Winter Wonderland

The week before Christmas, it snowed and snowed.

It was quite magical.

 Driving kids to school:

Doing my weekly hike in a gorgeous snowstorm - we were the only people on the mountain and the first to blaze the trail for the day.

  

View from the top of the mountain (usually you can see the whole valley!)

Views from inside our house:

 

 

I'm so grateful to live in a place where we get a beautiful white Christmas!

Since the majority of the snow came on a Saturday when we didn't really have anywhere we had to be - for once - how pleasant it was to watch the snow fall, watch the kids build snowmen with all their neighbor friends, serve up hot chocolate, and snuggle by the fire.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.

Children for Children 2013

We held the 7th Annual Children for Children Concert a few days ago. And it was the best yet!

Every year, I have to sort of psych myself up to take on this big event in the midst of everything else going on during the holidays. This year, I wondered whether the concert was more stress than it was worth. But when I asked the kids about it, they looked at me like I was a crazy person to even suggest that it wasn't an absolutely necessary part of Christmas. They said the orphans we always donate to are depending on us and that we really need to raise money for research for kids like their cousin Lucy who are going blind. The concert was a "must" in their minds. So we moved forward. And I realized my kids are really old enough now to take on more of the work involved in putting on the concert.

This year, I tried to leave the concert more fully up to the kids and relinquish some of my control-freak tendencies. And it worked. The kids really stepped up to the task (for the most part - there was just a touch of nagging here and there, I'll admit). Ashton, Isaac and Eliza put together a little committee involving some neighbors, divided up what needed to be done. I told them I was there to help with anything they needed and offered them some pointers here and there. But really, the kids did most everything. And they were pretty darn excited and proud of their efforts and accomplishments. On the night of the concert, I sat there on the front row, just watching and enjoying and letting them do things their way without being so quick to jump in and help. They were able to roll with the inevitable small glitches and things came together nicely in the end.


We had about a hundred wonderful people show up to watch lots of cute kids perform individual and group acts and then put on a short Nativity play at the end. Ashton welcomed everyone, Eliza announced all the numbers and was in charge of the angels in the Nativity. Isaac was the back stage manager and facilities organizer plus he managed the shepherds. And the whole committee worked together on set up and clean up and key parts of the Nativity. Everyone who attended was so supportive and encouraging and there was a beautiful spirit of giving and good will going on.

Kids on the program did everything from reciting poetry to dancing to lip synching to doing karate to playing violin. And everyone agreed that this year's Nativity was the best ever - tons of kids participated and we had a real Baby Jesus (some friends' beautiful 2-week old baby who was quiet and sweet and perfect).

(excuse the blurry photos but here's a glimpse...)

   

We raised about $500 which will be matched by the Eyrealm Foundation for a total of about $1000. We'll be able to give about $500 to One Heart Bulgaria and $500 to BBS blindness research. The kids get SO excited to open the donation box and count up all the money they earned to give to needy children.

And most importantly, the kids and their friends had a chance to do something really meaningful for other people and experience the true joy of empathy and giving this Christmas.

P.S. If you'd like a FREE Power of Moms program as your Christmas gift, just click on the link below. Merry Christmas!
Pick a Free Program 

Kindness - Mom to Mom

Last week, I had a chance to help put together bags for moms who are in the hospital during the holidays.

I met Lisa Barlow through a Power of Moms Retreat a couple years ago and she told me about the HOPE project that she started after her own challenging experience being on bedrest with her twins. As I had to be on modified bedrest when I was pregnant with my twins, I imediately felt a kinship.

For several years now, Lisa has worked with other great moms to put together wonderful care packages for moms who are facing scary and often painful situations in the hospital and sadly have to be away from their families during the holidays. She's secured donations, lined up a bunch of great moms to sew cute bags, and gathered moms together to stuff the bags and take them to moms at all the hospitals in the area.

This year, the Hope project did over 300 bags.

I was excited to be a hands-on part of last week's effort. Since I was delivering the books that Power of Moms was donating (Deliberate Motherhood: 12 Powers of Peace, Purpose, Order and Joy) to go into the bags, I figured I might as well stick around and help stuff the bags while enjoying a lovely morning chatting with a bunch of wonderful moms.

Here's what went in the bags:

And here are some of the moms who were there to help (a cute little boy took this photo for us - that's Lisa, the one who started this project, on my left):

I love that there are such great people in this world! And I'm so happy that 300 moms will enjoy an extra dose of love and hope during their hospital stays this Christmas.

For more information about the Hope Project, visit http://utahhopeproject.blogspot.com/

Fighting Blindness and Helping Orphans - and a great dentist

Look at my neice Lucy's beautiful blue eyes!

Sadly, Lucy is gradually loosing her eyesight. She's lost most of her night vision, her glasses keep getting thicker, and she's learning braille in school so she can be ready for what might come.

There are some great doctors and researchers who are making strides in their research to help children like Lucy. But that costs money - lots of money. And children like Lucy don't have a lot of time. So my sister Shawni is working hard to raise money to support research for BBS (Bardet Bidel Syndrome - the syndrome Lucy has that causes blindness and many other heartbreaking issues like obesity and kidney failure).

You can help raise money for this vital research and help the many, many children who have this syndrome by checking out all the great fundraising offers that readers of Shawni's blog have created. Click on the link below to see what's offered (some great Christmas gift ideas!). Included is a chance to purchase the Power of Moms' Alexander's Amazing Adventures program at a great discount (and the proceeds go towards BBS).

Great Gifts/Chance to Support BBS Research for the "I Love Lucy" Project

And for those of you who live anywhere near Ogden, UT, we'd LOVE to have you join us for this year's Children for Children Concert. Our kids and their friends will be sharing some musical numbers and putting on a little Nativity play as a way to raise money to help other children. We'll be donating the funds we gather to the "I Love Lucy Project" for BBS Research to try to save Lucy's eyes (and those of so many other children with BBS) and to One Heart Bulgaria (we always support this organization that provides warm blankets and healthy food to destitute orphans in Bulgaria where I served my mission).

This year's concert (the 7th Annual!) will be held Monday, December 16th from 6:30-7:30pm at a community center near us. Let me know your email address in the comments if you'd like to have your children participate or if you'd like to just come and watch!

Here's information on some past concerts in case you're interested:
http://looslifamily.blogspot.com/2008/12/children-for-children-and-joy-school.html
http://looslifamily.blogspot.com/2009/12/concert-success.html 
http://looslifamily.blogspot.com/2012/12/almost-snowed-out-concert.html

And while I'm making announcements for Ogden-area people, here's one more. I've been through lots of dentists in the different places we've lived and have had a hard time finding one that really works for us here in Ogden. But I finally found a really great dentist here - Dr. Healy. Yeah!

A while back, I visited a dentist who freaked me out by telling me that pretty much all my fillings needed to be replaced, I needed 2 crowns, and my gums were receded to the point that I needed gum grafts. NOT good news since dental work scares me and since dental insurance won't cover much until you've had it for a full year and I'd just barely got the insurance. I visited a couple other dentists with the kids and they were OK but seemed to be always encouraging more treatment than really seemed necessary. One dentist told me that one of the kids needed a filling in a baby tooth that had a tiny tiny cavity. He said that maybe 50% of dentists would recommend that the filling be taken care of right away and 50% would just put a "watch" on it. I'm conservative when it comes to medical and dental treatments so I think I'd side with the 50% that would put a watch on the tooth. But despite the fact that he'd stated that the need for the cavity was 50/50, this dentist really pushed for the cavity to be filled. We declined and decided to look elsewhere.

Anyway, at long last, I found a dentist who is thorough but conservative and who is great with adults and kids alike. His hygienist was gentle but thorough (the last time I had a cleaning, I was in pain for days!). After being examined by Dr Healy, I was told that my gums were pretty normal for my age and that I should simply floss well and use a soft toothbrush, that my fillings were holding up fine but that they'd keep an eye on them, and that I needed one crown (he showed me the xray showing decay under a very large and very old filling and consulted with me on the options there - the crown really seemed to be the best option).

I have to admit I get pretty stressed out about dental work. Those shots in the mouth and that drilling just makes me so uncomfortable and nervous. Plus this whole crown thing seemed scary - drilling down my tooth and prepping it for the crown, figuring out what sort of crown would be best. But Dr Healy explained every little thing to me, answered all my questions thoroughly, told me exactly what to expect, and took great care of me, meticulously working very close to the root of that sad old tooth and sparing me a root canal.

I've now got a nice crown in my mouth that matches my other teeth perfectly and feels great. Such a relief!

I don't often endorse specific services, products or people on this blog, but since a good conservative dentist can be hard to find, I wanted to let local people know about Dr Healy. He's on 12th Street near Washington in Ogden and he really does a great job.

* While Dr Healy is a sponsor of my blog, the experiences and opinions stated here are entirely genuine.

Christmas Prep and Sweet Surprises

Wow, Christmas is coming up fast!

We got out all the decorations and "decked the halls" last Saturday. Plus we got our Christmas tree, wreath and a bunch of poinsettias at Costco.

The kids are nostalgic about the years we treked all over in the freezing cold in the mountains to find the perfect tree. I'm so glad they have fond memories of those years when we found our own Christmas tree the old fashioned way, with a tree permit in hand. I remember lots of frustration since "perfect" trees just don't grow in the wild and since the kids were all crying (since we lived in a warm place, they weren't used to the cold in the nearby mountains and we didn't really have snow gear since we lived in a place where we never needed it - they had plastic bags tied over their shoes to tromp through the snow...). They remember the magic. And that makes me happy. 

But it also makes me happy that since we moved three years ago, there's no place within an hour's drive of here where you can cut your own tree and the tree permits are super expensive so we now spend 10 minutes in a truck at Costco picking a nice 8-foot Noble Fir for $42 rather than wandering through the forests or the tree lots looking for that elusive perfect tree and getting frustrated with each other and the situation. (The reason it only takes 10 minutes is because all the trees are wrapped tightly in twine and you have to pick one based solely on what you can see of the wrapped-up tree. You can bascially just tell how tall it is and how bushy it'll maybe be based on how big the base of the trunk is and how fat the bundle is. It's sort of exciting to get home, cut the twine off your tree and see how it actually looks. We got a good one. Maybe not perfect - it has a bushy side and a more scrawny side but we turned the scrawny side to the wall and did a little thinning where it was too bushy and it looks just great.) 

It took us a while to get around to actually decorating the tree since this week has been crazy. There's been a lot to catch up on at POM after the long weekend and tons of activities packing every evening. On Monday, we had the missionaries over for dinner and had a family the missionaries are working with join us for FHE (The twins have been the big missionaries really with this family. The 8-year-old in the family who goes to scouts with the twins decided he wanted to get baptized because the twins took it upon themselves to take him to see the baptismal font where they'd been baptized when we had a scout event at that building - and their excitement about their baptism spurred him to ask his mom if he could take the discussions and now we're working with the whole family...). 

Tuesday, we had a cub scout pack meeting and a court of honor for the older boys. Wednesday Eliza had Activity Days and ELiza's violin recital rehearsal followed by Eliza's basketball game while Jared did tithing settlement to do all evening (he's had to do a LOT of that - involves talking through what each member has paid in tithing for the year while checking in with them to see how they're doing - plus of course, he's got all his regular duties as Bishop of our ward/congregation which includes lots of special help for needy people at this time of year...). 

Last night was Eliza's recital and she did so well! She's practiced so hard and even though she's only been playing for a few months and got pretty nervous and worried right before the concert, she got up there and played a lot of songs with the other students and did really well. 

Tonight is the big ward Christmas party where hundreds of people come out of the woodwork for a free meal and it's anyone's guess how much food to make and how everything will turn out. I just love how there's never a dull moment in our ward - so many interesting and wondeful people, so many sad stories and glad stories - and Jared's doing such a great job as Bishop. I really don't know how he juggles all he has going on at work and at home with helping so many people in our ward both temporally and spiritually as they deal with hard situations. But he never complains and kindly deals with everything that needs to happen.

After the recital last night, we finally got around to decorating the tree (the kids were pretty concerned that it was so bare for so long). We turned on the Christmas music and the kids helped me untangle lights and get those on (never my favorite thing - I can't just put the lights on any which way, I just have to tuck the wires in just so as I put the lights on so it takes forever and makes my back ache...then we ran out of lights before we got to the top of the tree so I've got to get to the store and get another strand sometime soon - I could have sworn we had plenty of lights!). Then we pulled out all the special ornaments the represent our travels and experiences - each kid got to pick their three favorites to quickly tell everyone the significance of and place on the tree. Then it was free-for-all as everyone put everything else on the tree (and yes, there were some squabbles and some "you're doing it wrong" comments to keep it from being all sweetness and light).

Silas was the only one still around when I remembered to take a photo:

Here's my favorite part of the week: When we got the Christmas tree mostly done (other than the sad dark top that we'll finish at some point), we sat down by the fire together (love having a gas fire that adds ambiance at the flip of a switch!) and read one of our favorite Christmas books - Christmas Day in the Morning by Pearl Buck. It's about a farm boy who gets up extra early one Christmas morning to milk all the cows and surprise his father so the good man could have one day off from the early morning milking. It's a beautiful story and there was such love in our cozy living room as we read it together.

Right after the story, as I was getting kids to bed, Silas snuck off and wrote a really nice "secret elf" note for Jared and put it on his pillow. 

Then this morning, Jared and I woke up to find this:

Eliza and Isaac had taken it upon themselves to get up extra early and shovel the new snow that fell last night. They did our parking area and the neighbors' parking area and the driveway and the walkways, leavning just one patch with a special message on it.

Oh how I love it when the spirit of Christmas really takes hold! And what dear, sweet children we're blessed to have!

Thanksgiving 2013

We enjoyed a beautiful Thanksgiving dinner with wonderful people at my parents' house in Park City. My mom's one sister and her children and their children plus some neighbors gathered for a suptious feast for 42 that my mom so aptly prepared (with me and Jared and the kids as her helpers). My mom knows how to make everything so lovely and so tasty. And it was wonderful to have time with cousins that I see too seldom.

Here's the day in photos (sorry - forgot my good camera so I just have phone photos...):

I like to take a photo of the kids every Thanksgiving. They apparently don't care for this tradition:


As everyone arrived and the adults did all the final work on the feast, the kids got to work on their "thankful lists" - my mom got cute pumpkins they covered with stickers and wrote what they were thankful for on each sticker. Some kids got really into it and did very long and impressive lists.




Ready to eat:


My mom somehow found enough plates, glasses and sliverware for EVERYONE and made the tables look so very beautiful.

Here's each table - empty then filled:

 

The adult table:

The teenage girls' table: 

The boys' table: 

The girls' table: 

 The teenage boys' table:

Mmmmm - pie!

With some of my dear cousins (why didn't we think to get a picture with everyone?)

After a great time in Park City, we headed out to Riverton to spend time with Jared's brother and family plus Jared's mom. Always so good to be with them and catch up on everyone's lives over delicious pie. I loved hearing about college from my nieces and remembering those good old days of my own. Ashton totally beat me in "Just Dance" but I beat Eliza so I guess I'm not terrible at it. Love that game.

I'm so glad my kids have such great cousins to look up to:

Then on Friday, we helped my mom with some of her holiday decorating, did some shopping (made a decent dent in our list) and met up with more cousins for a super fun time at an indoor trampoline place (why didn't I take photos???). Then we stopped for one last feast on the way home - at In-and-Out Burger.

So I can remember the kids' cute handwriting and what they wanted to put on the Thankful Tree this year, here are some snapshots of what we got:

Brothers (SO happy that Ashton decided to put that one on - sometimes it's hard to tell if he actually is grateful at all for his brothers), legos and k'nex, basketball

 Not getting sick a lot, primary, trampolines

 Nature, money, laptops

 the color blue, texting, Heavenly Father and Jesus

 cars, stairs, Utah, Canada, people and gas (quite a random selection on one leaf!)

 Christmas, the opportunity to serve (loved seeing this one!), the lights, the napkins and the tables

 Babies, buttifull (beautiful) animals

 Books, food

Ogden, school, trips, Holy Ghost to guide us

Oh, we have so much to be grateful for!