the hulk's corpse with wings (our guitar hero band name)

Addicting. . . no?

    

Grandma came over on Sunday to have dinner and see what we all got for Christmas.

She got roped into some Guitar Hero fun.

Look at the fierce determination on their faces!

 

It was a really fun night.  :)

its still technically a desert...

You've heard about this wild weather system rolling through from the Pacific, right? Lots of rain and snow and wet wet wet! After a week of rain in deserty southern utah, the washes and rivers started running and flooding like crazy. Here are some of the pics we took as we were leaving town, driving through the mountain pass just west of St. George. The kids got a real kick out of the many many waterfalls we saw dripping down the mountains.

Hopefully the worst of it is over and there won't be any more damage or flooding like they had 5 years ago.

our happy holiday

We finally had our Christmas day on Sunday, and the kids opted to wait until after church to dive into gifts.  We started that afternoon by reading Luke II in the New Testament, the story of the birth of Christ, which is always a great reminder to us about what Christmas is really all about. We had a short lesson about the importance of the Savior in our lives, and how gifts are given as a symbol of the gifts given to Christ by the wisemen.  :)

Then, on to the main event!  LOL  With our Christmas ham cooking in the crockpot, we opened up our treasures.

First, the Santa gifts:

 

 

I was shocked, amazed, and astounded to receive a Rebel T1i camera!  I'm seriously stunned at this point!  I don't think I was that good this year!  *wink*

Then, from grandparents:

 

I need kitchen stuff so bad, and was thrilled to get lots of black, white, and red towels and clothes, etc for my new kitchen!  Yay!

Then everything else!

  Night vision binoculars--they really work and are so cool!

  A fish finder for my hubby who wants so badly to be a good fisherman!

Sean is having so much fun with the Guitar Hero!  It's slightly addictive I must say!

Crazy us, the kid got more legos.  What can I say, he absolutely loves them.  Plays with them every single day.

I know it doesn't look like Ethan got much--that's because he got into the presents a couple of weeks ago and opened his!!  I promised him he would not be receiving them for Christmas (tough lesson for both of us, but I followed through).  He was actually thrilled with his bike and pillow pet.

Lots of good fishing stuff there!

 

Can you see how practical a gift-receiver I am??  Dish towels, baking sheets, a mop. . . ha!  I can't help it--it's all stuff I need so that's what I asked for from Santa!  The camera was a complete surprise. :)

What a fun quasi-Christmas day!

Later, we had our third Christmas dinner (after one Christmas with my folks and one with Dan's family) and his Mom came over for a fun evening.  Pictures to come!

We hope you all had a lovely Christmas day too!

what we actually did on christmas day

For us it was kind of like any other day, because Dan was working, so we asked Santa Claus to wait a day and visit us on Saturday night.

With Dan on shift, we still tried to make things a bit special. We had some yummy pancakes with whatever toppings the kids wanted (chocolate chips and syrup always win out).

We made white chocolate peppermint bark popcorn. Recipe to follow! It was pretty dang tasty and I don't like peppermint!

We ate gobs of junk food. We do this a few times a year, LDS General Conference weekend, New Year's Day, and this year, on Christmas.

All our picks are in there--the brownies are mine, ice cream is Ethan's, hot cheetos are Cam's, cheese puffs are Sean's, and Dan wanted popcorn (thus the peppermint bark popcorn recipe).

I just look the other way and ignore the damage it's likely doing to my children's teeth and stomachs. We don't do it all that often and they had a blast with it, eating junk and watching favorite movies.

The kids all played with their new toys from the previous week. Cameron put together this grasshopper (cricket?) K'nex toy.

I continued work on the kitchen project and spray painted to my heart's content. I'd say we're just about half-way at this point.

We called all the grandparents to wish them a Merry Christmas and hung out in our pajamas most of the day.

Later, we went to see Dan at work and took him some goodies too.

It wasn't a bad day, but it was a little weird to think that everyone else in the world was opening presents and having 'real' Christmas. Ours just came a day later! :)

I will leave you with this video--Cameron wanted to show you all how his new toy works. Forget the digital and motorized parts, this one he had to put together and move by hand! Surprisingly, he really likes it and had fun creating it.

days of christmas 20-24

Continuing on with our Christmas advent:

Day 20: sing and dance to Christmas music

It kinda turned into Who Can Do A Handstand The Longest? :)

Day 21: call a loved one and tell them how much they mean to you

We had just gotten a really nice set of individualized letters from Danny's Grandpa, including a family tree diagram (actually on a tree); it was so cool! So we decided to call him and let him know how much we love and appreciate him.

Day 22: play a board game as a family

I hate Monopoly!

Day 23: make wassail and read a Christmas story

I love wassail! Here is my recipe:

2 qt apple cider

2 cups orange juice

1 cup lemon juice

2 cups pineapple juice

1 stick whole cinnamon

1 tsp whole cloves

1/2 cup sugar or honey

Mix all in a large pot and bring to simmer, 5 minutes. Makes 4 qts.

Yum!

Day 24: open up a present on Christmas Eve

We had our Christmas with Dan's side of the family Friday night, so the kids got to open lots of gifts. We got lots of fun games! My camera was behaving horribly in the low light, so the rest of the pictures aren't really worth sharing. But we had a really great night eating and sharing holiday messages and music together.

That's it! The next day was Christmas, we made it through! These activities are really fun and make the season last all month long. We sure enjoyed doing it again this year. (Thanks again Courtney for giving us this project last year!)

merry christmas: enjoy this hallelujah chorus flash mob video

My favorite email forwarded to me this season came just two days ago from my mother-in-law. I absolutely love the idea of flash mobs, but up until now I'd only seen dancing ones. This is the first singing one I've ever seen. Its really well done and brings tears to my eyes; this choir obviously put some work into learning this most beautiful of Christmas songs.

I hope your Christmas day is just as beautiful.

some things i've been working on, before and after

These aren't Christmas crafts, but I wanted to show some of the things I've made this past week. Working on the kitchen got kind of tedious at times, so I'd take a break and go spray paint something. :) I *heart* spray paint.

A couple of weeks ago, I hit the jackpot at a yard sale; woman was selling off all of her grandmother's possessions for cheap cheap cheap. I'm not even kidding. I walked out with an entire box of photo frames, 2 nice cake tins, a set of measuring spoons, 2 plastic measuring/shaker cup things, and a brand new set of corn-on-the-cob prong thingies

and paid $2. TWO DOLLARS! Look at this box!! She gave it to me for a dollar.

I realize those aren't all beauties, but my plan is to spray paint them and clean them up as I use them (and perhaps not use the metal ones at all, we'll see). This week, I've made a few as gifts.

Wanna see? :)

This first one I made for my neighbor who just had a baby, Kendall.

Before:

After:

This next one is actually from a mirror that was bestowed upon us by my mother-in-law, months ago. It's been sitting on my dryer waiting for me to do something to it, to get rid of its lovely yellowness.

Before:

After:

I may still do more to it, not sure. This is where my creativity dies. LOL

Ethan just finished T-ball, and upon learning that his coach lives right behind us (right next to the neighbor that just had baby Kendall), I decided to make her and her hubby this momento to remember the team. Just a simple thing, but I think she'll appreciate it.

Before (well, during, really):

After:

(No, we do not live in Louisville, but all the teams are given real sports team names. *shrug*)

I also made something for my soon-to-be white/black/red kitchen. I'm still geekin' out about how this turned out. I love it!

And lastly, I've made over my kitchen utensils catch-all.

Before:

After:

I have a couple more things coming up as I redo the kitchen that I will be sure to share. I'm soooo excited about one of them, I can't wait to see how it turns out! Spray paint really is a Miracle Cure.