Christmas Preparations

I have turned a new leaf in my life and am now perfect! HAHAHAHAHAHA! Now that you've had a good laugh, let me tell you what I've really been up to lately. For Relief Society's Enrichment meeting in November, the theme was "Simplify the Season". That was a real kick in the behind to me. I not only need to simply the holiday season, which I always overdo, but I need to simplify my life in general. The first thing I decided to do was create a task list for me to accomplish my to-do's a little each day. If you want to know all the boring details, let me know. But in general I have a specific load of laundry and two other things to do each day. They range from cleaning to organizing and writing thank you notes and sending out thank you cards. I got the idea from this website: http://sherbetblossom.blogspot.com/2009/10/cleaning-system-explained.html I put my own spin on it, made up some cute cards, printed, laminated, and purchased 3 black wood easles to put them on. The three cards (morning routine, daily task list, night routine) sit on the window sill over my sink to look at each day. I did really well Monday, but went downhill the rest of the week. This is a new week, so I plan to do better!


One of the new things I am doing is each day I will take a picture of what we are doing, big or small. Then on Sundays I will post about each day of the week and what we have been doing. That way I know every Sunday I update, and it's easy to remember and not a stress of "I've forgotten the blog for way to long and there's too much to remember, so I'll just forget it some more." Plus, who doesn't want to see pictures of my cute kids? LOL I'm excited for this because it is also a great way for me to track this as a journal entry of sorts.


Sunday Nov. 29
Today we went to a missionary farewell for one of my Young Women's leaders, Linda Crandall. She and her husband will be serving an 18 month mission in Birmingham, England. Then we came home and Robby set up the tree, with Emily watching with great excitement.




Monday Nov. 30
Today I started my new task list. I finished all my chores, but since it was a 'start from scratch' day and not a maintenance day, it took way too long, and by the end of the day I was major grumpy.




Tuesday Dec. 1
In preparation for Evening in Excellence tomorrow night, I was one of the leaders over Food Group 1. We made sugar cookies and frosted them. I for some reason have always been afraid of making sugar cookies. So I have never made sugar cookies or frosting by myself. But I learned tonight that they are so easy to make!




Wednesday Dec. 2
We had Evening in Excellence for Young Women's tonight. The theme was "Faith of our Father" and we focused on our ancestors and their stories. I was really touched, and I felt a great desire to learn more of the stories behind my ancestor's lives. Today to organize my life better, I created a little folder that has 4 pockets: Calendar, To Do, Projects, Notes. Now I can carry it with me in my purse, and have it at all times if I need to cross something off my to do list, or write down something I don't want to forget. I'm really excited that I created something crafty! :)






Thursday Dec. 3
While playing outside today, Emily fell on the dead grass and and scratched up her face. We put neosporin on it, and it's healing nicely. She looks like she's been scratched by a cat! Tonight we made our first fire of the season. It was more fun to take pictures than to watch daddy try to make the firewood cooperate with him! Emily and I were laughing so hard by the time we finished making faces into the camera. This is one of my favorite pictures of Emily and me.






Friday Dec. 4
Tonight we decorated the tree. Emily was so excited to help decorate our tree because she got to help decorate Nana's tree last Friday with Aunt Kathryn and Nana. Emily did a great job and was sad when we had put all the ornaments on the tree.



Saturday Dec. 5
Today we went to Falcon Field and the Arizona Wing of the Commemorative Air Force Museum. We were able to donate some toys and canned food, take a picture with Santa and Mrs. Claus, climb onto a firetruck and look at all the old war airplanes. The museum had a little airplane that they kids could pedal around. Emily absolutely loved it, and Nathan was frustrated that his legs were too short to reach the pedals. Both never wanted to get out and wished we could take the little airplane home. Then tonight we cleaned up the yard and hung the outside Christmas lights. Emily tried pushing the lawn mower and went about 3 steps before she stopped. Robby was bummed because he's ready for her to take over the lawn care! LOL Last year Robby's parents bought Nathan this Air Force jacket and he wore it for the first time tonight because it was SOOOOOOOOO cold outside and he's finally big enough to wear it! He loved it!