The halls are decked, the stockings are hung!

It just seems like it has been a whirlwind week since Thanksgiving, was that only a week ago??? This is what we have been up to. . .
We always decorate the day after Thanksgiving, so the tree and decor are all up. Ben hung the outside lights a few weeks ago in warm weather, but we didn't turn them on until the day after Thanksgiving. He is glad he got them up in warm weather (60) instead of the 30's we are having now! Smart boy! Ben and I had a date night to see New Moon. Loved it! We all got to go see Santa. Miss A wants books and clothes, Miss O the game of Life and a Rubik cube, Miss E wants an MP3 player, and Mr J wants trains and cars (no surprise there). Santa thought he could handle that if they continue to be good, so we shall see. . . :) Friday after school I got to pick up Miss A and 3 of her friends with another mom and take them shopping. These girls decided on their own with their own money to adopt-a-child for Christmas. I was very impressed. They are going to make one 6 year-old girl very happy this Christmas! Then after wrapping and snacking and lots of fun with those girls I had my own Girls Night Out. We had an awesome Christmas progressive dinner--I was the soup course. Fun stuff! What a blessing good friends are! Today was our annual Christmas shopping day in the city. We have the tradition that the first Saturday in December my parents always watch our kids so Ben and I can go to the city and get Christmas shopping done. Ben and I had a great day today, and we are all done with Christmas shopping, so that makes it even better. The kids had a great day with Nana and Grandpa. They helped Grandpa get his outside lights up and helped Nana get her Christmas tree up. Nana and the girls participated in the Jingle Bell Jog--they actually walked/jogged with bells on their shoes and red shirts for a mile. Nana said they did great! They came in 3rd and 4th of the walkers! Way to go girls! Life is good--the halls are decked, the stockings are hung, and the Christmas shopping is DONE! So we will see what next week brings. . .

Thanksgiving weekend review

What a wonderful Thanksgiving! We are so blessed and have so much to be grateful for! Just a few of my many blessings---my amazing husband, my sweet kids, wonderful friends, a nice home that I love, a free country, wonderful parents and parents-in-law, amazing family on both sides, being able to walk, run, see, smell, touch, and read good books! my camera, soft socks, warm robes, chocolate chip cookies, strawberry jam, and a bed :)

Preparing for Thanksgiving. Miss E decorated the "little kids" table, or the table for 2nd graders and under :)

The "big kids" table, or the table for 4th graders and older :)

Look at those hungry kids!

Look at all those people eating in my living room, and not a single one of them spilled on my new carpet! I was so thankful!

Yes, Ben and I got up at 4:30 a.m. and went to the Wal-Mart Black Friday sale. Ben goes every year, and I sleep in, but this year I decided to go since we had a big list, and it was really fun! I think Santa has my gift somewhere in the cart (a cricut maybe?!?!?!?!) I can't wait until Christmas!!! How many days left? Mr J asks me that every day now "How many days until Christmas today mom?" I am counting down too! We need to make our countdown chain tomorrow.

The weekend ended on a GREAT note as we watched BYU BEAT Utah on the big screen at our friends' house. Unfortunately our friends in red are Utah fans, but we didn't rub it in too badly :) Ah, life is good, we can enjoy the holiday season now because the Y won. I am very grateful for that!!!

2nd grade Feast

Today was Miss E's 2nd grade feast. I got 2 of the turkeys out of my fridge and cooked this morning along with 15 cups of gravy for 40 kiddos. My house was smelling good! Can't wait for Thursday! Miss E was an Indian (aka Bright Moon).

Bright moon waiting to meet her Pilgrim friend then sit down to eat.

Bright Moon meets her Pilgrim friend.

Bright Moon and her Pilgrim friend sit down to eat.

Yummy! Look at all those Pilgrims and Indians enjoying their feast together!

Turkey Time

My fridge is completely stuffed full of turkeys! Ben just brought in our 23 lb. turkey for Thursday to thaw in the fridge. I have 2 eight lb. turkey breasts in the fridge thawing already for the 2nd grade Thanksgiving feast on Tuesday. They asked if I would make the turkey for the 2nd grade feast, but when the teacher went shopping at the one grocery store in our small town, all the turkeys were gone, so she had to get 2 turkey breasts instead. We will be having the 23 lb. turkey at our house Thursday and celebrating with about 20 people including my parents and lots of good friends. Love this time of year! Be grateful, give thanks and enjoy your turkey!!

Our fire pit

I think fall is the season for roasting hot dogs, making s'mores, and tin foil dinners. We have a fire pit. It was one of the first things Ben and I did to our backyard after we moved in about 4 years ago. I had always wanted one, and I had visions of roasting marshmallows while admiring the stars. I must admit the stars in the country are amazing, and we have roasted some pretty good marshmallows. We can also boast to having some really big bonfires (another advantage of living in the country) which the kids think are "TOTALLY AWESOME!!!" Two weekends ago Ben and the kids did hot dogs for dinner over the fire pit. I was shopping in the city for the day and missed out. This past weekend Ben made tin foil dinners that we cooked over the fire pit. Yummy! Miss O was at a birthday party and missed out, but my they were yummy! Welcome the season and outdoor cooking!!

Nothing like a little smoke in your eyes. . . .

A Crafty Week

I am a huge fan of OrganizedChristmas. A good friend introduced it to me a few years ago, and they have the best Get Ready for Christmas countdown. It started Oct. 25, and by Dec 5 you are all ready for Christmas. It is great. Check it out. One of the things to do on my get ready for Christmas list this week was to get going on the gifts to make. This week I was working on Christmas pillowcases and clipboards. I made 4 pillowcases and have 4 more to do next week. I also did 7 of these clipboards. The same good friend that introduced me to Organized Christmas showed me how to do these awesome clipboards. Aren't they cute? The girls and I decided to make them for their teachers. They picked the colors, stickers, and designed them. I just applied the glue and Mod Podge, and then I decided to make a couple more. Of course, I had to make one for me.
These are the ones I was working on this week. They are super easy. Just get a $.97 clipboard from Wal-mart. Choose your paper, stickers, and designs (it helps with the lettering to have a friend with a cricut :) then glue all your paper and letters down with a glue stick onto your clipboard, then Mod Podge the whole thing. I covered it with about 3 coats and you are done. Super easy.

On all of these I put their names on the bottom on the solid colors, but I didn't have all the names on yet when I took the picture, but you get the idea. Creating things is always fun. It is so nice to look at what you did and think, "Wow! I did that and it looks really great! and I would actually want to give it to someone :)" What a sweet thing! Happy creating!

Happenings at our home

Just some pictures of some happenings at our house this week. Life is full and very good. Hope yours is too!

Mr J and a friend at church being sunbeams! Jesus wants me for a sunbeam, to shine for him each day. . .

Miss O performing at her piano recital this past week. She did great!

Miss A performing at the same recital. She also did great. She accompanied the children's choir in church a few weeks ago. She is very good at the piano. Somehow Miss E got lucky and didn't have to play at this one. She wasn't too disappointed.

This was Miss E today when she got home from school with her new T-shirt for getting in the 100 point club for Accelerated Reading. At school when they read a book, they can take a test over it. Each book is worth so many points if they answer the questions right--most picture books are worth half a point, so it takes a lot of reading to get 100 points!!! She was super excited about this. Way to go Miss E!