Abigail

Emily

Elizabeth

Basketball

Abigail gets to play basketball for about six weeks this year. She has fun and likes it because it is a pretty fast moving sport. It is pretty funny watching a bunch of 5 & 6 year olds try to make a basket shooting from the middle of the basketball court. Go Abigail!

Like how Abigail's eyes are closed while she tries to make a basket.

Visitor Etiquette

Darin and I got into a discussion about what appropriate visitor etiquette is, so I started wondering what other people think about this topic. I think this depends on how a person is brought up and their cultural influences. So I wanted to take a poll. Answer the poll to your right so I know what you think. Let me give you an example. Darin thinks that it is totally okay for visitors to drop buy unannounced and stay for as long as they want and he does the same thing to other people. He will just drop by people's houses to say hi without telling them he is coming. I think that a person should always call before they come over to see whether or not I am available to visit. What do you think?

A. It is okay for anyone to stop by my house unannounced to visit for any length of time.
B. Only family members are welcome to stop by my house unanounced all other people should call first.
C. I would really prefer if anyone that wanted to come by my house call me first and see if I am available. I have a busy schedule and not all times are the best times to chat.
D. People should visit my house by appointment only. I don't like surprise visitors.

For the Strength of Youth

My church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) just created an amazing website for the youth of our church. It has all kinds of stuff on it that is absolutely great for the youth of today to be able to use as a resource and put on the armour of God to fight the daily battle against Satan. Go to this link to visit the website https://beta.lds.org/youth?locale=eng

I am so glad that God did not send me to this world to wander around aimlessly wondering what I should be doing with my life. He has given us the Holy Scriptures as a guide on how to live our lives to be able to return to Him. He has also given us modern day prophets to guide us in the world today. One of the things that our modern day prophets have given us is the For the Strength of Youth booklet. When I was a youth I was very aware of this book, but I was more annoyed by it than anything. I was annoyed because it basically had all of the answers in it on how we should be living our lives and what we should do when we encounter specific situations and I knew that there were some changes that I needed to make in my life. I have recently gained a strong testimony of the importance of this booklet. If we follow the teachings in this booklet, then we will not fail. It is just like following a tried and true blue ribbon recipe. If you follow the recipe, then you will get pleasing results, if you don't follow the recipe, then the outcome will be unknown and sometimes a disaster. I think everyone should use this booklet as a guide for their lives along with the scriptures of course. This book is an amazing parenting tool too. Click here to go to the website of the contents of the book.

http://www.lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?locale=0&sourceId=3f46be335dc20110VgnVCM100000176f620a____&vgnextoid=59cf5f74db46c010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD

Happy 2nd Birthday Emily & Elizabeth

The twins had a birthday on January 9th. I can't believe that they are 2 already. I guess time flies when you are getting little sleep. We had an Elmo birthday party with grandma & grandpa, aunts and uncles and cousins. I have decided that I am not doing a birthday party where they invite friends over until they turn 5. We are so happy to have Emily & Elizabeth in our family.


Emily in her party dress admiring the balloon bouquet that Heather made.

Elizabeth has the balloons now. A few more and she just might float away.

Getting ready to blow out the "2" candle on their beautiful Elmo cake made by Aunt Kim.

Crazy fun with seven kids under the age of five.

Christmas Morning 2009

A Proud Pa Pa Carl What is my dad doing at our house on Christmas morning? Remember we live in Idaho and all of my family lives in Texas except for Heather. Well, on Christmas Eve after our Ralphs family party at about 10:00 p.m. my dad calls and said, "Misty did you get a package from us today?" and I said "No" and then he responded by saying, "Well, go look outside for it maybe UPS put it beside your house or at your back door" so I opened the door to see a huge package with a red bow on top sitting in my driveway. I was a bit perplexed because there was no way I could have missed something that size earlier in the day. I then saw that the package was moving, so I called Darin to the door thinking it was a prank. Darin said, "There is something alive in there!" because we could see that it was moving. I thought it might be an animal so I through my phone at it hoping it would run off. At that time we hear "Ouch! and my brother Harrison jumped out of the package and my parents jumped out from behind our big pine trees." They gave themselves to us as a gift this year. WHAT A SURPRISE!! I am so glad that my house was clean and that I had a place for them to sleep. No one wants visitors to come to their house unannounced if they are unprepared. They brought several grocery sacks full of food, so that I didn't have to worry about running to the store (45 minutes away) to feed them. Needless to say, everyone was excited and we stayed up until midnight on Christmas Eve wired from the excitement. I was happy Heather and Shane were at my house to be apart of the surprise too. We had 10 people at our house on Christmas Morning and had to open gifts in shifts because it was taking so long. We go one at a time opening presents, so we opened half of them then ate breakfast, then opened the other half after breakfast.

Elizabeth was not acting like her cheerful, spunky, little self on Christmas Morning. I knew something was wrong with her when she didn't even care about playing with the School Bus that sang "The Wheels on the Bus" her favorite song. She ran a fever all day on Christmas. The next day we took her to the doctor and they tested her for Strep. She had a bad case of Strep Throat and they gave her antibiotic injections right in the doctors office so that she would start feeling better.

I love this picture of Emily. Her face just says, "Christmas" to me. She is so excited about all of the toys around.

I couldn't get a good shot of Abigail on Christmas morning because she was moving at the speed of light from gift to gift. She got this doll house for Christmas that her barbies can actually stand up in. She also is a big fan of "As seen on TV" toys, so she got a Pillow Pet, Bendarooz, and a kids size Snuggie from Santa Claus. She must have been a really good girl in 2009.

Cousins on Christmas Eve

We had Darin's Family over on Christmas Eve for a little dinner and party. Abigail had fun with all of her little cousins. There were seven kids under the age of five the youngest being the only boy. We decided not to act out the nativity story this year and just read it out of the scriptures instead because of the ages of all of the little kids. We would have had a bunch of Marys and Angels and no Kings, Shepherds, or Joseph.


The kids ate at their own festive table.

All of the cousins in front of the Christmas Tree.

They all got to open their Christmas Pajamas before they left and put them on to listen to "The Night Before Christmas" before everyone went home.

Christmas with Heather & Shane

On Christmas day, Heather and Shane decided to make gingerbread houses out of graham crackers. The finished product fit their personalities perfectly.


This is Heather's Peace, Love, and Happiness 70's Shack - She spent about 45 minutes building it from start to finish.

This is Shane's Church, House, Castle
(I don't really know what it was, but he spent 4 hours measuring and cutting each piece, so that it would be very precise.)

Heather and Shane in their matching Christmas Pajamas on Christmas Eve. HOW CUTE!!
Their p.j's said "Naughty lil' Elf" Hmmmmm

What We've Been Up To Lately

Man this time of year gets crazy. As prepared as I try to be, I still seem to be running around like a crazy woman sometimes. I wanted to post this stuff before Christmas because I am sure I will have alot to post after Christmas.

Emily recently figured out how to crawl out of her crib, so she has been impossible to get to sleep latelly. I was greatful she fell asleep in this chair watching Elmo until Darin decided to move her to her bed and she woke up. Note to self, never touch a sleeping Emily.

We attempted to decorate our Christmas tree. I was looking throught the pictures and saw that Abigail got her hands on the camera and she took this picture of the tree. I think the tree has about 10 ornaments left on it now. Every time an ornament comes off the tree, I just pack it away for the year that my kids can look and not touch.

It has been a cold and dry winter, which means alot of static electricity. Elizabeth seems to be a carrier of static because her hair frequently looks like this. Yes, she is still wearing her Halloween P.J.'s. Halloween must be her favorite holiday because everytime she sees something that is orange and black she says "pumpkin!"

We went to our ward Christmas dinner. I was pretty proud of these coordinating outfits. The girls were so cute, but of course I didn't get a good picture of them because no one would sit still long enough.

Abigail did her very first Christmas concert at her school and Santa came to the school to see the kids after the concert was over.

Abigail's dance recital was on December 19th. She did a Jazz routine to Cheetalicious Christmas

and a ballet number to Angels We have Heard on High

Her cousin Ariana takes dance from the same studio. They had fun getting ready together.

Gingerbread House

Cousins Isabella and Madeline are here for the Christmas Holiday and we had them over to play and make a gingerbread house. Six girls under the age of five plus a gingerbread house, frosting, and candy equals a big mess. Oh look, Elizabeth is wearing Halloween p.j.'s still.

Putting Christ in Christmas

Yesterday, at church we had a really good lesson in Relief Society about keeping Christ in Christmas. After all, that is what Christmas is all about. I liked a quote that the teacher gave she said, "sometimes we get caught up in the thick of thin things." She was referring to all of the shopping, Christmas cards, wrapping presents, etc. We need to focus on the beautiful gift that we were all given on that holy night, our Beautiful Savior Jesus Christ.

She also gave us this acronym for the word CHRISTMAS. I loved it.

Christ
Holy One
Redeemer
Immanuel
Son of God
Teacher
Messiah
All Mighty
Savior

Santa & Snow

On Saturday, we went to the Rockland Park to see Santa. It snowed that morning, so it was COLD!! We bundled up in our snow suits and drank hot chocolate while we waited in line. Luckily, the line wasn't too bad because not too many people were brave enough to get out in the cold to give Santa their wish lists. Last year we waited in line for 30-45 minutes. This year was only a 10 minute wait.

Daddy and Emily enjoyed hot chocolate to keep them warm.

Abigail and cousin Ariana sat on Santa's lap together. Ariana rattled off her wish list as if she had practiced all morning and Abigail was so excited to see Santa she forgot to speak. For those of you that know Abigail, she is not normally at a loss for words.

Emily only stayed on Santa's lap long enough to take the picture and then she looked at his face and decided she wanted down.

Elizabeth was frozen in line.

Who Wants A Christmas Card?

I will be sending out Christmas cards some time next week (at least that is the goal). If you would like one, please make sure that I have your address. You can leave it in the comment section of this post if you don't mind giving the whole world your address, or you can email it to me at mistyralphs@dcdi.net. Merry Christmas to all!!!

Sing Sing Sing

Elizabeth LOVES to sing these days. This video doesn't even measure up to most of her performances, but I thought it was cute anyway. I love the fact that I can actually tell what song she is singing when she bursts into song. Please excuse my voice in the background. I was trying to get her to perform for the camera. Sorry, I am so loud. I sang as softly as I could.