Christmas Highlights

My Christmas festivities started Saturday the 22nd. First up was lunch with Melanie & Melissa we think this was our fifth year of getting together to celebrate Melanie's birthday & Christmas.

 Birthday cards is kind of our thing and doodling on the envelope is kind of my thing. We went to Oregano's for lunch something we hadn't done in a long time so that was fun. I also got some awesome gifts! But what really got me in the Christmas spirit was my friend Melissa who decided to do the 26 acts of Kindness to honor the Newton victims. She left a hundred percent tip for our waiter, and giving was always such a part of Christmas growing up it inspired me to find more ways to serve those around me.

That night was our families adult family dinner/white elephant gift exchange. We started the night off by going to Zupa's.

After every came back to my place for our white elephant gift exchange. Do you know why it is called a white elephant gift exchange? I read about this in a book, I think but since I can not remember where here is the Wikipedia version.  The term derives from the story that the kings of Siam (now Thailand) were accustomed to make a present of one of these animals to courtiers who had rendered themselves obnoxious, in order to ruin the recipient by the cost of its maintenance. 

Mark showed up to my house in his ugly sweater, maybe next year I will join in the ugly sweater fun. But they are not easy to come by. Mark has us play a game they played over the radio by playing songs from movies and everyone guessing what movies they were from. My brother Brett and sister in law Angie were my real competition but my dad guessed the Cars song and we won!

 My dad surprised me with such a sweet gift. He came up with a bag that held two hats and told me to pick one. I grabbed the red one and he put the blue one on. My mom then explained while looking through a catalog he saw these "Sherlock" hats and said we need to get these for me & Connie to wear while we watch Sherlock & Downton Abbey. I think my dad may be the cutest dad in the world.

This is a cutting board made by my brother Ryan that I got at the gift exchange. Isn't it pretty? It is actually even prettier in person. Ryan has an etsy shop if you want to see some other cool ones. 

I spent Christmas eve over at Debbie's along with my parents and younger brother Eric. I slept over and did Christmas morning with Debbie's family. Look at the journals William & Gracie designed and help wrap for me.

 Here is Joe Joe playing with the train I got him!

Then it was time to head out to my parents for Christmas breakfast. Here are all the stocking, my mom does not mess around!

 I decided to make ornament tags to go along with my gifts this year, thank you pinterest.

 Here is my mom opening the gift we got for her & my dad, wireless headphones for the tv.

 That evening Debbie, Russ & I went and saw Les Miserables, it was beautiful and even better the second time around though even harder to not sing along with. Also did anyone else find themselves almost clapping after so many songs? I am just a little sad that A Little Fall of Rain is not on the soundtrack.

A Promise

A year ago I promised my brother Mark when he was getting ready to move to Omaha to go to law school that I would fly out there to see The Dark Knight Rises with him. Well it turned out that Mark and his family were coming back to Arizona a week after the premier of The Dark Knight Rises so we decided that we would wait a week and see it together. Can I tell you what a hard promise that was to keep! I thought about going any way but I knew he would ask and I knew I could not lie about it.
Most of the adults in my family were coming so we all met before at Debbie's house some went swimming while others of us made t-shirts batman headbands and hair clips then had dinner (thanks mom).

When the movie was over I wanted to jump up and scream and clap, but settled for sitting and clapping loudly.
I am sure everyone has seen the pictures of Christian Bale visiting the victims in Aurora, I still get teary eyed when I see them. I looked everywhere to find my senior high school yearbook so I could take a picture of what my friend Lindsey wrote in it back in 2000 "We Hail Christian Bale" sadly it is lost*. But my devotion to Christian has never wavered and I am proud to still be a fan.

*Edit I did find my yearbook at my parents house!

High Fives All Around

My good friend Lauren was in town over spring break and we had a lot of fun times. First we went to dinner at La Grande Orange and while walking to the restaurant Lauren brought up Save By The Bell and we literally high fived over the fact that it was now on Netflix's. We then discussed the origins of the high five and how much we enjoyed high fives.
We also had a craft night and I turned this tea cup into a pin cushion. I didn't see it on Pinterest I saw it on Tumblr but did pin it so it is another pin for the win.

Lauren also wanted to have a bonfire, which we did I only have pictures of the coals we pulled away from the fire so we could roast marshmallows with out melting our faces off.

I know it is hard to see but we made mini smores with vanilla wafers, they were excellent!

I have been in love with this ETSY shop for awhile but I don't really do the whole shopping online thing especially if I can make it myself but I just love the design of her stuff I had to buy it.  

Last Sunday we had some unusual weather (meaning it wasn't warm & sunny) come our way and heard it had snowed up north (Payson, Arizona it is an hour and a half drive). My sister Debbie called me Monday morning and told me her family, my mom and two of my sister in laws and their kids were all going up to the snow. I took the day off and we all went and had a snow day. It was even snowing for part of the drive and it was fun for the kids to see it snow.

We had  a blast building snowmen, having snow ball fights and eating snow. 

This past Saturday my mom's neighborhood had a community yard sale. Debbie I took our parents golf cart and drove around and found some steals! I had told my mom forever ago to watch for a beach cruiser with a basket for me. Finding this bike was a dream come true! It has a basket for my library books!!!

I also found this red purse and the lady selling it said oh and it comes with this yellow bag. I had no idea what a Fendi bag was. But she told Debbie and I how she got it in the Bahamas after winning a big sum of money gambling. I now know what it feels like to own a thousand dollar purse, it feels a lot like owning a three dollar purse. 

My nieces got some dress up and I loved see them walking around as a butterfly and a kitty, best quarter they ever spent. 

William got a snorkel and was determined to use it Grandma told him he could put his feet in knowing he would see how cold it still was. He ended up putting more than his feet in and after I made his wet hair into a mohawk/fohawk.

Pinning and Winning

Actually I did not pin this on Pinterest, my sister Debbie did. I didn't like the picture they choose to make so I didn't pin it.

Source: themetapicture.com via Debbie on Pinterest

But I did make my own and used it to make the cover of Mimi's book. See I promised I would eventually post about the cover.

I used a pen to carve my take out box.

I also just used a sponge brush to paint. 

If you put enough paint on then you only need to lightly press the paper on. If you want to use again later, wash out the excess paint you won't want it to dry in the grooves. 

Debs Freckles

Saturday I met Debbie and her kids at Joe's Farm Grill for breakfast and to start her birthday off right. Joseph thought it was hilarious to feed me, I was actually stuffed but he just kept feeding me.

After I took the kids so Debbie could celebrate her birthday by spending the day all by herself! 
I told the kids we were going to a park but not one with a playground one where we could be scientist and have an adventure.

 We observed ducks

Dug for dinosaur bones

We also went exploring to see what birds we could find. We crossed paths with a group of adults with binoculars and walking sticks, you should have seen them whip into action when William pointed out a humming bird. 

Then we headed back to Debbie's house to get ready for the surprise birthday party. My mom came in to help me get ready. We cleaned, I made cheese trays while she got the fruit and veggies ready. We had to wait for Debbie to meet up with Russ to be sure she wouldn't stop at home. 

Russ wanted to roast Debbie because she had enjoyed their friend Kayleen's so much a few weeks earlier. I made some decorations for the party.
I am going to be honest I was kind of at a loss of how to decorate for Debbie's party because she is who I go to to help me with being creative. Here you can see the the banner and cross stitch hoops I made. When I went to the scrapbook store to use their die cut machine to cut the letters out guess who was there also using the die cut machine. Yes Debbie! Thank goodness for Melissa who was with me I was able to use her son Gavin's birthday as an excuse.

I have always loved Debbie's freckles I remember there was a little boy who we loved to babysit and he asked his mom "why does Debbie have sparkles on her face?" At a cousins wedding all the little cousins were running around when one ran up to her and said "you have so many angel kisses" and ran off just as fast. 

A Face Without Freckles is Like a Night Without Stars.

I used a book page from a used and warped copy of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince then using permanent marker outlined the block letters, moon & stars then colored the negative space. I then sewed the book page onto black material using my sewing machine. After I put it on the embroidery hoop and hand stitched the white stars onto the black and a few black stars onto the book page. 

 I was really happy with the chapter I used it was called Birthday Surprise, hopefully you can see it. I then just hot glued the extra material down on the back. I have no idea if that is what you are suppose to do, I don't like to read instructions.

Big thank you to Jenny was nice enough to make this adorable little cake along with cupcakes (I had two that night).
Another big thank you needs to go out to my brothers Brett & Eric for helping out in the kitchen. Also Russ's parents who helped keep Gracie and Joseph busy while I was running around like a chicken with its head cut off.

Debbie was thoroughly embarrassed by it all and I hope it wasn't too bad and I hope she had fun in spite of it all. And as away of apology to Debbie I am going to even the field here by posting a picture my friend Lindsey showed in her video she made for Debbie in which she not only shared embarrassing photos of Debbie of Russ & I as well.

For those who don't know I served a mission for my church The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Funny enough I served in Utah and in my first area there was a lady who worked at the Target photo center and she told us we could come in and she would take our pictures for cheep. The pictures were only ever a joke and I had completely forgotten about them till Lindsey held it up, Lindsey you would have loved the reaction it got. And yes Chelsea I am going to look and see if I still have a copy for you. Also the Book of Mormon I am reading was one they had on hand for a prop.

Paper Glue & String

I wanted to make Mimi something to help her remember our trip to Europe (she complains about forgetting things). It wasn't till I saw Debbie's Christmas card that I knew that I wanted to make a book and draw/write the places we went.































I also made the cover which I forgot to get a picture of maybe I can get a picture of it and post about later.
I actually made it rather fast I drew the pictures in pencil then just used pen to go over it. Glued on the pictures and hand stitched the book together.

Potter Party

A year ago I gave William the movie Harry Potter and the Philosopher's stone and can I just say my plan worked out brilliantly!
This year William invited a few close friends to his Harry Potter birthday party. There was way to much awesomeness for me to document so I will just share a few pictures. Keep an eye out at Debbie's blog for a full report.

The Quidditch Pitch

This is just Debbie's pomegranate tree, it made me happy so I took a picture. 

I saw this lady made a Marauders Map of her house for a party & William is obsessed with maps so I stole her design and made one for the kids. My hand hurt the next day, it was a lot of writing, but totally worth it.

Here is Professor Snape & Professor Joe teaching Potions.

The surprise of the night was when William got the Elder Wand he was literally speechless, finally a little dazed William said "it's good." 

My favorite part of the party was when I was pretending to be Professor McGonagall I was speaking with a British accent (I know it should have been Scottish but it was impromptu) then for the rest of the night when he was thinking about it William also spoke with a British accent. It melted my UK loving heart!

Here is Gracie playing with the potions kit I gave to William for his birthday.

Joseph loved it as well. I bought the box at Hobby Lobby and painted it myself & found all the bottles, jar & little caldron at thrift stores. Yes I did know the kids would want to drink out of them don't worry I washed them.