Ice cream

For Christmas my brother Tim and his family sent us an ice cream maker. It is one of those ball things, that has an inner container for the ice cream, and an outer one for the ice and salt, and then you just shake it, throw it, kick it around, etc for like a half an hour until it firms up and you have ice cream. We pulled it out for Family Home Evening the other night, and had a blast playing with it.
Nate tried to kick it like Jesse and I had been doing, but it got him on the leg. It actually is really heavy, and it hurts if you're not prepared for it! Olivia really wanted to be included. She was sad that she had to keep on getting out of the way.

But after half an hour it was finally hard enough that we could eat it instead of drink it, and man was it delicious!

So thanks again Tim and Rebecca for such a fun, delicious gift!

pig tails

I love having a girl!

A first

So when you get to your third child, you find that there are very few things that the third child can do that are a first for you. However, Olivia took out all of the stops last night so that she could surprise me. When she started to cry in the middle of the night, and I got up to see why she was crying, I walked into her room, and picked her up. I immediately knew that she didn't feel right, but since she broke my glasses a few weeks ago, combined with the darkness in her room, I couldn't see very much. Upon further investigation I realized that she had somehow pulled off both her pants and her diaper. Luckily it was not a dirty diaper. I guess that I should just be glad that in the 6 1/2 years that I have been a mother, I have not had to deal with poo filled diapers being taken off by those less than qualified to clean the mess up. But all the same, last night sure was a surprise.

My pioneer girl

The other day I was making some bread dough and was kneading it on the table when Olivia found the measuring cup that had a tiny bit of flour left in it. She thought it would make a nice afternoon snack, and finished off the tablespoon or so that was left. It must be her pioneer heritage peeking through!

I'm the kind of girl...

So on Sunday something that was shared really stuck with me. A friend of mine was sharing about when she was training for her first marathon, and that a big part of that was a mental block, and she said that at some point she just had to believe that she was the kind of girl who ran marathons. And that got me to thinking...
I am the kind of girl who can run a marathon.
And that got me to thinking some more.... If I'm the kind of girl who can run a marathon, what else can I do? Surely I can make myself do a 20 minute work out video each day. Surely I can make myself get to the gym twice a week and put some time in on the treadmill or elliptical. And so many other things. So now I want to make up a DIY "whiteboard." I am going to print out a paper that on the top says "I'm the kind of girl who can run a marathon" and then frame it, so that there is space where I can write on the glass my short term goals that I'm working on, and change them as new ones arise, etc. Of course, that will involve getting somewhere to find a frame, and I may be the kind of girl who can run a marathon, but I don't know that I'm the kind of girl who can make herself run an errand!

Post Christmas Markham fun

Jesse's brother Luke, and his wife Lauren came for Christmas this year, so we ended up spending quite a bit of time with the Markhams in the days after Christmas.
The rest of our Christmas was nice. We spent some time at the "homestead" (Grammy and Grandad's house) after Church, and we had some pumpkin pancakes for lunch. The kids were able to open some of their presents from Grammy and Grandad. Which included a second wheel for the wii, as well as 2 more controllers. Since it was Christmas, I allowed them to break the no wii on Sunday rule, and they had fun playing each other in Mario Kart.

After that, we headed over to Seth and Heather's for dinner, and family presents. The kids did really well, and everyone had a great time. One of my favorite presents that I got this year was a quilt rack. Right now, the picture is on my phone, but one day I'll show it to all of you! (I know, waiting on the edge of your seat!)

The next day we came back to Purcellville. We started by doing some "treasure hunting" by looking for some local geocaches. The kids all had fun despite the fact that it was about 15* with 100 mph winds!

After geocaching, we went back to Seth and Heather's house for a lunch of leftovers, and then we made the annual pilgrimage to REI.

On Tuesday we actually were able to stay home for most of the day, first time since Friday. The boys played the wii quite a bit, and in general made even more of a mess than there was before. That evening we went back to Leesburg to take some family pictures. The last Markham family photo was taken when Graham was 3 weeks old. Unfortunately Jesse's older brother and younger brother never make it out at the same time, so it's impossible to get a real family photo with everyone in it, but we make due.

Wednesday we stayed home for most of the day again, but headed down to Seth and Heathers for a final dinner and campfire before Luke and Lauren left. I made up some cakepops from my new cakepop maker, and they were a hit.

But now Luke and Lauren have left, and we have just a few more days of Winter vacation. Nate goes back to school on Tuesday. Right now the goal is to pack up Christmas, and then to just keep on going, and pack up all of the things that we don't use very often, so start getting ready for a move. Who knows where to, but I just know that I have to get out of the place we're living in!

Christmas Morning

This year, since Christmas was on a Sunday, it was a very busy morning for us. We had plans to spend the day with Jesse's family, and were going to meet them at 10am to attend church with them. This actually allowed us to leave later than if we attended our own ward at 9am! So Jesse and I ended up getting up at 6am to get a start on our presents. At about 6:30 we heard noises upstairs, and went to find the boys. Nate was surprised when he was allowed downstairs, and said, it's still night time! It was difficult to stop them from having a free for all, but since we were in a bit of a hurry, we didn't slow them down too much.
They were especially happy about their Finn and Francesco. Nate got a box of costumes- Optimus Prime, and Bumblebee, as well as Wolverine and the Green Lantern. He loves them, and has spent quite a bit of time in them over the past few days.

Olivia woke up at about 7, and came downstairs to open her few presents.

Everyone got lots of presents that were on their list, and we were very blessed to have been able to have a lovely Christmas morning.