The "befores"

What a fun christmas this year! This year was Kanab's turn for Christmas. We had SO much fun. We always have a hard time trying to figure out something for my parents for Christmas. Well, my mom is a big crafter so we decided to re-do her whole craft room. It is a fairly small room so we thought it would be a fairly easy project. Boy were we wrong. We had lots of help so we were able to get it done pretty quickly. We kicked my mom and dad out of the house for 24 hours so we could get it done. We scraped the ceilings, re did the desk, painted the walls, took out the carpet, put in wood floors, did baseboards and windows, and built shelves in the closet. It was a lot of fun and a lot of hard work. I will post the "after" pic in my next post. For now, here are all the pics "before" Christmas:

Chad doing the ceiling

Casey and I painting

Lex and Kenna helping

Parker was SUCH a big help. He was our "go get" guy

A little peek at what the house looked like. Its a good thing the parentals were out of town. They would have had a heart attack seeing what condition the house was in while we were doing this project.

Kenna was the babysitter. She is rocking Mike right here. We couldn't have done it without her!

The desk drawers

The sanding

Gracie loved seeing the HUGE snowflakes in Kanab

Me and Eb

Making a snowman with Uncle Clayt

All of the kids at breakfast

This was the christmas eve dinner. It was with my dads side.

Gracie having "tea" with the other little gals

A cake walk

Me and Lexico

Santa came on christmas eve!!

Chase is the manager at the new verizon store in Kanab. He was reading a poem to proffess his love for the company.

Santa brought us all pajama pants and a white shirt. We spent the evening decorating our shirts

The kids left santa milk and cookes and a note

The boys racing eachother on their I-phones. And Chase on his Droid.

Goodbye 2009!!!

Last one of the year! I know we are far from the end of the year, but let's be honest, I'm headed to Kanab for the week and I KNOW I won't be posting again before the new year. This last week was lots of fun. I held the first annual "uglies" party at our house. The idea: everyone just wears their uglies christmas sweater. Two of the couples couldn't find any, but some of us did thank goodness!! Taylor and Austin won for the best sweaters. I was DYING when they walked in. Thanks for getting into it guys.....

In attendance: Chad and I, Jodalyn and Scott Buck, Spencer and Emily Clark, and Taylor and Austin Gardner

Tay's pants made the outfit.

What a cute couple.

Last night was our ward christmas party. These are most of my primary kids getting ready for their part in the Nativity.

Gracie was an angel and Mike was a cow.. soo cute.

Aaaaanndd this was our experience this year with Santa. Mike calls him sasa.

I just threw these on. Gotta love IKEA

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year Everyone!! I'll see you in 2010!!!!

Dance little Monkey DANCE!!!

Finally I get to post the pics of our chrismas tree. You'll notice I don't have any up of the finished product, it took us about three days to figure out a stand. Chad finally built one and it turned out SO pretty. I'll take more pictures and post them when I get a chance. The kid's loved helping this year and I think Grace is finally at the age where she "gets" christmas. She is so much fun. This weekend Gracie had a dance recital at the festival of trees at the South Town Expo Center. She did so good! I thought for sure she would get shy when she saw all of the people there, but she did so good. I couldn't have been more proud!!

Chad and the kids putting up the tree

I had a little sewing night with a few of my friends and it turned out to be SO fun! I Think we will make it a weekly thing! Taylor is helping me un-pick my pillow case at this point. I really messed it up :)

One of Gracies chores on her chart is to help do dishes. She does so good to load them in the dishwasher.

I don't know what it is with my son and accessories, but now he is sporting a santa hat that he refuses to take off.

This is Gracie's friend Saige. She is in our ward and we get to take her to dance with us every week. They have become pretty good friends.

Elivate your body...

Grandma Lydia kept Mikey entertained while Gracie danced. She always has lots of fun snacks.

She did so good!!

Eating a hot dog after a wonderful show

Gracie LOVES the grinch. She watches this show pretty much every day.

Taken tonight.... Sporting the hat....