Sprouts

I was so proud of London yesterday. We were at Sprouts getting some produce. I parked the cart on a corner of an aisle and then stepped about 7 feet away to get a plastic sack. London waited by the cart patiently. I then heard her talking to someone and turned around to find her telling a lady, very kindly, that that cart was ours. The lady was just ignoring London and was trying to push the cart away. London grabbed the cart and said "no, this is our cart". The lady would not believe London and then looked into the cart to find items she hadn't put there. She then admitted to London that she was right and that she was such a smart little girl. I just found it completely adorable that London stuck up for herself. I can bet $100 that at 4 years-old, I would have just stood back and watched in horror as the lady walked off with our cart. Not London, she is so brave and independent. I love and admire that in her.

Spending Money

London and I went to the dollar store yesterday and I encouraged London to bring some money so she could buy herself something. She has been so good with her allowance and has put money aside in savings, some into her piggy bank for spending, and 10% toward tithing. She gets $2.50 every other week and it divides into $0.25 for tithing, $1.00 for savings, and then she keeps the $1.25. We are hoping that she will learn how to save, budget, and pay tithing earlier in life instead of later when you desperately need the skills. Well up to this point, she hasn't spent any of her spending money. So she brought $2.25 to the dollar store and I told her she had enough to get 2 things. I thought she would grab the first two things she saw and then beg for me to buy her some more, Oh no, she went throughout the whole store before carefully choosing two items. She gave them great thought and had a reason to purchase both. The monkey can Velcro around things and Abby has one that London has been forbidden to play with. So she has wanted one of her own. The wand was to replace a wand that Monty destroyed about six months ago. She has been asking for a wand ever since. I was so proud of her! She handed the cashier her money so adorably and was so excited that she got change back. I wish I could have filmed it all on camera. When we got out to the car I asked her if she thinks she should buy things every time she goes to the store. She replied, "no, cuz then I won't have any money." That's my girl!
Another great thing London did this week was she spelled out her first word on her own! She is really into sounding out and writing words, way more than just reading them out of books. Well usually she asks me to help her sound out the word. On Monday while Matt was packing for Grand Junction, she drew a picture of him and wrote SED on it. Then she showed us her masterpiece. She meant to spell out SAD because she was sad he was going on a work trip, but I was so incredibly proud of her for giving it her best shot on her own!

Winter Time

I now own a motorcycle! It is a beauty. It is a 2005 with only 10 hours of riding on it... so it is practically like new! Pepper also bought its sister. I can't wait to take it out this Spring. You can't leave me behind anymore Matt! Ha!

Snowball fight! We got like 8 inches of snow this day. I totally killed my back shoveling, which took me 1 1/2 hours total, even with some neighborly help.

Building our snowman

Bubbles the snowman -name given by London =)

Shawn and Matt grew out their facial hair during December. Shawn shaved his off a few hours before the New Year and I begged Matt to keep his. I love it! Doesn't he look so handsome?



Time to enjoy the snow with our little buddy, Alivia.

 

We had a great Christmas and New Year. Santa brought London 'Just Dance Kids' the wii game. She also received a bunch of candy, clothes, board games, a pretend cash register, a 3 year journal, 2 movies, Lincoln logs, and a guitar from Grandma and Grandad. Spoiled! Hopefully next year we can be better at toning things down a little and not go all out.
For the New Year we had Alivia sleep over and played at the Burninghams. It was a lot of fun! We played games and pigged out. I can't believe that it is 2014. It should be a great year, lots of camping trips already planned. Our first one will be in a couple of weeks up in Bear River. It will be our very first time snowmobiling!

Thanksgiving

 

Our Thanksgiving this year was spent with our Stitzer Family. My favorite part of the holiday is not eating the food but cooking it with my mom. I love all those childhood memories of cooking all morning with my mom in that brown and yellow kitchen. 

Boil, Boil, Toil & Trouble

This is pretty late, but I have to post about our Halloween anyways. London decided to be a witch this year. At first she wanted to be Fancy Nancy, but then after watching Hokus Pokus with Daddy she decided on a witch instead. She probably hit 50 homes when trick-or-treating! She wanted to just keep going and going and going. I had no idea she had it in her. We had about 47 trick-or-treaters to our home. It is a tradition in our family to count how many because my Grandma Donna always keeps record of how many. She usually has around 350 every year! So my grandma, mom, brother, and I all like to keep count.

 

For my birthday we went to iFly with my parents and Hugh. It was so much fun! I highly recommend it to anyone. London even did it. She kicked like crazy like she was swimming. We have it all on video which I am so thankful for. Matt decided to pay just a little extra to get the video and I thoroughly treasure it.

Ken got married last weekend! He has been waiting 42 years to find his wife and he finally is a married man. I am so happy for him. Merideth seems perfect for him and has made him the happiest that I have ever seen. Now he gets to enjoy life with a family of his own. 

Snag

 

My kitty lived to be 16 years old. He was amazing! I have so many childhood memories wrapped up with this black and white friend. He had the best life for a cat. He was an outdoor kitty that lived in a small town next to mountains full of creatures. I'm heartbroken that his last year was so hard on him. I'll miss him so much and am so grateful that he was mine.

London's Birthday Party

We had a bowling birthday party for London this year. It was a huge success. The highest requested gift from London was a piggy bank. Maybe she is taking after her Dad! Good with money, that would be awesome.

London's 4th birthday was hard on me. It was like it was my 30th birthday or something. I was so sad I already have a 4 year-old. How is that possible? I don't want her to be so big yet, but I love this age at the same time. If only we could pause her growing for a bit. I could keep her this little for a few years before going onto the next stage.

Aunt Tessa, London, and Uncle Cliff. Uncle Cliff likes little girl toys. Ha! Just kidding.

The October babies!

Have I mentioned that Matt has gotten a bowling ball? It is funny, most people we tell this to think it is really dorky. He is a sub for a bowling league and is pretty darn good at it. His ball smells like grapes. He also got bowling shoes and a bag to carry it all. He makes me laugh.

London and Hailey playing in the Autumn leaves.