December Happenings Thus Far

I have to apologize because this is going to be a long post but I can't shorten it so please forgive me. December is quite a busy month for us which was made even busier by the fact that Troy has been out of town pretty much the entire month. So we had to squeeze all of our normal Christmas traditions and birthday celebrations into what turned out to be very short weekends.

It started with Mikayla's birthday party. This is the party with my family and Troy's dad and his wife Cynthia. I forgot to take any pictures at the birthday party with Troy's mom (sorry guys!) She got so many great things like a loom and a quadruple combination scriptures. It is tradition in our family that you get a Book of Mormon when you are 8 and a bible at 12. Well it cost just a tiny bit more to get a quad instead of a Bible so we did that instead.

This is her cake. She wanted everything pink. So we went to Smiths and got her a very pink cake.

The morning of her birthday I got up extra early and made her sweet rolls as she requested. Of course we had to have pink frosting!

Then as is tradition I checked her out of school and took her to lunch for her birthday. This year though we did something special. I took her to get her ears pierced. I make the girls wait until they are 12 so that they are old enough to take care of the cleaning process themselves. I just sooo do not want to have to deal with that and all the whining that comes with it.

She was sooo nervous. I warned her ahead of time that it was going to hurt a little. So she psyched herself out, and was doing deep breathing to keep calm. You can see that she is trying not to cry here. (she is 12 and a young adult after all, that is a quote Mikayla is using often now!)

The girl who did it was fantastic. She kept Mikayla calm and did a great job. Mikayla of course picked the pink flower studs. She loves them and they look great! Thanks to my mom and Kara who took time out of their day to come with us. We had a blast trying to make Mikayla laugh.

Next we had the Christmas program at school. Owen was starting to get sick but he went and sang with his class. They sang "Must be Santa" It was so cute to see him doing all the actions!

Morgan's class sang "Santa, I Just Got the Measles" She was the girl with the measles. It was sooo cute. I love to watch little kids sing Christmas songs.

Mikayla is in the school show choir called "Musical Express" They did a couple of songs and Mikayla even had a solo. Which by the way she totally nailed!! Way to go Mikayla!

That weekend we took Mikayla and her very bestest friend Christina out to dinner and bowling. We first had to stop at the Real Salt Lake Stadium to pick up a Christmas present for my brother. Our friend Dave works there and let the girls go in and look at the field. They thought he was the coolest guy ever!

Oh we also took them to Raphael's for dinner. MMMM yummy. I tried something new and LOVED it. But seriously its Raphael's how could you not!

Here is the girls at the bowling ally. They had a blast even if they spent most of the time throwing gutter balls. They got better for the second game though. Here is Christina admiring her last throw. Notice all the pins are still standing there almost in defiance.

This is how Mikayla bowled the entire second game which dramatically improved her scores. She came close to beating me!

Then the final event of our week was the annual Beardall Family December birthday party (which as I already mentioned I have no pictures of) and ginger bread house decorating competition. Its not really a competition just fun. My sweet sister in law Kelli went over to the Beardall's house and put them all together so we only had to worry about decorating. She was my favorite person that day! So here is our final product. If there was a competition I say we totally won!!

I hope that everyone has a great Christmas and a VERY happy new year, full of joy and happy things!!!

Merry Christmas!

Birthday Wish

Today I am taking a minute to send out a special birthday wish to my Mikayla. Today she turns 12. I have been trying not to think about today for a long long time. I just feel like once this day comes it is the beginning of the race that is young adulthood and then she is off to start her own life and her own dreams. But as you can see no matter how much I close my eyes and plugged my ears this day has still come.

So Even though I can't avoid it I am excited that now starts the mother daughter outings and long conversations.

Today starts Young Womens. I can't wait to see her grow into an even more beautiful young woman. I can't wait to watch her make her own decisions and be here when they go really well and when things don't turn out the way she wanted them to.I can't wait to see her learn and grow in school, and achieve some great things, even if those things are trying her best and just barely passing an incredibly hard class. I look forward to so many things but I also enjoy the last 12 years that we have had together. The long conversations, the mother daughter outings and all the fun times we have shared.

I love you so much Mikayla. Thank you for being a great daughter and a great friend!

Happy Birthday!!!!

A Fantastic Story

This is a story that my Dad wrote about when he told me and or my sister about Santa Clause (Spoiler Alert!). It is a beautiful story I wanted everyone to be able to read it.

Click Here

My Latest Project

This project has a little back story to it so I of course must tell it. Last spring our ward had a fun enrichment (now relief society) activity where we each auctioned off a service. The service that I auctioned off was that I would make a dress. I am really not that great at it. I like to refer to myself as a hack with a sewing machine. Well my friend Crystal bought the dress making service. I thought she would want a cute summer dress or a Christmas dress or something but she asked me to make her daughter Ashton's Baptism dress. Talk about pressure! I was nervous and fretted about it. It was the hardest dress I have ever made. But I don't think it was because of the fabric or the pattern but that I wanted to make it perfect. I can still see all the little things that are wrong with it when I close my eyes. UGGG! When it is a dress for my girls I am ok with it because I am not that picky. But I wanted this dress to be fantastic because it is a special dress for a special occasion. Well I just gave it to her yesterday. I have to say that when she put it on it erased all the flaws because she looks beautiful in it.

Here I am doing the final fitting. Here she is in the final dress.

I have to say I was really proud when I was done. I think it looks great and I heard from her mom that she loves it.

Congratulations on your baptism Ashton. Enjoy the dress!!!

Decorating For Christmas

I am sure everyone who is reading this (all 3 of you) already know how much I love Christmas. I love the way that Christmas makes me feel. One of my favorite things to do is decorate my house with all the fun Christmas decor.

We always start with the tree of course!

Here is Troy setting up the tree. We had to squeeze it into the corner because we put the computer desk where we had the tree last year.
The kids love to "help" you can see by all the stuff on the floor that they aren't really all that much help! I will change that; the kids love to get in the way and make a huge mess!
The finished product. . .
The dinner table.
The snow falling from our kitchen ceiling.

Our stockings. We don't have a fire place so we had to get inventive.

The tree. Decorated almost exclusively by the kids. (Troy helped to make sure there weren't too many reds, greens, or golds close together.)

Our nativity scene, and favorite Christmas stories.

Our advent calendar. I had one just like this growing up and loved it so much that I copied it and made one for our family.

The piano. I love all the twinkle lights!!!

I am so excited to get to do all the fun traditions that come along with Christmas. I will try and blog about them but as you all know December is so busy it can really fly by without me even noticing!

Happy Thanksgiving

I wanted to wish all my family and friends a very happy Thanksgiving. I feel like we skip right over this holiday and rush straight into Christmas. This to me is an extremely important holiday because this is when we remember our blessings and give thanks for them. I am grateful to my Father in Heaven for my very many blessings. For my family, my sweetheart who loves me to the moon and back and all the way to eternity, my fantastic 4 kids (yes I know, I meant to make a reference to the comic book super hero's. Look it up you will find how closely mine fit into each of those characters) These sweet kids keep me on my toes and teach me every day how to be a better mother. I love them more then anything else in the world. They are my world. I am grateful for the job that my husband has and enjoys, especially in these tough times. I am grateful for patients both in me and for me. I am grateful for wonderful Friends who keep me laughing and help me find the good times that can be had any time, any place. I am most of all grateful for the gospel and for what it means to me. For the opportunity I have to be with all these wonderful people for eternity. And for my Savior for making it possible through his sacrifice.

Happy Thanksgiving Everybody!!!

New Moon

Well I have had such big plans for this movie premier and I did all of them except take my camera. I am hoping to get a copy of the group picture from Heidi but we will have to wait and see.
I will tell the tale though for those that want to read it. I went to the New Moon movie with a bunch of my friends from the ward at (here it comes, hold on to your chairs) 3:10 am. You read that right, 3:10 am. I have heard a hundred times how crazy that was but it was a blast! There were probably 12 of us some in Team Jacob T's and the rest of us wearing our "we wouldn't turn down either one" T's ( I am kidding. I don't have any twilight T-shirts, not really my thing) We got to sit in the prefect seats and sit back and enjoy. It was a great movie far better then the first one. And I am super excited to see the third one in June!! Thanks again Heidi for putting this together again this year. You are the greatest!
I do have to say really quick that I think that I got far more sleep seeing the movie at 3 then I would have at say a midnight showing. I got 5 and half hours of sleep where I would have only had 3 hours of sleep if I had gone at midnight. See not sounding so crazy after all!

Picture

Here is his First Picture.

His name is Wesley Brandel Odell.

Isn't he the cutest little peanut!

Good News!

After years of trying and struggling my sweet baby sister has had her second baby!!!! I don't know his name yet, but he was born today and weighed in at a whopping 5lbs 9 oz. Teeny tiny but being that we were all worried that he wouldn't be here at all we are soooo happy that he is here and everything is looking good.

Congratulations Kaci and Brad!!!!!

I will post any pictures as soon as I get them.

Halloween Tradition #4

Our 4th Halloween Tradition is Carving pumpkins. Usually we do this with our friends the Farmers. But unfortunately with Troy's travel schedule and Edda's work schedule it didn't work out. To be honest we barely had time to do it at all. We did it on Morgan's birthday after we went Trick or treating at Troy's office and before Morgan had her sleep over with her best friend Hannah. So needless to say we were a little busy toward the end of the month. So here are some pictures of our carving fun. Here is Mikayla (crown and all) smiling brightly and Sam trying his hand at carving.
All the kids with their finished products.

its a little blurry but here are all our pumpkins all lit and looking good. Morgan's pumpkin say "Happy Birthday Morgan" you can guess what was on her mind! Mikayla had a heart, Owen and Sam both wanted scary faces on their pumpkins.

Halloween Tradition #3

Our 3rd Halloween tradition is Morgan's Birthday. We are so happy that we have Morgan in our family. She is a light and a smile in our family. Even though she started her life in a colic filled scream, (poor thing) she has turned out to be a sweetheart and a joy.
I am so grateful for her hugs and her smile every morning. She is the best at doing her homework sometimes in the car on the way home. She is a great gymnast and a fantastic dancer. She has so much potential and I am so grateful that I have the opportunity to watch it all from the view of her mom.

I love you Morgan.

Happy Birthday!!!

Halloween Tradition #2

Our second Halloween tradition is our ward Halloween party. It is seriously the best Halloween party. It is the best party they throw all year. Which is saying something because I have loved each and every ward party that we have been to. This year I dressed up as a sailor from the 1940's, and Mikayla dressed up as me. She wore a sign that said "Mirror Mirror on the wall, I am my mother after all" We thought it was pretty funny. Here is a picture of us together.

Here is our Puppy Sam

Here is Morgan, our witch, Owen our Iron Man, and Mikayla, Me as I said before.

Our ward party isn't held at the church, no no, it is held at the pumps that are between the Jordan River and Utah Lake. A couple of families in our ward live on the property. That already is pretty cool and creepy. So this is what greets you first floating on Utah lake.

This is the front of the building that you have to walk through just to get to the party.

And this is what greets you inside. (I know it looks pretty creepy now but imagine it in the semi-dark)

Can you see the "man/robot" crawling on the ground that was super creepy!

Here is the room that the party starts in. There is some of the best food at this party. Chili and soup and bread sticks and tons of treats and cookies. mmmm yummy

There are Halloween decorations everywhere. There is a movie and popcorn corner with face painting for the kids. We love it. They also have a haunted maze our by the water but my kids are too chicken to go in. I wonder where they get that from. Hmmm it's a mystery.