sledding

It's been a while since my last post! We have had several big snowstorms move through in February and as a result, a LOT of snow! After a while we stop counting in inches, and moved over to feet! We haven't built very may snow men, but did attempt a snow cave, which was pretty cool. We also have discovered the joy of sledding and have quite a few good hills in our area.

On this day, we went to PeetNeet Academy in the nearby town of Payson. They have great hills. As you can see from the pictures, the kids were a little scared at times! Unfortunately, Kate fell of her sled into a very large pool of water, so she wasn't too comfortable the rest of the time..lol..

Overall, the kids had a good time, and so did Dad :)

love craft

Saw this cute little craft on a blog online...thought I would share my
version that I tweaked a little.
Bought the kit at Crafters Corner in American Fork.
I began by sanding down the rough edges on the letters and board.
Then I choose my papers for the project, All Dressed Up stack by DCWV.



I painted my letters, and board black. Then using the letters as a guide, traced and cut out the letters from the patterned papers.



I then used rubber cement to attach the decorative papers to the front of the letters. I also used my Cricut and some vinyl to cut out the letters for the quote on the front. I used the cartridge "Base Camp" @ 1 inch.

Here is the finished product on my mantle :)

thanks for looking!

Valentine's Day cards

Valentine's Day is coming up fast, and I realized I don't have time to make them this year. I went on Smilebox, and found these cute templates. Just drag and drop your pictures, and you have super easy, personalized, valentines.
Cant wait to pick them up from Persnickety Prints. I'm sure they will look great!

Make your own free picture collage

Personalize a picture collage

Free digital collage generated with Smilebox

books books books

I love books. I love how a new book smells, the crack it makes as you open up the binding. Heaven.Sometimes I read for fun, or to just learn information on a topic i am interested in. This started me thinking how many books have I read in 2010. I wont say all of these were great reads, but I read them, nonetheless.

The Help
The Counterfeit Convert
Luck of the Draw
Charlie St Cloud
Perfect Shot
How to Stuff a Wild Zucchini
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society
Vampire Diaries- Stefan's Diary
When Crickets Cry
Freedom Factor
Mockingjay
Searching for Pemberley
Summer in Paris
The Dead girls Dance
Glass Houses
The Book Thief
The Count of Monte Cristo
The Girl Who Could Fly
American on Purpose

What's really funny is some of books I read were so boring, I can't even remember the titles! Oh well, 2011 is a new year :)

New Year

Don't know what's wrong with me. I just can't seem to get my year going. Of course I have goals, which are probably about the same as yours.

The tops:
lose weight
spend more time with my children

More specifically:
learn to love Utah
be more forgiving
get my cookbook published

The list could go on, and on. I'm seeming to have a problem with getting the simplest of tasks done. Maybe its just the winter blahs shining through.
It's about the only thing shining here in Utah..lol.
I'm ready for Spring and the warmer temps. Hurry up Spring!

Christmas Day

What a great Christmas we had this year! My parents flew from Oklahoma to spend the holidays with us. Right before they got here, we had a huge snowstorm, 22 inches. I don't think I have ever seen that much snow!
Anyhow, we had a full house with everyone staying here. Derek and I stayed in the playroom on a mattress, we really were bursting at the seams.

Santa came and left us lots of goodies! We must have been really good this year. The kids got numerous toys, and I got a really sweet hand-made wall calendar from Kate. It totally choked me up! It is something I will treasure always! After presents we had a nice Christmas dinner of Ham, turkey breast, scalloped potatoes, salad, green beans, and rolls. We also had cheesecake and strawberry pie for desert!

crazy snow!

view across the street


our backyard(taken from inside(it was cold!)

a view of our house

our snow covered street


It's been a while since I have posted. I started a new job and promptly lost it 2 months later, we attempted to get a dog(a long story in itself), and my parents came for a visit. In the meantime, we had a huge snowstorm, (BTW the forecaster said we might get 2-3 inches) Instead we got 22 inches. Believe it or not, I even went to work both days. Derek had to dig me out of the driveway, and drive me to work one morning-thanks goodness for him!
Here are some photos Lydia snapped for us.

it's been a while...

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. Since I have started working, I'm finding that I am falling behind in other areas of my life, mainly my house is suffering.
The good thing about that is, it will always be there regardless of how many times I try to keep it clean.lol.. Derek has been helping as much as he can, but he has picked up a 2nd job of Home Health on his week off. It has been a real blessing, as we have been able to pay off some bills :)

I cant believe it's Christmas already! This time last year, we were preparing
to move to Utah. I put up the outside lights before Thanksgiving this year, but did exercise a little restraint, and didn't light them up until the 26th! Wish, I could say the same for the inside tree. It just came out of the box Monday, got fluffed on Tuesday, and still sits barren in my living room. I teased Whitney online that when she gets back from college break, it will be here waiting for her.

Lydia is performing in America Leadership Academy's Spirit of Christmas extravaganza. They have been practicing for the last month, with dress rehearsals each night this week. Tonight is opening night. I cant wait to see her perform at the matinee on Saturday. I'm so proud of her. She is singing alto this year, a little out of her comfort zone. Orchestra has really helped too, since she had been playing the violin this past year, and is familiar with reading music. I snapped this photo before she headed out the door.




My Mom and Dad will be here on the 22nd for a visit. I cant wait:) We will have a houseful, but it will be fun. Hopefully we will be able to make it up to Temple Square on Christmas Eve like we did 2 years ago when we were visiting.

If I don't get another post in, I wanted to wish everyone a wonderful Christmas,
and tell you how blessed we are to have you as family and friends. Merry Christmas!

getting crafty- Part 2

All the Thueson girls got together yesterday, to make turkey decoration. Dara purchased these @ The Wood Connection with the intention of doing them for each sister and giving them as Christmas gifts. Instead, she decided to invite us all over, which was more fun anyways. We had lots of fun, as some people learned how to use a drill, and glitter objects. It was quite amusing.

getting crafty...again.

I'm really getting into these advent calendars this year. In one of my previous posts,(see October) I made a Halloween calendar for the kids. We had so much fun, I decided to make a Christmas one. I found this cute scrapbook paper @ Pebbles. It is called Christmas Countdown by Echo Park Paper Co., one of my new favorite scrapbook paper lines. A few months ago at the DCWV warehouse sale in Provo, I picked up these metal easels for 1$ and some embellishment squares for 4 for 1$. What a steal!
I wasn't sure what I would do with them, but I knew I would find something to do with them. Anyhow, I put some magnets on the back of the metal squares for easy removal. I also cut circles on my cricut, to mat the numbers to make them a bit bigger. For a twist-on the backside of the number, you could write a activity to do with your family, or maybe even a service you could provide. Enjoy!

Supplies Used:

Monday Metals Metal Easel by Lasting Impressions
Monday Metals Embellishment Squares by Lasting Impressions
Echo Park Merry Christmas line-Christmas Countdown.
Sticky-backed magnets
Cricut(used to cut the circles)