Christmas Gift

This Christmas the wee people of my in-law-family decided to trade names. N got her cousin this year for Christmas. And here is what I did for her from N.

I'm very proud of the gift I made for my niece this Christmas and broke down deciding to post about it now instead of saving it for a surprise for her mom. My niece is a year old so I don't think I could really spoil the surprise anyway...Anyways..

I love to make things, and since I was giving a free sewing machine by a woman I have never met and still haven't, I have been making all the gifts I have been giving for little people. My neighbors baby shower, clip bows for Abby, and now this gift for my niece. And some in the makings.

My new fav right now is felt. Yes felt and with that I was stumbled upon the world of felt food. Play food for kids! Some of the things I have see have been absolutely jaw dropping. Such as this site http://5.pro.tok2.com/~mic/sub/gallery.html It's all in Japanese but just click on one of the left links and you'll see what I mean. I've been wanting to buy some patterns but I decided to try it out completely "blind".

After finding a site that gives the pattern for a felt woven pic-nic basket for free I decided to do just that, a picnic lunch. Here's what I made.
Contents of the felt woven picnic basket: A bag of chips, you can open it and there are felt chips inside, a "Sprite" can, a chicken sandwich you can build yourself (chicken, American cheese slice, lettuce, 2 tomatoes, and 2 pickles), 3 strawberries, and 3 pink sprinkle cookies.
I was so excited to make this that I didn't take into consideration my niece's age until I was already part way into it :( I mean N tested it out and loved to just squeeze everything and take them out of the basket. The only small things are the pickles but I figured, this Christmas my sister-in-law was hitting a block wall as to what to get her daughter as she already gets the hand-me-downs of her older sister, but since she's taken care of that, here's a unique gift she can pull out when she deems right and I'll have learn to make many new things that I can send their way.

So, Hi Kris! I hope you love this as I'm already making plans for one for my family and for many more items. :) Merry Christmas!

More Teeth

N is popping teeth again. I should have guessed it sooner with her cranky attitude but it wasn't till I braved a finger in her mouth that I discovered 3 new teeth and at least one more on its way! And since they are further back they are taking longer, poor N :(

Sledding!

With the snow on the ground Todd had us out the door to take N sledding for her first time.

She had a BLAST! She giggled all the way down and had fun in the snow!

Daddy and DaughterMommy and Daughter

The adventurous "Wee-one-der"

Hubby Time

I don't say it enough in my posts at all, but I love my husband! He's been working extremely hard to pull off the Stake Christmas Fireside and onight is the moment of truth. I wish I could be there to lend my support but until the neighbors come home to babysit I have to be here.
Todd has composed half of what is being sung tonight and has crossed MANY obstacles that presented themselves during the preparation for this fireside. But now he knows who to talk to, when to do certain things, and what he needs to do. He's already started on the Easter Fireside which isn't till APRIL so that any possible hick-ups might be eliminated.
Good luck Todd. It will song beautiful. I love you!

Christmas

I was reading an article in the December Ensign about how a pair of sisters plotted together and a family of 13 to their Christmas Dinner and then surprising the children with a box of hand-me-down clothes and shoes. As this was Canada and the winter months, and those kids hand only straw and sackcloth for their feet, these girls were an answer to prayers.

Now trying to reach back into the depths of my mind for Christmas memories, I can really only recall 3 Christmas's from before I was married. I found this saddening. Only three.

My first, I believe I was turning 12, was in 6th grade, and my parents were going through a divorce. Mom came home one morning from working a night shift and found a HUGE Christmas decorated plastic bag in the car port. Not a nice looking garbage bag but the "only available during the holidays because they are HUGE" bags. I was awake and greeted mom as she came through the door. "I think you father left this morning forgetting to bring something in." She rolled her eye as my dad tended to do this from time to time. She drug it inside and we opened it. It was filled with wrapped Christmas boxes! Each had a name on it or who the gift was intended and nothing else. Sad as may be we knew they were not from dad because there were gifts for my mom and not him. We cried. It was not long before this happened that mom told us Christmas was going to be very lean this year. And now Our Christmas tree was overflowing with gifts from an anonymous Santa. (Thank you Joyce and Diane, as we know it was you two who gave THREE families a Christmas that year.)

The one after that was when all I asked for Christmas was a stereo and when we all went to go open boxes there was only a small hand held box for me. But great was my surprise when it held a note and a car key for me to go retrieve my gift from the car trunk.

And lastly, my first semester of college. I was attending BYU-Idaho and was in Brother Grants English 111 class. We were a class of about 18 and worked together really well. As a project we were to break up into groups of about 6 and perform a Christmas service project. We decided to get the name and ages of a family from a local ward who was in need for the holidays. We raised money by going door to door and contributing our own funds. The family consisted of a mom and dad, and 5 kids. We divided the money and went shopping for them. We got a grocery store gift card for the parents plus a small side gift and toys for the kids. We drove to their trailer home to drop everything off. As we took armfuls of things in we looked at a family picture and realized there was one more kid in the picture then what we shopped for! one of the boys had a TWIN BROTHER we didn't know about. We took what was left of the money ran back to Walmart and bough toys for him, taking them back to the house with the excuse "we forgot a box."

Then we had another family who we were to drop a box of food of to and run for it. We drove to the trailer park, park a few houses down from the intended target and grouped a few yards from the house. As two people took the box to the door step , rang the door bell and RAN for it. Now mind you Rexburg, Idaho, winter, ice, oh it was funny. We all hid, and as a little boy answered the door, looked around and spotting the box of food, looked at it ran to the door and shouted inside, "Mommy we have food!" How that tug at our hearts. We had so much fun and were happy beyond anything we knew that we helped these families.

I want to start a family tradition of sorts that will help our family every year the true meaning for Christmas. Anyone have any ideas?

Happy Birthday Missy!

Here's a shout out to my best friend!

It's Missy's Birthday!!!

Here's the story behind Missy and me. We met at BYU-Idaho when we became roommates in #159 Barnes Hall. The four of us who lived there I guess could be described as hyper night owls. How I passes my classes my first semester is still a mystery to me. There were bubble and hair mousse wars, a Jericho Road concert, taping Lindsey in the shower as she sang at the top of her lungs, drama with roommate #4 and the hospital, babysitting the head residence little boy on Tuesdays, Jello Slide during Spirit Week, Missy making amazing caramel brownies to eat after a dance I went to with Matt Reynold, Bednar being called to the 12, Missy and I dating two guy who were roommates (and later giving thanks we broke up with them), cooking dinner for 10 people, going to Missy's house for Thanksgiving, 3 people (Missy, Lindsey and I) sleeping in a refrigerator box our last night in our apartment before Christmas break just because we could while watching Aladdin on a laptop, and leaving at an insane morning hour to walk to the Trailways bus stop in the BUTT cold. And this is just our first semester!
2 new roommates our 2nd semester, Thank you Jeniffer for your cooking skills! And we all moved together to what was then, Beehive Manor.
Now for our 2nd year of college. The #209 group: Marissa and Jeniffer, Amie and Laura, Missy and me. Our habits hadn't changed much and our ward just encouraged our social craziness :) Shaving cream war in the park, having kick butt awesome FHE brothers, raiding each others closets for all 6 of us to match on Sunday, all of us cramming on my bed (it was the most padded bed in the apartment and you had to have a running start to get on it because I have it on cinder blocks), blaring music in the morning while we all got ready, boy talk (what's up with "J" names anyways?!), going to a Q&A for Elder Bednar, and celebrating Laura's engagement with Bajios and virgin drinks at the Mexican restaurant in town. But still even with all this there was more, happy and sad as well as stupid. F.Y.I. in case there are some people who do not already know this, boys are stupid to fight over. I'll leave it at that.
Missy made it through the nursing program and off she went to work and complete her RN in Utah. She planned my bridal shower for Idaho, she flew down to be my maid-of-honor and she became the fine focus of my mother-in-law who desired to set Missy up with a few fine eligible single men in the AZ area. I spent one more semester at BYU-Idaho and it was with out Missy and boy did I miss her A LOT!
Now she's "Aunt Missy" to N and all future kids that come our way. In fact N's middle name is contrives from Missy's first name and my sister's first name.
Missy is a talented, capable nurse, a great big and little sister, the best babysitter, a creative craftster, she's easy to love and like, loyal, and hardworking (her work schedule is INSANE). She's my best friend and I can't think of anyone else who I would replace her with.

Here are a very few pictures of the many things we did :)
One night while studying, I took washable markers and colored on Missy's face. Well all were washable except for the purple....The things she put up with :D

Here's us after a shaving cream war in the park put on my Jaimie Dickinson.

The two of us on a Sunday where we all matched.

And an almost reunion at Amie's wedding reception.

Have a very happy birthday Missy!

More of N

Here are some more pictures, I'll add some video's to this post when I can figure out what's going on with the downloading...

Here's a picture of N sporting a dress Nana made for her.
Here she is "playing" a game Todd put on the computer for her. It's like Mario only with a penguin.
Now some time with Daddy.

And N with her finger puppets :L

An update on the Wee-Oneder

N has started to do something this month that makes her parents (us) proud beyond anything else. She'll pray with us. Not all the time not even half the time but sometimes she'll see us and she'll "fold her arms" walk over to us and sometimes kneel! and close her eyes and bow her head. What could make a parents more proud then their one year old praying with them!?

Another shinning moment is N will sometimes pick something off the ground and take it to the trash can. Granted that "something" isn't not always a piece of trash and sometimes a book, but she's getting the concept. Just a little more work and yeah! I have a little helper in the making :)

A quirk about N is when she walks, half the time its with an arm behind her back. Sometimes makes me think of how Napoleon is portrayed in movies, short, kinda chubby, one arm behind his back only N isn't going for the world conqueror goal.

One thing we are NOT thrilled about is she has started temper tantrums. One incident was we went to the pond with the ducks on the south end of campus so she could chase after them and walk them from their naps. Only when it came time to leave I had to pick her up since she wouldn't walk away and and she immediately arched her back, stretched out, stiffened her body and started to scream. So not an OK reaction. So we'll be working on that.....I'll let you know how it goes......Well, here's N before things got ugly.

Tooting My Own Horn

Alright I have sorely been slacking in the keeping my blog updated (thanks Emily) so here I go with some updates with what has happened with us.

So as poor college students we have to keep our eyes out for deals and an even sharper eye on our finances. But even if we weren't poor college students we'd still be doing this. Anyways, on the 11th of every month I head to Walmart for our once a month trip. Before hand I create a monthly dinner meal list and a list of what we eat for breakfast and common things I put in Todd's lunch box. After I have my lists I create a grocery list of what I need to buy for all the meals. Then I grab the store ads for that week and price out what the other stores are selling them for.
Once finished I take my grocery list and my ads (in case the employee checking me out wants to check - never has happened so far) and head to Walmart. For those of you who don't know Wally World will price match EVERYTHING. Food, hygiene products, kitchen appliances, electronics, everything! Granted if it is not food then the make and model all has to match with what the competing store is selling it for, but food they are only concern about size. They will price match one stores generic brand to theirs. They wont price match internet offers but hey they are already doing a lot more then what others stores do. This link will give you info.
So as I'm heading through the isles I'm checking to see if Walmart or a competing store is cheaper if it's another store I place that item in a certain spot in my cart and make a note on my list to show me quickly at check out where it is I'm price matching.
It takes a little more time at checkout with my full to the brim shopping cart, but after placeing all non price matching items first I put my items I am price matching on the counter and inform the cashier that I am price matching. I price match my meat - all of it but pork chops, my shampoo and conditioner and multiple food products. I loved it! The cashier even price matched something I forgot about to get me the best deal. (Never has happened before but that lady was great!.)
I felt extremely satisfied with my booty and made it back home to tell Todd right away how much I spent at the store. I spent less then half our monthly food budget! As each week passes I just need to restock on dairy (not cheese since I bought a 5lb brick and cut it up and stuck it in the freezer) and fresh produce from the Sunflower Farmers Market (it's a Trader Joe's for Utah).
I'm tooting my own horn, I'm so proud of myself!
And a good thing, Nihcolette was very well behaved for the hour we were there. (That's right only one hour in the store - bam baby!)