This is the place

For Family Home Evening on December 22nd, we went to the This is the Place Heritage Park. They have it all decorated with lights and they have old time Christmas activites all around the little city. The workers are dressed in clothes from that time period, and it was pretty neat. Fidelity gave out free tickets to the employees, so we thought we would try it out. It was pretty neat, and something fun to go to at least once. My brother Carter and his son Uli came along, which made it even more fun. We were all tired by the time we were done, but we had a great time, and it was nice to do something different.

They had a number of different houses where you could go in and make a simple little craft, and the people would tell you a little about that time period, and how they would have celebrated.

Here the kids got to make a little nativity scene craft.

The next place was a kitchen of a home. I am very grateful that I do not have to try to cook the way they had to.

The next stop was a social hall. There they had the kids color a little wooden ornament. They also gave the kids a bag of salt water taffy. That was a hit. Kent and Carter were having a great time helping the kids make their ornaments.

One of the highlights for the kids was riding the train that takes you around the park. It was pretty riding along, because there was a nice view of the city lights. I bet that is not how it looked when Brigham Young looked over that valley.

We finished the night off by going to have our picture taken with Father Christmas. They even had real reindeer there too. The kids weren't that impressed with the reindeer. They thought it stunk, and Morgan did not like them at all. But we made it, and got the token picture taken. After that we were DONE. We had a fun night, and were glad Carter and Uli could come along.

All I want for Christmas is.... Botox?

Ok, after months of contemplation and indecision, I finally did it. I cut my hair off short. It is done. Whew. My reasoning was to hopefully have to do it more. I am the bun/ponytail queen, and I am hoping that by cutting it short again, it will force me to fix my hair. We'll see. I have done this before, but the last time my hair was short, it hadn't turned naturally curly yet. Hopefully it doesn't go every which way. Regardless, it is done. Here are a couple of shots .

The other day, one of the kids ( I think Reed) asked me what was wrong with my hair because there was something in it. I haven't dyed it for a long time ( WAY WAY WAY too long) and I have a lot of grey hair. I guess it is time to do something about that, huh? Check those babies out. Now that I look at it, the reflection is very weird. The flash makes it look like all of the roots are grey. They aren't... yet. Thankfully.

Reed said something hillarious to me today. I was driving the van. He was in the very back seat. I guess he was looking at me in the rear view mirror. He said "Mom, why do you have two smiles on your face?" What do you mean, I asked? He said something like, "well you have your normal smile, then you have the lines on your forehead that make another smile." Great. It totally cracked me up. Leave it to a little one to tell the honest truth. It is sad when you notice you are getting older. It is even more sad when people start noticing it for you! :)

Look at those lines. Wow. It is ok though. I am 36, and I have earned them. :)

Thanksgiving

We had a really nice Thanksgiving this year. Kent's parents bought a cabin, and we were going to spend Thanksgiving up at the cabin which is a little less than an hour away from Cedar City. We left Wednesday night, and it was rainy on the way down. Well, Kent's parents tried to get to the cabin, and the roads were pretty snowy and bad on Cedar Mountain, so we ended up just going to Cedar and we spent two of the days there, until the weather cleared up and we were able to get up the mountain on Saturday. I had a really nice time in both places. I wanted to go to the Black Friday sales, and was considering driving off of the mountain to go, so I was not too disappointed about being in town on Friday morning. I got up and went to Wal-mart at 6am and then hit a couple of other stores. I shopped for about 4 1/2 hours. It was heavenly to me to wander by myself for as long as I wanted. Being at the cabin was so nice too.

So, I think for my selfish (Black Friday) reasons, it was perfect. I got the best of both places.

We decorated Turkey cookies one night, and the kids had fun. I think they were much more interested in the candy corn on the cookie, than the actual cookie itself.

After we got to the cabin, of course the kids wanted to go out and play in the snow. I was fine with that, but I wanted to make sure that after we went to the trouble to get them all dressed and bundled up warmly, they stayed out there for more than five minutes. So I said that if they went out, they had to stay out there for at least 30 minutes. To my surprise, they were out there for quite awhile. Thankfully, after living in Murray for a winter, we have good snow gear. It makes all the difference when they can stay warm and dry. We were even able to share with our St George cousins who have probably never had to have snow gloves in their life. (Jealous) Can you see the snowball in this picture coming for the camera? McCray threw it at Kent while he was taking the picture.

Morgan looked like Michelin man with all of her gear on. One of my friends gave her this great snow outfit. She was set, and had a ball out in the snow. I was a little surprised she lasted so long out there.

Camille is such a good sister. She was helping Morgan to stay standing and playing with her in the snow. Sisters are such a great thing to have.

Isaac all bundled up.

 

 The cabin has a loft which is Grandma and Grandpa's room. On this trip, it was a dorm room, because they let all of the kids have a slumber party up there with them. There is a huge room downstairs that will be perfect for kids in the summer, but it was not heated, and the kids would have frozen. So they had a giant slumber party. They watched a movie, and then all fell asleep. It was amazing that they did so well. Grandma and Grandpa were brave. This is a picture of the cousins that were there, minus Emery.

   

    

We had such a nice time. It is always so nice to get away and be with family. I have so much to be grateful for. Including EACH OF YOU! I am blessed.

My little helper

I have been having a hard time keeping Morgan busy lately. She keeps wanting me to "Hold You". Sometimes you just have to get something done! The other day I was at my wits end and got a brilliant idea.... WATER! Morgan was in heaven and so happy for a good long time. I should be grateful- It got my cupboards and floors washed too. Bonus! ( Do you think I should fix her hair and get her dressed? Poor girl.)