Catch-up Post

I've got some major catch-up to do on my blog, so please forgive this marathon post...

Happy Birthday, Josh!
My "baby" boy number 1 celebrated his 18th birthday on Dec. 12th. So hard to believe that he is this old!! His birthday celebration started on the Saturday before his birthday... Daddy took him shopping and let him pick out any video game he wanted. He spent the rest of the day playing his game of choice. Because I had someplace to be on the night of his birthday, we had his favorite dinner (chicken parm) and cake on Sunday night.
Josh had mentioned to me that he would love to have a party, but he is certainly not a party planner and couldn't come up with anything to do for a party. So, I decided to throw a surprise party for him. I enlisted the help of a friend, and she helped me pull everything together. On the Saturday following his birthday, several of Josh's friends from his production class and church came over to help him celebrate... and he was very surprised! He enjoyed the party greatly, and it was so much fun to pull it off for him.
I've been a little weepy over this birthday. Hard to think that this time next year I will be getting ready to send him off on his mission. Time truly has flown by.

Happy Birthday, Kyle!
"Baby" boy number 2 celebrated his 16th birthday on Dec 22nd. He had a huge party planned, and he thought he had taken care of all the details. He had a pretty good plan, he had invited all his friends, and he thought he had a good handle on things, but he forgot one tiny detail... to talk to mom about the plans!! His plan included an all day party with the boys playing football and video games, then sending them home to shower and clean up for the rest of the party... movies with some girls at our house. Mom simplified those plans to having the boys come over a little earlier than the girls to play video games, then movies with the girls. He agreed to that, and had an enjoyable evening!

He hasn't asked anyone out yet, but we was actually asked out! A young lady from another ward asked him to go to her school's winter formal with her. He said yes, but he doesn't want it to be his first date. The dance is towards the end of January, so he had better hurry and get to planning another date soon! He was ordained a priest at church today, and he is very excited about that.

Christmas
We had a wonderful Christmas. Barry had a couple of days before Christmas off, so once we got out of school, we took a day and headed to Nashville. I love going to the Opryland Hotel and looking at all the lights, and so off we went. We went earlier in the day, and avoided some of the crowds. It was great spending a relaxing day together with the family.

Christmas Eve was spent driving around Huntsville enjoying the lights around town. It's been one of our traditions for years. We then visited with some long-time friends before heading home and crawling into bed. Christmas morning was wonderful... we had a fire going in the fireplace, we read the Christmas story from Luke, and I enjoyed watching the excitement in the kids as they opened their presents. We had a yummy breakfast, then enjoyed a Christmas program at church. It was a nice addition to the day. We topped the evening off with a wonderful dinner with the Mayfield family at the Callahan's home.

Monday morning we got to sleep in a bit, then headed to the farm to spend some time with my family. We had another yummy Christmas dinner, and let the kids open presents there.

The kids had fun making their gifts for their cousins this year. They bought their own materials and made their own gifts. I helped a little, but it was pretty much all them. They also decided that they wanted to draw names and buy for each other this year. The set their own limits and used their own money for that as well. They even decided that they should buy something for me! I told Kayti one day that I wanted time to stand still for Christmas! They are all growing up so quickly and I can't stand it! So, they decided to get me a watch this year... they decided that since they couldn't stop time, they would at least give me nice way to keep up with it!

Barry and I decided to buy each other a new bed for Christmas. We haven't gone shopping for it yet, but I'm excited to go. We've needed a new bed for years, and so we decided to give that to each other this year. Of course, before we made that decision, I had already bought him a Kindle Fire, so he was really spoiled this year! When I told him that I already had something under the tree for him to open, he went and got a hot chocolate maker for me! My stocking stuffers included all the yummy "fixings" for hot chocolate... candy canes, 2 different kids of marchmallows, whipped cream, chocolate cookies! He also got me two boxes of hot chocolate mix. The machine is so cool! We used it the morning after Christmas and enjoyed some hot chocolate at the perfect temperature!

He also gave me the absolute perfect stocking stuffer... a coupon book for 12 dates for the next year! He came up with some great ideas, and I'm looking forward to cashing in a date each month!

Kids
The kids spent couple of days at their grandparents' house. They were planning on staying one night, but texted asking if they could stay for one more. I wasn't really surprised! They love staying over there... maybe it's because Granny spoils them rotten! She takes them to the store as soon as they get there and lets them each buy their own cereal (they ALWAYS get the most sugar-filled box they can find since I never buy that kind), they each pick out a snack food, and they grab chicken nuggets and french fries. She claims she gets some work out of them, but I think for the most part they just lay around watching movies, playing games, visiting with cousins and being generally lazy! What else are grandparents for though, right!? I'm so thankful that we live so close to family, and they get the opportunity to do these kinds of things. Barry and I neither one grew up around grandparents or cousins, and we feel blessed that our kids do.

The kids are growing up way too quickly. It's been heavy on my heart that they will all soon be leaving me. Kayti hopes to be in Rexburg at BYU-I by next fall. Josh will be leaving in about a year for his mission. Kyle and Megan are both in high school and will be out of the house, too, before you know it. Every time I think about it too long, I am reduced to a puddle of tears. I am proud of them, though! They are great kids, and I feel so blessed to be their mother. They still have the ability to drive me batty, but they are fun to be around. For the most part, they all get along very well... if things get too quiet around here, I can usually find them all in the girls' room, listening to music, watching something online, or just talking together. Not that they don't fight and argue, too, but thankfully that is not a constant.

I missed the kids while they were gone. I had thought of some things that I needed to do while they were not here, but I was completely lazy and didn't do a thing! I've slept in every morning, and lounged half the day. Going back to work next week is going to kill me!

We hope you had a great Christmas!

Christmas Decor, Galore!

I love the Christmas season! I love decorating, I love baking, I love the music, I love it all!

This year I was asked if I would help out (in a very small way) with this year's church Christmas Festival. It's a magical event every year that our church puts on for the community - a beautiful concert featuring a choir and orchestra, more nativities than you can count, amazingly decorated trees, christmas quilts, a live nativity, yummy gingerbread cookies, and several decorated mantels. I've helped out before - all the Mayfield girls did a tree one year. Last year I was asked to do a tree by myself, but declined to do so. This year I was asked to decorate one of the mantels. I really wanted to say no again, but after talking to my hubby (who reassured me that I could actually do it) I decided to go ahead and say yes.

I decided that I wanted to do something musical, because music is such a huge part of the Christmas season for me. I also knew that I wanted it to have a vintage feel to it, because I've been loving that look lately. I decided that I wanted to do paper trees, so I started shopping for vintage sheet music and decorative papers. I found the sheet music at my favorite antique store in Fayeteville a couple of months ago, and was so excited!!

It took me a while to actually get the whole idea more cemented together. I came upon the line, "Oh come let us adore him" from the hymn, "Oh Little Town of Bethlehem" and then it all fell into place.

I spent several days this week at the church - started taking stuff over on Tuesday night; decorated my space on Thursday night; helped a friend with her space and some finishing touches on Thursday night. Since I was there before all the crowds, I was able to take a few pictures. I also gave Meg the camera and she took lots of pictures, too.

Friday night I took a friend from work to the Festival. We enjoyed the concert, live nativity, and oohed and ahhed over everything. It was fun to see it through her eyes as well. As I sat there in the concert, I felt the sweetest spirit. Things have been really stressful for the past couple of weeks, and it has been a bit hard for me to feel the Christmas spirit at all. Before the choir even started singing, though, I was almost in tears. I felt the reassuring presence of the Spirit, and of my Heavenly Father's love. I felt renewed. I want to go back again tonight, and Sunday night as well, just to feel more of that spirit! I will definately be looking for better ways to bring that spirit into my home.

Here are some pictures of my mantel, and some of our other favorites:

I would seem really ungrateful if I didn't say thank you to Shari K, Rachel R, Dana H, Alisha M, Mandi H, Rebekah P and Kayti and Meg for all of their help with this project! And also, my sweet hubby for putting up with all my crazy stress! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!