Decorating the Christmas tree

Chase didn't undecorate the Christmas tree, like he did last year. It was a lot of fun! We put out the decorations, made sure they all had hooks and were ready to go before letting Chase at them.

He carried these same 3 Christmas balls for awhile.

And did not want to put them down! Surely his little fingers could hold more...

Connor is growing up so fast! Al and Chase left to run an errand and I was goign to start the tree decorating with the kids while Chase was gone. Connor refused to decorate the tree without Chase. He insisted that Chase be part of it all and the girls joined the chorus! I was so proud of them.

Chase got the honors of topping the tree this year...it took awhile.

And finally (with the help of grandma and daddy) he did it....applause please!

Temple and Visitor Center at Christmas time

We were blessed with an opportunity to go to the temple to see the Festival of Lights with some friends, this year. Connor was our photographer for the event.


There is a creche display that is fascinating! There are creche from all over the world that are on loan for this event each year.

I liked this one because Connor caught his reflection in the mirror from the display.

The outdoor, life-size nativity. BRRRRRRR

Beautiful Christmas trees inside the visitor center.

Connor captured a great picture of the Christus.

Most of the outdoor pictures looked like this. It was very cold and hard to have a steady hand.

Connor's final picture for the night was simply gorgeous!

Connor's 1st hat for the homeless

In my previous post about our December Daily 5 school work I had mentioned that Connor and Lillee have to put in 20-30 minutes knitting a hat for the homeless. Connor finished his first hat last week.

Lillee's 6th Birthday

Lillee is 6, AMAZING! She is a beautiful child, not just on the outside, but she's truly beautiful on the inside. She is so loving, is intensely in tune with the Spirit and loves everyone she has ever met. She often reminds me of what we should be doing to be more Christ-like. She has her moments and drives me nuts but I love her so much and can't imagine my life without her. She is a true blessing from God.

On her 3rd birthday, I started a tradition....baking a special birthday cake. It has been fun and challenging each year to offe a special cake to each child, but we all look forward to it. After Chase's birthday this year I asked Lillee what she wanted for her cake (their birthdays are only 7 days apart). She started off by saying, "Hmmmm, I don't think I should ask that because you can't do it, Mommy." Boy, was I determined to do whatever it was she wanted! She told me she wanted an elephant cake. I thought, "Easy Peasy!"

So here is her elephant cake...not so easy peasy. This cake took all day to create, but it was sooo worth it (see the video at the end of this post).

This is no small cake! It was actually 3 cakes.

The ears were made of chocolate, piped onto wax paper and then smoothed out and shoved in the side of the elephant head.

Chase had to have a bite, too :)

best gift of the birthday...Grandma got her a Monchichi and I don't know if Lillee has put it down in the last week :) Happy birthday Beanie!!!!

Deer Class

This post is not for those who can't handle blood, guts and such.... Turn away, now!

The day after Chase's birthday Al, Connor, Grampy, Brother Affeltranger and I participated in a deer processing and usage class. I had been wanting to take this class for over a year, but I got very sick last fall and did not get well until January. So when fall came around this year, I contacted John Fishback, the biggest 10 year old you'll ever meet (I know it is hard to believe there is a bigger 10 year old than Al but he does exist!), set up the class and off we went for a day or skinning, deboning and wrapping venison.

This was a LONG day, we arrived at 10:00 a.m. after a 1 hour drive and didn't leave until 5:00 p.m. Connor was in little boy heaven! He made all sorts of fun crafts and I think John had a great time showing Connor all of his cool stuff. Connor made a bone knife, tomahawk, bow with several arrows and a quiver, shield, belt to hang it all on and a blow dart gun with darts.



We had 4 deer to process - 3 white tail deer and 1 sika deer.


This was our first of the button bucks.



This was a ball joint with the tendon running through it. We tried to tie in some science for the day since we're studying animals this entire year. We read all about deer before arriving.

The crowning event for Connor was taking off the deer head, with a hacksaw, and then using the same saw to remove the antlers.

This is John Fishback :) He and Al were having fun looking at one another through the trachea...science, right?

Connor helped with some of the processing, here he is helping to skin one of the white tail.

This is Brother Affeltranger having a grand ole time.

This class filled our freezer with yummy venison that we've been enjoying nearly every night!