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Sunday, December 7, 2008

The Love of the Savior Part 2

So how was your Saturday? Did you do something fun? Christmas shopping? Decorating? Anything? It started out a little frustrating at our house. Captain America called at 7:30am to chat. We decided that at 8:30am we'd try and get the webcam and speakers/microphone set up, so that the kids could talk with their dad. It started off good, but then suddenly stopped working. RRRRGH!!! Hate it when it does that.

By 10:30am, we finally had it up and working again. We had to get Captain Americas little brother from St. Louis to take over my computer to fix it. Thank goodness for Remote Assistance (and geeky brother-in-laws! - LOL). It was SO fun to watch my kids interact with their Dad. They were laughing and having fun. It was AWESOME! Definately a memory maker.

My mom decorated the tree yesterday. She has GORGEOUS decorations for her tree. I'm a bit worried for their safety, though. I sure hope that Jim (the 3 year old) is able to keep his hands off of the ornaments. They're SO tempting.



Not bad for a free tree from the woods, eh?

Yesterday at the Church building, we had a Creche festival. Everyone came and set up their nativity scene (creche) in the morning, then it was open to the public from 10-5, to come and view all of the cool scenes. We'd gone to a few of them in the past, and had a great time. I just LOVE to see all of the nativity scenes, and really wanted my kids to go and see it too.

Check out Jake (11) and Tom (9) 's faces. Yeah, they're THRILLED to be there. It's JUST what they wanted to do with their Saturday. This was after I told them that they had to look at ALL of the creches, tell me which was their favorite, and WHY it was their favorite, BEFORE they could get the cookie refreshments.


This one was really cool.

Here's a view of quite a few nativity scenes.

This one was pretty impressive also.

This one was hilarious!!! The Boy Scouts carved a nativity scene out of SOAP! LOL!

OK, and here's our favorites. This one was mine. I liked it because the people were so TALL, and cool looking.

This is Eme's favorite because of the colors, and the gold, and the jewels.

This is Jim and Tom's favorite, because it had so many pieces.

This is Joe's favorite because it's snowmen (not penguins, like I kept saying)

This one is Jacob's favorite, because they're dogs. LOL!

So after the Creche festival, I decided to take the kids to the library. My mom took her other grandaughter, Taylor, there too. The kids had a TON of fun hanging out there. Let me tell you, as librarys go, this one's childrens department is HANDS DOWN the best! My kids LOVE to go there and play with ALL the toys.

Here's my mom and dad, sitting at the little kids table.


Here's Tom at the dress up station. He didn't realize that the bagged toys were to check out, not to play with. How cool is that, that the library has check out-able toys . LOL!

Jimmy with his favorite toy at the library - the train.

Joe at the coloring table. Yep, it always looks like this - hehehe.

Eme at the kitchen, with all the food.

Jacob and the wooden castle. He thought it was SO awesome. I have to agree :)

Ha! The one time I actually read a book to my kid, someone snaps a picture, and I look like a GREAT parent. Hehehehe. I really do need to take more time to read to them :)

Joe and I dressing up. What, didn't I tell you that I LOVE to play dress up?

Ha! This on'es a little bit scary. Hehehehe.

Here's Eme and Taylor, wearing the kings crowns. Aren't they adorable!

And yep, here's me again. Don't know what this hat is supposed to be - LOL! But Joe is a construction worker.

So after the library, we headed out to Fred Meyers. Santa was there, and the photo lab was taking pictures of Santa and the kids. They said we could come back the next day and pic up our FREE picture. How cool is that? We got one of each kid (minus Jacob - he's like "I know there's no Santa" and we were like "SHHHHH", little kids!) and a group shot. We'll pick them up on Monday.

There's Joe sitting on Santa's lap.
After the library and Santa, we went back home, and got the kids fed dinner, then got ready to go to my mom's work party. I was invited to go with them! Woohoo! Grown up time - LOL! Grandma Ida came over to watch the kids. Thank you Grandma!!!!!

We drove up the coast to Yachats (ya-ha-ts), and went to dinner at the Adobe. We were in a conference room, and it was catered. TONS of yummy food! I had salad, potato salad, bean salad, cucumber salad, garbanzo bean salad (sounds like a lot, but it was a small plate, small spoonfulls), AWESOME cheeses (my favorite was in a rind, and was creamy in the inside - didn't know how to eat it, so I just smeared it out with my finger and licked my finger- yeah, I've got some killer manners, I know), cucumbers, a roll, red snapper (fish), rice pilaf, some chicken in a creamy sauce, and beef. OH MY GOODNESS! Can you say yummy? It was awesome :)


See the guy in the red shirt? That's Mr. Grano, my 8th grade Language Arts teacher. His wife works with my mom. How cool is that? What a great guy. His son, Seth, graduated the same year as me. It was kinda fun chatting with an old teacher.

Check out these KILLER desserts. I picked the Cheesecake because I was SO craving it. But the chocolate cake was better than amazing. Imagine fudge, but in a cake shape. Seriously. It was THAT chocolately. HOLY CRAP! If I'm here next year (I'm shooting myself - no, no, just kidding), I'm getting THAT dessert!


We had a White Elephant exchange too. Everyone brought a gift for the game. We brought a tree decoration, a baggie of teddy bear pins, and a box of cherry chocolates. So, everyone picks a gift that they DIDN'T bring, and sits in a circle. Then, mom's boss read this REALLY funny story about Mr. & Mrs. Right. See, when the story said RIGHT, you pass your gift to the right, and when the story says LEFT, you pass it to the left. When the story is all finished, you get the gift in your possession. It was SO funny to watch these people who'd been drinking play the game. Ha! Too funny :)

I ended up with a real soft teddy bear (which I'm saving for a christmas present for one of my kids), mom got a mini address book, and my dad got an old copy of the book, The Stepford Wifes (LMBO!).

After that, we had a Sing-A-Long. I do love me a sing-a-long! We kinda-sorta took the song sheet home with us when we left - LOL! Now we have a GREAT compilation of songs to sing when we go carolling this year. Woohoo!!!

Here's a pic of my mom and I at our table. We took about 4 pics, and the first one was the best - Ha!


And, I thought I'd share what our TALL tree in the front yard with the lights looks like. Isn't it AWESOME! You can see it the second you pull onto our street. It's pretty tall - hehehe.


Pfew! Are you guys still there? Well, at least there were pictures to keep you interested - not just boring Bethany ramblings - hehehe.


Don't forget, the 12 Days of Christmas at Scraporchard starts on Friday!!!


Here's the 2nd part of my Love of the Savior WordArt. Click on the image below to go to my box.net account and download the PNG file, and leave some love if you like my work. Thanks!




FONTS:
Love - Felix Tilting
Savior - Stephanie Marie JF

12 comments:

Stephanie said...

I love this, Bethany... you just slay me with your writing... you are just so talented!!!! Thanks for sharing every day!!!

Lois B said...

You must have a lot of energy - your day is certainly full. I guess I had that energy when I was young, but now I get tired just reading about all that you did. LOL

Thanks for another WA re what Christmas is really about.

Vestidadelmar said...

Thanks again for the wordart.
Hugs
Eli

Pam said...

Your mom's tree is gorgeous. I would have love to see the different nativity scenes. Thank you for your beautiful word art.

Linda White said...

Thanks - love your pictures and your stories.

mrstank said...

Gorgeous tree!

Crissie said...

That tree of your mom's is so lovely! Sounds like your day was jam packed...love the dress up pics from the library!
Thank you for the wordart. This year I'm really focusing on the Savior in our Christmas celebration and this is beautiful :)

Rose said...

Wow Bethany, you really are a sweet soul!! I love today's post. I think all those nativities are just awesome, I wish we had something like that here. And your library is far cooler than ours as well! And your mom's tree looks so beautiful I thought the first two pictures were fake - not the actual tree! Wow, nice job! And the lights look great in the tree, hope your dad got a big hug for that! I love coming home and seeing our house all lit up, it's nice that he could do that for you. Anyways, thanks for the word art, I'll be back tomorrow for the last bit of it! Actually I check your page everyday, and you never disappoint ;)

Anonymous said...

Bethany....you have such a beautiful family...you are a lucky woman....and your family is lucky to have you...May you and your have a very "Merry Christmas & A Safe and Happy New Year!" God Bless you and yours. Thanks again for sharing your beautiful wordart creations with us:)

Anonymous said...

Thank you Bethany, for sharing with me again. I love your work. And I read the blog all the way down and I loved the pics. Corrine in WA

Anonymous said...

Bethany,

I loved your wordart. God bless you for making this available freely to others! May the Lord continue to bless your talents to shine for His glory! Love from a sister in Christ!

Kelley said...

I had to so do a double take at the pronunciation of Yachats. Then realized not everyone is from Oregon and knows how. Of course, not everyone can say Oregon either!

Thank you for the word art.