Visiting Santa

Last night was our Ward Christmas party. The theme was The Polar Express! We had a great breakfast followed by a little skit. We even wore our pajamas--mine were my favorite ones, that glow in the dark. So exciting I know. Then Santa and Mrs. Clause came for a visit.Mark wasn't falling for the big red guy in the fluffy suit. He wanted nothing to do with him! Sorry Santa!

Ben LOVED it! He talked up a storm! This is the first year when Ben will really understand Christmas and the excitement of it.
James and Luke wanted the candy. And that meant they had to sit on his lap. They hammed it up quite nicely..lol..


The kids had a lot of fun and it was nice to visit with friends from the ward. We are blessed to live in a ward that is very caring for each other. I think of when I had Mark earlier this year and how the ward brought me meals for a few days afterwards, but then gals kept calling and bringing me food. And since I never turn down food, I happily accepted it. I didn't have to cook for over a week. I felt so blessed. Anyhoo, it was nice to share some of the holiday season with them at Christmas time.


Here is the little skit that was performed. (Sorry it cuts out at the end...outta space at YouTube.) Luke had one of the parts and was SO excited for it. He really enjoyed being on stage. When he was singing I was so shocked! I knew he could sing..but I didn't know he has such a nice clear voice. It would be nice to get him some lessons someday.

Happy Birthday James!!!

Today my James ventures into the double digit world and arrives at the age of 10! James has been an adventure since day one. When he was little he was our little escape artist...he would get out of any situation we would give him. He could easily climb out of his playpen before he was a year and a half, he ran our of nursery, climbed out of his crib, out the bedroom window..oh yes..and I even remember when he was 4 and seeing his little feet hang off the side of our house when he was trying to get his toy down. James has definitely been an adventure!




I love you James!

Oh one more thing...

I just want to say that I have a great Dad that I am so thankful for.
Thanks Dad!
I love you!

Inspirational Story

This story is very inspirational to me. We all have challenges to overcome in life. In the scriptures it tells us that our weaknesses can become strengths. --Ether 12:37. I believe that this includes our learning challenges, our struggles, everything.

Teaching Self Government

A friend of mine has had an extraordinary journey to get her to where she is at. She has been a foster mom for the teenagers that everybody had given up on. The wild teenagers that had every issue imaginable. She also teaches parents how to have their family self govern. It is an amazing process that helps kids see the potential of themselves and for the family to see the long term vision of the family. A couple of years ago I hosted one of her seminars locally and it was an amazing experience that I am so glad I was able to be part of.
Anyway, this past spring the BBC contacted her to be part of a reality series. The series involved sending 2 extremely rebellious teenagers to her home to live with her family for 10 days. Well, it is a very profound episode. In such a short amount of time, her family was able to really help the kids.
I want to share her episode with everyone I can. So I posting it here. :--) Nicholeen has a website that has lots of good information and tips on parenting. She also has a book coming out soon. Woo! Can't wait for it!
Thanks Nicholeen!

Grocery savings

Its been a while since I have posted about my grocery adventures. I am not able to spend a day going to all of the grocery stores very much. Last night, late last night, I was able to get to Smiths to take advantage of their sale. This is a sampling of what I was able to get.

Ziplock vacuum starter kit
2 Snuggle fabric softner
Downy ball
14 cans of Carnation evaporated milk .49 each
8 boxes of tylenol
4 coffee mate creamer--Its for hot chocolate..mmmm yummmy...
2 packages of Keebler Cookies
2 loaves of bread
5 packages of cream cheese

Before sales and coupons: $111.52
Actual amount paid: $35.70
It was a lot of fun and it was really fun to watch the numbers keep going down. With Christmas coming right around the corner, we need to save every penny we can!

Happy day after Halloween!

Ugh...no more candy! I'm not even eating it but I'm SO tired of it everywhere! Well..correction..I'm tired of the wrappers everywhere! Thankfully, my boys detected my disdain and they cleaned up those wrappers. It was a fun quiet evening. The boys and I hung out, had pizza, and watched movies. This was the first year that I let the older boys go out on their own.




Luke was..no not a character from Star Wars..but he was..Hamlet! Ok so we've been reading a lot of Shakespeare lately. When people asked him " So what are you suppose to be?" he would reply " To be or not to be...that is the question!"

James was the evil Darth Vader! Ok he wasn't very evil, he was probably the first sweet Vader, but he still had fun.


Ben was O-B-1-Kanobe...yeah I don't know how to spell that one..lol..



I made this robe for Cory 3 or 4 years ago. Every Halloween since the first thing he says when he wakes up on Halloween is" "Woo hoo! Today I get to dress up as a Jedi!" It makes my day every time!


Mark and myself didn't dress up. Normal was scary enough.