Season of Giving

Last night we did something we try not to do very often, take all four kids to Wal-Mart at the same time. Wal-Mart is nuts as it is, but four kids with Christmas on the brain it is just plain nuts.

Fortunately we were there with a purpose in mind, everyone needed to find a gift to be donated to the Christmas Box House. Cam was quick to find art supplies, McKinley chose those black felt coloring boards, Keegan found a nice hoodie, Bracken found a shirt that came with a beanie and Will and I chose a pillow pet. We got out of Wal-Mart with only a few more gray hairs and with kids that were happy with their choices.

I love this time of year, I love seeing smiles on faces and the crazy running around we all do. I love helping my kids to see the importance of taking care of those who need the help and I love spending even more time together as a family.

I hope everyone takes the opportunity to do for someone else this year. Merry Christmas!!

Gingerbread Village

 

 

Every year we decorate a gingerbread house for the holiday. Usually it is just a kit from the store, but this year we went big and Will made all the houses and trains with molds we bought a few years ago. After a few hours of baking on Sunday, we were ready to go last night. Here are a few photos of the work in progress, I will add more when it is finished.  A big thanks to Will for all his hard work in the kitchen, this is one Gingerbread Village that will be hard to forget.

Getting the Decorations Up!

 

 

Decorating for Christmas is one of two things at our house tons of fun or tons of tears. It usually starts with groans over who has to bring everything up from the basement and then to arguing over who gets to set out the nativity and hang the stockings. This year we did things a little different, the kids and I decided to surprise Will and have everything upstairs and waiting for him after work...it was a lot of work but it was fun trying to surprise Dad. There were a few tears over the nativity, but we have two so both kids ended up happy in the end. Thanks to Cam we have some photos of all the work.

McKinley's Dance Performance

McKinley started taking dance again this year, she is having a blast. She performed at the South Jordan Equestrian Center this past Saturday. She did a great job and had a blast with all her dance friends.

Snow and more snow....

It just seemed to keep coming down last weekend and then the wind had a little fun with the snow. In the ten years we have lived here I have never seen snow like this on our house.

Finding Inspriration on the internet....

Check out this blog....you can't have a bad day after reading her positive out look on life.

 http://www.nieniedialogues.blogspot.com/

Yikes!!

Yesterday I was looking for some printable recipe cards on-line when a virus attacked my computer. It basically shut everything down and no matter what I did it was close out the process...madding to say the least. Thanks to a friend at work and my wonderful husband we were able to remove the virus this morning. I am happy to have my computer back and not have anything lost from the memory in the process. And on top of that Will found the part on EBay to fix my screen so I won't have to use an external monitor anymore.

Yard Art

That's right this is our new piece of yard art.

I have been told it is quite ugly, I have seen people kick it (okay, just Bracken), I have seen people hug it and I have heard jokes about it disappearing in the night.

So the story behind this yard art is that Will and I finally agreed at the same time that we were ready to try moving. I say try because we know now is not the easiest time to sell a house, but we felt is was the right time for us.

Getting Big!

Cam turned 11 on the 26 of September. It was one of those strange days when you see just how quickly time is going by. Thanks to Cam's birthday present it will slow down a little. Cam now has his own camera to document all that is going on in the world, from roses growing through the fence to the neighbors dogs. Cam can be seen with his camera around his neck most days and is now begging to go on walks to see if he can find a really great picture. Pictures to come.....

Funny Exchange

I remembered that Bracken needed poster board for class elections on Monday about an hour ago....I told him he had better beg Will to go to the store for him. As he gets on his hands and knees to beg Will to run to WalMart, Will says, "It's mom you should be begging, she the one who has to spend all day tomorrow making your posters." Isn't he funny! But truth be told I am sure I will spend a few hours tomorrow putting together two great posters and one heck of a speech (maybe Keegan's recycled from a few months back).

Oops...we're back!

In a moment of frustration with a few linked accounts on Google, I deleted our blog. At first I thought, good that is one thing I won't have to worry about updating anymore. Then, it was dang I just deleted all that work. And then I started missing the journal aspect of it all and thought it's time to start it up again. So here I am!

We have had a great summer and at some point I may do a collage of the things we have been doing, until them know we are well and excited for fall.