Manning Family

This is kind of a one month together post since the month is almost over…

Here’s a recap:

-We were all sick with something or another for most of the month, but are now healthy…I think!

-We bought a new car…my van is 10 years old and starting to be rather problematic. We needed something reliable and good in the snow and big enough for us and a few of our kids playmates. We went for a Tahoe and ended up with a Suburban. I LOVE IT! Her name is “Big Lizzie” (she’s an Suburban LZ, but Liz is too luxurious sounding for a Suburban)

-We had a fun game day with the kids and a bunch of movie nights and a pajama day

-Ammon and I booked a cruise for our 10-year anniversary in April; Bahamas, St. Thomas & St. Maarten. We can’t wait! This is the longest and first “real” vacation we’ve taken since we’ve had kids. The previous longest was 3 days and always in State.

-We’ve spent lots of time on projects like: reorganizing the laundry room, cleaning out the garage, rearranging the furniture and de-cluttering.

-We celebrated Mom’s birthday with dinner and a movie on the big screen.

-I finally got around to taking some photos of our family room/ dining room area to post on here. The other rooms will come…

Annika loves to help Mommy in the kitchen and generally, she’s a really good helper. This is her first time sautéing onions and something else…(I forget)

Being silly

Grammy and her gift-givers! Annika made the necklace and Tasha made a bracelet.

We sure have a lot of silly people in this family

This was on our pj day…we were headed to Montrose to run some errands. This is how Annika went!

This is our family room. It’s not quite finished yet, but getting there. We’re going to add an area rug with the sitting area, and two occasional chairs in front of the fireplace.

This is a closeup of the sitting area/desk

This is looking into the dining area at the far end

Dining room, minus the crystal chandelier and darker, bigger table I’ll get one day!

 

Photos of Big Lizzie and the rest of the house to come soon…

 

Filed under: Family on January 24th, 2012 | No Comments »

I’m afraid I don’t have very many photos to show of Christmas. We had a great two weeks with the kids off of school. I didn’t feel nearly as prepared and relaxed as normal since being sick for the first week of December and then not having any energy the second week. The kids spent a lot of time playing and using their imaginations. We had one super-fun day full of movies, playing in the snow (with the dog), hot chocolate and some other activities. Ammon came down with a cold on Christmas Eve, so that made things not quite the same and then Christmas morning we got quite a surprise….

I awoke to the sound of children and looked at the clock with a shock to see it was after 7am. Ammon and I had both woken up around 3 am and had gone into a deep sleep afterwards so we didn’t even hear the kids. I hurried out into the family room and saw our little sweethearts opening their stockings with looks of joy on their faces. I asked if they were having fun and then walked over to the tree to find ALL OF THE PRESENTS OPENED!!!!! Even one of Ammon’s was open. I was appalled and upset and just plain ole sad. We’re not one of those, gocrazyandeveryonedivein kind of families. We the drink hot chocolate and eat croissants while we watched everyone open a present, one at a time, so that we can enjoy and appreciate the gifts given and received. I confiscated all of their gifts for a while and had no desire to do anything Christmasy. After an hour or so, I was calm enough to see things rationally, so we returned their gifts and opened our things (what was left of them). The rest of the day was much better than the first hour, I’m happy to say. =)

The day after Christmas, we had a hang out and do nothing kind of day and boy was it fun. We just ate, watched movies, ate some more and spent time together. I love vacations!

Snow day. I buried the kids in the snow, while our furry friend watched on…

Rocky enjoying the fresh snow. He pulled each of the kids down the hill on the sled and then wrestled with us in the snow. He loves catching snowballs and eating them if you throw them to him.

Us on Christmas Eve…ready to eat!

Me and my girl

We’re not sure who this kid is!

Mother and daughter

Ummm, OUCH!

The grub….or most of it anyway

Chow time!

Showing off new jambes

 

 

 

 

Filed under: Family on January 4th, 2012 | 2 Comments »

She says to me as she’s running downstairs “I’m a superstar, Mom!”

Filed under: Family on December 30th, 2011 | No Comments »

The first Monday we returned, we decorated our tree…that’s the night I started feeling not so good…

Little Elves decorating the tree

The decorators

 

Both of the older kids had a Christmas concert at school. It was surprisingly brief and enjoyable! Sometimes those things can drag on, but each class just did two songs a piece and were very entertaining.

 

 

 

The kids helped decorate the gingerbread guys…normally they do more of the baking than that, but since I still wasn’t feeling the greatest, this was all the help I could handle!

We took some pictures in front of our tree on a Sunday…just for fun.

Here’s one outtake. Not the family one we chose, but I still like it.

Here’s our little Christmas angel…we thought about making her the tree topper, but decided against it.

Someones growing up….sigh

See?

I always love taking a pic of the girls together. I don’t know why…I just think they’re sweet together I guess

Here’s our handsome boy….is he Daddy’s boy or what!?

Here’s another handsome boy

This picture cracks me up! He’s definitely a member of the family….related to me for sure!

 

Our town had a little Christmas in the Park day…Tashy was one of the carolers

She had a great time, though you wouldn’t know it by her face…the sun was too bright

Kevin and Santy claus

Annika claimed she didn’t want to sit with Santa, but somehow did it anyways

Santa arrived on a firetruck….it was pretty cool

O Christmas tree…

Even Rocky got in on the fun. He had a great time playing in the snow with lots of other furry friends.

 

Filed under: Family on December 20th, 2011 | No Comments »

I know, I’m way overdue for a post. You know how November and December can be. Shopping, parties, birthdays, sickness, lots of baking. Every year I feel like I scale down a bunch, but I don’t seem to be any less busy. Hmmmm…

So, after Ammon’s birthday it was just normal busy life. Kevin got a stomach bug and we had preparations for our Thanksgiving vacation. The vacation was great! In a week we were able to stay overnight and visit some good friends of ours in Eagle, visit with Ammon’s parents, go to Chuck E Cheese, the Children’s Museum and more, and we spent lots of time with my sis-in-law and her family in Colorado Springs. Lots of crazy holiday shopping in between of course. We had a wonderful, full vacation. I think that’s why Ammon and I got so sick upon our return. Too much fun. =)

Denver Children’s Museum

They made paper parachutes and put them over the giant fan and watched them fly

Playing at in the giant tree, complete with squirrel holes and tunnels

My little birdies

In a giant bubble elevator, you pull the string and a giant bubble surrounds you

You can’t tell, but this is Lee (my father in law), making a ginormous bubble

Annika playing with the bubble vacuum

She didn’t like the bubbles at all

Kevin’s masterpiece

They made these princess crowns…sure they don’t sit on your head, but hey, they’re made out of cardboard, a plastic container and brads. What do you want for nothin?

Colorado Springs

 

Little hairstylists in training….what do you think?

Wii

Having some boy time…

Cousins movie night

 

 

Filed under: Family on December 20th, 2011 | No Comments »

I won’t tell you how old he is….ok he’s 33. =) He had kind of a normal day because well, it was a weekday which means seminary in the morning and work all day! But, we did make him puffy oven pancakes and buttermilk syrup (his fav) and bought him a sweater and some new khakis. I had planned a nice dinner, but one of my ingredients decided to go bad on me, so it was chicken nuggets for him. He was as happy as can be. It’s kid food, so it fits!

The birthday boy and his fans! (or most of them anyways) Mom joined us for dinner and made him one of his favorites: Key Lime Pie!

I was wanting to get a good photo of us and I knew he was going to make a face….hence the result of this picture

The normal one

 

Filed under: Family on November 8th, 2011 | No Comments »

My Mom always calls Annika, Matilda. I haven’t seen the movie all the way through, but the little girl who plays Matilda is also in the remake of Miracle on 34th Street and Mrs. Doubtfire. She’s a spunky, funny little girl with lots of expression and tons of personality. Not only does Annika resemble her (except that she lacks the brown hair), she is so much like her!

A lot of people don’t get to see the true Annika because at times she can be very shy. It’s a pity really, because she’s so much fun!

Fake, cheesy smile, but cute nonetheless!

She kind of takes after Kevin. See the resemblance?

Sweet Tashy all ready for church in her fancy coat

Sister snuggles

Filed under: Family on November 8th, 2011 | 1 Comment »

 

 

 

 

 

 

Filed under: Family on November 8th, 2011 | No Comments »

Last year was the first year I’d ever canned (bottled) fruit before and I actually enjoyed it. We also really enjoyed having the peaches, pears and apples on our shelves all year long. Well, this year, I went a little crazy and bought about twice as much fruit as last year and have been canning for a few months now and well….I’m done for a while! Mom has been a great help canning with me, which makes the time go by faster (and the work too!). Saturday, the kids got in on the action. I decided they needed to learn how to can since it’s a skill they can use! They readily agreed.

Kevin manning the peeler, corer, slicer

Tasha did the cutting (cut out the bad parts and cut the slices in half) and Annika did the eating….I mean, bottled the apples and made sure they were sprinkled with lemon juice.

I’m happy to say that Kevin lasted 1 1/2 hours, while the girls went a little longer, about 2 1/2 hours. They were a great help and we had fun while we worked.

Filed under: Family on November 8th, 2011 | No Comments »

Rocky is growing up fast! He’s almost full-grown, I think and has lost his puppy bark. His manners are improving and most of the time he’s so fun to have around. (I say most of the time because he still demands that you play with him a lot and it’s not always convenient!).

Sleeping with his bone in his mouth. You can’t be too careful with these human folk around. Sometimes they snatche the bone right from under your nose and put it away for days at a time! =0

Keeping his bone close….just in case we get sneaky

 

Filed under: Family on November 8th, 2011 | No Comments »