December Randoms

We have had such a fun month so far.

 The kids love shopping at Trader Joe's.  They feel so grown-up pushing their own carts.  I love Blake's "cheeser" face.

 The primary took a temple trip at the first of the month.  There was a fun nativity and it was actually warm enough not to wear jackets...in December!  Afterwards they had hot chocolate and cookies for everyone.  We love that our temple is so close.

 These are more pictures from the River of Lights. Blake's fav was the t-rex of course.

 The kids and their daddy.

 Fun and delicious cookies that I made for my Favorite Things party at a friend's house.

 We got a delivery and Blake decided to fit himself into the box.  What a cutie.

 This kid falls asleep in the funniest positions.  I can't see how that could possibly be comfortable.

 Jane loves to chill with her daddy like this.

 I made some cinnamon caramel popcorn for our Christmas plates, recipe courtesy of my sister Melissa.  It was yumm-o-licious!

 This was my project yesterday.  I look forward to Christmas baking every year.  I made 11 plates...with homemade oreos, mint chocolate fudge, and oreo truffles, along with the popcorn shown above.

 I like to give the kids one homemade gift each year.  Blake's is the green monster, Natalie's the pink, and the yellow one is for their cousins to share.  I put a notebook and coloring book in each bag.

 Miss Jane just looks too adorable in her Christmas dress.

 I splurged and got Jane her first (and certainly not her last) pair of boots.  She liked them.  She's definitely going to be a boot girl :)

This sweet boy has started in with a stutter again with all the Christmas excitement in the air.  He cannot wait for Santa to come.  He found this hat one night and came in saying, "Ho, ho, ho!  I'm Santa!"  So I proceeded to tell him the things that I want, and then he went into the toy room and brought out a truck for me :)

The annual music recital was last week.  My students all played so well.  I got to perform Millionaire's Hoedown on my violin.  Anson decided to be silly for the photo.  It's impossible to get a good picture of everyone with kids, isn't it?  Erica (right next to me) and Wells (holding his violin) are violin students and Kialey and Anson are piano students.  I love teaching music.

Sunday we got our first "snow"!  If you can call it that.  The kids woke up and I let them go right out, before the neighbors were even up.  You pretty much have to or the snow melts in a matter of an hour after the sun comes up.  I told them to try to keep the noise level down, but we all know how that went :)  They were making snow angels in the skiff of powder.  The poor kids wanted to make a snowman too, but we'll have to wait for more snow.

A Day that will not be Forgotten

My heart is just sick today thinking about the families of the victims of the Connecticut elementary school shooting.  I can't even fathom what would bring a person to hurt, let alone kill, innocent children.  Just looking at my sweet babies sends me into an emotional whirl, and I have to hide while I cry for those poor little kids and their families.

Then, to add to the emotion, Natalie brought home this book from her visit to her school library.


She asked me to read it to her when I was already a ball of emotions.  I haven't wanted to tell her about what happened, so I tried to hold it together while I read it.  Each page had a different animal parent who asked their child how many kisses they wanted that night.  Blake was on one side of me and Natalie on the other while I read it, and I gave them the number of kisses that the animal gave to her baby on each page.  The kisses increased up to a billion.  Natalie said at that point, "You can't give us a billion kisses".  I surely wanted to, especially just thinking about those parents who wouldn't be able to kiss their sweet children that night, and I had mine right next to me.

I ache for their parents, who will forever remember each Christmastime, the horrific happenings of this day.  How could anyone be so cruel?  The poor families who will miss seeing a child run down the stairs on Christmas morning to open gifts that Santa has brought.

The little things I do and experience each day as a mother that I so often take for granted....hearing their laughter, reading them stories, making breakfast for them, dressing them, watching them play "make believe", taking Natalie to school, listening to their little angel voices sing, asking Natalie about her day at school, tucking them into bed and kissing their sweet foreheads, waking up with them when they have nightmares and telling them that everything will be ok...things that those parents will no longer be able to do.  I will hold my babies a little closer now.  I will tell them I love them more.

The past Thursday was a really hard day for me as a mother.  The kids were fighting and misbehaving and ignoring most everything I said all day.  I was frustrated and impatient and angry.  What those parents wouldn't give for another day with their child...even a bad day.  I want to be more patient and understanding and slower to anger with them.

I wish I could shelter my kids from all the evil of this world.  I'm afraid for their futures.  Days like this make me really look forward to the second coming, when everything will be perfect and good again.

I think about how I feel right now and then I just try to imagine what Heavenly Father must be feeling looking down on the world as these things happen.  He must just weep for his children-both the victims and the evil gunman who caused such a thing.

The only peace I can feel right now comes from my knowledge of the life hereafter-that families are eternal and that those parents will be reunited with their sweet children.  I have hope and a sure knowledge that they are being encircled in their Savior's arms in heaven right now.

There is still good in the world...lots of good.  I know that.  It's just hard to remember it on days like this.

These are some of my latest projects...Christmas gifts.  The top one is the front and back of a board I made for Natalie's kindergarten teacher.  The tote bags are for my music students.  I found plain black bags at Hobby Lobby, bought some music print fabric, and sewed!  The middle version is for two boys (brothers) that I teach piano and violin to, and the outer ruffle bags are the more feminine version for my two girl students.  I thought it would be a fun thing for them to get to put their music in when they come to lessons.

Cute Kiddos

The kiddos wore their cute Christmas outfits today, and I made them pose for a picture by the tree.  I still can't believe that I have 3 kids!  They are the light of my life, and they make Christmas so fun.  I love seeing the magic of Christmas through children's eyes.

Annual Santa Visit

We took the kids to visit Santa last night.  They each told him what they wanted-except Jane- she's perfectly happy as long as she has food and her Momma, which are one in the same :)

Blake wants a tractor and a train book.  Natalie wants a doll hair care kit-a really funny request for her, considering that she doesn't play with dolls.

I love that you can just see the special love between sisters in this picture.  Natalie and Jane already have a sweet connection.  Whenever Natalie talks to Jane, Jane's face just lights up in a huge smile.

Afterwards, the kids and daddy rode the carousel.

I love Christmastime!

Last night, we went as a family to the River of Lights.  It's basically the botanical gardens, but all lit up.  It was really impressive, and we couldn't believe that in our five years here, we have never been. We will definitely make it an annual tradition.  Here is our little family, minus Jane, who was sleeping peacefully all bundled up in the stroller.

 The kids made graham cracker candy houses, as soon as we got back from our Thanksgiving vacation, to kick off the Christmas season.  They look forward to it every year and so do I.

In addition to our regular advent calendar, I am doing a new Christmas book advent this year, where the kids get to unwrap a Christmas book every morning to read.  These are mostly books that we already own, but I will add a few new books to our collection every year.  This year we added:



and

The kids especially love How the Grinch Stole Christmas, by Dr. Seuss, and The Polar Express, by Chris Van Allsburg.  Natalie loves Fancy Nancy Splendiferous Christmas, by Jane O'Connor.

I hosted a fun ladies' craft night with some friends and we made these pretty nativity boards.

I just love this time of year!  It's so magical.  We are looking forward to going on the Polar Express and to spending Christmas in Park City with Rob's family.  I look forward to seeing my family too while we're there.

Thanksgiving

 We had such a fun Thanksgiving break with Rob's family.  We played some volleyball games at the church with some friends.  Sherrie, Chelsea and I shopped Black Friday at 4 am, the kids hot tubbed with Grandpa, we ate yummy food of course, watched the new Twilight Movie, and just enjoyed being together.

 My contribution to Thanksgiving dinner. Thank you Pinterest!  They were tons of work, and were almost too cute to eat.

 It was warm enough to eat outside by the pool!  The tables looked so pretty.  We had 34 guests!

 Natalie was so excited to see her cousin Kjerstin!  She wasn't at Thanksgiving dinner, but they drove all night back from Utah so they could spend a day with us before we left.  

 Cousins Jane and Brandon.  Born two minutes apart.  Brandon has my baby beat in the hair department, as you can see. :)  I love my little bald baby, though.

 Rob enjoyed raiding the closets at his parents' house and wearing crazy outfits while rip sticking on the wood floors or playing volleyball.

 Sweet baby Jane turned two months while we were there!  Love, love, love this girl!

 Morgan, a family friend, is awesome, and she could not wait to hold baby Jane.

 Grandma took Jane for a while, and came out with her wearing this silly wig.  Everyone was laughing so hard and Jane was just chilling, loving the fact that she actually had hair.  :)

Disneyland!!

We got to go to Disneyland the Monday and Tuesday before Thanksgiving.  It was way too crowded, but still so much fun.  We had to take the trip while we could.  The new Cars Ride is awesome!    

 Little boy in a big world :)

This was Miss Jane's first trip to Disneyland!

 Jane was such a sweetheart for us there.  She only cried at night about 7:00 when it started to get cold.

 I took Natalie, or I should say she took me, on the Tower of Terror ride a few times.  I love it but it scares the _____ out of me.  :)  Natalie's face here is priceless.  I think she's more amused by how terrified her mother is than by the ride itself.  

 Cars Land is amazing!  Disney did a great job of it, as they do with everything. 

 It was all smiles until Blake reached his breaking point around 2 every afternoon (naptime).  He'd crash for an hour or so and then was ready to be back at it.

 This was Blake's favorite ride-the Haunted Mansion.  He absolutely loves Nightmare before Christmas, and that's an understatement.

This was a cool sight...Buzz and Woody are made out of Legos.  I'm glad I didn't have that job...makes me tired just thinking about constructing something so intricate and involved. 

 Maleficent the Dragon was also made with Legos.

 This was on Splash Mountain.  I was genuinely terrified, again, and Natalie's face is one of pure enjoyment.  Rob's brother Scott is in front, and his mom behind Scott.

 Again the Tower of Terror, but with Rob's mom and brother Scott.

 These kiddos always love the carousel.

 Nighttime in Cars Land was neat.  Here's the kids standing by Mader with their Disneyland treasures in hand.  Blake chose a Jack Skellington and Natalie chose Zero, also from Nightmare before Christmas.

The kids wanted a picture with the real Mader.

This is how Natalie rode on our walk back to the hotel one night after a long day at Disneyland.  Yes-she's sleeping.  The park was open 'til midnight, so we stayed until 10, which meant we were there for around 15 hours that day...loads of fun but so exhausting!!