Holiday Review

We had such a wonderful Christmas this year, well, we always have a wonderful Christmas!! How could we not with all of our families around and good friends to spend time with. We started off with the Davis party last Saturday, complete with a wonderful meal, a live nativity presentation(I wasn't able to get a picture because I was delighted to play the role of Mary, check Paulene's blog to see a picture), and great presents for everyone. It is always fun to see the anticipation on the kids faces as a beautifully wrapped present is placed in front of them!


Christmas eve we had my parents over to go and look at the lights at Thanksgiving point and then came home for hot chocolate. The girls loved talking their ears off the entire ride over in the car while the snow was coming down around us and listening to the Osmond Christmas album. It really was a fun evening and am so glad they were able to come with us.

Then the girls went to bed and Santa arrived with all his gifts. Before leaving he taped off the stairs so that the girls couldn't come down to see the gifts without us!! When the girls finally got us out of bed they were totally thrilled to see that Santa DID know that Abby wanted the pet shop house and accessories and Liv wanted the Pony Tea Pot house! Eva was happy with her new Care Bear, and baby doll, although she immediately put the binkie in her mouth, how could she remember that is what you do with it!!!!

Following all that fun we went over to my parents for the Griffiths Christmas party. It was so fun to have the entire family together this year including Hillary and Rand who made it into town from Missouri after a 17 hour drive. Trace also had Amber with him, they became officially engaged over the weekend so congratulations to them again!!! We had a great Turkey dinner, played the family trivia game, which Paul won again, yes that is 4 out of the last 7 years people!!! Then we commenced with the traditional Nativity play and the family present opening chaos!!


I have to say that I am very pleased to announce that with the Wilson's help this year I was able to get Paul a gift that he was very pleased with, the new Skil Lithium-ion hand drill. He used it three times that morning including hanging up my present, a new chandelier for the kitchen - which I just love!! Thanks again Paul!!


All in all it was a great holiday and we will continue it on Monday starting out with Abby's much anticipated Princess tea party for her 5th birthday. It should be the most exciting social event of the year!!!

Have a great weekend everyone!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

It has finally arrived and our house is full of excitement for the fun things to come. Yesterday after the Griffiths family pictures(of which I think turned out so wonderful, I can't wait to get the proofs!) Abby was finally able to make her greatly desired gingerbread house, with the help of her Grandpa.
Thank you Grandpa for all your architectural skills!!!


Everyone have a great holiday, and after all the festivities of the day I will post pics of both the Davis(thank you Paulene and David for a wonderful evening of theater, food, and perfect gifts!) and Griffiths parties, as well as the Christmas morning reactions!!!

May the spirit of Christmas be in all of your houses, we love you all!!

It's official

Today I bought my membership to the American Fork Rec center! Thank you Paul for a very wonderful Christmas present! I am very excited to get back in the water twice a week to swim away my stress!! Shamae is also going to start meeting me on Saturday mornings for a spinning class and I am very happy about that. So the triathlon training will begin this Saturday and hopefully it will help me shed this last 10lbs that I can't seem to get off my body. When I lost all my weight after having Liv it was when I was training before, and doing the secret recipe of running, swimming and cycling over six days of the week. You all know that I was a little sad to only enjoy being back at my high school specs for only about a month before I found out I was prego and quickly started expanding! I am optimistic to reach my goal and accomplish my greatest dream of completing a Tri with Shamae, and whoever else wants to join us, by the time Summer hits!

Sorry to those of you who care, but I have been busy this week getting things ready for Christmas and haven't been able to scrap, after the holiday I will get back on track with that, so don't you worry.

This weekend should be a lot of fun with the Davis party on Saturday, Griffiths family pictures and dinner on Sunday, and then the Griffiths party on Christmas day. Can you believe that it is only 4 days till Christmas!!! I am so excited I could pee my pants!!

Love to all!!

Early Birthday

Because Abby's birthday falls during the holiday brake, her day to celebrate with her school class was today. Last week she and I were curled up on the couch watching Semi-Homemade with Sandra Lee (oh, I do love how Abby likes to watch my cooking shows with me!!) and it just so happened to be full of Christmas cakes and treats to make. So it was quickly decided that we were going to make the Reindeer cupcakes to take as her treat for the birthday fun. However, as the two of us hit the store on Saturday we quickly found that it was pretty much wiped clean of all the holiday candy needed to decorate, no bags of chocolate covered pretzels, gumdrops, licorice ropes etc. So being the creative woman I am, and buying a gift box of overly priced pretzels we came up with some pretty cute cakes that Abby was so excited to take with her to school.


She also brought home the gift she had been making to give me for Christmas, but couldn't stand it and made me open it right then. Isn't it the cutest little candle jar that they glued tissue paper on to make it look like stained glass. Teacher's these days are so creative.


Last but not least I wanted to share my layout that I totally scrap lifted from Digital Scrapbooking magazine - told you I was going to do this one Audrey!! After the last snowfall I took this picture just so that I could make this page with the beautiful kit that Paulene so wonderfully shared. This is when I begin to wonder if I scrapbook to live or live to scrapbook!


Have a good one everybody!!

Is it bad....

......that it is noon and I am still in my pajamas, sitting at my computer scrapbooking while the girls run crazy? I didn't think so!!!

Enjoy -

Out for the count

Sorry I have been MIA for the last week. Sickness has befallen me and my house. I need to put a Quarantine sign on the front door! Paul has been suffering from a head cold, Abby had one as well, and then last Thursday pressure started to form behind my eyes and then I had a tickle in my throat and I new what was coming - my dreaded illness that I catch if it is within a 10 mile radius- Strep! Friday afternoon my wonderful brother-in-law Steve so kindly took me into his home office, ran the test which quickly sealed my fate for the upcoming weekend. I sat at the AF wal-mart for no lest then one hour and twenty minutes to get my prescription filled (worth it
though because the drugs were only $4 on the new plan there!) with three kids and not feeling well. My down fall was swift and devastating to the whole family. By the time Paul came home from work I was on the couch under three blankets with a high fever giving me an intense case of the chills. Now as bad as this all seems, and how much I hate being sick, I was mostly upset because our only Party and get together with friends this month was that night and I was unable to go, oh well, Paul went, and took Abby, and they had a great time while I was home sweating out my fever in bed tossing and turning amid sicky dreams comprised of unnerving hallucinations!!!! Thank goodness by Sunday night I was feeling much better. It did make me think how lucky I am to live in a time that we have antibiotics available, what in the world did people to without them!!! And thank you to Paul, who reminded me to take my medication (I am one who just doesn't think to take some Advil to bring down the 103 temp, I am crazy!) and did the cooking and cleaning and child care all weekend.
With that all said I now have to jump into overdrive this week to catch up on everything that had to slide while I was out for the count. I would share all the Christmas projects that I have been working on but all the people that I have this year read the blog so alas, you will just all have to wait for the family parties to see what I am soooo excited about!!! (well some of you have already had a sneak peak!) And just to leave you with another glimpse of my life here is a picture of "Ariel" that helped to take care of me all weekend by getting up every day from Friday through Sunday, put on this crazy wig and hike her fin up so that we could see her cheeks and strut around giving me this sweet grin.


Now that did make my burdens a little lighter!

Finally here is Eva experiencing her first snow fall. Paul went out for the 10th time to clear off the dish and left the door open. She crawled out and was just laughing and grinning away as it gently fell on her head and nose.

She was so upset when I brought her back inside!
Love to all

25 Christmas things

25. How many more days til' Christmas?
19...the excitement is really starting to set in!!!

24. What color is your Christmas tree?
Green, all ornaments are wood or rusted metal, I just love it.

23. Bought any gifts for anyone yet?
I am almost done, except for a couple of cousin gifts.

22. Are there any Gifts under the tree?
One for Abby from Liv, one for Liv from Abby, one for Paul from me.

21. Will it snow this Christmas?
I do hope so, as much as I hate it Christmas HAS to be white...

20. How many family members live in your house?
Four good girls and One very patient boy!

19. Is Santa coming?
yep...although it is threatened otherwise on a daily basis to Liv!

18. Have you been naughty or nice?
I am always nice :)

17. Favorite place to get presents from?
I don't care, It really is the thought that counts to me.

16. How many places do you go to celebrate the holiday?
Christmas Eve with the Davis' and Christmas day with the Griffiths. I love having both families close, especially during Christmas.

15. Ever 'peeked' inside a present?
When I was a child we would ransack the house when Mom was gone, we found quite a few, but I learned that the surprise is really much better.

14. Ever tried egg nog?
The Mormon version, and I love it! Paul thinks I am crazy!!

15. How cold is it now?
I'm not sure but it feels like 32 degrees

14. Decorated your house yet?
Yes, and thanks to Audrey we have two trees this year, one in front of the bay window and one down stairs by the TV.

13. Do you still leave the cookies and milk, just for the fun of it?
yes, Santa truly does leave better presents!!

12. How many presents would you say you got last year?
I think it was seven, I am so spoiled to have such a large family.

13. Name 3 things you asked for this Christmas:
I am only asking for one thing, a membership to the Rec center so that my Triathlon training can officially begin by starting up the swimming. Thankfully Paul has said OK!!

12. Ever watched The Christmas Story?
Yes, it is the best part of Christmas.

11. Have you ever been sledding?
Not since college when a friend and I went down Old Main Hill at 2:00am, it was very fun!

10. Do you get more money, or clothes for Christmas?
Money

9. Ever had a snow ball fight?
Yes, but not since I was a child, Paul better watch out when he gets home!!!!

8. How many stockings will hang from the fire place?
We don't have a fireplace, but we have 5 Davis tradition felt stockings hanging from hooks on the front room shelf.

7. Does your dog/cat get a stocking?
Thank goodness we don't have one!!!!

6. How many people would you say you buy for a year?
I am counting 12, I sure hope that is right!

5. What kind of food do you celebrate with?
Oh, where to start! On Christmas day my mother makes a whole turkey dinner with all the trimmings, she also makes fudge, caramels, chocolate drops, divinity, orange drops. But it still wouldn't be Christmas with out Orange sticks or a Chocolate orange to whack!!

4. Did it snow on Christmas Day last year?
I honestly can't remember, does anyone know?

3. Do you have one or more trees that are decorated for a specific theme?
Just the one described earlier. But my mother-in-law Paulene, has several, Santa's only, silver and white snowflakes and crystals, red and gold stars, the list goes on and I love each and every one of them!!!

2. Do you go to Church on Christmas Day?
Only when it falls on a Sunday.

1. Merry Christmas!

If you have a fun answer to any of these, leave them in the comments!!!!!

Oh, it taste really very good!

This is what Abby told me when I looked outside to find her doing this as the snow was coming down this morning.


They don't get their love of snow from me! Catching the snowflakes on the tongue was quickly followed by this beloved childhood pass time:


As I promised Paulene this evening, as we were sitting around flipping through scrapbook mags. and discussing important details of the sport, here are the layouts that I have been working on for the last two days (leading to much neglect of my home, oh well, sacrifices must be made for things of the up most importance, as scrapping would be!!)

This first one is a complete and total lift from a layout entry into last weeks Digidare. I just fell in love with it and immediately had to try my hand. Here is the result, I did this all by scratch except the tree was a template that I just popped the green paper into and layed on the layout and then decorated to my hearts content with many of my favorite things! I just love it!!


Here is #1 of soon to be 3 layouts for our Thanksgiving adventures (I know that you are all so not tired of seeing these pictures!) I think that it turned out just lovely using a cute two page template, Abby's must have fun little Turkey, and some of Audrey's oh so generous to share bobbles and trinkets (thanks, they are great!)


Hope everyone has a fantastic rest of the weekend, my goal is to get back on track with the dieting and much needed exercise and plain 'ol life routine next week. Somehow my mind and body still thought we were on vacation this week, silly self of mine!!!! I will be better by Monday!