Our new van!

Earlier this month, I shared my resolutions for 2011.  One of those was to purchase a new van, and we completed that over this weekend!  Our old van was a 1997 Dodge Grand Caravan that we purchased in 2006.  It’s treated us really well these past 4.5 years, but it recently started having some major issues that would cost several thousand dollars more than the van is even worth to fix.  We decided that wasn’t a smart investment and decided to buy a new (to us) van.  Trust me, there were plenty of other places I would rather have spent this money (like landscaping our front yard!).  But it really wasn’t a question of IF the van would die, only a matter of WHEN. 

We went looking at vans here in town first.  We heard from some friends that vehicles are cheaper in Phoenix, so we decided to look around here and figure out what we even wanted first before heading out to Phoenix.  We found a van we loved at the Chrysler dealership here.  The guy was super nice and even said he’d drop the price way down for us.  We agreed on a price, and when Derk and I went in to sign the paperwork and pay for the van, the guy changed his price and tried selling it to us for $2,000 MORE than what we’d agreed on only an hour previously.  It was seriously frustrating.  Needless to say, we left that dealership without a van.

Derk has business trips lined up this month, plus he’s super swamped at work, so we decided we’d have to cram the car buying trip into this weekend.  I was worried that the old van would die while he was out of town, and that would just be super uncool.  We wanted to leave Friday evening, but Derk ended up having to do a private evaluation for another district on Saturday morning.  So we left Saturday afternoon and arrived in Phoenix around dinner time on Saturday.  Before we pulled out of our driveway, Derk patted our van and said, “Please, just last one more day for us!”  The kids thought that was funny, and Kyrie announced that she just KNEW Heavenly Father would make sure the van made it to Phoenix.   

Saturday night we just hung out in the hotel room, and Derk took the kiddos to the pool (I wasn’t feel very well).  Not many of us slept well that night.  We had 2 full beds in the hotel room, and it wasn’t quite enough space.   I was on one bed with the girls, and Derk was on the other with Asher.  For some reason, I woke up at midnight and saw Kyrie was still awake and playing her Nintendo DS!  She said she just couldn’t sleep.  I finally got her to turn it off, and then she was up again at 4am.  I got up shortly after that and decided to take a bath and read a magazine for a bit because I was just too uncomfortable to sleep.  Luckily Kyrie laid pretty quietly during that time and ended up dozing off for a bit. 

We all finally got up for the day at 6:30.  We wanted to make sure we got breakfast and then had a game plan for which dealerships we wanted to hit.  We ended up finding a few vans at dealerships I hadn’t seen online, so we were glad to have a few other options to consider.  It was seriously tough car shopping with the kids.  They did well considering how awfully bored they were, but we still had a hard time with them.  Luckily for us AND them, we had it narrowed down to 2 vans by 1:30 in the afternoon.  Both vans were the exact same (the prices were even within $20 of each other), so it was a hard decision.  The deciding factors for us were:  #1 - the color, and #2 – one had 4K less miles, and #3 - a year of roadside assistance was included with one of them, and most importantly #4 - this particular dealership lowered their price another $250 to convince us to buy from them.  We had the paperwork signed and were driving off the lot by 2:30pm.  All in all, after food/hotel/gas, we saved $800 buying in Phoenix!

I knew my mom especially would want to see pictures!  So this post is for you, Mom!  I even took a fun video for you.   

We ended up getting a 2005 Chrysler Town and Country Touring.  It has so many super cool features!  I feel insanely spoiled now, which is fine by me!    It has leather seats, which we weren’t too sure about at first, but I really like them.  It has stow-and-go, bucket seats (2 separate seats in the middle row instead of a bench seat), rear air conditioning, a compass/thermometer display (so it tells us the temperature and which direction we’re driving), a 6-CD disc changer, adjustable pedals, built-in garage door opener, keyless entry, the doors all have sensors (so if someone is standing in the way of the door, it won’t close on them), it “dips” down in the trunk area to give more room for storage, and it’s way more spacious than our old van. 

Here are some pictures!

And here’s my goofy video:

Untitled from Hillary Stephens on Vimeo.

 

We love it! 

Static!

We went to a fun birthday party yesterday for Asher’s friend Porter, and I snapped this picture of Bri on the way home.  Kyrie was having a bit too much fun with her balloon, and Bri wasn’t very impressed. 

Windows Live Writer

One of my friends recently tipped me on to this fantastic little gem called Windows Live Writer (download here!).  I don’t know how I survived without it all these years!  It’s completely free to download and seriously makes blogging much, much faster and easier!  You can even use it for multiple blogs!  At the top, you can decide which blog to publish to, so you can do it all from the same window.  Fantastic!  Seriously, download it.  You’ll love it!

A picture for Grandma Stephens

Derk’s grandparents winter here, and it’s so nice to see them throughout the year!  His grandma has been asking me forEVER to get her a picture of my kiddos to hang on her wall.  The only one she has is several years old.  I’ve tried getting a picture taken a few times, but someone always ends up bashing their face on something, shaving off their eyebrow, getting sick, etc.  So a couple of days ago, Grandma called and told Derk we needed to run by their place after church today to snap a picture.  One child is still a one-browed-wonder, but I think the picture we got is still pretty cute!   

Kyrie’s 9th birthday party

Since Kyrie’s birthday fell during Christmas break this year, we chose to have her friend party a few days after her birthday.  She wanted to invite all the girls in her class at school, so we said, “Go for it!”  We knew (hoped!) that not all of them would come because that would just have been crazy!    It ended up that only a few girls came, but it turned out to be the perfect number.  We had a fun time!  Kyrie requested an ice cream cake, so I made my very first one.  Nothing fancy, as you can see from the pictures.  lol.  The girls decorated their own goody bags, then we made necklaces and bracelets, and then they had a blast singing karaoke for the rest of the time.  Kyrie got some really fun presents, too.  One friend gave her some money, which she thought was awesome (she’s really into having cash and using her wallet lately).  Another gave her these really fun, sparkly pink shoes with peace signs all over them.  And then there were a couple of sisters who came that gave her a few really fun presents, like a make-your-own sun catcher set, some lip gloss, and a few other small things.  She loved everything and was really cute telling them all thank you and giving hugs.   

 

These girls really didn’t want their pictures taken, so here are the few pictures I did manage to get while they weren’t looking. 

OFF! Not just for mosquitos!

This is a little tip I want to pass along! Cambria got this beautiful dress from my mom for Christmas and promptly ruined it with bright purple nail polish. Yes, I keep it up high, but this monkey literally climbed up 3 shelves to get to it. Yes, I have since moved it to another (top secret!) location.

Anyway, as I nearly cried, I decided to look online to see if there was a remedy for removing nail polish from clothing. This did take a bit of elbow grease, but it worked like a charm!

Many thanks to the makers of OFF! mosquito repellent for saving Bri's dress!

Here are a couple of the befores. I actually didn't think to take pictures until I was mostly done getting the stain out, so this isn't even close to the worst of the stains.

And here are the shots after I'd done only the first application. You can see from the picture on the right that there was still a bit of nail polish left, but after another scrubbing session, it was totally gone. Yay!

What you do is saturate the stain in OFF! and let it sit for a few minutes. Then I took a clean wash cloth (an old one I didn't mind ruining) and scrubbed and scrubbed (and scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed.....). Do this on both sides of the fabric. I found that rubbing from the under side worked the best at getting the stain out (it seemed like rubbing it from the front was only pushing the stain in deeper most of the time). Then I'd run it through the washer. While it was still wet (do NOT run it through the dryer because that will set the stain), I did another application. It took 2-3 times of this before I got it all out, but it's totally worth it! Now just pray you never have to use this little tip. ;-)

Stylin'

First up, we have pictures of some fun I had with Kyrie and Asher's hair! Kyrie got a new hair waver for Christmas, and this was the first time we tried it out. She LOVED it! I was worried it would take forever to do, but it really wasn't too bad. Can you believe how long her hair is getting?! And she's recently started begging me to let her cut it! Usually I'm all for giving them control over certain things like their hair, but this time I'm really begging her not to do it! As for Asher, he wanted a mohawk. His hair isn't really the right length for one, but I think he still looks pretty cute (and he seems to agree!). :-)

In other hair news, Cambria seems to be intent on destroying her head in every way imaginable. She's cut her hair several times, but this was by far the worst episode we've had thus far (*KNOCK. ON. WOOD!!!* Did you hear that, Bri? This was NOT an invitation! ;-) ). THIS time, she got into my make-up while I was out running errands, found my eyebrow razor, and tried to be "pretty like Mommy." I fully admit to shedding a few tears over this one... (This picture is actually a couple of weeks old, so it does look a bit better now than it did...but it's still not even close to grown back in yet...)

Switching gears to fashion now, Cambria has decided that shirts aren't only for your upper body! She came out of her room sporting this awesome 3-shirt look the other morning, and of course I had to snap a picture!

Kyrie's 9th birthday

Kyrie is 9. 9!!! How did that happen?! I never gave permission for that to happen! It's just not right.

Well, she had a good day at least, even if her mother wasn't happy about her turning another year older! ;-) She woke up ready to open gifts first thing this morning and begged Derk to stay home a few extra minutes so she could open them before he left for work. Luckily for me he agreed, otherwise it would have been a very long day full of, "Is Daddy almost home yet?!" ;-) We didn't have our gifts to her wrapped yet, so we let her open the gifts from Grandma/Grandpa and Jessica. (Asher is not pictured because he refused to put pants on! ;-) )

Untitled from Hillary Stephens on Vimeo.

Untitled from Hillary Stephens on Vimeo.

Then, after Daddy came home from work (and we'd gotten some crazy hair under control ;-) ), Kyrie got to open the rest of her gifts.

Untitled from Hillary Stephens on Vimeo.

After that, we dropped Asher and Bri off with some friends and took Kyrie out to have some fun! We hit Olive Garden for dinner, then we went bowling. Kyrie thoroughly enjoyed the fact that she beat me (by a long shot) at bowling and joked that I should use the bumpers, too. I think she's right! ;-) Bowling is not my strong point, that's for sure!

It was super fun hanging out with Kyrie, and we realized that she's really past that "childish" age now. We don't have to worry about her wandering off, throwing fits, etc. We just were able to enjoy each other and have a good time!

Happy birthday, Kyrie!
We sure love you and are so amazed at the wonderful young woman you are becoming!

Yuma Territorial Prison

We've been wanting to take a tour of the prison for a long time and decided Christmas break was the perfect chance to do it!

The prison opened on July 1, 1876 and was in operation for 33 years. The first 7 inmates of the prison actually built the cells they lived in themselves. There were a total of 3,069 prisoners, and the ages of the prisoners ranged from 14 to 88. Here are some stats about the prisoners that I found extremely interesting!!

The crime stats:

The punishment stats:

Here are some shots of the outside. Some of the prison has been reconstructed, but it's all done with the same design as the original prison. The kids really loved going up inside the guard tower (where the guards would stand with their guns to make sure no prisoners escaped). The architecture all around the prison was really amazing.

It was actually my girlies who loved the heavy iron gate leading into the prison! I thought for sure Asher would get a kick out of it, but he didn't show much interest at all and wouldn't even pose for a picture in front of it. The girls insisted on trying to move it over and over and wanted to get their pictures taken next to it. :-) (Don't ask me why Cambria is in the stroller. We've tried numerous times to get rid of the thing, but she insists she still needs it. Silly girl!)

They had some really cool exhibits inside. A lot of the items were replicas, but they had some that were originals, which the kids thought was super cool! We all really enjoyed looking at the model they had of the original prison. The building where the exhibits were located used to be the mess hall, and right above that was the infirmary (which is no longer there).

This ball and chain is an original. Asher thought that was way cool and stood there looking at it for a while. During their down time, the prisoners did a lot of crafting and made all sorts of things to be sold at bizaars. The items in these display cases were all originals as well. That sure makes it a lot more interesting actually looking at the real items from that long ago!

They had a display case full of photos of real prisoners. Below each was a description of what they were incarcerated for. These women were convicted of adultery and stealing. The last picture (on the bottom right hand side) had Kyrie laughing. The caption talks about how this woman asked for some yards of striped prison material and made herself her own uniform "in the fashion of the day." Kyrie just couldn't imagine a dress like that being fashionable! ;-)

This next display is of a woman named Madora Ingalls, who was the founder of the prison library. They had a picture of the actual library, and then there was also an actual songbook that had been recovered from the library. I thought that was super interesting. It looked like it would fall apart if someone even breathed on it!

After checking out all the displays, we headed out to look at the prison cells. This part was way cool, and we literally had to pry the kids away when it was time to leave. We were even able to walk through several of the cells. Summers here get to be 125 degrees, so can you imagine living in a cell like this during that kind of heat?! Notice the hook drilled into the floor where they'd hook up the ball and chain.

Here are some pictures of us checking out the cells. Derk wants me to mention that his hair doesn't usually look so goofy, which is true. He's got a nice, longer cut that looks really nice when he styles it. He just didn't style it this particular day (and regrets it now). ;-)

The only punishment implemented at the prison was what they called the "dark cell" (solitary confinement). This was a dark cell with a hole in the floor. The inmate was put into the hole, then an iron grate was placed over it to keep them inside. Apparently this punishment was extremely effective! ;-)

Untitled from Hillary Stephens on Vimeo.

Last, but certainly not least, here are some pictures of the library. The photo on the wall is an enlarged photo of the one I posted earlier. I really loved the ceiling in this room, especially how neat it looked next to the wooden (reconstructed) door.

We all had a really fun time, and Derk and I were really impressed with how interested the kiddos were. We were worried they'd think it was kinda lame, but they all enjoyed themselves. I'm so glad things like this are preserved because there's nothing like learning by seeing things first hand! It's sure a lot more interesting than simply reading about it from a book. :-)

Resolutions 2011

Happy new year!

Like many other bloggers, I decided I was going to put up most of my resolutions for this year. Those who know me well know that I make lists for everything. I've even been known to make lists of things I need to make lists for! ;-) It really helps motivate me to see everything written down. Plus, I just love how free and clear my head feels after I know it's all written down and doesn't need to stay floating around my brain!

Here are the things I will be working on during 2011!

Spiritual Goals
~Read the Book of Mormon in 97 days
~Be better about saying my personal prayers every day
~Read at least 3 gospel-related books

Physical Goals
~Exercise at least 4 days a week
~Lose 10 pounds
~Drink at least 3 of my thermoses of water per day

Family-Related Goals
~Play with my kiddos every day
~Work on having less yelling in our home
~Do preschool with Cambria at least 3 days a week
~Read the Book of Mormon as a family

Personal Goals
~Keep my bedroom spotless at all times
~Complete one item off my project list every month
~Start scrapbooking regularly again
~Practice playing piano at least 2 days a week
~Read at least one book per month
~Graduate with my associates

Financial Goals
~Buy a new (to us) van
~Pay off at least 2 credit cards
~Start building savings

I am super excited to get started on these goals, and I'm even more excited to report back as I finish each one! :-)