23 more days to go..

Today we made card garland. It was perfect! It has just been one of those days and this project took about 5 minutes and it was the first 5 minutes of Joy today. (not really, but it felt like it)

We hung it up and put our first card of the year on it. As you can see we have plenty of space and we are eagerly awaiting your Christmas Cards.

What a silly goose! Thanks for the fun laughs today, you sure know how to make me smile!

24 days 'til Christmas

It started out that we were suppose to be making cute rick rack cards today, but it turned out a little differently when all was said and done. We got everything out and then it just evolved into something completely different. This year for Christmas I asked Marcella to tell me 5 reasons why she loves her Daddy and then we thought of a gift for each reason. I am sad that I can't give away what she said, but it sure was cute and Jon is going to be getting some interesting yet fun presents. We ended up making a gift tag for each of the gifts and we wrote on the back the reasons why she thinks her Daddy is the best in the world. I will have to post a picture when we get the presents together, it sure is going to be cute.

It is a little hard to read, but it spells out Daddy. I think Marcella would be the happiest girl alive if I just let her play with glitter all day long. She loves the stuff. Have a Merry Christmas!

Christmas Count Down

I have been excited for this Christmas Season. I got almost All of my Christmas shopping done the day after Thanksgiving and I have been working on my plan for our count down for weeks! It has taken a lot of time and planning, but I am ready and the past couple days have been a blast. The first day of our countdown we made the chain. I am still amazed at how little you have to do with kids to make them have soo much fun. On the inside of each ring has the craft or thing we get to do for that day. On the fun polka dot ring days, she gets to invite a friend over to do that craft with her. Yesterday, 26 more days til Christmas, We learned about Jesus's birth for FHE and then watched the nativity movie. It was a great way to start out our Christmas season.

25 Days until Christmas...

Today we made a little gum drop santa, snowman, Christmas tree, snails, and mushrooms. This project took about 45 min from start to completely cleaned up and was so fun. We had lots of laughs when making the snowman, because his nose is HUGE!

Here is the beginning of the Santa. The best about this is she was able to make most of these herself , with little help from me.

Our end creation... it reminds me of a snowglobe, only you can't shake it. he he. I hope that you will all enjoy our countdown to Christmas activities and if you want my list of things we are going to make or do, just let me know. Merry Christmas!!

Sneak Peaks and Megan

I can hardly get an in focus picture of this little mover, let alone one where she doesn't have a blank stare and you know she is thinking what in the world are you doing! But when Marcella said let me try she held perfectly still and hammed it up! What a silly goose.

I am hoping to get caught up on some fabulous things we have been doing lately, but for now only small sneak peaks. You know to leave you all in great suspense and wanting more... This was while we were on the buddy walk. We had a lot of fun and Thank you, Thank you to all our friends and family that donated and came to be with us. We love you guys!

Arrr... Matey....

After 4 days of having pink hair Marcella still says, I think my hair should be pink today, it will be soo cute!!

I also wanted to tell you all about Megan. I am soo excited she is going to be doing our Christmas Card this year and our family pictures. She has some pretty sweet designs and you can even have her create your very own. You can send her pictures to put in the card or have her take some for you. Her prices are pretty sweet. If you want her to take your pictures it's $75 and with that you get a $40 print credit which gets you 2 8x10s, plus you get all the pictures on a cd. She is seriously awesome, I wish we would have already done our pictures so I could post them... (yet another sneak peak, I hope by now you will have the desire to check back everyday because the suspense is killing you!) But you can go to her website and blog to check out just how Fabulous she is. Here is the link to her awesome Christmas Cards as well. I hope you all have a spectacular day and I will see ya soon!

The Trade

Caroline and I have slowly been in the making of trading kids for a day or two. Hopefully we will continue doing this more and more because the kids have so much fun! These silly little ones have had a blast today. They sure like to make each other laugh. I have been thinking a lot lately about all the fun things I want to do around the holidays this year and it happens to involve lots of fun crafts. I am getting super excited. My goal is to have everything ready for the week of Thanksgiving so I can start our fun. I have been trying to stock up on random things to help me not have to go to the store for the essentials so I will be able to spend more time at home this Holiday season (instead of running around like a crazy lady trying to to everything I have always wanted and completely failed to do). This year will be different, I have a plan and hopefully I can stick closely to it. Since I had a couple extra kids today I decided to do a trial run. Let's see how much of a mess I am going to have to make and clean up after each daily project and I must say it was heavenly. This was one of the easiest crafts I have ever made with the kids. (That involves more than just cutting paper and glue). They had a lot of fun making them and I have to say they are the cutest Turkey's I have ever seen. I hope you enjoy.

If Marcella's had a name I think it would be Around the world.

My favorite thing about Hannah's is the big green feather on the top of the Turkey's head. I love it!

Owen made a special hanger for his, so he can hang it up on his door.

I love the things kids do when you make things with them. It is fun to see their creative side. Bring on Thanksgiving we are now set with decorations!

Hot Chocolate

Disneyland

I have been looking at www.sweetlifeinthevalley.com for almost a year now and I love it. They also have another website that is awesome. I am hoping I will win a wonderful trip to Disneyland, cross my fingers!! If you want a chance to win go and check out their websites! Have a fun day!!

My little Helper

As I emailed these two pictures to my Dad tonight, I thought I should post them. They are taken at our favorite place in the world, the Cabin. The first one was in July 2007, right after my Dad came home from his time over seas. We had a lot of fun spliting wood and as you can see Marcella learned how to stack it. Below is a picture from this past Labor Day and she is still stacking wood only she can carry a little bit more now. Where has the time gone I tell ya. I wonder if she will still be stacking wood and smiling about it when she is 14?

08.09.09

The Cup Cake

Claire turned 1 yea! We had a lot of fun at her party. She received so many fun gifts that are really going to help her develop as well as have so much fun playing. She already loves just playing in her room with all her toys. She has been such a wiggle worm this past little while. I feel bad because almost every picture I have of her is blurry because she always decides to move around at the same sec I take the picture. I seriously can't believe she is one. Where has the time gone. You are such a sweetheart Claire, we love you!

This was pretty funny. She stuck her hand in once, barely, then she didn't want to have anything to do with the cake. I even made her taste some frosting and she spit it out. I guess this little lady doesn't like cake.

YUCK!

Girls

Excitement

Laughter

Family

Summer Fun!

going

UP..

and

down...

all day long.

Favorite Things

right after bath time,

being awake before the girls
then walking into their room to see this..

and this.
Thank you Mom!
I am not sure if a jar has ever made it into the fridge.
Thanks a million!

Pre-School

This Little one started preschool last week. She has so much fun in her class. Her preschool is amazing. They have one main class then on Tues she goes to a cooking class and Music class. Then on Thurs she goes to Art class and Science class. I have to admit it was hard taking her the first day. I was sad. As much as I thought I would enjoy the few hours I have with just me and Claire, I sure did miss her company and her funny antics. I guess it just helps me to remember I need to cherish each moment.

This is Marcella and her good friend Hallie right before they went in on their first day.

Here they are in their classroom. They sure are cute!

What do you think about Public Health Care?

Here's what King Benjamin had to say about it:

Mosiah 4:16-24

16 And also, ye yourselves will succor those that stand in need of your succor; ye will administer of your substance unto him that standeth in need; and ye will not suffer that the beggar putteth up his petition to you in vain, and turn him out to perish.
17 Perhaps thou shalt say: The man has brought upon himself his misery; therefore I will stay my hand, and will not give unto him of my food, nor impart unto him of my substance that he may not suffer, for his punishments are just—
18 But I say unto you, O man, whosoever doeth this the same hath great cause to repent; and except he repenteth of that which he hath done he perisheth forever, and hath no interest in the kingdom of God.
19 For behold, are we not all beggars? Do we not all depend upon the same Being, even God, for all the substance which we have, for both food and raiment, and for gold, and for silver, and for all the riches which we have of every kind?
20 And behold, even at this time, ye have been calling on his name, and begging for a remission of your sins. And has he suffered that ye have begged in vain? Nay; he has poured out his Spirit upon you, and has caused that your hearts should be filled with joy, and has caused that your mouths should be stopped that ye could not find utterance, so exceedingly great was your joy.
21 And now, if God, who has created you, on whom you are dependent for your lives and for all that ye have and are, doth grant unto you whatsoever ye ask that is right, in faith, believing that ye shall receive, O then, how ye ought to impart of the substance that ye have one to another.
22 And if ye judge the man who putteth up his petition to you for your substance that he perish not, and condemn him, how much more just will be your condemnation for withholding your substance, which doth not belong to you but to God, to whom also your life belongeth; and yet ye put up no petition, nor repent of the thing which thou hast done.
23 I say unto you, wo be unto that man, for his substance shall perish with him; and now, I say these things unto those who are rich as pertaining to the things of this world.
24 And again, I say unto the poor, ye who have not and yet have sufficient, that ye remain from day to day; I mean all you who deny the beggar, because ye have not; I would that ye say in your hearts that: I give not because I have not, but if I had I would give.

A man gave a talk in sacrament meeting on Sunday about patriotism and the glory of America. One line he said really stood out to me (this is a paraphrase): "Our government is trying to give people goods and services they haven't earned and don't deserve." It hit close to home, as both my daughters' medical expenses are currently paid by the state of Utah. If Claire hadn't been covered by Medicaid, we would have been crushed by the cost of three weeks in the intensive care unit. Would he say we don't deserve that, as my current employer doesn't offer health insurance, and our health plan has a $10,000 deductible? And our situation is much more favorable than that of most people. Since my dad is a doctor we can get prescriptions without having to pay for an office visit. He also gives us treatment for free when we're sick. If Claire is rubbing her ears I don't have to take her into the doctor. I just drop by Dad's office and he checks her out.

It might not be easy to stomach the idea of public health care, but it seems like its benefits far outweigh its costs, even if it means an increase in taxes across the board. My dad favors a public health care plan, and he estimates that every patient he sees who is on Medicaid costs him $10.

What do you think? Does the country need a public health plan? Are uninsured and underinsured people undeserving of health care? Here are a couple of resources you might want to check out:

Wendell Potter talks about his role as an executive at Cigna health care.

3rd Nephi 6:12

Alma 1:30

One last resource

Family Pictures

Before my Dad left on Tuesday we had our family pictures taken. I have to say it was a lot of fun. Plus we had an awesome photographer. Here are a couple shots from her blog. I am excited to get the rest of the pictures this week. They really turned out cute.




If you are interested in having Ashley take your pictures, check out her blog. It is pretty awesome. (Man three posts in one day, I must be on a roll!)

A Couple of projects

I have finally started to get some pictures organized and edited in order to have them printed. I want to give some to grandparents and actually get some pictures hung in my bedroom. These two have been cross-processed in order to make them feel a little retro (like the picture Jon did of Marcella...you can see it to the right of this post). I think that they have turned out pretty cute so far, and thought I would share them. Hope you have a great day!