Santa is that you?

Grace helped me make these cards for her teachers the other day. I am loving all the hand print ideas out there.

I found the idea here, I really like their thumbprint reindeer idea too but I didn't have all the supplies for that one.

Musser Family Nativity 2009

here is our nativity... by no means perfect but a tradition we love.

Want to see the videos from Christmas's past? here is my post from last year....

HERE

More Christmas...

I have been super busy this week. You will see.

We have been enjoying the snow- kinda- as long as I am not shoveling or driving but in my warm house looking out at the beauty. Grace really wants to build a snowman... maybe after Christmas.

Josh's hours have been cut for the second time this season... let's hope that that it all.
Grace has been making some progress at school writing her na,e and we have memorized a song and poem for Christmas.
Mikey is a darling as ever. he has really started jumpin g9both feet off the ground) this week.

Em gave Grace these birdy jammas. grace loves them! She keeps putting them on during nap time. I found her sneaking up the stairs to go put them on (she was naked!) Thanks Em!

This is a before of the Relief Society room...

here is the after. Does it look like a tent to you? it is not from the same vantage but you still get the idea.

It came out well, and there was a big turnout.

One more shot...

After that we had a baking weekend, 3 days 250+ cookies. we had fun delivering them to some of our friends in the area. 3 kinds of cookies 1 kind of bar, and fudge. My kitchen is clean though! Josh is a fabulous sous chef.

Here is how Mikey spent the time... sneaking food out of the pantry and eating it.

Grace helped whenever she could (and even when it wasn't really help) She is great at helping me measure and even at cracking eggs.

We took a break in the baking to go visit Grandma and Grandpa Woolsey. Grandma loves to feed the kids snacks, and Mikey B loved the big boy cup he got to use so much that Grandma sent a couple home with us.

We really did bake all weekend. See my new haircut? Shorter than I asked for but still cute.

Mikey B. entertaining himself with the remote. I always find weird stuff recorded on our DVR.

We have been working on our family nativity. One more photo session this afternoon and hopefully I will finish it tonight, I will try to post a link to it when done.

I must say it is a challenge to get the pictures, and I don't have the equipment to get great pictures. But is is a fun way to teach the kids about the nativity, and I love looking at the ones my mom made when we were little, I hope they do too.

lastly -is that a word?- here is a lasagna for cheaters. (who wants to layer and spread over and over? but it is a bit different than plain ol' spaghetti. I made a few of these and stuck them in my freezer but it was really fast to make in the first place.....

HERE is where I got the recipe. and here is her recipe:

Ingredients:
1 package mini lasagna noodles *I couldn't find these so i just used some small spirals
1 lb. Italian sausage or hamburger
1 can spaghetti sauce (whatever your fave kind is...)
1 small can Italian stewed tomatoes
1 package pepperoni *I omitted this

1 small container ricotta
1-2 eggs
Grated Parmesan Cheese
Shredded Cheddar Cheese (or whatever flavor you prefer on top of your lasagna). *I used mozzarella

Preheat your oven to 350.
Boil your noodles....Drain and put into a large oven pan/dish.

Brown your sausage or hamburger then drain the fat. Add this to the noodles in your pan. Add your spaghetti sauce and stewed tomatoes. Mix everything thoroughly.

In a separate bowl, mix your ricotta cheese, 1-2 eggs and about 1/2 cup of the grated Parmesan cheese. (add more if you like it)

Spread your ricotta cheese over your noodles/sauce mixture.

Add pepperoni - if you like it - or omit it.

Sprinkle cheese over the pepperoni.

Bake for about 30-35 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and bubbly.

It's one of our family's favorites for dinner - AND it's even better the next day!!! :D

So it is easy, cheesy and delish! try it out and make a double batch to freeze!

NO MORE SNOW!

I am sick of it! I am no good at shoveling, and I do NOT want any more practice.

It is pretty though... and I can finally change my header picture to this

but enough is enough!

Christmas time is here

We are immersed in the Christmas season here. There are so many things I like to do at Christmas time... Just wait you will see a few... But it has taken some advance planning to get it all in.

I can't tell all of what I have been doing yet since much of it is Christmas present related. I have been spending a lot of time at the sewing machine this week. Big on my list of things to do this week: Turn our Relief Society Room into a tent for our Relief Society evening. I hope it turns out. It is going to be a lot of work.

Josh's work schedule finally switched. He works four days on and then 4 days off. I have a feeling this is going to be a difficult schedule to get used to. And I am going to have to start subbing again *sad* but I will just have to do it. There is a bright side! There were multiple crews who were laid off for the winter and Josh wasn't one of them. We are blessed and I need to remember that.

We are in the middle of our first long winter storm, snow everyday for 5 days. Today as Grace was walking into school she slipped and fell on her bottom. As we hung up her coat she told me she was going tell Teacher Emily about her sore bum. As I signed her in she went to Emily and pulled her pants down a bit and showed her where it hurt. We had yet another talk about modesty.

Mikey has yet another less than functional phrase to his odd repertoire of words. This time: bless you. If you sneeze Mikey will respond. I don't say bless you a lot but Grace does. So we have Mom, dad, please, thank you, and stuck useful and polite. But we also have: oh toodles, bless you, oh no, jump, sock, shoe, stitch, dog, and a few more I can't remember. Not really everyday use words.

I have decorated our tree several times over this week. Mikey keeps pulling off ornaments when I am not looking and I keep putting them back up and telling him no. I have the silk wrap balls on his level but I don't think many will survive the year.

We went to Temple Square to see the lights, I LOVE Christmas lights. My sister, Emily, sent the kids glasses that made the lights look like stars and snowflakes. The kids didn't wear them too long but they were cool and funny while they did.


We went on a Thursday evening and it was much less crowded than previous years (when we went on weekends). We really bundled the kids up and they didn't get too cold but Josh and I were freezing.

We had a missionary take a picture of our family but it was really blurry. So sorry no family picture this year. I was there here is proof

We made snowmen from the kids feet. I got the idea here (I have no original thought)

Grace loved the paint on her feet and being able to sit on our counter.

Mikey was not into the fingerprint snowflakes but he is into smiling for pictures. Notice grace holding our paint. It has to be the washable kind!

I added arms and faces and scarfs. Grace has high arches I couldn't get the flat foot on hers like I did on Mikeys. I still think they turned out pretty cute.

We got a gingerbread village this year instead of a gingerbread house. WAY more work. I don't think we will be doing a village again.

All Mikey did was eat the candy. He might have put on a few piece sat first but then he ripped them off and ate them.

MMM yummy

Grace and I made a good team.

The final result.

Saturday, the first day of snow. Not too much, just enough for the kids to have fun and for me to find black ice as I ran an errand that night.

We don't recycle our diaper boxes, at least not in the traditional way. The kids love coloring on these.

Sunday night, we drive around in Josh's truck looking at Christmas lights.

Now I am off to work on more Christmas projects.

Lucky

Josh is doing the dishes right now... that makes me lucky.

What makes me even more lucky is that in the process he got the piece of plastic that was stuck in the garbage disposal.

that makes me lucky why? Because: It was there yesterday when I did the dishes but I have developed a fear of sticking my hand in the disposal. no foundation for the fear, it is just how I am.

So thank you Josh, thank you for getting out the piece of plastic.



oh! and for doing the dishes!

picture this...

2 energetic children
one gifted (pregnant, patient, peach of a sister) photographer
and a cold morning at the Harley davidson store in Orem...














I can't wait to see more. can you?