January 2016

I got to join the boys on their trip to Home Depot and help make a craft.  The boys really enjoy being able to work the tools and especially paint!

Family Night Twister

Whenever I do laundry and have an empty hamper, Graham likes to put it on his head.

Our house seems cold through the winter months so we usually have a space heater going when we are in the kitchen area.  I found Graham one day with his shirt off enjoying the heat on his tummy.

Cute cousins!

Graham fell asleep like this, silly kid.

Our front room is basically finished!  Oh that picture is replaced now, I need to take another picture of our front room.  

 Primary Pancake breakfast 

This was our Primary Pancake breakfast for the kids to meet their new teachers.  I'm now the second counselor in the Primary presidency.  It's a lot of fun to be in there with Paxton and he enjoys having me there too.

Museum of Natural Curiosity

We got to go with our friends Kimberlee, Jack and Mick.  The boys had a lot of fun on the big jungle gym and then we went to the water area and they all got wet, but especially Mick.  He was sopping wet, it was hilarious!

The WairHouse

I have been taking more Saturdays off of work so I can spend some time with my family.  It was fun to bring the boys here to this trampoline place.  They LOVED it!  

Provo City Temple Open House

I loved being able to take the kids to the temple open house and to be able to teach them more about what happens inside a temple.  And to talk with Paxton and show him a sealing room where he once was.  It was such a beautiful temple!  I love all the details and how much they tried to replicate things from the old building.  I had to write down  a few stories of things our boys said...

 Graham was pointing at the stain glasses windows and kept saying "grinch" over and over again.  Some of the shapes in the stain glassed windows kind of looked like the grinch, I could totally see what he was seeing.  Silly boy!

 We started out watching a spiritual movie before going into the temple and towards the end Paxton folded his arms and said a prayer out loud. It was so sweet. Then later walking through the temple we were pointing out to the kids all the cool wood work and stain glassed windows and Paxton was pretending to jot everything in his journal saying "I'm taking notes in my journal".  Also every time we went up stairs Paxton would say "I'm getting stair sick", especially the stair at the very top that wind as you go up.

Sorenson Family Cabin Getaway

We took most of Rems family up to my family cabin for a night over and some time to play in the snow.  It was snowing the whole time we were there and we were a little nervous that we would get stuck there, but everything went great and we were just fine.  Friday night we had dinner and played games.  Most of the kids all slept together in the family room.  I was a little worried about the kids keeping the adults up, but it was the other way around.  They did really great about going to bed right away.

The next day we had a wonderful breakfast and then geared up to go play in the snow.  It was a blast!  We had 2 snowmobiles going, dragging the kids in a big sled up the hill and dropping them off at the top to sled down.  The first time I took Graham I should have had him sit backwards facing me, but I wasn't thinking and he got completely sprayed in the face by the snow.  That pretty much ruined him from sledding down the big hill the rest of the day.  He did like the little little hills.  

Paxton never did do the big hill, but I finally got him to go down a medium sized one and he loved it.  The boys just loved being out in the snow!  We stayed out for quite a while, it was hard to get the boys to want to come back in.  That is until you mention hot chocolate!

They got to have hot chocolate and a cookie.

Some stayed out a little longer in the snow and some played games while others relaxed and made lunch.  After lunch we all helped to clean the cabin and headed home.  It was fun to spend some time with the Sorenson family and to play in the snow with my boys.

Easter Banner

Hello!  I'm so excited to share this Easter Banner with you today!  Remember my Easter Bunny Plaque from last year sitting on top of my mantel? ( You can click here to see how I made it).  Well I wanted to do a banner to match it!  I thought the mini "half circle" banner pieces kind of looked like  Easter Eggs so I paired those with the larger "oval" banner pieces to make a cute Easter banner.  I love how it turned out and it matches my Easter Bunny Plaque perfectly.  Well I'm ready for Easter, but I do have a handful of St. Patrick's Day decorations.  So I better make a switch since my sons birthday is on St. Patricks Day.  But now is the time to start your Easter crafts since Easter falls at the end of March this year!

Supplies needed:

6 banner shape "oval"

7 mini banner shape "half circle"

small wood letters spelling "EASTER"

scrapbook paper

1 yard of each ribbon/3 yards of bakers twine

paint: White and Crocus Yellow

wood glue

paint brushes

sandpaper block

needle

pencil

scissors

First, lightly sand all wood pieces. 

Then paint all the letters white and "oval" banner shapes yellow.

Before you paint the mini "half circle banner shapes, trace them onto your scrapbook paper.  Then paint all the edges white.  Cut out the paper and use the wood glue to adhere the paper to the wood, follow this tutorial.

               

After everything is dry use your sandpaper block on all edges of all pieces.

Then use the wood glue to adhere the letters to the "oval" banner shape pieces.

Before you string you banner together, you will need a needle or push pin to poke holes through the paper of mini "half circle" banner pieces.  Then you can string it all together with your bakers twine!  I got only 2 yards of bakers twine and it barely fit the banner on it, I suggest to buy 3 yards.

And last, tie some ribbon together to place at the ends of the banner.  I got a yard of each ribbon and then cut it in half to use some on each end.

December 2015

When we got home from Disneyland the first week of December, we came home to Buddy our Elf had come and set up our Christmas tree and train for us.  It was such a nice surprise for the kids especially after being at Disneyland when it's all decorated for Christmas.  Graham LOVED the train!  The boys were pretty excited about the elf coming back and Paxton remembered his name, Buddy.

Graham is at such a fun age for holidays.  At Halloween time is when all the excitement started.  Every time he saw decorations he would say "Halloween".  Well all the Halloween and fall stuff came down and Christmas came out and he still called it "Halloween" every time he saw Christmas decorations.  It was so cute!  It took him a couple weeks before he started calling it Christmas.

The mantel is going up!

And it's up!  I was so excited to hang my stockings and put up my Christmas decorations.

Our ward Christmas party was a yummy breakfast on a Saturday morning.  They did a short program and Santa Clause came to visit.  As soon as Graham saw Santa, he started running towards him.

On our first big snow day the boys all went out and built a snowman and snowdog.  I stayed inside, but it sure was fun watching them run and play in the snow, even Lilo was having fun!

Paxon teaches Graham all of his ninja moves.  It's so fun when they get along and play together.  Graham wants to be just like his older brother.

Hot chocolate and Christmas shows are one of their favorite things to do when it's cold.

Service Project

We feel so blessed that my family is able to have the money to help others out.  My parents gave us some money to carry out our own service project.  We put together food backpacks to go to students at Roosevelt Elementary school.  Some of their students are refugees and some come from very poor, rough situations.  So there is a worry of what and if some of these kids will have any food to eat over longer breaks.  They eat breakfast and lunch at school and for some that's probably all they eat for the day.  We had a fun time shopping and putting these backpacks together.  It was fun to teach the boys about giving to others.  Paxton has such a tender heart and loved giving this to the school.  He now will sometimes say in his prayers for us and other people that have food to help give food to others that don't have it.

Annual Gingerbread House Contest

This is one of our favorite Christmas traditions!  It's always fun to have some new comers to the party.  They did a really good job!  All of my siblings came, Rem's brother and his wife, and our friends from our new neighborhood.

Rem and I technically won first place.  We had a bunch of neighbors come over and vote for their top two.  I said lets give 2 points if it's a first place vote and 1 point for a second place vote.  Rem said let's just tally up the votes, we'll do that if we need a tie breaker.  Well Erika and Ben had 8 votes while we only had 7, but all 7 of ours were first place votes.  So it's hard to say who won.

Our friends, Bobby and Jill got third place!

Jamie wasn't feeling well so Dan was on his own and he just wasn't feeling it.  They usually have really great ones.

Everyone had a great time!

Next day Gingerbread Houses with the boys

The next day we decided to make houses with the boys, we had lots of extra stuff.  Plus I was starting to feel guilty that we made gingerbread house without our kids.  They had so much fun doing this and kept asking day after day if they could make another one.

This one is Paxton's with some help from Dad.

This one is Grahams with some help from Mom.

Soderberg Family Party

This year my mom's side of the family Christmas party was at the Salt Lake Tennis Club.  It was so great to have a play area for the kids and they even got to go play on the tennis courts!  It's always fun to see my cousins.  They kids had a great time running around like crazy.  

Ping pong and Tennis

And even Santa Claus came to visit!  My dad makes the best Santa ever!  I'm so glad that Paxton still hasn't figured out that he is his grandpa.  Graham loves Santa and I think the biggest reason is because he knows he will give him candy.

Sorenson Family Christmas Eve Party

This year we decided to celebrate Christmas a little Swedish style.  The girls wore candles for St. Lucia's Day and we had Swedish meatballs for dinner (yes, some of our meal was from Ikea).  It was kind of fun to mix things up this year.  Although we did have some traditional foods and entertainment.  We sang The Nativity Song and of course Santa and Mrs. Claus came to visit.

They kids got to make some crafts as well.

Moss Christmas Eve Party

Since the Sorenson Party started earlier, we finished probably around 7:00.  So we were able to go to the end of my family party at my Grandma's house.  We got there just in time for the entertainment portion.  We always take turns telling about the service projects we did that year.  Then my cousins husband played guitar and sang a beautiful song.  Then it was time for presents!

Paxton was too thrilled about having to stop playing for a picture.

The family is growing, but we all still fit!

Trying to get a picture of the Moss cousins together at the end of the night is not an easy task.  This is the best we got.

Now home to go to bed, to await for Santa...

We made a fort in the playroom out of boxes for the boys to sleep in that night so we could set up their bunk beds in their room.  While I was reading the boys a book, Rem went and got up on the roof to make noises like it was Santa and the reindeer.  Then we heard jingles bells.  Graham immediately ran out to see if it was Santa.  Paxton was hesitant, I think he was nervous that he wasn't sleeping and we caught Santa.  But he came out and was excited to see Santa.  Santa gave them each a little toy, talked to them for a bit and then sent them to bed and said he would be back later.

Christmas Morning

The boys woke us up at their usual wake up time, not too early thank goodness.  Then we all went in at the same time.  They boys were very excited about all the gifts.  We got all the presents opened and then Rem and I realized that we left one down in the basement, the car table.  This was a hand me down from cousins, but he boys loved it!  Then we had one last gift for them.  I had wrapped up a picture of Christ for them to put in their room and when they opened it I said, "let's go put this in your room".   Pax didn't want to, he just wanted to play with his new toys.  So we had to talk him into it and then we opened the door and they were so excited about their new BUNK  BEDS!!!!  Pax even said, "out of all my presents, this is my favorite".  Staying up until 2 a.m. was worth it!

From Santa, Graham got a scooter and Paxton got a lightsabor.

It was a fun morning with these two.  Then we head over to...

Grandpa and Grandma Moss Christmas Brunch

We started out with a yummy brunch that my parents made for us.  Then we opened up a bunch of presents and made a huge mess!  We ended up spending the rest of the day hanging out with my family playing with our new toys, watching a movie and later making linner.  The kids pulled out their legos, some of them took naps.  It was a very fun Christmas!

The day after Christmas

The day after is always fun to pull all your toys out and play with them.  We stayed in our pajamas all day long!  We picked up a little bit of the mess in the house, but we left all the toys out for a good week or so before I couldn't take it anymore and wanted it cleaned up.  The kids had a blast with all their many new toys!  Lego's were a big hit this year!

Excited to have cousin Jake over to play out in the snow.  They didn't last very long ;)