oh man!

Posting from work right now. Jon just called me to tell me we have no computer.
We must be the latest victims of some kind of virus :o(
Who knows when I'll be on again. Just know, I'm thinking of all of you.
Hope everyone has a Happy New Year!!

Look out ladies!!!

Christmas Blessings

Wow!!!

Look at the awesomeness that Amy J. sent me for the Christmas stocking swap!!

This stuff is fantastic!!! thanks Amy J!!!

Look at these! One is a bookmark, and the other a magnet. I just love these.

Handmade cards!!!! These are gorgeous. This girl is talented!!

She made this too...Another little calendar---so pretty! This came with an easel to display it on. I can't wait 'til January 1st!!

Oh my gosh!! I almost cried when I saw this. It's a beautiful little quiet book. It has the words to the primary song, "If the Savior Stood Beside Me", and is loaded with pictures of the Savior. I love it!!
The stocking also contained yummy chocolate covered thin mints, a baggie full of peppermint sticks, a cinnamon candle, a cute little ornament (you can see it in that picture above, it says JOY), and a fabulous magazine.

You should totally go visit Amy J. , she is so wonderful to get to know.She has a beautiful family which includes the most adorable little baby boy you've ever seen. I'm so grateful that The Robin's Nest hosted this Christmas Stocking Swap. I might not ever have gotten to know such a beautiful and talented young woman.

Dang!

Man, where is the time going? I feel like I have so much to do before Thursday, and NO time to do it. Hopefully next year, I'll be much more prepared. My two little extra nonhelpers this year are really kicking my butt I guess.
I just got all my Christmas cards out this morning! I was up 'til past midnight last night, writing them out and addressing them, and yada yada yada. There's really no excuse for that. I've just been really lazy.
My little nonhelpers got me up at 5:30 this morning, and I was all set to put them right back to bed, but then started thinking, that maybe I should just tackle the pile of presents that still needed to be wrapped. So, I'm very happy to say, they are pretty much all wrapped, and big sisters' are none the wiser. Ya'ay! (although, miss Ashley is questioning the validity of Santa Claus. She's pretty sure he doesn't really exist. This because she caught the tooth fairy red handed this past year, and now she figures that if the tooth fairy isn't real, then Santa and the Easter bunny aren't either).
So, on the agenda for today is cookie making and of course, I've got to make some fudge.
I had really wanted to post my favorite Christmas recipes over on my food blog, but I just haven't had the chance lately. So, maybe that will be late, like my Christmas cards.
Tomorrow, probably more treat making. I must say, I am feeling a little less stressed now that the presents are wrapped.
For our family home evening last night, I just sat the girls down in front of the computer, and we watched the Nativity that Motherboard posted on her blog a while back, then I bore my testimony to them of my belief in and love of the Savior. Ashley got teary eyed, so sweet. I told her she was feeling the Spirit testifying to her. It was a very sweet and preicous moment.


My sister in law called this morning, and we're having brunch at their house on Saturday, along with our present exchange. Yumm!!! Let me tell you, my sister in law is THE best cook in the world. We're planning on waffles and all the fixings. I need to go find a good chocolate chip waffle recipe. If you have any good waffle or syrup recipes, send them my way!!

In case I don't make it back before the big day, and if I don't make it by your blogs, which is highly probable (not that I don't want to, believe me, I love visiting all of you);

Merry Christmas!!!

Hope you have a beautiful Christmas day, filled with your loved ones, and wonderful food, and warm memories, and of course, the most important part, our Saviours love.

don't laugh!

Ok, it's old news I know; but, I'm just getting around to posting our pictures of the snow in Vegas.
Seriously, don't laugh. It ain't much......

But we'll take what we can get.

Let it snow!!!

More catching up

Saturday morning was our ward Christmas party. It was lots of fun. Crepes and a talent show.

Ashley wanted to sing a song, but never practiced anything. Then she was going to do a poetry reading--The Night before Christmas, but forgot the book. Oh well. We still had lots of fun watching our ward family. Sweet sisters.

Santa came.....

Now, here's the funny Santa picture I mentioned before.

Yeah, the boys really liked Santa, can you tell?

He really was the best Santa ever, and do you want to know why?

When he asked the girls what they wanted for Christmas, and after they told them, he asked them how they were doing on their quarreling and arguing with each other.

Boy, did they look surprised to know that Santa was aware of their number one problem area. (I was a little surprised too!) He let them know that his elves are still watching, and if they want their Christmas presents, then they would have to work a bit harder between then and Christmas.
(my dilemma? Ashley has just come up with a hair beader as the object she wants for Christmas. I have no idea where Santa will even find one at this point in time--yikes!)

So, here is our latest craft project.

Ashley's








Haley's







Mine



We did the cheaters method, or the easier for little kids method. Graham crackers over a milk carton. I thought they turned out pretty cute.





And of course, what's the point if you can't enjoy them?

3-d snowflakes

We made some cool 3-d snowflakes the other day. Here's a good link to how to do them.

Lots, and lots of glitter later....

Trying to catch up

Oh my gosh! It's been almost a whole week since I've posted anything. I can't believe that.

Things have gotten so hectic lately. I started up a new job, well, not really new. I'm working for the same place I was working for before, just a different company. Make sense? But now, I'm working full time, so it has really cut into my blogging time. :o(

Mostly it's affecting my ability to keep up with everyone else's blogs. I am SO far behind on my google reader it's not even funny. I'm thinking of just marking everything as read, and starting fresh. Only then, I'll probably have missed out on about a half dozen of everyone's posts. So, I'm still debating.

My girls are out of school for the entire month of December for track break. That's good, because at least I can spend some time with them in the mornings before I have to go to work. When they go back to school in January, I'm only going to be able to see them in the mornings before school. I'll have to leave for work before they get out of school, and I'll be home after they go to bed. I'm VERY disappointed about this. I'll only really get to spend any time with them on Saturday mornings and Sundays and Mondays, which are to be my days off. I am SO happy to have Sunday's off again though. So, there are good and bad things in this new job. The best probably is that I HAVE a job right now, in this unstable economy. So, I am very grateful for that.

Well, here are some pics of what we've been up to lately.

Finishing up those salt dough ornaments we started....

These are Haley's.....

Here are Ashley's,...I decorated a few too. Saturday night we were going to go to the Magical Forest, but it was SO windy, we figured we better wait. So we were naughty and went Sunday night.

Not the happiest of campers.....but isn't he a cutie!!??

OK, so blogger is taking FOREVER to upload pictures, and I'm tired, so I'll have to try to post more tomorrow. There's a funny picture with Santa, and more craft projects we've been working on.

Creativity

Thanks so much to my dear friend Jamie, for taking out pictures on Saturday. Here are just a few of the shots. She's such an awesome and creative person. Thanks Jamie!!!!

Didn't she do an awesome job?

Now, I have Christmas pictures to send out.
What a sweetheart!!

Thanks to Dolly--the girls got to be creative yesterday with some salt dough. They made Christmas decorations and ornaments with it. We baked 'em up, and here they are. These are Ashley's creations....(above)

And, these are Haley's.

Cute, no? Today they get to paint them. Yay, two days worth of crafting in one project. Love it!! Thanks for the great idea Dolly!!

My hubby can be so creative. We normally hang our Christmas stockings from our faux mantel, but with the boys this year getting into anything and everything they can get their little paws on, we figured we better not go that route. So, Jon hung our stockings high up on the wall.

So, what to do with our cute stocking holders? He thought it would be cute to hang something small from them anyway, with our pictures attached to each. So, I purchased some cheap little stockings from the dollar store, and last night, Jon printed out our pictures and attached them....

More creataivity.... My cute little monkey boys....

This little monkey got creative this morning....

I was laying in bed, listening to these two giggle and yell, and pound on the wall indicating they wanted out of their cribs. Next thing I know, I hear what I thought was their bedroom door opening and closing, so I drag myself out of bed, figuring one of their sisters has gone in to get them out of their cribs. I get to their door, and hear someone on the other side, knocking on the door--I don't hear their sister in there with them.

Mister smarty pants figured out how to get himself out of his crib. I think the sound I heard was him hitting the floor?!?!?!?!

No crying or screaming, so I guess he didn't hurt himself.

Yikes!!!

Now what? Should I put the mattress on the floor and forego the crib already??????