It's Christmas Time!

What a treat! Both sets of parents came to celebrate Christmas Eve with us. My table setting turned out quite nice. I really enjoy cooking and entertaining for people, especially my family. The only hang up about this meal was the traveling from store to store in search of poppy seed dressing. We always reenact the nativity scene. Grandpas did a great job in playing the sheep and donkey. The kids got a chuckle out of that. Bailey was a beautiful angel, Sydney was Mary, Bryson and Grandmas were wise men, I was the Shepperd, and Kurt was Joseph. Afterwards, we watched the church DVD, Joy to the World. Between, events the kids were tracking Santa on NORAD. They kept saying, "as soon as he is in Arkansas, we are heading to bed!" That night, Kurt and I were turning off the outside lights and counted 7 deer in our front yard. It was quite the special Christmas scene for Kurt and me. I told the kids that Santa's reindeer left their paw prints outside. Christmas morning we opened gifts, ate Christmas casserole, and then took the kids sledding. We then headed to my parents home for some of my Mom and Dad's yummy cooking. It was fun to hang with the siblings and cousins. The kids are eager to open more presents...My mom, bless her soul, has rheumatoid arthritis and she sewed us all pillowcases. That was quite a sacrifice from her. One of my favorite gifts that I will treasure. Homemade from the heart gifts are the best. My creative sister, Sonya, sewed hats for all the cousins. They were too cute. Bryson looks a little put out, but then again he is a boy and really does not want to model his hat. The girls looked adorable. Thanks Sonya, you are a sweetie! My girls now have a favorite hat. We then headed over to Mom and Dad Williams'. The girls got silky pj's sewed by Grandma and Bryson got a movie theme piano book. Grandma Williams was tickled pink by how excited they got. Especially Syd, she twirled and twirled in her new pj's. We had a Boxing Day party with high school and college friends. It was fun getting together and seeing every one's families. Lots of food, movies for the kids, a funny game, and rock band = a fun, fun, party! Kurt did the 12 days of Christmas for me. I am quite the lucky gal. I am glad he's mine! We have been enjoying having Kurt home. He is taking off 2 weeks of work. We have been doing fun things as a fam. We have been skiing, sledding, movies and the best part is he built a toboggan run in our backyard and the kids love it. I still get nervous about Syd, but she loves it. Just as long as I don't watch!

Thomas Girl

Syd loves Thomas. Her Grandma Sill, read her a Thomas book a few months ago, and she was hooked. Needless to say, she got some Thomas stuff for Christmas. She got a inflatable Thomas from us and a Thomas pillow from Grandma. All she wants to do is lay in it. In fact this morning, she opened all her presents in it. I will have to post more pics later, but Grandma needed to see this pic!

Temple Square Lights

The Christmas season is not complete without a visit to Temple Square to see the lights, to watch the nativity presentation, and to feel the Christmas spirit. Our tradition is to take the kids out to a fancy dinner, visit Temple Square, and then sing Christmas music on the way home. This year was fun, because Syd got to join in on her favorite songs of We Wish You a Merry Christmas , Silent Night, and "Stinkey" Bells (it sounds like she says stinkey to us). The kids wanted to look in the windows of the Tabernacle. By next year, Bryson will not have any problem looking in that window! He's growing way too fast. We met a neat young lady visiting from China. Bailey loved her and thought she looked like a princess, Mulan. This girl was so excited to see the temple and all the surroundings. It was fun to hear of her experiences and testimony. She wanted to take a picture with our family so she could show her family back in China. I took several pictures of her and her friend in front of the temple. This was a great experience for my kids to see testimonies of other church members in the world. The night is not complete, without a little brother and sister love!

Santa's Lap = All Sorts of Personality

We have a party with Kurt's family, the Sunday before Christmas. It is always fun to get together and see all of his family and to have my kids get to know their aunts and uncles. The party was a hit with my little family, even though it was obvious that some in the extended family would much rather be home doing 10 loads of washing, scrubbing toilets with a toothbrush etc. These type of relatives, always make the party so much more entertaining! :) The Williams' Christmas party is not complete with out a visit from Santa. My kids sweet personalities shined on his lap this year and were captured on camera. Bryson is saying, "Well, I have been a really good boy and I will take anything you want to give me. I am fine with anything, really." Bailey is saying, "I can't decide which one, can I have both? They are really cute." Later she told me she wanted to give one to her friend Ashlee. And Sydney says, "No, Mom, (screaming in the mean time, while everyone is laughing." What can I say I really love that she is Mommy's girl.

Binky Addiction and Fun

A couple of months ago, I broke Sydney of her binky. She was heartbroken, that they had "broke" and disappear. Well, a few days ago, she was helping me organize papers in the office and I told her to get all the papers out of my black bag. After awhile I heard her say, "Sydney found it, my binky not broken!" I looked up and she popped that binky right into her mouth. She was thrilled! She started sucking on it like the baby on The Simpsons. She then said, with the binky in her mouth, "I Like It!" She then took it out and said, "It's orange." I said, "Sydney if you can tell me the color of your binky you should not be using it!" I gave her a few hours to enjoy her old addiction. Needless to say, her binky has now found a home in the garbage. The picture is of her talking on the phone to Grandma Sill telling her all about it. Bailey had her gymnastic holiday show on Monday night. Grandma and Grandpa Sill came to support her. We are very proud of Bailey. She has moved up to the next level in gymnastics and is the youngest in her group. She did quite well compared to the 3rd and 4th graders of the group. I really enjoy watching how limber she is. Definitely did not get that trait from me! Her favorite skill is somersaulting and doing a cart wheel off the balance beam. She loves to do the tramp, front and backhand springs. Bryson and Bailey are my little experimenters. This experiment was Bailey's idea, she wanted to see what floated in the water and what sank. She had an experiment list and scientific method all planned out. She did a survey, and I was quite impressed that an orange floats. I am always learning something from my little kiddos. We went to Layton lights last week. I love Christmas traditions. It's the traditions that bring your family so much closer to each other. Sydney loved the lights! She had a few people around us laughing because of her excitement. YW is always fun. We have been caroling, which a lot of us felt the spirit so strong. We caroled to some elderly in our ward, and I could just feel and see the spirit at work. We touched hearts that night. We had a Christmas party at my house. We had games, food, and watched Mr. Kruegers Christmas. I love this show and always get goosebumps when I watch it. And last night, we went down to Temple Square and felt the spirit there too. This picture I took, made me laugh because they were dancing and singing a tune, and it all looked so familiar to me. It dawned on me they were singing New Kids on the Block. Now I will confess that I listened to this genre of music for a while. I am not too proud of it. But they however, thought I was so cool because I knew the words and dance as well.

Happy Birthday Amber!

Happy Birthday to my sister, Amberly! Wish you were here so I could give you a big hug and tell you that I love you and think you are the best! I love your adventurous, determined, creative, kind, and spunky spirit about you! You are such a cool Aunt and the kids love and admire you! I hope your day is a bright one because you deserve it! Love you and miss you! I'm jealous, at least you can say that you are still in your 20's!

13 going on 30 and more!

Photo: Bountiful Temple Grounds, where we were married Warning: This is not going to be one of those "cheesy, lovey, dovey anniversary posts". Compliments to my friend Ally! But I did forget to document that Kurt and I celebrated our 13 years of marriage on Nov. 18th. It was an emotional anniversary with the passing of our beloved friend and dog. We still pulled ourselves together to celebrate our marriage. We had plans to get away to the Anniversary Inn, but because of the timing we canceled. But we did get out to celebrate, thanks to my mom, we went to dinner at the Market Street Grill and afterwards walked around the streets of downtown talking about the last 13 years. I am so glad that I rode up on the ski lift with this handsome, awesome skier. I know our meeting was not by chance but divine. I would not change a thing these last 13 years, no regrets, and look forward to spending 30 and much more to come with my best friend for eternity (all right I added a little of cheesiness, sorry, I am in love!)

Family Home Evening - "Bailey Style"

It was Bailey's turn to teach the lesson for FHE this week. You never know what is going on in that creative little mind and what is going to come out! I kept asking her during the afternoon, if she knew what she was going to teach, and when she explained it to me, I was kind of confused, but I just smiled and said that it sounded like a great idea. So when we got to the lesson, she had us get 2 pieces of paper and while she taught the lesson we were to draw on one piece of paper what she was describing. We ended up drawing stars/moon, shepherds, a manger, snow on the ground, baby Jesus, (the manger scene). On the next piece of paper she had us draw snow on the ground, stars, and our favorite thing about Christmas like Santa, elves, presents etc. At the end, she had us tape the papers together so the stars and snow matched. She created for us 2 different Christmas scenes that blended together and she said that we should always remember Jesus before Santa and presents. She was very creative and we had fun! She taught us an important concept in such a simple way. We then made Christmas wreaths out of cornflakes, that Sydney calls her "donut". She won't eat it. It is on the plate, wrapped up in plastic, and she carries it around in her backpack and she sleeps with it by her pillow. I am sure it is getting very stale. She makes us laugh!

Lengthy Post Update

I have not wanted to go on to my blog because of the last few postings of our dog Timber. So the end result is a lot of experiences and pictures. We've kept busy but still miss our furry friend. Thanks to all who posted on my blog or facebook. You are all truly great friends and I love you! Bear with me on all the pics! Sydney has the cutest little friend, Whitters, is what we like to call her. They love to play and fight. If Sydney pushes, Whitters pushes back, vice versa. I think they know how to handle their own because of being the youngest. Sydney has been sick with croup, so we have not had Whitters around, but love it when she comes to play. This has been a warm Fall and upcoming Winter! Even though we love to ski and hope for snow, we do enjoy jumping on the tramp. This was the last night we jumped before it came down. We probably could have kept it up for 2 more weeks! Bryson and I had a great time discussing politics this year. He loved to drive in the car with me and listen to Sean Hannity, watch the O'Reilly Factor, and read Fox News Reports. I really enjoyed teaching him about government and democracy. I checked him out for lunch, he went with me to vote and even helped show me how to use the machine correctly! We then went out to lunch and talked more politics! Bryson had his piano recital in November. It was a real treat, because the last few years my parents have not been able to attend. This year my mom got to come and she was very impressed with how well he plays. His grandma, Shirley teaches him. They have such a great relationship and we love all that she has done in teaching Bry. She is a very gifted, talented, awesome pianist. Bryson played Haydn's Surprise Symphony, Beethoven's 9th Symphony, and the theme from Winnie the Pooh. While he was practicing Winnie the Pooh, Sydney would go sit with him on the bench and he would sing to her. It was the cutest thing. When he started playing it in the recital, she ran up to the bench and then looked around at all the people and was terrified and ran back. We got it on video, and it made us all laugh! I have been pretty busy making DVD's for people from word of mouth, that I've decided to start a side business of video/DVD editing, called Timber Graphics. Right now I will keep it small because of time constraints, but when the all the kids are in school I may start advertising. Right now I am producing a DVD for my Dad's company party and this is what happens when Mom is too busy to pay attention to Sydney. She got into my lipstick and then later found a bed in the wash basket! Sorry, Sydney that I could not give you full attention that day! Bailey and I went to the Nutcracker. We have been doing this for four years and I look forward to spending the afternoon with her and friends and then heading out for lunch. She loves to dance and really is girly and loves the ballet and music. We met up with Kurt who was at the Weber Football game with my Dad, Bryson and cousins to grab Sydney. It ended up being a very good day for all of us. Sydney hair is one length! She got a fantastic cut from Aunt Lori. We love her new studio! It is very cool and tres chique! And we love being pampered! Thanks Aunt Lori for such an awesome place to come. Thanksgiving weekend was so much fun. We started off with our annual breakfast in bed. The kids love this tradition...and then headed to Grandma and Grandpa's for some yummy turkey and pie. Sydney had croup and was recovering, but she survived the day. Bailey had it as well, but she managed much better because she is older. Grandpa did a skit for the kids. He loves his grandkids and doing cute things with them. Grandma gave the kids all ornaments and their chocolate advent calendars, the kids love it! We played lots of games and Rockband. My sister Sonya was in town with her family. We enjoyed hanging with the cousins. They had the big sleepover and helped decorate my parents tree. Kurt and I headed to the Jazz game and enjoyed our night out, but felt the house was too empty w/out the kiddos. Last pics of this post...we decorated our tree Sunday night. Bailey got the honors for doing the star this year. She loves being on her Dad's shoulders. I love these pics of the kids decorating and the one of Sydney. It was a sad time hanging Timber's ornaments and stocking, we all had tears in our eyes. Especially Bryson, he has such a tender heart and we love him for that. The tree turned out great, I usually do 2 trees, but decided to let the kids go wild on the "pretty" one. I love the holidays, traditions, and enjoying friends and family and look forward to this next month of making memories.