New blog, first post!

Well after deliberating a while, I decided to start a new blog to write about our 'happenings' for our family and friends all over the world. And you know I mean that quite literally for our family and friends are scattered far and wide!
I was blogging about the family on my other blog, Applique Today, but I'm going to try and keep that one quilt related, and this one just about family goings-on.

So first up, we have had a very busy couple of weeks. First there was thanksgiving, where we stayed in our pyjamas all day and ate turkey... and then the next day was Sofia's birthday. She turned 8, so it was a big one for her as she could finally get baptized!! But more about that later.

We decided that since there would be the whole baptism thing happening that Sofia would have a nice quiet family party instead of the usual big party with her friends. This was quite the stress-reliever for me! We have pretty much decided that the only time we go out to eat now is for birthdays, so that would be 5 times a year. You can thank the economy and lack of over-time at Roland's work for that one. Oh and fact that we realized how much money was being wasted by eating out. Something we already knew, but when you add it up over a year it's scary!

So back to the story, Sofia ended up having a plan A, B, C, and D. Why she thought she needed that many backups, we have no idea. Plan A was 'Friendly's'. A low-budget kind of restaurant that really caters to families and kids. Our kids like it because you get ice-cream sundaes with your meal. Plan B was a chinese restaurant, Plan C was Texas Roadhouse (which I was not-so-secretly hoping for!) and I 'think' Plan D was McDonalds? So glad the first 3 didn't fall through lol!

So we did go to Friendly's, and it was a lot of fun, even when we were totally embarrassed by the servers singing to our table. HATE that!!

Then we came home and had presents and cake. I had made Sofia a big doll with clothes and very VERY long hair, which she loved, (and kissed with her new lip balm and now the doll has pink on her face) and we had bought her a whole bunch of sweaters for the Winter. I had also been collecting High School Musical items throughout the year when I saw them on sale, so she was thrilled with them, since she is in love with the characters. Grandma had sent Sofia a beautiful white dress for her upcoming baptism, and also a pearl necklace which we gave her at dinner. She hasn't taken it off since! Thank you Grandma! And Nana in New Zealand sent a package with Pineapple Lumps (thank you Mum, I loved them hehe) and some other little treats from NZ.

Unfortunately I forgot to take my camera to Friendly's so I don't have any photos of the party, but not to worry, because......

2 days later it was Joaquin's birthday!! But since it was on a Sunday and we wanted to go out to eat, we went on the Saturday. Now Joaquin doesn't have too many original thoughts at his young age of 4, so when asked where he wanted to go, he said, "Friendly's!!!" So back we went. Yes, two days in a row. Friday night and then Saturday lunchtime. This time I requested that they didn't sing the embarrassing birthday song, and they very happily complied. (Roland said he remembers hating it from the days when he was a server!) This time, I did remember my camera, so here we go....

Coleman and his Sundae...
Sofia too busy with hers to notice I took her picture (and she has one of her birthday sweaters and pearl necklace on!)
And Joaquin LOVING his ice-cream. He has the sweetest tooth of all the kids.


Then once again, it was back home for cake and presents....

Opening his present from Nana in NZ (loved the Pineapple Lumps all over again, Mum!!)He got 'funny teeth' as a present...don't we look lovely?



So roll on to one week later. I had been extremely busy every single day getting ready to be a vendor at the kids' school's craft fair on Saturday, you can read about it here, and then on top of that Sofia was getting baptized on Sunday. We decided to wait a week since it was Thanksgiving the week before and some of her church friends would be out of town. Plus it gave us breathing room after the birthdays!

I really wish I had taken more photos but I was so busy I just snapped a photo whenever I had a free moment. When we were preparing the program I asked Sofia who she wanted to do what...she said that I could be the chorister, play the piano, and give a talk. OK, I said, I can give a talk, but I don't think I can conduct the music AND play at the same time!! So I ended up giving a talk (which I cried all the way through of course) and was the chorister. I had a completely different talk planned than the one I gave, but changed it right before we left home. Sofia had asked me a simple question, "Why do we wear white when we get baptized?" which made me realise there are some very basic things that us as adults know, but our little ones don't always know yet! So I did the good old project lesson with snow (luckily it had just snowed that day!) and red coloring and bleach. Yes she was amazed when the bleach turned the red snow clear! I was able to talk about it being like baptism etc....you family and friends who are LDS will know the point of the project lesson, I am sure! Even if you're not LDS, it's easy to figure it out!

Oh and we finally got a family photo taken. My friend Tami took it for us after the baptism, and getting all 5 of us in a photo is very rare, as you can imagine! For now, it's the header on this blog, so just scroll back up to the top to see it!

So that has been the last couple of weeks. There have been other things going on, like Sofia being out of school with a double ear infection, parent teacher interviews, a cookie swap at church, all sorts of things, but I have typed too long, and if you are still reading, all I can say is WOW!!