Family Home Evening by Sarah

After a particularly rowdy attempt at family prayer, Sarah decided to take it upon herself to do a family home evening lesson on Prayer. This is her hilarious activity where we had to decide which things you do and don't do during a prayer...

Eat

Fold arms

Bow head

Toot

Kick legs

Quiet feet

Burping

Eyes closed

Hands to self

Whisper

Mouth quiet

Wear hat

Take off hat

If you are not sure which ones you should or should not do during a prayer, please contact Sarah and she can come to your house and train you too!

Christmas Day Finally Arrives!

Christmas took forever to arrive for my little 4 year old. This countdown calendar helped her remember how many more days there were. That was the question all the time, "How many more days 'til Christmas?"
It finally came! Angela was most excited about her new robe and her big set of markers from Santa.

Natalie LOVED her new fashion design set from Santa.

Sarah was thrilled to get the Rock Tumbler she asked Santa specifically for.

Nat modeling her new clothes. I love the hat.

Angela wearing her princess-y crown.

Angela's new Polly Pockets from Santa. They are funny. You swap their top half of their bodies with the legs. It looks a little creepy when they are pulled apart. She also got a Polly Pocket waterslide which was a big hit. Phew! Santa didn't have to bring that Polly Pocket Roller Coaster that got bad reviews and was waaaay overpriced.

Our traditional Christmas breakfast that I've had ever since I can remember. The eggstuff, in particular, was passed down from my grandma Jensen. Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without it. When I was growing up my mom also started making sticky buns. We round it out with some bacon, fruit and hot chocolate. Yum!

The girls big present from mom and dad.

Talking with grandma and grandpa is a favorite part of Christmas. Wish we could be together!

Our family present from aunt Shanna and uncle Aaron! We had fun playing this Christmas night.

Twilight loves all the packaging strewn all over the place! She LOVES to sit in boxes or on piles of paper so she was in heaven. (o:

Christmas dinner consisted of ham, Sarah's salad (which my Sarah won't touch), Pesto noodles, pineapple and Dr. Pepper (only for mom and dad - we are hypocrites, I know).

Angela would only eat the noodles.

Not sure what this face means - "Hey I'm eating here!" perhaps.

Check out this awesome outfit pulled together by Angela. It rivals some of Natalie's combos. She loves her new robe and frog slippers, especially while wearing her black and red crazy tights at the same time! And pink and brown plaid skirt!

Aren't these adorable?

One of Sarah's favorite presents! A Snuggie! I got it for a joke - she thinks those Snuggie commercials are so goofy - who doesn't? She laughed and laughed when she opened it up, but she seriously LOVES this thing. And Natalie was so jealous. Who knew my joke present would be such a huge hit?

Our festive house. What a wonderful Christmas. Most of these pictures were taken with my new 24-70 2.8 Canon lens that Vern* got me. Thanks hon! I actually got to buy some of Vern's* presents with money I earned taking pictures. That was fun.

Christmas Happiness

I don't remember when I started doing this, but it is one of our traditions I love. I put every Christmas card we get on the back of our front door. It is so fun to look at through the whole month of December and see so many of my favorite people. So if you sent us a Christmas card this year - thanks! We put your card to good use!
This is a Christmas apron that is very sentimental and I felt like photographing one day. My girls wear it a lot during December. This adorable apron was made for me by someone in my mom's family - do you know who mom? Anyway, I remember getting this when I was a little girl and I think my cousins got matching ones. I think someone got a red one. I think I got it at grandma Jack's house on Christmas Eve. I remember thinking it was so beautiful and feeling so fancy wearing it that night. I still think it is so cute and love seeing my girls wear it.

Christmas Eve Traditions

Christmas Eve is one of my favorite days of the whole year! I love the anticipation and the fun traditions we have. I love just being with my little family. Since we don't have extended family to celebrate with )o: and we miss them so much at this time of year, we have come up with some fun traditions to look forward to.
One of those traditions is cheese fondue for dinner! We adopted this fun tradition from my two good friends Laurie and Tina. I thought it was such a fun idea, I stole it. (o: It's great because it's something we don't normally do the rest of the year and it's very easy to pull together on a busy day. Plus there is something that all the girls will eat. (Even though Nat doesn't like melted cheese, she likes putting the meat and veggies and bread on the stick.)

This was a naughty thing that Bob* and I drank too much of over the holidays and probably one of the reasons I gained some weight! Ugh - but it tastes so good!

Each Christmas Eve, the girls get to open one present and it is never a surprise what it is. However, the girls are always excited to see what their Christmas pajamas will look like.

This year, I was in a glittery mood (I made Christmas cards, invitations and the pajama shirts sparkle with glitter.) So I got crafty and made snazzy matching shirts for the fun sparkly jammie bottoms I found on Old Navy.com. They turned out pretty cute...

Natalie's expressions always crack me up.

Hey look - it's me decorating our Costco gingerbread house.

Angela was my best decorator this year! She lasted much longer than her older sisters who got bored and went to play the Wii.

One side looks a little more tasty than the other.

Other traditions not pictured:

Putting out a treat for Santa.

Checking online to see where in the world Santa is to motivate the girls to get to bed.

Reading the Christmas story from a beautiful picture book with the words from Luke in the bible before bedtime.

Bob* and I always watch "It's a Wonderful Life" while wrapping presents.

Winter Frost

On December 23rd I had a ton of last minute Christmas errands.

It also happened to be a day that we had freezing fog and it looked amazing outside.

So as I gathered my things for the errands, I grabbed my camera in hopes of getting a minute to snap a few pictures before the ice coating melted away.

After a trip to Costco, I couldn't resist and stopped at the park behind the library. I am sooo glad I did! The girls thought I was a little nutty, but I think even they had to admit, it was a stunning scene that day. They had fun watching the birds and running around until Natalie slipped on the frost. That was the end of our magical moment. The whining from all three girls about the cold was the signal that it was time to go.

Grandpa Jensen

Me and Russ with grandpa in the olden days.

On December 23rd while Angela and I were shopping for Twilight's Christmas presents at Petsmart I got a phone call from my mom. It was kind of a random location to hear that my grandpa Jensen passed away. About 9 or 10 months ago, he was having some bad health problems and I thought I would be heading to Utah for a funeral around that time, but grandpa pulled through. I looked forward to visiting him and grandma Beth at our next Utah trek. Grandpa's death was a surprise and I'm sad I didn't get to visit him one more time. The last time I talked to him was for his birthday in August.

Something kind of interesting . . . if any of you wonder why I am such a U of U fanatic the answer is grandpa. He was a HUGE Ute fan and passed down that legacy to me and my siblings and cousins. The day he died was the University of Utah bowl game in San Diego against the California Golden Bears. Strange coincidence.

My uncle Jack (his son) and cousin Connor had traveled to watch the game in San Diego. They found out about grandpa right before the game, but luckily other family talked them into staying. It's what grandpa would have wanted and I'm sure if he could have, grandpa would have found a way to watch the game from wherever he was. (o: (maybe he did!)

Watching the game that night was kind of emotional especially when the Utes fell behind. All of us just prayed for the Utes to win for Jack and Connor's sakes and for grandpa. When they won the game 37 to 27 I could just imagine grandpa singing "Utah Man". I'm glad Jack and Connor stayed to see that win.


While on the plane to Salt Lake for his funeral, I wrote down some of my favorite and funny memories with or about grandpa growing up. . .

Homemade rootbeer stored in these weird hospital containers (he was a doctor/anesthesiologist and must have gotten them free?)

Homemade fudge

Awesome Kristy Lane backyard with gazebo, trail, creek and little forest.

Fiercely loyal - loyal Jordan High Beetdigger (even with that dumb mascot!) always proud of his heritage - telling the stories of growing up in Sandy, attending Jordan high and the U of U.

LOVE of learning.

Salutation to the Dawn - favorite poem.

Salted watermelon for a midnight snack during sleepovers.

A UTAH man sir.

Very loving, joyful, always had us on his knee, hugs.

Gentleman - always had a hanky handy for grandma and Beth.

Grandpa was ALWAYS singing something and loved opera - he tried during my teen years to convert me. (o: His favorite opera was La Triviata which I went to see during my BYU years and actually really enjoyed it.

Grandpa's bomb shelter in his and grandma's Kristy Lane house was always an adventure to explore. It was huge and full of all kinds of treasures: a wheelchair, 1950's Barbies, old costumes, bowling trophies, photo albums, old home movies, etc. My cousins and siblings and I would spend hours exploring in there. I loved it!

Another fun downstairs place to play was the bar - it had rainbow colored lights and Megan and Heather and I would mix up disgusting concoctions behind the bar and give them to our brothers.

Grandpa's Tiger room - he loved tigers and dedicated the basement family room to tiger decor. Now that I'm older, I wonder what my grandma thought of it. Maybe there was a reason his tiger paintings and statues were down there. (o:

Sun Valley condo for winter skiing and summer trips!

Handy doctor visits - when I got a popcorn kernal burned into my hand grandpa made a home visit to come and help fix me. (o: I never had to go to the ER. Checking our ears, giving us flu shots, etc.

Grandpa always worked hard to expose us to culture. I remember going on dates with him to the symphony from a young age and then going to a fancy restaurant. (My favorite part.)

Brightly colored licorice candy in his office

Delicious Swedish (or Danish?) pancakes every 4th of July. (Does any one have this recipe? - I still remember how thin and crispy and delicious they were.)

Two Bits - grandpa taught all the grandkids about coins and how much they were worth and I remember a lengthy lesson on what two bits meant. I don't remember. Sorry grandpa. I think 1 quarter is 2 bits. (?)

I remember the family laughing and laughing about an incident while on a Sun Valley ski trip. Apparently, there was a big blizzard at the top of the mountain and when grandpa thought he was skiing he was actually holding completely still, but doing the skiing moves while the wind and snow blew around him. (o:

Embarrassing sex talks when grandkids got engaged! With our fiance!

Taking souvenirs home after every visit to grandpas house. Especially later in life as grandpa was trying to get rid of things. (o: We'd always get books, pictures, trinkets, cassette tapes, etc. to take home.

Service in the Air Force in Japan during Korean War which is why my mom was born in Japan.

Taking care of grandma when she got Alzheimer's.

Going on the trip to Rochester, N.Y. with grandpa to help with grandma. Getting to see church and mission sights and meet friends they made during their mission. Sacred Grove, Peter Whitmer Farm, Niagra Falls, Hill Cumorah Pageant, etc.

Getting in trouble for writing that grandpa was "rich" on a birthday card I made him when I was little. (o:

Jovial is a good word to describe grandpa.

New car parties - when grandpa got a new car, every couple of years, we'd come to see it and celebrate and he would announce what the name of the car would be.

Always very outgoing and friendly with strangers.

He ate duck feet in China town on our big family reunion trip to San Francisco. I was about 6 years old, but I remember that moment well.

Grandpa with uncle Frank (right mom?) who was at the time the ambassador to Sweden. Cool huh? Go Swedish roots! That was grandma's side if I remember right. Kind of random, but I think it's neat.

I like grandpa's red vest in that picture. Go RED!

Ironically, grandpa ended up moving to Orem - to enemy territory because he loved Beth and her family was down there. But he always flew his Ute flag and wore his colors down in the sea of blue. (o: