Santa Came!

After the girls went to bed on Christmas Eve, Nick and I finished watching a movie we had started while they were napping, but couldn't watch while they were awake (not because it was bad, but because it had some violence that I didn't want them exposed to). We had plenty to do, but I wanted to make sure they were sound asleep before we started preparing for Santa's arrival and we had to return the movie in the morning before we headed out of town. Then it was off to work getting everything set up.

Santa stuffed the stockings and left a present for everyone even though we once again forgot to leave him cookies and milk!

Our Christmas village is a little sad. One of these days I'm going to convince my parents to let me take some of theirs since they have more than they need or set up. But I haven't been successful with that the last nine Christmases so I'm thinking it won't happen any time soon.

Santa also brought the girls a car rug since they have a million hot wheels cars.I swear Nick buys them a new one once a month!

All the presents under the tree.

Of course Christmas morning I forgot to take pictures during all the action so I just snapped a few at the end. Shasta was so sweet opening her gifts. She was so appreciative of everything she got. I don't even know if she had a favorite because she was so thankful for each thing.

And Shelby was so funny. She grunted with every pull and tear like opening presents was the hardest work she had ever done. She even growled at one point when she couldn't find the right place to get the paper started.

Shasta with her load.

And Shelby with hers.

And I have to share. Nick gave me the funnest present in my stocking. When I pulled it out I had no idea what I was holding so I asked him what it was. He asked me what it looked like and I said, "I don't know, a turd?" In which he told me it was an oyster and I still felt clueless so he asked me what oysters were known for. After it clicked, I felt pretty excited to crack it open and see what was inside. And when we did it had a special surprise. TWO pearls! What a fun surprise!

Christmas with the Hendricks Family And Grandpa's Birthday

Christmas Eve Movie Night Tradition

Our Christmas Eve tradition is now officially a tradition. This year marked our second time doing it!

The girls opened their Christmas Eve jammies. I thought it was so funny that at the exact moment I snapped a picture, Shelby adjusted her gift and blocked herself out. If she was turned sideways we probably wouldn't even know she was there!

Then the girls opened the mystery present. Of course it contained a movie and movie treats. The movie this year was the animated version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas. And as it turns out, the movie is only about 20 minutes long so after it was over we turned on Muppets Christmas Carol on Netflix because it was too early to go to bed and it was the best chance we had at the house remaining in tact for the night.

The girls looked so darn cute in their owl jammies. Wedge's jammies are the same as last year. I figure since he only wears them once a year it would be pretty silly to buy him something new every time. And sadly, we forgot to wrap his so he just had to suffer wearing it without the treat of getting to open it first.

It may not seem like it from the pictures, but Shasta was actually really sick all day with cold/flu symptoms. She had a minor cough and a fever. She randomly fell asleep off and on all day long. She put on a pretty good face for pictures and presents and she even lasted through the first movie. But once the second one got going it wasn't long before she was out. She woke up when the movie ended and found herself hovered over the toilet puking. Thankfully she only puked the one time. She ate plenty of candy and hardly touched her pizza so I think that was the reason, but who knows. But even with a sick child we still had fun.

Christmas Tree Activity and FHE

As one of our December activities I put together this paper Christmas tree for the girls to decorate. We did it last year and it was a huge hit so it was something I was looking forward to doing again. This year was even better because Shelby got to participate and she loved it! And it was a two day activity this time. Sometime in the beginning of the month the girls decorated the tree with Christmas stickers.Truly, it's the best activity. They both loved it and it kept them busy, entertained and engaged until we ran out of stickers! Whoever invented stickers needs a raise!

The finished product after all the stickers were on.

 The second activity was part of family night tonight. It's the Monday before Christmas so of course we did a lesson about the birth of Jesus (from the nursery manual). We talked about the three wise men bringing gifts to Jesus and ways that we can still bring gifts to Him even though he now lives in Heaven. We talked about ways we can do nice things for other people and how doing those things are special presents for Jesus.

We came up with a list of nice things we can do for other people and then wrote them on little "presents" that I made. Basically I just cut square pieces of paper out of cute, Christmas paper and laminated them. Then I made little curly ribbons for the tops so they looked like presents. Then with dry erase markers I wrote our list of things down on each present and the girls taped them to the tree.

 We also added a star to the tree because we didn't have one yet.

 Our list of special presents for Jesus/nice things we can do for others:
-say we're sorry
-take treats to Chloe and Naomi (our neighbors)
-clean up our toys
-take turns
-give hugs and kisses
-listen
-don't take things from Shelby/and Shelby not from Shasta
-take treats to our friends
-share our testimonies
-sing primary songs
-help others

Shasta came up with a lot on her own, but I did a lot of prompting too (ie. what's something we share in the microphone at church?). She understood the concept, but she had a hard time thinking of a variety of different ways to do nice things for others. But tonight I had an idea that it would be good to write different (simple) service activities down that we can do throughout the month. I love serving others and I love doing this simple little tradition so we might as well combine the two! I guess it's good I'm writing this down so I remember to do it next year!

Goodbye Married Student Ward, Hello Family Ward

This past week has been a little depressing with saying goodbye to our ward this past Sunday and then again at the ward Christmas party Thursday night. We've been in our ward for five years and in a married student ward for seven so it's a little bittersweet to switch to a family ward. We've had a lot of good friends come and go over the years and it's been hard to always be the ones watching everyone else leave and move on with their lives and never us. Not that we wanted to be done with a student ward, but it would be nice to be in a career and done with school like everyone else.

I've had a lot of good experiences in our ward that has changed me for the better. It's actually funny because Nick was the one that wanted to join a student ward and I didn't and in the end he was the one that wanted to leave and I wanted to stay. But we had to leave because we've simply outgrown the ward. Shasta starts Sunbeams in January and although our ward would be willing to accommodate her by pulling her out of nursery for a ten minute sunbeam lesson, she would still go back to nursery afterwards and I didn't want that. She's ready for Primary. I felt like she was ready a year ago. I want her to have that structure and I know she'll love every minute of it. I really debated staying for one more semester since I graduate in May. That way we wouldn't have to start new callings and possibly switch wards again during the Summer if Nick finds a job that takes us out of Logan. But in the end we decided it was most important for Shasta to be in primary.

One thing I'll always be grateful for is how much I've grown from being in a student ward. A year ago I realized we only had a year left before we would need to start going to the family ward and it was then that I decided I wanted to get over my fear of public speaking. I don't want my girls to grow up thinking public speaking is something to be afraid of and I know part of that will come from how I treat it myself so it was time to change that. I started accepting any call to speak in sacrament meeting (something I always dreaded before and looked for any excuse to get out of it) and I volunteered to be a sub in Relief Society. I made a goal to stand and share my testimony at least six times during the year and although I lost track, I know I met that goal and then some! Plus I helped Shasta bare her testimony two or three times so that counts as me getting up there too! I was called to lead the music in sacrament meeting which was something I dreaded in the beginning because I'm not very musically inclined, but I gained a lot of confidence doing it. I lead the music almost every Sunday in Relief Society too because nobody served in that calling. My calling as the bulletin board specialist made it so I had to make some announcements in Sunday School which probably doesn't sound like a big deal, but I dreaded any moment that meant I had to stand up in front of people so it was a big deal to me. And being the visiting teaching coordinator put me in positions where I conducted a meeting once a month with the relief society presidency and the other supervisors and I had to give spiritual thoughts in relief society regularly. All of these things helped me gain more confidence in my ability to get up in front of people and give any kind of presentation. And to my surprise, it has now become something I enjoy doing!

I'm sure I wouldn't have held three church callings simultaneously in a family ward, so I owe most of my new found confidence to being in the student ward and having the opportunity to serve in so many positions. I also discovered that I have a somewhat creepy talent at remembering people; names and random facts about them. I say creepy because Nick always thinks it's weird when we're trying to remember someone and I can bust out some random fact about them like their birthday or something personal about their family. Keep in mind that we've been in our ward for the last five years and it's a completely different congregation now than it was when we first started coming, including the bishop and high councilman. There is literally only one other couple that was there from the beginning. Everyone else has come and gone and new people have taken their places. To bring it a little more to life, this past month the relief society president and I were arranging visiting teaching assignments and we had four new move-ins to add in and seven families moving out that needed to be removed. Granted, the school semester is over so it's a high turnover month, but it's not uncommon to have a new family move in and a family move out every single month. My point is it's hard to know everyone in the ward, but I can honestly say I knew who every family was and something about them. I probably wouldn't have recognized that I have that talent if it wasn't for being in a student ward.

Although it's hard to say goodbye to this phase of our lives, we attended our new ward yesterday and I have to say, we are where we're supposed to be. I'm so excited for Shasta to start Sunbeams! I'm excited to have a primary in our ward and young men/young women. I'm excited for all the new opportunities it opens up to serve in church callings. Sitting in Relief Society, it was nice to look around and see women of all ages and especially not feel like I was among the oldest! And what I think I loved the most was the hum of angelic little primary voices singing faintly in the background during our Relief Society lesson. I'm sure it won't be long before I take those things for granted, but after seven years of not having it, it's the little things that make a family ward so great!

I'm sad to be done with the married student ward knowing that we'll never be in one again, but I'm excited to be in a family ward again. And more than that, I'm thankful to be in a good place in my life where I feel confident in myself and ready to serve in whatever calling comes my way. There was a time when i would feel so nervous to be called into the Bishop's office knowing he was going to give me a calling because there were certain callings I prayed I would never have (ie. Relief society teacher, Sunday school teacher, any kind of teacher, any kind of calling that put me up in front of people), but now I would feel good serving in any calling... as long as it isn't teaching Gospel Doctrine! Haha! Of course I may change my tune once we actually receive callings in the ward. I guess that will be a post for another day.

New Traditions: The Nativity

We started a new tradition this year that I absolutely love! The girls got to open a special present which was our very first children's nativity set. Then for family night we used the set to tell the story of Christ's birth. We planned on having family night on Sunday so Nick could be apart of it (since he would be better at telling the story), but we ended up getting home late from his Grandma's house so instead we did it the next day before the girls went down for naps and Nick left for work.

It was so fun to see the girls participate in the story. Nick pulled out his scriptures and read it word for word and occasionally stopped to explain something or ask if they understood what a certain word meant. As each "character" came into play, the girls got to take turns acting out those scenes with the nativity pieces. These pictures are a little deceiving because it looks like the girls are super engaged, and I guess for the most part they were, but we had to keep reminding them to sit and listen.

I love this picture of Shelby laying on the floor with her head down. She's actually interested in the nativity and gazing at it, not sleeping or being ornery!

And I love those little hands actively participating in the story!

Shelby was (and still is) obsessed with feeding all of the people. And putting all the pieces in her mouth.

This is her feeding the baby Jesus a baby bottle. She does this a LOT! I love how nurturing she is!

This new tradition is possibly my favorite of all our Christmas traditions. I think they took a lot away from the story and gained a better understanding of Christ's birth. Well, Shasta anyway. It made for a fun family night activity and it was fun to have Nick be apart of it.