The 'Wize' Men

Brielle was in charge of lesson for our Family Home Evening today.  She wrote this play for us to act out, and then made copies for everyone.  After the work she put into it, she was very disappointed by how little time it took us to actually perform.  We even had a large stuffed tiger that was acting as our camel. The tiger then turned into the bed for 'Jesus' (played by Preston). No pictures, just the mental images for our memories. Loved it.

Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!

Photo Credits-Ashley Mae Photography

Finlay Family 2014

Happy Holidays!  As the year comes to a close we love this opportunity to reflect about how blessed we are to have such wonderful family and friends in our lives. 

Here is a short summary of our lives this year:

James-Is in his last year of his Ph.D./Residency program at City of Hope in Laboratory Animal Medicine. Very soon it will be time to job hunt.  He is the Elder’s Quorum President for our Church. He also continues to put thousands of miles on his road bike commuting to and from work each day, going for longer rides on the weekend when he gets a chance.

Megan-Volunteers at the elementary school and as secretary for the Relief Society, our church women's organization. She still enjoys running, and completed a half marathon last month.

Brielle-(7) Enjoys life as a 2nd grader.  She broke her arm roughhousing with her brother.  She is in piano and volleyball also has her nose stuck in a book at any opportunity and always has a good story to share.

Ethan-(5) Started kindergarten this year and loves it.  He has a lot of energy and a smile to brighten everyone's day. He loves life and creating accidental messes and mischief of all kinds.

Preston-(1) Learned to crawl, walk, run, climb and talk, so he has had a very productive year. J He loves to be the center of attention and is happiest when he gets plenty of sleep.

We did get a few chances to travel with a few local trips this year to Morro Bay, Newport Beach and San Diego (multiple times with season passes to SeaWorld) and out of state visits to Utah, Massachusetts and Texas.

In Utah we got together with Megan's family (all of her 10 siblings with spouses and kids) before her parents and youngest sister left to serve a mission for our church for 3 years in Quito, Ecuador.

During the summer we went to Cape Cod with all of the extended Finlay side.  We couldn't get enough beach time and searching for clams.  The time passed by much too quickly.

A work conference for James brought us to Texas and the chance to explore San Antonio in December.

We hope you have had a good year as well, and love to hear from you.  Good wishes in the year to come!

2014 Reflections Program

The PTA at our elementary school participates in the Reflection's program. A contest that encourages kids to be involved in the arts.  This year's theme was: The World Would Be a Better Place If.....

Brielle and Ethan both decided to enter in the photography and literature categories. A lot of kids enter in the visual arts category at our school, because they provide materials and time for everyone to do a project after school a couple of days.  There is very low participation in any of the other categories though.  Brielle and Ethan are both in the same division (K-2).  Brielle ended up winning 1st place in both of these categories.  She got two prizes, and then gave one to Ethan since he didn't win.  I loved Ethan's description of his picture.

Brielle's Short Story

How Plants Grew

Once upon a time there was a little girl named Abby.  She was the only girl that cared about plants.  So, Abby decided to ask her mom if she could go to the store and buy a couple of seeds.  Her Mom let her do that, so Abby went to the store and bought lots of seeds and she planted them all over the city.  The store owner said that these seeds are magical, so once you plant them, they will be done the next day.  So, the next day when everybody was awake, she woke up, and she was the last one to wake up too.  She woke up and looked outside.  It looked so beautiful. Everybody looked out and they said ‘it looks so much more beautiful with all of this.” Then every single person went to the store and got seeds. They planted them all over the city.

Brielle's Photo

These are melanoma cells.  Green shows the shape of the cells, the blue color is the nucleus of the cancer cells.  The pink dots are a kind of drug my dad is helping to make that will keep the cancer cells from spreading.  I helped grow the cells and I took the picture with a microscope that uses lasers.

Many people get cancer; they get really sick and some people die.  I don’t want people to have cancer.  If we can find a cure, no one would ever have cancer again and the world would be a better place.

 Ethan's Short Story

All About Friends

A long time ago there lived a turtle and a lot of more sheep.  They lived in a town called Sheep Town.  The sheep came to visit his friend turtle named Singy  The sheep was named Paul. Singy lived in a hotel and there was a pool.  He wanted to go in the pool to swim.  It was a pond, but they called it a pool because that was the only water back then. Paul came to the hotel and he wanted to watch movies, but Singy wanted to swim.  Singy was very nice, so he said they could watch movies with Paul.  They watched a bad movie so Paul started to say bad things to his friends, but he was still Singy’s friend.  The other sheep stopped being his friend.  One of the sheep still wanted to be his friend.  He went over to Paul’s house and asked him.  “Can you please not say bad things to us, because it makes a feel sad.”  Paul thought that he should stop saying bad things, and he did.  He still wanted to talk to his friends, because they were still his friends.  He thought to do something nice. He wanted to make a book full of nice things to say.  He made a book and then gave it to his three friends.  Then, his other friends started to be his friend again because he did something nice.  The world would be a better place if people would say nice things to other people.

Ethan's Photo

I found this frog in our backyard. Frogs live everywhere in the world, except they don't live in Santa Claus’ house and Antarctica.  Frogs can live in ponds and lakes.  I really like this frog because it was green and brown with polka dots on it.  If we have more frogs, it can be cooler to see their designs. The nature goes away when people kill things. Then kids like me don’t get to discover nature.  The world would be a better place if people were more kind to the nature around us.

18 Month Stats

I thought I had posted the other kids stats at 18 months, since it seems that  I did every major doctor's visit, but I don't see them.  So here we have all 3 kids at 18 months.

Preston

Height: 35" (100%)

Weight: 26lbs 11oz (81%)

HC: 19.29" (89%)

Ethan

Height: 33" (72%)

Weight: 29lbs (95%)

HC: 19.29" (89%)

Brielle

Height: 34.5" (98%)

Weight: 23lbs 11oz (60%)

HC: 18.5" (67%)

18 Months

One and a HALF...feels like a major milestone.  There is still a lot of changes that happen in these little people month to month.

At 18 months:

Talking and signing quite a bit.  Just starting to put 2 words together.

Favorite Food: Hummus and grapes (not together)

Still hasn't needed a hair cut (other than the 1 single piece that grew almost 2 inches long).

Favorite Book: Farm Animals

Most used word: Pleeeeeeeese!

Likes Trains, Trucks, Airplanes, Helicopters, Dogs, Climbing, Rocks...all the stereotypical 'boy' stuff

Nethercutt Christmas Organ Concert

December 5th, James and I had the chance to go to a Christmas concert at the Nethercutt with his Parents and Grandpa Bob.

The Nethercutt Collection is pretty fascinating.  Hundreds of old cars, interesting musical instruments and antiques.

Before the concert they turned on the different orchestrions.  I loved this one that played the violins and piano at the same time.  There was also a huge one that had self-playing drums, xylophone, accordion, organ, bells...(I couldn't see what else was behind the cupboards, but it sounded amazing).

We will need to go back some time to go on the full tour of the museum.  We had time to go through and see some of the classic cars.  The theatre organ concert was amazing.

Sea World November

Another trip to Sea World in November.  Grandma Finlay and I took the 3 cousins (their little brother had just been born) along with my 3 kids.

The girls are inseparable when they have the chance to be together.

We took the toddlers on the little kid rides.  Preston doesn't seem to have the affinity for roller coasters that Brielle and Ethan have always have.  His face turned white after the dizzying rides.

These kids have so much fun together.

These two were pretty proud of being tall enough to ride on their own.

Happy Thanksgiving

Our Thankful Tree this year. 

I love seeing what the kids come up with.  This is one of my favorites from Ethan this year.  "Silly Faces."  :)

We also enjoyed learning about the history of Thanksgiving. 

This book was fascinating about the the life of Sarah Josepha Hale.  She is an amazing determined woman.

Here are some good videos to watch about the History of Thanksgiving as well.

Fly-On-The-Wall Wednesday

It's been 6 months since my last fly-on-the-wall post.  We're back to school routine, but with 2 kids at school this year.  So, here is a glimpse of what happened at our house on a Wednesday...at least every hour on the 30 minute marks on November 12th.

5:30-Up to Exercise
Preston slept through the night, hooray!  He seems to do well 3-4 days in a row then have a couple bad nights. It's a taper week as far as running goes, with a half-marathon scheduled Saturday.  I ran yesterday, so today I am just going for a walk.

my plans for the day

6:30-Prepping Breakfast
Starting water to boil for oatmeal today.  The 2 big kids are up and starting their morning routines.  James getting ready for work.

morning routines complete-with bed's made.  I walked in to check and saw Ethan saying his prayer on top of the dresser next to the top bunk...wish I captured that in a picture.

7:30-Driving to School
Reviewing Articles of Faith on the way to school.  The kids had forgotten them when we were working on other scriptures, so we went back through them again.  Ethan is on #12, Brielle on #13.

8:30-Play Time
Nora is with Preston and I this morning (I picked her up when I dropped the kids off at school).  They are both very interested in climbing right now, so I am spending a lot of time spotting them on the ladders.

9:30-Story Time
Home from the park, got breakfast dishes done while the kids played. Now reading "boops" (Preston's word for book).

10:30-Snack Time
Home from Costco (I love that even though they say they open at 10, they actually open the doors at 9:45, so I can be out of there by just after 10 before it gets crowded!).  I am putting away groceries while the toddlers eat a snack.  Nora asked for yogurt after she saw me buy some at the store.  I should have listened to my brain when it said handing a yogurt to an unsupervised toddler is a bad idea.

11:30-Outside-Talking

Nora's getting picked up.  I tried to get Preston down (he usually goes down about 11) but, he knew Nora was still here and wanted to play.  Going to have to try again.

12:30-Dinner Prep
Preston finally decided to nap.  I'm getting dinner started. Tonight's menu: Pasta e Fagioli Soup and Oatmeal/Applesauce bread.

1:30-Cleaning
Nap time is my rush around and get my to do list done as quickly as possible.  Getting my desk drawer cleaned out right now.

2:30-Diaper Changing
Trying to get Mr. Wiggles to hold still long enough for a diaper change.  Margaret called and offered to bring kids home from school, as she had somewhere to go this direction, so I had almost an entire unplanned extra hour!  Got a head start on some of tomorrow's cleaning!

3:30-Monitoring Kids
Preston and I are making bread.  Ethan is working on homework, Brielle is doing her reading time.

Preston loves to help in the kitchen.  He pulls out all my kitchen tools while I try to cook and make sure he doesn't fall off the counter.

4:30-Bike Ride
Letting the kids get some exercise and enjoy some time outside.

Sun is setting already at 4:30.  

Brielle has outgrown her bike, but still loves to ride it anyway.

He wasn't as excited about the bike ride and being trapped. 

5:30-Cleaning out Fridge

Finishing dinner prep and cleaning out cheese drawer with Preston's 'help'.  Big kids finished all their jobs and are watching a show before dinner.

6:30-Dinner Complete
James got home just after 6 and was able to join us for dinner.  Clearing off the table now as the big kids go up to start getting ready for bed.

7:30-Kitchen Clean Up
James left to his Elder's Quorum Meeting.  Preston went down a little after 7 while James read to the big kids.  I gave the kids their kisses and questions, then headed down to face this pile in the sink.

8:30-Computer Time
Updating the PTA facebook page and responding to e-mail.

9:30-Show
James got home from his meeting.  We are relaxing, watching an episode of Modern Family.  My cold caught up with me again with the sore throat and congestion, ugh.

10:30-Bedtime
This cold has been weird.  I'm able to function fine during the day, but it knocks me out in the evenings.  So tired!  Going to sleep.

Canyon City Half Marathon

November 15th I ran my first Half-Marathon.  I had some pains and injuries trying to get back to running after having Preston, but finally felt ready to train for something.

As this was the first year for this marathon, it was a discounted price, AND it went right past out house.  It was so nice to have it be local.

I loved the kids posters they made for me.  It was so great to see my family there to cheer me on for the last couple miles.

So many things about this picture make me smile. :)

It was a gorgeous day.  We were bussed up to the starting line.  The bus ride felt really long as I looked out the window at the road I would be running back down.  It was cold up in the mountains as we waited to start, but once we started running the cool weather was perfect!  I had a cold a couple weeks before the race.  I was feeling okay that morning, but still not 100%.  I did not feel very well trained, but knew I'd be able to finish just fine.  My finishing time was 2:05:39, which was quicker than I was planning, but I know I can do better---bring on another race! I enjoyed having a local race, as there were quite a few people from our ward and stake involved (both as participants and volunteers), so I got to see a lot of people I knew.  My neighbor and I decided to walk home so we could stretch out.  Our was about 3 miles from the finish line along the race route, so we got to cheer people that were still running.

City of Hope Family Picnic

 James' work put on a very fun family activity at the Santa Anita Race Track last month.

James had to convince the kids to go try the trampolines, (the 8 options of blow-up toys/slides/obstacle courses were more intriguing)

but once there they loved it!

They also weren't too sure about the climbing wall, but said that was one of their favorite things. 

Preston was more impressed by the stroller in front of him in line while waiting for his turn, than by the actual pony ride.

We got to see the horses racing (you can see them in the background in this picture), it is always amazing how fast they move.

And we LOVED the family science projects.  There were all kinds of hand-on projects to try out.

Kinetic sand, dry ice bubbles, planting seeds,  rainbow crystals...lots of fun ways to learn.

Halloween

Our Halloween celebrations began a few weeks before Halloween at the pumpkin patch.

The kids searched the pumpkins looking for their perfect pumpkin.

Ethan was going for the biggest he could fine.  He lined up at least 10 of them before deciding.  Good work out.

a beautiful (warm) day.

Ethan was carved a skeleton face on his pumpkin, and was excited that he did it almost entirely on his own this year.

Our family dressed up as The Incredibles.  

We got to go trick-or-treating with all of our local cousins.

and the kids were once again spoiled by all of our good friends that we visited.

Plenty of treats to make everyone happy after only 6 houses.