You're A Princess

For our January Kick off in Activity Day Girls, we had an amazing activity to let the girls all know that are not only, A child of God but, a princess too.
Jen was in charge of the activity and worked it around the Disney movie 'Tangled.'
When the girls first arrived at the activity they watched a little video clip from 'Tangled' and then Jen broke the girls into several groups.
Each group went into a different room of the church and discovered this waiting for them.

A hair maze. What!!!!

Yep,a maze made up of very, very long strands of golden "hair."

Each strand started by a door and when the girls got it un'tangled' it led them to their own crown.

Yes, the girls had to figure out how to get through this. We had 3 different rooms that all looked like this. The Relief Society room had 9 different lines running through it. The YW. room (top room) had 9 different lines.  And the nursery had 6. (bottom room)

The girls had to weave themselves over, under, around, and through several obstacles  It was so fun to watch the girls maneuver through the maze.

This is the RS. room.

How cute is she!

Nursery room.

YW. room- yes, that's only 9 strands.

Sydney and Kaylee making their way through the maze.

After they reached their crowns there were things to decorate it with.

Kenzie-top

Bella and Dorrie-left, Kaylee and Kaitlyn-right.

The decorations were definitely worthy of a princess too.

Repunzel's hair ran the length of the room and led to the desserts.

More decorations.

The girls all got a copy of this quote by Elder Uchtdorf.

Yummy cupcakes.

Please Forgive Me.

Ok. I know we are to be reverent and keep arms folded and eyes closed during prayer. But, seriously, I couldn't help this.
As I'm sure many mothers do, I took a little peek at all my kids during our family prayer. When I saw this, my heart melted and luckily my camera was right next to me.

January Crafts

Yeah for craft time. AKA girls night out.
My sweet hubby bought me a craft to do for Christmas. What a good man huh!
Here is my finished product.

He did such a good job picking this out.

Too cute.

I also finished my January dangles for my welcome sign.

Lover Boy!

One day while Ty and I were in the kitchen it dawned on me that in 8 short years I could be sending Xander off on his mission. Then it occurred to me I could have Kenzie gone at the same time too.

I'm not gonna lie, that was a scary thought.

Well, during our discussion Dawson pipes in with his own thought.

He says, "mom, I don't think I'm going to go on a mission." I looked at him and asked, "why wouldn't you go." He ponders for a minute and then says, "I think I'm more the marrying type."

REALLY! 

More the marrying type! I had to ask the next logical question,

"Who are you marrying?"

He pauses for all of 2 seconds before he says, "Avery. Cause she loves me."

I am 100% all for him marrying Avery. Cause my awesome, wonderful friend Jen Hanna would be his mother-in-law. Yippee for him!

But, I then had to point out that maybe he should serve a mission and when he gets home Avery will graduate from high school and then they can get married.

After some intense thought he concurred, that this would be a good idea.

Hey Jen, I guess we have about 13 years to plan Dawson and Avery's wedding. 

Snowy Sawyer.

How cute is this kiddo!

Kenzie is such a good big sister.

Christmas 2012

Our Christmas was wonderful. The kids got all that they wanted and more than they needed. I've discovered the best part of having older kids, they let you sleep in a little. My boys woke up at 7. Not bad, right. Well, I told them to go back in their room till 8. And they did! I'll take an 8:00 Christmas morning. It sure beats 5 or 6.

Our Christmas tree and stockings after Santa came.

The kids anxiously waiting to come down.

We had a little family gift exchange. We all drew names and picked out the perfect gift for person.

Dawson got Sawyer a 'Cars' race track. Xander got Dawson a remote control car.

Kenzie got Xander Legos.  I got Kenzie a mini cupcake maker.

I'm missing pictures of mine and Ty's gifts.

Sawyer got Tyler The new Batman movie and his favorite chocolates. Ty got me a new bag for my laptop.

Sawyer didn't need any other gifts once he opened 'Bucky' from Jake and the Neverland Pirates.

He had to have Bucky completely out of it's package. Then while all the other kids opened gifts, he just played and played. 

He sat and played with Bucky for about 20 mins before he realized he more presents to open.

This is the excitement on the boys faces when they opened their new 'Skylanders' video game.

Kenzie couldn't believe I got her an ice pack.

Oh but, she's used it several times since.

More excitement when they opened the other part of 

'Skylanders'.

Boy and their toys.

Mackenzie got a 'Nook' for all her books she wanted.

She also got a Ukulele and a bamboo plant for Christmas.

In addition to tons of clothes.

Is she a preteen or what!

Sawyer finally opened another gift.

I leave you with a final picture from our Christmas morning. 

Dawson and his newest elephant addition.

Merry Christmas!

Snow Fun.

When Mother Nature decides to continually dump snow on the ground, it's time to bundle up and play.

Or in Tyler's and Becky's cases=shovel.

 The kids however did get bundled up to go play in the all the snow.

Sawyer might not look happy,but he is. 

Oh wait, no he's not. He's mad I made him wear 2 pairs of gloves.

A hat was added before he went out.

A fun little sled hill they packed down from the mounds left from shoveling.

Dawson and Sawyer having fun.

Notice how happy Sawyer is.

I won the glove battle. He won the hat battle.

Kenzie and her cousin Jaimee dug out a little snow tunnel.

Kenz going in one end and Dawson coming out the other.

After all the cold fun it was time to come in and warm up with some hot chocolate, popcorn, cupcakes and a movie.