Christmas Recital

The boys had their recital and of course mama (and dad) were really proud. They worked really hard and their hard work really paid off. They complain a lot when I ask them to practice, but in the end (I think) they are glad that they did. Tanner has been taking lessons for 2 years and Isaac for 1 year.

They had a lot of fun at the recital because a lot of their friends take from the same teacher. It was fun to see all the kids play.

Here is Isaac playing Silent Night.

Here is Tanner playing We Three Kings.

Here is Isaac playing Frosty the Snowman.

Here is Tanner playing Up on the Housetop.

Nevermind...after several attempts and way to much time, I have given up trying.

(After uploading all of these videos, I am convinced that Blogger needs a new system....it really should not take hours!!!!)

It's Beginning to Look Alot Like Christmas

Here are all the kiddos dressed for Christmas Sunday. Look at the 3 (little) men and a lady. Sydney loves to dress as a princess.


After church on Sunday the kids got to make their annual Gingerbread house. This year I let them have complete control of the decorating, hence the chaos all over the table.


Noah had his preschool program on Monday night. He was so cute singing all the songs.


After all the snow we got, we thought it would be a perfect day for sledding. The kids had a blast. It is nice to be able to be out in the snow and not freeze.

This wet snow was perfect snowman snow.

The kids spent the next several hours enjoying the snow.

We still have lots of Christmas fun to come...Wednesday: Tanner and Isaacs Recital, Friday: Jacobson Family Christmas, Saturday: CHRISTMAS and we leave for Pennsylvania.

My Birthday is Done!

Yesterday for family home evening, we put together all 35 (plus 3, so 38) hygiene kits. It was such a great experience for our kids as we sat all around the table and filled the bags. They asked lots of questions about why people would need them and then realized how blessed they really are because they don't need them. We had to explain to them that sometimes if there was an earthquake or other disaster, we may be in need of a hygiene kit. Tanner and Isaac were quick to point out that we have our 72-Hour-Kits, so we would be fine if there was an emergency. (Note to self...add hygiene things to 72-hour kits, sorry boys we would have food and water but no toothpaste).

Here they are all packaged up. Don't they look fun.

Today I dropped them off and from there they will be shipped off to where ever they are needed.

This has been such a great experience for me. Not only did I get to participate in this humanitarian project, but I also felt the love from so many wonderful friends and family. Everyone was so generous and that was a bleesing to see.

So thank you to Kay, Tina, Amara, Kim, Lisa, Joanne, Sandra, Brenda, Becky, Ceci, Kelli, Kris, Jaime, Kelli, Kristy, Pam and Elna. You all made me feel special and helped with this great cause.

I still need A LOT!

Incase you care, this is what I still need for my hygiene kits:

0- 1 gallon ziploc bags
0- Unbreakable combs (they have packages of 12 at Walmart for $2.50)
2- Toothbrushes
0- Tubes of toothpaste (6-8 oz.)
0-bars of soap (4-5 oz.)
0-Handtowels (not dishtowels or wash clothes) They have these at Dollar Tree.

I'm getting closer, thanks to so many people. If you have gotten something I no longer need, no worries I'll just make more kits or donate them to the humanitarian program.

Happy Birthday to me....almost!

A few months ago a friend of mine decided to put together 40 humanitarian infant kits to celebrate her 40th birthday. I liked the idea so much that I decided to copy her (sort of). I say sort of because...well, 1)I'm not 40, and 2) I have decided to put together hygiene kits instead.

A few years ago I heard this story of a young girl named Mariama Kallon who recieved a hygiene kit that saved her and several other women. Please take the time to read her story it is truely touching. The first time I heard it it brought me to tears.

Well last weekend, I attended Time Out for Women in SLC and Mariama was there to tell her story. I felt such a bond with her because I had heard her story a few years back and we also served in the same mission for the LDS church (although not at the same time). She still carries around her little hygiene kit as a reminder to her of how blessed she was to recieve it in her time of need.

So anyhow...to celebrate my 35th Birthday, I am going to put together 35 Humanitarian Hygiene Kits, these kits are handed out to those in need throughout the world.
So instead of gifts this year, I am asking for my friends and family to donate some of the supplies that I will need to put these together.

What I will need is:

35- 1 gallon zip lock bags
70- Unbreakable combs (no sharp handles)
140- Toothbrushes (packaged)
35- Tubes of Toothpaste (6-8 oz.)
70- Bars of soap (4-5 oz.)
70- Hand towels (new towels, approximately 15'' by 25''. Please do not use dishtowels or washclothes)

So if you were planning on getting me a present (or even if you were not and you want to support a good cause), that was my list.

I decided Thanksgiving Day would be a great day to type up this blog post. As I sit and reflect on all the things I have to be thankful for...I am so incredibly blessed. I hope that in some small way I (with your help) can help others like Mariama.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you and Happy early Birthday to me.

It's All About Isaac

Today Isaac turned 7, so why not a little post about him.

As a preschooler, Isaac was TROUBLE! I was worried for him and his teachers when he started school last year...but for no reason. I think school was the best thing for him. His little personality has changed so much. He is now the kid that wants to make everyone happy, he's a peacemaker (for the most part), he's funny, he's smart. He plays the piano, he loves to read, he loves to be outside and active, and he makes the silliest faces. For all those reasons and so many more, WE LOVE ISAAC-Happy Birthday!

Hope You Have A Super Halloween

Here are all the costumes, this has been a fun theme to do.

Going Green

After a "guilt trip" from my friend Kelli...we have decided to start recycling. The trash company around here does not offer recycling, but a local family does ( I just found this out the other day). For $10 a month they provide bins and will come and pick up paper, plastic and metal. We just got our bins the other day! Pretty exciting stuff.
Not only are we doing that, but if you know anything about us, you know that we love using paper plates and cups. We'll we are also working on that as well. I bought some new (non disposable) plastic cups and plates and we are saying good-bye to the paper products.
I also have purchased a few reusable grocery bags, but every time I go to the store I forget them in my car. O-well, that'll give me something to work on.
There you go Kelli, your blog posts have inspired me, so it wasn't for nothing.

A Drive Up the Canyon

On Sunday we loaded the kiddos up in the car and took the short drive up the canyon. The kids were in heaven...running around, climbing trees and rocks and playing in the leaves. Does it get any better then that. They were all so sad when we loaded them up in the car to leave. We are getting family pictures taken this week and this was kind of a practice run. I think Sydney is going to be tough. She would not stay in 1 place, it was really hard to get a picture of her, hopefully the professionals will do a better job then me.

Early last week Kevin and I went to Vegas to see the Lion King. Kevin found a really good deal tehat got us 2 tickets to the Lion King and 2 nights at Mandalay Bay for super cheap, so we just had to do it. Thanks to my mother-in-law and my friend Becky who each took a pair of kids for a few days. Obviously we could not have done it without you.
The first night there we saw the Lion King. Our seats were not awesome, but the show was fantastic and definetly worth seeing. The next we met up with my Aunt Rosanne and Uncle Tom for dinner. I have not seen them in like 20 years (or more), so it was so great to be able to catch up. We had a fabulous time.
We also spent a lot of time eating. (When you don't gamble and drink, what else do you do in Vegas?) And of course we had to check out some of our favorite hotels and places on the strip. Oh and I can't forget...we went bowling. And lets just say it was embarrasing. I went in all cocky, thinking "I'm in a league now, I am finally going to be able to beat my husband at bowling." Let's just say I didn't. O-well maybe next time.

Every year we take a trip to the pumpkin patch and pick our own pumpkins. This year we grew our own, so the pumpkin patch was our back yard. They aren't the biggest pumpkins I ever did see, but they are round and orange and the kids thought they were fantastic. (We can always pick up a few larger ones at Wal-Mart for carving.)

New Lens

We are pretty excited about our new camera lens, I had to take it to Tanner's soccer game to try it out. I am not a camera smarty pants, so I don't know the lingo, but it is a zoom lens but also a normal lens, all in one. Actually I don't know if it is that great but it zoom is 18-250 mm (whatever that means). All I know, is that when I am far away I can actually take pictures and Tanner doesn't look like an ant running on a field.

I don't think my kids have been born with that natural athletic ability, but they like soccer and it gets them outside running around, so we'll take it. Tanner has shown improvements this year. He has been a little more aggresive, but he still has a ways to go. I am such a mean mom and I don't buy him a new uniform every year. I do think his shorts are getting a little short, maybe next year I'll spring for a new pair.

I've Been Sewing!

Most of you have probably already seen these pictures on Facebook, but I decided to put them on my blog for those who are not Facebookers and for my own "journal" purposes. Up until a month ago I was not a sewer. Although I owned a sewing machine, I had never sewed anything with a pattern (since high school home ec.). For Halloween we decided as a fam to do the Super Mario Brothers theme. I found all of the costumes online except Princess Daisy (for Sydney). So I decided to attempt making it. Here are the results.

I was pretty proud of myself. I made a few adjustments from the pattern with the lace, collar, flower applique and the peplum. I gathered and sewed a zipper.

Well if I could make a princess dress, then I could make a simple little jumper dress for Sydney. This dress even involved button holes, which I must say, I still need some help with. I got a little better with this applique, but again could still use some help.

So as I said earlier, I ordered all my other Halloween costumes online. Well shortly after I got an email saying my Princess peach costume was backordered till right before Halloween. I didn't want to worry, so I canceled the order and made my own.

I still have a few adjustments to do to make it truely Princess Peach. I know it looks like a 1980's bridemaid dress, but again I am just amazed I was able to do it.

We are going to Disneyland in November, so I thought now that I can sew I need to make Sydney a Snow White dress (she's my favorite princess). You can't see it from here, but there is a red cape in the back that can come off.

Well, that is all so far. I ordered Kevin a Yoshi costume for Halloween and when it arrived it was way to small for him, so i have decided to attempt that. All the materials are purchased, now I just need a husband here to make sure it fits as I sew. Sounds like a fun project for the weekend. Pictures to come...

Noah was so excited for his first day of preschool yesterday. I told him we needed to go out and take some pictures before school, so he went outside and started making silly faces. He was nice enough to do some normal face pictures for me. I can't believe how big he is getting. He just looks so grown up with his pack pack on.

What to do?

So I have been trying to figure out what we are going to do for Isaac's 7th birthday party in November. Isaac is a different sort of kid....he likes a lot of things but isn't really passionate about anything, except video games. So I decided I would do a video game party, but not actually play video games. I want to come up with games and activities based on different video games. I thought for sure there would be ideas online, but NO, nothing. So what to do? Anyone out there got any good ideas, I could used some help. Please!

First Day of School and other stuff.

Tanner and Isaac started school on the 24th of August and look at me finally getting pictures up. (I am just learning how to do these photo collages in Picassa, so forgive me if I keep using them.) Tanner started 3rd grade and Isaac started 1st. They are both enjoying school, and mom is enjoying getting back in to routines. Noah will begin preschool next week, which he is also very excited about.



Life has been busy here lately. I was recently called as YW president so that in and of itself has been busy, but we also had a big fundraiser that we did. We made about 600 cupcakes. Everything turned out well and I am happy to have that out of the way. I am also over the Elementary School carnival, which is run by the PTA. Our goal is to raise $13,000 to run all the school programs. We have carnival games, big blow-ups, rides, dinner, concessions and a basket auction. I have a lot of good people helping me with this, which has been fantastic, but I will be happy when September 10th is over and the carnival is done!

Yellowstone

So I never did blog about Yellowstone. So here it is real quick like. We went to Yellowstone to hang with my brother Joel and his cute family. We stayed in a little cabin at the KOA in West Yellowstone. Yellowstone is a super fantastic place to visit. I highly recommend it. We had a great time (this was our second time here as a fam) and we will probably go back again. Here are some pictures:

Bear World

On our way to Yellowstone we stopped at Bear World (just outside of Rexburg, ID). We had never done this before, but it came highly recommended from friends, and it did not disappoint. It was a drive through wilderness where we saw dear, elk, mousse, bison, and of course bears. My kids were bummed because no bears came and put their paws on our car, but the bears were really very close. I didn't get any good pictures because we had to keep our windows close and apparently our windows were not very clean.

There was more to Bear Worl then just the drive through experience. They also had a petting zoo with deer, ducks, pigs, goats, etc.

This deer is only 2 days old.

Tanner walking amongst the ducks.

Noah chillin with a deer.

Sydney playing with the goats.

They also had 5 small rides for the kids to enjoy.

Sydney just loved the rides. She laughed so hard on them. It makes me very excited for Disneyland in November.

My very own bear cub.

Another bigger cub.

Anywhoo, if you are going to Yellowstone and you have young kids, I highly recommend Bear World. Good times were had by all the kids.

Messy Night

Every Monday night Thanksgiving Point Gardens does a theme night of activities for kids. We decided Messy Night would be the perfect time to go. My friend Sarah Jane was in town so her and her family met us there for the fun.
Here is Tanner in the process of throwing some perfectly good jello

The three boys after the jello fight.

The Jello fight was definetly the highlight of the night for my kids, but other fun things went on as well, such as: eating popsicles from a string, paper mache, finger painting, quick sand, etc.

Here is Tanner having himself a popcicle.

Isaac showing of one of his messy silly faces.

Isaac playing in the quicksand

Sarah Jane and Me

Anyway I highly recommend the Thanksgiving Point Garden Monday night thing. If anyone wants to go, let us know, we can get you in for half off.

Pennsylvania

So recently Sydney and I took a quick trip to Pennsylvania. We typically try to go every year as a fam, but because of pricey airline tickets, just the 2 of us got to go. My main purpose of going was to run a 5K with my sisters. (okay I just used it as an excuse)

Here we are: My nephews Tyler and Jared, my sis Andrea, my sis-in-laws Carrie and Anastasia, and me.

The race we ran was part of a running club, lets just say...we didn't win. I had been "training" to run this and when it came down to the actual race, I felt like I had to pee the entire time so it was hard to pick up the pace. Thanks to my sis and law Carrie who ran with me the entire time and kept encouraging me to keep going.
Blue Marsh

all the mommas of the family (except Tara-we missed you) took the kids to the lake. Since I am so super awesome, I didn't get very many pictures. O-well, whats done is done. I'm just mad at myself, because I don't see my fam very often, it would be nice to have pictures of when I actually do.

I took Sydney a little while to get used to the water.

Look at my cute nephew Boston

And my lovely sis Andrea (she is going to love that I post this pic)

That night we took the kids to a little carnival in town.

Sydney and her cousin Anna cruisin around town

Sydney loved the rides.

Poor Anna had to deal with crying Sydney...apparently way past her bedtime.

Sorry that is all I have to show for the trip. We did a lot of other fun stuff like eating, hanging out and going to the Camden Aquarium.