Festival of the Nativity

I'm so excited to be a part of this even this year. I just got home from taking and setting up 13 of my nativities.

Last year I attended the first Festival of the Nativity in Tacoma and it was so awesome.

This year they have well over 500 nativities, live music and various artwork of Christ's life.

The event is this weekend:

Friday: 6-8pm

Saturday: 10am-8pm

Sunday: noon-8pm

The event is FREE and welcome to anyone. It's located in Tacoma at the church building on 12th and Pearl.

I can't wait to go this weekend and see the whole thing!

Ironic

A little bit ironic that I bought a new camera on black Friday and now I've lost the camera cord that I need to upload pictures. My memory card drive doesn't work anymore on my computer in case you were wondering why I don't just do it that way.

So much to upload too - We surprised Wade's family for thanksgiving this year! We drove to Utah all in one day last Wednesday. The kids were great considering it was 14.5 hours in the car. We stayed at my sisters and within 5 minutes of us driving into Lehi city limits Wade's mom called us. She joked with Wade that he should just hop on an airplane and come see her for thanksgiving. She wins an award for her mothers intuition! Wade didn't let up that anything was going on, he tried to act very vague on our thanksgiving plans, but he isn't the best liar. I was sure that she would see right through it.

The next day was a blast, we showed up at the door step and sent the boys in. Betty was floored and speechless. She really thought we had just hopped on an airplane! The video is great - when I get it uploaded.

We had a really nice visit, although it went by way to fast and drove back on Monday. Again, the kids were great, the weather was nice and we couldn't complain about traffic.

I hope to post pictures and the video soon. I'm swapped with Christmas activities. I cannot believe it's December! Does anyone know what happened to 2009? I'm wondering what happened to the whole year.

Thankful

50 Assorted Things I am thankful for this year:

(in no particular order)

1. Wade

2. 3 healthy, bright and typically happy children

3. My parents & Wade's parents. They love us, support us, teach us, are good examples, and awesome!

4. Wade's job - and that after 9 years we are FINALLY not students any more!

5. Our home

6. My stay at home mom job that allows to see every moment of my babies lives.

7. The restored gospel

8. Living Prophets

9. The Atonement - where would we all be without this?

10. Modern medicine

11. Dishwashers

12. Diapers

13. Wipes

14. Costco

15. Target

16. Simplicity that menu planning brings to my life and dinner time

17. Baby bellies

18. Belly laughs

19. Naptime

20. Books

21. Crafts

22. Education

23. Freedom

24. All the wives (and husbands) who are willing to sacrifice and stay at home while their spouse is deployed. These people are HERO's and are amazing to me.

25. All the people who serve our country

26. Libraries

27. Music

28. Computers

29. Blogs

30. Facebook

31. My church calling - it stretches me and makes me learn and serve in ways I might not.

32. Chocolate - any form

33. Silly things like boxes and air mattresses that entertain my children for hours on end.

34. Washing machines and dyers, because I can't imagine doing all the loads of laundry that we go through by hand.

35. Email

36. My brothers and sisters and that we are all great friends although we live in 6 different states across the nation

37. Crystal Light

38. Cell phones

39. The approaching Christmas season & my nativity sets

40. Hand sanitizer

41. Bedtime - especially when they are early

42. That moment right before bedtime when everyone is cuddly or already asleep and will let me rock them for those few extra minutes. They grow up so fast!

43. Hand lotion, because I would sure hate winter without it.

44. Talents - of others specifically, because I will never a professional photographer, artist, writer, musician....

45. Nice warm quilts and blankets to cuddle in

46. The carts at the grocery store that hold 2 kids at a time

47. Sunshine, we don't see it everyday

48. Mountains and the Oceans

49. Digital cameras & preserving memories

50. Love

Happy Thanksgiving.

I'll probably not post again until next week.

Residency Retreat

Thanks to my parents who are AWESOME and watched all our kids for us, Wade and I were able to go to the annual Residency Retreat Wade's program has each year. They go each fall to the Skamania Lodge, which is down in the Columbia River Gorge. It pretty much rained the whole time we were there, but regardless, it's gorgeous!

I couldn't resist and had to take my "I heart feet shirt" Too bad I couldn't get enough courage to wear it outside of my room. I guess there's always next year.

We drove down Friday night and Saturday morning Wade had to get up bright and early and attend a meeting where he had to do a presentation. I was a little bummed I didn't get to see his presentation (besides him practicing it) but I'm really glad I didn't have to sit through all the others. I spent the morning lounging around reading. I was actually able to finish a whole page without anyone interrupting me!

After the morning meeting got out we were free for the afternoon.

We went out to lunch with Micah and Alison (the 2nd year & his wife) and again - it was so nice to not be interrupted - we hang out all the time with them, but have 7 kids between all of us! No kids was such a treat! Then we drove out to Multnomah Falls for a little hiking.

I am SUCH a good photographer. The water fall is coming right out of Wade's head.

I know we aren't in Cullen (vampire) country, but the weather sure made it look that way.

Wait - WAIT, did you see that? I swore I just saw a vampire run by and then climb the tree.

Oh, no, it was just Wade. Edward had NOTHING on this vampire pose. Did I mention how much I love Wade?

After Edward, I mean Wade, climbed some trees and impressed us with his stealth-vampire speed and strength we met up with some more vampires, Rosalie and Emmett. I mean Alison and Micah. This place was CRAWLING with vampires. You should have seen everyone sparkle in the sun.

Okay then we reached the top and the vampire fun ended for some serious time. Just kidding.

Wade showed us his lumberjack competition skills by doing some cool tricks on this log.

This was probably the only serious picture I got the whole day. We were laughing and having such good time. I can't remember the last time I laughed so hard - oh wait, it was this morning when Noah did his boottie dance for me - but really, we did laugh and have such a great time.

After hiking up the falls and back we headed back to the lodge and Wade and I relaxed by the fire while I read some more and Wade burnt his tongue on hot chocolate and people-watched. We finished the evening off with a nice dinner put on by one of the medical supply companies. The food was so good - roast beef, salmon and duck!

After dinner we made our departure. Next year we will stay two nights -most people do, but since Elder Scott was coming to speak at church today and I was worried about little Avery we drove home that night. One night was still a lot of fun.

I didn't know while we were gone but my mom got sick and had a gall-stone attack during the middle of the night at the same time that Avery decided to be a a stinker and screamed at Grandpa and Grandma for 4 hours. They really are the BEST parents in the wold, because every time I called they just said everything was fine and wouldn't really tell me how things were going. The boys had a great time. Saturday my mom and dad took everyone to a model train show where after standing in a "very long line" according to Noah, they were able to ride a toy Thomas the Train. It made their weekend, and the fact that they got to eat at McDonalds and Dairy Queen in one day.

It was a relaxing trip and Wade and I had such a fun time with Micah and Alison. I already can't wait until next year!

Before & After

Okay, so I hate to admit it, but my bedroom becomes the room where all the "stuff" gathers. When we lived in Tacoma last year for core I set up a nice preschool area and craft area by our dining room table. I don't mind having a craft area in my bedroom but the preschool and kid craft stuff was taking over as well. I decided to make it my project last week and I am so glad I took some pictures.


***Please! Do not scroll down and judge me!! I was not going to clean up the area just to take pictures just to rearrange and take more pictures. Gage had a project at school and went through all the craft stuff finding things to decorate a paper turkey with This is how it looked after he was done. I know - pretty bad!!!


This is a linen closet in my master bathroom that I wasn't really using well. I had some sewing projects stored there as well as my sewing machine. Out of site out of mind, I never really would remember to get it out and finish half finished projects. We don't use it for our linen closet, we use another one. It didn't really make sense to put crafty stuff in the master bath, but the shelves and unused space worked well so I picked this closet.

It took me a few days and I'm still working on some details of the space but I really am happy with the after. I took my scrapbook table and scrapbook supplies out of the garage (aka summer playroom) and moved it to my bedroom. I have a television hidden in an armourer opposite this so I can watch if I want while I scrapbook. I am also very excited that I was able to find a place to keep my sewing machine out on. (our filing cabinet!) Maybe someday I will have a home where I can finish off a craft room with real furniture and not just "student" fixes. But really - the filing cabinet works and makes it double duty. Now that I feel I have a cute orgainzed space, I just need to get my bum in gear and finish some projects before the holidays.

And the craft closet after:

I headed to the dollar store and got a few baskets and bins for the craft closet. It looks so much better now than how I had it. I can now tell Gage or Noah to go get something and they know exactly where to find it! NICE!

Elder Scott

For church today we attended a special meeting for our stake and were blessed to be in the presence and listen to Elder Richard G. Scott, one of the 12 apostles.

For those who might not know -I am a member of a worldwide church. It is organized in the same pattern as it was when Christ was on the earth. I believe there is a living prophet on this earth today and he has 12 apostles. Elder Richard G. Scott is one of these men. Because we are a worldwide church it is not common you get to meet or hear these men in person very often. They travel, but there are only a few of them and millions of members of the church. This trip to Washington was to specifically meet with the Puyallup Stake (the church members who live in and around Puyallup).

I tried to take a few notes, but wrestling children at the same time was a little difficult so when I got home I was able to write down a few pages for a journal. I could include the entire journal on my blog, but it was a few pages so I thought I would just include a few experts of it for a post.
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The meeting started at 10 and ran until 12:00. Because our stake building is small and so many people were expected to be there we were asked to be there early, in our seats and sitting recently. This is a pretty large task for the little ones in our family. But we manged to do it. Wade and I drove in last night after leaving his residency retreat early and got home around 12. After a few short hours of sleep (and waking up with Avery twice) we got up and got everyone ready and headed to the building. We arrived at 8:20 and the chapel and overflow were already filled. We were able sit on the first row of chairs in the gym. The boys did great, we still had almost an hour and half before the meeting even started. We sat with our friends the Tovey’s and their kids had a good time playing quietly together and visiting before the meeting.
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The meeting started and we sang, listened the choir perform a song and then listened to 6 other members of leadership from our area share their testimonies. After we stood as a congregation and sang an intermediate hymn we were able to be taught by Elder Scott for the remainder of the meeting.
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I also have to note here that that for the two songs that the choir sang today that instead of sitting in his seat on the stand during the songs, Elder Scott stood up and went and stood in the front side corner of the stand facing the choir so he could see them. In fact, after their first song he gave them thumbs up before sitting down. It was great and made me smile!
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One of the first things that he did was have all the Primary age children stand up – even on the chairs if they were little. Then he asked them all to smile and look around so that the rest of us would smile and be happy. He said that we all needed to be reminded that we were there to be happy. After they sat down he said he had a secret for them – Gage was really digging this. He waited with anticipation in his eyes and he listened to Elder Scott tell him that he was going to whisper this secret. Elder Scott said very quietly in the microphone he was going to share a secret of how to always wake up with a smile on your mouth…Gage couldn’t wait, he was really paying attention and it was so cute. Then Elder Scott said, ‘You got to sleep with a wire coat hanger in it!” haha! We all laughed at his joke and Gage thought it was great. Elder Scott was in such a good mood.
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He then said he was going to call on two sisters to come and help him. These sisters didn’t even know that he would be calling them – they were two 19 year old girls in our stake. One was Gage’s primary teacher, Jennifer, who is leaving for BYU-I in January. The other one is home on break from BYU-I. He had them come up and then would ask them different questions and they would both answer. The first was, “Does your family study the gospel every day at home.” Ashley, one of the girls responded first with, “Well, we try our very best.” Elder Scott then leaned in the microphone looked at all of us and said, “This one is going to be a politician!” The girls did a good job being on the spot for about 10 minutes. Elder Scott asked them about scripture study, dressing modestly, family home evening, how do their mom’s support their dads (I thought this was an interesting question!). Then after this he asked each girl to share their testimonies. They both did such a great job, they are amazing girls. After thanking them and sending them on their way he said that he could have spent that time talking to us about the importance of teaching your children in your homes, but instead he SHOWED us. It was a very good lesson. Then he also added that it would be wise for any of the older young men in the stake to find ways to date these two cute girls.
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Elder Scott talked a lot about scriptures study and the importance of marking your scriptures.
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He talked about a few other subjects, including finding comfort from those love ones we have that have passed on before us.
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At the conclusion of his talk he bore his testimony to us. He said that if we get nothing else from his talk that we know that he knows Jesus Christ lives and that he knows him personally. That Christ loves us more than any human can imagine.
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I was able to see his face and I can witness that he knows this. The spirit was so strong and it was such an awesome meeting to be a part of. I know that Elder Scott is an apostle of the Lord. I know he can receive revelation for us. If you want to know more about what he talked about in the meeting or want to know more about my church, please email me.

Sausage-Stuffed Acorn Squash

We had dinner at some friends house last night- stew, rolls, and I brought this. It was so yummy. Avery couldn't get enough! It just might have to make it's next appearance at our Thanksgiving feast.






Sausage-Stuffed Acorn Squash

Ingredients:
2 medium acorn squash
1 pound bulk spicy pork sausage
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 egg
2 tablespoons milk
1 cup fresh baby spinach, finely chopped
1-1/2 cups soft bread crumbs
1/2 cup dried cranberries

Directions
Cut squash in half; remove and discard seeds. Place squash cut side down in a microwave-safe dish. Cover and microwave on high for 10-12 minutes or until tender.
Meanwhile, crumble sausage into a large skillet; add onion. Cook over medium heat until meat is no longer pink; drain. In a large bowl, beat egg and milk; stir in the spinach, bread crumbs, cranberries and sausage mixture.
Turn squash cut side up. Stuff with sausage mixture. Cover and microwave on high for 2-3 minutes or until a thermometer reads 160°. Yield: 4 servings.

9 Months

Little Miss Avery Ann turned 9 months last week.

At nine months Avery Ann crawls anywhere and everywhere. You shouldn't put her down on the floor unless you are prepared to chase after her or let her roam. We sometimes call her the little human vacuum, because she has a talent for finding any little tiny spec on the floor and eating it. My boys didn't do this and seriously, I can't keep my floors clean enough.

Avery is starting to pull her self up on things. She loves to stand at the bar stools in the kitchen. I find her standing in the crib almost every time I go in to get her.

The funniest thing about Avery is she still cannot roll from her back to her stomach. She can roll from stomach to back, but then she is a beached whale as we like to call her. This makes diaper changes very easy at least. I think it's so funny this girl has been crawling for 2 months, can do almost anything but can't roll over. She screams frantically anytime she accidentally rolls onto her back or we put her down like that.

Avery loves to eat anything but baby food. She loves puffs, peas, green beans, bananas, Cheerios, hamburger, squash....just to name a few. She eats anything that we eat, just cut really small, and it's so nice.

Avery had 4 furious teeth and has bit me a few times...while nursing. What else can be said about this but it HURTS!

Avery still wants to nurse, but will drink from a sippy cup. She really doesn't need to nurse often - like every 4 hours now - and her usual fast 5 minutes (total!!) is even shorter now - like 3! It's all good timing since I'm leaving her this weekend.

She is a pretty good sleeper at night and goes to bed at 6:30 or 7 and sleeps until 5:30. This month she has gotten very good at letting Wade put her down.

Avery loves her brothers and her daddy. She crawls as fast as she can to Wade each time he opens the door every night. She giggles and smiles at Gage when we pick him up for school.

Avery Ann is really a happy baby. We are blessed she is in our family and blessed she is so healthy, strong, lovable and well tempered. I am only sad that she is growing up so fast.

little turkeys

I love these little turkeys...the pictures and the boys. They crack me up, we made them last week. The first item Gage wanted to write on his thankful feathers was "chickens"?!

I can't wait to get started on our turkey hats - no need to reinvent the wheel, we are sticking to ones that we love from the past like these or these.

Fly

Doesn't every little girl need a of wings to remind her to fly?

Especially when they were found for $1 on clearance after Halloween.

New Moon

Last week I reread Twilight and New Moon, I started Eclipse last night. I am getting excited about the New Moon movie, I won't be standing in line at midnight - because that weekend is the residency retreat that I get to go on with Wade, but I have plans to see it with some family shortly after. YAY!




I saw this on Facebook (wow, it's like a miracle that I even logged on to FB in the first place!) It's pretty funny!

Happy Monday. Noah is feeling a little better, still pretty tired and still gets pretty warm when we don't keep medications in him. pooh.