My cheap find

The other day I saw the Albertson's was having a great sale on Hunt's spagetti sauce ( I know many of you are thinking that is easy to make your own, but I don't). The cans were $.69. I thought I could just put them in food storage and we would use them if we absolutly had to. I'm picky about my sauce. I usually buy the most expensive sauce. I realized a few weeks later I was out of spagetti sauce and I figured we would try it. It was really good. So if anyone is wondering about Hunt's spagetti Sauce (it's in a can)there are a ton of varieties and it is less expensive than the other brand of spagetti sauce.

Page has finally learned to clap.

I'm sure other children at her age have been clapping for months but she is so proud that she can finally clap.

Some news...

These are the new additions to our family. We decided to needed a dog (I don't know why). But a family in American Fork was selling there 2 year old mini schnauzer. His name is Roco. He is used to kids and already house broke (yea, I have just finished potty training Diessen I didn't want to potty train a dog). He is really good to put up with Diessen constantly chasing him and Page tugging at him. He was very hairy when he got him he hasn't been groomed in weeks, so we decided we would groom him ourselves. Thiess did a great job until he were almost done and he went the wrong way with the clippers and now he has a racing stripe on one side. Oh well. Roco's hair will grow back. So Monday we have a real appointmant with a groomer to see if we can make him look less like a mutt and more like a schnauzer.

We also got Thiess' deer back from the taxidermist. Diessen has named him reindeer. We have had to tell the neighbor kids that it isn't one of Santa's reindeer, because some were kind of upset. I've never had a stuffed animal in the house before, it has taken some getting used to. It freaked me out the first night when I came downstairs at 3 in the morning to get a bottle and there it was staring at me.

MLK Day and the New Pres.

So after watching all of the events that have transpired these last few days. I've had very mixed emotions about the future. With the celebration of MLK Jr. day yesterday and the inauguration today, it has made me wish I was teaching again (just this one week). I loved teaching about Martin Luther King Jr. and about Human Rights. It really made stop and think about how stupid it was to not treat everyone equally. It was amazing to try to see the confusion in the students because they didn't understand why. None of my little second graders ever looked at each other as different because they all were different. There wasn't a majority or minority race in my classroom. They knew each others skin colors were different, but even white people don't all have the same color of whiteness. Every year I would read them stories about what a great man MLK was. I would always get choked up because his message was peace, love and tolerance. One of my favorite books about him is Martin's Big Words by Dorreen Rappaport.( It is a tear jerker, but I'm a cryer). If only we could all be like little children and look at each other with an unprejudice eye.

I am happy to see the change the this new president has brought out in people. I haven't been a big supporter of Obama but I know that I can't change it. I only hope that he looks toward our Heavenly Father for guidance and that his will do what is best for our nation. I hope that he is blessed with understanding to guide his decisions.

Crazy Page

I couldn't resist taking pictures of Page with her new hair style. She will seriously hate this picture when she gets older I'm afraid. Thiess keeps telling me I need to cut her hair, but I just can't bring myself to do it.

She's gettin up there....

Some history... we bought our little Nissan the summer we got engaged 6 1/2 years ago. It had 58000 miles on it. Well, the other day Thiess noticed that the car was getting a few more miles on it. He said I want us to all be together when the car turned over. Any guesses on how many miles it has? We met Thiess in the parking lot of the gas station on his way home from work so we all could be together for this momentous occasion. There have been many memories and many trips made in this little car. She has been great to us.

On the 12 hour journey home

On our journey home we stopped at Bass pro shops in Las Vegas. I took a picture of the kids in the fish cave (aka elevator behind the fish tank). We visited it many times.

Also while driving Diessen was watching a movie (so we thought). I looked back after he had been too quiet for too long and noticed that he had gotten into my make-up bag and decided to give himself a makeover. (notice the glossy lips and the rosy cheeks.) I picture doesn't do it justice. But I wanted to remember it.

I couldn't believe what troopers the kids were, despite the raging snowing storm we drove through, that added a couple of hours to the trip.

Our California Christmas

We spent a little over a week in California. We didn't do a hole lot while we were there. Thiess was able to ride his motorcycle a few times and we sat and watched. (Not the funnest thing, but I wanted to be outside in the 70 degree weather.) Thiess told me he had to approve of any pictures showing him riding. But I'm going to post one anyway. We spent one day in Hollywood (known by Thiess' family as Hollyweird). He wasn't lying it was weird. We were definitely out of our element there. (I wonder whose element it is?) If anyone is looking for something to do in CA besides the normal stuff (Disneyland, Seaworld..etc), we went to the El Capitan Theatre. It is owned by Disney and Disney characters do a dancing and singing stage show before the movie that they show. Diessen and Page loved it (sorry no pictures) There were a ton of people taking pictures all over Hollywood I just wanted to get out there after the movie. Anyway, We watched the movie Bolt in 3-D. Diessen was soooo excited!!!!

I spent alot of my time breaking in my Wii Fit. LOVE IT!!! But feeling guilty cause I haven't used it since I got home. (BOOOO!)

We went to the park, Diessen begged us for three days to go to the park. Page went down the slide all by herself. (I was a little nervous)

Also for all the neighborhood girls, Mack will know longer be a problem at playgoup as Diessen now has his own, (Thanks to Santa, he knew just what to buy)