An amazing week with the Young Women!

THE FORGOTTEN CAROLS!

On Wednesday we took the Young Women to see the Forgotten Carols.  It was such a fun and spiritual evening.  Afterward all 30 of us got a picture with the cast.

 LIVE NATIVITY AT TUACAHN

On Thursday our ward was the volunteer cast for Tucahns Live Nativity...almost.  We ended up getting rained out but not before we had the opportunity to go backstage, get in our costumes and have a photo op.  With or without the performance it was a great experience.

Angels, townspeople and roman soldiers.

More angels

Shepherds. 

My girls and I were all shepherds (Adam was on the crew, he was going to film it for us)

Mary, Joseph and just for fun we put Raiden in the manger as the boy Jesus.

My girls were in heaven looking at all the props that were back stage. This a prop from Tarzan.

 BAPTISM
I didn't get any pictures of this, but on Saturday we had one of our Non-member Young Women, Jordan and her little brother Zach get baptized.  We first met the Gosik family back in June when Jordan turned 12 and we went over to introduce ourselves and invite her to go to camp. She was so excited and could hardly wait. She had full support from her family and the rest is history.  She continued going to activities and church, having missionary discussions and she has already passed off three values in the personal progress program.  I had the opportunity to go and be a part of several of the discussions and was so excited when she decided to get baptized.  On her baptism day, I had the honor of speaking on Baptism, Calli (Calli and Jordan have become quite good friends) was asked to go back in the dressing room with her and help her change into her confirmation dress (so cute) and Adam was asked to stand in the circle for her confirmation.  It was one of the best baptisms I have ever been to. The room was packed and the spirit was so strong. I don't think there was a dry eye in the room, including her parents who are hopefully not too far behind them.. I am so thankful for the opportunity to know this family, to be one of Jordan's YW leaders and to be a part of their special day.

CHRISTMAS LESSON!

On Sunday, we told the girls a very touching Christmas story about a little disabled girl and red Happy Birthday Jesus balloon.  Then we all went outside and thought about something we could "Give" and sent our balloons to Jesus, just like the little girl did in the story.

Then we all came back in and read the Christmas story from Luke, sang silent night and ate sugar cookies. For their handout and gift we have them red Christmas Tree ball ornaments with vinyl lettering that said "Happy Birthday Jesus" It was such a great lesson and darling handouts. Thanks to all the leaders for working together and each doing their part to pull it off.

I sure do love these girls. They are the best and such an example to me. It was a wonderful week FULL of spiritual and touching moments.  One of those weeks when I truly love my calling.

Christmas Stuff!

Ivins 2nd ward Christmas Party and Dinner!

Gentry 7 years old with Santa

Sadie 10 years old and Santa

Calli 13 years old with her friends Nikki and Andrea, singing Santa a song

After the party we went driving around and looked at lights for a couple hours. We have our usual favorite neighborhoods and houses to visit.  We didn't get home until after 11:00pm. The girls were so tired from their fun filled day they fell asleep curled up in the back seat.  

Projects, projects, projects...

painting...

preschool wall

screen in theater room

hanging doors

and lights.

The mess! We still have a ways to go, but we are defiantly getting there.

Really?!

Someone in my family is very lazy-

This is what I saw when I went into the half bath by the garage..."Somebody" didn't even take the old roll off before putting a new one on. Really?! and my toilet paper holders aren't even the kind that you have completely take the center off to put a new one on, you just simply slip the old one off and slip the new one on. HMMM! I actually laughed out loud when I saw it. But don't tell them that, we had to have a lesson on changing the toilet paper roll.

Preschool updates!

The preschool has become a family project!

The girls helping dad with the mudding and sanding!

My cute little closet!

Rise and Shine!

Gentry is so not a morning person and is my hardest child to get up in the mornings. Most of the time I get her dressed while she still tries to sleep and then I carry her downstairs for breakfast.  Once she eats she is usually wide and awake and ready for her day. But this morning I couldn't even get her to wake up and eat. This is pretty much a typical morning for Bo. She is happiest on weekends when she gets to sleep in...just like her mom!

 

Dixie Care and Share!

For the past few years my friend and I have hosted one of my new favorite Christmas Traditions.

(Invite below)

              Dear Friends,      

We are inviting you to share in a Christmas of giving. In lieu of giving neighborhood gifts to each other we invite you to use that money in doing for those who are in greater need.

We have chosen to help the Dixie Care and Share who have a great need with the following items from their wish list.

Bedding - Items such as; Blankets, Sleeping Bags (Gently used or new)

Pillows - New-(available at Wal-mart for $3.00)

Paper Products - Toilet Paper, Paper Towels, Disposable Diapers

(mainly sizes 4 & 5) & Diaper Wipes

Personal Items - Shampoo, Tooth Brushes, Toothpaste, Deodorant, Feminine

Products, Socks

Food Items - Potatoes, Canned Meats, Dry Cereal, Macaroni & Cheese, Peanut

Butter, Instant Oatmeal & any Canned Food Items

Money - To keep the doors open and lights on (for those of you who dislike shopping). You can make checks payable to the Dixie Care and Share and seal in an

envelope.

We hope you will find items within your budget and will enjoy shopping for them as a family. No donation is too small. Please bring your family and join with us for a short family night of visiting and refreshments. If you can't make it but would still like to donate, you may drop it off at either of our homes.

When: Monday, December 6th

Time: 6:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m.

Where: The Peterson's Driveway (40 W. 200 N .)

*Be sure to bundle up for the weather (heaters are provided)

*Feel free to extend this invitation to others.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

The Stouts & The Peterson’s

688-2747 628-7953

We start by inviting everyone that we would normally give a neighbor gift to; neighbors, friends, visiting teachers, home teachers, etc. to a night of sharing and giving.
On the night of our get together, we decorate the garage as best as we can for Christmas,  make a bunch of goodies, light some heaters and bring out the wiggle cars for the kids. Then our neighbors and friends come and bring their items for Dixie and Care and Share. The kids all play, the adults chat, and everyone enjoys some donuts, cheese and crackers, Hot Chocolate and wassail. It has gotten bigger and bigger with each year.  We have people asking us in Novmeber if we are going to do it again.  It is becoming a tradtion in thier homes as well. 
At the end of the night, we load up the goods in our vehicles and take it to the local shelter. 

This has quickly become one of my favorite traditions.
(Sorry the pictures are blurry, I'm hoping Santa brings me a new camera for Christmas)

                                     
 

Friends and neighbors mingling, chatting and eating while staying warm by the heaters.

The yummies!

And the Loot! This was our best year yet!

Dickens Festival!

Dickens was sure a different experience this year.  For the past 5 years my girls have been involved with the Oliver and Scrooge plays.  They have loved it and it had become such a fun Christmas tradition, but with their director Matt going to Salt Lake for work and to run the Dickens Festival up there my girls and their 9 other cousins and friends that have also been involved decided they didn't want to do it without Matt.  So this year instead of practically moving in for the week and watching 10 performances we just had 3 dance performances to watch this year. 

Sadie, Gentry and Kassi (cousin) danced with their dance groups on Friday night.

Gentry - 7 years old

Sadie - 10 years old

After their dance perfomances we hung out for the rest of the night, eating shopping and watching the plays. There were still quite a few of the original cast that were still involved so my girls wanted to go and see everyone and also, my sister in law was in it this year as well, so that was fun! AND guess who we saw...Matt! He had come down to help his family run this one before Salt Lakes opened next week.  We asked him if he was sad or honoerd that no one wanted to do it this year without him. He said, he missed seeing them up there performing but was honored.  Even without the plays Dickens will always be a fun Holiday Tradition.

Preschool Updates!

Drywall and insulation!

Updates are also available on Lil' Thinkers Preschool" Blog!

Ugh!

My computer got a huge virus about a month ago...hence no updates and it has taken our computer guy this long to figure it out. He said it was so embedded in our computer we're lucky in didn't crash. But he got rid of the virus and got us all squared away again...that's the good news. The bad news is, I am incredibly far behind on blogging. So here goes nothing. I'm not even going to count the posts this time cuz I know there's a ton...have fun!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

I decided that this year I needed a "Disney" Tree.  So I thought it would be a fun tradition to start transforming our tree to Disney and get a few ornaments for it each year.  I ordered a couple of sets of ornaments from Disney shopping just to get started and then realized we'd need a lot more than that.

So the girls and I got creative. We gathered up all the small Disney toys we had floating around the house that no one plays with anymore and screwed eyelets in them and turned them into ornaments.

Then Adam and I made these cute Mickey ear ornaments out of regular plastic ball ornaments.

How cute are those?

To finish it all off we made our own Mickey ears Santa hat out of a pair of old mickey ears that we had.

I think it turned out so cute and I'm so excited to add to it a little each year.

Tender Moments:

We had just finished decorating the house for Christmas and was cleaning up when I looked up and saw this...

Gentry had got in her Christmas "snuggies", picked one of our Christmas books and sat down by the fire and read it to her little pony.  These are the moments that I not only take a picture with the camera but also my heart.

Drum Roll Please!

My dream of opening a preschool is finally coming true. 

 "Lil' Thinker's Preschool" will be open for enrollment for

August 2011.

Adam building me my preschool wall, separating the garage from my preschool area.

I sure love that Adam is such a handyman and can do just about anything.

Adam also decided to start on another project as well...

He's decided to extend the wall in the bonus room, making it big enough to paint a screen on it turning thast room into a theater/game room.

More posts to come in the near future as we continue to work on these projects.

Calli's Christmas Band Concert!

I just love Calli's band concerts they are so upbeat and energetic. But the best part is watching Calli and the other percussionists jump from one instrument to the another.

She truly does amaze me with her confidence and determination.

Misc!

  I think it's so funny to find these random pictures on my camera, as I go through my pictures

Sadie...before...

Sadie...after. This is what we loving call, Sadie's "ugly smile" It cracks me up every time she does it. it just completely transforms her cute little face...too funny!

Hallee had a sleepover on Friday which is "Red Shirt Day" at the school. I thought it was so funny they were all twins at bed time.

This is a real egg. This was a at home science experiment of Calli's. After days soaking in various liquids like, water, vinegar, food coloring and powerade it turned to rubber...so interesting.

This is how my girls try to get away with the no food out of the kitchen rule. They stay as close to the tile as possible while getting as close to the TV as they can.

With all my girls as babies I used to rock and sing them asleep. The other night the girls crawled up on my lap to cuddle so I began singing,  They both fell asleep...I love tender moments like these.