Chads Christmas gift

When my husband was young he used to do a lot of art work and drawing. He has started to take up the hobby again. Two years ago for Mothers Day he sketched me a picture of my Mother and Father which is displayed on a easel in my stairway. He drew the picture of my parents as a dedication to my Mother who passed away from breast cancer five years ago. Her death was very hard on me. This year for Christmas he did these sketches for me. I have not placed it on a wall yet, I am looking for just the right place to put it. It is head shots of our kids when they were 1 year old. He took their 1 year pictures and sketched them and framed them. Chad spent hours and hours on each drawing. What a wonderful guy I married!!! the photo I took does not do the drawing justice. Thank you Chad for such a thoughtful and wonderful Christmas present.

Nieces and cupcake fun

Sunday after Christmas my neices made some very cute cupcakes while they were visiting. I got out some of my cake decorating supplies and let them have at it. We did some of the cupcakes in cones and the rest in cupcake liners. Good job girls! I also posted this on my other baking blog littlemissmuffetandhertuffet.blogspot.com

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Hannah, Sara, Aleena, Isabell

Christmas 2010

I love Christmas!! I love the extra focus we give to the savior, I love listening to Christmas songs, baking yummy treats, buying gifts, finding ways to help others and sharing Christmas joy with those around. As a family we have a few fun traditions we have done for years, hopefully when our children are grown, they will continue these same traditions. It is such a blessed time of year. This Christmas Chads brother Shaun and his family came out from Arkansas to visit. For Christmas eve we had quite the houseful with 13 extra bodies, but what a great time we all had!!! We also were able to spend time with my Brother, Ben and his family and also Chads Sister Carrie, her husband and cute little boy Eric. We had a very enjoyable time. It is so fun to be surrounded by family.

Our kids have not been getting along as peacefully as we would like. We thought they needed a extra push to be more kind to each other especially at Christmas, so this year when we drew family names for gifts the rule was that you had to spend time and personally make the gift for whomever you had. Alex made me a apron, Jordan made Ethan a TCU blanket, Ethan made Jordan coupons, Chad also did coupons for Alex and I made Chad a tv remote control holder that hangs over the couch.

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The Sunday following Christmas We visited Temple square up in Salt Lake city. Ha, ha funny Troy, rabbit ears.

Chad, Jordan, Ethan, Me, Alex and my brother Troy.

Christmas morning opening presents with the cousins.

Alex, Jordan and Dan.
This is a pillow that Sara made for Alex, she did a great job on it. The pillow matches Alex's room perfectly!!
Ethan and his new bike.
Squishy, Squishy, cousins playing around.

Cousins watching the Nativity story.
This is what unfinished basements are used for-- pinata time.

Alex

Aleena

Heidi

Ethan

Isabell

Katie

David

Christmas Eve we started by singing Christmas carols and reading the Christmas story.

Kids bedrooms

This year Chad has been working on some painting projects. So far he has gotten the kids rooms painted. Here are the final results. If it looks familiar, the colors are the same as when we lived in Texas.

This is Ethan's room. Jordan's room-- Chad painted the mural on the wall, I think it turned out awesome.
Alex's room. The wall not in the picture is blue, the shade of the dark blue dot in the corner. I made the wall hanging.

Snow

Over the past few weeks we have gotten a ton of snow. We had some good size icicles hanging down and snow overhangs on our house. I just had to take a few pictures. The icicles grew longer as the days went on.

Sneek peek

Check out my other blog (littlemissmuffetandhertuffet.blogspot.com) for the most recent cupcake adventure. Here is a sneak peek at what I did for our wards Young Women's in Excellence night.

Fishing with Ethan

Before the cold weather set in, and before Ethan went back on track, I decided to take him fishing. We went up American Fork Canyon three times. It was absolutely beautiful. The during the second fishing trip, Ethan caught a fish all by himself. It was fun to see how excited he got when he pulled the fish out of the water. While we were fishing I started talking to this elderly man, who goes up to the reservoir a lot. He had some good tips for fishing in the area. He also was surprised to see a Mom fishing with her son, usually it is the Dad taking the kids fishing. I absolutely love fishing and do not know who was more excited to go, Ethan or myself.

BOO- Its Halloween

Here we have a clown, dead cheerleader, and a zombie. Which on is about to get the most treats on there Halloween quest for Candy? It was pretty chilly tonight, and started raining right before the kids were leaving to trick or treat. They got cold and said next year they said that they were going to be eskimos.

Here is the trick or treat gang. Josh, Tanner, Damon, Ethan, Jordan, Alex and Drew. Actually Ethan did not get to go with the older kids, he went with his friend Troy and the Dad's.

Then and now

This was taken on Malad Summit Summer of 2007, when our family hiked the summit. This was when I was not in the habit of excersising and watching my food intake. Scroll down and look at the second picture taken this month. I have lost 30 lbs. the long hard way, no fad diets, pills, drugs, just plain old working out and eating better. I love how I feel and what I have been able to do.

A year ago

A year ago we were living in a hotel waiting for our house to be finished, kids were starting a new school, getting new friends, adjusting to the cold ect. I can not believe that we have been in Utah a year, what an eventful year. I have to say that I know that this is were we are suppose to be, I firmly believe that the Lord guided us here to Herriman, I feel such peace knowing this is the right place for us, even if there is snow and cold- ugh. I never felt that way in Texas. We are truly blessed to be so close to family members and for all the wonderful friends we have made here. UTAH ROCKS!!

Jordans Fall concert

Jordan plays percussion in the school band. He does quite well and enjoys it. We were able to attend his first concert of the year. He played in a variety of songs and a variety of instrements. Jordan is a little short and it is hard to get a good picture of him when the percussion always stands in the back. This is a dorky picture, but it is all I have. Jordan is the kid in the blue with his face covered with the music stand. I know, you can't see his face, but he was the handsomest kid there.

SNOW

We have had snow in Utah twice now. I am so not ready for the cold, I love warm/hot weather. The kids were excited. Ethan had a friend over and they spent hours outside building this snowman.

Building the snowman

snowman built.

Destroy the snowman

Since school was out Thursday and Friday, we decided to take advantage of the break and enjoy Zion National Park in Southren Utah. We had a blast hiking and camping and enjoying Gods creations. The kids are leaning back over the wall to catch drops of water, comming from the weeping rock, in there mouths

The fam

Check out the cliff, what you don't see is the gate that is holding us back.

kiddos

Hiking in the narrows

Whoo, Whoo
We did this to bug our kids, they think its gross