December festivities

So much has happened this month - it has been so busy, but all full of good things. We started out the month with no snow at all and have ended with at least 12 inches. We also have enjoyed being able to attend many Christmas celebrations, parties, listen to Christmas music, drive around to see the lights, and reflecting on Christ's birth.

We started out this holiday season with decorating our tree. The kid's were great helpers. After putting on the lights I was worn out. I am so glad they love the decorating part. Camille began the month with two separate performances for Showcase USA - one of them was at Festival of Trees. Thanks for all the family that came to watch her. We enjoyed walking around to see all of the beautiful trees before her performance started. We saw some really cool trees and gingerbread houses.


Camille is on the right side with the black microphone.
Johnathan decorated gingerbread houses at school with all of the 3rd grade. It was so fun helping him. Johnathan has such a sweet tooth that it was fun seeing him decorate his dream house. He had no problem covering every inch with candy. His house didn't even make it home more than 10 minutes before it was being devoured.

Tanner's 4th grade class decorated the Christmas tree at Zions Bank in Lehi. They made the decorations in class and then had a lighting ceremony in the evening. His teacher is so great to let the kids play a part in such a cool activity. The kids all sang Christmas songs and then ate yummy desserts and hot chocolate.
This is the snowman that Tanner decorated for the tree - notice the "Y".

With the snow we have received, comes many hours of shoveling snow. Carter & Parker were so excited to help after the first real snowfall of the winter. I put boots on Bradley for the first time and he really decided that he liked them. He would put them on in the house and wear them wherever he went. Below is Carter and Bradley in the snow.

Mormon Tabernacle Christmas Concert

I was so excited to be picked out of the drawing to receive 4 tickets to the Mormon Tabernacle Christmas Concert. I took Camille, Tanner & Johnathan and we definitely were so excited we went. The concert was awesome! Brian Stokes Mitchell was the guest and can I just say he was so AMAZING! I found this video clip of his awesome musical abilities.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3g-T46ja95s

He also has such a fun sense of humor. My kid's favorite song was "The Friendly Beasts" where he acted out each of the animals through his voice- very entertaining.

Temple Square was gorgeous - we had so much fun walking through on our way to the Conference Center. We were able to go up into the Relief Society Building after the program to see Melissa. She works in such an amazing building. The kid's loved seeing where she works and being with their awesome aunt! Thanks Melissa for taking time out of your busy lives for us and for the ride to our van.




We look forward to watching the concert on PBS to let Carter, Parker & Byron enjoy some of the fun songs we loved also.

Shoes

Bradley has some adversion to shoes and can drive me crazy at times. We will put them on his feet and within a few minutes they are off and being carried away in some direction. If I could attach a beeper to them to find them easily this won't bother me as much. We just have the hardest time finding them when we really need them.

I have decided that we will just leave a pair in the van at all times so when we run errands they are always there. This has proven to be such a great method for him. This method also saves on laundry since when his shoes are off so are his socks. I only need to wash the socks I leave in the van every few days since he won't wear them for more than 15 minutes each day. Crazy boy!!!

Motherly Love

I have realized as a mother how much my children mean to me. Even though I have 6 children, I love them all so different and in their own way. I can remember so many times growing up that my mom would go without to make sure we all had what we needed. I have had so many amazing experiences to make me who I am today - many of them have been from sacrificing my time, efforts and talents all for my family. They have helped create me into who I am and helped me become a better individual. I have definitely become a better person because of my children.

Today I have realized how important every child is in my family and how quickly everything can change. While driving home from Camille's dance performance, we had just gotten off the freeway and were slowing down as we were coming upon a light. I was in the left lane and all of a sudden saw a car coming right at us on the right side of the road. He was turning left out of a parking lot where the cars in the right lane were stopping for him to come across the lanes of traffic. He didn't see me coming and hit me as he came into my lane. The impact hit on the driver's side front tire and then slid all the way back to our back tire. Camille was sitting in the back seat right next to where this happened. We were not hurt at all. The car is not in perfect condition any more, but at least we were safe. I keep thinking about this happening and how easily Camille could have gotten hurt. If were were just one second further on the road the impact would have hit right next to Camille. I have had such a hard time realizing how easily she might not be here with us right now and it has torn me apart. I love my children more than words can ever say and wouldn't know what to do if anything ever happened to any of them.

Since this experience I have been reminded how easily anything can come into my life and turn it inside out. I realize how I need to rely on Heavenly Father more than ever to help keep my family safe. Family prayer morning and night has brought on a new meaning. I need to live each day not letting any moment be taken for granted.

I love being a mom more than anything and look forward to many wonderful years ahead as my children grow, become more independent and then move on to having families of their own. How could I not be grateful!

"Many persons have a wrong idea of what constitutes true happiness. It is not attained through self-gratification, but through fidelity to a worthy purpose." -Helen Keller

Thanksgiving Festivities

We had such a relaxing Thanksgiving Break. We have never had Thanksgiving with just our little family before and decided it was about time. Each of the kids decided on one thing that they wanted to be in charge of to help. My load was lightened due to all their great help. On Wednesday the kid's didn't have any school so we started preparing some of the food. Camille made 4 pies with practically no help at all. What a wonderful help she is in the kitchen! She made 3 pumpkin pies and 1 chocolate pudding pie. Thursday morning each kid started their tasks and didn't even complain :)
Tanner was our potato peeler and a great one at that! He was so quick and peeled around 15 potatoes.

Carter was able to put the cheese on the celery with Camille's help. They looked so yummy and tasted great!

Bradley acting cute and trying to find something to keep himself busy. He was getting into one thing after another making our morning pretty exciting! Bradley has such a fun personality and constantly is doing something to make us all laugh.

Parker and I made rolls. Parker did such a great job at helping me put the ingredients into the bowl and then forming them into balls. Johnathan was so excited to be doing the candy cups. He took great care to make sure each cup had the exact amount of candy. He also created as a surprise a special card for everyone telling something that he loved about each of us. These special cards included a colored picture for each of us. He was up at the crack of dawn making them - he is such a thoughtful kid!

Byron did awesome at carving the turkey and was such a great help in the kitchen! I definitely couldn't have done it without his wonderful help. He even spent the afternoon taking all the turkey off the bone - my least favorite job:).

Camille has a knack for decorating and did an awesome job at getting the table just perfect! She was pretty excited about her masterpiece:).

This is taken after we all sat down to eat. The food was delicious and we enjoyed talking with each other. We created a "thankful tree" that we added leaves indicating things we are all thankful for throughout the week and read through them together as we were eating. After eating our meal we needed to all take a break from the kitchen and headed down to watch the Macy's parade that we had recorded (thank goodness for DVR:) We fast forwarded to each performance. We especially loved watching David Archuleta. We all love his music and have played his new CD non-stop.

The kitchen clean up was the next fun part of our day. Luckily 8 hands make light work!

Parker & Carter as Pilgrims and Indians. Notice my little BYU fan decorating his vest with "Y"s all over it.

We headed up to Grandpa & Grandma Beck's house in the evening to enjoy time with family. The kids were so excited to spend the night there since we rarely do this. We enjoyed visiting with family and the kid's loved spending time with their cousins.

Friday morning Byron headed out at 3:45 a.m. to find the great deals with his mom and siblings. I am so glad he enjoys and looks forward to going out since we are able to get some great deals for Christmas. Byron won't go to K-Mart since it is always a mess and usually doesn't have the sale items. I found some things that I wanted from their so I decided to get up at 6:30 and head to K-Mart. I was able to find most everything I went for. The sale items were not marked which made it very chaotic and hard to find the item I was looking for. Byron reminds me that we go for the sport and if we end up with anything it is a bonus. He has seen so many people go crazy in the lines and not act in the Christmas Spirit that he has to think this way. I hope to do most of the remainder of our shopping online to avoid the fun lines and rush.

Thursday night upon seeing family we noticed that Bradley was really scared of his Uncle Eric - this was such a strange behavior since he LOVES seeing all of his aunts and uncles. Every time Bradley would have to even go in the same room which Eric was in he would start crying and run to Byron or I. We soon found out from Eric that when we were up a few days previously Eric was downstairs taking a nap since he wasn't feeling good. Bradley didn't realize that he was on the couch while he was downstairs. Bradley started to get into some things that he shouldn't have - just as he was reaching his hand into somethings Eric said, "Hey." Bradley was so scared that he ran upstairs and wouldn't go back down. We all got a good laugh since we didn't even know that his had happened a few days previous. Luckily he warmed right up to him again after being there for about one hour. Silly boy!

We had such a great weekend and are now looking forward to this wonderful Christmas season!

Couple Night Out!!!

Last night Byron & I were able to get away and enjoy a fun and entertaining night together. It started out by heading to one of my favorite places to eat - Chili's. I LOVE their bottomless chips and salsa. I ordered their new crispy chicken tacos and Byron had the fajitas. The food was delicious and I'm afraid we got more than enough of our fill. Following dinner we headed over to the E-Center to see Carrie Underwood in concert. We purchased her tickets so many months ago and have been looking forward to this day. Camille was so jealous that we were going without her. She was such a great help to watch the kids while we went, though.

Byron & I have watched Carrie since she was on American Idol - rooting for her the whole way. Carrie is such a beautiful, energetic girl. "Little Big Town" opened and were great, but when it was time for Carrie to come on stage the crowd came to life. The lighting, sound effects, and stage were just perfect. She had 3 clothes changes throughout the concert, which added to the surprise. Byron & I thoroughly were enjoying ourselves. She was as amazing as I had imagined. The crowd was on its feet through a lot of the songs. I loved when she would talk between songs giving us a little taste of her thoughts and where the songs came from. She sang for about 1 1/2 hours. For her closing song, "Before He Cheats," confetti was being blown all over the auditorium. She definitely went out with a big bang.

Byron & I would love to see her maybe in 5 years to see how much she as changed through the years. It is hard to believe that just on May 25, 2005 she auditioned for American Idol not realizing at all what huge things would be awaiting her.

Below are a few videos - our camera won't let us zoom very close, so most of the videos are from one of the large screens next to us.

My Creative Girl

Camille was able to participate in YW in Excellence on Tuesday. What an amazing evening! The Young Women Leaders all put so much time and effort into the night to make it just magical. The theme was "The Worth of a Sole" so the evening was all centered around the shoe theme. The girls and leaders all sang "Walk Tall." The decorations, food, and entertainment were all great. One of the hightlights was a great slide show of all the happenings throughout the year. What fun activities they have all been involved in. I loved seeing Camille in so many of the pictures - we have heard about some amazing activities she participated in, but now have pictures to go with the stories.

Camille was asked to display something that she had made. She wanted to sew something really bad. We decided upon a scripture bag. We went and spent about 1 1/2 hours in the store looking at all the fun possibilities. She finally decided upon what she wanted and we ended up making the bag on Saturday. I do not know much about patterns, so we decided to just wing it. Every step took time to think it through, but the end result was gorgeous! Camille did such a great job at designing the outside - she is so creative that she has a knack for designing things.

Here is just one of the many fun decorations of the night. This is a sugar cookie decked out in the shoe theme - the cookie was delicious also!

Camille has such awesome YW leaders. She is definitely blessed in that regard. At this point in her life, they hold such a HUGE importance. I know that she looks up to her leaders and tries to emulate them in her life.

Monday thoughts

I have been thinking lately about how hard parenting is. I have realized how much I truly appreciate my parents and all that they did and are continuing to do for me. I absolutely LOVED growing up in a large family, but have realized how much work it truly is. Some days I would love to only have to deal with one or two children and their homework, discipline, etc., but am quickly thinking how boring my life would be. I am not sure why I have been so extremely blessed, but can't help but feel so grateful for each one of my six children. Every one of them teaches me so much that is helping me be a better person - through the good and bad:).

Today for Family Home Evening I was in charge of the lesson. I talked about the Second Coming and how important it is to prepare now since we don't know when it will be. We got some really good discussions going. I was able to tell my children how I am looking forward to being together with every one of them in the Celestial Kingdom and that we will also have Johanna with us. What a glorious day! My greatest hope is that my children realize how important it is to make good decisions now because they can make such a HUGE impact in their lives.

Raising 5 future missionaries is such a daunting task. I have so much to still teach each one of them - it is definitely a daily feat. I am overwhelmed almost on a daily basis, but realize that luckily I am not in this alone. I have such an amazing husband. Byron is able to say things to the kids that I would never think to say. He has much more patience some days than I have and will sit and listen to them. I lean on him so much to help me through everything we deal with as parents. Together we can get through anything that is thrown our way. I also have a loving Heavenly Father who knows me more than anyone else and will help me through this parenting journey.

"My dear sisters, do not pray for tasks equal to your abilities, but pray for abilities equal to your tasks. Then the performance of your tasks will be no miracle, but you will be the miracle." ~President Thomas S. Monson

SNOW

Wednesday we woke up to about 6 inches of snow. I was so surprised opening the blinds after waking up. The kids were SO EXCITED! They were really sad that they had to go to school and worried that the snow would be melted when they got home. I took the kids to school that morning and was amazed at how long it took us. The roads were bad. I was glad to finally arrive back home. Carter & Parker were so excited to go outside and shovel the walks - who could complain about that:). They did such a great job. I enjoyed watching them from the window. They were out shoveling for about 45 minutes. Bradley had to enjoy from the window also, since I wasn't about ready to let him go out alone. Luckily he was content and didn't complain.

Parker being such an awesome helper!
Carter doing such a great job at clearing the walks.

Our beautiful fall trees in our front yard.

Our front yard. Such a depressing sight especially when driving in it. Luckily I was able to come home from driving kids to school and was able to actually stay home and enjoy the beautiful weather from indoors.

Tanner & Johnathan didn't waste any time after arriving home from school to play in the snow. They were both making forts in our backyard.The snow has dissappeared and the cold weather has set in. I suppose it has been such a nice couple of weeks that I really need to be thankful for our nice long summer.

Here's to many more cold mornings, hot chocolate, cuddling in blankets, shoveling walks, and sledding:).