elf yourself

We elfed ourselves yesterday and Derek can't get enough of it. He watches it over and over. Here is the link if you want to watch. I thought it was so funny the first 20 times not so much anymore. I think the link will work until Jan.
http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1699083240

Room with a view

We have the most amazing view of the mtn. from the back of our house. Sometime we take it for granted. I love to sit on the deck in the summer and watch as they get dark. I also love to look at them from the kitchen table as we eat.

Last Sunday our home teacher came and as we were waiting for David to join us. Chuck the home teacher said "I love the view from this room I could sit and watch the mountains" Marissa in her four years of wisdom said "You watch T.V. from here also" we all had a good laugh.

failed Chrismas card photo

So this was this years attempt at a Christmas Card Photo. My kids are beter looking in person. It might not have been so bad if Marissa had not had a meltdown just before we took the photo
Marissa finally stopped crying by the last photo but by then I was crying. Maybe next year.

I worked hard on Trying to get a good Photo for a Christmas Card and failed. I wish I could have made a cute card but David did not like anythat I made so today I took a trip to hallmark so I could send the very best. I thought some of you might enjoy seeing my failed attempts.

Memories of My Childhood.

I have fond memories of My Childhood. I was a bit anoying as a child and often upset my father. Not always on purpose. I can remember sitting in the back seat of the car singing Christmas songs with my brothers. Our favorite christmas tape was Christmas with the Chipmunks that is until my dad got sick of it and threw it out the window. I found the songs and think that I will Burn it for my dad for Christmas.

Here are the words to one of the songs.

(all right you Chipmunks! Ready to sing your song?-

I'll say we are!-Yeah!-Let's sing it now!

Okay, Simon?-Okay!Okay, Theodore?-Okay!Okay, Alvin? Alvin? ALVIN!-OKAY!!!)

Christmas, Christmas time is near

Time for toys and time for cheer

We've been good, but we can't last

Hurry Christmas, hurry fast

Want a plane that loops the loop

Me, I want a hula hoop

We can hardly stand the wait

Please Christmas, don't be late.

Okay fellas get ready That was very good,

Simon.-Naturally.Very good

Theodore.-Ahhh.Ah, Alvin, you were a little flat, watch it.Ah, Alvin. Alvin. ALVIN!-OKAY.

Want a plane that loops the loop

I still want a hula hoop

We can hardly stand the wait

Please Christmas, don't be late.

We can hardly stand the wait

Please Christmas, don't be late.

Very good, boys-Lets sing it again!

Yeah, lets sing it again!

No, That's enough, lets not overdo it-What do you mean overdo it?-We want to sing it again!Now wait a minute, boys-Why can't we sing it again?-[chipmunk chatter]Alvin, cut that out..Theodore, just a minute.Simon will you cut that out? Boys...

Marissa

Marissa has got to be the oddest Child I have. She has lots of confidence and finds great joy in others finding her funny. Yesterday we took at trip to wall mart and she had a red Santa hat on and a paper gingerbread hat that she made at preschool. It was a headband with a 8 inch gingerbread man on it. If that was not enough she also had on her Cinderella princess dress which is starting to look like Cinderella preball. We were in wall mart only a few minutes when people Begin talking to her. Something about a 4 year old in a princess dress with two funny hats that makes grownups chuckle and want to say hi. She turned to me after the 4Th person stopped to talk to her and said "People like me, they think I am so nice" Wouldn't it be so nice to have that confidence now. My 15 year old would rather be invisible and gets mad if you look at her too long. I hope Marissa never outgrows this stage. Well maybe the funny hats and princess dresses.

Today Marissa was playing with a ball and was so excited When it laid a baby ball. She was so excited about it's perfect green color. That is until she gave it a bath and it turned Purple. It turns out her baby ball was really a gobstopper and was dissolving away.

Derek and Buzz

Derek loves the sipper tops to his cups. This week he has started to play with them as toys. He lines them up and talks to them. His favorites are the Toy story ones. We have a wood support that runs between the two supports that hold up the table. He loves to line them all up on the the support and play with them.

The crib is gone.

I have been working hard on making gifts for Christmas and keeping up with a Christmas gift idea blog. I have neglected this blog but now I am back and ready to tell all.

We had a great Thanksgiving. We spent the day eating and playing games at the Thompson's. It was nice to have Lolly and her family visit. Sadie is getting big and she is cute. My favorite time with her was the night before she left we stopped in to say goodbye and Sadie who had been in bed woke up. I am not sure she wanted to be up. If you even looked at her cross eyed she would start to pout and then cry. It was so cute it reminded me of a night when Nicole was just tiny she did the same thing. David would frown and she would cry.

The crib is down. Derek is now in a big boy bed. I am working hard at getting the boys in a good bedtime routine so that lolly will have an easier time getting them to sleep while she watches the kids for us. Derek's favorite part of the night is when he brushes his teeth then he can have his pacifier. I then quickly turn off the light and leave. Sometimes he cries for a few minutes. Last night he climbed in bed with Dallen. It was cute to see them both in the same bed when I went to get them up this morning.

a banana is not a pacifier

Yes, I am a bad mother. I want Derek to stop taking a pacifier so much that I will do almost anything to get him to bed. Last night he wanted to take a banana to bed and it might have worked but I pealed it. He slept all night so I guess it worked but I thought he would eat it and fall to sleep. He didn't eat it he slept with it. I don't think you can see it in the photo but he woke up with banana stuck to his forehead. I had to give him a bath first thing in the morning. I guess I need to find something else to use. Any ideas would be great.

Sunday night at grandmas

Sundays we like to go to grandmas and play games. Most of the time the little ones go down stairs and play while Grandpa watches them. This time Grandpa and the little ones played with us. We played pit. Dallen was a little slow on the trades but he loved being a big kid and playing. Even Derek thought he was playing he sat at the end of the table playing with some toys but when everyone started yelling you could hear him at the end of the table yelling 1,1,1,1,1, 2,2,2,2, he thought it was fun. Don't they look cute in thier matching vests I wish I could keep them this size forever.

preschool baking

I don't know how Miss Bessy does it makes scones with 12 kids and took photos too. Marissa came home from preschool in her cute bakers hat and I said I wanted to take a picture and she said "Miss Bessy already did" I have a hard time getting my camera out when I have my kids I don't know how I would do it with dozen 3 and 4 year olds.

I have not scrapped a page all week. So I sat down and did this one. I will have to do the BYU hats next. IF Marissa had cooperated It might have been Christmas Card worthy.

This one is for you Grandpa Dale

David and nicole went to the BYU vs. TCU game. They gave away hats David was able to get one for each of the kids all but Marissa Loved them. I thought it made a cute photo. Notice Dallens PJ's they are getting small but are his favorite. Is it time for another Trip to China?

cooking

Marissa came home from preschool all excited because she learned to cook. She said they made scones. Marissa said she had Brown sugar on hers "becase it is yummmmy". It was funny everytime I passed her today I could smell them. I might have to make some it made me hungry.

Happy Birthday to Dee Lynn! I know we are 100's of miles apart but I wanted you to know that I am thinking of you. I think that we met on your 11th or 12th Birthday lets see that makes us........OLD. I have enjoyed every year our friendship. Have a good one.
This weekend was Digital Scrapbook day. I took some classes online and worked on some projects. I have what I hope is a good Idea for a Christmas gift but I can't share it because most of you will receive one as a gift for Christmas. It is fun when I am able to spend more time on the creative side of a project then trying to figure out how I can do it.

On Halloween morning Nicole went in to get Derek out of bed like she often does. Derek didn't recognize her and let out a scream. After he figured out who she was he got interested. He was so interested that he let her put the same makeup on him. WE finally had to wash it off because she kept rubbing his face on all of us. He went back to being Buzz Light year.

Dallen and Natalie
Marissa, Christina, Michelle
Michelle
Christina
Debby, Dan, Derek

We had a great Halloween. We started with soup then then kids went Trick or treating. Dan scared the little kids by playing scary sounds and music. Deryl and Isabel came over with all their kids and played all night. I can't believe how old Natalie looks in her costume.

Real princess don't wear sweaters

Marissa had a Halloween party at preschool on Tuesday. She knew she wanted to dress up as a princess. As we were leaving to go to school I told Marissa to grab a sweater and she told me "real princess don't wear sweaters" She had a great day at school and had her picture taken with her teacher Miss Bessy.

visiting grandma pace

Marissa made angels in the leaves.

The kids were a little loud when we went to visit Grandma pace so I took them outside to the playground that they have. The kids had a great time in the leaves and on the playground. Derek loved the slide.

I was a guest on the fiskateers blog yesterday. They sent me some supplies and asked me to make a page out of them. I used the photos of the Shumway retreate. Here are the pages I made.

• Here is the link to the site with the post. http://www.fiskateers.com/blog/

Here are My digital Scrapbook pages for this week. It is Dallen carving his pumpkin(last year). WE still need to carve them this year. We hope to do that tonight. The second is Dallens Costume last year and he is going to be it again this year.

Last night David built a big fire in the garden area and we all sat out side watching the fire. The kids pretended they were birds and built little nests all over the garden. By the end of the night all but nicole had a nest to play in and call their own. Marissa really got into it. She was an owl and flapped her wings all night.

Buzz Light year

Derek is obsessed with Buzz Lightyear. He wants to watch the video day and night. Not so lucky for me there are 2 of them. He wants to watch both of them at the same time. HE puts one on in the great room and one on in the bed room. He even sleeps with the Toy story 2 book. One night he and David figured out he fit into the Buzz build a bear costume. I felt so sorry for him I found one that fit him the next day on Ebay. More photos will follow in the one that fits him, but until then you can enjoy these photos.

My Blog has a new look. I am learning. There are very kind and knowledgable people who make things seem easy. Thank you to Suzanne Hart http://www.thehart-family.blogspot.com/ for her instructions on how to change the look of my blog. The paper is from the Shabby Princess http://www.shabbyprincess.com/ it is her Urban Kiwi collection. I like the look of it. I still need to learn more, I lost my links on the side bar but have them back up now other than that it was painless.

A good Man that we all loved his died. Dr. Sullivan was an amazing person and Dr. He helped my mom take care of David all during his illness making house calls when ever he was in the neighborhood. He and Mary Lou came to my parents home and signed the death certificate so Davids body to go right to the funeral home. He sat and talked to them for hours until someone could come get the body. He never just asked you how you were feeling he would take your pulse and check your glands as he asked. I can remember visiting my parents and having a sick child he always had time to look at them and call in a prescription. Never asking for compensation. I can remember when he got baptized and thinking it was strange because I thought he was a member he was more valiant than most members. I will miss him.

Here is his obituary from the Santa Rosa paper.


"He was the most caring guy you could imagine," said his son, Daniel Sullivan of Santa Rosa. "He loved his patients like his family. He was an old-fashioned doctor who made house calls, and he delivered hundreds of babies."Dr. Bill Rubach, a close friend, called Sullivan "the most caring physician I have ever known. He was the reason my son became a doctor."Sullivan was born and raised in Watertown, N.Y., where he excelled in tennis, basketball and football.He attended the University of Notre Dame before transferring to the Stritch School of Medicine at Loyola University in Chicago, where he graduated in 1962.After a residency at Cook County Hospital in Chicago, he was drafted into the Navy and was a doctor aboard a destroyer off the coast of Vietnam and also stationed at a Naval hospital in Yokosuka, Japan.He came to Santa Rosa in 1966, where he began his family practice, retiring two weeks ago.He was a member of and active in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.He also was a member of the Sonoma County and American medical associations but had stopped paying his dues several years ago "because he was not happy with the state of medicine in California," said his son Daniel. "That was his protest."Sullivan, who had undergone bypass surgery 11 years ago, had back surgery on Thursday and died Saturday from complications, Daniel said.He also is survived by his wife of 45 years, Mary Lou Sullivan of Santa Rosa; a daughter, Sharron Braun of Spokane, Wash.; sons Tom Sullivan of Provo, Utah and Scott Sullivan of Santa Rosa and 16 grandchildren.Services will be at 11 a.m. Saturday at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Peterson Lane in Santa Rosa. Viewing will be from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Friday at Santa Rosa Mortuary Eggen and Lance Chapel.Memorial donations may be made to LDS Humanitarian Services, P.O. Box 27188, Provo, Utah 84602.

I have been working on Birthday pages this week it is the Challenge over at 2 peas. I made one for each of my kids except for Nicole who had a birthday this week. SHe had a fun Birthday she spent Sat going out to lunch then watching a viedeo with friends. Sunday we all went to Church then played Bang and had Cake. Danny and Natalie joined us for the game and some cake.

Student of the day

Yesterday Nicole was student of the day at Mountain Ridge JH. I wouldn't have known for weeks if Courtney had not known. Nicole's English teacher thought she deserved it and nominated her. In a week we should get a note in the mail from her teacher telling us why she nominated Nicole. Of course Nicole hates the attention and threw away the award before she got home.

This award got me thinking about how lucky I am to have such great kids. My Favorite time is dinner and 1/2 hour before and after. The reason is we are all in the kitchen getting dinner ready then we sit down and eat then we all clean up. Yesterday we were all getting dinner ready and Courtney started talking about how she thought it would be nice to get $5 a month allowance. Nicole stepped in and said why should we get paid we don't do anything. I thought how lucky I am they don't think they help out at home. Nicole was making a salad at that time and helping put the finishing touches on dinner because she likes to cook. Courtney and Dallen were emptying the dishwasher and Derek and Marissa were setting the table. They were all working and they didn't even notice.

My girls each babysit for other people and make at least $5 an hour doing that so an allowance of $5 a month wouldn't be much. I give them on average an hour of chores a day helping out with kids and cleaning up messes. I guess I don't have to pay it because Nicole talked them out of asking for it. I guess I am lucky. I hope to be able to raise kids who look for ways to help and know how to work.

I guess I already know that my kids can work because the YM leaders are often telling me how much they love My girls and that they work. They had the YW serve at a luncheon and the leaders said my girls were the hard workers. Now if only I could get Nic. to work on her YW value projects.

My hard work paid off

All my hard work paid off last week. I entered my 3 layouts in the brushes challenge at 2 peas and I won the second place prize. It is a random drawing based on the number of layouts you put in not because they like it second best. Any way I won and now I get to pick something from their store.

This weeks challenge is a birthday memory so here is Marissa's Birthday from last year. I liked the page that Lolly put on her BLOG so much that I copied her page. It does have a picture of Sadie on it if you look Courtney is holding her. This party was with her cousins Sadie, Christina, and Michelle. Marissa also let her siblings attend.

Nicole, the birthday girl Brecklyn and Courtney staying warm by the fire.

The return missionary talking doctrine with Uncle Jim

Makenna, Michelle and Natalie

Christina, Marissa, Michelle and Natalie

Isabelle and Jill

Special thanks to our Photographer Debby who's battery on her camera went out so she used mine.

Cameron's homecoming was today so we had a fun Shumway dinner to celebrate. These Shumways know how to have a party. The food was good but the company was even better. We did miss Mom and Dad, but were glad to get our first email from them and knowing they are safe makes us happy.

This uses a corner rounder brush and a journaling brush

brushes part 2

I have read a few tutorials and have learned a bit about brushes. This is ny second attempt at using brushes.

brushes challenge

I had to learn to use a brush in PSE. I picked this layout so I could use a snowflake brush. It works like a stamp. I use 4 diffrent snow flake brushes I played around with size and ocupency It was fun I still think I might change the title but then I would have to start over because it is on the main layer. We will see.

THis is a photo color spot challange. I did this digitally it was fun. I hope to do the challange every week and learn something new.

This is a page I made for a fall Recipie book. someone is uploading them to a digital printing website so we can all order a copy.

Marissa's class went on a field trip to see the leaves change color. Miss Bessy took some fun photos.