Christmas Book Advent

I came across a couple of blogs that shared some advents that they do. One of the ideas was a book one. I thought it was a great idea and have been searching around for activities to do with the books. We also have an separate activity one that we have done for the last 2 years. They are more traditional things like going to the ward party, sleep under the tree, go to the First Presidency Devotional etc. I thought I would share what I have planned for this year.

Every year, we get a new Christmas movie. I got this one. My sisters and I saw it as little girls and I LOVE it! It's more of a nostalgic one for me.

The activity with this book is to make paper birds.

I'm going to attempt to do a simple origami star with Tanner.

We're going to string Popcorn and put it on the tree.

No activity for this day...unless I can come up with one in the next week.

Paper Santa hats

Tie bows on the Christmas Tree

Make snow angels (either in the snow or hand print angels)

Make Cinnamon Buns

Go sledding or make tissue paper trees

We're having a Polar Express party...p.j's, hot chocolate and inviting some friends over and watching the movie.

Making picture frames

Making glitter stars

building a village out of blocks and playing a game

Making trees out of Sugar Cones and candy

Making snowmen with shaving cream

Making stables out of shoe boxes

going through our toys/clothes and donating what we don't use anymore

making antlers to wear

decorating gingerbread men

Reading the story of the Birth of Christ in Luke.

playing a game. similar to pin the tail on the donkey, except it's put the stable in the manger.

making who-pudding and watching the movie

having a Jerusalem Dinner

We are doing this book on the 24th and we are going to the Live Nativity pageant this night to remind ourselves the true meaning of Christmas.

Our Traditional yearly activities include:

-get a new cd

-go to the town's old fashioned Christmas

-put up the tree (or this year, the decorations around the house)

-write down our memories from the year

-take cookies to neighbors/friends

-write Santa

-have a p.j. party and watch a Christmas movie

-write goals for the next year

-Watch 'The Nativity Story'

-have a $5 dinner

-go sledding, build a snowman, go ice skating (we usually use all 3 over the course of 24 days)

-sleep under (or as close as possible to)the tree

-donate old (but good and not broken) toys and clothes

-drive around town and look at the lights (we usually do this closer to the 25th AND on the 24th on the way home from the Nativity pageant because most everyone has their lights on on the 24th).

-make hot chocolate

-have a Jerusalem dinner

-go to the live Nativity Pageant

-get a new Christmas movie

UPDATE: I did NOT purchase all these books. Some of them were given to us, some of them are ones that I have ordered over the years from the school book orders, some were given to us. I did, however, purchase 5 of the more classic ones because Tanner didn't have, for example, the night before Christmas, The Polar Express and How the Grinch...

We still have about 15 books that were not used for this years advent. Next year, we'll switch it up and put them in the advent and take out some of the ones from this year.

If this is something you would like to do, I figure if you purchase a book each month (either from the book store or an online place) you could have 12 of your own books and then near Christmas, put a hold on 12 other books from the Library. That way you can switch it up. We love books at our house and so I am planning on buying new ones over the next year, but if you don't want to invest in books for yourself but want the fun of the book advent, you could get books from the library. I'm really excited to do this. I think it will be really fun!

Tanner's 8th birthday

Tanner's 8th birthday was a blast! These pictures are backwards but whatever...
Tanner got star wars lego 3 from my sister, Amy, and I think that was his favorite. He wasted no time and went downstairs to play it seconds after he ripped it open.





A star wars card from Amy. She always gives the coolest cards.

The birthday party! Tanner is not a fan of sparklers but my Mom found this '8' one and I didn't want a bunch of wax melted on his cake.

His friends making a silly face.

The actual day of his birthday, he wanted to have Chicken Noodle soup with Dad at work. Easy peasy.

We were all a little tired this day...can you tell???

Here is our amazing dinner that Tanner chose.

I also made these 2 wreaths. This one was for me.

This one I made for Erica (don't worry, I already gave it to her)

Matt organized games for the party and the kids seemed to have lots of fun.

Thank You

I just had to share THIS video and express my deepest thanks to everyone who ever helped us and prayed for us after we had Tanner. This really hit so close to my heart and I am just so grateful for everyone who helped us in any way during that time. Words don't even begin to come close to be able to begin to express my deepest gratitude. I will always be eternally grateful for friends, family and perfect strangers who showed us so much love and faith and support during a very challenging time in our lives.

I am also so grateful to those who show their love and support to us now, currently. My cup runneth over with gratitude for those who care for and love us in any and all ways.

We are so grateful to have the blessing of Tanner.



P.S. remember how I have a 9 year old son named Banner??? (for those of you trying to figure this out, Banner is Tanner's imaginary brother). Banner has a dog named Jam and he's a small black dog : )

Thinking out loud

I've been in a bit of a funk lately. Feeling really stressed out and easily irritated/annoyed. So I was telling someone about this and they asked why I was so stressed out and when I started to get into this funk. I can't really pin point it...I think it's just been a lot of little random stuff adding up...you know like a kettle building up pressure, except I know the pressure is building up. Anyways, so I was asked if I was regularly reading my scriptures and praying. I'm not at all trying to justify by behavior but I just haven't made the time. I use to be so good at this. We're good at family scripture reading and praying but I'm not that good at individual stuff.

Anyways so this is the response "You are in a state of rebellion". I never thought of my "state" as a state of rebellion. I mean, I always thought being rebellious was about being defiant and I don't feel like I'm being defiant. My attitude isn't "who cares, I don't want to read the scriptures or pray". I know I should, but like I said before I have CHOSE not to make the time. I get too easily distracted by wasteful things like Pinterest or facebooking or t.v. So I have decided to take a break and try to get re-focused on what's important and not be in a state of rebellion.

Not that I blog very often, but I think I'm going to wait until the end of the month to post again.

I have felt for about 2 weeks that I was going to crash and burn and I can feel it coming on so I just need to slow down and take it easy for awhile. So for the time, I bid you all well : )

Matthew Dear

(Photo by Kinsey Holt)

I try not to talk about Matt or our relationship on my blog for many reasons. Mostly because I try to be fiercely loyal to our relationship. No relationship is perfect and mine is not an exception to that, but it really bothers me when people complain about their husbands so publicly on their blogs or are disloyal to them by making fun of not just their spouses but men in general. What if for one day, we thought nothing about ourselves or what we wanted but of our spouses and how much they do for us. I don't do this on a regular basis but lately I have thought more and more during the day about Matt and what I can do for him and not myself. Matt seriously has so much patience. He never complains about helping other people, he makes Tanner's lunches every morning, he listens to my frustrations about silly things that in my heart I know don't really matter but in the moment get me frustrated, he is so good with kids, he can find just about anything I have lost, plus he just loves me for me. I'm so glad that Matt and I are married and that we get to grow old together.

My brother

Apparently I have a 9 year old son named Banner. Yep. He and Tanner are besties and he even carved a pumpkin with us on Sunday. So if you ask Tanner, he probably has a brother.

For other news, I will post pictures and let you in on the latest happenings around these here parts

Tanner went out trick or treating as Darth Vader. He was supremely cool looking and even scared a few people with his super cool light saber.



This is our new front door mat that Matt picked out.

My new welcome sign I got last weekend. It's red and awesome



Our finished pumpkins.


Tanner's pumpkin

Banner's pumpking...yes, he carved this ALL by himself


Matt's awesome pumpkin



I made these cool rice krispie pumpkins for Tanner's class party. They were soft and chewy and oh so yummy!


Pumkin seeds. Little story: this is our first year carving pumpkins. Matt and I have carved them as kids but since we've been married (11 years) this is our first. It was most exciting!

Matt tends to be MUCH more patient with Tanner than I am. I think it's a trait I inherited from my Mom because I just want to do it for him and my Mom was the same way with me when I couldn't figure out how to do stuff. I'm better but it's a learning process.



Me, with my hand in my pumpkin guts. Sometimes my hair is curly. Sometimes it's blue too.


How I felt about sticking my hand in a mushy, cold, stringy, wet pumpkin.


My ever so cute, adorable #1 boy Tanner


My wickedly awesome, cute husband

So we had a ward Halloween party on Saturday night but we were invited out on a date with our charming Trek Daughter, A.J., and her husband so we went to the party for an hour and then went on our fun date. This is our best bowling pose...actually this pose probably explained my dismal score of 69.


This is A.J. and Brett's best bowling pose. He won with over 120 points.


Matt and I as Thing 1 and Thing 2



No, I'm not secretly "Vanna Whiting" my stomach to "secretly" announce I'm pregnant.





Sadly, we didn't get ANY pictures of the 3 of us! Too bad.

Tanner was a wizard (or warlock) for his Halloween performance.



Isn't he such a cute, adorable, sweet wizard that you ever did see? It's not like I'm biased or anything.


this picture is kinda backwards. I went and had a Mary Kay make over and this was after. Isn't Tanner's face priceless? Like worth a thousand or more words for sure.


Here's the make over. It's a little more dramatic than I normally do, but not so much that I look like a whore.

This one is mostly for Megan. When she was here last she suggested I put a bow on this wreath so I did. It's okay. I'm not totally in love with it but it works for now.

What else has been going on in our neck of the woods? 21 days and Tanner will be 8! Like wasn't he just born last year? Didn't we just spend half of his first 2 years of life in the hospital having surgeries? That wasn't THAT long ago was it??? Man oh man it's flown right by. I am beyond excited for this phase and for the joy that he has brought into not only our lives but the lives of our family and friends. The love I feel for him as his mother is beyond anything I can begin to explain.

I won't lie and say that it's been overly easy lately being a Mother. He has tried/tested us to every limit we can think of. As I was explaining my frustrations about feeling negatively about being a Mother (which is huge because being a Mother is a role I deeply cherish and value) to someone, she said something oh so wise. She said that before children are baptized, she felt the adversary can still influence them and they can do things that they normally don't do because Satan knows that they are about to be baptized and of course he doesn't want that. I hope that makes sense. It was an Ah hah moment for me. We have made more of an effort to be loving and patient with him and explain that choices, good or bad, have a consequence. It has calmed the frustration about 7 notches.

I think about the day he will be baptized almost non-stop. I wonder if Matt and I have taught him all that we could have by now. I wonder if he will understand the importance of what he is about to do. I wonder if he will feel the Holy Ghost and know what it is. I wonder if he's ready. I wonder if Matt and I have been the best parents we could be and if we've failed in any way. In the end, I believe it will all be okay. No parent is perfect and I'm certainly not expecting that I am or have been. I just hope that I have been the best that I have had the potential to be.

Life is good and we are happy and healthy and that's what matters most.