Christmas Eve: Gingerbread House

The day before Christmas Eve, my neighbor and friend, Sharalyn, decided we should make gingerbread houses. She started everything going and invited me over.  She found a printable stencil online and recipe. I loved making stained glass windows with hard candy.

 I had some sugar cookie dough left over from earlier in the week so we made the rest of that too.

The boys had fun frosting their own cookie.

We ran out of time to decorate. So on Christmas Eve afternoon, I assembled the house and everyone else decorated it while we watched National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.  My friend had a GREAT royal icing recipe. It was thick and soft and it worked perfectly and easily.

We had so much left over Halloween candy (I missed the donation date), that I didn't buy any candy to decorate the house. It was great! And it required a little more creativity, it was fun.

The Front. Dum-dums, candy necklace pieces, and bubble tape were the lamp posts, made by Jon.

 I love the skittles on the roof. It was the most traditional part of the decorating. Emily made bushes out of gumballs and jawbreakers, the chimney out of a tootsie roll log, and grass out of green jolly ranchers.

 Jon made a "snowman" out of lollipops with the sticks cut off, firewood out of almond joys, and a friendly life size slug out of billy bob gummy teeth, and candy sticks for antennae.

The boys put "gravestones" in the backyard with the candy watch/bracelet faces. And white mystery nerds were snow. Max also wanted to put that red candy on the back and a window out of candy sticks.

It was honestly the best looking gingerbread house we've made. Graham Crackers can't compare to real gingerbread! But of course, it was just for the activity-it didn't get eaten.

Christmas Eve: Snow Fort

With Jon's work being so busy, he hasn't had much time to play in the snow with the boys. On Christmas Eve Jon and the boys spent all morning outside. They (Jon) made a snow fort around the picnic table.

 The boys just played around, while Daddy did all the work!

 I don't have pics, but they had a big snow ball fight. Then snacks and hot cocoa in the fort. Jon also pulled the boys around on a sled in the huge back yard.

Then we headed to Provo for a couple last minute errands and to pick up Emily, Jon's sister. She spent the weekend with us.

A Weather Post

The "train of storms" coming from around Hawaii and hitting California, have also been making their way around here!

This is SATURDAY MORNING:

 Jon went skiing that morning before we headed to Provo to finish shopping. The sweet lady across the street came over and said, your hubby's always gone when its time to shovel. And she brought her snowblower over to finish the job. I was so thankful!!

SUNDAY NIGHT:
Then it started raining mid-day on Saturday. It rained and rained and rained and rained. This is what the yard looked like on Sunday night. All that snow was melted by the rain.

MONDAY MORNING:
Then is snowed over night and I shoveled again on Monday. It was still snowing, and about a half inch accumulated by the time I finished. This pic is after I finished shoveling.

TUESDAY MORNING:
Then is snowed more over Monday night. This is what this morning, Tuesday, looked like.

Jon shoveled half the driveway before he left for work. (Its kind of hard to tell, but it is a long drive way.) He shoveled the right side. I found out later that he was going to do the rest when he got home. And he feels really bad that I shoveled the other side of the driveway. But it needed to be done, and if it continued to snow it would be that much harder to shovel later. So I just did it.

It was pretty hard. The snow was heavy. There was too much snow to push the shovel through. It was more than a foot of snow. I had to just scoop each shovel amount. It took 4-5 overflowing scoops to get across half the drive way. But luckily it only snowed a few more inches after Jon left for work. That side was so much easier. I didn't shovel the sidewalk, the lady across the street said she would do it with her snow blower, so I hope she does. Its not done yet.

I made this into a little sledding hill. The boys had a good time, even Max! Hopefully, he'll like it better than last year.

It is garbage day. The garbage man left the trash can on this mound of snow. I could barely reach the handles without getting in the snow.

Snowed up to the bottoms of the swings.

Snow on the picnic table

It took me like an hour to finish. And I wanted to quit so bad. I've never shoveled this much snow. My muscles are so tired! I should learn the correct posture for shoveling so it will be a full body workout. The boys loved to pull out their bikes and pull toys and play in the driveway and snow.

MoTab and David A

Last weekend we were able to go to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert, in SLC. David Archuleta was the guest singer. It was a pretty good time. We went with Rachel and Jeremy, they had just gotten into town a couple days before. It was good to get to do a double date with them. We sure miss them now that they live in Phoenix.

Our seats were in the Tabernacle, since there was such a high demand for tickets this year. We wanted to have plenty of time to eat before the show and still get to our seats so they wouldn't be given away to standby. But with an unexpected work issue that came up, we weren't going to have enough time to eat. Gratefully, Jon drove through Wendy's so I could get something to hold me over. Honestly, I wasn't in the mood to go to downtown SLC on a busy cold night, with traffic and pedestrians all over, and hard to find parking where you have walk blocks to the building. But Jon was able to help me loosen up and just enjoy. It was a great performance.

Jon putting out fires at work. 

I never watched American Idol the year David was on, so I didn't really see him perform. But he was amazing. I was so surprise at how much I enjoyed listening and watching him.  It was a good show.  There were also 6 ladies sitting on the row behind us, that had come from all over the country just to see David. They were between the ages of 30 and 65.

The ladies on the row behind us

They had all met on blogs. One lady had a map and had all the ladies sign their name on the location they were from. As well as find other ladies they met online in different seats in the tabernacle. They had seen the show the night before too. This was their second time. While David was singing "Silent Night" and hit the high note, one of the ladies behind us gasped, and was sobbing....interesting.. but nonetheless, it was very moving to listen to the music.

Saving seats for Rachel and Jeremy. I think it took them 2 hours to get to SLC from Provo. The traffic was so bad. She says Phoenix has tons more people and traffic, but at least it moves.

Rachel and Jeremy

After the performance we went to Red Rock Brewery for dinner. Good food. Then we got home about 11:30. I think that was the longest we'd ever hired a babysitter. She was here for 7.5 hours.

Personal Reflections

The last 2 weeks I've been writing in my personal, hardback, spiral, handwritten journal. I don't write in it very regularly. My first entry in this book was 2 days before Zac was born. Then the next time was when Zac was 6 months. Since then, I've written it in here and there. In it, I've written routines I'd like to follow, basic to do lists, how I can be better, goals, New Years resolutions, things I want to learn or accomplish in life, timelines, things I stress about, etc. I basically write it in when I am in a reflective mood (when I give myself time to be), when I am worried or stressed, or when I'm trying to make changes in life.

I've been overwhelmed lately, with changes I am trying to make, stresses of life, and the things that I don't get accomplished each day. So I decided, in order to better see the things I do finish, the blessings I do have, and the things I do accomplish I would write in my journal at the end of each day. I have been recording the Lord's tender mercies, blessings and accomplishments.

Some of them include, the starter in car not being broken, Jon hitting revenue goals at work, finding lip gloss in my purse after I've left the house without it, a friend calling, mopping the floor, filing papers, Zac passing off his sight words and being such a good helper, a beautifully warm sunny day and a Pepsi, not missing Jon too much as he is busy with work, going to the gym, recovering from being lost while teaching my RS lesson, Max taking more regular naps, an amazing Oreo shake, successful new dinner recipes, actually making dinner, finding a great sale on a gift, my brother willing to go out of his way to help me, answered prayers in only the way the Lord knows how, and lots more.

It has really helped me to focus on the positive and think of how blessed I am. I have been more patient, less weepy, in a better mood, and more capable of handling burdens these last 2 weeks. I am working to change my general pessimism-its hard.

Something else I've been trying to do is focus on my kids.  I hear stories of other people's kids who say the funniest things. I hadn't noticed my kids getting to the stage yet, or I wasn't open to seeing it. I've been trying to pay attention more. Today on the way home from church, Max had a reindeer treat and in his little voice he said, "he has a tiny nose!" instead of shiny! It was the cutest thing.  And while saying his personal prayers tonight, Zac said, "we are grateful for Jesus' babe". I adore my little boys.

And the other day while I was making sugar cookie dough after the boys were in bed, I opened the draw to find this:

It made me so happy to know that I have two darling little boys asleep upstairs, and that I am their Mommy.  The more time that passes, the more I realize how much I need to cherish today and embrace the trials of it too. It makes for better tomorrows.

Mobile Uploads

 About a month ago, I went to this cute boutique in Midway. It really got me in the Christmas spirit. It was so cute and playing great, loud-ish Christmas music.

This was the cutest garland Christmas tree! I asked the lady about it and she said people ask all the time, and it would have to be a high price for the owner to let it go! Someday I want a tree like this! :)

 And they had the cutest cookie jar!!

 Occasionally, when I take Zac to school there is fog. It think its from Deer Creek. When the air is colder than the water, the creek steams up.

 The steam/fog cleared out earlier this day. It was cool to see Timp through the fog.

Max dressed up in this clown stuff at a friends house and I just thought it was so funny and cute!

Max was so excited for his birthday money from Great Grandpa and Grandma, Lyle and Donna Munk! Thank you! He loved putting it in his robot bank.

Zac wrote his first Christmas tag! I only helped him know how to spell "from", and then just with the "o".  He is getting so big.  He is getting a little confused with "m's". He is starting to write them like me, which is not the "correct" way...oops.

Skullcandy Christmas Parties

This was the first year Jon's been at Skullcandy for Christmas, although it seems like he's worked for them for a lot longer than that.

Anyway, they did a lunch with Santa for the little kids and that was a lot of fun. They decorated sugar cookies, ate pizza, got to see Santa and got their first pair of Skullcandy Headphones. The boys had a great time! It was also fun to see Jon at work too. Afterward, Jon got to go skiing for the first time this year. It was the first day The Canyons was open.

Zac was sooooooooo excited to see Santa!

Jon asking the boys about Santa

The photo setup! Going all out!

The office

We were all over the place that day. Zac had preschool and his teacher let him come to the AM class since they were doing a Polar Express party and he also wanted to go to the work party. I picked him up early from school and headed to Park City. Then after the party came home to grab the boys stuff, because they were spending the night at my parents in Provo so we could go to the Adult Work Party that evening. After I dropped them off in Provo, I headed back home.  When I was half way, I realized I forgot the coat I was going to wear for the party! Ugh! My awesome brother Jacob was home so he grabbed it and met me at the mouth of the canyon, so I didn't have to go all the way back. Then I headed home again. Jon got stuck in traffic on the way home from work. When he got home we grabbed sandwiches. Jon had a cat nap while I got ready for the party. Then we headed to Park City-again.

It was pretty fun. The party was held at HarryO's a night club off Main street. The band Eagles of Death Metal came and that was entertaining too.

Drunken mosh pit ...

We got home about 1a. It was a fun night!