A few new St. Patrick's Day Decorations

I pulled out my St. Patrick's Decorations this year. There wasn't very much stuff. Even my daughter remarked that we didn't have very many decorations. In the past, I have tried to make a new item for each holiday every year. The past few years I haven't done that. So this year I decided to make up for it and make two things. The only problem was that I waited until St. Patrick's DAY to actually make them. We kept them up through the weekend so we could enjoy them for a little while.

The very first thing I made with my band saw was a heart garland. I have made similar ones for almost all the other holidays. I have wanted to make one for St. Patty's day too. So here it is. My stair rail is the perfect place to put it.

I also wanted something fun to put on my front door. I knew I wanted a big shamrock, but didn't know what to do to make it cute. I dug around in my craft stuff and found these white berries that I have had for YEARS. Sometimes it pays to keep things! I love the way it turned out.

Valentine's Day

Here I am posting about something that happened almost a month ago. I seem to get behind so quickly on my blog. We had a great Valentine's Day. We started the fun the day before Valentine's Day when DH brought home a big bouquet of flowers for me, and a pink rose for each of the girls. They felt so special getting roses from their Daddy. I felt pretty special too!

I found the girls some little heart shaped baskets at the thrift store. I filled them up with some chocolates, a Little Pet Shop, and a new outfit.

They got to open them up before breakfast so they could wear their new pink and red clothes that day. I wish I had gotten a picture of them all together in their new cute clothes.

We had heart shaped pancakes with raspberry morsels for breakfast. For lunch I made sandwiches and cut them into heart shapes with a cookie cutter. Since it was also Chinese New Year we had chinese food for dinner. I made Sesame Chicken, rice, and oriental green beans. Yummy! The girls and I also made these cute heart cookies filled with raspberry jam.

The girls and I made these for their school friends. I got to help in M's class for her Valentine's party. I got to help decorate cookies with the kids....man those kids like alot of frosting.....we are talking an inch thick. Gag!

DH made me some giant dominos for our playroom. This is a picture of them before he distressed them and antiqued them. They look totally awesome now. I should have gotten a new picture of them. When I post about the play room I will have to take another picture of them so you can see the finished product.

I gave DH a bag of different things with little sayings on them. This one was a box of shot gun shells. They said, "Cupid must have SHOT me through the heart because I am totally in love with you." A little cheesy I know, but true.

We had such a great day....but wouldn't everyday be wonderful if we all went around telling each other how much we love each other all day. :)

A great RS activity...

I don't know if I have mentioned it on here, but I am the second counselor in our RS presidency. That just means I am the party planner! I am in charge of RS activities. I love my calling. I love planning parties, so it is just perfect for me. I wanted to blog about our last activity....the best one we have had since I have been in my calling. In Oct. 2009 in the General Relief Society broadcast Sister Beck quoted Sister Camilla Kimball, she said:

"Never Suppress A Generous Thought."

I thought that would make a great theme for a RS activity. We had a lady in our ward that had recently moved away. She is seriously one of the kindest, most giving, generous and thoughtful people I know. And that is why we asked her to come and talk to us. She shared a beautiful lesson with us about her life, her loss (she has had 3 children die), and the service she has given to others. It was so inspiring. It made you just want to go out and do nice things for everyone you met. I also had three ladies in our ward share a few personal experiences of when somone's act of kindness has blessed them in their lifes. The ladies shared wonderful, touching experiences. I think everyone was choked up or crying. It was beautiful. I also shared a personal story of my own. In the last picture, there is a little porcelein family praying. This was a gift from a nurse that helped my husband after his surgery to remove the cancer from his body. She was such a sweet lady. She only knew us for 6 days, but every time I look at that little praying family I think of her and her act of kindness. That little family has become a very special thing for me. We have had to add two more little girls to it, but it still reminds me of that time in our lives when we had just had our baby and my husband had cancer. It is a wonderful reminder of the power of prayer.

After the ladies spoke I gave out the handouts I had made. I made a card for them to put somewhere to remind them to act on the generous thoughts they have, and I made little cards for them to write in and give to someone they have been thinking about.

We also had a sundae bar. I had made up little signs for all the toppings.....Sprinkles for Kindness, Strawberry sauce for service, Caramel sauce for compassion. It was fun to see the ladies go through the line and say.....I need more charity, so I better have a cherry!

It turned out to be such a wonderful evening. I think about it everyday and try harder everyday to think about others and act on the generous thoughts that I have. I hope you will do the same.

H's first hair cut...

I was getting a little tired of H's long stringy hair, so I decided to give her her very first hair cut. Here it is before:

And here it is after:

Her hair cut turned out so cute, but it makes me sad because it makes her look so much older. Wahhh! My baby is growing up.

And since K was standing around. I decided to give her a little trim as well.

Going Sledding....

Over Christmas break we headed over to the park to do a little sledding. The hills aren't very long or steep, but they are just right for the little girls. We had a great time.

Happy New Year 2010

I guess we didn't start out the new year very well, because we didn't take any pictures. We had a great time bringing in the new year though. We made a bunch of finger foods. I love finger foods! The girls were excited because we told them they could eat ALL night long. We also let them stay up for the first time this year. We told them if they got grouchy they would have to go to bed. We have started a tradition of watching our family videos on New Year's Eve. We watched 4 hours worth of videos. We thought we would watch other movies and play games, but the girls had so much fun watching themselves on the t.v. that we just did that all night. We didn't finish watching all of them, so we pulled some more out on Sunday so they could watch the rest. It was fun to watch them grow up so fast on video. H started getting grouchy so she got sent off to bed. K made it to about 10 o'clock before she fell asleep. M and A made it all the way to midnight. We really didn't think they would so we did plan anything for the 12:00a.m. climax. Next year we will have some fireworks and stuff ready to go....or at least get out a few pots and pans. It was a fun evening with our family. What a great way to start out the new year.

Christmas 2009

A few Christmas photos...finally!

All the girls on Christmas morning.

A got some pet shops.

M got a digital camera (she has taken pictures of practically everything in our entire house!)

A and K with a few new games.

H looking at her Tops and Bottoms book. And she got her very first Barbie.

DH got some ear protection for when he goes shooting.

I got a new iron and an aebelskiver pan.

Every year we make the girls a homemade present from us. This year we made building blocks. The girls loved to play with a set Grandpa and Grandma R have. We thought they would like one of their own. They have loved playing with it. They build new creations every single day.
We also got to go to a couple family parties at Grandma and Grandpa B's house. Here are a couple pictures of Grandma and Grandpa B opening their presents. We got Grandpa a couple Wii games. All my siblings and my Dad pitched in to get my Mom a Cricut Expression. I think she was excited.

It was a GREAT Christmas.