Of Regrets and Resolutions- President Uchtdorf

It's time for another General Conference Review.

I started off by showing the boys three badges: Sheriff badge (which we had from a old Halloween costume),  Firefighter badge (which I got from this link), then Weston's work badge.  

We talked about each one and how you can identify someone by they badge they are wearing.  The badge can identify what is important to that person.  

We then watched this clip from President Uchtdorf's talk

We watched the clip once the whole way then we watched it again but stopped the clip several times to ask questions, such as:
What badge is President Uchtdorf talking about?
What was the precious gift that the Lord gave to others?

Then we spoke about the regrets that President Uchtdorf mentioned:
I Wish I Had Spent More time with the People I Love
I Wish I Had Lived Up to My Potential
I Wish I Had Let Myself Be Happier

These were kind of hard for the boys to understand since right now they don't have any major regrets.  Their life is just full of fun and small adventures.

We then made badges.  We talked about what was important in each of our lives and how we wanted people to identify us.  I had made some small badges using two of my craft punches.  

Hunter:  Church, Family and Football

Walter: Family, Temple and Baseball  (sorry for the blurry pictures)

Then we made one for President Uchtdorf:  Temple, Family, Scriptures and a Airplane

Then we added his to his picture

Here is the whole talk:

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas

At the beginning of last week, Walter found my camera and took over 100 pictures.  I deleted a bunch of them but I kept some so I could remember these small moments.  It's kind of fun to see things through the eyes of a child.  Here are some of my favorites:

And Last but not least a self portrait

On Thursday night went to the Alpine Live Nativity.  
 It was wonderful!!! 

We had a short wait before we got on the trailers

Then when we got off the trailer we were greeted by a Shepherd who told us to come over and he gave us an introduction to what the Nativity was all about:

There were sheep

And then we were meet by Roman Soldiers. who were looking for boys under the age of two.  They asked us several times about Quincy.  But we didn't let them take him to Herod

It was so awesome!! They had camels!!!  I don't know why that was so important to me but it was.

The boys loved petting all the animals.

We continued our journey to the Three Wise men.  They explained the three gifts and how they were used during that time.

Then there were more animals and a little market setting.  Where they showed different trades of that period.
Then there was the main event,
Mary, Joseph and the Baby Jesus.
The Spirit was so strong, it was so special.   Our family was the only ones in the room at that time.  I felt so warm and happy.  We only stayed for a moment.  But we did take the time to explain to the boys that the feeling they were feeling was the Spirit.

I can't put it into words how wonderful it was.  It is sure to become a family tradition


Then on Sunday we decorated the tree.  The boys love doing this.

Then another tradition laying down and looking up at the tree

After we were done the boys read Christmas books by the light of the tree

Another fun Christmas tradition that we started this year was 25 Days of CHRIST

Here are some pictures of our ornaments so far:

The Star

The Shepherd

The Wise Men

The Scriptures

And we will add one more tonight.  This also has been a wonderful activity to remind the kids and us about the real reason that we celebrate Christmas.  The scriptures and quotes that we read with each one have been wonderful and the videos are great.  

I'll share just one, it was so cute to see the boys watch this video.  Hunter kept commenting on how cute the baby Jesus was.  

Before Thanksgiving

The week before Thanksgiving I hosted a craft night for several friends.  We chose a Christmas craft.  I didn't take any pictures during the night, but I did take two pictures of the set-up.  Weston and his father cut all the wood for us.  We ended up buying the paper kits.

     

 Megan sells both the paper kit and wood and paper kit.  My kit was missing the letter L, (which has since been mailed to me, I just have to add it)  But I love how these blocks turned out. And I believe that all the ladies had a good time.  I hope we can get together soon for another craft night.  

That same week my old college roommate Amber came for a visit from Oregon.  It was so nice to sit and visit with her and her mom.  She had a baby in January of this year, so we introduced Quincy to Austin.  Who knows maybe in the future they can be BYU roommates too.  

Then the week before Thanksgiving I went and got Quincy's six month pictures taken (he was actually seven months old- I'm a bit late)  

Isn't he super cute !!!

OK, now to set up for Christmas.  

Thanksgiving 2012

Thanksgiving was wonderful, stressful and fun.  I thought that I was so prepared but once again, I got things done just in the nick of time. And I am especially grateful to Weston and Wendy for all the help they gave me. 

Thing year I saw this super cute idea on pinterest from a blog entitled "Can't Stop Making Things."  I just loved the pilgrim shoes and moccasins, and I just had to make them for my Thanksgiving table.

I put a reddish/purplish leaf under the pilgrim shoes and a green leaf under the moccasins.  Then inside I put candy corn and chocolate gold coin. 

I just love the way they turned out.  And I think my family thought that they were pretty neat as well.  They made several comments about them and several of them asked if they could take their shoe home with them. 

Here is a picture of the whole table before all the guest showed up.  And then a picture of my last minute centerpiece.  I had to add the smaller table on the end after I got a text from my cousin early in the morning asking if she could invite three of her friends that didn't have any plans for Thanksgiving dinner.   I originally had the small pumpkin and two clay turkeys on the big table but I moved those to the small table.  Weston asked me what I was going to put on the big table and I told him I would have to think of something else.  I remember that I had bought this small fake pumpkins for a craft project that I never got around to making and the berry twine I got just because I thought it was pretty.  As it turns out I like this centerpiece a whole lot better, so it was a good thing that we had some last minute guest. 

 I forgot to take pictures of the spread and of us seated around the table, I was enjoying the feast too much.  I hope that another family member took pictures that I can share. 

After dinner the girls did a small Christmas craft. 

While we painted the men washed the plates and then played a board game "Ticket to Ride"

This years craft project was much better then the one I picked last year.  Everyone was able to finish with the exception of Wendy who had to go to work, so I finished her for her.  I think that they turned out super cute.  Simple and fun. 

The kids were watching a movie during all of these.  After the kids were done with their movie I had a Thanksgiving craft fo the kids to do and the men helped them with it. 

Brian with Ethan

Josh helped Walter as Gabriel looked on. 

And Weston helped Hunter

Afterwards we played the game "Turkey, Turkey Who has the Turkey"  which I found here.

My Uncle even got a nap. 

Overall I think every one had a great time.  

And we even had a little dancing