Dinner with the fam

My grandma is in for the holidays and we try to get together a lot while she's here. Mom cooked beans, fried potatoes, mac-n-cheese, and corn bread tonight. I made a new recipe for dessert, Apple Enchiladas!
They were so easy and yummy with vanilla ice cream on the top! I am not a big fan of pie crust so these hit the spot for me.



After dinner Papa and Gracie made friendship bracelets together. He's such a good Papa.

Snow Day!

It started snowing Christmas day and they called for atleast 7" for our area. We ended up only getting a few inches, just enough to make some snow balls, but the kiddos had a blast.

Christmas Day

We enjoyed a quiet morning together just the four of us. G and B played with Santa gifts and opened gifts from Jordan and I. Then we hosted breakfast for Jordan's parents, and Nathan, Carrie, and Emmett. We started this last year and really loved it. I think what I like most is staying in our pj's.















After the Price's left, we cleaned up, rested for a little while, played with new toys, and then went to Nana and Papa's house for a late lunch and gift exchange.









We so enjoy our family time.

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve lunch is traditionally held at my mil and fil's home, but due to shoulder surgery the week before Christmas, my fil was not able to help host. This year we had it at Jordan's Aunt Susan's home, which is right next door to us. Convenient- I think so!

I took my Crockpot Hashbrown Casserole which is super easy. It's my go-to side dish for get-togethers and dinner for our family. I also made a new recipe I found on Pinterest, Chocolate Chip Cream Cheese Breakfast Cookies. They are incredible right out of the oven and were easy peasy to make!

We always have a great time together. Last year we began a new tradition for Christmas Eve. Instead of buying gifts for the adults that none of us really need, we donate money to a charity of our choosing. For two years in a row we have given extra money to the child we sponsor through Compassion. We love that we are able to communicate with our child, Keila, through hand written notes and drawings. She is 4 years old and our children are 6 and 3, so they love to draw her pictures and send her stickers. We get excited when we receive messages from Keila! This year after Christmas Eve lunch we were able to share about the charities that we gave money to. It was neat learning about charities that I never knew existed. We still buy gifts for all the kiddos and enjoy watching them open their presents.

I love this picture of Bayler and my nephew, Emmett. They are best buds.

This picture of E cracks me up! The boy wanted some cowboy boots and he got them. I didn't know a 2 year old could have so much pride! It was precious.

After lunch we went to the Christmas Eve service at our church. I wish I had a picture to show, though I'm sure it will be forever etched in my brain.....the kids were called to the altar to listen to the Christmas story that our preacher was reading to them. Bayler was hamming it up, making faces at the congregation. I believe I was ten shades of red and my palms were so sweaty. When did the kids' version of the Christmas story turn into the longest book in the history of the world?

After the service at church, we set out cookies for Santa and read "The Night Before Christmas", one of our traditions that we love.

Santa and Snow Attire

We made a special trip to find the man in the big red suit today. I am excited to say that this is the first year that they wanted to get a picture with him and tell him what they want for Christmas. I have never made them sit on his lap just to have a picture.

When Grasen was a toddler, maybe 2 years old, we took her to the mall, stood in the long line and were almost to the front of the line when she spotted him. It was a no-go.

The next year I wasn't feeling well and I think her Grandma's took her to a local boutique that had a Santa. They got a picture, but Grasen had a very solemn look on her face and her Yaya was next to Santa in the pic. Ha!

So, I treasure this picture!!!

They were so good in line we let them ride the ice cream truck after.

We went to our very favorite mexican restaurant afterward and ate way too much. Then we went to a sport's store and began our purchasing for our ski trip in March. We are trying to spread it out since Jordan is the only one with a little ski attire. The wardrobes will be more than the trip itself, I'm sure.

My snow bunny #1!

Christmas Card 2012

Lately

Shelbie made his debut around December 10th this year. The kids always love when Shelbie visits. Jordan and I do not put too much weight in the "naughty or nice"
aspect of it. They know that they are suppose to be loving and share and make good choices no matter if Shelbie is watching or not. Do they mess up? Of course, we are all sinners. We have an elf because it is fun. The kids love to find Shelbie every morning and I love the giggles when they finally spot him.

Grasen and Bayler have had some fun days at school, making edible Christmas trees and enjoying Christmas parties.

They both took these reindeer donuts.

I was originally just going to make them for B's class because I took Caprisun to G's class for her party, but I could tell that Grasen wanted me to make them for her peers as well. Who doesn't love a good chocolate donut that looks like Rudolph? They were a hit. Thank you Pinterest.

And this makes me think of the facebook post and blog post that are floating around about being from the Pinterest era....my wording may be different because I read it two weeks ago....but I would love to say that I make cute crafts/foods because I enjoy it and my children like it. Could I go buy chocolate chip cookies? Absolutely! Is it as fun for me? Well, no. Would it be ok with the kids? Definitely, but they do enjoy the things I create from the pictures I pin on pinterest. I don't get on Pinterest and feel like a failure. I get on Pinterest because I am looking for something specific, whether it be new recipes, party ideas, classroom lessons or ideas, or holiday themed foods for my kids. It has been so helpful. I do not waste hours of my time pinning things that I know I will never create or things that are not useful and don't pertain to my life. A lot of people use it as a time waster and that is fine too. But when it comes down to it- I love pinterest and I think it is great when used wisely.

Tragedy

My husband got a call around 10:00 the night of the 13th saying that the elementary school in the school district that he works for was on fire. This was the first picture we received.

Jordan quickly dressed and left. It's about a 40 minute drive for him, so by the time he got there the school was fully engulfed. There were 11 fire depts and over 100 fire fighters. I had taken a personal day the next day to prepare for my mom's birthday party that I was hosting. And it's a good thing because I could not go to sleep that night nor focus the next day. By 3 am the school was a total loss. Jordan lost electricity at his school's cafeteria so he was working into the morning hours moving food over to a freezer with a generator. After he finished he was able to get a couple hours of sleep at a friend's house right next to the campus.

Photo by Cathy Nance

I talked to Jordan on the phone early the next morning when I found out the most tragic news that came of the fire. The school that burned housed the community's food pantry, as well as the backpack program for the kids who wouldn't otherwise receive meals at home. The pantry was FULL because the children got out for Christmas break on the 19th. Backpacks were going to be sent home and families could come stock up for their Christmas meal....and all of that is now gone.

It really put things into perspective for me. I took the day off to cook and make sure everything was just perfect for my mom's party and while I still did that, the first priority that day was getting the ball rolling on letting our community (remember we live 40 mins away) know what had happened and what we need to do to help.

Photo Source Unknown

My sweet husband came home to shower and change clothes and the 5 mins that he was in the shower was the only time he wasn't on the phone. We had administrators calling from my school district, police officers, local charities....it was amazing. By that night I already had lots of food delivered to my garage.

That afternoon was when I heard about the school shooting in Connecticut. And it put everything in perspective for me....again. While it was tragic that the school went up in flames and the food pantry was gone, no lives were harmed. Thank God. Our community and communities in the surrounding areas stepped up and helped to replenish the food pantry and backpack program. By Wednesday they had plenty of backpacks filled and ready to send home for Christmas vacation and the food pantry was restocked for families that need it. We are so thankful for the generosity that was shown. God is good.

Mom's 50th Birthday

I hosted my mom's 50th birthday party on Saturday. We began working on it the first of November. I had this idea of making a video of pictures of her life. Then I thought how neat it would be if I could contact friends/family throughout her life to record a birthday greeting and send to me so I could add their clips to the video. My list of people started out small and then I just kept thinking and adding and it became a HUGE project. I searched for people on facebook, secretly got addresses out of her address book to handwrite letters, sent emails....then I started receiving videos like crazy.

I won't lie...this was a huge undertaking. My phone was my side-kick for 6 weeks. My husband, who is amazing in the technology department, was a huge blessing to me. He scanned pictures, downloaded and converted videos to the type of files that we needed, and made the video absolutely perfect. I could not have done it without him. As excited as I was for her to see this video, I was so nervous. We kept having to push back the deadline because I was waiting on one last video to come in and we didn't get the video burned until the night before the party. So- if you saw me during those 6 weeks...the ponytail, bags under the eyes, and extra caffeine was because of the video, not the party planning. ;)

The party was perfect. We had dinner first- beef tenderloin sandwiches with honey mustard and horseradish, ham and cheese sliders, gulf shrimp, cheese ball and crackers, pasta salad, stuffed mushrooms, spinach and artichoke dip, fresh veggies with ranch and wasabi, chocolate covered strawberries, and cake- red velvet, strawberry, and chocolate.

After dinner we all played in the photo booth which was even more fun than I thought it would be.

We turned the video on after photo booth pics. I loved her reactions to the pictures, but when the first birthday message came on from her childhood friend....it was exactly what I was hoping for.

The night was so much fun!

Happy 50th birthday to a woman that I adore and love so much.