Christmas Ideas Continued (Ideas Welcome)

So I got quite a few good ideas that I will try.
Idea 1
I heard about a christmas Elf that you introduce the day after thanksgiving but for me I am going to start it on the first. It hides somewhere in the house in a specific room and watches all day lopng for good behavior. Then at night it fly's to the North pole and tells Santa Clause about all the good things the children are doing and the badstuff too. So santa gets an account of who is naughty or nice. Then in the morning the elf is hiding in a new room and the kids look for it and know they need to be really good in that specific room that day. I have a little teddy bear that has CTR on it (Choose the right) So It is the CTR bear that reports to santa.
Idea 2
When you read Christmas stories you have a "Christmas stories blanket" so everyone sits on the blanket to read the stories. The blanket (any blanket) is in a new room every day for story reading. So one night it can be in the kitchen and the bathroom then the living room. This is just to be fun for the kids.
Idea 3
So Christmas story books are really fun if the stories are good and child appropriate. I didn't have that so I went to the friend website off of the LDS.org website and went to magazines and past issues. I went to December months and printed up the stories in there so I could have shorter stories that touch the heart. I also stuck some of my favorite stories in there as well such as the Gift of the magi, Christmas orange, Christmas in the morning, why Christmas trees are not perfect and so on. It was fun to make the books and they make good Christmas gift ideas.
Idea 4
I made a manger tonight that we will fill with "warm fuzzies" (cotton balls) for all the good things we do till Christmas. On Christmas eve we will lay baby Jesus (a doll wraped in a tea cloth) in the manger and give to Jesus all the good things we do for eachother for Christmas. We hope that there will be a lot of good things done to make a really soft bed for Jesus. ;)

25 days till Christmas...IDEAS

Hey I would love to hear from any of you to see what are some ideas you have of things to do to lead up to Christmas. I love this time of year and I want to start getting in the mind set this week since next week it all starts. let me know. Thanks to all of you!!

Movie Recomendation

Date night movie~
So we went to the dollar theater for a date well over due and we went and saw "Love happens". We would totally recommend it to everyone. It is a great story and I wouldn't put it in the chick flick category. It was more like the perfect gift movie type that makes you cry through it and leaves you feeling all good inside at the end. (OK, so that sounds very chick flickish..but Joseph even said it wasn't a chick flick) It is more on a romantic scale but no love scenes and there was some swearing but not the really bad four letter words. So for a Romantic comedy for our day it was great and you should all go see it. :)

Ponderings

I think there is a lot I need to learn between now and when I am posted off yonder in the Air Force with my family. I have felt lately a sense of "Now is the time" to prepare spiritually, physically and emotionally for our ventures that lie ahead. I feel a sense to know Jesus Christ more than I have ever before. To study the scriptures, to say my prayers and open up a relationship between my Heavenly Father and I that will allow me to be strengthened on a daily basis and be an instrument in his hands. In my patriarticle blessing it says that I will teach many people from many lands. I feel like I need to be prepared in so many ways in order to fulfill this. I look forward in being more service oriented and make the most of everyday that I may draw closer to my Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.

Another clip clip here and a clip clip there

I cut my hair again :) I think I am enjoying styling it different ways while it is short. There is just so many ways to style itwhen it is short so I will continue to have some fun till I am ready to grow it out again.

 

Bridger's potty training progress

Bridger is pretty much potty trained now. He says's "Potty" all the time which means we are always going to the potty and having him go. But for the most part he goes. It is great and he is going through less diapers. I might even get him some underwhere for Christmas and try that out. We will do some more work before that but so far he loves going potty. The other day he cam running through the house from outside just yelling "potty! Potty!!" And ran stright to the bathroom with Joseph following behind. It was so cute. Way to Go Bridger and a Two thumbs up for feeling like such a big boy :)
After he has gone he goes around the house telling everyone and clapping for himself. it is pretty cute, A lot of work, but Cute~ I totally had no desire to even do this with Gideon. I guess I am in an experimental period in my life.

Count down to Thanksgiving

We decorated a jar and cut up the papers into strips and tied them with ribbon and then got to choose a few today to catch up with the days till thanksgiving countdown. The kids are enjoying it thus far. Fun Fun Fun!!!

Go to this Link to find this great idea for the kids and you for thanksgiving time :)
http://downloads.sugardoodle.net/Thanksgiving%20Thankful%20Countdown.pdf

Harvest weekend continued

So Gideon got up and sang twinkle twinkle little star in front of all his big family on the Jones side. This was his 1st performance in front of a large group of people. (besides the getting up on the step in front of the fireplace at G+G Jarvis' house) He did so good and it was so cute to hear him and see how confident he was. Way to Go Gideon and Keep up the great work with your singing. You really do have a great voice :)

Decisions. Decisions.

So I got the job with the studio and turned around and declined it. Yeah i am silly but last week I was all gun ho about it and then this weekend I have been thinking of the reality of it all and there is no way I can leave my kids for that long. Joseph and I had a long talk and it was good. I feel like I would be so much more willing to do something if it wasn't because "I had to" or "if my kids could be with me" like cleaning homes or my photography work I do on the computer out of my house. So there fore, I will continue forward as A MOM and being ME and just try to hold onto "Faith" that things will fall into place. We have been so blessed with good family members that have given us opportunities to work. We love them all so much. Love life, love living life and helping those around me live too!

So I am officially moved in and organised. It feels good to have a clean space and everything in it's place. My mom is such a good sport and it has been nice so far spending time with her and my Sister Rachel. I believe it has been a really good experience so far. All of our things (except for our clothes adn necessities) are up at Dan and Lisa's still and we plan on going up there and take care of things there and make sure it is all cleaned and nice. So all of you Donnelly friends we plan to be up in the area at least once a month if not more. Thanks for all of your love and support too. Well that is our update. Good times ahead :)

Halloween

This was a potty pass we made for all the kids here at my parents house. They had fun decorating them. It is used for more of an incentive to go to the bathroom ;)

 

We made Halloween sugar cookies and decorated them. The kids had a lot of fun doing this. Good times at the Jarvis house.

 

 

This is our Bridger Bear for Halloween. He was so cute trick or treating. He would run down the sidewalks dragging his red bag of candy. Everyone just thought he was the cutest bear ever. We got around a crowd of adults and he was saying bye to them and blowing kisses. It was pretty cute but we should have that "stranger" talk sometime soon ;)

 

Gideon was our little Dragon. he had a lot of fun trick or treating for Halloween as well. It was our boys first time since last year they fell asleep in the truck before we could even get off our dirt road so that is why it didn't happen last year. Well it sure was fun and we all had a good time :)

 

 

 

Earlier in the day I went to 'kids again' in Meridian. They were having a $1 sale. So you get to stuff as much as you can into a sack for $1. It was awesome. I got Gideon a new winter coat and some outfits for both of the boys. It felt good to look at all of it and think I only paid $3 for all of it. It is always very fulfilling when you find good deals that help you out. Well Happy November to everyone!