Daddy Daughter Dance

Just a few days after we got to Mom and Dad' house, the stake had a Daddy Daughter Dance.  Anna was SO excited.  We got her all dressed up in her Christmas dress and curled her hair all fancy.

Steve said, that after they got to the dance, she spent all her time with some other little girls picking up the glitter on the floor.  She wouldn't even dance.  Not the most fun for Steve but Anna had a blast.

Summer Cabin Visit

On Thursday evening, Steve looked at me and said, "You want to go to the cabin this weekend?  I don't have to go into the office on Monday or Tuesday."  So, I took Friday to plan, shop, and pack for our trip.  We left Saturday morning right after breakfast.  The kids look forward to these trips because they get to watch movies in the car.  It's our family rule that the TVs only come out when the trip will be longer than an hour duration.  Needless to say, they don't come out very often.  The kids loved watching Max and Ruby for all 3 hours of the trip.

We did make two stops.  One at a farm stand to pick up watermelon, nectarines, pluots, and grapes for the weekend and another at ColdStone Creamery in Oakdale.  We always stop and get some ice cream.

Our stay at the cabin was great.  We relaxed the remainder of the day, Saturday.  Anna and Matthew played with the toys.  Anna's favorite was the doll house.  Matthew really enjoyed the lobster that you pull around and it snaps its claws.  Anna also spent some time painting.

Sunday saw us taking a couple of walks around area, going to church down in Sonora, and taking naps.  Steve and Anna had a rousing game of air hockey at the table.

Monday was our biggest day.  After breakfast, we got in our swimsuits and headed to Pincrest lake.  It was a great day for it.  It had sprinkled a little in the morning, so there weren't very many people out and the weather was warm but not hot.  Steve headed to the marina and rented a kayak to do an hour's worth of exploring on the lake.  Matthew, Anna, and I headed to a bench on the beach.  I was surprised at how willing Matthew was to get into the lake.  He walked right in!  Anna was a little more cautious.  First, she went in up the her calves, then her knees, then thighs, and finally almost up to her waist.

We spent time wading, annoying the Canada geese, and throwing rocks.  Anna built a 'tide pool'.  Basically a hole with a bunch of rocks in it.  She kept saying we just had to wait until the tide came in to fill it.  Little did she know that the water was never going to come up.

That evening we had a Family Home Evening about the priesthood.  Steve gave the lesson and I made homemade mint ice cream for refreshments.  Unfortunately, the ice cream didn't go over very well.  Matthew and I were the only ones that liked it.

Anna was in charge of the activity and she chose to visit the area's playground.  She and Matthew went on the swings and down the slides.  It was a fun evening.

Tuesday morning was spent picking up and cleaning the rooms we had used.  We headed home around 10:30am.  It was so nice to get away for a little while and spend time together.  Yay for the cabin!

February 2014

February was an interesting month for us.  Anna and I started it out by making beeswax candles for Candlemas.  Anna made a heart candle for Valentine's day and a purple taper.  I made 4 small red candles to be used for Advent later.  It was a simple activity and Anna had a lot of fun.

A day later, though, I broke out in terrible, horrible, awful hives.  They were so bad!  I had them on my eyelids and the soles of my feet!  I ended up having to go on several medications plus get a steroid shot.  It took the rest of the month for them to completely disappear.  Steve was a trooper and took several days off of work to take care of the kids because all I could do was itch, take oatmeal baths, and be miserable.  Matthew was also a trooper.  Because of the steroid shot, I had to stop nursing him cold turkey that day.  Heavenly Father must have been helping him, because he hardly fussed at all to moving to a sippy cup.  The sister missionaries were great and came over to clean the house because I was so behind.  My visiting teacher also came and took my laundry home to do for me.  My doctor thinks I may be allergic to the antibiotic Flagyl because I had just finished a course when the hives came on.  Needless to say, there are no pictures from this period of time.

Matti Ihalmo & Steve

Steve & Sirpa Ihalmo

The last big thing in February was Steve's week long trip to Poland.  Google flew him and his team out there to meet with the rest of his group to have some team-building time.  On the way, he stopped in Finland to visit some friends, the Ihalmos.  Unfortunately, his layover in Frankfurt turned into a nightmare.  When he arrived, the security people were having a strike so although he got in, he couldn't get out.  His 3 hour layover turned into a 36 hour one.  When he finally did get to Finland, the airline had lost his luggage!  Luckily, Matti Ihalmo had a suit that fit Steve for church.


The rest of the time was spent in Poland at a resort outside of Krakow.  I'll put labels on the pictures so you know what you're looking at.

Steve's 34th Birthday

Steve's birthday was a low key affair.  We had it at home and Steve's parents were able to come for his birthday dinner.  He requested Nachitoches meat pies for dinner and a cinnamon streusel coffee cake with peppermint ice cream for dessert.

He got a NorthFace jacket (he picked it out the day before) and a new scarf from me, a Happy Birthday balloon from Anna (she worked so hard to keep it a secret, and she did, even though she was bursting to tell him), a book and a book on CD from his parents, and some money from my parents.

It was a nice evening.  Happy Birthday, Steve!

We're a Google Family! (think Addam's Family theme song)

Steve by the sign to his Google building.

This is the beginning of Steve's third week at Google.  So far, so good.

The first week was spent at Noogler trainings (New + Googler = Noogler).  As far as I can tell, there is a LOT to be learned.  Google makes its own software tools to make its software, instead of buying tools from other companies.  So that means Steve has to learn them all.  Steve's project is with the GoogleTV group.  There are a lot of different teams doing a lot of different things and they're all spread out at different buildings.

FYI- the Google campus isn't like a college campus, ie one big piece of land with lots of buildings, all owned by Google.  Instead, it's in an area of lots of office buildings.  The Google offices are mixed up with offices of different companies.  I was expecting to enter a gate into Google-land.  Maybe someday, but not now.

                                        Some interesting things that I've learned:

A G-bike waiting to be used

Googlers get from building to building on G-bikes.  They are tacky bicycles that just sit around at each building.  When you need to get somewhere, pick one up and off you go!

Googlers are allowed to drink on the job.  In fact, they stock beer and such at the snack stations!

There are 28 different cafeteria/restaurants spread throughout the campus and they are all free to employees (and their guests).

Most of the Android statues (missing original & donut)

Each version of Android has a different name, named after a dessert.  There's a group of dessert statues at the Android building celebrating each one.

During Steve's Noogler training, he was given a Noogler hat and a Google shirt.  We decided that it would be fun to take some family pictures of all of us wearing Google shirts.

So, there's a little bit about what I've learned.  It isn't a whole lot, because the actual work and products Steve and his co-workers are doing is confidential.  I'll keep you posted as I learn more!

This and That

She found the lip gloss!

A new hiding spot

This is going to be a little of everything.  We have a lot of just cute pictures but no story to go along with them.  Stay tuned for another installation soon.  Hope you enjoy!

We assimilate all our children.

Pushing Matthew's stroller

Daddy and Anna make cookies

The rugrats of Shady Brook Lane

All bundled up

Christmas Eve

We had such a great Christmas Eve!

Alli came to visit for the weekend and we loved having her.  Unfortunately, she did catch the nasty stomach bug that has been going around the neighborhood and was sick most of the day.  Luckily, it's a 24 hour bug and she was better the next day.

We had a snowstorm on Friday so there was a great layer of snow.  Steve took Anna to the nearby ravine to do some sledding while I did some dinner prep.  They were gone for more than an hour having a blast.   Anna loved the sledding.  She met up with some of our friends from our old neighborhood: Skylar and Rylee.  She wanted to sled with only them.  Skylar wouldn't, but Rylee did.

Later, we made our ornaments.  I wanted to have an ornament that Anna could do and that used materials that I already had laying around.  Luckily, I noticed a few people had made cute holiday people from craft sticks.  I have a bunch of those, plus felt and paint, so away we went.

I used the craft sticks to make a snowflake and a Christmas tree.  Anna painted both of them with the paints.  After she finished those, she went off to bed for her nap and the rest of us worked on our ornaments.  We made ours a little different.  Steve made a snowman, I made a snowman and a Rudolf, and Alli got into it the most.  She made a snowman, elf, Santa, and Rudolf.  It was a lot of fun.

That night we had our fondue dinner.  I thought that I was conservative in cutting up the meat, but apparently I over-estimated and we had a lot left over.  It was delicious.  Anna had fun stuffing herself with ham and chicken dipped in honey and trying shrimp for the first time.  Luckily, Alli was feeling well enough to join in for dinner.

After Anna was in bed, we ended the night by watching A Muppet Christmas Carol.  The perfect ending to a great day.

December Crafts

Here's what you're looking at: Top l-r: Anna's pomander, finished beeswax snowflakes, cutting her snowflake, Steve & Anna decorating the house; Middle l-r: Steve working on his pomander, beeswax ornaments hardening in the pan, proud Anna with her snowflake; Bottom l-r: our finished pomanders, snowflakes I made on the library doors, Anna & I decorating, the finished gingerbread house!

Here's a little bit of what we've done this Christmas season.  We've tried to keep things low-key and fairly simple.

We started off December by making some orange pomanders.  I got some whole cloves and clementines at the store.  I got some recommendations to use clementines instead of oranges because the skin is thinner and easier for kids to pierce with the cloves.  Anna really enjoyed making them.  I did end up just piercing random holes all over her orange with a knife and that made it really easy for her to do it.  I made a couple and we even convinced Steve to join in.  His is the Christmas tree orange.  It was fun and fast and now our library smells great.

Later, Anna and I decided to make some snowflakes.  I folded hers into a square snowflake just so she wouldn't have to cut through so many layers of paper.  She's still learning how to use the scissors.  In fact, she mostly made random straight cuts along the sides.  I went back and just connected some of the cuts to make them holes.  She was so proud of herself and her snowflake.

One of the crafts I did mostly on my own.  I bought a pound of beeswax from Amazon and a cute snowflake cookie pan from JoAnn's.  I melted the beeswax in a double boiler and then Anna would point to the snowflake she wanted me to fill.  We ended up making 17 snowflakes total.  Later, I used a hot piece of metal to poke a hole in each one and threaded it with a piece of twine to make ornaments.  We passed them out to our neighbors and friends for their Christmas gifts.

Our biggest project so far has been the gingerbread house.  Steve picked up a kit at the grocery store.  We used the candy they provided plus some that we got at the bulk section of Winco to decorate.  Mostly, I put frosting on the house and Anna chose which candies she wanted and stuck them into the frosting.  I did candy corns around the bottom and the front door.  Steve did the jellybean windows.  We had a lot of fun making it and Anna is enthralled by it even two weeks later.  She drags her stool over to the counter to stare at it.  Well, stare at it and slowly eat a piece here and a piece there of the candy!

Just one more project left- ornaments.  We're going to do those when Alli gets here for Christmas weekend.  That'll be another post.  Merry Christmas!

Steve's Birthday

 Steve celebrated his 33rd this last Saturday.  We were lucky enough to have his parents here to celebrate with him.

Most of the day, Steve and his dad worked on projects around the house.  Not his ideal way to spend a birthday, but he was determined to get as much done on the list as he could.  We celebrated at dinner that night.  He asked for chicken pot pie for dinner and cinnamon crumble coffee cake for his cake.

He got to wear the birthday crown that I made for him and Anna really enjoyed helping him open all his presents.  He got a book and two LDS games from his parents, while I got him a new board game called Kingdom Builder and toaster tongs.

Happy Birthday, Steve!