Tuesday, the 18th, ended up being much busier then expected. Because of the snow storm, there were cancellations at the dentists office. So, I changed my appointment to 10 am and took Jameson with to get his teeth checked. While there, I got a call from my OBGYN asking if I could come in for an earlier appointment. They were closing early due to the storm coming in. So, I called my friend, who was watching Ella, and asked if Ella could stay a few hours longer. Then, I made sure we would be done with the dentist by 11:30. Check. Then, I called my friend who was planning to go with me and asked if that time would work for her. Everything checked out, so I called back the doctor’s office and said yes, we would be there. All this was taking place while Jameson was in the chair.

He loved the glasses they gave him to protect his eyes.

He was also willing to open his mouth as long as there was no threat of x-rays.

He did great until it was time for fluoride. He was not having that. Then it was my turn. As I was getting my teeth cleaned and receiving a lecture for not flossing, Jameson started pulling snacks out of my bag to eat. What does he pull out first? Peanut M&M’s. Great kid. Thanks. Then he pulls out fruit snacks, and then cookies. Geez kid. Can’t you pull the cheese out or the clemintine? Nope. He found a few other non-nutritious items in the bottom of my bag. Who knows how long they’ve been in there or where they even came from. The dentist and hygienist laughed at me, telling me I was down like 5 points. I tried to get points for the cheese, but that didn’t quite make up for it. Oh well.

So we hurried out of the dentist office, picked up a friend and made it to the doctor’s in time right as the snow started. While there, I was totally shocked to find out…

Another girl will be joining our family. I have figured it would be a boy, pretty much since I had Ella. I always thought our next kid would be a boy. Nope. Sooo wrong. Jameson was not happy. He wanted a baby brother. Sorry kid. So this summer, life will change. We will become out numbered. Never a dull moment at our house. Especially since this baby has been such a surprise. Surprise… I’m pregnant. Surprise… it’s a girl.

It took us over an hour to get home (normally a 15 minute drive), I picked up Ella, and we continued to watch the snow fall the rest of the day.

Kevin had to go out of town for the week, so we got to attend church without him. Well, by the third hour, snow had started falling and within 10 minutes the cars were covered. So, the bishop called it, and we got to leave early. Those of us that have lived places with snow kind of laugh, but once you drive in it, you understand.

The snow is a lot like in Reno/Tahoe. It’s wet and heavy, usually with a layer of ice underneath. So imagine the mess that happens in Reno, but then add major hills to your drive. That’s what makes it ridiculous here. Plus, most snow plows are larger trucks with a plow on the front. We have yet to see a real plow around town, if you do happen to see one.

Anyway, we got home from church and the kids had to test out the new snow. (we made it home fine. I just flipped on the 4 wheel drive.) Thank goodness for that 4wheel feature.

Once Ella fell asleep for a nap, Jameson was ready to play.

Jameson insisted on building snow men. I was too lazy to find my gloves, which resulted in burning red hands. And also, small snowmen. We had to build one for Ella and one for him. Then he found small branches to give them hair.

 
We even went out back to shake off the bamboo trees. They bend completely over every time it snows or rains really hard. So we shake them off and they bounce back up. These pictures are only a few hours after the snow started.

The last picture is Jameson making himself in the snow. He loves it.

Ella loves to draw. She found the church bag, an helped herself to the marker board and makers. She also got her hat on and Jameson’s backpack. Not sure where she was going, but she was ready.

While eating lunch today at the table…

J- “Mom, I think I should live in a tree house.”

M- “Do we have a tree house?”

J- “Umm. No.”

M- “Well then how are you going to live in one?”

J-“Hmmm. I know! Build one!”

Great kid. That’s genius of you. Except there is snow on the ground right now.

A good friend is due next week, so it was time to give her a baby shower. I didn’t have too much else going on while planning, so I was actually able to put lots of time towards this shower. Not that I don’t always put lots of effort into each shower, but I had lots of fun with this one. I went with the ever so popular “She’s about to pop!” theme, and the color scheme of blue, green, and orange. I happened to find ribbon in the dollar bin at Michael’s that would work perfect, and got going. These invitations were sent out…

So, I’m too lazy at this moment to scan the actual invitation, but the pregnant girl was put on with foam stickers so she popped out from the page. The little verse at the top of the page said

“Lauren is about to POP!

And it’s time to put her on the spot.

This little boy is almost ready to arrive.

Let’s hope a few more weeks, she can survive!”

I went to the local thrift store and bought a bunch of vases of all sizes. Then, I picked out a few and painted them taken from this idea. Basically, add water to your paint to thin it out, and then coat the inside of your vase. Easy and effective, right? Then I shoved that green stuff you use for flower in each vase to hold everything in place. The water bottles were redone using this method.  My wonderful friend, Brittany, took pictures for the evening. You should check out her website.  So, if they are really good pictures, they are her’s. Mine are the small, slightly out of focus ones, but you get the point.

**I get my ideas from pictures on other people’s blogs, so I’m including all that I have for you. If you have a question, though, let me know.**

I made banana orange slush mixed with Cherry 7-up. If you want a recipe, just ask.

On the menu:

Vegetable Pops

Fruit Pops

Chocolate covered marshmallow pops

Pizza Pops

Pie pops (modified pot pies)

Rice Krispie Pops (Scotcheroos)

Popcorn Chicken Caesar Salad

Pop Rocks

Ring Pops

For decorations, I hung balloons above the food for a false ceiling look. Then I bought plates in my color scheme, and made my own design on the walls.

See, her pictures are way better. Anyway…

I also made some onesies for her and hung them on the clothesline. These were made creating a template on freezer paper, then ironing it to you’re onesie. Then, just paint to you little hearts desire. The next day, have your 4 year old help you pull paper off of the outfits laying all over the floor before your 2 year old runs all over them.

The last bit of decorations were made using some yarn, glue, cornstarch, and water. I made these yarn balls to hang over the party treats. I also created the baby’s name, Benjamin. That one is kind of hard to read, though.

For a game, I filled a bottle with things related to a baby. I used it as an “I Spy” game. I had a list of everything in the bottle, and then it got passed around as everyone was eating and chatting. A nice way to incorporate a game without putting anyone on the spot. And, a time filler.

Surprisingly, I only ended up with one person who got every object in the bottle.

The next game did put people in a funny spot. I had them blow up balloons to compare their bellies with Lauren’s actual belly. The problem is, she is not that big. So it was really funny watch people let air out of their balloons after the first person went.

Brittany took some great shots of Lauren, but we didn’t get any of her. Oops.

(I’m holding Brittany’s baby. We actually had 3 small babies there.)

After presents, there was popcorn for the way out. Actually, it was being eaten the whole night, but that’s ok. There was a choice of kettle corn, rootbeer, or carmel. I bought the rootbeer and made the other two. I still don’t know how I feel about that rootbeer flavored popcorn.

I cut the popcorn holders with my Silhouette. Makes things go by so much faster. Also, my friend made all the labels for a baby shower she threw and so kindly emailed me the file. That cut out a bunch of work, because I am not so good on the computer. Plus, I don’t have the programs to create such cuteness. So, I am so thankful to her for emailing these. We had a great time, and had lots of fun.

For our Young Women activity this week, we did scripture cakes. This was a combined activity with only the girls, but could be done as a joint activity with the boys. In fact, I got the idea from my mom, and they did it as a joint, and said it was great. So, for this activity, each leader brought a cake. We ended up with 4 cakes, doesn’t matter the flavor. We told the girls to divide up into groups and then pick a cake.

Next, they had to decide which scripture story their cake was going to depict. It could be anything in the scriptures, but we did ask them to stay away from the murder/war stories. For things to use to decorate they had:

Teddy Grahams, Skittles, chocolate chips, pull and peel licorice, pretzels, marshmallows, triscuts, cheese whiz, mini nilla whafers, oreos, and maybe some others.

The groups picked their cakes, were given a can of white frosting, and given an hour.They also had food coloring to choose from.

The cakes were made into 2-d and 3-d stories. Only 1 group actually cut their cake up to build it into something. The results were

:Samuel the Lamanite on the wall. They used the triscuts to represent the stone squares of the wall. The pretzels were the arrows being thrown. Very creative.

Noah on the Ark.

The fish were jumping out of the waves. She even made giraffes and elephants to be in the boat (made of pretzels.) The elephants were my favorite!

The First Vision

Joseph was surrounded by a mist of licorice, and Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ were surrounded by a light (of marshmallows) brighter than the sun.

Lehi’s Dream

They built the great and spacious building, the rod following the river, and the tree of Life. They even dyed their marshmallows green for leaves.

Turned out to be a great activity. As each group presented their cake, they read the scriptures describing their story.

Jameson wanted his picture taken. I made some cones to hold popcorn for the up coming shower, and he thought it was so cool on his hand. This became his… don’t worry. It wasn’t put out for the shower.

Ella has found my stash of heels in the closet. She then proceeded to wear them while working in her kitchen. Glad she likes to look good while she’s cooking.

Jameson may have inherited a little quality of mine called O.C.D. It’s not bad, but i do have some issues sometimes. Apparently, so does Jameson. I have these blocks that are supposed to read “Live, Laugh, Love.” We’ve all heard the saying right? Well, if they are in that order, their heights vary. I’ve gotten yelled at quite a few times lately since putting them back up after the Christmas decorations came down. They lasted in the correct order (my order) for less than 24 hours. I heard Jameson yell, “Mom, that’s not the right order! They go bigger, big, small.” And that’s the order he puts them in every time.

I snapped this picture on my phone as he was yelling at me. The next day, Kevin had rearranged them to the correct order according to us. Yah, you guessed it. I was in the other room and got yelled at again. It wasn’t even my fault this time. So, if you ever come over and wonder why I like my blocks to say ,”Laugh, Love, Live,” it’s because my 4-year-old needs them from biggest to big and then to small.

A few people got homemade gifts this year. It started when I had to teach how to make foil pictures at our Super Saturday. Then I started thinking, I taught everyone else how to make these pictures for Christmas presents, why don’t I make a few myself. So I got busy. Crafting started with these advent calenders. I made one for a friend, and one for myself. I was going to put the pieces from my nativity for the kids in each drawer. But, that didn’t last long. Jameson was going through the drawers and creating his own nativity. While I was making the drawers, Jameson thought his cars fit nicely in them.

Those stinkin’ boxes took forever to make. A lot longer than expected. Maybe it’s because I was doing two sets at once. It was worth it, though. They’re pretty dang cute.

Next up on the list was foil temple pictures. I missed taking a picture of the one I gave my grandparents. I put the date they were sealed in the temple on each one. The Las Vegas temple was done for my dad. I accidentally started it backwards. The temple looks the same from both ends, though, right?

The Mount Timpanogos Temple was done for my in-laws, and the St. George temple was done for my Grandma. You can’t really see the foil effects in these pictures. I think my camera has been dropped too many times, and we have the worst lighting ever. Doesn’t help with Christmas lights all around, which reflect in the glass.

For each grandparent, I made ornaments with the kids silhouettes in them. I wrote their names around the top along with the year. I decided to make some for myself , and hopefully will continue each year. Eventually, I will have a full tree of silhouette’s rather than fancy ornaments. Or maybe both. We’ll see.

I was pretty proud of these. Took me a while to figure out how to get these cut just right.

This canvas was sent to a friend getting ready to move. Moving away from family is never easy, and the first year is the worst. I speak from experience here. It does get easier, but it’s never easy.

Finally, I was looking for something to give a friend. Her hobby right now is photography. She has started taking more and more portraits, and so I was looking for presents for photographers. I saw these thought bubbles on etsy, and thought they looked pretty easy, but super fun for pictures. I’ll give Kevin most the credit here. He cut them out for me, and sanded the edges. I don’t think he minded, though, since he had a few days off from work for the holidays and was pretty bored. He worked on his projects, and then helped me with mine. Then, I just put a coat of chalk board paint on them, and waited for them to dry.

So those were the homemade gifts this year. Hope everyone who received them, liked them. If not, sorry. Maybe next year will be better.