Merry Christmas Grammy and Pop-Pop

Hope you two had a Merry Christmas in Columbia. WE MISSED YOU!

Emily and Bryant

Julia

Haley

Christmas Newsletter

For anyone I missed!

Gingerbread Carousel

This Christmas I wanted to start a tradition baking a ginger bread house with the kids. Ours didn't quite turn out (good thing I wasn't an architect) the roof was way to heavy for the house and after half the shingles were on it caved in. Luckily I live with a Culinary Arts Graduate, (Emily) who decided to help us build another one. But instead of a house we built a carousel with reindeer. It was fun, it helped get us into the holiday spirit. We really enjoyed it. I let her know I expect her over every year now to help us build one, because she did such a great job.

ROOF

TOO CUTE

Our last trip to the zoo for the year!

Every year for Christmas my dad buys me a year family pass +2 to the zoo. So this is the last trip of the year. We had a lot of fun! Paul had the day off work and got to come with us. The Jaguar was moving around alot so we got really good pictures of him. The kids love going to the zoo, and this trip it was nice and cool outside not to hot and not cold yet.

Decorating the tree for FHE

We put up our christmas tree 2 mondays ago for FHE. The kids loved it. Haley likes to sit in front of it and watch the lights flash. She blows at them like they're little candels. After we put up the tree, we had some yummy brownies and sang christmas songs. Paul tried to play the Piano. Grammy has a childrens song book that has numbers for the keys and Paul remembered how to count the keys...Grammy was much better! He played way to slow for us to sing along.
CAN YOU NAME THAT TUNE?

Ward Christmas Party

This year for the ward party each organization put on a skit and the audience had to guess what they were doing. Kinda like a Who's Line Is It Anyway. It was cute and way fun. The bishopric was acting out Christmas caroling to a deaf person, I think the Primary presidency's was one of the FUNNIEST and kept the kids attention. They helped Rudolf get her light to work on her nose, because she was sick. The Young Men and Elders Quorum together was fixing santa's sleigh, the young women was christmas cooking with the food network, the High Priest was keeping frosty from melting, and the relief society was christmas shoping with a bad GPS system. They were all too funny.

Happy Birthday

Today is Paul's 31st birthday. We cooked him his favorite dinner shrimp, and his favorite dessert cherry cheesecake. Julia also said he needed some balloons so I blew up balloons. We put little paper messages inside some of them and the others I put stickers on that we're some of the things he brought to us as a family. I also helped the girls make cards for daddy. When he came home Julia ran to the door and said no dad you can't come in yet wait right there! She knew I was finishing up Haley's card. When I was done she ran back to get him. When Haley saw the balloons she was so excited that she would not eat dinner. She kept pointing at them and saying something incoherent to me and Paul.



We love Paul because he is the BEST daddy and Husband in the world. He's FUNNY and plays SILLY games and sings silly songs with the kids. He shared the gospel with me. So I now have an eternal family, and all the blessings that come with it. He has brought so much goodness into my life and now our childrens lives. Happy Birthday

Canning chicken

Last Wednesday I canned chicken. I never really thought about canning meats before. I've canned pears and tomatoes, and made jellies and jams, and pickled okra, and peppers but never meats. We had a combined lesson a few weeks ago about food storage, and they showed a video clip by Wendy DeWitt about canning and preserving other stuff. I was sick that Sunday so I missed the video, but Paul came home and told me about it and brother O'Conner sent me the link to watch the video on the computer. In Relief Society this past Sunday they were ordering 40 lb boxes of chicken breast for $44.00 so I ordered a box. I put half of it in the freezer and the other half I canned. It was pretty easy. I actually cleaned up the chicken before I froze or canned it and boiled all the skin and other pieces that I cut off and also canned 4 quart jars of chicken broth. It smelled so good. No idea how it will taste, but it is suppose to last for about 5 years. It looked like a weird science project after it was finished. Next thing I have to do is set down and make up a menu so I know how many and what else I want in our year supply of food. Does anyone else have a year supply of food? How long did it take to store it up? The link to watch the video is on my blog.

Our Fun Family Week

Last Sunday Bishop Graden announced that it was suppose to be family week this week. So we decided to try and do something different each day that we normally don't do as a family.

On Sunday we sat down as a family and tried to read a book on Wilford Woodruff. Julia and Haley got bored quick and we had a small pause on the story when the phone rang. We eventually finished the story but the kids weren't paying any attention.

On Monday we had fun for family home evening. Emily and Bryant stayed and we also had Anthony Holmes over. We had a lesson on how Nephi built a boat to get to the promise land and Paul taught us all how to make boats out of paper. Then we played a few games and sang a few songs. Then for treat we had pecan brownies with marshmallows melted on top.

On Tuesday I talked Paul into taking us to St. Augustine Beach. It was very windy and cold. It was also the first time Haley has ever been to the beach. I've tried to get Paul to take us all summer, the answer was always no. But I guess he finally broke down to bad it wasn't a few weeks ago, when it was warmer. It didn't matter to the kids that it was windy. They loved the beach. Haley kept running toward the water, and Julia and Bryant loved throwing the sea shells back into the waves. We also brought a kite and decided to stop at Volano Beach to fly the kite. It was so windy it only took Paul a few seconds to get it up flying in the air. The kids took turns holding the string on the kite. After wards we stopped at the park on the way home and had a picnic lunch and let the kids ride the carousel and play for a while.



On Wednesday we decided to make it a game night so after we ate dinner we pulled out the game Paul got for Father's Day Disney's Picture it. We let the DVD player draw all the pictures. We had lots of fun. The score got very close towards the end, but Bryant and Ilene won by 1 point. We only got to play one game because Paul had to leave for his bishopric meeting, and Bryants dad picked him up around the same time.

On Thursday we decided a movie night would be fun so after dinner, I popped some popcorn, and we watch Kung Fu Panda. Julia and I likes it but dad was tired and fell asleep after only 15 minutes of the movie. So I guess he thought it was boring. Haley wasn't all that interested either. But she loved the popcorn and laying in daddy's arms staring at the TV.

On Friday we invited the O'Conner's over for dinner. We had a great time. We had roast and dumplings, and carrots and potatoes, and biscuits for dinner. Afterwards the kids had fun playing with Julia's barbie house and all my really old barbies. And the adults got to socialize.

On Saturday I was sick and had to visit a doctor's office. After I got home, I took some Tylenol for my fever, my prescription and crashed for the rest of the day so most of the week we were able to keep up family week.

New Calling

We've had an exciting Sunday! We got a call Saturday night that we missed they didn't call until about 9:15 pm and I was putting the girls to bed and had the ringer on low so we didn't hear it. The phone rang again Sunday morning at 7:19 am it was Brother Price, again we didn't make it to the phone in time, he left a message wanting to make sure we were going to make our 8:15 appt with the Stake President that morning that we didn't know about until then . So we rushed to get ready and be there in less than an hour. With no idea why he needed to meet with both of us. I suspected maybe a stake calling for Paul (hoping not me). Getting into the jeep it wouldn't start, we had to jump it off. We arrived about 5 min late... To find out that we were getting a new Bishop and Bishopric, and Paul was being called as the 2nd counselor in the bishopric.

I'm grateful that I've found a husband that is worthy to hold the priesthood. And can receive a calling like that. I know Paul will do his best. And I guess he is now the youngest High Priest at our ward now. He turns 31 in 2 weeks. He told me when we got home that he feels old now. My comment was now we can't go to the elders quorum socials, and the High Priest don't have socials.

I know I'll be a single mom on Sundays now, but I was already. Paul normally had meeting for Elders Quorum in the mornings and I already had to get everybody ready on my own. I actually like Paul serving in the Church our home seems to be much happier when he has a calling that he is fulfilling.

Although now he says we can not turn the TV on Sundays and we're trying harder to say our prayers together at night and read a few chapters together at night in the Book Of Mormon. Hopefully we can stay with it. You don't know how many times we've read the book of Nephi together but don't normally get much further than that.

As long as he is serving in the Church I can handle him being away from us, because I know he is where the Lord wants him and we will have what we need without him. And he will be with great men of the Church doing the Lords work.

Trick or Treat

We went trick or treating with my sister and niece in Greencove Springs. Julia’s favorite house was a big 2 story historical house. They had both stories all decorated, the owner stood out side, a guy in a blow up suite that made him real fat, and he had on a tutu and was dancing. Julia thought that was the funniest thing. This year the kids got to dress up for trunk or treat at church on Wednesday, for trick or treating on Friday and Saturday we went to the last day of Spooktacular at the zoo. They had so much fun wearing their costumes. Julia loves to dress up so of course she’s wore it everyday since Halloween. At Spooktacular she loved the animal costumes. She hugged the poor tiger about 6 times, he almost tripped over her trying to walk away . They had several areas set up where they played music and let the kids dance. Both Julia and Haley loved these areas! It was a little crowded for mom’s taste but the kids had fun!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Make a Smilebox slideshow

FHE fun

For family home evening a few weeks ago we went to the pumpkin patch and picked up some pumpkins to carve. The kids had fun running around looking at all the different shaped pumpkins. After we finally chose our pumpkins we took them home. They sat on our porch for about a week and on Halloween we carved them up. Bryant had no problems sticking his hands in to clean out the pumpkin. Julia on the other hand wanted nothing to do with cleaning out the pumpkins. She said it was gross! She stuck her hand in but wouldn’t pull anything out. Bryant had fun he said is was spooky!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Strangers in the Box

I was trying to find questions that I could ask my grandparents to do an interview with them to get as much information as I could from them about them, (my grandparents are all still living, and I have a great grandmother still alive!) and stumbled across this poem. I shared it with Lonnis before she left on her mission I believe she had it posted somewhere in the FHC library. I actually have a box full of pictures I got from my mom. I am suppose to be putting them into scrapbooks for her. I’ve had them for almost 5 years and there still sitting in the box. I need to get busy! Thought I would share it….

Strangers in the Box

Come, look with me inside this drawer,

In this box, I’ve often seen,

At the pictures, black and white,

Faces proud, still serene;

I wish I knew these people

These strangers in the box.

Their names and all their memories

Are lost among my socks;

I wonder what their lives were like,

How did they spend their days?

What about their special times?

I’ll never know their ways.

If only someone had taken time

To tell who, what, where and when,

These faces of my heritage

Would come to life again.

Could this become the fate

Of the picture we take today?

The faces and the memories

Someday will pass away.

Make time to save your stories;

Seize opportunity when it knocks,

Or someday you and yours could be

The strangers in this box!

Author unknown

Boats

My kids love to play pretend. They are always dressing up in what every they can find to put on. A few weeks ago I brought down 2 king size pillows I was going to get rid of. Julia and Bryant decided they could make toys out of them. One day they were bridges they could walk over. The next day they were boats. They would stand on them and the other would pull it. Well Bryant pulled it right out from under Julia and she fell and busted her chin on the tile floor. When she first come to me crying I seen this thin red line under her chin where it was starting to bleed and I just thought it was a scrape. But as she stood there sobbing the thin line opened up into a gash about the size of my thumb. She probably needed to have a few stitches, but since I stay at home now our insurance has ended and Paul’s doesn’t take effect until the end of the month so I put some butterfly band-aids and Neosporin on it. She’s a tough little girl! She only cried for a few min. until I got the band-aid on it, and that was it. The is under her chin so it’s not that noticeable. They play way too rough with each other. But I can’t seem to stop them.

It's healing up good!

Day after it happened! This morning!

Tagged Again 7 fact about me

Tagged by Jarvis girls
Here are the rules...
1. Link to the person who tagged you and list these rules on your post.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post, by leaving their names, as well as links to their blogs.
4. Comment to the people you've tagged and let them know they've been tagged.

1. I do not like to have my faced touched by anyone.
2. Whenever I read one of President Hinkley’s books, I can hear his voice in my head as I read it. Isn’t that crazy only happens with his books though.
3. I love to cook and hate to clean up afterwards. When I first got married after I finished cooking, Paul would always clean up the kitchen. Not anymore :(
4. I read this book by Gary Chapman called The 5 Love Languages. Loved the book but I couldn’t figure out what my love language was. So I discussed it with Paul (because he’ll never read the book) and he had to tell me what my love language was. (Acts of Service.)
5. I rarely finish a project I start. I have a closet full of stuff I never finished, going all the way back to an outfit I was making in a sewing class in 8th grade. Even when cleaning I get distracted. I can be cleaning in one room and go to another for something and start cleaning something in there, then go for something else in another room and never finish the first room I started on.
6. I hate to look at pictures of myself past or present, because it makes me realize how much weight I’ve put on in the past 5 years. It’s depressing.
7. I am not a morning person. I much prefer staying up late. Probably because every job I had always required it. Julia wakes me every morning around 9, saying Mommy the sun is shinning in my room it’s time to get up.


So here we go -Afton, Brandon, Melinda, Savannah, and the Thompsons - Tag - you're it!

The ABC's of Me

A. ATTACHED OR SINGLE? Attached 8 years
B. BEST FRIEND? Paul
C. CAKE OR PIE? Cheese Cake
D. DAY OF THE WEEK? Sunday
E. ESSENTIAL ITEMS? Wet Wipes
F. FAVORITE COLOR? Purple
G. GUMMY BEARS OR WORMS? Bears
H. HOMETOWN? Jacksonville
I. INDULGENCE? Japanese food
J. JANUARY OR JULY? July, I like warmer months.
K. KIDS? 2 girls Julia Eve 5 ½ , Haley Storm 1 ½
L. LIFE ISN'T COMPLETE WITHOUT? My Husband
M. MARRIAGE DATE? June 3, 2000
N. NUMBER OF BROTHERS AND SISTERS? 3 sisters and 2 brothers
O. ORANGES OR APPLES? Oranges
P. PHOBIAS OR FEARS? Spiders
Q. QUOTE? Whatever
R. REASONS TO SMILE? My girls
S. SUPERMAN OR WONDER WOMAN? Superman
T. TAG 5 PEOPLE? I don’t have anyone to tag everyone I know has already done it.
U. UNKNOWN FACT ABOUT ME? I do not like to have my faced touched.
V. VEGETABLES? Asparagus
W. WORST HABIT? Picking my cuticles on my thumbs
X. X-RAY OR ULTRASOUND? Ultrasound
Y. YOUR FAVORITE FOOD? Supreme Pizza
Z. ZODIAC SIGN? Aquarius

Baby pictures

I guess you don't really realize how much your kids look like you until you pull out baby pictures. I really think Haley looks more like Paul and Julia looks more like me when we were babies. But this says they both look more like me.

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Geneology

MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebrities - Collage - Morph

Who is this?

My husband, is so funny. He just called me and told me about a few jobs that he did this morning. Since he installs cable, he gets to go into people's homes. Normally he's telling me how unkept most of them are, occasionally he tells me how nice they are or different. Today he got to go onto a yacht to fix their cable. He also got to go to a really expensive home where he said everything was nice and they had a Mercedes parked outside. He said he didn’t have to do much there, and was out within about 15 min. He said they had Miami Football Jerseys hanging on the walls so he figured he was a football play for Miami. He asked me to look up the name on the internet a few hours after he left, you wouldn’t believe who it was……the new QB for the Jacksonville Jaguars #17 Cleo Lemon and Paul was clueless! Guess he needs to watch some more football!

Ok this was crazy trying to set this up. Talk about obsessive, I was determined I would figure this blog stuff out. I stayed at my computer for 5 hrs until I got it all set up. I didn’t make it to bed until 2:30am. Paul would have a fit if he knew what time I finally came to bed. Good thing he is a heavy sleeper, and the typing didn’t wake him up or the light that was on over the computer. I actually heard him laugh in his sleep a few time. But he said he didn’t remember what he was dreaming about! This is the best I can do hopefully it’s good enough. If not maybe someone can send me some pointers on what I’m doing wrong.