Parents Christmas Present

Now that Christmas is over and gifts have been given, I can share what I made for my parents and Eric's parents for Christmas.

It wasn't anything major or grand, but it had thought behind it and it served its purpose. I have to give Lil' Sis' credit for actually finding the idea and sending it my way. Without her, it just wouldn't have happened. So thanks Lil' Sis'.

What I made for "The Parents" were photo books. Now, I didn't just do some random book where I threw in whatever pictures I wanted to - nor did I do something like a "yearly review" book. What I did was a photo book based on The Proclamation given by the First Presidency years ago.

My little sister ran across this site while looking at a different site. Now there was 2 possible versions of her template to purchase. One of them only allowed you to insert your own pics, the other one allowed for the changing of everything from the background to the font. I chose the second.

Choosing the second option allowed me to choose the background style I wanted to use and it also allowed me to change the fonts into something I liked a little better. After compiling all the pictures and getting each page looking the way I wanted - I uploaded them to Shutterfly and after only a few days got the books back.

Now, these "examples" aren't really the book, but I figured a video would work just as well to show off the pages.

Enjoy!

Note to family: Sorry for sharing some of these photos with "the world." Please don't hate me...

ERIC'S PARENTS "BOOK"

MY PARENTS "BOOK"

What Happens Next...

12 Days of Christmas - Day 12

OUTSIDE: "On the day OF Christmas My Grandma gave to me..."
INSIDE: "ONE..."

...FLEECE BLANKET...

What Happens Next...

12 Days of Christmas - Day 11

OUTSIDE: "On the DAY BEFORE Christmas My Grandma gave to me..."
INSIDE: "TWO..."

TANIS: (I am a bad mother and forgot to keep the papers for this day, so I'm not sure how Tanis' was phrased...)
SHAYLYN: "...NOTEBOOKS..."
LEX & NATE: "...STORYBOOKS..."

What Happens Next...

12 Days of Christmas - Day 10

OUTSIDE: "On the THIRD day before Christmas My Grandma gave to me..."
INSIDE: "THREE kinds of..."

...CANDY...

What Happens Next...

12 Days of Christmas - Day 9

OUTSIDE: "On the FOURTH day before Christmas My Grandma gave to me..."
INSIDE: "FOUR Scooby - Doo..."


...FRUIT SNACKS...

What Happens Next...

12 Days of Christmas - Day 8

OUTSIDE: "On the FIFTH day before Christmas My Grandma gave to me..."
INSIDE: "Sticks of..."

...GUM...

Nathaniel took a late nap this day, so he isn't pictured.

What Happens Next...

Christmas Gifts

So, I thought I'd share the gift I made for my Grandparents this year.

I have a hard time every year trying to figure out what to give my Grandparents. I want it to be something with thought, but something somewhat "useful" or "nice" as well.

In the past I've done things like a scrapbook calendar and family pictures and last year I did the whole birthday calendar thing.

So, as I was searching some craft sites for something to do for my grandparents, I came across this.

As soon as I saw it, I knew it's what I wanted to do. Now hers turned out A LOT better than mine did, but I am still pleased with mine and am excited to give it to my Grandparents.

I didn't do the size she recommended and opted to do an 11x14 size instead. That meant I had to use 4x6 pictures and whatever word thing I did had to be 4x6 as well.

I wasn't sure exactly what I wanted to say at the beginning, but as I kept thinking about it the scripture that started out, "Be Thou an Example..." kept coming to my head. Now, I am no scriptorian, so I had to do some research to find exactly what the scripture was and finally came across it. It is 1 Timothy 4:12.

I decided to do this because my Grandparents have always been such great examples to me. I can't even begin to name the ways in which they have influenced my life just by their examples.

The picture of my mom's parents (Kehl) is one of their Mission Pics - and personally one of my faves of them.

The picture of my dad's parents (Merchant) was taken this past April. My Mother in Law was so good to think to get a picture. We don't have many of them together.

And yes, I realize that the Merchant one is cracked. (That happened as I was putting it together and I was mad!) It is going to be fixed and replaced tonight - I was just too excited to share to wait until I fixed it.

What Happens Next...

12 Days of Christmas - Day 7

OUTSIDE: "On the SIXTH day before Christmas My Grandma gave to me..."

INSIDE: "A poster and SIX tiny..."
NATE'S: "A SIX inch..."

... MARKERS ...
NATE'S: ... BOWL ...

So not the greatest pic of all the kids, but it's a good one for showing off personalities, right?

What Happens Next...

12 Days of Christmas - Day 6

OUTSIDE: "On the SEVENTH day before Christmas My Grandma gave to me..."

INSIDE: "SEVEN window..."
NATES: " SEVEN colors on a ..."

... CLINGS ...
NATE'S: ... CUP ...

What Happens Next...

12 Days of Christmas - Day 5

OUTSIDE: " On the EIGHTH day before Christmas My Grandma gave to me..."

INSIDE: "EIGHT......Pieces"
and for Nate: "An EIGHT inch..."

... PUZZLE ...
and Nate's: ... PLATE ...

What Happens Next...

12 Days of Christmas - Day 4

OUTSIDE: "On the NINTH day before Christmas My Grandma gave to me..."

INSIDE: "A 9 inch..."

...WOODEN CHRISTMAS FIGURINE...

You would think out of 5 pictures, I would have gotten a semi-decent one. No such luck. Nate never did turn his figure around and the other kids just weren't in a real cooperative mood last night... Nate's figurine or whatever you wanna call it - is a Santa.

What Happens Next...

12 Days of Christmas - Day 3

OUTSIDE: "On the TENTH day before Christmas My Grandma gave to me..."

INSIDE: "A TEN key..."

...CALCULATOR...

But if you look close, you'll notice that Nate isn't holding a Calculator. Nope, Grandma gave him 10 pieces of licorice instead. This boy LOVES licorice and Grandma probably figured he'd enjoy that more than a calculator.

What Happens Next...

Family Christmas Pics

As promised: our yearly Family Christmas Pics...

We are either lucky, cheap or smart (probably a combination of all) as Eric's mom has taken our Christmas Photos for the past 4 years or so. Now, she is in no way a professional photographer - but she has spent good money on getting excellent cameras and equipment.

Best part about it for us: We don't have to pay anyone and yet we still get nice family photos. Although Eric would be more cooperative if it wasn't his mom taking pics. Oh well...

I am just including the "BEST" of every group of pics. If you want to see the 'Rest of the Best' you can check them out on my Facebook page or you'll just have to wait until the family website update in January.

THE FAMILY

THE KIDS

MOMMY & DADDY

TANIS

SHAYLYN

LEX

NATE

What Happens Next...

12 Days of Christmas - Day 2

Outside: "On the ELEVENTH day before Christmas My Grandma gave to me..."

Inside: "ELEVEN pieces of..."

...CRAFT FOAM TO MAKE 2 SNOWMEN...

Now, you may be wondering why there are only 2 kids pictured - the reason is this:

We had a late night that night. The kids' Uncle and his Girlfriend took the 3 older kids to go see the Zoo Lights and Grandma babysat Nate so Eric and I could go see a movie.

Well, Eric and I got back around 8:30, but the kids who went to the zoo didn't get back until a bit after 9.

We didn't leave Eric's parents until about 9:30, so we didn't get home until about 10:30. Because of the time, Nate had fallen asleep in the car as did Lex.

However, Lex woke up enough to open his 11th day gift, but REFUSED to get in the picture for me. Oh well, his loss - right?

Later today I will get to our family Christmas pictures that I know you are all dying to see...Okay, so maybe you aren't DYING to see them - I am just DYING to share them because, for once, I am mostly pleased with how they turned out.

What Happens Next...

She Did It Again: 12 Days of Christmas - Day 1

So, my dear mother was at it again.

If you'll remember last year she gave little gifts to the kids for a few days before Christmas set to the poem of 'Twas The Night Before Christmas.

Well, this year she surprised all of us by doing a similar thing. This year she is doing a 12 Days of Christmas thing. This was a very welcome thing for Tanis as he told me a few weeks ago, "I wish Grandma would do that Christmas gift thing again."

Today was the 1st day.

The outside of each gift had a tag on it that read: "On the TWELFTH day before Christmas My Grandma gave to me...."

On the inside: "A TWELVE ounce bottle of..."

...SHAMPOO...

Don't laugh, my kids thought it was great! I don't know why, but they enjoy bath soaps/shampoos, so it was an awesome gift to them.

Stay tuned for Day #2 and for Yearly Family Christmas Pics!!!

What Happens Next...

We Needed A Little Christmas...

So, it had been quite awhile since I had done anything "crafty," if you don't count the tiles I've made for birthdays.

Well, last Friday I decided to do a few "crafty" things. So, after the kids got home from school - we piled in the car and headed out to our nearest craft store...Nearest being 30 - 40 minutes away. Anyway, we made good time and we found EVERYTHING I was hoping to find. And the kids were mostly okay.

I got to work on Friday night and finished last night...This is without doing anything on Sunday night...

First Item: Countdown Numbers

So, technically this wasn't anything "hard" to do, just something that needed to be done. We've had this Santa countdown figure (I would love to say I also made Santa those many years ago, but I didn't....I bought it somewhere) for I don't know how many years, and it's been missing countdown numbers for probably 1 year less than the time we got it.

I finally decided I had enough of putting this thing up without any real numbers to use - so I remedied that situation.

I found pre-cut holly shapes at the craft store, painted them with green paint and finished them off using vinyl and my Cricut.


Second Item: Noel Word Blocks

Our ward made these for our Super Saturday or whatever it may be called in your area, but I wasn't able to make it that night for various reasons.

Well shortly after Halloween the lady dropped off the letters for me so that I could paint them up and whatever whenever I got around to it.

So they sat, and they sat, and they sat for a good month and a half before I decided to do anything with them. After working on my other 2 projects and seeing as how it is "Christmas Time," I decided I'd better get my act together and actually paint these suckers!

I am glad I got to do it on my own time, in my own way as I got to choose my own colors. I sorta followed the example on the website the lady used for the idea. You can find that here. I am excited with how it turned out.


Third Item: Stocking Holder

Yay, something I came up with on my own - sorta.

These little hanger things have been around FOREVER and people have used them for all sorts of things, but I decided since we don't have a fireplace or some random shelf in the frontroom to hang stockings on - we needed SOMETHING!

Why this idea came to me, I don't know - I'm just glad it did. The next addition to this will be "uniformed" stockings that I am going to be working on this coming year with my mom.


I've also spent time working on my Christmas gift to my parents and my in-laws which I will share after Christmas sometime. I would love to share it now, but occasionally my dear MIL hops on and reads my blog, so I won't be sharing now.

Hope you all enjoyed my bit of creativity for now....It may not happen again for a LONG, LONG time!

What Happens Next...

RUNAWAY!!!

This past weekend, Eric and I celebrated our 11th anniversary!!! Can you believe that? Yup, 11 years of wedded bliss has been ours to share, and if you count the years we were dating, we've been together for 13 years! Crazy how time flies.

This year, Eric was super sneaky and planned our anniversary. He wouldn't tell me anything! However, we have kids and they found out enough that I knew we'd be going away, somewhere.

So the day of our anniversary arrives and Eric has told me to pack for 3 days and that he wanted to leave by about 11:00 a.m. So, I actually have everyone ready and packed and we head out around 11.

Our first stop was just around the corner where we dropped Shaylyn and Nathaniel off with our good friends, the Wards. We debated a bit about who to leave with the Wards as all of our kids are good friends, but in the end it was decided Shaylyn would be better closer to home so she could help out with the dogs as well.

Our next stop was at Eric's parents house to drop Tanis & Lex off. Eric's dad treated us to a Costco pizza (I love their pizza for whatever reason). And after visiting for a bit we head out around 1.

The stop following this was to Jiffy Lube - yes, Jiffy Lube - Eric wanted to get an oil change before we headed out.

Now, all this time I was thinking that we were going to be going on a plane somewhere, so when Eric headed South on the freeway instead of North...Wow, you should've seen my face. I was totally confused. THEN, we take a PROVO exit. Seriously, we wound up in Provo for our first night.

Now, to be fair - Eric's Dad had planned to take us to the BYU/UTAH game before Eric realized it was the weekend of our anniversary and Eric had his plans still - so, Eric's dad wanted to treat us to a game. Thus, the reason we were in Provo. And hey, his Dad got us a killer suite - so I didn't complain too loudly.

We took some time to browse the mall and then we went to see "New Moon". After the movie we headed straight to the basketball game. BYU was playing Weber State and it was a fun game to watch. I was amazed looking at BYU's cheerleaders and Weber States Cheerleaders...Weber State looks like trash...Sorry, they do.

We call it a night after the game so that we can be on the road by about 9:00 in the morning.

We actually do make it on the road by about 9:00 the next morning and I still have no idea where we are going...There were a bunch of signs for Price, Utah and CEU, but I had no idea why we'd be heading there.

Eventually there are signs for Moab and I figure out that that is where we are heading. I had actually told Eric a few weeks prior that I had never been to Moab or to Arches National Park. So, he decided that's where we would go and that is where he surprised me at.

We got to Moab around noon and decided the first thing we would do is have lunch. We decided on Pizza Hut (During this pregnancy I've been craving pizza tons) and spent an hour having lunch. For whatever reason, our waitress at Pizza Hut kept forgetting about us or something.

Anyway, after lunch we decided we would head to Arches for the next few hours since we couldn't check into the hotel until 3, anyway.

We spent the next few hours in the park and enjoying the scenery. We took it mostly easy and enjoyed everything we saw...but winter hours and darkness started to fall soon, so we decided we'd better call it a day around 4:30 and head to the hotel.

We spent about an hour resting in the hotel and then we headed for dinner. I thought I was more hungry than I was however and only ate about half of my dinner. We then stopped at a T-Shirt shop to get each of the kids a shirt. We had so much fun and lots of laughs doing so.

After the t-shirt shop we relaxed the rest of the night.

We woke up early the next morning as well to try to get in the rest of Arches that we didn't see the day before. Our first stop was the hike to Delicate Arch. Ummm, yeah...I'm glad we did that first thing. I had a hard time making it up to the Arch and Eric had a hard time coming down. (He has horrible knees).

However, each of us made it and we are so glad we did. I have a terrible fear of heights, however, so I didn't get right up close to the arch. I was surprised I made it up there at all considering how high up it really is.


After the hike we drove around to see what else we could see from the car and then decided to head home and pick up our kids.

I had such a great time and I'm glad that Eric planned something so nice for us and that he kept it a surprise. Thanks BABE!

All of the pics will be on the website when I do the update. As for now I just posted a few "faves."

What Happens Next...