15 or more years of tradition

This is a tradition that I look forward to every year. The Halls (lifelong friends of ours), and my family all meet at my parents house for an evening of music, a nativity, and yummy food! (like deviled eggs that is a MUST HAVE! My mom almost forgot it this year- we would have died!) Even though the Hall kids are growing up and getting married, and even when we started this, I was single, and now I have 4 kids, it is something that will probably continue for life!

my kids doing their token 2 songs. "Once their was a snowman" and "Jingle Bells!"

Matthew, who left on his mission 3 days after this, singing an awesome Josh Groban song called, "Thankful"

the baby Jesus... and she was such a ham!

Michael (the kid in the back with the beard) sings a song about the nativity, and each person comes walking out dressed in garb and sits around "the baby Jesus." This year, Suzanne (the mom of the Halls) convinced one of the newly married wives and a girlfriend to participate. The only ones that didn't have to do it was me, Brian, my dad, and Mike (the dad of the Halls!)

"I'm outta here!"

An impromptu duet with Matthew and Michael

ornament wreathe

I have wanted to make one of these for forever. I found a tutorial online of how to do it etc... so I kept it in the back of my mind. I had to run to the Dollar Store last week and surprisingly, they had tons of ornaments left, so I grabbed what they had and one evening, I dropped Robin Hood (the cartoon) in for my kids and made this. I didn't exactly read the tutorial ahead of time so I had some trial and errors, and of course with Brian's help, I finally got an outcome that I was happy about! I had bought enough ornaments to make my mom one too, but honestly, after I finally got done with this one, I decided against ever making one again! Sorry, mom! I had good intentions! ;)

Challenger Christmas Programs

Santa, baby!

After each of my kids Christmas programs, Santa arrived and they got to sit on his lap and tell him what they wanted. They were mostly thrilled! ;)

team breakfast

this was the beginning of the end of my super busy week last night. A lot of it had to do with making these signs. Bless my dear friend, Steph's heart for helping me make them. She picked at vinyl for over 3 hours! And bless my sweet hubby's heart for drilling all the holes in the metal and putting the grommets on each one. I don't know where I would be without these 2! So I (we) made these signs for each of the team member that came to our Scentsy breakfast. Angie made super cute charm necklaces for everyone as well.

Such a great friend! (she introduced me and Brian to each other so we are bonded for life!) ;)

me n grandpa!

I have a really precious picture of my dad and Kaitlin. Here are some of he and Carli.

All she had to do was hear his voice and she lept into his arms. She loves getting loves from g-pa!

chores

I've kept in the back of my mind, after reading Amy's blog one day, that little people can do bigger household chores besides cleaning up. She has her 3 yr old cleaning the toilets! So this day, they wanted to dishes. I let them.

Logan got the bum rap though. He had to clear the table!

too tired!

she will thank us someday for keeping good record of her sleeping while eating dinner times!

a faxing obsession

This cute baby lives at the fax machine. Everyday. About 10 times a day. No joke. And hey, it's teaching her to stand up! Right now, it rings when the phone rings, which it never did before, it prints all sorts of things, and it makes funny noises. Oh, and check out those 2 teeth!

And once again, at the fax machine. About the 8th time today.

My responses...

I should be making dinner, but instead, I would rather blog! ;) Here are my responses to my friend Cynthia's "tag" on her blog...
1. What 5 items are on your holiday wish list this year?

• Wii Fit
  
• a recipe book that has little plastic thingy's to hold recipes in them so they don't get smeared with junk while cooking
  
• small round cake pans
  
• decorating bags
  
• I told Brian to be creative and fill my stocking with "knick knacks" - can't wait to see what he comes up with!
  

2. What is your favorite handmade gift you have received

• I've received some really cute things for my kids. Like a handmade hat and dress and underoos, blankets, etc...
  

3. What handmade gift have you always wanted to tackle?

• I want to make some of those super cute posy clips for my daughters' hair. I also have a realllllllly long list but I am proud to say that I have finally done a few of them the last couple of weeks.
  

4. What was the best Christmas gift you received as a child?

• my dollhouse that my parents made me
  

5. What items are on your kid’s wish list this year?

• "Lego Star Wars stuff that Finley has" (direct quote), new games, Barbies, dollhouse, and Star Wars sheets.
  

6. What is your favorite holiday food?

• deviled eggs that my mom makes and the yummy dessert that my mother in law makes, also those to die for cinnamon almonds.
  

7. What will you be hand-crafting for the holidays?

• I already made an ornament wreathe
  
• and countdown blocks
  
• and I painted a cute wood Christmas tree
  
• I made a couple of things for my mom and mother in law but I can't mention them because they read my blog!
  

8. What is your favorite holiday movie?

• don't know! I just watch whatever my kids are watching and they love Frosty, Rudolph, etc...
  

9. Favorite holiday song?

• Mary, did you know? I also like that duet with Sarah McLaughlin and I think Bare Naked Ladies of God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman. It's on the radio a lot.
  

10. Favorite holiday pastime?

• Decorating the house and Christmas tree with my kids because they are so excited
  
• shopping for my family's Christmas presents
  
• Christmas morning... I feel like a kid all over again watching my kids unwrapping their presents!
  
• Christmas program with my family and The Halls. It's a tradition we have had for about 15 years and I look forward to it every year!
  

Busiest Week ever! whew!

I have decided that this past week was the busiest week I've probably ever had. I hardly had a moment to myself, except when I was exercising at 5:30am because I didn't have any other chance! Then this weekend topped it all with 3 things each day. Example: Friday went like this (and this is how Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday also went)
9:30-12:30 - Steph and kids came over and helped me with a huge Scentsy project
12:30 - race kids to school, couldn't find clean shirt for Jackson so had to dig through piles of laundry to find him one (please tell me I'm not the only one this happens to)
12:45- post office, bank, grocery store
1:30- pick my mom up from my house
1:45 - race over to Challenger for Kaitlin's preschool program
3:00 - take all the kids home
3:15 - work on Scentsy project again
5:30 - attempt to meet Angie and family to do an exchange of products but it doesn't work out
6:00 - eating dinner at Lonestar with family
7:00 - frazzled from dinner at Lonestar with family
7:30 - turn on Robin Hood for kids (the cartoon), Brian goes out into the garage and starts drilling holes and putting in grommets in metal for my Scentsy project, meanwhile I go to Roberts to buy ribbon
7:45 - race home and realize ribbon doesn't match vinyl
8:00 - race back over to Roberts with vinyl this time and buy matching ribbon
8:15 - back home and put all the kids to bed. Brian races off to Home Depot to buy another drill bit since the first one is dull and he still has half the metal to cut through
11pm - finally finished with Scentsy project
11:01 - start cleaning house because in laws will be here 6 hours (they are driving all night)
1:30 - finished cleaning house
2am - bed
SATURDAY
6:30am - awake
8:30 - on my way to Mimi's cafe to go to breakfast for Scentsy team
11am - home
3pm - birthday party for cousin Elsie
5pm - home and need to take a quick nap till 5:30
5:15 - I hear Kaitlin coming down the hall, "MOOOMMMMMM! I want you to play with me? MOOMMMMM? Are you awake?" I am now!
6pm - head out the door for Scentsy dinner at Grand America (see previous post)
10pm - home
SUNDAY
7am - wake up
8:0 - start getting kids and myself ready for church
9:45 - late for church but finally out the door
1:30 - home from church
2pm - over to friends house that are visiting from out of state for a lovely dinner, don't want to leave to go to our next destination because it was so fun to see them!!! Miss them a lot!
4:15 - leave
4:30 - race home and grab dessert for next event
5:15 - arrive at my parents
6pm - other family arrives at my parents
10:15 - finally home after having a fabulous evening with my parents and The Halls
11pm - typing this long blog post!

WHEW! If you read all that, I'm amazed. I'm also amazed I survived. That is seriously how my week went. Hardly a moment to think. Everytime the kids were in school, I was racing around getting errands done. My mom, bless her soul, was usually sitting in the car with Carli while I was running in and out of the stores trying to cross stuff off my list. But at least all of my Scentsy parties are over and now I can concentrate on finishing my Christmas shopping, getting our neighbor gifts done, and a few other little misc. things! Here's to hoping that this week isn't nearly as stressful and busy as last!

I'm in love!

We had the opportunity to go to a Scentsy dinner last night put on by Kara and Collette (founders of Scentsy) at the Grand America hotel. It was so amazing! I told Kara that next year I hope I am the one that is able to put on this dinner for my team. It was a 3 course meal that was to die for! We sat with Kara and her husband, one of her recruits Heidi and her husband, and then our neighbors that we've never met before - they are the builders of all of the huge homes in my neighborhood so it was fun to meet them finally!

JB and Monica had our kids (we have an exciting day with Brian today so his family is down for the event, but that's another post) up at Chris and Liz's for the evening so we told them that we would skip out on the entertainment and head up to Chris and Liz's. Well, the entertainment started while we were eating still. Kara introduced them as her favorite band for the last 10 years. Oh my word!!! In Brian's opinion, something that is good, is "ok." If a dinner is good, he'll say, "it's ok." Well, he kept saying, "they are EXCELLENT!" which for him, is off the charts. The band is named Eclipse and they have no instruments, just their mouths. We were sitting front row and it was just incredible. I kept thinking about Jackson, he absolutely loves singing. I think someday he will be a singer and I could see him being in a band like this. Eclipse has one major awards.. I can't believe I've never heard of them! Their website is www.eclipsesingers.com And they were funny too!!!!

So we promptly went out and bought 3 of their CD's and listened to them on the way home. My kids went to sleep with one of their CD's playing softly in the background (they love listening to music or stories on CD while going to sleep).

I'm in love!

Stroller Addiction

Brian has known since Jackson was born that I have a stroller addiction. I told Erin about it today and she said she has one too... phew, I'm not alone! ;) By the time he was just a couple of months old, I already had 4 strollers for him! Since then, strollers have been bought and sold, but since then, I've had 2 cheap umbrella strollers, a deluxe single stroller that the carseat can fit into, and my sit-n-stand. I decided I was ready to get rid of all of the strollers except my sit-n-stand so onto KSL they went. I've been looking for a chunky umbrella stroller for a while and came across this one at Toys R Us yesterday. It's so cute (I think it's cuter in person), it has a bag in the back to put stuff into, plus a little cup holder AND spongy grips AND it's tall! How many umbrella strollers do you have to hunch over because the handles are too far down for us taller folk? It was only $30, plus I had a 20% off coupon!

So I hauled it downstairs yesterday and Brian just shook his head, and said, "ANOTHER one?" But he was ok with it, he knew it was time. And besides, we only have 2 now! Well, 3, but I will be getting rid of the 3rd soon.

BCS rant!

If anyone is interested in what Brian thinks of the BCS, feel free to go here and check it out! All you sports fans, go check it out. I'm sure you will either agree or love to disagree with whatever it is that he has to say!

Tis Better to Give than to Receive

I received a phone call from one of the sweet widows in my neighborhood last Sunday. She asked if I would bring her my Christmas presents so that she could wrap them for me. I was so touched and saddened all at the same time. I know why she did that - because she is lonely and nights are probably hard. Her husband passed away about a year ago and I'm sure the holidays are hard so what is the best thing to do when you are lonely or having a hard time? Serve others. I just picked them up from her and I told her that this was one of the best gifts I've ever received and she said, "I hope not!" But truly, one of the greatest gifts you can ever give someone is service. It's the most selfless act of kindness.

Last year, as I've mentioned before, we were the recipients of a lot of acts of service. Dinners, food, and even money. My mother in law mentioned one time when she was here that she had never seen a neighborhood as generous as ours. We have challenged ourselves since summer to return all of the kindnesses that we have received. We are the ones serving others. One time when I was in college, we found a family that couldn't afford Christmas. About 15 of us got together and we each spent a certain amount of money for the family, went home and wrapped them, then we put all of the presents on this family's porch. We ding dong ditched them, and then we all hid in bushes, behind cars, trees etc... to see their reaction. The 3 kids and their parents came out and I will never forget the kids reactions - they were jumping up and down, screaming out of pure excitement. It was very emotional and it was a feeling that still touches me as I type this.

I thank my sweet neighbor for thinking of me this past week and for all of the neighbors that have touched us since we've lived here. They are much more than neighbors, they are our friends. And anytime we think about moving somewhere else, we always come back to the fact that some of our very best friends are right here. We don't love our house but we do love our friends and as some of our friends who have left this neighborhood have told us, "this is the best neighborhood around!"

Tis better to give, than to receive.

Temple Square with our fun neigbors!

We went to Temple Square last week with our fun neighbors. It was SO COLD so we walked around for a few minutes and then snuck into a building, then walked around, and went into a building. Then we went to the Spaghetti Factory for dinner which was my favorite part. The kids all did really well and had a lot of fun together!

Always gotta love a picture when no one is looking, oh wait, that's almost always when my kids are in the picture!

Decorating for the holidays

I always love seeing how people decorate their house for the holidays so thought I'd throw mine in there too. I love this new rug I got for my family room from Ikea for only $14! What a steal! I was worried it wouldn't match but it's a perfect fit. Thank goodness Steph noticed it, I probably would have walked right by!

I made the Gratitude block and Jingle Bells block - it is the same block using both sides. I love how simple it is, yet cute at the same time. I am really diggin' my Cricut. It's seriously one of the best purchases I've ever made!

I made these blocks copying the same idea as my Spooky blocks.

And yet another thing I made with my Cricut. I'm going to flip it over as well and put something for Christmas on the back... just need to actually do it.

While Brian decorated the outside of the house, me and the kids did the inside. Logan couldn't wait, he was for sure the most excited to get the tree up.

The kids asked us to decorate the outside of our house more, so Brian spent 2 hours at the store picking out all new lights. He then spent 6 hours putting them all up!

love these cute star lights

of course I have to have all of my Christmas Scentsy warmers out. My new favorite scents are: Cinnamint, Honey Pear Cider, and Spiced Grapefruit. Mmmm!

My favorite quote, "Dear Santa, I can explain!" And I finally filled up our digital frame that we've had for 18 months. Love it!

Our 2 Thanksgiving Dinners

After dinner at my parents, we headed over to a park near their house and played games. While my mom and me and the kids played tag and hide and go seek, Brian and my brother played catch.

Thanksgiving with Brian's family at our house on Friday.