My baby has graduated from Nursery!

I will never again walk a child (of mine) into nursery (at church) or watch him play in there with all the little children, he won't have snack when he becomes a Sunbeam and will be expected to be "big" in Primary (Sunday school for kids). Blake received a graduation certificate and everything yesterday. I am so sad but happy for him to learn and grow even more in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Resolution

Does a trip to an historic hotel count as a resolution??? For me, YES! If you know me then you know that I love old buildings and architecture. I may live in a new house but I would love a restored home. Anyway, a few months ago I was reading in the LA Times about a park in Downtown LA that was made to resemble Central Park. I've never heard of Pershing Square before and once I read about it I was intrigued. I learned that it was adjacent to The Biltmore Hotel. The largest hotel west of the Mississippi at the time it was built. It looks so gorgeous and bursting with history I have to stay there! I'm thinking January? You shouldn't put off a resolution!

It's Christmas Eve!

We love this night!!!! This is one my most favorite things about being a Mommy. I love all the happenings b4 and after the children go to bed. I can never sleep on Christmas Eve. I just can't wait for tomorrow morning to see all their beautiful excited faces in anticipation of what could be awaiting them downstairs!

My sweet Cami's birthday ~ 7!

Happy birthday girly! We were sad that Dad couldn't be there. This is the day that it snowed a lot! The freeway was shut down as were all routes into the Antelope Valley. We felt so bad that he couldn't be there. Mike has never missed a birthday. We said a prayer for him asking Heavenly Father to please bring him home safe and soon. About 15 minutes later Mike called and said that he was able to get on a train (the train stop not station....had at least 300 people waiting and fighting to get on a train) and that he would be home soon. Our prayer was answered. That was such a crazy day. A huge thanks to Nancy and Joe. Joe was so sweet and offered to pick Mike up from the train station here in Palmdale so I wouldn't have to drive with the kids on unsafe roads. Thanks so much you guys, you were a life saver that night! We were so blessed.
Camryn wanted sushi for her birthday dinner (which didn't happen due to the whole town shutting down from the snow) and a delicious chocolate bundt cake, also at the store that we couldn't get to. Thank goodness I always have cake mixes on hand and was able to whip this one up. Notice that I only had one candle too. Poor girl. That was also on my list of things to get that day when the kids would have been in school!

I love this paper and ribbon combo. I love it love it love it! Camryn also appreciates good paper too. I know it looks a bit old for a 7 year old but she loved it! She's a girl after my own heart. I hope we will still have lots in common when the teenage years hit!

Birthday card from Grandma Sheets! She loved the tiara inside tooo!

Ah yes the pettiskirt! Really cute pictures to come after Christmas!

Typical, Blake is making a face and Gavin and Camryn are buds (also typical.)

How happy is she????

Don't worry any of you cookie recipiants out there, they did not have any part in baking the cookies that were delivered! This was taken in the morning after we got the call confirming that there would be no school!

Blessed is the man who loves the Lord and walks in His ways.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foTuixJuNb0

I love this song. It is performed by an opera singer named Renee Flemming. (It's not so opera-ish after the first 45 seconds) The song is called "Simple Song" by Leonard Bernstein. ( I love Bernstein) The musical accompianment is beautiful and simple. They are at the Mainz Cathedral which is so beautiful. It was my favorite place in that village when my sister and I visited when we were teenagers. My brother and sis in law lived in Mainz while he was stationed in Germany.

Gavin's early morning phone call

This is funny! This morning, Gavin woke up early (like usual) turned on the computer and decided to play Club Penguin. I guess he had some questions or something and thought he'd call one of Jeffrey's friends at 7:00 in the morning. They picked up the phone and hung up right away. Was that too early or something????? Ya think? His friend called back around 10:30 when I guess they were all up and ready to talk on the phone. In G's head, if he's up then all of his friends must be up too!

Snow!

Hello! Cold!!!!!! Camryn is happy that she got snow on here birthday!

I know that I already posted these on Facebook but I gotta have on here too! Can't get enought of the white stuff!

My Dad.....I've been in denial all day.

Why? You ask. Because I was the only sister not there for him and am so far away from him and my family and he had to have open heart surgery today and have 5 yes 5 bypasses done! It was an all day event that looked like it all went well untill the late afternoon when his chest wouldn't stop bleeding. So, what did they do to help my Dad out? They cut him open again and found that he was bleeding so bad from one of the aerteries that couldn't coagulate. They sewed it up or something, I was still in shock with what my sister was telling me. They can't give him very much in the way of drugs because he had already had so much in his system prior to being cut open again and were afraid that he could slip away. Poor guy has been through so much. We all fasted on Sunday and prayed that he would pull through and the Doctors would be able to do their job and everything would turn out fantastic! I know I just run on and on........

I haven't made anything new

beacuse, I am just too dang busy with life right now. I hope things around here slow down a bit after the New Year so I can get back to creating. Stay tuned!

Claussen Pickles

Has this this ever happened to you? On Sunday evening I was in my bathroom and noticed that there was a brand new jar of Claussen pickles on the counter (strange I know.) I asked around and found out that Blake had taken them upstairs to Mike while he was getting ready for church ( I was already there) and asked if he could have some. Dad said "no we are leaving for church in a few minutes." And so there they sat all day! Today I called the Claussen company and asked if they were still good even though they had never been opened? (Gavin and Blake love these pickles, don't know what they would do with out them!) She told me that we should not eat them as they must stay refrigerated even though they hadn't been opened and also that they should never stay out of the fridge longer than an hour. Did you know that? Don't eat the pickles!

Gratitude for good friends who bring delicous baked goods to my house!

I don't have a picture with this post but wanted to share anyway! Tonight I got a phone call from a good friend (Kristi) who wanted to drop off some Christmas goodies and I was thinking.....not tonight, any night but tonight (I was already in my sweats and looking pretty frumpy) she shows up with this adorable bag of homemade treats (the coconut bars were my favorite) plus a beautiful candle with a shiny silver lid. Before she can even leave, Angela shows up with my kids absolute favorite thing....fresh chocolate chip cookies! Our family night treat was going to be sugar cookies that the kids get to decorate but, with all those treats we opted to do it another night! Thanks girls!!! We love you!

A whole bulk size container of maple syrup

Do I have to say anything???????????

The Los Angeles Temple at Christmas

I know it is Southern California but holy cow it was freezing last night!!!! (And yes everyone has red eyes...where was the red eye reduction thingy?) Oh well, we are glad to have a fun family photo in this huge tree that grounds the lawn. It was so beautiful. The temple was so bright even in the dark of night. The kids loved rolling down the front lawn while all the adults chit chatted about babies and tons of other stuff to do with life!

Gavin

Gavin is such a sweet little boy. Today I got a phone call from our Primary president and she said, " I just wanted to let you know how sweet Gavin is. Blake (testing out primary b4 the big change from nursery) was shooting a gun ( air gun I guess...we don't take our guns to church) and I had to tell him not to shoot the (pretend) guns at church." She then told me that Gavin came up to her and said he was sorry for Blake making the gun sounds during primary. She thought it was so nice of him. He is such a good boy. I love him to pieces!

I have been obsessing over this for 6 months!!!

Drum roll please..............It's a pettiskirt!!!! Camryn's birthday is next Wednesday and she has wanted one of these for a while (me too) but I couldn't find them anywhere (for under $100) untill last Saturday!!! It just arrived in the mail today. Can't wait to get her looking funky cute!!!

My favoritest birthday gift!

I know it's not a traditional color, but I absolutely love it! I'm off to a birthday lunch with the girls.....I'll post when I get back!!

Our Christmas Card

The new picture above ( at the top of the blog) is our Christmas card this year. I ordered 20 less than what I needed. So, I will try to get more tomorrow or the next day.....so if you didn't get one in the mail, here it is! Merry Christmas!

Exciting news!!!!

Hop on over here and read all about it!!!

My first online order!

Today I sold my very first hair bows online to someone I didn't know! Yeah!!!! I was so happy to see that I had two sales! Thank you New Jersey! :) She bought the "Neapolitan and Dots" bows! They are shipped and on their way!

Pictures from Monday and Thanksgiving

Here are the kids with their hot cocoa....Cami had to have the huge mug that is almost as big as her head! I got the basic decorations up and then let them load up the tree with tons more ornaments. They really enjoyed Family Home Evening aka family night!

This is me WITH OUT make up and done for the day with anything restricting hence the bath robe. Of course my sweet darling girl is too cute !

I think this is the biggest turkey I have ever seen!!! My brother and sis in law out did themselves! I had to take a picture!

Here are the kids in my brother's swimming pool that they heated just for my kids. It was soooo warm that they wanted to stay in all day and night and they darn near did! Thanks Jeff and Cathy!!

Look at these!!!

These were a custom order for my daughter. She gets sad when she discovers that all the bows I make are not for her. So these are all yours Cami. Glam!

These sweet little things will be in my Etsy shop tomorrow! Stop by and check 'em out! I love love love these! Brown swiss dots with pistachio green and light pink and white tails! They are sooo darling.

My bows, well actually Angela's gilrs' bows

I just saw my bows on my good friend and photographer Angela's daughters! They looked so dang cute! Here is what she had to say about them! Hopefully I will have a photo soon....check back to see how cute these two are!


"The bows are really cute. My mom just loved them on the girls. I can't wait to dress them up when we go to the Christmas party. They will be adorable. Thanks. "-Angela

I love this!

This is no doubt our family's favorite Christmas movie. It is full of laughs and I almost cry because I laugh so hard!!! So, since tomorrow there is no school due to more teacher conferences I decided to let the kids stay up late and watch A Christmas Story.

How I spent my day

I got up at 7 a.m. yes I slept in. I got the kiddos ready for school yadda yadda yadda and then came back home after dropping them off (in my pjs) then I did chores! So exciting. This consisted of me sweeping and mopping, a personal favorite! It's right up there with cleaning the toilets! YUCK! Then I went upstairs to do laundry and clean and vacuum the toy room. Then got carried away in Cami's room with sorting and storing things away in the garage for another time. Oh my gosh, it was already 1:30 and we hadn't eaten lunch. Fixed lil man a sandwich while I made my moms Hamburger soup (sounds weird but it is soooo good!) did another load of wash and then realized that the kids would soon be home (in walks Mike) and I still hadn't made Jeff his cookies yet! I pleaded with the man to please pick up the kids (as I was still in my pjs) and to PLEASE PLEASE take the lil man with him. Off they went and I was able to finish up the cookies and greet the kids when they walked in. After reading a memo from Cami's teacher re: parent teacher conferences I quickly remembered that today I had an appointment with Jeff's teacher and it was in 30 minutes! I was still in my pjs!!! I made it on time and not in my pjs. She had a great report about him. He had the best report card in the class!!! She said that he is exceptionally bright. I have never heard those two words together regarding one of my kids. Yeah sure people tell me they are smart but exceptionally bright??? So, we will do the GATE testing this spring. I didn't let him get tested last year but what harm could it be??? We'll see how it goes. Oh yeah, we decorated the Christmas tree, put up the garlands, decorated the front of the house and had hot cocoa and apple cider. That was our family night! It has been a busy day!