Mormon Tabernacle Christmas Concert

It was fantastic. I can't decide though if my favorite part was listening to the concert or the fact that we parked in Crown Burger's parking lot and had to spend $14 to park our car. So with that being said, we hurried and ordered...3 minutes later we were RUNNING down the sidewalk while eating our hamburgers. Seriously, it was the best! Next, I loved that after the concert we went back to Crown Burger for ice cream and for the men, more hamburger. Murphy's thanks for the fun van ride. That made the drive so much fun.

Oh, I almost forgot the next best part. The Prophet, Thomas S. Monson was there on Friday night. He was the best to watch. He would clap and give a standing ovation nearly after each performance. I was glad to have several standing moments throughout the performance. The concert was phenomenal. A memorable part was when the choir was singing, "Hee haw, Hee haw, Hee haw." It ended up being a really cute song about all the animals in the stable. It was cute!

As my sister said, "They are so posey and cheesy when taking pictures!" We actually did it on purpose...to show her that we are so cheesy!
The cute ladies that joined the party. The men refused to take a picture...we should have taken a picture of them eating all their food at Crown Burger. Thanks Murphy's & Madsen's for the tickets. Tanner's it was so fun to get to know you better. Oh, and THANKS mom & dad for watching the several grand kids for hours and hours.

Sewing Christmas Stockings...

For those of you who remember reading about me learning a new hobby...sewing. I completed sewing all of the Halloween costumes and some how I hadn't had enough of sewing. Strange, I know. I really had a difficult time trying to get into sewing, but I learned a very profound lesson. Amazing that it really has taken me 26 years to learn it. It goes something like this..."If at first you don't succeed, TRY TRY AGAIN." I can't tell you how many days & nights I was cursing the idea of sewing. With TONS of help and laughter from all my helpers...mainly because I didn't know what I was doing! I was able to finish the 6 costumes. So as I said, I had began to enjoy sewing despite my definite lack of experience I wanted a new project.

With the holidays upcoming I thought of something that would be very simple and memorable. So I decided to pick what I loved most as a child. My Christmas stocking. So with that in mind I headed to 4 different fabric stores trying to make up my mind on what exactly to sew for my kids. I went out first seeking, matching decorative fabric. By the third store I was not "feeling" the love if you will for fancy stockings. I realized by the 4th store that I wanted to do something FUN that Alayna and Jake would actually be excited about if I sewed it or them. So with that being said, I picked the "cheesy Christmas fabric!" Yes, I gave in and picked a Christmas print!! So unlike me I know. But I can't tell you how pleased I am with how they turned out. They are adorable.

I learned how to cut out the pattern, put a lining, batting and then she taught me how to quilt it. I had 3 different fabric options. With my lack of experience I bought enough fabric to make 12 stockings! Anyone interested? I decided to make 6 stockings, so all my kids...If I live long enough or choose to have 6 kids will have to have the same kind!

Here is the finished project! Jake LOVES his chubby (extra-batting = very squishy like a pillow!) penguin stocking.
Alayna has a darling reindeer pattern. So CUTE! I am so very pleased with how they turned out. A HUGE thanks goes to my wonderful mom who endured two very loud and hectic afternoons at our house with wild children running around and us trying to finish a project. Somehow we did. So thank you! My kids LOVE their new stockings. Plus I learned more about sewing...what should my next project be??

A night out on the town...

Saturday night was my works Christmas Party. We were able to go eat some yummy food at the Roof on Temple Square. The food was fabulous and I must admit I ate a ton! My absolute favorite item was the Chocolate Custard served like a Creme Brulee (however you spell it?). It was heavenly!! Thanks to the great company of Mountainland Exteriors we were able to celebrate yummy food and a date out!

Riley and Krista were also present. Really it's because of Riley that I am so blessed to have this mini-job. So thanks to the Pecks who are so generous. It's Riley's dad who owns the company, so it was fun they let us join their family business. THANKS.

Jared and I smiling because we are about to eat some yummy food! Krista and Riley got there first, so they were able to have great "view" seats! It was beautiful because we were just in time to have all the Christmas lights turn on.

Just outside on Temple Square and enjoying all the Christmas lights. We really lucked out because it wasn't cold at all. So that was lovely. Thanks again for a really fun night!

It's all about Service!

I don't know about you, but I enjoy the holiday season because it's filled with thinking of others and filling our time with serving others. This year I feel that Alayna is old enough (3 1/2) to comprehend that she has been given much and that she too must share. After having a FHE on serving others, we went to work! She and I came up with a chart that she can check off when she has done a job of any kind to earn money for our service family. My parents are serving a mission in the Inner City Mission in Salt Lake City. They have been given the opportunity to "adopt" families in need. So we are blessed to be able to help these sweet people from other countries, who truly are just thankful to be alive.

So Monday, Alayna was rearing and ready to go! She was a GREAT helper. She folded towels, emptied the dishwasher, put shoes away, cleaned her room, etc. After she had earned 6 service dollars she was sitting and looking at them in her special Christmas jar. She said, "Mom, I think I want to keep the money to buy treats for myself, from the store." I said, "Well, you have earned this money, I'm going to leave it up to you." No, more than 3 seconds she said, "Mom, I changed my mind...I want to buy clothes and socks for our service family." I am just so thankful that she is experiencing the sweet joy that comes when we serve and love others. I was greatly blessed to have been taught this priceless lesson when I was just a young child from my parents. Next...Jared and I "volunteered" to watch 4 extra kids today. Todd and Shan lucked out getting 12 tickets to see the Christmas Devotional downtown. How lucky are they? Well, we were lucky too...it was just another teaching moment to tell Alayna that sometimes we have to do things even if it's not our first choice. But Jared and I had the BEST time watching these darling boys interact and have a great time! Olivia and Alayna just played house the whole time...they just love having an excuse to play together.

Over the past few months and weeks we have been focusing on praying for people in need. Our Grandma Suker has been recovering from some complications from a previous surgery. She is recovering in a rehab hospital in Utah County. Since we haven't been able to get there in person more than once, we are excited to send her some darling pictures. I had to take a picture of Alayna's adorable Christmas tree picture. On the back I had her write a letter through me. One of the sweet things she said was, "We have been praying to Jesus so that he will bless you." I just loved that she is expressing her faith and gratitude for a Heavenly Father who does bless us and look over all our needs.

This picture is simply to show off Jake's "Shiner!" He was in nursery last week and he took a tumble after he was going for a ball. Each day it has been progressively gotten worse. But Jake has learned that he is "tough!" It has changed colors and is now fading. But this tough kid even returned to nursery! Way to go Jake.

The 8th Annual Lighting Ceremony...

Yes, you heard me right. Todd has been known as "Clark Griswald" for 8 plus years. Each year he has been adding more and more lights to his house display. This year took the cake! Drum roll...he has over 30, 150 lights...47 extension cords...31 candy canes lining the driveway...Maple tree's have 3,150 lights...and over 28 decorated pine trees!!!! Yeah, that's right it is AMAZING. It takes him from Halloween until the day before Thanksgiving to finish hanging all the lights.

Here is Mr. Christmas himself with to extra excited girls. Really they had stayed up VERY late. We let them watch Christmas movies and eat treats all night long. These cute cousins couldn't have thanked Toddy for such a Fun filled night.

My mom, my sister Krista, and Mrs. Christmas her self, (baby Isaac).

I know this is silly, but I had to take a picture of the HUGE display of food. Really this is just to preserve a memory for me because we had so much food. It doesn't look appetizing at all because it was at the end of the night. But we made TONS of appetizers. This is our families favorite type of celebration. Any excuse to get us to cook some great food. We had two tables filled with several different appetizers. We needed this much food because we had over 60 people! Yeah, between our two families, extended families and a few great neighbors we cleared lots of food.

I have tried to upload a video I took of when he lights turned on. I'll keep working on it though because its amazing! Stay tuned...

Getting ready for Christmas...

It was Jared's day off on Wednesday (the one before Thanksgiving) and we decided it was time to start decorating for Christmas. Really we felt pressure to keep up with the "Madsen's" if you will. For those of you you haven't experienced Todd & Shan's Christmas Wonderland upstairs you really need to stop by and visit. They have trees in every room, and a huge 12 ft or so Christmas Tree. It really is spectacular! So with that being said we needed to get started. Alayna was starting to ask if we even celebrate the Christmas holidays. So that's when I left to play basketball and I put Jared and Alayna up to decorating for Christmas.

She was in heaven spending one on one time with dad and I came back to a decorated house. Thanks fam.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Thanksgiving #1...with the Aitken Family.

(My mom's side of the family)

Here we are getting ready to play Human Foosball...It was really FUN! We were trying to work off all of our turkey and mash potatoes!

Alayna is saying, "Happy Thanksgiving!"

Thanksgiving #2 - hanging with the Sukers

(Jared's side of the family)

Jacob has discovered is new favorite treat...OLIVES! I was shocked when he ate one, then he asked for, "More" he continued to eat the entire bowl! He gets this from me NOT Jared or Alayna.

Randy, very tired Jacob, Heather, Gr Denny, Gr Ludd, Jason, Mike and Jared.
Grandpa Suker and Alayna enjoying some football.

I think Alayna is holding her heart saying, "I love my Aunt Ashley and Uncle Brian!" These two are the BEST when it comes to allowing Alayna to "boss" them around. She has so much fun playing with them. Thanks for entertaining her she absolutely LOVES spending such great quality time with you!

Here is a perfect moment to show you how great these two are...Alayna and Ashley are hiding from Brian in the famous game of hide and go seek. They picked to hid behind the couch. Alayna was giggling so much she was trying to cover her mouth so Brian wouldn't find them. I couldn't resist capturing this precious moment! So cute.

Thanksgiving #3...Hanging with the Perry clan!

(My dad's side of the family)

Finally, best for last, right? No, all our Thanksgivings were great! This one was fun because it happened after a long morning of shopping on Friday...so we had worked up an appetite.

Here's my mom spending time on the grand kid table.

Kari (cousin), Ange (sister), Josh (cousin) - I wish I ended up with the cute pictures of there kids. Josh & Kari have twin boys about 8 weeks old and Ange has twin boys 2 years old. How did our family end up with two sets of twin identical boys? Either way all four boys are adorable!

Bring on the games!!! First my mom had us play a word game. Each person had two letters around there neck. We had to jump up and turn around to form the words. It was surprisingly competitive...Way to go girls - we WON!!

Here's Doctor Jared himself...while he was making the rest of us sick touching my uncles foot, he was making an assessment! I think they both are enjoying it a little too much.

I didn't end up with pictures from two other games we played. We played a salt shaker game. Where you hold hands under the table, and squeeze down the row of people. Then the two teams try to grab the salt shaker. It was an absolute riot! I will give more instructions if your interested. Then we played life-size "Rock, Paper, Scissors!" This was an absolute FUN activity. We'd huddle make a choice, then line up on the line and on the count of three we would do our action of "Rock, Paper, Scissors!" Then if you win the bet you chase after the other group to have them join your side! Then we ended the night with Speed. It was a fun think as usual!

Finally all the turkey and mashpotatoes are over!!! YEAH. So far Jared and I have tried to eat very light...we are trying to recover from all that heavy food. Yummy, but too much! Thanks for all the fun fam!

Preping for Thanksgiving...

Here's my cute little Jakey helping me make the famous yams for Thanksgiving. He has loved this new freedom of standing up on a chair and being able to see everything that is happening at the counter.

Funny thing Alayna just said...

Alayna was having hot chocolate with her cousins and she ran downstairs..."Mom, do we have any candy canes?" I said, "No, we haven't bought any yet!" She then sat down next to our old broken printer (it's waiting to go to the DI) and she lifted up the paper holder in the back and pretended to start typing and looking at the screen. Then she said, "Well, I'm just going to get on my computer and check to see if there is any online!" I laughed and laughed...then she said, "Yeah, I found some on sale!" Seriously, how funny is that...I do very little online shopping, let alone in front of her, so I have no idea how she pieced it all together. Funny huh?

Really, I don't need to say anything!

For all my family and friends who wore the other color on Saturday I won't say anything! But this is the color our family was wearing! We had a great time watching a great football game. We LOVE college football. Go UTAH!

So following the game I joined my sister and some friends to view the "Oh, so long awaited movie...Twilight!" (I hope your sensing my sarcasm!!!) I won't begin to unleash my opinions and feelings about #1 the books and #2 this attempt on making a movie. But I will share the #1 thing that literally ruined the movie.

Yes, that's right...Edward's car! This is the car I pictured...this is the car that Stephenie Meyer had listed on her website as Edwards car! How could they create the movie using a hatchback Volvo???? Since when were hatchbacks cool? The moment the car scene of him slipping and sliding to save Bella in Port Angeles happened...I was ticked! It really made me so frustrated that they missed this major detail. A hatchback? Seriously...So with me venting my annoyance with this one missed detail I will stop, so those of you that haven't watched it will not notice all the other mistakes they missed.

As we were walking out of the movie theater the cute old lady asked, "So girls was it worth it? My response was..."Well, the tickets were free!" So that sums up how I felt.

Here's to prove that I was a reader...of books 1, 2 and 3...with 100 pages left of book 3 I stopped. I couldn't take it anymore! So yes, I must admit that I have not and will not read book 4. Sorry. I tried.

Yes, here is my sister standing in front of the actual real La Push beach on the Quileute Reservation. This was the best part of the movie, seeing the amazing views once again from the beach. It is spectacular! On my families girls trip last May 2008 we went to Seattle and my sister who is a Edward-Twilight-Stephenie Meyer- groupie if you will insisted we visit all the sites...Forks, Port Angeles, La Push, etc. It was a fun thing to say during the movie, "I've actually been there!"

I can't wait to hear what you all think about this post!!! :)

His favorite past time...

Just another picture to document some of Jake's favorite things to do in the kitchen. He LOVES my salad spinner. Whenever I pull it out of the cupboard he runs to want to do it. He waves his hand up and down saying, "Me! Me!"

Just wanting to show how Jared wants me to grow his hair back out again. It really is SO wild...but it matches his wild personality!!! (ha ha ha)

I don't understand...

Jake is saying, "Cheese" - What a cute kid!

Is my child the ONLY one that insists on drinking his sippy cup while holding his yogurt container? or bowl? Jake insists on finishing or not finishing his food and then placing his sippy cup inside it and drinking it that way! He's done this for months and months and I figured I might as well snap a photo because this really is his trademark for drinking milk!