Short and sweet I love

I know I'm behind and I haven't finished my year end review...I'm not sure if it's going to get done! We're settling down from our Holiday traveling/back to school/yucky sickness time, and I'm trying to get back on schedule. And of course, now we have a a four day weekend to break it up further. But the kids have had fun so far and we have a fun idea for today (we're going to paint the snow with spray bottles filled with water and food coloring--hoping that not too much sibling painting will happen). So anyway, I'm trying to get back into my routine now. So here's my I love for this week...
I love...when everyone gets better after a bout with flu or whatever. It makes everything seem brighter! When I could eat again: so happy. I love food, and I hate it when my stomach can't even stomach the thought of ice cream. So we're all eating and enjoying again, we made fajitas yesterday...yummmmm. We even made cupcakes on Friday and decorated them on Sunday (Saturday was a little busy).
I love...the Carl Bloch exhibit over at BYU. The paintings were amazing! Carl Bloch was a painter in the 1800's in Denmark. As a devout Lutheran a lot of his paintings were of Christ's life, eight were for Alter paintings. His style is a lot like Rembrandt, whom he studied, so the effect of light in all his paintings is incredible. The faces are so very detailed and life-like. There were a couple paintings that stood out to me, the one of when they took Christ off the cross to prepare him for burial was beautiful and tender. Another favorite was when Christ was being comforted by an angel in the garden of Gethsemane. The pain and utter exhaustion are shown so clearly, and the tenderness of the angel. Many of the paintings we recognized, the Church uses a lot of them in different publications. Like the one of Elizabeth greeting Mary, the Sermon on the Mount, and the healing at the pool of Bethesda (that one is permanently at BYU, and some of the small etchings, too). If you live any where around Provo, try to come to it before it ends in May. It's free, but you do need to get tickets online at: http://carlbloch.byu.edu/ Do it!
I love...that I'm not scared to go to parent/teacher conferences! We don't have to worry that the teacher despises our kids, or that they've been horrible in class or they're far behind academically. Felicity and Caleb are both doing great, especially in reading (imagine that!). Felicity is starting fractions which she has been struggling with, but I was the same way so I understand what she's going through. If any of you have ideas on how to visually get her to see what fractions are, let me know please! She has been wanting to cook with me alot, which I think will help. Most of my recipes I double or more, so she can start getting that part of it.

All of you have a lovely day! Enjoy the snow before it's all gone!

Just a warning...and stuff

The flu has invaded our house. I should have known it was coming when Caleb came home from school on Tuesday and mentioned one of his friends had been gone that day. He didn't know if the kid was on a trip(his idea) or sick (my idea). I'm thinking he was sick, because that night Caleb was up--he counted--six times. Let me say, what a great kid! He made it to the bathroom and the toilet each time. How good is that for a six year old! On Friday it hit me and I could hardly move all day (I was so glad when no one showed up to exercise, I think I would have cried), then that night Joseph was up most the night, then Saturday night it was Felicity's turn. I'm not sure we're all done, so if you want to visit, do it over the phone. Plus, our house is the requisite Sick Disaster Area, and my hair is the same.

But on to brighter things, I'm still working on my year end round up of I love Mondays (I decided to start that tradition). Hopefully I'll get that done by tomorrow. Today I want to share a few more fun things from the Internet I've found this year and I've either tried and liked or want to try...

http://mushroomvillagers.wordpress.com/the-eddie-cap-tutorial/

This is an Eddie Cap. I've actually made this one a few times, it's a little icky to make at first, shifting fabric, getting it all the right size and stuff like that, but with practice you can make a pretty cute hat!

http://iammommahearmeroar.blogspot.com/2010/03/here-comes-gunny.html

Remember all my Angry Mom posts and how I would get a garbage bag and gather toys that I would threaten with giving to some other kids who would actually clean up after themselves? Grr. Anyway, this is a brilliant idea. Meet Gunny, the Incredible Toy Eater. The kids won't pick up? Here come Gunny who will eat all the toys on the floor (he has a little flap where his mouth is) and then keep them until whatever time Mom has cooled off enough to give it another try.

http://www.lobzik.pri.ee/modules/news/article.php?storyid=244

Aren't these roses beautiful! Op, sorry, they're not. Roses I mean, they are fall leaves folded and glued. This tutorial is in Russian...but Google translates. Whew, 'cause I can't even speak Spanish, Russian is a little beyond me. I did this one, too, but it can be hard to find leaves big enough, the ones I picked in the canyon where too small. I almost knocked on a couple doors to see if I could pick their leaves, but I chickened out. If you have any good trees you know about in public areas (or privately owned areas of nice people) let me know and we can gather and fold together next fall.

http://placetobloom.blogspot.com/2010/01/build-fort.html

This is a brilliant idea, too. Do your kids make tents in which they pull all the blankets of their beds, pile books precariously on corners as weights, move around all the furniture until you can't see any carpet in the room? I know my kids do, and I remember doing it, too. What a crazy mess! But I hate to say no more, because it's fun. Here's the idea: A Tent Building Kit. It has a few sheets with ties on them, clamps, ropes, whatever you can think off so they can tie corners onto things rather than stacking books onto the corners of the blankets. Plus, you don't have to remake every bed in the house. Birthdays for this year, done. Well, I guess I still have to make them. http://www.soyouthinkyourecrafty.com/1999/12/anthropologie-inspired-knotted-quilt-tutorial-pt-1/

This is on the top of my crafty to-do list. Love, love this quilt. I've been wanting to make a quilt for Farris and I for awhile, and this is beautiful without being too horrible to make. Simple process, something I can do while I watch an old movie. Perfect.

So there's some of my inspiration for this coming year. What is inspiring you, crafty or other wise?

Merry Christmas!

Macey's Grocery Store is always a little mayhem-ic (yes, a word) on Saturdays. This last Saturday they also had free pictures with Santa and a group of very loud carolers. Seth is doing his best Death Glare at the photographer, who was only trying to get him to look at the camera. Joseph, as I said in the last post, didn't trust Santa, but he loves cameras. I'm not sure what Caleb was thinking, maybe he was trying to decide on laffy taffy or a sucker when we went through the checkout line (Macey's is Your Family's Favorite Grocery Store Because We Blatantly Bribe Your Kids with Candy When You Go Through The Checkout Line--official slogan). Felicity was happy to be in charge of the boys, she's our little boss mama. All together, I love this picture, it cracked me up when I saw it. Hopefully it gave you a little laugh, too.

Merry Christmas everyone!

I love...Mondays Christmas Edition

So, my one loyal fan (thanks Tasha!), errr, one of my loyal fans, requested an updated I love Mondays, so here is the Christmas Edition:

I love....oh, wait a sec, I forgot, I need to mop the floor because of all the candy and cookies we made yesterday for the neighbors.
{Some time later}
I love...errr, sorry, Seth is having a Binkie Withdrawal Meltdown. Why did he lose his last two right before Christmas???
{A few minutes later}
I love...Oh, drat, now I need to package Neighbor Gifts.
{Much too long later}
I love...hmmm, I need to get to the store to pick up the Santa Picture of the kids (When Santa asked the kids what they wanted for Christmas, Felicity said a bike helmet, Caleb said a transformer and Joseph backed up to me, pointed at Santa, and said "Mom, I don't know this guy" ) I also need to get Farris' co-workers gifts. Any ideas?
I love...yeep, before I go, I need to shovel the five inches that have fallen in the last 12 hours. Insane!
{Way, way, too much time later}
I love...naps....
Nope, I need to still finish the ward newsletter, wrap presents, finish making presents, go to the fabric store and finish making more presents, and I'd really like to spend some time making a snowman with the kids, plus a dozen other little last minute things. A shower would be nice, too. Soooooo, I think I'll do a I love...Monday in the New Year!

Merry Christmas Everyone!!!

I love...(ahem) tuesdays

So I'm doing a lot of Christmas stuff. Thus, welcome to this weeks I love...(Joseph is in preschool and I'm ignoring the sewing, crafting, decorating, cleaning that need to be done. For just a few minutes) Tuesday.
But before I start I have to share this page from a blog I found via a friend on facebook. I think the name of the blog is the best part.

http://www.dothesekidsmakemelookcrazy.com/2008/11/24/the-liberry/

I think my kids do make me look crazy. Or at least I often have a crazed look in my eye. This visit to the library made me laugh, especially after the oh-so-fun time we had last week at our library. Making me laugh is good.

So today may be a quick post, but I need to do a happy blog because: The cats are playing hockey with the Nativity Sam brought us back from his mission. It's holding together really good, but it's distressing to see Baby Jesus, a couple Wise Men, and a cow go scooting across our floor. They are also: drinking the water that's for the tree, knocking ornaments off the tree, chewing on any Christmas-y thing they can find, and doing other catty things. I enjoy my cats. I enjoy my cats. I enjoy my cats.

I love...Nativities. We have a couple, not the really nice beautiful expensive ones, but good ones. We have the before mentioned one from Honduras that was made from seed pods and such, it's really kind of cool. Kind of like those corn husk dolls that people used to make. We also have one that I got in my Deseret Book working days, a little child one (it looks like kids dressing up to do the Christmas Pageant), the plastic Little People one that the kids play with (in an effort to keep them from playing with everything else. Hmmm, do they make Nativities with catnip to distract the cats??) and my favorite is Mary holding the Baby with Joseph kneeling behind, protective arm around them. It's made from olive wood, no paint, just the simple shape. Love it. What are your favorite Nativities?

Oops, behind on my I love...Mondays

But I have excuses! Last week I was cleaning, cooking, laundry-ing, and getting all ready for Thanksgiving. And yesterday I was snowed in at my mother-in-laws house in Idaho, and then on the road for about 5 hours. We had to go the long way because the usual way had large snowdrifts and was closed (ahem, Nicki, did you notice I said closed, not just closed to everyone but crazy Jeep drivers??). But, I can now say:
I love...snowplows and their drivers. Thank you for clearing miles and miles of roads.
I love...my family. I know I've said that before, but there's just something about belonging to two families of fun people. Holidays require some driving to and fro from house to house, but it's fun to pack in all the visiting, playing and just enjoying being around people who have seen you at your worst and still love you. And it's much better to be snowed in at a family home rather than a hotel. Or your car, on the side of the road.
I love...Thanksgiving. For me it's not just the food and pies (although I do look forward to it) I love all the preparation that goes into it, yes, all that crazy cooking. Now, I never have made an entire dinner by myself, so maybe it's just my limited experience, but I do like cooking for a family feast. I've made rolls and salads and pies and candy and mashed potatoes and I can sort of cook a turkey (not my best culinary moment) but that's another wonderful thing about Thanksgiving: everyone brings and sets up and cleans up and much visiting goes on in the kitchen. My mom loved having her kitchen redone this year, and it was perfect for setting out the feast.
I love...Christmas trees, fresh from the Idaho mountains. This year after the (ha) Blizzard of 2010, the temps dropped to 0 or below, so instead of our whole family going to cut the trees down, a few stalwart souls volunteered to...stay behind with the kids. Errr, I mean volunteered to go brave the cold to cut our trees down. Farris picked out a perfect tree for us and helped my Dad drag out his traditionally HUGE tree. This year I think Rob came away with the biggest tree, though. He leaned it up against his house when they got home, it it was above the eaves. Oops. Like father, like son! We always told Dad he was going to have to cut a hole in the ceiling in order to put up our tree and most years we had no room for the angel or star at the top of the tree, it was always fun to tease my dad about that. We put our tree up last night, the kids decorated it for FHE, and it's lovely. To me anyway. It's not all matchy matchy like the perfect trees in some homes, I'll save that for when the kids are older. Now we have our Assorted Memories Ornaments: we have our Navajo ornaments, one from our honeymoon, a couple baby's first Christmas, the football that Cosmo the Cougar signed for Joseph, some from our childhoods and a Nativity scene made from olive wood from the Holy Land. For me, Christmas trees are a symbol of good times past. Now everyone go sing the Christmas Tree song. Speaking of...
I love...the Christmas tree song. And all those other songs. But I could post a I hate...Grandma got ran over by a reindeer blog day. I won't. Christmas songs I do love: Silent Night, Joy to the World, Far, Far Away on Judea's Plain, Silver Bells, I'll be home for Christmas, Angels We Have Heard on High, O Little Town of Bethlehem, the Primary Christmas songs, and many, many others. Bring on the Christmas Music! Ohhh, here's a tip: Go to Pandora.com, you can put in a favorite singer/band/orchestra and then add "holiday music" and there you have a variety of great music. I love my Michael Buble holiday music station. You can even do Mormon Tabernacle Choir holiday music. Very good, very good.

Free Christmas cards...yeah, that's a good deal =)

So Shutterfly is doing 50 free Christmas cards for all you fellow bloggers out there! Here's the link:

http://blog.shutterfly.com/5358/holiday2010-blog-submission-form/

I'm excited! I love to add our family Christmas card on to our neighbor gifts, but it's too expensive (we always start small with our neighbor gifts, then end up giving a little something to everyone in a three mile radius. OK, exaggeration, this isn't Richfield--three miles would mean about twenty families there!, but still, we give a lot out)

Here's some of my favorites from the site, but they have lots, lots to choose from:

http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-photo-cards

They of course, also have all the other fun things that you could possible stick a picture to: puzzles, stickers, t-shirts, mugs, some really cute Christmas ornaments, etc.

They even do calendars: http://www.shutterfly.com/calendars/wall-calendars Make one up for your family chock full of fun memeries. Yes, Mothers cry when they get these.

So go sign up, it's a quick form you fill out, then wait a couple days to get their e-mail with all the details. Then spend more time filling out the rest of your Christmas shopping list!