Bishopric Retreat

 Sam and I had a wonderful weekend this past week.  Our Bishop borrowed his daughter's "cabin" and took the whole bishopric and their wives for a weekend.

It was up in Victor and we had a blast.  It was absolutely beautiful and had a ton of snow which we loved and took advantage of.  

We drove up Friday morning (thanks to good friends who took our kids) with another member of the Bishopric and his wife.  We enjoyed the ride talking and visiting.  Then we spent the rest of the day in the snow and playing games.

 This was the view from the "cabin" and below is the house we stayed at.

That evening we had the Bishop's traditional dinner he makes when we get together: fried shrimp.  Oh my are they heavenly.  I have never had shrimp that tasted so good. 

Below Sam is helping fry the shrimp.

 The Bishopric minus us.

Then that night we watched a totally lame movie (in which no one wanted to say anything because they were afraid that someone else enjoying it but in reality we were all hating it).  Then we visited some more and ate way too much dessert and then went to bed.

Saturday we spent the day playing games (mostly Scum) and having a blast.  We made breakfast for everyone and also ate a yummy late lunch (because we were snacking the whole time).  We all had to take off that afternoon so we could get our children and be home for church (even though it was tempting to skip especially because it would of been hilarious to not have the entire bishopric there).

We had a grand time and it was so fun to getaway with just the two of us for awhile!

Organized Chaos

(because this is a form of my journal bear with me or just stop reading.  I really hate talking about my callings but for posterity sakes I thought I should write this down)

 This is what my office use to look like.  And that's only what would fit in the picture.  That's what happens when you are the primary secretary (or use to be anyway).

I learned to love being in primary but I didn't learn to love the end of the year chaos.  Especially when you have 102 children in primary. 

Okay let me back up a minute, at the beginning of November of last year, I got a call from one of our High Councilmen and he asked me to serve as the stake girls camp director.  I was absolutely floored.  You see I have never been involved with Young Women's before (except a small stint last year cooking for our ward camp).  I said yes and proceeded to try not to freak out and get all my ducks in a row.

You see also, camp director is not a calling in our stake, it's an assignment, so you get to keep your regular calling, which at the time was primary secretary.  I was okay with that mostly because I like to be busy and have things to do and maybe some of what other people say, "you have no idea what you are getting into".

Anyway, the end of the year was absolutely crazy BUT everything got updated, redone, and organized for the new year.  

THEN, I got a call from the executive secretary in our ward asking if the Bishop could meet with Sam and I, which I found weird because Sam is in the Bishopric already so he obviously knew what was going on.  Now I am relief society second counselor and very scared/excited.  I always love to be with the women in my ward (you know me and talking/visiting) and I have never had a relief society calling before so I was excited for that part.  But I get to be over relief society weekday meetings (thanks Jenny for all your awesome ideas) and that is what has me a little scared.  I guess I just need to treat it like a monthly party and I should be fine because I do like a good party!

So here's to life and if my blog doesn't get updated very often you will know why!

Sam's Birthday

 As most of you know, Sam is a New Year's Eve bay.  This year we stayed home for the festivities.  He wasn't feeling awesome that day so we just chilled at home relaxing, sleeping in, and playing with the kids.  

Earlier in the week we met some friends at one of his favorite restaurants and had a grand time eating, laughing, and playing some awesome and intense games.  Thanks Gadds!!

 The requested item for his dessert was an eggnog cheesecake, but after a little persuasion he settled on this Peanut Butter Cup Cake--which he loved and so did the kids.

 With his presents.

Sam you are amazing.  We love you and are so glad that you bring so much laughter and fun to our house!

Christmas

I LOVED Christmas this year.  I loved that the kids were way into giving each other gifts and I loved that we got to go to church on Christmas Day.  It just seemed to set the mood perfectly for why we celebrate this wonderful holiday.

Since we had church at 8am (now 10 am--yes!) the kids got up early and looked, played, oohed and aahed over their stockings.  One of the things they all got was headphones.  Sam has a nice pair and they were always arguing over who got to wear them so this was perfect and they loved them!

 Then they put on all their new Sunday clothes and we headed off to church.  Church was out a little early which the kids thought was awesome until we remembered that Sam needed to stay afterwards and do tithing.  (side note: it was so funny because he prayed several times that no one would turn in tithing so they didn't have to stay afterwards but a las his prayers weren't answered--silly guy!)

By the time Sam made it home the kids were so excited.  So the present opening began and they were in heaven.

 Luke and Kathryn opening their Santa presents.  Luke got a wiggle car (love those things) and Kathryn a guitar.  She says that is the instrument she wants to learn.  I hope she loves it!

 Sarah and Seth opening their Santa presents.  Sarah has been asking for this American Girl Doll for more than a year so she was beyond excited to see it.  Seth is actually quite excited, I just caught him in a weird pose.  That thing is full of Legos which he immediately started putting together and which we helped him organize better the other day (oh my word we sorted by color and between Seth, Sarah, Kathryn and me it took us 3 hours to sort that boys legos.  Crazy!).

 I love to see the kids get so excited especially as they watch their siblings open the presents they gave to them.

Kathryn gave Sarah this kitty and Luke was almost more excited for Sarah than Kathryn.  Cute boy!

 The kids gave Sam a new ice cream book and man have we been eating the most amazing ice cream lately.  They are to die for and I don't even like ice cream that much!

And boy was this boy happy to see this under the tree.  He got water in his last one that ruined the back light and then he broke the screen trying to fix it.  So after 6 months of not having one (I made him wait till Christmas) he was so happy that he could get back to having his emails and calendar from work at his fingertips (and I would guess his angry birds and sudoku also).

I am so grateful for this time of year and I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas also.

Christmas Eve

I love pretty much everything about this time of year.  Christmas Eve though is one of my favorites.  We always try to take the kids sledding and then we have our annual party with our good friends.  We have done it now for 6 years and I hope we will always live close enough that we can keep doing it.

The night starts out with pizza, salad, and pop (yep the same every year) and then afterwards we move on to acting out the Nativity Story.  Because we only have 8 (soon to be 9 and no it's not me that's pregnant) kids between us everybody gets to play several roles.

 Kathryn got to be Mary and Seth was Joseph.

 Sam reading us the story.

 Luke was one of the wise men.

 Seth being a wise man also (or a wise guy we couldn't tell for sure!).

 Seth was also King Herod.

 The wise men coming to see the baby.

 (and yes Sarah was there she was just being camera shy and didn't want her pictures taken--silly girl!).

After the story we exchange white elephant gifts which the kids love and are always hilarious.  Then it's off to home to finish our Christmas Eve festivities,  The kids opened their new pajamas and were so excited to get to bed so Santa could come.

 Can you tell?

 Santa's treats--what smart kids to leave Santa a diet coke!!