Vegas at Christmas Time

Grandma Snowden was so sweet and booked us a few nights in her condo in Vegas with her Worldmard points. We had so much fun. We swam, played games, wathched movies and just spent a lot of quality time together as a family. I will say that Vegas in the winter is not as warm as I thought. The pools were super heated but I only swam once. Conner was an animal though...he loved the pools.

Christmas Day!

Christmas this year was really a hard day for me but so fun for all the kids as usual. We have been really struggling with the economy and construction. Not a lot of money but we still made Christmas great for the kids. Scott and I gave each other a picture of a mountain bike ( we hope to buy sometime after we pay for Jessi's wedding)! The hard part for me was being without Jess and not really having her a part of our family anymore. She only came down for 2 hours on Christmas morning to open her presents and then left. In fact that is all we saw of her all of Christmas Break. We all miss her but she is spreading her wings and doesn't need her family right now. Her Mommy just needs to come to better terms with it. It has been a really hard year for me dealing with the fact that we have lost her for awhile. After Jess left the entire Snowden clan showed up two hours early for dinner and that was a little stressful for me too. I like to have everything ready and clean when we have guest over and we were in a mess with dinner barely started. It turned out to be really fun though. Everyone pitched in and we all had a blast just hanging out!

The Days before Christmas

We were so busy the week of Christmas. All of it was a blast! Monday night we went to see the lights at Thanksgiving Point. We usually go to the Festival of Lights in Mapleton with the Schramm family but Nikki and Conner had the stomach flu so we just drove through as a family. I must say the Mapleton ones are far better. We had the Stalker family Christmas party on Wed. and then on Christmas Eve we stayed home as a family. Us girls cooked all night and the boys played video games. We opened our secret people presents and then Santa ( aka grandpa Ron) came over for a visit. This year we all piled into our bed and watched "The Nativity" It was about an hour long but my kids really liked it. It really helped bring the true meaning of the day to our family. Scott and I have this Santa thing figured out. We were actually in bed by 1:00 am this year! :)

Volunteering in school!

I have been a member of Windsor PTA for the past 14 years. 3 of them as the PTA president. All the other years I have done various jobs. This year I am treasurer for Windsor PTA and Timpanogos High School PTA. I love it and love getting to know the people who work and serve my kids every day. This past Christmas I had a party with Conner from 8:30- 10:30, Conner wanted me to wear my p.js's because we were going on the polar express. I was then helping at Nikkis party from 10:45-11:45 but Nikki told me I could not wear my pajamas to her party! I had to run home and make a quick change. These are my before and after photos!

Festival of Trees

Every year since Jess was a baby we have attended the Primary Childrens Festival of Trees! I love this event! It is at the start of the Christmas season and all the proceeds go to Primary Childrens! This year we met my awesome sister in law Tiffany and her kids there. My kids really had fun with all their little cousins and took great care of them. Here are a few of our favorite pics.

Christmas Service

I love the feeling of love and giving we get at the Holiday Season! I am big on service but really want my family to grow a deep love for helping others and to know how important it is to give of ourselves. Every year we pick Angels off the angel tree and the kids donate their own hard earned money to give Christmas to others. This Christmas we also went and wrapped presents for Habitat for Humanity on Christmas Eve. One of my big mothering goals is for more of our family nights to be centered around service. We are starting out January with making blankets for Primary Childrens and then we are helping to build a home with Habitat for Humanity later this month. If you go to the Disneyland website you can sign up for a day of service and receive a free day at Disneyland.

Christmas Dance Concerts

The girls had their benefit concert for the end of 2009. Studio One always chooses a benefit to dance for and this year it was sub for santa. We enjoyed all the dances and it was great to see Sidney up there dancing away with the Senior team. She really holds her own up their with them. We were all very impressed. Nikki is just so fun to watch she has quit the attitude up their on stage. Jess choreographed a few of the concert dances. Her other studio put on a concert a few nights later where she choreographed 10 dances. Her little girls really love her. It is fun to see the great example she is to those little ones.