I love felt.....so I did it again!

The Halloween advent calendar I made with felt was such a success with my kids, that I had to make one for Christmas! December is fast approaching and I thought I wouldn't have time to get this done...but I did, and it came out better than the Halloween one, so next year I will have to make some adjustments to the Halloween calendar. Can I just say....I LOVE FELT! It is so easy to work with, cheap, and who knew there were so many things you can make with it! I've been making felt flowers for head bands, I also use it for the back of the fabric flowers, the calendars and my girls and I made grandma Rosie some flowers with fuzzy pipe cleaners as the stems. Now she has a vase with flowers that won't ever die! I think I spent $7.00 to make this calendar. I'm only going to fill the pockets with chocolates this time, not toys like the Halloween calendar, so I made the pockets smaller. The felt letters with sticky back is the only thing that was pricey, they are $6.00 for a package, but I had a 40% off at Michaels so I got a good deal. The snowmen, gingerbread people, the snowflakes and the striped pipe cleaners I got for a dollar each packet at Joanns!! I cut out the numbers from a sparkly foam that I also got at Michaels for a $ 1.00. They have felt numbers but I couldn't find white and I really wanted the numbers to be white, the pockets, of course are felt, and they sell for .25 cents per rectangle, and the white felt I got out of the fabric remnants bin they have at Joann's for only .88 cents! I glued everything with tacky glue, the only thing I did have to sew was the ribbon that I braided to hang it with...so that's it, it's done! Although, one of my friends pointed out that I should have made it as a countdown,  it should start with 25, so it's bugging me.... I may have to switch all the numbers around now :)

Roman builds a Temple

I had to blog about this, because it brought such joy into my day. There are times when you feel like nothing you do as a mom is good enough....I've been feeling this way a lot lately (it's winter time, I get like this) We try to do the important things everyday, like reading the scriptures, and saying family prayers and family home evening on Mondays, going to Church on Sundays, there are some good weeks and some bad weeks. I feel such a huge responsibility to make sure our children learn the Gospel and live it everyday and for them to be able to feel like their home is a place of safety from the outside world and a place where they can feel of the spirit.....sometimes it doesn't feel that way. Sometimes as a parent you feel like....."why have family prayers when all the kids bust out laughing in the middle of it because their little brother did something funny?" Or "why do we have family home evening when Roman is running wild around the house and distracting everyone?" It is hard to feel the spirit, and by the end of FHE, I'm so annoyed that I feel like the kids got nothing out of it! Then Heavenly Father gives me the assurance that the kids are actually learning something, those are the kind of moments that I feel like "Hey, maybe we are doing something right?" One such moment happened last week. I was washing dishes, and giving Roman some breakfast. He was eating and playing with a few blocks. I wasn't paying much attention to what he was doing, and then he called out to me and said "Mom look, a Temple!" I turned around and saw that he had stacked the blocks and put one on the top as a steeple. I got so emotional, I asked him again, just to make sure I had heard right. "What did you make Roman?" and again he said " a Temple!" WOW! Of course I had to take a picture of him with his Temple and he was so happy, as you can see on the pictures that I posted. I also had to send Rick a text with the picture and he felt the same way, he said it brought tears to his eyes. I'm so thankful for these moments that I get as a mom. It makes the load a little bit lighter. Even though we may think they are not paying attention, they really are! It makes me want to be a better mom and pay more attention to these moments that sometimes go unnoticed because I'm too busy making sure my house is clean.....when it never really is, so I need to accept that and just look for the great moments all around me that my Heavenly Father and children provide.

"You will have significant experiences. I hope that you will write them down and keep a record of them, that you will read them from time to time and refresh your memory of these meaningful and significant things. Some of them may be funny. Some may be of significance only to you. Some of them may be sacred and quietly beautiful. Some may build one upon another until they represent a lifetime of special experience." ~President Gordon B. Hinckley

Snow!

I looked out the window and what did I see?.....No not popcorn popping on the apricot tree, SNOW!!! We've had our first official snow fall, well at least down here, we've already seen white up in the mountains last week. So it begins....boots, coats, gloves, long sleeves, ice on sidewalks, snow tracks on my floors, kids coming home from school wet and oh how can we forget, ear infections, sore throats, runny noses, and the flu season...UGH! Sorry I don't mean to be a downer, but for me it's really hard to find anything lovely to say about winter in Utah! I'm going to go cook!! That makes me happy....well sometimes :)

Halloween weekend

Here's the rundown of our weekend.......

         Friday morning 3 kids sick......2 with ear infections one with sinus infection. AWESOME!

         Friday evening, business dinner with Rick in Sundance at the Foundry Grill, I had raspberry lemonade, soup, steak dinner, and apple pie dessert! YUMMM

         Saturday Halloween fun!......oh wait, actually NOT!! It rained all evening! The kids were not very happy, but we did go to a Halloween party and the kids went Trick or Treating for a little bit and got soaked! Then we visited with grandma, grandpa and great grandma Mary. Put the kids to bed at grandma's house. Rick, my sister, brother in law, my brother and I went to a Halloween party at the Depot that was hosted by a local radio station. We met up with our friends Matt and Lavern and we danced the night away. Yay! I love adult time!

      Sunday.......we ditched Church, but for good reason. I didn't want to take the kids around other kids since they are sick. We had a nice relaxing day and later we had dinner at my parent's house. Over all it was a good weekend, just bummed that it rained on the kids on Saturday, when Halloween was really on Sunday but since we live in Utah had to do it on Saturday.....I still have mixed feelings about that. Sunday was a beautiful day, so we got jipped from Halloween this year!! UGH!