DECEMBER 2018

 Please click on this link if you want to see even more photos from this month.
We started off the month by attending some BYU Women's Volleyball championship games.

We really appreciated Braden and McKenna for taking us the first night and then giving us tickets to the second night!
Pretty amazing athletes!

That first weekend we did our annual SOMETHING TO DO AS A FAMILY ACTIVITY IN DECEMBER.

This year the kids wanted to check out the NORTH POLE EXPRESS based on the book and movie called THE POLAR EXPRESS we read each year when they were little.

We bundled up in our JAMMIES and went to Heber to catch the train along with a bunch of families that had young children...

We just had some old people...

And some younger people...

..and some more younger people.

Oh, and ELFis Presley joined us on our train ride...can you see he is singing BLUE CHRISTMAS while they shine blue lights on him?


After visiting the North Pole...someone special got on the train to come greet us.

He really liked Scott's pants!

We had HOT COCOA of course!!!

And before we left home, the girls made cool "BELIEVE necklaces with a silver bell.

One morning Scott and I went to sweep up drywall dust at the house and came out looking like this!  Can you see the dust on my eyelashes and on the top of my hair?





And on Scott's eyebrows and each hair...it is coated!

OK,  we have a CHEF in our Young Single Adult Ward that does snacks or a meal twice a month after Church.
For December he went all out on CUPCAKES
These would be perfect for a little girl FROZEN PARTY, right?
He made each snowflake with melted white chocolate!

And the orange cupcakes we decorated with chocolate frosting an orange stick and mandarin orange slice...YUM!  My favorite!

These spice cupcakes had cream cheese frosting and little Christmas trees he also made from melted green chocolate and sprinkles...great ideas!

Scott got to do an interview with our friends from our mission...Elder Durrant, Elder Callister,  Elder Ashton.  All served in the SW area or in the area presidency.
Fun for Scott to reunite with them.

It MADE OUR MONTH to participate in our FAMILY SERVICE PROJECT going to Breanna's school to deliver the stockings you all helped provide.


It was really fun for me to have Scott and Michelle come along this year.  This is the third year we have done this.







Here is the group of ELVES along with a couple of classmates.







A short video of handing out the stockings.

The excitement of even a colored mechanical pencil...seriously, they were so excited!

 And they were thrilled with the BEANIE BABIES!
Not to mention even the scent of the shampoo...so excited with every little thing!

They could not put the Beanies down!

Here we are with our cute Breanna teacher!!!

And Michelle checking out the cool net chairs in the classroom!  Spoiled kiddos!

This month we got to go down to Payson to the temple there for a sealing.

Fun to see the nativity sets that the Church places at temples in December.

The cute family that was sealed, Alex and Mariah Newton and their son.






And another visit from a cute RM, Alisa Hansen with husband Tyrel and her two little boys, Lincoln and Thatcher.



So...here is how Scott gets up the SLEEPYHEADS on Christmas Morning!
(Video of him playing his trumpet!)

And then, we go on a SANTA HAT WALK 
It's a family tradition!

It was SO NICE OUT that we ditched our coats in no time!

 We loved having Carole, John and Lori join us for Christmas lunch and gift opening!  So glad they would take the time to visit!

Lori made the cutest REINDEER treats for us using Oreo Truffles as the heads.

We were thrilled to get a call from our dear friends the Gutierrez family from Arizona.  They were up visiting their daughter who attends BYU.  They brought us amazing TAMALES as a Christmas gift!

Here is how our house was looking on Christmas Day.  All the hardi is on and primed and the stucco for the stone is all up and ready to go down below.

And a couple days later...this is how it was starting to look.

I noticed they had not put in trim below the windows and really wanted that done so they came out the next morning and...

Voila, trim under the windows just how I wanted it!
You really have to be on top of things each day in a home build.

And, you have to be on top of things if you go shopping with Susan and I...because we are well trained shopping animals on the hunt for a bargain!







OK...so our kids have started "DIBS-ING" things for when we DIE.  A little morbid.

One of the first things to be "dibsed" is our COMPLETE SET OF HERSHEY COLLECTIBLE ORNAMENTS.  Here is the first year, 1986...




...and the last year, 2007.  We photographed them in order so we would know which ones are for which year.
Pretty fun tradition!  22 years worth of ornaments that they put out 2 for each year!

Our Post-Christmas Neighborhood Party is a lot of fun...here is just one of the WHITE ELEPHANTS that we took to the party, these masks for some TV/Computer game.








The projects have begun, well, they never stop... but one for the new house.

I am painting my IKEA kitchen island cabinets NAVY BLUE.

You see the pray primed doors in the background here and how the navy looks when it is wet, like ROYAL BLUE!  It is so scary painting dark colors!

Another project is my kitchen window valance.  I found the PERFECT fabric online that has gray, navy and off white.















Now it is a faux Roman Blind!

And a project inspired by a sequin pencil case in Breanna's class...
A huge wall hanging of reversible sequin fabric for my new preschool area!  So fun to play with!

We now have a STEAMER thanks to Braden and McKenna.  It works like a charm and will save the day when I put up curtains from ceiling to floor that are 11 feet tall for the new house!


HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL!
HAPPY NEW YEAR PROJECTS TO YOU ALL!