{Gratitude...

I found this idea on one of my favorite blogs and decided to implement it for the month of November in our house. Last night we had a few friends over for FHE and talked about gratitude. We are going to add leaves of Thanksgiving all month long. As usual, Jackson got completely into it and has been writing leaves at every spare moment....

I was up ALL night with a super sick Sammy so Todd took the bull by the horns and got Jackson off for school. When I finally rolled out of bed around 8:15 I came down and saw that he had been busy making more leaves this morning. I about fell on the floor laughing when I read his most recent leaf! You gotta love 1st graders...

{sPring Projects...

There's nothing that puts me in the mood for a project like being cooped up in the house. I start to go stir crazy sometime in the middle of January after all the craziness of Christmas subsides. Here are a few of my recent favorites...


We went to Utah over Thansgiving break and a trip to Utah isn't complete without going to the Quilted Bear. There are so many fun things there! One of my purchases that day was a Family Home Evening chart. There wasn't one that really matched the colors in my house, so I bought it with the idea that I would have to come up with my own version. I had it framed at Hobby Lobby (with my 40% off coupon of course) and I love it!

Over the last year and a half or so I have really fallen in love with sewing... I love the colors, the textures, the finished product, pretty much everything about it. You get a couple of good friends to come over with their machines for a "party" and it doesn't get much better. This is our version of the "Ultimate Sunday Bag". I found the pattern for the bag at a quilt show in Longmont last fall and made up a few for Christmas gifts. I finally got around to making one for myself and it is now complete with coordinating "I spy" bag, crayon roll and diaper/wipe storage.

{Hawker Holiday Adventures...

It's been awhile since my last post, so this is my attempt to catch you up on the comings and goings of our family over Christmas break!

Thanksgiving came late this year and I was busy making gifts (since September, really. I'll have to post a few pictures of what I was able to finish.) so our house was finally decorated about mid December. Christmas decorations are my favorite!

We went over to the Baer's for year 2 of homemade candy cane making... it's becoming one of my very favorite Christmas traditions.

I am one of the room mom's for Jackson's kindergarten class and this is one of the take homes that each child got in their goodie bag. I actually like the look of lifesavers better, but because we were making so many of them we opted for plain old Breath Savers (much more cost effective!). Here are the directions.

Christmas morning was a hoot. Sam was up at the crack of dawn and we couldn't contain him upstairs, so he went down and ripped into the goodies that Santa brought for him. Jackson finally rolled out of bed around 9:00 (it must have been a late night for him!) He was a little upset that Santa didn't bring him a real penguin, but appreciated the note Santa left behind telling why he didn't bring him a real penguin!

Christmas afternoon we met up with the Meiner's and the Atkinson's to spread a little Christmas cheer to some elderly people at a local nursing home. It was a riot! I'm grateful that hearing is one of the first senses to go because honestly we sounded pretty bad. It was sweet to talk with a few of them afterwards and hear their stories.

The day after Christmas we met my family in Keystone for a little snowy adventure (none of us really ski, so we were there for the shopping and tubing runs!). We found a killer sledding hill (litterally, killer. As we were pulling into the parking lot we saw a man break his collar bone at the very least). We got all of our gear on and braved the slopes. It was bitter cold and Sammy was not at all enjoying himself so after about 5 minutes he was back in the car with Aunt Kenz (thanks!). Todd figured out how to launch off of his tube and land on his feet, which totally scared me to death since our last encounter with tubes ended in back surgery! All in all it was probably my favorite Christmas memory... (check out the bottom right picture! Todd was at least 5 feet in the air!)

This was fun... we found a chocolate display in Keystone. Everything here is CHOCOLATE! It was a work of art! The tree alone is over 500 pounds of pure white chocolate.

My family came down to the Springs for New Year's. New Year's Eve was a total bust with most everyone in bed by 10:00 so New Year's day we woke up early and went to Sertich Ice Arena for a little family ice skating. That night we stayed up until well past midnight playing games, go figure!

{Candy Canes...

We went over to the Baers on Sunday night and they showed us how to make homemade candy canes! It has been a long standing tradition in their family and it was so fun that they included us in their tradition this year! ...Grammies, I think it needs to be one of our traditions too. I'll get you a supply list!!!

{Grandma Ann's fudge...

Todd and I have been married for over 8 years now. Every year when Christmas rolls around I hear Brent and all of Todd's siblings rave about Anns' fudge. Well after 8 years I have never seen, let alone tasted the stuff. So for family home evening last week we had Grandma and Grandpa come over for a little fudge making class. It really is very good and I would post the recipe, but I have been sworn to secrecy!