True Blue Aggie Fans

Birthday Date to Brian Regan

2012-01-29T21:30:00.001-07:00

Josh and I love Brian Regan. We love to sit and watch his stand up comedy on You Tube and laugh until our stomach hurt. Last time he came to Utah, Josh tried to get tickets...he didn't. He sells out pretty fast here (Mormons love clean comedy :) This year we tried to get tickets again...we didn't again. They added a few more shows, but we found out after they had been sold out. So I wrote it off.

On Tuesday Josh asked me on an early birthday date for the next night (he really did ask me out, like he use to when we were dating...I liked it) He told me to dress up and that is all the instruction he gave me. Now, I like to dress up...a lot. I really didn't want to be OVER dressed though and so I called him right before our date and asked him exactly what dress up meant. He told me "dress like you are going to watch someone really fun do stand up comedy." I was so EXCITED!!!! That is when he told me that he had watched every day for some tickets to open up and they DID!!!!

He took me to dinner at Spencer's for dinner before the show (the food there was heavenly) and then we headed to see BRIAN REGAN!!! It was as good as I had hoped it would be and we both laughed until our stomachs hurt (that is the best kind of laughing to me). The other thing that was my favorite part is that Josh isn't really an out loud laugher (I am a LOUD laugher) he will do a silent laugh at funny things, but it has to be REALLY funny for Josh to laugh hard. He did through all of Brian Regan, I think I watched him as much as I watched the show! I love to watch him laugh, it's pretty cute :) We had a fantastic night and it was a seriously fantastic beginning to a seriously fun birthday (which was yesterday. I am 34, and I think I like that age.)

Hunter Turns 6

2012-01-27T21:11:00.000-07:00

Our sweet and silly Hunter turned 6 last week. We have 4 out of the 6 of our family's birthdays in a month. It gets a bit wild trying to do two birthdays in a row. We try hard to make sure that Hunter's birthday feels special and not just like it's the left overs of McKay's birthday. Josh redecorated the night before Hunter's birthday.

Hunter woke up one happy boy and was so excited for PRESENTS!

His brothers are always excited for presents as well...

I love his reactions.

He had "thin pancakes" for his birthday breakfast (that is my favorite breakfast too :)

I took he and McKay to lunch before Hunter had to go to Kindergarten.

They had a great time playing together and Hunter was such a cute big brother and took good care of McKay. Hunter also made some new friends (I love how little kids are so great at just loving other kids at first sight. If they are breathing, my boys will be their friends :)

Later that night after a fun visit to the doctor to find out McKay had a double ear infection, we headed to Red Robin with Grandma Ann for dinner.

He got to open Grandma Ann's present and was sure excited about it.

Our cute waitress brought Hunter this delectable dessert for his birthday.

She brought McKay some yummy ice cream.

We had brought cupcakes from the "Sweet Tooth Fairy" and Hunter blew out a candle.

It was a fun birthday and a little bit different than they way we usually celebrate birthdays. It was fun to mix it up a little bit. We also went later that week to Classic Skating to finish up the celebrating. We were going to do it the night of the birthday, but with the ear infection and doctor's visit, we didn't have time. It was fun to have more time on Saturday anyway. Post to come :)

Birthday Dinner with Kristen

2012-01-27T08:53:00.000-07:00

I have so many things that I haven't posted, I just haven't had a second to sit down and edit the pictures! Last night my lovely friend Kristen came and took me to dinner for my birthday. Can I tell you how much I love this girl (she is going to absolutely hate this post...sorry Kris!) She has been my friend since freshman year at USU back in 1996. She is one of those people that I feel Heavenly Father made sure that we met. He knew that she would be a blessing in my life over and over, and she has been. I am grateful daily for her friendship (hope we are still friends after she reads this...)

We went to the Union Grill for dinner, which has been a tradition with us every year when we go to the Nutcracker at Weber State. This year we weren't able to go to that version of the Nutcracker so we didn't eat here and both of us thought that needed to be remedied. We got our "usual" appetizer of fresh mozerella, fresh basil, tomatoes, pesto and balsamic vinegar (I think I need to make this at home, it is to die for!) We just had to most wonderful evening full of chatting and laughing and an all around lovely time. Thank you Kristen for the fun night and the years of being such a wonderful friend.

A Sweet Reward for Good Grades

2012-01-25T15:27:00.000-07:00

Did you know that your kids can take their report cards into Krispy Kreme and get doughnuts for good grades?!?! My little sister recently informed me of this and Monday night after F.H.E., we headed there to check it our for ourselves.

And it was amazingly true. The boys each got 6 doughnuts for their report cards and were in sugar-infused heaven!!! Josh and I got some as well and we sat in Krispy Kreme doughnuts having a great time.

6 whole doughnuts!!!!

I love when businesses support the successes of kids. I liked Krispy Kreme before, but now I really like them :)

Refinish-Toy Box

2012-01-23T07:00:00.004-07:00

We have a bit of a toy situation at our house. The toys all stay down stairs in our unfinished area we have designated as a "toy room". As a result, they don't get played with very much and McKay doesn't like to go down there (and neither does his mom), when it is cold. So I have been keeping some upstairs in the living room for him to play with. It drives me crazy to have them all over, but I haven't really know what to do with them. Over the summer I found this wooden chest that had been covered over with vinyl and was in serious need of a make over.

I actually bought it at the same yard sale that I got this chair at (I really am going to do a chair upholstery tutorial, I think I finally decided on the fabric I want to recover my chair in). It was so grimy (as was the chair) and had outlines of hammers and wrenches on the top where they must have sat for years. This actually only grosses me out a little, more than anything I love to make it look nice and show some TLC to a shabby piece of furniture.

I am a bit new to the yard sale thing (and I have fallen in love with it), but I am not always good at talking people down. My sister helped me out and we got this baby for $3. When I got it home, I found after stripping it down that it has to be so old! It is a solid wood chest and the nails that hold it together look like they were homemade. It is actually a cool piece of furniture, but definitely needed some help.

The basic rule that I always follow when recovering something is to take picture (although I didn't on this one because it was recovered so horribly), and just try to put it back how you saw it. I take off the original fabric one piece at a time and then use it as my pattern. I couldn't do that for a lot of this because it was crazy, but that is the idea for most things. Taking things apart is usually the worst part, but I actually like it. It is just time consuming.

This is what the chest looks like now. I found the fabric I covered it in at Ikea.

I put some pillows to across the top to keep my boys off it (I know they will want to jump off it, my brain is starting to think like a boy), it is so old I think I need to protect it a little (which probably isn't a good thing in the long run). Josh was a trooper to help me with it and we finally have somewhere to put all of those toys!

McKay Turns 2

2012-01-22T10:02:00.001-07:00

We always love birthdays at our house. McKay woke up to the morning he turned 2 with balloons in his room. His brothers thought he would like them better if they were in his bed. He did.

Josh had to work in the morning, so we postponed most of the gift giving until night so he could be there. But there was one present at his place.

His brothers were kind enough to help him open it.

We had pancakes with cinnamon syrup for breakfast. Usually our kids get to pick what they want, but we just guessed on what McKay likes...

He did like the pancakes. Especially with sprinkles.

For dinner that night we had french bread, glazed carrots and a platter full of Chick-Fil-A chicken nuggets. McKay loves those :)

And then we did presents. McKay has two loves right now. Lightening McQueen, and Mickey Mouse. He was thrilled to get his McQueen "throne" as we call it.

He sat in it the rest of the night. He loves it.

And a Mickey shirt!

He has asked to wear it every day since he got it.

Once again the boys were good to help him open his presents (although he is getting pretty good at it himself).

Grandma Ann gave him a little four wheeler to ride around on. His brothers also loved this gift :)

Then we had cupcakes and ice cream.

It was a fun birthday. We have loved our 2 years of having McKay in our family!

FHE-Agency

2012-01-21T21:56:00.002-07:00

This blog is kind of a mish mosh of everything. I thought I would mish mosh it up a little more and add a fun Family Home Evening that we did last week. I did this for my Sharing Time this month at church and my boys had so much fun they requested to do it for Family Home Evening.

The idea came from Sugardoodle.net, the lesson was on Agency and it was fun...

Aimless

2012-01-20T23:09:00.002-07:00

I have been having the weirdest few weeks. I feel aimless. That is the only way that I can describe it. Usually I have a million ideas and projects running through my head, but lately I just walk around, not quite sure what to do. I miss feeling the old way, and had some glimpses of it today. I think maybe it is the winter blues (but I don't feel blue...just aimless. really that is the only way I can describe it), yet I really do like winter...promise.

Thought I'd share a favorite thing with y'all. I love Peppermint ice cream. I don't really care what brand, I love it all. They all seem to be creamy and good. I am actually not a huge fan of ice cream at all (unless it is Aggie Ice Cream and that is a different story, especially Lemon Custard). Alas my kids also love this ice cream, and I usually don't get my fill when it is around. It actually hasn't been around all that much this winter. We couldn't find it until this past week. I truly love this confection and will go through withdrawals when it is gone.

Tonight we had a really lame Family Activity and everyone was a good sport and came with me to Ikea. I am redoing a toy box for my kids upstairs toys that I bought at a yard sale over the summer. We had two birthdays this week and our house is a birthday explosion. So, I decided to finally complete this project. Ikea has great thick fabric that I have been planning to cover it in. I bought some tonight and started stripping the box when I got home...to find that it is about 100 years old (the nails look like they were homemade) and seriously cracked in three places. I usually buy refinished projects with "good bones", but this one was pretty deceptive (they covered the cracks with some sort of contact paper that looks like wood...guess I didn't inspect it too much as it was only $3). Well, it looks like this project isn't going to be as quick as I had hoped and we are going to have to reinforce some of it. I can't give up on it, I have pictured the cute toy box in my living room for too long. I guess we will see...

This is a pretty random post, but it's all I got.

Fake Birthdays

2012-01-17T22:33:00.000-07:00

Hunter and McKay got the chance to celebrate their birthdays with some of the Palmer side of the family on Sunday. Our kids call these little pre-birthday celebrations their "fake birthdays". I wasn't sure how to merge the cake, but Hunter picked chocolate and we decided that McKay would probably like that too (trying to find out the preferences of a 2 year old is tricky business!)

Hunter is turning 6 tomorrow and McKay turned 2 today. Having two birthdays in two days is pretty wild. It is important to Josh and me that they both feel special individually. Josh totally changed up the crepe paper we had decorated with for McKay's birthday because he didn't want Hunter to feel like it was left overs.

Me being the awesome planner that I am, forgot to buy birthday candles (not the first time this has happened...) We got out the lighter and had them each blow it up figuring we would make it up to them on their birthdays.

They got some great gifts from the family.

We sang to them our special rendition of "Happy Birthday" and then had them blow the lighter out again.

I think McKay's favorite thing about the night was the fruit snacks put on his gift by Aunt Michelle. He loved his gifts though, as did his brothers (Palmer tried to claim his Webkin, and is now dying for one).

McKay and Hunter are sure lucky to have so many wonderful people who love them.

My parents gave Hunter this great carry on suitcase and a pillow case with his name on it. He (and I) are thrilled with the suitcase as he can take it with him on a little vacation that we are planning in the near future. Hunter is pretty excited to go on a plane for the first time and he will even have his own suitcase!

It was a wonderful night! I now need to go an blow up more balloons for Hunter's birthday. :)

A few Stragglers

2012-01-16T22:24:00.003-07:00

This past weekend was a four day one for our family and I had all sorts of dreams of what we were going to do. They were cut a little short on Friday night when Josh had to go to the ER (and had to drive himself as it was late, or early I guess and we didn't have anyone to stay with the kids...) with horrible pain. He ended up having an intestine infection and has had rough go of it for the past few days. It is so hard to sit by and watch someone hurt and not be able to do anything about it. The boys have been so cute and so worried about him. He is feeling a little better today. We did have a fun little celebration on Sunday for Hunter and McKay's birthdays that will be this next week. Grandma and Grandpa Happy (that is what my kids call my parents, they couldn't say my mom's name "Kathi" and it turned into happy and now they are both happy. And they are too. :) came over along with some fun uncles, aunts and cousins. I haven't edited them yet, so I thought I would post a few straggling pictures

I love how much McKay looks up to his brothers. He sure loves them and will copy both what they say and do. In the morning when it is cold they will cuddle up with their new fluffy blankets and go sit by the fireplace. The morning above Lincoln was doing it, so McKay went and got his blanket and went and sat by the fire.

Whenever it is too quiet I know that McKay is doing something he shouldn't, and I am usually right. Somehow he found a red marker and decorated his tummy. He was seriously proud of it too.

...and as I was taking this picture, and he decided to show me that he also decorated his hands.

He seriously is the cutest thing to me. I love the conversations that I can have with him as he has learned to say a whole bunch of words. I love that he can ask me to "hold ya" (pick him up). His favorite thing to do is to come and ask me to "run" with him. We just run around in a circle in the middle of the living room. Usually the other boys will join in and Josh does it with him quite a bit as well. It is definitely his favorite game and he laughs like crazy as we all run in a circle.

The other night the boys went to bed really easily (which I assure you isn't usually the case). I just figured they were really tired. When we went to make sure all was well with them before we went to bed, this is what we found. This is their huge shoe bucket (that is great for a long list of other things and has taken a severe beating in its lifetime) and Palmer decided that it would be really great to sleep in.

And I think he enjoyed every second of it.

We finally opened up Hunter's present from Christmas. The poor thing had been put on top of the fridge when he got home from school the day they got out for Christmas break (we couldn't put it under the tree or McKay would have opened it), and was forgotten. It was fun to open though and it was such a darling little painted pasta ornament that has been lovingly packed away with our other Christmas decoration until it's debut on the tree next year. I love school Christmas presents (and apparently we had pizza that night...Hunter usually has something left over on his face. I like it :)

Tomorrow is McKay's 2nd birthday. I'd better go and blow up some balloons :)

A Little English Date

2012-01-15T15:17:00.003-07:00

I love my kids to have learning experiences, especially learning experiences where they learn about the world around them. Palmer has an assignment for school to do a report on any place in the world. He chose to do England, which I was thrilled about since Josh and I had the pleasure of visiting there in 2010. On Saturday we went out to get some things for his presentation and I decided that it would be fun for him to have an "English Experience". We went to a little cafe by us called "Little Taste of Britain" for lunch and to get a few English "biscuits" (cookies) for Palmer to take for his class to try.

Palmer got to try the English favorite "fish n' chips" and he loved it (as did I. So so good). The nicest guy came out and talked to Palmer and told him all about England (as that is where he was from). Palmer learned lots of things and thought it was fun to hear the different words that English people say that are different from Americans. He also got to try Tango, which was one of my favorite drinks from our trip to England.

On our lunch date we tried a few English candies. It was so much fun and Palmer has decided that he needs to visit England (Oh how I wish we could take the kids right now :)

Palmer wrote a letter to the British Consulate asking for some information on their country, but as of yet we haven't heard anything. It has been fun to tell and show Palmer about a country that I love and see how excited he has become about it. I can't wait to hear his report this week!

Fabric Pom Pom Garland Tutorial

2012-01-14T10:04:00.004-07:00

A while ago my sisters, mom and I threw a bridal shower for my little sister Michelle. I tried to post tutorials for most of the things that I did for it, but I forgot to do this one for the fabric pom pom garland that I made (the garland hanging under the pictures). I initially saw the idea here and loved it, but I couldn't figure out their tutorial. I was determined to make it and spent a bit figuring out a different way to do it.

First I cut out 9-11 circles (The more circles you use, the fuller the pom pom. I used 11). I traced a spool of thread for my circles.

Then you fold each of the circles in half

And then in half again.

And then I put my threaded needle through the corner of it.

I kept all of my triangles on the needle until I was ready to pull it through.

I used black thread so you could see what I was doing, but normally I would use white or pink. I pulled the thread all of the way through...

and then looped the needle around and stuck it back through the first triangle only.

Closer look.

and then pulled it tight and tied it off. There. You are done with your pom pom.

To put it on the garland I bought some string and threaded it through the little circle that is made by looping the thread, and then tied a knot in the string on both sides of the pom pom so it didn't slide around.

After I figured it out, it was so fast. Really not a hard thing at all. I think this would be cute to add to an holiday decor as well...I just might make some for Valentine's Day since I don't even own one Valentine decoration.

Buttermilk Pioneer Doughnuts

2012-01-12T10:52:00.002-07:00

We simply call these doughnuts "Christmas Doughnuts" at our house. My mom made these every Christmas while I was growing up and we always ate them along with sausage and eggs on Christmas morning. My Mom's mom also made them while my mom was growing up, so you see, these doughnuts are tradition. Maybe that is why we make them...and the fact that we LOVE them. They aren't like any other doughnuts that you have eaten. They are very dense and full of nutmeggy goodness. You don't frost or glaze them. They are just good as is. It never fails that my kids have friends over and my boys will ask for a doughnut. Of course the friend is always excited to have a doughnut too, but we always have to explain these doughnuts before anyone eats them. We are a little protective of them and can't handle people being disappointed because they aren't getting a doughnut that they are expecting. It is a sweet dough doughnut and apparently the pioneers made them. Some of my siblings don't have families that love them but mine absolutely goes bananas for them. The recipe makes a lot and we freeze them and eat them all through November and December (we usually eat our last bag on Christmas), but this year I made them on Christmas Eve and we had them all eaten by the end of the boys' school break. This doughnut above was the very last one (and then I ate it :)

Another thing to note is how precious these are. I have to admit when McKay fed his to Sasha one day I nearly cried. I am a bit selfish with these as well. They aren't the easiest to make, so when they are gone, we know that they are gone for another year (seriously I grumble through the whole process of making them because the dough is DENSE).

I have thought of sharing this recipe in the past, but it is not for the faint of heart, so I always end up bagging the idea. This year I have had quite a few requests for the recipe so I thought I would post it, but be warned. It is a crazy dough recipe. Also be warned, this recipe isn't exact...do your best :) Okay now that I have scared 99.9% of you off from ever making these I will share the recipe...If there is a 0.1% out there that does make them, I would love to hear about it!

5 cups of sugar
4 TBS of shortening
4 eggs
lots and lots of flour (like at least 10 cups...)
4 tsp soda
1 1/3 tsp salt
2 tsp nutmeg

1 quart of buttermilk
1 can of Crisco (for frying the doughnuts, and yes you will need it all...these aren't low fat either. There goes that 0.1 %)

Cream together (I use a Bosch to make these because the dough is so dense and when it starts having trouble, I finish up by hand...) sugar and shortening. Add eggs and mix.

Sift together (you can either use a sifter or do as I do and just wisk them together) 5 cups of flour, soda, salt and nutmeg and then add it to the egg mixture.

Now start adding your flour alternating it with your buttermilk until you have used the whole quart and then keep adding flour. You add until the dough is no longer sticky. Not sticky at all...and that is a lot of flour. So just keep adding and adding and you will get there soon :)

Once your dough is the desired consistency roll it out to about 1 inch thick (these doughnuts puff up when being cooked so you don't want them too thick at all.) Cut out with a doughnut cutter.

Put all of your can of Shortening in a stock pot and heat it on medium. I usually wait about 10 minutes and then put one of the doughnut holes in to see if it cooks. You DO NOT want these to cook too fast or they will be doughy in the middle. You want them to gradually turn golden brown (the color of the above doughnut).

When the top is golden brown, turn them so the other side can get brown.

I cut up a paper grocery bag (the way my mom always did it :) to lay these on so it will absorb the left over oil. You could also lay paper towels across it.

Then you are done. We really do love them. Then end.

One Snowy Day

2012-01-11T07:00:00.003-07:00

I love snow. I guess that isn't totally true, I don't love to drive in it, I don't love when it is brown and ugly, and I don't love when there is just a stale, thin crackly layer of it on everything. But I do love thick snowflakes frosting the world white. I love watching my kids come in after a snowball fight with their cheeks rosy pink and their eyes bright and happy. Yep, I love snow.

I was sad that we didn't really get that much snow for Christmas, maybe that is why I watched White Christmas 7 (maybe 8) times. Our Christmas was lovely, but a white Christmas makes it just about perfect for me.

Last Friday night we went to bed with NO SNOW and woke up to see our yard had been filled while we slept. As I am the schedule crazy around our house I tried to get everyone to complete they Saturday "stuff" as we call it, but alas it was a losing battle (especially since Josh was as excited as the boys that we finally had snow) Josh put on his snow gear and went out to get the snowball fight "ready". He built a whole bunch of mini forts that they could each duck behind during the snowball fight and when the boys were all decked out in their snow gear, they had a whopper of a snowball fight. I missed it...darn it :)

Once the snowball fight had finished they quickly moved on to the building of a snowman (yes we have been starved for snow). When you have your daddy help you with a snowman, somehow it just always turns out cooler than it would have otherwise. Josh decided this snowman would be big...very big.

They couldn't get the enormous balls of snow on top of each other with out breaking them so Josh devised a series of ramps that they could roll the balls up.

The boys were a great help and totally pitched in helping Josh with what needed to be done. They were thrilled about their gigantic snowman.

I didn't get a picture of us rolling the head up this here ladder to get in on top of the snowman, but I will watch it in heaven because it had to have been so funny.

The boys were determined to decorate this huge guy and we didn't really have anything big enough. We have a sombrero from a New Year's Eve party game from long ago (way fun...) and thought it might fit. The thing looked tiny on his huge noggin. To get a scarf around his neck we had to tie two of the boys' scarves together.

The boys scoured our yard to find rocks and sticks to make the face with and decided that he definitely needed a mustache. Since I am a fan of mustaches (fake ones mind you) I thought this a great idea.

Lincoln insisted he be called Mario after the number 1 celebrity at our house right now (Mario Bros.). They were dying for McKay to see the snowman as snow was pretty new and exciting to McKay. He was asleep when he was being built (hence the reason I got to help) and they couldn't wait for him to wake up. As luck would have it it was a very sunny day and the longer we waited, the more Mario started to lean backward. Finally I felt that Mario's minutes were numbered (he started out looking toward our door and ended up full on looking up into the sky, he was going fast). I ran to get McKay from his nap and in that split moment...Mario collapsed. McKay never got to see him. The boys were so disappointed.

McKay did get to go out and explore the snow though and we snuggled him up and Josh took him out to play.

Lincoln had worked hard all that day to hollow out one of Josh's piles of snow they had used for the snowball fight into a fort. Josh was thrilled he fit in it :)

McKay was so funny, he would NOT keep his gloves on, and then he would cry that he hands were cold. I would put his gloves on and he would eventually take them off and but upset his hands were cold...

He liked the fort though...

As did the other boys. Maybe a real snow fort needs to be on our list for the next time it snows. It was definitely a fun snowy day.

Cocoa Latte Maker

2012-01-10T09:16:00.001-07:00

I thought I would do another post request.

Can I request a blog post about the aforementioned hot cocoa maker and all the gourmet cocoas you've been making (recipes included)?

This past autumn Josh went on a retreat with some of the executives at work. They went up to a cabin and spent the weekend there. He came home totally enamored with the hot chocolate maker that was there. We LOVE gourmet hot chocolate and will splurge on it at Beans and Brew, Kneaders and Starbucks every so often, but sometimes it makes the stuff we have at home a little flat.

Josh has become the hot chocolate maker at our house. He went out an bought this Cocoa Latte maker (pictured above) and the hot chocolate making fest began. We have hot cocoa a lot and on the wonderful snow day last Saturday we just kept the thing full as our family would play in the snow, come in and warm up and then head out again. It was nice to have the hot cocoa all ready when we were done. It is like a coffee machine in that it keeps the cocoa hot for when you are ready for it. We don't ever skimp on the whipped cream topping either...it is a must :)

This little beauty came with a great recipe book of recipes that we love. One of our favorite things at Starbucks/Beans and Brew (Josh insists that Beans and Brew is better...) is their Salted Caramel hot cocoa or steamer. We use this Salted Caramel recipe, but have also just added normal caramel ice cream topping before and really liked it. To make a Salted Caramel steamer we just add the caramel to the recipe for a Vanilla Milk Steamer and I would omit the nutmeg (not sure if Josh omits the nutmeg).

Vanilla Milk Steamer
2 cups milk
1 1/4 tbsp vanilla
2 tbsp nutmeg (fact-Josh is a nutmeg addict...)

This is the hot cocoa recipe we like

Creamy Cocoa
2 heaping tbsp of Unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tsp sugar
1/4 cup half and half
2 cups of milk
whipping cream

Josh usually doesn't follow this recipe exactly. We don't do the Unsweetened cocoa powder and sugar, He replaces it with Steven's Hot Cocoa mix in heaping TBS to taste.
All you have to do is put it all in the little Cocoa Latte machine and switch the On button. Easy peasy

Jazz Game

2012-01-09T07:00:00.003-07:00

For our Friday Night activity last week we went to a Jazz game. We had 2 very good tickets (row 7) and 4 pretty good tickets (row 22). Lincoln and I got to use the very good tickets for the first quarter of the game and then we traded Josh and Palmer places.

I think the boys had a good time. I... um...lets just say it was interesting.

Hunter had this huge cup of ice water that he spilled all over EVERYTHING the second that Josh and Palmer left us at half time. I couldn't really do much about it as I was just trying to keep McKay away from it.

At the loss of his water he started crying...loudly. I couldn't calm him down and so a nice guy behind us went and got him another cup of water. After a while the kids started throwing popcorn around and it led to a floor full of SOGGY popcorn.

McKay was pretty good until he decided that he was done with the popcorn and wanted licorice. The only thing was that he didn't like to swallow the licorice. He would chew it up and then spit it all over me. It was crazy.

Oh well, the kids had fun and that is all that matters right?

A Post About Fashion

2012-01-07T07:00:00.005-07:00

Now that I have somewhat caught up on all of the holiday posts, I can get to some of the questions/subjects that I have been asked to post about lately

"This is totally off the topic of your post, but I've been wondering for the longest time where you buy your clothes? You (and your other sisters for that matter) wear the cutest things -- and they are beautifully modest, too! Please enlighten me with some fashion knowledge because I am severely lacking in the fashion department and could use some "fresh" ideas. :)"

I really love all things fashion, but to be honest, most of the time I am a t-shirt and jeans type of girl. I love to dress up for dates with my husband or nights out with the girls and church on Sunday, but really most days I am pretty simple. I do however like to find cute t-shirts and cardigans to wear to add a little excitement to my outfits :) I pretty much shop EVERYWHERE, and believe you can find cute things anywhere. The cut of what you buy however is very important and you should always try things on to know if they look cute on YOU verses on the hanger.

The first thing I add to most of my outfits are these undertees (below). I have tons of them and have worn them all into oblivion. I love them. They for me are a great investment and I can wear most things that I want to because of them.

These t's are $8.99 to $10.99 and come in a million colors, but I mostly buy white and off white.

Where I shop-Once upon a time I bought most of my clothes at Jcrew which still is one of my favorite stores and I still own a lot of clothes from there from days gone by, but for the most part they are now too expensive for me. I will splurge every once in a while for things that are very classic that I am sure I will wear a million times, but I rarely shop there nowadays. A few of my other favorite "window shopping" places are Banana Republic and Nordstrom. My dream place to shop would be Kate Spade...but that will never happen :)

Jcrew Natasha top $98.00. Could never buy it, but it is fun to dream about. I'd wear this with the below cardigan.

Jcrew Jackie cardigan $62.00

Jcrew Blythe Blouse $128.00. Definitely dreaming (and I would definitely button up a few of those buttons there...:) I would also pair it with the cardigan from above.

Most of the time I shop sales (as do my sisters). I also love Forever 21 and H & M. You can get really cute things for really inexpensive. Target also has very cute clothing that aren't too expensive (and they have lots on sale now!).

I love winter because I LOVE to layer with cute cardigans and belts. You can get way cute inexpensive cardigans all over, especially at the above mentioned shops (Forever 21 etc.). I use my tan, off white, grey and black cardigans A LOT! I have also loved mixing prints lately. The rule that I feel is important with mixing prints (although many are mixing every kind of print lately, which I don't love) is that you have a linear print (stripes, plaid, checks) with free print (flowers, polka dots, etc). These aren't technical terms but hopefully you get the idea. I like the look and do it every so often.

I think a big thing with style is to figure out what YOU love. Start looking at those around you that you like how they dress. At church, the grocery store, people you work with, etc and try to replicate what they wore you liked.

Below are a few things I have been seeing that I like.

Forever 21 Textured stripes top $14.80

Forever 21 Ruffled polka dot shirt $17.80. This would also be cute with a cardigan.

Forever 21 color blocked striped sweater $14.80

Ruffled open cardigan $24.80. I am drawn to really feminine details on clothing. I would belt this. Love it!

Basic cardigan that you could wear with a lot of things. H&M $17.95, and they have lots of colors.

Some rules of thumb when you are first establishing a wardrobe is to buy BASICS that you could wear with a lot of things. Basics for me would include and nice white button down shirt, black, grey, off white, tan or brown cardigans or twin sets (a twin set includes a "shell" underneath the cardigans. I have some that I wear a ton), a good pair of jeans (more on jeans a little later), a black (and I have a tan one) knee length skirt, brown and black boots as well as brown and black heels or flats, whatever you wear to dressier occasions (this is just what I would get people, keep in mind) and some basic Ts if that is what you wear most days. Most of my basics I splurged a little so that I could wear them A LOT and I do. You can find a lot of these things that are great quality yard sales, ebay and thrift stores. You just have to be willing to look. Just keep in mind good brands (and usually, not always, brand does make a difference), so you know them when you see them.

After you have basics (and keep in mind you don't need ALL of those, but that is just a list of my basics I use a lot.) You can start to add things to your collection. Most of the things I add are inexpensive. Colored/printed tank tops to wear under the cardigans, jewelry, fun shirts, fun cardigans. These are things that you can pair with the above things to make multiple outfits. I have a cardigan that has a lot of fun colors on it and I have been able to wear it a million different ways. I bought it at Forever 21 last year for about $20 and I love it.

Another good thing to do is identify your style. I love classic clothing with a little bit of a twist to them. I am more drawn to classic colors (black, white, tan, and gray) but I love to throw a bit of color with them. It is okay to see something that looks cute on someone else or is "in style", but identify that it isn't really your taste. I love Pinterest because there are millions of styles to look at and it is easy to identify what you like and keep it on a pinboard. It has helped me identify my addiction to stripes (I have had multiple people even comment on how many stripes I pin...and I keep pinning them. I am good with it :) My Fashion Pinboard has things that I wouldn't necessarily wear, but looks that I like and color combos I would wear.

Just my opinion, but I think it is important to dress for your age. With that said, most things are fair game or can be altered from a teeny bopper look to a more sophisticated look with a little ingenuity. What I am saying is don't be the lady wearing the word "flirt" on her shirt? Please ladies...refrain.

A word on size. Nobody knows what size of pants/shirt you are wearing. A lot of times when you are squeezing into those pants that are too small, it makes you look bigger. On the reverse side, pants too big also make you look bigger (obviously). When buying pants take a whole bunch of pants into the dressing room and try them all on, go with the ones that are comfortable and flattering. Also keep in mind most jeans stretch and what fits at the beginning of the day may be drooping by the end of the day...Well, good luck with that I guess I don't have any advice because it happens to me too.

I have a lot of soapboxes in this post and one of them is the idea that we must wear what is in style (see above quote). There are so many styles lately that I absolutely hate and they don't even look good on stick thin models. If that is the case and they don't look good one those who are supposed to be telling us to wear it...why are people wearing them? High waisted jeans (I mean really high, not normal high) don't make ANYONE look good, but they are constantly touted as "fashionable" well...I think they are horrible and no matter how many times gorgeous actresses wear them, I will never think they look good in them! Okay, soapbox over.

Jeans...speaking of jeans. Jeans are so frustrating to buy. I think pockets are a lot of the time the key to how good jeans look. Smaller pockets = bigger bootie. They don't have be be HUGE, but stay away from small. You don't have to buy designer jeans to have great jeans. I really like American Eagle jeans and I think they aren't crazy expensive. I'd love to hear any other "cheaper" jeans that some of you have found you like.

In the end I really think the most important thing is how you feel in what you are wearing. For me my every day outfits have to be functional. I need to be able to do laundry, hold crying kids, clean bathrooms, etc. in what I am wearing. Once upon a time I was wearing something and asked someone else what she thought of it. She gave me the "it's okay" comment. I looked at it, and thought "should I change?" In the end I just decided that I felt great in it and to be honest didn't really care if the world loved or hated it. I liked it. i think that is the most important thing in the end. Wear what YOU like.

Putting together an outfit is probably what most people are frustrated with when it comes to fashion. How to make things you like go together. I saw this little ditty on Pinterest and loved it because it is exactly what I do.

Fashion is so fun, don't be afraid to take risks. Long ago I decided that I really liked super high heels. I didn't know how to go about wearing them. I hadn't really worn heels a whole lot and was worried about jumping right into stilletos. I just eased into wearing them. I started out smallish and then gradually worked my way up. I wore them to church where I wasn't going to be walking too much and leaned how to walk in them. I now love and feel comfortable in super high heels (I actually prefer them :).

I love fashion, but I am not really in the stage of my life where it is top of the list important. Our budget goes for groceries, car repairs, doctors visits, fun nights out with the boys, birthdays, etc. Fashion is pretty low on the priority list so really I just do the best I can with what have. I put some pictures below that I got on pinterest that are my "I wish I dressed like this, and maybe one day I will" clothes :)

Photo source

This one is actually very doable. Scarves are another accessory that can change up a basic outfit. You can learn to tie them online, there are a million tutorials. Google it :)

photo source

So there you go. Probably more info than this reader, or anyone else ever wanted to know. Thanks for humoring me with my fashion rant. Carry on ;)

New Year's Eve

2012-01-06T07:00:00.004-07:00

This year for New Year's Eve we headed to my parent's house for a family shin dig. Two of my younger brothers and my little sister and her family were there. It was so much fun. We ate yummy food and played games all night. At midnight we went outside, made lots of noise and lit fireworks. My parents were wonderful hosts and we had a great time!

These little guns (pictured above) shot confetti.

The boys thought they were awesome.

There were lots of fireworks in the air as well. It was just about as good as the Fourth of July!

My brothers giving each other a midnight kiss. Josh and I tried one for the camera...it looked weird because I am laughing in them all.

Aren't these boys cute? We sure love them.

On New Year's Day night we ate fondue for dinner. Swiss cheese fondue with french bread and chicken.

It was really casual and fun (the kids sat ON the table for dinner, yep casual)

It was super cheesy and delicious!

McKay even got to use on of the fondue tongs (with us all making sure he didn't put anyone's eye out, including his own).

He was pretty good at it.

Later that night we cleaned the cheese out of the fondue pot and put in chocolate fondue for dessert with marshmallows, fresh pineapple and bananas. The chocolate fondue wasn't as fancy as some of the ones I have made in the past, but it was just as delicious.

It was good :)

We had a great night!

The next day (Monday) Josh had the day off and we cleaned up the house, took Christmas down (including the lights. This is a first for Josh! So impressed am I.) That night we just wanted to stay home. We got our popcorn machine out (I got this awesome movie theater-ish popcorn machine from a yard sale for $5! We LOVE it!) We put up our projector and moved it back as far as it would go making the screen the size of a HUGE wall and watched Kung Fu Panda 2. Josh went to the store to get "snacks" for the movie. He came back with HEALTHY snacks! I was so disappointed :) But I guess it was good. We had a nice, fun relaxing day. On to the new year!

The Elves at Gardener Village

2012-01-05T07:00:00.004-07:00

This is the last of our Christmas after Christmas posts. Over the break we invited Palmer's best buddy from his old school to come up to visit for the day. We met him his aunt (Palmer's old teacher and one of his favorite people ever) at Gardener Village. I brought the kids a scavenger hunt paper to do while we check out all of the elves.

They were all so cute. Whomever does these cute elves is so amazing! All the details are so fun.

None of the boys but Cemryn and Hunter would get under this little arch. I think that the fact there is a big ball of mistletoe above the seat.

The peeping Tom elf :)

Hunter brought this random McDonald's toy around with him.

This was my very favorite elf scene.

We found all of the elves on the scavenger hunt so they got to go to the sweet shop and get a candy stick.

They were nice and gave McKay a candy stick as well and when we got home, he was a sticky MESS! Oh well, he and the rest of the boys had a great time.

Ogden's Christmas Village

2012-01-04T07:00:00.002-07:00

We will continue with our Christmas after Christmas posts. This one may be a little disconnected as I am listing to the Iowa Caucus results as I write (did you know I am a political junkie...poor Josh. He definitely knows it...and is very patient)

On the Tuesday after Christmas we decided to head to Ogden and check out the Christmas Village. The last time Josh and I had been to this little Christmas village was when Josh and I were dating. It was fun to go back and see it with our kids.

I remember being a kid and looking into little houses like these and wishing I could live there. By the time I would leave I would have imagined all of the things that I would have done living in this cute little house. I have to admit, these little houses were pretty magical and there were a few that I think I wouldn't have minded living in :)

This was a cute little "Little Red Riding Hood" scene.

Weber State house.

McKay was pretty snuggled into his stroller. I think he liked looking at all of the houses, but mostly I think he was ready for bed.

Horrible picture, but this is the house that I had decided to live in by the end. It was a little ice cream shop run by elves. I loved it.

The Grinch was in the little jail house. Poor guy, I thought he had changed!

Hansel and Gretel house. So cute!

We had such a great time, and again there wasn't any crowds (I was actually surprised that there were as many as there were!) I loved having a week long Christmas!

The Christmas after Christmas

2012-01-03T17:47:00.000-07:00

With all of the craziness of the season we never got to take the boys to the store to get presents for each other. I feel it is important that kids learn the value of giving. They gave things to their class, but as I did everything I didn't feel like it was the same. Even though Christmas was over, Josh and I decided that the teaching moment hadn't passed and we decided to still take the kids shopping for each other. Josh took the boys one by one to the dollar store to get things for each other. They each used their own money and came home so excited to give each other the things they had found.

They found some cute things and I think it is good for them to spend a few minutes thinking "now what would so and so want."

Josh helped the boys wrap their presents and then we did our Christmas Family Home Evening. I actually liked doing it a little backwards. We hadn't gotten to do the Christmas F.H.E. the week before, but it was okay doing it after. We read the Christmas story again (Luke 2) and talked about the day we had just had the day before. After we talked about gifts and why we give them and the greatest gift of all that our Father in Heaven has given us. After that the boys exchanged their gifts.

There were lost of exclamations of excitement and "that's what I wanted". I especially loved all of the hugs that they gave each other.

McKay was thrilled to be opening more presents.

It was such a fun night. I have once again decided that I really like doing Christmasy things after Christmas.

The boys all gave me presents as well. I especially loved the knight from Hunter with the promise that I can be the good guy when we play. That was another Christmas miracle.

Christmas 2011

2012-01-02T14:19:00.003-07:00

Well, New Years has come and gone and I am finally posting Christmas. There are lots and lots of pictures... When I get to heaven some of the moments that I want to watch over and over are all of the Christmas mornings that we have had (because I am convinced once we get to heaven we will be equipped with a t.v. and remote where we can watch our lives.) I love the absolute joy on the faces of our kids (that is reflected I am sure in mine and Josh's) as they see the magic of Christmas morning.

Santa brought the boys "hockey stuff" this year. They play street hockey with the neighbors a lot so they were very excited to get their own hockey sticks and goal (they have been borrowing for a while).

That Santa sure did a good job this year...

I just realized that I never posted any of our decorations this year. I did our tree in aqua and red. Note the bottom half wasn't decorated so Mckay wouldn't be too tempted. He did pretty well with it actually.

Santa even brought a hockey stick for dad and a couple of extras for the friends that come over (they think mom might use one...but I am not so sure about that).

We get up before the boys and turn on Christmas music (the calm kind :) and then light candles and put them all around the house and then let the boys come see the tree and gifts.

They were pretty excited...We gave boys new Christmas pajamas the night before while at my parent's house. I had forgotten my camera, so we didn't get any pictures of them opening them.

Lincoln would hug every present that he opened. Here he has opened a snow beanie...and he really likes it :) There is nothing better to me than watching my boys express sincere gratitude without being prompted and they did very well this morning. Santa only brings one thing usually and the rest of the presents are from mom and day. We had everything from Santa when they were younger and it was really hard because there were no thank yous or anything on Christmas morning because Santa wasn't there to thank. We changed that and it is much better for Josh and I.

These are "stacking cups" we ordered from the school. They are supposed to be so fun...the boys haven't done too much with them yet.

For Christmas, Josh gave his clients really soft blankets this year and he brought a sample home to show me. The boys all fell in love with the blanket and added "a really soft blanket" to their Christmas lists. Cute Josh ordered them each one and had their names embroidered on them.

They were a huge hit with the boys and they sleep with them every night. Even McKay is in love with his.

We always love the special presents that our boys make at school.

These are always the best things we open (as we were cleaning up Christmas we found Hunter's present to us that hadn't been opened yet...darn it. I will have to post it later).

Josh surprised me with an A.MA.ZING gift. He showed me a present and said "this is what you are going to be the most excited about". It was an ipad cover. As I don't have an ipad I was a little confused.

Until I opened this. Biggest shock EVER! That Josh is sure a cutie and he LOVES surprises (especially giving them).

McKay wasn't up when we first did presents so after we ate, he got up and unwrapped his presents.

3-D placemats. The boys all got them, and I they are pretty fun to look at :) He opened a few, and then lost interest so we finished opening his a bit later.

After our traditional breakfast of sausage, breakfast casserole, and Christmas donuts, we got ready to go to church (our church is at 9:00 a.m.. I have to admit I was pretty amazed with the fact that we got up, had Christmas morning, at a big breakfast and got ready for church and were only a tiny bit late. We thought about opening our presents and things after church, but the boys would have been miserable at church (hence we would have been miserable) and I wanted them to try and get something out of the message being talked about instead of just pining away for the presents at home. Each of the boys got a Christmas sweater to wear to church (which I didn't get a picture of in our rush to get there).

I love Christmas on Sundays. I have been singing with the choir getting ready for the Christmas program and there isn't anything that will bring the Christmas spirit faster for me, than singing song about the Savior's birth. We had a lovely program on the Savior that was just perfect.

Later that day we headed for Josh's mom's house. She always prepares a special meal and we go there to open presents with the Nelson side.

Josh was THRILLED to get rollerblades so he can play hockey with the boys (and he has...a lot.)

Hunter also got rollerblades and has not taken them off very much in the week following Christmas. Josh let him sleep in them, and he thought that was pretty great.

Since Josh and I have been married he LOVES to make my presents as difficult and crazy to open as possible. The first year we were married he vacuum packed a ski coat to about the size of a small book. He is a genius with disguising presents. He and his mom went in on one of my gifts this year and Josh coached his mother on wrapping my present.

I opened it up to find cans of food, and a tide box (it smelled very fresh :)

I opened the tide box to find more cans of food and a paper letting me know that I was getting the boots of my dreams as a combined Christmas/birthday gift. I couldn't have been happier! It was a very fun surprise (Josh was good this year with the surprises!)

I have been planning this gift for my MIL since last summer. She had a fun grandkids retreat a couple of days in August and she asked me if I would take pictures of all of them. I showed them to her, but hoped that she had forgotten about them.

I refinished a yard sale frame, got some mat board and Josh and I cut out the mat and then put it all together.

I really liked how it turned out (this is the only picture I took of it) and I am going to take new pictures and change them out for her each year for her.

It was such a lovely Christmas this year and I have enjoyed every second of being close to my little family as well as our extended families. I always have a hard time getting back to "real life" after being so spoiled with enjoying each other and just being together.

Christmas Eve

2011-12-30T19:38:00.000-07:00

Christmas Eve morning was a bit crazy for me as I finished up some projects that I had been working on to give for Christmas. I ran around getting everything ready to take to Christmas Eve dinner at the Palmer side of the family, getting our house clean and ready for Christmas and just getting things organized. We finally got everything ready and in the car. The boys were excited because we were going down a bit early to play basketball and scatterball with some other members of the family. I kept feeling like I had forgotten something...and then when we were half way there I remembered. My camera! What in the world! Of all things to forget, how could I forget my camera! Well, my cute sisters Michelle and Heather were great and emailed me pictures of the night and I am SO GRATEFUL! That you cute girls!

Our family was all together this year, which is always such a blessing. We had a big dinner where everyone brought yummy things to share. I brought this super yummy punch (also served at Thanksgiving) and delicious gingerbread with cinnamon whipped cream and bananas for dessert.

After dinner we had a talent show. Palmer played a song for everyone on the piano and did a great job.

I have been looking for the "Christmas Candy Advent Song" for YEARS (does anyone know that song? "It's six pink peppermints til Christmas, and there's lots and lots of things for us to do...")! Most of my brother and sisters and I sang it when we were in kindergarten at our special Kindergarten program program. We wore huge paper bibs with tinsel on them. I had forgotten most of the words to the song and finally found a group of school students singing it on you tube and finally got all of the words.

At first when Josh saw the paper bibs he said no way...but he is a good sport and went along. The boys thought they were the coolest thing ever.

After we sang, Lincoln decided that he wanted to do his Christmas song that he had learned this month. I was worried because I didn't bring his music as he hadn't said he wanted to do it. Imagine my surprise and amazement when he got up and played it perfectly. I was so proud of him!

The rest of my family all did awesome talents and then my mom read us the cutest book and gave us all a copy of it. After that my dad did a slide show of all of the things that each family had done that year (I love that idea and am going to do it for my little family on New Year's Eve). It was so well done and he added little captions to some of the pictures that were hilarious!

After that we did a gift exchange. We all draw names and exchange gifts. I love it. My kids get so excited to give to their cousins.

I am so sad that I didn't get a picture of it, but we all went in and got my parents this picture of the Nauvoo temple with a huge cream frame around it.

My parents also got all of the kids fun gifts.

We did pajamas (and I didn't get pictures...) Here are McKay's pajamas. He is in love with Mickey Mouse right now.

After it all our family headed home to quickly go to bed so Santa could come. It was such a lovely night (above is Uncle Tyler whom my boys think is pretty awesome).

Decorating Christmas Cookies

2011-12-30T07:00:00.008-07:00

I know, I know, most of you are ready to be done with Christmas. You might need to vacate my blog for a while as I am bound and determined to make it last as long as I can. I love the whole season and am NOT ready to let it go. My tree still gets turned on the second the sunlight is a little dim, I still listen to a few Christmas songs here and there, I would still watch Christmas movies if I hadn't exhausted them all thoroughly before Christmas and we have continued doing Christmas Bucket List items even though Christmas day is over (and I might do some of them every year that way. I really liked the lack of crowds). I still plan on doing some Christmas candy and maybe still attempting gingerbread houses...we'll see. I have been pretty lazy this week (it's been lovely) so here's to hoping.

One night Josh brought home sugar cookies and icing from work. He had gone to the Children's Center with a group from work to decorate Christmas cookies with the kids there and had brought some of their left overs home for the boys to decorate. I love the Children's Center and helped out there a few times when I served as Mrs. Utah. Flashback here and here.
I have to admit when I was making out our December Bucket List, I had visions of homemade buttercream frosting (the very best I tell you), homemade sugar cookies, and candies set out in aesthetically please dishes...It was not to be however as the month got later and later and we still hadn't decorated any Christmasy cookies! I was more than happy for the boys to have this chance to decorate cookies, because I am not sure it would have happened otherwise.

There was a lot of frosting, and the boys definitely used up as much as they could.

And ate a lot as well. I am actually glad for the store bought stuff as it isn't my favorite and I really didn't need any more calories to add to the truckload that I consumed throughout this month (I've had to bring out the pants reserved for "special occasions" like the end of a gluttonous December)

The sprinkles were shaken on in healthy piles.

And then frosted over and shaken on again (I am making dentist appointments today).

The two handed approach to sprinkle dumping.

And in the end you have a festive little number such as this...

...and this...

...and this. Lincoln buried all of his sprinkles.

"Frindle"

2011-12-29T21:13:00.000-07:00

The boys and I read together most nights for 20 minutes before we do family scripture study. I usually choose older classic books with them (you know, Robin Hood, Dr. Doolittle, White Fang, Peter Pan, etc). I am a huge fan of classic literature (I'll spare you the soapbox...I am sure Josh wishes I would spare him as well :) I also like to throw in a few modern children's "classics" as well (these are books that I have deemed classic worthy, Ramona, The Mouse and the Motorcycle, The Tale of Despereaux among others). As I was yard saling with my sister this past summer she recommended the book "Frindle" that we had come across. The boys and I were reading it in November, but took a break to read Christmas books is December. After Christmas we went back to reading it and recently finished it.

I hadn't heard anything about "Frindle" until my sister recommended it and I thought I would pass the recommendation along to anyone who loves good books for their kids. We LOVED this book! I loved each time I would see the boys' eyes shining with excitement over something we had just read (and they did often). It really is so great and I got a little choked up at the end (big nerd, I know) Anyway, read it with your kids! And who knows, you might just get lucky and find this wealth of imagination for $.25 at a yard sale :)

Utah State Bowl Game

2011-12-29T12:27:00.002-07:00

So our beloved Utah State Aggies made it to a bowl game for the first time since 1997. This is a big deal and as we were watching their final few games play out Josh vowed we would go to the bowl game if they got one (unless it was in Hawaii...our frequent flyer miles don't go to Hawaii. Lame huh?) Well, they got their bowl game and it was in Boise. Josh and I got tickets along with two of my brothers.

We decided to drive out early so Josh could take some Christmas gifts to his Idaho clients. Josh surprised me with lunch at Maddox (it is in Brigham City, and if if you have never been, go! So yummy!) We were reading "The Hunger Games" on the way up (I have read it, but Josh hadn't and I decided that he definitely needs to before the movie comes out in March.) and it was really fun for both of us. It made the time pass quickly and we had a great time.

That night after arriving in Boise, we went to dinner and then to the new Mission Impossible movie. As were were waiting in line with dozens of Aggie Fans, the entire Ohio football team (the team the Aggies would play the next day), came out of the theater. There were a few shouts of "Go Aggies" as we watched the procession of green file from the theater (non very loud however as these were some huge guys going past us).

Game day was awesome! We breakfasted at a cute little crepe shop and had some seriously delectable crepes. We finished some Christmas shopping, I finally got all of my cards addressed, stamped and mailed (I finished them up as Josh read to me...we read that book every spare second!) and then we headed for the game.
We met my brothers, who had ridden up with some of our friends, at the stadium.

Our tickets were on the 2nd row 50 yard line. It was a little bit of a challenge as they had a track around the field and the football team was right in front of us. It was fun however to see their excitement when they would come off the field and had done something well. We were definitely close enough to see all of the behind the scenes.

The "Famous Idaho Potato Bowl" committee put on quite the preshow.

Following the National Anthem, they shot streamers into the crowd with potato canons.

The USU crowd was huge compared to the tiny Ohio crowd (which is to be expected as Utah is a lot closer than Ohio) and it was fun to be part of this VERY LOUD group.

The student section. Always good and loud. I don't think we were ever that good when I went to USU.

I was the only girl there, but the boys were nice enough to include me in a couple of the high fives following big plays. I have to be honest, I am not a huge football fan (much to the disappointment of Josh's family where football really is life...I really do try!), but I seriously LOVE Utah State ANYTHING (hence the name of our blog) and really do love watching them play. I just loved being there, and cheering them on. I am also converting to Denver Broncos football as they are Josh's NFL team and now that they have Tim Tebow, whom Josh and I really admire and always tell our boys about it is even more fun to watch them (If you like Tebow, check out this link. Our family loves this little ditty and play it over and over)

Well, in the end the Aggies lost by 1. It was heartbreaking because they played so well and really deserved to win...but what do ya do? We still love them and are excited to see what they do next year.

Josh and I finished up "The Huger Games" as we headed home. It's a good thing that book was so intense, because Josh was a bit tired from all of that driving. It was a fun two day trip, and a great time to hang out with Josh.

2nd Grade Caroling Extravaganza

2011-12-28T18:35:00.002-07:00

Palmer's 2nd grade class had the wonderful experience of Christmas caroling to some of the homes around the school.

They asked for donations from the families of the class members for fruit, candy, baskets, and other holiday items and would each house with a basket brimming with Christmas cheer. The students had practiced lots of great songs (and luckily I knew a few of them so I could sing along) and sang their hearts out at every door.

The favorite thing to do was to pull the wagons laden with goodies.

Palmer's buddy and he were pretty wild in the snow. They did snow angels, snowball fights etc and then were totally surprised when they were wet :) They had fun though.

The group with the parent volunteers and their wonderful teacher...except me :)

Our little procession that went around the neighborhoods.

This was my favorite house. After the kids had sung their song, he told them to hold on and he ran and got his french horn. He started playing and the kids gleefully sang along to the songs they knew. Their faces all had huge smiles on them and I think it will be a very memorable moment for most of them.

Palmer got a turn to give the basket to the home they were caroling at.

And a chance to wear the special light up hat (that was the thrill of the day).

I always am so grateful when I can go on these field trips. I am lucky to have a wonderful friend and a wonderful sister that are so good to help me out.

Palmer was excited to show me his name on the list of those who had read 100 books.

He's pretty proud of it. It was a wonderful day and a wonderful memory for both Palmer and me.

Grizzlies Hockey Game

2011-12-27T22:03:00.000-07:00

The boys LOVE hockey. They especially have grown to love it in the last 6 months as they play street hockey with their friends and down in our basement. It is their recent favorite past time. On black Friday Josh and I found a killer deal on the "Pass of All Passes" for $20 a piece. We are so excited for these passes and all that they include.

We didn't see any major fights, with I think was a disappointment to everyone, except me, the last time we saw a major one I just couldn't look. I was informed that the fights were what they all came to see.

I do like hockey though, it is really fun to watch. They boys are DYING to get involved in hockey...I am sort of enjoying our time being sport-less right now (Josh forgot to sign the boys up for basketball and I have been okay with it).

We got to see Grizzbee which the boys loved.

It was a great time and a chance to cross "hockey game" off our Christmas/Winter bucket list.

Apparently McKay....

2011-12-27T14:02:00.000-07:00

...Likes pizza.

He doesn't like to share his pizza though. :)

Letters and a Visit to Santa

2011-12-26T13:50:00.000-07:00

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Christmas! We had such a great time and are enjoying one more day of being together before Josh has to go back to work tomorrow. I actually love the three day celebration when Christmas is on a weekend. I have a few Christmas posts that I still need to post so I guess the blog is going to be Christmasy for a while yet.
December is always such a whirlwind. I have a million things I want to do, and it is always interesting to see how it plays out. We were so busy this month and just ran from one thing to the next. We ended up squeezing in letters and visiting Santa the week before Christmas for Family Home Evening

I was pretty worried about writing letters to Santa right before Christmas as we were completely finished with Christmas shopping, but it is tradition! I decided to run the risk. I found this cute download for the boys to write their letters on.

McKay also wrote a special letter to Santa :)

We headed to the magical mailbox at Maceys to put our letters in.

On our way down the escalator Lincoln was standing on the crack that folds out into a stair and it catapulted him most of the way down the escalator. It was so scary! After I picked him up and held him he was shaking violently. There were some very sweet people who worked in the mall that helped us out.

They had a huge sign up right in front of Santa that said you couldn't take pictures. It was so lame! You had to buy them from some company. I took a picture of Santa from far away.

McKay was scared of Santa, but totally interested in him at the same time. He wouldn't sit on his lap, but loved the gigantic candy cane that Santa gave him.

We took this picture after the visit to Santa (can you see the "big man" in the background?) I think this might be Palmer's last year of belief. I could tell he really struggled with it this year. The last time we visited Santa at the mall was in 2008 (sad right!) I am so glad we visited him this year. We got to see him again a few days later at Josh's work party (he gave them seriously awesome kites...)

Snowman Craft

2011-12-23T09:14:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted any Christmas crafts on here! Really December just is so fast and always zooms right past me. I have bucket loads of posts I need to do, but I am still finishing up everything. I am finally done with most of my gift giving list. I had a ball shopping last night for 2 of my nieces for Christmas. Two of my boys had their names and I hope they don't mind they are getting clothes because I couldn't help myself (do young girls like getting clothes instead of toys as gifts? My boys don't so I have no idea). We were in the store Crazy 8, which I really love and EVERYTHING was $11.99 or under. We are talking EVERYTHING! Talk about a Christmas miracle! You might want to go check it out people. Anyway, I got some seriously cute girl clothes and it was fun to let myself loose in that section (usually I don't even look in that direction...can't handle all the cuteness. I don't trust myself and am sure that I will go home with something that I don't need.)

Okay back to the craft. We made these weeks ago to decorate the boys rooms with. Idea adapted from here. I just hot glued the snowmen together before we started, then let the boys paint them.

Lincoln decided to do an opposite snowman, which I think was pretty creative.

He looks like he has been covered in coal dust or something.

Hunter decided to do black, then switched to white.

He did a pretty great fix job.

It was a fun easy craft.

2011 Christmas Card

2011-12-22T09:01:00.000-07:00

Some of you may have already seen our Christmas card from this year on Facebook, but I thought I'd post it on here as well. This was the front of it.

And this was the back.

Putting together Christmas cards is one of my favorite things to do of the season. The first time I did it was last year and I have definitely decided that I love Photoshop. I hope all of you are having and continue to have a wonderful Christmas season!

Gift Idea-Reindeer Noses

2011-12-21T13:54:00.003-07:00

I made these "Reindeer Nose" gifts for the kids in the boys' classes. We also gave them to their friends around the neighborhood. I adapted the idea from this one.

Today we a make up for the "snow day" day we had a few weeks ago (it was actually serious winds that were the problem :) The kids got to wear their pajamas to school. Lincoln was determined to wear the Mario pajamas that I bought him last year (I think that a he and a friend decided to match) and they were capris on him. Like not possible for him to wear in public without me being mortified. Josh was sweet enough to pick him up the much needed bigger size of Mario pjs on a late night dog food run. He was so thrilled to have them, and it was a fun surprise for him to wake up to. Palmer recently got new pajamas and Hunter has them coming out his ears (the perk of being the youngest of three brothers).
Kids are so funny. Before he saw the new pajamas he was absolutely determined to wear the WAY too short pajamas to school. Maybe i should have just let him wear the ones that came to his knees. He has been so obsessed with Mario lately that he took a pair of white gloves he received as a present and drew three lines on them like the ones Mario wears. He also tries to wear a red shirt every day like Mario and has already decided that he WILL be Mario next year for Halloween.

Hunter wasn't in the above picture because he doesn't go to school until afternoon, so we took his picture later. I had to talk Hunter into changing out the grubby old soccer uniform that he wore to bed. I think I need to get rid of some of those soccer uniforms. We have a million and five of those and they seem to be the only thing that my kids want to wear to bed.

Teacher Christmas Gifts

2011-12-20T12:41:00.005-07:00

I have been running around like a chicken with my head cut off this week. I wish that I could say that I had everything done weeks ago, but the truth is...I didn't. This is the week. I have a few neighbor gifts out, have bought most of the boys' Christmas, but that is about it. I have a bunch of handmade things I had hopes of giving and I still haven't given up on the idea yet...might be in for some late nights.

We have been giving our neighbors (I have a lot of this left to make...but I got another good idea today to try) this Salted Caramel Sauce and have also been enjoying it ourselves this past week. I decided to give my boys' school teachers something to go with the sauce.

I did an "Ice Cream Sundae" kit for each of them (idea adapted from this one). I put in my caramel sauce, sundae glasses, a scoop, some cones and some toppings.

I then added a tag that said "Just add ice cream".

Wrapped them up (stuffing them full of tissue paper so the glasses wouldn't break).

I wrapped the first and promptly ran out of ribbon, so I had to switch things up a bit.

The bottom two are for both of Lincoln's teachers (he has two AMAZING teachers). Now on to the next project!

Christmas Caroling Party

2011-12-18T21:31:00.004-07:00

I can't believe it is only one week until Christmas! Life has been so crazy this month (it seems like every December is the same) and we have been out of town twice this month. We have gotten in some very fun things though and this was one of them. A few years ago my friend Misty had us over for a Christmas caroling party. I love it! It reminded me of what my family used to do when I was young. We went caroling every year to a lot of the older couples in our ward that didn't have kids at home, or had lost their spouse. Our family always loved it.

This year I decided to have my own Christmas caroling party and we did it this last Monday. We invited some of the families in our ward over and headed to some great families.

I made these folders full of music that the kids thought they were great.

Can I tell you how much I love these people that we have met in this ward. They are seriously good people and our family has loved being around them.

We had some really neat experiences while we were out caroling. I am hoping that the kids felt the Christmas spirit and will not forget our experience.

After caroling we headed back to our house for a "Hot Chocolate Bar". I just went to the store and started grabbing anything that sounded like it might be good in hot chocolate. We had peppermint, gingerbread (which were surprisingly good), and french vanilla marshmallows along with plain. Reeses peanut buttercups, Jr. Mints, crushed candy cane and Salted Caramel Sauce (I LOVE the Salted Caramel hot chocolate at Starbucks).

I loved this idea for "Santa hat brownies". Idea found here.

When Josh and I were in Arizona, we visited Trader Joes and picked up some of these Candy Cane Jojos for the party. They were every bit as good as I had heard.

Josh also got out his favorite Cocoa Latte machine and made some good hot chocolate.

We just had a great time getting to know these wonderful families a little better.

It was a wonderful night and I hope we do it again. We gave each of the families a jar full of the Salted Caramel sauce to take home with them. It was a fun night!

Phoenix Trip December 2011

2011-12-17T07:00:00.015-07:00

Josh and I had the opportunity to go to Phoenix for his Arizona branch Christmas party (we got to do the same thing last year). It was so much fun to take a little trip for a couple of days together. We got there Wednesday night and drove into Scottsdale on a quest to find a fun place to eat that we couldn't find in Utah (when we are out of town we tend to go to the same places we go to in Utah). We found this amazing little restaurant in Fashion Square called Marcellino Ristorante for some heavenly Italian food (my very favorite). It was also very awesome that our gelato we had for dessert came out on fire (food on fire is always fun).

Also close to our hotel was a Sprinkles cupcake shop. I am a huge fan of cupcakes and from what I had heard Sprinkles cupcakes were THE BEST.

My friend Ashleigh, who is one of my favorite people, lives in the Phoenix area, and we headed to Sprinkles to catch up and eat some of the most amazing cupcakes I have ever eaten in my life. I had the peppermint cupcake and it was like eating a little slice of heaven.

Love this girl, and I don't get to see her enough!

Later that night we met up with Josh's Arizona office and ate at California Pizza Kitchen (one of my favorites) and then headed to Dave and Busters for the funnest night! Josh was very patient with me as we played Madden Football (I stink).

Josh always loves the football games (and I always love watching him play the football games) We played a lot of ski ball and I got a jackpot one time, that was pretty crazy...

This huge Pacman was our favorite game of the night. It was so much fun!

The next day we went Christmas shopping and I took Josh back to Sprinkles (we love cupcakes okay?) We ended up going a bit crazy! We bought a dozen cupcakes (the boys had to try these!) and got to try all of the good ones (strawberry is amazing!). We even bought some mix to make up when we get home (and of course I am wearing the high bun again...but this is the same day as the Savior of the World post below).

Lets get another picture of that...Later that day we headed to the airport to head home to go to "Savior of the World" with Palmer and my MIL. It was such a fun trip!

More McKay

2011-12-16T09:20:00.000-07:00

McKay is such a sweet boy. He is so funny and is always making us laugh...with that said he gives me a run for my money EVERY DAY. He is so busy and slightly mischievous. The picture above is the day when he realized that if he got a big enough cup he could reach our water dispenser. He just let it run all over the floor (and himself for a long time). He is cute enough however to go get a towel on is own and try to clean it up.

Yesterday he took Josh's calogne and sprayed it into our tub. He then broke one of them all over the floor. It truly smells like Casanova's den in there. It is pretty strong.

I feel like I run cleaning up one mess to the next mess. I don't think any one of my children has ever been this busy (maybe all of the other boys put together). He has broken many of my favorite glass things, we have a water dump multiple times a day, my make up all has little fingernail gouges in it and I have no chapstick left. He even drew with Sharpie all over my friend's desk the other day (thank goodness for Magic Erasers).

It is especially hard when I close all of the doors to keep him out of rooms, but then the boys go in those same rooms and leave the doors open.

He really is SO CUTE, but the curiosity is crazy, messy, wild, and very very busy.

P.S. while I was writing this he dumped out the crayons in our church bag and attempted to draw on the wall

"Savior of the World"

2011-12-14T10:05:00.001-07:00

Josh and I have been going to the play "Savior of the World" with my MIL, for the last 4 years. We were so excited when this year Palmer was old enough to go (you have to be 8). It is honestly my favorite thing that we do the entire season. The first act of the play is everything leading up to and including the birth of Jesus Christ. The second act is after his death and the faith and miracles that came after. It is amazing and the spirit there is so strong. I was so excited for Palmer to have a chance to see it. Josh and I had been in Phoenix the days before and our flight came in with the perfect amount of time for us to get to the play...
...well, as luck would have it our flight was delayed...twice. We got there about 30 minutes after the play had started. But at least we got to see part of it and got to be with Palmer as he experienced it for the first time.

It was so much fun getting a little date with Palmer. We headed to Leatherbys after the play (minus Ann as she had to head home) and got ice cream.

There is something wrong with the fact that the adult is having the fat filled (although deliciously filled with homemade caramel and fudge) sundae and the child having the fat free sherbet. My boys all love sherbet, and I like it but I just can't choose it over caramel and chocolate!
I am starting to realized that lots of my pictures have me wearing this high bun hair do. I really didn't think I wore it so that much...but I always happen to get pictures of me when I am wearing it. Random.

I love getting dates with our boys. It is always fun to get to be with them one on one. Palmer is so sweet and said "thank you" a million times that night. It was definitely one I will remember.

Temple Square

2011-12-11T22:39:00.001-07:00

We usually try to get to Temple Square on the first Monday (Family Home Evening) after Thanksgiving. This year we weren't able to and so we went on the first Tuesday after, and it was a lot less busy (although there were quite a few Young Women/Young Men church groups there).

Can I just tell you how much we love this little "sit/stand" stroller. The thing definitely takes a beating, but it can fit all of the boys if need be. We definitely got some funny looks this night, but they boys thought it was great. I thought it was hilarious! We fit all four boys on that thing!

My MIL came along with us, which is always fun to have her.

Josh stopping for some teaching moments.

We each had the assignment to find our favorite tree and it was split between the one above, and the one below.

I am a huge fan of the huge red tree. Some years they haven't done this one and it is always sad. I was happy to see it this year.

I always try to get artistic with the camera. I wish I were better at shooting at night...something to aim for.

Behind Palmer are shepherds, sheep and cows. McKay has just learned what a cow is and what it says so there was a lot of mooing from our boys to try and get McKay to moo. I am sure we got some crazy looks.

Sure love my sweet boys.

McKay was very interested in the luminaries.

After Temple Square we headed over to the Joseph Smith Memorial Building to check out their huge gorgeous tree.

We also went to the huge Deseret Book across from temple square to check out their window displays (which were awesome) and get gingerbread cookies and fill bags of candy...which is one of our traditions. They have a very fun candy counter there that we can't resist.

It was such a fun night and a great way to start our holiday season.

Gingerbread Men

2011-12-10T17:21:00.000-07:00

Josh and I were lucky enough to be able to spend some time in Arizona this past week. It was so nice and we even had a day we had to turn on the air conditioner. I have so many things that I want to do with the boys this season, that our trip put me a little behind in the Christmas schedule.

I have always wanted to make gingerbread men and finally did with the boys last Sunday. We watched the First Presidency Christmas Devotional and then decorated our gingerbread men.

I had made the dough earlier that day and I used this recipe. They really tasted so GOOD!

I gave each of the boys a snack baggie filled with icing and cut off one of the corners. We learned that they key to being able to do anything with this contraption for icing is a very small hole. I used this recipe.

McKay ate a lot of the gingerbread cookies, (as did I)

Hunter's masterpiece.

Josh even got into the spirit of things.

His gingerbread...person had hair. It looks like dreadlocks to me. He really has some serious talent.

Palmer's were so cute too!

Lincoln's were pretty cute too.

I have to admit I really liked decorating the gingerbread men.

These were my creations.

This was Lincoln's last creation. I definitely think this needs to be a new Nelson tradition.

Lincoln's Birthday

2011-12-08T23:38:00.000-07:00

Lincoln's birthday was a little bit wild as it was the same day as Thanksgiving this year. It was interesting to try and get everything done to host the Nelson Family and also make sure Lincoln had an extra special day. We weren't sure what to do with the decorations because everything else was decorated for Thanksgiving, we decided to make this area where our kitchen table was all birthday. We called it the "Birthday Nook".

Lincoln woke up to presents on his birthday plate as is our tradition.

And a birthday sign.

And let's not forget the balloons in his bedroom.

I always loved birthdays when I was a little girl. My mom always made them extra special. Our siblings had to divide up our chores and we got to pick all of the meals and there just seemed to be an extra infusion of magic on the day of a birthday. I have tried to recreate that for my kids. Birthdays SHOULD be special.

I think he had a good day and even enjoyed having everyone over on his birthday.

After opening all of his presents we made "Thin Pancakes" for breakfast. They are so good (sort of like a thickish crepe with syrup and butter on it) and they are Lincoln's favorite. I usually take the kids out to breakfast for their birthdays, but since not many places were open, we had gone out the previous Saturday on a little date. We went to Chik-fil-a for lunch and then to look for birthday present ideas (he wasn't really sure what he wanted). He got to celebrate at school the Tuesday before Thanksgiving at school and he brought individual ice creams for the class. He came home on cloud 9.

Later when grandma came over for dinner, he got to open his present.

he got roller blades and hasn't really taken them off since. He and Palmer have loved rollerblading to school together.

Instead of cake he had a special pie on Thanksgiving night.

Later on that night he opened some fun presents from the aunts, uncles and cousins.

We wanted to keep the birthday in our celebrating, so we did a little Mario Bros pinata.

McKay loved hitting the pinata (no idea how to do Spanish letters?) and would go crazy any time anyone else tried to do it.

The Sunday after the birthday we had the Palmer grandparents, Uncle Mark and Uncle Nathan over for meatloaf (Lincoln's dinner of choice) and cake and ice cream. Lincoln wanted a Pokemon cake. This is a "Poke ball" from Pokemon (Lincoln guided me on the decorating).

Then we had some cousins come over for cake and ice cream.

He loved the cake and pretty much thought that I was the best mom ever (and if you had seen how I wrecked the cake getting it out of the pan, the fact that this is round took some serious ingenuity...)

I didn't get a picture of Lincoln with the family, but picture some really great grandparents in this picture. He has loved his umbrella (Hunter has one and Lincoln has been coveting it for about a year) and he got a light saber that actually makes sounds, very cool. Lincoln was in heaven and I have to say that during this Thanksgiving season that Josh and I have definitely been thinking about all of the reasons we are thankful for our sweet boy Lincoln. He sure is a great kid!

Christmas Bucket List

2011-12-05T23:01:00.001-07:00

We have started working on our list of things to do for Christmas/Winter on our Winter Bucket List. There are so many fun things to do for Christmas and I hope we are able to get them all done. Josh and I are going to Phoenix and Boise this month, so that will be interesting to work around, but we are going to do our best! I hope everyone is having a good Christmas season so far, I just LOVE this time of year, although I could do with a bit more snow.
If you wanted to do something like this, but don't have Photoshop you can download and print this one here and fill your Bucket List items yourself.

Festival of Trees

2011-12-04T22:29:00.002-07:00

I love having the chance to hang out with my sisters. I was lucky enough to be able to spend last Saturday with them. We went to lunch at Kneaders and then to the Festival of Trees.

I am lucky my sister Michelle brought her camera, because I was in a hurry to get out the door and I forgot mine. The sad thing is that usually whomever is behind the camera...isn't the one in the pictures. So, picture Michelle in these pictures above with us at lunch :)

The Festival of Trees is such a neat tradition in Utah. I have only been to it once (it just comes so fast in December as it is the first week!) and it was with Josh and the boys. It was a little wild and I don't know that any of them enjoyed it. This was confirmed when we left and Josh told me that the next time I went it should be with my mom and sisters.

The last two years I haven't been able to go, so I was thrilled when we planned a gals night out and headed here.

I sure love these sisters and mother of mine. You remember when you were young and you were always fighting with your siblings, and your mom told you that one day they would be your best friends, and you absolutely didn't believe her back then....? Well, she was right. I love these gals and it is so fun to be with them whenever I get the chance. My friend Kristen and I had gotten tickets to the Nutcracker a while back so I had to cut the night short to head off to the ballet (oh my goodness it was so good), but I loved being at the festival and saw some seriously amazing trees. I hope we make this a yearly tradition.

Christmas Advent Ideas

2011-12-02T16:51:00.002-07:00

Okay everyone...I've had a few days to think over "The Blog" thing. Thank you for all of your comments (and for being understanding about my tantrum), it meant a lot to me to hear that you do actually use/enjoy these random ideas that I post on here :) I do like posting on this blog, and looking over what we have done in the years past. At the end of December it will be 4 years that I have been keeping a blog, and things have changed so much in the last 4 years. Keeping a blog helps me remember to take pictures (which believe it or not, is not my strong suit. Before I had Palmer I rarely ever remembered to), it helps me to stay connected to so many of you that I love and don't see enough, so ya, it's a good thing. I guess I'll keep on going and try not to be so sensitive about the lack of comments...;)

Okay, so on to Christmas! I have so many fun ideas that I want to do this month. Do you know the funny thing...out of all of the end of the year holidays, Christmas is the one that I do the least for. It is so sad! I think that Christmas just fills up with all sorts of end of the year things, I am out Christmas shopping, making treats for the neighbors, etc, etc. and I just don't get to the fun with the kids that I do for the other holidays. I am going to try to be better this year.

Our family is going to make a bucket list tonight of what we want to do this month and I hope we are able to do all that I want to this year!

Last night being the first night in December, we started our Countdown to Christmas with opening one Christmas book a night.

I covered one of our left over moving boxes in burlap and ribbon so we had somewhere cute to stow the books. I can't put them under the tree this year as McKay's curiosity is in full force and he would have them opened in minutes (the entire bottom half of our Christmas tree is bare).

Palmer was the lucky one that got to choose the book (he had his pajamas on first). As I wrap up mostly the same books every year, the kids are starting to know what some of the books shapes are like. He dug through the books until he found the one he wanted.

I love sitting with the boys every cold December night reading Christmas stories. This year we have a fireplace to turn on which makes it that much better :)

I saw this fun idea here and thought it would be a fun idea to make for the boys to do this month. They definitely loved the idea! Hunter was the second person to get his pajamas on (does anyone ELSE have trouble with getting their kids to put their pajamas on?) so he got to put on the first cotton ball. By the end of the month Santa will have a nice fluffy white beard :)

Doesn't McKay look thrilled to be a part of the group picture. I hate to tell you how often that this look is on his face.

As in my hope for November, I really hope the months goes slowly along so we can celebrate every minute of this magical time of year.

The Blog...

2011-11-28T20:19:00.004-07:00

I have been thinking a lot about this blog lately. I am not sure how I feel about it anymore....being a stay at home mom in a way this has been a social outlet for me...except it isn't very social. I try so hard not to get my feelings hurt that nobody really comments (and to those of you who do, I am so grateful!), or it seems even cares about the posts I write, but every time I post a little bit of myself only to be answered by silence I feel bad. I'm not sure what I want from comments, mostly and "I'm here, I care, you aren't talking to yourself" sort of thing. This blog has replace scrapbooking for me...but there is a part of me that wants to be done with it. I have a long list of why I love and why I am frustrated with this blog. I feel really torn right now.

I guess I just needed to throw an extremely frustrated little tantrum...okay I'm done (on here anyway, Josh has to hear my frustrations way more that he wishes I am sure.)

Christmas Bucket List Free Printable

2011-11-28T07:00:00.012-07:00

We have now done two bucket lists. One for summer and one for autumn. Our entire family (okay, I am not sure what McKay thinks...) loves to check something off that we have made a goal to do. I thought I'd make a generic Christmas Bucket list for anyone who doesn't have access to Photoshop and wanted to have one for their family this season.

First download the jpeg from here. To print this off we usually take it in to Costco (we haven't been able to use the online software for it yet, we've always had to go in to place the order) and order the 12X36 print. It is $4.99 (I think....around that price anyway. Sorry the memory is getting bad). I bought a frame at Walmart that is 11.5X36 (I made the print 11.5X36, but I have always had to trim it to fit the frame when we get it home.

I use bistro markers to write on it so it will show up. I bought these markers and have thought they were great.

P.S. This is for personal use only.

Thanksgiving-The Day

2011-11-27T22:09:00.005-07:00

I know I went on and one what a wonderful day Thanksgiving was in my last post, but it really and truly was. We woke up bright and early in order to celebrate Lincoln's birthday (next post) as it was on Thanksgiving this year. Lincoln opened presents and had Thin Pancakes per Lincoln's request and then Palmer surprised us with a present that he made for us at school. It was a book about all of the things he was Thankful for (he still had on his Indian paint from the day before when the 2nd grade did a Pow Wow).

It really was so clever. Each page used the pages behind it in a picture.

All the kids at the "kid's table". My nephew is 16, but was a great sport to sit at the table with the younger kids.

The "Nelson side". We really had a great time with this bunch!

Those things in the top right are Josh's special rolls. He has replaced me as the family roll maker. His homemade rolls are just heaven I tell you (and from scratch I might add...yep I am pretty lucky). Not to mention he always makes them in cool shapes with cookie cutters (if you can't tell, these were stars). I can't compete!

McKay enjoyed his dinner after his nap. I had a place set for him at the kids' table, but by the time he woke up everything had been cleaned up (but we saved his pie full of toys for him.)
The Nelsons are HUGE football fans and Thanksgiving is a big football day. We tried our best to get the games (we don't have cable) but to no avail. Josh hooked up an X Box to our projector and all of the guys planed Madden Football 2011. I think it was an okay substitute. Later one the kids got a chance to play.

They had a good time too.

Palmer was pretty happy that he could hold his own with the older kids.

After the kids played the Xbox for a little while we set up the projector downstairs for the them to watch Cars 2 and the adults played games. I am sad I didn't get pictures, but I think everyone involved would have KILLED me. We played the funnest and FUNNIEST game...no idea what it was called, but a rousing good time was had by all.

Later that night we had pie (after a birthday activity for Lincoln). Lincoln asked me to make chocolate cream pie for his birthday. I was worried he would be sad that we were going to have pie instead of cake and offered to make him his own personal cake, but he wanted pie (thank goodness...it was already on the menu :) He got to make a wish and blow out candles and everything. Oh it was a lovely day full of birthdays wishes, laughing kids, grateful parents and warm hearts.

Thanksgiving Dinner-The Details

2011-11-26T09:27:00.007-07:00

We had such a wonderful Thanksgiving!. Josh and I decided that it would be fun to host this year and invited his side of the family over. I am a party planning nut so I started going crazy with plans and projects and had SO MUCH FUN! There are quite a few pictures of all of the details so I decided to give them their own post. I will post the actual day tomorrow (hopefully). It is definitely a picture overload...you've been warned :)

The kids' table was so much fun! There are so many fun ideas out there for Thanksgiving kids table and I had to sift through them all. This is what I came up with.

The kids thought it was fun to have their own "turkey" on their table.

It's made out of a paper bag turned inside out. Idea and instructions found here.

The best part about it is that it is filled with popcorn, so the kids could eat that while we finished up dinner.

It was a fun surprise (I made it when the boys were asleep so they didn't know either). Later that night the kids all watched "Cars 2" on a projector on the wall and finished up the popcorn inside the turkey :)

This was the full place setting at the kids table. These faux pumpkin pies were definitely my favorite Thanksgiving idea of the season. Instructions for them are found on this incredibly creative site. The top is a picture, the bottom is a Cafe Rio tin (yep you can buy them there).

And when you take the lid off, the inside is full of prizes! I LOVED this idea (the kids did too).

The cups were made into turkeys, idea found on this site.

For the kids' name cards I found these napkin wrap downloads here and used Photoshop to add the names.

It was also nice to have the silverware all grouped together as I decorated the tables the night before and McKay is a very busy almost 2 year old. If they were loose it definitely would have been a problem.

On the adult's table I was going a little bit more for elegance. I didn't get a close up of the napkin wraps, but I got them here. They were supposed to be used for a Thanksgiving countdown chain, but I liked them for this too. They say "I am Thankful for..."

Our chairs were a little out of the category of "elegance" so I used ribbon and Indian corn to spruce them up a little bit.

I had a bunch of different versions. For these I just cut up some bunches of leaves. These poor chairs have definitely been given some "character" by our kids. Better get out the Magic Eraser.

I love vintage pictures and found these great pictures on Etsy.com from this vendor. I wasn't sure what I was going to do with them, so I started gluing...and this is how they turned out. I sprayed them with glitter, but you really can't tell in this picture.

Another version. I just got some Christmas vintage images and love them too!

I saw this idea here and thought it would be perfect for the center of the table.

I thought they were so "fallish" and the candlelight was really nice for the dinner.

Here is a picture of the whole table. I ran a strip of burlap down the center of the table.

I also found these great velvet leaves (loved all of the clearance autumn decor deals) and cut them apart scattering all over the table.

Spray painted some pumpkins gold for the center of our table (believe me they were thanking me for doing it, they weren't so cute pre-painting). I found these fall flower kissing balls at Tai Pan and thought the color would add some fun dimension to our orange, brown, gold and tan table.

For the buffet table centerpiece I just cut up one of our moving boxes (I wouldn't let Josh get rid of all of them as there are so many good things to do with cardboard!) and made the base box hotgluing the pieces together and then glued scrapbook paper on it and tied a ribbon around it. I then put in floral foam and Spanish moss. I need to do a tutorial on the lollies. I really love the look of these (I used them here and here). I made them with scrapbook paper and just printed out "thankful" on the computer. Each one was just one 12X12 piece of paper. I like how it turned out and am going to use it as part of my decor next Thanksgiving.

Our Thanksgiving buffet. Oh my goodness I ate so much of this yummy food! Isn't Thanksgiving a wonderful holiday :) The centerpiece says "thankful".

Most of the recipes I used for the buffet are the ones I have uses for years. I probably should post some on the cooking blog...I don't think I ever have. The yam recipe we use is from my BIL's family and will make you love yams I promise (I never was a fan before). We have also discovered the process of cooking our turkey in an electric roaster. It is a miracle invention and makes the turkey turn out so juice and good. The other thing I like about it is that frees up my oven so we can make the other food in it.

I used two new recipes this year though and one of them was this punch. I found the recipe here. We all thought it was so good and I might need to become part of our traditional Thanksgiving recipes.

This was the other new recipe that I used this year. My MIL loves cranberry sauce so I wanted to make sure we had some for her, but I didn't want to buy it in the can (there is something so unappetizing about food in the shape of a can...). I found this recipe and tried it out. It was so good and I even liked it (never been much of a fan before.)

Oh it was such a fun year. It will be a good memory that our family will have forever. I hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving as well!

Some Thanksgiving School Projects

2011-11-25T12:16:00.001-07:00

I know I have said over and over how much I love November and Thanksgiving on this blog, but it is so true. Yesterday was the most wonderful day. It was so much fun to have the Nelson side of the family over. We had a great time (pictures coming soon...)

This morning I slept in for the first time in about 2 years. It could be longer than that...I don't remember sleeping in at all so I figured my memory only goes back about 2 years. Josh and I both slept in until 9:00 a.m. and that was a miracle. I love lazy, laid back mornings. I ate leftover pie and Josh's hot chocolate for breakfast and have been sitting here editing pictures from yesterday for a while (feeling a little guilty because i am in charge of sharing time on Sunday in primary, and should be working on it :). It has been lovely. I am excited to start putting up our Christmas decorations today as well. It's a good day, I can feel it.

In the mean time I thought I would post these cute little pictures of some things that Palmer and Hunter brought home from school that they had made on the last day of school before Thanksgiving break. Hunter's was this little turkey head he has worn every day since he brought it home.

I think it is so funny, and Hunter thinks it is THE COOLEST things ever. I love Kindergarten, it is such a fun age.

The second grade had a Pow-Wow on that last day before the break and they had a ball. They learned songs and made crafts, including this great outfit. Like Hunter Palmer has worn it every day.

We took these pictures after Pack Meeting (hence the shirt and neckerchief). I feel like we have had such a fun and fulfilling Thanksgiving season.

Some Thanksgiving Ideas

2011-11-22T21:47:00.003-07:00

Thanksgiving is the day after tomorrow (but today is nearly over...)! I have been having a great time preparing to host the Nelson Thanksgiving dinner. I am especially excited about the plans I have for the kids table. I worked today on a centerpiece for our buffet table and I am hoping it is going to be great. Last year we did a few crafts throughout the day on Thanksgiving. This one kept us all laughing.

It was a drumstick hat. We really couldn't stop laughing over it and the boys all wore it all day. I'd start laughing all over again the second I would see one of them wearing it. The link for this craft is right here.

They are pretty cute turkey heads.

Then we made these classic apple, raisin, marshmallow, gumdrop turkeys (oh the memories of my horrible black table). I remember making them when I was little. They are classic I tell you.

They are also delicious. Lincoln's apple was a little crooked, so we made it some legs.

Then the rest of the boys wanted legs...and who wouldn't?

And of course Josh and I had to make one (actually it was Josh because i was busy taking pictures, but he let me share it!). We had such a fun time last year, and are completely looking forward to this year.

Lincoln's Birthday Week

2011-11-21T09:03:00.002-07:00

Today is the first day of Lincoln's birthday week at school. Having a birthday the same week as Thanksgiving (and this year it is on Thanksgiving), is sometimes a little tough. We try really hard to let Lincoln know that his birthday is the biggest holiday :) Lincoln's teacher has the kids fill out a birthday paper of all of their favorite things and then they get to have a scrapbook page about them hanging up for the week that goes into a class book. This is what we came up with for Lincoln's scrapbook page.

On Saturday Lincoln and I went on a little date. We went out to lunch just the two of us and then to Toys R Us so he could show me what he wanted for his birthday. He was so cute. He put some paper on a clipboard and went around the store writing down what he wanted. It was fun to be with him and focus just on our birthday boy.

Thanksgiving Decorations

2011-11-20T19:17:00.000-07:00

I have loved having the "thankful" decorations up. It is fun to have a month to concentrate on gratitude. We have read all sorts of books about the first thanksgiving and learned a lot about this holiday. One thing we learned was that they ate clams, fish and EEL at the first thanksgiving. We are hosting Josh's side of the family at our house this year and I thought we should have eel stew in honor of the first Thanksgiving...okay just kidding.

We are hosting Thanksgiving at our house this year and I am really excited about it. My sister and I spent Saturday afternoon shopping for all of the projects that I am working on. Hopefully it turns out how I have it pictured in my mind :)

I thought I would post a few pictures of some of my Thanksgiving decorations. It is fun to be able to have them in my new aqua hutch. Who knew aqua worked with so many different colors?!

We have thoroughly enjoyed our Thanksgiving season! Thanksgiving will be the icing on the cake.

Disney on Ice

2011-11-18T07:00:00.006-07:00

Last Saturday we told the boys "we are going to do something we have never done before." Josh and I are always on the look out for fun new experiences for our family. They all started to guess what we could possibly be doing. Usually they guess a lot of things we have done before mixed in with some off the wall things that I am not even sure exist. This time Palmer guessed that we were going to watch "cup stacking". Lincoln and Hunter quickly jumped on that band wagon and were so excited that this might be a possibility. I personally have never even heard of cup stacking before, but apparently it is a real thing (the kids had a cup stacking assembly yesterday at school which they were thrilled about). Josh and I got a good laugh out of that one. They were excited when they found out it was Disney on Ice. It has been on our list of "things to do with the kids before they are too old and think it is lame" list. We finally did it.

We have been waiting for the time where there were actually boy things in the show. A lot of them have been princesses lately (not that I would complain to go to those...) When we were driving to the show and they were guessing they started seeing girls everywhere and they were wondering what was at the Delta Center that girls would like. I was in a bit of a panic thinking that we had accidentally gotten tickets to a princess show, but luckily they started the show out with The Incredibles and my worries were put to rest :)

We are big fans of Peter Pan at our house. We have read the book 3 times and both Hunter and Palmer have been Peter Pan for Halloween before. The Disney movie is also a favorite.

Tinkerbell totally stole my hair style!

I was wondering how McKay would be as he was really wild when we went to the Circus last year. I was so glad though, he was interested in a lot of the show and thanks to a huge tub of popcorn, happy as a clam.

A little bit of my worry that the kids were getting too old to like Disney on Ice came out when Lincoln leaned over and told me that the Lion Kind skaters didn't look like the characters in the movie. I told him they weren't supposed to be exactly like those in the movie because then they couldn't skate. He looked at me and said "these don't look anything like them. I went on to explain how hard it would be to skate in a full lion suite...but I don't think he bought it.

Genius, although it definitely would have been more entertaining to see huge birds skating around.

Anytime there was something flying over the ice rink it was fun for the boys.

This lucky little girl got to send off a lantern with Rapunzel and Flyn Rider. Even I was a little jealous :)

McKay SELDOM falls asleep anywhere but in his bed (although he did fall asleep in the corner in nursery last Sunday). He must of bee so tired because he crashed on Josh's lap.

It was not a "princess show" but they still had the princesses come out at the end with their princes. The bazillion little girls in the audience were thrilled about it.

I have always loved Sleeping Beauty.

It was a great show! We all had a fun time, Disney always does a good job. I am glad that we finally got there!

Thanksgiving Turkey Craft

2011-11-16T22:20:00.001-07:00

Poor November. It is so underrated. I LOVE November. We don't usually have any sports in the evening, things slow down just a bit from the craziness of the beginning of the school year or I guess we just get better at the crazy schedule. December is such a wild month that I like to take November very slowly, but it doesn't usually matter, it zips by me despite my best efforts. So far this month I have loved the cozy evenings we have had nearly every night just spending time as a family, reading together, crafting, playing games, and not to mention the fact that one day Josh came home from work with a hot cocoa maker and has become quite the expert in gourmet hot cocoas (we are big fans of good cocoa what can I say). We have definitely had our fair share and more of this heavenly beverage and plan on continuing. This may be one of my favorite talents he has developed :)

I have sneaked a few Christmas songs in here and there and listened to "Thankful" by Josh Groban over and over. I think that the gratitude that we focus on in November is the perfect thing to usher in the month of the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. November feels so reverent to me. Maybe (probably) that is how it is supposed to be ;)

We have been doing turkey/gratitude/Novemberish crafts lately. We made these lovely little cardboard tube (toilet paper roll) turkeys the other day. The boys and I each wrote some of the things that we were thankful for on the feathers. I have now developed a phobia of throwing plain toilet paper rolls away. There are just too many fun things to do with them.

It also warms my hearts to hear the boys discussing all of the things they are thankful for. Hunter wrote Jesus twice, which I totally wish I had done.

I love December, but I always feel like my December is so much better if I have a November full of all of the things I am grateful for.

Frame Chalk Board Make Over

2011-11-15T20:59:00.003-07:00

My sister Debby and I have had a blast yard saling these past few months. I have gotten so many projects that needed make overs and have had a lot of fun figuring out how to fix them up (although Josh is wanting his garage back, so I need to finish up the last few). Seriously if you haven't discovered yard saling you are missing out. Our ward does a fund raiser every year to help the youth pay for Youth Conference. There is a KFC dinner and then an auction. Everyone donates something to be auctioned off whether it be babysitting, crafts, services, actually pretty much anything you can think of. One of the primary kids auctioned off the company of his personality, and it totally sold.

I was determined to make over something that could be auctioned off so I went on the hunt at our last yard sale of the year (so sad!) I found a picture in a frame for $0.25! I took the picture out (I wish I had taken a before picture), primed and painted the frame (I had to prime it because it was having a hard time absorbing my paint. After I primed it there was no problem). I added some fabric rosettes to add a little flair to it...it was pretty plain before. I wanted to paint it a fun color, but also wanted it to be neutral so it would raise some money so I went with white and the rosettes. I just painted a random board my sister had in her garage with chalkboard paint and it was done. It didn't take a lot of time and I had all of the stuff already to do it from other projects...so it only cost me $0.25 to make!

Here is a close up of the rosettes on the top. If you would like to know how to do them, check out this tutorial.

It ended up selling for $30. Our friends bought it for their little girl's bedroom. It was a fun project! I have another one that I am working on for my house now.

Lincoln Loses a Tooth!

2011-11-14T07:00:00.005-07:00

Losing a first tooth is a pretty big deal at our house. I am sure the same feelings accompany it the first time shaving or driving. It means...getting older and to my boys, that is very cool (not so much to me :) Lincoln lost his first tooth last week and it was pretty awesome. It got pretty loose so he finally let Josh pull it (not something I could do...even Josh struggled with it a bit.) Another tooth was already growing in behind it. Our boys don't seem to want to help their teeth fall out at all so there is usually a crooked little adult tooth lurking behind the tooth that falls out.

Lincoln had left this cute little note for the Tooth Fairy. He wanted to to keep his tooth and I was sure she wouldn't mind (what is she going to do with it?) He was so thoughtful to even leave a spot on the note where the Tooth Fairy could answer him.

And answer him she did. There was even all sorts of glittery fairy dust (or glitter glue...) around her answer.

I found these great little Tooth Fairy Kits long ago and loved them so much. They are letter pressed and I think so adorable. They come with a bag for the kids to put their teeth in for all of those that fall out later.

You can see on his bottom row of teeth where he lost his tooth. He thought it was all pretty great!

McKay...

2011-11-13T07:00:00.007-07:00

It seems that I have posted a lot of McKay being naughty lately. It just seems that he is getting into things most of the time. Today I found a cup full of water that was also filled with crayons...I am always saying that it is a good thing he is cute!

Most days we find him sitting on the table at some point.

He is just so funny! Maybe the fact that I am always taking pictures of his naughtiness isn't helping anything...

Halloween 2011

2011-11-12T07:00:00.009-07:00

We didn't have school this year on Halloween which was really fun for the boys. They played all day and then we got ready for Halloween night. I made these little ditties to bring to the party. I got the idea here.

Cute Lincoln dressed up as Harry Potter.

Hunter as Indiana Jones. I don't know where Palmer was during our little picture taking session, but I didn't get one of him before the festivities.

My oldest brother Steve. I loved his costume! His wife came up with some really fun Halloween costumes.

Josh and I were Bert and Mary Poppins.

My two youngest brothers were "nerds" :) The funniest thing was that they used Pokemon cards for their nerd costumes. My boys and the rest of the cousins think Pokemon cards are the coolest thing ever.

My sister and her husband were characters from a black and white white movie (so creative right?!) Their daughter was the cutest ballerina.

My other sister and her husband were the oldies of the group. They were so funny and kept us laughing all night.

My oldest brother and his wife were Frankenstein and a mad scientist. Their kids were a ghost, witch and robot.

My sister was a gypsie (her husband was out of town so we were so sad he wasn't there, he loves Halloween and always comes up with good costumes). Their kids were an Egyptian, two vampires and two pirates.

Everyone looked so cute! Another of my brothers came later with his family. He and his wife were a cowboy/cowgirl. Their kids were a china girl, super girl, and superman. For some reason I didn't get a picture of my parents (probably because they were busy making homemade donuts and pizza). They were army guys and looked so great.

This was McKay's first time trick or treating and I went a little crazy with the camera.

Josh started making faces in the pictures...so I told him that he'd be on the blog...

Isn't he the cutest little trick or treater!?

This picture totally fits McKay, Mr. Independent. I love it.

He was all about the candy.

After we got home from trick or treating we played lots of fun games. I was in charge of "Spooky Eyes". I got it last year from this blog.

We always try to get a family picture of everyone in their costumes. It isn't always easy, but we got one this year. It was a great year for Halloween! Now, on to Thanksgiving!

Some Autumn Straglers

2011-11-11T15:57:00.001-07:00

Here are the last of the autumn activity pictures before my actual Halloween post. I decided to just clump them all together. Our ward had a Trunk or Treat on the Saturday before Halloween. It was so fun!

I had all sorts of plans to turn the back of our van into "17 Cherry Tree Lane" (from Mary Poppins), but I got back a bit late from the ballet I went to earlier that day so it didn't happen. Oh well...

McKay must have had a million suckers that night. It was fun to see all of the cute primary kids (and their parents) dressed up in their Halloween costumes.

We had our traditional "Dinner in a Pumpkin." I did a post with the recipe back here, if you are interested (you know, for next year :)

It is always a fun dinner.

Now that kid is thrilled with his dinner in a pumpkin :)

We also had a family in our ward over to decorate Halloween cookies.

This family is so neat. I have loved getting to know them.

Their parents are just amazing and we had a blast hanging out with them.

And finally, this is what I gave my visiting teaching ladies this month. You know, if anyone wanted to use the idea...next year :)

Here is what they looked like from the back.

I know I have said it a million times, but our Halloween season was so much fun!

Witches at Gardener Village

2011-11-11T12:31:00.001-07:00

I am trying to hurry and post my Halloween pictures (while my computer is working), so I can get on to November (a good idea since it is already the 11th)! I love the Witches at Gardener Village. It is such a fun tradition and we don't always get there, so I was happy that we were able to do it this year, especially since we don't live as close as we used to. We saw some new witches this year that we haven't seen before. Here are some years past, 2010, 2008.

We did the scavenger hunt you can print off online to find the witches doing certain things. Palmer was pretty serious about the whole thing.

This tree was covered in green and purple lights and the boys just loved it. There was a stage right under it and the boys went up there and ran around.

McKay is so funny, when I would try to take his picture he would automatically bring the top of his stroller down. He isn't too into having his picture taken.

Hunter still had some of the remnants on his face of the wiskers we painted on for his Indiana Jones costume. His face looked like it was so dirty!

Hunter and I got separated from the rest of the family, so we took some pictures together.

We ended our night with a cookie from the bakery.

Such a fun night and tradition.