BYU Birthday!

Mason turned twelve on Tuesday. He had a very fun filled and exciting day! He started off with breakfast in bed.

His breakfast consisted of Swedish pancakes, hash browns, and TWELVE pieces of bacon!
He actually only had a few bites of his breakfast in his bed and then he came downstairs to eat with the rest of the family and open his presents before Jon headed off to work! We then all admired his Shrine of pictures that I made for him! He then watched the movie Dark Knight that was one of his gifts.
Shortly after that movie he went to see Avatar with Luke & Drake Mulder with my Dad, while I took the girls' to see Princess and the Frog!
He thought the movie was a little weird, but my Brother said that it's awesome in 3D.

After his movies he played a little hoop, his favorite past time!
And more hoop with the Mulder boys when they came over. He got a small BBall hoop for his room. Jon thought that that present was for little boys, but he has loved it already!!!
That evening we had a big BYU Party for the Las Vegas Bowl. I got this picture of Mas and all his sisters that just love him before the guests arrived! We invited all of our die hard BYU Fan Friends! It was so much fun but a little crazy with 48 people here! Mason was able to spend some of his birthday with both of his grandparents (Jon's parents came to the party) We had homemade pizza, tons of Traeger barbequed meats, and lots of sweets! I don't think I sat down once the entire night! I think everyone had fun and enjoyed a great game! Once the game was over we pulled out the BYU cake that Jon made (it was white with a big blue Y but this pic makes it look pink).Some of the kids' gathered around to sing to the Bday boy!
After all the guests went home, Mason relaxed and played his new PSP game that he got as a gift. He told me he had a great day and his favorite part of the day was the BYU Party! What a great son he is and I'm so sad that he is growing up too fast! Happy Birthday Mas!

Crazy Week!

Our week has been filled with many activities! On Sunday and Monday we made all of our friend & neighbor gifts and delivered them all. The Carmel corn was a hit and I ended up keeping one of these popcorn bowls for myself!
Tuesday we attended Maddie's Christmas program at her school and loved every minute of it! She's getting so big and has really blossomed this year in school!Thursday Morgan and Brooklyn finished our gingerbread house that was started on Family Night! Morgan is very pleased with how it turned out!

Friday was Crazy Hair day and parties at school:That same day Maddie had a dance performance in her class with treats at the end.Morgan also had a dance performance that evening which was fabulous! I loved her dances, especially the final number of the entire evening! It was a beautiful lyrical piece danced to Amy Grant's "Breath of Heaven"She is really going to miss her instructor Victoria when she leaves in January to attend BYU Hawaii!And just last night Brooklyn and Morgan had a wonderful piano recital. This is the girls with my dear friend Christy who is also their fabulous teacher!(This is the only pic I got and look at Morgan!)All the music was amazing and helped us all get into the Christmas Mood!

What a fun but crazy week it has been!

A New Season!

About a month ago a new season of Sports started in our family. Mason started his Basketball season with Hot Shots. This is his third year in a row of only playing Basketball and second year with Jon (DAD) being his coach. He LOVES Basketball! He has been playing BBall with some of the same boys for five years! This picture is of Luke, Mason, and Drake Mulder the night they got their Jerseys from Jon:

The Cavaliers are off to a great start and have a record of 4-0! During the summer Brooklyn would frequently shoot around with Mason in the backyard. She decided that she wanted to try Basketball! She also hears Mason talk about Bball and watch it constantly. She has become a fan also of Mason's favorites, the Portland Trailblazers and LeBron James' Cleveland Cavaliers. When Brother Zundel called to invite Jon and Brooklyn to a game she was thrilled!!!Brooklyn has been practicing for three weeks now and will have her first game in January!

Both Brooklyn and Brinley were sad to see their Soccer Season come to an End! Brinley played for her first time with her two BFF's Kennedy and Rachel. Their team "the LadyBirds" were so fun to watch! Brinley was so hilarious!!! She would just run around in the shadow or Kennedy and Rachel with a huge SMILE on her face. There were a few times that she got the ball and even scored some goals!
Karen took this awesome picture of the team after one muddy Saturday game!

Brinley had a great time, loved the snacks, and the end of season party. She definitely wants to play again next year! Brooklyn has played with the "Heartbreakers" for three seasons. She has loved playing soccer and has improved dramatically! I think Brooklyn is going to be our sports girl! She loves her team and hopes that Coach Richie will come back for another season next Fall.

Dancer Team Tryouts!

Morgan tried out today for dance team at her middle school, Pacific Middle School! Every day after school this week they have had dance clinics to prepare them for tonight's tryouts. She was thrilled to make it again for her third year! Her dancing and performance has improved so much these past two years. Two years ago when she tried out the first time when she was in sixth grade she seemed so young, little, and scared! This time she performed with confidence, sass, and maturity! I am so proud and excited for her! We are both ecstatic that so many of her friends' made the team. Her good friend Catherine made it for the first time! She is new to Pacific this year. Her and Morgan quickly became friends' when Morgan met her in Math and saw her CTR ring!:)

There are also four other girls' from our ward that made the team! I'm soooo excited that they all made it and can't wait to travel to competitions and see so many familiar faces!!! A big congrats to the sixth graders: Emily, Hailey, and Avery. Emily Perkins was on the team last year, and then Morgan is the Veteran! Congratulations to them all, It will be a great season!

Stockings, Trees, & Banners Oh My!

About a month ago I saw an idea on a blog to make stockings out of old sweaters. They were so cute that I got a brilliant idea of making stockings for the family! I didn't have as many old sweaters as I initially thought so I quickly went to Goodwill and Spanky's (consignment store). I was so excited at what I found at such great deals! I copied a target stocking I saw and went to town sewing sweaters. I don't like to sew AT ALL but I figured I could manage a straight stitch! I then hit JoAnns for all my embelishments, trim, jingle bells, and lace! This is what my craft room/den looked like for much of the month, A MESS!

But I just loved how they all turned out except for one that I'm still working on! The girls' even fought over who would get certain socks! I told them that I decide and that these stockings for this year are only for decoration! The green and red sweater was an old sweater of mine that I've had for years from Old Navy. Jon couldn't believe that I was cutting it up! I told him that it shrunk in the wash. I like it SO much better as a stocking! The green stripped one was the first one I made and I think it is definitely one of my favs! The polka dot stocking used to be a darling sweater dress of Maddie's. Any of my gymboree friends recognize that line? Well the dress got a hole in it so hey look what a cute stocking it made! This one is definitely Madelyn's. She has let us all know that! Since I had this whole funky stocking/color scheme going on I started looking for some new ornaments! I was surprised to find out that many stores had several ornaments in these colors! This tree is going to be a work in progress. I did find some glitter words at the target dollar spot and many fun glitter balls! The kids had fun decorating it tonight and Morgan is just thrilled that "her dream has come true!" They get to have a tree in the Bonus room. She is so excited to have everyone sleep by the tree on Christmas Eve!

My last project for this season was a Christmas Banner! I got together with my friend Amy the past two days to create our banners together. Amy is a crafting genius! We had fun together and turned my kitchen table into a craft store. We had glue, paper, ribbon, crate paper, zots, glue guns, fiber, and LOTS of GLITTER! Amy loves glitter and has quite a selection!

After two days of this craziness I just finished this banner and hung it above my kitchen table. It is big so I had to take three pictures. It says "Twas the Night"

I think I've had my craft fix for at least a couple weeks! Tomorrow is going to be cleaning day but now I'm off to bed!!!

Thanksgiving Recap!

We had a fun and busy holiday weekend as I'm sure most everyone else did. Thanksgiving dinner was almost a bust since the turkey wasn't cooked in time for dinner!

We cooked the turkey in this roaster and it took two hours longer than usual! I was stressed and embarrassed that it wasn't finished! So on Thanksgiving day we had NO TURKEY! We ate all the fixings and ham. We still got sufficiently stuffed!

After dinner we went to the movies. One of the cousins used a quarter to get a fake mustache out of a toy dispenser. All the kids wanted one after they saw Jefferson with the mustache on. They all looked hilarious!

Maddie did not want a mustache but wanted her pic taken!

Friday morning was dedicated to Black Friday shopping! Morgan and I got up at 4:30 a.m. we hit several stores and we were done by 8:30! We then took Maddie to her ballet performance at the Festival of the Trees! They did a dance to Jingle Bells! It was very cute! (Thanks Tiff for the pic I stole from your blog:)

That evening all the family came back over to eat the Turkey that we didn't have on Thanksgiving Day. We STILL had plenty of sides, pie, and a FRESH batch of Temple's Rolls! Yum!!! On Saturday we went to get our tree with several other friends' from our ward. I have fake tree, but wanted to get a second tree that was real! We hiked around a national forest to hunt down the perfect tree. We finally found one that was perfect and Jon cut it down with his chain saw!We then had chili, rolls, and hot chocolate! It was a fun day! We even found a little snow that the kids were thrilled to play in!
The rest of the weekend was spent cleaning and decorating for CHRISTMAS! It was a fun filled weekend!