Christmas Joy (and messes)

I hope you all had a Merry Christmas! What a blessing it is we can celebrate our Savior's birth in such abundance. We are very blessed.

And I love everything about Christmas, except this:




Why does it always look like a tornado went through the house?

Christmas Nativity

Things here at our house usually start to get a little crazy right before Christmas. Kids start to get a little anxious for the upcoming Holiday and I start to wonder if they will ever stop counting the days on the calendar 60 times an hour, or shaking presents in hope of actually figuring out what's inside. So in honor of the true meaning of Christmas, I thought i'd share some of our creativity and the fact that they (our children) really do care that we are celebrating the birth of Our Savior, Jesus Christ.



Sara's version of the Nativity, it doesn't get any better than this.



Willies version of the Nativity, ok his is better!



Sacoya's version of the Nativity, miss high tech of the family.



Canyon's version of the Nativity, we're still working on him!



Aspen's version of the Nativity, yes, she gets her creative genius from me. (Willie has nothing to do with it, i swear!)

Good friends

Last week I hosted a lunch and gift exchange. It was such good therapy for me as I am really missing all my friends and old ward members. It seems like when someone moves, memories of them slowly fade away and you almost never stay in touch. And I suppose that's the way it's suppose to be, you form new friendships and bonds. But if you know me, I'm a people person and a little resistant to change. I like to keep the things that are important to me. If you didn't make it, I missed you and if you didn't get an invite, I still miss you. We had a great time, and of course I forgot to take pictures until the last second, so some of you had already left. Thank you for coming and filling up my friendship bucket. I truly treasure all of you.

Welcome to Winter

Before we went to bed last night, I talked Willie into turning off the heater on the driveway. It's kinda noisy and channel 4 news said the snow was pretty much done for the night. Well as you can see, they were wrong! We have about 8 new inches and it's still coming down. I couldn't tell were the front walkway was. And guess who gets to shovel the driveway, yep little ol me. Does anyone have a snow plow I can borrow?



It's hard to tell but I would say it's about a foot tall on the mail box. Aspen was afraid we wouldn't have any snow for Christmas, but it looks like it's here to stay.

Oh Deer!

We have lots of deer running through the yard here, it's fun to see them so close. This guy was in the field across the street. The other day there was one walking down our road while we were driving away, and he leaped the fence, I didn't think he was going to make it, but of course he did, and very gracefully too!

Festival of trees

Willies brothers Tom, Treavor and Richard put together this tree for the annual "Festival of Trees" in Salt Lake City that benefits Primary Children's hospital. Needless to say it raised an amazing amount of money and was the hit of the festival. Willie also donated 2 of his photographs with it. This picture hardly does it justice, but you can see the video here:

Vinyl lettering

I'm loving vinyl lettering, and recently I ordered a few things. These are images I added to my office/craft room. They turned out really great. I also made some really cute neighbor/teacher gifts for Christmas, which if I finish soon, I will post. I just love the holidays, being able to make (and buy) handmade gifts for the people I love.

My free babysitter

THIS +



THIS =



One happy momma. Yes it's true, I admit it, I use Mickey Mouse for a babysitter and i've never had a better one! Except maybe Grandpa & Grandma of course.

New Table

Willie bought me this cute entry way table so I would have a place for our nativity and some of my other Christmas decor. I love it. It fits perfect not too big but lots of room for stuff. So if you want to bring me something, I'll add it to my shelf!!!

---Happy Thanksgiving---

Happy Thanksgiving! We have so much to be thankful for. May we show are gratitude to those we love and to our loving Heavenly Father who has given us all things. May you all have a wonderful day.

Uncle Doug, who's been away to long, Happy Thanksgiving, we miss you!

I'm back!

Yes, it's been a long time, and I need to stop sulking and start getting on with things cause the best part of the year is upon us. I love Thanksgiving, I have a lot to be thankful for. I love Christmas. Can't wait to get out all my decorations, put up the tree etc... So here are a few updates. I'll have more to come soon!



During the last storm, we had a leak in our roof and thus water leaking through the wall in our family room. The paint was stretched just like a water balloon waiting to pop! Luckily it was just a small oversight on the roof. We got it all fixed just in time for the next storm!



We finished the walk out for Willie's studio entrance in the basement. Just waiting for the rock work. We also have the back yard ready for sprinklers and sod, but I'm not sure if it will happen before winter. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I hate mud.



Here's my little Sacoya putting on a happy face. She had two molars pulled yesterday and one of them had a root that was wrapped around another tooth. It took the doctor 30 min to get it out. He said it was the worst tooth he had seen in 5 years. Needless to say she was in a lot of pain. Of course skipping school and laying in moms bed all day be waited on makes up for it!



Here is Canyon in his school book recital and sing. He had to dress up as his favorite book character. Since he couldn't be Junie B Jones, we picked Harry Potter.

Let it snow!

This is what we woke up to out our front door this morning, although i'm sure we aren't the only ones.  There is about 5 or 6 inches.

So in honor of the first snow in our new house, i thought i would post a tradition willie has with the kids. We have no grass yet, so we weren't able to do it this morning, but we recently  did just before we moved. It goes something like this:

Dad: Hey guys look how much it snowed. 

Kids: Ya dad, cool. 

Dad: So who wants to run to the tramp and back? (mind you he is talking about being bare foot)

Kids: Not me, not me

Dad: Don't be wimps.

Kids: ok i'll do it. I want to, i'll go.

Crazy i know, but they do it every time. And the tramp at our old house was way back there. Our yard here is about half the distance so i'm sure Willie will come up with some other route that maybe involves the cows across the street or something! I'm sure this is a tradition they will always remember. I did it once and that was enough for me.