Christmas is (by AP)

Christmas. What does that mean to you? To some, it means giving. To others, it means getting. To most, it's a time to look forward to. It can mean being extra good, no school, and spending more time with family and friends. To me, it's all of these things and more. To me it also means driving through town with my family and looking at all of the lights, having fun and celebrating Christ's Mas (meaning more of Christ).

I guess what I'm trying to say is that the reason we celebrate Christmas is because every now and then, everyone needs a little more of Christ, a little more hope, and a little more love. That's what Christmas is all about.

This is my testimony. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Love this man

I am so grateful for your love, encouragement, and all you do for me and our little family. We're so lucky to have you and hope you have an awesome birthday!

tis' the season

. . .of cookie baking and decorating!

While decorating cookies, AP poured sprinkles in his hand then dumped them in his mouth. AJ exclaimed, "[AP]! That is wasting them!" He said, "No it's not. There going straight to my belly where they would end up anyway."

Motherhood is like that sometimes

Today I thought my son was sleeping. He was tired. I put him in his room for a nap. It got very quiet for about 30 minutes. And then he hollered for me. When I opened the door, I got quite the sensory experience. I have heard horror stories about little ones finger painting with the goods in their diapers. I was grateful to never have had this experience. Especially because it is one of the things I was sure I couldn't handle should it ever happen to me. Well I handled it. I spent this afternoon scrubbing the walls and doors, steaming the carpet and rocker, and washing bedding (I have to say I have never been more grateful for my steamer and the box of medical gloves I keep on hand). I think the smell is finally gone and everything is thoroughly disinfected. It wasn't pleasant, but on the upside his room was long past due for a good deep clean. Oh, and I am now fully motivated to potty train.

all about hair

D (while running his hands through my hair): Oh mommy, you hair is so pretty. It looks really great. I'n glad you fixed it so nice.

Proper trash disposal

On Wednesday AP took out the trash, but instead of putting it in the bin he left it sitting beside the garage door. Well the cats tore into it and scattered it everywhere.This has happened before so this time J had him write a paper about proper trash removal. Here it is:

There's a right way and a wrong way to take out the trash. The right way is to put the trash in the trash can. By this I mean the big green trash can by the side of the house. If its not there, look for it. It's probably by the curb waiting for the trash guy to come pick it up.

There are also many wrong ways to take out the trash. I'll give you four.
1. If the cans not there, leave it to the cats.
2. Don't do it at all
3. Throw it in the neighbor's yard (not saying I do this; I never have, this is just an example I am giving).
4. Eat it (yuk! Who would do this? Again, just an example).
[insert something here that was so small we couldn't read it]Oh, is my writing shrinking? Sorry. Here! Too big for you?! Oops, looks like I forgot to put the trash in the can. . . which is why I'm writing this paper.

Here are some reasons, not, not, NOT to forget to put the trash in the big green can:
1. So you won't get punished
2. So you don't end up with an extra big mess to clean up
3. So you don't have to write a page-long paper about proper trash disposal (like this one; and if you are copying this, shame on you! You should now have to write 3 (yes I said THREE) papers.

The end

In my spare time. . .

As you may be able to tell from my lack of posts recently, it has been very busy around here! In my spare moments I have been working on these:
They are Christmas gifts for our Young Women. Each leader (we have 13) contributed their favorite Christmas stories to be made into books for each of our girls (we have close to 50). Sweet Jill copied and bound them and I have been embellishing them. I am glad to say they are now finished! Now I can use my spare time to get ready for Christmas. . .

Dressing up is fun to do

This was D's dress rehearsal beginning of the month. Our church carnival was the first Tuesday in October so we had to come up with costumes right away. D has been thoroughly obsessed with Larryboy (superhero from VeggieTales), and pretends to be him all the time. So that was the obvious choice for his Halloween attire. I just wasn't sure how I was going to pull off the plunger ears until I came upon these canning funnels. He LOVED it! As soon as he saw himself in the mirror he had to test out his super-suction action. I had to use good old paper and tape for the eyes, etc., since I bought the hat and funnels the morning of the carnival and ended up only having about 10 minutes to throw it all together. Later I sewed on felt eyes/nose.

And here he is Hallow's eve minus the nose. . . I couldn't get the hat off long enough to attach it until AP and AJ had already left with their friends to get candy.

AP wanted to be a vampire banana. He went around telling everyone, "I want to drink your fruit juice." I don't know where he comes up with this stuff.
AJ wore one of my old ballet costumes and was a snow princess. We did have snow a couple of days before Halloween, but only rain while they were trick or treating.

This picture of them all together was taken the night of the carnival.

And D never actually made it out trick-or-treating. He had a great time helping J and I hand out candy. Especially when Mario and Luigi came to the door. It was cute to hear him telling all of the trick-or-treaters things like, "Oh, wow," "Dat's a cool cosume," "Happy Halloween," "here's you candy," and "Have fun guys!"
and really, who needs candy when you have such a nice cat?
AP snapped this shot of us at the end of the night. Pretty funny for the kid who is always complaining about our demonstrations of affection.Hope everyone had a fun Halloween!

Football!

J took the two older kids to the BYU game on Saturday. They had a good time, but at some point during the game AP said he needed to use the bathroom and disappeared. After he had been gone a while, J decided to go check on him. He saw his shoes under a stall and asked,
"Hey bud, are you ok in there"
"Yah."
"You've been in there kind of a long time."
"I know. I just like it in here."
In his defense, AP told me the game was really loud and the guy right behind him kept yelling in his ear, "you shall not pass" whenever the opposing team got close to the goal line. On the other hand the bathroom was very quiet. . .

UEA weekend

The kids and I spent UEA weekend with my parents in Park City. We had a great time! We played in the pool, went hiking, and enjoyed some TV/downtime. Grandma had lots of food fun planned for us too!




AP went ahead of us and left this sign for us to follow. Can you make it out? He said he was putting his scouting skills to use.


We made halloween faces with our taco salad and cupcake skulls. We love our creative grandma!
Enjoying our down time. . .

Birthday Time!

AJ wanted a doll slumber party this year (despite the fact that after last year she said no more slumber parties until she was 12. . .). I decided that a slumber party wouldn't be so bad if we went to a hotel.

For the invitations, I thought it would be cute to do sleeping bags. I was going to get some little American Girl stickers to put on the sleeping bag to represent their dolls, and then slip the invitation inside the bag, but decided it would be a lot more fun for the girls if their doll was the size of the sleeping bag so they could play with it. So I went to the American girl website and printed dolls in their PJs to go in the sleeping bags (AJ cut them out for me), and the invitation opened up for the party details. The girls LOVED them. Kate said her girls played with theirs the whole way home, and Em's girls called the night they got theirs to tell me how much they loved them. Elizabeth said, "When I opened mine I screamed this is the cutest thing ever! I can tell you and AJ worked really hard on the invitations and I'm going to keep mine forever." How sweet is that?
Here are the girls soon after we arrived at the hotel. We dropped off their stuff and then quickly changed into swimsuits to head down to the pool.

After swimming everyone got cleaned up and we made pizzas for dinner (I got a room with a kitchenette). They had so much fun decorating their pizzas and it was fun watching them get so into it! They made a bigger one for themselves and a smaller one for their doll.
I made the cupcakes and Emily decorated them for me. You can't really see it, but she did tie-dye frosting. They turned out SO darling!Speaking of my sweet Em, the party would not have been as successful without all of her help. She took charge of the pedicures and got all of the stuff to do glitter toes. The girls loved it!
We decided it would work best if Emily worked on the girls' toes individually while I had the rest of them doing crafts. They made necklaces, bracelets, and hair clips. Those who finished early also made some for their dolls.

And then of course presents! We did heavy hangover. I wish I would have written down the things AJ wished for each of her friends; it was really cute. And they were all so thoughtful in their gifts. I'm glad she has such good friends.

At the end of the night we put on the movie, "Kit Kittredge: An American girl," to help them settle down. It is such a cute show! After it was over they were really good about brushing their teeth and it didn't take too long to get them settled down. In fact, everyone was asleep by 11. Well, I guess not everyone; Emily and I stayed up until after 1 talking. . . AJ said it was the best birthday ever, and I would have to agree. It's nice that they are at an age where they can do more on their own. Everyone was so good, NO ONE got upset and no one got their feelings hurt. It all ran so smoothly, and I got to enjoy a night out with my friend in addition to putting on my daughter's birthday party!

Ta-da!

For those who have asked, I'm finally getting around to posting pictures of my home decor! I still consider it a work in progress (still looking for the perfect accent pillows to brighten the couches a little, a different wreath for the shutters, and some other little things like that), but since we've almost been here a year (and that is when I said I would have some pictures to show) here it is!


I saw this lamp at Quilted Bear in the Spring and LOVED it, but it cost WAY more than I wanted to pay. So I was thrilled when I went back a couple of weeks ago and found it on clearance!
Excuse the crooked picture (guess I hadn't had my V-8 yet), but this is one of my favorite little spots. I found the vases at Tai Pan for a little bit of nothing and the picture of Christ is one of my favorites.
Two more of my favorite finds. J and I were on a date and stepped into Rossto look for a pair of slacks. This chair was right up front and we fell in love with it! Not only does it look good, it is SO comfy. I found the pillow at Walmart (of all places) and it really has become one of my favorite things!
Here is the Family Room. I had slipcovers made for the couches, and am quite happy with the way they turned out. I still want to paint the coffee table, but haven't decided whether to go with distressed white like the desk and kitchen furniture or black to match the side table and other accents. . .