New Tradition?

Before November is over and the Christmas festivities begin I thought I would share what our family did this month.  For whatever reason Thanksgiving is not my favorite holiday, (don't judge).  I'm not a hater, it is just not my favorite day.  However, this year I wanted to focus a little more on the gratitude that I truly feel in my heart.  Though not a new idea, it is a new activity in our home.   We made a tree and added leaves every day with things that we are grateful for.

This is how our tree started at the beginning of the month.  Let's take a quick look at some of the things that were written on the leaves.

This is by far my favorite leaf, (the green one) "Mom's ability to fix things", yep, definitely my favorite.

At the end of the month our tree was full, and yet there are still so many things that I could continue to think about and mention.  One of my favorite scriptures is in the 

Doctrine and Covenants 78:19  And he who receiveth all things with thankfullness shall be made glorious; and the things of this earth shall be added unto him, even an hundred fold, yea, more.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

It's beginning to look a lot like...

Christmas!!!

So once again I have a box full of "are you ready for it?"  I love getting ready for our Christmas Countdown almost as much as I love doing it.  I get to spend a weekend with one of my favorite friends, eating great food, staying up late talking, and checking things off a list (I LOVE checking things off of any list).  This year once again is full of favorite traditions and a couple of fun surprises.  I am so excited!!  Only a few days left before what you see above is wrapped up, and becomes family memories. 

My Ballroom Babe

So that oldest girl of mine, who seems to be talented in all sorts of ways, started ballroom this year and I think she loves it.  She performed the other night at a local Dancing with the Stars event.  J.T. saw her first before she went onto the floor and said, "there she is"  I looked and did not even recognize her.  She was all dolled up, with fake lashes and everything. She is always gorgeous but it made me do a double take.  It was so much fun watching her.

Seriously? Does she even look like my little girl?

Halloween 2013

Halloween?  Don't let the title fool you because seriously Halloween at our house DIFFERENT this year, (notice the all caps).  Because it was not the norm I decided I would add a few other pictures to round out the night, if you read to the end you'll figure out why.

We went to a local straw maze.  Troy was not so sure about it but we ended up having a great time.  We went early and so we had the entire place to ourselves.  We went through several times and even timed the kids, I think they were able to run through in a little over three minutes.

Cambelle was the only one who needed Troys help this year.  J.T. carved his earlier in the month and Sara, well Sara's pumpkin sat uncarved on the front steps until Halloween morning when a teacher stopped by to ask if he could blow it up at school that day.  She said "yes", she's cool like that.

This folks is it.  The ONLY picture of my kids dressed up and guess what it wasn't even on Halloween.  Troy had a ward party the Monday before so the kids all went.  On the night of Halloween, Sara was at a football game, J.T. went to a party at a friends house and Cambelle hung out at the house with us.  Now before you think we are terrible parents, she did not want to go trick or treating.  As many times as we asked her she did not want to go.  We went out to eat, stopped at a candy store, and came home and watched The Great Pumpkin on T.V.  It was a very quiet night, I could get used to Halloweens like this.

Happy Birthday J.T.!!

Since J.T.'s birthday was over the weekend I really couldn't decorate his room while he was gone so I woke up a little earlier than him, (not hard on a Saturday) and did a little number on his door.

Who knew that a few dollars at the dollar store could be such a success.  It was a really busy day of outside work before the cold sets in and J.T.'s first basketball game.  It was also Stake Conference so Troy and I had meetings to attend.  So we did his birthday at lunch time which worked out great.

This is proof that pinterest has some great ideas and they all do not fail, I loved how it turned out.

This my friends is what 13 looks like....

Giant Utes fan in our house, so holidays and birthdays are really pretty easy.

Then the final gift, a case for the beloved guitar.  He has done such a great job and really worked hard.  I love listening to him practice.  Happy Birthday J.T.!!!