I'm in shock!

I just did the craziest thing... I left at 2pm with hair like the above and when I got home 3 hours later, it was 12 inches longer! holy moley!

merry christmas

I've had a few friends post their Christmas cards on their blogs and I think it's a cool idea so here is ours.

breakfast

I have a really great Scentsy team. Consultants all over the US and Canada, in fact, I think I am nearly approaching 1000 people on my team. WOW! There are several gals here in Utah but unfortunately, we are spread out all over the place so we don't get to see each other too much. But we were able to get together at the Market Street grill for breakfast a couple of weeks ago. Did you know they serve breakfast? And boy, is it GOOD... fun to see my team and enjoy some time together!

pics from my phone.. the girls

I think I have more pics to post from Kait's Christmas performance at school but these pictures are from my phone...

all of the kids had dental checkups a couple of weeks and no one had any cavities except Kait. She had her first FOUR cavities ever.. I'm not surprised though, she refuses to brush her teeth with toothpaste cuz it's "too spicey" even if it's bubblegum toothpaste! When the dentist was telling the hygenist which teeth she had cavities, he said, "k" and she said, "K as in Kaitlin!" He thought that was funny. But then she got even funnier... he said, "you have 4 cavities" and she said, "4 cavities cuz i'm 4!" Well, that's not quite how we want to look at it. So here she is a little loopy - she had a kiddy cocktail (medicine before hand), and she got the gas...
I love this pic of her. Blackmail, yes?

We went to my parents house for a super fun Christmas Eve with our best friends of 24 years (hard to believe we have known this family for so long!) but Jackson and Brian didn't go because Jackson didn't feel well. Carli missed him and when we got home, she found him reading a book. She hauled herself downstairs and went running back into my room with a book. She crawled into bed and started reading just like him. It was so cute!

don't mind that her book is upside down! ;)

a few more...

foto fountain went above and beyond and sent me 3 more edits to Carli's picture. So cute!

foto fountain

I don't have editing software, well, actually i do, but i have zero idea how to use it. so i found this awesome website that does it for you. (love paying people to do stuff for me!) cheap too! So here are all the before and after pictures of everything foto fountain edited for me. By the way, their website is www.fotofountain.com and they it's really easy to upload all your pics to them. Love it!

"thank you for being the best primary teachers ever!"

Jackson came home from church the other day, and asked if he could invite his 2 primary teachers over because "they are the best primary teachers ever." At first, I was a little hesitant because I didn't have any treats or anything so I asked if he could invite them over a different night. He was so disappointed so I told him that he could call them and see if they were free and then I asked how he would act if they said they couldn't come over. He said, "I have 3 choices. 1) I could cry 2) I could faint or 3) I could ask if they could come a different night. (I love the one that he said he could faint). At any rate, he called and they weren't busy. So they came over and they were adorable with the kids. We first played a game that Jackson made up - put cookies in Santa's mouth, then we played Christmas bingo, then a matching game. Colter wrote a computer game called Animal Jam. (go check it out, it's an awesome kids game - http://www.animaljam.com/) So he showed my kids some fun tricks.

Thank you for making Jackson's night!

week in review

Some random pics this past week: Brian spent days shredding some manuals for church and finally decided that a fire would be the best way. So in 20 degree weather, snow everywhere, he lit up our fire pit and burned manual after manual. It was quite the site!

buddies Logan and Finn
more of the boys fav friends

we had the most awesome ward activity this past weekend. it's been some rough activities in recent years but finally one was awesome. here, the primary kids are singing right before Santa Clause surprised them all.

sitting on Santa's lap

gingerbread houses

I found these gingerbread houses -a village. The houses were tiny but there was 5 of them so each kid could do their own.

Festival of Trees

Kaitlin had a performance at Festival of Trees last Friday. And bless her heart, her eardrum burst that morning and she has been in so much pain. But she still performed with a smile on her face.

The Festival of Trees can actually be somewhat sad. All of the trees and gingerbread houses etc... are sold and all proceeds are donated to Primary Childrens hospital. But what is sad is that most of the trees are for either very sick children or children that have passed away, and it's in their memory. One could walk away bawling! ;)

Kaitlin's performance. She is 4th from the right.

A big huge hug from big brother!

a beautiful pink tree

friends

Christmas Bingo

I was just getting my lesson ready for Primary this morning and came across this fun Bingo game that my kids love playing every year at Christmas time. I am going to take it to Primary and we'll play after my lesson. The pieces in red are the cards that you draw and tell the kids which square to cover. I give the kids M&M's and they cover the square with them. I have all the files for this game if anyone is interested. Leave me a comment and I will email them to you. I don't know who made this game up, but my cousin had it so I copied it from her.
these are the cards. I cut this out and backed it on green construction paper and then laminated it.

thanksgiving in idaho

we braved the scary road conditions and drove up to the panhandle of Idaho to visit Brian's parents and brother and his wife. Brian did an awesome job driving our van and even though he was tempted to turn around in Idaho Falls and head back home, the kids outnumbered him and we continued on. We made it without any issues.

Aunt Monica and Uncle JB weren't there for the first couple of days but Aunt Monica had plenty of toys to preoccupy the kiddos.
In the offices (connected to their living area), there was a giant rocking chair that the kids enjoyed rocking on.

Thanksgiving day, we had some entertaining to do so we played Follow the Leader, obstacle courses, played on the pinball machine, hide and go seek etc...

The kids were brave and went outside in the frigid temps.

Apparently Jackson had just been hit in the face by a snowball in this picture!

The day after Thanksgiving, Bri and I took the kids into Couer'd'Alane for a visit. We went to an awesome restaurant called Tomato Place. Upon sitting down, the waitress stamped the kids menu on the butcher paper, then handed each child a baggy of playdo, crayons, and string and pasta to make necklaces. It was the best lunch - the kids were entertained and the food was delicioso! We then took them over to a toystore called Figpickles. We gave them each $10 to pick out some toys. It was a hands on store too which was really fun!

Carli had just taken a suck of a lemon. Love that face!

The next day, Gail, Brian, and I took the kids to Post Falls to see a movie. We saw Megamind. When we got back, Aunt Monica was home and had set up some halloween games in the warehouse for the kids to play, that she made. They were adorable games. Too bad the warehouse was literally about 40 degrees. I was so cold I couldn't stand to play the games with the kids (I forgot my winter coat at my parents house) but the kids loved playing for as long as they could tolerate it.

Then Aunt Monica let the kids make gingerbread cookies and she even let them eat as much dough as they wanted. They LOVE Aunt Monica!

They took most cookies home but a few of them, they put holes in the top of the cookies, put ribbon through them, and hung them on the Christmas tree.

We headed home the next morning. It was a snowy drive and we did get stuck in nasty traffic on the way home but we made it finally. It was a great time in Idaho though! We love Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Monica and Uncle JB!