It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas!

Last night for family home evening we started off with a lesson on Baby Jesus, prepared and given by Elizabeth. She asked if she could do the lesson and she wrote up the whole story of the birth of Jesus, with pictures and props! Josh was recruited to be the sign holder and of course to play Joseph!
After the very good lesson we put up the Christmas tree. My mom didn't want to put up a tree this year with her busy with school, so we asked the girls what tree they wanted to put up. With living in my mom's house there is like 30 or so to pick from. They however picked their tree from our house. We have two tree's, mine, that have all the pretty ornaments on them and then there is the girls and Josh's tree that have all the fun ornaments, along with Josh's ornaments from when he was a kid! And the rule with this tree is I am not allowed to move ANY of the ornaments after the girls place them! (The thing is the girls put all of the ornaments in ONE spot on the tree and it just about kills me to not disperse them evenly all over the tree!) But I resist and don't touch them. This is the tree they picked to put up...the fun one, THEIRS! So we got everything out for it and put it together. We even have our first gift under it. Abby wrapped a gift for her doll and put it under the tree. Yes these girls are just a little excited for Christmas to come!
We put the tree up in the toy room and the girls were a little worried that Santa would not know where the tree was on the big night. So they asked to me talk to Santa so he didn't get lost in the house!

I just love the holiday season.

A Vegas Thanksgiving!

After a three year absence from the Tippetts Family Thanksgiving we traveled down to Vegas to spend time with the Tippetts! The girls were SOOOO excited. They woke up early on Wednesday so that we could leave and get to the cousins! We stopped in St. George for a couple of hours to see my Uncle Mike, it drove the girls crazy! When we did finally get to grandma and grandpa's house that was the last we really saw of the girls for the next few days. They were off to play with all the cousins.  

After licking the beaters Abby and Chase went for a ride on Grandpa's wheel chair. Abby just loves Chase and he is so kind to all of his little cousins.

At dinner time on Thanksgiving we set up all the kids outside! Thank goodness we did because I think they were out there for like less then a minute before Abby dumped her drink all over!

The adults were inside however I think that they forgot that we came and didn't have enough room at the inn...Josh and I were sent to the inside kid table to eat!

I think that Josh was more sad of having to sit at a table rather then on the couch so that he could watch TV!

The girls hanging out outside!

 Josh hanging with the kids.

That night Trudy, Brit, and I went to stand in line for black Friday shopping....got to love that black Friday shopping. Noelle and Jason and two of their kids met us at Target to shop with us! It was a short night and I was in bed by about 10:30pm! I got my sleep and still got to go out with the girls (and Jason) can't get better then that!

On Saturday morning before we left Vegas Josh took the girls to Bass Pro Shop to see the fishes and the mermaid (however it wasn't there at the time) He really went there so that he could take some pictures of the floor there for work. And you might be wondering were I was, well I got dropped off at the outlet mall!  

It was a good holiday weekend and we loved to see all the family and to spend time with everyone!

Abby's Thanksgiving Party!

Abby was a bit put out that I hadn't done a post of her classes Thanksgiving party! So here it is... her party was on Tuesday the last day of school before the Thanksgiving break, and they had a feast! This is a picture of her with her Indian hat on, there are feathers in the back but you can't see them. Abby told me that next year she is not going to wear her hair in pony tails so that her hat fits on her head better...man is she going to be sad if they don't do hats! But that's my girl thinking ahead and planning out her outfits in advanced! The kids ate LOTS of food and then went to another 1st grade class and watched a Thanksgiving movie! Abby said that she had LOTS of fun and was happy that I could come...since I went to sisters class...yes she is keeping track!

A Good Laugh!

 

Have you ever just read something that you found so funny that it just kept making you laugh even long after you stopped reading it? This is it for me! I find this so funny and every time I read it, it is still SO funny! I just needed a good laugh today so I thought I would share it! I hope you find it as funny!

Happy Birthday To My Sister!!!

Yesterday was my sister Cory's Birthday! Everyone came over last night to celebrate with dinner and cake of course. My other sister Celeste and her husband Bryce made dinner for all of us, with some help from my mom of course. I love celebrating birthday's this way with the whole family and all the kids so excited. The girls blew up some balloons for Auntie Cory, conveniently just enough for each of the kids to have one! I guess it is the thought that counts. After we watched a James Bond movie per request from the Birthday Girl. Got to say not really a Bond fan, but sat through the whole thing minus a small break to put my girls to bed. Josh came into the movie for a few seconds then quickly left to watch football in our room, so at least I stayed in!

Well Cor, Happy Birthday...You make 35 look good!

A Really New Look!

I've never really thought of myself as a really vain person. I only wear make-up on Sunday's and maybe just maybe sporadically I will put it on through out the week...but not usually. I've also never been much into getting my hair done, which my sister Cory reminds me to go do when she can see my grey...which is almost every time I see her. If my hair isn't done I usually just put a hat on and call it good. However, I have discovered recently that their is a bit of a girly girl in me after all.
I have been on some pretty strong medicine for a while now to help with my aggressive arthritis. However, the side effects were less then pleasing. One of which I started loosing a bit of my hair. And let me tell you hair is really important to a girl...I don't care how not a girly girl you are you start to lose it and it becomes VERY important!  Now I had worked really hard growing it back after having to cut it after they shaved the back of my head for brain surgery and I was finally getting passed the bad stage when it was getting thin and stringy, and with thin hair already that wasn't a good look. So I had my good friend cut it for me, just short enough to make it so it wasn't so stringy. Then I decided to stop taking my medicine and what do you know my hair started to grow back. However for anyone that has experienced re-growth...well it sucks! I had a bunch of little hairs all sticking up all over my head! So I cut some bangs to help with it in the front of my head...and that didn't work because Josh started calling me Velma! You know from Scooby-Doo! He would say, "Hey Velma have you seen Scooby?" Or "have you solved any good mysteries lately?" And that is not what you want your husband to think of you as. And I have to be honest I did look like her! So after the last week of wearing a hat I decided it all needed to come off and lets just start again. So once again I went to Lynae and she cut if all off for me. I feel a little bad because I think that I started to cry a little when she was done, but it's all off and I can't glue it back on no matter how much I may want to. And anyway now I'm back on medicine that I will probably lose it again so I guess I need to just suck it up and be ok with having short boy hair! Josh is so wonderful I asked him before I went if he would still like me with my hair short and he just laughed and said, "Carrie, if I haven't left you yet I don't think a hair cut is going to be the line in the sand!" I love that man! I came home and showed the girls, Abby said right away that she liked it, Elizabeth just stared at me and when I asked her if she liked it she just said, "you're not going to change any thing else are you? Like your style?" I am not really sure what that means...but she doesn't really like change too much! So here it is my new short hair... it is really strange I see this and don't know who this is!

Thanksgiving Came Early!

I am one of the head room moms for Elizabeth's class this year. At the beginning of the year there was two of us that came to the room mom meeting and none of us wanted to be the head room mom so we compromised and decided we would share the responsibility. We divided up the class parties so that we were in charge of every other party. I got Thanksgiving. However it didn't look like we were going to have a class Thanksgiving party. Last week Elizabeth's teacher told me she was going to do it with a couple of other 3rd grade classes and that she wasn't going to need much help. I thought GREAT...however on this Tuesday after school I went into talk to her and she said that that plan fell through and that if it was ok can we have our own class party and could it be on FRIDAY! I think my eyes went WIDE and then I heard myself say, "Ok, let me see what I can do!" WHAT a couple of days to get a party together and get parents to come into the class to help me....well I sent out emails and asked parents to take pitty on me and they did! So this is Elizabeth's party....

 Elizabeth and some of her friends...I don't know what is up with her smile but maybe we need to start working on taking pictures...but then it just wouldn't be Elizabeth!

 

The party was set up with four rotations then at the end we came together for our Thanksgiving feast! One of the stations was pin the feathers on the turkey! I had one of the dads that came in to help run this station, I thought I would save him from running the crafty station and give him the only game! I forgot a blind fold which is essential to the game, of course, so we used Miss Bracey's scarf! The dad wrapped all the kids up in this scarf, it was really funny.
I also made the give thanks sign on the board, it was so much fun to make and I thought it was cute!

My mom came and helped me and ran the Thanksgiving Story Bracelet station. I found this on Pinterest, of course, and thought it was cute. It is a story of the first Thanksgiving and they make this bracelet to go with it. Josh thought it was too girly to make the boys make a bracelet, but you know they loved it! My mom said that one little girl came up to her and told her this was the best day EVER!

 So my mom read the story to them then they made the bracelet after.

The next station was the Blessings Mix. Yes I got this off of Pinterst too...actually I got all of my crafts and games off of Pinterest. I printed each of the kids out one of these cards and they made their mix out of these things. They talked about each of the items and what they mean to Thanksgiving. Half the kids had their mixes eaten before we were done!

The last station was the suitcase station. I made them each a suitcase and in it they wrote what they would bring with them on the Mayflower if they could only take this suitcase. It was VERY interesting to see what kids wrote and drew. Some of the kids you thought WOW they thought of some really thoughtful things...then there were the kids, like mine, that you just shook your head and walked away!

 After we did all the stations we came together for our feast. I made a turkey for the occasion...

It was filled with popcorn and the kids LOVED it! We also had cupcakes and cookies and they of course ate their blessing mix.
I think for a couple of days prep I did alright! The kids had fun and Elizabeth was so happy I was there. It really was a lot easier then it may look....all I have to say is thank goodness for Pinterest and letting me use other people's ideas!

I Better Start Listening Better!

I picked up the girls yesterday and Elizabeth jumps in telling me that she isn't a very good eye liner person. I wasn't really listening and she has to repeat herself a couple of times before I catch on to what she was saying. I asked her what she was talking about, thinking that she did some sort of art project in class. She goes on to tell me that she took a marker and eye lined her friend Maddie's eyes for her! WHAT?...I guess these two thought it was a good idea to put eye liner on their eyes and to use markers!!! I texted Amy right away telling her that when her child gets home and she sees her, it was my kids fault! The good news of all the kids Elizabeth could of done this to it is sort of a good thing it happened to an Andersen, because Amy is the type of mom that is not going to get too upset at me and my brilliant kid for drawing all over her kid's face. Amy texts me back, saying, "Oh boy! I'm sure Maddie encouraged it." I asked her to send me a picture but she had already washed it all off. All she had to say about it was..."I don't think...(Elizabeth's) ready for cosmetology school any time soon!" Maddie had told her that it looked like someone punched her in the eye! You know you think that you have to hide markers from 3 year old's not 3rd graders!

More Craftroom Projects Complete!

I finished a couple of other projects in my craftroom...well really I finished one more project and supervised the second! This first one I painted these hoosk black so that I could hang all of my loose ribbons on. It is on the opposite wall as the other ribbons with the little bird that I already did so I thought I would have the birds cage hanging over here on this side. I really like how it turned out.

After a month of waiting for the shutter people to come and after they kept changing the times on me for the instal they finally got it in. Just one more thing done and checked off on my BIG list of projects that I have for this room! I am really having a lot of fun putting this room together.

Classic Skate Night!

It was Lindon Elementary Classic Skate Family Night and of course we were there! This was the first year that as soon as we got there and the girls got their skates on they were off with their friends leaving me to hold all the shoes and just sit and watch! I can't believe they grow up so fast. They did come check on me through out the night with their friends, so we are not at the point where they are avoiding me just yet! They also fell a few dozen times but I have to say they are getting better each time we come at skating.

Abby is in the green sweater in the middle of the picture skating so well!

Until the next family skate night!

First Snowman Of The Season!

It snowed like crazy today and the girls were so excited to go outside and make a snowman. While Elizabeth was at a birthday party Abby asked if Isabelle could come over and play with her so we picked her up and she was all dressed for outside play so Abby wanted to go outside too, but she has been complaining about her boots and that they are not real snow boots and she NEEDS real snow boots! And of course preferably one's that match her outfit! Auntie Cory came through and lent us a pair of black, goes with everything, snow boots and Abby was out the door with Isabelle. They built the first snowman of the season, even got a carrot out of the fridge to make it complete! Elizabeth was a little upset that they did this without her, but then I reminded her that she got to go to a party and they didn't and she decided she could make one tomorrow! So stay tuned for more snowmen!

It's Abby's World And We All Are Just Visiting...

Abigail lately has been VERY particular about her hair, and well everything really. I didn't know that sudden mood swings and attitude came at age 6. I had thought I would get that treat during the teen years but no it has arrived. I did Abby's hair the other day in two french braids that I thought were cute, however she has pretty curly hair and I may not of gotten all the hair to lay perfectly flat in the braids and she flipped out! Now when I say flipped out I mean FLIPPED OUT! She cried like the world was going to end all the way to school and on for the rest of the day. Yesterday while I was doing her hair for school I started constructing two braids and this time I was careful the make them perfect! However with the memory of the last one's Abby began to cry. She stated, "Braids don't go with this outfit mom!" I had no idea that hair styles went with different outfits! Man am I out of the fashion loop or what! She was ok after I made her look in a mirror and see that the braids were perfect! WOW the work that goes into Abby, this is going to be something when she hits her teen years!

Skinner Time!!!

Last night we went out to dinner with the Skinners and had so much fun that we met up with them again today when they invited us to go with them to Planet Play! We had never been so of course we were in!  We got this deal for a family of four, for dinner and games and games and some more games. We played mini golf and laser tag, the girls LOVED laser tag! Then we played lots and lots of video games to win tickets for those very coveted prizes that you could buy for a few cents at the dollar store! Then we ate lots of pizza and junk food. It actually was not bad food for one of these places. After three hours later the girls were tired and fell right asleep. We always have loads of fun with the Skinner Family!

We took these pictures inside the mini golf, they are Indians and we thought that it was funny...you know because I'm and Indian and Josh wishes he was one!

Halloween 2012

Halloween this year started off with so much excitement! The getting ready started a little early for my taste... but really most everything does (not a morning person would be an understatement!) Elizabeth dressed up like a vampire.

She said she wanted to be something scary this year not something cute....but if that is the case she really needs to work on her scary face. Yes this is her scary face I asked her to do for a picture!

Abby wanted to be something cute, she said because she is cute! I like a girl that knows what fits her! She was a butterfly.

Auntie Celeste did the girls make-up and she did a wonderful job. She got on the internet the day before and looked up different looks to see what the girls would like for their make-up.

The girls even dressed up Bubbles as a bunny. They remembered to dress the fish up this morning but forgot to feed it...this poor fish!

Latter that day I went into the office they were having a Halloween lunch with cake...and you just can't miss cake!

After that I went to the school for both the girls parties. This is a lot harder this year with two kids in all day and parties, their parties are often at the same time! So I went for most of Elizabeth's since I am one of the main room mom's in her class, and the end part of Abby's. They had a parade before the parties and I took pictures but my kids wouldn't stop for me to really take a picture and they came out blurrs that wouldn't look at me. This is Elizabeth and her friend Maddie at the party, they still will not look at me!

This is Elizabeth's teacher I just thought her costume was so amazing that I had to take a picture of it! She is so nice that she really does fit the part perfectly!

Next it was onto Abby's party who also would not look at me to take a picture....what is with these kids already too cool for their mom!

After the parties school was out so we went to the office the girls like to show their costumes to the girls in the office and see what they dressed up as and of course the girls will usually give them some candy so extra bonus!  The Ludvigson kids were there too...here is Deacon too cool also to take a picture, but at least he looked in my direction.

Isabelle was a witch and a very pretty one at that!

 Conrad was...well something to do with Star Wars I know that much! A Jedi I will just say.

I did dress up and my costume was brilliant I have to say. I was a person in disguise.  My friend Amy made this for me and I think it has been the best gift EVER! So I wore this to each of my girls classrooms and showed my costume to each of them and some of the other kids...my kids laughed so hard and thought it was so funny and the other kids just looked at me, saying I don't get it! I love my kids so much!

The girls went out that night with Josh while I stayed and handed candy out to kids. I got to say not loving the handing out to rude kids. I got only about half to say thank you and the a bunch that asked for a different candy because they liked another one better. I finally started telling them "you get what you get and you don't throw a fit"  I mean come on kids be happy with what you get, and learn to trade with other kids if you don't like what you get you don't ask the person giving you free candy to give you something different especially when there is a long line of kids waiting to get candy! Ok that is my rant for the day. So maybe next year I will take the girls and Josh can hand out candy!