Advent Calendar

This is our advent calendar I made last year. I used little tins
that I can fill up with candy. This year I'm changing it up a bit. Instead of filling
the tins up with candy, I thought I would make
it more of something to help the kids think of Christ
during this time of year. So I found this really cool activity on lds.about.com
http://lds.about.com/library/bl/puzzles/christmas_advent_calendar.pdf
It has scriptures, activities and a puzzle piece for each day in December.
Each day the kids will get to open a tin read a scripture, do an
activity and put a piece of the puzzle together.
By Christmas the puzzle will be complete and the kids
will have made the manger scene. I hope
this will help my children remember the true meaning of
Christmas

Still not ready!

Thanksgiving done..............check pies eaten............check Christmas set up.................check changed blog background..................check staying up all night to get some awesome deals...................check! one sleepy mommy.................check nap...............?

Where do I begin?

Where do I begin to list all of the things I am thankful for? I have truly been blessed with so much. I have a beautiful healthy family who I adore! I'm so grateful to have a loving hard working husband who has a heart of gold. I'm thankful for my mother and for the strength she is to me. I'm blessed to have the best friends in the world!!! I'm thankful for the gospel and for all it is and gives me. I would be ungrateful if I didn't thank the person responsible for all of this and that is my Heavenly Father. THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

I miss him

I can't believe it has been a year already. It seems like yesterday I was laughing with him, my brother, my only sibling. Now all I seem to do when I think of him is cry. I wish I could talk to him and hear him call me sissy. He always called me that. Even in front of his friends. He never was ashamed to talk like that about me to them. I was his sissy and the one he could tell all to, knowing I would NEVER judge him. I knew I could always talk to him about things as well. Now I have no brother and I will never get a chance to be an auntie. That really hurts. I'm not sure why God has taken him away from us, but I do know it was for a reason. I know I will see him again. I know I will hug him till we fall! I can't wait for the day I can do that!! As for now, I will think about him everyday and think about what he is up to. I hope he knows how much I love him. Till we meet again little brother. I love you!

Giving thanks

Tonight for family home evening I wanted to let the kids have a chance to think of some things they are grateful for. So I decided to cut strips of paper and have them (me) write those things down. After we wrote the things we are grateful for I put them in a pumpkin jar. I'm going to read them to everyone on Thanksgiving. But then I got to thinking, maybe instead of throwing the strips away in a few days, we could make a paper chain with the strips and use it on our Christmas tree!! In our home we have two Christmas trees. One in the living room and one in the family room. The one in the family room is the kids tree. That tree has fun toy ornaments and ornaments that have been passed down over the years. It will be a perfect tree for our "thankful chain"

What a bond

I realized this weekend how much Avery and Bailey love each other. Avery got hurt on Saturday and cried like I have never heard her cry before. I tried to comfort her and she calmed down a little bit, but wouldn't stop crying completely. Bailey came over and Avery reached for her and as soon as she was in Bays arms she stopped crying!!! It made me cry! Not that I couldn't get her to stop crying, but because they have such a loving bond. Avery loves her sissy. Bailey has taken over with Avery. She carries her around the house, She changes her, feeds her, plays with her and even rocks her. She has turned into a real mother hen. I hope they continue to have this special bond as they get older.

Moon Cheese?

We were telling stories last night as a family. We each get a chance to make up a story about anything we want. My story was about a couple of kids that got to fly up in space. I asked the kids what they thought was up in space and Bay said "cheese." I was taken back and tried not to laugh and asked her why she thinks that and she said "well the moon has holes in it so it must be made of cheese!

Bay age 7