Hey, Your Name is MUD!

For some reason, I couldn't upload Lisa's video.  So I decided to upload it through youtube instead.  Enjoy!

Three of my kids had a piano recital today.  It was Grayson's first recital ever, and he did a marvelous job!  He was even the very first student to play, but he didn't seem nervous at all.  Regan & Lisa also did a fantastic job.  Grayson & Regan played two songs each (I'm only including one of their songs), and Lisa played one.  It's been fun listening to the kids develop their talents.

G's in the middle, 2nd row. Behind the boy in the green shirt and red pants.

These are just a couple of the songs they sang.  Of course, they had to throw in a Hanukkah song (1st video), but it was pretty cute.  See if you can find Grayson.  He's to the right of the music teacher.

Adding lights

Here comes the ornaments

Silliness

Christmas star try #1. But it was too big & kept falling off.

Christmas star try #2. Yay!! Success.

Cheese

Tree skirt. Every year we put the kids' hand prints on it. This is our 10th year, and we've made it all the way around the skirt. It's been fun seeing how the kids' hands have grown over the years.  We started when Lisa was a baby.

Final 2011 hand prints. They're glow-in-the-dark this year.  Somehow we missed doing 2010, though; thus the question marks.

A happy mom is always a good thing.

Flowers from my sweet hubby!

Jim and I celebrated our 15th anniversary on the 29th of November.  It's been quite a ride, and I look forward to the next 15 years even more.  Happy anniversary, Jim!!  Love you!

A card from my dad with money in it, of course.  Yay! for money!!

What's the gift? Well if I told you, then that would spoil someone's Christmas.  : )

Here's a tradition we started 5 years ago when Tanner was just a month old.  But the funny thing about this tradition is that this is only the second time we've done it.  So maybe it will become our 5-yr tradition.  : )

Can't have a tradition without a lot of fun

More silliness

Final product -- pre-decorated table, though. I'll have to post another picture with more decorations.

Can't forget the small ginger-people.

Lisa had a social studies project to do about the colonists.  She chose to make a hornbook.  What is that, you might ask?  Well, it's a piece of wood with paper posted to both sides.  One side has the ABCs and 123s on it it, and the other side has the Lord's prayer.  Kids would take these to school and use them to study.  Not so exciting now that you know, is it?  Plus, why the "book" in the title?  Who knows.  But she had a great time making it with her dad.  : )

File away, Lisa.

More filing.  She did a GREAT job!

Safety first!

And, of course, we didn't take a picture of the final product because that would spoil your imagination.  Maybe next time.  : P

Sunday was not a peaceful day for us in the Bloomfield household.  Not sure why, but the kids could not stop fighting.  I tried ignoring it as much as possible, but by dinner time I had had enough.  So with a prayer in my heart, I brought the kids together and really had no idea what I was going to say to them without wanting to rip them a good one.  In fact, I brought them together by yelling at the top of my lungs at them.  I did this to prove a point to them, and boy did it get their attention.  I really don't like yelling at my kids, but I guess sometimes they need to hear what they sound like to each other. 

Anyway, I grabbed November's Friend and we all sat down.  I started telling them that fighting really scares the spirit away.  I told them that the sabbath was a day that was supposed to bring us closer to Heavenly Father not push us all away.  Of course, I was crying, and that made Regan cry.  The other kids just think I'm a big cry baby and don't really react too much to it.  : ) 

I had the kids sing "As I Have Loved You," and then I opened the Friend up.  I just figured that reading a story with them might settle them down.  The amazing thing, though, is that the story I opened to was, "Beanbag Words."  This story was about a primary counselor that did a sharing time on saying nice things about others.  She tossed the beanbag to someone and would say something nice about that person.  Then that person would toss the bag onto someone else and say something nice about that person.  So on.  I hadn't read the Friend with the kids yet and that's why I grabbed it to begin with.  I had no idea it would hold the answer to my prayer. 

I couldn't even read the story, as I was so touched by the spirit that my Heavenly Father knows when we need help.  Lisa read the story for us and as she was reading I grabbed a beanbag out of my primary chorister stuff and we played the game afterwards.  It took several rounds in playing for the kids to really get into it, but I felt a change immediately in the atmosphere of my home.  I am truly grateful for the gospel blessings in my life.  Parenting is hard, but we can make it through the tough times with help from above.