Happy Holidays from the Frys

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Emma's School Weather Project

For school Emma had to take a cut-out paper doll (given to her by her teacher) and decorate/color it and then put it in a weather scene.  

She chose summer weather and her scene was the beach.  I love to help her with these little projects because she is so creative and gets so excited about doing them.  I helped her cut out her sand and then she cut out water (with wavy scissors), a pink towel, the clouds and a great big sun out of construction paper.  She wanted to make a beach chair so she cut the "cloth" part of it out of green construction paper and then glued it on and drew the rest of the chair.  It made me laugh that she drew a sand castle and then wrote what it was above it (just in case someone didn't know what it was).  And if you look closely- you can see all the details she put on her cut-out doll.  It has flip flops and little toes and butterflies on her swimsuit.
She is even holding a tiny bottle of sunscreen.  They had to include a thermometer with an estimated temperature for their scene.  It was pretty hot at her beach- 90 degrees!  

Our Little Play-Dough Chefs

Emma and Walker fixed pizza for us this weekend.  And they put all of our favorite veggies on them!  Too bad they weren't made out of real food because they looked yummy!  Olivia wanted to make us a macaroni pizza.  Not too sure how that would have tasted.  They love playing with play-dough and creating things for us.  

Walker's had green peppers, cheese and pepperonis.

Emma's had cheese, pepperoni, olives and green peppers.  And she made us a drink to go with it!  

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Our Little Cheerleader

On Saturday, Emma cheered at her first Upward game!  She had so much fun and looked so cute!  We are so impressed with the Upward Sports program!  She has practice one night a week for an hour and then a game on Saturday morning for an hour.  The program only lasts for 2 months- in our area it is January and February.  She cheers for basketball, but everything is very non-competitive.  The squad cheers for Upward at every game, no matter which teams are playing (As in Go Upward, rather than the team that is playing). And they switch from one ball game on one side of the court to another ballgame on another side of the court at half time.  At practices they learn the basics of cheering- arm motions, simple cheers and now they are starting to learn jumps.  And they also have a devotional at every practice.  We only had to pay $50 for the whole program and it included her uniform, pom-poms and a megaphone!  And two months of practices and games to cheer at.   Every time they show up at practice they get a new sticker for their megaphone.  And when they lead cheers or do other things that show enthusiasm or leadership, they can earn more stickers.  Such a neat program!

 Every 5 minutes when there is a break, the girls get to go out and perform a cheer.  They are so funny!

Here they are practicing before their game.

They also have a devotional in the gymnasium at half time!  We are so thankful that our kids are getting to do fun activities like this that have a focus on the most important thing- God and His Word!

Here is a link to the Upward Sports Program world-wide.  Upward Sports Link

Walker Caught Doing a Jig

The other night Walker was dancing around the living room.  He didn't realize I was recording him.  I captured him dancing and his little face when he realized it.  It was priceless!

Matching Dresses

The girls got matching dresses from my sewing friend, Bonnie, for Christmas.  She made Emma, Olivia and Emma's doll each a precious pillow case dress.  They got to wear them to church Sunday and they looked so cute!

Mouse Tent

We were shopping last weekend in Jackson and we were in Dick's Sporting Goods.  We were looking around at the tents and the kids were playing inside of some of the tents.  We moved over to the aisle where they had the tiny little display tents up on the shelf (they show what the life-size tents would look like that are in the boxes and they don't have room to set up).  Walker said "Awesome, is that a mouse tent?"  We got the biggest kick out of him.

And I guess a mouse might be happy to live in an awesome little tent like this!

Geometric Shape Fun

My kids tend to find strange, but creative ways to entertain themselves.  The other day they pulled out our geometric shapes boxes (my mother-in-law is a teacher and gives us great teaching tools) and started building things.  Emma made an awesome little girl and flower:

And Walker made a monster that he said was one that the Power Rangers fight.  (And if you have ever watched Power Rangers, you know that there are some pretty crazy creatures on there!)

I am always thankful that they have the ability and desire to find creative entertainment!

Comfy!

Walker cracked me up yesterday as he was having his snack and watching t.v. He was on his sister's princess couch, wrapped up in a blanket beside the fireplace and had his snack tray in front of him. After he got all settled he said "I like this!"  Emma decided to join in on the comfort as well!

Let It Snow!

We didn't have a white Christmas, but we did get to enjoy a white "day after" Christmas! When we heard that a blizzard was expected in our area, we were a little surprised, but very excited! "Let it snow" Was our motto for Christmas day. After living in Paraguay for almost 8 years, we missed out on a lot of snow. And we are still trying to make up for it!

We actually got about 4 inches and it stuck around for 2 days! And when I say stuck, I literally mean stuck. It was the best snow I have ever played in for building snowmen and having snowball fights. You could just reach down and scoop up a handful of snow and it was already a giant packed snowball before you could even get it completely lifted up! We had many play times outside for those two days! Lots of wet clothes and cold toes and fingers. We also had lots of post-snow warm baths and cuddling by the fire under blankets. As a mom, I got tired of wiping wet puddles out of the floor, hanging up wet clothes to dry and bundling kids up in 20 layers. But it was all worth it knowing how happy it made them.

We built two snowmen...

had tons of snowball fights...

made snow angels....

Daddy even pulled the kids around the yard and in the field next door on their sleds with his lawnmower....

We can't wait for the next snow!

Happy New Year- 2013 Goals

Happy New Year!  It has been a fairly quiet day in the Fry household.  Unless of course you count our children.  They are always rowdy and well, loud.  But other than that, not much has occurred.  I am starting this blog today because it is one of my New Year's resolutions.  I started another blog a few years ago , the Urge to Organize, and I have not been able to write in it like I really want to.  Part of that reason is that my life changed so drastically about a year and a half ago when we moved from Asuncion, Paraguay to the United States.  It was originally about my life in Paraguay.  And I was also not able to write in it like I wanted to because when we left Paraguay, for the good part of a year, I was so totally overwhelmed by every day life.  I just could not find the extra energy to sit down and write every day, or even very many days at all.  I am somewhat of a perfectionist.  So to me, not successfully writing every day crippled me.  I just stopped writing at all.  I attempted to get restarted in June of last year....and failed.  So, I finally have a new direction and a new resolution. I am starting this blog, which is just about my little family. Probably the only people who will ever want to read it are my closest friends, my closest family members, my children's grandmothers and hopefully one day- my children.  I have such a desire to blog so that someday my children can read all about their lives growing up.  And one day when their father and I can no longer be with them- they will forever have a piece of us with them- our thoughts, our lives and some fabulous memories.  My other blog, the Urge to Organize, will become my "extra stuff" blog.  I am slightly obsessed with organizing and do lots of things in my house and with my kids to keep us "better organized".  I hope to use that blog to share those things with others.  And who knows who might want to read it!  Maybe no one!  But at least I will have the pleasure of writing it.

My goals for 2013 are:

To spend time with God:  reading through the Bible in a year with the "Lookout Bible Reading Plan" and spending more time in prayer.

To spend time with my Family: being less task-oriented and more relationship oriented (this one is by far going to be my biggest challenge!)

To spend time blogging: writing entries in both of my blogs at least weekly.



I have a tendency to over plan and over-fill my to-do list.  I struggled to keep my list to only three goals.  However, I need to keep it simple so I can stick to it.  So, here is to a very happy 2013!