A few of this weeks happenings

Richard did this painting the night after the horse painting (see below). Kate put the little black splotch on the face. This is a picture he did of Rocky, and although I consider myself a good artist, my stuff usually ends up looking cartoonish. He did a really good, realistic job, don't ya think?

I had some paints lying around the other night and Richard started messing around. He came up with this picture and I think he did a really good job. He isn't really an "artsy" guy, but I was highly impressed with what he did! He is a man of many talents!

Good ole Rocky got neutered last week. He spent the whole day lying on the floor whimpering and groaning. He's fine now and didn't have to wear the cone for very long because he broke it.
Landon and his friend Kyler did an experiment for their "Science Fair Project". They were testing the affects of sleep deprivation. I could have told you the results before they even began. Grumpy, tired, irritable, etc. They tried to stay up all night and didn't make it, but tested their brain function with a series of tests taken at 8 pm, 2 am and 7 am. Why did I ever tell him that would be a good project? Couldn't we have tested something else? Oh well. Live and learn!

Tonight is the Stake Sweethearts Dance and of course Richard and I are going. We never miss it! It's the only time we ever get to dance anymore, and Richard is a wonderful dancer. See? Man of many talents! He was so cute and gave me a bouquet of balloons yesterday with a message inside asking me to the dance! I love that man!

Peter Potter and Harry Pan

We are kind of Harry Potter nerds and I didn't really think Kate knew much about it, but she loves to say "Harry Potter". The other day she and I were doing a puzzle of a train- an old, steam engine train, and when it was finished she exclaimed, "It's like a Harry Potter train!" I guess she has seen some parts of the movies. Then the other day we were reading a book that had a picture of a snake in it and she said, "Harry Potter likes snakes. Harry Potter kills a snake!" Wow! She is super observant! Today she watched Peter Pan for the first time and she kept saying, "It's Harry Pan!" I understand the confusion. Peter and Potter do sound a lot alike. She's so funny!

Two years apart

On the way to school today I instructed the boys to hurry out after choir because I had to drop them both off at scouts at two different places. Landon said, "Daniel and I will never be in the same scout group, will we?.....Well, until Young Mens." I told him that even then, they would always be in different quorums. Since they share a birthday and are exactly 2 years apart, they won't even overlap. I said, "When you are a teacher, Daniel will be a deacon and when you're a priest, Daniel will be a teacher. And if your missions overlap at all you guys could go like four years without seeing each other!"

There were a few seconds of silence and Daniel piped up, "I could live with that."

Kate, Cake and Hearts

This is a bit of a copy from Heidi's blog, but I loved her heart bouquet idea so I had to make one of my own. Instead of floral foam, I just used red hots in an old vase I already had. I had so much fun with the cute paper that I ended up making these little blocks also. I just modpodged all the paper on some wood blocks that I got at Robert's for $1. I usually don't like Valentines decorations, but this one makes me happy!

One of the kids friends told them about "Cake Boss" and we've all had a bit of an obsession with it. We have the first 2 seasons on Netflix and the kids love it. Seriously, I didn't even know what fondant was until I picked out my wedding cake and my kids are all like, buttercream, fondant, modeling chocolate fools. Emma and I experimented with Marshmallow fondant the other night and this is what we came up with. We made a HUGE mess and learned lots along the way about what works and what doesn't. It turned out pretty good and it tasted excellent! Please remember that a six year old did most of the design and cut-out and placement of everything. My cake would have looked much better. Not really.
Just had to throw in this little picture of my Katers. She is so cute! It's hard to tell, but she was holding 3 pink purses and had to take them to the store. She has been sick this week and up ALL. NIGHT. LONG. She sure is a joy, in spite of the sleepless nights she provides us with.

Way to go, Grace

Today was one of those crazy, and I mean crazy, run around days. Kids going in all directions! And Kate refused (trust me, we tried!) to take a nap! I was picking Landon up from his first band practice at the school and was sure that he would'nt be able to tell which white mini van was ours in the darkening night. So I hopped out of my car and walked as quick as I could ( it was freezing and I didn't have my coat on) to the entrance. I came to the gutter where all the other vehicles were lined up waiting for kids and saw that it was full of a lot of slush, so I decided to jump over it. It was more of a leap, really. The minute my foot hit the other side, I realized I had jumped right onto a patch of ice and both feet went flying out from under me. I did a beautiful opera kind of singing scream and landed hard on my elbow and tushy! It was pretty awesome. If it didn't hurt so bad I for sure would have laughed right then and there, but the fact is, there were like 50 other parents and students that probably saw me fall. I did feel stupid. But it is pretty funny. I just took some ibuprofen and think I'll go soak in a nice, hot bath.

My most undocumented December yet

December is always oh so busy and we seem to have many things that we are running to and from. I usually try to capture most things on camera, but this year I think I must have just been lazy about it. I did snap a few shots here and there, but I didn't even have my camera on Christmas because it was hiding somewhere. So here are the few pictures I did manage to take this month. And here we go into January (blah!) and so begins dance and choir and band and basketball and piano and scouts and whew! and I'm already looking forward to warmer weather! Here are some other highlights that were not captured by the camera.

- Kate escaping from me during the final song of a Voice Male concert. I was searching the back of the concert hall for her when I heard Richard say in his microphone, during the song, "She's up here, Jenny." And Kate was running across the front row right by the stage. "That's my daughter, and here comes my wife." I had to really run to catch that little stinker. It made for a fun ending to Lion Sleeps Tonight because the words became, "she got away, she got away.......we de de de de de de de de, my daughter got away." Yeah, totally planned.

- The Hague family Christmas party where the kids got crazy amounts of balloon creatures thanks to Uncle Joe and Richard showed off his skills as a balloon wrangler. If you ever need to get helium balloons down from the ceiling of a church gym, he's your man!

- The awesome dance party we had at our house after putting on our Christmas Eve jammies and before watching a movie. We had to get our wiggles out and we all had so much fun! I love watching my kids dance!

- The Huffs boys and McAllister boys having a great time at Laser Tag and Landon whooping on all of them- even Richard and John. Boy, I bet thats tough for a grown man to handle!

- All the amazing food that has tasted so amazing and has made me feel like crap. For this reason, I welcome January and eating normal again!

- Driving to Sandy on the night of the terrible snow storm. It took me 2 hours to get from Lehi to Sandy!

- Singing with the band at a wedding that the piano player couldn't make it to because of the storm. I was able to fill in on the piano when I wasn't singing. This was a first for me, as I don't read charts and I don't improvise. I can to anything if I have music in front of me, but I managed to get the hang of it and was proud of myself for doing a decent job!

- Christmas parties with both of our families and enjoying spending time with them all.

- Kate waking up on Christmas morning and looking at all the presents and saying, "Santa Claus came to town!!!"

- Christmas Eve brunch at Dave's and going with everyone to see Tangled....loved it!

- Landon, Daniel and Emma snowshoeing into the cabin. It's not a sissy trail and even Emma did amazing and didn't whine or complain!

- New Years Eve at Lori and Troy's and driving back in -16 degrees! That's right, negative 16!!

We celebrated East coast at 10:00 but didn't leave until 11:30. All the kids eventually fell asleep in the car and Kate was the last one still up at 12:45!!!

Kate on Santa's lap- she loved Santa this year!

Sweet Emma

This is where Daniel informed me that he told Santa he wanted a red Nerf sword. This was the first time I'd heard about it and with only a few days before Christmas I found one after searching 2 Walmarts and 2 Targets. Thank you, Toys R Us!

The kids were totally into collecting rubber duckies after Voice Male concerts this year. They had 162 at one point. Most of them have been donated to other homes now.

Look at the crazy amount of snow in Fairview!

These are a few of my favorite things!

Every year when I decorate for Christmas I get all nostalgic and think about how each of my favorite decorations came about. I love decorating and so I thought it would be fun to share a few of my most favorite decorations that are now decking my halls.

This is the candelabra that I haven't bought candles for yet. When I was growing up we always had dinner by candelight in December. My parents gave us these a few years ago and we love having candelight dinners for the month! The kids also love taking turns lighting them and blowing them out!

This isn't really a decoration because I have to hide it under my bed to keep it from Kate and Rocky. But it is special because it is an important tradition. My Grandma Strebel started it when I was little and then my Mom did it when I started having kids. After she died my Dad decided he would carry on the tradition himself. There is a bag for each day of December with a little goody or treat inside and the kids just love it! My Dad has totally outdone himself with the treats and he bought these cute new boxes this year.

This is my luminary for Phil. He made the picture in the middle and I wanted to make it more of a focus point this year so I added the candles on either side.

I love my tree that is full of ornaments from my girlfriends. I love taking them out each year knowing that my friends have the same ornaments on their trees. However, my favorite ornament is the one of my Mom and I also love my star that I made 11 years ago out of cardstock and twine. It has held up great and people always ask me where I got it!

I just love this spot. The stocking are the first ones that Richard and I had when we first got married.

This little quilting project is in my entry way and it is special to me because my Mom helped me make it at a Relief Society Super Saturday. I didn't know what I was doing and she helped me step by step and I think it is so darling!

I love my stockings (I got the pattern from Julianne, so I'm sure she has the same ones!) that I cross stitched. I love to do needlework and I worked on them each time I was pregnant.

I had to do a close up so you could see the details a little better.

These are all my nativity sets. I never tried to collect them, but these have all been given to me over the years and I love setting them up on the piano and having it be the true meaning of Christmas spot in our house.

This is the Nativity Set that Landon made when he was like 5 years old. He made it one night with a babysitter after I had given them some supplies- isn't it fun?

This is my favorite craft project. I have done ones for Halloween and Thanksgiving as well and they turn out super cute! It is just scrapbook paper mod podged onto a metal star! So fun and cute!

This is the advent calendar my Mom made. I can't even fathom the amount of work that went into it. But I love it because she made it and the kids love putting another ornament on the tree each day.

This is the house that Layne Huff made me years ago. She made it out of cardstock and it is a little replica of our house. I love it and I always think of when they used to live by us and we would get together and eat good food and sing Gift of Love and Alfred Burt Carols with Richard and John. Then Layne and I would play Ruloph, Sleigh Ride and Petersburger Schlittenfahrt duets on the piano.