Scavenger Hunt Sunday on Tuesday~

1. What is it?
This is what is left of our first attempt to make a gingerbread house. I've never made one. Our babysitter started one and we just needed to add the roof and yummy decorations. I hid it over night, but a tornado of kids flattened the house. It still looks pretty yummy to me and isn't that the point?:)

2. Children/Fur Babies sleeping

Joseph is ten, but he will always be my precious baby.

3. Joy

I love going out to take the trash out at 4am and seeing a gorgeous crescent moon. This morning I took Emmy to school to find a beautiful orange sunrise. This show of illumination in the sky bring me joy! Ordinary mundane acts, that are accompanied by beautiful skies!

4. Half

Joseph called me over yesterday saying," Mom, Mom look, I don't know where this is coming from?!" He was pulling on a roll of toilet paper. There was the soft toilet paper particles in the air as he unraveled Half the roll!

5.Window

Celia Catching snowflakes at the kitchen window

It has been busy around here with teaching in church, helping kids get ready for school break, and prepping for Christmas. It is not to late to join the Scavenger hunt( until Tuesday night) so I looked around for interpretations of these inspiring photo prompts.

Acoustic Christmas Guitar

Emmy tapped her foot along to keep the group in sync with their music.;)

Emmy and three of her beginning Guitar classmates were asked to open for the Show Choir winter performance at Oakmont High school. I rushed over there in time to see her perform. She was the metronome for the group and it was great hearing her count to bring in the music of several Christmas acoustic guitar songs. They were like a string quartet, each guitar had a different part and they blended together very nicely. The choir sang beautifully and we are encouraging Emmy to join choir. Brian believes it is a good thing to learn to sing, you can use it your whole life long. Paige seemed to enjoy is, so I grabbed a picture of her too.:)

Celia's Kindergarten Performance

Ms. Franklin's class were the penquins.

I think I should put Celia in Dance. She was loving to perform and was very animated with her song and dance.:)

The Kindergarten Winter Performance was so cute. I'm glad Brian let me unwrap my lens that I am getting for Christmas early so I could capture these precious kindergartners. I was sitting with some friends and I took pictures of their kiddos too, Jake, Noah, and Ella. Elementary kids are so precious.

2011 Christmas Card

My Sights of the Season

1. Less is More

This year we put up our artifical 6.5 foot Colorado spruce with white lights. We have had a tree like this our whole 17 years of marriage. It is small and simple. My hubby doesn't want any other kind of tree, he likes it. We had a few days where we couldn't find our ornaments for the tree. Just this precious to us tree with white lights and a rustic star on top. It was really nice. I was glad to find the ornaments we've collected over the years because they really did have sentimental value, but this tree in all its simple glory reminded that less is more!

2. Holiday lights.

Both artificial and real light from the evening firmament. I love the moon and stars to remind me of the holidays.

3. Ornament

Ever since Joseph was born, I've gotten myself or have been given as gifts, Demdaco figurines. They seem to represent my little family. This ornament reminds me of my sweet angel Spence. We had a hope for a canine companion therapy dog for him. It didn't work out, but I just found out yesterday day that the new school he will be attending in January has animal therapy time where they bring in dogs to play with the kids. How great it will be to reap the benefits of that therapy at school and to have all the responsibility of have of full time therapy dog. This ornament brings warmth to my heart.

4. Cup of cheer

I got this antique cup at Deseret industries( a thrift store) to make a centerpiece for a table for church last Christmas. Now this year I can fill it with new things. My favorites, fruits greenery, berries, birdies. The wonderful lights, sights, colors, and sounds of Christmas. My cup is full with beautiful sounds from new speakers with lovely Pandora music playing.~

5. Nativity

Spencer helped me with decorating this year. I lost a few pieces( broken by Spence) to my favorite nativity set. Bri assures me I will look at the glued pieces fifteen years from now and be like.. awe I miss the kids around.:)

This photo challenge was nice to prompt me to get out there and capture Christmas in pictures, not the typical kids in pajamas, and present wrappings everywhere. It is nice to view these parts separately without rush and before the big day.

Thoughts of Family, Light, and Christ

Family matters. The relationships we make and nurture carefully in our lives are the most important things we do. It is endearing to see siblings working together that normally fight. It see a spouse holding a hand of another in the hospital. We truly do dedicate our lives to family and it shows in our actions as we care for one another. I've been feeling the feeling of "What can I do?" the past week. and I realized, I can do what I always try to do which is to be there for people. To do what is needed and wanted as it happens, not planned or expecting anything in return.

It is great to reflect on showing more kindness( like Jewel's christmas song, Only Kindness Matters), being there for others more during this season of the year that has become most about buying and giving gifts. It is easy to get distracted by time schedules and to do lists. I've found the wonderful memories and special moments are made in the down time, spending time with those that mean the most to us and those we feel inspired to serve.

I want to be more Christlike and I've found there is always opportunities to try and try again to do that. I am grateful for the patience of my family and the love they have towards me. I've loved the lights this holiday season. I love that Brian quoted in his talk in church a few weeks ago from John 8:12; "Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the a light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life". It seems to me that trying to do what he would do gives us a light in our life and helps us become aware of what we can to for others.

I love my family and want to serve them and not get too caught up in unimportant things that I miss truly feeling the special foundation of the family as it pertains to our happiness. I love these days before Christmas to cherish the gift of my family members.:)

Scavenger Hunt Sunday

1. Portrait

2. Nostalgic

3. Time

4. Full of Light

5. Motion

This scavenger hunt Sunday was harder to find. I love baby doll shoes, they reminded me of the round little baby girls I have had with their sweet soft smiles and the cute clothes they let me choose for them! Celia is always in motion. She told me she loves to dance and was doing a London bridges with our lawn decoration.:) The light is the sun and I needed my shades to enjoy being in it. Emmy is so pretty. Smile or no smile, she is picture perfect!.:) Time for Christmas, time to decorate, put up lights and decorations. This swag used to hang at Rah Rah's house, thanks to her we are enjoying decorating our house with it!

Ward Christmas Dinner

Our whole family made it to the ward Christmas dinner last night. Spence was quiet once we sat down and Celia loved that they had an art project for each of the children to do to give to someone else. She made her wreath and traded it in for two Christmas silly bands. Celia and Joe sang in the choir a few Christmas songs and it was a nice night Celia commented on what a great time we had and it was fun to snap a few pictures. It feels more like Christmas time hen we start singing the songs and hearing the music. Bri has Pandora hooked up in our room through his kindle fire and his speakers. It makes a nice spot to listen to Christmas music, so cozy in our own home reminiscing of Christmases past. Being with the family is really what is it all about for us this Christmas. We cherish and love them all dearly.

The Next Phase For Two.

A new phase in life has started today for two of my kiddos.. Joseph got a cell phone and Spencer will be changing to a school more suitable for his needs. Joseph was squealing and smiling when I told him that he would be able to open his "one" super great Christmas gift early. I got a good deal on his cell phone over a month ago and it activated today. Why pay for it to be used and then have it sitting under the tree right? He got a samsung gravity text, it is extremely similar to the phone Emmy has so I was pleased as could be that she was helping him to get to know his phone and being near him. We play family games that help us all to communicate and cooperate together to get Emmy and Joe in the same room being civil, so to have them near each other and communicating nicely outside of that game time made me really happy.

All Spencer's school life we have fought for him to have a way to communicate better, to have his individual needs met with occupational therapy, speech therapy, and behavioral therapy. This new situation at his new placement has all of those components and so much more. They even have a hammock swing in the classroom! It is hard to consider moving school another time this year, but I am beginning to see it is for the best.

One thing in particular impressed me. They have a listening program that helps kiddos that are very vocal to hear the things their mind needs through earphones and it helps them to not scream as much. Spence hollers a lot in public and at home. It would be nice to have that need met through this listening program to help facilitate a more calm, quiet voice. This school seems to help kiddos with autism in all their challenges and prepares them to be a part of the community and fosters as much independence as possible. It has been a hard road to get to this point, and transitioning can be a tedious and tricky process, but this will be a great move for our buddy.

I'm glad to have my little sons who are not so little anymore and are growing up! parenting is hard, but it is worth it and the love I feel towards and from my family make it all worth it. I told Joe he is a big kid now and he just said " I can't believe I have my own phone!", so cute.~

Photo Scavenger Hunt.

I love my little kids and my having them to photograph.:) It is difficult to wait for pizza to be done on a cold day around dinner time. I love the Autumn leaves on a tree near a bridge we pass by quickly as we zoom around our town, and the these two sisters can't help but hug and talk up close about cute, silly observations. Joseph did a great Job setting the table including seat assignment cards for each of us. Just like a school, one card had a sticker on the back which indicated we won a prize! I got amazing smelling lotion and soap from being the winning person.:) We also love our car rides, it could have been used for waiting too, these three were hanging out after visiting the snow on a day off from school. I'm glad I captured this week these cool moments.
1.Waiting

2.Foilage

3.Candid

4. Fork, Spoon, Knife

5. Law of Thirds

A new day, a new challenge.:) I decided to try out this scavenger hunt, seems fun! Anything to take more pictures with my new toy.:)

Holiday Weekend

We had a lovely Thanksgiving. Rah Rah made some wonderful baked goods and side dishes, the turkey was moist( I guess buying it from grocery outlet was a good idea) and the pumpkin pie and cranberry sauce were some of the favored tastes. We relaxed a lot after the work of preparing for the day. Spence took a nap on Thanksgiving and the day, it was nice. I went to Kohl's at 4am for black Friday shopping. There was barely anyone there. Apparently, I had missed the rush since midnight, which I was happy about.

Now, I am in full fledge Christmas mode. We put up our tree today and other decorations. I couldn't find our tree ornaments for quite some time. We had Emmy go up on the rafters in the garage to look for them and we went through all the storage bins to no avail. Then, I remembered we probably moved them to the shed, the only problem was all the Christmas gifts I bought on black Friday were in the shed, so I wrapped them.

Yep, I am feeling more ready for Christmas than ever and its November, hehe. Our first Christmas party is this Saturday and the weather outside is starting to show signs of winter. I am grateful to have found all our decorations. I forget how much nostalgia we feel about the traditions we have and decorations we expect each year. I am ready for a rest after all this cleaning, organizing, and decorating, then I will be ready to spread the Christmas spirit around all through December.:)