December and the new museum

On December 28th my Grandpa Hague turned 85 years old and took us to the new museum. He is the former director of the Utah Museum of Natural History. I grew up going to "Grandpa's Museum" and loved it. The old museum was closed down and has relocated to this new building on the U of U campus. It was so neat to go through the new museum with him and you could feel the deep passion he has for everything that has gone into building this amazing place.

This is the view from the top of the museum. Even though is was really smoggy, it is still a pretty amazing view!

Grandpa is such a wealth of knowledge and it was such a neat opportunity for us to have him give us the tour.

Such an amazing and massive building!

If you zoom in you can see the orange plaque between them has their names on it. The Donald and Lorna Hague Family.

I used to lay in this very dinosaur print when I was a little girl. It is a vivid memory, so even though this is in a small corner of the museum, it was one of my favorite parts!

The kids really enjoyed all the exhibits and had fun with all the hands on stuff!

Grandpa loves to talk to Richard and Richard is such a great listener. A few times throughout our visit we had to go find them and make them catch up to us! We could have spent all day there with Grandpa, but we had to move at a more kid friendly pace.

The stones and gems were one of my favorite displays in the old museum.

The third floor of the museum is named for my Grandpa and this beautiful painting of him (painted in 1984) is right as you walk off the elevator. He has contributed so much time, talent and expertise to make the museum what it is.

I sure do love these guys, and they have so much love and pride for the museum.

This was one of my favorite parts of the whole tour. It was fun to watch passersby realize that the man we were taking our picture with was the man in the painting!

There was so much to see and my Grandpa knew about every little detail in the whole museum. Amazing. This display case alone has 600 items in it!

Rewind to the beginning of the month:

Emma's school teacher got married and had a reception at the school. Emma was in heaven dancing with her teacher and all her class mates. Her teacher is like a real live Disney princess and Kate thought she really was!

Her teacher is so sweet and Emma loves her so much. Mrs. Barton let Emma keep her bouquet and Emma was beyond thrilled! She felt so special!

Of course, our December is filled with a lot of Voice Male concerts and my kids are always eager to collect the rubber duckies after the shows. Here is their loverly display. And, of course, I didn't get any pictures of Voice Male....only the ducks.

Here is our family on Christmas Eve. After a potato bar dinner with Martinellis , the kids opened their jammies and I remembered that my Aunt Barbara had made these for Richard and me years ago. We looked like dorks, but it was fun. We had a totally awesome dance party and watched "Elf".

Other fun things we did this month:

Attended 2 Voice Male concerts, made lots of goodies (including a fondant cake because we love Cake Boss), had Christmas Eve breakfast at Dave's and went to a movie, wonderful family celebrations with both Hague and McAllister families, spilled hot chocolate all over Kate at a family party, breakfast at IHOP with Grandpa Kevin, ward parties, choir concerts, pack meeting and caroling, playing piano and singing lots of Christmas songs, and enjoying lazy days in jammies, watching movies and playing Just Dance!

We did have a wonderful Christmas. But we only took videos (no pics!) of Christmas morning. The rest of the day was spent making a lot of food, Richard being at church for 3 hours (he's in the bishopric), me being in charge of the Sacrament mtg. program (which actually went very well), and me stressing about it all. I think I wanted to be a kid this year and enjoy the magic of Christmas. But with the whole Sunday thing, I think I was overly stressed and it didn't feel like much of a relaxing Christmas Day, which is what I really wanted. However, we did have a great Christmas. I love my family and we are so very blessed. I think I'm ready for the kids to go back to school. I'm ready to take down the decorations and get my house back in order (well, as much order as possible with all the craziness). Ready to get back into regular blogging again. I guess I'm ready for a new year. I'm not ready to start my diet (again), but I figure I have until Monday to live it up. I'm gonna go have a piece of cake. See ya in 2012!

A little before and after

Here is a little of what I have been up to lately. These kind of projects keep me sane. Back in the spring I swapped kids rooms and painted the girls room light blue. Kate was still in a crib, but we have since gotten bunk beds and I redid the room and love how it all turned out.

I LOVE this mirror from IKEA!

I made all the pillows. I searched everywhere for the "perfect" red and white bold flower print and made the other pillows out of felt. They were really fun and easy!

My goal was to get rid of all pastel pink, purple, and green. I love the yellow, blue, red and black! I still have to recover the dolly crib that is lined with pink gingham.

In their old room these boards used to be pink and purple. I peeled off the vinyl and repainted them and obviously had to have the vinyl reprinted.

Here is the AFTER. I saw a picture that inspired everything. I love that it is unique. Not that I don't love the black/white/hot pink combo, I just wanted something different and I love how it turned out. I still have a few little finishing touches to add, like wood initials above their beds, but overall I am so happy with how it all turned out!

Let's remind ourselves of the BEFORE in all its messy, boy glory!

Here is the AFTER of the kitchen table...sorry the picture isn't too clear. Next I think I'll have to tackle the banister because it kind of clashes with the walnut table top. Slowly but surely, I will phase out all the oak (yuck!) in my house. I also have bathroom vanity cabinets and kitchen cabinets on my list. I've been wanting to paint my table forever and finally did it.

The BEFORE. I was just tired of this look and if you looked close up there were so many stains and scratches. It needed a makeover!

I guess I'll have to put all my other big plans on hold and work on Christmas "stuff"!

Roy and his girlfriend

This summer Kate rode on the float in the Lehi Parade. The theme was "Memories of....Grandpa's Farm". Roy Littleford was the "Grandpa" and Kate got to sit with him on the float. He took good care of her and she loved him. She talks about him all the time. A few weeks ago he called me to ask if he could make something special for his "little sweetheart". He made Kate this little doll table and chairs. He brought the cute plate with it and even made her a card that told her she is pretty and special. It makes me cry that he is so cute to do that. Kate always hugs him when she sees him at church and it is the cutest thing. I love living in a ward that has a great mix of old timers, middle age families and younger families. Our kids benefit so much from having relationships with these great people that have been around forever. Isn't this just the sweetest thing? And what beautiful detail!!

Happy Halloween in pictures

These pictures were taken at the Trunk or Treat. In some years past Richard and I have dressed up, but this year we were party poopers, I guess.

Brady, Daniel and Savannah- the BYU crew

Kyler, Landon and Matt

Shiloh, Emma, Kate and Savannah

He had his heart set on being a kissing booth. I gave him a bag of Hershey Kisses to hand out if anyone requested a kiss because I didn't want him freely handing out real kisses. He is a cute boy!

I had no idea how I was going to pull off the Cosmo request from Daniel, but TA-DA!! I did! :)

A close up of the mask. I did this all with paper mache. I know, I know. I'm crazy. Or am I awesome? Or am I both? Who cares! It turned out great and he loved it and it cost about $1 to make and even though it was a lot of work, it was actually pretty fun!

This day she was Sleeping Beauty. This morning at the school parade she was a ballerina. Tonight at Grandpas she was Cinderella. This is the only picture I took!

This was a hit! I got the idea from Family Fun and it was so fun and cheap to make. Not very durable, but so dang cute!!

After the Trunk or Treat on Saturday we carved our pumpkins. I am always amazed at how messy this gets!

Emma's stands for "Emma loves (Grandma) Judy" and Kate's is the smiling one

I made a love pumpkin for Richard and me and Landon did the angry bird.

Daniel did the wolf and the "D". The D fell apart and caused many tears and much pouting, but a little wooden skewer fixed it up real nice and all was good....and then he burned his finger.

All the lights were off for this, but notice Daniels upset, teary face and the frozen peas on his burnt finger. After all, what would a pumpkin carving night be without a little drama!

Katelyn's 3rd Birthday!

How did this happen? When did my baby grow up? She is such a little girl now...the only baby thing left is her binky...maybe that's why I can't give it up! She is such a joy to our family. She makes us all laugh and she has so much personality. I love this little girl more than I can explain. She's been looking forward to her birthday for so long and every single thing she sees at the store she asks if she can have it for her birthday and happily puts it back after I say, "Okay, we'll see!" I hope now that her birthday is over she will still be okay with that strategy! She had a fun birthday today and here are the highlights.

First thing in the morning, loving the present ritual!

Her new Sleeping Beauty dress. This is also her Halloween costume!

Eating her breakfast like a good little birthday princess!

Grandpa Kevin came and took her (us) to Target to buy a present and she immediately found this and we were done! Easiest shopping trip ever! Then we went to lunch with Grandpa and came back and put the scooter together.

She loves her Grandpa Kevin and was so excited to have him come be part of her day!

She loved helping me make pink cake balls with rainbow cake and rainbow frosting insides! She didn't even want ice cream to go with them...all she wanted were these beauties!

No day for Kate would be complete without a little time spent at the piano making up songs and singing the whole time.

Her "party" meant that we all wore Dora party hats at dinner. She was completely satisfied with that!

All day long she said, "Today is Happy Birthday to me!!" I think she had a great day!