Our 2009 Christmas Card

Here it is! This year's Christmas card. Believe it or not, this year's cards were actually quite a point of contention! (I'll explain). But anyway, I think they turned out great for last minute...


If you didn't get yours in the mail, I'm so-0 sorry! I found a stack the sunday after Christmas that never made it to the mail. It's because I mailed all the out of state ones and several of the in state ones... then had to buy more stamps. (As you can tell, I never bought more stamps). But, I did get the majority of them out.

Not bad for last minute cards eh? Ok, now for the contention explanation...

I had scheduled family pictures 3 different times... but we have 3 busy children and never made it to any of the photo shoots. My goal now is to get family pictures sometime before next year's cards!! We shall see (LOL).

I actually debated not sending cards this year. It was a week before Christmas and I didn't even have a game plan. But you know, me, I am a procrastinator... thus I work VERY well under pressure. And for those that know me, knows that I LOVE cards, both making and sending, so how could I pass it up this year??

So Thursday before Christmas eve (I think it was the 17th) I bought these dollar hats from Michaels. We picked up the girls and took these pictures over at the district by their house. I uploaded them to Costco Thursday night, and Friday afternoon... viola! Christmas cards. They were in the mail Friday night (well the ones that made it to the mail). Did I mention that I love Costco photo??


What do you think of the pictures? Not bad for an ametuer, eh? I actually love the way they turned out, and the kids were surprisingly cooperative!. The whole photo shoot was a sum total of 20 minutes, but they were freezing... Sorry kids!

Can you tell which of the kids likes to get their picture taken, and which ones would prefer to go without? Holly was dying to get pictures taken by this light post also. Afterwards, I actually liked those best, so they're the ones that ended up on the card.

And this is my favorite one. I love the way this picture turned out! Charley did NOT want his picture taken at ALL. (This is why we aren't on the card.. haha). But he ended up liking this picture a lot, and wished I was in it too. Maybe next year we can get pictures with all of us.

Hope everyone had a great Christmas, and thank you for ALL the wonderful cards we received.

Neighbor Gifts...

I always try to come up with neighbor gifts that don't require any baking. One, because I feel like everyone gets enough "baked" goods over the holidays, and two because I'm not a great cook. The past couple of years we have done wrapping paper, gift tags, etc.

This year I found these cute little ornament photo holders at Michaels. They were on clearance so I had to go to 3 different Michael's to get enough for work and neighbors. I knew exactly what I was trying to say... something along the lines of "favorite memory, display here" but I couldn't find a poem or quote to fit. I found the first verse online, but then actually ended up writing my own second verse... I think they turned out pretty cute... SIMPLE, but cute...

(One small disclaimer: As with my christmas cards, I still have about 8 of these neighbor gifts on my kitchen counter that never made it out. If anyone wants one... let me know :) ).

Nate's Bowling Party

Nate gets a birthday party every other year. Well, this year is the "every other." So, since we are very low budged right now, and it's Christmas time, we told him he could have a small, inexpensive party.

After calling around to get party prices, Nate chose the bowling party. Nate's actually a pretty good bowler, and Delton Lanes is a pretty nice bowling alley. Their party included 90 minutes of bowling, pizza, drinks, balloons, decorations, and tokens to the arcade.

I made the invitations... and I tell you what. After doing mass quantities of invites, it was a cinch to make 5 bowling invites!! And... it was the first time that I was able to use my "early" christmas present... my gypsy!

Nate chose 5 of his closes friends which included, Eddie, Tyler, Daniel, Christian, and Stockton. They all had a blast, and they are cra-zy boys when they all get together! I actually was really sick (had missed 2 days of work)... I had a huge headache & earache, and I was in the a very loud bowling alley with 6 screaming boys! (After the party I went to instacare, and it turned out I had an ear and sinus infection... no wonder!).

This is Nate anxiously awaiting cake & presents... after the bowling time was up.

Lauren & Holly were able to come to the party, and so were other friends & family members. We were able to reserve 4 extra lanes and any extra guests could bowl for $2.50 a game. Denise & her family came, Michelle & here family came, and Jen and her family came. Grandma & Grandpa J, and Nate's dad also came...

It was a fun time, and Nate had a great time also. Since I was a busy mom running the party and handling crowd control, his dad was able to quite a few more pictures. You can link to them on his facebook page here

Whew...

Ok, I had a bit of a blog crisis.... I was trying to update my background (was tired of the bright pink). But, one wrong click, and *poof* everything was gone! And I mean everything!! (Background, widges, blog lists) All I had was my posts. (Soooo o glad I didn't lose those!) I was so bummed... but I was so busy with boutiques and Christmas that I didn't even have time to go in and revamp everything.

So... Sorry for the delay! I do have lots to post for December, but seeing how it has taken me all night to just get the background and layout back, I'll have to post tomorrow! (Church in 6 hours.. Yikes!).

Anyway, if you are reading this, and your blog isn't linked over on the side, please, please leave me your blog address so I can add it. I'm so sad that not all of my blog links saved.

Missed you all, and I'll be back shortly!

One Decade

Wow, Nate hit double digits today! Time goes by so fast.

It seems like just yesterday I was bringing my baby home from the hospital.

Or going for our first trip to Kiddie Kandids. (He was 2 weeks old here)

Or teaching him to walk.

Or sending him off to kindergarten.

Or even watching him be baptized.

But as hard to believe as it may seem, Nate turned 10 today! He seems so young, but yet he seems so grown up. He's not your average kid. He definately thinks outside of the box. He doesn't want to be the traditional "transformer" for Halloween, he never eats sweets before he has something solid in his stomach, and he's always thinking of others before himself. He has always been a quick learner and very independent.

Nate has been through so much in his short 10 years, and I'm so proud of him. He's very smart, he loves school, and loves to read. His best subjects are math and reading. He is popular with all the neighborhood kids and loves to spend time with his friends. He's very sensitive, has a sweet heart, still loves to be tucked in at night, and thinks his mom is his favorite girl. I'm not looking forward to the day where he will be grossed out by hugging his mom, but for now, I just love and cherish the moment.

Happy birthday to my little boy... who is growing up right before my eyes.

So Much to be Thankful For...

Another Thanksgiving season has come and gone so quickly. This year was pretty quiet. We didn't have the girls this year, and we only had Nate for half the day. It was a nice day to sleep in! After that it was to Grandma Jamison's for dinner. Michelle's & Erin's families were there for dinner, and Craig and the boys came for dessert. It was so fun to see everyone.

Would you believe I forgot my camera?? So, here's a couple pictures that my aunt took.


This is 9 of the 12 Jamison grandkids. Zach, Katie, Bailee, Jacob, Nate, Jordan, Austin, Addison & Tyler. (Missing are Chris, Lauren & Holly).

After that, it was off to drop Nate off at his dad's, and then to Michaels. Yes, I said Michaels... as in the craft store! They had an awesome deal on a certain cricut cartridge that you could only get at Michaels... Couldn't pass that up! After that it was home to relax. I boutiqued and Charley watched football.

I attempted something this year that I have never done before. Black Friday!! There's something in particular that I saw (will post details later when the kids aren't reading.. LOL) that I wanted to get. Anyway, it went on sale at midnight online, so I went on and tried to buy it. The computer kept freezing, and then shut down. When the site finally came up, they were out of what I wanted... Ugh. So, by this time it's 2:20 am. So, when the store opened at 4 AM, off I went. Found the item and waited over an hour in line.

I'm still trying to figure out why people do this ... for fun... year after year?

So, onto the traditional 5 greatfuls. (Still waiting for the girls to get back to me on this one).

Nates: (Keeping in mind, he's not your average almost 10 year old little boy) He thinks mostly OUTSIDE of the box:

1. Family

2. Gift of Life

3. Friends

4. The Gospel's Help

5. My Body

Pretty impressive.

My greatful 5: (Yes, I cheat, there are more than 5 here).

1. Family & Loved ones

2. Church & Testimony of it.

3. Savior's Love & Example

4. A place to live

5. My Job

Charley's Greatful 5:

1. Family

2.

3.

4.

5.

Um. That's all I could get out of him.

We are especially thankful to all of you. Love to everyone this Holiday season.

Halloween... Finally

Halloween this year came and went so quickly that I am just now getting around to posting about it! I've been tied up in two boutiques and pretty much spending every free minute on those. Now that the second one is over, here's our Halloween update!

Lauren and Holly spent Halloween with their friends, so I don't have any pictures of them. From what I understand, Lauren didn't dress up, and Holly was corpse bride or something like that. (Sorry, I'm not a Nightmare fan, so I don't really remember).

Nate on the other hand, well, you know his creative little mind. He wanted to be some sort of food item, and his first impulse was bacon! I know, odd. After researching "Bacon costumes" online, there really wan't a wide selection... Go figure! I did find one that came with eggs, and it was pretty expensive. We didn't have anyone to dress up as the eggs, and if I would have tried to make the bacon part of it from felt, it probably wouldn't have looked like bacon! Or I also found one other one, that I'm really not sure what it looked like! LOL.



So... On to search for other creative homemade costumes. I compiled a list, printed it out, and just told Nate to decide. The list was pretty cool. Included stuff like "money bags" " Operation Game", "Undecided", etc. He chose "Dr. Pepper". this was a great costume for him. I made him a head band with a huge circle on it, and I had an old lab coat from a past murder mystery dinner. printed off a bunch of "pepper" pictures from the internet and make them into stickers with my xyron machine. It even was a great costume because Nate was able to help with it.

And here's introducing Mr. Pepper, himself.... The Dr. is IN!

Here's a couple pictures from the school halloween parade and carnival. The carnival was C-R-A-Z-Y. So many people there in a tiny school! Needless to say it was a HUGE success. the kids all had a great time.

Halloween morning was actually pretty crazy. We got up early and went to Katie's baptism in Heber. Being anywhere on time on a Saturday morning is a stretch for us, let alone getting ready in Sunday dress and driving to Heber! Of course we were running late.

I mentioned to Charley that I didnt' want to drive all the way to Heber and miss the baptism! As he casually replied that he didn't want to get pulled over, he did go a little faster. Well, as Charleys bad luck (or should I say my bad luck) would have it... YUP, we came over the hill and there was a highway patrol sitting in the median. Next thing I know, we're pulled over, and it took him so long to write the ticket, we missed the whole baptism anyway! UGH.


Anyway, after the baptism, the family went and ate at Golden Corral in Provo. So, it was Heber, Provo, shopping for candy (nope, hadn't done it until the Halloween day) and then off to the trunk or treat at the church. This is always fun for the kids. And they get such a large amount of candy in such a short amount of time (and walking). Denise was able to bring Christian & Michele out this year. They kids had a great time.
After the trunk or treat, it was off to take Nate to his dad's for a visit. Because Nate's an odd child and doesn't like a lot of candy, Aunt Nana & Uncle Marty gave nate two decorated pomogranites for his "treat". He loved them. Especially since he's been waiting all summer for them to be in season!!

And on to pumpkin carving. Who ever thought of this anyway? As you know, I'm not a fan of this, so sometimes i am greatful that I "get" to go to work! HAHA. Charley is such a good sport. He took Nate to get a pumpkin and carved it with him. I know that's why kids are here. If they weren't, I'd never carve pumpkins, never put up a tree... yada yada.

So Charley and Nate came home with what I would assume was the largest pumpkin at the store. I don't even think Nate could lift it! They chose their design and started making the mess...

But I do have to admit, the pumpkin tured out A-W-E-S-O-M-E. Great job boys!!

Here's what it looked like when it was dark and all lit up! Looks like something right out of a movie, doesn't it?

And last, but certainly the least important... Nate convinced me to dress up this year. Plus, they were having a party at work, so for the first time in 12 years at IHC... I dressed up! Simple, but it worked...

Funny thing though, after going to Idaho and bringing back all those potatoes, when I walked into work, everyone asked me if I had potatoes in my pocket!

I know this is late coming, but hope everyone had a happy and safe Halloween. This is a funny picture of Nate after the festivities. His pose here explains exactly how I feel after all the running around and boutiquing... EXHAUSTED!

Boutique Tomorrow!

Don't forget to come see me at the "Girls Day Out Boutique" tomorrow. I've got lots of projects I've been working on, and I'd love to see everyone, so stop by and say HI.

Here's a quick pic of one of the items for sale. These cards are only $1.50, or 10/$10. What a bargain! LOL. These also come in cute gift boxes... a set of 8 for $10. Makes a great gift.

You can also see more pictures on my almost NEVER (but working on updating more often!!) scrap blog here!