the blog

happy valentine's day!!!

2012-02-14T13:22:00.000-08:00

our littlest valentine!

ella's classroom valentine party

our 10 yr old valentine!

afton's winning valentine's box!

category: most creative

ella's airplane valentine for her classmates

afton's puppy valentine for her classmates

happy valentine's day to you!

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grandma & grandpa!

2012-02-13T18:29:00.000-08:00

last weekend grandma and grandpa came to visit us!

dad and grandpa made a beautiful new headboard for ella's new bed.

grandma and mom went shopping for fabric for pillows and a new quilt for ella's bed.

the girls took grandma and grandpa swimming!

we watched the superbowl and ate paninis.

grandma went to school to visit ella in the science lab.

we laughed and played and had a great time!!!

we love grandma and grandpa and miss them everyday!

eight is great!

2012-02-05T20:29:00.000-08:00

tonite we attended the

Eight is Great! night at church.

this night is dedicated to all of the kids who will be turning 8 this year.

when you turn 8, you can choose to be baptized.

ella-belle doesn't turn 8 until the end of the year, so we have a little bit of time to prepare.

here she is with one of her best friends!

here's the whole group of crazies turning 8 this year!

they are a tight little group of friends.

i hope they continue on in life that way, because they all have such unique and precious personalities to share with each other.

we are looking forward to a year of learning and preparing for elle's baptism.

we love you ellie-belly!

if i never see another cupcake...

2012-01-30T07:37:00.000-08:00

my church "job" is to help oversee the youth of our area.

last night we had a standards event that focused on internet safety and time spent online and in "virtual" activities.

the theme for the evening was Get Real (or things aren't always as they may seem).

we had an amazing guest speaker from The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

she works locally and was referred to me by our school social worker.

she did a fantastic job and was totally captivating to both adults/parents and the youth.

we also had a family share their knowledge on using the internet for good (rather than evil, i suppose)

and then our last presenter was left with about 12 minutes to present an hours worth of information.

he was a great sport though, and left us with some humor and great nuggets of wisdom.

to go along with our theme, my friend, charlene, and i made these cupcakes.

about 250 in all.

we made caution signs and signs that said "proceed with caution" and "objects may not be as they appear" to be set around the cupcake display.

the cupcake ideas came from Hello Cupcake and What's New Cupcake.

saturday night at 10pm i ran out of frosting but still had about 25 cupcakes to finish.

i said forget it.

i had been decorating cupcakes for about 6 hours!

the reaction from the kids and their parents was worth every chopped carrot (starburst), every carefully placed corn kernel (jelly belly) and every slightly melted pat of butter (banana laffy taffy) on the mashed potatoes.

ryan made a fantastic cupcake stand that, when finished, resembled the starship enterprise from star trek!

AND of course ryan and the girls helped decorate til the bitter end. :)

star of the week

2012-01-26T19:31:00.000-08:00

well, would ya look at this cutie?

she was the star of the week and gave a presentation today.

the presentation topic was "all about afton".

she shared many interesting facts and stories about her life so far.

she created a collage of pictures that showed her family, talents and interests.

she also got to bring her new pet hamster named blizzard! blizzard was a big hit!

(as were the chocolate cupcakes dipped in chocolate ganache)

oooooh i love this weather...from the inside

2012-01-19T13:54:00.000-08:00

it is snowy snowy snowy outside!

the girls and i have a fire going, popcorn popping and the tv on!

we have no lessons or places to go!

best thursday afternoon ever!

teaching

2012-01-17T19:28:00.000-08:00

tonite afton taught her activity days group how to make flower rings.

the rings are made entirely from chenille stems/pipe cleaners.

they are so cute!

she was a little nervous to teach the other girls, but she said it went well.

she had fun sharing her creation with the girls and she said they loved making the rings.

way to go aftie girl!

and here's what they look like!

we have snow

2012-01-14T18:56:00.000-08:00

we finally got a significant amount of snow.

at least enough to cover the grass on the sledding hill.

it was a busy day at the sledding hill.

the first saturday with enough snow!

check out that wicked hill behind ryan!

we might need to find a more advanced sledding hill for our next outing.

grateful

2012-01-12T10:25:00.000-08:00

today i had a 6 month check up at this place...

with this dr...

he's a good dr.

actually he's a VERY good dr.

he eases my concerns and finds all the bad stuff and gets rid of it.

i'm very grateful to have access to such a good place.

i'm very grateful to be cancer free.

lunchin' with my lady

2012-01-12T10:08:00.000-08:00

yesterday miss cutie-bug asked me to eat lunch with her at school.

i brought a bag with a big yellow M on it.

all the sad little faces stared longingly as i passed them by.

my lunch date was all smiles when we saw each other in the hall!

"mcdonald's?"

yay!!!!!

cupcakes

2012-01-07T16:57:00.000-08:00

the girls decided to make cupcakes today.

not just any old cupcakes...

beautiful cupcakes!

aftie piped the vines and flowers on hers

and elle-belle cut marshmallows in half and then dipped them in sprinkles to create beautiful flowers!

and it's all because of this fun book ella gave to aftie for christmas.

my new year so far...

2012-01-04T10:57:00.000-08:00

the last two days have been spent in the dungeon doing a lot of this...

not so much the starching and pressing, but a lot of washing and folding.

eliza, my ever-faithful detox partner, and i have been cleansing since yesterday.

we try to do this every january.

some january's have been horrible, but this one isn't too bad.

and this is my new favorite television obsession!

season 2 (u.s.) begins sunday night on pbs.

you should definitely watch season 1 on netflix before you begin the new season.

the show takes place just prior to world war 1,

and is all about the cawley family and their household.

delightful!

from the girls

2012-01-01T17:57:00.000-08:00

the girls filled these cute little questionnaires out last night during our new year's festivities.

i thought they were priceless!

Happy New Year!!!!!!

2011-12-31T15:11:00.000-08:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSq1cez_flQ

i love this quirky girl!

big update. huge.

2011-12-30T16:37:00.000-08:00

this entry is being typed on our new laptop.

yay for us!

yay for christmas money!

yay for catching up on technology.

it was back and forth between an ipad and a regular ol' laptop.

in the end, it was the laptop that won out.

anywhooooo.

here's what we've been doing...

ella turned 7.

i turned 38, which makes my parents very old.

my friend, molly and i baked about a thousand sugar cookies.

we wrote letters to santa.

ella's top 3 wishes...

ipod touch

portable dvd player

she's a high tech girl!

we helped ryan with some experiments at work.

we did the nativity with our friends.

these two can't wait for another evening at the hulse's!

we opened new pj's on christmas eve.

we left cookies and milk for santa.

we checked out the goods from santa.

ryan loves his new slippers his mama made!

we are excited for the new year and all of the wonderful things it will bring!

honor roll!

2011-12-05T10:39:00.000-08:00

congratulations to our very own honor roll student!

miss aftie!!!!

congratulations go to our super 2nd grader!

miss ella-belle!!!!

keep up the good work girlies.

we love you!!!!!

our belle turns 7!

2011-11-27T16:55:00.000-08:00

our beautiful monkey turned 7 today!

as every mother says...

i can't believe how fast these seven years have gone.

she brings a lot of light into our family.

we love this girl!

ella received an early birthday gift.

we gave her clues to help her figure out what the gift was.

1. we're going to a place by target.

2. it's a noisy place.

3. they have food and toys there, but NOT the kind you would like.

4. this place is a little bit smelly.

5. mom isn't crying, it's just her allergies.

6. no matter what you name it, dad will still call it a rat.

ella's eyes got very big while reading the last clue!

we have been pet-sitting for our friends.

ryan's been calling the pet a "rat".

so she knew when she read the clue that she would be getting a...

HAMSTER!

ella and hugo the hamster.

i keep suggesting we call him tiny h, but no one likes that idea.

"he's not a rapper, mom!"

marmee and gg added to ella's collection of country critters.

she had a hard time pulling herself away from them this morning before church.

she also received some clothes, pink boots, a coloring book, a wii game, a gymnastics poster, eraser, bookmark, and earrings.

ella chose red robin for lunch out yesterday.

pancakes for breakfast

kraft macaroni and cheese for lunch

homemade macaroni and cheese for dinner with cucumbers and broccoli on the side.

and a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting.

she was even serenaded with happy birthday played on the violin by aftie!

tomorrow brings chocolate and vanilla cupcakes for her class at school.

this weekend brings a glamour pajama party.

happy birthday sweet lady!

happy thanksgiving!!

2011-11-24T07:03:00.000-08:00

my personal chefs are cooking up a feast for me!

happy thanksgiving!

pretty ladies

2011-11-21T19:31:00.000-08:00

ry and i took a couple of hours while in stuttgart, germany to visit the porsche museum.

my sweet ry has long been a fan of the porsche.

a beautiful, clean, white space!

i loved this beautiful place!

ryan's dream car. he doesn't want a new one. he wants one from the 80's.

not me.

i like brand new!

we did the audio tour.

the history was fascinating to me.

i loved hearing about the races and the cars created just for certain races.

this is a photo i pulled from the web, but it shows the clean beauty of the inside of the museum.

gorgeous architecture!

goin' to church

2011-11-11T15:06:00.000-08:00

when ryan and i were in rome, we went to church.

alot.

technically, we went to a lot of churches.

here's one.

it's sort of famous.

st peter's basilica.

wowza.

here's the statue of st peter.

poor thing, everyone's rubbed his toes off!

this is st. peter's square.

the pope had spoken the day before we visited.

we also saw the sistine chapel!

it was beautiful and much smaller than i had imagined.

we also did a tour of the vatican museum.

ryan loved the first part of the tour...

going through security.

the guards just sat and chatted with each other, never once paying attention to the monitors or flashing red lights when people walked through the metal detectors.

i guess the pope was out that day,

as they didn't seem to care about the 10,000 other people in vatican city.

rome. aaaaahhhhhh.

2011-11-04T16:45:00.001-07:00

the beautiful view from our hotel balcony.

when i arrived in our room, i stepped out onto the balcony and saw this beauty.

it was so lovely and i felt so relaxed.

i still had the day to wait for ryan to arrive, so i...

opened the sliding door,

took a long, hot bath,

took a little nap,

and perused a travel book.

heaven.

these beautiful steps can be found in the piazza de espagna.

they are commonly known as the spanish steps and have been featured in many movies.

we stepped our way to the top with all of the other tourists, but it was still magical!

the trevi fountain!

so amazing. this was ryan's favorite!

the cutest couple!

it was hard to snag a spot to take a photo, but we scooched our way in.

the pantheon.

the best preserved building in rome.

it has a large open dome at the top and when it rains, the water dances on the floor inside.

i guess you wear your rainboots to church if it's raining.

raphael's tomb inside the pantheon.

the beautiful, spectacular colloseum.

halloween!

2011-11-02T08:02:00.000-07:00

this halloween was filled with fun, but it sure went quickly!

we attended the annual trunk or treat at our church.

afton, the peacock, with cute friends!

sadly we bought our pumpkins at wegmans.

we usually try to fill a saturday with a trip to the pumpkin farm.

the always joyful afton, scooping seeds!

a serious worker.

this year we had a marmee pumpkin.

wait! that's the real marmee with us!!!

mom and marmee got to visit ella's school halloween party.

sharpay evans, of high school musical fame, prepares for an evening of candy collecting.

we spotted a beautiful peacock in our neighborhood!

off to trick or treat with dad!

new artwork from aftie

2011-10-18T09:28:00.000-07:00

if you can read sign language (ASL) start on the red hand and and go clockwise.

you will see what afton's hands spell!

is that amazing?

i never would have thought to draw hands speling a word in sign language.

beautiful work aftie girl!

a very fun trip

2011-10-16T20:00:00.000-07:00

for christmas last year my sisters and i received a super fun gift from our parents...

a girls trip to salt lake city to shop and eat and play!

because we are all busy girls, we rarely get to be together at the same time.

boo.

so we were super excited and i think my dad was feeling a little sad to miss out on this party

so he decided to come along!

you can see what a party animal he is!

he even wanted to dress up!

a wild and crazy guy.

(mom and kara)

we shopped, we ate, we shopped, we ate, we shopped some more and then we ate some more.

let's just say

i had to buy a mumu to fly home in because my pants were too tight.

(the amazing and beautiful oldest sister-in the stripes- and megan)

(dad & cleve)

we also found time to stop eating and attend a few cultural events.

aussie pink floyd concert

rock on!

my dad and his buddy, cleve, are HUGE fans of pink floyd.

luckily,

cleve found australian pink floyd tickets for us!

it was a very fun concert and we got to see our sweet cleve-er and his cute family.

the three guthrie girls

the second half was in 3-D

and no, i am not usually cross-eyed and gape-mouthed!

we also attended a lovely rendition of My Fair Lady at the hale theatre.

and last but certainly not least we took a moment for our spiritual selves

and attended the spoken word at temple square

with the world famous mormon tabernacle choir.

truly they are amazing!

we had a really great time shopping and eating and rockin out to pink floyd.

but we also had some moments of reflection as we looked through old family photos and letters my dad packed up and brought.

we sprawled out on the bed and floor at little america

and reminisced about the good old days.

we also celebrated megan's 40th birthday.

(just teasing, she's only 30 something!)

thanks for a great new memory, mom & dad!

we all love you.

why? i wanna know why! i wanna know whyyyyyyy!!!!!!!!!

2011-10-15T11:26:00.000-07:00

why does something crazy, involving household appliances, always happen when my husband is on the other side of the world?

one time the disposal decided it had done enough disposing.

horrible smell.

this time something is going on with the water heater.

i went downstairs to start some laundry and found water all over the floor.

i was so excited.

like any logical person would do...

i called my dad.

he lives in idaho.

he said to call the plumber.

so, we are waiting for the plumber.

maybe we'll get a new water heater!

i've been dying to get one.

p.s. aren't you jealous of our gorgeous basement?

a wedding!

2011-10-12T18:48:00.000-07:00

would ya look at these two cuties?

auntie angie and uncle dougie got married a week or two ago in the st louis temple

ella, aftie and prescott

we love our cousins!!!!

isn't she lovely?

beeee-utiful bride!

let the battle begin

2011-09-23T11:22:00.000-07:00

our bookclub pick this month...

(i am almost finished with it, even though we had bookclub last night!)

i like this book, but it's put me in the fighting mood.

it's all about this lady trying to get her son to his "rightful" place in life, on the throne as king of england.

let's just say, she doesn't go about this task in a kindly manner.

we've been having some issues with ella's school bus this year.

the bus has always (since afton started kindergarten 6 years ago) picked up and dropped off at each driveway on our street.

the first day of school this year, they dropped a bunch of kids off at the fire hydrant a few houses down.

i thought maybe it was just a mixup for the first few days.

after the second day of this, another mom and i called the bus people to let them know what has been happening and to please be sure to drop them off at our driveways, as usual.

we don't have sidewalks on our street.

so in a few weeks when the leaves, and then snow, pile up on the side of the road they'll have to walk in the road to get home.

the bus dept informed us that this was the standard rule that should have been enforced all these years.

so another neighbor is a police officer for our town.

he is also a parent.

he has called the bus supervisor, gotten on the bus a couple of times to talk to the driver, and even driven in his squad car with his uniform on to talk with the school district about this safety situation.

again, "sorry that's standard procedure".

feeling as if i should be queen of england, i emailed our new superintendent.

that's right.

he had the assistant superintendent call me this morning.

apparently, this is just the way it's going to be.

our next step is to go to the school board.

really?

can't they just pick up the 5 kids at their driveways that don't have a sidewalk?

i suppose i'll have to get a petition started.

maybe afton can make some posters. (hee, hee)

i really do try to get along with others, but i might have to start a fight on this one.

the trumpet is sounding...

music

2011-09-20T12:46:00.000-07:00

i love music so much. but sometimes i get busy and forget how much i love it. here are a couple of new-to-me musical tidbits.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjjc59FgUpg&feature=player_embedded#!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOKtbJfNLFk&feature=list_related&playnext=1&list=AVEMgUFPwOGPOOwVUqjnBViRO4mjNh2f9DjTJ3mAC5KllIZrGQHKd3qcY8uD7ia-tE

mmmmmm...

2011-09-17T15:55:00.000-07:00

i'm happy to report that our pta board meeting went very well.

no crying.

no yelling.

no catfights.

i'm willing to bet these treats contributed to the niceties of the evening.

here are the links to the recipes.

chocolate chip, peanut butter and pretzel cookies.

from sugarcooking

http://sugarcooking.blogspot.com/2010/07/pretzel-cookies-with-chocolate-peanut.html

mini chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter ganache and milk chocolate drizzle

from food network

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/mini-peanut-butter-cupcakes-recipe/index.html

and the HUGE hit of the night...

(i couldn't find a real and true picture to convey the goodness)

i found a quick recipe in the latest martha stewart living (p. 62, bottom) for kettle chips with parmigiano-reggiano.

these were the first thing to be eaten.

here's how you make them.

spread one large bag of kettle chips on a rimmed baking sheet.

bake at 350 degrees for about 6 minutes. when oil starts to appear.

meanwhile mix together 1/2 cup finely grated parmigiano-reggiano, 1/2 tsp paprika, and 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper.

remove chips from oven and immediately sprinkle with cheese mixture.

fantastic!

what's goin' on...

2011-09-16T10:13:00.000-07:00

yesterday i did zumba for the first time.

let's just say...

i laughed a lot!

i've also been spending time here...

miller tennis center

afton is taking tennis again this year and is really doing great!

ella is spending two afternoons a week at this place.

stumpfs gymnastics

she LOVES gymnastics!

especially when she gets a new leotard.

(totally takes after her mom)

we're going to violin lessons after school today for our aftie, the violinist.

she is sooooo excited that her cousin calli is starting violin.

marmee thought that calli and aftie could play a duet with cousin taylor accompanying them on the piano.

we'll give it some time.

i offered to have our pta executive board meeting at my house tonite.

the suggestion was made to have the meeting at the library, but last time we did that, people ended up yelling and then crying.

that's all i'm saying.

so, i will hope to sweeten us all up wth these ridiculous pretzel, chocolate chip, peanut butter, sea salt cookies.

as for this guy...

he's rackin' up the skymiles so we can go somewhere warm and sunny when the ugly winter hits.

idaho!

2011-09-14T11:54:00.000-07:00

the hulse girls went to visit idaho this summer!

waiting for our plane

gg picked us up in boise

he also found two other cuties at the airport and decided to bring them home too!

we were so excited to see calli and teags!

marmee took us to the pottery place to paint.

marmee helped the girls make pillowcases for "dean's kids", which is a charity our family started in honor of my gramps (my mom's dad, dean).

we went to the twin falls county fair and rodeo. yee-haw!

marmee and gg spoiled us rotten with all kinds of delicious food, although i'd opt out of the fried oreos next time, and even feathers for our hair.

the little turkeys all played games and were super disappointed when they didn't win.

luckily gg had more money and they finally won a fabulous prize.

and let us not forget the animals. these funny little goats flocked to wherever the food was.

i even got a little nip in the bum from a goat i didn't realize was behind me!

a super-great, super-fun trip!!!

seriously?

2011-09-06T18:13:00.000-07:00

i cannot believe that a new school year has begun!

this little lady is in 2nd grade.

she already loves her teacher.
"she's soooo nice, mom!", said ella.

she has two best girlfriends in class and a new friend she sits next to that she met today.

a very good first day for our little belle!

as for this grown-up girl...

let's just say that middle school suits her well!

she l-o-v-e-d her first day outfit and felt very grown-up.

the shoes are super-cute, with a leopard print.

a fantastic day for this girl who now has a locker and switches classrooms!

an update

2011-08-18T19:44:00.000-07:00

ryan succumbed to peer pressure and took the girls camping last weekend with some other dads and daughters.

here are the girls playing in lake ontario.

they had a fantastic time!

here's aftie and her wonderful violin teacher, miss teagan.

yes, miss teagan is as young as she looks, but is quite accomplished and the perfect sort of teacher for our little perfectionist.

ry and i celebrated 12 years of love on the 13th.

we had a little dinner at jojo's bistro.

mmmmmm.

then headed off to the movies.

a fun night spent together.

these two painted step-stools.

i cleaned up the mess.

we've also been to erie, pa to spend a couple of days with our sweet gruwells, while ry was traveling.

went to the beautiful presque isle...a very fun beach on lake erie.

the girls are finishing up the last weeks of tennis lessons.

ella has a silly, giggly friend sleeping over tonite.

ryan came home from a work dinner tonite to find

two moms,

one baby,

four little girls,

one cute little boy,

popcorn kernels,

and two little people playhouses

on our bed

and the movie "soul surfer" playing on the tv.

SuRpRiSe!

(while the cat's away, the mice shall play)

we are embracing the last weeks of summer and even have a trip planned to idaho for the annual fair and rodeo! yee haw!

we are so grateful that our kind and gracious friends who have a warm pool and live two streets away ALWAYS invite us over to swim!!!

thank you chiapelli family!

it's been a great summer.

Gymnastics

2011-08-07T21:52:00.000-07:00

in late june, our sweet ella girl had her 1st "gymnastics show". all the families of the gymnastics students were able to go in the gym and watch the gymnasts perform on each apparatus. afton was our videographer and photographer, so here are some images to help us remember her first show!

ella loves gymnastics and has taken a few classes during the summer, but will start again the first week of school.

she's actually a monkey but disguised as a little blond girl!

she climbs on everything and everyone.

she likes to flip herself around on anything she can hang on.

we're waiting for a tail to sprout so she can hang from that and not have to use her arms.

so glad she's found something that she loves!

a gold medal for a job well done!

ella and miss shawnee.

a fantastic teacher!

way to go ella-bella!!!!!

we went to nauvoo

2011-07-30T14:51:00.000-07:00

we went to nauvoo, illinois.

this is a special place to us because nauvoo was built by early members of the church of jesus christ of latter day saints.

it was a swamp right on the banks of the river.

the early church members drained the swamp and built a beautiful city.

they were later persecuted and driven from their homes.

on our way we saw this bridge and i was surprised that someone would use our initial (H is for Hulse) to support a bridge. so sweet of them.

in nauvoo, we saw and learned many fun and interesting things.

this guy showed us how to make a horseshoe. the girls got a ring made from a bent nail. i guess they call them "prairie rings" because the pioneers didn't have diamonds to give to a new fiance on a wagon trail, so they used a bent nail.

resourceful.

hope those ladies eventually got a lovely stone of some sort.

here's ella hitching a ride at the hotel.

we were able to see the temple in nauvoo. it is beautiful and sits right on the top of a small hill.

we went on two horse-drawn carriage rides.

the first took us around the town of nauvoo. we were shown different shops and homes of the early citizens.

the second took us further into the country and stopped periodically for us to hear a story or interesting fact about the settlers.

the kids loved the rides, but were especially vocal about the horse poop being dropped along the ride.

cute aftie and cousin janettie!

belle learned to walk on stilts! she loved it and didn't want to stop working on this new found skill.

here's a few of us at a play.

doing what all cousins should do...making rope.

two little stinkers.

two big stinkers.

we had a great trip and then drove on to st louis for a few days where:

ryan attended a work conference

the girls played with cousins

and i tore ligaments in my ankle

the fun never ends!

kara!

2011-07-27T16:32:00.000-07:00

look who came to visit us!

my sweet sister, kara-bear, came to visit us at the end of june.

we went to elmwood village and ate a yummy lunch at the globe market.

we even went to a peter frampton concert, which was filled with a bunch of old people.

but it was a beautiful night, the music we recognized was good, and we went for dinnr in lewiston afterwards!

we had a fun week together and i'm soooooo glad she was able to make the trip!!!!

that's my dad

2011-07-09T12:29:00.000-07:00

that's my dad in the blue jacket.

he gets to wear that jacket because he's a super golfer.

that blue jacket is sort of like the green jacket you get if you win the masters.

blue lakes country club

twin falls idaho

my dad won the blue lakes invitational a few years ago and that's why he gets to wear the blue jacket.

this picture was taken a few weeks ago at this year's invitational.

he and his golf partner won their flight and are posing with their trophies.

way to go dad!

afton's hairbows

2011-07-05T09:19:00.000-07:00

afton is participating in kidbiz, which is a program run by the small business department at buffalo state.

she attended a training, received a business license, and pays for a space at the elmwood-bidwell farmers market.

aftie decided to make and sell super-cute hairbows that her auntie megan in nebraska taught her to make.

she is also selling hairbows that our super cute friend, carolyn taught her to make.

she goes to market one saturday a month during the summer.

she has worked sooooo hard getting ready.

her hard work paid off the first saturday, as she made around $50!

she is definitey looking forward to the next saturday!

our fun friends had the booth next to afton's and sold "gourmet goods".

goose and granny are boys, but have these funny nicknames.

their mom is the gourmet, but they helped to grind the wheat to make bread and other delicious goods!

it was so fun to sit back and let the kids sell their goods.

i had such a fun time watching afton's confidence grow as she answered questions about her hairbows.

good job aftie girl!

science with dad

2011-06-24T16:04:00.000-07:00

a week or two ago, ryan and two colleagues treated afton's class to a CSI science experiment.

they used magnetic stirrers to pull iron out of cereal.

below you can see the bowls of cereal on the stir plates.

i thought this was really fantastic, because you can actually see little strands of iron when you remove the goopy cereal!

they also had to see which powder and liquid produced a reaction.

we also took a few pictures with friends.

(not part of the experiment!)

below is the last station where they tested pH strips.

the kids were trying to determine who left the mess on the kitchen table that morning.

below are the suspects and their recorded observations.

you'll notice that i am one of the suspects.

i was guessing that ella left the mess.

turns out that you can't trust science, because the conclusion was that mom left the mess.

everyone knows that would never happen!

scenes from the susan g komen, race for the cure

2011-06-15T13:22:00.000-07:00

wonderful, wonderful friends

minus the finlinsons!

(i think they went to get a hot dog!)

three beautiful girls.

aft and ash all decked out in the proper pink attire!

look! those pink signs say "In Celebration of...Amy Hulse"!

the two e's with my sweet ry.

our little family.

aftie told ryan she hated doing this.

ryan said, "get used to it. you'll be doing it every year until you're 95".

i love my family and friends!!!!

happy flag day!

2011-06-14T07:55:00.000-07:00

afton was chosen to perform in a small group of violinists for the school flag day assembly.
she was pretty excited for this opportunity!
great job aftie-girl!

so many things!

2011-06-12T20:06:00.000-07:00

we have been doing so much the past few weeks.

here's a quick recap.

this is ella on the uneven bars. she's standing on the bottom bar and jumping to grab the top bar! i couldn't believe it! she loves gymnastics and can't wait for class on friday.

this week we went to Talking Leaves Bookstore to have Chris Van Allsburg sign our copy of his latest book. Chris Van Allsburg is the author of The Polar Express, Jumanji and many other books. his latest book is Queen of the Falls, a story about a lady who went over Niagara Falls in a wooden barrel.

we've had some hot and humid days. luckily we had lots of popsicles, a hose and friends with a pool!

afton's 4th grade put on a musical the other night, called ROCK! she is the tall lady on the back row of the bleachers. she was in the chorus and had a really, really fun time!

ry and i ran the corporate challenge on thursday night. we ran for team honeywell. good thing they had us on their team. we were pretty amazing.

that's a joke.

but we did have a lot of fun!

a goal

2011-06-01T20:03:00.000-07:00

i swiped this from the ladies at http://eighteen25.blogspot.com/

here's why.

i think i'm going to get a degree. i think i'm going to start this fall. i think i'm going to be a graphic designer.

i think it will take a while. i think that's okay.

i think it's never too late to try something new.

i think my friend cynthia and i will carpool.

i think we will have fun.

i think we will be even more amazing than we already are.

i think we are confident.

artshow

2011-05-28T19:09:00.000-07:00

afton's work

ella's work

thursday night was the annual ice cream social/artshow/bookfair at our school.

here are the amazing pieces shown by our two talented artists!

beautiful work, girlies!!!

grandma peggy

2011-05-22T15:50:00.000-07:00

this past week was my grandma peggy's funeral. i was unable to attend, as it was in idaho.

she didn't give me much notice, and therefore i did not plan to fly out for a funeral anytime soon!

really! i would have thought she could have let me know ahead of time.

she was a funny lady so i think she would have a few good comebacks in response!

so, grandma peggy is my dad's mom. we didn't know her super well, but well enough to have good memories with her. i have a christmas ornament that she gave me when i was young, and everytime i pull out the ornaments to decorate the tree i am reminded of her. it's always been one of my favorites.

i also remember a super cute pair of earrings she gave me in high school. i still have them and think of her when i see them in my jewelry box.

i think i get my sense of humor from her side of the family. she is funny. my dad is funny. and i'm funny!

i'm pretty sure i also got my financial genius from her as well. i think it skipped a generation, as my dad is a financial wizard. grandma peggy and i seem to believe as long as you've got checks you can keep on spending!

i loved it when she played the piano and my grandpa don played the accordian. they were really good!

she was petite, pretty, soft-spoken, well-dressed and gentle.

i'll be glad to see her again someday.

June 22, 1934-May 11, 2011

Casilda “Peggy” Anne Bloomquist (Connell) went to be with her Lord on Wednesday, May 11, 2011, at St. Luke’s Magic Valley Medical Center.
Peggy was born June 22, 1934, in Burley, Idaho. She grew up on a farm in Shoshone and was a member of the Shoshone High School class of 1952.
She is survived by her husband, Don Bloomquist of Twin Falls, Idaho; sons, Kevin (Anne) Guthrie of Twin Falls, Mike (Jenita) Guthrie of Dallas, Texas, Rick Faught of Twin Falls and Don (Jennifer) Bloomquist Jr. of Nashville, Tenn.; daughters, Debbie (Jim) Brunel of Caldwell, Idaho, and Teresa (Mark) Christ of Buhl, Idaho; 12 grandchildren; 10 great-grandchildren; sisters, Barbara Crockett of West Grove, Pa., and Lois Samac of Twin Falls; and sister-in-law, Nancy Connell of Shoshone, Idaho. She was preceded in death by her parents, Sanford and Dorothy Connell; and a brother, Gordon Connell, all of Shoshone.
The funeral will be held at 11 a.m. Wednesday, May 18, at Clover Trinity Lutheran Church in Buhl, with interment to follow in the Clover Trinity Lutheran Cemetery. Arrangements are under the direction of White Mortuary “Chapel by the Park.”
She had a love for animals and enjoyed reading. She had a passion for rescuing stray animals. She was a member of the Clover Trinity Lutheran Church.
In lieu of flowers, Peggy requested donations are made to the Twin Falls Animal Rescue or Best Friends Animal Society, 5001 Angel Canyon Road, Kanab, UT 84741.

Here's a life sketch my dad gave at the funeral...
Nearly two years ago I spoke at my father's funeral services. My mom was there watching me. An author by the name of Florida Scott-Maxwell is quoted as follows: "No matter how old a mother is, she watches her middle-aged children for signs of improvement". So mom I know you are listening, I hope you see some sign of improvement in your son!

On behalf of the family I would like to thank everyone for being here on this celebration of my mom's life. My name is Kevin Guthrie and I am Peggy's oldest son.

It has been difficult to summon the words to best describe my feelings today. Perhaps Thomas Edison said it best describing the feelings he had about his mother when he said, (quote) "My mother was the making of me. She was so true and so sure of me, I felt that I had someone to live for--someone I must not disappoint. The memory of my mother will always be a blessing to me." (End of quote) I have always felt that I must not disappoint my mom, and have tried to live my life accordingly; I think she was satisfied with how I turned out.

As my brother Mike has described, Mom kind of had a difficult life in many respects. Mike, Debby, and I were quite young when our father and mother were divorced. I chose to live with my dad and only had a few holidays, an occasional birthday visit and shorts trips to stay with mom, so I really did not know my mom all that well during my growing up years. However in the past few years mom and Don moved back to Idaho and eventually to Twin Falls. I am thankful for that move, because I became reacquainted with her again and we shared some good times together recently.

I found out a lot about my mom that I did not know. For example I found that my mother did not particularly care for bankers! I have been a banker for nearly 38 years! For the last little while I have been helping mom with her finances and found out why she did not like bankers very much. It seems when she wrote a check she thought it was the banker's responsibility to call her to put in sufficient funds when it hit the bank. I had to go over that a few times with her; she still doesn't like bankers much!

As mentioned earlier, Mom had a great love for animals. My aunt Barbara told me the other day that mom got her name "Peggy" from her dad and mom because that was the favorite milk cow the family owned at that time of her birth. I wonder why mom never told me that one.

When I was in FFA in high school I had a prized heifer that I was showing at the Lincoln County fair and I named her "Dorothy" in honor of my grandmother and mom's mother. I am sure that made grandma Connell proud! If I had known I would have named her "Peggy". My sister Debby was much more sensitive to Mom and she named her favorite mare "Peggy". Debby was mom's favorite at that time in her life! I guess I now know why my wife Anne did not want our kids in 4-H, when we were raising pigs!

My mom really loved cats! She once owned a big Siamese Tom cat named "Opie" (probably after the Opie on Mayberry RFD). She was moving from Twin Falls to Michigan and she thought that her dad and mom would love to have Opie. I was living with Grandma and Grandpa Connell at the time. Now grandma Connell did love Opie and mom thought that grandpa was an Opie fan as well, but it is now time that I break the silence on this issue since both grandma and mom are gone. I guess the cat is coming out of the bag today! Grandpa Connell hated that cat. He claimed that Opie stunk up the house. One summer evening I stopped at the house to get a drink in between loads of hay (grandma was still up at the barn milking the cows), and I found grandpa swearing up a storm and chasing poor old Opie around the house trying to spray his hind end with a can of Lysol disinfectant. He made me promise not to tell my mom and grandma how much he wished that cat was gone. I have honored grandpa Connell's request for over 47 years. I hope aunt Lois and aunt Barbara will not be disappointed in my confession today!

Mark Twain asked this question once and gave an immediate answer when he said, "What would men be without women? Scarce, sir, mighty scarce"!

I have found talking to mother in the last few years that she carried a lot of guilt with her about leaving us kids when we were younger. We have had several tender moments talking about the "what ifs" in our past. I told mom that I loved her and held no regrets for the way I was raised. I became very close to my grandparents while living with them and that has been a very positive influence on the way I grew up and the values I believe in today. In an indirect way mom provided for me very well.

One of my favorite movies was "The Bucket List". Two older men (both dying of cancer) find themselves on the top of one of the great pyramids in Egypt. Morgan Freeman tells Jack Nicholson of an ancient Egyptian belief of two questions that have to be answered in order to enter into heaven. The first being; "Have you found JOY in your life?" The second being, "Have you brought JOY to others in your life?" I think mom found joy in all of her children (Debby, Mike, Rick, Terri, and Donny and I). I know that she found Joy in her 12 grandchildren and 10 great grandchildren. She found JOY in my wife Anne. She was always amazed that I was able to convince a Buhl girl to even date a kid from Shoshone, let alone that she was a homecoming queen and cheerleader. Mom loved my good wife! She thought I married up!

Did she bring JOY to others? I imagine there are many that she did bring some JOY to. But she brought me JOY by just being my mother.

Mom was 76 years old, I am 60. You do the math. When I think of the circumstances that mom dealt with in late 1950 I am so thankful for her sacrifices on my behalf. Today in our world we don't think twice about a teenager being pregnant, but in 1950 it was almost a scandal. Being pregnant as a 16 year old teenager must have brought a tremendous amount of anxiety to my mom. I am sure she must have been embarrassed and I bet her parents were upset with her. But it was not all her fault, and if any of you knew my dad you would better understand that statement. Margaret Mead said it best, "Mothers are a biological necessity; fathers are a social invention".

She did not give up on me. I was born a couple of months premature and stayed in the hospital for a while in an incubator. My 16 year old mother brought me home to a one bedroom house located at the end of a two mile dirt road in north Shoshone, about 15 miles from town (and there wasn't much more in Shoshone in the summer of 1951 than there is today). She had no car of her own. The house had no bathroom, only an outdoor out house. No central air conditioning, only a stove in the living room to provide heat. She did not have a dishwasher, or a modern washing machine for clothes, she hung out all of those cloth diapers on a outside clothesline. She interrupted her education to take care of me. She was forced into the world of an adult woman at a very early age. I cannot thank my mom enough for giving me life and bringing me into this world. I hope she knows that her son Kevin loves her a great deal for her sacrifices, and the Joy she brought into my life.

A week ago tonight I stood by my mom's bed in the ICU at St. Luke's Hospital in Twin, and said goodbye to her in this mortal life. My mom stood by me in many ways all of my life. I am reminded of a son nearly two thousand years ago who had a mother that stood by him as well. One of the last sentences uttered by our Savior as he hung on the cross was, "Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother". My prayer today would be to Jesus, "Behold my mother" take her home with you! Mom I will miss you a great deal.

I bear testimony of the life of our Savior Jesus Christ and through him mom and all of us can have eternal life and see each other again.

my sister is famous!

2011-05-19T13:56:00.000-07:00

http://athome.idahostatejournal.com/?p=1431

check out megan's awesome idea for displaying kids artwork. she will be featured as a guest contributor for a very important design magazine. well, maybe it's important in idaho. but it's definitely important to me!
her portrait is pretty cute too!

35 years

2011-05-17T10:59:00.000-07:00

happy birthday to my ry!

this guy is a diet coke drinker

a velveeta cheese eater

an inventor

a tickler

a teaser

a teacher

a leader

a bedtime reader

a rap music lover

a just dance-r

a yard worker

a traveler

a hotel pool lover

a basketball-er

a golfer

a tucker-inner

a family lover

a take care of-er

a joke teller

a comedy lover

a supporter

a giver

a milk chocolate eater

a meat eater

a project taker on-er

a cornhusker

a saturday morning pancake maker

a worker

and my lover.

happy birthday!

double digit birthday!

2011-05-15T18:54:00.000-07:00

our sweet aftie turned 10 this week!

she took chocolate cupcakes topped with chocolate ganache to school for her classmates.

we celebrated her big day with our family. she requested peanut butter noodles for dinner and jello poke cake for dessert. yum!

aftie requested a sleepover to celebrate with friends. we had quite a few giggling girls. even ella-belle had a giggling friend stay over.

they did a scavenger hunt which included deciphering clues, doing jumping jacks and making a human pyramid. aftie did not appreciate the human pyramid portion, but i do believe the prize at the end was worth it.

i fell asleep at 1:30am, but these sillies were still going strong.

one of them claims to have stayed up til 4am.

her mom said she was very tired the next day!

happy birthday sweet aftie-girl!

kitchenaid

2011-05-10T19:17:00.000-07:00

i asked for a kitchen aid mixer for mother's day.

this is the kitchen aid ryan found for me.

funny, funny boy!

he also picked up this one.

it's a little easier to use.

i made delicious devil's food cupcakes with chocolate ganache piped on the top.

yummy.

and soooo fun to use my new gadget.

i felt just like the barefoot contessa.

inventor extraordinaire

2011-05-09T19:06:00.000-07:00

congratulations to our very own inventor!

ryan received his second u.s. patent award tonite.

ryan is doing such a great job at work.

we are so thankful that he has a job and that he loves his work and has been successful.

so much to be grateful for.

way to go, ry!

i am the mother

2011-05-08T19:12:00.000-07:00

that's right.

i am the mother around here.

and i love it.

here are a few things i love about being a mother.

1. i love finding dirt-lined suds in the bathtub, after a dirty, worn out little girl has taken her evening bath.

2. i love finding sweet and oftentimes very detailed notes on my bedside table.

3. i love tucking my girls into bed at night.

4. i love mother's day.

5. i love helping my girls figure out who they are.

6. i love watching them fall in love with a new interest.

7. i love hearing their questions.

8. i love how passionate they are about ideas they have.

9. i love when the girls share their fears and concerns with me.

10. i love that they want everyone to be kind to each other.

11. i love when i am able to help them understand.

12. i love when i can relate to how they are feeling.

13. i love when their little lips kiss mine.

14. i love when they take their dad to my favorite stores for presents.

15. i love watching "wipeout" with them.

16. i love it when we enjoy doing the same things.

17. i love watching them entertaining me with their "crazy dancing".

18. i love sharing special, quiet moments with my girls.

19. i love reminiscing with them about when they were babies.

20. i love making new memories with my two sweeties.

happy mother's day to me.

spring break

2011-05-03T18:25:00.000-07:00

ryan had a work trip the week before easter.

the girls had school off the same week.

so, we took a little trip.

ryan went to columbus.

the girls and i went to erie to stay with our pennsylvania "family".

we made easter chick cupcakes.

then we drove to columbus and stayed overnite with ryan.

then we all drove to st louis.

almost all of the cousins came to grandma and grandpa's house.

we dyed eggs.

we went to eat lunch at the famous Fitz's root beer factory.

two handsome boys!

we had a serious egg hunt with the cousins.

we even went to church, cuz that's what you do on easter.

we played and played and had a great time.

then we drove home. all day.

cutest card ever

2011-04-16T17:16:00.000-07:00

i made this card for a boy in our church who has been in the hospital. we are going to have all the primary kids sign it and then send it to him. it's a giant card made from folded poster board.

anyway...

i wanted to say something besides the usual "get well soon".

this didn't sound quite right, but i decided to go with it anyway.

well, ryan walked in the door, saw the card and just cracked up, laughing.

he said, "that sounds kinda dirty".

needless to say, i'm going to redo it with "get well soon".

plant a tree

2011-04-16T13:57:00.000-07:00

yesterday the kids had bridget mcgovern lewellyn come to their school to share her book, one child one planet. in honor of her visit and earth day and library week (which focused on taking care of the earth) the pta & our wonderful librarian gave each child (721 kids) in our school a white pine seedling to plant at their home.

we wrapped 800 seedling roots in foil, opened 800 brown bags, stuffed 721 pencils, seedling care instructions, and 721 notes from the pta. i don't think any of our pta board had any idea we would be working on this project for 3-4 hours thursday afternoon. as usual, we were all delusional and thought we'd be there for maybe an hour!

it was a big project, but so worthwhile. the kids were sooo excited to take home these little trees!

the kids loved the author and loved asking her questions. mostly personal questions about her dog and her children! she was so great and answered them all without hesitation. it was a great author visit!
do you see aftie and ella in the picture above?
and their fantastic librarian, mrs. ginal!

author visit

2011-04-14T10:49:00.000-07:00

last night at our pta meeting, we had our visiting author, bridget llewellyn speak to us about her book entitled One Child, One Planet. she is a super nice lady. she read the book to us and showed us the process of getting her book published and printed. it's a great book about treating mother earth right, for the young folks of the world. it's not a scary/al gore/ type of book, and is specifically written in a non-threatening way for children.

tomorrow she will speak to the children and i'm excited to hear their questions and comments to her. i bought her book and she signed it for the girls. they have been working all week with their librarian (who is wonderful) on reducing, reusing, and recycling. they are so excited to wrap the week up with the visiting author assembly.

as a side note...ryan has not approved this post, as he does not believe in recycling. it goes against everything he believes in...which is anything covered in velveeta cheese.

hee, hee.

soaring

2011-04-08T10:33:00.001-07:00

today is one of those days.

somedays i just feel like i'm soaring.

maybe it's because...

the dishes are done

because the weather is turning warmer

because i had lunch with ryan at chipotle

because i'm wearing these shoes

because i have a date with ryan tonite

because it's almost the weekend

because life just feels extra wonderful somedays.

cake pops

2011-04-06T19:00:00.000-07:00

tomorrow is the annual heim elementary bake sale.

"wouldn't it be fun to make cake pops for the bake sale?" i thought.

well, it wasn't fun.

these are a pain in the you know what, to make.

never again.

and i think they taste awful. way too much sweetness.

but they are cute.

extra! extra!

2011-04-04T11:08:00.000-07:00

last week was afton's turn to share all about herself in class at school.

she brought in props to display all week

thursday was the day to stand in front of the class and tell about herself.

she also answered questions from her classmates.

our aftie is a creative girl with lots of interests and a big heart!

look what we found!

2011-03-30T17:38:00.000-07:00

we have gone crazy!

crazy for jamba juice, that is!

we had been hearing rumors of a jamba juice on the campus at ub, but had never been.

well, the girls and i ventured onto campus and found it right in the student union.

it was worth the 30 minute drive around campus looking for parking.

it was worth every single second.

i figure if we spend enough money there, they'll have to open a store off-campus somewhere, right?

maybe we can get afton to start a campaign!

our little activist

2011-03-22T18:57:00.000-07:00

tonite we attended our district school board budget hearings.

due to our corrupt & bankrupt state government (go ny) our truly awesome, but already highly taxed, school district has to make some cuts and raise taxes. but only a 3% increase this year. fortunately they have been good with our taxes and have a surplus which limits the cuts. however next year will be a different story.

so, they are proposing a cut to the 5th grade LOTE (languages other than english) program as well as reducing art, technology, home-ec, etc.

well, aftie had just turned in her paper with her choice of french for next year's LOTE.

after a pta meeting one evening, i shared with her the news that the LOTE program might be cut for 5th grade. apparently it didn't sit well with her. the next day she and two other 4th grade cuties decided to do something about this. they wrote a letter for all 4th grade supporters to sign and then turned it in at the school board meeting tonite. they made posters to promote their cause and even went to each classroom explaining the situation and asking for signatures on the petition. their wonderful teacher helped them by editing the petition and giving them a bit of direction. they received permission from the principal to hang posters and to visit each classroom to ask for signatures.

way to go aftie!

a funny sidenote: aftie was explaining their plans to me the other night and told me that her friend "was really excited and had been wanting to do something big for a while now". "she's just wanted to be part of a cause".

isn't that cute? and great? and sweet? and responsible?

i love it! i love that my children are having opportunities to have their opinions heard.

the principal sat in front of us tonite and she told aftie that if you think something is important you should believe and make your voice heard.

great lesson.

enjoy your lunch

2011-03-22T10:38:00.000-07:00

i am certainly enjoying my lunch today. i just love these burritos. they are my favorite frozen food. i just throw them in the microwave and then dip them in some yummy roasted tomato salsa from wegmans. happy, happy.

ewwwww!

2011-03-17T13:09:00.000-07:00

i ran to wegman's this morning and when i got back i found little green leprechaun poops all over our house!

i found a little trail that started outside and went right inside our front door!

ella asked if the front door was still open when i came home. luckily it was closed!

i followed it all through the entryway and dining room and then into the kitchen and down the hallway to ella and afton's bedrooms.

i waited for the girls to get home so they could help me figure out what was going on. we followed the trails and at the end we found treasures!

ella had gold, chocolate coins and a bottle of green bubbles inside her boot!

afton's treasure was hidden under a pile of pillows. those leprechauns left her gold chocolate coins and sidewalk chalk!

those sneaky guys must have known we would want to play outside, since it's so sunny and warm today!

happy st patrick's day!

splash lagoon

2011-03-15T20:39:00.000-07:00

this is a photo of our beloved splash lagoon.

we spent last weekend playing and celebrating "hulse holiday".

we were so busy having fun that we didn't have time to take one picture.

i think this was my favorite year so far. i felt like i could finally relax a bit and not worry incessantly about one of the girls drowning while i turned my head for 2 seconds. they can both swim pretty well now, which brings a worry-filled mama much relief.

belle tried out the red slide this year and fell in love with it!

aft consented to a ride on the cyclone with dad. she did not love it.

but she did try out the python plunge with me and decided it was a pretty good slide.

we had a great time and even got to play with our friends for the evening!

also, we're happy to report that it snowed while we were there. ryan was a little concerned that our record of snow falling every year during our trip would be broken this year. lucky for us that didn't happen.

so lucky.

shoes

2011-03-05T17:05:00.000-08:00

well, we didn't get this particular pair of shoes today, but we did find some other beauties for aftie.
the funny part was that afton's dad could not understand what sort of shoes she needed/wanted.
he kept asking questions like, "what kind of shoes are you looking for?"
"you need black shoes?" "do you need brown shoes?" "do you need casual shoes?" "you don't want sneakers?" "wait, you already have black shoes?" "why do you need more shoes?" "why do you need gold shoes with butterflies on them?" "i thought we weren't buying more shoes?!?!"
poor dad.

don't pay any attention to this boy

2011-03-01T18:16:00.000-08:00

ryan doesn't want any attention on this blog, but since i'm in charge of it...

congratulations to our little/big superstar!

ry got a great new opportunity at work and we are all super excited for him.

he works hard for us and we appreciate him very very much.

we celebrated with dinner at outback. ry's favorite dinner out.

way to go lovey!

we've been everywhere, man...

2011-02-27T18:56:00.000-08:00

this past week has felt like that johnny cash song...

i've been everywhere man, i've been everywhere.

it's been the girls winter break, so we've been out of school.

we've been busy playing and having many sleepovers and playdates.

this is ella's new favorite outfit. maybe she'll be a stylist oneday.

before our break i was able to attend the 4th grade living museum. each child chose someone they wanted to represent. aftie chose mary anning, an early female fossil-hunter. she had to prepare and memorize important facts about mary anning's life. the visitors to the living museum pushed the button (circle sticker) on the child's hand and the presentation began! all the kids were amazing. it was interesting to hear about some well-known people whose life stories i was unfamiliar with.

a trip to red robin for dinner. these two are so silly.

ry had monday off of work so we went bowling. we had a great time together!

we love hanging out with these friends.

we hit the science museum (one of our favorite spots) and loved the narnia exhibit!

now i am going to focus my full attention on the academy awards.

ryan hates this evening of the year with all of his heart.

one year he even went to the emergency room to get out of watching!

be my valentine

2011-02-14T13:38:00.000-08:00

it's only 3pm and already we've had a pretty great valentine's day!

i got to go to ella's classroom party this morning.

the kids had a heart with a classmate's name on it under their chair. they wrote something kind about that person and then gave it to that person. the kids loved it! they were so darling and sincere.

then they made cards to send to our soldiers. ella's little buddy standing next to her wrote "yo dog" on his card, and drew a picture of a guy with his arms crossed! i'm not sure ella's teacher appreciated my laughter, as that could possibly show my approval of his behavior. can't you just picture some soldier opening that card? hysterical.

our snack was a "friendship" mix. each table had a bowl and each child had a bag of popcorn or pretzels, etc to add to the friendship mix. but before they could pour it into the bowl, they had to say a word that helped to describe friendship. kindness, sharing, loving, helpful, etc.

then we mixed it all together. at my table, i flipped it like a chef flips food in a pan.

they liked that.

"hey! you don't even need a spoon!"

cool mom award.

here's a little of the girl's valentine loot.

here's aftie's super cute valentine box. the whole 4th grade has a box decorating contest and she was a little disappointed that she didn't win.

one of her classmates told her it was "a waste of chocolate".

he's the one she wishes wasn't in her class.

we also got a fun box full of cookies from grandma! and gg sent a box full of candy and romantic music!

ryan and i met for a romantical lunch at chipotle.

and the girls and i are meeting ryan for a lovely dinner at olive garden.

perhaps we'll even order dessert.

happy valentine's day to you!

life in the frozen tundra

2011-02-12T16:13:00.000-08:00

that's right. frozen tundra.

really that's what it has felt like the past week or two. it has been so, so cold.

when you are forced to stay in the house for a while, you begin to notice things.

i realized that it was time to put something, anything on my kitchen walls.

it has been seven years of thinking that "we'll just be ripping out the kitchen anyday" so why put anything on the walls.

enough is enough.

so i put these silly stickers on the wall.

also, i had some friends over a few weeks ago to make this cute heart wreath. i saw it on a blog http://www.theidearoom.net/2010/01/felt-heart-wreath.html and thought it'd be fun to make. i think i cut out 200 felt circles. maybe 300. but it's cute right?

fingerprint art

2011-02-08T13:05:00.000-08:00

aftie picked this book at the library yesterday. the girls have been doing such cute artwork with their fingerprints and our many stamp pads. they have even decided to do their classroom valentines with a little fingerprint animal/person/figure/etc.

thank you ed emberley! (author/artist)

4th grade orchestra

2011-02-06T18:19:00.000-08:00

afton had her first orchestra concert a week or two ago. it was fantastic!

i can't believe the progress these kids have made in just a few months.

afton really loves playing the violin and is even teaching her little sister how to play. marmee brought a violin to ella-belle last week, and you'd have thought she won the lottery! she is so excited to have a violin to pick up and play whenever she wants. thanks marmee!

perhaps lessons are in the near future for these two.

cleveland

2011-02-05T18:06:00.000-08:00

this past week, my dad had business in cleveland. we decided to drive over there and stay a night with my mom and dad.

we took a quick trip to kirtland, ohio to visit the historical church sites. we saw the original kirtland temple and the newell k whitney store. these were important places in the history of our church.

it was cold and a big storm was supposed to be rolling in, so we made it a quick visit and then headed for home.

it was great to see my parents. congratulations to my dad for being a super banker and winning an award!

middle school. aaaaagh!

2011-02-03T19:23:00.000-08:00

this girl will be moving to the middle school in september. i have been so nervous about the whole idea of middle school and sending my precious little thang off to that strange land of older kids and lockers and probably drugs and alcohol around every corner. and bullies. and scary internet predators.

well, i went to the parent information night at the middle school tonite and guess what? my mind has been changed.

i came home practically skipping. aftie is going to l-o-v-e middle school. she's gonna love art club and orchestra and decorating her locker and chewing gum and switching classrooms and swimming during gym class. i could hardly keep my excitement in check as i was telling her about all the fun stuff they have going on.

i love how her eyes opened really wide when i mentioned art club!

as for finishing off 4th grade...she preparing her information for the living museum project that all the 4th graders participate in. she will be presenting herself as mary anning, a paleontologist (i think). she will dress as mary anning and then tell some important things about her. this presentation will be made during school for all the students as they come to library.

i feel so lucky to have our girls in such a great school.

prayers

2011-01-25T13:37:00.000-08:00

this cute bug says the sweetest prayers. here are a couple of examples from the week...

"please bless us not to have nightmares. not even one dot."

"we're thankful for all the sports"

"please bless our sisters and brothers. even our little sisters and little brothers. and our big sisters and big brothers."

she only has one big sister, that i know of.

netflix!

2011-01-23T18:13:00.000-08:00

we just got ourselves hooked up with netflix. we love it! somehow, it magically comes through our wii. i don't know how it works, but it does. the girls have watched free willy more times than i care to confess. pretty sure we're going to save ourselves a bundle of cash. our redbox late fees alone oughta cover the monthly fee. sad but true.

tennessee trip

2011-01-16T16:30:00.000-08:00

finally, pictures from my trip to tennesse for my uncle rand's funeral.

lael, uncle joel, grammy and jeeps

gram, chelsey, chesney, tori, doc, mom, auntie teresa, auntie pat

cutie girls!!!

handsome boys!

pat and kurt

me with auntie t

cousins kate, jp, doc, tori

auntie teresa and uncle brent

despite the tremendous sadness of my uncle rand's unexpected death, this was a wonderful trip and time to be with some of my extended family.

we used to meet in arizona at my grammy's house for thanksgiving every year. i have the best memories of our times together there. it's been a long time since we've all been together and i miss everyone so much.

hopefully this summer we'll all meet up at the beach and spend lots of time being with each other again. so all you cousins reading this, get your plane tickets and pack your bags! i love you!

big man on campus

2011-01-12T06:03:00.000-08:00

so, the other day ryan was the tour guide for senator brian higgins, senator kristen gillibrand and mayor byron brown. they came to do a quick tour of honeywell and gave a small press conference on senator gillibrands lobbying for r & d tax credits.
i asked ryan to ask mayor brown if he remembered me from the race for the cure. hee hee. "so, mayor brown, do you remember my wife? you gave her a hug and a carnation."
anyway, we're all real proud of our ry.

Higgins, Gillibrand boost R&D grants

By Business First - by James Fink
Bio | Email| Follow: @JohnBorsa

January 11, 2011 Updated Jan 11, 2011 at 7:50 AM EST

A permanent and less-complicated federal research and development grant could prove to be a major economic development engine for local companies.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and Rep. Brian Higgins are lobbying their counterparts to make the R&D tax credit program permanent with less paperwork involved. Both made their plea Monday afternoon, using Honeywell's Buffalo research lab as their backdrop.
Honeywell, recently received a $27.3 million recovery grant that it used on research for creating a lithium-ion battery for hybrid vehicles. The battery research project was made economically viable by the grant and is helping to secure the future of the 55-year-Peabody Street plant that employs 150 people.
The R&D tax credit program, renewed 14 times, should be permanent, Gillibrand and Higgins agree. Doing so would eliminate the uncertainty that clouds the program.
"The problem is a business can't count on it," Gillibrand said. "They need to have it for their five-year (business) plans and 10-year plans."
However, with a rising federal deficit, there is no guarantee the program will continue.
"With all investments, it's about choices," Gillibrand said. "This kind of investment pays for itself."
Having such a program would help the U.S. regain its status as one of the top countries that invests in R&D programs. In recent years, the U.S. has fallen to 17th place among those countries that financially help support research and development initiatives.
Before recession took hold of the national economy, New York was seeing an increase in R&D support. It grew by 16 percent between 2003 and 2007.
Gillibrand said making the R&D tax credit program permanent could open the door for 162,000 new jobs.
"It's important we send a positive signal to manufacturing," Higgins said.
Honeywell, which has seen more than 400 patents created from workers at its Buffalo plant and has more than 400 other patents in its pipeline, is one of several local companies to benefit from the federal R&D tax credit program.
Kinex Pharmaceuticals near the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus has used the program to help finance work it has done on ovarian and prostrate cancer research, said Lyn Dyster, who co-founded the firm.
"I know programs like this work," Dyster said. "It stimulates short term investments that create long term benefits."

update

2011-01-09T17:28:00.000-08:00

my mom said the other day..."what's up with your blog, missy?"

well, i'll tell you. my laptop is all crazy and i can't download my pictures and blah blah blah. we'll work on fixing it one of these days.

but i'll quickly update by saying that we have been busy getting back into the groove of school and work and playing.

ella has been busy being silly. so silly. in fact she just read this and said, "delete all of that".

afton has been signed up to ice skate, but after a very, very dramatic 5 minutes on the ice, she decided ice skating is not for her.

ryan has been busy at work. very busy.

i have been busy avoiding the large pile of christmas decor in the dining room. at least i have it all in one room, right?

i have also been busy detoxing with my friend eliza. we do a gentle detox each year (this is our third year in a row) and i love it! it makes me feel so good, especially after a big problem of overindulging during the holidays. starting with valentine's day.

we're going to do some runs this year, hopefully the first 5k in april. we'll see if we can accomplish our goal of one 5k/month from april through the turkey trot on thanksgiving day.

my 6 month mammogram checkup was good and clear of any cancer! woo, woo! so, i am feeling like i am ready to put that all behind me and focus on moving forward. well, mostly just moving. even if i just stay in one place, (treadmill) at least i'm moving, right?

so, there's your update for now. maybe pictures next time.

all the holidays

2010-12-22T06:24:00.000-08:00

last night ella's prayer included these words..."we're thankful for christmas and hannukah" (pause) "and for the chinese new year".

some days are so sad

2010-12-08T18:55:00.000-08:00

i'm so saddened to read about elizabeth edwards lost battle to breast cancer.

it sort of hits close to home.

i'm so sad for my sweet sister. she has to have her smokey put down tomorrow. i know it will be a hard day for her. i'm sorry kara bear.

and this guy, my uncle rand, will be missed.

(sorry i stole your picture ches)

christmas letters

2010-12-05T18:42:00.000-08:00

cute christmas letter templates from marthastewart.com

we burned our letters tonite and watched for the smoke. you see, the smoke sends the words to the north pole for santa to read. this is a tradition of my dad. we do this every year and every year our girls are so frustrated that they can't see the smoke. but i assure them that santa can read it and they seem somewhat satisfied.

more birthday fun

2010-12-05T18:13:00.000-08:00

oh what a crazy, fun birthday party ella had yesterday!

i do believe i've made two or three sets of vanilla cupcakes with chocolate frosting

and chocolate cupcakes with vanilla frosting over the past week.

these little girls are decorating their own bags for their party favors

oh, did i mention that afton planned the entire party?

she had great ideas and the little party-goers loved everything!

afton invited two of her friends to help her.

the girls made hair-clips with flowers, beads and ribbon, and they also made bracelets.

we had a little freeze dancing, and even a conga line!

we also had a pinata, but i didn't get very good pics.

and last but not least-

presents!!!

i felt like i should duct tape all these girls to their seats. they were sooooo excited to be as close as possible to ella. they were hysterical!

we had a very fun and festive two hours of craziness.

happy birthday sweet lady!

what could be more perfect?

2010-12-04T10:33:00.000-08:00

we got our first snowfall on the first day of december.

how great is that?

the girls had a great time playing in the snow right after school.

in the days following, parts of western new york received 36 inches.

ryan's worksite is in south buffalo and was one of the hard hit areas. there was a driving ban in the area of buffalo that he works.

so, that meant we got to have ryan home a day and half! woo, woo!!

more birthday celebrating

2010-11-30T16:15:00.000-08:00

monday had a little (15 minutes) celebration in her classroom at school

that's her cute teacher sitting next to her.

here's her buddy mckenzie

here she is with her beautiful mother

grandma and grandpa sent a check.

ella bought herself a rockin' barbie guitar

and a phone for her bedroom.

what kind of a mother would let her daughter buy a phone for her bedroom?

seriously.

our 6 year old

2010-11-28T16:12:00.000-08:00

yesterday was my birthday!

i opened my presents yesterday.

love ella

yes, that's right. ella turned 6 years old yesterday!

she had a few requests for the day...

pancakes for breakfast

a little tennis time with the family

lunch at mcdonalds

dinner at red robin

i'm happy to report that all requests were fulfilled.

we also spent a few hours searching for the perfect desk for ella's room. she's been dying for a desk for a while now. luckily we found the one and a bright pink chair that you can raise/lower. it also spins and rolls. oh boy.

the day ended with a sundae at red robin and later chocolate cake with chocolate frosting at home.

we love our ella.

happy thanksgiving!

2010-11-25T10:00:00.000-08:00

happy thanksgiving from the hulse family!

if you were here with us,

you could work on a puzzle or

make rolls.

afton says she is thankful for her family and friends.

ella is thankful for her family and friends and sisters and brothers. but then she was told that she doesn't have any brothers. hmmm.

ryan says he is thankful that we get to make thanksgiving dinner all together, except for amy who hasn't helped at all!

i'm thankful that i don't have to cook thanksgiving dinner, because we have great friends who invited us over! i'm also thankful for my family and the time that we get to spend together this weekend.

happy thanksgiving!

the bookfair...

2010-11-22T18:56:00.000-08:00

time again for the fall bookfair. this year was a superhero theme. here's hero the heim husky disguised as a superhero. i'm not sure our way of hanging hero the husky on the wall was very professional, but he didn't fall down one time!

each class in the school visits the bookfair prior to its opening to make out their wishlists. here's ella carefully spelling the title of her wished-for books. i've never been a big fan of the wishlist, so i try to emphasize that these books are not guaranteed to be purchased by your loving parents. mostly, i'm talking to my own two sweeties!

here's hero! i'll never divulge the secret of who wears the costume. whoever he/she may be, they do a great job! the kids love hero!

here's my co-conspirator, cynthia. she is sooooo much fun and is a joy to work with. this year we purchased these aprons for all the volunteers to wear. they were a big hit. at least, they were a big hit with us. and that's all that really matters.

love doing the bookfair. glad it is over!

marmee's visit

2010-11-21T13:03:00.000-08:00

marmee came to visit .

marmee and the girls baked

we went to visit amish country and stayed at the cherry creek inn. it was very fun and the girls were able to go exploring all through the house. they loved it!

we went to an amish toy store, a quilt shop, and lots of other places. see their buggies?

marmee loved how the laundry was hung on a giant clothesline.

we also shopped and dined and played while marmee was here. we love you marmee!

accomplishing much?

2010-11-05T09:49:00.000-07:00

i've been a little concerned about myself and what i have been, or rather, what i haven't been accomplishing throughout any given day. especially concerning is the time that the girls are at school. so, i'm listing here what i've accomplished so far today. i'm also trying to keep in mind that i need time to be quiet and rest my mind. this is completely for me, but i need to write it down. maybe if you think about your accomplishments for the day, you'll be surprised at how much you've done for yourself and others. so here goes...

*ate breakfast

*read scriptures

*went to the school to work on bookfair stuff

*did yoga

*folded two batches of laundry

*made a card for my niece (won't mention when her birthday was!)

*tidied up the family room

*did the dishes

*sent an email to ella's teacher

this is the first half of the day. it's noon-thirty now and i feel pretty good about these things. in fact, i feel so good i'm going to take a hot shower and then read a book by the fire!
remember, quiet time is needed too.

autumn in new york

2010-11-04T13:26:00.000-07:00

autumn wouldn't be complete without a trip or two to the pumpkin farm

afton's jack-o-lantern design was voted as the favorite by her classroom. she brought the pumpkin home and we carved her design on it. then the pumpkin went back to school to be displayed during the week of halloween.

afton was dressed as a "fall fairy" for halloween this year. beautiful!

ella was gabriella. make that...gabriella montes. gabriella montes from high school musical, thank you very much.

she was a little freaked out by her reflection in the mirror when she put on the gabriella wig. not a little freaked out. a lot freaked out. so freaked out in fact, that she only wore it when it was dark outside. no amount of complimenting could convince her to wear it at school or at the parties she attended.

a halloween reading

2010-10-24T17:05:00.000-07:00

and heeeeeeeerrrrrrrreeeeeeee's ELLA!

the newest violinist

2010-10-20T12:51:00.000-07:00

hello, i love you

2010-10-18T11:04:00.000-07:00

the new carpet is finally here.

ryan's dad asked if i'd be able to sleep last night because i was so excited!

so, here's the bamboo transitioning to the family room

here's a close up!

now here is a close up of the carpet against the new tile.

here we are on our way to aftie's room.

it is soooo soft!

and one last view of the closet.

my sister megan said we should all sleep on the new carpet tonite.

we just might. we just might.

thanks mom & dad!

more loveliness on the way

2010-10-16T11:39:00.000-07:00

hooray for our ugly carpet going to the curb!

here's ryan beginning the tear out.

ella and i were in charge of duct taping the rolls of old carpet.

afton took this picture. she said it was her favorite photo taken. she was our project document-er.

the new carpet comes monday.

i can't wait!

afton and ella visit a chocolate factory

2010-10-14T13:33:00.000-07:00

the other day we were out of school and had an invitation to join friends for a tour of fowler's chocolate factory.

we got to wear these pretty hairnets.

we got to see chocolate being dropped into plastic moulds from a large machine.

we got to see a lady making peanut clusters with her own (gloved of course) hands.

we got to see a man cutting a big block of sponge candy with a saw! that really surprised us!

we got to see a girl dipping apples into caramel.

we got to see how the sponge candy is cooked and then poured into a box to cool and rise.

we got to see how mom spends money in the chocolate shop afterwards.

the guthrie family

2010-10-04T11:33:00.000-07:00

the guthrie side of the family.

august 2010

twin falls, idaho

everyday life

2010-10-01T06:56:00.001-07:00

i was going through some photos and found some that i think represent our everyday life pretty well.

some are a little fuzzy, just like life can be sometimes. there are always things to be decorated. and taped.
there are always messes to be cleaned up.

every once in a while we get this crazy guy in our house.

we are constantly looking for things. well, some of us are looking.

and some of us are eating pudding at the piano.

a cleaning hint

2010-09-24T07:48:00.000-07:00

you know it's time to clean if you find dust on the toilet lid.

i would not personally know of a situation like this.

really.

so talented!

2010-09-21T06:29:00.000-07:00

the girls had a little talent show at church last saturday. they had a program for kids to sing, dance, play the violin, hit a ball, do a "rock dance", etc. it was so cute and very funny at times!

they also had tables set up to showcase non-performance based talents. afton displayed her sewing talent. she made the cute pink and yellow craft apron. it has numerous pockets to hold scissors, needles and various other crafting items. she copied this idea from a kit that ella had received for her birthday.

what a smartie!!!

ella chose to display her newly discovered piano playing talent.

she played "the speedboat". she did a great job!!!

our little monkey

2010-09-17T16:38:00.000-07:00

ella is such a monkey. she climbs all over everywhere and jumps off things and climbs up my legs and skips and hops around all day long. we decided she might like gymnastics.

today was her first day and she l-o-v-e-d it!

miss amy is her teacher.

today they worked on the vault and the trampoline.

elle says she "wants to go to gymnastics on saturdays and thursdays too".

did i mention that she loved it?

independent thinkers

2010-09-15T20:09:00.000-07:00

check out that super cute scarf! miss belle picked it out at her favorite store in the mall...justice. she loves justice because everything is fun and sparkly and the mom groans in anguish and agony when she is dragged into it! this girl had her very first violin lesson on tuesday!

thanks marmee and gg for the violin! it's working out very well and has been adorned with a pink luggage tag for safe keeping.
aftie was delighted with this particular clothing ensemble. she said "i think this is the cutest outfit i've worn so far this year!"

and there's that scarf again.