A Night in Bethlehem

So many fun things happend this month!
 Which is partly why this post was started WEEKS ago and here we are, trying to cram posts in before we leave tomorrow.

The first weekend of the month was PARTY CENTRAL! We attended 3 different parties in less than 15 hours.
1st- The INCREDIBLE ward party! The lady in charge went alllllllll out! It was "A Night in Bethlehem" and it all began with scrolled invites, instructions to come and wear a Biblical costume and bring a blanket to sit on while we dine in the market place and rest from our long journey.  My mom was up visiting (to Christmas shop and be our babysitter for later that night) and it was fun having her join us.  The entire church was decked out like Bethlehem and they had enough costumes for everyone who didn't have one.  There was a life sized camel the kids could sit on, every square inch was decorated and it was pretty much AMAZING! There were even completely decked out Roman soldiers that welcomed us.

Eating in the costumes was a bit tricky-- I'm glad I don't have to keep a piece of material on my head all the time!

After that party we headed to another one.  Luke's work party.  My mom took the girls home and we went to Sunstone.  The party was really nice.  They told fun stories from the last year, talked about their trade show trips.... FYI if you added all the miles the company has traveled to trade shows it would circle the Earth at least 13 times! That's a lot of miles!

That night they also handed out the Christmas gifts.   Here we are with his bosses, (Aaron and Hilary Aastle) We are so grateful to be involved with such kind and FUN people!

Random Stuff

Sometimes I have random pictures that just need to be put somewhere.  Here are a few of those:

Sunday, Nov 27, 2011.  Decorating the tree and "putting the star on."  Really, it doesn't need to be done twice, but each child insisted on doing the final touch for our Christmas tree lights. 

Tianna got glasses.  She is farsighted and the doctor said we could wait until she goes to Kindergarten or start her on them now. We figured, why wait?  She looks adorable and random strangers comment on how cute she is in her glasses.  When asked if she sees better with or without them, she always replies, "I see better with them....and without them."  Not very helpful, but I do think she can see better.
I also got contacts for the first time.  It's been fun and we have spent a lot of time at the eye docs for follow ups to get the right fit. Going on 6 visits so far I think.

 Sometimes these girls play so well together! I love it. other times.........

 "Mom. Mom! Mooooom! Take my picture."  Okay, how could I resist? We have a million pictures of Tianna dressed in random stuff, so why not take some of her too?

On Nov 29th I attended "Book Club" with some of the ladies in our ward.  I'm not really a "book club" kinda girl, but this one piqued my interest! The author of the book came and it was SO FUN to hear about how he came about making the book, more details about it, and how it's being made into A MOVIE! So cool!  The book is "The Big Red Bike," by E.J. Tims.  It really was a good story-- very similar to "Where the Red Fern Grows" expect for IT'S TRUE! It's a way fast read and I recommend it to everyone. 

I made this fun pinata for a family Christmas party.  Since I was using Halloween candy left-overs :) with spiders on the packaging, I thought I could go for  "Nightmare Before Christmas" theme by making Zero.  I thought it turned out really cute. 

Today we were at Smith's buying groceries when a whole group of employees and guys in suits starting caroling through the store.  Apparently, the president etc of all the Smith's stores travel around the whole month of December to each store to "bring some holiday cheer" and what not. We just so happened to be there right while they were at the Payson store.  

While checking out the one with the guitar came to serenade some pretty girls.  They were delighted!

 The just giggled and giggled all the way through "Rudolf the Red-nosed Reindeer"

 Finally finished up my homemade Advent calendar... so what if it happened to be a whole week into the month?!  Tonight's activity is gonna be pure awesomeness! We are learning about the Shepherds. We will eat greek food: pork Slovakia, pita bread, rice pilaf (closest thing I know how to make.. or want to!) Eating on a blanket, making sheep out of cotton balls, talking about all of it, and maybe, just maybe I'll let the kids sleep under the Christmas tree like they are "in the fields."  And no-- not all the "days" are this elaborate.

 Good thing I have a half pan! 

Last night after spending the day Christmas shopping with the Wombat, Luke met us up there and we had dinner with my bff Janelle and her husband Ed.  I'm so glad Luke and Ed get along so well.... the night included going to Gunnies to look at guns. (Luke and Ed's common love affair) and ate at Outback Steak House. YUUUM! It was the perfect "Christmas present" to each other.  Why trade gifts when we hardly get to see each other. Instead, we spend the money doing something together.  It's even better when you get to take a picture and Adelia looks this hilarious in it! 

Can't believe it's been over 10 years since we became such close friends! How the time flies! 

So Much to be Grateful for:

This year I didn't really write much on what we are grateful for this holiday season.  Thanksgiving came so fast I didn't know what hit us and Christmas is only 20 days away already.  It's just crazy.
But I did want to mention some of the things we are grateful for.   And I don't want to seem like I am bragging in this post, but they are things that we are truly grateful for--and I want it documented in our family's journal which is the reason I even keep a blog.

1.  In this tough economy that Luke was able to get a good solid job. It may have seemed like it took forever (6 months of search) but we were lucky he had a job in Logan clear till he started at Sunstone.  http://www.sunstonespotwelders.com
On that note, we are extremely grateful for his education and the opportunities it will afford us and already has.

2.  That it's a job he loves.  His boss (and wide who is co-owner) are simply amazing people.  We went to the Christmas party the other night and I was just blown away at their generosity and their kindness. We knew from the start that they were unique people when they had their "second interview" with Luke and it was actually dinner with them and Luke AND his wife.
They are very family oriented and care about all their employees families welfare. They are also very passionate about self reliance (food storage, home security etc) and have been extremely generous in helping their employees become that way.  They have already given us a year supply of food storage basics for 2 people, a homemade trauma kit, a wall tent and a wood stove for it, and cots and MORE.  It will be a HUGE blessings and we are so very grateful to them and to God for leading us to this job.

3.  That the company he works for is successful.  It is doing really well, even in a tough economy.

4.  Our homes.  We were very blessed with our house in Logan and although selling it and waiting and waiting for all that to come to pass seemed to take forever as well, we were actually able to sell it. Not everyone is so lucky! We didn't make a ton of money from it, but we still came out ahead. Even if it's just a little. Right now, we should be very grateful.  Plus, we were so blessed to have my brother as our Realtor.  He helped in ways I can't even begin to describe.

5.  That we could buy our house in Santaquin.  It's a great home and we really do love it. Also I am grateful that we had to wait for it.  It means so much more to us because of our longing for a new home and I honestly feel like we were suppose to wait for it.  And one good thing about the bad housing market is its the only way we could afford this home.  Just a few years ago, it would have been way out of our league.

6. Our neighbors and ward. Already we have made friends and feel very welcome. We are also getting to be involved in church activities already. Tianna is in a preschool with other mom's and preschoolers in the neighborhood which is exactly what we hoped to find.

7.  Our Families.  They should be higher on the list, but it's not in chronological order.  We appreciate all our families do for us! And we love love love our own little family.  We are still hopelessly in love with each other and find complete joy just being together snuggling on the couch at the end of a busy day.  We also find our greatest joy in being parents.  It's hard. REALLY hard. But we wouldn't trade our children or the experiences we share with them for anything in the world.

8.  Health:  and Health Insurance.  Even Tianna's arthritis is doing really well right now.  She did physical therapy in September and it has helped her gain back some lost mobility.  I need to be better about doing her exercises with her each day, but we try.  Her knees haven't given her pain for months so we count that as doing really well.  You can tell the right knee is still not 100% but compared to what it was a year ago, we'll take it!

DEC 2011- when it first began

 Nov 2011

She just looks whiter and skinnier.  The whiteness is the lighting, but the skinniness... well, that is one thing we are still concerned about.  She hasn't gained any weight in a whole year. She just gets taller and taller. And honestly, she has a great appetite (often picky, but she eats well!)  So we don't know why.  But look how much less swollen her knee is! It truly is a miracle worth being grateful for!

9-  Freedom.  Thanks be to God and thanks be to our forefathers and thanks be to our servicemen for this gift.  We have the freedom to complain about our government.  We have the freedom to choose our own careers, how and where we'll live and so many wonderful blessings of living in this Great Nations.  God Bless America!

10- Our religion.  It is the very essence of our lives.  We have knowledge of the true and living God. We know we have a Savior who has lived and died for us. He has paid for our sins, has been resurrected and He still lives and He loves us in only the way a supreme being can.  We have a prophet to lead us. We have been able to make sacred covenants with God through Baptism, we have received the Holy Ghost and we have made promises in the Temple and are sealed together for Eternity. We have the scriptures that are truly words straight from Heavenly Father for us.
Yes, my friends, we are very very blessed and we have so much to be grateful for.

Santa Claus is Coming... to the CABIN!

We had a surprise visitor show up at the cabin Saturday night.  We we were sitting around, singing Christmas songs, when in walked............. MR. and MRS. CLAUS!

It was so fun to watch the kids faces! I knew Tianna would love it, but I thought Adelia would be a bit freaked out.  Not so, my friends.  She grabbed ahold of Santa's hem and followed him through the room.  Then she did a summer salt right on their feet.  It was pure joy and excitement.  Tianna even cried and said, "I'm just so happy!"

Each child received a stocking full of fun things and got to sit on his lap and give them their Christmas wish.
Adelia asked for a piano and a Christmas dress.  I was also surprised she remembered word for word what she had on her letter to Santa.

Tianna asked for Aurora's castle and a Christmas dress.  And for the first time, she wasn't shy at all to talk to Santa.  She's getting to be such a big girl!

One of the best moments of the night was when they gave a screaming Bridger to Santa so they could  snap a shot and Bridger just melted into Santa's hands and stopped crying.  It was PRICELESS!

And this is a picture of my happy place... and my weirdo big brother. Love ya Jason!

 

 SO pretty!

What a great way to end a great weekend.  We sure love our families! 

THANKS FOR THANKSGIVING!

One of the best holidays... I'll admit, if it weren't for Luke I would more tempted to rush into Christmas, but thankfully he reminds me Thanksgiving IS one of the best holidays.  And this year didn't disappoint!
We started off by going to the cabin last Tuesday night.  Luke had Wednesday day off so we headed our early so I could help cook on Wed.
Luke was my dad's buddy all day. They went coyote calling and hung Christmas lights.  The kiddos had fun in the little bit of snow

 

Tianna was there too. Just sadly I didn't get any pics of her.  She was always too busy playing to be found.  

Thursday-TURKEY DAY was fun. and crazy.
What do you expect with the entire family together... which included 13 kids under 12?  So it was loud and it was busy. but that's what Thanksgiving is about!.......... oh, and showing gratitude for all our many many many many many blessings!
We ate ourselves silly and then that night we played a really fun game as a family and laughed our heads off before heading to Castle Dale.

 Ahhh baby Bridger.

 That's a lot of plates!

 The chaos begins :)

Friday was "thanksgiving" with Grandma and Grandpa Lake.  It was VERY fun. So fun, I forgot to take the camera out.  We even got cute turkey's LIKE these as treats (again, i forgot the camera so no actual photos)

 

The fun was dampened by one bit of sad news though: Raleigh (who just turned 2) was admitted to the hospital with a serious sinus and bladder infection.  Luckily he is doing much better now! Unfortunately, he and his parents spent over 24 hours in the hospital and missed the fun family party.

Saturday Luke and his dad went out coyote calling for most of the morning, then went shooting.  Good ol' boy time!
Meanwhile, Grandma "Banana" (Belinda) helped give Adelia her second haircut ever.  First one was almost a year ago to just cut off her long rat tail.  This was the first over all haircut.

 This is her "i'm holding still mom, see!" pose. Convinced? Didn't think so

 Look, it's all fluffy and even!

Then it was back to Scofield because a special visitor was showing up.
First though-- trap shooting.  I always forget how much I enjoy it.  Until my arms feel like jell-o from the manly sized guns.  My sister made fun of me because the gun looked so big for me.  But I still managed to hit myself some clay pigeons.  :)

Now stay tuned for the next post:  It's gonna be AWESOOOOOME! :D