so a little bit of

helping others...Funny that I just read my 'mom's inspiration on my blog and it said to bring your kids to church to help out.

well, thats just what we did last week. Took both kids in to help (actually they cried, and played and caused mahem..) but help, they did... with sorting gifts and bagging for CHRISTMAS for EVERYONE!!


and on Christmas Eve day, we will continue the tradition of bell ringing...


Not sure , if Brigham will stay in a stoller this year.....


and yes, mom and dad were with him.. see my pregant with Tatum legs in the background!!! lol


hopefully it will not be terribly cold, but it was a tradition I grew up with , and wanted to continue with my own family.

we will leave Tatum with Grandma.



and on Christmas day, Andrew and I will head to the resource center to help give rides, or pass out meals, or whatever. another little tradition we wanted to do to give back and show our kids that not everybody gets a million presents, and has 6 coats, and lots of shoes, and plenty of food...especially cookies(thats what we're in to right now!! LOL)




and so some baking has been done..and lots of cookie eating =p.




four cookie exchanges last week and two brunches.




making goodies for neigbors to be delivered tomorrow. and cookies for Brig's program at school. I so wish my 3 year old was a bit better at 'helping' with this task....we're getting there with lots of practice!




and a bit of crafting has been done:here is the stable scene for Brigham's nativity at preschool.



The kids have been working hard on all the figures, and we get to see it all put together tomorrow at his class program.



we keep catching him singing his songs... its SOOO cute. I think a tad more effort is going into this program than the thanksgiving one.

I've got my camera all charged and waiting to capture that notarias.. "HI MOMMY!!!" on video!! LOL

and some crafting has been done: saw it on Ali Edwards blog. so adorable. and yet, I thought I had enough pins and buttons.. holy cow!! I blew right through 150 pins and will have to go get another bag of buttons.


was really liking the all green one seen here too for our master bedroom. oh, maybe next year!


and I made this fun wall hanging out of my december kit from Scrapbook Obsessions. actually made one for a friend too. I just love these papers and can't wait to scrap this year's pictures with them.



* and I've been relaxing on my couch as I look at this:
I have not neglegted my kids with all the business.!! we went to see Santa Thursday night, and got some really cute pictures. I'll share them once I edit them some. And Friday we had some good friends over for a festive holiday dinner...on my new holiday..ok..well winterware..LOVE them.
Saturday my mom watched Brigham all day and we did some Santa Clause shopping. A winter storm came in , and dumped 11 inches on us!!
Brig was snowed in at grandma's until about 8pm last night.. and we were snowed in at our house!! church was cancelled.
I spent the day organizing my pictures and watching holiday movies on the Hallmark channel. Andrew even watched the sappy movies with me, in between FF scores!!

well, Gotta go get something done while both kids are asleep! I hope you are all having a GREAT MONDAY!!!