Random Photos

Amy riding on her brother's car.

Alex and Nathan playing in the leaves.

Nathan and Amy playing together.

Alex, Nathan and Amy.... Daddy's boys and girl, every one.

Holiday Craze

Posting has been difficult lately because of the many holiday activities that seem to be taking up most of my spare time. For several days there I was just on robot mode. My house was cluttered with craft supplies, gift wrapping and greeting card necessities, and recipe ingredients. I would literally be working on one project and would happen to pass another project in the works and would pause to work on it, forgetting the other project I was supposed to be doing. I felt like I was constantly on the go and half the time found myself with only enough time for a Clif Bar (something my husband introduced me to) for dinner. Bill has been working the current shuttle flight and has had to work every afternoon/evening for 9 straight days, thus we've all been a little off without our regular routine. Thankfully, today, Bill's 10th day on console, is the last time he has to work this year.

The first big event was in my Mission Friends class Wednesday evening. We had a "Happy Birthday, Jesus" party for our 3 year olds. I cut out ornament shapes from poster board and brought glitter glue in various colors for the kids to use on the ornaments. Sparkly pipe cleaners attached at the top for hanging provided the final touch. The kids had fun with it, though it did get a tad messy. And I was able to let my own kids make ornaments with the leftovers, which came in handy one difficult evening when the kids were in desperate need of direction for their endless energy. They did a fabulous job!

Then Friday afternoon was Alex's preschool "Holiday Party". It was really a Christmas party, but we are not allowed to call it that since it is a public school. How sad is that? Thankfully, the party was ran as a Christmas party. They sang Christmas carols and everyone wished everybody else a "Merry Christmas". As room mom, I had to bring all of the party essentials, and I made these cute santa and snowman cookies for the kids. The recipes were from the 2006 Taste of Home Best Holiday Recipes cookbook. I was going to take a picture of the ones I made, but I forgot. So I've included pictures from the actual cookbook, which are probably cuter anyway.

Saturday we went to Jacob's Birthday party. The kids had so much fun at the party. I don't think my kids are destined to be cowboys, though. I think that's perfectly fine with Bill, who is somewhat anti-country. There goes my dreams of ever living on a horse ranch. ;)

Sunday I had to teach (my co-teacher and I alternate weeks), so I was up late the night before preparing my crafts and Bible lesson. And in addition to our regular class, we had a "Happy Birthday, Jesus" party, too. It was right in between the 9:30 and 11am Sunday school classes, so we had the 11 o'clock teachers helping with the party as well. The kids had a great time singing happy birthday to Jesus and then decorating and eating star shaped sugar cookies. We also let them have ice cream, a special treat for them. Alex, Nathan and I had another birthday party to attend at 12:30, so we had to rush off after church.

Now things are almost back to normal. I can focus my attention on my own family's holiday activities. I still need to bake Christmas cookies and wrap presents for family and friends, but I can do that at my own leisure. We're also planning to go look at Christmas lights one evening this week. Alex and Nathan are old enough to enjoy it this year. Of course, I think even Amy will get a kick out of it. I'm just looking forward to days spent playing with the kids and evenings spent watching Christmas movies by the fireplace with Bill. There is even a forecast for some cooler weather by the end of the week, so the fireplace may even be lit!

New Look

I decided to follow Celeste's advice and go to the new Beta format. And as long as I was doing that, I went with an all new look. What do you think? I thought it added more color than the old one. :)

Birthday Meme

I'm finally getting around to doing this fun birthday meme that Celeste tagged me to do - sorry Celeste!

Here's how you play:

1) Go to Wikipedia
2) In the search box, type your birth month and day but not the year.
3) List three events that happened on your birthday
4) List two important birthdays and one death
5) One holiday or observance (if any)

My birthday is April 12th.

3 events:

1861 - American Civil War: The war begins with Confederate forces firing on Fort Sumter, in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina.
1961 - Yuri Gagarin becomes the first man to fly in space
1981 - The first launch of a Space Shuttle: Columbia launches on the STS-1 mission.

2 important birthdays:

1947 - Tom Clancy, American author
1957 - Vince Gill, American musician

1 death:

1945 - Franklin D. Roosevelt

Holiday/Observance:

Yuri's Night, an international celebration of the first human in space; in Russia, the Cosmonautics Day

Boys Will Be Boys

Last Sunday after church we spent the day at my parents house, relaxing and enjoying their Christmas decorations. Alex and Nathan had a great time helping their Paw-Paw with the outside decorations. I think Nathan especially got a kick out of getting to use a real hammer. And ever since, he has been running around beating everything with his play hammer! He also had fun with the ladder. That has been Nathan's big obsession lately. Everytime we leave to go somewhere, he tells me about how Daddy used the big ladder to get onto the house and hang lights. And when we were at Wal-Mart the other day, he had to tell me about how the people use ladders to put the stuff up really high. It seems that every other sentence coming from his mouth is on the subject of ladders. He LOVES ladders! He wants one from Santa, but we've told him that he can't have a ladder until he is big like Daddy. Maybe Santa can bring him a fire engine with a ladder...

Holiday Photos

Now that I'm finally getting another moment, I thought I'd post those holiday pictures.

Eating turkey cookies on Thanksgiving...

Helping put together the Christmas tree...

Helping decorate the Christmas tree...

Helping put out the outside decorations...

I just realized after I uploaded all of the pictures that Amy is not in any of them. It's not because she wasn't present, but I guess because she wasn't actually involved in any of the activities. We usually kept her distracted while decorating was occurring. :)

A Moment to Post

I have so enjoyed reading about everyone's Thankgsiving experiences and Christmas preparations. I feel bad that I have not posted in so long.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving as well. The day before, I made sugar cookies cut out in the shape of turkeys. It was fun decorating them in all colors for the kids to enjoy. Thankgsiving morning I made Pistachio Salad (also called Watergate Salad) and Ambrosia to take to the Thanksgiving Feast, which took place at my parent's house. We went before mealtime so I could prepare my green bean dish and help my mom finish up the other sides. It was a delicious meal, as always. My mom tried a new stuffing recipe this year - it was a sausage stuffing and it was amazing! Her stuffing has always been delicious, but she would spend so many hours in the kitchen preparing it, and though I've enjoyed it every year, she hasn't been as pleased with it the past few years. This new recipe is far easier for her to make, though you'd never know it by how it tastes. It's wonderful! Of course, one of the greatest aspects to Thanksgiving day at my parents' is watching the kids play with their cousins. They have so much fun each time they are together.

The weekend following Thanksgiving we jumped right into Christmas mode. I decorated some on Friday and then that evening the boys helped their daddy sort all of the tree branches and then they somewhat helped us shape them to assemble the tree. Then Bill put the lights on the tree, with a little help from Alex. The kids were so excited to see the tree all lit up! But by this point, it was late and past time for the kids to go to bed. So we let them hang their new ornaments before taking them up for bed. Bill and I then hung all of the ornaments that we do not let the kids hang, leaving plenty of room on the lower branches for the kids to hang the remainder of their ornaments, which they did Saturday night. With the help of Celeste's husband Brian, Bill put up the icicle lights high up on the house Saturday morning before we headed out for my nephew's birthday party across town; he completed the outside lights and decorations on Sunday afternoon. So after a very busy weekend, we were able to finish most all of our Christmas decorating, though I still have my garland to hang over the front door, Christmas wreath to hang, and Christmas mugs to pull out. But for the most part, we're done. I wish I could say the same about my Christmas shopping! Thankfully, even that is nearing completion. Then we can sit back and enjoy everything as we get ready to celebrate the birth of our Savior on Christmas Day.

I plan to post some pictures from Thanksgiving Day and of Christmas decorating, but I'm afraid if I take the time to try and select pictures and upload them now, I'll never finish this post. So pictures to come!