Christmas Countdown

I can't believe tomorrow is December! Thank goodness I finished this countdown just in time! I can't wait to give it to my girls tomorrow along with the traditional chocolate through the paper window countdowns. (Sorry these pictures are really bad. We need a new camera cord for our computer so I had to take these with my phone. My awesome kitchen lighting doesn't help either.)

Anyway, I saw this cute idea in a scrapbook catalogue a few months ago and was so excited to make one! The wording around the star says "Days 'Til Christmas * Countdown to Christmas"It's this awesome little box that opens up to hold 24 perfect little chipboard cards. It makes for the perfect Christmas countdown. I love it!

Here's how some of the cards turned out. We'll see if we actually do everything on each card but at least it gives us options.Wow. I can't believe how bad these pictures are. Maybe I'll try taking them again when we get the new camera cord. Anyway, if you're interested here's the list of things I used. I also have the countdown stamp set too if you feel the need to take this project on (not sure I can say I recommend it). It did have a bunch more really cute stamps that I may get brave enough to add later. For now though, this is as good as it gets!

1. Make paper chains to count down the days until Christmas
2. Have a holiday movie night with popcorn
3. Walk or drive around to look at Christmas lights
4. Make edible ornaments for birds
5. Make Christmas trees out of construction paper
6. Read about holiday traditions around the world
7. Bake Christmas cookies
8. Make scented ornaments
9. Sing Christmas Songs
10. Participate in a charity drive
11. Make a Christmas craft
12. Make popcorn balls/Rice Krispie treats with little piece of candy canes in them
13. Sit outside and drink hot chocolate
14. Go shopping to pick out gifts for others in the family
15. Play pin the nose on Rudolph
16. Make a Christmas treat
17. Donate used toys you longer play with
18. Make gingerbread houses
19. Visit Santa at the mall
20. Sing and dance to Christmas music
21. Read some holiday books
22. Make homemade gifts for the family
23.Make and decorate paper stockings
24. Open a present on Christmas Eve

My mom is the best!

I have the best mom in the whole world! Here's the amazing Christmas pillows she made for my siblings and I this year (keep in mind that there are 8 of us!) So much work! She never ceases to amaze me!Here's another amazing thing she did. A few years ago she let me copy this cute and awesome nativity cross stich. I got the manger scene done but for some reason got totally caught up in the blue border. I just could not finish it! I begged and pleaded and she very willingly agreed to help me finish it. My dad said it took many late nights and early mornings. I seriously love this lady! Thanks again mom! I know I never would have finished this without you!She also gave Sophia this really fun advent kit. Sophia painted and decorated the whole thing with stickers. She loves it and so do I!

Finally here's a little of our Christmas decor this year. Doug thought it would be fun to display all my 12 Days of Christmas books on the piano. I think it turned out pretty good.

I bought all of these ornaments on clearance at Target after Christmas last year. I think they turned out pretty fun.This year we decided to put our fake tree downstairs for the kids to enjoy and to get a real tree for upstairs. I think they did a pretty good job decorating it!

Finally my cute friend Erin gave us this fun countdown last year. The kids can't wait for December to start so they can start pulling out the ornaments!

Our Turkey Celebrations

We had such a great week and had fun with all of our Thanksgiving celebrations! Here's a little of our decor. And a cute pilgrim

Here's the girls curled up to a movie. It was so cute to see Mabel feeling big enough to be one of the girls. She's so cute!

On Wednesday Doug and Sophia had the day off so we decided to head back up to Salt Lake. We had such a great time walking around Temple Square and going to the Family History Museum. Here's Doug and the girls at the reflecting pond.

Mabel is contemplating whether or not to take a swim.

And these two cuties loved any excuse to pose. Lilly has been very into dressing herself these days. I love this outfit she chose for this occasion. The valentine socks and pink sparkly shoes are my favorite!We were glad to see that they already had the nativity set up too. It was nice to not have to wait in a huge crowd in the freezing cold to see it either!

The girls had such a fun time at the museum. We didn't like that it was so crowded but they still had fun. Here's they are by their beautiful quilt creation.

And here's Lilly doing some fishing on Nephi's boat.

After a fun day at the museum we headed to Doug's parents for a delicious Thanksgiving meal with his family. His mom made this awesome fruit turkey. I totally love it! Those red pepper feet are the best.

This cute little Indian made this fun hat at preschool. She said she could pick which hat she wanted and she chose to be an Indian instead of a program (Pilgrim).

Here's a cute Program getting ready for the Thanksgiving play at Grandma's.

Here's all the cute cousins after the play. They did such a good job!

On the actual Turkey Day we headed to my brother Dylan's for an amazing feast! I am definitely thankful for these two!

We also decided to give our Pajama Clause gifts a little early this year. I think this little cutie looks pretty cute in her new jammies!

And so does this sweetie. I didn't get a shot of Lilly but she got a pair of these same jammies. So soft and warm! We had such a fun time celebrating and sure are thankful for all we're blessed with!

Being Thankful

My mother-in-law passed this along to us last night when we had our Wilkins Thanksgiving Dinner. She said she got it from someone at the MTC. I thought it was too good to not pass along and definitely reflects some of my own thoughts by putting things into perspective:

Things I am thankful for...
The mess to clean after a party because it means I am surrounded by friends.
The taxes I pay because it means that I am employed.
The clothes that fit a little too snug because it means I have enough to eat.
My shadow who watches me work because it means I am out int he sunshine.
A lawn that needs mowing, windows that need cleaning, gutters that need fixing because it means that I have a home.
The spot I find at the far end of the parking lot because it means I am capable of walking.
All the complaining I hear about our government because it means we have freedom of speech.
My huge heating bill because it means I am warm.
The alarm that goes off in the morning because it means that I'm alive.
The lady behind me in church who sings off key because it means that I can hear.
The piles of laundry and dishes because it means that my loved ones are nearby.
The weariness at the end of the day because it means I have been productive.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Slidin' Down the Stairs

Last night we let the girls take turns sliding down the stairs in their sleeping bags. Aside from being a little dangerous (don't worry, there was ALOT of padding at the bottom) it was really fun! I totally have memories of doing this in silk pillowcases down my parents stairs when I was little and I loved it! Here they are getting ready to go down. At the bottom.I love Sophia's victory arms in this picture.Just in case the pictures aren't enough, here's some video of us in action.

Happy Earlyversary

Even though our Anniversary isn't until next weekend we decided to celebrate a week early to avoid all the craziness associated with Thanksgiving. We picked up Sophia from school, dropped Mabel off in American Fork (thanks again to Mom and Dad Wilkins) and then headed to Salt Lake. Sophia and Lilly made us this beautiful heart to help share the anniversary love.We dropped the girls off at my brothers (thanks again Jeff and Lexie! You guys are the best!) and then headed to this place.We've never stayed here before but it was really fun. We hope to be back again someday and may even bring our kids with us. We totally loved how big the rooms were. It seemed so spacious and was very comfortable. The breakfast buffet was completely worth it as well!

I love this guy!

After checking in we went out for some good eats in Salt Lake. My brother told us about this place. Apparently it's been on this show. They're famous for their cheese steaks and they did not disappoint. So yummy! They also had this jalapeno sauce (it was kind of like a thin Jalapeno mayo or something) that was so good. Definitely a place we'll visit again.

Afterward we went and walked around the planetarium a little. It was pretty fun. We took a quick trip to Marsand the moon. No biggie. All in a days work.

After that we went for dessert at Gourmandise. I love this place! Oh so yum and so hard to choose what to get!We settled for a chocolate raspberry porcupine (love these!), a choux a la creme and a cannoli. They were all equally delicious.

This morning we went and walked around temple square a little and ended up at the Church History Museum. I'm so glad we went there. It was awesome! They had this really neat creche display too which was fun to see. This one was from Sweden. I totally loved all the detail and hand painting.

Sorry this is a really bad picture but this one was from Nigeria. I love how there was a lion (you can kind of see it on the right).And this one was from Mexico. It was awesome as well. They're really hard to see but it had Turkeys in it. We thought that was pretty cool.

The museum also had this really cool interactive Book of Mormon exhibit for kids. We will definitely be taking our kids back sometime soon.

Overall it was a wonderful (and very relaxing!) weekend. Thanks again to all you amazing people who watched our kids and happy 8 years Douglas!

Thankful Turkeys

Last night for FHE we talked about being grateful and early Thanksgivings in America. A few years ago my awesome friend Nancy gave me a book with different traditions and ideas for each holiday. I LOVE it and I seriously pull it out for every holiday. Thanks again Nancy! One of the ideas that it had was to get different colored feathers and go around and have everyone say something they are grateful for that is that color. We didn't have colored feathers but colored paper sufficed. We also read Abraham Lincoln's Thanksgiving Proclamation. I didn't even know this document existed! It was pretty cool to read. It was also interesting (and a little depressing) to think that the President would never be able to deliver a speech like this in this day and age. Way too many religious references and that's kind of sad. Anyway, we also made our Thankful Turkeys. Mabel's looked more like a Thankful Dove but that's ok. It was fun to see all the things we're thankful for:

Mabel: Milkies, sisters, my bed, Critter (her little turtle that plays music that she sleeps with)
Lilly: Friends, family, sisters, house, treats
Sophia: Apples, mom and dad, sistirs, firends, orangiis (her spelling, not mine)
Me: The Gospel, my amazing Douglas, my sweet girls, my warm home, my health and body
Doug:Plan of Happiness, Joanna, 3 crazy girls, health, music.

I thought it was kind of fun to see how many of us shared the same the top 5 things we're grateful for. Looks like it takes pretty much the same things to make all of us happy.
Here's a random shot of some cuteness during FHE. This baby cracks me up!

And here's the 3 beauties enjoying their breakfast before church on Sunday. They all wanted to eat on the same chair (Mabel insisted on having a straw even though she had no milk in her bowl). After I got them all settled Sophia said, "Mom. You have got to take a picture of this. I think this is the first time we've all eaten breakfast on the same chair". She was right. Definitely a moment to document and I'm glad I did!

Mall Fun

Yesterday Sophia was out of school so we took a trip to play at the Mall. We had to go exchange movie tickets that I had accidentally bought for the wrong day. Side story: My dad offered to take the girls to Puss and Boots on Friday since there was no school. I gladly accepted the offer but wanted to buy the tickets before hand so that he wouldn't have to. I bought the tickets on Thursday and am almost positive that I selected Friday before looking at the movie times. When I was checking my e-mail on Friday however, I noticed there was one asking how I liked the movie. I double checked the tickets and had bought them for the day before. Seriously though, no good deed goes unpunished! Luckily they were nice enough to let me switch them and it all worked out.

We took advantage of our trip up there with some pretzel bites and an Orange Julius (it has seriously been years since I've had one of these and they were not as good as I remembered). We also took a minute to play in the play area and the girls had a blast!I know this is kind of a weird picture but I was trying to cut out the lady behind Sophia. Sophia's also making that face on purpose. She was trying to be crazy.

I love my 3 silly girls!

Party Time

Lilly set up this party for Mabel this afternoon while she was napping. It was a pretty fun one!Here's the party planner with her magic wand. All the guests taht were invited to come.This part is my favorite. This is a "hut" that she built. She knows that it involves blankets, chairs and books to hold the blankets. She hasn't quite figured out how they all work together though. My favorite part is that she kept referring to it as a "hood". Quick update on this cutie. We changed our lives around a little and she is now doing dance. This picture was taken post nap after dance yesterday so sorry it's so beautiful. Yesterday was her first day and she did great! I seriously was amazed at how well she followed the teacher and how well she did in general. We were debating about whether or not to do dance and I kept going through all the options with her. She finally said, "but I just need to learn those dance moves!" You know those ones that are so vital that you just need to learn? I'm glad that she's learning them and I think she'll do great!Here's a quick picture of the banner I made with the leftovers I had from doing the Boo one. I thought it turned out ok. Not really my favorite but it will do.Finally, here's the video from the recital this weekend: