Christmas Door

This is the last of my Christmas decorations that I still have up. I'm usually pretty anxious to put Christmas away but this year was the earliest ever - the night of the day after Christmas was when it all got put away. The main reason for the rush was we were starting Monday morning to remodel our living room and everything, including the furniture, had to be cleared out of there.

I decided to leave the cards and pictures up a little longer since they're in the kitchen on the back door. Its a great thing about this time of year - getting real mail and hearing from good friends and family.

(This post was inspired by my sister's post.)

Merry Christmas

Christmas Eve

This year we didn't do any baking until Christmas Eve and we only made one batch of sugar cookies! So we could have some cookies to put out for Santa. Brooke is my amazing helper and made the dough a couple of days in advance. So we all helped roll out the cookies and then frost them.

Jared and Taylor playing his new battleship game he got from his friend Josh.

With teenage boys it is IMPOSSIBLE to get a good picture of all my kids.

Notice how cute the girls look!

Christmas Eve jammies - a tradition for 18 years.

The kids commented that this would be our last Christmas eve jammies picture

on their beloved couch.

We've had that couch since we got married, over 19 years

and we bought it used.

My Christmas present is a big one this year -

we're remodeling the living room!

My wonderful, beautiful daughters!

Noodle Noggins

Some cute pictures I found on my camera. This is an activity from school when they were learning about N.

Kamryn's Dance Recital

For this year's dance recital, Kamryn's dance group did a cute dance to Holiday Hugs. Kamryn did a great job and looked so cute up there.

Christmas Catch-up

Just before school got out for the holidays, Jared and Kamryn's class put on a Christmas program for their parents and grandparents. It was such a cute program - they sang several songs and recited some cute poems. Kamryn was pretty shy at first but warmed up and did a great job. Jared was very handsome all dressed up and also did a great job! Their teacher is amazing!!

Jared and Kamryn with Mrs Armstrong

Taylor showing his Santa spirit

(he wanted a new snowy picture for his FaceBook profile picture)

I bought this cute snowman at the Festival of Trees.

He was easy to make - its a tube sock with a can of soda inside.

The kids and I made these to give to their friends and teachers and office ladies at school.

the Sunday before Christmas my mom commented that we all looked nice all dressed up for Christmas. So I decided we should try to take a family picture. What a trial. It actually turned out okay but I would have liked to taken more time to do it buy my family is not that cooperative.

Christmas Cuties

Kamryn and Jared all dressed up for church in their new Christmas clothes.

O Christmas Tree

Jared and Kamryn had fun learning about the tradition of decorating Christmas trees at school. And then had fun decorating their own Christmas trees. They wanted to show them to Grandma and we went their right after school. Right after I took this picture they started eating their very own trees. Kamryn ate the the whole thing and Jared ate just a little and saved the rest for a decoration.

University of Utah - Utah vs BYU - Utah Football

Just reliving good memories!

Happy Thanksgiving

I thought one of Jared and Kamryn's kindergarten homework assignments was an interesting one and I decided to finish up the month of November by doing it too.

T - Terrific friends, I'd be lost without them!

H - HP laptop

A - Amazing, come from behind, block-that-kick win by UTAH!

N - New Harry Potter movie, can't wait to see it again.

K - Kids, mine specifically. They are the greatest and i love them dearly.

S - Summer, especially during the winter I'm even more grateful for the summer.

G - Golf, still love it even though I don't get to go very often.

I - Incredibly patient husband. He is awesome and puts up with a lot from me.

V - Very favorite place to go, our family cabin.

I - Interesting books. I love to read and am grateful for so many good books out there.

N - New school for Jared and Kamryn, definitely fun to have kindergarteners at a great school.

G - Gospel, it goes without saying that the gospel is the most important thing for our family.

Snowed In

We've been up at the cabin since late Friday afternoon. I packed in a rush so we could get up here before it got dark so I forgot several things and probably didn't pack enough food (that's a first).
It snowed all day Saturday and was very windy too. Luckily there was a break in the weather and Paul made it up here with us. Yeah!
We woke up this morning and were totally snowed in - sorry no pictures because I forgot my camera too. We probably got 3 feet of snow overnight! The plow had already come by and made a wall in front of the cars so there was no way we were getting out in time to go to the branch up here. So we had our own meeting here at the cabin. We all got our church clothes on and first watched Music and the Spoken Word. It just happened that the bell choir was on today and my good friend Paige is part of that so it was fun to watch her. It was a nice Thanksgiving theme that set the tone for our meeting. It was so great to have sons that hold the priesthood so they could prepare, bless and pass the sacrament to us. Paul conducted the meeting and accompanied the hymns we sang on his guitar. He also gave a talk on the sacrament. Then we shared a message from Pres Monson on being grateful and we all went around and talked about what we are grateful for. It was definitely some of the best church I've ever been to.
The rest of the day was very nice - we played games together and some good down time.
Now the big question is when and how are we going to get home - its supposed to keep snowing for the next couple of days. We'll enjoy it while we can here and be thankful for such a great get away place.

Mama's Holiday Wish List

Mama’s Holiday Wish List Meme

TodaysMama and GameStop are giving away a sleighful of gifts this holiday season and to enter I’m sharing this meme with you.

1. What is your holiday wish for your family?

That we have a mellow holiday season and enjoy spending time together.

2. What is your Christmas morning tradition?

We wait until all the kids are up and dressed before we go see what Santa brought. He has been wrapping the door to the living room so there can be no peeking. We wait until dad is ready with the camera and then the kids break through the "door" and then we take turns going through stockings and opening presents.

3. If you could ask Santa for one, completely decadent wish for yourself, what would it be?

For a professional team to come in and paint, recarpet, add new furniture and decor to my living and dining room.

4. How do you make the holidays special without spending any money?

We like to watch holiday movies, make sugar cookies, drive around and see Christmas lights and we read Christmas stories.

5. What games did you play with your family growing up?

We played lots of made up games - like house on our stairs or in the car. We also played different card games like Mormon bridge and pounce. I remember playing Risk for the first time with my dad and beating him. And when I played it for the first time with Justin he beat me.

6. What holiday tradition have you carried on from your own childhood?

The whole Christmas morning routine is the same for both my husband and me and we've carried that on with our kids.

7. Where would you go for a Christmas-away-from-home trip?

Somewhere warm and tropical - Hawaii, Cancun or Disney cruise

8. Check out GameStop and tell us, what are the three top items on your GameStop Wish List this year?

*a Red Wii would be awesome since we don't have one at all, games to go with it for the 5 yr old twins

*Play Station 3 for the boys so they could play their games on our HD tv

*And the games to go with the PS3 that they like - madden football, Kingdom Hearts

Primary Program

Today was our Primary Program.

This is Kamryn and Jared sitting with their friend Josh

and their teacher Peggy.

Jared did a great job saying his part:

"Heavenly Father sent us to earth."

Kamryn also did a great job saying her part:

"Heavenly Father sent us to live with our families.

The Primary program is always entertaining and at the same time filled with the spirit.

After the program when we were back home I was telling the kids what a great job they did singing the songs. Jared said,

"We didn't do a good job cuz you kept staring at us."

I said I wasn't staring at them but just watching them. He told me that made him nervous so he didn't do a good job and he's not ever going up there again.

He's 18 !!

Holy cow - I have an 18 year old son ?!

I put extra expectations on myself when it comes to my kids birthdays,

especially when its a big milestone birthday - like 18.

So, for Justin's birthday, I put up balloons and a sign on the garage.

When Justin got home, his first comment was

"were you bored today?"

Such thanks.

He didn't see the sign and thought I'd just put up the balloons for the upcoming

Utah game.

For his 18th birthday, he went to school

and then came home and played

Pac Man on the computer.

Justin by his birthday sign

Doesn't he look old :)

The boys waiting for their dad so

Justin can start opening presents.

Speaking of presents,

check out all those presents ...

Kamryn and Jared ready to give some presents to Justin.

They could hardly stand waiting for him to open them.

In our family, Paul tells the kids they can either go out to dinner as a family on their birthday

or stay home and then get more presents. Justin picked to eat at home, sad for me, good for him.

Really, I was glad to make him a nice birthday dinner but he wouldn't tell me what he wanted.

So I grilled steaks, made twice baked potatoes and cream pies for dessert.

A couple of days before his birthday,

I asked Justin what he wanted

and this is the list he came up with:

• Kakuro or Sudoku book
• iTunes Card
• The Village (movie)
• Edward Scissorhands (movie)
• FYE/Ross gift cards
• Metroid Prime (video game)
• Funeral (album)
• The Office Seasons 1, 2, 3 on DVD or Community Season 1
• Harry Potter 7 shirt
• Dad to fix the computer

I thought this was a pretty do-able list.

I'd already bought the scissorhands movie so I was glad to see that on his list.

Taylor was a very cool brother and had already bought the game on Ebay with his own money

Instead of the Office on DVD, Brooke gave him an Office t-shirt.

Jared and Kamryn gave him Toy Story 3, which we all watched that night and really enjoyed.

My parents gave him an iTunes card. He also got the gift cards he wanted and the Harry Potter shirt.

Unfortunately for the family, Paul did not fix the computer for Justin's birthday.

He did something so much cooler - through his boss, Paul was able to get Justin 2 tickets to the Utah vs TCU game. And not just tickets but 2 tickets on the 50 yard line, 5th row!

Justin definitely got spoiled on this big milestone birthday! Hopefully he enjoyed it all.

We love him and are grateful he is part of our family and are really enjoying him.

Halloween Happenings

Halloween was a week long event at our house.

Jared and Kamryn dressed up every day for 5 days.

they wore their costumes to story time at the library

trunk or treat at the church

dance class (just Kamryn)

school party

trick or treat at Paul's work

and regular trick or treat in the neighborhood.

Since they got to dress up so many times

they changed their costumes for almost every activity

Above is Kamryn as a princess with her friend Leah

at the church party

Here's Jared with his friend Josh

Jared was the gold power ranger for this party

Here they are their kindergarten class party.

For this party, Kamryn was Snow White

and Jared was a skeleton

At their school there was a parade all over the school

from class to class and ended up in the gym

where there were lots of parents and grandparents

waiting to see these cute kids all dressed up

Kamryn with her friend all dressed up as a witch

Jared and Kamryn with their teacher, Mrs Armstrong

Jared and Kamryn's class after the party

Kamryn as a cowgirl

and

Jared as Black Spiderman

with their dad at his work.

Layton Construction has had trick or treating for several years at the office.

Its the easiest and warmest way to get your bucket full of candy.

Jared showing off his spider that Justin drew on his cheek

Showing off one of their many costumes

My cute little cowgirl

This was her dance costume from last year's recital

which worked great for Halloween

Taylor all dressed up to go to a party with friends

Jared and Kamryn dressed up with their grandma

The greatest thing about these youngest kids in our family is that they don't know you can go to a store to buy a costume. They just go in the storage room and look in the boxes of costumes and dress ups and pick something to wear.

This year Halloween was really on sunday but we went out on Saturday night to do the trick or treat thing. We were invited over to our friends' house to their party they have every year out in their driveway. they have dinner and hot chocolate and lots of decorations. This year they also had the Utah game showing on their TV they brought outside. It was fun to hang out with friends and neighbors. After awhile, Jared and Kamryn wanted to go back to their grandma's house to help her hand out candy. They loved running to the door when the doorbell rang.