B.Y.U. Elves

Last year I found this cute picture of Elves on Pinterest and pinned it.  This year I saw it in my Christmas pinterest file and was inspired.  I would make Holly and her 3 BYU roommates into Elves. Nathan was sick at the beginning of November and since I was stuck at home with him I used that day to make the elves.

First I found a pattern from Pinterest.

I cut out the patterns, altering them a bit to look more like the elves in the first picture.

Then as I watched a Hallmark Christmas special I made the 4 Elves.  Hallmark movies and paper crafts are my favorite. :)

This is what my work area in front of the TV looked like.  Nathan spent his sick day watching lego and minecraft YouTube videos so he didn't mind that I was hogging the TV.

Once the elves were complete I gave them heads.  I cropped pictures of Holly and her roommates' heads and then enlarged them until they were the right size to fit the elves bodies.

They looked great until I realized that Holly couldn't high five her roommate (that she shares a bedroom with) and that Holly and her roommate had the same color of hats.

So I did some flipping of bodies and hats and then I was really happy with the finished product. Each girl is high fiving the girl that she shares a room with and they have different colored, hats, gloves and clothes.

I put the elves into a Christmas box that I mailed to Holly at the end of November.  She made a cute unboxing video when she opened the box and the next four pictures are from that.  First, she pulled out this file that said elf yourself and wondered what it was.

 She thought the elves were very funny.

 Here she is showing two of the Elves to the camera.

 She took this picture of the four elves together.

Holly told me that the elves are now hanging on the outside of their dorm doors and that everyone thinks they are fun.  I enjoyed making them and she likes them so I call that a success!
Today I am really thankful that:
*We got to attend baby Claire's blessing yesterday.  She is grandchild #19 for my parents.

 We had a great lunch afterward at my brother's house.

Fall at the Walker house

 I love decorating for the holidays and I love having visitors who come over and enjoy my decorations.  You can be my virtual visitor today. 

Here are the pumpkins and mums on my front porch.  I almost wish those pumpkins wouldn't be carved next week for Halloween. 

I decorated these glass jars a few years ago and we light them up on Halloween night for trick or treaters to see.

I'm very proud of my mantle and I love that it has twinkle lights.  Extra lights when it is dark outside always feels magical.

A few Halloween jelly stickers make our view into the backyard festive too.

Here are some haunted houses my kids have made.

 I even get to enjoy a little Halloween fun as I do the dishes each day.

 Finally, my Halloween picture wall in the kitchen.  Some are from past years and some are new.  Kids' art is my favorite.

 I even took a fun trip to the local pumpkin patch with my kids and my mom.  My mom took this picture for me.

 Other exciting things this month.  Emily got her YW in recognition award and here is a picture of her that night. 

 Emily went to the High School homecoming dance with her good friend Jeremy.  I love how he got suspenders to match her dress.

 A close up of beautiful Emily.

Nathan's baptism

In September Nathan got baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  He had his baptism interview with the bishop on his 8^th birthday where he posed lots of thoughtful questions including could he wear goggles.  Nathan just learned to put his head under the water this summer but would only ever do so when he was wearing googles.  His sister Melissa had a pair of clear goggles so Nathan took those to the bishop interview so he could show them to him. The bishop told Nathan he could decide with his parents about the goggles.  Fortunately, a day or two after the interview it donned on me that if Nathan wore goggles his eyes wouldn’t get wet and so he wouldn’t be fully immersed.  I mentioned that to Nathan and he agreed with me and never brought up wearing goggles again.

Scott headed out first for the baptism so he could fill up the font, then I came with the kids.  The font was about ½ way filled up when we got there.  Nathan and Scott got dressed in their baptism clothing and posed for this picture before the guests arrived.

Bishop Beeson and his wife were the first to come, followed by my parents.  The Standages and Grandma Walker were next.  They had come from Michael’s soccer game so they had to change into their Sunday clothes in the church bathroom. Michael forgot his change of clothes so that's why he is wearing his blue soccer clothes in the picture. My kids posed with their Standage cousins.  We missed Holly being there but she is having fun at college in Utah.

It was so exciting to see Grandma Walker walk into the baptism room.  She had a big smile on her face.  This was the first baptism that she has been able to attend for our kids so it was wonderful to have her there.  She was staying with the Standages that week helping her daughter Laura recover from surgery and fortunately the baptism was scheduled for when she was in town.  I took this picture of Nathan with both of his Grandmas to remember how they were both there.

Bryce came with his family from Brian and Katie’s cross country meet as did Andrew and his family. My brother Barrett came with his 6 kids.  His wife stayed home with 3-day old baby Claire. My brother Derek came too.  It is a blessing to have so many loving and close by relatives that can come to things like this. :)

Bishop Beeson conducted and started out by saying he had known the Moulton family ever since his family moved to Washington 26 years ago.  I guess he and his wife are kind of like family too.  I played the opening song with only a few off notes. I wish Holly had been there to play the piano, she is much better than I am.  Grandma Walker gave the opening prayer and you could hear the happiness in her voice that she was able to be there.  Then Grandma Moulton gave a great baptism talk about how we are following Jesus when we are baptized and about the Holy Ghost. I felt like I was watching her in senior missionary mode.  She was very knowledgeable and confident. :)

After the talk it was time for the baptism.  Nathan got right up and headed to the font, he didn’t appear nervous at all.  All of Nathan’s little cousins came up to the font to watch the baptism.  Scott said the prayer and then Nathan went all the way under the water.  I was standing near the font stairs when Nathan came out of the water and handed a small white washcloth to Scott so Nathan could dry his eyes.  When I asked Nathan about the baptism later he said “the water was so warm, I wish I could have stayed in longer”.  

While Nathan and Scott got dried off and changed we each made a little note for Nathan to read later.  Sister Beeson played primary songs on the piano while we made the notes. Then Nathan was confirmed by Scott. After the blessing Nathan shook hands with all of the men in the circle.  The Bishop spoke for a few minutes and we sang the closing song and had a prayer by Grandpa Moulton.  Then we had the refreshments.  Scott had asked me to a buy one of those big mixed bags of candy from Costco.  Everyone enjoyed the candy.  We also had grapes, strawberries, Costco mini cinnamon rolls, and delicious peanut butter cookies made by Grandma Moulton.  This picture shows lots of good visiting and enjoying of the treats.

Nathan gave the treats two thumbs up.

Grandma Moulton made this cool CTR pillow for Nathan.

Me and my big boy.  I still can't believe he is already 8.

The Bishop took a group picture of us outside.  I love how one of my nephews refused to face forward.  My kids went through a phase like that too.

Andrew had brought bikes for his boys and so we all went to the mountain biking course in the park behind the church to watch them ride for a while.  It was a pretty cool course with lots of hills and all the other kids were wishing that had brought their bikes too.

The Sunday following Nathan's baptism we got to church early and the Bishop invited Nathan to go up to the stand with him.  Nathan was expecting this and happily went up.  It was cute to see him sitting there between the Bishop and his counselor, I wish I had gotten a picture.  After the opening song and prayer, he was welcomed into the ward as the newest member of the church. Congrats Nathan!

Today I am thankful that:
*Holly called us last night, we weren't expecting it, and it is always fun to hear from her.  Also we skyped on Sunday with her for the first time and got to meet her sweet roommate.
*I have lots of new conference talks to listen to as I drive from here to there.  I sure love our prophet, his counselors, and all the others who gave talks last weekend.  Their talks were just what I needed to hear.
*My first 4 days of subbing have gone well.  I am not nearly as nervous subbing this year as I was last year.  I have a renewed awe for first grade teachers as I have recently subbed in 3 different 1st grade classes.  The kids are at so many different levels academically, socially, and behaviorally.  

Just a note: For some reason blogger won't let me read your private blogs any more (even if I have a link).  So if you have a private blog I won't be reading it or commenting. I wish I could.  Luckily most of you are on Facebook or Instagram so I can keep up with you that way.

Summer Trip to Utah

I haven't posted in a long time because I don't know if anyone is reading my blog.  If you are and you want to see more posts please comment at the end.  If you don't then this is my last post. I will still post photos on Facebook and Instagram but not on blogger anymore.

In preparation for our trip we bought a new Toyota Sienna Van.  For two years we have been considering buying a new van as ours is old. This summer we decided that we didn't want to risk driving it to Utah in our van because it could break down so we replaced it.

I was very sad about losing my old van.  This van was my sidekick for 12 years and was so easy to drive and park.  It didn't have any high tech features which I loved, since that meant fewer things to break.  We were fortunate to sell it in just a few days after we bought the new van.  The old van was a 2002 (we bought it used) so it worked well for 14 years which is quite impressive.

 Another thing we did before heading to Utah was take a new family picture.  We were going to be dropping off our oldest child Holly at college in Utah so I wanted to get a new family picture before she was gone.  I plan to use this picture for our Christmas card this year.

Our new van drove us safely to Utah and was able to hold a ton of cargo inside which was wonderful. One of the first things we did in Utah was go to Target with Holly to stock up on the supplies she would need for college.  We got there a few days before the college rush so the Orem Target was still well stocked.

We were also able to reconnect with a few old friends in Utah.  Here we are the Youngquists who we knew when we attended BYU.  They were in the same Riviera ward with us and were dating each other the same time Scott and I were dating each other.

 Here are our kids together.  They have a beautiful house in Bountiful which we got to tour.

 We attended church with Grandma and Grandpa and then posed in their front yard after church.

 That afternoon I took Megan, Emily, and Holly and we went to Lehi to visit the Criddle family.  They were in our ward in Arizona and were some of our best friends.

 Me and my friend Beckie

Sunday evening we visited the Provo Temple and a nice guy took our picture.

Wednesday morning we packed up our van with all Holly's belongings and headed to BYU to check her in.

The hallway in her dorm had been festively decorated by the R.A.

This Bulletin board was especially cute.

 Emily and I stayed with Holly for a couple of hours and helped her unpack and set everything up.

Here Holly is trying out her new high bed.

Scott brought the rest of the family to see her dorm after we were done setting it up.

We found two nice piano practice rooms in her dorm's basement which Holly has been enjoying ever since.

Here is a picture of Holly with her 3 roommates.  They are all nice friendly girls and they are best buddies already.  I'm sorry this picture is so blurry. We have a new computer and the photo program doesn't work like my old one.

 She's doing well at college so far and we made it home safely from Utah.

Today I am thankful that:
*I got to go for a walk with my mom.  It really is special living so close to her.
*My kids had a pretty good first day of school and were willing to go back today.
*Holly sends us frequent texts so we can hear about her fun experiences.