The Best Of PA

In the Car, driving to the bank, ironically Elly: Mommy we can go to the toy store to get money. Thats where you get money. Me: Umm..no sweetheart. We don't get money at the toy store. We have to work hard to get money. (in hind sight I should have mentioned the bank somewhere in there) Elly: Oh, Mommy I don't know anything and you know everything. :-( Me: Oh sweetheart, you know lots of things! Your a smart little girl. Elly: But I know nothing about hard work. Me: Yes you do! You work hard everyday! You make your bed, get dressed, take out the trash and set the table! Elly: I do? I'm a hard worker? What else do work hard at? Me: You work hard cleaning the playroom and your room and sharing your toys. Elly: Oh, what else do I work hard at? Me: You work hard at drawing pretty pictures and dancing and singing. Elly: Oh, what else do I work hard at? Me: You work hard helping Mommy cook dinner and bake cakes. Elly: Oh, what else do I work hard at? Me: You help ...

Happy December 1st Everyone! Have any super Christmas traditions you mind sharing? We have finished "A Christmas Carol" as a family earlier this week and our ready for the many rounds of Christmas Traditions. Here is one of them! The 25 books of Christmas! Wrap up 25 Christmas books, Santa, elves, reindeer, but most importantly the birth of the Savior. Have the kids pick one book out each day and unwrap and read them each night. Our schedule goes as planned 1) Read kid scriptures as family 2) Brush our teeth and put on jammies 3) Read book-Christmas ones for December 4) Say prayers It's a daily ritual we all look forward too, but the unwrapping Christmas themed books make it all the more special. PS I'm handing my wrapped books to the girls this year because Brinley will wreck havoc on them if they are placed under the tree!

At Dinner Table Elly: Can I get down and play? Me: A couple more bites till you can be excused. Elly: Okay....umm how about 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 bites! And she ate them all plus one!

Our Thankful Turkey is Complete! Tomorrow we feast and express out gratitude to family! It's been a lot of fun watching our "grateful" work of art take form. Excited to continue this tradition for years to come! Funny side notes: I think Elly's most popular thing she mentioned she was grateful for was hot cocoa. Those days we wrote down more than one thing we were grateful for.

My sweet little Brinley Rose is a wonderful snuggler, with a fiesty personality. Its so cute she now says: dank doo, when you hand her things, which of course means thank you. She loves to walk about and take baths...and when extra comfortable poop in them! Lots of fun clean up for mom! I love my baby girl!

Well I felt a little under dressed, but Danny and I had a lovely time at the Zoellner Center this evening. What did we do? Fancy dinner on stage and afterwards listened to jazz vocalist Judy Wexler. Enjoyed some cabaret music, piano, drums, base and a deep sultry jazz voice. It was a fun unique date night!

"Mankind was my own business. The common welfare was my own business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence were all my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business". Jacob Marley, "A Christmas Carol" It is our third day in reading "A Christmas Carol" as a family. I must thank my husband Danny for supporting me in this new tradition with two little ones. I feel it is an important one. And Ellyanna is asking questions and looking at the pictures as I explain them to her. I have to confess it is my Dad who inspired me to commit to this task, although he does not know it. It's interesting some things you never learn about your parents until you are older. At a recent stake conference, my Dad spoke about a change of heart, and in his talk he quoted this very book frequently. Apparently he reads this book every Christmas season. Which I'd never known. I remember watching the movie as a f...

Our thankful turkey is emerging!!! There's lots to be grateful for, popcorn, cocoa, heat, health, a good run, good history books to read, sunsets, games, light, a fire, soup, comfy bathrobes, jobs, the beauty of fall and so much more :-). "The world is so full of a number of things, I'm sure we should all be happy as kings!" Robert Louis Stevenson

Elly: Mommy Look! I decorated a bag for Halloween! Me: grumble grumble......steam! Ellyanna managed to grab some markers and the bags from the playroom closet and proceed to draw. The gift bag as well as the other two was for primary. I was folding and putting away laundry and had already given her crayons and paper to do artwork.

I know that it is not quite officially the Christmas season yet and we are still learning about the pilgrims and building our thankful turkey......but I couldn't help myself. I'm overly excited for Christmas and decided it would be fun....mostly for Danny and I to read "A Christmas Carol". We are reading it as a family. And even though my girls are only 4 and 1, I figure that if I start them young, they really won't know any different. And really eventually they will get what all those big words mean. The book I took out comes with pictures, so it's easier to show and explain in lamans terms what's going on. A couple pages a night is what we plan to read, till Christmas, and then I'd like to rent the movie. I figure I will compromise by renting the Muppet version of "A Christmas Carol" the girls will get a kick out of that one.

"Mommy I don't want to move. I want to stay here. I love our our house. It's warm and comfy and we can cuddle."

So Elly hung out with Aunt Mary and was having a blast that is until Mary left for a party. After she left Elly stood by the door and with a small pout and tears in her eyes she says Elly: "Mommy I wanted to go to the birthday party too!". Aww poor Elly I had to give hugs and kisses for some consoling. She talked about it for the rest of the day.

Elly: Mommy can we play Mon-knock-oly? Me: Okay after dinner Elly: Yay! Thank you Mommy! I love Mon-knock-oly!

Polk Valley Park 2068 Polk Valley Road Hellertown, PA 18055 Checked out this park yesterday since it was so gorgeous out. This park has soccer fields, a baseball field, a dog park and a little loop to walk. It's got pretty views and we even got to see horses walking about. My poor girls have colds so they suffered through their mothers short walk, taking turns in the tiny stroller I brought. Brinley ended up falling asleep in the stroller and Ellyanna went from being in a sour mood to a talkative pleasant mood. So all is well that ends well right?

The book I'm using to re tell history :-)

Our making of the grateful turkey has been a hit. We've decided to be more economical and write down everyone's daily comments on one hand....er feather. I need to get more paper, with more colors, it's almost starting to look Christmas like. Some things Elly is grateful for... -the earth -food -her barbie dolls -heat -leaves, trees -pumpkins and decorations Danny and I have been very grateful for 2 healthy girls we adore, each other (we adore one another too) and ELECTRICITY! It's been a wild ride these past couple of months and this weather?!?! Well, let's just say that now I'm even more grateful for what the pilgrims went through and all the sacrifices they made. Which brings me to our other Thanksgiving tradition, learning about the pilgrims. So far we've learned in little increments of dinner time chatter, about Jamestown Virginia and the trials of a new land, the Indians, illness and starvation. We've talked about John Smith and his relatio...

Happy November 1st! I don't know about you but Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays, however other than Turkey Day, there are no real traditions we've done as a family working up to the day. Unlike Halloween with it's pumpkin picking, hayrides, parties and camping there seems to be nothing to do in between Halloween and Thanksgiving?!?! Well I've decided to change that with my family! After looking on the Internet and chatting with friends ice come up with my own new traditions. Tradition number 1 -trace your hand, cut it out and write one thing you are thankful for each day. What are all those hands going to become you ask? Why the feathers on a turkey of course! The hands are now on my fridge....,and yes we'll get a body and head etc. Tradition number 2 -History lesson time! Dinner History lessons about America. Today i pointed to our map of the world hanging in our kitchen and talked about the trek the English made to come to America. They came to see...

    Well, it was exciting at first this no electric thing.....but it is cold! Felt all nice and neighborly two days ago when I shared some soup with the neighbors. But as always they all help us out all lot more than we do them. Alan returned the favor by plowing our driveway on Sunday. Our other neighbors George and Brenda gave us some wood to start a fire in our fireplace. Thank goodness for that fire, because we then could have some friends over who didn't have any fire, electric....warmth in their home.   Can I just say? There is nothing like a fire. It's mesmerizing, with its flickering and sparking, a constant glowing heat infusing the air with comfort, and the smokey rustic smell of a fire is divine. Especially on a freezing snowy night with no working furnace. To add in, we were blessed once again when friends from the next town over (who had electric) invited us over for dinner for some homemade chicken soup and corn bread. Mmmmm....thank you Go...

What does snow in October mean? It means cancelled Halloween parties :-( However it also means snowman making, and my daughter shoveling the driveway with Daddy. It also meant the electric went out for the whole night and we had bundle the kids up in layers and all share a bed. It means making soup and hot cocoa on the grill, lighting lots of candles, hooking up the generator and playing cards such as Memory, Monopoly cards and Go Fish. Thanks to a generator and cancelled church it meant eggs, bacon and potatoes on the skillet and the morning news with some Veggie Tales thrown in there. A little unexpected snow gave us a little unexpected family adventure and it's been fun :-)

Ellyanna: Mommy wanna see my snowman? Me: Oh wow sweetie it looks great! (looking at a pile of snow on the driveway I assumed was the snowman) Ellyanna: No that's not it Mommy. (runs towards the garage and points to the a snowball on the ground) This is it! It's a baby snowman! This picture is her trying to see with her hat and holding her snowman in her hand.