A Very Merry Christmas Indeed

Twas the day before Christmas and all through the house, all the kids were stirring and they just couldn't wait! I think we set a record for letting the kids make Santa's cookies and opening their one early Christmas present (PJs of course). They were all in pajamas by about 5:00 this year. It almost made things a little nicer actually. That way in the evening we could read the story of Jesus's birth out of the bible without chomping at the bit to get done and open their one early present.

Another tradition we've always done is to go sprinkle the "reindeer food" out in the yard. Here's a picture of them on the porch after they were done. They always leave out cookies and milk and this year Reese left a really cute letter for Santa that I was sure to copy before Santa took it with him. It read: " Dear Santa, I have been good this year, well not all the time but I think I was pretty good. Sometimes it's really hard to be good all the time, but nobody's perfect. I don't know what I want for this year but I thought maybe you could take something from my list and it could be from you. One thing, a lot of people forget what Christmas is really about but thanks for everything you do. I think you're extraordinary. THANKS!!! Merry Christmas, Love Reese.

The kids were up around 1:30 at which point I had to tell them to my knowledge Santa hadn't even been here yet and they better get to sleep if they wanted him to be able to come. After that we didn't see them until about 6:50 the next morning. As always, there was plenty of excitement to go around! And Nigel was just pleased to be inside on his new bed.

Here's a few pictures of the aftermath... Also pictured is our annual "Breakfast Pizza" a tradition started by Sam's Grandma, Jeanne. It's delicious, and with bacon on top of it, how could it not be?

I also had a wonderful Christmas. My favorite thing in the whole world is to see my kids so happy and excited. I think every year they say this was the best Christmas ever which, I must confess is a large part of my mission - accomplished! Sam was sweet and got me some really nice things. Our day was extremely laid back and I don't think I got out of my robe until at least 3 in the afternoon, so no pictures this time! One really big present we all got was a visit from Grandma Nyleen and Grandpa Ladd who are usually never here during Christmas. The kids loved having them here to show off all their new goodies and just love on them.One of the highlights I'd say of this year has been Elle's new kitchen that she "asked Santa for because she knew Mommy didn't have enough money" ... I thought that was a wise move on her part. :) Anyway, it has been so fun watching Elle and Audrey play with it for countless hours on end. I guess it goes to show me how far simple toys can go. Lots of the foods and accessories are wooden and it's been a lot of fun.Yup, lots of fun to be had, that is until you get attacked with the silly string that came in everybody's stockings.... Oh Elle, you spice up our lives.

We Hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!

Winter Break Fun

Going ice skating has become sort of a winter break tradition for our family. The kids are starting to get the hang of it and it's really fun! This time we took our good friends the Roberts along with us which made for more entertainment for everyone involved!

The hat I'm wearing I feel requires an explanation. The hat belonged to Sam's 93 year old Grandpa. It was his from about the 70's and Sam claimed it for his own. It's a family treasure with several of us competing to get to wear it. This day I won. :)

We met the Roberts kind of through Elle. She and their daughter Cali go to preschool together and have some kind of magnetic pull toward each other. We're sure glad they do because now each member of our family has gained six new friends! They're so much fun to be with- it's funny how your kids pick your friends sometimes.

Here's the whole crew:

Me, Audrey, Sailor, Brooke, Rett, Bridger, Sam, Reese Elle, Cali, and Deacon.

Oh Those Sweaters!

This was a new event this year - one that apparently is all the rage now-a-days. The ugly sweater party. Yup, that's right. The party that celebrates all those awkward holiday sweaters and turtlenecks... and all things awesome.

I was accused of not trying hard enough on my get-up but I will say that my sweater and scotty-dog turtle neck were rightfully purchased at the D.I. (our local version of Goodwill), and it is definitely hit and miss. We went a few days after I found mine, for Audrey, and she found a Doosie! She then chose to wear it "for realz" on Christmas Eve here at home. So you'll see it pictured in that post. The party was all in good fun, and Audrey along with her friends were instrumental in the adults enjoying themselves. They took all 24 kids to our friend Kate's house ( Kate also attended the party ) and entertained all the children for hours. It was magical!

Some of the highlight gifts of the night included a bumpit (hair accessory) , a whole chicken in a can, a country music themed excersize video, and other honorable mentions.... It was a good time, lots of people, lots of food and a bunch o' fun.

All those fun festivities!

There's always no shortage of fun activities around Christmas time!

Audrey's teacher opted for them to perform for the "old-folks-home" here in town instead of doing their typical Christmas class party. They also stopped by the Children's justice center to deliver donations. It was a great thing to do for all involved and really gave the kids a taste of the spirit of service.

Elle's preschool class performed a little re-enactment of "Twas the Night Before Christmas" , sang a bunch of adorable songs and got a visit from Santa.

My parents were here this year and so we all got together for dinner and a white-elephant gift exchange.... a good time was had by all!

It's Christmas Time Pretty Baby....

The title of this post is partly due to my playlist being stuck on Elvis's song - It's Christmas Time Pretty baby - it's the only thing I can think of after hearing it so many times!

Here's just a few pictures after Church on one of the Sunday's in December where we were particularly coordinated. Sam was already changed out of his clothes and Elle was really the only one available/willing for my photo-shooting antics. I've messed with the colors in some of these, although, the lighting was particularly golden due to the time of day.

I feel so blessed to live where I do, to be alive when I am and to have such a wonderful family, friends, neighborhood and life.
We are truly blessed.

Hope you've all had a wonderful Christmas Season!

Nutcracker Season

Another successful performance of the nutcracker! Audrey did beautifully and was in several dances. She was a sweet on pointe, a snowflake and a Russian dancer. For some reason, I struggled to get pictures of her this year - I think it had some to do with the lighting on stage which just didn't seem quite bright enough. She did do fabulously though and no Christmas Season would be complete for our family without enjoying this classic!

Here she is, our beautiful 11 1/2 year old! Growing up so fast. When she came on stage I almost didn't recognize her with her eyebrows penciled in! She said someone backstage told her to do it for the stage lights- I think I prefer her a little more au-natural but she's always beautiful none the less!

Several of her friends came to see her including her activity days group. Here she is with a couple of her best friends, Natalee and Halle. Also us, too bad we weren't able to get our entire family in one shot. She was tired and tired of being in her shoes! Notice in the kids' picture Elle's graceful stance, I'm pretty sure she wants to be just like her big sister.

Awesome job Audrey! We're so very proud of you and all you've accomplished! We love you!

Happy Hogwarts Birthday!

Happy Birthday Handsome!

We started out our morning bright and early! Reese couldn't wait to get celebrating. Here he is after opening some of his presents. The space cat shirt was from me. Reese likes cats, and space so I figured we had a win-win. When I was getting the punching bag, I had the thought that the day your little boy asks for a punching bag, means he's growing up. Nine years old! Wow. It's been so much fun enjoying Reese in our family. He brings so much light and life to our home.

Reese wanted to host a Hogwarts party and feast for a few of his friends. We had a lot of fun setting up for his party; he and his friends were so excited. As you can see below, we happened to have a white chocolate thumb on hand left over from Halloween, Reese and his friend Nick decided it should be Peter Pettigrew's finger. Nice touch boys, nice touch.

I never would've necessarily volunteered to feed a bunch of boys a sit down dinner, but I've got to say, this was a stroke of genius! It kept them quiet and occupied for at least 25 minutes or more! They all were happily eating their feast foods. We served only Reese's favorites- ham, pizza, mashed potatoes, mandarin oranges, pineapple, and long carrots-which doubled for wands.

We had plenty of fun and the boys absolutely loved getting "butter-beer" in the giant mugs that I came across at the dollar store. Butter beer is in the books and is a sweet cream soda served with whipped cream-we added ice cream to ours too. These mugs went home to everyone as their parting gift. After all the eating, wand-dueling, trying out of the new punching bag, and other rowdiness, we settled in to watch Harry Potter #4, Reese's favorite. It was great fun and most of all I was just happy to see my big nine year old Reese so happy!

Here's one that's just too cute, our jolly little rolly polly elf :) From back in the chubbier days.

We love you big boy! Happy Birthday!

a hodge-podge...

Life marches on at an alarming pace sometimes... That's about the stage we're in right now. I've decided to do a little catch-up before Reese's Birthday and all the inevitable pictures arrive. So here we go. ~ I got to be the lucky parent escort who accompanied Audrey and her entire class to see the Utah Symphony. It was actually really fun and I loved seeing Audrey in action with her friends. She's still such a kid, which is comforting.

Next, the "blizzard of the century" was announced, and while some panic seemed to ensue- ( college campuses shut down, Sam came home from work early, people going into lockdown mode ) The storm came and went within maybe an hour and was pretty underwhelming. The kids have since enjoyed the happy result- snow! Also, I forced them to pause in their Christmas wears after church. I love that Audrey is still ok to be "twiners" with her little sis.

On to Thanksgiving! We were happy to host Sam's mom and her hubby along with Laura and her entire family. Great food and great company. I'm calling it a success!
There's also been no shortage of social engagements. Here's our small group at the Harry Potter movie (thanks to Reesey for letting his dorky mom borrow his cool HP tie)- minus one friend who got sick that day - I was also able to attend and work at the Time Out for Women event put on by Desseret Book. I highly, highly recommend it. The speakers and music were absolutely fantastic. The woman in traditional African garb is named Mariama Kallon. Look her up, her story will astound and inspire you. She is an incredible spiritual powerhouse. You can see a small clip about her here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mx3sSZTuOyA

Now, with Christmas decorations all up, the show must go on, because there's cute little people like this counting down anxiously to Christmas everyday! Merry busy month!

I'll even leave you with a parting gift... Audrey's class bursting into song on the bus but be warned their lyric choice was most definitely concocted by a sixth grade boy.

What's real and true.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcHQ8LOdmYM

Click on this, but before you do I've made sure to put my playlist to the immediate right of this post - Press pause on the playlist so the music will stop and be sure to have your speakers on. This is such a touching video. Life is full of fun things, silly things, frustrating things and day to day things. All of which don't seem to mean quite so much when we consider what's really important and true. Enjoy, have a wonderful day and upcoming holiday. We have so much to be thankful for. Most of all the gift of the Savior Jesus Christ who came to die for our sins that we might live forever with our Father in Heaven again.

someday?....maybe?....

I have been seriously longing for a major re-vamp of my interior space... I'm completely grateful for our home, of course; but I feel like when we came here, we just settled into the house kind of as-is and haven't done all that much to make it "ours".

Also on that note, I've been getting a little lifestyle-sick? I think I just made that up - for my days when I worked on parade of homes houses, taught small classes to the community on interior design and especially for when I was a student, dreaming up anything my mind could fathom and putting it out into my projects. I was saying something to this effect to a friend who's older and wiser and she said, "your time will come" your kids will be grown before you know it. Enjoy every stage. So with that, I've found some comfort in not fully developing my talents and interests for now. I am so thankful to get to spend this time with my kids, I'm so glad that I don't have to be anywhere by any certain time- as in officially reporting to work- I'd much rather be able to take care of my family and be available for them.

I know there's things I can do now too, and I must be gearing up for something because I've been consumed with ideas for my own home, hotels, restaurants, all kinds of stuff. It's probably the lack of having things the way I would really want them spurring me on to contemplate my ideal surroundings. For a long, long time now, I have idolized minimal colorscapes in the home. I absolutely love the thought of putting one vase on a table and it instantly being a focal point, or a lamp, or two pillows.... you get the idea. I love the simplicity. I've also come to the conclusion that I HATE (ok, I'm really tired of) brown. My entire house is brown, but not brown with a purpose, just brown to be safe, zzzzzzz... Along the lines of simplicity, I love modern design. I feel like my life is crazy and cluttered enough, I'd love for my surroundings to be as minimal and clutter free as possible. Here are a couple of pictures that I liked. Just for fun.

L-O-V-E this couch. Love everything really.

I love this kitchen, especially the light fixture.
Another favorite light fixture! This chandelier + modern decor = fabulous! I also love this one, but it's actually a little too traditional for what I've been feeling drawn to lately. Although it is absolutely gorgeous, and I may be changing my thoughts on it as I type. I had to include it because it has the exact floor I would kill for!!! (and eventually, probably have to kill my family for how hard it would be to keep clean! :)

Photo op for family

Here they are, in all their glory; Harry Potter and my two little witches!

We hope everyone had a great Halloween Weekend! Now on to Christmas. ;)