A Day in the Life...

 Life is very busy for me in this season. Sometimes I'm very tired but it would help if my body slept at night, which is a whole other story. But life is good. Great. There are a lot of really wonderful things in my life.  I absolutely do not want to catch up on the last month, so here's to me starting new with talking about this little gift I got the other day.  A week ago I taught a Young Woman lesson that I had been working on for a few months. I was supposed to give it in December and a few things happened and I pushed it out. I'm so glad I did, because the New Year brought some girls turning 12 that finally got to join us. I spent a few months reaching out to parents and gathering stories of their girls and moments that made them proud. Then I took this whole collection of stories and came up with some attributes that describe them that remind me of Christ. And so my lesson was on how Divine we literally are, how Godly we are, and what we can become with our eyes fas...

Amber decided she wanted to play our Christmas games before Christmas so she could spend more time at home on Christmas Day. That probably won't happen, but we all played along anyway and got together for a few funny games. My mom taped $1, $5, and $10 dollar bills on the table. The grandkids all had to slide a water bottle down the long end and see where it landed. Most all of them got $1.  Micah got the $10 though!  Copper definitely can't aim or control the speed. Dakota just had a good time. Then things got wild with Megan's game. She had dozens of sticky fingers that you were supposed to throw on the table to pick up quarters. But then it broke into an all out war, hahahaha. After a bit of my mom taking a bruising with sticky fingers, she let loose on Madisyn: The last game was the 13 grandkids (not including Taryn) lining up to say "hi grandma" in a funny voice and having her guess who they are.  Hayes wouldn't get in the picture, neither would Taryn, an...

Getting to our ward Christmas party to practice and set up The Young Women and Young Men did a shadow play and it's been fun to watch them practice over the course of the last month.  You can't believe the amount of work it took to make this come to life... We've got a handful of extremely talented people in our ward who have visions for get togethers... And on the stage was a huge screen (five large sheets sewn together and pulled tight) for the shadow play.  All my girls were in it (which is what happens when their mom is the Young Women President). Copper was Mary, in part because she's been in so many plays and she had the biggest part; that and her short stature. Dakota and Micah were both wisemen. They did so great! The pictures are great and all, but the video is AMAZING.  You can watch it (turn your sound on):  When you watch it and you get a good feeling... that's not just because it's touching.  It's really not. It's because it's Christ, an...

We did our annual decorate-a-year-old-box of a Christmas house contest... Tim's: he thinks he won but he didn't. He didn't take last place, but he didn't win. Micah's: she took 2nd place Kota's: she almost tried... Copper's: by the fourth day on the counter, hers was leaning harder than Pisa... Cassie's: the winner, of course. But we had a good time. I had sneaked a few candies to eat when we realized the cat had been eating them... 😕 She's kind of a jerk...  

Christmas dance concert at the junior high with cute Dakota I don't understand dance. Kota danced with this book for an entire song, just staring at it and twirling it around... But she did great! And so did her BF Lila! Eating pie one night after the fun because it was a gift... Cute Copper and her dance recital at the high school This was one of the best pictures I got; it's not great, but she did a great job.  

 Quiz: I took how many photos on Thanksgiving? A) 0 B) Too many to post Answer is A. How did I not take any pictures on Thanksgiving???? I did not. But I did take some the next few days after Thanksgiving... This is  how excited the girls were to get a fake tree. I refused to pay the price of a live tree at the lot because it would have cost us almost $200.  We didn't get a tree permit this year because they sold out fast, after only making half of the usual amount available.  Dakota especially was disgusted.  We're hoping to only use this tree if we can't get a permit.  There's nothing better than finding a tree in the woods, chopping it to size, bringing it home, and realizing you need to take off another three feet... Our star broke, so my mom decided to jimmy-rig it on... and I think it worked... It's not bad for fake and for $79 at the local Home Depot.  I added green lights because I quite like a green-lit tree. We also helped Oma put up her tree...