So Sweet! 16

I can't believe it has been 16 years since this sweet beauty entered our family.  She has been a blessing and a joy.  She has amazing fashion sense.  She is wonderful with children.  She is quiet and reserved.  She tries her best and strives to be who she knows she can be.  I don't know how we got so lucky to have her in our family.  We sure do love her!

Singing Singing All The Day

Although I haven't been Primary Chorister (music leader at church for ages 3-12) for several years, I LOVE hearing Kerst singing and humming Primary songs I taught the kids over the years.

Give Said the Little Stream is currently streaming live from Kerst.  

And yes, he does sing all the day - just as the song states.  And I love it!

Where did I get my ornaments?

My dear friend, Wendi, asked where I found my ornaments.  Some I make ... like Kerst's pinewood derby ornament.

I first go to Hobby Lobby and see what I can find in their ornaments on their 1/2 off sales.  I found Julia/Jared's mixer, cupcake and Kendall's dinosaurs there.  Hobby Lobby has their Christmas out in July.  I usually start looking in September.  Things are REALLY picked over in the store by November.  Nothing is left by December.

The clear ball ornaments I purchased at Michaels on their 1/2 off ornament sale - which happens frequently in November/December.  I usually keep a dozen on hand ... I never know when I will use them!  I used them to stuff the dried flowers Julia received when she was Sandy in the musical, Grease.  I used a clear ball to put the items my Dad used when he gave a talk on the Holy Ghost at Kerst's Baptism in 2009.  I used the clear ball to put shells from a family reunion inside to remind us of Bear Lake in 2001.  I also used a clear ball to fill with pieces of the car and tree from Jenna's accident (thanks Wendi for collecting those pieces!).

The Denver Temple hand spun ornament you can find here - I found a better deal, but it looks like they are revamping their website.  They have lots of different temples.  You can also have a bride and groom put next to the temple as well as painting the Angel Moroni gold - for an extra fee.

I purchased temple medallion ornaments for when we went to the open house of Oquirrh Mt Temple in 2009.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE to go to my local St. Nick's store.  It is open year around.  I could spend hours in this store ... and I do!  They have ornaments for everything - almost.  It is nice to see that they have different ornaments year after year - especially when you are purchasing a swimming ornament each year for Jenna :). I have purchased graduation, driver's license, broken arm, musical instruments, scouting, etc.

The wheelchair for Jenna I googled.  I wanted something small that would fit on a tree.  I found a couple of options but discovered this site.  Wrestling action figures.

I search the internet for my ideas of what I could make into ornaments ... I enjoy doing this.  The memory ornaments are more for me ... but I know the kids love them too!  I love journaling about the ornaments and why I selected them.  I know I go overboard, but this is what this tradition means to me .... memories and preserving them!

I do need to go back and journal and take pictures of the ornaments from years that have passed.

Ornaments for 2012 - memories

Growing up my parents had a tradition of giving us a new ornament each year.  As we grew older, it became an activity we did during the month of December to go and pick out our ornament for the year.  When we left home when we got married, we were able to take our ornaments with us to decorate our own tree with our new family.

I have done the same tradition with my own kids.  At first I started letting them pick their own ornament.  One year Jaley picked a long dangley red jeweled ornament, Julia picked a pink high heeled shoe and Jenna a pink rose.  I decided that I needed to have a little more control.  I started picking ornaments that represented a "memory" from that year.  Now it ends up being "memories" because I can't settle on one.  I collect items throughout the year to turn into ornaments ... you will understand as you read the post.  Anything can be made into an ornament!  You just have to be creative sometimes!

Oh, and to this day, the red dangley ornament is a favorite of Jaley's!  She loves shiny things.  She be-dazzles everything she can!

I have been journaling about their yearly ornaments over the past several years.  I need to do the younger years.  It is fun to look back and see what happened during the year.

Here are the memory ornaments for this year

 Kendall's ornaments:
A ball ornament of Julia and Jared (not pictured), swimming ornament with "Most Improved Swimmer" written on it.  Four dinosaurs and one mammoth  (Kendall LOVES dinosaurs .... he can name them, give you interesting facts about them, etc).  Salt Lake City temple

 Kerst's ornaments:
  Scout (Tenderfoot ... May, Second Class Scout .... October).  Turtle (his favorite animal), temple, Piano (taking piano lessons) and a swimming ornament for summer swim team.

 Jaley's ornaments:
  Orange Marshmallow guy with gun (for going to a shooting range with Grandpa P ... SHE LOVED IT!).  Girl with braces (got them on in May).  Shoe .  Hiking girl (4th year girl's camp 5 day 25 mile backpacking trip).  Piano (taking piano lessons),   Lifeguard ornament (Jaley worked as a lifeguard full time this summer), Elephant (Jaley's favorite animal), temple.

Jenna's ornaments:
MY FAVORITE .... Ball ornament with pieces of the car and tree from her accident on March 23, 2012.  Thank you to my dear friend, Beautiful aka Wendi, for gathering these items for me!  Wheelchair (to represent the 3 months Jenna spent in a wheelchair because of the accident).  I still have screws to include in a different ball or this ball that came from Jenna's left foot).

 More Jenna ornaments:  Lifeguard (Jenna worked part of July and then had another surgery on her foot from the accident.  She also worked part of August).  Marshmallow guy dressed in orange with gun (for shooting with Grandpa P ... she loved it too!).  BMW - represents the car she was in when she was in her accident over Spring Break.  Guitar - loves to play it.  White shoe (I need to paint it purple to represent the color she wore at Julia's wedding as her bridesmaid).  Swimming - high school swimming.  Ambulance - accident (she didn't ride in one because I didn't think she was injured that badly, I went and picked her up and brought her to the hospital along with Mike, Julia, Jaley and Jadey.  Her friend Ty rode in one).  Accident ball and wheelchair (explained above), temple ornament.

Julia ornaments:
 Saxophone (she learned how to play it this year ... which resulted in major jaw issues ... which lead to jaw surgery on Jan 3, 2013),cupcake and a red mixer, Music Treble Clef sign (Julia is a music major for education), Giraffe and (Julia's favorite animal - giraffe), and temple ornament.  I also have a blown glass ornament of the Denver Temple on order (Julia attended the Denver Temple for the first time to receive her endowments on Nov 24, 2012).

 This is the blown/spun glass ornament of the Denver Temple.

 John and Corin's ornaments:

You will see some of my ornaments are repeats of the kids .... because their memories are mine too - and I am heavily involved in a lot of what they do!

BMW, ball with car pieces and tree pieces, wheelchair (Jenna's accident) .... thankfully a memory now!   , temple ornament, Sudoku ornament (John's favorite down time activity).  I am also waiting for the blow glass Denver temple ornament to represent Julia attending the temple for the first time on Nov 24, 2012.

 It was a very memorable year.  This is my FAVORITE gift to give to my kids each year.  I know they look forward to it too!

Jawful ...

We head out in less than an hour ... Julia is having jaw surgery.

She has had a terrible time with TMJ/TMD.  It really flared up this past fall when she had to learn and teach saxophone for one of her BYU music education classes.  The placement of your mouth on the mouthpiece to play this instrument caused her to force her jaw forward.  This caused the jaw to have even more problems.  She can barely open her mouth to fit two fingers high - lately it has been one finger    Try it ... how many fingers high can your jaw open?

It has made eating very difficult.  She has to squish her food flat and shove it into her mouth through the small opening - since September.  Her jaw gets really tired and sore after a short time eating.  It has been great portion control for her!  Not fun for sure.

She is having her jaw scoped and then irrigated - at least that is the plan.  She had an MRI done last Saturday to give the surgeon more information on what is going on with her.  He is very conservative with what he does surgically.  He will start with the least invasive treatment possible.  90% of his patients respond well to this and don't need anymore surgery.  Let's hope Julia breaks her trend of being the unique 10%!

I get more because ...

The boys were serving up some leftover finger foods from a Christmas Party Jaley had last night with her friends in our home.

Kendall asked for more.  I told him he could have 3 more pieces.  Kerst put one more on the plate for himself while it was heating in the microwave.

Kendall was upset.  He didn't want to share the plate during the heating process (he is going through a stage).  I told him that Kerst might think it wasn't fair that Kendall got more than he did.

"I get more because I'm more cute."

Love the explanation.  Love the self confidence.  He is pretty cute even when he is being a booger.

Ahhhh .... It's that time of year - THE CODE

Time for so many fun traditions ... and it is a busy time with the upcoming wedding too!

I actually came up with the code for the gifts this year early!  I haven't even wrapped.

The past several years we have decided to torture the kids by writing a code for the gifts.  Each child is given a number.  They have to crack the code to figure out who gets which gifts.  The child who cracks the code gets a lunch date with Mom or Dad.

This year's code:
0
Almost 1
1
2
5

We will give the kids one hint each day when we get closer to Christmas.

Get a crackin'!