Make a Smilebox scrapbook

I forgot one!!!

Steve reminded me about one of our favorite family traditions at Christmas....
Has anyone ever heard of aebelskivers? (I thought so) They are Danish pancakes that are basically little balls stuffed with jam, applesauce, cream cheese, whipcream, basically
anything yummy. I'll post a picture of the little darlings and the fun pan you have to use
when you make them. This is our Christmas Eve dinner! Steve's family grew up with this
tradition and it has carried on into ours...that's what I love about these fun traditions.
I'd be happy to share the recipe, but I'm not sure you can find the pan just anywhere..

Some of my favorite Christmas traditions...

1. Ever since I can remember we have baked and decorated a gingerbread house

at Christmas time. Oh the memories...As a Mom myself I have discovered these

wonderful pre-made houses at Costco and we have each put together and decorated

one every year. We now make gingerbread villages... The kids look forward to this

just like I did.

2. Starting at the beginning of December we draw names each Monday night to see

who we will have that week. We are then that persons "Secret Santa" for the next 7 days.

I LOVE seeing the creativity of each child. Sometimes we do a secret act of service and don't

leave anything, other times we write a note, or draw a picture, I've even gotten poems.

Occassionally we'll get a little Christmas goody. LOVE this tradition.

3.We also draw names for our Christmas exchange. Christmas Eve we get to open

1 gift and this is it.

4. The Christmas decorations....the weekend after Thanksgiving the kids are ready to break

into the decorations. We get down the boxes and run around the house putting up all of our

fun decorations. It's always a fun family time.

5. As a child we ALWAYS did the nativity story with our cousins. Scripts, costumes, songs, everything. We have tried to do this with our children, but have missed a year here or there.

Traditions are SO fun, they bring the family close, provide for lots of great memories, and can create a lasting legacy for kids and grandkids. What are some of your favorite traditions???

Maybe I'll add a few.

Do you have a testimony of scouting???

I have to admit that my "testimony" of the scouting program is quite weak. I've even been a Den Mother for a time. I do think it's wonderful to have good influences in our children's lives..and that is something I can feel positive about(Derek's leaders have always been stellar)
Well, last night my "testimony" was strengthened (although I still think Round Table stinks:))
Derek received his Arrow of Light Award. The highest award given in the Cub Scouting program. He was properly honored and sent over the bridge (literally) to Boy Scouts. Mom and Dad would be proud. They are avid scouters....



Here is Derek being welcomed to Scouting and given his new Boy Scout manual by the 11 yr old scout leader. There is even an 11 yr old scout there to greet him.

Derek is showing off the new arrow that was made just for him. Complete with horse hair, turkey feathers etc. (By this time he was tired of pics)

The Cub Master had him light 7 torches that each represent an attribute he has and will continue to develop...wisdom, courage, self-control, justice, faith, hope, and love.

Preparing to cross the bridge....

I was appreciative of all the effort that went into this event and all leading up to it. Many people worked together to bless the life of my boy and for that I'm grateful.

I guess we'll stick it out a few more years...

Bribe or positive motivation????

What do this book......

and Carrie Underwood have to do with each other?????? Well.....as I've mentioned before, we are big American Idol fans. We have enjoyed watching Carrie's success since she won AI a few years ago.

In May our DD learned that CU was coming to town in November and began begging to go to the concert. My DH was tired of the nagging and so he told her that if she would read the Book of Mormon (on her own) before Nov 7th then he would get her tickets. She began reading every night and had finished by the end of September!!

SOOOO...last night was the concert. It was a fun date with our DD and her friend. CU did not disapoint and was a great performer. She has an amazaing voice! Here are a few pics and a video our DD took of part of the concert.

DD and her friend

Carrie Underwood

One for the journal

Sometimes our kids are smarter than I give them credit for. A few weeks ago Kevin FINALLY lost his last dangling front tooth. He then followed our routine of putting the tooth in a snack bag and then under his pillow. He showed me with excitement the next morning the $ that had been left in the snack bag in place of his tooth. That would normally be the end of the story...but not this time.

The next night Kevin fell asleep on the couch and Steve carried him in to bed. While tucking him in he noticed that the snack bag was back under the pillow WITH another tooth in it!! He brought the bag out to me asking.."Did someone lose another tooth today?" ME: "Not that I know of." Steve: "Well then whose tooth is this?" ME: " I don't know..let me see that" I then proceed to look at the tooth that is in the bag. It looks like a primary incisor...possibly a lateral. I then took the tooth and pinched it between my fingers and it broke. It was at this point that the light went on. I started to laugh as I told Steve what Kevin had done. He had taken a candy corn and bit off the white portion and put it in the bag. It looked amazingly like the real thing. This kid was going to TRICK the tooth-fairy!!

Steve decided that 2 could play this game. He took a $10 bill and color copied it. He then cut it out and wrote on the back of it...NICE TRY....THE TOOTH-FAIRY and put it back under Kevin's pillow. The next morning Steve woke Kevin and asked him if the tooth-fairy had come a few days ago. Kevin said that she had and then remembered his little experiment...he looked under his pillow and his eyes got HUGE! He pulled out the bag and held it up so Steve could see. Steve: "What is that Kevin?" K: "$10!!!" S: "What's it for" Kevin was embarrassed to tell us what he was trying to do so he just said that he didn't know. Steve told him to take it out of the bag and look at it. Kevin took out the $ with a big grin and opened it up. Turning it over he then read the message on the back side and busted up into big belly laughs. He then had the guts to tell us what he had tried and that the tooth-fairy was too smart to fall for his trick.

What a kid.

KID QUIP

So we have this 7 year old boy named Kevin who doesn't like to eat his vegetables at dinner..(or any time actually) Last night Steve decided to put his foot down and let Kevin know that if he didn't eat his green beans he would take away what Kevin loves most the next day. No computer, play station, etc... in fact, no electronics AT ALL! Kevin thought for a few seconds and then while climbing down from the bar stool said..." I can live with that."

You gotta love kids!

American Idol Junkies!!

As some of you may know, we are big American Idol fans at our house. We even vote multiple times for the artists we love...(should we be embarrassed?) This last season there was a contestant from Mesa who made it into the top 5. Her name is Brooke White. Since Steve is the Director of ..(the name is too long) suffice it to say PR for the city of Mesa he figured out a way to combine work and fun by organizing a "Welcome Home" party for Brooke this past weekend. Brooke's parents basically live across the street from us and are in the same Stake. Steve has enjoyed getting to know them and getting to know Brooke through e-mail and cell phone conversations. Last Saturday evening we had a gathering of over 1500 people at the Mesa Amphitheatre to congratulate Brooke on her accomplishments and hear her sing a few songs. As you can see, we got to be VIPs who had back stage passes for autographs and pictures. We are anxiously awaiting her new album to be released sometime in the next year.


Kinsey and Shay with Brooke White. A couple of star struck girls...Shay had Brooke sign her autograph for all of the Beehives in our ward....8 of them! (that was nice of her don't you think?)

Family is where it's at!!!

My sister Janette's baby shower. How many squares will it take?? She's one of my best friends and I can't wait for her to start this crazy job of motherhood. She'll make a great one!

O.K....I had to put this shot in because my DH Steve made this!! It was the hit of the party. My cousin Jill lovingly nicknamed him "Martha Steve." We love that guy:)

One of the.....ok the MAIN reason we moved back to AZ was to be close to family. We have had some experiences in the past year that have reminded us that it's in our families that we learn the important things in life. Like....love, service, forgiveness, and fun just to name a few.

The story of our house

Some of you have asked about us moving recently. Here's the story...we moved from Reno, NV in 12/06. Because we were selling our home in Reno we rented here in Mesa. Our home sold quickly, but we continued renting for 1 1/2 years waiting for the right opportunity to buy. That opportunity came about in May of 2008. We found a home in a beautiful area that was a "short sale." It was pretty much ready for move in. We are doing a few things here and there to get it just the way we want it Here are a few pics.



The laundry room... LOVE the counters and all the cupboard space. You can't see the counter and cupboards that are behind me! I spend a few hours a week in here folding laundry:)
Another selling point about this home was the HUGE backyard. This fun b-bque was a bonus. We are waiting for things to cool down a little before we have a backyard bash with friends.
This is just another angle. You can see where we had our above-ground pool. We just took it down last week. We would like to eventually do some nice landscaping back here.

Kitchen...I am liking the black appliances. I always had white before.
Great room. The kitchen, eating area, great room foyer, music room are all open to each other. It is a BIG space. We've had a group of 20 over and it seemed to accomodate fine.
dining area
I think this is my favorite room....the music room
office

Here's a view from the front. We aren't super fond of the color. We'd like to paint the outisde a darker color and add either brick or stone to the entry way. Hopefully in the next year or two we'll conquer that project.

I didn't take a picture of the master bedroom because I'm currently washing the sheets on my bed:)

Irrigation & turtles

The kids love to help open the "flood gates" when it's irrigation time

One of the most anticipated events at our new home is irrigation day. During the summer months our back yard is flood irrigated once every 2 weeks. To me it looks like a big

dirty swamp land, but to the kids....adventures galore!! This week they decided to teach our

new turtle, Encanto, how to boogie board. I'm not sure he was enjoying it as much as they were.

Out of the Mouth of Babes

My last patient of the day today was a 5 year old girl. She was cute as can be, not too scared and
quite teachable. In our pre-appointment chatter I asked her if she had any brothers and sisters. She answered that she had 3 sisters. I then asked if she had any brothers......she had a slight pause and then smiling said "yes, I have one brother.....his name is Jesus."

Ok, WOW...how profound and sweet. It made me feel all warm inside as I answered "you know what, I have a brother named Jesus too."

Labor Day Boogie

Here's our best temple picture...This is Amy's whole family (minus Mom & Dad on their mission)

We spent Labor Day weekend in La Jolla at the beach (courtesy of Dan & Louise)...thanks guys! We had a BLAST boogie boarding, playing in the sand, kayaking, visiting with family, and playing games. It was the kids first time boogie boarding and they caught on quickly. I couldn't help myself, everytime I caught a wave I would give a little yell and smile the whole way in. On Sunday we took a little stroll over to the San Diego temple and got some pics. Our first time seeing this beautiful temple and it was beautiful. The weather.....a nice mid 70's the whole trip. We need to do this more often. Any ideas for October break???

BACK TO SCHOOL BEAUTIES!!

Well, we've made it through another summer. This one was particularly difficult. We moved. The kids didn't really know anybody, and I didn't sign them up for much to do because I didn't know what was going on in this area. They were all excited for their first day of school. Shay is in 7th, Derek-5th, Kevin and Kinsey are in 2nd. After some initial back to school adjusting I'm sure we'll be in for a great year!

ANNUAL MAYBERRY COUSIN CAMPOUT

For the past 8 years or so all of my Mom's siblings and their children (and now grandchildren) have had an annual cousin campout. Children 8 years and older are invited to come with their parents to enjoy camping, hiking, campfire testimony meetings, early morning devotionals, etc. We have never been able to attend due to living out of state, or scheduling problems. WELL...this year we did it. Steve took Shay, Derek and our nephew Taylor, while I stayed in St. David with Kevin and Kinsey (they're still 7). Here are some pics showing how much fun they had..what a great tradition. Next year we can ALL go

FUN WITH HAIR

We found these really cute blogs that teach you how to do cute hair styles...we've been experimenting. Here are some of our outcomes....not too bad for the first time. Shay was taking pictures of her own hair....not a great shot...but you can sort of see.