Elfy arrived at the Deter's

So, sadly this blog has become more of an annual thing for me and I am really hoping that I will be more habitual about it in the future, but don't hold your breath.  I wanted to make sure I recorded some of our precious Christmas memories, including the new arrival of our friend Elfy, Elf on the Shelf.  He wrote a letter to the girls about the true meaning of Christmas and how much he cared about both of them.  Enjoy the letter:

 Elfy getting into trouble already.

Nov. 19, 2013

Dear Madeline and Myla,

I am so so excited to be in your home and I am honored that your family adopted me.  I promise that I will follow all of Santa’s rules and be a good Elf. I am asking that both of you also follow Santa’s rules.  Do you promise you will?

I told Santa all the things that you girls asked me for yesterday.  You asked for Bop it, Skip it, the new scriptures and new crayons, right?  Santa said that as long as you girls are good he would love to bring you those toys.  He also wanted to make sure that you girls understood the true meaning of Christmas.  Here is what he said:

“Madeline and Myla, I really want you to know the true meaning of Christmas and why we celebrate this incredible Holiday every year.  It’s true that we get to see beautiful lights, eat delicious treats, sing carols and receive presents, however in order for the magic of Christmas to remain strong, we need each child to believe and have faith in the REAL meaning of Christmas, which is Jesus Christ.  If the children stop to have faith in Jesus Christ then the magic of Christmas will disappear and that would be so sad don’t you think?  Jesus Christ, our older Brother, the Son of God, came to earth a long, long time ago.  He came to save every person.  We all make mistakes sometimes, but Jesus, never made a mistake and never will, which is why he was chosen to be our Savior.  Heavenly Father said that in Heaven everyone needs to be clean, which means no sins or mistakes allowed.  But it is impossible to never make a mistake right?  So, God sent his Son to pay the price of our sins and mistakes and because of that we can say sorry if we mess up and we all can live with our families in Heaven FOREVER!  We celebrate Christmas to celebrate the Birth of Jesus Christ.  During this time, and really always, we need to do everything to be like Jesus.  We give presents because that is what Jesus did, he gave us the present of Eternal Life.  I, Santa Clause could never forget what Jesus had done for me and for everyone.  So, I decided that I wanted every child in the entire world to feel that love he has for us and that is why I deliver presents to all the good children every year.  It is great for you to tell Elfy what you want for Christmas, I am excited to bring you presents.  Please remember though, that it is more important for you to do nice things for your family, friends and even people you do not know.  This is a time to be like Jesus.”

Santa also wanted to tell each of you how much he loves you and what he loves about you.

“Madeline, I am so grateful for you and I think that you are an amazing example.  You really have the best smile I’ve ever seen.  I think that you are such a good big sister and you do a great job of taking care of your sister Myla.  I also love how hard you work at everything you do.  You never give up.  You are also doing so good at school and your teachers are so pleased with you.  Your reading and writing have really improved.  I also love how you do your best to choose the right, even when your Mommy and Daddy are not looking.  In addition to all of that you are a very fun girl who makes me laugh as I watch you every day.  Thank you for being such a good girl.”

“Myla, I was so excited when you arrived in the Deter Family.  You are a sweet, loving, funny, happy girl.  I love it when you give that huge smile of yours.  You have been doing good at school too.  You are also doing good at your new Big Girl Gymnastics and working so hard and listening so well.  Your coach kept saying how happy she is with you too.  You are a very good sister and I am proud of how much you love your sister and your family.  My favorite is when you laugh, it makes me laugh too.  You are such a fun friend and make others feel happy when they are with you.  Thank you for being such a good girl!"

Now, you girls asked me if I would tell you if you were naughty or nice each day.  Yesterday you were NICE! 

I do want you to work on a few things though.  Please listen better to your Mom and your Dad.  When they say no do not throw a fit or argue, just listen.  And most of all, please be nicer to each other.  It makes me so sad when Maddie gets out of school and you girls fight.  Please remember to be like Jesus.  If you do not work on these things I will have to tell Santa that you were Naughty and I do not want to do that.

Signed your best pal Elf,

Elfy

This is Where my Big Brother Lives

It has officially been over a year since I have blogged, so I thought I might give it a shot again.  I am not sure how long this will last, however I really missed the journal like outlet my blog provides for me.

I absolutely LOVE the Christmas season!!!!  It really does bring me so much joy!  At the same time I tend to feel a little heavy hearted around this time of year.  December 13 is the anniversary of my brothers passing.  It has been a very long time since he passed away therefore most years, while I do miss him very much, I usually feel strong and ok.  However, this past year, while it has definitely been wonderful for the most part, we've seen and been around a lot of tragedy, therefore probably why I've been feeling a little more heavy hearted around his anniversary.

I was at my parents house the other night and my Dad pulled out a clipping from a newspaper and asked me if I remembered it.  It was a poem I wrote about my brother when I was in 5th grade.  We were required to write a poem about a person and honestly I can't remember what poetry style we were supposed to use.  Anyways, as you'd imagine I completely lost it as I read the poem.  When so much time passes you tend to forget those feelings, especially feelings that you felt as a 9 year old (I was 9 when it happened, but 11 when I wrote the poem).  I told Matt that as I read it my heart broke and I felt like I was mourning for my 11 year old self, if that makes sense.  I do LOVE the poem.  It was therapeutic for me to read it and relive those memories.  I love the honesty of a child.  The poem is raw and truly how I felt and I love how sensors on a child simply do not exist.  When I wrote this poem in 5th grade my parents sent it to my Uncle Chuck and he had it published in the newspaper.  That meant the world to me.  Here is the poem:

This is Where My Big Brother Lives

My brother lives in heaven, going on 
a mission, teaching people what is true 
I love him so and hope to see him soon.

This is where my big brother lives 
His shell lies deep in the earth, sleeping peacefully 
His body is stiff and cold and very pale.

That is where my big brother lives 
Sometimes I wish I was dead instead of him 
He was handsome you see the girls went wild for him.

               He was kind and fine.  I will see him again. 
No one can hold me back from seeing my big brother 
I remember lots of things we did together, but now 
The memories are starting to fade away.

               My parents said we might adopt a child and give 
Him or her loving care 
I will love him or her as if they were related to me

               But deep in my sad heart will be my brother waiting for me.   
I know I will see my brother again.

               When I see boys playing basketball, football 
I see my brother staring at me.  I have visions of my brother 
when I am reading and in my dreams.

               When he was on earth I thought he was an 
Angel, sent down from heaven. 
He was my best friend and he always
will be.

               He was smart, kind, handsome, exciting, athletic. 
There is lots more, 
But I never could describe how terrific my brother was.

               But now I have nobody to depend on.  Nobody to go places with. 
Nobody to beat up and complain and cry on.

               When we are driving far I will have no one’s shoulder to sleep 
on.  Nobody to bribe or threaten.  Nobody to scare or make fun of. 
But he will still be my best friend and stay in my heart forever.

                                                                                          -Marcie Peach

Editor’s note: Marcie Peach, the niece of Weiser resident Charles Mainelli, wrote the above poem when she was 11 years old.  It was dedicated to her brother, Nicholas, who passed away in December 1993.  Marcie lives in Southern California.  
Charles Mainelli, who submitted the poem to the Signal American, said he did so “to show that there are still good young people.”

It is difficult and so painful to see innocent, beautiful little children being taken before their time.  One of my favorite scriptures in the Book of Mormon is, "But little ^achildren are alive in Christ."  I've found so much comfort by reading these words and various talks that I highly, highly recommend.  The first talk is about why we experience trials and the second is about loss of a child.  Click here and here for the complete talks.

Here are some of my favorite quotes from those talks:

-Why we experience trials: "These fiery trials are designed to make you stronger, but they have the potential to diminish or even destroy your trust in the Son of God and to weaken your resolve to keep your promises to Him. These trials are often camouflaged, making them difficult to identify. They take root in our weaknesses, our vulnerabilities, our sensitivities, or in those things that matter most to us. A real but manageable test for one can be a fiery trial for another.  -Elder Niel Anderson

-Isaiah 55:8-9: “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways. …
“For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”¹⁷
     
-This man lost his 8 month old child and here is an excerpt of his experience (This is from the 2nd talk):

It is impossible to describe the mixture of feelings that I had at that point in my life. Most of the time I felt as if I were in a bad dream and that I would soon wake up and this terrible nightmare would be over. For many nights I didn’t sleep. I often wandered in the night from one room to the other, making sure that our other children were all safe.

Feelings of guilt racked my soul. I felt so guilty. I felt dirty. I was his father; I should have done more to protect him. If only I would have done this or that. Sometimes even today, 22 years later, those feelings begin to creep into my heart, and I need to get rid of them quickly because they can be destructive.

However, tormenting thoughts continued to plague me, and I soon began to feel anger. “This isn’t fair! How could God do this to me? Why me? What did I do to deserve this?” I even felt myself get angry with people who were just trying to comfort us. I remember friends saying, “I know how you feel.” I would think to myself, “You have no idea how I feel. Just leave me alone.” I soon found that self-pity can also be very debilitating. I was ashamed of myself for having unkind thoughts about dear friends who were only trying to help.

As I felt the guilt, anger, and self-pity trying to consume me, I prayed that my heart could change. Through very personal sacred experiences, the Lord gave me a new heart, and even though it was still lonely and painful, my whole outlook changed. I was given to know that I had not been robbed but rather that there was a great blessing awaiting me if I would prove faithful.

I know all of us are feeling sorrowful for the recent tragedies that have taken place in CT especially.  I hope these words offer comfort because they sure have for me.  I am incredibly grateful to know that Christ, the Son of God died for all our sins and all our sorrows and that we can find rest if we simply have faith in him and place our trust and grief in his hands.  I KNOW I will see my Big Brother again!!!!!

Now for pictures:

This is me and my Big Brother Nicholas.

 Amazing Santa!

Chic-fil-a Santa.  You can never see Santa too much :)

    

MERRY Early CHRISTMAS!!!!

I don't know if any of you have been able to tell, but I really LOVE every holiday and I am ridiculously gitty as each one approaches.  We had a fun Halloween with WAY too much candy.  Thanksgiving was incredible.  I really enjoyed every single food that we had and ate till the button on my pants should have flown off.  Now it is time for Christmas!!!!!!!!!!!!  Christmas is my FAVORITE!  I love the music, the lights, the weather, the hot chocolate, but most of all, I love seeing my girls faces light up when they see Santa and we get to teach them what Christmas is really about.  Since I could not wait, I found out that MV library was having a FREE Santa's workshop.  FREE makes everything sound better, and even taste better in my opinion.  Santa was there with Mrs. Clause, and he had elves that helped move the line along.  They wanted everything to be free and low key, so the kids could sit with Santa and you could snap as many pictures as you wanted to, since they did not have a photographer.  They had free hot chocolate, with marshmellows.  The kids could decorate their own cookies and eat them of course.  They had movies of Charlie Brown playing.  They had a huge train track set up, with buttons for each track that the kids could push to get the trains moving.  They had a snow machine going as well, so it looked like snow flakes were coming down.  They also had Rudolph walking around, as well as Frosty the snow man.  Oh, and Santa has a mail box out front where you can drop off your child's picture to him and list for Santa and Santa will mail a letter to your child in response.  Did I mention that all of this was FREE?  I seriously love this library.  They have the coolest children's play area and the best story time as well.  Basically I highly recommend taking your kids if you are in the area.  Click here for the link, so you can get the schedule.  

 Madeline was elated to be there with Santa and show him her list.

 I LOVE all their faces in this one, but Myla seriously cracks me up.

 I know it is bad and evil, but I for some strange reason love screaming pics of kids when they are terrified of characters.  Myla was such a good sport.  Even though she was horrified she stayed on frosty's lap for the pic.  I could not believe that she sat there till we told her to get up.  Poor thing.

I had to mention the cutest prayer that Maddie said the other day: "Please bless Myla that she feels better.  We are grateful she is feeling better.  Please bless the bad germs go out and that the good germs come back, so that she can have a lovely day."  I LOVE my girls.  Maddie is a sweet heart who tries so hard.  Myla is so hilarious and entertaining.  Her personality has always been a strong one, but it has blossomed recently and I am once again smitten.  Myla loves pointing out all her body parts, especially the belly button.  And not just hers, she would be more than happy to point yours out as well if you ever have trouble finding it :)  Well, Merry early Christmas from the Deter's!

Finally Right?

So, I know that it has been forever and hopefully there is someone still out there who reads our blog. If not, it is ok, as most of us Mom's do now days, we plan on turning our blog into a book as a journal for our family.

First of all I wanted to say that I AM DONE! With what you ask? I've finished raising money for The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and have surpassed my goal of $3200. I don't want to sound braggy at all, I am just relieved and excited all at the same time. I also want to express my gratitude for all those who helped out, you know who you are. Doing stuff like this really makes you realize how blessed you are and helps you see the amazing goodness in people. Now the tricky part will be running the actual marathon in SF on October 16. My body aches quite often, but this has been such an awesome ride and I've met some great people.

The Deter household has not changed much. Matt is still absolutely loving his job and I can't tell you how much that means to us after the events that took place in 2010. I am so happy and proud of him!

Madeline and Myla will not stop growing. Madeline is this intelligent, thoughtful child that speaks beyond her years. She notices all the simple things in life that no one else would ever think to pay attention to. Rose is such an appropriate middle name for her, since she literally and figuratively, always stops to smell the roses. I love these attributes about her and find them so admirable. She is my little lover girl who thankfully still allows me to smother her.

Myla is my crazy, happy, lovey, intense child, yet chill and easy going all at the same time. She is soooooo mischievous, but I love every second of it, well, most of it. Myla is so strong and physical and can totally hold her own. No one will mess with Myla :) She has this maturity about her and seems like she gets adult sarcasm and is quite sarcastic herself. There is this intensity and energy that both my girls have. It is different from each other, but it is so addictive and infectious, which makes them impossible not to love.

So, these pics are not in the order I intended them to be in, but oh well. Yes, we already went to the pumpkin patch, the second it opened, October 1st. You can guarantee we will be returning. I love the imagination and wonder and beautiful colors that Halloween and Fall have to bring.

Madeline is such a girl. She goes through such extremes; sad and dramatic one moment and then ecstatic the next.
Look at those eyelashes. I see Latisse commercials in her future.
Madeline thinks her pumpkin is her baby, she even brought it home and brushed its teeth that night.

Extreme happiness, it cannot even be contained!
Then drama. Gotta love it.
Madeline is OBSESSED with trains. I think Myla is too, since when Thomas the Train comes on she squeals with delight and dances like a mad woman.
Our very sad attempt at fam pics. It is next to impossible to get us all looking at the same time.
I love how this one turned out. My parents are awesome!
I cannot express the excitement that overwhelmed Myla when she was allowed to ride the cars. She is a big girl trapped in a toddlers body. She is ready to go out and tackle the world.


How blessed am I!

This picture about sums up Myla :)
This pic sums up how I feel about my girls!
I got to meet up with one of my old mission companions at the mall with our kiddos. Brings back some of the most cherished memories I will always have :)
First day of school! I am doing that co-op school again this year with some girl friends and it is going great so far. We are using the mother goose program, which I think is amazing and so much fun!

One more thing, I had to share some funny quotes and stories by Madeline. This age cracks me up:

*My parents are having plumbing problems, so their wall is ripped open, exposing the pipes. Madeline said the wall should not do that because it is showing its privates.

*I would like to publicly thank Repunzel for her long hair. Madeline will now voluntarily eat veggies since she believes that with each bite her hair will grow. These are healthy fibs right? She asked me the other day however, when her hair was going to start dragging.

*Madeline put on her Repunzel dress up shoes the other day, grabbed Matt's hand and said, "Come on Eugene, lets go, we are going to get married in the temple!" She then proceeded to do the wedding ceremony, which for her is dancing around in a circle and "twinkeling."

*When her foot feel asleep, while taking FOREVER to finish her dinner, she told me that her foot was snoring.

*At the pumpkin patch Madeline went up to a group of teenagers, asked them if they were teenagers and if they were old enough to eat salad. One of the girls responded so sweetly and showed her long hair to Maddie, which confirmed that she in deed must eat salad.

AMAZING RAFFLE!!!

These amazing vendors (In n Out, Laguna Surf & Sport, Trader Joe's, BJ's restaurant, Mrs. Field's Cookies, Jersey Mike's Subs, Bagles and Brew, Marie Calenders, Paradise Bakery, Mangia Bene's restaurant, Costco, El Toro Meats, Spaghetti Factory and Spic n Span Cleaners) have donated more than $700 in prizes, ranging from gift certificates, clothing, gift baskets and delicious food. You do not want to miss out on this amazing raffle!!! Prizes will be mailed out Sep. 16, 2011, so hurry and get your raffle tickets.

To participate in this Raffle you can either mail a check, or pay cash, for the amount of raffle tickets you would like to purchase. Please make the check out to The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and send it to, 7 Willow Wind, Aliso Viejo, CA 92656.

Otherwise, you can make a donation according to how many raffle tickets you would like to purchase on my Fundraising Webpage. All you have to do is click the donate button and you will be directed from there. Please contact me if you have any questions; phone #: 949 378 7547, email: marcellapeach@hotmail.com. Prices are as follows:

1 Raffle Ticket $2

5 Raffle Tickets $8

10 Raffle Tickets $15

20 Raffle Tickets $30

MOVIE NIGHT!!!

YOU ARE INVITED:

What: Outside Movie Night playing Despicable Me.

Why: To delight your taste buds with homemade goods and donate to a good cause at the same time.

When: Friday, July 22, 2011 at 7:30pm.

Where: Grand Park Town Center (Aliso Creek Rd and Pacific Park Dr

Aliso Viejo, CA 92656)

Hello Everyone,

Aliso Viejo is having a FREE, outside movie night at the Grand Park Town Center this coming up Friday, July 22. In addition I will be hosting a bake sale there for The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Outside movie night is so cool because you feel like you are in a convertible theater, since the surround sound is so incredible and the movie screen is HUGE. They will be playing Despicable Me, which is absolutely adorable and definitely appropriate for kids, as well as entertaining for the adults.

Aliso Viejo Community tells everyone to arrive by 7:30pm, however the movie does not start till it gets dark, which is usually 8pm-ish. I recommend getting there early for good seats, the fun activities they have for the kids, but most importantly, so you do not miss out on the delicious homemade goodies from the bake sale. The highest priced item will be $2 and trust me your taste buds will thank me.

The menu consists of: mother load cake (donated by Claim Jumper), cookies (donated by Jersey Mike’s), homemade red velvet bars, cinnamon buns and cinnamon bites, orange rolls, cupcakes and more. My Mom and amazing best friends have volunteered to bake these homemade goods and I cannot even tell you how much these girls really just need to open up their own bakery.

PLEASE come Friday night and join in on all the fun and yumminess. Thanks so much and I really hope to see all of you there J

Marcella (Peach) Deter