::card(s)::

When I was trying to decide what to do about Christmas cards this year I suddenly realized that I have some photoshop skills. That instead of picking somebody else's template I could make up my own! I got excited and went to work.
Here's the first draft I came up with.

I like it. It's fun and busy. I never know where to stop when pictures are concerned though, so I think this card may have had a few more pictures than were really necessary.
Then I worked up another one:

This is the one we sent out. Simplicity and bold colors won out. I love it. It's fun that I get to claim credit for the design. And plus I found a place that printed them for about .50 apiece, which made it so we could actually send them out.
Christmas cards are fun. I love getting them and I enjoy sending them.

::thankful::

(I just wrote this post and it got deleted--I'm very disappointed and I know this recreation won't be the same--I'll try though)

I haven't been feeling very good for the last week. I got a really yucky cold that's laid me low. I've been a little homesick. It would be so nice to be where I could have moms taking care of me.
It's made me think a lot about family.
When I think about it, I think that I've got to be the luckiest person on earth where family is concerned.

I was sent to the perfect family for me. I think my parents are two of the best, sweetest people that I know. They take such good care of me, even when I'm far away. And my siblings? I love them to death. They're wonderful ambitious, smart productive people, and I know they really care about me. I couldn't ask for more.

So don't bother asking me to trade. I won't do it. No way.

And to continue on--
I think I couldn't have found a better family to marry into. Not only did I get Kris, which would've been enough, but I scored two parents that I really love, and some great siblings too. I feel so close to my inlaws. And I know that's a serious blessing, and that it's not always that way, so I really appreciate it.

Nope, nope. Not trading them either.

And finally:

It doesn't get better than this little family. It's perfect. The best, sweetest husband ever, and the cutest little mischievous boy. I love them so much.

It makes me so grateful for the gospel I believe in. For the knowledge that these family ties--so solid, so tangible--don't have an expiration date. That we can be together and keep loving and supporting each other forever.
The thought of that keeps me going through the hard times, as do you my beloved family.

::house::

On monday evening we got together with our good friends to make "gingerbread" houses. The gingerbread is in quotation marks because we really made them out of graham crackers. But that's A-OK.
So I brought my big heavy camera all the way over there and got it out and started taking photos. I was more than a little dismayed to see the camera flashing it's "NO MEMORY CARD" prompt at me. ARGH.
So no pictures of all the construction and candies, smeared up little faces, excitement, dads trying to build impressive structures and having them flop all over the place.....etc.
But I did take a couple of pictures of our finished product the next day.



So three photos may be more than a little silly (not) gingerbread house deserves, but there you go.
I designed it and I think it turned out pretty cool--kind of modern, kind of southwestern. It looks like the roof should be made of solar panels rather than candies, right?
The house was actually more impressive at one point. It had a snowman, two more trees, an intact fence and lots more candy on the roof. But unfortunately Sultan decided to sneak around, and at 2 in the morning we heard a tremendous crash, and Kris ran in to see the house face down on a chair and Sultan chasing chocolate candies around the floor. Needless to say Sul got in trouble. My architecture held up pretty well though, don't you think?
Christmastime is fun. We're so glad to have good friends out here!

::today::

Today we've got some nasty weather. Slick snow fell all morning, and at some point here it's supposed to be turning to rain--lots of rain.
Kris called me after he made it to work and he said the roads were so slippery. It took him over an hour to get to work when it normally takes about twenty minutes. I'm hoping not to leave anytime soon, though of course school isn't canceled, which is a bummer. I think snow should equal closed school all the time.

I do have lights on my tree, as you can see in the picture. Which means that we did get the tree down from the attic (I don't think it really counts as an attic, but that's ok. It's mostly exposed insulation), and it also means that we moved furniture out of the living room to make room for the tree. We still have to put the ornaments on though. I just got the lights done last night after an emergency trip to target because at least four of my light strings were totally dead. Argh. And then they were out of the cheap lights so I had to settle for less of the expensive lights. Oh well, it's got lights. That's what matters. Hopefull we'll be putting ornaments on today.

And lastly, I thought I was sparing in the addition of bubble bath this morning, but:

To the little man's delight, I guess I wasn't sparing enough. The jets take the bubble bath over the top. (literally) (keep in mind this is a big deep tub--really the only thing in our house that isn't tiny--and the bubbles are spilling over the top and sides, YIKES).
He's been enjoying a long winter's bath. I'm scared to see how the bathroom is doing. Wish me luck.

::more mama fish::

So, as if Max didn't have enough fish already, he put in a special request that I make him a mama fish. At first I thought the request was pretty ridiculous, but then it caught my fancy and I started working on it.
I found this pattern that I figured I could start with. I found about four different colors of yarn that I thought sort of matched up with the real fish. And then I went to work.
And then:



I'm really happy with how she turned out. EXCEPT that in trying to be smart I used some rice on her insides to give her some weight. Was I thinking about how if I ever had to wash her the rice would get all gross? NO. Oh well. Too late now.
The colors worked out well though, and my pattern modifications turned out great I thought.
Want to compare New Mama Fish with the original Mama Fish?


Not exactly the same, but pretty darn close.
And the verdict?


He likes her. And I like him. Good deal.

::post thanksgiving in Vermont pt 2::

After the lighting ceremony we headed back to White River Jct. Most of us stayed in the Econolodge there. And it was great! It was probably the nicest Econolodge I've stayed in. It had a pool and everything (much to Max's delight).
After the kids were in bed the grownups all played canasta in the lobby. It was really fun, but we had to quit just about when we got the game figured out which was too bad.
In the morning we got up and we all had breakfast together (accidentally) and then headed out to do different things and head back home.
I had heard about a cool gorge not too far from where we were staying, so I had looked up directions and stuff. We tried to follow them and ended up totally lost. So we looked up the town on the GPS and found it, but it wasn't anywhere near where we were really supposed to be. When we finally found the gorge it seemed that maybe it was just a bridge to drive across. There was noplace we could see to get out and check out the scene on foot. But then we found a little trailhead of the side of the road. So we decided to brave it. We headed out to see what we could find.

We didn't find the gorge. Of course.
We found a lot of other stuff though.
We found a dam. It wasn't a particularly cool dam, but the river was cool looking. It was scenic enough for us to feel the need to take some pictures. Pictures of ourselves in front of it that is.

(why is Max making that face? I'm not sure. He was pretending to be surprised about something. What I don't know.)

(could it have been the same thing that surprised me in this photo? could anything really be that surprising? Bigfoot sighting? And Max is way beyond being surprised by whatever it is at this point)


The rest of the walk/hike Max spent finding and picking up pinecones. There were some pretty impressive pinecones on the ground, that's for sure. We thought it was cute to watch him running around picking ones to stick in his pockets.

Cute little boy gathering pinecones.

He ended up with so many they were spilling out of his arms and he couldn't keep ahold of them at all.
So I helped him. I was carrying some in my hands, so I had Kris hold the camera for me.
With which he proceeded to take a picture. And yes, I'm only wearing one earring. Wardrobe malfunction?

Little pinecone boy was just adorable until we got down to the car and realized that each and every pinecone was covered in sap. And not just covered, crusted and dolloped with sap. Max's arms and hands were full of them, his coat pockets were full of them. We were in so much trouble.
We went in to the little giftshop where we'd parked, hoping to scrub our hands. They only had freezing cold water. I got most of the sap off of my hands, but Max was still as sticky as could be. We got in the car and he had to hold his hands straight up in the air and not touch anything--no easy feat for a 5 yr old. It didn't go so hot.
We finally found a little hardware store, bought some industrial strength handcleaner and scrubbed him down in their bathroom. He was clean. But his coat was useless for the rest of the trip!

After that little adventure we went to a nearby town and did some shopping at cute funky way too expensive stores. WE didn't buy anything but it was a really fun place.
After that we headed home--with only one puking scare on the way we made it in time to pick up Sultan from the kennel and watch the BYU vs UT game. Which I have to say ended up very satisfactorily (before the press conference, of course).
What a great weekend!

::post thanksgiving in Vermont pt 1::

The day after Thanksgiving we drove up to Vermont. We were told when we visited the Joseph Smith memorial in September that they have tons of fun christmas lights up. I read online that they would be lighting them for the first time the day after thanksgiving. So we thought it would be fun to go up there and see it. The best part was that we talked some of our friends into coming up too!
So we all met for dinner at a little pizza place in White River Junction. It was a place I had just looked up online and picked, hoping that it would work.
It worked great, luckily. When we got there it was empty, nobody else there. I'm guessing the teenagers staffing the place were really surprised to see a big party of 16 show up with six crazy kids!

The kids were thrilled to see each other, so far from home. And they had a blast playing around.



Before we left Kris gave Max his old camera. It's broken--the viewfinder doesn't work. So you can't see what you're taking a photo of. Of course that didn't stop Max. He took a zillion pictures on the little trip (wow, I wonder where he gets that). His friend Henry decided he didn't want his picture taken of course, so Max ended up chasing him around all night. Sillies.


We ate, and it was good, but then the kids starting having a little _too_ much fun. They were going crazy, teasing each other, running around, yelling, having a blast.

(like Lucy blowing in poor Peter's face)
So we decided we should take off and head out to the lighting. But the bad news was that we were early. Way early. We had been worried it would take us a while to eat, and take us a while to get up to Sharon. But in fact it took us hardly any time at all to eat, and we were only about 20 mins from where we needed to be.
So we showed up like an hour early.
And it was raining. It had been raining all day, but when night fell so did the temperature, and the rain was dang cold. And it wouldn't stop.
So there we were--16 of us, 6 silly little kids, trying to hang out in the Joseph Smith memorial for an hour. It was a little crazy.
We had one near accident--little Natalie fell down the stairs of the actual monument face first, but luckily no injuries (luck or blessing--it was really close).
Other than that the kids just tried not to go crazy. And we all tried not to freeze!

(waiting inside, looking around at the displays)

(Max checking out what he says is his favorite thing in there--a topographical map of the area in a big glass box)

Sillies!
Finally it was time for the lighting and such. We went out to the little porch area and all huddled together to try and stay dry. I had to try to warm Max's hands and face in my coat because he had taken a spill and soaked his gloves (of course). It took forever for things to start, but when they finally did it was nice. They had a live nativity (I felt so bad for all the people up on the hill in the freezing rain!) and the lights were glorious when they were switched on.
Afterwards we got to enjoy hot cider and doughnuts and go into their little theater for a showing of Mr Kruger's Christmas. The kids loved it.
So that's part one for you!
(Wildes, how did I end up with no photos of you?!??! Were you hiding from me?)

::hilarious::

Max I watched Elf today. The part where he's at the doctor is just so hilarious. Anybody that's spent any time with a little kid will appreciate this.

The rest of it's great too, of course. If you haven't seen it you'd better!

::busy::

Busy assembling advents calendars, addressing christmas cards, packing packages, sending packages, digging out decorations, listening to festive music, enjoying christmastime!