BOOK of MORMON FEAST

Our ward has the coolest activity once a year. They get 10 couples to teach different sections out of the Book of Mormon. These people study that specific section for months leading up to the event. For a few days leading up to the event, volunteers decorate different rooms in the church building to represent each section and the cultural hall is like a market place. Many sisters volunteer to bring or make specific foods or even to work in the kitchen preparing specific snacks and meals.
This was Zack's 2nd year and he was so excited when the day finally arrived. The youth (ages 12-18) meet at the ward building at 7:00 am. Then they are put into groups of 8-10 children. Then go off with their specific teacher. They spend all day studying 1 specific section, in depth. The get a few breaks every 45 minutes to an hour. In which time they had a snack and shopped at the marketplaces, that are also manned by volunteers.

I am not sure what I am most impressed with:

all the volunteers that give of their time or resources to make this event a success

OR

the youth in being willing to spend the entire day studying the scriptures.

SCOUT RANK ADVANCEMENT

Wednesday night Zack's scout troop had a Court of Honor. He was quite excited as the night approached. Unfortunately Steve had to work, but I was so glad I was there. The honor guard led me to the front of the assembly. It was there that he was presented his badges for Tenderfoot, 2nd Class and 1st Class and then he did the thing I love the most. The scout then pins his mom. I loved this while he was in cub scouts and it had been a few years since he had done it.

While he was pinning it one me, I looked at my son and my heart swelled as I saw how he was "beaming". I as so proud of my little man. I sometimes can't believe how fast this ride is going by. He may not be growing very quickly in stature, but he is maturing so very much!!

ICE SKATING

Our neighbors went to an event an bid and then won an ice skating party a month or so ago. They were kind enough to invite my family and a bunch of other neighborhood families to come along. It was a neat place named Noah's. It was an event center. We went up to the 3rd floor to find a room with a table and chairs with an adjoining deck that had ice on the floor and lots of ice skates.
Steve, as usual, did great. He said it had been many years since he had been on ice, but all the rollerbladin he has done must have kept him on his game. He even skated backwards...what a show off!!!

It was Zach's firt time EVER ice skating, but he picked it up pretty quickly. He even seemed to have a good time doing it. At one point he joined some other boys his age in making a long train and then kind of "cracking the whip".

Katie seemed a little confused. I think she thought we were going to the rodeo. No, actually we had cleaned out the basement that morning and she found this old cowboy hat of mine and decided it was the perfect accessory for her outfit. She was too cute!!

Becky was quite cute and sassy with her leggings and skirt and the little scarf wrapped around her neck. The girls have been ice skating a few times with the Achievement Days group that the meet with each month. I was kind of impressed with how good they were.

Belle spent a lot of her time helping the little children that would fall down or would help them skate around. She is becoming quite the mother hen. I think many of the moms were glad that Belle was there to help entertain their little ones.

We are very blessed to live in such a great neighborhood and very grateful for the good friends that we have.

Be My Valentine

This is the book I made for Steve this year. We did our 14 DAYS of VALENTINES. Everyday I gave him another page for the book. Each page was about one of the songs that make me think of Steve...our PLAYLIST. Then on Valentines Day I gave him a CD with the 14 songs and then an additional 7 songs that I also liked. He seemed to appreciate this gift.

Curious what he did for me? Well my honey made me cards for each day that were maps that had landmarks with "romantic" names like FRIENDSHIP HILL or KISSING LAKE. It was quite creative and must of taken a lot of time and tons of map reading to find 14 different places.

TWIN'S WAX MUSEUM

Yesterday was the 3rd grade WAX MUSEUM.

It is quite a production. First the girls had to choose a person from history to read a book about. Then after they finished there book they wrote a two page report. Then once that was completed they made a poster using pictures of the subject of their report, quotes and high points in their life. Then I made a couple of trips to Deseret Industries (2nd hand store) and acquires clothes that I could use to make the girls costumes.

Becky had chosen Stonewall Jackson to do her report about. I was kind of glad she sis not just choose a typical woman from history. She was a little nervous initially about dressing up as a man, but once the costume was made she was tickled...especially with the beard. I think she turned out quite good. I purchased the grey jacket in the women's department and added the gold buttons, trim and cording. The hat we bought at a party supply store and added the braiding and turned up the one side. I made the beard and mustache from a piece of felt. She made an adorable Stonewall.
Katie had chosen Annie Oakley . She loved the story of Annie Oakley. I found her ensemble also at DI. I cute little western shirt and an adorable denim skirt. We braided her hair and she borrowed Belle's cowboy hat. She was a cute cowgirl. At the wax museum, when you walked around the room and looked at each "wax figure", you could push a yellow sticker that was on their hand and the wax figure would come alive and tell you their story. It was fun to hear their stories and see how creative the costumes were.

SUPERBOWL XLIII

I have taken a month off from blogging. I just needed a little break, but I think I am ready to get back to taking pictures of the kids and the things we do. And then post all our happening here to share with our wonderful friends and family. Yesterday, after a great day of church, the kids and I changed out of our church clothes and packed up some goodies and the taco soup I had made and headed over to the Duve's home. This was our 5th year getting together with the Duves and the Nighs I watch the SuperBowl. I really did not have anything invested in either team, but planned to root for the underdog.
Ryan tivoed the game so we could watch it after Steve got done with work. The adults went down to the basement with our chips & guacamole, brownies and sodas then found a comfortable spot to plop and enjoy the game. Luckily there were commercials to entertain us during the first half, because the game was kind of boring. Then during the second half we were on the edge of our seats. We were especially excited when it appeared the Cardinals had a chance to win. Unfortunately that was short lived after a Steelers touch down in the final minute.

Most of the kids, each couple has 4, stayed up on the main floor and played "Gray Wolf" and "Cops and Robbers". They did not have much interest in the game, but sure enjoyed the opportunity to play with each other.
I love watching any football game (especially the CHARGERS), but I have especially enjoyed getting together with our good friends once a year to share the excitementof the BIG GAME!!!.

GOOD FOOD, GOOD TIMES and GOOD FRIENDS!!!

STEVE'S CHRISTMAS PRESENT

In September I came up with a great Christmas present for Steve. I decided I would get him tickets to a Chargers (his fav football team) game. I went online and discovered that they played a home game the Sunday after Christmas against the Broncos...that was perfect.

So I began searching or tickets. I went on ebay and stubhub, but couldn't find decent seats at a reasonable price. And I still needed to arrange for Steve to take a vacation day in order for the whole thing to work. I tried to be sneaky, but it didn't get me very far.
Before I knew it, it was October and I still had no tickets and the Chargers season wasn't looking very good. But I was plowing ahead with my plans. I went to the team's website and checked for tickets. There was actually a pair of Plaza tickets for less than I was planning to pay, so I scooped those up. Finally Steve did get the vacation time off , but not until I came straight out and told him what the plan was.
So speed ahead to 2 days after Christmas...we flew into San Diego and spent the day before the game seeing some of the places that we remembered from when we lived there. Then Sunday arrived...GAME DAY!!! We parked at Fashion Valley Mall and took the Trolley to QualComm just after 1:00 pm. We checked out all the tailgaters, Steve ran into the Charger Girls and was willing to let them take their picture with him. We went to the Charger Store and shopped and before long we were let into the stadium and could see exactly where we were sitting. We spent an hour taking pictures of the stadium, the team warming up and I even took a few minutes to meet up with an old friend from high school and his wife.
Then SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL began.
The feeling in the stadium was electric. We were sitting around some fun people. Every time the Chargers scored or did something cool we were bombarded with high-5s. Steve would occasionally chanted, "LT-LT-LT" It was so incredibly exciting.
I think of everything we saw that day and experienced...for me the best was looking at Steve. When we walked into the stadium he was like a boy who had found his way into Santa's workshop. Throughout the game he cheered, sang, screamed, yelled...to the point that when we left he was hoarse and could hardly speak. I knew that my gift was perfect and something he would remember for years to come!!!

When the game ended, the Charger's record was 8-8 and they were officially the AFC West Champs. The team was probably already thinking ahead to the next Sunday and getting ready to take on Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts. No one knew what that game would hold, but in that moment the Chargers were winners and there were 69,131 ecstatic fans.

SING-A-LONG

Monday night we went to our friend's the Rhees to participate in a sing-a-long. Our family joined a few other families from the neighborhood in the Rhees' living room gathered around their beautiful Christmas tree as Sandra played any Christmas song that the group requested. We sang Jingle Belles, Grandma Got Run over by a Reindeer, Still Still Still, 12 Days of Christmas, I'm Gettin' Nuttin' for Christmas and so many others.
The children were armed with bells to ring, which they used through each and every song. Sandra's 5 year old son Jeremy, who had informed her earlier that week that he wants to stop taking piano lessons to take conductor lessons, with chopstick in hand led us through the songs. It was a fun way to spend the evening. The only ting that could have made it better would have been for Steve to be there singing along with me.

Old Friends and New Ones

I have had a couple of opportunities to hang out with some of my friend, Sandra, friends from her old neighborhood. When they scrapbooked a few weeks ago they were kind enough to include me in their gift exchange/lunch. We met up at Paradise Bakery with our exchange gift.

This is a cool group of women. We had some great conversation, a few laughs and of course lots of photos were taken. I feel quite blessed to include Sandra as a friend. She is such an incredibly nice person. I have enjoyed getting to know he friends and appreciate the friendships I have made with them.

COOKIES

From the time I was a little girl Christmas Cookies has been a integral part of the holiday.

I remember my mom making the dough and rolling out cookies. As I got a little older I discovered cook books and that there were so many more cookies than sugar and chocolate chip that people could make. I would try anything that looked festive and different.

Since I have become a mother a huge part of my holiday is waking up at 4:00 am and sneaking downstairs to work on a batch of cookies. My love for creating these yummy goodies has rub off on my girls and they can't wait until they get to make their own Christmas cookies.

So this year has been not different.

The girls are off track for the entire month of December, so we have tried to come up with some fun activities that they can do. And what is better than making sugar cookies.

The giggles and conversation as they produced their cookies was fun to listen to.

I spent Friday morning and most of the day knocking out a couple batches of cookies.

Saturday afternoon our area was hit with quite a bit of snow, so to keep everyone from getting a little stir crazy being in the house we decided to decorate those yummy sugar cookies that the girls had a made a few days earlier.

It was funny to watch everyone creativity blossom. Becky mixed her green and red frosting and ended up with a beautiful grey which she frosted her candy candy cookies and then dubbed them "moldy candy canes". Hmmm...not very appetizing. Steve transformed his cookies into things such topo maps on Acadia National Park, the state of California, and he and I canoeing on a lake complete with our reflection in the water. I am a traditionalist and my cookies looked like that they were suppose to be. I guess I am just a little boring.
I did learn to not critique Steve's creations.


And of course the best part of making all the cookies is to taste them to make sure the are PERFECT.

It was such a good time. Lots of laughing and talking. The part I will remember the most is that we were all together. I just love my little family.

FESTIVAL of TREES

Saturday I took the kids to South Towne Center to visit the Festival of Trees.

There were hundreds of beautifully decorated trees in different themes.

Many of the trees are decorated in remembrance of a child or adult that has passed away. Next to some of the trees would be there photo and there were people who stood near the trees that could tell you the stories behind the trees.

There was a sweet spirit there with those trees.

It was a little piece of heaven for me. There were many brightly decorated trees that I fell in love with. There were a couple of trees that were "girlie themed" with purses and shoes. Those were also some of my favorites. Another one that caught my eye was the tree that was decorated with PEZ candy dispensers. Very clever. The kids enjoyed the trees too.

It was an excellent way to spend a chilly Saturday afternoon