Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam

As of Sunday we officially have a sunbeam living in our home. Amelia was super excited to finally join the big kids in Primary. We made some big changes on Sunday besides the normal class advancement. We used to hold opening exercises with all the kids then split for classes and sharing time. Now we are more like a normal Primary with opening exercises, sharing time, and singing time completed for Jr and Sr Primary. We made it through all the questions and confusion! Last year the sunbeam teachers taught 13-14 kids, this year their class reduced to 4! Amelia and her buds (Ella, Hannah, and Bryn) are the only 4 year olds this year. That class deserves a break. As a presidency we challenged the kids to read their scriptures and try to memorize as many as possible. Each week the kids can tell us what was read or recite a scripture. The kids can then add a link to our scripture chain. How long can we make our scripture chain this year?

We survived a pretty large snow storm last week. The snow and wind invaded Sidney early on Thursday and lasted until Friday night. We were snowbound for a couple days. Thursday we pretty much hunkered down. Friday I took down all our Christmas decorations a couple days earlier than usual. Amelia had nearly as much fun taking down the tree as she had putting it up. Saturday the wind calmed down and the snow stopped. Justin grabbed his shovel and went to work shoveling a ton or more of snow...literally. Amelia was so excited to get out into the snow. She made about 20 snow angels and ate a gallon of snow. Phillip lasted about 20 minutes. Thursday the temperature got down to a frigid -30 (wind chill). It was barely zero degrees on Saturday. After clearing the driveway, which was a HUGE task, we made a trip to Walmart to escape for a little while. Our New Year activity was a highlight trip to Walmart, LOL. We spent New Year's Eve sawing logs! Pretty boring over here.

I am having a blast playing with my new studio lights. Monday I bought a used light from another photographer here in Sidney to add to my new light. The kids helped me practice. I set up my large black backdrop yesterday in anticipation of a family photoshoot this morning. Amelia and Phillip thought dancing on the new set up was super duper fun. What do you think of my new lights??? Sure cuts my editing time down!

Monday I had a prenatal visit in Scottsbluff. Alison volunteered to watch Amelia after preschool so Phillip and I made the trip. We literally went up and back, stopping only for 10 minutes at JoAnns and 10 minutes at Menards (home improvement store). About two weeks ago my right arm started going numb from the shoulder down at odd times. The numbness and tingly pain is 20 times worse at night. I don't sleep on that side so it was not due to my arm going to sleep. Strange! I went to the chiropractor yesterday in hopes that an adjustment would alleviate the pain and numbness. My arm feels a tiny bit better but is still tingly 80% of the time. Our ultrasound is scheduled for 02 Feb 2011. Can't wait to see if Amelia is right about a baby sister. You are welcome to guess!!!