This project was super intimidating when I started but it was fun once I got started. I haven't sewn anything in a while. It felt so good to get back into it! And my sister Carrie was gracious enough to accept it as her birthday present!



Mike made this advent calender for my sister Val! Isn't it darling? Love it! I found a tall tree at hobby lobby that would be perfect for a second tree in the house. So Mike made me this one! So fun!

Calamity Christmas

My sisters, Mom and Dad and Jen met up in St. George for Christmas this year. We have rented houses for vacations before and it's always been great...St. George house? Not so much! It was so much littler than what it was advertised and NASTY! Not the kind of nasty that can be cleaned, the kind that just needs things replaced! But what could we do, right? So we made the best of it...even if I only took my shoes off to sleep and shower! Seriously gross! Almost everyone got super sick and stayed sick the whole week, it rained most of the time, Lukey broke out in hives, Mike forgot our presents from Santa at home {But one of my sisters friends who was in Vegas watching the bowl game brought them to us! Such a sweetheart!}, and the excitement only got worse once we got home! Our mailbox got broken in to and our mail stolen! Caleb had an ER visit, Lukey keeps breaking out in hives, Tessa keeps me up all night coughing, poor girl, and Mike's truck got broken in to! Yeah, the ignition and lock on the driver side door is all busted from them trying to steal it and his computer is gone! Punks! You'd think we lived in the ghetto or something! And, we're in a rental since my van is getting fixed from the german shepherd incident, so we have one car for the past 2 days! Ugh! Our luck better be turning around fast! lol! We all need a vacation to make up for this disaster of one! But I got to spend time with my most favorite people in the world and I got to shop!
p.s. I tried to take Tessa with us to see Tangled...not a good idea!!

Tessa and her cousin Quincee with their Grandpa Great. We made a visit to my aunts to visit her and my Grandpa. He's 90 this year and not doing so well, so we all wanted to see him!


Christmas for 15 kiddos!


Opening presents!


We have a tradition where the kiddos all pick names to buy




Tessa girl on her new pony! I've been trying to teach her to say giddy-up!

We have a few family traditions. We always make sweetbread, the kiddos pick names to buy for each other as do the adults, we read the Christmas story on Christmas eve, sing and this year we talked more in detail about the nativity. It was so special and really helped my testimony to grow! Even if everything went wrong, the spirit of Christmas was with us!:)

Ali & Dan and 3 of our nieces, Alana, Courtney and Caitlyn came to my house after Saint George. We went to the park, shopped and made it down to the strip to ride the NY roller coaster, MGM lions, TI pirate show and the Bellagio water show! It was so fun to hang out...even though the kiddos got really sick that evening! Boo!

This is such a fun season, as I know you all agree! This year it was my assignment, as being a part of the primary presidency in my ward, to get the children Christmas ornaments. I had these great ideas that were oh so fancy! But then I really thought about these kids. How simple and wonderful their testimonies are, so I came up with this "building block" idea. And I LOVE the theme this year! I Know, not I think or feel or believe or hope, but I Know My Savior Loves Me. I wish every kid on this planet would know this. This gospel concept is one of the first "building blocks" to a solid testimony! I asked Mike to cut some blocks for me. So after a little mod podge, stain, scrapbook paper, sanding, vinyl and drilling I was done making these! I hope the primary kiddos will like them!:)



Oh I am so not happy with our Christmas card this year! But our "photo" session just kept on getting pushed to the back burner and so this is the best I could do at such short notice! Blah! Lame....anyway on to happier things! This is a pretty decent picture of us using our tripod {again, I know, lame!} and the kiddos are darling with all their surprised expressions! Haha! We tried to do more things homemade this year and we've really had such a good time doing it...hey, I guess our lame Christmas card is semi homemade! Haha!



Just some treats we want to pass out to neighbors, primary teachers & school teachers! I made up some homemade hot chocolate {& added marshmallows!}, cinnamon honey butter, a candle and a cake in a jar. So fun! Mike & I both have some other homemade gifts but I'll have to wait to post these until after Christmas as they are gifts for some of my sisters and we don't want to spoil the surprise! Oh & Mike's project is AMAZING!


My family's traditional yummy, amazing sweetbread! But I didn't get a picture of it before I wrapped it up! Darn! But here's one all pretty and ready to be delivered!


I swear my kids have been sick ever since Thanksgiving! We've had numerous sleepless nights! And Aubrey had a rough night and is not so sure she can go to school today...so sad that she'll miss her caroling! Tessa thought she needed to lay by her to keep her company.:)

Year In Review {short & sweet}

Another year ends and my gratitude for these 4 little angels is overwhelming! By pure miracle I was able to carry and deliver all of them. I know I am blessed because I met a wonderful Man and we chose to be sealed in the Temple thus bringing children into this world under covenant with the Lord. My testimony of this has grown this year through the resolutions of my health issues. My heart is full of gratitude for The Savior, Church Leaders, Family and Friends! May everyone's Christmas season be full of the Spirit!

piggy buns

Missy's first piggie buns! {piggies that are tucked into little buns:)} Sometimes I just have to walk away from her...her cuteness is just too much!
**Update on Tessa! She says Mama and Dddd {we think it's dad!}. She loves to click and trill her tongue. She cries every time her daddy leaves the house. She is little miss social. She warms up to anybody {except Santa!} quickly and will let anybody pick her up. She loves to give kisses and "loves"{cheek to cheek}. She has 14 teeth! She's cutting her bottom K nines {I don't know how that's spelled:)} right now...that's a ton of fun! Love this little girl!




All tuckered out! Yesterday these two cuties conked out at the same time, just at different places! lol! I can't get the photo of Tessa to flip! It's fine in Picassa but it turned when I uploaded onto blogger...lame! Anyway, you can still see all her super cuteness!

Retraction

Caleb has informed me that I did not post the picture of him by his beloved "24 car" aka Jeff Gordon.:) So here it is!

My cuties!

Miss Tess is such a loving little sweetheart. She always gives loves and kisses! She growing so fast! I feel like I'm losing my baby!;)


Aubrey's kindergarten class put on the cutest program for the parents. Here she is as a pilgrim. She was so shy getting up there, she couldn't even get herself to smile at me. She did really well though! She did all her lines at the right time and sang all the songs! Way too cute!



Poor Caleb slipped off his skateboard in the back yard and hit his face on the patio! This is kid is tough, he hardly cried at all!


I love this kid. He is so funny and enthusiastic about everything! He makes me forget to take things so seriously and enjoy the little things!


A braid I did the other day that I thought turned out cute!

Nascar

We took the the kiddos down to the Strip for the Nascar parade. Caleb's and Mike biggie was of course Jeff Gordon, and Lukey wanted to see his fave, the M&M car! Lol! We got to see them pass and then drove down the Hard Rock to see their cars, but we never did get to meet the drivers, but it was fun all the same!