12 Days of Anniversary/Love Part 2

My printer broke. That meant that I had to do everything on my own. It took a long time. Here are the last 5 days.

On the eighth day of our anniversary your true dove gave to you

A memorial to the many places we have lived.

(It was supposed to look like the picture below, but it failed. I will do one like this eventually though. It ended up being the states we were born in and a star on the birth places of the six of us.)

On the ninth day of our anniversary your true dove gave to you

A game to play when you are feeling blue.

(I never found a Monopoly game I could use so I did it all by hand. A long time without a computer. Each section was things like jobs, schools, cars we have owned, etc. The "railroads" were our children.)

It was too big for a game board, so I had to use the card table.

Yep, I called it Bahlmann-opoly. The playing pieces were old earrings I have been hoping to find the matches, a tulip, moon, feather, heart, and a bomb looking thing.

On the tenth day of our anniversary your true dove gave to you

Ten razors to feel soft and smooth.

(He uses a safety razor and is having a hard time finding good replacement razors.)

On the eleventh day of our anniversary your true dove gave to you

A couple of things she thought you would like, too.

(I got him a Hunger Games belt buckle from District 12 and this picture. It is a wedding photo made from the words of our song.)

On the real day of our anniversary your true dove gave to you

12 and 12 and 12 for our 12^th on the 12^th (plus a date, too).

(He got 12 balloons with a favorite memory from the past year in each, 12 Almond Joys and 12 pictures of me like the one below hidden around the house. The kids made the sign and took the pictures. Also, helped a hide a few.)

 An added bonus was the lunch our children put together for us. They made a paper candle for the center piece and a menu. I was not feeling well at all, but it was very fun. 

The night of our anniversary we tried out a French cafe and went to see Les Miserables. I didn't realize we had a theme until just now. Andy got me a Cinderella snow globe and then this week he remembered he also got me a Cinderella journal. 

Sorry it took so long. We have been prepping for our trip, I have been sick and I just started watching a 5 month old and we are getting used to each other.

Disneyland Prep

The princess dresses for Disneyland dress up day. Mallory was so excited she wore it all day and danced and sang for us. She even wore it over her pajamas for a while because she did not want to stop being a "pin-sis".

We have been prepping for our Disneyland trip. We have been planning shirts, autograph books, belt buckles, etc. Aunt Carianne felt the children needed to participate in pin trading. We got 50 pins in the mail today. Everyone picked 10. (This is for Cari and her children to see, I doubt anyone else cares. BUT, there are other pics after.) The picture order ended up really weird. Sorry in advance.

Luke's set:

 Marcus's set:

 The left overs AKA mine and Mally's:

 Andy's (also mostly leftovers):

Anneke's anything girly or princess set. (I want to collect those princess shoes, bottom right):

 The hair clips that I made for my girls. (The button pack was supposed to have 11 in it and actually had 12! Yay!) Top row is for the toddler, they are smaller.

Marcus's autograph book covers. The front is the Mickey Mouse and the back has his name, that is the way he wants. (Which made me nervous to have something with their names on it that they carry around, but I think we are okay in this area. We will be careful.)

 Andy made a belt buckle to wear. (He used an old one that was too big and refashioned it. He will be making one more at least for the trip.)

 Anneke's autograph book cover. She wants her name as the front cover.

 Lukers autograph book covers. His name is the front. (He wants it that way.)

We have shirts that we are making. Pixar for the first day (orange shirts, Luke's choice), Star Wars for the second day (gray shirts), dress up day is the last day. Andy and I are doing Dad and Mom shirts on blue that day and Marcus is going to do Disney Avengers (also on blue) while the younger 3 dress up. Luke got his Luke Skywalker costume today so I hope to post a photo of that soon. He has worn it all day and is super excited. 

We are also watching Disney movies in preparation for our visit. Any suggestions?

My week so far

I haven't posted. Nor do I really want to. This is what my week has been like:
Rejection from BYU Idaho. My glasses broke. Andy ripped a seam on one of his remaining work suits. Our car's electrical system is on the blink. We tried and failed to get a smog check 5 times. Car registration is due. My tonsils were extremely swollen and I was miserable. (I don't have insurance.) And many more. I am hoping things start looking up and that I will be able to see again soon, but it just seems to keep on coming.

Countdown

My 12 days of love/anniversary are not quite done. It has been fun. In the mean time I wanted to share the countdown to our vacation. Luke asked me when I was going to make something. I didn't want to do a chain. We tried that before and it didn't last. So, I came up with something else. I made the template myself and then found one online. Oh, well. It turned out pretty cute, anyway. I am going to make their autograph books in a similar fashion. I didn't even think of those things, but my kids knew they "needed" them.

12 days of anniversary/love

My husband and I will be married for 12 years on the 12th. We started doing a combined Valentines and anniversary calling it a "Valiversary". We also take turns being in charge. Andy does odd, I do even. I could not come up with anything fun to do this year. Last year my husband gave us a couple nights away and even got a babysitter on his own! We are going on a trip and are saving for that this year, however. But, then, I kept hearing about people doing the 12 days of Christmas and I knew what I wanted to do. 

Starting January 1st he has gotten a little something every day. It has been so fun to come up with things. Most people that do this are not creative and spend a bunch of money. This meant that I was on my own. I gathered ideas and tried to not be too cheesy, but I think they are. They get better as the days progress. Another note - Our wedding colors were dark purple, and dark green with yellow accents. I did that because purple tulips are my favorite and our theme was Starry Night. Anyway, everything is purple and green in remembrance of that. 

Here is what I have done so far.
On the first day of our anniversary your true dove gave to you
An accounting of 12 years together.

 On the second day of our anniversary your true dove gave to you
An alphabet document that she made about we two.

(I made the ABCs of Us. I put words by each letter that were significant to us in some way.)

On the third day of our anniversary your true dove gave to you

12 ways to say the best 3 words.

(I made a list of I love you in 12 different languages. I tried to use those that were significant to us like Spanish, German, Dutch, even Elvish and Old English.)

On the fourth day of our anniversary your true dove gave to you

4 special pictures to adorn your work walls.

(I had each of our children draw him a picture.)

On the fifth day of our anniversary your true dove gave to you

5 hands for remembering.

(I made this.)

On the sixth day of our anniversary your true dove gave to you

½ dozen of your favorite treats.
(This was not nice for fast Sunday. But, I gave him a chocolate orange, 6 Almond Joys, and I made homemade hot chocolate and whipped cream, peanut butter blossoms, lemon bars and mint brownies.)

On the seventh day of our anniversary your true dove gave to you

A tie to wear to work away from her.
(The tie is green, one of our wedding colors. However, it still has not come in the mail and might not even come until Friday. So, fail for today. Anneke told her dad before he found the note and I was kinda bummed.)

5 more days. I will keep you posted, but my husband reads the blog so I can't just post them all. 

New Year's

I usually do have new year's resolutions that I try and follow. I know people that choose to make goals at specific points throughout the year instead of at the New Year. With my OCD it makes sense to start January 1st, so I do. However, there is a lot I feel I need to work on. If I get too many things going I don't complete anything. This year a friend of mine had a goal a month. 21 days makes a habit, right. For January she worked on healthy meals. For February it was a different hair style every day. Etc.  I am going to do something similar. I have brainstormed and come up with my monthly goals for 2013. (A monthly goal is to be better about family birthdays. I won't put that down, though.)

January - Health (floss and wash face consistently, figure out exercise routine and time)
This is a classic one, but one I really need to work on.
February - Beauty (do hair and make-up every day)
With my kids' schedules and babysitting I let this slide too much. I feel so much better when I  take the extra 15 minutes.
March - Mental (no screens month)
I am pretty sure I am addicted to the internet. That means blogs, facebook, pinterest, email, hulu etc. I am working on ground rules because I do need it for my calling and preschool.
April - Spiritual (prayer and meaningful study) 
I am not bad at this but need to get better and it could use my undivided attention. Plus, it is General Conference month.
May - Mental (write in my journal or kids journal every day)
I keep a nightly thankful journal, but don't always write in the important places about our life events.
June - Health (go one week without sweets, try new and healthier recipes)
Again, I am pretty sure I am addicted to sweets. 
July - Mental (dust off my book writing and book ideas and write daily)
I started writing a couple of books a while ago. I let them go by the wayside with many things and want to see what happens to the characters.
August - Temporal (cleaning schedule and stick to it)
There are certain chores I really dislike and put off. If I have a schedule I will be more likely to take care of them. Plus, we should be settling somewhere new *fingers crossed* and it is a good time to establish it for a new place.
September - Beauty (experiment with daughters hair styles and boys hair cuts)
I am not good with hair, period. I was so excited to be a mom and get to work with it. Now I just need to figure out how.
October - Organize (my pinterest and quotes)
I pin a lot of things and use a lot of it. However, there are many things that have been lost and I need to clean off boards and possibly create new ones to organize what I have. But, it is daunting and will be time consuming. I also have a bunch of quotes all over that need a home.
November - Thankful (write a letter everyday thanking those I love)
Pretty self explanatory.
December - Service (find a way to serve someone outside my immediate family every day.)
I tend to get depressed and focus on the cost of the season instead of the reason for it. I am hoping this will help me end my year right. 

Anything I missed? I might update about my progress if I remember. 2013, here we go. What are you going to do?

Christmas 2012

This is still going to be an about me blog, but I miss not being able to post photos to my other blog, especially at this time of year. So, I am commandeering this blog for a post so others can see what we have been up to this month. There are about 24 pictures, so hang in there.

In preschool we learned about Christmas in Korea. Yep, even though it is pink it is a boys traditional Korean outfit.

 I DON'T like this picture of me, but it is the only one of Mallory at the ward Christmas party.

 Marcus was trying to act serious as Joseph. Instead i think he looks like an angry Jedi.

 Anneke the grumpy wiseman.

 Anneke sang carols at Barnes and Noble.

 Super Elf, Mo.

 This is a better shot of our Christmas super hero.

 Chris, our elf, was not as mischievous this year. BUT, he did demonstrate the 4 basic elf food groups; candy, candy canes, candy corn and syrup. (The bottle of syrup was there but got taken away because Daddy needed it for breakfast.)

 Ninja bread men. A mom made these for my preschoolers. It was hilarious. They would fight and whatever piece got knocked off could be eaten by the destroyer. A big hit.

 Spirit week was just before school got out. This is Anneke on crazy day. (She has 10 ponytails in her hair. Sound familiar?)

 Marcus on crazy day. Yes, he has shorts on his head and shirt on his legs.

 One of my favorite Christmas movies is White Christmas. I always wanted a dress like the ones in the end. I have never found a modest one for me, but when Anneke was little I found this one. I was so excited Mallory fit into it. She has worn it every week to church since November.

The whole crew before church on Sunday. (Marcus wore the outfit Luke has on when Anneke wore the dress.)

Christmas Eve Marcus was messing around and broke the nativity set I got when I was in young women's. I was a bit sad, but kind of expected it. I continued what I was doing. Marcus was really upset. He set a little baby Jesus in front of me made out of paper. He was trying so hard to make it better. I hugged him and he started crying. He felt so bad and I had to tell him it was okay and not important. It really taught me about being Christlike and Christmas. Marcus completed the set anyway. (Luke made one, too.)

 Christmas Eve we went up to the temple to see Andy (working security) and unwrap our jammies. It was fun being all alone up there in front of the nativity. Then we read Luke 2 and came home.

 I made the pj bottoms for each one but Marcus. There is something uniquely wrong with each one. Haha. Anneke and Mallory's are opposites with the main material and cuffs.

 Carrot, and apple for the reindeer and cookies & milk for Santa. They also left Santa notes and Luke carefully spelled out "Welcome Santa and Merry Christmas - Luke".

Mallory decided to sleep in. These 3 were up at 4am begging to be let into the room. (I had put up the baby gate because I was not sure what Mo might do.) At 6am we gave in. They got to see the Santa gifts and waited for Mo to wake up to actually open the presents.

 Santa gifts. (Marcus couldn't find his stuff. It is on the trunk by the tree.)

 Mallory woke up and was a bit confused. Here she is opening her gift from Daddy...

 these fabulous shoes. I won a give away and this was the prize. They are GREAT quality and durable not plastic.

 Wearing all her presents including hat and vest from great grandma Bahlmann and bracelets.

 Andy gave me a very special gift. He had several people write me notes/letters about my influence and impact on them and their lives. I am pretty sure every one had me in tears. It was so humbling, actually, to see what others notice about me. I am so very blessed.

 Finding out about Disneyland. (see other blog) Pretty excited, I think!

Sorry it was so long, but you are now caught up.