Christmas Past

This is a picture of Craig just after he got back from finding a tree with his buddies Jeff and Chad. I think the story goes: his mom and dad didn't know where he had gone, and when he showed up at home, after dark, with this "charlie brown" tree, they couldn't even be upset. I love this picture. It is my favorite picture of Christmas past. So I copied my 'creative friend' and used the Cosmo Cricket Be Good paper and put it in a magnet frame from my other 'creative friend'. It is right by the computer and it is the first official decoration of Christmas.

One Weekend

About three weeks ago, I went to Utah for a girls' weekend with Linzi, Rachel, Annette, and Becky. I could give you all of the details, but it all comes down to I needed this weekend. My SIL knew I needed this weekend and I was so grateful to be with these friends for 72 hours. Here are the few pictures that can be posted. We had many others but are safer away from the Internet. There was lots of laughing, some crying, scrapping, spa day, and good girl fun. I am blessed to have these women in my life. They make me a better person all around. Enough of the sappy stuff, which is better: Starbucks or Jamba Juice?

It's The Most Wonderful Time of The Year...

Yesterday, I wasn't into the Christmas mood. My house was a mess, and I still had the fall decorations up. After I dropped my dad off at the Chicago airport, I listened to Christmas music all the way home. The fall decorations are down and the house is semi-cleaned. Now I just need to find a christmas tree....I have the Christmas Spirit! Thanks to Christmas music!
Some of my favorite Christmas CDs include:
Home For Christmas: Amy Grant
Christmastime: Hillary Weeks
Carpenters Christmas Portrait (This one reminds me of when I was little.)
And a new favorite:
Noel: Josh Groban
Favorite Songs:
My Christmas Prayer: Rob Thomas
Christmas Lullaby: Amy Grant
Do You Hear What I Hear: Rosie and Elmo
Highland Cathedral
Here is a small list, I am sure I will be adding more as the day goes on. Let's get decorating!

Christmas Ornaments Class

4 candy corns...

This year, we started a new tradition for Thanksgiving. At the end of the meal, we passed around a bowl of candy corn and told everyone to take as many as they needed. After the bowl had been passed, Craig and I told everyone that for each candy corn that was taken, you needed to say something you were thankful for. Sydnee took the most with 8, so she had a long list of gratitude. Here are the others that I could remember:

Christian: "water, and all other liquids"

Sydnee: "rain, my body, my mom, my brother, my sister, my daddy"

Craig: "my heritage, the gospel, my wife and all the things she does that may go unnoticed"

Kim: Christian, for how hard he is working to do well in 3rd grade (it has been tough for him); Craig; Sydnee and Ella; my parents, that they could be here in Iowa for Thanksgiving

Mom: "my grandchildren"

Dad: "the past year of his life and all the blessings that have come to his family"

(Ella was asleep during this portion of dinner, so she didn't participate.)

Christian wrote Turkey Notes. These are small pieces of paper rolled up in tissue paper and tied on each end with yarn. He wrote these at school and I thought they were pretty creative. The turkey note he wrote for his dad said:

Turkey Red, Turkey Blue, Turkey says I love football too!

Sydnee sang her Thanksgiving song:

5 fat turkeys

Scratching in the hay

Along came the farmer's wife

And took one away

They will serve him for dinner

On Thanksgiving Day!

Sydnee taught this song to Ella, and she wanted to sing it all by herself, but would only sing it under the table or in the other room where no one could see her.

We had a great dinner with all the traditional food items. I made Dana's Sweet Potato Pudding and it was a hit! Ella loved the Milk Nog (half milk, half egg nog), and Sydnee and Christian ate mostly turkey and mashed potatoes. It was a Thanksgiving day we will not soon forget. I know this is a long post, and since I was cooking, I didn't get any pictures, so watch for some from the long weekend. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

Christmas Ornament Class

Here are the pictures of the ornaments that I promised! The first class is this Sunday from 4-6 pm. You will make 10 ornaments. All the patterns and chipboard are from Cosmo Cricket. These will make any tree look adorable. Or they are perfect for gift tags! Enjoy!

Grandpa Wood

Christian and Sydnee with Gramps in 2004
I have so many things to post about today. Lots of events from the weekend. But yesterday, Craig's Grandpa had surgery on a very difficult spot of cancer that he has been dealing with on his head for several years. I wanted to post a few of our favorite things about Gramps today:
*He can walk for miles. We think this is why at his age, he is in such great shape. He has a pedometer that Craig and I gave him many years ago that he sets every week. He can walk and walk and walk.
*We love the smell of his pipe. Craig loves the smell of his cherry tobacco. Grandpa's pipe is even a topic for my children. Christian and Sydnee love Gramp's pipe. Last week, when Sydnee's Kindergarten class was talking about not smoking, she came home and told me that we can't smoke until we are really, really old, like Grandpa in England.
*Gramps can talk to anyone and make them feel they are loved.
*He can also make you laugh outloud with the stories he tells. He has a great sense of humor. He is always making someone laugh by sharing a great story.
*Once when Gramps was visiting from England, I was pregnant with Sydnee. We knew we were having a girl and we were talking about names. Gramps' nickname for Sydnee-in-utero was Poppy. He really wanted me to name her Poppy.
*"What an absolute load of rubbish!" is Craig's favorite thing that Gramps says.

We are thinking of you Gramps! You are in our thoughts and prayers.

Greatfl

On Sunday, I was dreading having to substitute for Primary again. I haven't been to an adult Sunday School class in years and I was having a pretty negative attitude, ok a horrible attitude. After class, we all meet together as a large group to sing songs and listen to a lesson that is long enough for the attention span of 25 kids who are on the verge of bouncing off the walls. The chorister was giving the lesson today and for the few short minutes that she spoke, she had those children mesmerized.


She told the story of the Ten Lepers from the New Testament. How after Jesus healed them of their disease, only one came back to thank him. After the children read the story from the scriptures, she asked several intriguing questions. She asked the children to picture in their minds how the one leper, who was thankful, felt. Then she shared a simple story.


When her oldest son was on his mission, and he had been out in the mission field about a year, she was feeling very discouraged and just wanted him to come home. She was feeling sorry for herself and just wanted her son home safe. In church the next Sunday, she spoke in church and outwardly expressed how thankful she was that her son was serving a mission. From this experience she learned that when you are thankful and grateful for something that may be hard for you at the time, in some miraculous way it makes you feel better inside. Now, those aren't her exact words, and I am not a really good writer, but when she said this the first thing that came to my mind, and I almost wanted to say it outloud: I AM THANKFUL THAT I AM A MOM. Just for that moment I wanted to feel a little bit better about what I am doing in this crazy world of motherhood. The stress of parenting and how your kids are feeling about different things and if you are doing the right thing to help with all those awkward feelings. The guilt you feel for losing your patience or yelling, at a moment where you should be hugging or saying, I love you. I just wanted to say how grateful I was at that moment to be a mom, so that I could feel good for a fleeting moment. There were many thoughts in those few minutes that came to my mind of all the things that I was thankful for. I am so glad that I was in Primary today, so I could learn from this amazing woman, and remember to be thankful, especially when it is the hardest to be grateful.


I am in the process of making a scrapbook page of the things at this time in my life that I am grateful for, the overwhelming blessings I have in my life, so I can look back on it when I am not feeling very thankful, and remember. The reason that grateful is spelled "greatfl" is because last year I saw a license plate that had the word spelled this way and as soon as I saw it, I went home and made a list of the great things in my life and for all those things, I am truly greatfl.

Feeling A Bit Creative Everyday...

Here are two layouts I made at the crop on Friday. They were both made with the Cosmo Cricket Dutch Girl paper, chipboard from Rusty Pickle, and American Craft Chipboard Thickers. Dutch Girld is a great line of paper for Fall and Thanksgiving Layouts! We have it at Scrapaganza too, so check it out!

Ten Random Thoughts

1. I have been going to this Boot Camp class at the YMCA and I can barely move a muscle.
2. We are painting the kids' bathroom and Christian's room this week.
3. Ella and I are taking a little trip this weekend....I am beyond thrilled.
4. The vaccuum has been dying a slow death.
5. Potty training suggestions, anyone?
6. Sydnee sorted all the Halloween Candy and we have a big, big bag of mini-candy bars. Yum!
7. I am not a fan of school fundraisers.
8. It is very windy and cold today. I hope the weather is nice when my parents are here for Thanksgiving.
9. It is time for a shower and to get to work for the day!
10. Sorry, I can't think of anything else that is happening around here, must be the calm before the storm.

P.S.

Craig and I....we don't get our picture taken very often together, so I passed the camera to get this photo...
Candi's Mom and Candi...
Candi and I...
Hollee, my friend and YW, playing in the Central High School Marching Band...
I love owls and had to get this picture...just a few more from the parade last night.

On October Thirty-One

*Ella and I went to the school Halloween Parade

*Christian went to a friend's house after school
*We had 'Ghoul'ash and Bones for dinner (Thanks for the creativity, Candi.)
*Went to the Downtown Davenport Halloween Parade for the first time

Just some of the fun and festive things that happened today...
We are sad to see the Halloween festivities ending...it has been a great week! Now it is back to doing laundry, emptying the sink of dirty dishes, and cleaning the house. What a wreck!

Trick or Treat

Sydnee as a High School Musical Cheerleader

*Edited: This is a different costume than the one Sydnee wore for the Trunk R' Treat. We had ordered this online, and hadn't received it, so she borrowed a cheerleader costume from our neighbor. Thanks Emily!
Christian as a Iowa Hawkeye Football Player
Ella as Tinkerbell


On Tuesday night was Trick or Treat for our neighborhood, Garner Farms. Christian and Sydnee took off with their friends and Ella stayed behind to pass out candy and wait for her friend Hallie to come. After awhile Ella finally wanted to go out into the neighborhood. She would say "Trick or Treat" and "Thank You" and then as she was walking down the drive, she would turn around and holler "Happy Halloween!" It was fun to see her get into the spirit! Before the night began, I took the kids to the park to get some good pictures. All Ella wanted to do was get to the slide, so even though she was running away the whole time, her pictures turned out the best. After the night was over, we have a tradition of going to our neighbors, The Farnsworths, for tacos. It is always so fun and casual. The kids have a good time and the adults get a chance to talk. This is the third year that we have had this tradition, so I hope that it stays around.