Decorating the Tree

 After the kids came in from playing in the snow and warmed up with some cocoa, we pulled out our boxes of decorations.  We wanted to get a real tree this year, but we didn't plan far enough in advance to get the permit.  At least we know for next year.  So we pulled out the good ol' fake tree again.  The girls loved helping to color code the branches to the trunk.

 In the meantime, Porter played with Santa and his elves.

 This year decorating was so much fun!  We have the awesome mantle above our non-working stove, and the wonderful shelf in the living room.  It was putting for all my little trinkets.  This Nativity was given to us last year by our Secret Santa.  Every night we got another piece of the Nativity.  The kids loved it and looked forward to it every night.  This year was very exciting to be able to put out the whole thing all at once.

 Look closely at the mantle and you can see the little figurines the kids painted last year.

 My friend gave us the beautiful toole and it really added something special to the tree.

 I've had this little wooden Nativity for as long as I can remember.  The number of pieces have dwindled over the years, but I keep a special eye on them so we don't lose any more.  the key players are all still present as least.

 I've also had the duck forever too it seems.  He used to have blue gems for eyes that have fallen off.  I found some blue buttons I am going to glue on him as replacements.

 I loved being able to display our stockings all season long.  Love that shelf!

 My Real Deals birds and owls.  I miss that store!

Our house felt so festive and Christmasy!

First Snow of Winter (And Only Snow so Far...)

 We woke up Saturday, November 29th to snow!  It was a lovely sight and made me feel like I was home.

 The kids were so excited they put their snow clothes on and headed outside at 8:30.  I didn't see them again for 2 hours.  They had red noses and big smiles when they came back in.

 They gathered snow from all over the yard in a bucket and used it to make a snow fort.  That fort actually stayed several days longer than the rest of the snow because it was in a shady spot it the back yard.

We also have a perfect little hill for sledding.

It was a beautiful day!

Thanksgiving

Hunter and Ainsley

 We had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year.  We hosted it at our house, which meant plastic cups and  mismatched plates.  I didn't get my Mom's hostess genes, so there was no fancy centerpiece.  But we had lots of laughs, lots of good food, and great friends.

We invited our good friends the Platts and the Honors.  We ate our fill of delicious foods, then the kids went downstairs to play and watch movies.  That left the adults to talk upstairs.  I loved this time of getting to know everyone better.  And I laughed so hard that I cried.  I think that's good for the soul.  I feel so blessed that we have made such amazing friends here.

Brinnley, Bruce Honor, Porter, and Jaeden

Chandler

Kevin

Jeni

The kids table

the adult table (Bruce, Kevin, Jeni, me, Chant, and Cyndi) photo by Ainsley 

A Homesick Kind of Day

Today was a homesick kind of day.  Not necessarily for a place, but for people.  I saw a video posted on Facebook of a Garth Brooks concert and I was immediately transported back to my Grandma Atchley's living room.  I can see it so clearly, sitting on the floor surrounded by aunts, uncles, cousins, and other family members while we all listened intently to Jim and Val singing "The Dance" and "The River."  My heart squeezed at the memory.  Listening to them sing was truly magical.  Those Family Christmases are some of my favorite memories.

Then Brinnley came home from school and told us that she is learning to play the bells in music class.  Again, I flashed back to my childhood.  The first thing that came to my mind when she said that was "Claymation Christmas" and the bells playing "Carol of the Bells."  I had to find it on YouTube and show it to Brinnley.  Then we watched all the other clips from the tv special.  There were the dancing walruses that always knocked over the penguins; the camels singing "We Three Kings"; the California Raisins singing "Rudolph"; the awesome dinosaurs acting as hosts.  I love that show!  Twenty-three minutes of pure awesome!

And for some reason my mind wandered to my wonderful Aunt LaVone.  She almost always gave me a VHS full of cartoons for any holiday.  Care Bears, Christmas shows, Winnie the Pooh, anything else awesome.  Most of the movies I had growing up came for her.  It was the ultimate collection of VHS mix tapes.  I missed her so much today it hurt!  I'm so sad my kids never got to know her, with her clip-on earrings and a pair of socks to match every shirt she owned.  

I know I must be homesick because I am sitting here typing this in front of my roaring fire and feeling a little upset because my parents had to replace their fireplace this year.  I'm not sure why that matters to me so much, but I've been upset about it since my mom told me.  It's still sitting there, but no longer usable.  It makes me sad to think of that old black stove never roaring with a fire again.  Thinking of that stove makes me think of my Dad wearing his standard uniform of his work shirts, hat, work jeans, and steel-toed boots stoking the fire and turning the knobs on the front to let in air.  It reminds me of days where it was so hot from the fire we had to open the windows to breath.  It reminds me of tight spaces when we first moved to our house and in years since Mom and Dad remodeled, of sitting next to the fire at our own Family Christmases and watching the kids run around the house, people roaming from the kitchen to the living room, laughter and stories being shared.

Here I am, upset about a stove.  Like I said, it's a homesick kind of day.

Happy Halloween!

 We had an awesome Halloween!  Downtown had trick-or-treating at the stores from 2-5, so as soon as school got out we took the kids.  We were there about an hour and a half.  It was so fun to be out and a part of the community.  I loved seeing friends, people from church, and other kids from school. It was such a fun event.  And the weather was perfect.  Not too hot and not too cold, all you need is a light jacket.  :)

 They were moving so fast from store to store Chant was lucky to get this picture.

When we were done downtown, we came home for dinner and to dump our buckets out so we had room to start all over.

About 6:00 our friends the Platt's came over so we could go trick-or-treating together.  Here is the whole crew:  Hunter, Brinnley, Porter, Ainsley, Chandler, and Jayden.  We had so much fun.  We went around our neighborhood then 3 more.  It was a two hour event.  I'm so glad we had friends to go with.  The kids were so excited to go together.  I tried to stay with the kids and keep them together and out of the street.  They were so fast!  Lots of energy!  But after two hours we were tired.  It was such a fun day!

 Since we both wanted to go, we turned on the light and left our cooler of candy with a sign saying help yourself.  When we got home the cooler was almost as full as when we left.  Guess we don't get many kids on our street.  Oh well, now we can stock the Bishop's candy jar.

 As per tradition the kids had to dump out all their candy and sort it into piles.  This morning Brinnley counted her candy.  Over 300 pieces!

 We had a great night.  But we all mentioned we were missing Gran, Jen, Oma, and Opa.  Good thing we have great friends or I might have felt a little sad tonight.  Love you family!

Pumpkins and War Wounds

Oct 25th we were talking to Gran and Jen on Skype when all the sudden we heard someone screaming in pain.  Chant said, "Gotta go!"  And he took off running.  We found Ainsley coming up the stairs crying.  This was her war wound from falling onto the treadmill.   Ouch! Now you guys know what happened.

 Gran sent me a thing showing how to decorate pumpkins with melted crayons.  It looked cool so we thought we would try it.  First we spray painted the pumpkins white.

 Next we melted the crayons with my hairdryer.  It took a while, but the effect was really cool.

 The only sad things was that there was no way to carve the pumpkin without the crayon breaking off.  So we got a few more pumpkins for carving.

 Two fun nights with pumpkins and our porch looked awesome!

Halloween Party

 Oct 22 Porter lost his second tooth on the top.  Now he really will be singing "All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth."  I love listening to him talk!  So funny with the "ssss" sound.

 October 25 was our ward Halloween Party.  This year Brinnley was an Army girl, Ainsley Miss Karate, and Porter Pirate.  They were really excited about the Halloween party.  Our little buddy Hunter stayed with us most of the evening. First we had a chili cook off.  So good!  Then we had carnival games.  Each auxiliary was in charge of helping run a few games, so both Chant and I were busy doing that.  That left our kiddos by themselves to go to the different games.  But they were just fine going alone and when they came through my room they were behaving so well.  Hunter, Porter, and Brinnley stuck today.  Brinnley was the little mother hen ushering her little chicks along.  So sweet to watch!  It was a little bittersweet for me.  My kids are growing up so fast!  I was a little sad not to feel needed.  But it made me proud to know they could be trusted to be good.  It was such a fun night and all the hard work the Primary (the auxiliary in charge of the event) put into it was well worth it!

October Happenings

We got a few truck loads of wood delivered and Chant asked the kids to stack the wood.  Before they got very far, Chant had to run an errand.  Porter and Brinnley went with him and Ainsley and I stayed home.  Ainsley wanted to continue stacking wood.  I went out to check on her and this is what she had done.  I thought that was so cute!  I would call it standing wood not stacking wood.  But with a little direction, the kids figured it out.

 Oct 18 and 19th was a very busy weekend for me.  We had Youth Conference at my house Saturday. We had a ton of delicious food, laughed, talked and watched Tangled.  It was a lot of fun and I am so glad they made the effort to come.  (Amber, Jace, Taylar, Katherynn, Bro. Clark, and Bishop.)

Then Sunday we met at Bishop's home and he delivered a wonderful message about Spiritual self-reliance.  It was a great weekend and I am so thankful that I was able to be a part of it and that Chant was a willing to be a single parent for the weekend so I could be busy with other things.