we had a wonderful Christmas this year. it was so nice to have jake's parents, brother and grandma helen come to celebrate with us and it is always nice to have a set of cousins just down the road to share it with as well.
jake's presents brought with them (from viriginia) their famous wind-up toy collection. they have been collecting them since they were first married and have a tradition of winding them all up on christmas eve. since they took their "show" to each of the grandkids' homes (we all live in texas) we called it "the wind-up tour 2012".
since their are so many photos to share from our christmas, i just put together a little slide show of them all...
some more of our christmas fun...
we (or should i say i) had a lot of fun with our elf on the shelfthis year...
we always try to make an effort to really focus on christ. its nice to see the boys eagerness to do the same as they get older. we had a wonderful holiday learning and sharing the joy of our savior and look forward to a great 2012.
we just started a very long road of having our first pair of teeth straightened! we've been waiting for our good friend, Dr. Corbridge, to open his office so that we could get T in. the boys love going there! the office has an awesome fish tank and a fun game room. the younger boys get bummed when its time to leave. with 4 boys and my genes, I'm sure will be there often for years to come!
he's not an official "brace-face" yet, we have to prepare his teeth first before that fun happens...
i was called to serve in the young women program this past summer. it has been just what I've needed. being around these young women takes me back to the wonderful thoughts and feelings i had about the gospel when i was a teenager. seeing their eagerness to learn and live the gospel inspires me to be more. i also feel a greater need to be better so that i may be more prepared to assist these beautiful young ladies on their journey to discovering their worth.
not only to i get to see them on sundays, but i get to spend every wednesday night with them involved in activities and learning opportunities. here are a few of my favorite activities...
for christmas we made these for each of the girls. it has the 2012 mutual theme printed on vellum paper, with their picture in the back...
this is not an original idea, I actually made one of these when i was in the y.w. program a few years ago, but i wanted to do these for my young women to start off the new year-- a journal jar. sometimes its hard to have inspiring things to write every night in your journal, but having a journal jar kind of helps get the ball rolling. i found a list of questions of the internet. questions like, tell about your favorite family vacation, or write down all the found memories you have have your grandparents, or tell about your first date... and so on. we cut the questions into strips and put them in the jar after we decorated it. then we decorated fun journals to go along with them...
we have started a "thing" of kidnapping the new girls that come into the mia maid (the 14 and 15 year old) class. chick fil a & ice skating was a blast..
i dont usually don't teach the class on sundays, but this past week the teacher asked me to teach the lesson. we talked about learning to follow the example of Jesus Christ. as i was preparing the lesson, one of my favorite songs from when i was in high school, came to mind, "His Hands".
i have always loved that song. my favorite line is at the end when it says, "and though I'm not yet as i would be, He has shown me how i could be. i will make my hands like those from Galilee."
i made the girls bottles of soap with that phrase in it. i made a similar thing for teacher gifts years ago (with a different saying in it). you just print on transparency paper, then roll it up and slip it in the bottle. so easy!
after a year battle with the insurance company, our little L was finally approved for the cochlear implant upgrade. the new implant is just the outer device, the internal device has stayed the same. we love the new ear. here is some of the differences between the Freedom (the old) and the Nucleus 5 (the new)...
-it is thinner and lighter, and is supposed to be "more stylish", says our audiologist! being thinner and lighter has had its downfall since it seems to also make it hater to find after a good wrestling session with the brothers.
-the old ears had a blinking red light which served the purpose of allowing me to know if it was functioning properly. i liked that it was so noticeable for me to see however, that seemed to be what got the most attention for onlookers. it is now a faint green light, logan likes that better.
-and Logan's favorite...the remote. all of the controls are now on the remote, instead of on the processor worn behind his ear. it looks just like an iPod, which has caused other recipients to have it stolen, so we are told.
*its a lot less noticeable from the front as well.
he says that he hears "more better", but i don't know if that has been proven as a feature yet, although a lot of adults that have them will tell you the same thing--that sound is just a bit more "crisp". either way we love them are are very grateful!
our last official family photo was about 5 years ago.
as much as i love taking pictures (of other people), i dread organizing and executing family pictures. there is always drama about who strongly dislikes their assigned clothing, shoes, hair, etc. (and this is all from the 5 boys in the house). but this year we were "forced" to have a small photo shoot done since i had won it with a photographer in our church at a "service auction". i was trying to wait till i could get rid of some of the baby weight, but lets be realistic...
anyway, with christmas right around the corner, i guess this was a good time to face the beast.
frisco has a great spot to take pictures and i thought i was a genius for suggesting the spot, until we showed up and saw about 30 other families with the same smart idea.
here are a few shots from that dreadful blissful day...
i was happy how they turned out and decently pleased with my boys' behavior...especially the big one, he is usually the worst!
