Christmas Eve

The morning/afternoon of Christmas eve Bo had to work so it wasn't amazingly fun. I feel thats how Christmas Eve always is. Will and I frosted cookies for santa, made truffles and cleaned because we made a big mess. Will loved using his toy hammer to break apart the Oreos for the truffles. Around noon Will informed me that he was going to make me breakfast he threw a pig into a bowl of popcorn seeds and stirred it to perfection for about 30 minutes it was the most delicious breakfast I have ever had.

Once Bo got off work we drove up to Portland to spend Christmas with his Mom and sister. One of Bo's co-workers left her bag down in Salem so we decided to drive it to Southeast Portland for her. It turned into a fun detour because it was near the area that Bo grew up so we drove past his old home, his Dad's old neighborhood and stopped by the Zellers on the way to Gresham. William had fun with the girls and it was nice to see Margaret and Alex (not pictured) who were home from college.

(left-right Rachel, Martha, Margaret and Will)

Will loves being tortured by cute girls

We then headed to Gresham to spend the remainder of Christmas Eve with Bo's Mom and sister Carly. Carly made really good lentil soup which Will of course refused to eat we also tried to feed him Mac and Cheese but Cheryl had bought him Toy story shaped ones and apparently that makes it uneatable for certain picky 3 year olds so Will had a banana and a roll for dinner. We then went to tangled at the theatre We were all worried it would be packed because what else do you do on Christmas eve but it wasn't. This was our 2nd attempt at taking Will to the movie he really like it at first but then decided that it was more fun to play with the chairs. 3/4s of the way through it he actually turned to me and said "okay lets go home" I guess I shouldn't have expected anything different since he rarely sits through a full movie at home.

After the movie we went back to Cheryl's, set cookies out for Santa read Christmas stories to Will and spent 2 hours trying to get the overly excited child to go to bed. I finally took him up to the bedroom and told him he would be put in timeout if he got off the bed and he was asleep within 10 minutes.

This is Grandpa Nyleen

Bo's family is a lot different than my family. In Grandpa Nyleen's defense this was the coffee cup given to him at his daughter's house. At first he didn't notice what it said and was happily sipping his coffee trying to figure out why every one was laughing. When he read it he just said "Oh geez" soon after this picture was taken I noticed that he was using a different cup.

School

Isn't he the dreamiest studmuffin you've ever met?!;)

I am very proud to announce that Bo got straight A's this semester in school! College has never been the easiest for Bo he is more of a "real world" kind of thinker so he has never had a problem finding good jobs to provide for us, but school has always been a very discouraging process for him. To make it worse he always seems to get the most unsympathetic teachers and I'm not pointing my fingers at any one school since this is the 4th school he has transferred to! This semester has been hard, but I am very proud that he didn't lose steam. He took 8 credits and probably averaged 50 hour work weeks so his days off were cram packed with studying, studying, and more studying. The last week of school he was pretty much worn out and struggled really hard to finish the last little bit, but he did so thats all that matters. It was so funny because with the grades he had before the finals I knew that he would definitely pass and in his economics class he would've had to of taken a zero on the final to not get an A, but he flipped out when he found out he was getting an A in the class he kept on texting and calling me he actually was a little mad that I wasn't surprised at his grade. The best part about it is Will and I have a very happy non-stressed Daddy and Husband for the Holidays. He was so happy that he let me buy more presents for Will (which is pretty surprising since he thinks I spoil him). Anyways the only problem we've had with his new school is their academic advising. They are really hard to get a hold of and when we do reach them they are far from helpful they pretty much told Bo to figure out next semester on his own because they are too busy. Since Bo has a hard time figuring out which classes he has to take and which ones he has already done since it gets confusing when you have three other colleges that you have taken classes from. The job of figuring out the classes landed on me. I spent at least three hours figuring everything out/ helping him register. I think I am going to send them the bill for my time since it probably takes them less than an hour because it is logged all onto their computer. They should at least have a better website where you can figure everything out electronically! Anyways we finally figured out his class schedule Bo has had a huge confidence boost since his grades were so good so he is taking 12 credits this next semester! I'm a little worried that he might run out of steam quicker with more credits, but three of the classes are subjects that Bo does really well in (computer applications stuff like that) so he really is only going to have to work for his math grade. When he graduates I'm thinking they should honor me like they did on that Uncle Ben movie, you know the one made by BYU students in the 70s where the alcoholic Uncle stops drinking to take care of his orphaned niece and nephews and is honored at his niece's graduation with a standing ovation? Please tell me someone knows what I'm talking about! Thats how I fantasize Bo's graduation going!

Will's Christmas projects

We are still going along with the activity advent calendar I made for Will it has been really fun doing activities I remember doing as a kid as well as some I've always wanted to do and now have reason to do them. We did miss two days of activities this last week because I had migraines, but Will didn't seem to mind vegging out and watching Christmas movies those days.

One of the Activities planned was the ward party it was a nice party I only got one picture of Will as he was running around though. Santa and Mrs. Claus came right around Will's bedtime so he had no desire to sit on a strange man's lap or stand in line to get a bag of candy so we left early. Will was asleep within 5 minutes when we got home.

I've always wanted to make shrinky dinks so I decided to try them with Will. I found a tutorial on unplugyourkids.com using recycled plastic and Sharpies. It was a really fun project, but I was more excited than Will. They shrunk perfectly, but I wrinkled the tin foil while trying to get it in the oven and so they really bent. I'm planning on doing this one again once I find more #6 recycled plastic.

There are tons of tutorials on how to make sun catchers out of crayon online and I wished I would've used on for our project. I just kinda figured it out on my own and ended up using too much crayon so they aren't really sun catchers they are just ornaments. Oh well Will had a lot of fun grating the crayons.

The cotton ball santa is a project I did probably three years in a row at school. I found the Santa to use on dltk-kids I love that site! I was surprised how well Will did with this one. I showed him how to do one and he did all the other cotton balls with no direction. It was fun for him to do a project other than coloring all by himself. When Bo got home from work he ran up to him with his project so proud it was really cute. FYI it is easier to pour the glue out on a paper plate and dip the cotton balls into it than trying to squeeze the glue onto the cotton.

PS Will does get dressed every day, but he plays in water constantly and gets his clothing wet then takes them off and refuses to put new clothing on.

Christmas Crafting

I have been busy making crafts, some of the pictures didn't turn out too well and I'm too lazy to retake them so sorry if they aren't the best quality.

I made this bean bag frog using the pattern found at Lil Blue Boo (click the link and it will take you directly to the pattern!) it was super easy to make (took me less than an hour) and I'm hoping Will will enjoy it as much as his square bean bags I made him last year. I won't figure that out until Christmas since its a stocking stuffer but if he doesn't like it I'm not too worried since it was made with scrap fabric and split peas that have been in my pantry for at least a year so I'm not out any money.

These gloves I'm pretty proud of since I came up with the pattern myself. I've seen little kids with character gloves all over the place so it was easy to picture what I wanted. I'm happy with the way they turned out, it got a little frustrating because I made three pairs of gloves before I got the thumb right but each pair only took about 30 minutes to make so it was a pretty easy thing to do. They are going in Will's stocking too and were made with left over fleece from his Halloween costume so it was a free project since my mom actually purchased the fleece for me. Thanks Mom!
I was looking through free patterns for purses online and found this one from Parasolco.com. (click the link and it will take you directly there!) I fell in love with it! I love the polka dots in the pattern picture, but I already had the floral fabric that I got for $1.50 from the Wal-mart clearance section. I will definitely be using this pattern again and again. I have only made one other purse using a pattern before and this pattern was way easier than the other purse pattern I have. This project probably took me 3 hours to make, but I seriously enjoyed every minute of it. Bo made fun of me because as I was nearing completion of this bag I kept on saying "Isn't this so cute!" or "I can't believe this is turning out!" what can I say I'm super proud of this bag. Bo can't complain since it only cost $1.50!!
So these pictures really didn't turn out too well sorry! Maybe if I get more motivation I will repost these pictures. I really wanted a full nativity this year, but a nice one was not in the budget this year so I at first thought about making a plush nativity for Will that could sit underneath the Christmas tree, but that seemed like a lot of work so instead I went with felt and magnets so it could be played with on the fridge or on the white board for more portable play. I tried looking for a pattern for these, but couldn't find what I was looking for so I made up my own pattern and went to work. I have plenty to improve on this project, but I'm happy enough with it and think it will be a great addition for Will when we read the Christmas story on Christmas Eve. It is more cute in person than in these pictures just to let you know.

Will is growing up today he told me that the underwear I gave him to put on were "lame" then later on he told me I wasn't his best friend anymore, Elmo was. I'm tempted to tell him "why don't you ask your best friend Elmo to do it" when he asks me for more milk or to help him get on the potty we'll see how long their friendship lasts!

Christmas Time!

I'm excited about Christmas this year. I organized myself a little bit more this year, last year I was only worried about making sure I got the right presents for everybody and I felt like we missed out on all the fun Christmas activities. So this year I made an advent activity Calendar so that I make sure that not only we have fun but we help Will learn the true meaning of Christmas. Some of the activities we have done so far are making glitter pictures. (sorry for the near nakedness he is wearing underwear you just can't see it) This was a hit with Will because he likes "being shiny" as he puts it.

We visited the Christmas fair at our stake center where they had a live Nativity with a real live Camel it was pretty cool the adults were more excited about the Camel than the kids. This is a community activity so in the chapel they had choirs from all over salem performing songs and in the gym they had a huge display of different Nativities it totally gave me Nativity envy since all I have is a small one with just Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus.
They also had a activity for the kids called a journey to Bethlehem where they could dress up, play in Mary's Kitchen (a tent full of rice), make ornaments, listen to the Christmas story, play with child proof nativity scenes, and work in Joseph's workshop. Will had so much fun and we were all impressed with the creativity.

We decorated the house and Christmas tree. When I pulled the Christmas Boxes out I was amazed that Will got excited about the stuff he even grabbed the snowman door hanger and yelled out "my snowman!" apparently he remembers a little of last year.

The first thing we did is actually a tradition that we have done every year which is go through our clothing and toys to give some away to people less fortunate. Last year Will willingly handed over books and toys, but this year at first he was a little upset to give away some of his stuff. Its kind of funny because the stuff we gave is stuff that I have rarely seen Will play with so if I would have gone through the stuff myself Will probably would have never noticed, but we feel that Will needs to learn how to give on his own in the end he willingly said goodbye to his old toys.


Thats what We've been up to so far hope everyone is having a great Christmas season!