big sigh of relief

The ward Christmas party has come and gone! Phew.  It was a lot of effort and prep by a lot of people.  Jenna and I spent the bulk of the day decorating, Brittany, Kara, Tara, and Aimoku also helped, which I was so grateful for.

We got up there early to make sure everything was in place and ready.  Things looked festive and sparkly!

 We had tons of food, too much really but that is always the.HARDEST.PART! How much food to bring.  Nightmare!

These North Pole Cupcakes were my favorite!

We also had a hot chocolate bar.

There was a wonderful program.  Patriarch Rokita spoke and did a great job.  Dan read Luke 2 and the Creel and McWhorter families acted it out for us.  The McWhorters have a new baby, Charlie, so that was perfect and so sweet.

After there was a visit from the big guy himself....followed by a ton of cleaning up.

I'd call it a success, and I think little David agrees :)

Jenna's here!!!

 I have spent a lot of time gathering stuff for the party.  I hope it goes well tomorrow.  Tonight Grace and I drove to the airport to pick up Jenna! So excited.  Yay! Love that little pickle!

Traffic was awful.  As we drove I sang the "I hate L.A." song.  That city is full of chaos, congestion, crawling traffic and commotion, with none of the charm and character of other big cities.  Ugh, I loathe it.

But in sharp contrast I LOVE this little Santa sitting, stylish and sweet Penny Jane. 

lots of things to look forward to

 We planned our girls camp for next summer! We are going to the Sequoias! It's going to be so fun! We will go white water rafting, and caving and maybe zip lining.  The girls will LOVE it and are so excited!

 The rest of the day was spent prepping for the Christmas party and Audrey and I went to lunch.

 Jenna comes tomorrow!! Can't wait to have a few fun days visiting with her!

Everything is very Christmasy!!

Christmas explosion

 I went shopping for the party on Friday and have supplies to make centerpieces all over the table. It was funny while I was at the dollar tree Kara, who is also on the Christmas party committee, randomly showed up to buy stuff too.  Her little Violet is such a cute baby!

 Hannah and Sam and Reagan decorated cookies for their missionaries today.  I coached and we had some left for the family, which they appriciated. It was fun to chat with them and they did a great job on the cookies!

 After dinner we had a knock at our door.  It was a surprise Christmas goodie package and a note with a key.  It admonished us to make room for the Savior in our lives and hearts.  The kids (and I ) were so excited to get the surprise!!

 Hannah and Sam making cookies.

 The finished product.  Upside down.  They turned out super cute.

 So Pres. McEwan has 11 birds in his house. He has quite the bird sanctuary going.  Grace has been DYING to go see them.  Last night at the festival I asked if we could come over tonight and he graciously say yes.  We brought a plate of treats in exchange for a wonderful interactive experience.

 This one was my favorite.  He was a rosy galah and was soo sweet.  He purred and cooed. (and bit Grace and Rob but not me)

We had a lot of fun talking to the birds and Grace loved talking with Pres. McEwan (a vet)

 It was a good, feather filled, icing on the ceiling, lots of laughter, kind of day.

Creche Festival

 We have three stakes in our little valley and every year they get together and do a wonderful music and creche festival as a gift to the community.  Lots of people come, it lasts 5 days, there is live music the whole time with groups from lots of different churches, schools, family groups and anyone else who wants to participate.  There are hundreds and hundreds of beautiful nativities on display.

Yesterday we went.  Rob performed with the choir he is in and we listened.  It was really great.  They sounded amazing.  I loved looking at all of the nativities.  We stayed after for the Messiah sing-along.  The kids were not excited but okay about going, they were not okay about staying so so long.  They complained a lot.  Other than the complaining, and the fact that it was fast Sunday so we were hungry it was really nice.

I really enjoyed sitting with Grace in the middle of the group as they sang.  If I could have one talent that I do not have it would be the ability to sing. As they sang, in stereo around me, I found it very majestic and beautiful. The conductor of the sing along gave a little background on Handel before the singing started and that was so interesting. 

We came home starving (6:40 pm) and the dinner didn't really turn out because it cooked too long in the crock pot, and everyone was tired and grouchy.  The day had some real highlights and beautiful parts to it but it was also kind of a tiring hard day.

On an other update Ethan went with some of the men to help a family move early Sunday morning.  We don't usually "work" on Sundays but we do do God's work, and helping someone in need is definitely that. I really belive that we are "HIS hand", and that we need to do for our fellowman what Christ would do if he were here.  I was proud of him for going cheerfully and staying until the job was done. He's growing into a good man.

weekend

Rob had the day off yesterday, but I had a job.  He went jeeping and then bought a cord of wood.  When everyone got home Ethan got to help him unload it.  Here is Ethan watching the wood backing down the driveway.  He thought we bought too much.  I love a good fire though.

Friday night we went on a date and Hannah went baby-sitting. The mall was packed, I don't even want to see it in a couple of weeks.

This morning it was our turn to clean the church.  I took the kids with me and Rob went to choir practice.  It only took an hour and after we went to get donuts. 

 

Steve loves to spend his days climbing our Christmas trees and unwrapping presents. 

 It's a good thing he's such a handsome cat and so cuddly.

 Rob did a lot of yard cleaning.  It looks awesome out there.  The kids got to help, a lot.  Ethan feels a little over worked :) but it's good for him.  A couple hours stacking wood, an hour cleaning the church and another couple doing yard work really aren't that much over two days.  He did a cheerful good job though so that's good.

We gave the grands a cute little Christmas advent.  Some of the boxes have gifts, others verses of scripture to read and the rest chocolate.  This little hoodlum climbed up on the counter and found the chocolate doors and helped himself!  Good thing he's cute too!

Here are these two cuties modeling their first night's jammies!

Dec 1!!

• two kids went to the dentist today.  No cavities.  Excellent.  Hannah needs her wisdom teeth out so we will schedule that next.
• Grace continues to work on robotics.
• She is also one of 3 6th graders who is playing in the advanced band with the older kids.
• wrapped a bunch of presents today.  Getting much closer to ready.
• lit a fire in the fireplace (Rob did) because it's cold outside.
• Hannah sent off her college application. 
• tonight she and Madi went to see the school play, the one they quit a couple of weeks ago.
• Rob got a little bonus for good work done.
• Hannah baked mini pumpkin bread loaves Ethan and I walked around the neighborhood with the loaves and  Creche Festival postcards to invite people.  We went to a lot of doors before we finally gave two away.  I told him it was good practice for when he's a missionary.
• we had spaghetti for dinner.
• talked briefly on the phone with Nana, Mom and Dani and Jenna today.
• we have started our "Miracles in the Desert" reading schedule and that's going well. 
• Steve ate Peanut :(