52 -Week 52

 Here we are at the last full week of the year.  I can not believe how quickly this year has flown by.  We have made a lot of great memories this year. Here is how our last week ended.

We went on our annual sibling and cousin shopping trip to Target.  

The kids pay for their own gifts to each other and to mom and dad.  

It's always so fun to see them picking out the perfect gift for their siblings. 

 We went swimming one day to get out and enjoy not having to go to school.

 Each year we try to have a red/green dinner.  We ran out of time to do something big so one night I just dyed the food we were eating red and green.

 We(not me) were sick of not having snow and not being able to do all the fun things we love in the winter.  So we packed up and headed up the canyon in search of snow.  We were so happy to find some at our favorite sledding spot. 

Snow Angels

The girls helped me build a snow man.

 We had a snowball war- Buddy the Elf style.

 Ethan made our family out of snow.

 Christmas Eve p.j.s and reading the nativity was wonderful.

 Santa was way too generous!  We don't have a set limit of presents we get the kids- we just stick within our budget.  So some years I feel like we way over do it on gifts- this was one of those years.

 Christmas morning the kids woke us up at 6 AM.  I know they were up way before that.  I love how excited they get for Christmas.  Ethan still believes in Santa so it's extra fun to see his reaction.  Ashtyn's favorite gift was a professional grade camera.  She wants to be a photographer when she grows up so we wanted to get her started on her dream.  Ethan's favorite gift was a kindle fire.  Whitney didn't have a favorite gift.  She was actually our only child who received everything she wanted on her list.  Her big gift was a shopping spree.   She loves clothes and has wanted to expand her wardrobe.   After she saw the camera and kindle that the other two got she started to feel a little jealous and kind of had a bad attitude for part of the day. She didn't let her attitude ruin the whole day, but every now and then I would catch her crying about it.  We tried to explain to her that the shopping spree she got cost as much if not more than those two gifts but that's hard to understand.  We also told her that she was welcome to use the money on anything she wanted, not just clothes.  Gratitude is not something you have- it's a truly learned skill.  I'm not sure our kids really understand how truly blessed we are to have so much.  We have tried to expose them over the years to other situations in life where people aren't as fortunate as us, but I have to remind myself that they are still kids and still learning the skill of gratitude.  

 I took Whitney on her shopping spree the next day and all of the little jealousies melted away when she was holding her new clothes.  I think it was a good lesson her her.  Like the scripture in Phillipians 4:11 that says "Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content."  This is one thing I hope my children learn early in life.

 Our kids have been begging for a waffle iron forever.  So we got them one for Christmas and had yummy Belgium waffles for breakfast.

 We went to Jeff's parents house for lunch and to exchange gifts. All the grand kids acted out the nativity.  Whitney was a shepherd, Ashtyn was Mary and Ethan was Joseph this year. Tom pointed out that this would be Ashtyn's last time to be Mary because by the time we rotated through all the grand daughters again she would be 20 years old. 

 The whole Shaw family.

 We went to my mom's house for dinner that night and to exchange presents with them. 

 Here is Kevin, Mom and Regan.  

I love Brody's big smile.

 We got Brooklyn a shopping cart and she loved it.

 We ended the night by going to "Christmas Street".  It's a street near my mom's house that tells the "Night Before Christmas" story.  Every single house on the whole street participates.  It's very cool and we have been going there since I was a little girl.

 It was super icy on our way home and actually took us over an hour to get home.  It was scary because there were tons of cars that has slid off the road or gotten stuck.  Everyone had wished for a white Christmas and we got one- but at that point I was wishing it wasn't.

The rest of the week I put the camera away and we just spent time together off record.  Jeff got to go to a video game night with his brothers.  The kids slept over at Aunt Kristy's.  We hung out with Brody and Brooklyn.  I took Whitney on her shopping trip she got for Christmas.  We made a few exchanges of things that didn't fit for Christmas.  We played games.  We watched movies.  We went to church where the lesson in Sunday School was all about gratitude.
Here are 9 ways she said we can cultivate gratitude in ourselves and others:
1. Keep a gratitude journal
2. Make a gratitude visit
3. Create a gratitude catalog
4. Eliminate ungrateful thoughts and replace them with grateful ones
5. Express prayers of gratitude
6. Train yourself to use gratitude language
7. Recognize that things could always be worse
8. Enjoy the journey
9. Learn the art of being content
I think an FHE will be in order.

It was a very fun and relaxing week!

52- Week 51

 Monday we went with Jeff's family to see the Forgotten Carols.  This is one of my favorite, favorite traditions!  I love that it's held at Cottonwood High School where I graduated from.  I loved High School so it's fun to show my kids where I spent three years of my life.

 Here's the crew waiting for Papa and Paul to arrive.

 Ethan helped me make tons of sugar cookies for the holidays.  I love sugar cookies almost as much as I love baking with this little dude.

 Saturday was Whitney's first gymnastics meet of the season.  It was a practice meet at her gym.  She has been struggling with the pressure that competitive gymnastics brings.  Pressure put on by her coaches, but mostly herself.  She lets her fear of not being perfect really overwhelm her.  She has been crying every time I drop her off for practice and we have to spend five minutes in the car doing mental visualizations and deep breathing to even get her to go inside.  She has told me on numerous occasions that she wants to quit. I however will not let her.  This girl has dreamed of being a gymnast for way too long to just give up when it gets tough.  Plus it's a great life lesson and testament to our Shaw motto of "WE CAN DO HARD THINGS".  She did great at the meet.  She landed all of her skills except for one vault, but you get two tries at the vault so it didn't even matter.  She was just as good as the other girls on her team and even better than some.  She did feel more confident afterwards so hopefully she can remember that when her first real meet happens next month. 

The picture above is her landing her first vault. 

The picture below is her in the middle of her bar routine.

 

 Saturday was also the annual Pearson Christmas Breakfast at Little America.  Whitney and I were so so sad to miss this.  I told Ashtyn to take some pictures for us.  Here are a few cute ones she snapped.

Cute little Corban.

 

 Ethan and Fischer.

Maddie and Phoebe.

 

 After the Pearson breakfast Jenacee came over to our house to hang out. 

We decided to do a Pinterest craft.  I love how they turned out.

 

 The finished product.  I forgot to take a picture of Jen's before she left.

 On Sunday night we took a trip to the "Tree of Life" as it's being called.  It's really just a well lit tree in the Draper Park- but it really does remind me of Lehi's dream. 

It was super cold and muddy so we didn't stay long.

 

 

52- Week 50

 Every year we each buy a new ornament for the tree.  Here is mine- It's a bear- the closest thing I could find that reminded me of our trip to Alaska this year.

 Jeff chose a snowflake that says 2014 in the middle.

 Ashtyn and Whitney both decided on "ugly" ornaments. 

Ashtyn picked a hippo and Whitney a zebra.

 Ethan was in love with this video game themed one.

 I took Ethan and his friend swimming one whole day.  He is off track.

 While they swam I wrapped cutlery packets for the ward party.

 This house is near one of Ethan's friends home.  The whole front yard is full of blow up decorations.

 We decorated gingerbread houses.

 Brody and Brooklyn stayed with us Thursday through Sunday. 

 They are so cute and sweet.  It was fun to have little people in the house again, but boy are they full of energy.  I was so tired by the end of each day from chasing them around all day. 

We loved getting to spend time with them.

 

I think we played a million games of Splat.

I just adore her little smile.

 

We have lived in our house for 5 1/2 years and have never put up Christmas lights.  Most of our neighbors do so we were bringing the street down- ha ha.  With a lot of prodding from the kids especially Ashtyn we decided to bring Christmas to the Shaw home. 

Jeff worked his butt off to get these put up and I love how they turned out.

 

The Relief Society was in charge of the ward Christmas party this weekend.  It was a ton of work to plan and put on a party for 300 people.  I am so happy with how it turned out.  Liz and my mom came to help with Brody and Brooklyn so I could take care of the party.

On Sunday we went to Jeff's cousin MaKell's homecoming.  She recently returned from serving a mission in Boston.  She is so sweet.  There was a huge change in her.  She seemed so much more mature.  Her talk was truly inspiring.  She spoke about faith and service and putting off your old self for a new and better self.  There was a woman that spoke after her and something she said will stick with me forever.  She talked about how on your mission you pray all day long- probably an average of 25 prayers a day.  When you come home that's no longer possible so she listed four things to do every day first thing that will keep you as close to the Lord as when you were praying all day.
1. Get on your knees first thing
2. Read from the scriptures second
3. Get dressed and show the Lord you are ready
4. Make your bed and tell the world you are now on the Lord's time.

This is something I want to try harder to do.  My kids usually wake me up so I don't always have the chance to kneel immediately and sometimes I forget later on.