little girls

Its a good thing I only have one girl and she doesn't like clothes or else I would be in trouble. I am always wanting to buy or make cute girl things and mine would rather I not.  How ever I do have nieces that help curve my craving for cute girl things.  For Christmas and a birthday I decided to make some aprons for a couple of these darling little girls.  One niece is getting a kitchen for Christmas and the other one helps her mom out in the kitchen with her specialty cake orders.  So I thought what better gift than a little apron.  I have made some for my boys and they love to wear them when they help me out in the kitchen.  So here is what I came up with can I get an Ahhhhh. ..

Wright family reunion

This year I hosted the annual Wright Christmas party.  My dad has a huge family.  There are 15 children and that does not include any multiple births and it is not a blended family.  My dad is one of the youngest at Lucky # 13 hence his name.  So every year they try to get together and catch up.  Not only is it the 15 kids (or whats left of the 15) but their children and grand children as well.  This is huge because I have over 150 cousins.  This is NOT an exaggeration, needless to say my house was PACKED with people. They filled every single room in the house finding somewhere to sit and chat.  It is always crazy and I promised Scott that if he helped he and the brothers-in-law can go to the movies after putting in an hour at the party. I have a couple of aunts that are into photo journaling, they always bring pictures for us to see and to get info about them.  There were 2 pictures of my dad and I could swear they were Brennen.  I literally put the pic of my dad and the pic of Brennen side by side and you couldn't tell which was which. 

new project

For Christmas I decided to make another project.  You all know me by know I have to have a project in the works or brewing or else I tend to go stir crazy.

Yesterday was a prime example of this.   I needed to just relax but I was having such a hard time with this basic concept that Scott was getting worried.  If there is something that needs to be done it nags at me, so even though I was really tired from all the parties and festivities I just couldn't relax.  Apparently I had a scowl on my face the whole day because it was so painful for me to just relax and do nothing.  I had so many things I could be doing; take down the Christmas lights, clean the playroom, clean up the backyard, wash the outside of the windows, organize the garage etc.  You get the idea.

Back to the  projects.  I saw something like this at a science center one time and promised myself that if I ever had the space I would put one in my house.  I bought a sheet of galvanized sheet metal 4'x10' and cut it to 4'x8' to fit my wall.  My brother is a welder so he was nice enough to let me borrow his tools. I bought a length of 2" pvc split it then cut it in different lengths.  I then put magnets on the back of the pvc.  This took some trial and error to find the right kind of glue for ceramic and pvc.  The winner was gorilla epoxy.  I bought some ping pong balls and voila a personalized track.  The kids can make the track any way they want and just send the balls down.  I think I am going to have to switch to those nerf-like practice golf balls because the ping pong balls are too light, they often bounce out of the track.

This is something we can all spend hours playing with.  Its also something I can grow.  I thing I am going to add some elbow and 45 degree pieces.  I am also going to frame it out with some casing so it looks nice, but that has to wait until my next paycheck.  Total cost of project $50

Christmas eve 2011

Another Christmas Eve has come and gone.  We had dinner at

my moms.  It was good food and good company. After dinner was cleaned up we headed over to my brothers for the annual pageant. The pageant changes every year, and every year I can't wait for the kids to get a little older to really appreciate the stories and to be reverent so the spirit can stay.  I have to admit I was a little distracted during the whole thing because Peter threw up right before the program started.  But the glimpses I did see were wonderful.  I loved to watch the children's faces as the saw the slide show of Mary and Joseph as well as the music that accompanied it. I could tell some of it was sinking in.  That's the key with these little ones. We can't always force them to sit still and listen but that doesn't mean they aren't learning and feeling the spirit.  We just have to expose them to it and try to create an environment for the spirit to reside.  It will reach them and us.

lights

After the windows at Grand America we headed over the temple square to see the lights. It was cold and crowded but also beautiful. I was a little frustrated with my group. They kept complaining that it was cold, and lets just go home (this was the grown ups not the kids complaining). Finally I could hold my tongue no longer and scolded them to "quit your belly aching!!! We only get to do this once a year and you were ruining it for me, so suck it up and enjoy the pretty lights and nativities!!! What horrible pioneers you would make!" I know it was a little harsh but I didn't feel bad one bit. It needed to be said. After that it was a much more enjoyable experience. I love the luminaries lining the office square. There was even a bag piper in traditional garb trying to play through the cold. Brennen loved the whole experience although he was concerned that this one tree was on fire. (it was covered in red and orange lights) Not until we got up close were his concerns put to rest.

After the lights we went over to Denny's for dinner because kids ate free. It was horrible service and almost as horrible food but we fed 10 people for less than $40.

the tree on fire

I would definitely do this again but I will take different people with me.

Grand America Windows

We took the kids to the Grand America Hotel to look at their windows. I was not impressed.  The windows last year were much better.  This years windows were just a print off of a penguin in different scenes. The upside was the hunt.  You got a card and tried to find the star in each picture and decipher what clue it went with.  After you filled out your card you took it to the toy shop and got a sticker that you could show the the sweets shoppe and get a cookie.  They were all out of cookies but at least we got a sticker.

The highlights were the life sized gingerbread house. It smelled so good!!! The kids loved the marble window in the toy store, we had to pull them away several times.

funny story.  Last year Scott sat behind this desk and my nephew asked "uncle Scott are you THE MAN?"

sugar cookies

What to do with a bunch of kids on Christmas break with no snow to play in? Make sugar cookies of course. I find it best just to give the kids their own blob of dough and let them roll and cut it out themselves. They don’t always turn out the prettiest but the kids are proud of them and the cookies are going to be eaten anyway. They really had a great time deciding and creating their own shapes. Ellie our sculptor decided to make a baby Jesus in a manger. The boys stuck with the cutters we had on hand. Then it was time for frosting. Some took their time and make the cookies extra cute. Some, just slapped what ever color was closest on their cookie, and some (Peter) just shoveled the frosting in his mouth or piled it on his cookie and then licked it off over and over again. Either way the kids had a good time and I felt like I was doing my part in being a good mom and keeping the kids out of trouble.

The down side is having all those cookies in the house. More than half of the cookies were gone by the next day. Although no one fessed up as to who ate them all.  Between you and me I think it was a group effort

christmas outfits

I love this picture.  By boys and their boots

I had to get some pictures of my kids in their Christmas outfits. Dont they look cute?

William is getting Baptized

William has officially turned eight and now he gets to do all kinds of cool stuff, like getting Baptized!!!  He is quite excited.  I took him out to get some pictures for his baptism invitations. He is so ready for his big day I had no problem getting a fun picture.  He asked if he could get baptized tomorrow because that would get him on the NICE list for sure. (He's a little worried Santa might have him on the naughty list.)  My other way to get him to cooperate was that I told him we could go get his scout stuff right after pictures if he did a good job.  He feels so grown up with all these new responibilities.

The other day we were out Christmas shopping.  I gave each kid a quarter so they could get a treat out of the gumball machine.  Peter quickly put his money in but was not happy with what came out.  I was not very happy with Peters whining all day so I was tuff and told him, "you get what you get and you don't throw a fit!" (a rhyme I often say to my kids)  To which he started throwing a tantrum. I was just mad at him and wanted to strap him in the stroller and let him scream.  William the tender heart that he is gave up his candy to give to Peter. I told him that was not necessary.  William very mater-of-factly said, "Well Mom I turned eight, so that's the things I gotta do if I'm gonna get baptized."

I was so proud.

frost

I woke up this morning to a beautiful picturesque Christmas card entitled Frost.  The whole world was coated in this icy masterpiece.  It looked like everything was frozen in time (so pretty).

That is until I came out of church and it was still covered in frost and freezing.

babies

It doesn't matter how many times I arrange this nativity every time I turn around it looks like this.  It seems that my children think that everyone wants to see the baby Jesus so they get as close as they can.  The more I think about it the more I think they're right.  Who wouldn't want to catch a glimpse of baby Jesus.  I would totally crowd around the sweet little babe.

My kids included.  There is just something about babies.  Yesterday in church there was a daddy holding his brand new baby in the pew behind us.  My boys just wanted to stare at that baby the whole meeting. They couldn't get enough.  They kept reaching out to touch the sleeping babe. When I looked over and smiled at them Brennen whispered in my ear that he wants to be a daddy like that when he grows up and hold his own baby.
My heart just melted.  I whispered back that he would be a great daddy.  What a sweet parenting moment.  I'm grateful that my boys understand the importance and blessing of being a Daddy.

SPARKLES

These two boys wanted sparkles on their ice cream.  Once I figured out what sparkles were they were happy as clams.  Or should I say happy as kids with sparkles on their ice cream.  Peter really didn't care about the ice cream.  He would just lick off the sparkles and then add more.  when we ran out of sparkles he threw the rest of his cone away.