The Spirit of Christmas

Some of our attempts to keep the Christmas spirit...

1. A few weeks ago we decided to go see a the local Christmas Creche. There were all kinds of Nativity scenes from here and around the world set up in a church. Most of the rooms had several nativity sets set up in them. There were 100s- big, small, old, new... It was very cool. It was nice to have do something simple (and free) to help us remember the reason for the season. I loved it, and the kids did too.

On the way home, Tavish said, "They didn't have a Lego nativity; we should make one out of Legos." So that's what we did. Can you guess who made what?

2. Last night we went to see the lights at Temple Square. We haven't been since we've been married. How sad is that living in Utah and never taking our kids to Temple Square during Christmas time? I'm so glad we went. There is such a peaceful feeling at Temple Square- especially at Christmas. It was beautiful. There was quite a bit of fog that surrounded the temple.

It brought back memories of my mission and being in the Madrid MTC in December. We lived on the temple grounds, several floors up. I loved to study out on the couches that looked out on the temple. When it was foggy, the top half of the temple stood out from the clouds. I felt like I was living in Heaven. (Madrid temple pic above)

Anyway, that's how it kind of felt at temple square last night. Of course, it would have been better if it wasn't so crowded, but what can we expect going on the family night before Christmas?

Overall- I'm grateful for my Savior and this time we have to celebrate his birth. Merry Christmas!

Terrible Twos

This past week has been busy with cooking, shopping, cleaning, birthday... all of that good stuff before Christmas. I have a little toddler that seems to be undoing what I do. I've even heard the other kids say, "Mac! I just picked that up!" Ha Ha...the story of my life. I call it the "terrible twos" even though he's only one and a half. I've decided to appreciate my little toddler and his messes, instead of getting frustrated (Ok- doesn't always work, but I do try really hard). I've tried to take pictures of him to remember how dang cute he is.

So- how do I see the hand of the Lord in my life? He's blessed me with an energetic, healthy, entertaining little child with a cute personality. I just love little Mac!

Here he is helping out in the kitchen.

Throwing a fit when I got him all bundled up to go out into the snow.

Mac loves to DUMP things... toys, cereal boxes out of the garbage can with lots of crumbs (don't have a pic of that), pretzles... just before this he took a bag of popcorn out of the garbage and dumped the leftover kernels...

He also likes to throw things in the toilet and playing in it... haven't got a picture of that either- I'm always in too big of a hurry to get him out and washed up.

Mac loves UNdecorating the tree and playing with the presents. We decided to put the gate around it and had to fix it just right because he was finding ways to get through it. (Sara checks the presents under the tree EVERY day)

5 years old

Last week was our Sweet Sara's birthday. I can't believe she's 5 already. Here are 5 things I love about Sara:

1. Sara cares about others.

2. Sara is easy going.

3. Sara is helpful.

4. Sara tries to do what's right.

5. Sara loves people, (especially her family), and we love her!

Here is what Sara says are her 5 favorite things that happened this year:

1. Going to the jumping place

2. Going to the ocean

3. Going to the park

4. Having family nights

5. Going Fishing

We went to Jumpin Jacks for her birthday. It was fun!

What a good Dad spending time with the kids (even though it made me nervous- that was a big slide!)


I think Mac was most interested in the drinking fountain.






The Birthday Girl

Let it Snow...

Today I'm thankful for great neigbors! We've had two days of snow... 12 inches the first day (we measured) and about 6 inches the second (we didn't measure). Yesterday our neighbor came over and snow-blowed our driveway and a way for Tav to get out of our road. (We are the only house on our little road, so it doesn't get plowed until all the storms are over). After being sore from shoveling the day before, I was SO grateful for our good neigbors (Tavish was too!). We've been lucky- I love ALL of my neighbors!

Thanks neighbor. You are my blessing of the day!

You can see the snow better on this picture from our deck.

All bundled up to go out and shovel

Modern Mecicine and Technology

How I have recognized the hand of the Lord in my life this week: I am grateful that God has blessed and inspired man to create modern medicine and technology.
This week we were able to get the swine flu vaccine. Yea! I can't tell you how many times I have tried to get that for us... I'm sure you don't want to hear all of the details. I'ts been something I've worried about. I've heard too many bad stories from the flu. So, on Monday I decided to go to Provo to get a reservation ticket for the vaccine. I was dreading waiting in line with Mac to get the ticket, then wait in line again to get the shot the next day. We were also going to get the van registered (nothing like putting it off until the last day:) Anyway, I went online to check if the Health Department were giving tickets that day, and lo and behold- they started giving tickets online! Yay! I got the tickets online, registered the van online, and we got the shot the next day. What a blessing! I'm so grateflu for modern medicine and technology!

I've also been lucky to do a lot of Christmas shopping online with good deals and free shipping. Yesterday I decided I needed to actually go out and get some stuff, so I took the 3 kids shopping. After all the crowds, traffic, my fighting and screaming children (Mac literaly screamed about the whole time in Shopko), I was ready to scream myself. The kids were driving me crazy. To top it off, I wasn't able to find what I wanted, we came home to a bomb of a house, and our brand new Christmas lights didn't work (that we were planning on putting up). I was ready to run away. Luckily, Tavish came home and could see the distress on my face, and said, "I brought a movie home; you need to relax." He was right- he's such a good husband.

So what I learned: I'm going to take advantage of our modern technology and conveniences and do as much shopping online as possible... and only go out when I need to- by MYSELF! (Is that possible?) That should help me not be such a grinch this Christmas season.

Family Traditions

Yesterday our family spoke in church; the topic was gratitude. Since I preached over the pulpit that we should all be grateful, I figured I better practice what I preach and post what I have been grateful for lately. The talks went well, despite my severe nervousness (why do I do that to my self?) and that Tavish announced my blog to the whole ward. The kids did a good job and even sang a song :) I sure love them.

This week I am grateful for family and family traditions.

When I was a teenager my family started making gingerbread houses. My mom had a friend who was the gingerbread house queen. She made beautiful, elaborate, gingerbread villages. She taught my mom how to make them (although we never were near as talented and elaborate as she was), and we made them as a family during those teenage years. As we all grew up and left the house the tradition kind of died out. The past few years, though, I've tried to keep up this tradidtion and share it with the inlaws.

We like to do them early so we can have them for the month. I have to admit that I was pretty stressed last week getting everything ready. I had to bake gingerbread houses, bake some things for Thanksgiving (luckily it wasn't at my house), make frosting, organize candy, set up extra tables and chairs, worry about keeping everyone happy, and the most stressful thing of all: get my house clean. I know- that's sad that it is such a chore for me to get a house clean, but for me it's a major accomplishment. If any of you have a secret to keeping your house clean, please share it with me.

As I was preparing for the gingerbread house day, the thought crossed my mind, "Maybe we should quit this tradition; it's too much work..." Luckily I have some very good inlaws who helped make frosting, picked up dinner for us all, and helped clean everything up after. It turned out to be lots of fun and good family time. The kids had fun together too. Later that night I thought, "That was worth it."

I think activities like this and other good family traditions strengthen the family. Something that I have learned, and am still learning, is that something of worth takes work and sacrifice. A good strong family doesn't just happen on its own. So, I'm going to try to remember that when I'm whining about this whole motherhood thing being too hard. I know it will be worth it.

This year I took pictures to document our Gingerbread House process. It probably won't be too interesting to you all- oh well ;)

1. Make the dough (this year I skimped a little too much on the flour- made the housed a little soft) I'm grateful for my Bosch!

2. Roll the dough and cut the pattern before baking. (I looked all over for one of these rollers and finally found it from Pampered Chef.

3. Cut and remove the pieces. You have to do this while it's warm or it gets hard and breaks. ( I feel like I'm doing a cooking show)

4. Make royal icing, put the house together with the frosting (attatch to a base too), decorate how you want. Sorry- didn't get pictures of all of that.

Decorating tips (I probably shouldn't give decorating tips): frost the roof with a butter knife and decora side at a time. Covering the edges with frosting (with a decorating tip) makes it look better.

The finished product

Chris's playhouse

Grandpa with his Grahm Cracker house

Chelsy's family made some really cute houses out of cardboard

Decorating a store bought gingerbread house

I don't have a finished picture of this; it was really cute.

Sara's house

Andrew's house

Girl Time

As I ponder the day... I think how grateful I am to be blessed with a daughter. Don't get me wrong- I love my boys. They are full of life and keep my life interesting. I think mothers have a special relationship with their boys. But..... my one-on-one time with Sara during the day is very refreshing. I like the girl time Sara and I spend together. Of course, our girl time isn't usually painting our nails, doing our hair... all of that (even though we do that occasionally), it's other things girls enjoy.

One thing she likes to do is school with me (something that I always liked as a kid and still do- I think I'm a little nutso when it comes to that). She likes to play these file folder games that I made a long time ago. I have a bunch more that I've been meaning to put together, but you know... that's something I just never get to. So today, I said to Sara, "Do you want to help me make file folder games?" She was very excited (How many boys would be excited over that?). So, we cut, colored, glued, ate lunch, then came back and cut, colored, and glued some more. She's a very determined little person- it was her idea to do it again after lunch. Now we have 4 1/2 games ready to laminate (we ran out of glue).

We also went to the music store to buy a piano book for her. She's been bothering me to teach her for a long time. We'll try it and see how it goes. It was just nice spending the day with someone who had the same interests as me, even if there is a 27 year age gap.

I'm glad I have my little girl. I hope we can be friends forever.