What is on the camera?

We have pictures from my dad's birthday party, which we had last night. Today my dad is 60! Happy Birthday, dad!






Victoria was supposed to be in North Carolina, but her flight on Saturday was canceled due to the weather. We enjoyed having her at the party! Hopefully, she will make it home tomorrow.

We have pictures of the kids using their birthday hats in creative ways. We have birds...


beards...

an eye patch...

and a unicorn...

Such silly children!

We have pictures from our branch Christmas party that we went to Saturday night.


Zoe, Eleanor, and Zach were shepherds in the Nativity play. Emily was a donkey.

The scenery for the play was incredible and the gym was decorated so nice for our potluck dinner before the play. As Matt and I ate the salad that we brought, I came to the conclusion that we should have brought something more filling for us to eat! We were good though.

We have pictures of our Christmas tree!







We spent several family councils deciding if we were going to get a regular sized tree or a table top tree this year. Matt was strongly for the table top tree and Zoe was strongly for the regular sized tree. We've never had a couch before, so we really did wonder where we were going to fit a tree. We discussed moving things around and/or taking some things out of the living room, but then we didn't know where to move the stuff to. In the end, we moved the couch toward the wall a few inches and the chair toward the bookcase a few inches and made room for a regular sized tree (for our house anyway!). It fits perfectly!

We also have 1 picture of man camp.


The men claim it wasn't that bad this year. They went through A LOT of firewood and got very little sleep, but they are calling it a success! My mom, Victoria, and I had our own little adventure getting my mom out of the snowbank in our driveway after we played a game of Phase 10. We did it, though!

What is on your camera?

Emily's Christmas Program, Random artwork, and Man Camp

Matt, Zach, Kate, Noah, and I went to Emily's Christmas program at her school this morning. The younger kids were so quiet and well behaved during the performance. It was so nice! Emily was one of the martians in "A Martian Christmas".

Emily didn't have any speaking parts, but she did a great job singing!

Here are a few random shots that I took of Noah and Zach during the performance.



Now for some artwork that the girls' have done. I took this picture of Emily's snowman which is hanging up in the gym at school.

Zoe brought home this snowman that she made yesterday. It has 3 healthy things things written on it that she will do during Christmas vacation...basketball, ice skating, and sledding!

Eleanor brought home this Santa yesterday that she made at school.

Emily made this bird in the Spring, but I just took it down to put Zoe's snowman up in its place.

Emily brought home this scarecrow a few weeks ago from school.

Eleanor made this clay leaf at school.


Zach and Kate have been making a lot of pet rocks lately.

They have been painting rocks and pictures throughout the week.

Matt is getting ready for man camp. Jason and Justin will join him at Camp Bravo this afternoon. It is currently 12 degrees outside, but feels like 0 degrees. COLD!

I will be thinking of him while I am in our nice warm home. :-)

The power of 2

Yesterday was a tough dieting day for me. Having Matt on the diet with me stopped me from going to Friendly's or McDonald's with Zoe and Emily last night after Activity Days. If I had been dieting myself, I would have enjoyed a delicious cheeseburger, fries, and a chocolate milkshake...and then regretted it. Matt has had food temptations as well, but has stuck to the diet because I am dieting with him. We are debating whether or not to take a day off from dieting on Christmas. We are leaning towards sticking to the diet because we are both afraid that we won't be able to get back on it the next day, but I'm not sure I can resist my super yummy sugar cookies. The kids are looking forward to the sugar cookies, so I have to make them. One thought for Christmas day is to fill up on the food we're not supposed to eat and then bring what is leftover to my parents' house Christmas evening when we go over for dinner. Then we won't be tempted the next day. Whatever is decided will be done together!

School vs Movies

Zoe is back to school today. Eleanor has said that her tummy hurts the past few mornings, but her energy hasn't matched her words, so she went to school yesterday and is on her way to school now. I think a day at home watching movies sounds more fun to her than going to school.

The younger kids are all stuffed up and have runny noses, but that is minor. I can deal with colds.

Here we go again

Zoe has been throwing up all evening.

Diet update

As of today, Matt and I are on Phase 2 of the South Beach Diet. We made it through Phase 1 with no cheating! I find it fascinating that the food I need to avoid like pizza, cookies, chips, and chocolate for example smell really good and I know they are super yummy, but I don't crave them. I can look at a piece of pizza (or whatever) and smell the yummy aroma and know that it tastes good, but there is no physical desire to eat it. Before this diet, when I would think about eating a piece of pizza, I could taste it before I actually ate it, but now there is no taste there before the actual eating, so it's easier to avoid the forbidden food. During Phase 2, we'll add fruit to our diet and some other foods. I was so happy to eat Uncle Sam cereal this morning! Cereal is so much faster and easier than cooking eggs. Phase 2 lasts until we are at our desired weight. So far, being on this diet during the Christmas season has been easier than I expected.

Busy having fun

Zoe, Emily, and Eleanor are having a fun couple of days. They had a half day of school yesterday, so they were able to go to Kayla's birthday party in the afternoon. They received an official letter from Hogwarts and they were excited to act out Harry Potter at the party. Eleanor ended up going shopping with me at Walmart since she hasn't read the Harry Potter books, so she didn't understand anything that was going on. We had fun buying a birthday present for her friend, Lucy.

Zoe had her first basketball practice this morning and then we went to the library to pick up the last Harry Potter book for her to read.

Zoe and Emily spent the rest of the day at Mary's house making gingerbread houses and playing with Madi and Shelby. They had a great time making forts outside.

Zoe took these pictures of her gingerbread house before it collapsed.




Emily's gingerbread house is still standing.


I brought Eleanor to Lucy's house for a sleepover this afternoon. We'll meet up with Eleanor tomorrow at church.

Zoe and Emily are now on their way to see the Nutcracker with Caitlin and Cassidy.

Fun times!

13 years and counting

Matt and I celebrated our anniversary this evening! We went to Bugaboo Creek for dinner and we did some shopping. I love you, Matt!

Let it snow

We are in the middle of a storm, so I'm getting my computer time in while I can. We expect to lose our power at some point. Matt is cooking dinner right now and hopefully it will get cooked and eaten before the power goes out. It started to snow around 10am, so the kids got out of school early today.

My mom and I finished Christmas shopping for the kids last night when we went shopping with Victoria. Yay! Let the wrapping begin.

Noah woke up yesterday with a chest cold and a fever, but the fever is gone today and he sounds much better. I shouldn't have put him down for a nap, though because he woke up grumpier than he was before his nap!

The kids love snow!

I love snow in December, too. Zach and Kate went outside 3 times today to play in the snow. All of the kids, except Noah went outside around 4pm to play until dinnertime. I discovered today that Noah's boots are too small. I put a pair of boots on him that were too big and brought him outside to play with Zach and Kate. I don't know if it was because of the boots, the snow, the cold, or the fact that he is getting a bunch of molars, but he did not want to stay outside. That was fine with me because bundling up 2 kids to go outside is enough!



Emily unwrapped "The elves and the shoemaker" this evening for us to read. The older girls were so excited! There were many comments about how they love this book and the fact that Grandma gave us the book last year. The kids were very good about listening to the book this evening. :-)

The parade is over!

Life is good.

Friday night, we met Mary and her kids at the Creche Exhibit. Kate loved looking at all the nativity scenes. She wanted to stop and look closely at each one. There are about 500 of them! When we made it to the children's room, we spent a lot of time there. There were cookies to decorate and eat, costumes to dress up in, puppets to play with, many hands-on nativity scenes to play with, books to read, and many crafts to make.




Zoe figured out how to make this paper star. She taught the adult volunteer in the children's area how to make it.






Yesterday morning, I went over to my parents' house so my mom and I could organize what we have bought the kids for Christmas. Then the rest of the day was spent getting ready for the parade. Zoe's friend, Hailey and Hailey's 2 brothers marched with us and Zoe's and Emily's friends, Caitlyn and Cassidy and their mom, Jen marched with us.

The kids looked great in their costumes!

The older kids should have been the shepherds instead of the wise men because they would have been more cautious with the shepherds staff. I'll know better next year.

My dad and I carried this banner. I am so grateful that Angie ordered the banner and decorated it to make it look so nice.


Jen carried the radio which was playing Christmas songs from the Children's Songbook and hymns from the hymnbook. The parade all worked out perfectly, as we knew it would, but not without some stress first! We had a few minor incidents like Zoe's crown breaking as she was putting it on, 3 of the candles got broken before and during the parade, and I dropped my side of the banner during the parade, but we all had a great time. It started to snow as we were marching, which was so pretty and perfect for the occasion. I had to encourage Eleanor to pay attention to where she was walking instead of trying to catch snowflakes in her mouth.

We sang this song in front of the judges...
We wish you a Merry Christmas
We wish you a Merry Christmas
We wish you a Merry Christmas
And a Happy New Year

What joy it will bring
to you and your kin
when you visit the Creche Exhibit
this weekend for free!

Having to sing the song stressed us out (we didn't have to stop in front of the judges, but I decided we would when I filled out the application), but the judges seemed to like the song and it gave us a fun way to spread the word about the Creche Exhibit.

The kids LOVED being in the parade, but they hated the wait before the parade started. The long wait didn't stop them from saying they want to be in the parade next year, though. After the parade, Hailey's mom said they have a trailer that we could decorate next year and ride on and she and her husband are all for helping us and would love to be in the parade with us. Yay!

I took Zoe, Emily, and Eleanor to McDonalds after the parade. Matt and I are still on our diet, so I was good and drank water. A lot of other people who were at the parade had the same idea, so it was crowded, but the girls enjoyed the treat.

Now I can focus on Christmas cards, Christmas gifts, Christmas goodies (for everyone else), and enjoying this Christmas season.

It's looking like Christmas around here!

In full swing

All of our Christmas countdown activities are finally finished! Only a few days late, not bad. We have our most popular countdown activity, which is the unwrapping of a book to be read before bedtime. Only a few of the kids actually sit and listen to the book, but seeing what book is going to be read is so exciting for the kids! Zoe unwrapped a book this evening.

It was Mary Engelbreit's A Merry Little Christmas...Celebrate from A to Z. Zoe read the book to her siblings.

Emily moved the doll to bag #3. Last year, we couldn't find the doll that we always use, but I found her this year. Yay! The doll reminds me of a little girl anxious for Christmas to arrive. I have several of those girls. :-) It is so much fun to see the doll get closer and closer to the Christmas Eve bag, which is just the #24 bag.

Our hallway is too narrow to get a good shot of all the bags.

Zach did our Christmas around the world activity and Kate did our "scripture tree" activity. I took a picture of them, but you can also see them here and here. Sorry, the second link isn't working.


Eleanor put an ornament on our "ornament tree".

This is new for us this year. Zoe made most of the tree and she did a great job! The kids can either make a paper ornament or pick a paper ornament that is already made to put on the tree. Eleanor and Zach had fun making ornaments last night while Zoe was making the tree.

In other news...

Our Nativity costumes arrived last night, right on time. :-) Here is a sample of what they look like.

Before the costumes arrived, all of the girls wanted to be Mary. Now they all want to be shepherds or wise men because the costumes are so much fun! We have 2 friends of Zoe and 1 friend of Emily joining us in the parade, and hopefully we'll be able to round up a few more. We have 9 costumes in all, so it would be fun to get 9 kids to participate. Zach is going to watch the parade with my mom and Kate and Noah will stay home with Matt. It looks like it may be warm for the parade (45-50 degrees). I really hope it is!

Matt and I are still on our diet. There has been no cheating yet. :-)

A moment with Zach

I was talking with Zach's primary teacher this morning and she told me about this cute experience she had with Zach several Sundays ago during the primary presentation. Zach tugged on her skirt and was trying to get her attention. She thought he was going to tell her that he had to go potty, but instead he whispered to her, "Sister Butler, I really like your new hair cut." So sweet!

Momma's helper

Here is a picture of Noah "helping" me with the Christmas lights. He is such a cutie!

Are you in the Christmas spirit?

For some reason, I'm having a hard time getting into the Christmas spirit this year. I think it has to do with the weather. It has been so nice here that in my mind, it is still too early to be digging out the Christmas decorations and singing Christmas songs.

Last night, I realized that today was going to be December 1st and I was not even close to being prepared for our Christmas countdown, which always starts on December 1st. Well, I did have Matt pick up Christmas books at the library last week and then he handed the books over to my mom that evening and she wrapped them all, but other than that, no preparation. I know, I have a GREAT mother! I am so glad she loves to wrap. When I was on the computer last night, I looked up countdown ideas from the most recent Friend magazine and I looked at past issues as well. I came up with 3 more countdown ideas, but we don't have any ink in our printer, so I asked my mom to print what I needed at her work. Again, I have a GREAT mother! My lack of preparation however resulted in only 2 of the 5 countdown activities being completely ready for this evening. The kids were understanding, though.

I went Christmas shopping with my mom and Victoria this evening. I was supposed to bring home the papers that my mom printed off today, but I never got them from her. Hopefully, I'll get them tomorrow. I wanted to make a paper tree today to put paper ornaments on as one of our countdown ideas, but I didn't get it made and the girls were not excited to make one, so that is on my list of things to do tomorrow.

I did force myself to dig out the Christmas lights today and put some up around the windows in the living room and along the ceiling in the kids' room. I'm glad I did because the excitement on Eleanor's face when she walked through the door after school and saw the lights was worth the effort.

The South Beach Diet

The holidays are here and Matt and I are on a diet. I wanted to start the diet on January 1st, but Matt was determined to start the day after Thanksgiving to avoid gaining the holiday pounds. Good idea, but I wasn't determined to do the same. Matt started the diet the day after Thanksgiving and I enjoyed the leftover pies. Matt went to the temple that day, so I was able to eat without tempting him. That night I felt super full, fat, and blah. I was ready to start the diet. So, Saturday was our official 1st day of the diet together. It was easy for me since I was still full from all the desserts I ate the day before. I got sick that night and was still recovering on day 2, so the second day was easy as well. Today was a bit more challenging. I was craving a tall glass of orange juice this morning, but I drank water instead with my breakfast. I would have drank milk, but all we had was whole milk, which is not allowed. The rest of the day wasn't as bad. I'm not flirting with the idea of abandoning the diet anymore as I was while eating breakfast.

Matt started feeling sick before he got home this evening, so he skipped dinner. He made it through FHE and then he went to bed. We are hoping this flu only hits us all once!

The kids are already noticing that we are all eating healthier as a family now. Kate was snacking on a celery stick this afternoon and everything on the table this evening was healthy. The kids were impressed! There are a lot more green vegetables to choose from at dinnertime and the salmon we had the other night and the london broil we had this evening were delicious! I am not a salmon fan, but I loved this salmon!

We will lose weight not gain weight this holiday season! That's the plan, anyway.

Recovering

About 24 hours ago, the sickness caught up with me. We all stayed home from church today. I had already asked someone to teach my class for me since some of the kids were still suffering from some symptoms of this illness and I was planning on staying home with all of the kids, but I didn't realize that I would be suffering as well. Matt took care of the kids today. It was a long day for everyone.

Round 6

Kate has been throwing up all morning. Somehow she managed to throw up the first time on Zoe's pillow, but not on Zoe.