Christmas Card Bloopers

I love to create things!!! Oh, so much! But I haven't done as much of that as I used to. In fact, I feel like I've lost my Craft Mojo! But when Brett presented a certain picture that he wanted on our Christmas Card and I went for a search for others to go with it- I came up short. I needed to muster a little Craft Mojo if at all possible.
So... I pulled out my camera, dragged my family into the living room and took 250+ pictures. People sometimes think that my family instinctively just sit correctly and smile for every picture. And for the most part- they'd be correct. I have trained them well! LOL But the reality is that there's always a little whiny and craziness that occurs when I try to document our family.
Here's a little proof:

But I do love how our Christmas card turned out 

so it was all worth it. ;) Hurray for a little Craft Mojo! 

Merry Christmas!

2015 Figi Drawing

Continuing our Tradition of drawing a winner for our Figi's Christmas treat--
Victoria Glory got to draw out the name since she won last year. (Here's where Victoria actually won in 2013)
{oops! we thought Victoria won last year but when I checked my blog for this post, I realized that it was actually Glory that won. Shoot! Don't tell Victoria! She'll be ticked that she didn't get to put one in the drawing. And Glory will be bummed that she didn't get to pick it out of the bowl. Darn! We should have checked!!! Too funny!}

And the winner is ....... JUSTICE!

Cross Country (Yard) Skiing

Justice did a little Cross-Country Yard Skiing tonight. We found some skis at the thrift store this week and he is dying to try them out. We have tons of snow so he took them for a spin in our yard. He actually found that he could make it to a certain part of our hill and then ski all the way down the gully. He's in heaven! The only bad thing is that then he has to ski back up. Bummer! Maybe Brett could make a ski lift?

Missing my Friends

I was missing my old Ward friends so when they invited me to join them for their RS Christmas Party- I jumped at the chance to be with them. At first, I felt a little hesitant about crashing their party. But I told myself to be brave. It was funny because it actually took quite a bit of time for a few people to connect that I was actually supposed to be at the party. ;) It was good food, an uplifting message and amazing friends. Man! I miss them! Here's just a few that stayed at the end. Love you ladies!

Thrifty Shoppers

A while back- my kids came up with a list of things that they felt they should learn to do before they grow up and move out. Things like cooking, changing a tire, paying bills, etc. Among that list was the art of Thrift Shopping. So armed with $10 and a few tricks of the trade, we did a few Thrift Store stops on their discount days with the intent to find some Christmas outfits. We also got to include a few lessons on alterations but  they did awesome. They were way excited about their experience. Here's what we found:

Popcorn Popping on the Christmas Tree

I can't believe the Christmas Season is upon us again! Where does the time fly???? My family knows that I hate the commercialism of Christmas & I try hard to make us stop and enjoy Thanksgiving before we jump into the craziness. It's a family joke that they sneakily try to listen to Christmas music in November without me hearing it. I held them off as long as I could but the day after Thanksgiving- all the Fall decor was down and the red & green boxes were out!!!! Let the madness begin!
My family was super excited so, we put up Christmas trees this weekend. And lit them up with our Tree Illuminator! (Sidenote: I got these Illuninators on a killer deal at the end of the season last year. I thought they'd be fun. Then we ended seeing this Hallmark movie this year that uses a Tree Illuninator. Now- they are super special and the kids are loving them! You twist the candy striped poll and push it down. It plays music and then magically turns on the lights of the tree. Joy!)
So... Here's the fun:
3,2,1... uh??

3,2,1... what?

3,2,1... why isn't this thing working?

Try again. 3,2,1....

One more time! 3,2,1...Tada!

(We didn't know we had to twist it or the batteries were dead- I can't remember. But it was funny!)

The downstairs cooperated way better! 3,2,1...Hurray!

Then the kids decided to make the downstairs tree a CANDY Tree! They are going buy and tie all their favorite candies on it & then eat it all Christmas day! LOL But they wanted to start with a garland made of POPCORN! It was a fun Family Project! We strung popcorn and cranberries while Brett played Name that Tune with his iPod. Oh the Christmas Memories!

Here's what it ended up looking like after we tied all the candy on it. 

And here's my son eating all the popcorn off of it before we took it down. LOL

Scrapbooking with Jaidyn

Glory had her friend over today. Jaidyn got a scrapbook kit from her Dad & brought it with her. She wanted Glory to do it with her. 

Jaidyn informed me that in order for them to scrapbook, they would need some pictures of them togther. LOL A girl after my own heart! So, they did a photo shoot. I printed off some pictures. Then they scrapbooked their little hearts out. I love it!!!!

Black Friday Shopping

I have never been Black Friday Shopping. But my friend was hoping to have company this year so I decided to brave it. We decided to not go out until Hobby Lobby opened on Friday morning. (I think I've failed to mention that Helena finally stepped up in the Crafty World by getting a local Hobby Lobby! Hallelujah!)
Oh my Heavens!!!! It was so funny!
Here's Hailey running through Hobby Lobby to make sure she got what she wanted.

Oh wait!!!! See how she's the ONLY person in there?? Yep. That's right. There was seriously only like 10 cars in the parking lot! And with the store being so big it seemed like we were the only ones in there! And it felt the same at Target & Walmart. If anything it was like a regular weekend shopping day. So much for all the crazy hoopla that I thought that I'd be experiencing! I'm sure part of it is that it's Helena & our idea of rush hour traffic is that not everyone made it through the light. LOL The other part is that I'm sure with Cyber Monday- times have changed. But it was ridiculous how disappointing the Black Friday experience was! I did find some amazing 90% off Fall deals! That made me a happy camper! How cute is that Turkey???

Thanksgiving with the Tubbs & Lynchs

Our friends, the Tubbs invited us to celebrate Thanksgiving with them this year. We had fabulous food! Our girls were the only girls there so Liberty hung out with the adults reading a book. But the little girls brought finger knitting and enjoyed watching the boys play games. The adults laughed and enjoyed each others company. And Brett even got in a little football nap! Fun times! Thanks dear friends for including us in your day!

Dinner & Snow with the Paynes

Our friend are remodeling their kitchen so we had them over for dinner. Then the kids all went out and played in the snow. Fun times & friends!

Playdate in the Snow

Victoria had Sofie come over to play today. They disappeared outside (after they shoveled off the 2 foot snow drift on the back porch) and I didn't see them for hours.

I did catch a peak of them way down the gully doing some sledding.

Cute girls:

Snowballs & Pillows & Underwear

When electronics have been handed in for the day and you give the kids a 

few snowballs, pillows and some underwear- this is what they come up with. LOL

Keepers of the Light: YW in Excellence

Brett & I joined our Ward YW in celebrating the young ladies and their accomplishments this year. Their theme was Keepers of the Light. They had songs, speakers, the girls shared and of course, treats! Fun night!

I helped Liberty put together a basket of the goals she's been working on this year. (You can kind of see it behind her) This year she has been working on several Young Women 10 hour Projects. She's completed:

Faith: She did the Trail of Faith Project to prepare for Trek

Divine Nature: She grew her hair really long. She researched Locks of Love. She donated 12" of her hair.

Individual Worth: She practice with her Band class and did 2 concerts.

Choice & Accountablility: She helped us move and organzie our new home including her room, the Holiday room, the Food Storage room and hanging sheetrock.

Good Works: She participated in a Bel-A-Vis-Ex Prgram at school. She volunteered every morning to help out younger kids.

She is about 70% done with all her goals. We are way proud of her!!! 

{And we will be super grateful when it's complete since she's resisting it every step of the way!! This teenage girl may be the death of her mother! ;}

Friends Family Pictures

Took some pictures for our friends this weekend
Here's some of my favorite:

BYU Young Ambassadors: HeartSongs

Our family had the opportunity to attend a musical presentation from the BYU Young Ambassadors tonight. Everyone seemed to like it. They performed tons of different love songs from all different genres and time frames.

Fairmont Vacation 2015

We went on our yearly week to stay in the condos at  Fairmont Hot Springs. It was marathon of back&forth to Helena for the Primary Program, a day of school, Orchestra, Mutual and work. We may have to revisit our multitasking ideas next year! :)
But we always have a great time! It's the perfect vacation spot for our family. It's close enough to not be in the car forever. It's got a kitchen so we don't have to eat out all week. It's got enough beds for everyone and privacy for those that want to sleep in longer. It's got warm/hot water to swim in. And a slide! It's got snow for those that love it! ;) And it has the Hallmark Channel. We are in heaven! What a fun week!

This year, Liberty brought her friend Ann for a couple days.
We enjoyed good food!

We took advantage of the slide several times.

One day this week, it snowed. We love it when it snows at Fairmont!

The last couple years that we have gone- they have closed the indoor pool for several days for cleaning. They empty the whole thing, clean it and then fill it back up. We prefer the outdoor pool anyways but on those hugely windy days (like one day this week) it's nice to have a deep indoor option. We were laughing at our Slo-Mo videos we took jumping into the pool. Let's see if I can get one one here. (Looks like it doesn't go slo-mo on here. Bummer! Cuz it's really funny!)

Here's some more of our indoor fun!

One of our favorite things is eating pretzels and having Tropical Sno in the hot tub! Yum!