Family Fun and Festivities

Life has been fun lately, truly fun. Luckily, not in the sarcastic sense of the word. A couple of days ago during school we learned about the Apatosaurus. Of course this led Jakob to ask if we could go hiking and digging for dinosaur bones. Luckily it was on a Monday, which means Family Home Evening and Papa doesn't have school at night. So I told him yes. So Leif got home, Jakob grabbed his digging tools, we put Lady on her leash, and headed out to Wood Hill (just out of town.) We climbed the hill high enough that we could see for miles around. There is so much beautiful open land surrounding us. We enjoyed the view for a while as we gathered pretty rocks and petrified wood. Then on the way down we stopped for a bit and had a Juniper Berry War (throwing berries at the opposite team.) Great Fun!

The next day (Tuesday) the boys and I ended up going on another good hike through some of the hills around our back country. We are learning about the Joy of the Earth for Joy School and we went on a nature observation hike together with our friends. It was beautiful and so fun to be out in nature with great friends. That night, Papa came home from his class early enough for us to load in the car and go to the grocery store to buy our Christmas tree (against tradition.) WOW! We got a true beauty!!

On Wednesday we had another great day. Jakob and I decorated the Christmas tree first thing. I must say it turned out beautiful! It's covered in multi-colored lights. The top half of the tree has bulbs (gold, white with red poinsettias, gold with poinsettias) and angels dotting the tree. The bottom half of the tree has a few butterflies throughout the area. I decided to completely eliminate temptation for Caleb. I'm SOOO glad I did!! I then wrapped maroon colored ribbon that is lined with golden beads. around the tree three times. And to top it off there is a beautiful golden star with white lights. Jakob really did help. He actually insisted on the angels and I think they made a sweet touch. Precious memories. If you're wondering what Caleb did during the decorating, he sat in his high char (most of the time.)

Just as I was laying down to catch my breath after all of that fun and excitement Leif called me. He said that the school was having a bird of prey assembly that he thought Jakob would enjoy. HE said he would be able to sit with us if we came. So, I of course loaded the kids up and we headed over to the school. It turned out awesome! The man who came had a true passion for the birds that he took care of. He brought an eagle, falcon, and a hawk to show us. It was so neat to learn about the birds that fly right in our area and we don't even recognize them. Now Jakob is constantly looking in the sky bird-watching. LOVE IT!

And then as if we hadn't had enough fun, we got to go to a rocket launch at Papa's Chemistry class. It was Bitter Cold. But really fun to see the rockets shoot into the sky. There were several women from Colorado City in Leif's class. They were so sweet and prepared a delicious meal for us. So the night was closed with homemade turkey sandwiches and pumpkin cake. Ahhh, so nice!
Today has been more of a get things done day. Well, kinda. We started off after breakfast by going to the middle school and decorating a table with my china for a Christmas Festival that the town holds every year. Leif's mom then sent us out to lunch (Bless her heart) MMM! After I finally got the kids down for naps and Leif working on school work I finally got my shopping list written up for my Ladies Time Out candy making party I have here on Saturday. Looks like we'll make around 8 different candies. All very easy, and SOOO Yummy! Can't Wait! Tonight I also through together a couple of pretty wreaths for my door. One is artificial the other is from the tree branches we trimmed off of our tree. I'll try to get pictures.

Again, just as I was laying down to catch my breath before I put the clean laundry away, we got a phone call. Leif's mom called to let us know that our neighboring town was holding their annual parade of lights festival tonight. So, we bundled us all up and headed out the door. It was cold again. But such a fun little treat to enjoy the small town parade and friendships.

So, as I said, life has been fun lately. Tomorrow we get to go do the shopping for Saturday's party and I get a much needed hair cut. Then Saturday is the party. Then Sunday I teach the Sunbeams (3-4 year olds) in primary for the first time. I am looking forward to it. But I need to plan the lesson. So I best be saying good night!

Christmas Festivities

Do you ever have so much to do that you try to forget about everything except the fun things on your list? That's where I'm at today. We've had some fun Christmas festivities that I want to share. I haven't posted our Christmas tree pictures either.

It took me around three days to get our tree completely decorated. I didn't work on it consistently, of course. It was worked on a bit here and there. Honestly, my Christmas trees never turn out quite like what I picture in my mind. To me, the tree looks a bit hectic. But that might just be a tainted perspective due to our life and schedule this month. But either way it's decorated and it's a reminder to us to try to take time to focus on the reason for the season. The first picture is Jakob showing of his new Christmas book that he got to read while we decorated the tree. It's called "Dinosaurs Night Before Christmas." He Loves it, of course!



By Wednesday this week I could tell that I might struggle a bit this month. We have so much going on (mostly work and school are the stresses.) I was frustrated because I just wanted to take a breath and feel the Christmas Spirit with my family. So, I went to my Young Women's presidency meeting. Then I skipped out of the weekly activity and went home with my family. I quickly threw some art supplies on the kitchen table and sat with Jakob as he made a birthday card for Jesus. As he decorated his card, Leif and I talked with Jakob about the true meaning of Christmas. We quizzed Jakob about the nativity story and clarified things for him a bit. It turned out to be a sweet new tradition. From there we read the scriptures and had a special story time and went to bed. It ended up being a good night.



Thursday I started working on another big project. Every year Leif's mother is in charge of getting ladies to decorate tables for a huge orchestra fundraiser dinner. This year I offered to decorate a table. I decided to have a bows and butterfly theme. I set out all of my china and tied bows around the backs of the chairs. For the centerpiece I used the beautiful poinsettia that my mom gave me and placed really pretty butterflies around it. My mother in Law, FayLynn, folded my napkins to look like butterflies. That is Pure Talent!! I think the table turned out really nice. Each table has a favor for the people who sit at it during dinner. I gave everyone scented candles. It was really fun!



Thursday night we went to the first annual light parade for the town of K. We all lined the main street and the floats drove past us. It was really fun! All of the stores on Main stayed open late and had sales. The Coffee shop also passed out hot cocoa. Good small town Christmas fun!




Friday I finished my tables. I had to take Jakob and Caleb with me. I was so grateful that they were cheerful and no problem at all. I brought Jakob a movie to watch and that saved me! That evening Leif and I met up with his parents and went to the dinner. This is a big deal. Leif's parents gave us tickets and they are not cheap! We had a wonderful time. We were blessed to have a sweet family in our ward who took the kids for us. It was a much needed date night!


This morning we wrapped up the K Christmas festival by taking Jakob and Caleb to visit Santa. Jakob was SOOO excited. However, when he got up to Santa and sat on his lap he was a bit shy. When he climbed down and came to me he was shaking like a leaf and I was seriously afraid he might pass out. I think he was a bit overwhelmed!



That's our week's fun in a nutshell!