Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas!

We have been having a merry month of Christmas fun and activities.

Our favorite Christmas tradition is to read a Christmas story almost every night. At the beginning of the month, I wrap up all of our Christmas stories, some nice, some fun. I've been getting one new one each year to add to our collection. The kids get very excited when it's their turn to rip that paper open.

I've also been trying to record a bunch of Christmas shows that are on TV. So the kids have had their fill of Rudolph the Red-Nose Reindeer, Polar Express, and many more!

On Christmas Eve, we did our family Christmas program. It's a combination of scripture, songs, and pictures. It's so nice to sit and read the Christmas story from the scriptures and sing some great hymns. It always fills me the Spirit along with a chance to reflect on Christ and why we worship him.

This week, with the kids off of school, I've kept them busy with crafts. And they've come up with few of their own activities as well. Here are the highlights:

Courtney helped Dylan and Travis dress up as Santa and Rudolph. They did this in the garage while I was making dinner, so I had no idea what was going on until it was done. It made me laugh so hard. Hope you enjoy it also!



We made some ornaments out of Perler beads. They did a great job, even Travis getting into it.










On Christmas Eve, we made sugar cookies. Yum! Yum! They each chose one to leave for Santa, then promplty gobbled up the rest.
















Spreading out reindeer food in the front yard. It's almost time!!!






I love Christmas and what it means for my family. May your home be filled with peace and love and the spirit of Christ this season.

A bunch of little happenings

I haven't updated the blog in a while. I don't have too many pictures of recent events, but here's a few things that have been going on.


1. Here's my latest project. I painted the dining room (it's hard to see but there are stripes on the blue), and we added a chair rail and molding at the ceiling. I still need to do work on the chandelier and do some paint touch ups. But it's nice to have this much done. We were hoping to have it finished in time for Thanksgiving and a visit from Bruce's parents. I got the painting done, but the molding had to wait until after the big dinner.



Next will be the kitchen and half bath, then I'm done with the downstairs.


2. Just a few fun pitures. Courtney needed some shots of family for a school project and I thought these came out too cute to pass up sharing on here.




3. My sisters came to visit for a weekend in October. It was so fun and we laughed and ate and had a great time as only sister can. I didn't have my camera with me, so I'm counting on their pictures. You can check out Kim's blog for a great recap. (Her blog is private so sorry if you can't see it.) This is the only normal picture we have of all 3 of us. We (Jill) can't take a picture without being goofy!




4. I ran my first race on Halloween, a 5K. Some friends and I trained together in our attempt to lose some weight. We had a great time. I actually did a lot better then I thought, taking almost 1 minute off my mile time. My goal was to not walk at all, and I accomplished that, so SUCCESS!






I did an 8K charity race on Thanksgiving morning, but didn't run the whole thing. A friend and I walked about half of that one, but it was fun. We're going to keep entering these shorter races hoping it will keep us running regularly. If I could just stay away from all the yummy food that is so so bad for me, I wouldn't have to worry about this. But for now, where's my running shoes?

Soccer Star

Dylan played soccer for the first time this fall. He loved it. Just like with T-Ball, he had a smile on his face the whole time. There were a few kids that were really good and had obviously played a lot. Dylan couldn't keep up with them, but he never quit running the field. He even got a goal during his last game!!

Go Dylan Go!

Huddle time.

Celebration lunch. Can you see their faces when they got a look at the trophies? I love it.

So happy to add another trophy to the shelf.

Team Lynx.

Halloween '09

As always, the kids had tons of fun this Halloween. Our holiday lasted all month, which made this post quite long.


During their track out time at the beginning of the month, I let them decorate the house. We also went to the Dollar Store so they could each choose one new decoration. Then we made this really cute craft.

Our spoon creatures
Travis hard at work
Dylan, after stripping off his costume so no paint would get on it.
Courtney was a pro

We had a fun ward Fall Festival at the church. The kids got to dress up in their costumes, we had a yummy chili cook-off, (mine never wins!) and a trunk-or-treat in the halls of the church. The exciting moment of the evening came when the youth's spook alley set off the fire alarm because of their fog machine. The alarm system automatically notifies the fire department, so before long, the big truck came. All the kids thought it was great, the leaders not so much.
I didn't get any pictures of this night, so on to the next.

On Friday the 30th, the Kindergarten and 1st grade classes had a book character parade. The schools don't allow kids to come in their Halloween costumes, but they got around that rule by incorporating reading into dressing up. The kids were supposed to bring a book and dress up as a character. Of course, most of the costumes were just their Halloween costumes, and some kids didn't even bother with the book. But it was still a fun event. We had a fireman costume from a previous year, so I found some firemen books at the library and let Dylan choose one to use. Courtney's class also dressed up. They had been doing some fun dress up things all week to celebrate Red Ribbon Week, (pajama day, wild hair day, crazy sock day, wear red day.) Because their Kindergarten reading buddies were dressing up, her class also got to dress up as a book character. Again, I just found an old costume, which happened to be a Little Red Riding Hood cape she had worn when she was about 4.

A quick picture before school
Walking the halls during the parade
Mrs. Spina, Dylan's teacher, had a great costume
Dylan's Kindergarten class
Courtney's 5th Grade class

And finally, Halloween day. I told the kids I wouldn't buy costumes this year because we had plenty of things they could wear. Courtney chose to go as a ninja again, just like last year. Dylan decided to save his own money to buy a power ranger costume. His favorite guy is Green Ranger. It was going to cost $40 from online. After saving and saving, he only had about $18, and not much time left. We found Red Ranger at Walmart for $20, so he chose that one instead. Travis used his ninja costume last year at our Ward Fall Festival. Courtney wanted him to go as a cowboy and got the outfit all ready. Each day, if you asked Travis, he would have a new answer as to which he would dress up as. But Halloween day he decided on the cowboy outfit.

Travis the cowboy
Dylan, aka Red Ranger
Courtney the ninja
Showing me their best poses
Displaying their artwork
Handing out candy to the last of the trick-or-treaters

Courtney turns 11!

My little girl has only one more year of elementary school, one more year of Primary. How is she growing up so quickly? She's turning into a beautiful, kind, loving girl. I feel very blessed every day to see what a great person she is, to be taught and loved by her, to share in her learning and growing. I always pray that others will see her the way I do and see what a wonderful daughter of God she is.

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Here are some pictures from our family party for her.

She has a new love of Babel cheese, because she loves to play with the wax afterwards. (Although she will tell you its only because she likes the cheese.) Since Mom is too frugal to actually buy some, so Travis got it for her as a present. Now she can go a few days without mooching the neighbor's cheese.

Mom and Dad finally broke down and bought her the Harry Potter movies. She's only read the books about a dozen times each.

Showing off her loot.

Her pokeball cake.

This is what I found in the kitchen while letting her cake cool. I also found a 3 year old with chocolate cake covering his face. He thought it was hilarious. I didn't.

Camping at Hanging Rock

We had a great camping trip last weekend. We stayed 2 nights in Hanging Rock State Park. After getting lost on the way, (and me complaining for the millionth time about not have a GPS,) we finally made it and set up camp. We roasted hot dogs that first night and then went on a short hike down to the lake. We ended the first day with s'mores. It was a beautiful area and perfect fall weather. We had a heater in the camper, although we couldn't get it to work. Thankfully I had packed tons of blankets so we stayed pretty warm at night.

Our first big hike the next day was to Hanging Rock, a beautiful area that looks out over the Piedmont Valley. It was only a 1 mile hike, so we thought it would be no problem. Well, we didn't know it was uphill most of the way, pretty steep for some of it. But the kids did awesome and made it without complaining. We had a lunch up on the rocks, played a little, then hiked down, ready for a nap (at least Bruce and I were.) Travis made it almost the whole way. About 1/4 mile from the parking lot he decided he just couldn't go any farther, so Bruce carried him the rest of the way.




Later that day and the next day we hiked some shorter, easier trails that led to waterfalls. The kids loved climbing all the rocks and exploring the area. We love this park and can't wait to camp there again.









I love these photos.
Courtney wanted me to take her picture on this rock.

Then, Dylan decided he wanted to copy Courtney and climbed up so I could take his picture.

Then, Travis couldn't be left out, so he climbed up and copied Dylan's pose with a hand on his hip. It was so funny and cute.