Miscellaneous Monday

Ha! It's so miscellaneous that it's actually Tuesday instead ... :)

We had a busy week and weekend, and it was C-O-L-D!!! I'm so happy it's warming up a bit and hope that continues through this weekend for my bro's wedding and my parents' and brother's flights to the wedding.

Speaking of my brother's wedding, last week was his bachelor party. Paul has been wanting to go to one of these for a while now so he could be the one to arrange the stripper. And he didn't disappoint with this one. Here is my baby bro with his very own stripper:


Hello! Of course it's not anything but a wire stripper. But all his life Dustin can tell people his awesome Bro-in-law Paul got him a stripper for his bachelor party. :)

I went with Heidi on Saturday to do her bridals. It was FREEZING! I wore my jammies under my pants and had gloves and a jacket on over my sweatshirt. Good thing love makes you a little less oblivious to the cold, because Heidi's dress was NOT warm! :) But she looked pretty anyway:


After coming home and warming up I got to go with my family to our ward party. My kids were very excited to see Santa, and he didn't disappoint. As you can see, Tyler jumped right up and started telling him all about the Lego set he wants. Zachary was brave but you can see that he's still not so sure about this whole Santa thing ... even after Tyler's done and gone:


Before we left for the party I asked Shayla if she was going to wear her princess dress, and she said she was going to wear it, "So Santa will say I is cute." He didn't disappoint -- he said how beautiful she looked. If she was happy about that it was all on the inside -- she didn't crack a smile the whole time. Musta learned that from Zachary. :) But they all sat there without any problems or crying. Zachary even spoke to Santa. Shayla just didn't look at him until she was far enough away to be safe.


Zachary could totally tell that was one of Santa's helpers and not the real Santa. I wasn't so sure, but Zachary had the proof: His eyelashes were brown, so he's not the real Santa. Good thing Santa has lots of helpers to get word back to him while he's busy. :)

I finally finished my FHE chart, and we're loving it! I bought the blank wall-hanging and used my mom's cricut to cut out the letters.

We liked being able to decide our own categories, because Paul and I both remember conducting growing up and loved it. We wanted our kids to have that opportunity, and the charts you can buy never have it. Also, we put memorization, because the person who has that can choose a song, article of faith, scripture or saying for us to memorize. We start it that evening and then say it before prayer each night for the rest of the week. Tyler was the first to conduct and he LOVED every minute of it. We knew that was a good idea. :)

And the best news of all is that I'm an auntie once again! My bro Ryan and sis-in-law Karen had their baby on Dec. 10. Aspen Divina Palmer was 9 lb. 5 oz. and 21 inches. In continuing their tradition, the middle name is a Portuguese word, this one meaning Divine. (Liz, if you have a girl you can also name her after wood. That's really how they came up w/the name. You'll understand. :) At only days old they caught this beautiful smile. I can't wait to meet her in person instead of just through video chat. (Although I'm happy we have that. :)