Activity Advent, day 11

day 11:
Polar Express Party


















Tonight we attended a Polar Express Party, thrown by the Jolley Family, at their new house.

Everyone was asked to come in their jammies, just like in the story.

We had fun making crafts (pipe-cleaner candy canes), chillin' (see Shallon), and eating lots of homemade goodies (homemade hot chocolate, yummy!).

Then Steve (Jolley) read the Polar Express book to all the kids. What a fun party!










Here are the other families that joined in the fun:

The Thompson Family (minus dad)








The Sutton Family








The Able Family (minus dad)








The Abbiss Family








The Jolley Family (party hosts)








The Severts family (us)

Activity Advent, day 10

day 9:
Attend Avalyn's Christmas Concert

Picture 1: Avalyn with Gunner and Steele.

Picture 2: Avalyn and Steele.

Gunner and Steele are 2 of the sweet kids that I watch during the day.

Song 1: Jingle Little Bell
Song 2: Snowflakes Falling
Song 3: Santa Claus is Coming to Town

Activity Advent, day 9

day 9:
Make Ornaments for the Tree

I found these cinnamon ornaments on this blog and want to give it a try. It was super easy and it smells great! And I love how they look all rustic! As you can see from the pictures the girls had fun helping mommy.

Activity Advent, day 8

day 8:
Take a Bubble Bath


















I know, this has nothing to do with Christmas, but now they are clean, yay! And we can't do something creative everyday, I need a break. :)

Activity Advent, day 7

day 7:
Hang Stockings

















So, I totally made these stockings and I am soo proud of myself. I had the idea that I wanted to make raggy stockings and I actually followed through and made them. And Greg helped me make our beautiful, beautiful faux fireplace, so that we would actually have somewhere to hang our stockings.

Activity Advent, day 6

day 6:
Ward Christmas Party

(So I don't have any pictures from this activity, sorry.)

Our ward had a dessert Christmas party. Someone made some super yummy brownies and I had 1 . . . or 2, they were really yummy. The Primary kids, that were there, sang a couple Christmas songs. Briley and Shallon went up with Avalyn to sing and help fill in the choir a little. It was pretty cute.

Activity Advent, day 5

day 5:
Make it snow in the living room

So we made some paper snowflakes and a few white paper chains and hung them up around the living room to make it look like it snowed. Pretty fun. I did most of the work, but it was worth it because the girls really like all the "snow"!

Activity Advent, day 4

day 4:
Color a Christmas Picture














I found these cute color and cut nativities at mormonshare.com.

Activity Advent, day 3

day 3:
Paint everyone's nail Christmas colors. (except daddy, of course)

Activity Advent, day 2

day 2:
Write letters to Santa and drop off at Post Office.

Activity Avent, day 1

This year our family is going to do an activity advent calender to count down the days until Christmas. We haven't done one before, so hopefully the girls will think that it's fun. I found some cute ideas on this blog. And, of course, I will try to post each days activity here on the blog.

Here is day 1:
Plan and construct an advent calendar.

First House Guests

Yay! Our first out-of-state (non-family) house guests in our new house goes to ...

The Madsen Family!!!

We were sooo happy to have them come stay with us. We have really missed them since we moved away! It was fun to just hang out, catch up on new things and reminisce about old things. And the kids played great together. Kent and Beka, you guys are welcome back anytime!

Twilight!!!

I had a Girl's Day Out, in Las Vegas! First Cambria and I went to Olive Garden for a super yummy lunch. Then we met some of our friends at the theater and saw TWILIGHT!!! It was sooo good! Not as good as the book, of course, but still really good. I had soo much fun and I can't wait to do it again!

Student of the Month

Avalyn was awarded student of the month for the month of November! She was soo excited!

Avalyn set a goal this month to get a "wow card" everyday, she worked very hard and accomplished her goal. We are soo proud of her.

We even had a special "fancy dinner" in honor of her accomplishment. We had Avalyn's favorite dinner Hawaiian Haystacks. We busted out a table cloth, some candles and the older kids got to use real plates, glasses and silverwear (not the usual plastic stuff). Thanks for the great idea Kathryn! Avalyn we are soo proud of you! Great Job!

trimming the tree

The older girls found the ornaments tonight and asked if they could put them on the tree. I said yes, but I wasn't really paying too much attention to what they were doing. Until they were almost done. The girls were working soo well together. They even pulled a bar stool over and were taking turns putting some ornaments up high. The ornaments have already been rearranged a few times and they are a little clumped together. But I love it and I not fixing it!

princess handbook

Here's a LO I did from Shallon's birthday.

The text says: Shallon's Princess Handbook
lesson #33: How to properly remove your tiara.
step 1: Completely ignore pleas to "just keep it on"
step 2: Grip tiara firmly behind ears and pull upwards
step 3: Try to hand off tiara to nearby "ladies in waiting", if unavailable any nearby royal will do
step 4: Raise arms in victory
step 5: Fluff hair



credits:
template- Scrapmuss Designs, scrapmatters.com Tuesday Template Challenge
staples- Suzie-belle Designs, stella freebie mini kit
paper, heart, diamonds, and bow- Britt-ish Designs, just married add-on freebie
fonts- Pea XOXO from Karen and You are Loved

braided criss-crossies

Ok so I usually don't have the patience to fix the girls' hair all cute. But I found this blog completely dedicated to super cute, unique girl hairdo ideas. And I wanted to give it a try. It was a long and painful process, that I probably won't repeat anytime soon. Both girls screamed and complained and cried the WHOLE time. In the end they were all smiles, of course! And it turned out super cute, huh?! Here is Shallon's little hair spout (she wanted in on the action too and she didn't even cry).

Grace's Quilt

Raggy quilt #4 - I made this quilt for my very first niece, Grace. Hopefully it has already arrived at her house before I post this picture.