It's called the most Wonderful Time of the Year for a REASON...

Friday December 14th, 2012
Christmas of course!  Loving the season and enjoying the moments.  After the kids went to bed the other night Matt and I watched the "Joy to the World" video put out by the church in 2003 (I think), it is such a great video on the birth, life and ministry of Jesus Christ, it also incorporates temple square, the Mormon Tabernacle choir, orchestra and live moments of the Christmas season.  A great way to fill you with the Christmas Spirit.  I decided to bring it to primary to show the kiddos (being five weeks in Dec.)  It is 25 min long but it kept the attention of the children and they all seemed to really enjoy it which made me happy that they could enjoy it just as much as I did.  I love how people on a whole are so full of Charity, Giving and just plain HAPPIER and more generous and kind in the month of December, if only we had the Christmas Spirit all year long. And what would the Christmas Season be without our family traditions?
THE SUMNER SANTA PARADE
Took these pics of the Sumner HS Drum line for Josh who is really into his music, he wants a drum set for Christmas from Santa...will he get his wish, we will see Christmas morning!  He had the biggest grin on his face when he saw these drummers...visions of being in a marching band will dance in his head on Christmas Eve.
The Princesses for Brooke
All three girls were in the parade this year for Dancemakers
  
THE WARD CHRISTMAS PARTY
The primary did the nativity again this year.
 Spencer was one of our wise men (in the blue) and due two a few of our planned sheep turned stage-fright  Brooke by default ended up as one of our sheep.  Ellie was in the chime-bell choir in Sister Pearson's class to "Away in a Manger" on the left of the stage and Josh was in the Star-Choir.
If you look carefully you can see Brooke's little sheep face peeking through the kids.
Here's a clearer pic of Josh on the far right in the front.
The party wouldn't be complete without Mr. Santa Claus himself paying the kids a visit! Jarom and Layton even manned up and sat on Santa's lap to tell him what they wanted for Christmas.
BreAnna and McKenzie (the Beehives) were Santa's elves this year in passing out the candy can bags.
CUB SCOUTS FILED TRIP TO THE RYAN HOUSE MUSEUM
The boys sipping cocoa after the tour.
It was fun to see and hear the tour and the stories of the history of the city we now live in and the ones who were here in the very beginning who helped build everything from the ground up.  Look at that fun bike, they also had the Daffodil Princesses from all the years past, it was fun to look at how the hair and styles have changed and evolved over the years.  Girls now days look far younger than in the past but maybe it was just the hair styles?
The cubs having fun at the type writer, my how we've came a long ways since the type writer days...these days with the ever changing technology!
 They kept the museum open just for our boys during their cub den meeting time so the cubs had the home all to their selves.  A fun field trip!
UNCLE MIKE'S BIRTHDAY and AN ANNOUNCEMENT
 
Matt's youngest brother had his b-day out in Issaquah last weekend.  It was fun to get together for an adult night out to celebrate with his family.  They also made a big announcement that they are expecting baby #2, this will make 22 grand kids on the Jackson side, Ashley is 11 weeks pregnant now.  Congrats to Mike, Ashley and Levi!
BROOKE and her friend JORDYNN'S Strawberry Shortcake b-day Party!
Brooke was excited to go and had a great time at her friend Jordynn from dance class's strawberry shortcake party.  Being three going to a friend b-day party is a real treat, seeing her older siblings with their friend parties on a regular basis...she was happy to have a turn at going to a b-day party and to come home with a goodie bag of fun stuff.
YEARLY FHE NIGHT at THE OLD COUNRTY BUFFET and SPANAWAY LIGHTS
And what a treat, our FHE nights are on Thursday this year (just the way the family schedule permitted.) So lucky for us, Thurs night at the Old Country is FAMILY NIGHT...we didn't even know until we got there but cotton candy and free balloons for the kids and 12 and under eat for 99 cents!
SPENCER'S WINTER CONCERT
All of the 2nd and 3rd graders at Daffodil Valley.
 
After the concert, we joined many boys from our ward/cub pack to hotcocoa and hot fudge sundaes at McDonalds for a job well done.  The boys all rode in a mini bus, it was alot of fun for them.  Members of our ward bought a bus off of craigslist.  It's great to tote a large group of people from one place to another.  The ladies used it last night also at our Relief Society progressive dinner.
JOSH
Josh with his favorite new thing, my Visiting Teachers brought over this fun M and M's soldier/nutcracker dispenser this week and Josh has taken ownership of it. He wanted Ellie to take these pics of him with his awesome new toy last night...so as we can see he posed for his pictures to the fullest.  All's he could talk about last night is how we needed to go buy more m and m's or better yet skittles to put in his machine.  He did say, "mom I really want to try skittles in it since I like them better than m and m's but if m and m's cost less we can buy them."  Josh is already a penny pincher :)
DL HOLLAND'S FUNERAL
Matt's mom aka Grandma Cheryl went to Utah for the funeral of DL Holland, (Matt's Grandma Donna's brother) who passed away last week.  These pictures were sent to us from Sussane Spicker his daughter who is Gary's (Matt's dads) cousin.  Looks like a beautiful service and honor to DL's life, sending our love, thoughts and prayers to the family. What a blessing of Eternal Families our Heavenly father has given to us through the gift of our Savior Jesus Christ...

Christmas & Other Simple Projects in Mass Quantities...

Anyone who really knows me knows that I'm all about the simple projects or just simplifying life in general to  still get my creative-fix in but to have enough time to hold down the fort at the same time.  I'm all about planning ahead so I've started in on Christmas/New Year prep, I've been having fun putting together some fun yet useful items, I won't post them all right now so I don't ruin any surprises but here's a few that are complete that I can check off the to-do list.
 Our "Soda-lighted" to know you- Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer's for our home and visiting teaching families this year.  Loving the A&W Root beer as our reindeer body! I saw these made up with Coca Cola with the little bottles of soda, figured it'd just as cute in a big daddy body of our family and "Noble Favorite A&W drive-in owned" root beer.
We made up a ton of these "We Wash You a Merry Christmas" quick neighbor, school/church/activity/dance/piano teacher, coach, bus driver...pretty much anyone simple Christmas item from our family, so useful and who can't use some hand soap this time of the year with all of the colds/flus going around?!
Put 60 odd some of these Primary Children Birthday Items Together.  The theme for this coming year of 2013 is "I am a Child of God" so we picked up color crayons when school started for way inexpensive as part of our hand out for the year of..."No matter what COLOR, shape or size, we are all children of our Heavenly Father and created in his image." Then they get a picture of the Savior and of course a ticket to go visit the Bishop for their candy bar of choice for their birthday.
Made these up for our Primary Teachers appreciation hand out this year with 7-Up.  "Seven Reasons why you are up on our list of Christmas Favorites this year"....For Primary Purposes our seven we used were: Patience, Love for Our Primary Children, Dependability, Preparation, Teachings, Learning and Growth and Example.
 
I didn't take too many pics over Thanksgiving these are it; we did however have a good one!  We stayed in town this year which was relaxing and it gave us the opportunity to get all of the lights and Christmas decorations up as well as cooking our own turkey dinner here at home.  We also had the opportunity to go over to the Tucks to spend time with them and the cousins, they had a plethora of turkey options: baked, deep fried and our new found favorite- the SMOKED, it was so moist and yummy! We didn't sleep too much over the long weekend staying up so late with no work or school but we had a lot of fun with the kids and fam. The kids didn't want to go back to the routine, they are anxiously awaiting Christmas/Winter Break already!

Primary Program 2012

November 11, 2012
"Choose The Right" Primary Program 
Our ward has got the cutest kids....just see for yourself~
Today was our ward's primary program, the kids all did such a great job!
  We took today's opportunity when most of the children were in attendance and in their "Sunday Best" for their special yearly program to snap their photos for the primary bulletin board in 2013 that is fast approaching.
The Primary Program is such a WONDERFUL opportunity not just for the children but for all involved in the primary, everyone holds their weight and pulls together to make everything flow smooth from: the children's speaking parts, walking up to the pulpit in a orderly fashion, music and piano for all of the primary program songs and musical numbers, preparing special talks involved, containing the children up on the stand for the duration of the program, the pizza and ice cream sundae practice the day before and YES...we can't forget the reward of a job well done of RICE KRISPY TREATS for all after the program!  I've said it before and I'll say it again, our ward has got the best group of ladies in the primary leadership.  It is such a joy serving with them and our fabulous primary children!!!  As wonderful and rewarding as the primary program is, it is also a big sigh of relief after it's complete for the year, I think you can tell from the looks on our faces as we enjoy our treats...until next year, a job well done for everyone!