Slow Down, You Move Too Fast

Nothing makes you slow down quite like a house full of sick kids. We've been taking it easy around here for the past little while, and I've been enjoying the quiet days and one-on-one time I've had with Matthew & Anna. Now that we are feeling better, I hope to remember to leave some unscheduled time for quiet and play and not fill our days with errands and long lists.

I just finished reading this book for the third (or fourth...) time. I love it, and every single word spoke to me to tell me to slow down, waste less time with unimportant things, and really appreciate life. I recommend this book to anyone, mother or not. I'm sure I'll be pulling it back out in a month or two when life gets crazy again.

P.S. We have a current obsession with Zorro at our house. The kids are constantly wearing capes and masks of some sort, running around the house yelling "Zorro!", sword fighting, and writing the letter Z on anything and everything. They love watching an episode of the old Disney series before bed each night with Joseph. I love watching them love something so much.

Finally February

For some reason, January felt like it lasted for a year. I was happy to see February come... and now it is almost halfway over! We've had some nice weather that has allowed us to play outside and enjoy the sunshine, and it feels good.

Joseph's sister, Mary, is visiting us this weekend and we got to attend the opera! We saw Ernani at the Metropolitan Opera House and it was wonderful. We really enjoyed ourselves and it was a great experience.

This next month is pretty busy with school work, tests, church callings, and other projects. There is always something to do, but that is how we like it. Oh, and happy Valentines Day!

City Life

We've been able to do a few fun things around the city lately. With only about 4 months left here, I'm getting a little sad and I'm anxious to make good use of our time!

Some friends and I went into Manhattan last week to enjoy some tasty desserts. We had cream puffs at Beard Papa's, banana pudding at Magnolia Bakery, and gelato at Screme Gelato Bar. It was delicious and we were only a tiny bit sick at the end of the night. :)

We finally checked out the Bronx Zoo. We highly recommend going to the zoo in January because you get the whole place to yourselves! We were very impressed and we all had a great time. It was pretty cold, but most of the exhibits were indoors so it worked out great.

We also went to dinner with some friends at Schnippers near Times Square. It was delicious and lots of fun to have a date night in the city and catch up with Whitney & Bryan.

I usually tend to hibernate at home during the cold winter months, so it has been nice to get out of the house and have some fun!

And So It Goes

We got to spend two weeks with our families in Utah over Christmas. We couldn't get enough of holding baby Grey, who was blessed the first Sunday we were there. He is the sweetest thing ever.

We spent two days in Ely, Nevada, where we relaxed, went on long walks, and drove tractors. It was fabulous.

Christmas came and we were so grateful to be surrounded by our wonderful family. Matthew and Anna were so excited by everything and we loved watching them enjoy themselves.

It was great to see cousins, aunts, uncles, and friends that we haven't seen for a long time. Our kids only begged to come home a few times when they got too overwhelmed, Joseph got a little bit of studying done (for the boards which he takes next week!), and our families didn't complain about all the time and space we were taking up - so I'd say it was a success! :)

We had a wonderful time. Now we are looking forward to 2012 - graduation, moving, kindergarten and more!

Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas

The best Christmas present this year is that we get to be with our families! Since we won't be in New York, we didn't want to get a real tree that would die while we are gone. So we came up with this stick tree idea, which I love. The kids had fun gathering the sticks at the park and hanging the little ornaments.

We've been unwrapping and reading a Christmas book every night before bed, and got new Christmas pajamas last night. Our countdowns are getting shorter and I'm finishing up the last few handmade gifts and shopping trips. Merry Christmas everyone!