Christmas Morning

Not a great photo, but in our small living room, I couldn't get a good one from the front! The kids are just checking out the goods in the top picture. Lauren showing off nail polish from Grandma (in her stocking) and Dallin and Sara. We had a very nice Christmas morning.

Adorable!

One of my kids at school gave this adorable little owl to me for Christmas. I think it's the cutest stuffed animal I've EVER seen! I LOVE it!!!! Thank you Taylor :)

Happy Birthday Dallin!!!!

Dallin turned 14 on Sunday. Yikes! It's amazing how fast time goes by. I wanted to post a picture of him as a baby and a recent one, but no digital pics 14 years ago! So here's my 14 year old.

Christmas goodies

The girls and I spent hours baking cookies and then delivered them to some friends from church. Each of us chose one or two kinds of cookies/bars. We ended up with 5 different treats to put on the plates. I hope this becomes a tradition! I've been wanting to have a whole day to bake Christmas cookies, but haven't ever done it. It's a lot of work, but also enjoyable. The boys are going out of town this weekend (to Las Vegas for a bowl game) and I'm hoping to spend this Saturday scrapbooking/paper crafting with the girls.

changes

I'm trying to figure out which template I want for my blog. Please excuse the changes that you will be seeing for the next few days! Decisions, decisions. I really like the way the pictures are lined up on this one, but I'm not crazy about the way the title looks. Maybe I'll mess around with the font and colors.

Ahhh, Monday

Today was my day off, so I got quite a bit done. I'm almost done shopping. Now I've got to do some crafting to finish up some gifts and get them wrapped/mailed. Oh, and Christmas cards still need to be written. Dallin's birthday is on Sunday and I did finish that shopping. It's also my dad's birthday on Sunday so I need to get a little gift in the mail to him. That should probably be done no later than Wednesday. Tomorrow is the Relief Society (women's group at church) progressive dinner. After work I'll be preparing some kind of side dish to bring. Hmmmmm...better make a decision quick! I'm thinking scalloped potatoes. It's late and I'm tired (and getting more and more tired thinking about what I need to do this week!). Good night everyone!

Love to look at these!

Hope you enjoy these. The light colored wooden cut-out one is from Germany. It had these little lights between two identical wooden cut-outs. Beautiful! There is a sweet little one made from clay and then a fabric one. I also loved the Louisiana bayou one. Adorable and very creative!
I'm still behind on my Christmas stuff. I think David and I will go shopping this weekend or the beginning of next week. The girls and I will be making cookies and watching Christmas movies on Saturday. I think it's supposed to be raining, so that will be perfect! Well, not as perfect as snow, but it will do.

creche pics

Sorry about the blurry pictures! I'll be going again tomorrow night and hopefully I can get some better pictures.

Creche's from around the world

A few decorations around my house. I made the advent calendar from a Making Memories kit I bought at Target. The trees are styrofoam cones covered in Christmas scrapbooking paper. I love the circle one. I just punched circles out of the paper and attatched them with a dressmakers pin in the middle. I added ribbon at the top and bottom of all three trees. The stars are chipboard that I painted white and then sprinkled with white glitter. There is a little nativity scene in the middle cubbie of the black coat rack/bench (below). I think I need a poinsetta in place of the plant in the red pot. Our tree is tiny, but looks good in our tiny place. It's artificial and already has the lights on it. We can put it up and get it decorated in about 15 minutes :) And the good thing about an artificial tree is no pine needles. Oh, and no spiders crawling out of it!

I took a ton of photos at the Community Christmas Celebration. I'll try to post some each day, so you can see lots and lots of them! There were creches from all over the world and they were amazing. My battery died part way through so I think I'll go back tomorrow night and get some more photos. I want to make a mini scrapbook with the pics.

Help, please

Does anyone know if I can put a new "banner" at the top of my blog for the holiday season? Is that just an option if you are paying for blog space? I want to make it look more festive, so I've changed the colors to red, green and pink, but it needs more! Anyone?
I'm reorganizing my scrap stuff today. It would probably be a good idea to actually scrap, but nooooo. I've got this idea that once I get everything organized the "right" way, I'll scrap more. We'll see. My plan is to make my Christmas cards this weekend. I've got some gifts to work on and design team stuff that I need to get done. But instead of scrapping, I think I'll organize! Go figure!
From 2:30-5:30 this afternoon, I'm going to be at our church greeting people that come to a Creche Display. This is the first full December we've been here, but apparently this is something our Stake (geopgraphical area that our members live in) has done for the last 15 years and it's well attended by the community. There are hundreds of creche's from all over the world displayed and lots of musical numbers performed by members and non-members of the church. I think we will be visiting it as a family tomorrow (Sunday) night. I guess I'll try to finish up with my organization project so I can go for a run. That's another thing I've got on my list today. I like to go for a run and have Lauren and Sara ride their bikes with me.
Oh, and before I go, some exciting news! (No, we aren't having another baby!) It rained all day yesterday and into the night last night/this morning! Yeah! We really, really needed that rain. I don't know how much it was, but it was a lot for around here!

76-100

76. ice maker
77. David
78. Dallin
79. Lauren
80. Sara
81. Cooper
82. pine trees
83. palm trees
84. lip gloss
85. sales
86. my dishwasher
87. Christmas carols
88. sparkling cider
89. hot chocolate
90. hot water heaters
91. creative people
92. movie rental places
93. firefighters
94. policemen
95. snow
96. Lauren's helpfulness around the house
97. Dallin helping Lauren and Sara with math
98. Sara's beautiful artwork
99. David and his hard work at Pac Sun
100. being able to enjoy living in an apartment

51-75

51. recipes
52. electricity
53. teachers
54. libraries
55. puppies
56. waterfalls
57. good conversation
58. eye glasses
59. the color green!
60. my friend Cheryl who helped me redecorate my living room
61. "two-minute" mysteries
62. Chipotle
63. hot fudge sundaes
64. sunshine
65. vacuum cleaners
66. grandparents
67. aunts and uncles and cousins
68. seminary
69. the opportunity to feed the missionaries
70. neighbors
71. ward family
72. the Constitution
73. George Washington
74. Abraham Lincoln
75. french manicures

the next 25...

26. scrapbooking
27. Crate & Barrel
28. my Mom and Dad
29. Disneyland
30. bicycles
31. violins
32. curling irons
33. flat irons
34. microwave ovens
35. comfortable running shoes
36. doctors
37. grocery stores
38. paint
39. my body and that it works!
40. family history
41. temples
42. the Atonement of Jesus Christ
43. Joseph Smith
44. saints that risked (and gave) their lives to help establish the Gospel on the earth again
45. Christ's example
46. the prophet
47. the ocean and beach
48. dolphins
49. the internet
50. telephones

I'm thankful for...

I'm copying my sister-in-law, Debbie and listing 25 things I'm thankful for. I'm going to try to make it to 100. Thanks for the idea Debbie! These are in NO particular order!

1. rain
2. shoes
3. my family
4. thrift stores
5. photos
6. watermelon
7. hot chocolate
8. jeans
9. digital cameras
10. babies
11. pretty paper
12. friends
13. the gospel
14. the scriptures
15. Relief Society
16. massages
17. pedicures
18. yummy smelling lotion
19. donuts
20. Dove chocolate
21. tulips
22. books
23. air conditioning
24. free (and safe) country
25. the people serving in the military

Preparations

Cherry pie is done (thanks for the help Lauren). Our menu for tomorrow: turkey with stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes w/marshmallow topping, crescent and dinner rolls, sparkling cider, pumpkin, cherry and chocolate cream pie. I'm looking forward to parade, football, food and sittin' around! I'm thankful that we have a day to do all of that and just enjoy family and friends.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Better late than never...

Here are some photos from Halloween! I'm only a little slow. Dallin went trick-or-treating with a friend and dressed up as a surfer. He looked exactly like he does in the summer: board shorts and a rash guard. I didn't get any pics of him. Lauren started out as a diva witch at our ward trunk-or-treat and by Halloween she was a "black widow". Sara was Mary Poppins (her favorite Disney character). She won 2nd place at the Halloween party here at our clubhouse! The prize was 2 movie tickets.

We found a pumpkin patch that was almost as good as our Oregon pumpkin patches. I wish I'd gotten a better picture of the patch with palm trees in the background! The one I took is fuzzy and the palm trees just look like bushes!

I went way overboard on buying candy for trick-or-treaters. After eating some of it we donated 15 lbs (that includes what the kids received while trick-or-treating) to Sara's school. They have a group that sends it to the troops in Afganistan and Iraq. The girls happily donated all of their candy and Dallin donated most of his. He just kept a few pieces for himself. While trick-or-treating, Sara was given a giant-sized Hershey bar that she donated.

We have this tradition of eating chili on Halloween night. We've been doing it for about 9 years. For whatever reason, my kids don't even realize it. Nine years, and they haven't noticed a pattern! They are surprised every year when I mention that we are going to be eating our traditional All Hallow's Eve dinner. "What do we always eat?" "What tradition?" "Is it pizza?" PIZZA?????? We've never had pizza on Halloween! Apparently this will not be a tradition that they will be interested in continuing when they leave home.

Tag!

Illyse tagged me, so here are seven random things about me. I wish I could link her blog to this post, but I'm not very computer saavy!

1. I won't eat an apple or piece of apple if it has touched a paper napkin. It gives me chills just thinking about it! I can't really explain why, though.

2. Vaseline is my favorite lip gloss.

3. I can't sit and watch TV, read or scrapbook if my living room or kitchen is cluttered.

4. I love United States history.

5. I like to read "Whodunits". You know, those short little "2-minute" mysteries that the reader is supposed to try and solve.

6. I have loved Law & Order for about 6 years now.

7. I had malignant melanoma a couple of years ago. The doctors were very surprised because it usually affects people older than me.

Sewing lesson

Lauren wanted to make a gift for a specific person (that I won't name in case she reads this blog) and her idea was an apron. So we got out the fabric and sewing machine. She chose which fabrics she wanted to use and ta-da! Here it is. This is the second thing she's sewn on the machine. She made a baby blanket for a teacher 2 1/2 years ago. So someone is going to get this apron for Christmas...

Moab

The guys survived their 24 hour race in Moab, Utah. Dallin loved it, David liked it. It was hard, dangerous, dark, dusty. They had a five man team and each person rode a 15-mile loop, then the next guy would take off and do the same loop. Each loop took them about 2 hours. So the first guy started at noon, the next went out at about 2, then 4, etc. They rode that way all through the night (how would you like someone to radio you at 2 in the morning and tell you it's your turn to ride!). They drew numbers to see what position they would ride. Dallin was first, then David, Nick, Chris and then Mark. Since Dallin was the first to ride, with the way the laps went, he ended up riding the last lap. It was his 3rd lap and everyone else rode two laps. But he didn't care. He loves riding his bike. I liked the thought of the two of them being able to do something like that together.
OK, I've tried twice to add photos, but blogger is not cooperating, so they will have to wait!

On another note, I'm teaching Relief Society (women's class at our church) tomorrow. I hope it goes well. I'm just substituting, but I get so nervous. I'm not nervous now, but I will be tomorrow morning!

This is a picture that I took just outside of our front door. The clock tower in the bottom left corner is Hicks Canyon Elementary (Sara's school). The smoke is just billowing. Yikes! That's good for the lungs.

Where there's smoke...

OK, I'm officially tired of the wildfires. Thank goodness we are safe. We do have our bags packed in case we need to evacuate. We thought we might be evacuated on Sunday night because of the smoke. The sky is kind of a gray, orange, red. Very weird looking. This morning when we went outside, there was ash on everything. The kids have been going to school, but they aren't having PE, recess or after school sports. Lauren and Dallin had a cross country race scheduled for tomorrow, but it's been cancelled. It's been in the 90's for the past couple of days. It's supposed to be down in the 70's by Friday. My sister in law, Timani, is driving down from the SLC area to go to Disneyland with her kids. I hope the air there is a little better, as her oldest, Lance, has asthma. We are hoping to might them there on Friday since my kids will be out of school. We are praying for the firefighters and the people in the path of the fires to be safe.

Twelve

I can't believe it! Lauren is twelve today. Right now I'm sitting on a bar stool in the kitchen because the living room has been taken over by 11-12 year old girls. Eleven of them. And one isn't here yet. We are drowning in pink streamers (in 3 shades) and silver accents, including stars hanging from the ceiling with pink ribbon. There is a chocolate fountain and bowls of pretzels, strawberries, bananas, marshmallows, madelines, graham cracker sticks covering the bar. Two empty boxes of pizza and many cans of soda and bottles of water are on the table. The girls are now watching Material Girls and when the movie is over we will be heading to the hot tub. Presents and cupcakes await us when we return.

The good news is that I don't need to entertain these girls. The are happy watching a movie, talking and listening to music. The bad news (and this is REALLY bad) is that I do not have a camera. David took his camera to Utah and mine is broken. I'm so sad! The room looks beautiful and so do all of the girls. And I won't have a single picture from Lolo's only 12th birthday! Oh well, nothing I can do about it now. I guess I'll have a pretzel dipped in chocolate.

Update

It's been a while! After posting that I wanted to decorate for Halloween and plant flowers, I got sick. So, the flowers still have not been planted. Most of our Halloween spookiness is on the walls, counters and shelves, though. I still need to add the spider webs to the front porch. I thin Lauren is hoping I will wait until after her birthday, so I'll do that. She's going to be 12 on Friday! She's having a party with 10 friends. It's a pink party (surprise, surprise!), so tomorrow we are going to Party City to get some pink goodies and decorations. We are going to have a chocolate fountain! Yum...I can't wait for that. Lauren had said that she wanted to rent one for her party and two days later I was at a garage sale and found one brand new and still in the complete packaging for $10. Perfect! I think we will be renting a movie and the girls will be enjoying the hot tub, too.
David and Dallin will be out of town at the time of the party. They are going with a couple of friends to Moab, Utah for a 24-hour mountain bike race. They are on a team with 3 other guys. A father/son duo from our ward and another guy that they don't know. We are all hoping the weather will be good for them. Apparently, last year it rained the whole time. The father/son that David and Dallin are going with are a family that we knew 10 years ago in Portland. We were in the same ward and we had had dinner at their home. How crazy that we ended up in the same ward 10 years and 1100 miles later! The mother of the family (Anne) is a friend that I walk/hike with once a week.

Big plans for the weekend

I've got soooo many things I want to do! Just like everyone else, I guess. I've decided to narrow my list down to two things: potting plants in my beautiful containers that are sitting on my patio AND decorating for Halloween! Lauren is looking forward to helping me out the planting and Sara wants to help decorate. I'm having a hard time concentrating on this post and the Design Star finale, so I'm signing off!

First Day of School

I'm glad we're back in action. We had a great summer, but it's nice to get back into the routine. Lauren and Dallin ride their bikes to the middle school (it takes about 20 minutes) and Sara walks across the street. I'm glad to be back at work although the library is still messy. I'm working on getting it ready for students, but there are still some workbooks, CDs and charts that need to be delivered to the classrooms they belong in. That should be completed tomorrow and then I can really get my stuff arranged. I'm still waiting on a rug I ordered. I hope it gets here soon. It has 30 squares on it so each student can sit on one while I read to them or do a "book-talk". I finished organizing my files and cupboards today. I also found out that the PTA is doubling my budget this year! YES! I'm so excited about that. Can't wait to start ordering books! Tomorrow I want to start pulling books about libraries, back to school, reading, etc for a special area I have set up for books I want to spotlight. Of course, October will be Halloween, pumpkins, harvest, apples.

Speaking on Halloween, I've got a lot of ideas floating around in my head for Halloween gifts/decor. I'm headed to some thrift stores this weekend to start gathering supplies. I see some busy weekends in my future!

I'll never let go...

I just finished watching Titanic. I love that movie. It's a great love story and since the major event actually happened, it's even more interesting to me. There is one thing that bothers me about it, though. It's the end after old Rose passes away and ends up in the arms (and lips) of Jack. It's romantic and I cry and I'm happy for them, but then I think about Rose's poor husband. After being married for years and years, doesn't she want to be with him? I know it wouldn't make for as good of a movie, but it still takes a little of the fun away from the end for me. I think I should just try not to think about it and enjoy the tears and happiness I feel for Jack and Rose. Ahhhhh...

I would love to get into Rose's closet (yes, I know she was dressed by a costumer, but pretend with me) and try on everything! Do you think the clothes from 1912 will ever come back in style? Doubtful, isn't it? And her hair! Really...can you get better than Kate Winslet? She has got to be one of the most beautiful women around. And ol' Leo ain't bad either!

On to Portland...

Dallin on the Alpenrose velodrome (he's in the white helmet), Lauren at the mall (because we don't have enough shopping here in Southern California), saying good-bye to our fabulous hostess, Michelle, and a stop in Ashland for lunch.

more trip pics

Sara on a swing that Grandpa made, Lauren and Abrie, Oregon Trail map at an Oregon trail site (very cool), my dad, Sara and I, cutie-patootie nephew Jacob

Some trip pics

Starting the road trip, Grandpa and Dallin with Sentemental Journey ( 1944 B-17), ice-cream at Shaniko, OR, the kids w/their Hermiston cousins, Sara getting riding lessons w/Grandpa.