Christmas Lights at Temple Square

Jarrett had the day off work today, so as soon as Lilly got home from school, we drove up to Salt Lake (after making a quick stop at Walmart to get Max some thicker gloves).  We parked in the under ground parking below Deseret Bookstore. (Max wasn't too sure about that, and kept asking me to carry him and if we could go home.  Let's face it those underground parking garages are pretty scary with those weird florescent lights and everything echoing.)  We rode the elevator up, and when we reached the Bookstore Lilly said "Wow, this is a magical place."  Well to make a long story short, we WEREN'T, were we thought we were, (which was the Mall , so we could eat dinner), and ended up walking FOREVER in the freezing cold and finally saw a Subway, and decided to eat there. We grossly under estimated Max's ability to eat and he finished his half of the 6 inch sandwich in second flat.  Maybe I'm just not used to a little boys eating capabilities, (what with Lilly's bird appetite) but that boy can EAT! and EAT! and EAT! He could have probably finished off a combo meal by himself and he's only just barely 3 years old!
Anyways, after eating we went and looked at the lights, and the temple, and the visiter center, and the old tabernacle.  It was really cold and I look like Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer ( thank you Lilly for pointy that out, numerous times) in all the pictures.

Max fell asleep in the car, on the way up.

Interesting fact I learned while at the visitors center.  It usually took 4 DAYS to get one block of granite from the quarry to the Temple site!  Can you imagine! Wow!

Christmas Time

Yesterday, we put up and decorated our Christmas Tree.  I finally broke out the Christmas music and we listened to it while decorating.  Here are some pics of the kids decorating.

I also made the whipping cream for the homemade pumpkin pie my  mom sent home with me on Thanksgiving.  Here are the kids enjoying the aftermath.

Nuh Nuh, Nuh Nuh, Nuh Nuh, Nuh Nuh, BATMAN!!!!

 Lilly and Max have been a little obsessed with Batman (and Batgirl) lately.  So I made them some bat hats out of leftover felt from my Halloween countdown calendar.

Happy Thanksgiving

Parent Showcase

 Lilly had the opportunity to join a 4H club this first semester.  She really wanted to do the sewing one and the Karate one, but the sewing was for 3rd thru 6th grade only, and the Karate Club was for 'Early Birds' only.  So she joined the Creative Cool Cats club.  It was an arts and crafts club and she had a great time creating things.  They made a lot more things than they showcased, but here are the things that they did.

Finger Puppets

Cute Lilly at the Showcase

Lilly getting her Certificate of Completion

Paper Flower and finger puppet

Winter is here!

Winter has arrived and I couldn't be happier!  I really love all the seasons.  I couldn't tell you my favorite because I love things about all of them.  I'm glad I live someplace that has all 4 seasons.  Just when I feel I couldn't take another day of winter...Spring is here and just when I feel like I'm going to melt and am sooo sick of the hot, hot days, Fall arrives!
But Winter is here and I took some pictures around our house to prove it.  Here they are.

I love how the snow/ice collected on the red leaves of our Oak Leaf Hydrangea.

Snow on a  tree stump in the corner of our backyard.  This would make a good painting.

Icicles on the shed in our yard

We can't believe our Petunias are still living!

Moss and snow  covered rock.  Isn't this rock cool! It had no moss earlier this spring!  It was in the shade of our Iris's this summer and got lots of water!  Ta da! Moss!



Isn't Winter Beautiful????

Art Lessons

As I was painting more Christmas cards today, Lilly wanted to paint too, so I thought that I would give her a watercolor lesson.  So I painted, she watched and then painted her own.  All on her own.  I didn't do one brush stroke.  What do you think?  Pretty good for a 6 year old. 

 I've been asked many times before by co workers and friends if I would teach their children how to paint and I've never felt like I would know how to do it, but now that Lilly is at an age where I can  teach her, it's helped me understand a child's mind and what they are capable of and how to teach them. Not that I'm looking to do that, but at least now I feel like I COULD if I wanted to.

Here is a painting that Max did a few days ago.

I'm so grateful and blessed to have an 'art and crafts' room to devote to arts and crafts.  I like being able to just leave things out and accessible for the kids, (to some degree anyways) so they can go and create something whenever they get the urge to.  I feel that it helps their creativity and cuts back the amount of time they spend on the computer and watching TV.

Here's to more creating!!!!

Christmas cards

Here are 3 of my designs for my Christmas cards this year.  They are all done with Watercolor.  I really love to paint and need to do it more often.  In fact it's going to be on my New Years Resolution list, of things I want to do this next year.  I want to shoot for one painting a week...at least.

FOCUS!!!!

 It's time to start painting Christmas Cards again!  I'm excited this year, since I actually have a table to devote to this now.  At least I would, if I could FOCUS on one thing at a time!  At any one time, I have at least 3 projects going, I think it helps me stay interested in them.  That way I can switch between them all.  Remember that quilt I had in mind?  Well, it's finally pieced together.  Now I just need to wait until we have some extra money, so I can finish it off. (Probably after Christmas.) But at least it's together now and not in 15 different pieces.

I'm also working on more ornaments.  Oh well, having projects to do, keeps life interesting and definitely not boring :)