The Kissing Hand

I got this great idea from my mom! She did it last year with the kids in kindergarten. I'm sure most of you have heard of the story "The Kissing Hand"--it's about a little raccoon who is scared to go to school so his mom gives him a kiss in his hand and tells him whenever he touches his cheek with his hand that he will always remember that she loves him. Anyways, I made these the other night and gave the book to Ella. I thought it was a cute way to start off the year, especially since this is her first time to be away for a full day. I can't believe it has come so soon and that she is so grown up!





- H

Odds 'n ends

Here are a couple more photos from our trip that I thought people might like to see. Heather did the last post... and it's a lucky thing too because I have not felt very motivated lately.


"The Barbecue"



"Sunshine"



"Chickenbone"



"A Hard Man"

I also wanted to share this site: Phone Spell.
It figures out the different words that the letters of your phone number spell, presumably to make it easier to remember. It doesn't really work for the Paynes or us because we have 'ones' and 'zeros' in our phone numbers and there are no corresponding letters for those keys. For Tanis and John's phone number, the top suggestion was "OK-dingy", which is cool because anyone who has seen the Sea Hawk in action will attest that they have an impressive dingy, and the 'Ok' part appropriately embodies John's 'can-do' attitude as a dingy captain. Unfortunately the top suggestion for Jewel and Kendall's number has no similarity or reference to them at all. And more unfortunately, their top suggestion is... well... hilarious.
Sorry guys.

Well that's about it. I've quelled that guilty, haven't-blogged, feeling. Now all I need to do is get my home teaching done.


- C

Long Weekend

We had such a great long weekend in Kalispell. It was so nice to spend the time with everyone as we don't live so close anymore. The kids had such fun running around with their cousins and playing. We did lots of shopping, went to the waterslides and had so much fun. It was great! We are so lucky to have such a great family. Thanks everyone for making such a great and memorable time together.