Judo Flips

We had a new favorite activity introduced to us this past February by Alisha and Brandon. They decided to teach the kids some judo moves. They hauled in all the camping foamies and mattresses and made a big soft pile on the living room floor and then proceeded. This activity went well past the normal bedtime - the kids LOVED it!!! The pictures tell the story best!

Melodee flipping Myles

Brandon flipping Alisha

Alisha flipping Brandon

Brandon flipping Melodee

Brandon flipping Myles

Alisha flipping Charity

Melodee flipping Charity

Myles flipping Breanna

Brandon flipping Charity

Melodee flipping Alisha

Alisha flipping Brandon

Melodee flipping Myles

Breanna after flipping Charity

Melodee flipping Breanna

Here we diverged from judo... and went into dogpile moves!!! Breanna started it as you see her just going into a fall onto the mat. The best dogpile found Melodee on the bottom!

As I watched the kids flip one another, I was impressed with how careful Brandon was with Alisha when he flipped her. I could also see that she completely and totally trusted him. I saw similar things in the other kids. It was a super fun evening, oh, Naomi was the photographer for most of the shots. She and Beth applauded and oohed and ahhed at the appropriate moments. ☺We had so much fun, that when the opportunity presented itself this fall, I asked Brandon if he would like to teach judo to the cubs for me. He accepted and we had a super fun activity with the boys.

Something I noticed after doing judo with the cubs was that they were not as certain they wouldn't get hurt as my kids had been. They LOVED having Brandon demonstrate on them so they could learn how it feels to be flipped, but when they began flipping one another, they didn't have the same level of trust between peers. In fact, it became more apparent throughout the activity that the more the one being flipped resisted the move, the more difficult it was to do the move AND the more likely it was that they could get hurt being flipped. Interesting isn't it... the more resistance they put into being flipped the greater likelihood of getting hurt!

It is ironic how similar to life that principle is. If we lack trust in someone, especially if it is a family member, the more stubbornly we stick to not trusting them or in other words, the more stubbornly we resist their efforts to regain our trust, the greater the likelihood that we will get hurt!

I LOVED how, the cubs, even after falling wrong and finding a momentary discomfort as a result, never left the game for more than a few minutes AND they were always eager and excited to rejoin in the fun. They loved practicing on each other and wanted an opportunity to be able to flip each of the boys. Even though they were learning, and didn't have the skills yet to warrant full trust in each others abilities, they would put any discomfort they had felt behind them so they could continue in the game. To me they displayed qualities of forgiveness. Not just forgiveness of those who had flipped them, but also forgiveness of themselves for having taken a fall wrong. This quality, made the activity so much more enjoyable.

What a blessing it is to be able to extend forgiveness to others, and to feel it reciprocated. I am so grateful for these experiences that help me ponder and visualize gospel truths in ways that I might never have considered otherwise. I am also so thankful for a son-in-law who is so willing to share his talents and strengths with my family and more recently, with my cubs. I am so blessed to have so many good people in my life. It fills my heart with joy!

The Hobbit

For Christmas this year (2013), one of the family gifts that we gave was movie passes to the Hobbit. All the kids were eager and excited to see this movie, so it was a perfect gift for us to enjoy together as a family. We went two days after Christmas and watched the movie in 3D.

We had no idea how popular the movie might be so we arrived early to ensure that we got a good seat. As it turned out, there were very few people in the theater so we munched on our popcorn and drinks while we waited, visiting quietly among ourselves. I discovered a camera in my knitting bag, so I put to use!

We loved the movie. It was full of suspense and action. It was fun to have that experience together. But it is funny, because since that time 10 months ago, I remember relatively little about the movie. I do remember the dragon and some of the characters, but very little of the plot. My strongest memories of that day were of the enjoyment of being together for a much anticipated event with my husband and children. I remember waiting for the theater to open and browsing in the mall while we waited to go in. 

I wonder if life is much like watching a movie is for me. In those moments that our minds and hearts are not actively engaged in a purpose, we lose that time, in fact no real lasting memory is had for all the hours of television, video games or computer browsing that you do. It makes me think, "How much of my life do I just give away with nothing left to show or even remember that is of worth? I want to treasure each moment of life and make it count! This is living!!! And the best living I have ever done is with my husband and children, as well as extended family members! This kind of living brings an overflowing of joy to my heart! I am so grateful for my time spent loving and serving and being with my family.

Silent Night! Holy Night!

All is calm, All is bright...

Christmas dawned early for us with a visit from Shylah. We were thrilled to have her visit and spend a little time with us. We knew she wouldn't be able to come back for Christmas day so it gave us an opportunity to personally deliver her Christmas gifts to her.

You can tell, that the kids are absolutely delighted to have her here from the huge smiles on their faces and the big hugs she is flooded with. It was a wonderful day, and the perfect beginning to our Christmas celebration.

Christmas Eve we delivered our last box of cookies, enjoyed turkey dinner and then acted out the nativity story. The kids really enjoyed acting it out this year and added a few silly antics to their parts, but it was fun.

After we finished and put away the costumes, we each got to open a Christmas Eve gift of soft and cozy fleece pajama pants. These are everyone's favorites and they are perfect for the chilly winter nights.

We were all quite happy with what we got. It was a wonderful pre-Christmas celebration.

Christmas morning everyone awoke with eager anticipation. First they opened their stockings and then we enjoyed a hearty breakfast of waffles, whipped cream and strawberries and then we waited for Alisha to arrive. She had spent Christmas morning with Brandon and his family and was eager to show off some of the nice things she had received. She also came loaded with an very large and heavy gift for Myles.

Everyone is smiling as they anticipate opening their stockings...

Alisha's favorite gift (not counting Brandon's) was the scarf and hat Myles gave her. Of the two, she LOVED the hat!

Beth of course was thrilled to receive a book she had been wanting. Big smiles!

Breanna, who loves to cook, was thrilled with a cookbook which included cupcake liners. And let me just add that she has made us many tasty treats from that book!

Charity had an embroidery project she wanted to finish, so she was excited to receive a variety of colors of embroidery floss.

Dad loves popcorn, so he was tickled to pieces with his whirley-pop and popcorn buckets. Let me tell you, that it has been well used through out the year since then too!

Melodee was so excited to finally receive her pocket knife - exactly the kind she had wanted to get!

I received an art tool for encaustic wax. I wish life wasn't so busy, because I'd like to be able to do it more often!

Myles, being a teenage boy, is interested in building muscles so he was thrilled to discover a chin-up bar in one of his gifts.

Of course, thanks to Alisha, Myles got the largest gift this year. And if we were to measure weights, it would top all weight expectations! Inside this box was a punching bag and all the paraphernalia to go with it!

Naomi was also delighted by books, but she also found a good use for the now empty box that Myles punching bag came in.

Christmas was a fun family time. It was fun to share those moments together, strengthening family and enjoying our association with one another.

I love Christmas! I love the little gifts that the kids make for me from school. I also love the thought that is put into the gifts that are given by my grown children. Alisha gave me some beautiful things, but the gifts that surprised me the most, was the gifts Brandon sent down with her. He chose things that suit both Chad and I perfectly. I would have to say that he is either very observant or he had Alisha's help in choosing.

The rest of the day was spent relaxing and enjoying one another's company. The kids put some of their toys away, and put others to use. To me there is no time quite like Christmas time. The whole day is filled with discovery and anticipation. With so many new gifts, it is hard to decide which to use first, and I love helping the kids figure their things out. Everyone is happy and that feeling of love emanates throughout the house. It is better that the fine smell of a turkey roasting. Christmas is love, felt, smelled, seen and heard. This is the influence of the Savior in our lives - may we seek to not only have it on Christmas day, but EVERY day of the year!

Preparing for Christmas 2013

Besides decorating, baking and house cleaning, we had some pretty exciting Christmas projects that we made this year. The most thrilling one was a book, made for our oldest daughter. I started it in October and worked through until the first week of December when it was finally ready to order. This was a project that required lots of scanning, editing of photos and saving them with the proper year and information. Also involved in the project, was the need to transcribe all my journals as well as Chad's in order to include the delightful growing up stories that had been recorded. You see, this book is a picture history - a life history during the childhood years. I loved the project so much that I hope to be able to do one for each of my children!!!

I spent so much time on Shylah's book that I didn't have a lot of time for much else, however, I did manage to make a book for my parents. Unfortunately, the order took longer than I had estimated and it didn't arrive until after the holiday.

The other large project I did for Christmas was an afghan special for my husband. Unfortunately, I never had time to finish it, so he received a half done afghan with the promise to finish it. I have been working on it too since that time, but alas it is not yet finished. This afghan represents our love, woven together in the calming and soothing colors of blue and green as well as the purity of white. We have faced the ripples of life together, and will yet face more, but we have felt the peace and calm of the love of the Savior helping us overcome, forgive, and become better. I guess, the fact that I have taken so long to make this afghan is also representative of the fact that we cannot be perfected or finished in a short period of time. It takes years, and rows and rows of experiences that purify us before we are ready to truly become sanctified.

I have found it difficult to crochet since I broke my shoulder. It makes my arm incredibly sore, but I have loved crocheting and I have been relieved of the challenge I developed a few years back where crocheting would cause my arms to break out in a bright red rash. I am grateful that that problem no longer exists. I will yet finish this project, for I love my husband too much to leave it undone. I am so grateful that he is a patient and an understanding man.

Aside from making piles of cookies to give away this year, Breanna did some of her own baking. This year she made cake pops.

We also made our traditional chocolates which were enjoyed very much during the Christmas season.

Candy Houses

Many years ago we started the tradition of making gingerbread houses just before Christmas. We have had some really good years and we have also had some really bad ones. One year everyone was sick through Christmas so we actually didn't do our houses until some time in January! However, we have always done them. For our 2012 year our cookies were not cooked hard enough - in other words, they were just moist enough that they wouldn't hold their shape and once we assembled the houses, the cookie would settle and pretty soon it would topple over. With that experience in mind, the following year (2013) we decided to do rice krispie treat houses or projects. Here is what we got...

These trains were a lot o fun to make and as you can see, well decorated! Everyone created their own version of a candy and rice krispie project. Of course the most successful ones incorporated a LOT of chocolate candy!!! ☺

For some reason I missed getting a picture of Myles, but he did one too. It is a joy to watch my children create things with different mediums. Melodee, Breanna and Naomi made a village decorating numerous houses and some of them even did trees and snow which of course was littered with chocolate candy... 

We are so blessed to have the bounty that allows us to make these delectable and imaginative treats. We felt so grateful that we decided we wanted to share our bounty with friends and neighbors... so we did something akin to the 12 days of Christmas. We selected 12 families and then made treat boxes filled with Christmas baking to take to these friends and family members. We would take one box out every night to a different family on each of the 12 evenings before Christmas... It was delightful to include so many people in our Christmas celebrations and yet, even then, the sacrifice was minimal for we still had many, many cookies to enjoy through the holidays.

On one of those evening deliveries, we were invited in for a visit. While there we were told the story of the Christmas train...

This cool little train was made by one of our good friends. He told us of how when he was a boy he had a similar train and each Christmas Eve he would find his train and place it under the tree and when he awoke the next morning it would be there shining and new looking with a fresh coat of paint ready for another year of use. That meant a lot to him, and as he started making his own, he realized the amount of work that would have gone into that project in order to have his train ready by morning. Because of that experience, he has made a train for each of his sons and now grandsons. What a treasure to have a tangible reminder of the love of a father and grandfather. I LOVE the gifts like this that come from the heart. If we never gave store bought gifts, I would not miss them, for it is so easy to purchase the hearts desire whenever one would want it, but it is NOT easy to find those treasured items that are products of the heart, made with love and tenderness, personalized specifically for the receiver. What a blessing it is to be able to give a little of ones self at Christmas time. I LOVE Christmas and the peace and joy that is associated with it!!!