Ward Christmas party...aka... Who- ba-lation

Chris and I were asked to be on the activities committee for our Christmas party. This was an AMAZING event! I know that I have said it before, but I'm saying it again.... I LOVE OUR WARD!

It was fun to get to know the members of the committee...they are so dang talented. They made and created every bit of decoration! Wow... just look at the pictures!

We did a Whoville Whobalation and completely transformed our gym into whoville. This was a family event so we went to great lengths to plan things that every age would enjoy. We tried to base it off of things from the Grinch movie.

We had sack races, who tattoos (face painting), cupcake walk, mt. crumpit fish pond, family pictures, and even a whoville post office where you could write letters to the missionaries in the ward.
They asked me to make a big cake that could be used as the centerpiece for the sweets table....this is what I came up with.
This was the tallest cake I have made. It was fun and turned out pretty cute.
I was in charge of the dessert table....take a look at the spread! YUMMMMM
The 'whoville children's choir' performed, they sang Welcome Christmas (the popular whoville song from the movie). Notice their hair, we had a hair contest. There were some great entries.
In the middle of the 'town square' we had our giant tree.
This was the entrance to the cupcake walk.
Our Mt. Crumpit fish pond!
Fish pond in action. Check out the street sign and poles....they were homemade and separated all of the different activity centers.
The mayor of Whoville.... Augustus Maywho
Someone even invited the Grinch!
On the stage we had a photo spot set up, Chris took all the family portraits
The street sign for the photos "Who's Who in Whoville"
Who Tattoo's... the face painting booth
Ana's face paint
The town post office. There was a slot for each missionary, below their slot was a picture of the missionary so that the kids would know who they were writing too. Notice the bottom right, even the Grinch had a slot, it had cobwebs!
Once the letters were written they took a picture of the person that wrote it and printed it on the back of their letter so the missionaries would know who it was that was writing to them. So clever!
A close up of their slots

It was such a great evening. Thanks to everyone who helped make this amazing!

2010 Year in review

It is that time of year again to write up our yearly family newsletter. The year 2010 has been full of many ups and equally as many downs. For starters we moved! We feel so blessed to live in the neighborhood and ward that we live in. We are surrounded by the most amazing people that I just adore! Don't get me wrong.... I made amazing friendships in our old neighborhood, but it is just a different feel here.

Faisal turned four this year. He started a new pre-school this fall and is enjoying that. He has made lots of little buddies in our neighborhood that he LOVES to play with. He loves to play computer games and is quite good at them. He is the BEST hugger and loves to give his mommia loves. He is such a little spunky kid. He is always making us laugh and is such a joy to have around.

AnaLeigha turned 7 this year. She is such a good helper and has really started to take off with reading.... she loves to read chapter books. She is very fashion savvy and very conscious of what she wears. Some of her favorite pastimes are to send time in our 'dance studio' that the girls have created in our basement. She loves to choreograph dances and play with her friends. She is really loving school this year and is doing so much better this year. All the kids started a new charter school that is only a couple of blocks from our new home, which means they can walk to school! Hooray for not having to carpool!

Taelynn turned 10 this year. Tae is such a tenderhearted sweetheart. She is a super helper to her mom and she just LOVES to babysit her little cousins. She has a special knack with babies, they just love her and she loves them. We can't wait until she is old enough to babysit. Taelynn is an extraordinary artist, she has such an eye for drawing and she loves to design clothing. When she grows up she wants to be a fashion designer. Last winter she learned how to ski and she did an amazing job!

Sienna became a teenager this year! Am I really old enough to have a 13-year-old?! She started 7th grade and unfortunately is not very excited about school. This summer she attended Young Women's girls camp and had a BLAST! She has made so many amazing friends in our new ward, which just makes us so happy. She loves to sing and is in the choir at school, she is even brave enough to tryout for solo's! At her school last year they did "Mountainville Idol" contest and she won! She and I once again participated in the Nutcracker and we both just loved our experience with that. Her new school offers ballroom as an elective and she has spent the past few months taking it. She is really good at and is really loving it. We are currently looking for a partner for her to compete with. She was recently made the secretary of the Beehive class and is enjoying that new calling. This past winter she started skiing and I am blown away with how great she is at it...NO FEAR! We are excited to try it again this year.

I turned 25 for the 10th time this year! I am still working part time at the Pediatric office, which on most days I still really enjoy. I also have really grown my cake making capabilities and have started a cake decorating business. I'm excited about this new venture! I was called as a Wolf Den leader and am really trying to find my niche in the world of scouting...right now it is still a love/hate relationship. At the beginning of the year I had an ectopic pregnancy which really did me in for the first few months of the year. I am amazed at how that experience drained me physically, spiritually and emotionally. I pray that I will never have to go through that experience again. It was just devastating.

Chris participated in his first ultra marathon which was 50 miles in 12 hours. He did amazing and had a great experience. He then did a marathon swim at Deer Creek which was a 10 mile swim that took him about 6 hours to complete! Can you even imagine swimming for that long? I think he is nuts, but he loves pushing himself. He also did several triathlons this summer which of course he placed in the top three in.

Last winter we got each other ski passes for christmas and he tried his hand at snowboarding, he did a great job! Chris had an amazing first half of the year with his job, he was building the company at an amazing rate and seeing a lot of success. In October he was let go.....a long story that I don't want to get into. So now he is currently looking for other job opportunities, at the time of this writing we are hopeful that we will here back from a job potential that would be a fantastic opportunity for him and will allow us to remain where we currently live.

We feel like the Lord is watching over our family and has blessed us in so many ways this past year. We are grateful for all the love that we feel from each of our family and friends.