Let the Gifting Begin

Now that my work party has hit I can share what I made for the girls. Not that they look at this blog or anything, I just wanted to make sure no one knew what I was making.

Found the fantastic idea for a picture holder over at Shanty 2 Chic. Seriously, those girls are brilliant with some of the things they come up with. Total cost was around $8 maybe and I made 4. Found the 2x8 in the leftover wood bin for $2 and I think I had a good 4 feet of it. So I had five 9" pieces cut. The finials were in a 2-pack for $1.99 each. The girls loved them. I suggested they could use them in their kitchen to hold recipe cards, a picture or whatever you want to clip up.

Jolly Old Saint Nicholas

Luke has become very aware of Christmas this year. When he saw Santa at the ward party he was so excited. Quite a huge difference from last year. (see photo) I had to literally run after him and carry off the stage before he bulldozed some other kid of Santa's lap. As we were walking to the end of the line he yelled, "Santa! I'm Luke!" I'm guessing he's been a bit over exposed by the many holiday movies my husband, Chris, has been watching. When our turn came Luke went right up to Santa and sat on his lap. I was really shocked he even talked to him. He asked for a train for Christmas. On our way home he talked so much about seeing Santa. It was really cute.

For My Husband the Gamer

Mama’s Holiday Wish List Meme

TodaysMama (link to: http://bit.ly/tmwishlist) and GameStop (link to: http://bit.ly/gamestop10) are giving away a sleighful of gifts this holiday season and to enter I’m sharing this meme with you.

1. What is your holiday wish for your family? For everyone to be happy and healthy.

2. What is your Christmas morning / Hanukkah Nightly tradition? The past two years, which we will now continue forevermore, I've made a delicious Ham Puff breakfast and drank hot chocolate. It would be nice if it also snowed Christmas morning, but that's up to "Old Man Winter".

3. If you could ask Santa for one, completely decadent wish for yourself, what would it be? A nice long uninterrupted nap.

4. How do you make the holidays special without spending any money? Spend time with family and friends watching Christmas movies (we have quite a large selection), singing carols, and even driving around neighborhoods looking at Christmas lights at night.

5. What games did you play with your family growing up? We loved playing Pictionary and laughing at each others drawings. After awhile everyone discovered that my twin sister and I couldn't be on the same team since we seemed to read each others minds.

6. What holiday tradition have you carried on from your own childhood? We always got new pajamas on Christmas eve and before bed we'd read the nativity story. Christ is the reason for the season.

7. Where would you go for a Christmas/Hanukkah-away-from-home trip? America's winter playground - Vermont!

8. Check out GameStop (link to: http://bit.ly/gamestop10) and tell us, what are the three top items on your GameStop Wish List this year? 1. The hubs wants to up his skills with Rock Band 3 and the killer drum-set. 2. A Wii Fit has been on the wishlist the last two years. 3. I don't think anyone would complain if we had a DSi.

A First

I took Luke to his first theater movie over Thanksgiving weekend. My sister-in-law was taking her kids to see Tangled so we went along too. Because I am sheltered with no regular cable I had no idea what this movie was about except it was the story of Rapunzel. Luke had free admission, but I was nervous having to pay for a show I might not see. I know Luke can sit through a whole animated film (I've lost count at how many times he's watched Cars), but in the dark, with other kids I wasn't certain he'd sit still for that long. Oh happy day - Luke sat and watched the whole show! What a relief that was. There was 5 minutes of restlessness near the end, but he settled back down on my lap. I thought Tangled was great and I know the boy did too because I heard him laugh a bunch. Plus he loved having popcorn and sharing mom's soda. No more "taking a young child to the movies" fear for this family.

Passing

Almost 2 weeks ago, Chris's grandpa passed away. We made two sudden trips to Umatilla, Oregon to be with grandma and the family in a weeks time. Down for the weekend and then back home. Down again for the funeral 2 days later and then back home. I am so glad Luke is a good traveler. He had a slight cold when we first left, but by the time everything we got home the last time it had gone to a full-blown ear infection. Poor little lamb.

Unfortunately, I did not know this grandpa very well. Chris grew up with him, but wasn't as close when he was older (why we didn't see him much). When we went to grandpa's house in La Grande I saw pictures of all the other great-grandkids, but Luke was not among them. I guess that's my fault not sending any and I feel really bad about it. Reflecting on this I'm going to make a better attempt at making sure all family near and far is updated on this Walchli family. More picture taking and delivering is going to take place so I don't miss anyone. My immediate family members live close to us, but growing up I did not see my grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins, but only once a year. Now that I don't travel with my parents to visit these people yearly like I did when I was young, I am now realizing it is my responsibility to keep in touch and not rely on my parents to do it. So, with my new understanding, I'll need to get on the ball. First up: Christmas cards! One thing I did not get done last year.

Projects galore

I know it's not yet October, but let's fast forward to the next major holiday...Halloween. I saw this kit for making countdown calendars on howdoesshe.com. I actually had all the supplies on hand except the halloween paper so I asked my sister, Christina, if she wanted to make them ourselves. We cut the 4x4's at her place (my bro, her roommie, has major power tools) and spraypainted them black. I thought they turned out pretty good. Instead of vinyl we used blackcard stock instead which worked just as good.

Next up. I just had a friend get married and I wanted to do something different. I found this fun temple idea here, unfortunately, they didn't have the Seattle Temple. I remembered Christina took some pictures of the temple a while back so I got a copy of one and played around with it until it looked aged and also personalized. I printed it out at work on the colored laser printer (shh..don't tell), mated and framed it. Sorry I didn't take any good pictures of the finished project. I do hope they like it. I need to make one for myself now.

My younger brother recently became a dad. They named him Hunter James Miller-Hall. He's such a cute little thing. Born 17 days early weighing in at 5lbs 8oz.

In the spirit of a friend I know and new babies I made a set of blocks for the mom and bouncing baby boy. Forgive the picture quality...I used my cellphone to take the picture.


That's it for now. I am working on a couple more things, but they require sewing and my machine decided to spaz out on me. Ugh... I haven't wanted to sit down with it again as I wasted a whole evening earlier this week and I needed to get to my other things. Stay tuned for more craftiness.

Yahoo! Summer Vacation

Oh, how I love vacations. Getting away from everyday life is always worth the travel and the money spent getting there. Our summer destination this year was St. George, Utah. It was crazy hot, but it was so much fun. We drove down and with a toddler, all road trips require the most entertaining toys, childrens music cds (non-parent-annoying kind), the right snacks and a portable DVD player. Only two minor meltdowns on the way down and that was it. Luke was a great little traveler.

Here are a few photos from our trip:

Family photo at the Logan Temple grounds - turned out pretty good I think.

Snow Canyon - St. George area


Took a trip up north to Bryce Canyon one day. If you haven't gone, it's pretty cool. My parents have this Golden Age Pass so all national parks are free. A perk of being a senior citizen.


Toured the church history sites in town. Here is a neat picture taken at the St. George Tabernacle by one of the senior missionaries.

Spent a day at Zions National Park. Here is a picture of the Court of the Patriarchs. Chris took a bunch of landscape pictures at the parks we visited.

To cut back on congestion and preserve nature the park has a free shuttle. Luke's favorite part of the day was riding the bus.

Hiking a trail at Zions. Luke was tired of walking so we took advantage of his cuteness while on my dad's shoulders.

The wildlife of Southern Utah. Lizards a fast little things and Luke loved chasing them.
Our batteries died a lot so there are other cute photos to come, but I've got to wait until my mom and dad get back from vacation because they are on their camera.