Its Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas... Better Late Then Never... Right?!?!

I know... I know... I know. It is the middle of January and I am just NOW posting about Christmas. After the holidays I was ... burnt out ... to say the least. So catching up on the endless blog entries just didnt seem to rival the need for loafing around. Now that I am completely over loafing around catching up on my blog only seems natural. 

Christmas Eve was spent with the family and once the kiddos where in bed finishing up on last minute gifts and stocking stuffers followed by cuddling with the hubby filled the day. 

Matching felt flower clips for the girls...

...and a painting for the LivieBug

 Eva sporting her Christmas PJ's for her First Christmas

 Olivia helping mommy fold laundry ... yes she is wearing daddys (clean) socks on her arms...

Our Stockings... Who wants to guess what stocking is mine and what Ryan put in it?! 

 Christmas Morning!!! (Im thinking we need to upgrade to a bigger tree)

 Ry made Green pancakes for breakfast...

 & what did those green pancakes have on them you ask?! Red maple syrup of course!!

It was a delicious breakfast... best Christmas breakfast Ive ever had! 

 Olivia thought they were pretty darn good too!

 One of many gifts Santa brought me... a Bread Machine!!! Which has been used many MANY times! (Santa also brought me 2 beautiful papyrus scroll paintings that are remakes of those in the Pearl of Great Price, which you can see to the left of the picture.) 

 Ryan being a little over zealous about his new Shirt...

 Olivia helping her Daddy open more of his Christmas gifts... 

 Olivia got some super awesome quiet books ... 

 Eva got some super cute outfits...

 The girls also got blankets, which Olivia is a pretty big fan of as you can see...

They also were given some adorable ornaments from our neighbor!

After opening presents the girls went down for their MUCH needed naps and after Olivia opened her stocking and played with all of her new fun toys!

We then went to a friends house for our Christmas Dinner/Fiesta...

The two newbies of the group... Miss Eva and her friend Karly. 

Our Christmas was wonderful... best one we have had in awhile! It was such a blessing to have Ryan home for Thanksgiving, Christmas AND New Years. Thank you so much to all of our wonderful friends and family who helped make our Christmas a good one your gifts, cards and warm wishes were graciously received. Christmas of 2010 was the perfect way to end such a wonderful year! 

Dani

Brandon & Rach Part Two...

While they were out here Rachael & I planned a double date and it we all had SUCH an awesome time. It was like we stepped back a few years to our newlywed phase! We decided to NOT tell the guys about our plans so when we picked up a massive pizza on our way to our destination the guys were definitely confused! We ended up at the newly remodeled and greatly added upon Bowling Alley. We played a couple games, were I to much surprise lost horribly... again. Bowling was followed by ... 

BUMPER CARS!!!! We had a BLAST... some more than others... ahem... RYAN. His super awesome driving skills definitely came in handy as he plowed through just about everyone. Me on the other hand had to get a running start but my time was mostly spent doing donuts.

 This is my favorite picture of Ryan... haha... 

We had SO much fun having Brandon & Rach out here... just what the doctor ordered! So lucky to have such wonderful friends in our lives!

Dani

Brandon & Rach Came For A MUCH Needed Visit!

While Brandon and Rachael were here one of the places we went to was... 

 The guys were strutting their stuff... for all in the cave to see. 

I felt so TALL... 

 & so did Ryan... 

 Once of their tallest formations

The cave had a small stream running through it and this is one of the pictures I took of it that actually turned out... kind of. 

Ryan was being bad so we put him in the corner HAHA... 

Ok... so that wasnt the case. They called this formation the Pipe Organ and if you sang in it it echoed back at you and through out the whole cave!

 Awe that is precious!!!

Pay It Forward 2011!!!

 Pay It Forward 2011. I will send something handmade to the first 5 people to comment on this post. To be eligible you must also post this on your blog, offering the same to 5 other people. Items will be delivered sometime in 2011.    
    Ready, Set, GO!!!!

                                                     Dani

Did I Mention Evelyn's New Favorite Hobby?!

Evelyn is a VERY happy baby... always smiling and cooing!

This is her being fairly mellow... 

So Far This Month We Have...

***First off... MERRY CHRISTMAS everyone!!!***

December has been a pretty big milestone for both of our girls! 

 Had my very first Pony Tail!!!

 Helped Mommy fold the laundry...

 Started saying Mommy (to Mommy) !!!

Helped Mommy set up for Christmas

Decorated our Christmas Tree

 Made Christmas cookies!

 Decorated Christmas Cookies...

DEVOURED Christmas Cookies!!!

 Looked really cute all bundled up because it is FREEZING outside!

 Had people tell me I looked like a little Eskimo...

and finally... ROLLED OVER!!!

And lots lots more... and this month isn't even over yet! Evenly's 3mo pictures will be soon to follow!!

Dani

I Have Had a Few Questions...

How Did I Do What I Did?

So I have had a more than a few people ask me about my recent Church Activity and how I was able to pull it off. I had A LOT of help from my only committee member as well as my Home teacher and his family. I assigned each Auxilary head their own booth and they had a bare minimum of setting up a table, table cloth & an awning/overhang. The Auxiliary's stopped by periodically throughout the week to set up anywhere from 20 min to 40 min. I however was there, along with my committee member, everyday twice a day for at least a couple hours.

I found the basis for my Activity here. I envisioned a cross between every Old Testament painting I have ever seen and the Disney movie Aladdin. From this point on it was go big or go home... on a very tight shoe string church budget.

I used rolls of brown packing paper to cover the walls and painted a stone wall, palm trees as well as a couple landscapes. We used a pop up canopy for the manger scene and used brown packing paper to draw animals with chalk. We strung twine from screws that are in the upper molding around the cultural center and draped light long lengths of fabric to create a dropped ceiling effect and open air market feeling. Above the fabric we tented christmas lights to look like stars.

Our city gate was made out of moving boxes & chalk boards covered in brown packing paper and painted with rock wall facade. We also stapled a grey fabric that was sponge painted to look like stone to the moving boxes and the corkboard side of the chalk boards to cover the feet & wheels of the chalk boards. Our city Well was a couple of orange drink coolers covered in ... more brown packing paper which we drew stones on and placed them in front of a large fabric backdrop that was sewn together creating a manger scene.

Majority of the store front over hangs were created out of fallen timbers with table cloths draped over top to create a canopy. Christmas lights were strung underneath to create unintrusive lighting since the lights in the gym were off, except for the Christmas lights that were hung from the ceiling to mimic stars. The Inns were made by draping sheets over two pop up canopies Lights were again strung underneath for added lighting. Small round tables and chairs were placed for seating so those who couldnt sit on the floor had a place to comfortably sit. Families were encouraged to bring their own blankets so they had a place to sit and eat in the center of the market.

Signs for each store front were made from poster board, crinkled matte gold tissue paper and letters cut out with a cricket machine. The Census was made from a poster board with a scroll already printed on it and currency was made from decorative glass rocks for vases. I sprayed them with a matte gold spray paint and placed 6 of them in a small resealable plastic jewelry bag.

After approximatively 20 hours of setting up and many many more of planning and getting things ready my final ward activity is done. After nearly three years of planning church parties I couldn't have asked for a better way to go out!

So now you know!