What we (my siblings) gave my parents

My sister-in-law Kim convinced me that it just wouldn't be Christmas if I didn't sew someone something (a quilt in particular) so we decided to make a self-portrait quilt for my parents.

I purchased some fabric that you can print on with your ink jet printer and then every one sent me their self portraits. It was so fun to get everyones pictures back. The kids did such a great job & the parents did too!

Here it is finished. Now when mom is feeling lonely she can wrap her self up in her kids & grandkids!

I'll let you check out some of the portraits.

Elicia drew this one of Grandpa.

Cord of course added a bow tie.

It was a fun project! I owe a special thanks to Kim for all the support and for finding a quilter to quilt it!

A handmade gift

Alli & Lily needed a little something to give team mates and friends for Christmas. I didn't want to spend a lot of money -- after all there are 11 other girls on Alli's team. So this is what we did.

We made these cute hair elastics.

I went to the fabric store and bought buttons to cover in the notions department (we got the largest ones) and then the girls picked out the fabric they wanted to use & we made the buttons.

At first I tried to cut the loop end of the button to attach the elastic but that didn't work. So we used smaller elastics and looped them through and that worked great.

I think they just look so cute!

Christmas Eve & Christmas Day

CHRISTMAS EVE

On Christmas eve we headed up to Symonie & Matt's house about noon for the festivities. We had the traditional Udall meal of soup & bread -- we had white chili, potato cheese and Thai butternut squash soup. Yum!

Aki, Matt, Cord (who needs to cut back to a pack a day) and Sym chatting it up in the kitchen.

The kids table

The little kids table

Lindy & Inoke (Aki's brother)

Sym & I in red -- our favorite color

The kids decorated cookies after lunch

Thanks Lindy for the pictures!

I am not quite sure what Makai is decorating here...

Ever since Matt had the great pleasure of joining the Udall family -- it is a pleasure right? We have had a white elephant exchange on Christmas Eve (a Harris family tradition). It is always a riot. Here is Aki with his "gift" a beard. The hilarious thing is that is almost looks natural!

I scored this robe that Matt claims he purchased but I think it magically found it's way into his suitcase on a trip.

Our dog Penny is an "outside" dog but on Christmas eve she got to come in. I think the kids were more excited than she was. All the kids (but Alli) slept in Cole's room so they could wake up as early as humanly possible together.

I hadn't wrapped one present so Cord & I didn't make it to bed until after 2am (ugh!) And the kids came in at 6:30am.

CHRISTMAS MORNING

Alli finally (her words not mine!) got a cell phone

Cole's fondest wish came true -- an X-Box 360

We had such a relaxing Christmas. We all hung out in our pajamas, ate food & played Rock Band all day. I love this time of year and love my family. I hope that your Christmas or Hanukkah celebrations have been wonderful too!

Catching up...just a little

Things have been so busy the last few weeks that blogging has just fallen to the bottom of the list. I thought I'd share a few of the things we have been up to -- but not all -- I wouldn't want to put you to sleep.

But first let me just bug Cord a little more by posting a picture of the MVP watch he received from work -- he is just so happy that I posted about it at all. He just loves it when random people come up to him at church an congratulate him (thanks Anya!!) But it is a nice watch don't you think?

Britney, Rebecca, Robyn, me, Shauna, Brenda

The "girls" and I snuck away from all the hustle and bustle to celebrate the birth of Britney & Rebecca. They are two of my very favorite people. Along with the other women here. We had a great time eating and shopping.


For our RS Christmas dinner we had an "angel" theme. The tables were decorated with white tulle and white lights down the center and angles were placed along the tables as well. These pictures don't do it justice. The room was beautiful. Here's my friend Heidi P. filling cups with ice.

I loved that the dinner was catered and no one had to bring a thing. We played a fun version of Bingo. Each woman in attendance wrote her name on a piece of paper as she arrived (and put it in a box) then they received a blank bingo card. Each woman then had other women sign their names on the bingo card to fill up the 16 squares. Later during dinner we passed the box of names around and everyone pulled a name out of the box and wrote a reason why that sister is an angle. Then when we played bingo -- if your name was called out you had to stand and a nice thing was said about you. People said such nice and sweet things about each other!

We also watched Elder Jeffery Holland's talk he gave last conference "The Ministry of Angels"
(Saturday afternoon session) and watched a video of pictures of the women in our ward. It was a great night.

We have had a great time watching Alli play basketball. My camera isn't the best for action shots but here she is # 24 in white. I really am proud of her! Now I just need to get a shot of her making a basket -- I keeping missing!


Cord's brother Brig who has been in Iraq since spring is on leave for 18 days. We have had such a great time visiting with him and watching him with his super cute wife & son. We even got to have Max overnight so Brig & Shayla could have some time. I have to say that if all my kids were as good as Max we might have had 10 -- well maybe not -- but he was great. Aren't they such a cute family!?

I still am sick -- I'm not sure I will ever get rid of this sinus congestion -- what a joy. But I do need to ask why they make medicine so difficult to open! Supposedly you just need to tear off the backing and then pop out the pills. It never works!

Finally, I drank far too much Diet Coke in December & found Barry sneaking a little too.

I know I said I wouldn't put you to sleep but I am sure some of you are snoring. I will post more holiday happenings tomorrow. We did have a merry Christmas an hope your holidays have been wonderful too!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Making a list & checking it twice

'Tis the season to be jolly...right? I have been super busy making gifts, buying gifts and wrapping gifts. I have also been to 3 holiday parties this week! But I can't complain too much -- who doesn't love a party?

Tonight was Cord's work party -- it was a casino night where we played to win raffle tickets. At the end of the end of the party there was a drawing for prizes. Cord won a gift certificate to Paradise Bakery -- yum! I won some nuts -- how appropriate I know.

After the dinner the owner announced who was the "MVP" of the company this year. Yep, you guessed it -- it wasn't Cord. No it was. He got a round of applause (and a few whoops from me) and a very nice watch. I'll have to post pictures later.

Like I said I haven't upload pictures but I do have one from my RS presidency party. Gloria made us (and our spouses) the most amazing 5 course dinner!

Gloria, Vicki, me & Michelle

I love working with these women! They inspire me in so many ways.

I hope your holiday preparations are going smoothly. If they aren't this might cheer you up. Design Mom is having a 12 days of Christmas give away on her blog starting tomorrow. Check it out here. There are sure to be wonderful things -- so enter!

And you thought I was done...

These are a few pictures my sister-in-law Jen took of our favorite family ice cream shop. Since I was a very wee pup my grandparents used to take my brothers, cousins & me to Fenton's in Oakland. Now there is one in Vacaville so we head over there when ever we are in town.

Doesn't it all look good!
Heather N.-- next time we are home we'll have to meet you and Kevin there!

Let the travel log continue!

Here are the final pictures from our trip. We'll start with Thanksgiving...

While the turkey was cooking the kids went to the park. Here they are in Grandpa's truck


Here Joe is showing off the table he and Alli set. The paper chain behind him is a "gratitude chain" we made for FHE. Everyone wrote things we were thankful for on strips of paper and then we glued then together into a chain -- I think we had 100+ things ranging from hot rods to family.


Here is the table all set with the delicious dinner -- oh it was soooo good!


Mom & I put sage leaves under the skin of the turkey before we cooked it -- my dad said it looked like it had some kind of growth under the skin. Men.


A sampling of the desserts -- unlike you Chantel we didn't make 9 pies (we played instead!)


Lily & Rachel had a "girls table" all to themselves -- who needs those boys?

Here are the rest of the rug rats getting ready to chow down. As a nice Thanksgiving touch Will and Barry were in Power Ranger mode.

Kim, Alli & Jen. Alli likes to hang out with the "big girls"

Thom, Chris and Dan are so patient when they are hungry.

On Friday night all the adults went out to eat and good ol' Al stayed home and kept an eye on all the kids.

In case you are wondering what your kids are doing while you are away from home -- here is a sampling of what our kids were doing.






Whew -- did you make it to the end? This is the best picture off all.

Thanks mom for having us -- we had such a great time. We love your guts!