My blessings

I am so thankful for my little family.  They are my world.  This year one of my biggest goals is to be a better mother and wife.  At times I can be lazy....so this year I really want to be a more "involved" mommy.  Less time watching TV and more time playing outside, doing fun activities and finding great ways to teach my kids of Jesus Christ.  I've heard of kid friendly Book of Mormons.  Anyone have one?  If so where did you get it?  I would love to get the Living Scriptures, but it is so expensive.  Anyway, wish me luck...this is a lifetime goal.  I hope my kids will grow up and have fond memories of their mommy.

The Kitchen is the Heart of the Home

Ok I finally finished my frame.  I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.  I was going to do black, but I can always change it up in the future.  I used fabric as the backing so I can switch it out whenever I want.

My frame I bought from the DI.  It was black so I had to sand it down.  Made it easier to spray paint.

I didn't like how the spray paint looked so I painted it.  I used brown fabric in the back.

 

Feels like HOME

I've wanted to decorate my home for a long time.  Come to find out, it is really expensive!  So it's going to take me a while to decorate even my little home.  In the mean time I'll be clipping coupons and waiting for sales.  Here's my latest project...that I'm so proud of...took a lot of nailing and figuring out what layout I liked best.  it makes me happy when I walk in the door because for some reason it feels a lot more "homier" now that there are pictures up.

There are so many other things I want to do with my living room...rug, picture of our savior, bigger mirror....yada yada.  Those things are out of my budget so my friends and I headed to the DI and I picked up a frame for 2 dollars.  I have an idea of what I want to do with it, but I know for sure it will go in my kitchen.  Here's a picture of it.  I'll post a pic when I'm done with it.

Mommy and Son bonding

My girl are in California spending time with their grandparents so that leaves time for Micah and I to spend a lot of bonding time together.  This past week Micah has grown through a big growth spurt..as far as his personality goes.  He is talking so much more and we can just see his personality really blossoming.  I love this kid, but I miss my girls so much.  Can't wait for us all to be reunited.

Thanksgiving

So all of November I would talk to my husband about how much I would love to spend Thanksgiving in California, but his reply would always be "we don't have enough money" or "we were just there for Micah's birthday party."  I was pretty bummed out.  So we made preparations to spend our first Thanksgiving on our own.  We have some pretty awesome friends in our ward so we made plans to celebrate Thanksgiving on Saturday and have a game night. 
   As each day went by I would get more and more depressed...missing my family...and to make things worse my husband is a huge TEASER.  He would think out loud and say things like "we should go to California (long pause) but it's too expensive."  Pure torture I tell you...playing with my emotions like that. 
   Anyway, to make a long story short, Jared surprised me Wednesday night and asked me if I wanted to go to California and surprise our families.  We left Thursday morning.  Made the 10 hour drive (our kids were angels the entire way!) and decided to stop at my families house since Jared's family was celebrating on Friday.
  We arrived around 5 and I had texted my brother to see what they were doing and told him to wish my parents a Happy Thanksgiving and wishwe could be there too...hehehe.  I had to make sure they were home.  I ran up to the door, knocked, and hid on the side with Micah.  Jeff opened the door and said "What the heck!  Kris is here!"  My entire family (uncles, aunts, cousins) were yelling and soooo happy.  It has to be the best surprise we've ever pulled off.  They were even happier when Jared and the girls came in after me.
  We ate tons of food and just enjoyed each others company.  Around 9 we headed to Jared's house.
  When we arrived at Jared's house we were not sure if anyone was home because the car was gone.  So I sent Jared and Sela to check.  Jared happened to have a key so he walked in and his mom and sister were home.  They were so surprised and happy.  Jared's dad flew in from Canada.  It was so nice to see everyone. 
   I wish we lived closer to each other.  I guess the nice thing about living far away is you really appreciate your family 1000 times more.  The time you spend together is treasured so much more.  I love the memories we create together as a family. 
  I love Jared's family so much.  Over the last couple years I've grown so close to them.  They are such giving people with big hearts. 

  I love my mom, dad, brothers and sisters so much.  I appreciate everything they do for me and am so thankful they are my family.
  This year my 3 biggest blessings

1. Friends...I don't know what I would do without them
2. Family...Thank you for your unconditional love
3. The Gospel...Thank goodness for the Atonement and the power it has to transform and for the opportunity it gives us to become like our Savior.  

I am thankful for all that Heavenly Father has blessed my family with this year and I look forward to setting goals and trying to become a better person.

Preschool

Sela really enjoys going to school.  She loves to make friends and learn new things.  I asked her if she has any friends in her class and she said yes.  His name is Jack and I think she has a little crush on him.  They do so many fun things in class.  They've gone on two field trips.  One to the Library and to the Museum.  There are 12 kids in her class and 3 teachers. 
This week was Sela's turn to teach her classmates about the letter V.  We printed pictures of a volcano, vanilla ice cream, a vacuum and vase.  She was shy, but she did an awesome job.  They also made a spider craft today...which I found a bit creepy.  It's a spider body with a huge picture of her face.  Sela also made a fun head piece.  I love that she is learning to make friends and socialize with other kids.  Sinalei cannot wait until she can start next year.  She has her back pack ready to go.

Halloween

This year was the first time we've celebrated a holiday on our own.  Through out the week I would get a little sad because I miss our families so much.  Last year Jared's whole family was down and it was nice to trick or treat together.  I'm guessing we'll probably be celebrating Thanksgiving and Christmas alone as well...booo.  I guess what makes it easier is we've made great friends in our ward and Jared has cousins over here that we are close with.

My mother in law sewed all three of  their costumes.  Micah was the scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz.  Sinalei was Dorothy and Sela was the witch.  My daughter Sela is obsessed with Disneyland and the Princesses.  So when I told her she was going to be a witch she told me she didn't want to be a bad witch.  I reasoned with her and said she could be a good witch if she wanted to.  She was happy about that and said she looked like the Halloween Minnie Mouse at Disneyland. 
In Utah everyone celebrated Halloween on Saturday, the 30th.  Unfortunately it rained so our trunk or treat was held in our church building.  The adults lined up along the hallways and handed out candy.  The girls were so shy and were scared of this HUGE guy who decided to dress up as a clown.  There was also a chili cook off.  I'm not too much of a chili person so I did not enter anything.  Our ward also had a spook alley.  I love our ward activites.  At our last ward activity we played Minute to Win It...it was a blast!  My camera died so I wasn't able to take many pictures.  After our ward activity we decided to go trick or treating around our neighborhood.
The girls absolutely LOVED going door to door.  Especially since their best friend Kehau came along.  They would take turns ringing the door bell and then they would shout TRICK OR TREAT when the door opened.  It was freezing so we only went down two streets.  I love how as my kids get older they are able to enjoy the holidays more and more.  Sela told me that Halloween was her favorite holiday.  I cannot wait for Christmas!!  They are going to love it.