Temple Lights and Car Rides

Annual visit to the Mesa AZ Temple lights.  This year we went with our friends the Johnsons, Bryants, Kettrings and another family friends with Johnsons and Taylor.  They had a few different lighting effects this year that I loved!  And the manger was beautiful as always.  They played little snippets of talks from our leaders at the manger scene and as one was talking, Katy says "hey! that's one of our leaders talking!"  I love that she recognized his voice.  She's listening. ♥  While there, I got my weekly email from Stephen so I had to sit on a bench to take a minute to read his email and chat back and forth with him for a min.  Always makes my week.  After walking around, we all went to the church parking lot and had hot chocolate and donuts.  That's tradition.  I love traditions!!

The Ride Home

I love the ride home from these events.  Everyone is starting to be tired and is mostly just chill.  Christmas music playing, lights here and there.  I think I love it so much because I have a very distinct memory of driving home from our Grandma's house one Christmas.  I must have been 9 or so.  It was late, I was tired....I was laying across the seat in the van and looking out the window.  There was snow.  I even remember the song on the radio.  Funny actually, it was Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer.  But what I remember most is how I felt so "content" riding in the quiet, seeing the snow, hearing music.  I was happy.  Life was good.  I hope my children can catch a moment like that.  Just one.  

Early Christmas Stuff

Christmas has begun!!  We got the house mostly decorated, still have some mess to get put away.  But it's looking good, including lights outside, which Glade helped me do this year.  I'm anxious to get the mess all put away so we can just enjoy.

I got this sweet little gem from a friend online.  You do what ya gotta do to have your boy with you during the holidays! ♥

My kids school is the BEST.  The last few years I have been dissappointed feeling like the Christmas program lacked religious songs and a nativity (they'd always done it), but this year they came back with a bang.  Very first thing was a nativity scene while the kids sang "Friendly Beasts".  I loved it!  Every group sang at least one song talking about the birth of the Savior.  Then they ended with all singing Go Tell it on the Mountain.  It's one of my favorite things every year. 

 This is Bo on the very end, third row up. Couldn't get a good one of Katy

 Katy found a Santa hat and thought she looked pretty stinkin cute in it.  Well, she did if I say so myself.  So we took pictures!!

Ballroom Showcase

In a recent post ranting/raving about Rhett, I mentioned him on a ballroom team.  This is a class at school, plus they meet occasionally outside the class.  He loves it!  It's expensive (trips they take, shoes, etc) but he really loves it.  If you could see them perform, you'd understand why.  They're amazing!  No really, you'd be shocked.  He had his winter show this week and these are a few pics of him.  It's so fun to watch.  

Other Random Stuff

We have the best friends!!  One day a couple of weeks ago, we all got together as a group and spent some time talking and praying together.  Some are struggling and some making hard choices, so we thought this would be good for all of us to come together in support and prayer.  It was a truly lovely evening.  At that time, we all decided to make a trip to the temple together as well.  We couldn't all get a time together so we did they best we could.  Us girls (minus Melanie :()  went during the day, while the boys did an early morning session the next day.  It's so great to be in the temple with people you love!  One of these sweet ladies hadn't been in a while so it was extra sweet to be with her this day. ♥  Life isn't easy, but totally do-able when you have the Lord and good friends!

Brooklyn got her braces off!  She didn't have to wear them as long as some, so she was super excited to get them off in time for Christmas!  (but not before we took family pics)  Now we're in for selfie overload!

I'm still in scouting and working with the wolves.  For this activity, I thought it would be fun to decorate gingerbread men.  Well, I only have 3 scouts..perfect!  But, the bear den is short leaders so they have been coming with us.  So now I had 8 boys decorating.  That was a little chaotic, but I think they all had fun.  The big news...I started a new diet program ( I know, you don't have to say it) and I didn't sneak one bit of candy or frosting!

This is one of my very favorite things.  I found this leaf on my keyboard.  I tossed it aside wondering what the kids were using it for.  Katy came in and handed it to me telling me that she found it outside and wanted me to have it because she knew I loved when the leaves changed colors.  I seriously have the best life.

Thanksgiving Weekend

What a blur Thanksgiving was!  I'll try to sum it up without going all over the place!


Wednesday evening we always do Thanksgiving with Glade's family at the church.  It was lovely as always.  Except...I had a crazy allergy attack right before so I felt like crud the whole time I was there.  I wasn't exactly a bunch of fun that night.  But the kids always have a great time.

Thursday morning I awoke about 4 am and thought "it's too early, I have to run, must go back to sleep.  But...I could be missing all the black Friday online deals.  No...they'll still be there.  But what if they sell out?  I should just get up and check.  No, you need sleep, you have a long day.  But, what if?"  So, naturally, I got up and did most of my shopping, with free shipping to my house!  I got pretty much everything I really wanted so now all the stress of  "how am I gonna get it all done" was gone!  Went back to bed for an hour and then got around for the Turkey Trot.

I had been training for a couple of months, even got up to 4 miles (slowly), but about two weeks before the race, something popped in my calf during a run.  It hurt and made me walk funny for a week.  So...I didn't run anymore before the race.  I was seriously NOT prepared for it.  But, it's tradition and as I always say...anyone can walk 6 miles.  So away we went!!

Grandma, Chelsey, Spencer and Katy walked the 2 mile.  Rhett ran the one mile as a warm up. Crazy.  Then the rest of us, including Bo, Whitley and Nick did the full 10K (6.2 miles).  Since none of us had really trained, we kind of had a plan to stick together and just finish as a family.  Well that lasted about...not at all.  Bo took off trying to stay with Rhett (Ha!), but when he couldn't, he stayed with Dalin (who left me at a quarter mile), and then with Glade until he couldn't keep up there and ended up beating me by 3 minutes.  I never saw him though.  I wanted to at least try, so I didn't stick with Whitley, Nick and Brooklyn , who were walking till the end.  So basically I ran alone.  The only bad part about that was that I didn't bring my headphones with me so we could have "good family conversation".  Now I had to hear my heavy breathing the whole time!!  But I made it!!  I wanted to quit...several times... but I kept going.  yeah me!

After the Turkey Trot, we always get Circle K drinks before heading home.  Well, on the way home, we had to pull over twice so I could try to puke.  What??  I don't puke!!  It was awful.  I only dry heaved once, about a quarter mile from our house, but never threw up. I came home, showered and laid down for a bit.  Then had to kick it into high gear to get ready for dinner!

This year we had lots of fun guests.  Our friends the Kettrings and the Williams joined us along with my mom's friend Yen.  Then the missionaries made a surprise appearance during dinner.  I have one picture of them playing football in the back yard.  Dinner was good, it was crowded and noisy, but loved being with people I love.  

We had hoped to play some games, but we were all just pooped.  After most left, we went over the ads and planned for the next day.  Black Friday!!

So we didn't shop at all on Thursday, but headed out about 6 am on Friday.  Mom, Chelsey and Whitley did a little in town while Jenny, Melanie and I did some out here where we live.  Tracie was a loner until breakfast.  We all met at Village Inn to fuel up for the day.  

We spent the next 11 hours shopping.  Awesomeness!!  It was a very successful day!  

lunch at Firehouse Subs

My poor kids were home alone all day so when I got home at 6 pm, I felt bad and tried to scrape up a left over dinner for them.  I was soooo tired!!  I seriously just wanted to go to bed.  They thought that was lame, so in an effort to pass another hour, we loaded up and went to Dairy Queen.  Perfect, home by 8 and I was in bed!  Fabulous Day!!

Christmas Miracle

I love Christmas!!  Shocker, I know.  This year I have gotten to witness that love transferred to my kids.  They are older now and have their own abilities to celebrate how they want, not how Mom says.  This little miracle has to do with my sweet Missionary who I miss terribly!  In a recent email he asked if I could send some lights so it could sort of feel like Christmas, festive.  So in a flat rate box I tried to squeeze in everything I could to give him a sense of Christmas.  There were the lights, and then I also put in two stocking stuffed with goodies, a Christmas card of our family, a CD with Christmas music, some window clings and a count down calendar.  Well, his email back was awesome!! It went like this: 


YES YES YES  I did get the package thank you so much mama!!!! Gah honestly I have been going on to anyone that will listen about Christmas and how much I love it, so when I got the lights and everything else I put them up right away! haha I will send you a picture next week when it is all done :)  but yes and thank you! Heck yah! that is more than I did this thanksgiving! haha We just ate 2 huge meals and got sooooo many left overs! AND YES thank you for sending the pictures they made me super duper happy :) the living room one is probably my favorite :)    I know about the Christmas thing! haha I was looking at the countdown thing and I just thought "how do I have that many memories of 25 days!!" Its too fast and I want it to go on forever!! thanks for the countdown thing! Me and Elder Kang totally started singing Oh come all ye faithful this morning at 6:30 am lol!



 You have to know how happy that made me!!  I cried just a little reading his email.  It was awesome.  But then it got better.  The next morning I woke up to this text: 

Now you know there were tears!!  Angels on earth, I tell ya.  Then came this: 

Sis Harris has been so completely wonderful to my boy.  I miss him so stinkin much but how grateful I am that there are other mothers out there taking care of him.  He did't NEED a tree.  But he has one, a little tiny, precious tree that says "love" with every twinkling light.  My heart is so full there are no real words to express what this little act meant to me.  

No ordinary Day

This morning started off crazy and cranky.  I was in a mood.  It was my day to volunteer at the temple...and I love going...but I had tons I wanted to get done.  So I tried to be productive before I went and ended up being late.  And it was SUPER slow which makes for a very long day.  BUT, shortly after arriving, we found out one of our church leaders, President Deiter Uchtdorf was in the temple!  It was highly likely that he would  come down to the baptistery!  Well, he did!  I only got to see him walk past us.  Now, he looked at each one of the three of us and said hello, but I didn't reach out my hand.  It would have been slightly awkward.  But now I so regret it.  I wish I would have just done it.  Don't get me wrong, it's way cool to have a General Authority look you in the eyes and say hello, but a handshake would have been wonderful.  

After spending the day wishing I would have just done it, I had and experience as I was handing out towels to a man doing baptisms for his immediate family members.  He came out of the font in tears. Beautiful tears of joy.  I just wanted to hug him...but he was wet...and I'm a strange woman.  So I didn't.  But then I remembered my regret with the handshake.  This man needed a hug!  So when he came out dry, I made eye contact with him and told him I just wanted to hug him.  So I did!  And it wasn't weird at all.  We talked about the work he was doing and his family situation, it was nice.  As he was leaving, he came over to me and shook my hand and thanked me.  Not weird at all, perfect.  

So what started out as cranky and dumb, ended up being a beautiful day!  Plus, as I was heading home, this is what I saw.  I never tire of seeing that beautiful building glow.  God lives and He love us...all of us!  Even me. ♥

It's Fun Here

Random silliness at our house:

Kneeling for family prayer, it's Bo's turn and this is what we hear.... I pledge allegiance to the flag...

Driving to school and the kids are talking about how old their friend's mom is.  Well the Mom's birthday is on the 13th and the daughter's bday is 13 days later.  Cool right?  Bo says "hey, together you are a marathon!"

Eating dinner and some how (one never knows) how the subject of eating humans came up and Bo says "yah, that's carnivalism".

It's amazing how a wrong vowel can cause a serious case of the giggles.  You know..when reading a book and you accidentally read "snow fArt" instead of "snow fOrt".  Kinda ruins the story.

Or when you suggest to a 7 year old girl that we should cut her hair into a bob and she grabs her head yelling "noooooo!"  But then asks....what's a bob?  But then ends up looking like this:

It's pretty fun living with all these weird people.  I wouldn't have it any other way! ♥

Some days just feel Happy

Ya never see 'em coming and sometimes you may not even notice when they are here.  But then there are those days that just feel HAPPY.  Today is that day.  A day at home, no real obligations.  Cleaned up from the weekend first thing, then did a bit of "stock up" grocery shopping.  That does always make me happy! Filled my gas tank with the rewards I earned stocking up too.   Sat in my clean house watching a sweet Christmas movie with a diet coke and chocolate chip cookie.  Fed my chickens and saw 2 eggs!  Plus, I didn't sweat to death while doing it. All the while wearing comfy clothes.  It's all pretty simple, you see.  That's the beauty...feeling happy with the "mundane".  Doesn't happen often unfortunately, so it's pretty awesome when you can take  notice and appreciate just feeling HAPPY.  Now, it's only one in the afternoon......

Pre Christmas

Prepare for gush.  I don't know what it is about this year and Christmas, but I have just been so "touched" by my kids desire to love the holiday.  It's one thing when Mom sets the tone and they live here so I'm exposing them to it constantly.  They just sort of HAVE to go along.  But this year has been different.  Don't get me wrong, I've done plenty of exposing, but they've also just done things on their own.  Whitley who has always been adamant about waiting till after Thanksgiving has expressed her anticipation and excitement for Christmas already this year.  Chelsey is always excited and ready to go, so that's good.  Same with Mom...early isn't a problem.  But even Stephen in one of his letter expressed a "thought" he had about me and  Christmas a while ago.  Then one night, Rhett called me from work and put the phone to his music he had playing...Christmas music.  That's all on his own.  Then yesterday I got a text from Taylor, Stephen's friend, saying she can't stop wanting Christmas music and stuff.  She said we were rubbing off on her, lol.    My point is...I LOVE Christmas and now my children do as well.  For what ever reason, it makes my heart really happy.

So in an effort to extend the season without imposing on those around us, me, Mom, Chelsey and Whitley have decide to celebrate Pre Christmas. That means music, movies and crafting...all legal! Every Wednesday we are going to get together and do crafts and Christmas-y stuff. This week we put together some gift type things.  Mom made a pumpkin roll, I made pumpkin cookies and Chelsey  brought stuff for pumpkin bread.  I guess we were all on the same page!  I love sharing the holidays with people who love them like I do!!

Date with Katy

Katy is quite the Mama's girl and requires a certain amount of time and snuggles.  These past weeks we have been really busy with the play.  Though we are both there all the time, we don't actually spend it "together".  I could see this starting to wear on her as she became increasingly whiny and cried over the simplest of things.  She had a melt down over a tough math problem one day.  Every morning was a battle.  Just not herself.  So all the kids had practice one night except me and her.  So we went on a date!!  

She has been having problems with her ears so we stopped at Claire's to get her a few pair of better quality earrings.  Then we played on the playplace before heading to Dairy Queen for a blizzard. After, we went to Kohl's to get her some black shoes she needed for the performance.  We spent the whole night talking and holding hands and doing math problems (her request).  It was a good night together!  

Halloween 2014

Halloween came quickly this year.  We were ready with our costumes thanks to Grandma's genious sewing abilities.  We had a hard time finding a time when everyone could make it to carve pumpkins, but we finally settled on a Sunday evening.  Homemade pizza and pumpkin cookies.  We also spent an evening at Vertuccio Farms with 50 of our closest friends.  If you had a group of 30+, it was only $5 to get in.  The group just grew and grew!  The kids had a great time.  Bo and I entered the chili cook off for our ward Trunk or Treat.  He was so excited.  I don't think he realized my chili comes from a CAN.  But we gave it a shot and ended up with no trophy, but it was fun doing it together.  He never heard them announce the winner, so he assumed we probably won since ours was all gone.  Works for me!!  I had to volunteer in the temple that day, so it was a little crazy getting everyone ready to go in time, but we made it!  Glade even joined in this year and went as a pirate with me and Katy.  He has a soft spot for that girl.  Grandma came and eventually so did Chelsey, Spencer and Brynlee.  

Rhett had to work that night so after we collected all our goodies, we went to Taco Bell to say hi to him.  It was fun to just chill together as a family.  I was glad it was over though, I like it less and less each year.  Probably because my kids are just older now.  But it was a good month and we all had a fun holiday!