To Be or Not to Be....

That was the question...were the Christmas Cards of 2008 to be or not to be? Well they be, just in a different fashion than they have in the past. I knew I was running out of time and since I am older (yikes) and wiser (that's questionable), I have realized that some things aren't worth causing stress in my life no matter what you think is expected of you. Now I said SOME things, like Christmas cards, a perfectly clean house, saying YES to everything (PTO, every sign up at church, school etc...) I have learned that I don't have to do everything to justify being a stay at home Mom. I used to think that's what you had to do. And can I just tell you how relieved I was to send out all my Christmas Cards in about a 30 minute period for FREE! Because of the blogging world and Facebook I had almost all the emails I could have wanted and I got to send cards to people I probably wouldn't have if I was hand making them all...sorry but I have to set a limit, which was usually 60 and I have already emailed over 100 friends and family...I LOVE it and this, I have to say, will probably become a tradition for us. I love checking things off a list and if it's one less big project the better. So a simpler, less stressful Merry Christmas is my wish to you! I hope you can all learn that it's okay to not do everything...sitting down with your family to watch a Christmas movie or just playing the wii together is way more important and those are two things we did today!

Merry Christmas to everyone!

Nutcracker

Norm's Mom started a tradition a couple of years ago of taking the granddaughters to see the Nutcracker. Last year Maddy had the stomach flu (YUCK!) so she couldn't go. Tenley went with them while I stayed home to take care of Maddy. This year the other cousins (the only ones who live close besides us) had piano recitals...so I got to go wtih them. It was a very fun and festive night to kick off the holiday season. We usually go to the MoTab christmas concert but since we've moved up here it's hard to make it down during December...especially since we will be there for Christmas. I miss going to that.. it always brings the feeling of Christmas. So this was such a welcome night to go out with the girls and Norm's Mom to see the ballet. The girls really enjoyed it. It made me realize that we should do more cultural events, and no, more movies don't count :)

Thanks again Hans for the wonderful evening.

Lights at the ZOO

This was something totally new and different for us. My Dad took me and the kids to the Zoo one night to see the lights. I must admit I had pretty low expectations. But I was pleasantly surprised. They had a TON of lights and a lot of lit up animal forms (you know metal sculptures with lights) We also actually got to see quite a few animals...the bear was up walking around, the leopard was out, the wolf was up, there was a cougar that looked like he was ready to pounce through the fence at us. We also got to see the monkeys, reptiles, and other creatures that were in the buildings. It was great because there wasn't anyone really there so we had all the animals to ourselves. The weather was great...not FREEZING. I didn't even have to wear gloves. We also got to choose where we wanted to eat and we chose (okay, I convinced the kids) that we wanted to go to Apollo Burger. We don't have any of those up here in Idaho and mmmm I love their burgers, fries and fry sauce..It was a super fun night!

Tree Decorating at Grandma and Grandpas

While we were in Salt Lake for my Grandma's funeral, we were able to help my Mom and Dad decorate their tree (or I should say ONE of thier MANY trees) It's the tree with the ornaments from when we were all kids so it's always fun to reminisce of the good ol' days!

72 hour kits

These are an ongoing process since food, clothes, and other items need to constantly be updated and rotated. For example, I still had board books in my kits, so we upgraded to a few chapter books! Yikes, time flies. So we did this for family night and the kids wanted to put their packs on...now I am usually over prepared and let's just hope the kids don't have to carry their packs very far!

Thanksgiving...

Well, a little late but our Thanksgiving was a little unusual. I got a call from my Mom that morning that my Grandma Gray was probably not going to make it through the day. It was a bitter sweet moment because she has suffered with Alzheimers for years and even though you always hate to see a loved one leave us I was very happy for her to not suffer anymore. So she and my Grandpa were in my thoughts all day. We had dinner with Norm's parents and sister. We had the most delicious moist turkey ever, we played games until 11:30 and had fabulous pies. I got another call friday morning that my Grandma had passed away in the night. The kids and I decided to drive down to Salt Lake on Saturday and be with the family. The funeral and viewing was tuesday and wednesday. It was so nice to be with everyone. I think having the kids there helped my brighten my Dads day a little. We came home late wednesday night and back to school and regular life. It's amazing how things can change so quickly. It always makes me reflect and be grateful for what i have.

New Pictures

So, it's been two years since we've had the kids pictures done. I finally had a good friend of mine that I was in primary with in our old ward do them. She did awesome. They are up on her blog so you can look at them if you want!

http://www.sweetpea-photography.blogspot.com/

Great New Blog...

So a good friend of mine, Emily, has started a new blog. It is called Give Away Today. There is a button with a link to it on my blog, if you want to check it out! You can enter up to three times a day(it explains how on her blog) and you have a chance to win FREE stuff. Who doesn't want that! I know I do. If you go to her blog because of my post you can enter me as a referral...just follow the directions. You can do the same and get people to put you down! Great idea Emily...you've always got some good idea cooking!