Ready for Christmas!

Here are some shots I took of the kids before church on Sunday. Lil' darlings all dressed up for Christmas! I tried to find dresses that would work for Easter too but I couldn't find any I liked that would work for both holidays. I found these Christmas dresses and the girlies loved them. I'll just have to worry about Easter when it comes a long.


Ella Rose
Admiring her dress:
Tabby
Rex got a new tie. I don't tell him how to pose. He comes up with this stuff all on his own.
Love this next one. I think he kinda looks like a Norman Rockwell boy:
Rex helped me take some pics of Gunner in his Sunday finery:
Merry Christmas!

The Best Christmas Story

Wanna hear a good story? Well, I've got one. I believe there are still more good people than bad in this world and this story helps prove it.

So Tabby has been wanting Zhu Zhu Pets since her birthday which was June of this year. I couldn't find them in the stores and back then I had no idea about the crazy freak out that was starting to happen over these toys. Tabby kept asking for them the rest of the year and I kept checking all the stores when I went shopping. Not a Zhu Zhu in sight. Well the crazy freak out hype fest has only increased as Christmas time has gotten closer. And of course, that's what Tabby put first on her list. I heard the line for these pets wrapped around Toys R Us twice on Black Friday. Don't worry, I wasn't in it. I didn't take my searching that far. I don't care how bad my kids want something, I'm not about to go duke it up in the toy aisle with the other crazed parents.

Anywho, around Halloween I told my grandma who lives in Montana about how Tabby wanted these little critters and how we couldn't find them anywhere. I asked her if she wouldn't mind looking at the Target near them (that's the only toy store they have) because maybe there was less demand for them up there in their tiny town. They went to look and of course, no dice. They asked an employee when the next shipment was coming. They were told there was going to be one last shipment of them before Christmas but they didn't know when it would be. Well get this, I happen to have the best grandparents on earth and do you know what my best grandparents did? They began checking Target for those darn things EVERY MORNING! Bless them. Almost every employee at this Target knows my grandparents now. They all knew that they were checking for the Zhu Zhu's and expected them to come in each morning.

Fast forward to last Saturday. My grandparents decided not to go check that morning because it was -15 degrees. Holy crud. They figured no shipments would be coming in on a Saturday anyway. They stayed home on Monday and Tuesday for the same reason. They did end up going Wednesday morning when the Arctic Chill had eased a bit and as they were in the store and rounding the corner to the Zhu Zhu shelf, an employee runs up to them and asks "Did you get them?" My grandpa says "Get what, the Zhu Zhu's?" She says "They got here on Saturday! We all waited and watched for you!" My grandma said sadly, "No we didn't come in on Saturday!" So then the employee says "It's okay, my friend and I got some for you!" My grandparents were shocked! So the girl proceeds to tell them that she has them at her mom's house and gave them the address and told them that her mom was expecting them. On the way, my grandparents figured "Well okay, they got them for us but they will probably double the price." Which they decided was okay, they didn't mind paying a bit more.

So when they get there, out comes this big red bag with three Zhu Zhu's in it. My grandpa gets his check book out and writes a check for $50.00. He figured the girl was young and was in college and could use a little extra. My grandpa hands over the check and the mom refuses it! She says, "We don't want any money, these are a Christmas gift for you!" Shock and awe people! Do you know how much these things are going for on Ebay? A few weeks ago I saw that someone was selling a large set of them for $5,000. Yes, five grand. And here were these kind people giving these as a gift, not selling them out of greed. Giving them to people they didn't even know, mind you. And I mentioned that the employee at Target had a friend. This friend of hers has a mom who is dying of cancer and he is so torn up about it that he is trying to do good deeds to make himself feel better about his mom. He's the one who went and got them that Saturday. Amazing.

I am blown away at the generosity of these people who live far away and did something so kind for a little girl they have never met. I feel like I need to pay it forward big time and I am truly humbled. What a special Christmas we will have!

Card Club Gift Tags

I love our December card club meeting. Instead of cards, we exchange gift tags for the holidays. And even better, we also exchange desserts. Yum. So not only did I come home with 12 very beautiful and different tags to use, I also came home with 12 kinds of treats. All were heaven.


Here's all the tags I got:
Here's the one I made:
My treat contribution were truffles. You can find the recipe here. So easy and so good.
Some close-ups of other tags. I wish I could remember who made what so I could give credit.

5 Months

Gunner boy is 5 months old now and still going strong on his giant-ness. He is a joyful baby and anyone who looks at him gets a smile. One thing about Gunner is that he loves his binky. I've never had a kid who liked one up until now. He even lays his arm across it when I put it in his mouth to make sure it stays in. I also started him on baby food. Hates the peas, loves the sweet potatoes. Dale and I just got him to say "Da da" last night. Said it clear as a bell. We've gotten him to say "hi" a few times too. Most of the time he just likes to talk at you with his nonsensical baby words. We just pretend like we understand him so we don't hurt his feelings.

Here are some pics of the big boy:


Gunner and Rex. These boys adore each other. The first thing Rex does every morning is check and see if his baby brother is awake. Gunner always greets him with smiles and giggles.
Gunner really has been working on his bouncy skills. Check out his sweet footwork.

Christmas Decorations

Got all my Christmas decorations up. For sure not as spectacular as Halloween. I would love to go crazy with the decor but any extra money we have this time of year goes to presents. Besides a few new additions, I made do with what I have and I think it looks alright.

Those are chipboard letters from Hobby Lobby covered with red paint and glitter.

A jar filled with spare ornaments.

Did you know that I could also spell "Be Evil" with these letters? I like "Believe" better though.

These stockings are my favorite decoration. Everyone in the family has one. And not just my immediate family. They were made by Dale's grandma who has made one for everyone who is born or marries into her family. That includes grandkids and great grandkids. I counted it up and she has made 129 of these over the years! Every stocking has their own needlepoint design that she did by hand. Amazing!

Front door wreath. The letters came from JoAnn's last year. Strung them onto a ribbon and glued the ribbon to the back of the wreath. Added a bow and garland that I had already.

My fluffy boa tree.
This is what it used to look like:
I've had this tree for years and was growing tired of it so I decided to spruce it up a bit using white marabou from Michael's. I just wrapped it around the branches and the trunk while hot-gluing the ends of the boa down. I like it tons better now. I'm laughing that SYTYCD is on the the background, my favorite show!

This is the top of our media cabinet. I really am not liking this arrangement. It looks like a mish-mash of decorations that ended up being put together because I had no where else to put them. And that's exactly what happened.
Look at that sparse sad garland. I wish I was able to cover it in ornaments, ribbons, and lights. And I wish I could put a bazillion more candlesticks up there. And I wish everything went together. Maybe next year...

I put all the misfit ornaments in this jar. They came out of my storage bin all missing their caps so I found a way to still use them along with some fake snow left over from last year.

Another wreath.
The letter was from Hobby Lobby. It came gold but my Christmas colors are red, silver and black so I painted it silver with acrylic paint. Then I hot glued a flower, bling, tulle, and a ribbon on the back for hanging.

Got these babies at Target for 75% off after Christmas last year:
The end.

Hay is for Horses

We are a very lucky family. We are lucky because we have a papa who is a cowboy and will take us on hayrides whenever we ask. Last Saturday, the whole family met at the barn in Lehi for a hayride in the groves and a campfire afterwards.

You will have to forgive me for the not so awesome pics. There were about a trillion people on the hayride and among them my own kids who all demanded to sit at the very edge of the flatbed. Making sure they didn't decide to jump for it was my main priority, taking pics was my second. Hence, blurry and chaotic pics.

There are lots of animals at the barn in Lehi. Before we got on our way, the kids entertained themselves by chasing the chickens. Rex was really proud of himself because he caught one. He didn't want to let go of it but his mean mama made him because she didn't feel like cleaning chicken poop off of his clothes. Plus, I'm skittish around critters and chickens totally fall in to that category. Yes, holding chickens grosses me out. Good to see Rex isn't a fraidy cat like his mom.
Our beasts of burden:
I had Gunner all snuggled up in his "papoose." Actually it's a Moby Wrap. If you have a little baby, get one of these. They are awesome.
Very concerned about something:
Ella Rose. This was the best pic I got of her. In all the others, she was doing her usual crazy cheese face. Not so cute.
We love our cousin Kenny. He watches out for the littles and he lets them wear his sunglasses.
Gunner even tried them on.
Me, and my hubby. Check out my sultry hayride face! Rawr!
Here's Scott looking off into the distance wishing for a wild animal and a shotgun.
Cousin Elise. She even looks darling on a hayride.
Miranda sat with Grandma and was too cold to smile.
Our cowboy Papa.
After the hayride, we got our fire going and roasted hot dogs and made 'smores.
Here's Papa cooking the dogs.
Real men roast marshmallows.
Daddy showing Rex how it's done.
Around the fire there are tree stumps to sit on. Look closely at this one:

I'm "stumped" by this picture. Can anyone help me get to the "bottom" of this? For some reason, this picture really "bums" me out. Hee Hee! Is this not the most awesome thing ever?
Ella Rose showing off her marshmallow eating skills. Good thing we brought wipes. I told her if she did that again, we would let the horses lick her hands clean. She did not like that suggestion and did not do it again.
Thanks for the fun hayride Papa and Grandma! Can't wait to do it again!