Twelve Days of Christmas 2012

So I have been waiting for a long time to share our twelve days. It was a lot of fun this year coming up with ideas to make and give to the children. Please forgive the pictures I am a terrible photographer and it was hard to get good angles on some of the things we did.

This is the letter that we wrote to start the whole season off. It was so fun delivering the tubs together and talking about what each of our favorite gift was to make or give this year.

Day One:
To start off we gave them an advent calendar with things to read each day and put together a picture of a nativity. I did not get a picture of that as David was really efficient in getting it wrapped early. He helped a lot more this year with the wrapping and has decided that that job can now officially be mine from now on:)



Day Two:
I made snicker doodles and peanut butter snicker cookies. These are some of Seth's favorite cookies and so I had him in mind when I made them. All the children called that day and loved them! They said they were some of the best cookies ever. I do have to say my children grew up on chocolate chip cookies - I never ventured out very much in the cookie making - so I think they were surprised that I actually made something other than chocolate chip!



Day Three:
I had Chelsea in mind when I made these perpetual birthday calendars. She is always calling me and asking dates for birthdays. It turns out that all the kids loved this one as well. Since I have already made this for myself last year David and I bought the whole series of Harry Potter movies. We only had a couple - so when the children opened these at our house they were so happy. We spent last Thursday having a Harry Potter movie marathon. We started at 8:00 in the morning and finished to halfway through no. 7 at 12:45 that night. We finished no.7 and no.8 the following morning. I know it might sound like a waist of a whole day - but it was truly one of the funnest times we've had in a long time. No on got dressed - pj day - we ate popcorn, made cupcakes and ate our food all without missing any parts of the movies. The only thing that would have made it perfect was if David could have had the whole day off to be with us. As it was he didn't get home that night until 10:00 - its hard this time of year being a UPS man!



Day Four:
Socks!!!!!! That is a lot of pairs of socks when you are counting 17 pairs of feet!


Day Five:
Popcorn and a game boxes. I filled a pencil box with a deck of cards, dice, scorecards, pencils and directions to about ten card and dice games. At our house at least, we can never find the dice or a full deck of cards. The plan is to have it stay in this box and it also is easy to travel with when we go on family trips. The popcorn is just plain fun to have for any kind of fun - games, movies, etc.


Day Six:
These ornaments turned out so cute. I saw them on pinterest and had Toshia make me up the names and initials (of course I could not tell her why I wanted them and I am sure she was curious). I found the ribbon at Costco and the ornaments at Michael's. I used a whole punch for the circles from the scraps of vinyl.


Day Seven:
We usually do a puzzle over Christmas break. So we thought why not get everyone a puzzle and who doesn't love to do a puzzle?(Noah - he had me work on most of his and then when there were about 10 pieces left he stepped in and finished and took all the credit - gotta love the kid!)


Day Eight:
Aprons. Not just any kind of apron but Christmas aprons. The boys got "Santa" one and I made the cutest ruffle ones for all the girls. The picture does not do the girl one justice - it really is cute. For Jonathan I did his foot and hand prints and made a reindeer on the front of his and Reagan got the cutest little ruffly thing I could come up with. Along with the apron you have to have something to cook so I put together a cupcake kit. I know we had fun at our house making the cupcakes!

Day Seven:
Again, David wrapped this gift before I could get a picture. It was a childhood story from David and I made journals for the kids. David is always sharing his adventurous childhood with the kids and so he put together a story of the time his brother and him went to see the total eclipse of the sun. I guess this does not happen that often and it was great adventure for them. The kids got colored pens to doodle and write in their weekly journals.


Day Ten:
David worked for a few months on this one. He put together a history of how the Weitzel's came to America. He starts his story clear back to Catherine the Great of Russia. His ancestors came from Prussia. He did a lot of research and put together quite an amazing little book with pictures and maps and the Weitzel genealogy. He had a lot of fun putting this together and even the little kids thought it was so cool!



Day Eleven:
PJ's - Funny side story. I really messed up on this one. When you are buying for 17 you are bound to make a few errors. I mixed up a couple of the sizes and even ended up buying too many pairs---can I just say that black Friday was crazy this year and I am lucky to have gotten it as together as I did! I just gave away that I did not make the PJ's this year - honestly I got such a good deal at black Friday that it was worth it to me this time.

Day twelve:
Again, I do not have a picture but I could not really take a picture of this one. Every year we have a family reunion with our children. We started this about a year after Ashleigh moved out. I wanted to have a tradition of reunions in the summer. So we set aside a weekend every summer for our reunions. This year we wanted to do something extra special. So we gifted the children (all of us boyfriends included) a paid trip on Jerry's Jet Boats to cruise up the Rogue River for the day. We will also try to go to the Wild Animal Park in Winston. Everyone is so excited for this trip. David and I did it last summer for our anniversary and really all we could think about where we were on the river is how much fun this would be if the kids were with us. So I guess you could say that day twelve is the gift that we will have to wait for but in the end it will so be worth the wait!!!!


Today when we got together for Christmas Day we had waiting for the kids one last gift. Santa apparently made a visit to our house and left goodies for everyone. This truly was one of the best years for us. We have been so blessed with all we have and for the children that are in our lives. Everything went to smoothly and David made it through another year of deliveries. {by the way, he had 18 hours of overtime last week - Santa really needed his help in getting all those packages delivered}. We hope all of you had a very Merry Christmas and that 2012 is a year of great joy and love!!!!

Picking a tree in record time!

When we went to get our tree this year we were surprised at how wonderful the weather was. It was cold. But no snow or rain and that made for a very pleasant experience. Last year we had to wait until some football game was over before David would budge to get the tree. It was dark, rainy and very cold - our usual place was closed and so we drove around looking for a place to cut one down. We finally found it but the kids were cranky and not happy about the whole adventure. This year we got out the car at our favorite spot walked about 20 feet in front of the car and there was our tree. We did not want a big one this year and it had to be kind of skinny. I have never found a tree that fast before. The kids headed over to the hot chocolate wagon and David loaded the tree onto the car. I think it was the best experience we have had ever! The kids were perfect angels and we got home in record time. Of course, there was some silly football game on again and I think that is why the boys were so happy to be done so quickly. I on the other hand had lots of things still to do and checking "Christmas Tree" off my list made me very happy!

Catching up again

So I figured out how to post from my iPad. To begin, we had a wonderful Thanksgiving week . We had so much fun with my mom and Papa John.
It was a very busy week with Thanksgiving dinner, Autumn's birthday and baptism,
and Ashleigh's engagement party.
It was so fun to spend so much time together as a family. And it didn't hurt there was so much good food!


The last couple of weeks have been very busy with getting the twelve days of Christmas done for the kids, decorating, parties with friends and families, and baking. I still managed to teach seminary and piano lessons. But alas, I am not invincible - I got real sick for a couple of days last week. I did try to push through it though wand did manage to get one day of rest. Now a few of the kids are sick-I think we got it from Jonathan but who knows maybe he got sick from us.

This next week I have planned to spend every day having fun with the kids. Our calendar has a few items on it but for the most part we are having good old fashioned family time! I have a Harry Potter movie marathon planned - game and puzzle days - baking with the girls - and celebrating Noah's birthday! I can hardly wait-now if we can just get all healthy that would be a bonus!

I hope you all have a wonderful week of Christmas!

A couple of craft projects I can share

Yesterday I finished our family calendar. I saw this on pinterest but it was smaller and turned the other direction. I wanted my bigger - more kids - more activities to write down - so got my frames (8x10) from IKEA ($1.99) put vinyl on the cute paper and then hung on the wall. Super easy and cheap to make. Put down my hallway so as the kids leave the house they will always know where we are supposed to be.


Today I finished my "give thanks" banner. I was on got the idea for the banner from "little birdie secrets". I printed the letters off and sewed them to burlap and then sewed that to bias tape. I made my wreath Monday. It is my version of all the burlap wreaths I have been looking at. It has elements from several different ones. Burlap, flowers and raffia.I know the picture is not that good. Someday I will work on my picture taking skills.

Still working on Christmas projects and cleaned my house today because my mom is coming Monday and we are leaving for the coast tonight for the weekend. We might get a little snow - Next week is going to be one busy one with all the happenings going on. I am sure it will fly by though and when we are through I will be able to look back and smile at all the memories we have created.

What's keeping me busy....

I have been very busy working on our "twelve days of Christmas" project. I have spent way too much time looking at pinterest for ideas (by the way I love pinterest!) I have finally come up with my final twelve ideas and I am sticking to it! For the last week I have changed my mind several times and each time I discuss it with David he keeps telling me "Well, I know what I'm doing - and it's been done now for a month". I think he likes to rub in that he is obsessively organized. I like to think that I am organized in the very loose use of the word. My chaos is how I get things done around here - plus I am OK if plans have to change - I roll with it and sometimes to much organization can get in the way of living. Just my opinion and I am sure a whole other topic for a blog post. But really I am excited this year for what is cooking around here - I can hardly wait to share with all of my family but you will have to wait until the week after Christmas - I don't want to give away any surprises.

In preparation for all the upcoming events in the next couple of weeks I have also been getting my house ready for company, the holidays, birthdays, and Ashleigh's engagement party. I have been canning like crazy and this month made my month of cooking stuff with Toshia to make things easier for all the other things coming up. Yesterday I had the carpets cleaned. It has been a while and they really needed it. I am so pleased with the results. Mr. Jimmy worked late into the evening to finish - he also started later in the day which of course through off my schedule but again you just have to roll with it. I have lots to do but I am loving how busy I am right now. I know it is weird but when things are hopping around here I have less time to dwell on the hard things in life. I find joy in all the activity. Sounds weird I know but again I operate better when there are lots of deadlines and things in the works. Of course, I am always glad when the big events are over and I can rest a while - then I do things for just me - so I have fun things to look forward to and that's how I get through it all.

It is not easy being the mom of eleven children and wife to one very hard working husband but I find joy in the journey of it all!

Thankful for...

I am thankful for trials whenever, however they come, big or small. I love this quote from Elder Paul V. Johnson's April 2011 General Conference talk, "[Trials] are vitally important to the process of putting on the divine nature. If we handle these afflictions properly, they will be consecrated for our gain.


Elder Orson F. Whitney said: “No pain that we suffer, no trial that we experience is wasted. … All that we suffer and all that we endure, especially when we endure it patiently, builds up our characters, purifies our hearts, expands our souls, and makes us more tender and charitable. … It is through sorrow and suffering, toil and tribulation, that we gain the education that we come here to acquire."

I have been thinking a lot about the trials in my life - as I have been teaching seminary I have been revisiting the teachings of some great men and women in the Old Testament. I have felt again the hand of the Lord in my life as I take on the tasks and hard things of this life. I also see the joy and love from my Heavenly Father as He is there beside me through everything. I hope that how I choose to experience the trials in my life will do as Elder Whitney teaches - build me, purify my heart, expand my soul and make me more charitable and tender.

Hilary Weeks has a new music video called "Beautiful Heartbreak." I love it! There are two women featured throughout the video. Stephanie Nielsen, who survived a plane crash with her husband and was burned over 80% of her body. And Mariama Kallon, who lost all of her family and everything she owned in a civil war raging in West Africa. I have heard Mariama speak twice now. I love her story and her courage and her spirit. One thing that stood out to me was how she uses her scriptures as her personal therapist. I have done that many times in my life. But I am sure there are many more times when I have not turned to Him first - a lesson that she taught me and I have been trying to do over the last two years.




My trials have become "beautiful heartbreaks" in my life. I am who I am because of the hard things I have had to face. Facing the hard things with God on my side has made me stronger and for that I am very grateful!

Some lovin from my little ones

The other day I decided to stop by Toshia's house after I dropped off the high school kids. It was kind of early but I knew she'd be up because she had to get Adrian out the door to school. It had been a couple of days since I had seen the little ones and I was missing them. When I knocked and then went in I was greeted by two of the happiest little faces you could imagine. They loved on me and were fighting over who got to be held. I just loved it! I was having a not so good morning and I knew if I could just get a hug from these little ones my day would go a lot smoother. I ended up having a fabulous day and I know it is because I got some sugar from these little smiling faces!!!!

This weeks little craft project

These are not the best pictures but I think you can tell what I did. I have lots of music - I am talking more music than ever gets played. But being a piano teacher I have to have access to it for my students. I have half of it stored in a dresser and that keeps it out of sight. This music was always just piled on the shelf and kind of cluttered looking. I have been trying to clean up the little piles of clutter around the house. I saw magazine holders like these done on a blog. The difference is the way I put the tags on. They used metal tag holder thingys that you can get at a scrapbook store. I didn't have enough and wanted this project to be cheap. So I thought about it for a while and came up with putting music paper on a clothes pin and then a burlap and lace flower on that. I used my typewriter to type up the tags and there you go. It looks so nice on the shelf and cost about $6.00 for ten of them.


Basically I got magazine holders from IKEA (5 for $1.99) and covered them in burlap. I used spray glue. I have not used this product before but Toshia uses it all the time and it worked pretty good - just a little messy on my hands. Next time I would wear gloves. Then made the clothes pin clips and hot glued them on the spine. Super easy!

Now I am working on the cutest apron for Halloween. We dress up for bunco night and I don't usually dress up but this witches apron was to cute to pass up. Maybe I'll get a picture.....

A Mormon for Christ

Yesterday there seemed to be a lot of chatter out on the news and radio about the fact that Mormons were part of a cult and therefore not Christian. This is not new to me. I have heard it over and over again. While listening to the radio yesterday for about 5 minutes Noah heard what was being said and he said to me, "Mom, you know the doctrine, you should call and and set them straight!". His comment has stuck with me all evening and into today. Knowing how long you have to wait to get through on the radio (I've had called in before about other issues) I really did not have the time right then to do that. But I bore my testimony to him about my love for the Savior and that He is the center of everything for me. The comment that was made was that Mormons do not believe that salvation comes through Jesus Christ. That is a very funny statement because "we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins". {2Nephi 25:26} It is these truths that I teach my children. The pages of the Book of Mormon are full of the teachings and love of Christ. It is "another witness". The bible tells that "by two or three witnesses they shall know me". I know that there are many aspects of the church that people outside of the church do not fully understand. But if you want to know the truth - go to the source. Do not believe something you hear from someone outside of the faith. We believe that the church is now restored as it was when Christ was on the earth. That all the saving ordinances have been restored through the priesthood. That Joseph Smith was the one chosen to restore these things. He paid for it with his life. The Lord has living prophets on the earth today to guide us and be on the "watchtower". I did not come to this knowledge by just relying on what I have been taught or what people have told me. I did the work. I read, studied, prayed and received an answer that "I know that my Redeemer Lives" and loves me. I am a daughter of my Heavenly Father and I have promised to "stand as a witness at all times, and in all places, and in all things". I belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I do not belong to the church of Joseph Smith. He was a modern-day mouth piece for the Lord. I appreciate all that he did but I know that it is only through my Savior Jesus Christ that I can find salvation. I know these things to be true. I hopefully live them so that when you see me you will see the light of Christ in me. I do slip up. I do need to "remember always" and because of my Savior I can repent and keep myself turned towards my covenants.

I don't know if I would have been allowed to say all of that on the radio - but I can say it here - this is who we are - "Mormons" are people of Christ!

October birthdays

"This month is such a special one it's birthday time again". Nearly half my children are born this month and one of my grandchildren. It always blows me away when I tell the ages of my children at this time of year because almost everyone is "one year older"! Chelsea will be 27 tomorrow - Chloe will be 20 on Thursday - Seth is turning 24 next week and Chad will be 18 the day after Seth - Jonathan will be turning 3 just before Halloween - but the one that is really getting to me is Ashleigh - she is going to turn 30 this year! It did not bother me really until I realized how old that really made me! I have always felt pretty young around all these kids - but reality is that you can not be that young and have a 30 year old.

The good news to go along with her birthday is that she got engaged last weekend! We are very happy for her - she has not set a date yet but I hope it is sooner than later. We are all so excited. We kind of new that Nick was going to ask her - he had the "talk" with David last Friday. So we were all trying hard to keep that secret. So good thing he couldn't wait any longer and asked her the next day instead of waiting for her birthday. She seems so happy and he is a very nice young man. Autumn had something to say about all this - "Finally, my oldest sister is getting married!" She really emphasized the word finally.

A big happy birthday to all my children and grandson - I hope you have an awesome day on "your" day and all your "wishes" come true!

Ten Things I Am Loving Right Now

I love, love, love my new little bird. In fact, I bought one for my sister for her birthday so now we have matching birds - I think of her every time I look at my little friend!

This scripture is part of my theme for the year in Seminary. "Choose ye this day whom you will serve" - I choose to serve the Lord!

It is beginning to look a little like Fall around here (or as Autumn likes us to say "Autumn") I just love dressing my table!

I have been doing some rearranging of pictures and put together this little grouping just recently. I not only love the pictures but the mason jar I painted to hold my beautiful flowers!

Loving that the kids are all having a great time at school so far! I miss them while they are gone but I am having a lot of fun "playing" while they are away learning all that their little minds can hold!

This little bird flew in one day and landed on my light and I have loved it ever since. Noah has a hard time because it is really a wind chime and I have three different wind chime things hanging around the inside of my house and according to him there is no "wind" in our house - I love him all the more for reminding me of the obvious!

This little gal made an appearance around my birthday this last August. There is a story that goes with her that someday I will write about. But I have to say that Melissa and I now have back in our possessions a part of our past that holds very dear memories to both of us! I love you Missy for knowing the perfect gift to give your "old" sister!

I am so in LOVE with this little butter dish. I have used it for little luncheons I have had with dear friends!

This little antique rocking horse came to me from my mother. I have had a hard time keeping my little grandchildren out of it. It is kind of fragile and I want it out so I turned it into a little bookshelf with some of my favorite books that I have loved reading!

This little find just made my day last week when I found it. I was at the right place at the right time and got it for the right amount of money. In fact, I just could not pass it up. I have another typewriter that I spent a little {lot} more money on (I justify it because that one has a case) and now I consider myself a collector of vintage typewriters!

What are you loving right now?

Forget Me Not

I was really touched last evening by Pres. Uchtdorf's talk at our General Women's Broadcast. I saw something similar to this on another blog and just had to make my own. I am going to print it up and hang it where I can see it everyday. I am sure that there will be lots of things come from his talk.

I am truly grateful for the words from our apostles and leaders. They lift and inspire and motivate me to want to "rise" a little higher. This year in seminary we are going to talk about having the "Courage To Rise" {CTR} and after last nights meeting I know I can do it!

I was especially touched by comments made by Sister Thompson. The question that she posed to us - When people sift through our possessions after we die - will we be seen as a covenant person? She taught us to "cleave" unto our covenants that we have made with our Heavenly Father and that there is joy and protection that come to us when we keep our covenants. I like that she said "our covenants sustain us in good times and bad times. Joy is tied very closely to our covenant keeping - even when we face tremendous challenges our covenants can fill us with joy. I know that to be true! I have felt the joy that comes when I "cleave" to my covenants.

I can hardly wait until next weekend when we get to be taught more from our prophet and apostles and the other leaders!

Seminary

This will be the first I am sure of many blog posts about Seminary. I am now teaching the Juniors and Seniors in our area. I have done this calling in the past and taught for nearly nine years. I have missed teaching the youth but I have had some amazing callings in between time. I have grown a lot and I know that everywhere I have served the Lord has blessed me. All that said I want to tell about an experience we had this morning.

Getting youth to do devotionals is about impossible. I have tried many things to help motivate them and inspire them to do more than just stand up and read a scripture mastery. I have to say I have an amazing group of youth to teach at this time. They are so ready to learn and model all that they see. We talked about what I wanted from devotionals this year and then did the devotionals last week to show them. My gal this morning did one of the best devotionals I have ever witness in all my years working with the youth! I truly felt that we had been taught and I could not add any more to what she taught us. The spirit was amazing and I had tears in my eyes as I listen to a very heartfelt experience that she shared with us. First off, she had been in her scriptures the night before. Second, she had prayed for the right thought to come to her to share with us. Nothing was coming to her she explained but she did have a thought that she needed to invite a friend of hers to church. So while she was reading she decided to text him and invite him to church. She said it was weird but that she felt that she needed to explain to him that she had a prompting to share this with him and wanted to know if he would come to church with her on Sunday. After she was done with that she opened her scriptures and the verse that stood out to her had to to with sharing the gospel and when the spirit prompts you act on it! She told us it was not one that was already marked and she knows that she was led to it and was supposed to share with us her experience. Then she went one step further and reminded us that it was fast and testimony meeting this Sunday and could we as a group - especially the ones in our ward - fast for the spirit to be there so the young man she invited would feel it and then as if that was not enough she added I should say pleaded with the youth to please bear their testimonies! WOW! Can I just say I had a hard time starting my lesson - This sweet young lady like the other youth in my class have had experiences with the spirit and are recognizing it! Not only recognizing it but acting on it! I was really the one taught today and have thought about this all morning long.

The feeling we started with stayed with us through our lesson and when we were at the end of time and they still had questions - and I might add very good questions - they did not realize that our time was already over with. I know that not every morning will go like this but I hope that tomorrow as I start class and remind them of what they felt today they will want to "Choose To Rise" as they start their day under the protection that the gospel can bring.

Halloween wreath

So I came across a tutorial for this cute Halloween wreath the other day and I just had to make it! But I also did not want to make it by myself. The first person I thought of was Heidi to come make it with me. I did call a couple other people but they did not answer their phones. Heidi called me back and so I set a up a date last Friday for her to come over and craft with me. It totally goes with my "trick or treat" banner I made last year. We had such a fun afternoon. Her kids played with my grandkids and we had lunch (thanks Heidi:)). I think it turned out totally cute! Even though Halloween is my least favorite holiday - I think I could learn to like it a little more with cute decorations like these hanging around my house!

Next I think I am going to make one out of vintage Christmas papers. That also would require me to make a new Christmas banner to go along with it as well. I don't always take pictures of the things I make around here but I think I am going to start recording my crafting a little better. I just finished a couple of other projects and have a few more ready to start. I have to start getting ready for Christmas and our twelve days projects. I hope I can find some friends to craft with me - it sure made the project a lot more fun to do!

All things vintage

I was looking through some old photos today and came across this school class picture of mine. Can you guess who I am? {hint: Do you wonder where my girls get there love for boots? Those "go go" boots were my most prized possession} I have been reading about vintage photographs recently and was surprised that a photo similar to this was considered vintage. That was really shocking to me. I love vintage - kitchen stuff, sewing stuff, furniture stuff - so does this photo show proof that I am vintage? Just wondering.........