Happy 2010!!!

On New Years Day, the kids asked if they could play outside in the snow.

This is Jordyn's attempt at building a snowman.

Spencer asked if we could build a Snow Bear. Anyone can build a snowman. So we made the biggest snowbear I've ever made! (They are usually about 2-3 feet tall)

He only lasted 1 day before he started to melt. Now he looks like he has some horrible flesh-eating disease.

I hope everyone has a wonderful 2010!!

Winter Wonderland

Snow + Christmas lights = HAPPY!

Visiting the State Capitol

Since we moved back to Utah, Spencer has been asking if we could go see the Capitol. So for our Advent activity on tuesday, the kids and I went and took a tour of the Utah State Capitol.

"The Gold Room" - aka. The State Reception Room

Spencer's favorite part was all the GOLD! It is his favorite color after all. So the "Gold Room" was his favorite. I must admit that it was amazing!

At school, Spencer has been learning all about how to be a scientist. He loves learning about new things and exploring, so I thought it was appropriate to take his picture in front of the "Science and Technology" statue.

On the front steps.

Jordyn loved the 4 Lions -Fortitude, Integrity, Honor and Patience.

I'm kinda liking all these activities.

Another Advent Activity....

Our activity last monday was to go to a live nativity out in Taylorsville with my parents. It was a great opportunity to discuss the birth of our Savior with the kids, because they could actually see what we were talking about. They had sheep....

And cows....... ( they liked to eat the corn stalks)
And a donkey ( he liked to eat hay). Jordyn spent the whole time feeding the donkey and did NOT want to leave. I think she would have stayed out there all night if we would have let her. She loves animals so much!

They had carolers singing, and hot chocolate and cookies and 2 fires to warm your buns by. They also gave out a CD of a cute little girl telling the christmas story. It was a great evening with the family and really helped us feel the "spirit" of Christmas!

The Festival of Trees

One of our Advent activities this holiday season was to go to the Festival of Trees. We spent some time explaining to Spencer how all the money raised was given to Primary Children's Hospital and the meaning of Charity.

You may remember last year I was following the blog of a baby girl named Gracie -http://www.thegledhillfamily.blogspot.com/. This was her tree! It was absolutly beautiful! Our primary was having our Christmas party the following saturday, and we were going to make gingerbread houses. I was trying to get some ideas and I thought I should try this one......

Or the train......

We had a great time seeing all the trees, and listening to the music, and just hanging out together!

Another Give-Away!!!

There is a cute hair blog I found the other day and now they are giving away a TUTU! Just what Jordyn wants for Christmas! So go check out

http://shaunellshair.blogspot.com/

and http://tutubugblog.blogspot.com/

I can always hope right?!

Babe's In Toyland

Last week Spencer's school had a drawing for 30 students to have the opportunity to attend the dress rehearsal of Babe's In Toyland at the Salt Lake Children's Theater and Spencer was one of the luck winners!! So he and I got to ride a school bus into Salt Lake.

It was a very small and intimate theater and the show was so fun! This was the first time they have opened up their dress reahersal for students and I hope they will continue doing it!

But, because it was a dress rehearsal, they learned not to leave the smoke machine on for so long during one scene, or the WHOLE theater fills up with so much smoke, you can't even see the stage! So they let the kids help "fan" some of the smoke out for a few minutes. The kids thought that was great!!

It let the kids see some of what it takes to put on a production like this.

We had so much fun!! This was a great Christmas activity and some good one-on-one time for Me and Spencer! If you have time before Christmas, I would highly suggest taking you kids to see this. http://www.tctheatre.org/

A New Tradition

One of my new favorite blogs is http://www.oneshetwoshe.com/. They had a great post in November about creating an Advent calander. http://www.oneshetwoshe.com/2009/11/christmas-all-month-long-new-tradition.html

So I thought about how I could use the idea and what I had around the house and I came up with our own Advent calander:

I just used 2 kinds of green paper and made the tree and then printed numbered "ornaments" on red paper. On the back of each one is an activity we get to do that day! Some are places to go, activities at home, movies, stories, baking, etc. Spencer and Jordyn have loved finding out what we get to do each day. And I have had fun coming up with all the things we can do. (My little secret is that I don't put the activity on until the night before, so that I have a better idea of what the following days schedule will be like- shhhhh.) I think this will become our new family tradition!

Coming Home - Part 3

On Sunday we decided to head for home. On the way down Logan Canyon we noticed a sign for "Ricks Spring". Eric decided to turn around a go check it out. It ended up being founded by Thomas E. Ricks who is one of Eric's ancestors.

So we had a little family history lesson right there in Logan Canyon. We then spent some time in Logan, and then Brigham City and eventually made it home.

Sight Seeing - Part 2

The Saturday after Thanksgiving we decided to go for a drive around Bear Lake and see what we could find.
We found a house shaped like a shoe...... Went to Paris! Idaho.
Saw the beautiful Paris Tabernacle that was designed by one of Brigham Young's sons.

Had a good laugh when we read the above sign saying that for 9 years the settlers of Paris thought they were in Utah until surveyors showed that they were actually in Idaho - oops!

We drove into Montpelier, Id. and had lunch and enjoyed the sights, stopped at all the Historical sights, and had a great day together!