Stephen & Hallie Schaff Family

Merry Christmas Everybody!!

2011-12-12T10:48:00.001-07:00

We just wanted to wish everybody a Merry Christmas and happy holidays!

click on the link for our…2011 Schaff Christmas Newsletter

A Little Backtracking…Avery’s 7th Birthday Party (8.27.2011)

2011-09-24T20:13:00.001-06:00

Avery has been on this “Hawaiian” kick lately. All summer long it has been her thing. It may have something to do with the HUGE hibiscus flowers we have growing in the backyard. Pretty aren’t they?! Anyhow, she of course decided that she wanted to have a Hawaiian birthday party with her friends. Here are a few picture highlights…

Some of her favorite friends joined us: Kennedy, Ellie, Ella, Chloe W., Emily, Lauren, Adalynn, Misuzu and Avery Jane the birthday girl.

They had a great time playing volleyball, swimming and running through the sprinklers, water gun fights, hula hoop and limbo contests, cupcakes & tropical sherbet with slushies for a treat.

A Home

2011-09-11T13:09:00.001-06:00

So we went on vacation in July and came home to this on our front porch…

Mama Hummingbird had set up house and home on the extension cord for our Christmas lights. I guess we won’t be taking those down anytime soon! She was a very protective Mama. She was not afraid to get up close and personal if she thought we were too close to her nest. My brother Aaron came over one day and Mama Hummingbird tried to peck him in the ear!

A couple of weeks later there was this…

3 baby hummingbird in that tiny little nest! I don’t know if you can tell from the picture, but they are sitting head to tail in the nest…2 tails with a beak in between.

We watched them flap their wings and climb on each other for a couple days. We even endured their dropping on the front porch (not pretty!) Then one morning we went to see them and they were all gone! We have had a lot of fun seeing hummingbirds all over the neighborhood, pretending that they are “our” hummingbirds!

School Days

2011-09-11T12:07:00.001-06:00

Avery was so excited to start 2nd grade. Her teacher this year is Miss Isaacs. Avery struggled a bit last year with wanting to go to school. Somewhere along the way she lost her love for school. Everyday for the first week of school she got off the bus saying things like: “School was sooo fun!” & “best school day ever…even from first grade!” So things are good so far!

Chloe also got to start school this year. Yeah for preschool! She is going to Amber’s Academy (Amber Taylor, 1 block down the street) So far she is loving it! She has already talked about the letter A and the letter C and made a paper doll that looks like herself. She has a favorite stuffed animal –Mousey…she has stowed away in her pack back everyday and been use for show and tell as an ANIMAL (FOR “A” DAY) & CUTE CRITTER (FOR “C” DAY)

(this was green beans for breakfast with Mousey…)
(Hey! don’t judge, you feed ‘em what they’ll eat when they’ll eat it, right?!)

So you are probably wondering what I am doing with all my free time with Avery back in school all day and Chloe at pre-school for 4 hours a week…

A trip to Costco never went so smoothly! The dishes are getting done on a more regular basis. The “mountain-o-laundry” finally got folded (we haven’t seen some of those clothes since Jackson Hole!) Oh and let’s not forget the uninterrupted showers!

I love my kids, don’t get me wrong…but I am also enjoying some time to my self!

I’m a Slacker…I know!

2011-07-22T14:59:00.001-06:00

But what gives me comfort in that is that as I look through the blogs of friends and family on my side bar…most of you are too! (In the blogging world at least!)

Summer for us does not always equal more time. We seem to have been busy since the minute school got out. We have had one session of swimming lessons and are gearing up for a second, summer recreation soccer and literacy at the park, friends and backyard water parties, two vacations back to back with another couple of days at Bear Lake coming soon. Jeremy and Jordan are coming with the kids for a couple of weeks in August so there is definitely more fun to be had!With only a month until school starts again, the fun will most likely go until the bitter end!

We have been very lucky this spring and summer to have some great vacations to add to our memory books. In April (I know, it was so long ago!) over Avery’s Spring Break from school, we took a trip to San Diego. We had a great time! The girls were so good on the long drive down and they completely enjoyed every minute of Sea World and the Zoo. The Safari Park (formally known as the Wild Animal Park) was a slightly miserable experience and we will probably never do that again, but everything else was great. I will post a Smilebox Slideshow with some of our favorite moments from that trip.

But for now, here are the pictures from our latest trip to Bear Lake with the Jensen Family and the Tetons with the Schaff Family.

and let’s not forget the Bear Lake Wildlife…

(He’s single folks…hard to believe huh?!)

We spent July 11th-14th at “the cabin” at Bear Lake. With the long winter and record amounts of snow and rain fall the lake is finally back to the wall…just barely. We were happy to see that we could launch the wave runner right from the shore and not have to be out it the marsh land muck.

That meant a few things that we didn’t get to do this year: no packing lunches before you’ve had breakfast, no truck loading and unloading every morning and afternoon, no truck rides to the bathroom, no sandy bums & toes and the girls could change in and out and in and out and in and out of their swimming suits whenever they felt like it!

The morning of the 14th we loaded the car back up and headed to the Grand Tetons to meet the Schaff Family for 6 days. We enjoyed the beautiful mountains, wildflowers, wildlife and relaxation.

Downtown Jackson at the Elk Horn Arches in the Park

A view of the Tetons from the back deck of Jackson Lake Lodge.

Saddles at Jackson Lake Lodge, my cowboy and girls, wildflowers and smiles.

Bar T5: Wagon ride complete with Indian ambush, dutch oven dinner and a show, Avery & Preslee.

Wow this is getting long! But there is still more! Time to Enjoy Yellowstone. We stayed mostly around Old Faithful and a few hot springs just north of there.

Keplar Cascades

Old Faithful

The Beehive Geyser and 2 kids that don’t care!

Bacteria mat, Fountain Paint Pots and boiling mud!

Spasm (the geyser not the girl), boiling run off from the Excelsior pool and Turquoise Pool.

And last but not least…The Grand Prismatic Springs. I loved the colors that came off of this one. Even the steam seemed to glow blue, green and orange.

You may have noticed that Avery Jane is the star in most of these photos. Katers was tuckered out and fell asleep on Stephen’s shoulders at the Fountain Paint Pots. They relaxed in the car while Avery and I ran up the hill to catch these wonders of nature.

We just want to say thank you to the Grandparents in our lives that put together these vacations. Without them we would have been stuck at home doing laundry!

To Cast Or Not to Cast….That Was the Question!

2011-02-10T14:11:00.001-07:00

Just a little update…

We went to Sports Med this morning and met Dr. Betteridge. He took a look at Avery’s leg and x-rays. He told us that what she has is a buckle fracture on the tibia and possibly a second small fracture on the other bone (fibia, I think). He thinks from just looking at the x-rays that she probably landed her dismount from the playground toy with a jam and twist motion. He left it up to us and Avery whether to cast it or get a walking boot and crutches. Knowing Avery we felt like she wouldn’t be taking a boot off just for the fun of it, and it would allow her to itch any itches that come along. She is happy with the boot especially after Dr. Betteridge told her that she could “bedazzle” it if she wanted. (She was only sad about the boot because it wasn’t pink!)

So we are booted and on crutches for at least 2 weeks, then back for more x-rays after that.

Thanks for all the calls and e-mails to see if she is okay!

And let’s not forget the Katers, who may or may not have been looking for a little attention…

Poor Avery!

2011-02-08T17:01:00.001-07:00

Avery started her day with a lazy morning at home waiting to go to the dentist at 9:30 You see she had broken one of her molars over the weekend and was going to get it fixed today. The dentist was fast and she made it to school in time for recess at 10:30. She got some school work done and went to lunch. At lunch recess she climbed to the very tippy top of the ropes (whatever those are!) and was looking for her friend when the bell rang. She started her descent, and then suddenly she was on the ground and couldn’t walk. The playground duty wheeled her to the office on a chair with wheels, where she cried and cried. The secretary called and mom came. It was 12:15. This kid will do anything to get out of school!

Just kidding…she was seriously in a lot of pain. I had no idea what I was going to find when I got to the school. I thought first, maybe this is just Avery being her usually dramatic self, but after a quick prayer in the car and trying to make her walk in the office and her crumbling to the floor, I knew we had something more. Off to Insta-Care. 2 hours later…Yep, it’s broken!

Now we are home with leg elevated & splinted and awaiting the cast (or boot) on Thursday!

Sledding…New Year’s Day Fun!

2011-01-07T12:08:00.001-07:00

{Sorry for the overload of blog posting today. I am taking a lazy do nothing day on account of either a stomach bug or food poisoning and since I don’t currently have a good book to read, updating my blog from the comfort of my recliner was just as good for me!}

Just a few pictures from our sledding adventure with the Jensen’s, Taylor’s and Tandy’s. Avery was really nervous and we had to force her down the hill in the beginning, but as with most things we couldn’t drag her away when we were all too frozen to go on!

The Reason for the Season!

2011-01-07T11:36:00.001-07:00

I once had a Christmas sweatshirt that said,

Dear Santa, I want it all!

Okay…so I haven’t changed much! We got it all and more this Christmas season.

The holiday started with dinner and white elephant gifts at my Aunt Pauline and Uncle Bob’s house a couple of weeks before Christmas. The gifts were classic! The leg lamp, an old lamp from Grandma Jensen’s house (the gold one with a toga clad lady on it)…and our gift: pickled pigs feet and a Pepsi to wash them down with! Good times! We all got a family cookbook that my mom (and Pauline) put a lot of time putting together. We each contributed some recipes and Grandma Jensen’s are in there too. It may even be a cookbook I will use!

We then took our traditional trip to Temple Square to see the lights.

Christmas Eve we were at Uncle John and Aunt Laurie’s house with the Thorup and Evans families. We had the traditional ham, “funeral potatoes” and rainbow jell-o. After a sing-along at the piano accompanied by Laurie’s sister Janet, our Jensen side of the family headed to Brandon’s house for the Nativity. The girls had written it with Grammy and assigned out parts. They did a great job with only typing help from Grammy. Then they each played the Christmas songs that they have learned on the piano this season. I realized that night how my parents and grandparents must have felt all those years of making us put on a talent show…I was quite proud that my 6 year old knows the true Christmas story and can even recite the part of the angel by heart.

And that my $30 a month for piano lessons are paying off!

Christmas Morning…Avery had asked Santa for a dollhouse and Chloe had asked for a princess. Santa came through with the doll house of their dreams. They were speechless as they came out and saw it standing there in the living room. Avery can’t believe that it is taller than her. Avery’s Leapster Explorer from her mom and dad has already had the batteries replaced. Chloe is loving the soft jammies, new books and Rapunzel princess doll(from the movie Tangled). Stephen is enjoying his new x-box headphones, game and new shirts. Hallie loves her new Simon Dewey picture in the entry way and the laundry room cabinets are in the garage waiting for a finish and hanging.

We split the day between the Jensen’s and the Schaff’s. Brunch was at the Jensen’s with cinnamon rolls and crepes. Grammy and Papa got the girls pillow pets and puffy skirts that came in personally decorated cans that they can use in their rooms. Grammy spent so much time making sure the cans were perfect for each girl. They have both put them to use storing all their treasures. Avery sleeps with her penguin “Fluffy” the pillow pet every night and Chloe has only taken off the puffy skirt with much kicking and screaming!

We had the chance to spend time with family, both here and far away. We chatted with Paul and Stephanie in North Carolina on Christmas morning and got to see the new twin baby boys and Aubry on the web cam. We chatted with Jeremy and Jordan just last night after their delayed visit from Santa, due to Jer’s work schedule, and got to see the very lively Adalynn and her noisy horse and puppy! Stephen’s brothers David and family and Nate (the one that goes with Miranda) were here for the festivities from out of town.

We are truly blessed and even though Santa came through with the good stuff, we are more blessed because of the gift of our Savior and our families and friends.

We hope your Christmas Season was wonderful too!

CANDY HOUSES!

2011-01-07T11:23:00.001-07:00

An annual Schaff Family tradition that is still going strong. We have monkeyed with tradition a little bit and have gone to hot gluing the structure together and only using icing for the candy application. Much more fun and lots less frustrating!

A few pics of the fun…

Which one of you asked for the swimming pool?

2011-01-07T10:54:00.001-07:00

‘cuz it so does not belong in our basement!

lots of rain + not so good pump = flooded basement 3 days before Christmas

No worries though…as you can see in the picture the new pump is taking care of the situation. Stephen and Brandon got it going with an automatic float switch so it will turn itself on automatically when the hole is full of water. As of today the pump in still running for 2-3 minutes every 15-20 minutes and the basement is dry! Our neighbors are convinced that we are also keeping their basements dry with as much water is comes out of that thing!

Thanks to Mom and Dad Jensen and Aaron and Brandon for dropping everything and running to our rescue with wet/dry vac,fans, sump pump expertise and a some muscle for moving boxes and furniture!

Whisper what you’ll bring to me…

2011-01-03T21:41:00.001-07:00

Tell me if you can!

The annual trip to see Santa…Chloe had hit the naughty list that day and almost didn’t make it to see the “big guy”, but lucky for her, Daddy is more kind and compassionate (and hadn’t cleaned up quite as much pee off the floor that day) than Mommy!

It must have worked out well for her…Christmas pictures coming up next!

Once there was a snowman…

2011-01-03T21:31:00.001-07:00

tall, tall, tall

In the sun he melted, small, small, small.

Every snowfall this season has come on a day that was not a good day to play in the snow, mostly Sundays…It was killing Avery that she could not run out with her dad and build a snowman. We finally got a good snow day a couple of weeks before Christmas, when dad was home and they could build the traditional snowman. I came up with the “snowman kit” a couple of years ago when I realized I never had carrots the right size for a good snowman nose!

The lips may be a little over the top!

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-11T23:49:00.001-07:00

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Christmas Cards…the Digital Way!

2010-12-11T23:48:00.001-07:00

I was never very good at sending out the Annual Christmas Card complete with photo and update on each member of the family. But now that I have found blogging and Smilebox…

I am so on top of it this year!

Wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

(and in case you can’t read what is on the Smilebox, I have put it below as well)

What a great year we have had at the Schaff house. It came with its ups and downs as every year does. But at the end we are all happy and healthy and very grateful for this time of year. We hope that this finds each of you doing well this holiday season. Here is a little update on each of us...

Chloe (age 3) She is a little charmer. She loves princesses and can't decide if Cinderella is the favorite or Belle. She is working on being a big girl using the potty and doing things " my by-a self". She has a play group every week with all the little girls in the neighborhood and can't wait for Avery to get home from school every day.

Avery (age 6) She is in first grade this year and is learning that it is sometimes hard to grow up. Being in school a full day has been hard because there is not much time to play! "It's just too long being there!" she says. However, she is doing very well and loves to read. She is even starting to enjoy the math too. She is still enjoying her dance class and has started piano lessons and loves that even more than dance. She lost 4 teeth this year...the tooth fairy is tapped out!

Hallie is enjoying her time at home...when she gets to stay home! She is serving in the Relief Society as the 1st Counselor and is over the weekday activities. This keeps her busy, especially this time of year. She has decided that exercise is not too bad as long as the weather is nice and there is good conversation. She enjoys doing some volunteer tutoring with students from Avery's class once a week in reading. She's ready for her long winter's nap!

Stephen is still working for ARUP and still loves his job. He is currently a teacher in the Elder's Quorum and actually finds that he likes it. He loves spending time with his girls and has brought back the popular Schaff Family Animal game. He enjoys playing x-box on line with brother David and friends and the occasional monster hunt on the Wii with Paul.

Merry Christmas...we love you all!

My How Time Flies!

2010-12-05T00:50:00.001-07:00

I got a great new camera for my birthday (thank you honey!) and I have had lots of fun learning how to best use the darn thing. Therefore…there are a lot of pictures on that little memory card! So here are a few that might tell the story of September, October and November of 2010 at the Schaff House… Enjoy!

We’ve potty trained the princess and played at the park, we went with some friends to the zoo. We went to the pumpkin patch, wandered around and picked out the perfect ones too!

We played in the leaves and got all dressed up for a dance recital—how fun!. Then in Halloween costumes, so cute and so sweet, except Uncle Brandon’s “Jack Skellington”.

The Katers turned 3 and got all that she wanted, from princesses, bears and things. She had a big party with cousins and friends, they played games, opened gifts and Happy Birthday did sing.

These rhymes are so goofy, it’s after midnight. This one of Katers was a sweet, tender sight.

Thanksgiving turkeys, what more can I say…Thank goodness we planned on 2 turkeys that day! The black one was smoked, a little scary, I think. It tasted great, but boy did it stink!

I tried my hand at some fresh baked bread fun. The table was set to fit everyone.

Thanks for enduring this really long post, I should now go to bed, some sweet dreams to host.

There’s more to come before the year turns a new, maybe some Christmas and Santa Clause too.

I’m done, I promise…good-night everybody!

Hope you enjoyed September, October and November as much as we did!

2010-11-17T08:02:00.001-07:00

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Oh What Do You Do in the Summertime?

2010-07-28T22:57:00.001-06:00

Remember that good old song from Primary days?

“Oh what do you do in the summertime, when all the world is green?
Do you fish in the stream, or lazily dream on the banks as the clouds go by?
Is that what you do? So do I!”

NOT!

Summer is almost over and I haven’t lazily dreamed yet!

If it isn’t running off to Summer Rec. activities at the park, its off to swimming lessons. I had such good intentions as the summer began to read and do mommy school with the girls everyday so Chloe would learn the difference between yellow and blue and so that Avery could finally write her numbers all facing the right direction! But alas, blue is still yellow and all the numbers are still marching backwards! The laundry has been left undone for far too long and oh the eating out we have done! (I hate cooking in the summer, does anybody else have this problem!?)

Oh well! We did have some fun along the way…here are some pictures of the summer fun!

Chloe and her first “boy-friend”, Matthew and the produce from the Neighborhood Co-op that shows up in my drive way every other week.

Stephen’s ARUP Laboratories work party at the Hogle Zoo…gotta get your face painted!

Father’s Day with Daddy and Papa Jensen. Sorry Grandpa Schaff, I forgot my camera that night!

Summer Rec. soccer with Avery, she’s a great goalie isn’t she!? Hey! At least this year she didn’t cry every day…we’re making progress!

Sidewalk chalk art and a welcome home for Grammie Jensen after her surgery.

4th of July…concert in the park, fireworks and the Centerville Parade.

Did I mention the swimming lessons!? Avery has done really well in the water this year. She is brave as long as she has her goggles and can swim by herself. She has a beautiful back crawl!

COLORS! We heard that Colors would be playing at Festival Days in Farmington and had to go…the girls loved the music and dancing. Their songs have been requested as driving music ever since! The NeW GeNeRatiOn of Colors fans!

The 24th of July Parade, downtown SLC. As much as I hate it, it does pay off to have Stephen and his family sit, stand, sweat and ~~sleep~~ ~~snooze~~ stay awake all night guarding their territory downtown for great front row seats.

Well, that’s about it! Next month we are off to East Canyon with The Schaff Clan and then to Bear Lake with the Jensen’s. Maybe somewhere along the way I will get to lazily dream!

A New Career for Stephen

2010-06-14T16:04:00.001-06:00

Apparently this was an approved work activity. ARUP is always trying to promote healthy lifestyles through exercise and they twisted it this year to somehow involve Rock Band and a photo shoot.

Stephen’s e-mail to me said…

“We have a rock band competition going on here. But it is not really for rock band, it is a exercise completion (needless to say I have not done all that well, but my team is doing fairly good).

I forget how they spun it to rock band, but they did. And to make it even better, they had photo ops for all the teams using various “rock” style outfits.

And that is how ROCKER STEPPENWOLF was born!!!!!”

I’m a little scared! BUT HEY…whatever they want to pay him to do is fine with me!

Love ya babe, orange mohawk and all!

Bird Watching

2010-05-17T15:44:00.001-06:00

It seems that despite the weather of late, SPRING truly is here. We have had a mama and daddy bird diligently building and watching over their nest that they have built over the down spout on the back of our house. Here are a few pictures from our bird watching adventures.

(Keep in mind I am taking these pics through a very dirty kitchen window with as much zoom as my little COOLPIX camera can handle!)

BEFORE EGGS AFTER EGGS

The kids are loving that we have our “own” birds. Avery has named the baby birds Fuzzy, Tweety Bird, Chirpy and Twudily.

Congratulations Mama Bird…thanks for letting us watch your babies grow!

We’ll keep you updated as the little ones start to leave the nest…More to come!

A Little R and R

2010-04-29T21:01:00.001-06:00

This last weekend we took a little trip to St. George with the Schaff side of life. We had a great time with Grandma and Grandpa Schaff and the cousins. We hiked and explored Zion’s National Park on Friday (yeah…that was the cold day!) We were all in awe at the beautiful scenery. The number of red rock formation pictures prove that! Saturday we were lazy! The boys played tennis and golf, but other than that it was lunch and the swimming pool. Sunday everybody did their own thing…most of them heading home. We hung around St. George for a little while. We went over to the temple and the visitor’s center. The girl’s had fun. Chloe didn’t want to go home…“stay a’cation” she kept saying. She was probably just not wanting to get back in the car! The girls really did pretty good with the long car ride as long as we kept the movies constantly running and the crayons and clipboards close.

Hope you enjoyed our trip as much as we did!

Happy Easter Everybody!

2010-04-02T09:05:00.002-06:00

We just wanted to wish all our friends and family a Happy Easter weekend!

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In like a Lion out like Lamb?

2010-03-28T16:20:00.001-06:00

I hope so! This month has been a little crazy! I feel like it is over before it really had a chance to get started. Not that we have done anything special this month, just busy. We got our kitchen put back together after the flooring project (which I LOVE, by the way). It’s amazing how just having that one part of your house in disarray throws off your groove! The garage is also in a much cleaner and usable state.

Church is keeping me busy with a lesson that I taught at the beginning of the month, RS birthday celebration the 2nd week, visits with the stake, presidency meetings, and a get together for sisters with March and April birthdays! It’s a good thing the church is true!

Avery Jane lost another tooth! This time she was requesting a new box of crayons and she left the tooth fairy a note. She wanted to know where the tooth fairy lived. I was never smart enough as a kid to ask questions like that! I was just happy with the quarter under my pillow!

The girls and their Dad had their first Daddy Daughter Date of the year. We have thought for quite some time that we needed to do DDD’s so that Chloe would “love” her Daddy as much as she seems to “love” her Mom. We started them off with a bang! Stephen planned the afternoon starting with asking that I get them all dressed up in their princess outfits. Then he whisked them off for a Princess Afternoon at Disney on Ice. They suckered him into the $22 spinney light up TinkerBell toy, the popcorn and of course the cotton candy! Poor Chloe slept through part of the show, but I think overall they loved it!

Our ward hosted a fun Easter party this last weekend at the park. While it was still a little cold in the shade under the bowery, out in the sunshine was a good time for all of us.

Easter egg hunt, 3 legged races, gunny sack races, and candy sling shots…good times!

After the party we came home and Stephen started in on the next home improvement project…

The sliver party, wasp infested, great leaning deck met its demise!

Does anybody have ideas for a new one!?

We are currently accepting deck plans and volunteer laborers!

And last but not least…we are officially a one car family! The Saturn drove off for greener pastures at the south end of the valley. A nice man came by a couple of weeks ago and offered us $150 for it. Stephen told him he would think about it. The same guy came back Saturday and offered him $200 for it…Stephen cleaned it out and off it went!

We hope the guy made it to where he was trying to get!

(I tried to find a picture of The Saturn, this is all I could find!)

Stephen is having a hard time with the separation, but we hope that he can deal with his grief over time! It was the first car he ever bought. It drove us to the Olive Garden almost every weekend while we were dating, we drove it the night he proposed and even drove it from our reception (just in case the friends and brothers decided to really trash our car!)

I should cut him some slack!

Wow, that turned out to be quite the post! Hope you enjoyed a peek at our crazy life.

See ya next time!

Photos by Avery

2010-03-28T14:34:00.004-06:00

Avery got a camera for Christmas. This afternoon we took a minute to look at all 116 of them and she put together a little smilebox scrapbook...hope you all enjoy!

Create your own scrapbook design

Tooth Fairy Pillow Tutorial

2010-03-10T23:44:00.001-07:00

We have been awaiting the loss of Miss AJ’s first tooth for a couple of weeks now.

I first saw this pillow on The Idea Room. I can’t take credit for its crafty cuteness! Nor could I resist making one for our house to enjoy…

Items needed:

white fabric (about 20 inches, 45 inches wide)
black embroidery floss
white thread and sewing machine
tooth pattern (I drew my own)
pillow batting
velcro or button (if you want the flap to close securely)
red crayon

Here’s what I did…

Trace tooth pattern onto white fabric and cut out 2 “teeth”.
Cut out 1 pocket and 1 flap from remaining fabric.
Sew pocket and flap onto one of the “teeth”. Add velcro or button at this time.
On the other “tooth” embroider the face using the backstitch (for the mouth) and French knots (for the eyes) then lightly color some cheeks with the red crayon.
Put right sides of the 2 “teeth” together and sew together, leaving an opening about 1-2 inches wide so you can stuff the pillow. Turn inside out.
Stuff the pillow to the desired fluffiness. The kids loved doing this part. I used a long handled spoon to help get the stuffing down into the “roots” of the “teeth”.
Sew opening shut by hand.
Snuggle and wait for Tooth Fairy!

Also posted on You Know, For Kids…

The Tooth Fairy came to Our House!

2010-03-10T22:16:00.001-07:00

After many weeks of wiggling, the slippery little thing finally came out!

The Tooth Fairy came through with a gold dollar and a note with a promise to come back and get her other tooth that’s wiggly. Avery lost her first tooth on Sunday morning. You would have thought it was Christmas Eve the way she couldn’t wait to see what the tooth fairy would leave.

Check back later for a tutorial on the fun Tooth Pillow that I put together for the occasion.

NEW!! KITCHEN FLOOR

2010-03-07T15:53:00.001-07:00

Did I mention we got a new kitchen floor!

NEW KITCHEN FLOOR!!

GOOD BYE SAD, YUCKY, PEELING, CRACKING LINOLEUM! HELLO WOOD LAMINATE!

Yes, those are staples in our floor!

We decided to lay the wood right on top of the linoleum that was there. I handed Avery a Sharpie Marker and asked her if she wanted to draw on the floor. She looked at me with those big, brown, questioning eyes and said, “Really?” Then looked to DAD to see if it was really okay…

We left a little time capsule for the next owners when they decide they want tile, or cork or whatever the future latest and greatest flooring options are.

Stephen, Dennis and the big-headed, loud mouthed, self proclaimed foreman Brandon were the cheapest labor around! All it took was some cheap pizza, burgers and fries and a case of Pepsi Throwback.

They got the job done and it looks great!

Thanks guys!

Hello, Welcome to Spa de la Grammie!

2010-02-15T21:33:00.001-07:00

For a fun Valentine’s party, Grammie Jensen hosted “Grammie Glamour Day” for the 5 Utah based grand-daughters (We missed you Addy!) They were greeted by hostess Grammie and given a gift. Grammie had made each of them an adorable hat! They were then told about the spa treatments that awaited them…pedicures (complete with paraffin wax dipping!), manicures, beauty salon hair do’s and make up facials.

They each had a glamour shot photo moment and then off to lunch all “glammed” up!

Dear Grammie, Thanks for making us feel BEAUTIFUL today! Love, Avery and Chloe

A Sunday to Remember…

2010-02-01T22:41:00.001-07:00

Russell M. Nelson presided and spoke at our Special Stake Conference this past Sunday…

Of course this was the Sunday Chloe decides “horseys” are her toy of choice and that she has to “neigh” and “whiney”. It is also the Sunday Avery and Cousin can’t seem to remember what a whisper is. I’m hoping since we chose to sit at the back, that only the row directly in front of us was disturbed! Even in the chaos of kids at Stake Conference,

I was taught…

He began his talk by having all the children stand and sing I am a Child of God. They sang so quietly and reverently and as I watched Avery “perform” for Elder Nelson from the back row I could tell she knew she was a Child of God.

He then turned his talk to the parents and gave us a large list of things that we should be teaching our children. He emphasized that the home is the best place for our little ones to learn. He encouraged us to teach them that they are Children of God and for them to understand that concept they must know who God is. Her urged us to teach about Jesus Christ, the Atonement, Joseph Smith, the Book of Mormon and the Restoration of the Priesthood. He added topics such as tithing and the word of wisdom. He asked us to correct our children when they need correcting, but to do it as Jesus would…quietly, lovingly and privately.

(He must have seen me on the back row giving the evil eye and shushing the girls!)

He left a blessing with us that we would feast upon the words of Christ, that health concerns would have a blessing of healing if it be the Lord’s will, and he blessed us with patience and persistence.

These are just the highlights…there was so much more!

Avery

2010-01-27T11:25:00.001-07:00

Monday night we had a “they grow up so fast” moment.

Avery volunteered to teach the family night lesson, so we went to the Friend to find a story she could read. She insisted that just telling a story was not enough. She found a poem, and came up with a treasure hunt “activity” to find a picture of Jesus.

She started her lesson by sitting in the same spot I do, when I teach FHE, then she said, “I am going to start out with a poem.” She read the poem, only needing help on the word discouragement. She asked Dad if he knew what a gift of love was. When he answered correctly, she told Dad and Chloe about the scavenger hunt. To get a clue from her they had to give an example of a gift of love. When they had found the picture, she sat back down, held up the picture of Jesus and explained that they had to find a picture of Jesus, because when we do nice things for others then we know that Jesus loves us.

Stephen wondered if she had a script written on the back of the picture, but no she came up with that all on her own.

We love you Avery Jane…even if you are getting to be an old lady!

Plastic Bins Organize EVERYTHING!

2010-01-20T23:17:00.001-07:00

Puppets…Free, Washer Box…Free, Hours of Fun for a 5 year old…PRICELESS!

2010-01-20T23:11:00.001-07:00

Our 5 year old Miss AJ has recently found the joy of puppets and performing for the family. It started out with 2 puppets that Grandma and Grandpa Schaff gave to little Miss C. for her birthday (a pig and a chicken), and a kitchen chair as a stage. She would gather us to the living room and oink and cheap at us for many, many long minutes.

Saturday, I decided she needed some guidance and a place to perform. After a few calls to the local appliance stores, we found a washer box that was still in tact and free.

With a razor blade, some scrap fabric turned curtains and some paper flowers to add a girly touch, Miss AJ now had a new venue for her puppet shows. She just kept screaming, “This is totally awesome!” I was the best Mom ever all day long.

Now we are finding signs posted all over the house telling us that the show is “OPENE” (ya gotta love the kindergarten spelling!). She now performs The 3 Little Bears, Little Red Riding Hood and Five Little Ducks went out to Play with Barbie dolls, stuffed animals, and a card table in front for added scenery made from building blocks. With the cousins and her friends she spent several hours this weekend planning and practicing to perform for her adoring fans…Mom and Dad, & Grammie and Papa of course!

The girl loves the stage in any form she can get it!

Getting Organized…

2010-01-20T22:30:00.001-07:00

I love starting a new year with getting organized. There is nothing quite like opening a freshly organized drawer or cabinet and being able to find what you are looking for! This month we tackled the girls’ bedrooms and their dresser drawers. No more, “Mom! Where are my pants!” I even got little Miss C. (age 2) involved in the process.

First I printed some simple clip art pictures of the items contained in each drawer…colored and cut them out.

Next came the teaching moment. You have to teach them the organization system or you will be the one always organizing things! This way they know the drill and can be better helpers.

I hade little Miss C. open the drawers and tell me what she saw in them and then she had to match the picture to the items in the drawer.

Lastly, we taped the picture to the outside of the drawer. Now when we clean her room she can put her “jammies” in the “jammie drawer”! I love it!

2010-01-03T15:09:00.002-07:00

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

2009-12-11T11:32:00.002-07:00

Make a Smilebox newsletter

The Happiest Place On Earth!!

2009-11-29T23:22:00.001-07:00

Disney Cruise was a fabulously good time, as long as I forget about the rocking and swaying and oh yeah…the 2 year old! The Disney Magic was truly a magical place to have a vacation.

Day 1

We boarded the Disney Magic at Port Canaveral, Florida on Saturday, November 14th. As you enter the ship they announce each family individually and make it very magical. We then headed for lunch on Deck 9 at Topsiders. After seeing our stateroom (#2573..deck 2) and participating in the mandatory muster station drill

we headed back to Deck 9 for the Anchors Away party. Lots of fun music, characters and dancing…The girls really enjoyed themselves.

Later that night we had dinner scheduled at Animator’s Palate. The room is all black and white, but as the evening goes on the walls and pictures light up into full color…So somebody told me.

I don’t remember much about the first night because I was so sea sick that I spent most of the night on the couch in my parents stateroom where there was some fresh air from the verandah!

Day 2 (Sunday)

Castaway Cay (pronounced: key) Disney’s private island.

The cast and crew of Disney have done a great job of turning this little island in the Bahamas into a paradise for families, adults, teens and kids. The white sand beaches were lined with lounge chairs, hammocks and palm trees. Perfect for a relaxing Sunday!

Day 3 (Monday)

At Sea…playing at the pool, meeting characters and Oceaneer’s Club and Oceaneer’s Lab for Avery. This is the program for kids ages 3-7. They had every minute of every day planned with fun things for the kids to do. The first day or two Avery wasn’t too sure about being left there with people she didn’t know. But the beauty of the program is that each child/family is assigned a pager and the parents can be paged when the kid wants to leave! By day 3 we couldn’t pull Avery away! They read stories with Belle, they made cookies, they did crafts and even made flubber! (which makes it through security at the airport by the way!)

Day 4 (Tuesday) Happy Anniversary Honey!

Georgetown, Grand Cayman.

Boatswain Turtle Farm

Avery seems to be a budding marine biologist! She loved all the sea creatures we came across.

Day 5

Cozumel, Mexico

Dolphin Discovery!!

What an awesome excursion! Worth the money! If we get to do this again we will probably do the push, pull and swim experience where you actually hold onto their fin and let them push your feet with their nose! For this time the kisses and the handshakes were great!

Day 6

At sea once again…heading from Cozumel, back to Castaway Cay for a second time.

Pirate Night…

We had dinner at Palo that night. Palo is the “fancy, pay extra” restaurant on-board. The food was fantastic! It was Italian, so how could it really be bad. I had the most wonderful lasagna and Stephen had a lobster ravioli, but he wished he had had my lasagna! Chocolate soufflé for dessert!

We met up with Dave and Shirleen and Nate and Miranda…they had one of every appetizer and 2 of every dessert! How they had room for the main course I will never know. It was a great time.

Later that night on Deck 9 the Pirate’s took over the ship and Captain Mickey had to save it! Really it was just an excuse for a Pirates IN the Caribbean party with music, dancing and characters…oh! and more food! Turkey legs, desserts, fresh fruits, ice sculptures fruit carvings!

very creative Avery…a pirate hat, but no hook so she came up with her own…AAARGH!

Day 7

Back at Castaway Cay. This time with the sting rays and snorkeling…for some!

Day 8

Back at Port Canaveral, Disembark, 7 hours at the Orlando Airport, back to reality…

It was a most magical vacation. Let’s do it again sometime!

Shaken…Not Stirred.

2009-11-04T21:51:00.001-07:00

So, Silver Eagle did it again!

A nice quiet morning with Chloe and a few neighbor kids was suddenly rocked with a great big “KABOOM” from the east. What sounded like a low flying jet turned out to be an explosion from the Silver Eagle Refinery just east of our home.

The houses shook and rattled, I’ve never seen so many neighbors in their bathrobes in my life

(not really sure I want to again!)

We even had a few that were out walking take refuge in our living room to calm down their kids.

It’s times like these that really bring the community together…

See you all at the Safety Open House next week!

(Yeah the flyer came today…coincidence?)

Good times in Woods Cross!

A STAR is BORN!

2009-10-20T22:58:00.001-06:00

So, Avery Jane has entered the world of dance.

Weekly classes, sparkly costumes, dance shoes, so much gel in your hair it won’t move in the wind world of dance.

Monday night she had her first performance at Thanksgiving Point at the Scarecrow Festival. The wind was howling and blowing, she was freezing! But when the time came she ran on stage kicking her “booty” all the way, with her hands on her hips and a smile on her lips (as Miss Mo would say).

We tried to catch it all on video…

(keep in mind the wind was blowing…really hard, and Miss Mo loves to dance too!)

She got in the car and we asked her if she had fun dancing. She said, “I liked the dancing, but I just loved being on that big stage. THAT WAS SO AWESOME!”

We are so proud of our little performer!

A few more pics…did I mention we were proud?!

Hay! and pumpkins too…

2009-10-20T22:16:00.001-06:00

As part of the Autumn festivities we make an annual trip to Pack Farms in Farmington to pick out pumpkins. Even though we grew our own this year, we just couldn’t pass up the fun. This year we went with the Jensen Family, Grammy and Papa and Cousin Addy (here from Missouri). The main attraction for the little girls was the hay maze that they could run and chase in and never get lost.

This was Chloe’s first trip as a free roving toddler and seemed to get the hang of it quite quickly.

The older girls were old pros…

Addy…not so much a believer in the fun that could be had in the hay maze…

On to the pumpkin patch…

The perfect find. Rolled it all the way!

Good old fashioned Family Fun!

Autumn

2009-10-20T21:40:00.001-06:00

Autumn is one of my favorite seasons. We so rarely see much of Autumn here in Utah, but this year I feel like it came and stayed for a while. I love all the things that Autumn brings.

School days and the excitement of learning new things, school supplies, the smell of freshly sharpened pencils (You’ve Got Mail…Tom Hanks), the vibrant colors of the tree lined streets and mountain sides especially my Autumn Blaze Maple in the front yard (above), the air that takes on a fresh, crisp scent that can’t be captured, the harvest from our gardens, Halloween costumes and candy, pumpkin patches and carving them for the front porch. I love that it is “soup weather” again, time for homemade root beer, caramel and golden delicious apples. I love putting away the short sleeves and pulling out the old baggy worn out sweatshirts, jumping into bed where the pillow always has a cold side. Welcome Autumn! Stick around for a while.

The Homestead…a family tradition!

2009-09-06T18:40:00.001-06:00

Ever since I can remember my Grandpa Evans had taken us to the Homestead in Midway, Utah for the Memorial Day weekend. Since Grandpa is gone my parents have tried to continue the tradition. While it is not as extravagant with horseback riding, golf, crater swims,etc. as the days when Grandpa took us, we still look forward to the weekend with the family. We made the annual trip to Midway this weekend and enjoyed our time with the Jensens’, Evans’ and Thorups. When it was time to go Avery kept saying that she didn’t want to leave.

I asked her why and she replied, “Just because I love that place”.

My sentiments exactly!

Until next year…

The Prophet said to Plant a Garden…So that’s what we did!

2009-09-06T18:10:00.001-06:00

We have gone a little wild a crazy in the garden department this year. A couple of years ago we built 2 garden boxes and have planted peas, tomatoes and cucumbers. This year we looked at our weed filled flower beds and thought we would fill them with more productive plants. So off to J&L Garden Center we went. An hour later we came home with 9 tomato plants, 2 green pepper plants, 2 cantaloupe plants, 1 honey dew, 2 watermelons, and a pumpkin to add to the peas, beans and cucumbers we had already planted. We also have a pear tree that is bearing fruit for the first time this year. We are pretty proud of our harvest and our thumbs are looking greener every day!

tomatoes anyone!?

The Wheels on the Bus…

2009-09-02T23:48:00.001-06:00

So the big day finally came.

They met at the bus stop and jumped on hand in hand giggling all the way.

I can’t believe that we have a kindergartener, but seeing her so excited makes it all okay. So many friends have asked if I cried when she went, but really I think I was as excited as she was. Seeing her go off to school almost made me miss teaching, but not enough to go back to it.

I have enjoyed having some one-on-one time with Chloe in the mornings. She is learning so many things and really has a cute personality. She is totally into shoes.

Mine, hers, Avery’s, dad’s and even these…

and yes, she is out on the sidewalk…

Avery had gone to walk Ella home and Chloe was bound and determined to go too. She got herself down the garage steps without breaking an ankle and then clomped off down the driveway without a second glance at her mother who was calling her back home.

you’ve gotta love the girly girl!

Davis County Fair

2009-08-24T22:18:00.002-06:00

We took all the girls to the Davis County Fair this month. It happened to be a very hot day, but the girls had a great time riding the ponies and feeding all the animals at the petting zoo area. The goats were very excited to get the food. Most of the other animals just sat and stared at us while they swatted at flies with their tails.

Make a Smilebox scrap pages

Bear Lake…Let the fun begin!

2009-07-18T16:39:00.001-06:00

Every year we try to make a trip to Bear Lake with my family. We have tried several places over the years, but we always like to go back to “the cabin”. We don’t own the cabin, but we have stayed there so many times that it feels like ours. We love being at the lake. We said just this morning that if Stephen could work from home everyday…we might consider living there!

Though he probably wouldn’t actually get much work done!

Check out the link below for pictures of the summer fun…

Bear Lake "Smilebox" Creation

4th of July Celebrations

2009-07-18T15:36:00.001-06:00

We celebrated the 4th of July with the Jensen family in Centerville. We went to the concert in the park on the 3rd. What a fun night of music by the Beach Toys (they play Beach Boys, the Monkeys and the Beatles). They finished with a bang! Fireworks of course. Chloe was too little last year to remember them and was completely stunned by them.

To take a look at some of photos…click the link below!

July 4th “Smilebox” Creation

I would never have believed it!!

2009-06-06T16:37:00.001-06:00

So we are not animal people at our house as most of you know. My girl’s like dogs from a far, cats make my eyes itch and my skin crawl, Stephen and I both had bird’s in our homes growing up but they truly “belonged” to other family members. We have only attempted gold fish at our house. We go to the zoo annually, but we just look. I don’t like the smell and the mess that animals make. The reptile house at the zoo is the worst!

Today I got a shocker…just take a look at these pictures and you will see why!

Cousin Brex on the Schaff side of the family had a birthday party today. He had a guy come with all his creepy crawly creatures and told the parents and kids all about them, then he passed out the snakes for everybody to play with! Avery truly surprised us! She screamed and squealed through the whole presentation as any girly girl should, but when it came to petting the 100 pound yellow python, no problem! She couldn’t get enough, she even asked the guy if she could kiss the snake…named Manners, by the way.

Easter Fun!

2009-04-16T22:24:00.001-06:00

We had a lot of fun for Easter this year…It all started the week before Easter as it usually does with the Annual Schaff Family “Basket Discovery Day”!

Grandpa Schaff and Grandma Tamara spend the entire year looking around their house, spotting out the best hiding spots ever. He are a few that they used this year: (Keep in mind that “baskets” are really zippy bags filled with candy and gift cards) Our basket was in the magazine basket under the entire pile of magazines and newspapers, under a false bottom at the bottom of the basket! Mike and Jen had to dismantle the bottom portion of the dishwasher where the spinney part is to find theirs. Cindy and Garrett were deceived by what seemed to be a brand new unopened box of Kleenex under the bathroom sink. Bart and Jill found theirs in the plunger(I don’t think I would have touched that one!) Andrea and Lance’s was the tube inside the wrapping paper. Nate and Miranda found theirs in a plant filled with moss, under the moss!

They may be a little crazy, but we have a lot fun!

The little ones also had an Easter egg hunt outside before dinner. This was Chloe’s first one. After a little hands-on help and some coaxing from Daddy to pick up the eggs, she got the idea. Avery was an old pro and got as many as she could. Their baskets were hidden more simply than ours. Chloe’s by the side the big puffy chair and Avery’s behind an end table.

Thanks Grandma and Grandpa! We had a great time!

Saturday (the day before Easter) the Easter Bunny came to our house!

He left this…

and this…

and these…

And then it was off to Centerville and Dick’s Market for yet another Easter egg hunt!

It was a little colder than I thought it would be…their cute outfits weren’t quite warm enough!

The girls got to meet the Easter Bunny, Avery was a bit more excited than Chloe.

That is about as close as Chloe would get! But Avery snuggled right in for a hug!

The older girls (Avery, Lauren, Ella & Adalynn) entered the coloring contest that they held. We were so excited when Avery’s name was called, and then Lauren’s name was called, and then so was Ella’s! They all three won very cute stuffed animals!

It was then back the Grammie and Papa Jensen’s for the coloring of the Easter eggs.

Papa really got into too!

Grammie hid Easter presents downstairs. Each girl got a beautiful, white flowing nightgown and a picture of Jesus also wearing white. Thanks Grammie for helping us remember the true meaning of Easter and that if we try hard we can all be like Jesus!

January 2009...A month in Review.

2009-02-10T21:38:00.001-07:00

With the holidays over we have finally gotten back to our normal routine! Preschool started again, Jeremy and Jordan made it home to Ohio safely, and the church callings are still calling!

Early in the month we had a great time with Jeremy, Jordan and Adalynn before they headed home. We took all the girls to Kangaroo Zoo in North Salt Lake. This is a great place to wear the kids out! It is a big warehouse filled with huge bounce houses and slides. The girls played hard for almost 3 hours and even Chloe started to warm up to the unstable bouncy surfaces.

As Christmas came around I was singing "All I want for Christmas is for Chloe to walk, Chloe to walk, Chloe to walk..." Well I didn't get it for Christmas, but not too long after. She relied on her walker push toy for quite a while, but now she is off and running all on her own! She runs the house giggling about her new found independence.

Avery and I got to have a Mommy Avery date last month. We went to see The Wizard of Oz at Roger's Memorial Theatre in Centerville. We sat on the 2nd row and she loved every minute of the show. Okay, not every minute...the monkeys and the Wicked Witch of the West did make her snuggle a little closer to mom. She kept asking about all the things on stage..."Is that a real house? Is that chair real? Is that a real girl and dog?" I guess maybe there are too many movies at our house if she has to ask what is real and what isn't!

The end of the month we were able to attend cousin Sydney's baptism. What a wonderful spiritual experience for our family. Sydney looked beautiful in her new white dress and we are so proud of her decision to be baptized. She is such a good example to Avery Jane.

Okay...almost done. This month, Stephen was FINALLY released as the Elder's Quorum Secretary!!! He has served in that same calling for the last 4 years and 3 months. (That is how long we have lived in this ward!) He and the EQ President (Blake Bodily) had their callings longer than anybody in our ward! They even survived a ward split/reorganization. He enjoyed the calling but was ready for a change. He was just called as the 2nd Counselor in the Sunday School Presidency and is looking forward to the new calling and responsibilities.

That's it...More in February.

(P.S. We are NOT moving, though we are starting to wonder what everybody else knows that we don't! So if you are looking for a house in Woods Cross...Come on down there are plenty to choose from!)

Happy New Year!

2009-01-04T23:06:00.005-07:00

New Year's Eve has taken on a whole new form. In our younger day we would party with friends until 2 a.m. followed by breakfast at Denny's. This year we found ourselves playing the Candyland DVD with 3 girls under the age of 5, a chocolate fountain with rootbeer and midnight celebrations (9:00 p.m.) with bubble wrap on the floor and party poppers in the driveway. Good Times! Here are a few photos of the girls and their New Year's Eve activities...Lauren may have had a little too much root beer!

"Square Temple"

2009-01-04T22:49:00.005-07:00

So Christmas is over and Stephen's schedule at work has been a little crazy with the big project release. We didn't make it to see the Christmas lights at Temple Square before Christmas so we took some time afterward to check them out. We picked Stephen up from work and Avery was so excited to tell him that we were going to "Square Temple" to see the Christmas lights. It was a little cold, but we had a great time. Avery learned a little bit about Jesus and why he had marks in his hands and feet. She got to see the inside of the Tabernacle. She said, "I know this, that's where they stand up and sing!" She really wanted to stay and hear some singing but Stephen coaxed her back outside to see more lights.

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-22T00:11:00.000-07:00

Make a Smilebox postcard

Christmas Dresses Galore!

2008-12-21T23:22:00.004-07:00

Grammie Jensen has been busy! She learned how to smock and decided that all 6 grand-daughters needed smocked dresses for Christmas. So in August we went hunting for fabric and she got started. The girls got to wear them to church today (December 21st) and they looked so cute! I think they felt pretty in their new dresses. Chloe just kept swinging her hips side to side to feel the dress swish against her legs. The smocking turned out gorgeous! We love them Grammie...THANKS!

Some New Christmas Traditions

2008-12-21T23:06:00.005-07:00

As we start our little family down the path of traditions and things that we like to do around the holidays, I think we may have found a few new ones. We attended the Bountiful City Light Parade. Not the grand "sleep on the ground all night" kind of parade that the Schaff Family usually goes for, but a simple hometown good time. We sat the girls in the back of Papa Jensen's truck and ate pizza and drank hot chocolate while the 10-12 lighted floats passed by. The highlight was of course Santa on his sleigh at the end. Maybe next year there will be more floats to see. (We didn't get any good pictures 'cuz it was a little dark and the camera phones aren't great in the dark!)
Another new tradition was the Festival of Trees. All the money made at this huge event goes to benefit Primary Children's Hospital in Salt Lake City. We went this year because cousins Lauren and Ella got to dance there. We then took some time to wander through the fun trees, gingerbread houses and of course the kids area...what a hit. Avery got to stand inside a bubble as big as she was, got her nails painted in candy cane red and white. She made a reindeer craft out of a paper bag and bought a gift for her Secret Santa at preschool. She loved it! Spending a night surrounded by family, Christmas trees and the spirit of giving really put us in the Christmas spirit. We even found a tree perfect for Grandpa Schaff! Too bad it was already sold!

Winter Fun!

2008-12-21T22:54:00.006-07:00

Winter is finally here! Avery had started making her own snowflakes out of paper because we were worried it would not snow in time for Christmas. But we finally have some snow. And as per tradition...the snow man was built. We tried something new with the eyes this year and as you can see it didn't go so well. With black eyes and the holes that Avery Jane poked in his tummy we dubbed him "the gangster" snowman. Oh well... before the week was over a big wind blew his head right off. Now he stands headless in the front yard. Here are a few pictures of "gangster" and the family. We hope your snowman building efforts go better than ours!

Chloe's First Birthday

2008-11-28T23:14:00.003-07:00

I realized this week that I had not yet posted any pictures from Chloe's birthday! She had 2 great parties with family. She loved her chocolate cake at Grandma and Grandpa Schaff's house and her pink frosted cupcake at our house with the Jensen/Evans side of the family. Thanks for all the fun gifts from everyone. Here is a quick digital scrapbook of some of her moments. (She was pouting because we wouldn't let her touch the burning candle! Go figure!)

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

October with the Schaff's

2008-11-02T22:33:00.001-07:00

What a fun time of year.
We are loving the beautiful fall weather and the gorgeous leaves!

Avery started “reading practice” with mom and “piano practice” with Aunt Rebecca. She is loving her new found talents. Chloe turned one year old on the 29th. She is babbling more laughing more and trying to stand alone. She is still as bashful as ever.

We had fun Halloween parties with the Schaff family, at the ward, with Avery's preschool class and a new tradition (hopefully) of spaghetti dinner and donuts on Halloween night. Our family took on safari themed costumes this year. Avery was a tiger, Chloe was our little monkey and
Stephen and I were the hunters!

Good times had by all!

2008-11-02T21:38:00.002-07:00

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Thank You King Benjamin!

2008-10-05T10:27:00.003-06:00

As General Conference approached I started to dread the 8 hours ahead. I knew that Avery Jane would really struggle to stay quiet and keep herself busy enough that her dad and I could listen and get anything out of conference. Last year was a nightmare and I had to wait for the Ensign to see what conference was about. So I did some searching for activities (mostly coloring) that might help keep her busy. Then the October Friend came and we found the story titled, "Conference Reverence Tent". So that became our FHE the Monday night before conference. We also reviewed the story of King Benjamin and how when he spoke to his people "they pitched their tents round about the temple, every man having his tent with the door thereof towards the temple, that thereby they might remain in their tents and hear the words which king Benjamin should speak unto them." (Mosiah 2:6) We had FHE that night in our own "conference reverence tent" and Avery got so excited to have her own tent for conference. We are now into the Sunday Morning session of conference and she has been WONDERFUL! She colors, strings bead necklaces and listens for a few keywords like prayer, faith, Jesus, kindness. So...Thank you to King Benjamin and the example of his people.

2008-09-30T00:08:00.002-06:00

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

A Month in Review

2008-09-29T21:35:00.004-06:00

The end of September is here already! As I look back over the calendar, we had some fun events going on. Here are just a few...At the beginning of the month Avery Jane started preschool. She is going to Small Stars Preschool with Miss Michelle again this year. She goes from noon to 2:00 on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. During the summer she wasn't quite sure that she wanted to go to school again. Though now that she has been going for a month now, I have not heard one complaint. She was one of the first in her class to celebrate her birthday. Chloe and I took pink cupcakes (Avery helped frost and sprinkle) for the class to have for snack and Avery got to be the teacher's helper that day. She had a coloring test the other day and got very good scores! She is becoming very interested in how to spell words and loves to draw and write.
Avery also had her very first Primary Program. She got to sit on the front row of the stand, right next to her teacher. That was a good move on her teachers' part! They are so patient with her! She seemed to know the words to most of the songs. There were some we couldn't tell because she was turned around playing with the chairs! She had a speaking part with 2 other kids from her class. She said, "We search the scriptures and we ponder them." She did great!
Chloe has become quite the mover! She can crawl just about anywhere she wants and is starting to walk along the furniture. We have tried to get her to walk or stand alone and she just goes floppy! She still only has 2 little teeth on the bottom, yet she wants everything on my plate! She has tried macaroni and cheese, fruit and veggies, Sunday dinners, hot dogs, etc. She just gums everything until she can swallow it. It makes her so happy when we give her what we are eating. She doesn't say too many words yet, just "mama", "dada", "ooooh", and "oh", and the occasional "wow" and "uh-oh".
As for Stephen and I...our nights out usually involve and dry pack assignment, visiting/home teaching, Relief Society visiting/meetings, etc. We did make it to a movie (or was that in August? I can't remember). We saw Mamma Mia and loved it! The ABBA music was so fun that we had to buy the soundtrack. We have converted Avery to it as well. Whenever we get in the car now she wants to hear "the money song"!
In the middle of the month we had a girl's night out with Grammie Jensen and the cousins. We all went to dinner at Robintino's and then to Roger's theater for High School Musical. Avery did okay with the first part, but quickly lost interest and got sleepy. By the finale she was out cold in my lap!
Today (Sept. 29th) Avery, Chloe and I rode Frontrunner from Woods Cross to SLC to meet Stephen on his way home. Usually when Stephen has to go into work he rides the train home and we pick him up. Avery loves to stand by the railing and watch for the train and her daddy and today she got to "go inside". She loved sitting by the window and watching how fast the train went. Chloe even seemed to enjoy herself. What a fun day.

Mommie's girl!

2008-09-29T20:54:00.003-06:00

Chloe Kate loves her mom! If I am within her sight, or range of hearing she wants to be on my hip. She has a melt down if I walk past her without picking her up. She pushes away from Daddy to get to me. Well, one day she found a key chain that Avery had made at preschool. We took this photo because it so appropriately showed our little mommie's girl!

My 4th Birthday, by Avery Jane

2008-09-03T19:13:00.006-06:00

My birthday was a Ariel birthday. I played "pin the fin" on Ariel, my friends played it too. I played inside the water. I got presents. I like them and I even played games. We played like swimmin' in the water and sittin' in the water and go in the sprinkler a lot. We played goin' down the slide when we were swimmin'. I played sprinkler tried to catch me. We played who can make the bigger splash in the swimmin' pool. And they didn't do the huge...I did! I even liked the sprinkler ball. We watche Ariel Beginin's, it was even more fun.
Added by Hallie: Avery had about 6 little girls over to decorate crowns, play in the water toys, dig for sea shells and eat Ariel bubble gum ice cream cake (very homemade). They had a blast and she loved all the fun princess, Ariel and Dora gifts...Thanks friends!

The Davis County Fair

2008-09-03T17:16:00.003-06:00

Okay....so I decided that I have lived in Davis County for 34 years now and I cannot recall every going to the fair! I was not going to let my kids miss out on the fun, so we went. We even got Miranda and "the one that goes with Miranda" (Nate) to join us! Avery could not wait to get to the petting zoo and spent many long minutes petting the horns of the goats. She was excited to see the big fat pink and black pigs and was mildly interested in the mule and llama. Chloe even got close enough to the tiniest goat...so cute! We had a great time watching the girls with the animals. Avery got her face painted by Mom and waited very patiently for a flower balloon from a very tired clown. She even got brave enough to touch a snake and had to have one painted on her face after that! Good times had by all.

Summer Fun!

2008-09-03T16:19:00.006-06:00

This summer we have not traveled far from home. With the exception of our trips to Palisades and Bear Lake we have tried to do fun things around town. Early in August Hallie, Avery and Chloe went with friends from the neighborhood to Hogle Zoo. The Buchi family has a boy Avery's age (Riley) and a girl that is 2 years old (Shelby). We had a great time. Here are some of the pictures from that VERY hot day!

2008-07-16T14:25:00.001-06:00

Make a Smilebox photobook

2008-07-11T22:23:00.000-06:00

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Wagon's Ho!

2008-06-14T21:54:00.001-06:00

Here is the picture we promised from Avery's adventure at Primary Children's Hospital. You may notice an arrow over her left eye...her doctor marked it so he would fix the correct eye!

As for Avery's progress this week: She is doing great! We thought for a couple of days that her eye looked like it was filled with yellow Jell-O, but apparently that is normal. That has now cleared up and her eye is even less red today. She seems to be using both eyes together and the left one actually does look straighter! Hurray!

Lazy Eye No More...We Hope!

2008-06-07T14:19:00.001-06:00

Friday, June 6th, 2008 Avery Jane went to Primary Children's Hospital to have her lazy eye fixed. It was an out-patient surgery and we were only there about 4 hours. The surgery itself took just a little over an hour. She has a wonderful doctor, Scott A. Larsen. He is a pediatric ophthalmologist with the Moran Eye Center and Primary Children's Hospital. He has been great to work with.

Avery was a trooper. She was very brave and her usual bubbly self before the surgery. She chose to have her "air medicine" (anesthesia) smell like cotton candy, and even got the anesthesiologist, Dr. Anderton, to give her a ride in a wagon and walk/dance like a monkey all the way to the operating room. After the surgery however, she was not so happy. The stitches in her eye made her want to rub and scratch at her eye and she got pretty mad when we wouldn't let her. Tonight she is asleep on the couch and hopefully healing well. We will keep you posted on her progress.

As soon as I can get the picture off my phone, I will get it posted too.

Chloe Kate is Here!

2007-11-01T15:54:00.001-06:00

At 12:00 PM on October 29th, Chloe Kate Schaff was born! She is doing great and is now at home.

Here is a movie I put together staring Chloe Kate:

Here are a few more pictures:

Mommy and Chloe Kate

Daddy and Chloe Kate

Grandpa and Grandma Schaff and Chloe Kate

Grandpa Jensen and Chloe Kate

Family Halloween Party

2007-10-25T08:11:00.001-06:00

The pictures are in for the annual Family Halloween Party. The party was Great! There were a lot of great costumes there. Some others took more pictures than I did. If I can get them I will add them to here.

This year we went with a Peter Pan theme. I was Captain Hook, Hallie was Mr. Smee and Avery was Tinkerbell.

One of the big events of the Halloween party is the Piñata. Avery had fun going after it and even got in a few really good hits.

Carving Pumpkins

2007-10-24T21:46:00.001-06:00

We carved pumpkins tonight. Avery enjoyed it, though she is still a little young for the details of cutting out pumpkin faces.

While we were cleaning out he pumpkins Avery bravely tried grabbing some of the innards of the pumpkin. She decided that she did NOT like that. It was "wet" (said in a very distressed voice). We were proud of her for giving it a go though.

Avery picked the design for her pumpkin face and helped mom pull out some of the pieces and do some of the cutting.

Here is a picture of her with her finished pumpkin.

Hallie and I carved three other pumpkins. One for me and her and one for Chloe Kate. We now have a family of pumpkins. Here is a picture of them all lit up.

The Pumpkin Patch

2007-10-23T21:05:00.001-06:00

Avery went to Pack's Pumpkin Patch with her friends last week. She had a lot of fun and got to pick out a pumpkin for "Mommy, Daddy, Avery Jane and Chloe Kate".

Mom told Avery to "go get lost" so she did. She had a lot of fun in the hay maze.

Avery got to play with a bunch of old straw hats. This is a picture of her in front of some sunflowers.

Hallie was pulling Avery and and our pumpkins in this wagon. Hallie's friends were teasing her that it would send her in to labor. Avery just kept saying "Mommy, this is a Bumpy ride!"

This is Avery posing on a bail of hay.

State Fair 9/19/07

2007-10-07T11:56:00.001-06:00

Last week we went to the Utah State Fair. We had a lot of fun, but I think Avery enjoyed it the most. She was very excited to see cows, pigs, bunnies and "sheeps". She (and her dad) also enjoyed the cotton candy very much.

Here are a few pictures from our visit.

One of the highlights of the fair for Avery was the pony ride.

Avery was also very happy to be able to pet the calf that was at the fair.

Avery's 3rd Birthday 8/25/07

2007-10-07T11:54:00.001-06:00

Today was Avery's birthday party. She had 7 of her friends over for a Backyardagains party. (The Backyardagains is a children's cartoon that Avery really likes.) She had a great time with all the games and got a lot of presents that she is really looking forward to playing with.

Here are two pictures from the party. (You can click on them to get a bigger version)

We also got together with Hallie's family later than night to celebrate both Avery's and Hallie's birthdays. Here is a picture of Avery getting ready to blow out her candles.

Avery tried to blow out the candles SO HARD. But the cake was too tall!

After I lifted her up she was able to get them one at a time. (I think we need to work on here blowing skills.)

Homestead 8/19/07

2007-10-07T11:42:00.001-06:00

This weekend we went to the Homestead in Midway Utah. We all had a great time. We got to relax, swim and have fun. I only have one picture of this, but I thought I would post it for all to see. (I will be posting pictures with Hallie and I in them, I just happen to have not taken any recently.)

Trip to the Zoo 8/13/07

2007-10-07T11:39:00.001-06:00

To get the web page party started I am going to post two pictures from a recent visit to the Zoo. The company I work for (ARUP) had their company summer party at Utah's Hoggle Zoo. Hallie and I took Avery Jane and her two cousins (Hallie's brothers children). They had a great time.

One of the best parts was the there was free face painting. Below are the pictures we took of them just after they got their faces painted.

This one is of Avery, Lauren and Ella Together