Elizabeth

In my mind I have already written this post and that is my excuse as to why nobody but I could see it until now. Lizza had her 7th birthday this month! I know everyone always says it but I cannot believe she is already 7! Lizza decided to have a friend birthday this year and knew exactly how she wanted things to go. She is a party girl. She loves the planning and execution of it all. It was so fun to watch her in this setting. I see her in social settings but they are usually while at school so she has to keep composure or at church which requires the same thing. But here with a group of girls she was crazy! She was screaming her hello's and thanks-yous. She was very aware of how everyone was doing at the party. She wanted everyone to have a good time. One of the girls is very shy and she made sure to sit by her for the first game and introduce her to everyone. It was cute to watch her. She was so loud and bubbly and spasy (if that is a word). Lizza is my helper. If I can convince her that it is fun or that no one but she can get this job done right she is all over it. She will organize the bathroom, her closet or whatever I ask. She is my best bathroom cleaner. When we have guest coming over I always try to put her in charge of at least the main bathroom if I can't get to it myself because I know she will do a good job. She has such a love for babies it is sweet to watch. She is naturally drawn to them and they to her. I love to listen to her as she tells you some story that gets more and more elaborate and she starts to pace and throw her arms around as she tells the story. You all know what I'm talking about if you've ever listened to her. She makes my days brighter and easier. Elizabeth Ann we love you.

what the heck

Seriously I just spent 20 minutes writting that post and editing it because the pictures came in as text not pictures. So in my preview everything look perfect. What am I doing wrong? Please help. by the way thanks to all who posted enrichment ideas for me.

what have those Wallaces been doing?

Quite frankly we are surviving. This is busy season for Daren, which is going much better at Boise Inc. than at the last place but still busy. We are in cold gloomy weather (though we had temps in the mid 40's this week and had to play outside with no coats on because it was "hot"). We hit up Engineer day at BSU which was really fun. It got Abby and Lizza very excited about going to science camp again this summer. We learned the important skill of making gumdrop domes. Fabulous. There were some other really great things there too. We watched Daren participate in indoor ride in the mall here in Boise. They all thought that was fantastic. I'm not sure if Daren did. They peddle for 1 hour on their bikes (because of busy season Daren hasn't done much riding) but he pulled through. Aside from that we are trying to work on hands are for helping not hurting and screaming can be done in the house only when there is a fire. Did the ground hog really see his shadow? Can I say I love this little man? This age is such a fun one. He wants to help me with everything. We have a vacuum that Lizza got around this age. One of the best gifts we have ever gotten. Max must be apart of it. If I am in the kitchen he has to have the stool out and help me. He will not drink his hot cocoa unless he gets to help me stir it. I'm an not being sarcastic either! I love it. He wants to clean up his own plate at dinner! I don't' even remind him once! He vacuums and sucks papers off my fridge because eventually the stick turns into a sword and must be swung around. Also they have their own ideas a opinions. He demanded to wear the bike helmet for dinner. Who am I do tell him other wise. So fun. p I have fun girls. They love everything Max does and they help him (which usually helps me). We are living a good live here in Boise and I wouldn't change it for anything.

help

Okay so if you read my blog you have heard me complain about my calling. Not this year but I need some help. I am the enrichmetn leader and we are meeting next week to plan the year. I am completely blank. I have no idea what to do. They want me to have a mother/daughter one or one focusing on family relationships. I need at least 3 others. Please tell me any idea you have heard of or participated in. I am a pretty good copy cat so give me the details please.

Christmas

We had a great holiday season. We got to spend time with family and friends (we missed the ones we couldn't see) and some time playing in the snow. Nobody got sick and we didn't die while traveling so I call it successful. We opted to do all of Christmas down there this year. Sometimes we have Santa come to our house early but not this time. Abby was the main pusher behind this and then her Santa gift got left in Boise for her. Santa explained that he didn't want her microscope to get scratched or broken. She thought that was brilliant, of course. Then Daren strategically packed the car so we brought it all back with us and it doesn't get much better than that.

Disneyland

Okay I am way behind surprise surprise. We went to Disneyland the week before Thanksgiving and it was incredible! First we drove, which I was a little nervous about but everyone did really well. We made it there and back with out a complete melt down by anyone. I think that means success. So on our first day there we had only been in the park for a little while when Meg got picked as a winner in their year of a million dreams. There are several gifts given away each day and it is picked totally randomly. It is a certain ride,time, seat, and seat position. Meg happened to be in it! I was with my mom waiting in line to see Tinker Bell at the time. Daren called me just as we were getting to the front and told me Megan won something and I needed to meet them. I was a little annoyed because I had just waited 20 minutes in line. So I asked is this worth getting out of line for? Daren had already asked the dream team member who picked Meg. She said YES! So they took us into this little office on main street and showed us a short video which said we won a night at the dream suite in Disneyland! We couldn't believe it. So they had us meet them a while later (after Daren had gone to our hotel and gotten an overnight bag) in a "special" parking lot. We got into one of their cars and they drove us around back stage and we entered though some side door into Disneyland. We met Queenie our "neighbor" and there was a band and they gave us all noise makers to be a part of the band. After that we got a tour of the suite. It is a 2200 square foot suite with a court yard. It was incredible. Completely magical. Inside there was a fire place that was digital and little sparks would fly out every once in a while and turn into a firework. Every hour when the clock struck a picture appeared on the face of the clock and something magical happened in the room. there was a good night button in each bedroom. We could push it 3 times in each room and when we did magic happened. In one room this train that looks encased come to life and travels around the room. As is passes things they come alive as well. In the other room when you push it the room turns in to a jungle. There were jungle sounds and images projected. A picture over the bed changes and mermaids appear. In the master bath the bathtub was huge and encased like a cathedral. When you push a button classical music plays, the lights dim, and Mickey mouse appears in stars above your head. The closet in that room is almost the size of my kids bedrooms at home! So after the tour they sent us to dinner at the blue bayou. We each had $75 dollars to spend. We didn't use it. We tried, we order extra desserts for the light show but we didn't make it. Then we were in a parade where they announced us as the winners of the dream suite. After which we hurried back to see the light show which was right in front of us. Before it started they shined a spotlight on us announcing us again. So then after the park closed they took us on a after hour tour. We weren't allowed to take pictures because there were trucks, landscapers, and cleaning crews all over. It was crazy. But we got to learn some of the inside info about Disneyland. So that night they locked us in our suite, there was a concierge right out side in a little office whom we could call anytime for hot chocolate, juice, water, or fruit. By the time we left had like 7 random half drunk cups of cocoa laying around. She just had to pick up the phone and ask for it and they brought it. She ordered for everyone all night. In the morning we got to go to the rides before it officially opened. We were the first ones on peter pan so we got to go twice. Then they treated us to breakfast with the characters. It was fun and delicious. As we were bid farewell we were reminded that we had dream fast passes. Anyone can get a fast pass but those give you a time to return. Our passes sent us directly to the front of the line. It wasn't even busy enough to have to use those is another great part of the vacation. It was such a wonderful time for our whole family. My girls were absolutely mesmerized by all of it. It was magical as far as they are concerned. My brother and sister in law and their 2 boys live in Mesa (which is 20 minutes from Disneyland). So we got to spend time with them as well. We went to the beach on one of the evening. The weather was fantastic the entire time we were there. There is a pictures of meg running from a wave in her swimming suite. Funny thing is we has an identical picture of Abby doing the same thing on a beach in California when she was that age. 4 year olds don't care about the tempature they just want to play in the water! I am sure I left out things and Honestly I tried to slim down the photos-sorry. Watch what you dare. Maybe I'll remember more after a good nights sleep.

HALLOWEEN

I just need to get this out there. The wording is pretty strong and maybe I should cut back but I hate Halloween. Now I know any of you who knew me as a child are shocked right now and thinking I have finally taken that step over the edge of my life as you knew it and have turned into that grumpy adult we all avoided being around. Well I can tell you the good part first. I truly enjoyed walking around our neighborhood and seeing and talking to all of our neighbors. Most don't have small children any more and they were all thrilled to see little kids in costume. They were very kind to us and that was fun. I wish we could come up with more holidays where I could go around and talk to all of them. That said even as we were walking around I was thinking why are we doing this! We just went to our trunk-or-treat for our ward and now we are continuing to collect candy. Do we each need a bag full of candy, seriously?

To settle my nerves just a little(though I still think it is stupid that they are getting something for their candy) we have found a "good witch" who comes to our home Halloween night. So they get to pick out 20 pieces of candy (crazy amount still) and they leave the rest on our back step for the good witch. She in return leaves them a book. At least, so far that is what we have gotten. Everyone so far loves her and is excited to participate. If she ever gets uninvited to our house I don't know what we'll do. Someone just told me you can dry-pack can your candy and it stays fresh. Maybe that will me my next step.

I was focusing so much on not being late for the trunk-or-treat that I forgot to take a group shot before we left. So here are just some snap shots of the night to help you get a feel for it. Max knew exactly how this worked. Before we even left the house we took is little haunted house box (meg made it for him) to Daren and said, candy, sucker,sucker, sucker, sucker, sucker until Daren put something in is box. He thought it was the best day of his life. Every piece of candy that went into his box he had to take out and just handle for a minute. On the drive home he kept saying candy please candy please! So cute and he said please which is still getting ingrained in him so I have to give him the candy right? He still keeps finding the girls candy bags and getting into them.

My sweet Lizza put her candy in a bowl on Saturday because some of our cousins came over (both younger than her) and some neighbors and took it out to her "fort" she was building. Partly I think that is was got the little kids to come out and that is what kept them there but she can be so giving. So everyone ate her candy on Saturday and she hasn't complained as Meg and Abby keep pulling out little pieces to eat. Of course Meg has shared some of hers with Liz because that is what Meg does.

Abby was a vampire

Lizza was Gabriella from High School Musical. She insisted that she had to have a brown wig or nobody would know who she was. (Even though the dress says HSM) on the front.) So I got a very cheap on half off at Shopko. She wore it for maybe 5 minutes and then took it off. Oh well at least she felt good about her self right?

Meg was a lady bug

Max was our standard 18 month elephant that every child has been. But still cute.

CANDY!!!!!

Meg and her "best" friend Madison/strawberry shortcake

Max and his buddy Quinn

trick or treating our neighborhood.

Halloween is over and we are on to bigger and better things. We are going to Disneyland this month YAHOO! We are all excited and planning what we want to do. We have also started talking about what we are grateful for. We do have so much to be grateful for I hope I am teaching my children to see all the goodness around us and to have a grateful heart.