Creativity flowing

Since Christmas I have been busy creating. I've always loved to try to be creative and think of fun things to do so now I have been learning to sew easy things(an aprin), paint on canvus, make pillows and a little bit of toll painting (picture shows unfinished Christmas tree project). I have so many plans in my head and just have to wait for the bank account to allow me to put them into action. But I've never thought it could be so fun! I am going to Utah in a few weeks and can't wait to go see what kind of crafty things they are doing up there now. I am so amazed at the creativity they have up there. Here is a picture of a few of my recent projects. I am always looking for new things to do so if anyone knows of simple, fun crafts, let me know!!

Over it!

Look what Santa left for Cody

Cody is our little American Idol!
Me with my sewing machine
Daniel with his phone

Wow, so all I can say is that Christmas is over and I am over it. It was fun and all, but very exhausting and am glad to have it over for the first time in my life. Neither Daniel or I could sleep very well Christmas Eve. I think we were too excited for Cody. So we started the day already low on energy. We spent Christmas morning at home playing with new gifts and socializing with the neighbors outside. Our neighborhood is pretty social and everyone was out with new toys and bikes...even all of the adults in their PJ's. It's so nice to have neighbors like that. Then later in the day we ventured over to Daniel's parents since his sister who is serving a mission in Fiji would be calling. One by one Daniel's siblings came with their families to open presents and hang out. With seven kids in his family it can get pretty loud with all of the grand kids adding to the commotion. We had a nice Christmas dinner and socialized some more. Daniel and I were so very tired by the end of the day. Cody managed to score big time as usual with gifts. He got a new bike and a Lightening McQueen watch along with some of the cars from the movie "Cars" from Santa. He also got a kids digital camera, a guitar with microphone (we have some fun jam sessions to mommy's music), new PJ's, a web cam to see Grandma and Grandpa Bell, a personalized sing-a-long CD of Mickey Mouse and a CD player for his room. And a lot of other toys that if I named everyone it would go for a while. Anyhow, he enjoyed playing with cousins all day and has lots of fun stuff to keep him very busy.

Daniel's main gift was a new fancy cell phone and my main gift was a new sewing machine. I am going to take up sewing and lots of other crafts this year. I am very anxious to get started. We have a craft store here that I spent 2 hours looking in the other day. I could go nuts. I am going to try to take up painting on canvas, making a new comforter for our bed with pillows and perhaps some scrapbooking. My main goal is to figure out how to use my sewing machine!!! Should be a busy new year!!

We hope everyone else had an awesome Christmas and we are looking forward to a fun (and prosperous) New Year for everyone!

Learning the hard way...

So don't you hate learning things the hard way! No matter how old you are it still ends up that way sometimes.
On Tuesday I started my holiday cooking and Cody was right there to taste every single thing that I made and with every single ingredient I added, he thought he had to have another taste. He had cookie dough, rice crispy treats, decoration sprinkles, chocolates, fudge dough, and fudge (after it was done) and then a few cookies and frosting as I was frosting the cookies. I kept trying to tell him that his tummy was going to hurt and finally made him leave the kitchen and the table so I could finish up cooking/frosting. Well, sure enough Wed. it hit him with a vengeance. He was in the bathroom quite a lot and complaining that his tummy hurt every time. But do you think that would stop him? He's back asking for candy today!! Crazy kids...

And then it was my turn...
I should know better than to ever turn my back or rather take a shower and not keep a eye on Cody (don't ask me how to do that while taking a shower). Anyhow, so I noticed that he had found a Black Sharpie marker and it was on his toy chest. I saw a few marks on his measuring board on the wall and one mark on his wall but I figured no harm done and quickly took the Sharpie marker to put it in a safe high place. When I later walked into my bedroom to get laundry together, to my surprise was a lot more marker on my wall!!! I called him into the room calmly and asked him what he did. He told me that he drew me a race track on my wall!! It's hard to be mad when they say cute innocent things like that. I emphasized the idea that we only write on paper! I have never really had the "we don't write on walls" talk yet, but I guess I got to learn the hard way that it's never too early to have that talk. So all of you out there with little boys who haven't had this talk...it may be time.

Cody licking the spoon after mixing the cookies and many other tastes of the batter.

Cody licking the spatula after mixing up the fudge and many other tastes of the batter.
The race track Cody drew for me on my bedroom wall. (Luckily we still have paint left over)

Precious Times

Just a few of the fun times lately...

We had our "Breakfast with Santa" today at the church. Not quite the same atmosphere as our usual Ward Christmas Party but they decided to change it up this year for some reason. As you can see, Phearson was not too excited but Cody and Porter did pretty well. They boys got to eat some pancakes and eggs and make some crafts before seeing Santa. Cody was sad afterwards when we left because he wanted to eat with Santa longer but we told him that he had to go back to the North Pole to help make toys.

Too much fun with tree time!!

Cody was very eager to put the star on!

And held the flashlight so Daddy could see while giving the tree water

The finished product!!

We decided since Cody had a ruff day of not feeling well and having to stay indoors for the past couple of days that we would take him out to get a Christmas tree. (He has strep-throat). He enjoyed watching the men at the lot put the tree in a shaker and cut the end off to put the stand on. He definitely loves everything about tools. Cody couldn't wait to start putting the ornaments on the tree when we returned home with it, and was very anxious to get that star on the top. He was quite the helper, wanting to be a part of everything that Daddy was doing. He has been very excited this year with each new activity. It's so fun to watch his reaction to all of this holiday hoopla! He's starting to understand more and more as the month goes on what this Christmas season entails...parades, lots of shopping with mommy, yummy treats, (fake)snow, trees, ornaments, fun music that he now requests mommy and daddy to sing as we put him to bed (favorites-Silver Bells and Winter wonderland, Jingle Bells). Today he watched and cried as I wrapped his cousins fun gifts that he wanted to keep for himself. We had to take a break and write a letter to Santa to let him know that he wanted all the gifts that his cousins were getting. Holidays are definitely more exciting when you have kids. I enjoy this time of the season and it really helps remind me to be thankful for all of our blessings. It seems everywhere you turn there's a charity trying to raise money or give gifts to families/kids in need. It makes you realize how good you have it and it makes you want to do more for others which is what Christ wants. So, in other words, Happy Holidays to all and count your blessings!!

Who does Cody look more like?

Start the season right!

First of all, A very belated Happy Thanksgiving to all our friends and family! Hope you all were able to eat lots of good food! It's the one day you have to let yourself splurge like crazy!
To start our holiday season right we took a trip to Disneyland this week on the first day they put up the Christmas decor and started all of the Christmas activities. Daniel and I took Cody and Porter mid morning (Autumn met us later with Phearson) and as soon as we got there we realized that everyone else in Southern California decided to come that day as well. We had a fun time taking the boys around and mostly taking pictures with the characters, looking at the reindeer, Santa and Mrs. Claus. We, of course. had to hit up the Buzz Light year ride for the boys because that's their favorite ride. Other than that and a few others we didn't go on too many of the rides because of the longer lines. Autumn and Phearson met up with us later and we hung around until the Christmas parade. The boys had been waiting so long but they loved watching all of the Disney characters go by with Christmas excitement. They were dancing, clapping and awed the whole way through. I love to watch them enjoy this kind of stuff. By the end of the parade Phearson was sleeping and the other two boys were well on their way to falling asleep. Porter fell asleep on the walk out and Cody as soon as we got in the car. What a fun day though. Definitely the right way to start our Christmas holiday. We love being so close to Disneyland!