My Sanity...

Before the chaos of February starts (I'm precepting and Bailey is getting her tonsils out, added to all the school and family stuff, and my new diagnosis of Celiac disease!) I just wanted to share a few things with you. They (in no particular order) are all bringing sanity to my life as I'm in my last semester of nursing school (Yahoo!) and things are CRAZY!

First:
http://downloads.sugardoodle.net/2009FHEBook.doc
This is a great little book of family home evening lessons for the whole year! This has made it so easy to meet our goal of holding FHE each week and my kids LOVE it! We print 2 lessons out every other week then Dan and I take turns giving the lesson. We also had this made by a consignee at Quilted Bear

This has also made it so much fun for the kids. I probably could have made this myself but there was just no time and we loved this one when we found it. The name pieces are stuck on by magnets...perfect!

Second:

and
and especially
They have made this semester and all of nursing school so much better. They all have helped me so much, the kids by being silly and by making me laugh and Dan by doing the things that I haven't been able too, like laundry, cooking, cleaning and entertaining our crazy kids.

Third:
Just before the new year Dan and I started doing what we call "the weekly article". Every Sunday after we get home from church we put Bailey down for a nap and spend some time together as a couple (P does whatever his little heart desires ie plays the Wii). Dan and I switch off every other week being in charge of picking the article. It can be about whatever we want it to be. We usually get the articles from here but have gotten them from the Ensign and other LDS websites. We both read the article then we talk about what we thought about it. This has been such a great thing. In a way it sort of forces an adult conversation which doesn't end up being forced, we are just forced to start it. This leads to great conversations week after week and some good quality ADULT time between Dan and I.

Fourth:
Weekly date night! I have such a hard time relaxing and weekly date night makes me do just that! Each week we plan a date night, sometimes it's just watching a movie after we put the kids to bed but it's time Dan and I are able to spend together, which is what we are shooting for. It's been so nice to spend quality time together so much and has for sure made a difference!

I'm hoping all these things (along with the fact that the end is in sight) will push me though the month of February! Here's to a good month!!

Christmas 2009...

I'm finally getting around to posting about Christmas this year. I started my last semester of nursing school last Monday so things have been quite busy around the Hoover house. We had a great Christmas this year, it was nice to spend some much needed time with the family.
The kids were able to participate in their daycare Christmas program this year. Bailey's class sang Jingle Bells and Peyton's class did the nativity. Bailey was so funny, when her class went up she was singing right along until she suddenly noticed her Meemaw in the audience and yelled "Hi Meemaw!" We were cracking up.

Peyton's part didn't go too well for him. He had been working on his part as one of the three wise men for weeks. He was supposed to say "I brought Muir" but when his teacher got the kids up there she accidentally told one of P's class mates to say his part and told him to say "I brought Gold"! He said it but immediately started crying after because he was so upset and he wanted to bring Muir! Poor guy. His teacher felt so bad and apologized endlessly saying she forgot who was supposed to bring what because she gets bad stage fright. Hopefully it goes better for both of them next year. **I wont post P's video because it's almost 5 minutes long


Santa and Mr. Claus came to visit following the program so the kids were able to remind him of their Christmas requests. Of course Bailey did so from a distance!

We made a trip to Temple Square to see the lights this year. I don't think we've been since Peyton was a baby. The kids had a great time, despite the nippy weather, and were amazed at the Christus, the temple and the beauty of the lights

Christmas morning was much different this year. The kids actually knew what was going on and appreciated it much more! It was fun to see and share in their excitement as Christmas is my most favorite time of year (Christmas...NOT winter!). We always give the kids PJ's on Christmas Eve, a tradition that my family had growing up. They both loved their new jammies. Here are some pictures from the day.

Excuse the crazy morning hair!

Here are some other random pictures that I've taken since the last post and also a video depicting Bailey's obsession with the new Disney movie The Princess and the Frog. A portion of most every day is spend dancing around singing over and over "people gonna come from everywhere cause I'm almost there".

Jumping off the couch to grab the balloon string

LSU Bowl game (Dang you LSU, Win next time!!)