Merry Christmas!

I found this a few months ago on YouTube and thought it was a beautiful tribute to our Savior for this beautiful Christmas Morning. We hope you have a wonderful Christmas!

Adventures in Family Picture-taking

I wrote this post back in December but never posted it:

Here were most of the family pictures we took for our family Christmas card this last year. After about 5 minutes we gave up (you can see what those 5 minutes were like) - my kids haven't been trained well enough yet in the art of picture taking. If it wasn't one person not cooperating or closing their eyes it was another. I love the first one. That would have been a great picture had Amy not been picking her nose. The last one is the one we chose. To get Amy to smile is truly a miracle. Ian looks kind of funny but thankfully Ken figured out how to put a new face on him without photoshop! All I had to do was tell Kenny it was impossible without photoshop and he got it done.

On the Second Day of Christmas

For the second day of Christmas we opened a Gingerbread House Kit! This is something I've wanted to do with the kids for awhile. Amy was so excited to see all the candy. She had a fit when we couldn't open it then. After showing her how to decorate with the candy, I was surprised how much Amy got into it - she actually decorated more than she ate.

Ian, on the other hand, ate MUCH more than he decorated. So much for the snowmen outside our gingerbread house. He was making a memory of his own, eating gingerbread for the first time.

Amy concentrating so hard as she places another gum drop on the roof.

The finished product. It won't be winning any awards, but it was sure fun to do together.

Other Memories

Ian is getting to be such a big boy! I still can't believe he's turning one this week! Where did the time go? I let Ian go to town eating some yogurt all on his own. He did so well, and I think he loved the independence. When he couldn't get anymore onto his spoon he started using his fingers, but all in all he got most of it in his mouth. What a boy!



This weekend we had a wonderful time with the Benson's. We hadn't seen Tyler since he returned from his mission. It didn't feel like two years had gone by. It was so nice having him around, as well as all the Bensons. We enjoyed some relaxing days of shopping and hanging out. We are somewhat boring hosts, but hopefully they didn't mind.

The First Day of Christmas

I read a fun book a few weeks ago about making the holidays more meaningful. I showed it to one of my great friends and she got excited about it too. So, we decided to put together a 12 days of Christmas package for each other - the premise being that for each of the 12 days of Christmas we had to come up with an activity that the other family would do in order to make a Christmas memory. So, Saturday night they delivered to us a bin of twelve packages and we did the same for them (well, I still have to finish a couple . . . and they got theirs Sunday . . . you know me, always the procrastinator).

So, our Day 1 activity was to make a "memory tree" and put pictures up of activities and fun things that happen from now until Christmas. What a great idea! Ian loved putting the ornaments into the vase. He thought he was such a big boy being able to do what Amy was doing.

I put some of our Christmas pictures up for the last two days. I'm going to love this and so are the kids!

P.S. - If you are interested in checking out the book that gave us this idea it's called "The Twelve Days of Christmas: Ideas for a More Meaningful Holiday Season" by Betty Van Orden

For the Grandparents . . .

Here's Amy's rendition of "I am a Child of God", sung in duet with her daddy just before bedtime. Can you tell they are both tired? Oh, and don't mind my creepy commentary at the end!

Lights at Temple Square

We couldn't have picked a nicer night to see the Christmas lights down at Temple Square - It wasn't freezing and it wasn't too crowded. Ian was a little tired and fussy but as long as we kept the stroller moving he seemed not to notice too much. You always imagine it being more magical than it actually turns out, but we did have a great time and Amy did enjoy seeing the lights. She also enjoyed being with her friend Grant, Daddy Grant, and Emily. What she really talks about, however, are the camels and the sheep that were in the Nativity Scene. The flash on our camera wasn't working so our pictures were pretty dark, but here some from the night.

There are luminaries all over Temple Square with "Merry Christmas" written in all different languages. Here is the luminary written in Basque. Kenny could not leave until we found it!

Grant and Amy. Ha Ha! We're so cheesy, but it gives us a laugh. This is for their wedding video.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!

Ours turned out much different than we thought. Our plan was to leave for Arizona on Wednesday evening and spend the weekend with Kenny's parents, see his brother AJ who just moved to Australia and was back in Arizona for meetings, visit my cousin and her family, have Thanksgiving with the Benson's, his other brother's family, and watch our nephew Tyler give his mission homecoming address on Sunday.

Well, as you can see we didn't make it! It seemed like there was one thing after another to keep us from going, so here we are - a last second decision to stay. We missed seeing our family, and wish we could hear Ty report on his mission, but we enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner just the four of us together. Even though it was just the four of us it didn't stop us from making enough food to feed an army. We will be eating leftovers for days! Kenny and I had fun cooking together (yes, he actually let me help: )). I even made homemade rolls (quite an accomplishment).

Joy in the Journey

The other day I was reminded of President Monson's talk "Joy in the Journey" so instead of quickly wiping away Amy's finger prints from a mirror above our table (a table she's not supposed to get on top of :)), I decided to take a picture of them instead (and then clean the mirror). That way when I will miss the fingerprints (because I don't now) I'll look at the picture and smile.

Here's a little bit of a talk that President Monson wrote just for me:
"This is our one and only chance at mortal life—here and now. The longer we live, the greater is our realization that it is brief. Opportunities come, and then they are gone. I believe that among the greatest lessons we are to learn in this short sojourn upon the earth are lessons that help us distinguish between what is important and what is not. I plead with you not to let those most important things pass you by as you plan for that illusive and non-existent future when you will have time to do all that you want to do. Instead, find joy in the journey—now."

"If you are still in the process of raising children, be aware that the tiny fingerprints that show up on almost every newly cleaned surface, the toys scattered about the house, the piles and piles of laundry to be tackled will disappear all too soon and that you will—to your surprise—miss them profoundly."

"Stresses in our lives come regardless of our circumstances. We must deal with them the best we can. But we should not let them get in the way of what is most important—and what is most important almost always involves the people around us. Often we assume that they must know how much we love them. But we should never assume; we should let them know. Wrote William Shakespeare, “They do not love that do not show their love.”3 We will never regret the kind words spoken or the affection shown. Rather, our regrets will come if such things are omitted from our relationships with those who mean the most to us."

Cleaning Kick

The other night Kenny and I were supposed to go to the temple. Unfortunately, I couldn't find my temple recommend anywhere! (I won't tell you how long it's been since I've used it). Anyway, I remembered that Ian was playing with my wallet next to the stove not too long ago, so I thought there was a chance it might have slipped underneath it. What a dirty surprise! I pulled out the stove, which I had never done in the 5 years we've lived here, and found everything but my recommend. It did get me on a cleaning kick though. I should have taken an "after" picture to show off the progress. Anyway, you can imagine it . . .

Since then I've cleaned out my room - closets, dressers, under bed, under dresser, etc. It looks so great! My theory is that it will help me keep it clean for longer. We'll see if it's true. I probably put 15 pairs of shoes at the top of our closet which will mean 30 less shoes I'll have to pick up around my house all day. I swear half my day is spent picking up shoes that Amy has taken throughout the house :).

Latest Creations - Part 2

For our Young Women in Excellence program this year we started a "40-day Walk with Christ" that the girls will continue until the Sunday after Christmas. We made a little book for each of the girls to take home with some reading material and a task to do everyday of their walk. It took a long time to complete - many a morning till 3 am - but I was really happy with the finished product.

This will probably be my last young women project I'll be involved in for a long time. The Bishop called me in for an "exit interview" last week. He hasn't called a new presidency yet, but he's working on it. I imagine I'll be released within the next month. It will be quite an adjustment. I figured out that in the last 7 1/2 years, I've been in Young Womens for 5. I do love it, and I know I'll miss it. I love sharing what I love and know with people I love. Our ward has some amazing girls so it's made my job easier, but I am anxious to not have the responsibility and to have the opportunity to focus more on my family. It has been a wonderful experience - I've learned so much about how the spirit works in our lives. I've watched first hand how the Lord inspires us to do things at just the right time and it's strengthened my faith and my testimony to realize just how much he knows each of our needs.

Latest Creations - Part 1

I've been trying to keep myself more busy doing things that I enjoy! It keeps me motivated to do the things that I don't enjoy as much, like cleaning. This was one of the projects I worked on. It was my first time making one of these fleece blankets from start to finish. They are SOOO easy. It was awesome. It probably took me longer to pick out the fabric than it did to actually make the blanket. So, the animal one was for Ian and the snowman blanket was for Amy. Amy didn't seem to have much interest in her pink snowman blanket, but she loved Ian's blanket. She wore it around her shoulders for awhile.

Talking Amy

For awhile Amy has been good at saying prayers with our help. Last night she wanted to help me. This was her prayer (I'm forgetting several things already but you'll get the idea), and remember that after every phrase she had me repeat her.

Thank you for day.
Thank you mommy and daddy.
Thank you rhino.
Thank you elephant.
Thank you dogs.
Thank you kitty.
Thank you giraffe.
Thank you plants.
Thank you flowers.
Thank you animals.
Thank you house.
Thank you horses.
Thank you cows.
Thank you otters.
Thank you turkeys.
Thank you chickens.
Thank you sheep.
Thank you pigs.
Thank you ducks.
Thank you geese.
Thank you sleep.
And on . . . And on . . .


Then this morning as she was taking a bath I walked in on her and noticed she was eating something.
Renae: "Amy what are you eating?"
Amy: "Pick your nose"
Renae: Amy that's gross.
Amy: "Nummy Nummy Nummy"

First Snow

We had our first real snow of the season, and this is how Amy and I celebrated. It was both of our first times building a snowman . . . you can probably tell! Amy was ecstatic and thanks to a really cool Mr. Potato Head playdoh set we were able to make lots of fun faces for the snowman/woman.

What an outfit! Notice the lollipop in the snowman's mouth. Amy thought for a second about sharing it,

and then she decided that she wanted it more.

Amy with the Mr. Potato Head pieces.

The winning snowman

Some of the many faces.

Halloween Pictures

A few Halloween pics!