2010

Life 365 | Week 52

Monday, December 20, 2010

Joey came home in the middle of the day with an amazing surprise! He received one of his company’s employee awards this year! And what did he receive – AN IPAD! And not just any iPad – the best one that they have out right now. WOW! He was so excited and I’m just so proud of him. He totally deserves it. It is so fun to see him enjoying it!

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

It snowed again – and it was the best snowman-making snow – so of course we had to get out in it today! It’s fun having the kids home during the day. We made our Frosty and made snow angels and had a snowball fight and just had so much fun. Unfortunately, it got warmer later in the day, and some of the snow melted away, along with our Frosty. I was so glad we didn’t delay in getting out there and playing!

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Today’s activity was to read and watch the movie of The Best Christmas Pageant Ever! So in between playing and cleaning, we read the book and before bedtime we had it done, so we got to watch the movie! It was so fun!

Thursday, December 23, 2010

We did laundry and cleaning today and the kids got to play games on Joey’s little computer. They loved it!

Friday, December 24, 2010

What an amazing day today. Joey completely surprised me this year – many times he is quite the grinch around Christmas – but this season, he has been so wonderful. I think its because as a family, we have really focused on teaching the kids the real meaning of Christmas – we have been reading scriptures every night and the kids have really responded to Jesus and the Christmas story. Joey went shopping and came home with Uncle Aaron and a whole list of fun things to do today. I did some cooking so that all I had to do was stick the potatoes in for tomorrow’s Christmas dinner and did some last minute cleaning. I also made up a batch of swirl cookies for Santa. We played games, and did puzzles, and watched movies, and read books and just spent the whole day together. We were glad to have Aaron join us. We also took the Trax up to temple square and saw the lights and the wonderful nativity scene they had there. There was such a wonderful spirit on the temple grounds and it was so fun being there on Christmas Eve. On the way home, we picked up Chinese food from our favorite place – Mings Garden – and then we came home and ate it. We opened our new pajamas and got a picture of us in them before bedtime.

Saturday, December 25, 2010

It was a fabulous Christmas! The kids had so much fun. From Santa, JJ got Buzz and Beth got a Rapunzel doll. And they also received from us – Jessie, Woody, and Bulls-eye, lots of games, movies, and other fun things and we just spent the whole day playing. The Toy Story movies have meant a lot to me and the kids so it was so fun to see Beth and JJ play with their new Toy Story characters! Joey surprised us all with the Wii Sports Resort Game and he gave me the Wii Fit Plus – which I have wanted for a long time! It was a great day!

Sunday, December 26, 2010

It’s just so much fun to have new things to play with! It was a relaxing day – just spent at church and together.

Life 365 | Week 51

Monday, December 13, 2010

At her Girls Scouts tonight – Beth made Joey and I some little holiday jars. She did a great job!

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

JJ received his Wolf Badge tonight and we are so proud of him. Sister Pinkston was so kind to do his painting/stamping on his hand instead of his face, since JJ really doesn’t like anything on his face. He has worked hard to get it done and Scouts has been one of his favorite things to do.

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

I love the snow – as long as I don’t have to drive in it. We got some more snowfall today and its so pretty!

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Watching Christmas movies and addressing my Christmas Cards is my all time favorite activity of the season. We have sent Christmas Cards every year since we have been married and I love it.

Friday, December 17, 2010

Letter to Santa were on the agenda today. I love seeing them start to write things on their own! When the kids got home from school we headed down to Orderville. It was so fun to get to stay at Aunt Kori’s house. Beth got to sleep in Whitnee’s room with her and we kicked Colby out of his room and got to stay there. It was fun to see and visit with the family.

Saturday, December 18, 2010

A fun day! We spent all day with the family. Lunchtime was spent with make-your-own sandwiches and treats. We did a craft with the kids and then we did our sibling gift exchange. It was fun to be in the barn for this yearly tradition. It was fun to visit with Kori and Ray and be at their house and just visit at Grandpa and Grandma’s too.

Sunday, December 19, 2010

We left to go back home today amidst a bit of snow. Beth was enjoying watching the snow out her window. It was a nice time with the family, but its always nice to be home too.

Life 365 | Week 50

Monday, December 6, 2010

We made it safely home from our vacation and the kids got to skip school again, but Dad had to go back to work. When it got dark, we drove over to the Spanish Fork Festival of Lights! It was a neat drive through lots of fun lights – the kids loved it!

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

The kids purchased some gifts for each other at the school’s Christmas shop and they were so excited to wrap them up for each other today.

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Our project today was some fun Christmas pins. They were a little harder than I thought they would be – just because the beads were so small, but the kids helped where they could! We are going to give them away with some of our friend treats.

Thursday, December 9, 2010

We started our baking and treat-making today. First up, we made these adorable marshmallow snowmen. The kids loved attaching the M&Ms and Pretzels.

Friday, December 10, 2010

Joey had his podcast tonight, but the kids and I headed over to our ward Christmas party. It was good food. Then after the kids went to bed, I spent a long time working on getting treats made.

Saturday, December 11, 2010

We surprised the kids with an outing to “Breakfast with Santa” at Thanksgiving Point. We got to eat breakfast, sing carols with Buddy the Elf and Mrs. Claus, talk to Santa, and lots of fun crafts and activities. The kids had a great time, even though JJ wouldn’t go see Santa. But they both loved sitting in the fireplace where Santa came out! In the afternoon, we went and saw “Tangled” which was so cute and we all loved it. And then in the evening, we headed up to Salt Lake City for the annual Homestarmy Christmas Party. This year we went to Pete’s house and there was lots of good food, visiting, and watching The Muppet’s Christmas Carol.

Sunday, December 12, 2010

Dancing to Christmas music is always so much fun! It was so cute to watch the kids do some dancing together tonight.

Life 365 | Week 49

Monday, November 29, 2010

We traveled home today and the kids got to skip school. Cleaning and doing laundry and trying to get organized for the following week!

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

The kids were excited to go back to school today. They love wearing their warm coats and boots to school – having snow is exciting.

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

The kids were so excited to start our Countdown to Christmas Advent Calendar. I created a new one this year and was so happy with how it turned out. I used a shoe organizer (that has exactly 24 holes – how perfect is that) – and created some date pages to put on the outside and used some fancy clothespins. In each hole – is a card with an activity on it! Today’s activity was to decorate the tree – so we brought the tree in and decorated while listening to Christmas music.

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Today’s activity was to drink hot chocolate by the tree. The kids thought it was so much fun!

Friday, December 3, 2010

I was so excited for tonight’s activity. The kids got home from school and were surprised to see Cody, Becki and Mallory there. I had them read the card in our advent calendar – and surprise – we are heading on vacation to Eden with Cody and Becki! They were thrilled to be able to go back to our “vacation home”! So a few hours later, we arrived at Worldmark. We were able to get a 3-bedroom condo this time and it was fancy! We loved it! So we all settled in – decorated our little tree – went grocery shopping, and ate pizza for dinner. We are all so excited to have this special time together.

Saturday, December 4, 2010

It was such a fun day. We did crafts, played the wii, played some card games, ate great food, and just had such a great time relaxing and enjoying being together. We topped the night off by heading to Eden’s Town Tree Lighting where the kids got to see Santa!

Sunday, December 5, 2010

We are having such a lovely time and we are thinking of making this a yearly tradition! It was Mallory’s very first birthday today and we are so happy that we were able to celebrate with her. We had cupcakes and dinner and present opening! The kids watched Christmas movies all day and just another great day of being together! Happy Birthday Mallory – we love you!

Life 365 | Week 48

Monday, November 22, 2010

We made our countdown to Christmas paper chains today. I was going to wait until next week, but the kids were anxious to do something – so we did it! They were excited to hang them up in their rooms!

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

I made navajo tacos for the first time tonight. I think it went over really well!

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

So the kids didn’t have to go to school today and so they were watching some tv this morning while I was in my room. I suddenly heard the distinct sound that JJ makes when he has a seizure. I ran in and Beth was freaking out. So we waited out the seizure and got Beth calmed down. I was so relieved when he stopped seizing. I hadn’t even realized he had a fever – I knew he was coughing a bit, but had no idea he was as sick as he was. We took him to the doctor and found out he had walking pneumonia but that with some antibiotics he would be fine. JJ slept most of the day and already doing so much better after the first dose of antibiotics.

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Because of JJ being sick yesterday I didn’t get packed until this morning and we didn’t leave for Orderville until late afternoon. We had a nice drive and such pretty scenery on our way down though. It was nice to finally get to Grandma and Grandpa’s house.

Friday, November 26, 2010

What a wonderful day. We had a great Thanksgiving dinner in the barn with all of my family – except for Charity and her kids. And then in the evening, was JJ’s baptism. I was so happy with how it turned out. There are so many times where I don’t know what is going on in JJ’s head or how much he is taking in – but tonight, I know he felt the spirit. He was so calm and happy and it just was so great to see him come up from the water with a smile on his face. I was so glad all the family could be there. Both Grandmas gave such wonderful talks and the Grandpas were the witnesses. Cousin Austin played the piano for us and there was just such a wonderful spirit there. I’m so thankful for JJ and for the gospel in our lives. Afterwards, we had our Thanksgiving pie and other desserts and all the men/boys played basketball in their church outfits! It was fun to go over to Kori’s house afterwards and visit and play games.

Saturday, November 27, 2010

JJ and I spent the day with Grandpa and Uncle Clint at Sink Valley. We looked for cows, played in the snow, got some wood for Grandma’s fire, and got some Christmas trees. JJ loved being out there and I did too – even though it was pretty cold. It was a fun day, spent with just my buddy. Dad and Beth spent time with the rest of the family at home. Joey helped Grandma with some computer stuff and Beth got to play all day with Whitnee.

Sunday, November 28, 2010

We decided not to return home today. The weather was pretty awful, so we just spent another day, playing at Grandma’s house and visiting. It was nice just to be with the family.

Life 365 | Week 47

Monday, November 15, 2010

My first try at making beef stew tonight. It wasn’t the best, but not too bad. The kids seemed to like it.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

The kids had penny wars at school this week and so we had some fun emptying out our piggy bank and sorting and counting.

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

I love Fall sunsets. This was the beauty for tonight – the picture doesn’t do it justice. The kids and I stared at it for as long as we could before it was just too cold!

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Joey got some new dice and the kids and him had some fun tossing them for awhile tonight.

Friday, November 19, 2010

I was in the kitchen all day today, preparing for the weekend. I made rolls, egg noodles, mashed potatoes, and pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. And of course tried to get most of the cleaning up done. My parents arrived at 2 and we visited while I finished up my baking. Then when the kids got home from school, we turned on a movie for them and Grandpa and my mom and I headed out the door. We had a nice visit and then we got to experience the Time Out for Women. I loved hearing the music and the inspirational messages. It was a great evening.

Saturday, November 20, 2010

We started the day extremely early to get up to Salt Lake City for the rest of the Time Out for Women. I throughly enjoyed the messages of Hope that we received and it was something I really needed. Joey spent the day with the kids – Beth had a birthday party as well. I went to dinner with my parents and friends before we started home. Unfortunately, we hit a snowstorm and we were pretty wore out by the time we got back to my home. We watched a little Utes football (they won) and then went to bed.

Sunday, November 21, 2010

My parents left this morning. It was nice to have time with them both and it was nice to hear that they got home safely – even though they had a little storms on their way. Beth coughed all night and even though she was supposed to give a talk today in church, we decided she better stay home. She did finally convince her daddy to play tea party with her. Unfortunately our Colts lost by a field goal today and so it was pretty disappointing.