14 days to Valentines

Today marks the first day of fun activities I am doing for and with my family for Valentines. Tonight we had a Lesson on Love and Service and made some Valentine Pouches to hang on our doors. Throughout the month of February they will be there so we can send each other "mail" of sweet notes, acts of service for each other, nice things about each other or something sweet to eat. We had a great time decorating them with stamps and stickers and other fun stuff to make them festive. From now to Valentines I have something fun or sweet I will give or do for my family to have a good time celebrating the love we have as a family.

What shall we do today?.....

Last week the kids started out playing "store" so they were gathering things off the shelves, then they looked at the empty shelves and saw a better game to play! "Store" was never played and "bunkbed forts" was what they did the rest of the morning. (soon they put blankets over them to make it darker). Once again a big mess was worth the amount of playing that day!

Birthday Part I

Our little Alyssa has turned 7!!! 1 more year and she will be baptized, Brad and I are in shock on how time flies. Alyssa had a fabulous party with all her best buds last Friday night. I loved that she wanted a "heart" party, great time to find things at the stores and great for decorating for the month of February too. We had a "late night" party so it was over at 9pm!! the girls went crazy over this idea. (I did it so they would stop asking for one for awhile).

Alyssa's Heart Cake with yummy M&M's

Alyssa and all her best friends

The party guests playing Valentine Bingo

And what's a girl party without dancing to Hannah Montana Music and playing in a band!!

Birthday Part II

Alyssa chose Shrinky Dinks for her activity at her party, (lots of fun and a big hit with the girls), and Alyssa got lots of fun crafts, Little Pet Shops toys and other fun great things to play with. She is in heaven playing with everything everyday so far, great to keep her busy.

ARGO+ SNOW = FUN

Our neighbor Lon has this cool machine called an ARGO. He got it out one day while we were out playing in the snow building slides. We had the neighbor kids over at the time so everyone got a ride on it. The last trip he loaded all the kids in and went up and down the street doing donuts and turns and going really fast. It was a lot of fun although I feared for Corbin's life at time becuase he was too busy yellling and having fun he wasn't holding on with both hands. I was just waiting for him to fly out of the back.

Chirstmas Morning

Christmas Morning Part 2

Cousins Gift Exchange

This year the cousins picked a name for each other and we had a gift exchange. It had to be a favorite treat (ie: cereal, candy, cookie). everyone had a lot of fun and the kids had a great time getting a gift and giving it to their person they picked. The adults did it as well, we couldnt' pass an opportunity to recieve something yummy too.

Christmas Eve we went to Brad's sisters house for dinner and to do the nativity story with everyone. It turned out really good, Drew was the narrator, Susan and I were the photographers and we were blessed to have such a beautiful real baby Jesus this year. Gary and Tara came up for a visit with their new baby boy Samuel. He so precious and it was nice to have a little baby around for the holidays.

Traditions....

Every year Brad and I have made it a tradition to make gingerbread houses with the kids at Christmas time. My mom and dad came up for the weekend for Corbins birthday so I crammed in as many fun things with them as I could. Corbin and Grandpa made one together and Grandma and Alyssa together and Ava and daddy were together. It was a lot of fun, decorating, making fun people taught by grandpa and the occasional sneaking a piece of candy when nobody is looking.

Corbin turns 5

Corbin turned 5 last month (yes I am behind). He had a Transformer party and had a blast with all his buddies. There are 7 boys his age in our neighborhood that he loves to hang out with. We also had to get the "Optimus Prime" Pinata this time!! He got lots of fun toys from family and friends and had a great time finally turning 5 like all his friends.

Decorating the Tree

Lights......

String of Beads......

Ornaments

Christmas Tree Hunt

This year we went to cut our own tree down to decorate for the house. We drove about 45 minutes southwest to cut it down. It was cold, but everyone had fun. It had snowed that morning just enough to feel a little wintery while looking for our tree. We looked for over an hour and finally found one on the top of the mountain. Ava didn't like the cold at all, we were all walking and hiking, she was being carried so she wasn't getting warm. We took our brother in law Drew and nephew Tanner to go with us to help out with the hunt and the tree.

Last year I started some stocking for this Christmas. With my wonderful and talented mom's help I was able to complete these super cute snowmen stockings. Thanks mom, I love them.

Thanksgivng Trip

All lot of us went to swim at the hotel Brad's parents were staying at. Everyone knows that you can still swim in Arizona in the month of November!! It was a little windy to make it a bit colder when you got out of the pool, but kids really don't care about things like that.

Here is Alyssa at the Mesa Temple. It is so amazing how many lights they put up everywhere along with nativity statues to see.

Ava loved putting the lights in her hands and watching them glow.