It's TAX Time

I know everyone will think I'm crazy, but I love tax time. I like doing taxes. I even usually like doing my own taxes. At least I did until this year. I'm a little afraid that I may have to owe money this year. eek.
My lovely sister -in-law sent me a quiz that I had my girls do. I'd like to share it with you as it gives some insight into our daily lives:

1. What is something mom always says to you?

• No running in the house.

2. What makes mom happy?

• helping and making sure the house is clean.

3. What makes mom sad?

• when we don't clean up.

4. How does your mom make you laugh?

• tickling our tummy. But actually my ticklish spot is my nose (Alma)

5. What was your mom like as a child?

• like us.

6. How old is your mom?

• 21 I guess

7. How tall is your mom?

• that much (lifts arm as high as she can) Almost to the ceiling

8. What is her favorite thing to do?

• Cleaning the house

9. What does your mom do when you're not around?

• (Shrugs Shoulders) She is sad - sad Mommy. She cleans the house.

10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for?

• (Shoulder Shrugs) No answer here

11. What is your mom really good at?

• Cleaning the house

12. What is your mom not very good at?

• Walking on a tight rope

13. What does your mom do for her job?

• work (Duh)

14. What is your mom's favorite food?

• salad

15. What makes you proud of your mom?

• us.

16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be?

• a princess

17. What do you and your mom do together?

• clean the house

18. How are you and your mom the same?

• our heads - the shape

19. How are you and your mom different?

• Our eyes and our hair

20. How do you know your mom loves you?

• Cause she loves me

21. What does your mom like most about your dad?

• he's handsome

22. Where is your mom's favorite place to go?

• home.

I love my kids, and apparently a clean house. And I think I would do OK on a tight rope, as long as it wasn't too far off the ground.
We have had a busy week. I started working for H&R Block again this year. I really do enjoy it. Except when people own money and get mad at me because they owe, Honestly people...its not my fault.

We had a great visit with my Mom last week, and a wonderful surprise...my oldest brother popped in to sat hello. Since we live on different sides of two different countries it was pretty exciting. We had a very great visit and he came to church with us. Everyone kept telling me "wow he's so tall" and I kept thinking...yeah, I guess, but I grew up with it, so no big deal. I was just afraid he was going to hit his head on the ceiling of my ity-bity house.
And for the record - he's not even as tall as most NBA Players - ok maybe he would be average in the NBA.
It was good to see you Ron. Now If I could convince the rest of my brothers to come up for a visit...that would be awsome - but the next visit should be in the summer when you don't freeze when you go outside. We've had about a foot of snow over the last week. I think I'm ready for spring now. And other good news - my other brother Jim has finished basic training. In five more weeks he should be able to go home to his family. I am so happy for him. Great job Big Brother!
Well, that's all from the Scott clan for now...

DOMINO!

Ivy's favorite things:
Cheese
Chocolate
Cupcakes
Candy

I think she is obsessed with the letter "C". We might be looking at a weight problem when she gets older. For now she burns off all her chocolate calories by running around in circles in my living room and jumping off the furniture.
Speaking of jumping off the furniture, the other night Alma and Ivy were taking turns jumping off the kitchen stool and yelling "DOMINO". I'm pretty sure they meant "Geronimo" - but I could be wrong.
We have had a great time with Grandma Stiles here this week. We have gone swimming, ice skating, shopping (of course) and the infamous Stettler girls night out. I hope we haven't bored her too much.

The girls had their dance photos done this week. I should be getting my copies in a few weeks. They were so cute...but it took a couple days for the mascara to come off.
The big news this week is that my little girl is growing up - Alma lost her first tooth on Saturday. I was at the gym with my Mom when Graham called to say that Alma has a loose tooth. When I called him back two hours later, the tooth was out. I guess that's the way it is with us Scott girls, when we want something to happen, we want it to happen yesterday. I was so excited - Maybe more than Alma. Ivy wanted to loose a tooth too, but we convinced her to wait for a while. The tooth fairy came to visit and left a toonie (for you Americans - that's a two dollar coin) and a little note saying how grown up Alma is getting.

Happy Valentines day!

I got the girls some treats for V-day...but I wasn't sure who they were from. At Christmas Santa brings gifts, at Easter, it's the bunny...does cupid drop of the Valentines? This year it was just Mommy and Daddy, but I'll have to think about that one a little.
We have been having good weather lately and lots of fun around Stettler.
We have taken the girls ice skating a couple times - I keep forgetting the camera. Alma thinks it is ok, but Ivy loves it. I hold on to both her hands and we zip around the ice rink until my back gets sore from being bent over for too long. I have to admit that I really love it too. This week, because the ice rink is in the same facility as the swimming pool, I took Ivy staking and Graham took Alma to the pool. Then Ivy and I wen't over to enjoy the swimming for a while. What a great night!
In fact, I was having a super mom week, because we even remembered to have Family Home Evening on Monday, so Kudoes to me.
A few weeks ago, Alma class was studing Dr. Suess. on the last day the class watched Horton Hears a Who. We just so happen to have a Horton at our house, so Alma took it to school that day. He was very popular.

Ivy's class has been having theme days for the month of February. This was crazy hair day.

I have been doing quite a bit of family genealogy in the last few days. I really enjoy it. I can't wait to get my hands on the books my Uncle Bob has put together. There are a ton of family sheets. He has traced our family line back to the Revolutionary War on one side. My Auntie Carol has done a ton of work on the other side going back 7 or 8 generations as well. I love to hear little stories about the family members. Like how my Grandmother eloped with Grandpa. And that I am 1/16th Cherokee. I sure look it. Family history can be so intriguing, and I always love a good story.

Well, time to run. Ivy has a birthday party to get to.

But WHY MOMMY

I love this question. I think it is the first thing I hear out of my children's mouths. I once heard that Thomas Jefferson asked his mother a lot of questions too. Maybe it is a sign of smarts...or maybe not.
We have had a good week. Cold cold cold, but I had a lot of work and the kids always really enjoy school. I took them ice skating this week. Alma was very good for being on the ice for the first time. Ivy just let me drag her around like a rag doll. She thought it was a blast. I had forgotten how much I really enjoy ice staking. I am not really good either, but most of the time I manage to stay upright. I think that this may become a weekly activity for the rest of the winter. It is definitely something to look forward to.
last weekend we went to a friend's birthday party. It was such a blast. We played RockBand2 on the Wii. I have to admit, I really like the singing. And they have some pretty awesome songs.

Here is a picture of my closest friend here, Lisa Smith and I at our Christmas party in December.

Happy New Year!

Better late than never, right?

This is a picture of the girls in front of the tree at bedtime.

We had a wonderful holiday season, and I am so glad that we are finally getting back into our routine.
Christmas was great. We stayed at home and the girls were so fun. We had a blast opening presents, playing with presents, sleeping in and enjoying each others company. I didn't bother making a big Christmas Dinner this year. We had so many left-overs from a big meal we did two nights before.
In Stettler, we celebrate the night before the night before Christmas (the 23rd). The whole town gets into it. The theater plays a Christmas movie for free and the local train gave free rides. There was a big bonfire and ice skating. We watched "Elf" at the theater and went on the train . It was great. Then we got together with some friends and had a fancy ham dinner and played games. I think we are going to try to keep that as a tradition.

here we are at the train station.
This is my friend Lisa, her girls and my girls.

For Christmas Eve, we made a Gingerbread house, scattered "reindeer food" on the front lawn so Santa's reindeer had something to snack on, then we read "The Night before Christmas" and the Christmas story from Luke. It was great.

New Years was really fun too. We got together with a bunch of the branch and played games etc. We were all having so much fun that we missed the count-down.
Now we are all back at school and work and enjoying the freezing cold temperatures. A few nights ago our furnace went out. luckily it was only minus 20 (a lot warmer than it had been the week before) and the repair man was able to get it up and running again the next afternoon.
We also had some electrical work done and I am very grateful to know skilled people in our branch that are willing to help out.
Speaking of our branch, I have received a new calling. I am now the Nursery leader. I am excited, but I will really miss the Relief Society. Our nursery is very isolated, and you don't get a lot of opportunity at church to mingle. But I am am thrilled to work with the little ones, and the best part is of course snack time.
And now for the lighter side...
I wish that I had a recorder and I could make a list of all the funny things said in our house. Things like "Stop riding your sister" and "mommy, when I get to be a mommy, we'll be the same age" I love three-year old logic. I'll try to keep a better record of the funnies at the Scott household.

what - no pictures?

Ok, So I was going to post this a few weeks ago...but I was having problems getting the pictures, I figure I'll post it anyway and then put a new one up as well...

(flash back to December 18th)
So here's the thing. I'm not a big picture taker. I see all these other blogs with tons of pictures on them and I feel a bit guilty, because I don't have tons of pictures of my kids or, well of anything. I don't have my camera around 24/7 and I miss a lot of really funny stuff. I could have my kids blackmailed for life if I started toting a camera. Hmmm... maybe it's not such a bad idea.
Things are going well. I have a cold, but it hasn't caused me too much grief yet. I've been pretty steady in the work department, I know it's going to get crazy in February, so I'm trying to store up some energy now.
We have been working on our night-time routine with the girls. No more diapers. So far in the last two weeks I think we have had one completely dry night. yay. I'm trying to stay positive.
I had the girls write letter to Santa last week. Alma asked for a toy cat and a big dark brown bunny. Ivy asked for a real live pink unicorn, a real puppy and a toy Santa. We mailed the letters to the North pole and yesterday both the girls got letters from Santa. It was so awesome. Santa rocks. By the way, so far Santa has only been able to find - you guessed it - the pink unicorn. I'm going to have to go to the "big city" tonight and do some power shopping.
Speaking of the "Big City" I had a request from a friend for some pictures of the town that I live in. I thought about going around town and taking some photos, but it is really cold outside. Last week we dipped down to -37 degrees with the wind chill. For you US folks that's around -35 Fahrenheit. bhrr.
Anyway, instead of taking my own photos, my super-smart husband suggested I just get the pictures from the town website. Here is the link if you want to see more of our little town.
http://www.stettler.net/default.cfm
Here is a picture of the Christmas tree the the town puts up in the middle of Main street the beginning of December every year:

And here is our local steam train. I think there are only a few left in North America, so this is actually pretty cool:

One of the 7 wonders of Stettler is the Threshing Machine (yes we are that rural):

And last but certainly not least is Main street

So that is my little town...I love it here.

This week was Christmas Program week for the Girls. Alma's was last Wednesday and Ivy's was yesterday.
Here's Alma at her concert:

And here are the girls posing after her concert. They are so darn cute!

And this was taken at Ivy's concert. It was so funny because she was quite upset when she opened the gift from Santa and found that it was a book, not a pink unicorn. "I don't like it". I think she was pretty mad at Santa, but was too shocked to say anything to him. I had to explain that the book wasn't the only gift from Santa this year...he would come to our house for Christmas too. That made her feel a bit better.

I better make this quick, because it's late and I am tired and my eyes are red from not enough sleep and I realized this morning that if i don't start getting more rest, I'm going to look like the walking dead and start getting wrinkles and that would just depress me.
Anyway, I'm still running on all cylinders. I keep waiting for things to slow down, but something always comes up. I wrote a 12 days of Christmas poem for our Branch Christmas party. I based it on my own life (not quite, but that's how I feel sometimes):

On the 12th day of Christmas my Relief Society said to me
Let's make 12 dozen chocolates
eleven crafts
ten minute talk
nine memorized scriptures
eight scrapbook pages
seven books to read
six children crying
five visiting teaching routes
four jell-o recipes
three baby blankets
two primary lessons
and don't forget your family home evening

Only for me right now, it Christmas baking, Christmas concerts, Christmas cards, visiting teaching, etc. etc. etc. Lucky for me though the baking and the shopping are mostly done and things are starting to settle down.

We had a wonderful time at our Branch Christmas party on Friday. Good food, good friends, and the decorations turned out great. Instead of asking Santa Clause to come for a visit, we had a visit from the three wise men (our branch presidency) and they did a great job. I'm just glad I don't have to plan another party until...well January at the earliest.

We have also started night time potty training. so far we have a 0-3 record, but I am going to stick with it. I just have to remember to go up and get them to the potty before I go to bed. Speaking of...maybe I better cut this short and get upstairs now.

I'll post pictures and fun stuff soon