Something about the way the sun is shining and the air smells

Something about today feels like spring.  I'm not wishing winter away, but I do feel an extra spring in my step =0).

He was the star of the show.

Meet Royce.  Our dog-nephew.

Royce is the best snowy day play mate around.

He pulled and pulled and pulled us on sleds.

He's a champion weight puller and he can move!

We spent Friday night and Saturday morning with Bri, Jon and Royce.  We all love seeing them.  We ate good food together, played games, and played in the snow.  We were sad that we had to leave early to make it home for Liv's basketball game, but that's the way it goes.  We are glad we live close enough to hop in the car and make an overnight trip of it.  You should see these guys with the kids.  They are the best.  Our kids adore them (so do we.)

This is what they all looked like when Brad and I woke up.  Thanks for having us Bri and Jon!

All things yellow.

Olivia's folder. . . left at home on the counter.

Lemons out of our fruit bowl.

Kids paint brushes drying on the window sill.

From out of the girls back pack.  

When you wash your hands, scales will appear.

By midnight, you will turn into a swan.

Introducing: Craig Beckham Rand

Little Beckaroo was born Cole Beckham Rand.  Around the time that he turned a year old, I decided I wanted to give him his Dad and Grandpa's first name.  Brad and I talked about it, and I went back and forth, and came to the conclusion that it was important to us.  This fall we went ahead and filed the paper work.  As of January 4th it was legal.  Beckham is now

Craig Beckham Rand

It means a lot to me.  Beckham gets to carry carry on the tradition.  He gets to share a special name with two special people.  

We didn't tell Brad's dad and wanted to surprise him.  On Saturday morning up at Sugar Loaf, Beckham came down, handed Pugga the official document, showed him his "Craig Rand" name tag and gave Pugga his own.  Pugga gave him just the reaction he hoped for.  Aren't they a handsome group!

Other SugarLoaf Highlights

• We were upgraded to a great connecting room with Brad's parents that had a whole kitchen and living room downstairs.
• We spent the evening with Nana (always a treat!) while BR and Pugga went to a CE course.  
• All of the kids had a great time and didn't complain about the cold ONCE!
• The girls got to drive home with Nana and Pugga and they thought that was the greatest!

Happy Birthday To ME

I turned 31 on Friday the 13th.   When it comes to birthdays, some people could take it or leave it. . . I am on the complete other end of the spectrum.  I LOVE my birthday.  I always wake up in a great mood and have a great time.  This birthday was probably my favorite one yet.  I have three highlights for you.

• Getting bombarded with texts at 9:00 am from all of our family and many of our friends.  Each one started out, Something I love about you is . . .  and ended with birthday wishes.  Definitely on the top 5 list of best presents anyone has ever given me.  I teared up more than once, it made my day. . . really!  (do I have a great BR or what??)
• Going out on a progressive dinner with Brad. . . sushi and texas road house. . . our favorites!
• Taking a road trip to Sugar Loaf with Brad's parents.  We skied  the next day.  And it was SO beautiful.  If I trusted my skiing skills I would have taken my camera up. . . I had such a hard time resisting, but considering I am a novice and I fell multiple times, my camera thanked me.  

Little things that make me happy

• I have the best calling in the world.  At our church, we all take turns fulfilling whatever responsibility we are asked to do.  Everyone pitches in and everything gets done.  Each responsibility is what we call "callings."  Since we have lived in Maine, I have taught Sunday School to the teenagers, been in the Young Women's presidency (the teenage girls organization), been in the Relief Society presidency (the women's organization), been a primary teacher (the children's organization), and now I am the children's music leader.  It's a dream and I hope I get to do it forever.  I find myself day dreaming about what we are going to do next.  I've been so proud of the kids.  They have done such a great job learning the new songs and best of all, we've had FUN.  I love it... should I say it again??  I LOVE IT =0).
• I joined the Group Fitness Challenge at Gold's Gym.  I am excited to make time for consistent exercise, it makes me happy.
• I finished itemizing all of our Good Will donations. . . my least favorite of all jobs. . . but its done!!
• A friend of mine came to church with us on Sunday and everything went perfectly.
• Olivia has been doing a project to commemorate  Martin Luther King.  They made the goal to do 100 acts of kindness. . . It has inspired her to be kind and do it with a smile.  Every time I turn around she is helping one of her siblings.  I am grateful to be surrounded by good people who help us all want to be better.  Especially that they are good examples to my kids.
• It snowed for my birthday =0).  We've been waiting for the white stuff, and it makes me happy.
• The girls have been taking skiing lessons.  They have improved a ton.  The first day they couldn't even stand still.  If they were on any kind of an incline, they would slide down and couldn't stop themselves.  I had to drag them around until I dropped them off to their instructor.  Last night they were hiking up the hill and sliding down, directing themselves wherever they wanted to go.  They even rode up the chairlift all by themselves.   ( I have to admit I was a little nervous when the teacher sent Liv and Gwen up without an adult. . .)  They came back thrilled and that makes me happy.

• The kids had Monday off from school.  We had a great day.  I loved watching them play school.  They played all together for a long time.

This is them during gym class.  First they did Yoga, then jumping jacks. . . and the last picture is of them taking their pulses =0).

This and That | Day to Day odds and ends

Starting Youngest to Oldest:

Beckaroo got his first big boy haircut this week.  

Adorable. . . as expected

He is crazy about his "Choo Choos" and wants to constantly be in the Pay-oom (Play room)

He has also figured out how to help himself to the pantry and anything he wants in it. . . (it becomes very messy.)

Gwen Has a "Wiggler" as she calls it.  She's pretty funny about it.  I call her my "super feeler."  She is very intune with the way things feel.  The way her pants feel, her socks, her hair, her sheets, etc.  Now she is obsessed with the way her wiggly tooth feels.  She pretty much talks about it all of the time.

She and Beckham have been playing babies, which consists of them crawling around saying "goo goo ga ga" and taking pretend naps in the middle of the floor.

She and Olivia are taking Ski lessons at the local small mountain.  She started out not being able to even stand without sliding down backwards.  After  two lessons they were zipping back and forth without a problem.  {Luckily they make snow over there because we are completely snow free}.

Miss Olivia is playing Basketball for the first time.  She's been having fun with her friends, and we have had fun watching them.  They have gone from the first game where they all watched the ball roll around at their feet, to the second game which was more like a game of tag, they all just ran around laughing with their opponents and paid little attention to the ball, to their third game where they pretty much have it all figured out.  

And as for news from Brad and I.  We both had our cholesterol checked and they both came back great!  YAY.

A Day in Our Life| Wednesday January 4, 2012

These two kiddos are home today, feeling "under the weather."  I have a list of groceries I need to get.  We are getting really low on food considering it has been almost 3 weeks since I have been grocery shopping.  I'm debating going out just to get the essentials.  It's an internal struggle I just can't quite decide. . . we'll see.

This box contains my proud work from yesterday.  I wish I had taken a picture of Beckham's closet after the dejunking.  The before picture would be of a walk in closet that there was no chance you could walk into.  The after would be of a bare floor and loads of extra space on the shelves!  This box is full of clothes, etc waiting to be itemized and taken to Good Will.  The boxes on top are filled with boy clothes to send to my brother David and his wife who are having their first baby. . . a BOY in a couple of months!!  Yeah!!

AND FINALLY:

I promised this forever ago. . . and here it is.  A photograph of the pictures I painted of the girls. . . framed and on the wall in their room.

And also as promised:

A picture of the shelves my dad and mom helped me build this fall.  These are just to the right of the entrance to our house from the garage.  The result has been miraculous!  For the most part, our floor in the entry and coat closet remains completely clear all of the time!  That is a vast difference from how it used to be when we would kick shoes out of our way as we walked into the house.  Now I just have to figure out what to do with the coats and gloves and hats. . . luckily we have hardly needed them yet. . . but winter is coming and they will be out in all their glory soon enough.  If anyone is interested in more of a tutorial of how we made these.  I could try my best to do it.

And last but not least:

look who got her ears pierced!!  We've been pretty open to letting Gwen get her ears pierced pretty much any time she decided she wanted them.  Liv got hers pierced when she turned 5.  When Gwen turned 5 she said she didn't want to get them pierced and she was going to wait until she was 10.  That was fine too.  Then on Sunday her Embree came to church beaming to show Gwen her newly pierced ears and the crown earrings she had gotten.  Embree told Gwen all about it.  How they put a stapler up to your ears and staple it right through, you can sit on your mom's lap if you want to and that it doesn't hurt as bad as a flu shot.  Gwen was convinced and couldn't wait.  Here she is with her new crown earrings.  She's just as excited as she expected.

On the verge of 2012

As soon as Christmas starts coming to a close, my mind starts working, setting goals.  I don't know that I'm so much of year long resolution setter.  My thought process is more along the lines of: We have put a lot of things off in the name of fun and Christmas, now I'm ready to refocus, prioritize and pick away at things I've been wanting to accomplish.  Here is a preliminary list of the things I have been thinking about:

• In recent years I have chosen a word for the year.  the words I have chosen are cherish, childhood. . . this year I have been thinking of the word "Charity."  No, there is no rule that it has to be a CH word, only coincidence.  I feel like I need to work on having more charitable feelings when it is hard to have charitable feelings.  This goes at home as well as with other people.  Also, that it would benefit me to fit more activities into my life that  are primarily for the purpose of serving someone else.  
• For the last couple of years, I have had the goal of teaching my kids about different countries and places around the world.  Last year, we learned about India and it stopped there.  I want to take action toward actually doing this and not just thinking about it.  My thought is that part of the reason I procrastinate this is because I do not have a system that works for doing it.  I spend time wondering what would be the best way to find the information.  My goal is to either find a book or website that has easy to find, go to information that we can use EASILY, and add to it if we want and not add to it if I don't want to.
• PURGE.  That is always a goal of mine.  Starting Tuesday I am going to go through all of my hidden corners and purge.  Then I'm going to go through Beckham's closet and purge.  Then I'm going to go through my basement and purge.  Then I am going to enjoy how organized it all feels =0).
• And perhaps a combination of the following: Paint.  I have a few pictures in my head that are ready to come to fruition.  Finish my blog book.  Play around with Macro Photography.  I can't lie that another one of my goals is to ......Paint the living room???  I really want to. . . but I'm not sure if I've gotten there yet.

I have no delusions of accomplishing all of these things quickly.  Picking away at them is the key phrase.  

And since I posted a picture of Brad as a kid. . . Here are a couple of me with my brothers and sisters =0). There is so much to be said about these pictures, I don't even know where to start.

Now we are off to go swimming.

Aren't Old Pictures the BEST. . .

Guess who this is. . .

Do you think he looks like anyone else we know??

I wish I had taken a picture just like this one when we were at Story Land this summer.

Merry Christmas!

My favorite month, as well as my favorite 48 hours, are ending. . . and I am left feeling very, very satisfied. . . Happy and Grateful.

Christmas Eve Highlights:

• Waking up to a white Christmas Eve.
• A house filled with family, friends, good food and a talent show.
• The Rand Family Circus: Gwen on the tight Rope, Liv the Magician, Beckham the stunt man (BR shot him out of a canon!) as well as a tall man (also Beckham.  This time riding on BR's shoulders.) 
• A sweet Nativity Program put on by all of the kiddos. 
• Skyping with Grandma JoLynn and Papa Kent and trying to convince them to drive straight through 24 hours to make it just in time for Christmas =0).

Christmas Day Highlights:

• Liv found the Pickle and chose the gift she gave Gwen to be opened first.  It read: To My adorable sister.  From: your sister who loves you.  Then Gwen promptly chose the gift she got for Liv.  Both girls were so excited to give what they had chosen and so grateful for what they received.
• Beckham caught on quickly to opening up the presents and could be found either sneaking Gwen's stocking candy or pulling out all and any random presents from under the tree, beginning to open them and then claiming them as his own.  
• Brad had a surprise for each of us.  Each one was perfect.
• Spending all day with family
• Playing together
• Games and food with the extended Rand Family
• In-Laws whom I love.
• Playing Golf with Brianna and Jon and Mum and Dad.
• Remembering the life changing gift which we celebrate today.  The gift of our Savior Jesus Christ.

The kids patiently waiting to go downstairs

Merry Christmas!