Service

I told Shane a while ago, that since he's a mechanic, I don't think he'll ever run out of ways to serve. People call him about once a week for help or advice on something to do with their cars. Since I married him, I haven't had to spend even one second worrying about cars. He takes care of everything, and I forget how much of a blessing that is.

Shane has this week off from work. Since 1:00 this afternoon, he's been fixing the car of an older couple in our ward. It is now 8:30, and I still don't know when he'll be home. They invited him in for dinner, but other than that, he's been out working. AND, it's snowing today--So its cold. I stopped by with the kids to give him a goodnight kiss and drop off some hot chocolate. He's happy as a camper, and still in a good mood.

I need to try and be more like him. After 7 hours in a garage, I would be a super grump and would do nothing but mumble and complain.

He is a good example to me of kindness and service. I'm blessed to have him in my life, and my kids are lucky to have him as their father.

Merry Christmas!

After a crazy day of running around and getting things ready, we had a wonderful Christmas Eve with family. We met up with all the Folkmans at Grandma & Grandpa's house for dinner and fun. We kept with our tradition of rolls & soups for Christmas Eve. Mom makes the yummiest tomato bisque that has become a favorite of all of us. It was delicious, and there were lots of sweets to munch on. After eating, chatting, playing, and singing, we gathered around to open all the family gifts. First Grandpa Folkman read the Christmas story to us. It was the first Christmas in a while that ALL of us were there, and it sure was fun. We loved it. My favorite quote of the night, came from Emma. She got a rainbow ribbon to twirl in the air, and she said, "Now I don't have to wait for a real rainbow! I can make my own!!". She was in heaven running around with Zoey and laughing.

After the family fun, we went home to have our own little scripture reading, and nativity story. The kids opened their Christmas jammies and got ready for bed. (I had stayed up til 3:30 the night before finishing them). After bedtime, Grandpa & Grandma Reckling stopped by. We had gotten together to put our old TV, a little table from IKEA, an old VCR and some old VHS tapes for a little lady on Grandpa's bus run. She has very little and wanted a TV to watch some movies at home. So the Recklings stopped by after dropping it off for the night. She was very happy. We visited for a while, and then went to bed to wait for Santa to come.








On Christmas Day after having the traditional sticky buns, and opening presents at home, we spent most of the day at the Recklings, we played cards & ate delicious food. Uncle Mikey got a remote control car, and Emma and Henry had a blast playing with it. That, and the Nerf guns to boys got. We spent alot of time laughing and goofing off together.

Here are a few pictures from the festivities. It was indeed a very Merry Christmas.

One more...

Henry at church again. Mark is moving to Beijing in February...Shane is going to have to buy me a fancy camera, so we can continue taking such great shots of our kids. Mark has a knack for catching genuine sincere expressions from children--I love this one of Henry. :)

Lately...

I've been forgetting to bring my camera along with us on adventures, so here are a few recent shots of our life from my phone. Thank goodness for cameraphones, or else I wouldn't have pictures of anything. :)

Emma & Henry in the tub

Emma & Shane cutting down our Christmas tree. I love Emma's little hand on her Daddy's shoulder. :)

My boys, after a busy Sunday at church.

Reindeer fun...

Mr. Henry at Church

Mark caught a few cute shots of Henry & Lyla at church on Sunday. His eyes melt my heart...

Christmas FHE

I've been a slacker with pictures lately, but I have a feeling I'll make up for it over the next week or so.

Tonight, we had our official Christmas FHE. In Relief Society, we put together these cute FHE kits about the birth of the Savior, so tonight we sang "Away in a Manger", learned about the birth of Christ and listened to some cute stories. Shane and I then threw the kids in bed (Henry was being a huge pill), and we are finally sitting down to watch the First Presidency Christmas devotional we missed at the beginning of the month. So nice...

Now we're just killing time until 10:33, when the lunar eclipse begins... we're going to sneak outside while the kids are asleep and take a peek. Won't happen again for the whole continent until April 2014.

Merry Christmas. More posts to come. :)

Emma-ism

So last night, Emma got thirsty, so she went to the fridge to get a cup of milk. I asked her if she needed help. She said no, and off she went. After about 30 seconds, this is what I hear...

"Hey mom, can I borrow your favor for a second?"

So close...

An evening with Playdough...

I hate the mess, but love the fun.

At Grandma's house...

Henry has discovered the joys of the open road... He loves the long empty hallway at Grandma & Grandpa Folkman's house. :)

Building Forts

Emma has been into building forts lately. This is a fairly simple one. Throw a blanket over the playpen, and there you go. Henry loves it too. :)

Being Crafty

I've had a couple of fun craft nights with my friends lately. It's fun to sit up late at night, and laugh & talk the night away while getting some projects done. I'm grateful for good friends. :)

Merry Christmas!

Just finished our Christmas card for this year. Watch for yours in the mail in the next few weeks! I did it on www.shutterfly.com. They have the cutest templates. :)

last ones I promise...

If I don't post Mark's pictures here, I forget to put them in our end of the year photo-book. I love the close up of Henry. Happy, but a little shy. He loved watching all the boys run around in the snow. I can't wait to see him up and playing around in a few years. He'll be a force to reckon with. :)

And more football...

The Group Shot (Can you see Shane & Henry in the back row?)

As Mark uploads more and more, I'll post them here.
Shane got alot of action in this years game. It's fun to see him in all the pictures.

More Football

Shane's "Movember" beard is filling in nicely.
Can't wait for New Years and a clean-shaven husband. :)

Here are a few more photos thanks for our friend Mark again. Shane had so much fun playing this year in the snow. The adults even won this time! Shane was a happy camper the rest of the day. And...he thought he might have cracked a rib playing. He finally went to the doctor last night, and found out it was only a deep chest contusion. He's on medication now, and the doc says it will probably hurt him for a couple more weeks. I asked him if it was worth it and he said, "Oh yeah." :)

I'm glad you had fun sweetie.

Turkey Bowl 2010

More pictures to come.

Snow day...Again!

We woke up to a beautiful white blanket of snow today. Everything was shut down, and not even Shane had to go to work. So, we ate breakfast, bundled up and went out to explore. We walked over to downtown, and splurged on some yummy hot cocoa. (Shane tried pumpkin cocoa, and it was delicious!)

We went to play at the train park, and oh, was Emma in heaven. She loved that her favorite park was covered with snow. The slide was all iced over and she went down like a torpedo!

It was cold, but so beautiful. I'm hoping for a redo tomorrow. Our family time is so limited with our busy schedule, so I felt it was such a blessing to get this snow and some extra "together" time that was unexpected. Today I'm grateful for my sweet family and for snow days.