Ward Christmas Party aka the Bountiful Hills Express

The primary was asked to be in charge of the ward Christmas party this year. It wasn't something I wanted to take on, but, being the primary president, I didn't have a choice. I am lucky to have amazing counselors with great ideas. We had the theme of The Bountiful Hills Express,

We had four different stops on the train. But first, here is what you saw when you walked into the church. I bought a cute train stand up

 

we decorated the tracks with duct tape on the floor to show people which way to go.

 

The first stop: Bethlehem Station

 

Because the primary was in charge, we had the kids  participate in our "Angel Choir." The bishop spoke for just a couple of minutes and the kids sang as well as had bells.

Tyler was part of the bell choir. He was happy to be one of the few chosen.

 

After Bethlehem station, you could choose which stop you took next.

 

Since it was a breakfast, one of the stops was "Waffle Station" where we served waffles and hot chocolate.

 It was in the gymnasium and my counselor Cathy did a fantastic job decorating. the activity day girls helped with the centerpieces.

 The next stop: MTC station

This is where we had our service station. We had about 15 missionaries out from our ward at the time. We put their plaques on the table along with a card and a book of Mormon for each missionary. People were free to write on the Christmas card to the missionary as well as write their testimony in the Book of Mormon for the missionary to give away.

We also had a kids craft table that I did not get a picture of. It had felt Christmas ornaments that the kids could make and either keep for themselves, or give to one of the missionaries. I think this room went rather well. we had a lot of people end up participating.

 

The kids, of course, wanted to see Santa at the North pole station the most. I made this cute north pole sign.

 

Here was our setup for Santa. I think it turned out rather nice. If  I do say so myself.

I also bought a background and some props so families could take some fun Christmas photos. It was a hit!

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 Here are my kids enjoying the pseudo photo booth

 Tyler sort of ran off and did his own thing, (he's old enough not want to hang out with his mom now!) so I didn't get any photos of him.

Here
 is Jake with Santa. I think he asked for a tablet

 Nobody was more excited to see Santa than Lily! She could hardly contain herself.

 She asked him for makeup, if I remember right.

Alyssa did NOT want to talk to Santa. I was ok with that and didn't force her to do so. 

That was our ward Christmas Breakfast! I am so thankful that it is over! Primary is really busy at the end of the year and planning a party on top of everything is really hard to do. Luckily, we got the party done at the beginning of the month, and now the REAL work begins!

It's Christmas Time!

I've been having fun decorating our house for Christmas! here is our mantle.

 

I also made these glass holders with candle holders and vases I bought from the dollar store.

 They go great on my entryway table.

 

The kids had fun finding the pickle in the Christmas tree as well

I'm getting excited! I love Christmas!

Thanksgiving

 

It smells like Thanksgiving around here! Homemade apple pie from scratch. I am thankful for the apples on our tree and family to share the spoils with.

 I am also thankful for this little shopping helper! Isn't she adorable?

Arrow of Light

 Tyler earned his arrow of light award at scouts!

His scout master does a good job of making the boys feel special for all the hard work they've been doing.

Here he is with the other boys who received their arrow of light awards too.

 They all got an arrowhead laser pointer ("arrow of light") and they thought that it was pretty cool.

 

We are so proud of you Tyler! good job!

Veggie Tails party!

I won a veggie tails house party! It came with party favors, chips, masks, stickers, tattoos, posters and a veggie tails dvd to watch

 We invited some neighbor kids and cousins to join us. We ate vegetables and watched the DVD

 

Here are all the kids with their cute veggie masks on.

More Hair!

I like to document cute hairstyles (obviously) that I try on Lily.

This is the 'Jasmine' hairstyle.

 This is a plaited 5 strand braid that I did. Lily didn't love it, but I thought it looked pretty cool.

 ALyssa gets in on the hair action. Her hair is getting really long, but it is so thin and so curly that it is hard to do sometimes. Lately, she only wants me to do the "Anna" hairstyle.

 Here she is, the little cutie, on the potty. She has been potty training for the last couple of weeks. She is doing OK. I hope she improves soon. I loathe potty training. But look at that smile! She is so proud of herself.

Baby's First Haircut

OK, OK, so she's not really a baby, but she is MY baby and today she got her very first haircut!

 My friend and neighbor Chelsea cut her hair. I asked Chelsea to just trim into layers but not to cut too much off because she has such fine, thin, hair.

 After we were done, Chelsea said I didn't have to pay her because she really didn't do very much. I, however, could tell a difference and I was thrilled with the results. Thanks Chelsea!

 I didn't really take an "after" picture, but here are a couple I took of my sleeping Alyssa. she is an angel.

Sick little boy

This poor boy is finally asleep after being awake for nearly 24 hours. Wheezing, coughing, fever, vomiting, albuterol treatments, chest x-rays, more prescriptions and Dr visits. Hopefully tomorrow goes better for all of us!

The doctor thinks that he has some sort of virus. It is so hard to watch him struggle to breathe. Lucky for us, after being at the doctor for a while, his pulse oxygen levels went up to 94% (usually he would be hospitalized if it gets around or below 90%) I hope tomorrow goes better than it did today!