What a Christmas week!

Saturday, Dec 20th - Cluff Progressive Dinner, where we went to each of their homes to see their beautiful Christmas decorations and ate dinner. I made the salad and rolls for the dinner. We had a gift exchange at Carolee's place and all the cousins were there to see Santa.
Sunday, Dec. 21st- I taught Sharing Time in Primary about the restoration of the gospel and the blessings our Savior had given to us. Our boys wore cute Christmas outfits for church. Our home teachers came by and visited us. We went back to Carolee's to have a Christmas Program. Our boys explained the true meaning of Christmas. We watched a show about Christmas oranges. Good story and we hear it every year. Everyone opened the gifts from Mom and Dad Cluff and all of us got new PJ's. Cute! The boys stayed the night with the cousins.
Monday, Dec. 22nd- Lots of snow on that day! Had to drive to get the boys at Carolee's and ate breakfast there. Drove back home and decided to stay home for the day. We decorated the gingerbread house and made sugar cookies. It was messy, but we had fun. I had to shovel the whole driveway myself!
Tuesday, Dec. 23rd-Made few loaves of bread for the Thornes family. They turned out great! I love making homemade breads and rolls, and I try to make them whenever I have the chance. Shoveled the snow again because we got more snow on that day. My close friend's son, Nate who is deaf, wanted to have a sleepover at our house and so we let him. We went out to eat with my family along with my aunt's family at Mimi's Cafe for dinner, then went over to my parents to open presents.
Wednesday, Dec. 24th- made food for the next day for the Cluff's Christmas dinner and made dinner for the Thornes family at our home. Brady and the boys went out sledding and snowmobiling. Nate went home that day and he had so much fun being with us. We had a nice Christmas dinner that evening and watched the nativity movie in our theatre room.
Thursday, Dec. 25th-got up at 6:30AM on Christmas morning! The boys were too excited and wanted to open presents right away. The boys were happy with what they got for Christmas. Timothy got Denver Bronco stuff along with money to go to a game in Denver next year. Joshua got a new DS and a bike. Caleb got toys, toys, and toys. :) Brady shoveled the snow because we got more fresh snow that morning! We went over to my parents house to open presents. We got a trip to DisneyWorld in March and few other nice things. We went to the Cluffs at 3:30PM for the dinner, watched the family movie Gaylee made for us, and played some games. Went to bed earlier that night, we were so tired!

Caleb's Preschool Christmas Program

We went to a preschool program this morning and watched Caleb as he sang songs with the other preschoolers. Caleb had a good time.

Sitting on Santa's lap and telling Santa what he wants for Christmas.


Caleb got a candy cane from Santa.

Decorating the sugar cookie all by himself. Got a new book!

Christmas 2008

I placed this blog on http://www.tipjunkie.com/ for the Christmas 2008 Virtual Home Tour. This is what I posted. It's a great site to get some great ideas and creavtivity from others.

Welcome to my home and take a peek!

Our front porch...

Closer look, got these garlands and the rest from Robert Crafts for 60% off.

Most of the decorations you find here are from Robert Crafts. Love that place!

Our foyer...

O Tuscany tree...

I got these decorations at Interior Elements and Robert Crafts for the tree last year.

lights out...

Dining room... all decorated for the holidays

Dicken's village & a large candy cane...

O another Christmas tree...

Santas I used for this tree... of course, I didn't forget about "Believe"

Family room...

Our kitchen...
Little wreaths placed on stools & Christmas dishes...

Thank you for taking the tour of my home. I would love to take a peek of your homes and get some wonderful ideas from all of you!

Merry Christmas to you all!

Our 2008 Family Pictures

Thanksgiving Trip

Our family and some of the Cluff families went to St. Louis to spend Thanksgiving with Tyler's family. The first day we were there, we saw the Gateway Arch, St. Louis Rams stadium, and one museum inside the Gateway Arch. On Thanksgiving, the boys played football with the family and had our Thanksgiving feast at Tyler's house. I made pumpkin pies the night before. I was able to start reading "Breaking Dawn" while on this vacation. I haven't had the chance to read it when it first came out because I had been too busy. The next day, we went to the Children's museum, "Magic House". It was huge! We enjoyed hanging out there. After the museum, we saw the St. Louis temple, but we didn't had the time to stop by because of Sadie's baptism. Sadie's baptism was very nice and we couldn't believe that Sadie was all grown up. We drove up to Nauvoo after the baptism and stayed at one of the inns for the night. Brady and I went to the Nauvoo temple for the endowment session with the rest of the Cluff families. The endowment session went nicely and the temple itself was very beautiful. The boys and the rest of their cousins went on a wagon tour around Nauvoo while we couples attended the session. We went to the Carthage jail where Joseph Smith was killed. It was a very sincere and spiritual place. We stopped by the cemetery where Joseph and his family was buried, and visited Pam's brother's wife at Sarah Kimball's place. She and her husband were serving their mission in Nauvoo. Our family left that night to stay at the airport hotel for our return flight on that following early morning. Our planes were delayed for 5 hours because of the snow, but we were glad that we made it back home that day. Brady and I were sick with a terrible cold on the trip back. All of us had a great time spending the vacation in St. Louis, Nauvoo, and also visit Tyler's family.