Here's another scrapbook page. I love this program. It's called Memory Makers, and I went to the website to learn more about it, and then I bought it at Roberts for 50% off for Christmas. Cool huh! I can't decide if I like the digital scrapbooking more, or regular scrapbooking. The nice thing with the digital scrapbooking is that I don't have to cut and glue paper, plus, this page took me 30 minutes, when usually a page like this would take me forever, so anyway. I hope you all have a wonderful new years, and we will talk to you all in 2008!

I got a new digital scrapbook program for Christmas, and I LOVE it. This is my first practice page, and there are many options of things you can do with the pages. Some things I don't like as much on the page, but for the most part, I love how easy and cute it is. Anyway, I hope everyone had a beautiful & Merry Christmas!

As a tradition growing up, for Christmas my mom made Christmas kiss cookies. I love these cookies, and for some reason, I only make them around Christmas. Morgan & Jackson loved helping me unwrap all of the kisses, and separate the chocolate & foil. Somehow all of the kisses didn't end up in the bowl, but in their mouths. :) The kids love eating cookie dough, and pouring in the sugar, but they don't really like eating the cookies when they're all done. Maybe they don't like it because the cookies are warm, because they eat the cookies just fine when they are cold. Brian doesn't like them warm either, but I love them right out of the oven.

What cute kids huh! These 2 are so funny. Lately they have wanted to take off their shirts while they eat, so they won't spill anything on them. I have no idea where they get this idea from, because believe me, Brian and I wear our shirts when we eat. :)

After breakfast, I looked over, and saw the 2 of them dancing to Christmas music, and hugging each other. I know I don't have perfect kids, and everyday isn't perfect, but I am so grateful to have these 2 in my life, and for how much fun and happiness they bring everyday.

Dance Partners... dancing to christmas music. I'm not sure who the leader is. :)

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1181285238

I stole this from my sisters blog because I thought it was so cute and funny. You'll have to put my music on pause before you click on the link above, but we hope you really enjoy!
We hope you're all having a wonderful holiday season!

We had our first big snow storm on Friday night, so the kids were so excited to wake up to new snow. By 9:00, we had them dressed and ready to play outside. Jackson loved the snow, and would run & dive into it. Isn't he a cute little snow boy!

Morgan was so funny, because she loved the snow too, but after about 15 minutes she as ready to come back inside. Jackson was having so much fun, that he had no interest in coming inside, so Jackson & Daddy stayed outside while Mommy & Morgan went inside and had a nice big cup of Hot Chocolate with toast.

I'm not a big fan of snow, but I feel like Christmas isn't the same unless there is snow everywhere. It was so fun watching the kids enjoy the snow. They loved eating it as most kids do, and I loved watching the big flakes fall on them.

We had some friends come over the other night for an early christmas party, and I made this chocolate, peanut butter trifle. It was really good! It has a peanut butter cream in it though, and I think next time I make it, I will use caramel instead of peanut butter.

Jackson woke up from his nap just in time to enjoy the pudding that went into the trifle. He was so excited to lick the spatula. This boy LOVES chocolate just like his daddy. The other day we gave both of the kids a chocolate hershey kiss after lunch, jackson unwrapped his and I think swallowed it whole, because before we knew it, he was wanting more. Morgan was taking her time at unwrapping it, almost as if it were a precious present, and as soon as the chocolate was out, Jackson snatched it from her and popped it in his mouth. We had a little melt down as you can imagine, but luckily we had more. :)


YUMMY!!!! I LOVE CHOCOLATE!!!

The kids were so excited to decorate the Christmas tree this year. They focused all their attention on placing the ornaments exactly where they thought they should go. When they were done, a lot of the ornaments were upside down, and a lot of the balls had all been placed right next to each other. My first reaction was to put them all where I thought they should go, but as I started fixing the upside down ones, I realized, that the tree had meaning, and now every time I look at it, and I see 2 or 3 ornaments grouped together, I remember who helped me decorate the tree, and to us it's perfect!

Thanksgiving Dinner
Here we are at my parents house for Thanksgiving. My sister Brittany & her husband where at his parents, and Jen & her family are in Idaho, but the rest of us were there. My cousin Brandon is also in the picture. Dinner was incredible!

My Grandma made some whip cream for her pie, and Jackson was the lucky one that got to lick the spatula. He loved it, and didn't want to give it up until every last lick was gone. :)

My beehives learned how to make pies the other day, so I decided I would try my first apple pie. It was delicious, especially with ice cream on top. Yummy! I can't take all the credit though, because Mr. Pillsbury dough boy helped me with the crust, which I highly recommend for convenience, and a lady in my mom's ward gave her a bottle of apple pie filling, so all I had to do was put it all together. I did make the top though with graham crackers, brown sugar, & cinnamon, and that was really good. Yummy... I love warm apple pie.



Here's my dad carving the Turkey. We went to my parents house for Thanksgiving. I feel bad I didn't get a picture of my mom, when she was the one that did the majority of the work, & the food was delicious. We loved the fresh homemade rolls!

This is all of my moms family. My mom has never had her family to her house for Thanksgiving before because we have lived out of state, and this is the first time they were all able to make it happen. They all brought pies, and we had a total of 10 pies to choose from! There were about 20 of us there, so we each got 1/2 a pie, okay we didn't really eat all of it, but it was nice being able to sample a little bit of each.

Here's the kiddies enjoying their thanksgiving dinner. They just liked the olives & the rolls.

The other day, my sister in law (who works at Macy's) called to tell me that all of their kids coats were on sale for $15.00, usually $65.00--wow good deal huh? Morgan needed a coat really bad, so I let her pick one out. I really liked this one, and I was hoping that she did too, and sure enough it was the one that she picked. Isn't it cute! She was so excited to wear it. She wanted to go and show it to Grandma, but I told her she couldn't wear it until it started to snow outside. Boy was she disappointed!





Does she look a little mischievious to you? She is such a funny little girl. The other day I was talking to a mom in our ward. Her son does joy school with Morgan, and is a really cute little boy. He is always taking care of her, and making sure that the other kids don't hurt her, or aren't rude to her. Well the other day, it was my friends turn to have all the kids at her house. She told me that her son had been wispering to Morgan while they were outside playing with all of the other kids, and that they were just laughing together. Morgan went up to my friend later and said, "He is a Handsome Boy!" I couldn't believe it when my friend told me this. I was holding Morgan while she was holding her son, and I said "Morgan, your not supposed to say things like that yet, you're only 3!!!!! Wow, I have a feeling this girl will be getting a lot of the boys when she's older. I'm not sure how Brian feels about that. :)

And of course our cute little guy. He didn't need a winter coat, but when he saw Morgan put her coat on, he wanted to put his coat on too. He thought that he looked so cool in it, and didn't want to take it off. :)

Brian & I were watching T.V. one night, and noticed that the kids were quite entertained with putting all of their toys in their wagon, and then trying to fit themselves in too. What cuties!


I got home after Y.W. one night and came in to give Morgan a hug & kiss goodnight. This is how I found her sleeping. I'm wondering how she fell asleep that way, and if she really thought it was comfortable. Does it look very comfortable? :)


The kids have loved move time lately. Right here they are watching "The Polar Express" and they love it! They ask me everyday if they can watch the train movie. They like watching the part when the little boy goes to bed, and when the kids get on the train. I love Christmas movies. I think it's also nice because I'm able to work on other stuff, and they have each other to play with.

Ha Ha Ha, so I just read my friends blog, and realized that she tagged me. Yeah, I understand I don't have to do this, but in some ways, this is a journal with pictures for me, and my sister told me that you can go to blurb.com, and make a nice book using your blog entries. I checked it out, and it is so cool! Plus, it is pretty decent pricing too, so I think I will do a book for this year, and then when I do finally get around to scrapbooking the year 2007, I will have a nice journaled book of what actually went on, so anyway, check it out, but I guess I should get back to being tagged... :) Here it goes ( I do apologize in advance though for the long paragraphs) :)

So I'm guessing this is about interesting or unknown facts about me right?

1. I think that Brian & my kids are amazing, which I'm sure everyone thinks about their own family, but a lot of times I wish that all of my friends had a husband like Brian. He treats me like a queen and would do anything for me. And my kids, well according to me, they're perfect. :) Okay, maybe not perfect, but close. :) I feel so blessed to have kids like Morgan & Jackson. Some days they drive me nuts, and the days are long, but over all they are really good kids. Morgan has been doing joy school, and the other day it was my turn to have 5 kids plus Jackson to teach. At one point all of the kids were running around except for my 2 little kids who were just sitting patiently waiting for the next activity to start. Then after the art activity the other kids were wrestling & running around like wild huligans, and guess who was waiting at the table for me to come and help... yep.. Morgan & Jackson. So, sometimes I wonder if Heavenly Father knows that I'm not very patient, and that's why he sent Morgan & Jackson to me, because they're so calm, and so good, or maybe, I am doing a good job at being a Mom. I sure hope that they act good for other people. I love being a mom, I love the smiles, tears, tantrums (except in public), funny words, or sayings, I love it all, and I wouldn't trade it for anything.

2. I would love to travel to Europe! I would love to spend 2 or 3 weeks over there and go to Italy, France, England, Germany, St. Petersburg... and so on. Aaaaahh I would love it. I can't explain why, I just would. Actually part of me wants to go to Italy and eat at a romantic cafe with italian music playing in the background. Somehow, Olive Garden doesn't paint the whole picture for me, although it is my favorite restaurant. Maybe someday, I (we-Brian has to go with me or it would be no fun) will go.

3. I have told Brian many times, that when I die, I will take Harp lessons. I tell him not to worry about me because I will be learning the harp, and will learn to play beautifully. Now, I know that I shouldn't wait until I die, but harp lessons are so expensive, & the harp itself is outrageously priced, so I will have to wait until I have more time & money, so I figure I can learn in heaven. I have always loved music played from the harp.

4. I have lots of fears. I don't know why, but I do. I'm afraid of the dark, of black cats (especially the one that randomly shows up at night on my doorstep) okay, it's only come twice, but still, enough to make me nervous. I'm also afraid of letting my kids ride in other peoples cars including relatives. I don't know why, it's a weird fear, but I'm praying the whole time they are gone that they will return home safe. And, my biggest fear... heights! I am so afraid of roller coasters, and Brian loves them. The worst ride I have ever been on was at Walt Disney World with my family called "Tower of Terror" I hated it! I think I honestly almost died. Seriously! I haven't been on one since, and I don't know if I could handle it. I know I shouldn't have fears, because of the light we have from the Savior, so I am trying to work on it. But anyway...

5. I have lots of weird quirks, that Brian just kind of laughs at. When we go to bed at night, the bathroom door has to be shut, our bedroom door needs to be cracked open, so I can hear the kids if they cry, and the sheets on our bed need to be perfectly smooth, so that one of us doesn't end up with all of the covers in the night (which usually is not me :) hahaha). I also only drink milk with lasagna or spaghetti, I don't know why, maybe the tomatoe taste or something, & milk washes it down the best... one of my quirks Brian & I don't understand. A lot of the time, I am impatient. As soon as we do something, I am ready to move on for the next activity. Brian is teaching me to sit & relax, and enjoy the moment rather than think about what we need to do next. I am constantly trying to please other people, which I'm not sure if that's a quirk or not, but when I find out something that someone enjoys or likes, I make a mental note of it, so that someday, when I need to get a gift or something to brighten up their day, I go through the files in my brain and pull out the idea of what they like. So if your lucky, you may have your own file in my brain. ha ha ha :)

6. I LOVE going to church! I just love it. I love getting dressed up & the kids dressed up, and I love going as a family. I love our ward. They are all such wonderful people, and are such wonderful examples to me. I love my calling in Young Women, and I worry & love the girls I serve so much. I love feeling the spirit each week. Brian & I just started taking the marriage and family class, and it is amazing. I love how the lessons give us new ideas of how to communicate, and show our love and appreciation for each other. Sometimes its hard trying to pay attention in sacrament with our kids, but I love trying to teach them about the Savior & his sacrifice. I love the gospel of Jesus Christ, & I am so grateful to have it in my life.

Well, that's me. I have enjoyed doing this, because I feel that this is a journal entry for me. I love doing this blog thing, because I love reading everyones blogs, and I also gain so much strengh from all of your sites. I feel so close to many of you, and mostly from reading your blog & seeing how your lives are going, & how you handle things. I love you all, and have a great day. Oh yeah, I now tag Jen, Melanie, Janelle, & Alison. :) I look forward to reading what you have to write. Love you all ... Melissa

For some reason, I loaded these all up the other day, but they never actually loaded... I don't know what I did wrong, but anyway, here are the pictures of the kids with their Grandpa & Grandma Nuttall, and their cousin Jayden. Karen picked out the outfits for the kids to wear... aren't they cute! The kids did pretty well, but they really wanted to play with the water, leaves, and sticks, so they had a hard time focusing for my sister in law and I. We did get some really cute pictures though. I love being able to take pictures... I guess it goes back to all I learned while working at Kiddie Kandids, which I am so grateful for. I love taking pictures, especially when they work out.

I love Jackson's arm around Grandpa. I think it is such a cute picture!










In this picture, the kids are each holding a piece of candy corn, and hiding it from Grandpa. I told them to look up at Grandpa, and tell them they were hiding candy from him. I love this picture! I love how Grandpa looks so proud of his 3 grandkids, and how they are all looking up at him. I love it!


We had to use a lot of candy bribery, but I think we got a couple of really good pictures, especially working with 3 little kids. I'm not sure what we'll do next year with 5 little kids (no, I'm not having twins.. hahahha, my sister in law is having a little boy a month after us.) I think we might have to do seperate families & cute & paste heads :)

So here are more of our photo shoot. Can ya tell they were being a little difficult? I think they just had a lot of energy.
My handsome little guy wasn't in the mood to take pictures, he just wanted to play and roll around. Usually he is so cooperative! Oh, well, he's still cute. :)


Yes, and of course little Miss poser herself. We got a couple of funny pictures before this one, but I'm so glad at least one turned out really good.