Happy Holidays in Pictures

Aahh... Back home in our own beds!
Gracie loves oranges and her baby!
Are we there yet? Gracie wouldn't let go of her baby so I strapped it in too. :)
Mom, Bill, Kevin laughing hard on New Year's Eve!
Dad sleeping...
Heidi and Robert got a babysitter and enjoyed the night with each other. So cute!
Here is some of us. Balderdash was everyone's favorite game.
Gracie in Franklin, ID finally liking the snow! Look at that smile and the snot...
We spent a fun night and day with Bri and Bill at their new home in my favorite state of Idaho.
Their street was perfect for going super fast.
Quickyn and Gracie sure enjoyed each others' company. We had to make them stop spinning around in this chair.
We loved snowboarding!
Tino did too.
What does Nancy's face say about skiing while a few month pregnant?
BJ said he would definitely go skiing again. Look at his face now.
Ready to hit the slopes...
BJ has never been skiing and he is from Logan. He was a pretty skeptical about all the clothing you have to wear to stay warm. But he did it because he loves Nancy. It was fun to teach him.
Gracie and Dad, perfect friends.
Anjelica and Mom watched Gracie for us while we went snowboarding.
I love Grandma!
Gracie loves Baby Jesus!
The Baby Clothes Quilt that I made for my neice Sofia. Gracie has worn all her clothes and so to say Thank you, we made a keepsake blanket out of all her favorite outfits.
Grammy Lenna warming Gracie up after sledding.
Sofia is such a fun loving tough girl. She can whoop any boy but still is cute!
Gracie banged her nose up while trying to pull the sled. I love this even though it is sad.
We love sledding.
Gracie's favorite Christmas Present from Santa...
She carries her baby everywhere, and pushes the stroller constantly. Now we have to dress the baby, change the baby, feed the baby, and everything else Gracie does too.
I love this face. She was excited about the presents.
We all slept hard after playing hard. What a good time!!

Jan 13 Journal - Christmas was Sooo Good

This was a really special, and memorable Christmas this year! My first one with a child that could enjoy it and I could enjoy them, and we could all enjoy each others' good company.
Since Luke works in a school, we get the same vacation that students get- which is really fun for the time off, but hard on the checkbook. Luckily I picked up a client to do private speech therapy for just before Thanksgiving that will be some good backup money. The only problem is I thought I would have been paid for my work in Nov and Dec by now (mid Jan) but I haven't yet. We are going finish the rest of this week on fumes! Hopefully it comes soon. My client is such sweet guy, 4 yrs old with autism. He is the easiest and most fun, and smartest client with autism that I have ever had which makes it easier to leave Gracie with Dad for 1 hour twice a week at night. It is really a fabulous deal which makes getting my degree all worth it. I think it will continue to help supplement in the future but I never have to be a slave to my job so that is nice. The funniest thing is I got this client by putting my name and an ad on CRAIGSLIST of all places for a speech-language-pathologist to advertise. It was my last resort after two people in church fell through. I prefer it this way anyway, but how FUNNY huh? I love craigslist!
So back to Christmas...
We spent Monday through Saturday (Christmas was on Friday) with the Barbers and had a wonderful time with Grammy and Papa and Hailey and Todd and our niece and nephew too.

Christmas Day: Really Fun!
- Took a good long time opening gifts.
- Santa gave Gracie her favorite gifts: a baby, stroller, highchair, and rocking bassinet matching set. (She won't go anywhere without her baby (de-di), and she loves pushing the stroller and running with it. She also yells GO adn VROOM).
- Ate Lenna's yummy breakfast casserole.
- I took Sofia and Gracie out to play in the snow.
- Luke came after he fixed our sled up with a rope.
- Gracie wore baggies in her brown Mary Jane shoes and a couple of blanket sleepers since we had no snow clothes.
- Gracie had fun but banged her nose on the sidewalk and got really cold.
- Grammy snuggled with her to get her warm when we got home and then we all napped.
- I made Cafe Rio Pork tacos/salad for dinner which I should I got in the crockpot sooner to be just right. It was still good.
- Watched family slides on a real slide projector from their growing up years.
- Went to bed happy and exhausted.
- Went to see New Moon. The guys were nice about that. Gracie did well but there is a funny story about the movies I will have to tell later.

Week after Christmas: Sunday through Friday (New Year's Eve Thursday) @ Chandler's
- Church and dinner and time just catching up.
- SNOWBOARDING all day Monday, mom/dad/Anjelica/Michael watched Gracie and even brought her up the mountain to see us. We had fun despite the really bad snow and visible rocks, roots everywhere. Luke and I both tore up our knee really bad, but that is the best I have ever snowboarded. Tino and Nancy and BJ came and we taught BJ to ski for the first time. We missed Gracie!
- Movie one night and Wii another night. I hated it and cried. I CAN'T play nintendo games!!
- Spent the night at Bill/Bri's new house and spent all day the next day playing in the snow and talking. It was fun.
- Made some really quick visits to see my highschool friends and did some errands with Kevin while Luke went to Burley with his dad to pick up their new van.
- New Year's Eve- Ate Papa Murphy's Pizza, played games (Balderdash was my favorite) with everyone--- except Lisa and Karl and their kids, until MIDNIGHT then we ran out side in the snow, not barefooted and kissed and danced and yelled, wahoo!
- Went back to Draper and spent the night. Helped Lenna take down her Christmas and left for home.
- 6 hours later, back in Vegas, went to Jenny Lytle's wedding reception and stayed late to clean up.
FUN TO BE AWAY AND WITH FAMILY BUT GLAD TO BE BACK HOME AND NOT IN A SUITCASE (although we did get the coolest new luggage bags from Rick/Lenna for Christmas, that was the only thing that helped when you have got your house packed in your car and staying at different places for two weeks. Thanks!)

The Goose is Getting Fat...

Christmas is coming and the goose is getting fat. So we are saying Merry Christmas to all,
and that is that!
We are also eating good... white chocolate popcorn, mmmm!
Enjoying Christmas updates on friends and family...
Tasting yummy gingerbread cookies brought by neighbors (no these are not the real cookies)
Welcoming friends and good company...
Loving our Christmas letters from Megan and the 3 other santas that matched from Lenna.
Hanging our wreath with care... (I made this wreath with my MIL a couple of years ago)
Kissing our Christmas fence post toppers everytime we go by (just Gracie that is) and enjoying our lights outside (thanks dad)...
And we have a fire place with garland, stockings, and a sleigh...
Our tree is the perfect size for us... for a while that is!But most of all...Thinking about how Christ is the Center of Christmas. I love the Savior Jesus Christ with all my heart. I am so grateful that he came to this earth to show by example how we should live, never getting angry, being selfish, or prideful, and then dieing out of true charity and love/compassion for us so that we may obtain forgiveness for our mistakes and return to live with our families in eternal happiness. aka happily ever after. Hope you feel the love of the Savior this Christmas and that you help someone else feel it too.
Love you, Merry Christmas!
Hollie

Puppy Love

It was too hard to choose out of all of these. What a sweet thing to watch. A couple of times I felt bad for the puppy because it was yelping, being squeezed to hard, and almost dropped once. Gracie wanted to squeeze the its little guts out. She loved it so much and wasn't too scared of it. It was fun that our neighbor brought mocha over to play. I still can't believe I let a dog in my house and that I actually played with her too. Puppies don't technically count as true dogs yet in my book. Hopefully it will be a long time before Gracie asks me for one. This was so cute though. It made me want to go get one right then just for Gracie. I am going to have to find the dejavu picture of my mom holding me as a baby and I was holding the only dog I have ever liked, Scotty. I even liked to wear scotty dogs which I think are so cute still, and my brother made me a scotty dog clock. Anyway. When I get the picture I will post it. It is going to be awesome to put that one nad the one of Gracie and me side by side.







Watch the cute videos. They are really short and well worth it. Gracie would give you kisses too if you asked!

My Projects that I have actually finished in the last couple of months...

Sorry I haven't been blogging. I haven't been on the computer for the longest time. I have been out of town and really busy with lots of little things. Sorry. Hopefully won't happen again. I am alive. Here's my projects newest to oldest:

Nativity Wall Hanging: Just finished sewing this the other day. I love it. My mom gave me the fabric like the first year I was married for Christmas and I haven't made it until now. I think maybe when I get time another year I might quilt it with glittery, sparkly metallic thread around each character and thing. Big project. Someday.
Clay Pot Nativity: I made the little baby Jesus in manger pots for each of my Beehive girls for our Christmas Activity. We did a parade of rooms and then tied it in to "Make Room" for the Savior in our lives and in our hearts. It was really fun to see a little bit of each girl and the girls had fun showing off their rooms to us. We have really good Young Women in our ward. Each of their rooms had something in it to show their commitment to God and Jesus Christ and that they have a testimony. They were so excited to get their little Baby Jesus and put it in their room. And they are so easy and cheap to make.

Stake YW in Excellence Display: I was the YW representative for our ward for the YW in Excellence Celebration of Virtue that we had in November. It provided for a really busy 2 weeks while I tried to round up everyone's things, make a plan for some cohesion in the display, and stay on top of everyone to finish reading the Book of Mormon in time to receive their Virtue Value medallion that the stake created just for this event. It was a really great night and what more deserving for so much work and dedication than the new value of Virtue. SO cool! I was so suprised by some of the girls who previously had been uninterested in finishing the BOM in time and then really kicked it in gear and finished. Some of them even had other family members do it. It was cool too because the men who finished the whole virtue value project including reading the BOM in time, received a gold tie. It was an awesome night and so amazing to see all of these girls in our stake committing to be virtuous when the world says it is not cool and so not fun. This display took me about two hours to put together and I think it was beautiful. One of the best there. Our girls really helped by contributing their projects. We used gold balls, gold ribbon, large white Christmas light bulbs, our gold service chain, camp flag, gold curly sprigs, and gold framed pictures of of each girl with their name on it. Each girl's BOM and journal were also displayed by their picture. It was really neat.
Little Beehive Treat Jars: inspired by Make it and Love it Blog. I made these to go in our Beehive welcome kit for girls who turned 12 recently and filled them with M&Ms. A bee modge podged on top and ribbon glued around the outside of the lid. Sorry the pic is poor. Oh and a monogram sticker for their name on the front. Cute for Christmas treats for neighbors. Just use Christmas paper and ribbon.
Stuffed pumpkins: I copied this from J'lene's blog. She had one picture and I thought for sure I could make these up quick so I did. I got carried away and made a couple of sets of 3 each for my friends. Large, medium, and small. Anyhow, all it took was fabric in a circle, batting, rubber bands, green stem fabric and some sort of ribbon or raffia. And a little bit of hand sewing the stitch it closed. So easy. After making these I used the same technique to make a set of 3 Christmas Trees for my mom. I forgot to take a picture, but I am so proud of myself cause I made it up from this technique and a picture I saw on a Joann's coupon. Just make small stuffed circles of reducing size and stack them on top of each other. String it together tight with a thread and attach a small stuffed star on top. They were really cute. I will see if I can get a picture when I go home for Christmas.
Hair clip/bow holder for Gracie's room: Sick of not having a place to put all of Gracie's clippies and bows so I made this with some leftover pink paint from her shelf, some green fabric and batting and ribbon, and a frame from a garage sale for 1.00. I think it turned out way cute. Oh and I used some rub-on word transfers that my mother-in-law gave me. They are words like memories, wish, celebrate, fun, surpise, baby, princess, first, forever, smile, giggle, etc. in all different fonts. And I guess you can say her hair clips and headbands not pictured are always an ongoing project. Gracie, however still gets called a boy much to my dismay and despite all of my girly antics. I don't get it. People assume if there is short hair then it is automatically a boy. The last time she got called a boy, I went and made a sympathy purchase of a set of 3 girly butterfly earrings for Gracie. That way people have to know, boys don't wear butterflies as if wearing earrings isn't enough. And I just finished making a cute pearl necklace for Gracie as well. (She didn't get called a boy when I let her wear my necklace one time hence the necklace!) Regardless she always gets called cute. :) Back on track, this bow holder is super easy and took less than 1 hour.My hair: This has been a project on my mind a lot. I don't know what to do. I have tried going brown for a while and I really like it, but everyday I want to go back to blonde. But then I like it again. My natural hair color has gotten darker as I have grown older but it really is one of those colors with fine hair that just is blah-looking and just like a really dirty dark blonde brown. It is just a lot of work to keep on highlighting and lots of money. But pretty soon that is probably what I am going to do. My goal is to just get to a point to where I can just do my own highlights. I just bought a box with a magic highlighting wand in it. Sometime I will give it a try. Also trying to find a new hair cut. Bangs, no bangs, up to my chin or keep it long. Never ending project. This picture is with it diffused. Lucky I can go curly to change it up.
Re-covered my old trunk: It was all yellow and knicked-up with old kitties on each side of it. I love my trunk. I have always had it by the side of my bed growing up but I have always loved the kitties. So when I came across the wonders of modge podge I decided to try it out with some cute scrapbook paper. Walah! The only thing I wish I would have done is paint all the gold trim white first, then it would have really popped and looked new. Oh well. It is the perfect toy box for Gracie.
Window Treatments: Palmet Boxes inspired by the Little Green Notebook Blog, made to help me like my all-in-one combined room of kitchen, office, living room, and dining room that Gracie and I live in. It definitely makes it more homey and ours... really easy made with foam board, batting, glue, fabric, bias tape, and duct tape.