...and we made it

Merry Christmas Everyone!!!

I really do love the Christmas Season.

I love how it feels.

I love the opportunity to do things for other people.

I love the excuse to shop!

I love how everyone (well most) is nicer to each other.

I love the lights, the decorations.

The feeling of peace that I have amongst the chaos.

The love I feel for my Savior.

It IS the most beautiful time of year.

*And now with EVERYTHING done

ALL the wrapping (for the first time ever).

All the activities.

The dozens upon dozens of cookies and candy that we've made.

The cards were mailed and received before the big day!

I am ready to enjoy this day and tomorrow

And focus on my family and what it is all about.

*We've had a very busy month, lots of parties, lots of concerts. Girls home on track break.

It has been busy but fun. It has gone by way too fast.

*The kids had several concerts this month. The first was their piano recital. They both started lessons in the fall and are doing very well. Nathan & Kristen played a duet at the recital, along with individual pieces. They played Good King Wenceslas together and did great. At first they fought whenever they practiced but eventually they worked it out and it was a good opportunity for them to work together.

*Kristen had her school choir concert. Which was more like a singing dance party with the whole school in on it.

*Nathan then had his band concert at school. He is playing the bells right now and will start on drums next year. He did great. No pictures.

*We've started basketball season. This is Nathan's first year playing on a league and he is doing so good. We are so proud of him. He has never been a very competitive player and in other sports he really holds back. But with basketball he seems to be finding his stride. He is learning to be more aggressive and confident and I couldn't be prouder!

*We've had snow! As if you haven't already heard that story!

This second batch though was much more genuine than the first.

The kids had a blast collecting whatever they could and making (ice) snow balls.

We didn't get anywhere near what the rest of the valley got, but we'll take what we can get.



And there you have it.

Our month in review.

Today we are going out on the town with Daddy to see some special sights.

We'll be making gingerbread houses.

Cooking our feast.

Playing our games.

Reading the scriptures.

And hopefully not being up late.

Cause if history has anything to do with it,

We will be up BEFORE the crack of dawn!

Hope you all have a beautiful Christmas

A Girl Can Dream....RIGHT???

All the kids have written their wish list so I decided to come up with one of my own. Like I said, a girl can dream right!

Shall we start the wish list with this . Every pretend photographer should have a GREAT standard lens.

and something like this would be nice for those indoor shots.

And really, I am the only person on EARTH who doesn't own one of these???

Any scrapper worth her salt should own one of these, for real!

Then, while the dreaming continues...how about a new living room (in chocolate)

And really, now that we are in complete LALA land, lets get those hardwood floors in.

Ok, back down to reality. How about just a couple of these shelves for my bedroom.

Ok, really, those who know me, KNOW that even a few of these will make me really happy!

I hope all YOUR dreams come true this year!

Proof of Snow

It's the big story in town! Snow in Las Vegas. We never get the big fluffy stuff at our house, but word is there were inches of it elsewhere in the valley. But for my kids, it is exciting, nonetheless!
Here is the proof...can you see it on Jacks hat?
Do you see the ice crystal on Kristen's thumb?
(NO??? well, trust me it's there!)

They tried to consume it.

How sad for them, they are SO easily entertained at even the thought of it.

Now, Samantha here is NOT stoned...she is blowing her breath to see it.

Do you see it??? It's a little foggy over her hair on the right side.

Jack just checking' it out.

Really, it just rained more than anything, but we did have about 10 minutes of tiny flakes mixed in. It was fun while it lasted.

The Story of 3 Trees...

These are the trees...and this is their story.

Styrofoam cones were in abundance at the Monson house {that's ANOTHER story}

lets make more trees thought my friend and I.

Just use what we've got around the house

Simple and quick!

Took some styrofoam glue...it said it dried clear.

Painted the cones with glue, covered with glitter and set out to dry.

Worked on our music paper cone to bide the time.

Checked on our cones and what did we see????

Streaks of glue that did NOT dry clear!

Ugghhhhh! Now what are we going to do with these things????

Ok fine, lets run to Joanns (well not really run, it's like 20 minutes away) with like 4 kids between us.

see if we can find some fabulous things to spruce up these sad trees and find some new glue and glitter!

SPRAY styrofoam glue! That should be great.

Home again home again, now with more kids running around between the 2 of us.

Decided to paint the cones green to cover up the last glitter nightmare.

Went to spray the glue and it came out like SILLY STRING!

I laughed so hard I nearly wet myself.

At this point this quick and easy project was taking All. Freakin. Day.

Sanded off (kinda) the silly string and went for good old mod podge!

Covered my little tree and SMOTHERED it with new chunkier glitter.

At last....SUCCESSSSS!

Ended up ordering buttons online {that's another story too!}

cause Joanns had crap for cream buttons! and wanted a million dollars for them!

Although we did find that fabulous green trim on Mr. Medium tree.

Me thinks it was like 8:00 at night when my little friend left.

We had a totally fun and crazy adventure of a day

making our quick and easy 3 trees!

Oh and we just finished off the button (for real, did i just use buttons) portion of the tree.

But hey, me thinks they were worth it, eh!

Oh ya, and I have unfinished actual button trees awaiting some attention too.

The tree is trimmed, the mantle (wall shelf thingy) set, boxes put away (mostly), and the Christmas spirit is somewhere in the air. I'm itchin' to do some shopping, but these little ones underfoot...they are weighing me down! Puttin' a cramp in my plans. Oh well, they are having fun on their track break. Making cookies, decorating, putting together our x-mas puzzle, playing with friends...all the good stuff kids dream of for Christmas break.

According to Jack we live in the Christmas Tree House. He asked as we were pulling into the driveway yesterday "daddy, this the Christmas tree house????" Followed by "it Christmas time? Santa gonna come our house and bring me presents??"

He's totally got this Christmas thing down! Well, the Santa part of it anyway. Guess we should work on the real part, eh.

But Mommy...I wasTHIRSTY!

that was his defiant answer to me telling him

DO NOT DRINK THE WATER OUT OF THE TOILET!!!

that is just sick!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE

Today I am especially grateful for soap and antibacterial whatever!

Enjoy this layout of said toilet water drinker

(this was another one for the competition)

Fort Sumter

Took a ferry out to Fort Sumter. It was really amazing to see this place and to think about how FAR they shot these cannons. Amazing! The fort is nothing like what it used to be. Originally had 3 stories to it's walls with cannons on 2 levels, there used to be officer quarters and, well LOTS of stuff. Obviously it's been through a war and a few hundred years. Now there is just the first level left and lots of rubble. But it was really neat.

I loved all this old brick. Do you like our little photo shoot we took????? We were in the back portion of the fort by ourselves for quite sometime. The rest of the boat was on a tour with the guide, but being the rebels that we are, we explored the place on our own. Which, I'm glad we did cause we saw more of the fort than the tour got to cause they talked to much apparently!

Rainbow Row

I lOVED this place. Rainbow row was SO pretty and quaint and picturesque and blah blah blah.....how cool to live in a place like this. As long as you don't need a car! Parking is at a premium around here.

Anyway...every house was painted a different color, like pink, purple, blue, green, aqua, yellow. They were all so pretty and it was fun to walk.

There were also lots of really cool doors all over the city. Wish we'd had a few more days to wander around so I could take like 200 MORE pictures of everything!!!

MOre VaCa....

This is the bed and breakfast we stayed in, the Battery Carriage House I think. It ran along the Charleston Bay. The courtyard is where our room was. The second black entry was our door. Wish I had taken more pictures of this place! It was so cool. We ate breakfast

at this little table outside our room.

Speaking of food, we had dinner at a pretty famous restaurant (i guess). All the tables had markings on them of the famous people who sat at them. I think AC/DC was on our table, amongst others. Like Dougs BIG fish?????

Anybody watch the A&E show Flip this House? With Trademark Properties?????

Well, here is there Charleston office, they actually did an episode about remodeling this place. It was never open while we were there...too bad dude, maybe i could of met Ginger or something ;)