von Moos Christmas Party

The second annual von Moos/Richter party was a huge hit! Thanks to Grandma Moos and Aunt Linda. I really wish I had taken more pictures of it.

Oakland Temple's Live Nativity (plus Kaleia)

We took a drive up to the Oakland Temple to look at the lights and to see the remodeled visitor's center. The lights were pretty, I thought they should have done more though. The fake nativity was gorgeous, life size, and all in white. They also did a live nativity for an hour. They read the birth of Christ found in the book of Luke and had the nativity act it out as it was being read. Afterwards I had Lei run up and take a pic. Inside the remodeled visitor center was nice. I liked the 5 min. video presentation of Christ's birth. Kaleia liked the interactive touch screen computers. You could press on a question and a little video clip would pop-up with the answers. They also had a table with many Book of Mormons laid out. There was one printed in each language, so we went on a hunt for all the languages of our family missionaries.
Jordan- French and Tahitian (Tahiti)
Max- Malagasy (Madagascar)
Spencer- Spanish (Peru)
Chase- Spanish (Paraguay)
Drew- English (Colorado)
Brad- Spanish (Mexico)

2009 Santa Pic...no tears!

No one was scared of Santa this year.

Carousel fun

Early Christmas at the Fogleman House

Christmas came early to my Mom's house this year. Sunday the 6th to be exact. We had a wonderful spaghetti meal (my Mom makes the BEST spaghetti). My sister and her husband flew in from Utah, Grandma and Grandpa Fogleman were there, and Uncle Chris and Jeannie were there too. It was a fun night full of games and presents. One of the gifts Kaleia got was this cute dollhouse from Grandma and has played with it everyday. Luke's favorite gifts have been this large light of car and this baseball tee game that is very LOUD (with no volume control button may I add). It ranks up there with the Christmas Elmo who comes out every year who sings the 12 days of Christmas.

Randoms before the procrastinated posts begin...

Lei has eczema and she is currently having a flare-up on her back. I couldn't find the special cream this morning so I was reading the back of an Aveeno intense anti-itch cream looking for anything saying "rash relief". She grabs it from me and pretends to read the back (with her little finger underlining the words) "this is not good for children. Don't put it on the back."

Buddy currently likes to spin himself in circles until he gets very dizzy and falls down...a dangerous thing I must say. Especially this morning when he has his toothbrush in his mouth.

I love when Luke pokes his head between the stair rails and calls: "LaLa!" his only words at the moment entail the names of the members of his family. Dada, Mama, and Lala.

We went and got our ornaments yesterday and Luke didn't get the Little Einsteins one, because it didn't play music. We picked him out a Charlie Brown one. It is Snoopy and Woodstock on top of his dog house. On Friday my child who doesn't like t.v. brought me the Christmas Charlie Brown dvd and grunted at the t.v. and ran and pointed to it. I put in on thinking the won't last more then a minute and he sat down and watched it twice! That is 25 minutes! Each time Snoopy came on he made his dog sound.

Candy Making!

All of us girls (who were in town) all went over to Gram's house to learn how to make her yummy candy logs. We had a lot of fun and ate a lot of good food. We learned how to make the logs and then had a lovely birthday tea party for me. It was a great day and something we plan on doing again next year, only we will learn how to make a different candy. Thank you Grams!

A Christmas Tradition goes on...

So when I was a little girl I can remember getting so excited when the Hallmark catalog came. Every year my step-mom would give us the catalog and me and my sister would pour over the pages deciding which ornaments we would choose. Circling contenders before making our final decision. When we would finally decide we would tell her and then she would go to the store and pick them up for us. VERY EXCITING! So we have continued the tradition and this year was the first year Lei was able to choose by herself the lucky ornament. No, not by paper catalog but by the virtual catalog online. We poured over the pages and I thought for sure she would choose the Tom and Jerry or a Grinch one, but it was the Disney Pumba and Timone ornament that won. I should have guessed since her current imaginary friends (her left and right hands) are namely Timone and Pumba, Jack and Gus have left. I don't know where I didn't ask. But let me tell you Timone and Pumba are 2 very sneaky fellows. I really should share in later posts some of the things they do and say...Jord and I chose the Little Einsteins ornament for Buddy. It is the ONLY show that will hold his attention for a minute and he loves the song that Kaleia's last year Einstein ornament makes. This one is a bit different then her though thankfully. I OF COURSE got the dang puppy love ornament, can this series please end so I can pick a new one? Jordan chose a Donald Duck one.

A quote that made me smile

I had a 7 1/2 hour stand off with Lei today. She had to clean her room before she could come out. Started at 1. She decided to take a nap until 3. She came down and I read her How the Grinch stole Christmas and sent her back up to clean. (She has been cleaning her room for months now this is nothing new.) Then the tantrums began. To make a LONG story short she finally was finished at 7:30. So when I carried her into bed later I made a big deal (again) how beautiful her room looked.
Me- Lei this room is gorgeous and so clean. Why is it so clean?
Lei- Because you told me to clean it. Remember? You had a bad attitude.

BT

I have started a nightly ritual without knowing it. I end the day with a bath and have included reading a conference talk from church. (This is a semi-annual church session that is broad casted via t.v. and internet....a day you get to "go to church" in your pajamas! And then is later issued in print.) So I thought I'd share some of my BTs (bath thoughts).
Yesterday I read President Uchtdorf's talk "The Love of God" and a line really stood out to me...
"...what we love determines what we seek. What we seek determines what we think and do. What we think and do determines who we are-and who we will become...Let us be known as a people who love God with all our heart, soul, and mind and who love our neighbor as ourselves..."

I really enjoyed the talk I read tonight. "More Diligent and Concerned at Home", by Elder Bednar. This one was inspiring! He suggested 3 ways each of us can become more diligent and concerned at home. 1. Express Love-and Show It. This was my favorite suggestion. Just a reminder to say to our spouse and children in words and actions how much we love them. To take a moment each day and remind them.
"...expressions do not need to be flowery or lengthy. We simply should sincerely and frequently express love..."