Christmas Part 1

Nativity Mayhem. Cody and Sarah were in charge of our traditional Christmas Family Home Evening and they did a great job. We had Costa Vida knock - off (a very good knock - off) and a great nativity. I wish I had a picture of the nativity. I swear I took some - so when I find them I'll be sure to upload them. You're on pins and needles aren't you?

Our cute sheep

After the nativity the grandkids, as per tradition, exchanged their gifts to each other... which is always a book. It is such a great idea, and you would be surprised at how excited they are about them.

Grandmas Breakfast:

A couple of days later we got together for Grandmas breakfast bash. In years past this was done at Great Grandma Vance's house with all the extended cousins, but we kept it a little more simple this year and brought it down a generation.

After breakfast they made a gingerbread house together

While the boys went outside and helps grandpa move rock. Exciting.

And cuteness ensued:

Christmas Part 2

Two days before Christmas Chad and Caitlyn had and idea....

To make a rocking horse for Alison

So Chad worked:

And Caitlyn made a fort out of his scraps: (true Caitlyn style)

Christmas Eve. PJs are a tradition at our house and Cailtyn LOVES matching Alison

Christmas morning before it got ransacked.

Alison and Nathan eating breakfast before opening presents. Caitlyn is still sleeping

Caitlyns most prized gift of the day: A heart box of chocolates. thats what she wanted from Santa. Where on earth did he find that?

Chad looking at my most prized gift for him. I put all of our past blogs into books.

Alison loves the rocking horse

Our big gift to the kids were new rollerblades. They loved them and couldnt wait to get outside to try them out. Even if it was in their pajamas

When Grandpa O'Loughlin arrived he gave Caitlyn some rollerblading tips. (He's our resident rollerblader). There are already plans in the works for them to go out together

Later that day at my moms house. Alison is ready for a party

An overall shot of the grandkid mayhem. My mom got all the kids cute hooded blankets and embroidered pillowcases. They are so cute.

Jeff and Abby had Becky and Jared this year and to poke a little fun at him they gave him a box of Krispie Kreme donuts. (He's a cop)
Too cute not to post. The older boys showing me their approval.

And when all was over. This is how most of us felt.

Christmas Eve

Merry Christmas All!

The quilts are finished (last night)

The presents are wrapped

"A Christmas Story" and "White Christmas" has been watched

Its time for bed.

Happy Birthday

Chad is 33! To celebrate we are off to The Forgotten Carols with a stop at Sauce for some awesome food. (he got a hikers water purifier as a present)

Before we hit Christmas...

Lets take a look at Thanksgiving! This year we were invited over the Ellsworths for dinner. They rent a bounce house - which means we didnt see the kids the entire time. That pretty much makes the rental worth while wouldnt you agree?

Alison and Maya love to love on each other. They are always so excited to play

why not.

We went to Brian and Laura's house later for dessert and then over to Grandma Standages to see extended family.

Randy is always so modest when it comes to taking photos

Growin' Up

Happy Birthday Caitlyn!

She turned the very important 8 years old and will be getting baptised next month.

Here's a recap of years past....

7 years old:

6 years old:

5 down to 1 yrs old:

Step 1: cut out squares -check!
Step 2: design pattern and sew - check!
Step 3, 4 and 5 : adding batting, quilt stiching and rolled edge to be completed - tonight hopefully. I have to wait while the kids are not home or asleep. I know, I should have done more work on them when they were at school. When it is a big project (this is arguable a big project) I tend to start them, and then need a small break before finishing. That is what happened here - but I am feeling the pressure of finishing! So wish me luck!
PS - I am still so in love with these fabrics. Especially Caitlyns. I hope these will be blankets they hold on to for a long time.

A beautiful sight

It may not look like much, but this is 4 LARGE batches of salsa divided into 25 portions. All ready to go to neighbors and school teachers (Nathan has 10 teachers - thats right I said 10! So many aids and therapists that work in the room. Its great for him, but proves to be difficult to get them a Christmas goodie) I usually try to not to food. I try to do some sort of little gift but this won out. Its fast and tastes good.

Side note story to explain:Two years ago I went to Caitlyns Christmas Party at school and I was a little sad the most of the items the teacher got was baked goods - including ours. She was leaving out of town for the holidays and there was no way she was going to get through all that food. I vowed that I would be more thoughtful and try to go non-food when it came to teachers.

I am going to wrap them up with bags of chips and a nice decoration on the outside of the bag.
If you were a teacher would you appreciate it?

On another note - the quilt(Im working on Nathan's first) is coming along great. More pictures to come.

Projects

Merry Christmas season everyone! I havent been around the blog world for awhile and now I'm afraid that we dont have any readers! So, to boost your confidence in me I am presenting you with my current project....
Quilts for Nathan and Caitlyn. I finished my quilt for Alison (and my personal progress) and I kind of felt bad that I didnt give one to the others. They will not be as difficult as the other quilt, but they will have something more special. At least in my eyes. All of the fabric I found at my grandma's house. She is an amazing seamstress and there is no way I could ever compare to her talent. She hasnt been able to sew for awhile and she has loads of fabric. I am honored to use them for my kids, and will be sure to let them know where it came from.
Seriously how awesome is that vintage fabric of basket ball scenes. I LOVE it!

The florals were amazing and I had to actually edit my selections down. I originally had a couple stripes picked out too, but I think this will be perfect. My favorite is the rose buds on the right. Does anyone else remember that fabric? Its so nostalgic for me.

Im starting on them today so I'll be updating.

Note to Heidi: I have no idea how you made that quilt in one day. I will not be competing with you thats for sure.

As per our Thanksgiving tradition I present to you the pilgrim and indian ready for their Thanksgiving feast. We hope everyone enjoys their day and takes a few minutes to acknowledge all of the blessings in their lives.

Happy Thanksgiving

(were going to have to get a new picture next year that has Alison in it)

YEAR SUPPLY

Im giving a lot of thought to our year supply right now - mainly because it is not a year supply. We'd be lucky to last a couple of months. REALLY lucky.
I want to beef it up, but am unsure where to begin.
Anyone have ideas? What has helped you?

I am seriously considering just buying the ready-made-delivered to your door supply. That's really my style, but it definitely is more expensive.

Thank you

I would just like to give a public "THANK YOU" to my sweet husband. I had a Young Women's meeting go long on Sunday night and when I came home the dishes were done, dinner was cleaned up, and the laundry had been changed. It means so much to me to come home to a clean house. AND the kids were all in bed.
It means more than flowers.

Menu 11/8/2010

Monday - family party
Tuesday - Roasted chicken/carrots/potatos
Wednesday - Shephards pie
Thursday - grilled cheese sandwiches/soup
Friday - BBQ
Saturday - out
Sunday - breakfast

Itchin'

I'm inchin' some good fall or Christmas decoration craft ideas. Has anyone seen any good tutorials out there? If so could you give me the link ? I need some good, original ideas!

Thanks!

Grrrr......

I despise school fundraisers (except for the cookie dough one because I buy from that one). I hate that they give an assembly to the children and show them all of the "prizes" they could win. "If you can sell 50 items you'll with this paper airplane" Oooh, Ahhhh.

Its lame.

Its also lame that Caitlyn is totally taken in by these tactics. She is my infomerical child. On a regular basis she brings me phone numbers that she has written down and tell me that we need to buy that item. Our latest and greatest was the Shoes Under. This was just one that wouldnt go away. She kept asking and pleading for it. She would convince us that this item would change her world!

So, we used it to our advantage. A long standing problem in our house is random shoes strewn around the house.... see where this is going? Chad challenged Caitlyn to not have a pair of shoes left out for two weeks, then we would buy her a Shoes Under. She accepted the challenge, and wouldnt you know it? We didnt see any of her shoes for two weeks. She is capable of cleaning up her shoes!

Here are the ultimate results: She got the Shoes Under and her shoes can still be found all around the house.

Awesome.

Priceless

I took this photo last year. Quite honestly, I think its one of the best photos ever and is totally Nathan.

Halloween

The Friday before Halloween Alison sporte her skull and crossbones bow in preparation of Halloween

Too cute not to post. Notice the lid is on. I just dont want anyone to think we have bad parenting skills

Batman at the trunk or treat. The Bat Mobile was made by Chad a few weeks ago for their Primary Activity Day so I decided to roll with it.

The kids ready for the trunk or treat. Batman costume - free on Craigslist and the mask and gloves were $5 on Craigslist. Cowgirl items were mostly borrowed. Indian costume - borrowed. (Thanks Becky!)