GOODIES!

Yesterday my dear dear friend Erin came over and we went to TOWN making goodies for the holidays! Peanut Brittle!

Lolli-Pops!

*token self-shot* :)

The lovely Erin! ...And the TASTE-TESTERS!!

BUSY season!

I was chatting my friend Betsy up a little while ago and we decided that we needed to get together for a fun little Christmas crafty. NO, I forgot my camera, and YES, I'm not happy about it! We had some home-made mac and cheese (I threw it together real fast, but it turned out pretty good!!!), some devil's-food mint-choco-chippy cookies, and the kiddos painted trees and snowmen! It was a blast!
Conversation with Betsy has always come SO easily, and for that I'm really grateful. She's a dear friend to me. My friends and family are what really make this season so bloomin' wonderful for me. I LOVE it!!

NFCP!

So! The Official NFCP went off with a few hitches, but it's alllll goooood. It was changed from Friday to Saturday. Here's Sabrina sporting her super-cute outfit for the occasion. ...Lance picked this little number up. Precious! :)

Here's Sabrina charming the heck out of family... Uncle Seuao was only one of the mesmerized many...

Mom's tree turned out just gorgeous this year! she invested in more unbreakable bulbs because of crazy grand-kiddos, but it turned out to be the best thing ever for her tree!

I had to grab Mia-babes to get her to hold still for one second to get a picture! There was too much excitement going on.

Here's Ella -who always has time to pull out a fabulous pose!

Ok, so we decided to get some snow-action in, since the snow was freakin' abundant and perfect for kids to play in... Here's Tessa-Roo getting ready.

Sabrina made it out in the cold. Look at that little red nose! BOW WOW!

Ella; mid-winter-wonderland!

Mia too! ...Notice the sippy-football-hold? It's common.

Mary -looking fabulous.

This is Sabrina after she made it back inside. Yeah, she was our little pink marshmallow! :)

Noah looked DARLING in his little hat. Seuao is in the back helping kids with the snowman.

A slice of the chaos that IS the NFCP. Here's the annual gingerbread (graham cracker) house battle.

This is me and Lance, gearing up for the competition.

This is my favorite photo. It's Lex's reaction to seeing how amazing my creation was! ...Also realzing how she stood no chance against me...

Just look at the showmanship?!

Simply amazing.

This was Lexie's marshmallow horror. It was good for her, though. WAY TO GO, LEX! (PS- Lex, you know I love to give you a hard time, and it's all in the Christmassy spirit of COMPETITION that I divvy out the insults! You're the best ... Love ya!)

Seuao's golf-green.

Rach's hot-cocoa stand. VERY VERY CUTE.

The night ended with trying to take some pix of the kiddos for mom and dad's Christmas cards. ROUGH. Hope someone got a good one!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

The never-meant-to-be Christmas concert!

TEMPLE SQUARE 2009

So, I scored some awesome tickets to the Mormon Tabernacle Christmas Concert featuring Natalie Cole...

Oh, man. This concert has been SO difficult to make happen! It’s been on and off again a number of times, as I have tried to coordinate baby-sitting, rides, tickets, etc. In the end, I had invited Erin to come along -as I was sitting on 4 tickets, 3 of which wouldn’t be used. Erin was able to make arrangements and come along -her sweet mom Betty came too!
We were supposed to meet up with Rachael and Dad (in SLC) along with Mom and Granny -who came from Logan. I arranged for Debbie (THANK YOU SO MUCH) to take her grand-kids Ella and Mia for the night. I kept Sabrina with me, and dropped her off at Dave and Lexie’s (who were unable to go to the concert) until we could swing back for her.

Poor time management on my part, man. We were a bit late… After parking about 5 blocks away -which was literally faster than trying to move in a vehicle down-town- we made it to the concert hall right at 8:00. The concert was starting (btw, the above pic of Erin was taken mid-stride trying to get to some seats!). All the stand-by friends were let in starting at 7:30. NOTE: when they say to come 1 hour early, they mean it!
We went all the way to the top and saw the incredible scene -the orchestra, the choir, the decorations, etc. There weren’t any seats left. Alas, we hung out for a few moments and heard a song or two. Next was potty-break and photo op!!!

We decided then, to go have a looksie around Temple Square. It was just beautiful. …So magical -as I have always remembered it. We took some pictures and went into the old Tabernacle to see some more of the concert. We then made it to the Navoo Café -which is in the first floor of the Joseph Smith Memorial Bldg. and got some delicious food! It was perfect!

Erin's mom Betty

The beautiful Erin

Me (disheveled and unattractive photo! -Happy, Sarah?!)

We took our time, had a great meal, and got to see all the sights. So now, Sabrina is still in her car seat from the ride home -I have to get to bed… NFCP TOMORROW (today) BAYBEE!!!

*HUGE thanks for the family who took my girlz. This was a pretty indulgent and selfish thing for me to get to do -as being a mom of 3 doesn't offer many opportunities to get outta town and do these things... It meant the world that I was able to go. :)

Indulgent Pix Of Beautiful Sabrina!

I have to say- this is just the sweetest and most beautiful little baby girl in the world... And she's all mine. Sabrina is such a light in our home. Thank you, Lord, for this miracle.

Festival Of Trees 2009!

It's that season!

WARNING!!! MANY MANY MANY PICTURES! So, here we go! The day began around 11:30ish as we headed out of town. Here's the token self-shot... You can see me holding the camera in my glasses! PS- THANK YOU Lance for the awesome new sunglasses that morning. :) That was a fun surprise!

Mom was the driver (YAY!).

She chewed ice the whole way. :) Here's Mia, looking very anticipatory... Little did she know she'd be awake that day for the longest she'd ever been in her life!

Here's me and the girlz at the festival.

We met up with my friend Teri and her family -it used to be a tradition to always go to this together... We haven't been able to do it in a long time, so it was awesome to meet her this year! Left to right: Spencer, Chloe, Teri, Andraia, Earl, Brayden. ...I met Teri when Spencer (taller than her!) was less than a year old. How time flies!

YES, I had to make it a family affair too, since it was in SLC and I don't make it down there as often as I'd like... Here's Benny-babes.

I couldn't put pix in here of every tree I loved, but oh my goodness, I was just drawn to the jewel-toned trees like this one -with the incredible peacock feathers. If/when I start over with my tree, I can see myself going in this direction.

Here's another that I absolutely loved.

This was the ultimate girly tree.

Here's Lex with the signature peace-sign! Noah and Dave are turned in the center, and Sarah looks unprepared for fabulousness... :)

This was a cool ginger-bread house made like the one from Disney's "Up".

After the festival, we all met up at Rachael's for a potluck dinner! Here's Sabrina kickin' it with her bff Phoebes!

These two are 3 months apart -I hope they're close!

Here's one of my crafties!!! I made this "Jingle Bells" for Rachael's family for Christmas. I gave it to her at this time so she could enjoy it during the season.

Here are some of our little loves... Tessa-Roo!

Sarah and Ella. Precious.

Noah!

Phoebes -after having had enough excitement for one day!

Lily bug!

Mom and Pop. It was an absolutely fabulous day. I love this season!