Not updating

I'm not sure why, but my blog posts don't seem to be updating on Danelle's blog. I hope everyone still goes to my blog and checks it out...

Layouts

Robin has been sharing photos with me for the last couple of years, and I just love it! The boys decorated gingerbread houses here.

I always love decorating my home and so I started taking photos.

I actually loaded these backwards...page one is the bottom photo. Danelle & the girls came down and we baked cookies and made candy before Christmas. It was so much fun.

I didn't get very good pictures of the layouts I did this past weekend, but I'll go ahead and post them anyway. Too much glare. Sorry.

At least you'll know I have been working...ha!

Christmas

Wow, it was a busy year, but it went by sooo fast. I can't believe another year has come and gone so quickly. Where did it go? It seems like only a few weeks ago that we were emptying the files and drawers at work, and now it's time to do it again. And the kids are growing up so fast it's unbelievable.
After Braquel's accident on Wednesday morning, (she wasn't injured) it seemed almost like a let down to have to deal with Christmas. The best present we could have gotten, was that she wasn't hurt or killed in that accident. I don't want to even imagine how awful it could have been. We were very blessed. On Thursday, Christmas Eve, Danelle and the kids brought Braquel down for work at 9:00 and then just went to our house for the remainder of the day. They all showered and got ready for the party there. When we got off and went home, Danelle and I made 4 jelly roll pans up for pizza after the family party. I kept thinking we were making way too many...we'd never eat all that. But, we almost did. We made a sausage & mushroom, a cheese, a pepperonni, and a canadian bacon & tomato . I'll bet I didn't throw away more than six slices...After that we opened gifts. Steph & Dave had Brittney with them, and she had to be to work at 10:00, and it takes them at least an hour to drive to Gooding, so they wanted to leave by 8:30. C.J. and Brenda & Hillary didn't get to our home until almost 8:30, and Tori wasn't much before that, so we missed somethings with almost all of them. But it was still a wonderful night. It's so much fun to have everyone there.
Danelle called Christmas morning, and I was telling her that by the time Jeff took Vern & Reta home and came back, I almost had the kitchen cleaned up. She said Chelsey and Mikayla were really worried about how messy they left the kitchen. It wasn't all that bad, but it did look like alot of people cooked pizza and ate there. But it was all good...they worry too much about how I HATE mess...It doesn't really bother me that much, I just don't leave it like that, so they think I never have a mess...which isn't true at all.
Over the weekend, I made tons of tags with my scraps from the star albums and some things I'd gotten at WalMart, and started scrapping again. I actually got six double page spreads done. I took photos this morning, and I'll start uploading some so you can all see them.
This weekend I might go shopping for the new camera I wanted for Christmas. I just never did get time to really study them out and decide which one I want. I'm leaning toward a Nikon, but haven't decided which one yet. I know I want one that has changeable lens, one that will take photos quickly (not the delayed style I have now), one that has some weight and substance to it...more like my old Canon SLR. We got quite a few gift cards too, so Jeff is thinking we might as well go shopping this weekend.
Lookinig forward to the BSU game on Monday. I wore my sweatshirt today, and will probably wear one everyday until the game. I don't really think they have much chance of winning, but it's still exciting for Idaho.

The Candy Making

I decorated the tops of my kitchen cabinets a little different this year. I leave the pine boughs, the moose, and the window & crock pot up all year long. So I really didn't add too much this year. My mother gave me the crock pot for my birthday. I told her I didn't really need anything boughten, but would love any antique she wanted to part with. I love it! Jeff's mom gave me the pair of moose on the other side for Christmas a few years ago. I love my kitchen. Yesterday, Danelle and the kids came over to make Christmas candy. We spent all day long and it was alot of fun. Wow...what a messy kitchen though. Chelsey kept worrying about how messy my kitchen was and how I felt about it. She doesn't think the house is ever messy, and she thought I'd be really upset over the mess. But, it was just too much fun to worry about. We made carmeled popcorn, about 6 batches, 2 batches of pecan carmels, almond rocha, billionaires, bannana nut bread, rolled cookies, dipped pretzels, 2 batches of divinity....a ton of stuff.

The kids were so good too. Treven hung out with Grandpa, and Jeff couldn't quit telling me all the stuff he and Treven had talked about and done together. Treven read me a book, and for a first grader, I couldn't believe how well he reads. I was impressed. He is soooo smart. Ellie was so good all day. She played on the floor and hardly ever cried. Mikayla and Chelsey helped with the candy. Great kids!

Tags for Work

Here are some tags I threw together for work. Just to go on my gifts for contractors.

Exchange cards for December

The theme for December was "Kids Birthday" and it was fun. I realized though, that I am always buying stamps to make men's cards for work, and didn't really have many stamps that worked well for kids. Guess that will be my next purchase.

Exchange cards for December

Our work Party

Thursday evening, we held our work party at our house. I spent most of the day setting up the tables, cooking, and decorating the tables. Thought you might like to see how it looked. Our menu was:

Pork Loin roast

Spicy Shrimp

Rice

Parrish Potato's

Broccolli

Hot Rolls

Raspberry Cheesecake

I didn't really care much for the shrimp, even though I loved it when Danelle fixed it, but everyone else said how good it was...so I guess it turned out okay. It was a pretty quiet group...guess we're all getting too old to party much.

Dipping Chocolates

On Monday evening, Sally, Reta, mom and I dipped chocolates into Jason and Sally's home. We've been doing it for the past few years, and Sally seems to really enjoy it. The kids like dipping the pretzel's, but I'm not sure Jason likes. He had to shovel the driveway for us, he carried everything in for us, he carried everything out for us, started our cars for us since it was soooo cold...besides babysitting and trying to keep the kids calmed down until it was their turn to do pretzels. It's always great though. We each make different types of centers and candy and then end by dividing it all up. It always tastes so much better than purchased candy because it's so fresh.

Christmas Decorations

Last year I finally bought a new prelit tree that is 9'or maybe it's taller... It's so heavy though, that I can't lift it. I think this year I may store it in two boxes or something. But I do love having a taller tree.

This is the reflection of the tree in the window.

I have had this string of red and white lights forever, and never used them, but this year Mikayla and I decided to put them on the mantel and I love them!

The tree is really all red/white and I love how it turned out. Mikayla did a great job.

Chelsey did the stair railing for me, and did such a good job. I just told her to go for it, and she is very creative. Downstairs she did the tree in purple/silver/and black. I had a long thing of stretchy silver stuff...that I never knew what to do with really, and she cut it in pieces and put them around on the tree which was awesome. I'm so proud of those girls.

Below are the hot cocoa mixes that I covered to give out to friends and neighbors when they come to visit. So often you just need something quickly that doesn't have to be huge. And if that many people don't come to visit...I'll just give it away somewhere else.

Wow. It's the 10th of December already, and I still have soooo much to do. But, Mikayla and Chelsey came down on Sunday and helped me put up decorations, which really helped. Tonight we're having our work party here at our house, so I had to get it done. Poor Mikayla. She really wasn't dressed warmly enough to go out and help me bring in all the decorations out of the shop, but she did it...without even complaining. Maybe she did behind my back, but she was such a good sport. Jeff built a shelf high above the door to the shop for my Christmas "stuff"...and I put things in big storage containers. The problem was, getting them down. They were all so heavy! And the big tree for upstairs was impossible. I just couldn't budge it. Even though Jeff didn't feel good, when I asked him to help, he did. He was even a little mad at me for not asking him to help with all of it. And I thought I was being nice letting him rest. But, my back did pay for the lifting and carrying, that's for sure.

Anyway, the girls were excellent help. Mikayla pretty much did the upstairs tree and Chelsey did the downstairs one. I love it. I love getting the lights up and having that "glow" about the house. There's just nothing that makes me feel more like Christmas.

My scraproom

I decided to take a couple of photos of my scraproom...tried to miss some of the mess and clutter though. Needless to say, it really does reflect what Jeff calls it right now..."The Crap Room". I have projects started all over the place, gifts wrapped without decorations yet, quilts, parts of quilts, and material stacked up, dolls, besides all the scrapping stuff. But I sure do love having a place to work in. I can start a project and leave it out without making anyone else suffer. I have closets full of "crap"...ie rubber stamps, alpha's (box) books, cd's, fabric, extra gift baskets, thread...you name it, I probably have it in my room. My SIL told me I had way to much stuff...Eventually, I want to do a little remodel across one end. Make it one continious work area with shelves above it and drawers below it. But...I am thrilled that I have my "space".

Finally some photos

These photos are from Thanksgiving day. We were excited to have our "Year". We rotate with the kids so that the year I have it, all my kids come. The next year they are all free to go to their in-laws and Jeff & I usually go out of town or something together. We had 27 people plus two babies for dinner this year. It was such a fun weekend. C.J. brought the boys down, and Steph and Dave and their two youngest girls were here early, so I got a photo. After that, I guess I was just too busy fixing food and having fun to take anymore photos...how sad is that? I just didn't get the camera out. Hope one of the girls got more pics than I did and will share.

Burrr...it's cold

Wow...it's been cold this week. I went to Idaho Falls Tuesday evening, and thought I was going to run into a snow storm. About 4:30 it got totally black, and I was worried, but it just barely spit a little snow and I didn't have any trouble. Robin and the boys came and picked me up at the hotel and we went to dinner together and then shopping at the mall. I loved it. The boys are soooo smart. I was impressed with their knowledge. They are always questioning each other...do you know what Martin Luther King's real name is? Where did that come from? It was wonderful that they are so into learning. Taylor said he's best in math, and loves doing problems. Loved every minute with them...especially when Chris and I were coming out of WalMart and he said..."I need a hug". Melted my heart.
I finished another rag quilt, washed and dried it...and then notice I'd sewn one row together wrong. instead of every other color, I had two pink ones together. At first I'm thinking, Oh well...but I knew I'd never be happy with it like that, so I tore it apart and redid it. It really wasn't as bad as I thought it might be.
I watched the Oregon/Oregon State football game last night. I was impressed with both teams actually. Oregon won, which makes BSU look even better since we beat them. I guess they'll be playing in the Rose Bowl now. I'm sure hoping that BSU gets to go to the Fiesta Bowl....