A Little Perspective

I love manger scenes! My mom bought this African nativity from a charity organization a few years back, to give to Jordan because of his love for the many countries in Africa. It has become our favorite Christmas decoration to unwrap each year and I look forward to having this on display in my home. I love its simplicity. I think it is truly fitting to have had humble hands create the humble and sacred surroundings of the Saviors birth. The holidays are such a fun time of celebration, but with all of that celebrating it's pretty easy to get distracted. I find myself getting sooo caught up in the extras of Christmas - like should I buy Thais a Baby Alive doll or Target's American Girl knock off, or what am I going to wear to the annual Christmas party and what treats should I make the neighbors? It is just so darn easy to lose sight about what Christmas is really all about. But then I walk by this little manger scene and remember it's all about this picture right here- a lowly manger where a chosen daughter of God gave birth to a baby that would save us all. I am so grateful for this time to celebrate the birth of the Savior! I love him. I have felt the atonement work in my life and for that fact alone I have so many reasons to bask in the true meaning of Christmas...

Merry CHRISTmas from the desertmonsons :)

A new nickname and December happenings

Jordan and I played paper-rock-scissors this year to see if we would get a real tree
or a fake tree. I lost-which means we should have had a fake tree
but boy was I happy when Jordan surprised me with this baby! It smells so darn good!

Thais was a big helper decorating the tree

Here's the finished product..

Skyler rockin' his Christmas sweater

Our friends Brian and Janette invited us over to make these

darlin' ginger bread houses.

The candy cane heart was all Thaisy's idea.

Meet: The Rhino. This nickname got started because one of Skyler's favorite pass times is to run full force and charge into us with all his strength . We are convinced he will be our future football star and we are just his practice targets.

But man we sure love this boy!

Thaisy's Haircut!

Thais just had her first haircut in an actual salon (does supercuts count as a salon?)
We think she just looks darlin'. Check it out....

For the Joy School Mamas!

How fun is
Joy School ! It began with making Jello! We talked about how water boils and creates steam when it heats up, and then we watched the water turn yellow when we added our Jello Packet. The kids loved it when we added blue ice cubes to our jello and it magically turned green. We talked about how the jello is in a liquid state and after it becomes a solid after a few hours in the fridge...we can eat it!!!!


Here they are mixing colors to see what different color combinations make.



At one point we mixed all of the colors and found out that it makes murky brown...nice!


Here is Travis with the magnet experiment. The kids discovered when is magnetic and what isn't.

Here we are testing buoyancy..

After a few hours they got to eat their Jello...

The kids called the green Jello "Alien Poop!" I've never been a big Jello fan myself..

The last pic I got was our balloon experiment. This was by far one of the favorites: what happens to balloons when you fill them with air and let them go.

All in all it was a great day! We've got a bunch of scientists on our hands!

Happy Halloween

Halloween was a party this year! Here are the costumes of our kiddos. We couldn't find flounder so Nemo was the next best option.





We had a Halloween carnival on Saturday and went trick or treating Saturday night to all of the members in the ward, and today we had friends over for chili in a pumpkin. I tried a new recipe: Pumpkin Turkey Chili. It was pretty darn good I have to say! The menu was consisted of Chili, Beyond Bread , artichoke salad, IBC rootbeers, and Jenn's killer brownies. YUM!

Just a quick pic of our decorations this year....

Jamie's cute Halloween pinata!

The kiddo's showing off their loot!

Happy Halloween everyone!

Skyler dropped the "L" word

This past week one of the cutest boys

( I have ever met)

told me that he LOVED me!

I am still on cloud nine.

He said, " I y'ove you, mama!"

It was pretty magical

to reap motherhood's greatest reward;

the love of your child.

I y'ove you right back Sky!

October Fun

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Thaisy's treats for Joy school this morning. You can use slivered almonds or sunflower seeds for teeth as well.




Thaisy's friend McKenzie dropped her off a bucket of treats that she made with her grandma.



Skyler posing with the Ariel wig we luckily found. Anyone who has a Family Dollar near by, they are selling all of the Disney Princess wigs for just $5!

Our two Joy school classes combined.


Thaisy and friends from Joy school...

Check out the Princesses! I love Halloween!