He Loves Me......

Each of us have our things that make us happy...the older I get the simpler my "happiness" is~life is busy and I really am so blessed. This may look like a cheap tip ;) from my hubby-it's not-he knows this brings the biggest smile to my face. Coins ARE NOT money in my book-they don't count-so.....

THIS is technically free! LOL
This is always the beginning of happiness in the day for me and peace for my family. Casey is a smart generous man-so grateful for his change from his lunch....

Maybe in 2010 the coins will go into a savings fund for a super simple vacation-probably not but I say that every year. New Years Resolutions are always a great thing-nothing like setting goals-and nothing like breaking the same goal year after year after year after year after year. Oh well....go get yourself a diet coke with crushed ice and enjoy your day!

Cinnamon Milk

This is so yummy! My awesome friend gave me the recipe-we love it so much I wanted to share it with all of you! It's a great way to rotate your powdered milk in your food storage. Enjoy...it's like hot chocolate only WAY better! ;)

Mix 1/3 cup with 8 oz hot water.

2 T Cinnamon

1 1/2-2 c Sugar

1 c Coffemate French Vanilla Creamer (Powder!)

4 c Morning Moos Powdered Milk (Or cannery powdered milk if you dare! LOL)

Mix and store in an airtight container.

Traditions

My very favorite part of Christmas is the traditions. I think my kids look forward to the traditions that we do even more than they look forward to Santa! Funny how that works. With Casey's family they love to play Bingo on Christmas Eve to exchange our gifts, with my family they love to decorate their candy house. At our house we do simple traditions also. Casey & I NEVER label their gifts to them-we always do something tricky-makes it more fun and they leave the presents under the tree alone! We usually buy them each their own roll of wrapping paper-on Christmas morning they open a gift that contains a piece of their paper so they finally know which paper is theirs. Last year they were characters from High School Musical-we wrapped their name and gave it to them on Christmas...I think Sawyer was Gabriella and it was pretty funny! ;) This year they are candy bars-we have Hershey's Cookies & Cream, Reeses, Rolo & Snickers. We'll wrap their candy bar for them so they know which gifts are theirs. Fun. They also "draw names" to exchange gifts with eachother which they love. Each year they get a new ornament-they love to look at them and talk about each one. Then there's the Christmas Eve Jammies-my fave.

Last year a friend in my ward told me about a tradition she does for her kids and I loved it! We are doing it this year. She hangs a cute drawstring sack on her railing for each day in December before Christmas (we are only doing 12!) and puts a cute something in it each day. She said it's funny to watch them peak in the sacks because they just can't wait! My kids are all so excited every morning to see what's in the sack-even Alyssa. Tomorrow they get to make jingle bell necklaces-I know they will just love them ;)-Jaycee won't stop shaking the sack. Makes me giggle every time.

Any traditions you want to share? Someone told me last year they wrap all of their Christmas books and put them under the tree-each night they unwrap a book and read it as a family. Sounds so fun, I'm a little bummed I forgot about that one until yesterday...December came too fast this year!

Incase you want to do this-these cute sacks were at Hobby Lobby-6 in a package for $3.50!

Decorating for Christmas (FINALLY!)

Casey has been working super hard the last few months to finish our family room in the basement. We were lucky enough to have him finish it for Christmas and we're so excited to celebrate AND have the Christmas "mess" in the basement! He did such a great job-we love the extra space to hang out in! There's still lots of minor details to finish-can light trims, grout in the tile for the someday kitchen, window sills, door knobs etc BUT we absolutely love it!!! Things have been so crazy that it took us awhile to get the decorations out and up-the kids are so happy that we FINALLY did it-I'm a little bummed that in a few weeks it all has to come down-seems like a waste to not decorate the day after Thanksgiving like we usually do! Oh well!

The kids in front of the Christmas tree
Santa came to visit us-we LOVE it when he comes to us so we don't have to go to him! ;)
Sawyer took this picture-dogpile on mom & dad while we are trying to relax!!! (PS! LOVE LOVE LOVE new carpet-hate that strands of it get all over everything-our brown blanket is NOT dirty and gross-just attracts the loose carpet strands!)
Sawyer LOVES to decorate-he begged me to let him set up our nativity all by himself. He did a really good job and he's super proud of it!

Kids Say The Funniest Things!

Tonight as we were decorating our tree (FINALLY!!!) Jaycee kept chatting with me...she is such a crack up! Here's what she said:

Jaycee: "Mommy, are you liking having 4 kids?"

Me: "Yes-I love all of you so much. How many kids are you going to have when you are a mommy, Jaycee?"

Jaycee: "I don't know. I want cute kids."

Live Nativity

I attended Draper's Live Nativity with our youth Wednesday night and thought it was the coolest thing ever so I took Casey & the kids back lastnight. Alyssa came Wednesday also and thought it was too cold so she sat this one out-we missed her but had a great time!!! What a neat way to start of the Christmas season-to catch a glimpse of Bethlehem and to have such a powerful reminder of the humble circumstances our Savior was born in...He truly is the most precious gift our Heavenly Father could have ever given us. I am grateful for the work & sacrifice all of the people in the Draper Stake make to make this experience possible for so many, they do such an incredible job.

Sawyer, Shay, Casey, Jaycee & a camel.
Sawyer was super excited to pet the camel-we had the hardest time getting the silly camel to let him pet him. We moved to a different spot several times and the camel would move away. This sweet man that owned the camel picked Sawyer up and helped him-Sawyer was so thrilled! I never thought I'd be excited to pet a camel but they are awesome!
Shaylee with the cows...isn't she cute? Love this girl!

Me, Jaycee, Shaylee & Sawyer with the shepherds.
Sawyer & Shaylee