My little addiction!

I just love Christmas time. Everyone seems to be happy, we are often thinking of others, it's my birthday this month, we bake, etc., etc. I don't even mind the decorating. Christmas does however bring out one of my addictions. I am addicted to Nativities. They are all over my house and I just love decorating with them. I tend to buy them all year long. Lately, however I don't just want any Nativity. I like it to be unique or have some special meaning. Since I can't invite you all over to my house (wish I could) I thought I would just share some of my favorites and why I love them.

This is the first nativity Drew and I received as a married couple. My brother and sister in law went on vacation to Israel and brought it back for us.



The first Christmas Drew and I were married we went to Europe. We were on a limited budget so we only bought a few souvenirs. This one came from a small town in Germany.


When we lived in Tucson, Arizona we would go down to the boarder towns in Mexico and I picked up this little tin nativity.


It helps to have a birthday in December. Nativities are almost beginning to be a staple gift from my mother and husband and I absolutely love it. Drew bought this Lladro nativity for my 30th birthday. See the Lladro of my dreams below!


My husband surprised me with this Jim Shore Nativity one year for Christmas. I love his work and was so excited.

My friends Laura and Michelle gave me this pewter nativity last year for my birthday. I love that those girls know me so well that they combined my two loves, nativities and pewter.

My mom gave me this cute little nativity by Mary Engelbreit. It has little kids acting out the nativity. My mom has also been helping me collect the willow tree nativity. It is large and has a number of pieces. I hoping this year it will be complete! (hint, hint mom)




My mom even found these cute nativity stocking holders for my birthday last year. I just felt like they went perfectly.

I found this one just a few weeks ago at a craft fair. It is the holy family made out of wooden spindles. I thought this was so clever and unique. I had to have them!


These are some of my favorites because my kids can play with them. The first one the kids move a bead each day starting the first day of December. I really love the advent nativity calendar.


On Executive Homemaker there is a cute activity where you can wrap up twelve pieces of the nativity and have the kids open one each day and read a poem with it.


I also found the cutest craft we are going to make this year. I wish I could post the picture but it won't let me. Check it out. It is a graham cracker nativity. It looks really easy to make. I know my kids will have a great time.

This is the Nativity of all Nativites in my mind. This Lladro Nativity is the nativity of my dreams!! At least I have my dreams!

What are your addictions, I mean things that you like to collect?

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was so much fun this year. We had two families from the ward over so that made a total of 13 people. The day before Thanksgiving Derek made these cute little turkies that I got off of Kelly's site (a fellow blogger). It was such a cute idea and so easy. We really had a great time and it was nice to only have to cook a few items but get to taste everything. The adults also played my favorite game called compatibility. It is so much fun. I am so glad my friend Michelle introduced me to it. The kids really played well which made it even more enjoyable! I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving.

The kids had their table and the adults had their own table.

Black Friday did not disappoint!

Black Friday turned out to be very fun and worthwhile this year. This year I awakened at 3:50 a.m. so that I could be at Toys R Us by 4:30ish. At the beginning I was a little disappointed because Drew usually likes to go with me and we have a great time going together. However, this year I didn't really feel like hiring a babysitter (I figured the dollars we would save on the items would have just ended up going to a sitter, making it not really worth it for both of us to go). Luckily, there are some fun girls in my ward that love to go together every year and asked me to join them. I met one of them at Toys R Us. The other two girls hit Sam's club this year because they had an amazing deal on the Wii and they both got it!! So I started at Toys R Us and bought for myself and one of the other girls that was at Sams. This is the smartest way to do Black Friday. Send each person to a different store and that person buys for everyone. That way you get most of the good deals but don't have to go everywhere. Toys R Us was packed!! It was hard to get around but for me that is what makes it fun (I guess it is the madness of it all) The funny thing is that I try to get all my shopping done by December 1st because I hate crowds. (The only day I don't mind is Black Friday). I also buy for my nieces and nephews birthdays throughout the year. I also sometimes buy extra for birthday party gifts. After Toys R Us, we hit Target and then the Mall. We were done about nine and then all went to breakfast. It was a blast. After breakfast I felt recharged (I guess it was the diet coke) so we went to Sam's and Costco. I didnt' have anything in mind but just felt like continuing to shop.

These are some of the great deals I got this year.
I got buy one power ranger for $9.99 and get two free.

I got buy two get one free of Thomas Trains

This is normally $15.00 on amazon and I got it for $6.99.

I got each Hanna Montana doll for $7.00 they are normally around $16 dollars.

I got this game for $9.00. I think it is normally around $20.00.


I won't keep boring you will all the deals. But they were a bunch of others. The stores have been having some amazing deals the past two months. It has been great. I have had so much fun shopping. Now I'm hoping to just sit back and enjoy the month of Decmeber (ya right)!

What great deals have you been finding?

Fun Thanksgiving Game!

Derek brought this cute game home from school today. I thought I would share with everyone because it would be fun to play the next couple of days. Enjoy! Happy Thanksgiving!

Sorry it is crooked, that is how it was on the original.

Martina McBride - In My Daughter's Eyes (LIVE)

So today I went to Gymboree with Owen like we always do on Wednesday morning and I see this women. She has a little girl and I have never seen her before. Well, Owen and I keep playing and I don't really think about it until we sit down to play and I look at her again and think to myself she looks like Martina McBride. I think to myself that has to just be someone that looks like her. Well, I got so curious that after class I asked the Gymboree leader what that mom's name is and she said, "Oh that's Martina McBride, she comes every week. She even came last week before the CMA." Well, I can't believe I have never noticed her but she is one of my favorite country singers and I can't believe we are in the same Gymboree class!This is one of my favorite songs. I love livin in Nashville! First,Naomi and now Martina, I'm just waiting to run into Faith now.

Memphis here we come!

This last weekend we took a trip to Memphis. It was so much fun. I loved visiting Graceland and learning more about Elvis Presley. I really didn't have much desire to know about him but he really was a pretty amazing person. I choose this song because Elvis loved gospel music and actually won three grammys for gospel songs. I was a little surprised the house was not bigger but it was on a beautiful piece of property. It is just sad he lived a short life. He abused prescription drugs because he thought if it was written by a doctor it was o.k. Kind of sad.

This is a fun link about Elvis and the book of mormon. Who knows if it is true. Apparently some people are making a movie about it. I haven't decided weather that is interesting or weird!

We also visited Shilo a Civil War battle site. It was so beautiful. It is really fun to learn about so much history.

Just close the little x in the white box to make it go away. Please forgive me I misspelled cemetery.

Halloween Fun

I love Halloween and I love dressing up. My mom's birthday is right around Halloween and it is her favorite holiday. She always made a big deal about it growing up. Recently Derek and I have begun to discuss our Halloween costumes in August. My husband Drew thinks we are crazy but he is always a good sport about dressing up. These are a few of the costumes we have done in the past.

Derek's first Halloween. We were clowns.

This year I was a princess, Drew a king and Derek a dragon.

Last year we went as Star Wars characters. I was princess Leia, Drew Han Solo, Derek was Anakin and Owen was Chewy.

This year after much discussion we finally settled on characters from Toy Story 2. Owen was Woody, Derek was Buzz, I was Jessie and Drew was Stinky Pete.

We had a ward Halloween Carnival and Trunk or Treat. It was so much fun. They had a dinner, booths for the kids, a costume contest, and a Michael Jackson Thriller performance by the youth. The party finished up with Trunk or Treat. It was so much fun!


My mom loves Halloween so much that this year she wanted to be here for Halloween. We had a great time with her here.


It was so much fun. I kind of get sad when it is all over. It doesn't last long because I know Christmas is just around the corner.

Our Little Family Halloween Party.

Every Monday evening of the year we try to have family night. We teach a lesson, sing songs, play games, do fun activities, etc. Well every year on the Monday before Halloween we usually invite another family over and have a little party. The kids always have a great time. This year we order pizza, breadsticks and had a salad. Then we cranked up the Halloween Music and the boys and men began to carve their pumpkins.

The kids danced to the music (especially little Owen, he loves music so much)

This year I decided instead of just making carmel apples. I would get a bunch of toppings and let the kids create their own. We had gummy worms, toffee bars, Reese's pieces, etc.

The Whole Gang.

The Final Product.

Yes, that is a U of U in that pumpkin. What can I say, my husband is obsessed.