A Good Day...

I did it! We did it!! And it went well!!! And it was fun!!!!

Marissa wasn't feeling very well last night and today, so she stayed home from Church. I stayed with her, and while I was home, I made icing for Gingerbread houses, and got out all the cookies and candies and stuff for toppings and put it all out in the separated trays. When the rest of the family got home, Dinner was started, and after we ate we began the craziness! ;-)

Lots of Icing was used (I had to scrape it/the cement, off the table afterward). Lots of candy and cookies were eaten, and everyone got to make a cute little Gingerbread (Graham Cracker) house of their own, and I cheated and bought the kit with the pre-made pieces for the big family one.

It is fun to see all of the individual creativity that they had on their houses.
Rebekah made a Christmas in Malibu house with 'sand' (cookie crumbs) and a 'palm tree'. She even added a Nativity to the outside of it.

Amanda did more of a little log cabin, with a smoke stack on top and she broke up life savers to make a stained glass window.

Sariah has a bit of a winter wonder land, and did an adorable tree, a person making snow angels, and she has a dog and yellow snow! (eeeewwwww!!!). She painted her house walls blue. And she also did a very small tiny nativity.

Hannah made more of a club house, and has a big cookie headed person climbing a ladder to get into her house.

Marissa's house has lots of color and she used lots of fun candies and icing on hers. She made a little doggy door with a doggy tail sticking out of it.

Liam had a LOT of help from Mommy (hey, I couldnt just let the control freak in me go completely!). He took a big bite out of the first graham cracker piece he picked up, so I had to get a new one to build his house with. He wanted m&m's for his, but after handing him a bunch, and putting a glob of icing on the roof of his house, and showing him how to put the m&m on it, he cried and said NO! he just wanted to eat his m&m's! he finally helped toward the end. When he was done, he ran upstairs and got some books and had daddy sit down and read to him.

The 'Family' house is a little plain and boring over all, since everyone spent most of their time working on their own houses... Amanda put it together, and dad did a little decorating. Hannah decorated one of the gingerbread snowman cookies. I did the tree and the other snowman cookie. Liam really wanted to eat the Cookie Man! I told him we would make cookie men tomorrow. That did appease him.

4 more days till Christmas...

Cards, Hair and Conferences

Well, this week after cleaning up the stamp stuff Liam got into... it inspired me and I made a few cards. I haven't taken much time to stamp in a while (well, that is stamp for me, not something specific for the kids that is a big rush, because they need it NOW). And I started organizing some of the mess in my stamp/craft cupboard. Not that I finished much of anything, but I accomplished a little bit.

I have been trying to get all the laundry in the house done, partly so it is all done, and partly so that I can pack my bags. I am headed to Dallas on Thursday to attend a Doula Conference for the weekend. And if that wasn't cool enough... I love all the positive birth energy that I get at the conferences (this is my 3rd) and the support and networking with other Birth Professionals, but I also get to stay at my best friend's house for the weekend. She is the one who officially started me on this path, when I got to attend her VBAC nearly 14 years ago. That was the first birth I attended, (where I wasn't the one going through labor). It was the most amazing, beautiful thing I'd ever witnessed! Seeing a new baby fresh from Heaven, come into this world!!! How can anyone look at a new baby and not believe in GOD!!! What an incredible design that we get the opportunity to help create and grow all these cells, that turn into a whole little person!

With Bill getting his hair cut every 2-3 weeks, and Liam needing his hair cut much more frequently than the girls hair, we decided that the cost of hair clippers would be paid for in a month or less. So... I had a sweet friend who helped me learn how to cut Liam's hair yesterday. It wasn't too hard, and I didn't do a bad job over all, and he is looking quite nice again. (instead of all his wild hair, that was getting too long and sticking out all over the place). And the little girls have been wanting their hair cut also. So, D. started the hair cut and showed Amanda how to cut it and she mostly cut both Marissa and Hannah's hair. I didn't let Hannah cut off much, she wants it really short, but doesn't like to let me do anything cute with it any more, and she likes to dress like a tom boy, and daddy said not short where seh ould EVER be possibly mistaken for a boy! Amanda did a great job! Marissa's hair hasn't been this short since it grow past this length as a little girl! It's very cute. I didn't take my camera, of course I didn't think Amanda would be doing the hair cuts either... :-)

Crazy Life

Yesterday morning, I woke up late (it had been a long night with Liam crying that his foot hurt - and I had to rub it over and over and over), then realized I was late for my dentist appointment, and called to say I'd be there as soon as I could with Amanda for her's 30 minutes later. I got dressed, took my make up with me in the car, Liam in his jammies, and got in the van... click, click... I had a dead battery. I put it in neutral, and pushed the van back a little, till it would roll out of the garage and down into the driveway. I popped the hood, got out th jumper cables, and ran to the neighbors... noone was home! I called my R.S. Pres. who lives around the corner, to see if she was home, she actually sent over the missionaries to help me.

I got that taken care of but with the drive to Amanda' school only taking me two minutes, I didn't want to risk turning off the van yet, until it had run long enough for it to charge back up, so I called the school and thankfully our friend K was the one that answered the phone, and she signed Amanda out for me and walked her out so I didn't have to turn off the van.

I got to the Dentist late with Amanda but they were able to fit her in, and they had a no-show, so I got to go after her as well instead of having to try to reschedule! Yay! We even tried to have her look in Liams mouth - I had hoped that by watching me he'd be o.k. with it. Not so much...

From there I had to feed Amanda lunch, and the strawberries we've been waiting on for three weeks came in and I had to go pick them up at noon. So, then we got taco bell drive thru ate in the car and took Amanda back to school. Then, I delivered some of the strawberries, and raced over to the Elementary school. I had been asked to decorate Hannah's teacher's door for Teacher Appreciation week, so I met up with the kids after school and we cut out letters, and put things together and decorated the door. Sariah had a group project to work on that they had to finish up so she went on home ftr helping cut out letters(thank you S's mom for picking her up!). I brought the kids a snack. We ended up working for three hours (between chasing Liam around, etc...)

Then I raced home, dropped off the kids, picked up Amanda and the sewing stuff and went to the church for an Enrichment sewing night. The R.S. helped the Y.W. work on sewing their apron's for the pioneer costumes for the Trek they are going on for Youth Conference, this summer. Thank you to all the ladies who came and helped (as a mother of two daughters that eed two sets of clothes each..., and a husband that is going as a Pa, as well, that we are going to be gathering clothes and supplies for, I REALLY appriciated the help!

Today has been just about as craZy... runnign running running, and I arrived home finally abt. 4:30 p.m. after working for a couple of hours working on a 'Sling for Spring' fashion show as part of the Celebrate Mama event at the Von Braun Center tomorrow.

The girls were supposed to be going to a pre-camp camp out tonight and amanda was supposed to be going on a hike tomorrow, and Bill was supposed to be going to work at the Stake camp tomorrow, and I am doin gthe fashion show and meeting with a new mom afterward... so tomorrow was going to be a crazy day as well. But there is supposed to be a storm tonight, so all camp activities were canceled/postponed, and so now we have a sitter (Sariah is going to dinner with her friend from next door, Rebekah is out for the night), and we are finally taking Amanda out for her birthday dinner, (before Sariah's birthday next week and we have to take her out).

What a week! From a camping trip and working last weekend at Camp Hulaco, to a birth, to sewing pioneer clothes, to decorating a door, it's been crazy, and I still have Jam to make on eof these days when I have/find the time!