Family Tree Wall Hanging

I just thought I'd share what I found on this cute blog I ran across a few months ago. Her name is Erin, and she is very creative, and one craft I liked that she made was a family tree. She put links on her blog for the templates to make it, and I had fun doing some of these for family this year for Christmas. If you want to check out how she made them on her blog, here's the link:
http://suttongrace.blogspot.com/2009/09/family-tree-templates.html.

And here's my finished product (before writing the names on the trunk and leaves). This is a 16x16 frame I found at Michael's. I found all the craft paper for it at Michael's, too.

Christmas 2009

Merry Christmas! What a fun weekend! We spent it at Grandma and Grandpa Price's house. Santa found us, the kids were glad to know. Our little family slept in a bedroom that has a lava lamp-type colored electricity lamp, which we kept on all night for a night light. It made some faint sizzle or ringing sounds from the little currents glowing around in it, and when Kortney woke up on Christmas morning, she told Neil, "Daddy! I heard Santa's jingle bells all night!" They loved their presents, acting out the nativity, sharing Christmas songs, hanging out with cousins, sledding, playing the wii, eating whatever they wanted most of the weekend, and staying up late both nights we were there. We got home Saturday night so we could get to church by 9:00 this morning - the LAST time this year that we'll have to wake up that early for church! I'm so excited to move to 11:00 next week!

The girls after they found their stockings.

Cousin Jayden with Great-Grandpa Price.

Cousin Lucas with Rhett in their new Christmas outfits.

Christmas Spirit

My friend emailed this to me, so I thought I'd share. It brought out a few tears, but what doesn't these days, I guess?

Emmrie Turned 3!

We celebrated Emmrie's third birthday at Grandma and Grandpa's house, and had lots of fun. Aunt Alanna had a cake all ready for her, we sledded in the snow, drank hot chocolate, ate homemade doughnuts, played the wii, got out all Grandma's toys, and opened presents. And I forgot my camera. But, at least we got her portraits taken! Happy birthday, smiley girl! We love you!

The funniest part of the day (for me, at least) was "the challenge" that Neil's dad created for Neil and his brother, Marc, and then for Kortney. He's famous for making up challenges involving food and money. He usually waits till everyone is full from a meal, then he'll offer some unsuspecting person some crazy amount of money, or something he knows they really want (and he's good at knowing what each of us likes), to do something like eat the rest of the food on the table, eat something covered in habanero sauce, eat saurkraut, or to eat any other edible, disgusting thing he can find. It's so funny to watch when it's someone else taking on the challenge, and we all keep encouraging the one who's trying to earn the prize. If they can't complete his challenge, sometimes he'll offer it to someone else. But we can't ASK for him to offer us something. He does it on his own.

Okay, so back to this birthday-day "challenge". He offered Neil and Marc money, in increments like "Who Wants to be a Millionaire", only starting at $2, then $4, then $8, then $16, etc. They had to eat whatever he put in front of them at each increment. Simple enough, right? The boys didn't even make it to $8. Wusses. So he got Kortney. Thankfully (Well, maybe sadly) she doesn't fully understand the concept of money, because she could've earned a lot! He offered her $2 to eat a green olive. That was tough, but she braved it. Oh, and just like the game show, she had to get to $8 before she could walk away and keep anything. She told me she only wanted to go to $8, and then she would be done. So I kept encouraging her to go on and on. And all this time she thought she was going to get the same kind of gross stuff that he had given Marc and Neil. Next, she ate a chip with pesto sauce on it. You have to understand - Kortney is a looks person. If it doesn't look right, she automatically thinks it's nasty. So this is why this challenge was such a challenge for her. 15,000 mouse-bites later, she earned $4. Then he gave her a spoonful of cider vinegar. She dipped her finger in again and again, but wouldn't do more than that. So she stopped, but he gave her another chance. He gave her a chip with steak sauce on it. He didn't show her the bottle, so she thought it was habanero sauce, but after dipping her finger lots of times, she realized it was just a little spicy, and nibbled it gone. That earned her the $8 she needed to stop. She was so proud - and said she was done. But Grandpa and I told her that she could earn $16 with the next one! It took some convincing, but she continued. She drank a spoonful of pure lemon juice for $16, and we again convinced her to keep going. He brought her a spoonful of molasses, and she slowly ate it to earn a total of $32. We couldn't convince her to go on to $64. Grandpa wrote out a check right there, and when we got home, we put it into her account. Of course, we'll have another lesson on tithing, which she looks forward to paying. Thanks, Grandpa, and way to go, Kortney! It was fun.

Christmas Music Video--Do You Have Room for the Savior?

Just found this on my cousin's Facebook and loved it. Merry Christmas!

Oh, the Weather Outside is...

DANG cold! It's been too cold for the school kids to even have recess outside this whole week. Those must be some stir-crazy kids and frazzled teachers! I guess the high today was 9 degrees? Yeah.
You know, it used to be kind of fun looking forward to winter. It was new and exciting to me, and usually the first month of snow was beautiful and kind of cozy-feeling. Now I just dread it, just about as much as I dreaded the beginning of summer in AZ. But thankfully the kids still look forward to snow, and I can't get them out of it until they lose all feeling in their fingers and toes.
Neil finally decided (or had time) to put up the Christmas lights the other night, but called it quits halfway through when he almost fell off the slippery roof for the third or fourth time. I called it quits long before (and I was only supervising from the ground), with four crying, booger-nosed, frost-bitten children in tow. Here they were in their happier state. It's a long, long time till June when we can almost guarantee warm weather...

Red cheeks and noses

He stumbled and fell way too many times, but kept getting back up.

Putting up the lights with his spelunking flashlight.

The Poem

I've become somewhat of a poet, I guess. Okay, not really, but this is the poem I wrote to surprise Neil for his birthday back in October. Hope you get a kick out of it.

To Neil

Happy birthday to you, you big stud of a man!
(I sure like to tell you all that, ‘cause I can.)

To the bestest darn husband a girl’s ever had
(And not only that, but to one awesome dad):

You’re my very best friend, my teacher, my rock.
You’re a great punching bag, wrestling coach, stumbling block.

I love your work ethic, and strong dedication
To family, to scouting, to gospel education.

You’re fun to hang out with, to laugh with, to hug,
To have a great talk with, to drive with, to bug.

You know how to cheer me when I’m feeling sad;
You know how to pester me lots when I’m mad.

You’re likeable, giving, and so easy-going,
When I am so hard-headed, stubborn and boring.

Thanks for your friendship, your strength and your love,
Your example of patience I’ve seen so much of.

So, now that you’re 31, what can you say
Of your family? Your future? Your life till today?

As a husband, a scout leader, employee and son,
As a brother and neighbor, you’re THE #1.

And, of course, as a father, you know where you stand.
Even when, sometimes, things just don’t go as we planned.

You have four small children you love and adore.
What else could you want? Well, how ‘bout one more?

Rhett’s such a sweet baby, but what if, real soon,
He wasn’t the baby – by say sometime in June?

Wow! All of a sudden 31 feels real old.
But things have a reason, or so we are told.

I guess this is all part of Heavenly Father’s plan.
Happy birthday to you, you big stud of a man!

Love, Tandee

Thanksgiving 2009

After about 32+ hours of driving, we're finally home from our trip to Arizona! It was so good to be back in warm weather, see family and a few friends, and remind myself of everything I'm grateful for. The kids did so good on the drive, and they loved being with cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents. And, of course, I'm reminded why I love Arizona, and it's so hard to leave to head home, but besides coming home to snow on the lawn, I'm reminded why I love Idaho. If only Utah wasn't six hours of the drive between these two awesome states, I would travel between them more often. It's good to be home, unpacked, and back into the swing of things. I didn't get photos of much of the trip, and I'm sad I wasn't better at keeping my camera with me, but here are some photos of the trip (mostly taken by my personal photographer, Kortney):

We stayed at my sister, Tawnya's house, and this is Katelyn, Jordan, Kortney and Taylor on the trampoline.

Tawnya did my girls' hair every day - however they wanted! What a fun time for her, the hairdresser, and a great break for me, the boring mom. This is Kortney's hair in ringlets (she asked for - and got - ringlets almost every day). And a ribbon was always a mandatory bonus.

Every year my brother-in-law, Brad, smokes turkeys in the pit in his backyard. This is the pit burning all the wood. This year I think they cooked 23 birds, mostly for neighbors. And the waiting list was 20 people long. The turkeys are sooooo good!

Some of the turkeys ready to go in the pit.

Taylor with a nice bruise on her chin.

Rhett with his puppy and my brother, Treavor, at my brother, Tracy's house for Thanksgiving.


Grandma and Grandpa Clifford at Vekol Wash where we went riding after Thanksgiving dinner.

Me riding the easiest motorcycle in the world - my nephew's electric Cub. (I just want to point out my two brothers in the background - the tall one is my little 6'7" brother, Trent, and the other is my oldest brother, Tracy, who is about the same height as my other three older brothers, not even 6'.)

Nieces Brooke, Katelyn, and Lauren. Such cute girls!

Nieces Amanda and Koralyn on the four-wheelers.

My "little" brother, Trent, with Emmrie. They loved him!

My dad with Rhett. Yes, it got cold at night in the desert. Even for Idaho kids.

Future Electrician

I figured I'd better post SOMETHING for November. Neil was working on a switch the other day, and Rhett, completely on his own, came out of his room with his little hammer to help. It was so cute, I had to get a photo. Don't worry. He'll learn the right tools -- eventually.

Halloween 2009

We took the kids to the neighborhood trunk-or-treat tonight, which had a great turnout! Lots of fun to see so many cute, dressed-up kids, and families that decorated their cars for the event. And since the weather was nice enough, Neil took the girls out trick-or-treating afterwards, and they had lots of fun and got lots of candy. Good thing we can set our clocks back tonight, because I'm sure they'll need that extra hour of sleep!

Happy Halloween!

Kortney - princess

Taylor - princess

Emmrie - witch


Rhett - cow

Smiths Deal

Smiths is having a Mega Event, where you get $5 off instantly for every 10 participating items you buy, mix and match. And it's even better with coupons! Here's what I got today:

1 gallon milk, 1 dozen eggs, 3 lbs. apples (those aren't part of the mega event), 15 Hormel chili w/ beans, 12 Gatorade, 4 Tombstone pizzas, 2 Pillsbury refrigerated pie crusts, 4 Swiss Miss instant hot cocoa, 4 Keebler Fudge Shoppe cookies, 4 Kroger Deluxe ice cream, 12 Carnation Evaporated milk, 1 box Zesta crackers, 2 Kotex maxi pads, 2 Kotex liners, 2 boxes Motrin 24ct.

My total was $46.11. That's like paying 68 cents per item!

The most expensive item was the milk, at $1.79. Everything else was $1.50 or less. If anyone in town wants to get anything like these by Tuesday, I have more coupons for most of these things, if you want them!

p.s. You don't need coupons for the hot cocoa (50cents), milk, eggs, ice cream (99cent deal only good through tomorrow for that), crackers (99cents), Gatorade (49cents), or apples (69cents/lb), and there's an internet printable coupon for the Keebler cookies (50cents w/ coupon). Check out their ad for more stuff that you probably want or need that I didn't get!

Check out www.pinchingyourpennies.com, click on State Forums, then go to Idaho Screaming Deals (UT might have the same deal), and click on the post about Smith's 10/28 - 11/3. Five star deals all over the place! You can click on the shopping list link, and print it off with prices and everything.

Kortney Lost a Tooth

It's been loose forever! And she finally got brave enough to let Neil pull it out before she left for school yesterday. She cried because of the blood, but couldn't wait to show her friends at school. The tooth fairy came last night, and she was so excited to wake us up this morning to show us what she got. Congratulations, Kortney!

pushing it with her tongue


smiling after the blood and tears stopped

this morning with her tooth "loot"

Neil's Birthday

So it was last week. But we did celebrate it! Nothing big. This is Neil with all his girls (yes, Kali had to be in there) before he left for work in the morning.

And his parents came up to have dinner and cake and ice cream with us that evening.

I'm no poet, but I wrote him a poem, which was kinda funny, kinda retarded, and kinda made his jaw drop. Maybe I'll post it later, so you can understand what I mean - not today.

Happy birthday, Babe! You're the best!

My Recycled Skirts

My girls love to wear dresses or skirts, and I have to reserve some of them exclusively for church, just so they don't get ruined. So, since they're one of the easiest things to sew, I've made just a few for them. Kortney started liking skirts when she realized that no one would stop her when she twirled in them in front of Primary as a sunbeam, and she loved how they looked like a bell when she twirled. Taylor just loves to look cute, and skirts do that for her. Emmrie is just glad that they're not considered pajamas, which means she's allowed to wear them past breakfast.

First, let me just mention that, where my girls' desire came from to wear dresses and skirts outside of church is not from me. I can honestly count on one hand the number of times I wore a skirt or dress to school since the time I was allowed to pick out my own outfits. I couldn't play in a skirt. Skirts were so restrictive, and I had to try to sit like a lady in them. Even when I was in highschool, I think I only wore a skirt once, for Missionary Week in seminary, when we dressed up like missionaries for one day. I'm sure I did it on a dare. Funny how I ended up spending a year and a half of my life wearing a skirt or dress every day in the mission when I was older. It never got to be my favorite, and I still only wear them for church now.

WARNING:

This is seriously about the extent of my sewing skills, much to my Home Ec. major mother's sadness, I'm sure, so please keep that in mind as you scrutinize my finished products.

#3 - My most recent project. We got this little dress from a neighbor friend who outgrew it, but I saw that it had another great potential.

So I turned it into this skirt. Kinda cute, huh? This is a twirler, for sure!

#2 - My second attempt at a skirt was when I was wondering how to use all the girls' old, worn-kneed jeans. I saw a little girl wearing something like this, so I tried it. It's definitely not very cute, and I should've made it more "twirly", but I didn't want to go back and fix it. This is Kortney's, and I made a purple one for Taylor, too, that I had to hide from her, because it seriously was hideous and she wanted to wear it every day. I never got around to doing Emmrie's, yet. It's okay, though. She has no idea it was even in the works.

#1 - My first recycled project. This cute outfit was once a mumu (sp?) that my mom found at Goodwill and mailed to me right after I had Emmrie, because I guess she thought I might want to look as frumpy as I felt. Sadly, I never wore it (okay, only once - to get a laugh out of Neil), but I loved the silky material, and couldn't let it go to waste. At the time, Kortney was just starting to get into dress-up (so funny to think back to when we didn't have a room completely dedicated to dress-up clothing and accessories). The material was perfect for a cute little skirt. I just hacked off the bottom of the mumu and added the waistband. Then, I had so much extra material that I made a little vest to go with it. Don't worry, it's not even lined, and I stole the button and button loop from the mumu. This has now been the favorite dress-up outfit of each of the girls at one point or another, and I think they've all looked adorable in it.

So, that's it for my recycled projects, in the way of skirts. There are blogs and websites all over with these types of ideas. I like to find cute ideas, but then I forget about them. So, let me know what kinds of clothing or other things you've creatively recycled!

Rhett's Walking

Just a cute photo (okay, not really the best) of the other love of my life, as he finally figures out how to keep his feet under him. And I consider my kids "walking" the day they choose to walk more than crawl. That happened for Rhett on my birthday. What a fun day to remember!

LDS General Conference Favorites

Wow! This is way late, but this General Conference was wonderful, I have to say. I got more out of it than I've gotten out of the past few. Probably because Neil took the girls to Moab with his family for the weekend, so I only had Rhett, and he napped for most of it. I could actually pay attention. I want to mention just a few of my favorite talks.

I loved Elder Bednar's talk on being more diligent and concerned at home, by sharing and showing love to our family, bearing our testimony, and being consistent in holding regular family home evening, family prayer and scripture study. Something my family needs to be better at doing.

I also loved Elder Oak's talk on God's love and his laws, and that God's love doesn't supersede his laws. Just because he loves us doesn't mean he's going to bend the rules in our situation if we're choosing to disobey his commandments. He likened God's love for those who disobey to a parent's love for a child who chooses to engage in self-destructive behavior. He still loves us, but his laws don't change because of that love. We're still responsible for our choices.

Another favorite was Bishop Burton's talk on the "-ity" virtues, like humility, civility, fidelity, responsibility, etc. These Christlike traits are being destroyed, and we need to be firmly fixed in teaching virtuous traits in the home by our example. He focused on Integrity. He quoted Pres. Faust and Pres. Monson in stating that most people will not commit desperate acts if they've been taught integrity and virtuous traits.

Jeffrey R. Holland warned of latter-day dangers that we are counseled how to avoid in the Book of Mormon. He bore the strongest, most emotional and heart-felt testimony of the Book of Mormon that I've ever heard, and his testimony is better watched than summarized, in my opinion. Watch it here (7 minutes): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_ac3tWeV3I

The last favorite talk that I'll mention (because really all of them applied to me in some way or another) was Elder Christofferson's talk on moral discipline (I'm very distantly related to him - my claim to fame). Everyone walks in the "image of his own god" (what "god" do we resemble?), and that we increasingly rely on laws to control behavior, instead of our own morals. He mentioned the housing market, and how people blame greedy companies offering risky mortgages which led to the economic decline. But really, people need to make their own moral judgements about what's lawful and what's ethical (like buying what we can afford vs. buying too much because we want). Moral discipline is learned at home. We need to focus on instilling faith in God. (I don't know if this is a direct quote:) "Perhaps our moral discipline will inspire others to do the same. At the least, it will help us."

What a great opportunity it was to sit at the "feet" of the prophet and apostles and be uplifted, taught, and edified as I strengthened my testimony of Jesus Christ. I needed it, and now I have plenty to work on for at least the next six months.

Typical Idaho Weather

Yesterday - nice and sunny.
High: 73
Low: 41
We played at the park.

Today - cold and rainy.
High: 44
Low: 31
We'll be playing inside.

Nice. Now where are the coats?

Craters of the Moon

Neil has now been Scout Master for 4 years. He loves it, and the boys think he's pretty cool. And, except for weekends that he has campouts, I can honestly say that I love it, too. He and the other two leaders, Matt and Ashlee, took the scouts on a campout last weekend. They went to Craters of the Moon, out in the middle of nowhere, a vast and desolate lava flow area. They call it Craters of the Moon because to some people long ago, I think it looked like the moon, so that's what they named it. I've driven through that desert only once, after the last time Neil had gone on a campout there, and all I could think at the time was, "Why did they come here?" But this time he borrowed my camera, and these are some of the photos he brought back. I appreciate it a little more now. You just can't see any of the pretty stuff from the highway...

They all took their bikes (p.s. that's not their camper. They took tents)...

...rode down some of the trails...

...stopped to climb some trees...


...and explored 3 different caves.

So, it's cooler than I thought. I shouldn't be so quick to judge.

Alanna's Wedding

Consumed by my self-centeredness, I forgot completely to post any photos or any information about Neil's baby sister's wedding! It was in Salt Lake over Labor Day weekend, and she was beautiful. Good luck in your future, Alanna and Lewis! I'm not a photographer, so this is the best that I got. Once Alanna finally got there, and things got rolling, it all went great. Lewis is part Samoan, and they had some Samoan dances and things at the reception. It was pretty fun.

Mr. and Mrs. Alifipo

The flower girls, Emmrie, Taylor, Kortney and Kadance, waiting (and waiting...) to throw their flowers.

Jeremiah and Jayden. This is a funny story. Check out their shoes. Neil's sister, Rhonda, did so much for Alanna's wedding, especially the stressing. She was running all around that day when we got there a few hours before the big event. She pulled out the boys' shoes to get them ready (her son and nephew), and as she was hurrying to put shoes on Jayden first, she kept saying, "Dang! These shoes are so hard to get on! What the heck is up with them?" It took her a while to finally get them on him. I didn't think anything of it. But I did notice at the wedding that Jeremiah's feet sure were big - must be hitting a growth spurt, I thought. Finally, after the wedding, while the photographer was snapping photos, Rhonda laughed at herself and busted out, "They're on the wrong kids!" No wonder poor little Jeremiah kept tripping over his own feet, and Jayden's toes were so sore! Rhonda, they still looked handsome. Good job!


The kids, as we waited (and waited...) for Alanna to finally show up to get married.