My House at Christmas!

Welcome to my House!

The thing I love most about my house at Christmas is that it is so cozy-feeling.  At Christmas, I decorate with a lot of greenery and white lights.

This is our new Nativity that my parents brought us from Israel this year.  I really love it.

This is the girls' room. 

Here's the living room

A few years back, the kids and I started collecting nutcrackers.

Most of them are thrifted and some are missing limbs, but we love them all--the kids even have names for some of them.

This is where we put our Christmas cards.

This is Ammon's bed.

I love our tree this year.  We cut our own each year and we found one with a great shape and just the right amount of branches.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Skating at the Lake

One benefit of it being bitter cold here is that the lake freezes and the marina is perfect for ice fishing and ice skating.  We've lived here just over six years, and have amassed a good collection of thrifted ice skates, and as soon as the lake is frozen we lace up our skates head down the street to the lake.

The youngest two enjoy running around the harbor.

December is usually the best month for skating, because the ice is nice and smooth.

Random

Today was a discount day at a local ski resort, so my husband and 3 oldest kids headed out for a fun day on the slopes.  I decided that since they were off partying, I would spend some time blogging and finishing up a few things for Christmas.  As soon as they were out the door, I realized that I sent my camera with them, which had my memory card in it that has all of the photos I have been saving up to share with you all on this blog.
Dangit.
As I was re-planning my day, I munched on a few Christmas goodies that have been delivered the past few days.  I about died from yummy goodness when I got to try these awesome Homemade Butterfingers
{thanks Brandi!}
I saw this recipe on Pinterest several months ago and pinned it immediately, but hadn't tried them yet, because honestly, I could see they were trouble.  And they are.  Disclaimer:  Only make these if you are trying to gain a little weight or you are going to be feeding a crowd, because it is impossible to leave any on the plate.  Trust me.

Homemade Butterfingers

1 lb. candy corn
16oz jar peanut butter (I used Peter Pan Honey Roasted peanut butter)
16oz pkg. chocolate candy coating
Melt candy corn in microwave on high 1 minute. Stir and continue cooking in 15-second intervals til melted, stirring after each interval. Stir in peanut butter. Spread mixture in an 8x8 pan lined with parchment. Cool completely. Cut into squares. Dip in melted chocolate candy coating. Lay on waxed paper to set.
 
I also found a bunch of gift tag and cute LDS printables here.
 

 
And this fun puppet nativity here.
 

 
Have a great day!

Family Photos

On Thanksgiving Day, my friend Kelli took some family photos.

It had been two years since we had done one and it was time.

How did I get a teenager to grin?  I just mentioned a certain girl's name...

I couldn't decide which shot of Bella I liked best, so I had to order a few.

Yeesh.

So, I've been a little MIA lately.
For some reason, I ended up involved in a billion projects and events all at once, and
I. have. been. swamped. 
Every night, as soon as the kids were in bed, I would think "...I need to catch up on my blog." or "I wanted to post some of those pictures on my blog", and then I would crash on the couch...and wake up around 11 and drag myself to bed.
I still want to share some of what I have been up to with you in more detail, but here's a sneak peek:

I helped organize a Service Auction for the sisters in our ward {if anyone is interested in templates for invitations, questionairre, or idea printables, let me know and I will share them.}

My husband, kids and extended family continued our tradition of finding and cutting our own Christmas tree,

We then spent a week being violently ill with a stomach bug...bright side?  Clean floors, clean sheets, clean light-switches and doorknobs, and I was {temporarily} 5 pounds lighter.

I also helped organize and host our ward Christmas dinner, and have been working on a directory for the sisters in our ward...which has been fun, but brutal, all at the same time.

We've spent time in the snow, done some ice skating at the lake, decorated our tree, decked the halls, watched some good basketball, and got a new family photo--it had been 2 years since our last one and I love how they turned out.  My friend Kelli did them.

Today I am hoping to complete invitations for our Relief Society midweek activity and {fingers crossed} get to the Visiting Teaching message for December.
Oh, and finish my Christmas cards so that I can send them ASAP.
...and pick up {and wrap} those last few Christmas gifts.
I'm excited to finish these projects so that when my kids are out of school next week, we can relax, play and do some fun Christmasy things together.
What are you up to?

“Christmas is what we make of it.

Despite all the distractions, we can see to it that Christ is at the center of our celebration. If we have not already done so, we can establish Christmas traditions for ourselves and for our families which will help us capture and keep the spirit of Christ.”

President Thomas S. Monson



My Picker Sister Moment

I found this old cart on KSL.

KSL is an online classifieds site here in Utah. 

 I took a before picture, but cannot find it. 

Just imagine it taller...it was about 36". 

I thought that with a little bit of work, it would be an awesome coffee table. 

 Luckily, I have a neighbor who is a welder.  He cut it down to 18" for me and then welded the top back on.  Then I sanded some boards and added them to the top. 

I'm still deciding what color to paint or stain it or if I should do anything more with it at all. 

I love the aged patina and that it is on casters! 

I'm also trying to decide if I should keep it or sell it. 

I really love it, but it doesn't really fit very well in my house {stylistically, or space-wise}. 

Maybe a patio coffee table? 

What do you think?

Changes

I had a busy weekend! 

Every now and then, I get this irrepressable urge to move the furniture around. 

It drives my change-hating husband crazy.

I love moving the furniture around.  It just gives me a brighter outlook on life.  It's also an excellent reason to clean out those corners that I don't usually clean...AND it is excellent excercise! 
Win, win, win. 

Remember when I cleaned and organized my office?  It felt great, but after a while, I realized that it was only a band-aid on a broken room.  So I decided that I needed a fresh start--something completely different...and I had just the space.
 
This area used to be our office area.  It was right after we moved into this house and it worked pretty well for a while.  This space is just opposite of the tv in the family room downstairs.  After a few years, my husband decided to go back to school and get his masters degree.  He needed a quiet place to study, so we moved everything upstairs.  I also had moved my teaching stuff and paper/scrapbook supplies upstairs, so it would be in the same area as the printer.

He graduated about a year-and-a-half ago, and it continued to be our office, but it was mainly being used for Relief Society handouts, Visiting Teaching Messages, and gift tags, etc.  And the kids would sometimes do art projects in there. 

Translation: mess.  All the time. 

Seeing as how that room is right inside the front door of our house, and how it always looked like a bomb had gone off in there, I decided to move the office back downstairs.  I also hated that I felt really disconnected to my kids when I was working upstairs and they were playing or watching tv downstairs.
Here's what I ended up with:

There's even space for the kids' projects.

...and when if it gets messy, it's not right at the front door for the world to see.

My new work table is one that my friend Julie helped me refinish.  It was free!  {Thanks Jennifer!}

There's still stuff to do, but I really like the way everything is coming together in our new office/work area.

I also love my new view:

Way better than looking at the street.

To help organize my supplies, I needed some shelving.  About 12 years ago, my husband built me a bookshelf {in our apartment in Provo}, that never really found the right spot in this house.  It had been sitting in the garage for the last 6 years--but it fit perfectly in the spot that I needed storage! 

Problem was, it was buried. 
I am embarrassed to say that our garage looked {notice that past tense, thankfully} like an especially bad episode of hoarders.  I needed that shelf, though, so that garage needed to be cleaned and organized.  It's awesome to be able to move around in there again.  We could always park the car in there, but sometimes it got a little scary getting out of the car and walking into the house. 
Now I can do a little twirl. 
With my arms out even. 
With a friend. 

Hopefully with the completion of the shed imminent, we may even be able to move even more stuff out and maybe even park my husband's car in there this winter. 
That'd be something.

I'm sad I didn't take a before photo of that one...it's probably better that way...

I wouldn't want the health department sent out here.  :)

I also finished a project that I'm really excited to share with you all.

But this has gotten really long.

So you'll have to wait 'til tommorrow.

Have a great day!