What Child is This ...

I know I have posted a lot of videos this year but for me this Christmas has had a soundtrack filled with songs about Mary and her baby. I think it might have something to do with my being a mother. Either way, these songs have touched me and have brought the Spirit into my home so much. The feeling of love and peace that has been in our home is wonderful. I hope that by sharing these songs, it helps bring that same spirit into your homes. Merry Christmas!

Our Smilebox Christmas Card

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

New Christmas Morman Message

SNOW!!!!

Last week it snowed for about 3 hours and we got about 1/2 inch of snow. It was really fun watching the girls watch the snow fall. I REALLY didn't want to wrap everyone up and go out in the rapidly warming wet snow so I took a page from my preschool days and went out and filled a jelly roll pan full of snow and let the girls play with it at the table. we had a blast! We made handprints in the snow, tiny snowmen and splashed until the snow melted. I went out and got some more when the first batch melted and we played until our fingers were a lovely shade of red!!!  Fun memories!!!

Sorry the picture is fuzzy. The camera was left in the car and fogged up when we brought it in the house.

Bella trying to eat the snow!

This is Bella's face when she tried to throw a snowball at me. We had a nice talk about not throwing snow in the house!!

Iyla was super sxcited about the snow. This is the girls making handprints in the snow!!

The Dangers of watching too many Christmas Cartoons!!

You turn into a baby zombie!!!

I think these pictures are so darling!!! They are ACTUALLY sharing the blanket!! It's amazing how much atention they pay to Frosty the snow man but when I ask them to pick up toys... nothing!!

Gingerbread Houses

We made Gingerbread houses on Monday night. It was a lot of fun! The girls did a great job.  Since they are both still so young I didn't want to make things too complicated so I iced the graham crackers onto quart milk cartons. I stuck them in the fridge to quick set during our family night lesson.

This is the candy we used. We have Jelly beans, assorted hard candies and ju ju fish, which turned out to be Iyla's FAVORITE!! The trays are from tv dinners. I saved then for lunches and stuff. I know they are not Tupperware but they can go in the microwave which is just fine for me!

The artists... ready to assemble a masterpiece!!!! we took their table and stuck it in the kitchen for easy clean up. It's so cute to see them both sitting there! I still can't get over the fact that Iyla is big enough to sit in a chair by herself! Where has the time gone???

Iyla was WAY excited about the candy. I could barely get her to put on any candy. She kept putting it in her mouth!

Meanwhile Isabella was working very hard on her house. we used her Silk Soy Nog carton so her house had a chimeny!

Here is Bella with her completed house! Posing as usual!

Here is Iyla trying to eat candy off her house! I think this is a great picture of her. You can really see her long eyelashes. We were having very dry waether that day and Iyla's hair felt it. You can always tell the humidity outside by looking at her hair. She is going to hate it when she grows up!!

We had a great time that night and we are really enjoying this Christmas season!

FlyLady.Net

     My friend Esther introduced me to a great website... http://www.flylady.net/ I am loving it! It's all about reclaiming you home from clutter and getting into a routine. I'm not saying that my house is a complete mess but I think everyone could use a little encougement when it comes to house work.
     They have a 31 day baby step program and I have started that. So far I am really liking it. It all starts with a shiny sink.

       Here is my shiny sink! I don't think it has been this clean in a long time. I will be sharing with you all this new journey I am on. My up's and downs. I think it will be fun to kind of refocus on my house and my own well being as well. I challange you all to shine up you sinks, tie up your shoes and get to work!!

One baby step at a time.

100 Posts!!

YAY!! We have reached our 100th post on our blog! And to celebrate I am going to list 100 wonderful things about my life... Just kidding!!

I am really enjoying sharing what's on my mind and what's up with my family. We are really enjoying our Christmas and Thanks for reading!

Scripture Advent

This year for Christmas time instead of eating a piece of candy or doing an activity every night we are doing a scripture advent. It is really a lot of fun and has really helped us stay "on task" if you will with the true meaning of Christmas. I thought I would share a copy of it with you all so you can use it if you want. Enjoy!

Our Tree!

This is our Christmas Tree! We cut it down from the forest at Rachel and Brandon's farm. We had a great time walking aroud looking for just the right one.

The tree is decorated with all homemade decorations. The garland is made out of Cherrios!! We are doing a homemade Christmas this year and have really taken on the theme... even in our tree!

This is our Kitchen tree. The tree is the artifical one we used last year for our main tree. It is fun to have a tree in our Kitchen!!

I hope you all have fun with your trees too! Post some pictures too. I would love to see them!

Labor of Love

I found this song today and I fell in love with it. It's not your traditional Christmas song but to me, as a mom who had given birth myself, it is very powerful. I hope you love it as much as I do.

A Baby Changes Everything

This is my favorite song at the moment and I thought I would share it with you. Makes me cry every time I hear it. Merry Christmas!

Happy Thanksgiving

It's that time of year again. Time to take a step back and think about how blessed we are. And let me tell you, I have a lot to be grateful for this Thanksgiving.

Leahona's Thankful List 2009

• The Gospel and how it has blessed my life
• My husband, what a rock he has been these past few months
• Isabella and Iyla, they bring so much joy to my life
• My mother for her loving guidance and support
• My extended family. I just love all of my in-laws. They are such a constant reminder of my eternal family and what I have to look forward too in the rest of forever!
• Our home. It may not be much but it's where we can be a family and keep our children safe and warm and teach them all they need to know
• My education. Getting education is so important. I am so glad I went into early childhood education and development. It has been such a blessing to have that knowledge and use it to be the best mom I can be for our girls
• having transoprtation. Every time I see a mom puching a stroller filled with bundled up kids and loaded down with groceries I say a prayer of thankfulness that I can transport my family and goods in warmth and comfort.
• Empolyment!!! Even though these are lean times and everyone, including employers, are cutting back, Jacob and I are still able to provide for our girls.
• My AMAZING friends. I can not express my love and graditude for my loving friends. With everything that has happened, they have been there. Even something as simple as a phone call when I was down has been so helpful. It's nice to know you are not alone during adverity.
• All of my doctors who helped me get through the miscarriage and surgery with love and concern. I was taken care of so well and thanks to there skill, we are still able to have more babies someday.
• The St. Joeseph Medical Center Burn Unit and Iyla's doctors and nurses. All of the medical staff at the burn center were amazing with our baby. Iyla is healed now but we will never forget our time with those amazing angels who works so hard to help burned children.

As I sat at Thanksgiving dinner, these and many other things came to my memory. I have been so richly blessed this past year. I really love taking the time to count my blessings. It makes it easier to bear the hard times.

Our Thanksgiving dinner this year was really yummy. I did all the cooking myself this year and boy was I tired when we were done. The menu was...

• Roasted Turkey
• Stuffing (I made 2 kinds)
• Mashed potatoes
• Gravy
• Brussel sprouts
• Steamed carrots
• cranberry sauce (3 kinds)
• baked yams
• candied yams
• rolls
• pumpkin pie (3)
• Cheery Pie
  

Wheew! Even reading tht list makes me tired!! It was an amazing day and I am so glad I was able to spend it with those I love.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!!