The Fourteenth Day of Christmas

The Youth of our ward went on a hayride caroling. This year they invited Primary to come along. Nathan and I didn't last long. It was cold and when I went to get in I hurt myself like an idiot. So when the truck pulled up to my house to carol I got out. We thought Nathan would stay with Josh but he started to cry and that was that.

One day that week Nathan got out in the yard with grandpa and helped him plant trees. I got some great pictures of that.

Twelfth Day of Christmas - Josh came home

As I am finally posting this we are getting ready to head back out to the airport to see Josh off. But he arrived on the Twelfth. We took pictures of Nathan waiting for Josh's flight and when he arrived.

Josh has only been in Florida about six months but Nathan didn't recognize him. It was funny we pointed out Josh and he took off running right past him.

Tenth Day of Christmas

My best friend and I took our boys to see a free movie screening.
"The Adventures of Tin Tin"
It was a pretty good movie and the boys enjoyed it. We asked Nathan if he liked the movie and he said he liked the doggie and the popcorn was AWESOME!!

Later that evening our ward had their Christmas Party.

Young Women "Evening of Excellence"

Wow, was I busy on the Sixth trying to finish up projects I was doing for the Young Women in my ward. I took some ideas I found on theideadoor.com and came up with an amazing program for our "Evening of Excellence" if I say so myself. The theme was "Your Happily Ever After" and I used a talk from President Uchtdorf. You can download the talk by clicking on the name above. I wanted the girls to feel like Princesses. We got tiaras for them to wear and my best friend made sashes. We asked the parents if they had to pick one value that best represented their daughter or best represented them which one would it be. We then took that value and painted it on the sash. During the program I had the parents explain why they chose that value. The girls loved the sashes and were surprised to hear their parents explanations; which turned out very touching.

Everything was a secret including the parents involvement in preparing the tables and display items. Usually the girls do it themselves but this year I wanted it to be different.

I found the temples on theideadoor.com website and had a friend cut them out of wood. The Young Women President and I painted them white, then I went to work on them to beautify them.

My temples came out a little different but I wouldn't want it any other way. I always tweak things to make them mine. The girls just loved everything. We sang new songs; we had the fathers crown their daughters; even one of the girls took down her cello and played it for us afterwards.
What really touched my heart is that they commented that they did feel like Princesses.
They are truly our Heavenly Fathers Princesses.

Days of Christmas Activities

Yay! I finally got my pictures downloaded to my computer. Now to catch up....

We decorated the tree on the Fourth.

 

 And the fireplace banner I made on the Fifth...

Christmas Countdown - 2011 Day 3

Day 3 - We went to the Boulder City Santa Claus Train. Its the Nevada Southern Railway excursion train at the Nevada State Railroad Museum located in historic Boulder City, Nevada - the city that built the Hoover Dam.
Santa Claus and his Misses greet each and every child on the train and they allow you to take pictures. It was pretty cool. Nathan was super excited to see Santa up until it came time for him to speak to him.

Here's some extra pictures that were taken.

Christmas Countdown - 2011

Has it really been three days since I blogged about the family Christmas excitement? Let's see December 2nd we got a HUGE Christmas Tree. The biggest I've ever had since I have been married.

Of course, Nathan had to get his pose on. Funny kid!! And that was day 2.

Christmas Advent Calendar - 2011

So it's that time of year again where I am in the craftiest mood! I found several Advent Calendars online and thought hey I can do that. I found one that used those small matchboxes but I couldn't find any so I cleverly made one up all on my own. 

First I took empty toilet paper rolls and paper towel rolls and I cut them into 2 inch pieces; glued them together in the shape of a tree and glued that onto card-stock to hold the back on the tree.

 

After I had the back on I filled the slots with goodies; wrapped toys, candy, a few quarters, etc. and wrapped the tree with green tissue paper.

It wasn't the easiest thing to do without getting holes in the tissue paper but it worked. Then I took some Christmas wrapping paper I liked and cut 2 inch strips and glued them to the outside of the tree and for the base to look like a flower pot or tree stand thing. 

 

I finished it off with 25 numbers and a snowflake star on top. Pretty creative if I say so myself.

Nathan loved it and being that it is December 1st he punched out the 25; finding candy hid behind it. Luckily I don't remember what I put in each slot so I too can be surprised to see what he gets each day.