Our Year in Review 2009

First, let me say that we hope that all is well with every one of you who are reading this. We truly hope you are doing well.
I guess I'll start with Abby. She is our little "firecracker". She makes us laugh and crazy all in the same day. She is full of energy and imagination. You never know what will come out of that girls mouth, but whatever she says will either make you laugh or make you go "Oh, my goodness! What did you do?" Like the time when she decided to cut her own hair. Many of you remember that post. Or just the other day she was playing with Elsa and we heard her say, "What is your name, dude?" Or when she plays "house" with her Mom and she proclaims that she is the mom and her Mom is the baby. Then proceeds to play the part and expects her Mom to as well. Abby just turned 4 in September and we can't believe that she is going to go to kindergarten next year. She is growing up so fast and so smart. She loves being a Sunbeam and loves all of her little friends in her class. She is pure joy to have in our family and we are glad she came to us.
Elsa is in 1st grade and is doing so well. She still hasn't said anything to her teacher or her classmates, but that doesn't stop her from making friends and participating in class. She has 3 little friends that love her and treat her as if she talked. Her teacher was telling me that one day she was watching them talk and they carried on a conversation with Elsa as if she was talking to them. At school Elsa is quiet, but at home it's another story. She is going to be 7 in February and she does not let any of us forget it. She is very imaginative and creative in everything she does. She also loves to draw and write stories and poems and is pretty good at it. We love Elsa and are so glad she is part of our family.
Calvin is 9 years old and in 3rd grade. He loves school and is in the gifted and talented program. He has a good teacher this year who is willing to challenge him which is such a relief to his Mom and Dad. (They had a hard time with Dallin and his teachers.) Anyway, Calvin is working on his Bear in Cub Scouts and is loving it. Although he would never admit it, he loves his sisters and brother a lot. When the school year started, Elsa needed help to find her dot where her class lines up to go to class. I secretly watched as Calvin took Elsa by the hand and showed her where her dot was. Also, there were a couple days when I let them walk to school together. I also secretly watched as they walked hand-in-hand to school. Calvin, is such a sweet and sensitive little spirit and we are lucky to have him as part of our family.
Dallin is 10 1/2 years old. He is in 5th grade. Yes! You read right. We have a 5th grader on our hands. He is home schooling with Nevada Connections Academy this year. As I said in Calvin's paragraph, we had quite a time trying to get Dallin's teachers, in years past, to challenge him. This school is working out great for him and he is loving it. It is still is hard to get him to stick to a task, but when he does, he does a great job. He is a Webelos scout and loving every bit about it. He has his Webelos badge and is now working towards his Arrow of Light. He loves his brother and sisters. He loves the gospel and tries his best to be a good example to his siblings. We love Dallin and are glad he is in our family.
Britta is still the Assistant Cub Master. She loves being in Cub Scouts with her boys. She is also the teacher of the Valiant 12 class and loves to teach those kids as they go from primary to young men and young women's. She is a busy wife and mother and loves to do digital scrapbooking, sewing, crafts in her spare time. She loves the Gospel and loves her sweet husband and children.
Clint has been working for American Asphalt and Grading for almost 7 years. He was just recently laid off and is currently looking for work. We are confident that with his skills and knowledge of his field he will find a good job soon. He is still serving as the Young Mens President and loving it. He loves to go on camp outs, hiking trips, mountain biking trips, etc with the Boys Scouts. He just went out to shoot bows and arrows with them and took Dallin and Calvin. They loved it and I know that Clint is thrilled that our boys are old enough to do stuff like that with him.
As we ponder all of the things that our Father in Heaven has given to us, it brings deep meaning this Christmas season. What IS the true meaning of Christmas? It is celebrating Jesus Christ and ALL that he did for us. We are so grateful for a loving Father in Heaven and the gift of his only Begotten. We hope that all of you have a wonderful Christmas. We love all of you!
The Singers
Clint, Britta, Dallin, Calvin, Elsa, and Abigail

Our Family in 2009

On Sunday, we did our annual Christmas pictures. This year we did them after church, so the girls hair wasn't just so. Oh well, I think they still look good. It was an interesting experience trying to get the kids pictures. Abby didn't want to get in the picture and the other kids were goofing around with each other and I was getting frustrated (but not enough to not take pictures of it all), then suddenly Abby got in and they took an Awesome picture.
Not bad huh?

Christmas at Bass Pro Shops

Last weekend we went to the Bass Pro Shop so that the kids could see Santa Claus and do some of the activities that they had. We got a good surprise when we got there, because not only was Santa there, but his wife was too. It's pretty rare that any kid sees her, right? :) While we waited to see him the kids did all sorts of activities. The boys were more into fishing with the Wii, shooting the red ryder b.b. guns, virtual hunting games, and the R.C. cars. The girls liked writing letters to the big guy himself, playing checkers on the enormous checkerboard (until a kid came up to us and sort butted his way into playing) he kept saying, "On your next turn, I'm gonna play, o.k.?" I finally just let him play altogether. (Elsa was fine with it.) Then the girls had fun making candy cane reindeers, and they also liked the R.C. cars, and the shooting gallery.

Here are some pictures..... Elsa was smiling because she was beating me!The only reason Calvin was shooting the pink gun was because it was open!The girls love to ride 4 wheelersShe was sad because she didn't know how to hold the gun.She got the hang of it and did great!
She's a regular Annie Oakley!

Abby's such a nut!

Today, after church we did our annual Christmas pictures by the tree. When it was time for each kid to take their own picture. Abby went right up and did this pose. I could not resist such a cute little nut and took the picture. Then, of course, I had to take it straight to Picnik.com and put a santa hat and beard on her. She's so funny and makes us laugh atleast once a day.

The Spirit of CHRISTmas

This is such an Awesome example of what this time of year is all about. Sometimes we need the innocence of a child to remind us. Enjoy!

Snow flakes in the house?

Today, my kids and I decided to make our own snowflakes, since it probably won't snow again this year like it did last year. Of course we're not giving up hope. We're just trying to get in the Christmas spirit. (Not that we need help to get in it.) We love Christmas around here.
Abby and Elsa had fun making them. Abby felt a little frustrated at first when she would open hers up and it fell apart, but she got better as she went. Elsa loved making different ones, and she made some pretty cool ones. Dallin even made a couple. I made a couple, then really got into it and made everyone's initials in different snowflakes. See if you can see them. (D for Dallin, C for Calvin, E for Elsa and A for Abby.) This was a fun, spur of the moment activity and now we have snowflakes up in our dining room to help us stay in the Christmas spirit.

Traditions in the making

I love that all of my children are old enough to not only enjoy Christmas and EVERYTHING that goes with it, but that they are old enough to participate and, in most cases, help out in preparation of the many traditions/festivities of the season. (And they're happy to help).

On Monday, for family home evening we made gingerbread houses. We had so much fun. We also got our tree that night as well. It was a surprise for the kids. We told them to get ready and get in the car, we were going to Lowe's. They thought that Dad just wanted to look at tools. "Boring." Well, when we got there, we walked around for a while, then finally walked outside where the trees were and picked one out. Needless to say, the kids were very excited. On Wednesday night, we decorated it. It was Abby's turn to put the star on top of the tree. Elsa had fun decorating the tree.Calvin had fun too!I can't believe Dallin is so tall, when it's his turn
again to put the star on top of the tree he won't need a ladder.Abby loved decorating the tree too!Notice most of the ornaments are at the kids level.
After they went to bed Clint and I rearranged the ornaments.How does our tree look?
Then we had eggnog together. The weather is finally acting like it's winter. On Monday we got a lot of rain. Usually when it rains here it only rains for about 10 min. Not this time, it started at noon and stopped at about 8 p.m. It was great, especially because we NEEDED it. It's suppose to rain all weekend too. Yeah! Anyway so now we can (and have) broken out that hot cocoa and marshmallows. Yum!

Abby got a little blog

After asking everyday for the past week she finally wore me down and I helped her create her very own blog. Since she can't type, or let alone spell (or read). I will be helping her with her posts. She will, however, be telling me what to write and what pictures to put on. So go here if you want to see her cute little blog. Since she and Elsa are so little and cute, I will be changing their blogs to private blogs. So if you'd like to view their blogs every now and then, just leave a comment and give me your email if I don't have it already and we'll "put you on the list." Actually I think Dallin and Calvin's will go private too.

I finally post on Elsa's progress

If you'd like to see Elsa saying her sight words. You can go here.

Spider Calvin finally posted

"Look Mom! No training wheels!"

Here is Abby riding without her training wheels. One day I asked her if she wanted me to take the training wheels off her bike. She said, "No way!" at first, but I told her that I would help her. After many days of asking her to let me take them off she reluctantly let me take them off. It went just as I thought it would. She just took off. The stopping part was a different story. She forgot how to stop, so I reminded her to pedal backwards and then told her to put her feet down. She did Awesome! She had a couple of falls, but like a good cowgirl, she got right back on.

This isn't the first time she rode with out her training wheels. For some reason that video would not upload. So you get this one when she learns to start off by herself, before I had to hold her.

We are Thankful!

For Family night on Monday, we talked about being thankful and why we should be thankful for what we have. I made a "thankful tree" and we put what we're thankful for on each leaf and put them on the tree. This is what our tree looked like.Calvin wasn't there because he felt sick and went bed early.
He felt much better the next day and went to school! We had a very nice, laid back Thanksgiving day. We had a nice quiet day. (well...as quiet as you can with 4 kids). While the turkey baked, the kids played, Clint and some of the kids went to Kmart and took advantage of the sale...well they went in search of candy corn, but didn't find any but got other stuff, so their trip was not in vein. As for me, I just sat around the house and relaxed. It was so nice to take a day and do NO housework. (Except cooking and cleaning up afterward, but that was no big deal.)

The day after, "black friday". Clint had to work, so the kids and I went shopping. Not too much, but got some pretty sweet deals. Then the rest of the day, Clint came home and he went to check out some of the deals and the kids played and I started putting up Christmas decorations. Yeah, finally!

Uncanny Resemblence

Have you ever wondered what you'd look like as a cartoon. Well I cut Abby's bangs the other day and realized that she looks a lot like suzie from Calvin and Hobbes. Don't you think?

Another tooth.....gone......

.....Finally! Elsa lost her fourth tooth. She would NOT let anyone touch it, especially her Dad, who, she thought, would loosen it a little more and have it possibly fall out. (He's a sneaky one.) Well, after many, many days it finally came out. We did manage, however, to get a video of it hanging, before she finally blew it out. (Literally, she blew and it came out.) Just watch the video and you'll understand.


We thought Elsa would be tough when it came time for her to lose teeth. Just because she had a high tolerance for pain when she was little. When she was about 4, she fell back on a chair and split her head open and needed to get 4 staples. As the doctors were numbing the area, she kinda made a sound like, "That kinda hurt." and that was all she did through out the whole process of getting staples in her head. Now, I can't even brush her hair without her screaming that I'm pulling her hair and it hurts. Crazy mixed up kid! We love her though and she makes us laugh atleast once a day.
I just had a parent-teacher conference with her teacher. She told me that Elsa was doing good and was very smart, but she wished that Elsa would talk to her so she could see just how smart she really was. Right now I help with assessments at home, where Elsa will talk and I video her so that her teacher can watch and see Elsa talking. If you want to go to Elsa's blog you can go here. I haven't been able to put anything new on, because it takes a long time to upload a video. I'm working on it though and there will be new stuff soon.

Calvin is 9!

Well, it happened! Calvin turned 9 this week, on Monday to be exact. We just had a simple family celebration and it turned out to be fun. While he was in school, I bought cookies and took them to his school so he could share them with his class. He was surprised about that because I hadn't said anything about it or asked him if he wanted to take cookies or something. After I came home from dropping them off at the office of the school, I asked Dallin if he thought Calvin would be surprised. He said "Yes, because in church yesterday, our teacher asked him if he had any fun plans for his birthday. Calvin said that he wouldn't have fun at school because his Mom wouldn't let him take treats to school." How rude, he never even asked to bring them. Well, he got to bring treats and he was happy. I remember when I was younger, I always wished my birthday fell on a school day so I could bring treats, but it didn't.....ever! Anyway, later that night, he wanted to go to Cici's Pizza so we went and filled up on some pizza. While we were there, B-rad was there. He is a kid's magician/entertainer. He was making balloon things for all the kids there. Abby, Calvin, Elsa, and Dallin all got one. Abby got a butterfly and a ninja sword, Elsa got a cute lil' pony and a flower. Calvin got a ninja sword and a really cool, tall crown because it was his birthday. Dallin asked for a pizza, but B-rad could do that, so Dallin settled for a puppy dog and a ninja sword. There was also a little boy there who was turning 3 that day and he got a crown and a pirate sword. Later through out the night, that little boys sword popped. He was, of course, very sad. So Dallin got up and walked over to him and gave him his puppy dog. Dallin was happy, and Elsa was sad that Dallin gave up his dog, but after I explained what happened, she understood. The little boy was happy again.
After we got our fill of pizza, we went home so Calvin could open his gifts and blow out his trick candles. (We got some footage of that). I think he had a great day!
9 things about Calvin;
1) Where ever he goes there is fun and adventure waiting.
2) He's sweet and sensitive.
3) He loves people and people love him. Everyone he meets is his friend.
4) He loves his sisters, even though he teases them to no end at home. I can always catch him making sure Elsa is where she needs to be at school, and he even holds her hand as they walk places together.
5) He's a good brother to Dallin.
6) He's a good student. He gets his work done even though it's "easy and boring".
7) He's a hard worker and loves to work with his Dad outside.
8) He loves to learn about the scriptures.

9) He's a good example to his friends and siblings. The cake (with trick candles) HeHeHe!He wanted a Snake-eyes (from GIJoe) cake. So this is what I came up with.

I printed it off the internet and taped toothpicks to the back and stuck it in the cake.
He loved it and he wondered how I got Happy Birthday Calvin on it!Clint and I gave him GIJoe the movie and Iron Man Wii game
As you can see, he was very happy!Dallin got him a Nerf gun and extra dartsThe girls got him this Bionicle set and he got many more great gifts from his great relatives.
Thank you all he loved all of them.

I'll put video of him blowing out his candles later.

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

A bit early....but cute!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Preserving my Traditions and Memories

Go to Britta's Boutique to see what's new with me and what I have created lately.
I just put a post on there about Preserving my Traditions and Memories and I talk about Heritage Makers and how they've helped me to do just that very simply and in my spare time. (With 4 kids you can guess how much spare time I really have.) I started with Heritage Makers just to do scrapbooking online and not have to hassle with tradition scrapbooking. You know, taking EVERYTHING out then having to put it ALL away before the kids get to it and ruin the pages that I just created, or get into my markers and mark all over the walls. (Just to name a few examples). With H.M. I can spend anywhere from 1/2 hour to, well, as long as I have time for, to scrapbook online. All I do is go into my own, password protected, studio, work on my project, then when it's time to stop I click "save and quit" and it's saved and archived in H.M.'s database forever. Now you might be thinking "I wouldn't know where or how to begin?" Well, that's where I come in. I will be your consultant and help every step of the way. Also H.M. has wonderful recorded online classes, and outlines to help you created your books.
Heritage Makers is great because there's so much more you can do. Just go to my Heritage Makers site to see all you can do.

Almost forgotten

I almost forgot to post these photos, I was watching our screen saver and these came up. So now I'm posting them before I forget.

This one is Abby and her new outfit she got for her birthday I think I posted pictures of her opening the present, but not this one of her modeling. So cute!

Elsa lookin' cool even in her sleep.

Elsa got a new blog

Elsa has been begging me to help her make her own blog where she can add her own things. After much persuasion on her part I finally caved and helped her. If you would like to visit her sight you can click here and become a follower. That would totally make her day! I'm sure reading her blog will totally make your day!

It's a miracle...He finally posted something new

I just wanted to direct your attention to my bloglist and hope that you'll notice that Dallin has added something new to his blog. So go ahead and hop on over to his blog and take a look. Thank you and that's all I wanted to say.

Halloween eve

Well, Halloween started a little early for the Singer kids. On Halloween eve they had no school (Nevada Day). They were invited to their friends halloween party, so naturally they went. They had food, games, prizes, and who can forget, CANDY! The kids all had a "screamin'" good time. I didn't have my camera since the battery was dead and I left it home to charge. I hope to get pictures from my friend who took some. Then, we came home and I made cornbread for the ward "fall festival". The kids played video games, since they finished their chores earlier that day and there was only 2or3 hours before we had to go to our next party. Anyway, the ward party was fun and a lot of people came. (We actually had to put out more tables and chairs.) We ate first, all kinds of chili, chowders and soups. Delicious! and cornbread and other side items that go with those things. Yum! Then, they started the trunk r' treating, or should I say trick r' treating, since it was indoors. The kids had their fill of candy for one day, (or for one year). But they still went to bed o.k. so I guess they didn't have too much. When we got home I took each of their candy bags and emptied them into a big glass jar while they were getting ready for bed. They weren't happy about that, but oh well. I wasn't happy about it either when my mom did it when I was a kid. It doesn't mean it is not a good idea, though right?! Here are some pictures of the kids in their costumes....Dallin was such a good sport this year. He wanted to be a Quittich seeker

but I ran out of time and made this target costume for him. He also let Calvin and his friends
try to "get the target" with their play guns and swords at one of their parties. Calvin wanted to be snake eyes, but settled for a ninja.
I also ran out of time and already had the stuff for a ninja.
He is always easy to please.
He loved being a ninji.
(He bought the sword with his own money.)Elsa is all about pink. She wanted to be supergirl in pink.
She made a pretty cute one don't you think?
Even with striped leggings (which she picked out), good thing too
because the costume ended up a little too short.
My favorite part of it is the "S".All month all Abby talked about was how she was going to be
a gingerbread girl for Halloween. I'm probably biased, but she is
one very cute gingerbread girl!
(BTW - The pink/brown outfit is the original outfit.
She got it wet, so she had to change her
outfit to the green/flower one.) Which is cute too.This the girls decorating their treat bags.

Yes, Papa we found yet another use for your bags.