Time Out for Women

My dear friend, Crystal Albrecht, invited me to go to Time Out for Women with her mom and Sisters at the Maverick Center in West Valley, Utah. Time Out for Women is a convention for women to attend of the LDS faith. It isn't put out by the church but they have several amazing speakers come and speak, as well as, several LDS singers, songwriters and musicians. The conference took place on a Friday night and Saturday day. It was such an uplifting weekend of inspiring messages and uplifting music. 

The theme for the weekend was entitled, Inevitable Light. Some of the speakers on Friday Night we got to hear from was Sheri Dew, Olympic Gold Medalist Noelle Pikus-Pace. For the music portion we got to listen to pianist Josh Wright and Sandra Turley.

On Saturday we heard from Several Speakers: Sister Elaine Dalton from the General Young Women's Presidency, Emily Watts, Kris Blecher, Wendy Ulrich, and Camille Fronk Olson. Mercy River provided the musical portion. 

I wish I had enough space to write about what each speaker spoke about but that would take up so much space. However, they all spoke about sharing our gifts with others, overcoming trials and trying to become the very best selves we can be. It was a much needed pick me up, because so many times I am so hard on myself when it comes to being a mother. I sometimes  feel like I don't measure up and can be so hard on myself. Going to this convention reminded me that I do have worth and no matter what my talent is I need to share them. We aren't all given the same talents so it is important that we share them with others!! 

I had so much fun spending time with one of my very best friends listening to some inspired messages and great music. I am so grateful I got to share the weekend with Crystal's mom and sisters.

Giving Thanks!

 Its become a tradition during the month of November to pull out our laminated Thankful tree and write our blessings on laminate leaves and stick them to the tree. This year, I decided to switch it up. I was at the "Wood Connection" with a friend looking for crafts to make one afternoon and found a wooden thankful tree to make. I thought it was so cute and knew that it would be a lot more durable than our plastic one was, so I purchased it and made one for our family. The kids loved it! Each Monday night during family home evening, the kids enjoy writing down their blessing on paper leaves and sticking them to the tree. It has been so fun to hear what the kids are thankful for. I love this tradition and the kids seem to as well.

This year for Thanksgiving, we were all set to head down to Hurricane to spend the holiday with my family. My sister Kamberee (we were going to stay at her home) called me on Tuesday

to tell me that Karev, my cute nephew, was sick with a high fever and cold! Boo! We would have gone down but we didn't want to catch any bugs before we head out this next week on our Cruise. We have had a Caribbean Cruise planned for months for our Christmas present to the kids. We didn't want anyone getting sick before our departure so we decided to stay home. 

It was nice to stay home and do our own thing. We ate yummy food, watch Christmas Movies, decorated the Christmas Trees. Even though the kids were a little bummed they couldn't see their Grandpa and Grandma DeMille and cousins, I still think they had fun being here at home. We even took them to go see a movie (Big Hero 6) and that seemed to make up for not going down.

I sure love my little family.- my sweet husband and darling kids. They are my biggest blessings and I am so grateful to a loving Heavenly Father who has given me so much in my life. There is always something to be grateful for and I truly have been given so much!

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner!!

The kids arrived home from school one afternoon this week, with some exciting news to tell me. They were both beaming!! Kaleb and Karmindy both shouted, "Mom, we won!" Karmindy proudly held up her puffy heart shaped pen and Kaleb held up his brand new scooter! The kids have a reading program at school and depending on how many minutes of reading they do each week they get to put their name into a drawing to win prizes at the end of each quarter! They both had won prizes and were so excited! I don't blame them because we really never win anything as a family!  I was so proud of them both. I was also so very proud of Karmindy who even though her prize was a lot smaller was equally excited that her big brother won one of the big prizes. I sure do love my kids and all the hard work they put into their studies at school. They are both such hard workers and are doing really well this year in their classes. Mark and I work with them at home and that makes a huge difference but I also know that their love for learning stems from having great teachers! Great job Kids!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

 

Since we were planning on going to Hurricane for Thanksgiving this year we decided to decorate our trees a bit early this year. We figured that we better do it sooner than later because we were going to be gone from December 6th to the 14th on a Family Vacation to the Caribbean. I wanted to have all our decor out before we left so I wasn't stressed after we got back in  putting things out. I also think its nice to celebrate the Christmas season for as long as you can! This year I finally got to have my very own tree to decorate the way I wanted and I think it turned out splendid. I love seeing the tree I decorated in our formal living room and I don't have to worry about the kids rearranging the ornaments. 

This year was also the first year that the kids got to decorate their very own tree. Last year, I got them an ornament for each year since their birth and told them that they could decorate their tree with them. We have decided to get them a new ornament each year. The ornaments we got the kids this year were a snowy white owl with glasses for Kaleb since he likes Harry Potter and got glasses and Karmindy a pretty pink cupcake since she loves to help bake in the kitchen. The kids were thrilled with their new ornaments and loved decorating their tree the way they wanted. I also love the kids tree because we can put up all their cute ornaments they have made over the past few years at school! We can't wait til Christmas to get here!

Paint Nite With Friends

I had the opportunity to get together with some of my girlfriends in my neighborhood and ward, Tara Names and Nicole Rowe and we went to a Paint Class together, called Paint Nite. Paint Nite is held in local bars around the Salt Lake City Valley. I was a little nervous about taking a painting class in a bar but it was actually held in a back room with in the bar. I am sure the three of us stuck out like a sore thumb because we weren't drinking unless you count our Cherry Cokes. Regardless, we had a great time and it was a fun night out with my girlfriend's. Another bonus was being to take home a canvased painting that I made!!

Family Pictures 2014

I have a love-hate relationship with getting our Family pictures taken. I stress out about finding matching outfits, getting everyone ready and getting everyone to the location (on time) is about more than I can handle. On the bright side though, I enjoy the outcome. I love getting to see the pictures that were taken and displaying them in our home. It is also so fun for me to compare the pictures that were taken of the kids of  the previous year to the current year and see how they have grown in the years time!

Christmas is just around the corner and it is a tradition to send out Christmas cards from our family to our friends and family. Since we are taking our kids on a 7 day cruise for their Christmas present this year, I wanted to get a good jump on things. I love sending cards and I love getting them! It is sad to me that it is a dying tradition to send out Christmas cards. However, for me, there is something so fun about getting an actual letter in the mail. I still enjoy getting snail mail despite all the technological advancements we have these days.

This year I was told by a good friend about a photo studio in West Jordan called Camera Shy. We decided to mix it up and get some in-studio portraits taken indoors, instead of going outside and having outdoor shots taken. It is also getting so cold outside that I knew taking the kids to some outdoor setting would be miserable for them and us! Family Pictures are stressful enough but then to add driving to a location and making sure everyone still looks nice when we get there is just an added stress. 

We loved having our pictures taken in the Camera Shy studio this year and we were grateful for all the different back ground options the photographer gave us to choose from. We also liked being warm, no cold weather photo shoots for the Frisbey's this year!! Getting a disk of our pictures on the same day instead of waiting weeks to get the edited pictures back was also a perk. I think we will do in studio portraits from now on!

I was pleased with our pictures that were taken this year! We got a lot of great pictures of the kids and of our family. We are all set to order our Christmas Cards and send them out for the Christmas Season, I can't wait!