Christmas Eve & Christmas 2009

Christmas is such a wonderful time of the year, not only to we get to reflect on the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ, we get to spend time together as a family, creating memories and enjoying the festivities of the season. This Christmas Eve we had a wonderful time with our little family. We started off by going to the movie " Alvin & the Chipmunks Squeakwal" the kids loved it. Then we came home and started our traditional Christmas Eve dinner: Chicken and Steak Fondue, fresh green beans with baby red potatoes, cheese fondue with bread and apples and we topped it off with Chocolate Fondue with strawberries, bananas, apples, brownies and marshmallows. It was wonderful and the kids had a great time. Then we played a few family games together: Bingo and Pictureka. We then read the real christmas story, reflecting on our Saviors birth and then the kids got to open there one gift on Christmas Eve. NEW JAMMIES! They watched Santa on the Santa tracker for awhile, then it was time to get cookies and milk and a letter to santa and they were off to bed with sugar plums dancing through there heads I am sure. Christmas morning they woke up around 6:00 am but they were not allowed to come up and wake us until 7:15. Well at 7:14 and 1/2 they bounded up the stairs and in our bedroom wanting to see if Santa had come.


Christmas time for a child is so magical and fun, only if mom and dad had that same wonderful experience, it truly would be magical.

Sugar Cookies!

Making and Baking sugar cookies always seems like a fun, festive activity until you start the process and wonder what kind of mess have I got myself into. As a mother, I wanted to make a memorable activity for the kids. Well I needed more patience that day than I had. First off it takes an hour just to make the dough, then you have to chill for 2 hours, then cutting all the fun shapes out letting the 3 year old help to make memories is about enough to throw the towel in right there. Then once you roll and cut out the shapes and reshape the ones the 3 year old helped you out with, you still have to bake and frost all those cookies. 2 hours laters you have so many cookies to frost you don't know how you are going to get them frosted! Once again trying to be a fun mom you make 4 different colors of icing and have trays of cookies for your kids to frost when they walk in from school. They are excited and right out the door they are all licking there fingers, sprinkles are flying everywhere and just when you tell the 3 year old not to lick the knife you turn your back to clean up some spilt frosting only to turn around and have her sucking on not one but two of the frosting knives! I always have in my head this beautiful picture of what I think my cookies are going to look like, my vision is always far off from our final results. And by the time you are done with the 8 hour ordeal you hope you never see another sugar cookie in your life.

Oh a mother making sugar cookies needs lots and lots of patience, a diet coke and maybe a bowl full of chocolate to make it all worth it. The priceless smiles as they lick and eat the cookies as they frost make it all worth it and make you forget so you can do it all over the next christmas season.

Trying to make the most out of WINTER!

I decided I better start trying to make the most out of winter since I live where winter is like 5 to 6 months of the year. Scott and Mitchell have taken up snowboarding together, and I decided to invest in some nice winter clothes and go out and enjoy all that the winter months have to offer. I took the kids sledding, Kade got to try out his snowboard on the sledding hill and we even got to build a snowman together. I must say it was a wonderful day and having nice warm winter clothes makes all the difference if you are going to be out in the weather. Scott and Mitchell have picked a new hobby and I decided when they go to the slopes Sadie, Kade and I will do some sort of winter activity. So far so good. I hope I can keep up the good spirits!

oH cHriStmaS TrEe!

The boys wanted to cut there own "REAL" Christmas tree down this year. I love my "FAKE" tree but they wanted one to call there own. Kade and Sadie really didn't care what tree we cut down, but Mitchell was a different story. He was a man on a mission. I was a wimp and kept telling Mitchell lets just cut a tree bud, but no he had to stand back and look at the tree from every angle. He was a trooper and finally after about an hour found the tree. It looks great, but I do have to admit the trees ALL look better in there natural environment.

Lots of TREATS and a few TRICKS!

Halloween has come and gone! The kids love HALLOWEEN! They had fun picking out pumpkins, designing pumpkins, deciding what they were going to be ( with several different changes throughout the month), and finally being able to TRICK OR TREAT and get all the lute they ever could want. I on the other hand am glad that it is over. That is a bad attitude I know. I try to stay so patient and my patience always runs out before Halloween even arrives. There are so many parties to dress the kids up for, so many tears and drama in between, so much candy to make them even more HYPER than they already are.

On the other hand they did have fun, it was very warm for HALLOWEEN in Utah and they were able to get plenty of candy so we are chalking this Halloween down for a success.

SWEET "NO PATIENCE" SADIE!

I made these slip dresses for a boutique and I made Sadie be my model! She of course thought it was a good idea for about ONE MINUTE! She hated the hat and hated I kept telling her that we needed another picture. Well for only having her cooperate for seriously ONE minute I was able to get a few good shots to let ladies know what the dresses could/should look like!

A Chilly Conference Weekend!

We decided to head to Park City for Conference weekend. We thought we were going to be able to enjoy the fall colors and the fall like weather in Park City over Conference Weekend. To our surprise we woke up to snow covered mountaintops and also our car! Could this really be happening I thought to myself! The kids of course came into our room bright and early and said, Mom you are not going to like what you see out the window! I pretended to be upset for a minute. The snow is beautiful from a distance and I am not sure if I am ready or not, but WINTER is coming no matter if I am ready or not.

We had a wonderful weekend together, it was nice listening to conference by the fire and watching it snow was also beautiful I must admit. The kids couldn't get enough of the indoor/outdoor pool, YES Mitchell and Kade were crazy enough to swim out to the outside, only because it is HEATED!

We took a long drive during one of the session and at the top of the mountain got out and had our 1st SNOW FIGHT for the year! We can chalk that one down, and Sadie thought the SNOW was SUPER CHILLY!

I always look forward to this wonderful weekend, now that I am grown it always seems to go by way to quickly though. The kids listened but always are asking when is it going to be over!

Our Birthday Boy turns #9

Mitchell LOVES his BIRTHDAY! He loves all the attention on him for the day and getting spoiled rotten doesn't hurt either. He asked for a baseball field cake this year w/ the DODGERS emblem. He was pretty excited how it turned out. He was able to go golfing 9 holes with his dad, and to the Cheesecake Factory with his family, and he even got to order off the adult menu. Of course he ordered the biggest burger on the menu and ate ALL but 3 bites, but he was very, very uncomfortable for the next few hours.

Mitchell is a joy in our family. He always has his brain working and he keeps us all smiling. We are very LUCKY to have him in our FAMILY! WE LOVE YOU BUDDY! HAPPY 9th BIRTHDAY!

Enjoying the Outdoors!

Once again we are enjoying the outdoors. Kade and Mitchell think it would be the best thing if we could live up in the mountains for a year. No chores and no baths for a whole year sounds like the ideal life for my two boys. Here are a few pictures of the kids having the time of their life in nature once again.

DANCE, DANCE, DANCE

Sadie started her first dance class. She was all smiles and very excited about her dance outfit and thinks she is all grown up because she gets to go somewhere without mom.