Christmas Tag

I was tagged by Hollie at The Traylor Park Blog with this Christmas tag:

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? I'd use all bags if everything fit in them
2. Real tree or artificial? Artificial
3. When do you put up the tree? Usually the week of Thanksgiving
4. When do you take the tree down? Between Christmas and New Years Eve.
5. Do you like eggnog? No. A sip or two is ok, but not anymore than that.
6. Favorite gift received as a child? My brother made me a doll house one Christmas--but it was for animals because I didn't like dolls. I was a tomboy.
7. Hardest person to buy for? My husband
8. Easiest person to buy for? Myself : )
9. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes--two of them. My mom buys us a new piece each year. This year I got the star backdrop to the Willow Tree set.
10. Mail or E-mail Christmas cards? Mail--in fact, I need to get some of your addresses so I can send one out to my blog friends, too.
11. Worst Christmas gift ever recieved? I plead the fifth
12. Favorite Christmas movie? Either "It's a Wonderful Life" or "A Christmas Story". They're so different, it's like comparing apples to oranges.
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? In October. I'm pretty much done by Thanksgiving. It's just because I like to shop so much!
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? No--I can't hold on to things I don't want for that long. We've given back some White Elephant gifts just to be funny. There are a few things that show up in the white elephant exchange each year--one is a framed picture of Kyle's face and another is a giant pair of underwear.
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Mmmmm.....there are too many to name! I like to make a big breakfast Christmas morning with maple sausage and french toast.
16. Lights on the tree? Definitely. But only white ones, and not the blinking kind.
17. Favorite Christmas song? I'm not sure. I like the Hallalujah Chorus a lot.
18. Travel at Christmas or stay at home? Stay at home. But, we can get a little bored here all by ourselves, so this year I think we'll get tickets to that new Adam Sandler movie and go see that in the afternoon sometime.
19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? Dasher, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donder, Blitzen, Rudolph---not sure that's all of them.
20. Angel on the tree top or star? Star
21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? I like to let the kids open one present on Christmas Eve--especially if we're just home for the evening.
22. The most annoying thing about this time of year? Feeling overscheduled.
23. Favorite ornament theme or color? I added a lime green ribbon this year to match my living room. The rest is gold and red. I like to go to Target the morning after Christmas to get really cute, cheap stuff for the next year.
24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? Lots of finger foods, like at my dad and stepmoms house when I was growing up. Wings, little smokies, dips (seven layer dip and dill dip in a bread bowl), and Christmas cookies for dessert!
25. What do you want for Christmas this year? I always pick out my own things--I like to. This year, I picked out a California King comforter set because the king sets are never wide enough to cover a king matress. We are also getting family pictures taken (we've never done it before--I'm so excited)!

I tag anyone who is looking for some blogging material!

Yearbook Yourself

You've got to try this--it's very entertaining : ) I found a website called Yearbook Yourself that shows you what your yearbook picture would have looked like from the 60's to the 90's. Check these out!

My hair was sooooo curly and fro-ey during high school that I probably would have gladly worn any of these hair-do's instead of my own! I'm sooooooo thankful that it changed during college and beyond and is now perfectly normal hair. Such a relief!

Anyway, I'm off to download my kids' pictures so I can see them with the funny hair-do's too!

Favorite Picture of my Hubby

This was taken when DH and my brother were Jeeping a month or so ago. I needed to post a pic for someone in my family who is working on a Christmas gift and needed some pics. Hope you all had a good weekend!

Fun Little Family Outing

When my mom visited a while back, she wanted to go do something cultural. So I searched online for all things cultural going on in the valley. We ended up going to the BYU Homecoming Spectacular, which was totally awesome.
I also found out that the Springville Art Museum was having an exhibit of children's book illustrations done by local artists. We didn't have time to go with my mom, but we went down today. It was really cool. The pictures are fun to look at and absolutely stunning. There is a bookshelf in the room with all of the books that the artwork was used in, and there was a couch to sit down and read. The kids had a good time matching the book with the artwork on the wall. Then we sat on the couch and read some books together. It was free too!
I know I've written on here before about Blurb.com and how it can pull all of your blog info into a book format. Well, not exactly. It only works with certain blogging platforms, NOT including Blogger. Bummer. It's ok though--I've been cutting and pasting my information over into one of their regular book templates, and it's pretty fun. It's time consuming, but I can edit as I go and even copy over some comments here and there as I go. I'm all the way up to May. I can't wait to order the book see the finished product!

Happy Veterans Day and a Tag

Veterans Day is easy to not notice if you're a stay-at-home mom. Luckily, my Dad always sends an inspirational e-mail every year. Last year he sent the link to this video, "A Pittance of Time" by Terry Kelly. It is so touching, I promise if you take the time to watch you won't regret it.


I also got "tagged" by my friend Kellie at "Camp Run-a-Muk". I have to list 6 random things about myself:
1. Kari told me that McDonald's sells pumpkin pies for the holidays (the little ones, like their apple and cherry pies). I tried one yesterday and have been wanting one all morning long--YUM!
2. I'm worried that I'm getting another cold, and I just got over one a week ago--hoping it's just allergies!
3. I'm totally looking forward to TV tonight--it's my favorite TV night : )
4. When I was growing up I pronounced "wash" as "warsh". It's a regional thing. My roommates at BYU thought it was hilarious.
5. Toblerone is my favorite candy bar
6. We're going to San Diego in a couple of weeks. YIPEE!

I tag......Kirsti, Kari, Karley (I'm on a letter "K" roll here!), and Laura (because you didn't do my last one : P)

What is a Peanutopolis?

My brother Mike is currently working in Kabul, Afghanistan (he is "Kabul Architect" on my sidebar)--I know that sounds crazy, but he is well protected and this has been a great career move for him. He'll be home again in January after a 12 week stretch in Kabul and then he'll go back. His entire commitment will last a year. It has been interesting to read about the culture there and the people he is getting to know.

This morning he sent this picture. I don't know about you, but the word "Peanutopolis" brought something totally different to mind, so I was really suprised when I saw the picture. The soda can is pretty interesting too:

Playing Tag

My friend Britney at Britney's Boys got "tagged" on her blog. I'm in the mood to spend some time playing on the computer, so I'm going to play along. Here goes:

My top EIGHT:

What are your favorite TV shows?
1. The Office
2. Privileged
3. LOST
4. 30 Rock
5. Seinfeld
6. Friends
7. HGTV shows, like "House Hunters"
8. The Dog Whisperer

What are your favorite restaurants?
1. Chili's
2. Carraba's
3. Bajio
4. Cafe Rio
5. Asian Buffet
6. Imo's Pizza (St. Louis)
7. Steak n' Shake (St. Louis)
8. Olive Garden

What are 8 things that happened yesterday?
1. Got to church only 5 minutes late (that's progress!)
2. Conducted Relief Society
3. Made mummy dogs for lunch
4. Took a great, long, Sunday nap
5. Had Family Home Evening
6. Watched 48 Hours Mystery with DH
7. Blogged about the weekend
8. Read some of "The Shell Seekers"

What are 8 things you are looking forward to?
1. Thanksgiving
2. Christmas
3. Going on vacation (we will probably plan this soon)
4. My mom moving to Utah someday
5. The rest of my life with my husband and kids
6. Losing about 15 pounds : )
7. Doing a digital scrapbook page when I'm done with this post
8. Checking my blog tomorrow to see if anyone has left a comment

What are 8 things you love about fall?
1. The weather (that great "feeling" in the air)
2. The changing leaves
3. Halloween
4. Thanksgiving
5. Christmas shopping (I like to do it early)
6. Carmel apples
7. Smelling my "fall" scented candles--like Pumpking Spice and Witches Brew
8. Drives up the canyon

If you are one of my awesome, newly re-found St. Louis friends, then I TAG YOU!

Halloween Weekend

Having Halloween on a Friday is the best scenario ever. It was a really great weekend. I've had a nasty cold for a week and Friday was the day I finally started to feel human again, so that made the weekend even more enjoyable.

Thursday night was the Trunk-or-Treat at church--I still wasn't 100%, so no pictures of that event.

On Friday I went over to the school to help with DD's party. They had a good time. Afterwards (Friday is early-out day) I took the kids to see High School Musical 3. We really liked it. The girls have been pretending to be Gabriella all weekend. As the movie was starting, DD#1 leaned towards me and whispered "I like Troy. I think he looks CUTE!". I can't believe she's old enough to think that way. So cute.

After the movie we bought a costume for Smuckers. Here he is in all his pumpkin glory:Can you tell how much he hates this hat? We took it off right after I took the picture. We had fun taking him Trick-or-Treating with us.

Here are the older kids in their cool costumes (thanks Grandma and Grandpa Mundy)!

Poor DD#2 missed out on this photo-shoot, so here is a picture of her all dolled up for church this morning and acting silly:

For dinner this week we had "mummy dogs" a couple of times. They're pretty tasty!

The girls have been playing together so sweetly today. Check out the creative things they did with their Halloween stash : )

My kids crack me up--they're the best!