of those things!

Fun at the lake

We had a fantastic time last week with Andy, Marylyn, and of coarse Annika. We spent some time at the Lake, it was great fun. We all learned an important lesson, Never take pop from a 2 year old

Work with mom

Abbey came to work with me for a few hours the other day; They wanted me to come in on my day off, so I brought Abbey with me. I went a little overboard with her outfit, but the dress code is 50% black, so I figured she needed to look the part. It didn't say anywhere about not dressing her as my "mini me". Of coarse she got her nails done, she dusted, swept, and colored in her coloring books. It was alot of fun for her and me.

wow! This is fun!

look alike meter

New School Year

Here we are at school already! Kimrie is in 4h grade, and has Mrs Ramirez, who loves science, and Kimrie will be dissecting a frog. Mallory is in 1st grade and has Mrs. Sparkman, who seems like the perfect 1st grade teacher.
In Mallory's picture she is sitting at her desk, waiting for school to start. She took her school supplies in and out of her desk 15 times. It was precious.

where to begin?

I really didn't think I had anything to post until I looked through my camera. So here goes: We were able to take a tour of the Olympic training center in Colorado Springs. Jim had finished some work for them for class credit, anyway we got an extra special tour. The one thing they asked is no flash photography around the athletes. Of coarse, everytime I took a picture, the flash went off. That was really great when it happened at the shooting competition. Jim was humiliated to be seen with me.

nothing really

I haven't posted for awhile, so I found some fun pictures to put up for the hay of it. First is a pic of my niece Annika with my dad, uncle Jex, and Mouse the horse. Next is Abbey as a baby. I just loved that pic. I'm sure I'll be posting more random photos later. School starts Wednesday, can't believe it. Oh and I forgot to mention that Kimrie's broken arm was a result of "horsing around" I'm sure Kjaersten knows what I mean!!

Latest fashion accessory

Kimrie being the trendsetter that she is, has started the latest back to school fashion trend. A Cast!! Last night Kimrie fell backwards while playing, and broke her wrist and her arm! She was in a lot of pain, but within a few hours at the ER she was feeling alot better. Anyway, the doctor had to reset her arm, (which was truly hard to watch,) then he put a cast on it, that was curved forward to compensate for the backwards break. It is a wierd looking cast up towards her hand because it is all pressed in and shaped. She is hanging in there well, and diligently ices it every 2 hours or so just like to doctor said.
Jim felt so bad for her, he told her that she could pick what we did today. She picked seeing the movie UNDERDOG! Ugh! It was so stupid, I am "more dumber" for seeing it.

Haircut

I have chopped all my hair off. I walked into work last Friday and said "Someone cut fall my hair off right now!" She said" are you sure? we are about to cut off 11 inches!" I said "go for it" I am actually quite impressed with myself, she was cutting all my hair off and I couldn't have cared less.

Childhood food memories

I have two thoughts on food today. First, our garden is a raging success. We have grown ONE count em ONE zucchini. Now, I am sure others are on their way, but I figured all along that if we had one vegetable this year I would be thrilled. So I included a picture for all to see.
My other train of thought started tonight at dinner when the girls were gagging over this luscious, beautiful and tasty zucchini. I began to reminisce about gagging as a child over that gigantic orange squash. I'm not entirely sure what it was called. Butternut perhaps? Anyhoo, I decided to list the foods mom used to make, that now as a mother I have great admiration for the healthfulness of. Plus if you notice, we were all pretty lean and mean. Maybe it's because we refused to eat the squash.
So here is my list: (please add your memories!)

1.Squash, - usually mom wouldn't let us put sugar on it

2. Cracked wheat for breakfast.

3. Homemade split pea soup

4. Beans with ham floating in it.

5. Those shakes and pills she made is have to clean out your system. But having diahrrea in the middle of the school day was not fun.

6. Cali tea

7. MUSH

On a good note, ROLLS and CINNAMON ROLLS, Chocolate cake with chocolate frosting

Lots of stuff to add!

Well, I just returned from a trip to Houston to pick up the girls. It was way too short, but a lot of fun. The weather was almost bearable. So we went for a ride with dad, that was so much fun. Kimrie is the future pilot of the family. She went on a crazy ride with grampa. They did two barrell rolls, and she loved it! She came back with a huge smile on her face. Next was my turn, I was fully prepared to be outdone by Kimrie. But after a few minutes of flying, I was ready for some fun. Dad and I did 2 barrell rolls, 2 loops, and two inverted S's? I think that may be what they were called. I was screamin like a little girl, but it was so much fun. I have video, and you can hear dad cracking up the whole time! It was great fun, I highly recommend it.

Before the party....

Here is what the sky looked like 3 hours before the POOL PARTY!! There was a tornado that touched down here in Greeley. It was truly a depressing sight!! Lucky for us, the clouds cleared up, it still wasn't warm but we swam anyway. Kids have no concept of temperature. It was really fun to have the place to ourselves. We'll definately do it again.

Birthdays

This week Mallory and Kimrie had birthdays. Kimrie turned 9 and Mallory turned 6. We had a great time celebrating. Bradley,Dave, and Amy were here to celebrate too. Tomorrow we are having a combined birthday party at the neighborhood pool. I am looking forward to it. I'll take plenty of pictures.
Kimrie had a swim meet yesterday and did really well. She improves each time, and best of all, she likes it.

summer swim team

So, Jim and I are geeked about having a summer swim team in our neighborhood. It brings back all kinds of memories. Kimrie is on it this year, and here are some pictures of her in action. It is so much fun being at the swim meet, ( a little too hot though) we just sit on our lawn chairs and eat nachos.

So it's a little quiet around here, the girls are at their grandparents house for a week of fun! We miss them, although Jim and I went to see a movie at noon yesterday. That was a blast, especially because we were the only people in the entire theatre. We saw Ocean's 13. It was great!! I

A little quiet

Happiness is.....

Happiness is..... Riding your new bike to school! And trying to leave as quickly as possible so Inger can't get a picture.

New car

Here is the new car, Lots of fun!

Kimrie

Here are some action shots of Kimrie's dance as well. Her dance was called the Easy two tap.

and one more

Here is one of Mallory. Her dance was the crowd favorite. It was to the Shirley Temple song "aint I sweet". It was great

still trying to figure this out....

Here is Abigail, dancing to the song "I love ballet". It was adorable.

dance recital

Tuesday night Kimrie had her dance recital, Mallory and Abbey's was on Thurs. Kimrie &Mallory did a tap dance, Abbey did a ballet. I was really proud of them. They all remembered their steps, and performed great in front of a huge audience! I am still trying to post a video of it!