New flooring

My hubby has been hard at work for a couple of weeks. Between normal work and church responsibilities, starting school online, and all the recent projects around the house, he hasn't gotten much sleep lately. I think it's paid off ;) (easy for me to say).

New tile and grout for the master bath!

We ripped up carpet in a room downstairs to lay a wood laminate floor for a little salon. The boys wrote notes to leave under the floor in case someone ever wants to rip it up, I guess. They are pretty entertaining...

Putting up the final touches

And, lastly we got new carpet...up the stairs and all the bedrooms! Of course, we didn't do that ourselves. But, it is still a huge project getting everything off the floor and level. We crammed the two bathrooms full with dressers and nightstands, and brought the rest downstairs. Lucky for me, I have an amazing family. My mom and sisters came and helped get things down the stairs and painted a wall in my room! Then, more family came the next day to help get things back in place and beds back together, etc. It was so great to get things done so quickly! I don't have before pictures of the carpet. But, it was 12 year old cream berber. Here is some of the mess and the after of carpet and paint color...

Fun with four mattresses in one room! They all slept together that night.

Phew! I am beat, but happy!

Christmas 2012

This year Santa was good to all! Unfortunately, I was so sick I stayed on the couch all day long (literally). B took the kids to my sisters while Spence and I stayed home and slept. But, at least we got through all our parties before we crashed. Clay actually started it the first day of Christmas break. Then, on to me (strep throat), Spence, Koby and Camryn. B somehow stayed away from it all (so far). We are not a sick family, so it is always weird to be down for a a few days. But, once every couple of years isn't bad, I guess.

 I somehow managed to get set up for it all. Here is the family room the most exciting it will be all year long!

 Opening stockings...the only time I was upright all day.

 I loved that Cara and Andrew stayed the night with us so they could have a more exciting Christmas morning with children. It was fun to have them. And great to have Cara help with breakfast, etc. while I couldn't.

 In the midst of unwrapping.

 The surprise presents at the end of the morning...bikes and a dollhouse. I can't find a picture of Camryn and her dollhouse that B made. It is so cute and she loved it!

New skateboards (from JuJu and PaPa), jackets and pants.

I wish I had more pics of the day, but I am grateful that B got a few shots for me:)

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Christmas Variety Show

I have the best family EVER! We had such a great Christmas season with them (again!) A couple days before Christmas, we held our Variety Show (sadly, we were missing Tim and Shelbie and their family). Everyone came to my house and we had a yummy, traditional Christmas ham dinner. Then, we cleared the way for the show! Grandma JuJu, Jonny and Heather opened with "All I want for Christmas is you!" It was awesome...I could not stop laughing. Heather fits right in with us and was darling! And, my mom is the BEST! I heard that song on the radio the next day and was laughing out loud all by myself. We are changing the way we listen to Christmas songs one by one around here:)

 Next up, Todd, Lexi and Gavin bring a little spirituality for us...someone has to do it:) Gavin was darling singing "Little Drummer Boy" and T & L sang a beautiful duet.

 The Jonas family had a fun game of charades with lines from Christmas songs. Super cute!

 Cara and Andrew changed the way we listen to "Baby, It's Cold Outside" forever! Loved it!

 And, my children closed the show with "Grandma got run over by a reindeer!" Clay played my mom, Camryn played the reindeer (and had her part down...she charged Clay every time she heard her line), Spence was my dad and Koby was Santa!

Wish I could post every video, but these few pics will have to do. We all love this tradition and had a loud, fun night together!

More Christmas happenings

We have been lucky enough for four years now to go to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas concert. Brandon and I go with my sister Kim and her husband John and have the best time! This year was AMAZING! I was emotional all night and went away thinking this could have been my favorite one so far. We always have GREAT seats, too! All I got was one lousy pic:(

This little girl loved the nativities this year. She is not into babies much, but WAY into animals. It was cute to see her scoot a barstool over to my collection of nativities and line up and play with the little figures. How could I get mad that I had to glue one or two back together? Look at her...

 Sunday before Christmas was seriously SO GREAT in our ward! Every single song was performed perfectly (solos, duets, choir, violin duets, harp duets, flute solo, and on and on). I hate to narrow it down, but a week later the songs that stick out to me the most are Carol of the Bells performed by our ward choir, Oh Holy Night solo sung by a young man in our ward and accompanied by his brother pounding it out and mouthing the words:), Father/Son violin duet (Sadly, I can't remember the song), and of course the grand finale of the Hallelujah Chorus sung by the ward choir and anyone who wanted to join them on stage (not me..I like to enjoy from the audience). My kids kept asking if I was crying and why. Serious talent in our ward!

Here is our family after church...

Scrooge 2012

Most people that know me know how much I love Christmas and all the traditions that come along with it. "Scrooge" is one of our family's oldest traditions. Sometime in my mother's childhood her parents starting going to "A Christmas Carol" at the Hale Center Theater in Glendale, California. My grandparents still continue to treat their children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren to the play every year! How convenient that there is a Hale Theater in Utah, where the non-Californians live. (Side note: When I lived in Colorado for so many years I was forced to find the play there twice. They were disappointing and weird.) Of course, in our family, Scrooge (or any major event) would not be complete without See's candies during intermission.

I love that my kids look forward to Scrooge every year. They literally countdown the days. We always have the front two rows, so the kids get to sit as close as possible. They love touching the coats and costumes of the actors as the walk by. They love the dry ice coming out at their feet. They love the fight scene and the singing. They love Jacob Marley and the other spirits. This year I watched Clay's face almost as much as I watched the actual play. I am so glad my family loves it as much as I do!

With my cousin Amber and sister Kim (boy do we have great memories of watching Scrooge together growing up...along with several other girl cousins)

My cute fam minus Camryn, who is still too young to go:( 

Cousins

This year my baby bro, Jonny brought his girlfriend, Heather along. At the end of the play when everyone was cleared out and we were still lingering taking pictures (like usual), he proposed! It was so fun and sweet! We couldn't be more thrilled to have Heather join our family!

My christmas "present"

Long story short....I started feeling weird on christmas eve, laid down literally ALL day on christmas with fever, chills, aches and pains and missed all the fun. Spencer was up most of christmas eve night with me (having an asthma attack). He is finally recovering :) I've been on and off (mostly off) the last couple days...sleeping and laying around a lot, and going to bed at 8 with drugs. I'm starting an antibiotic tonight in hopes to get better. So, hopefully I'll be back soon with pictures and stories of my perfect christmas season! Really, it was amazing!
Here is Camryn and I quarantined together (she has a fever and hopefully won't get as sick as I've been). I managed to sneak some ice cream up for us :)

Scouts on Skates

I got to go with all our Cub Scouts (including two of my own boys) ice skating. It was a lot of fun! The two "coaches" at the arena were so great with all the boys. After everyone got the right size skates they were each given a duffle bag full of hockey gear! What more could a bunch of 8, 9 and 10 year old boys want? It took quite a while for everyone to get suited up (and by the end it smelled like a locker room in there!)

Then it was time to hit the ice....literally:) Some clung to the walls or used a cone for support as they slid around. Others went right for it at full speed. I think everyone took at least one fall (except the leaders because we rock!) The coaches spent a good 20 minutes or so giving tips and instruction on skating and playing hockey. Then, they set up nets and played a game (sideways on the rink so it wasn't too big of a playing area and so others could still skate if they didn't want to be a part of the game.) All were nice and sweaty by the end and ready for pizza and soda. We got off the rink just as a real team was getting on for practice...Holy Cow! If I thought our little locker room stunk, I was WRONG! P U!

My boys...

 Ally helping out some struggling scouts...

 Just resting?

Ally with her scout...

The game...

 A few ended up in the penalty box...

 And, the aftermath of hockey... 

Anyway, it was a great time. Unfortunately I didn't get too many pictures or even a group shot.

I really am enjoying my calling. It helps when you have amazing and fun leaders to work with!