Merry Christmas!

I really did a poor job of capturing pictures of Christmas this year. I got out the video camera instead but that means I don't have many pictures to put on my Christmas post. :) I love the Christmas season so much that it always makes me sad to have Christmas day actually come and see the season come to an end! We were able to spend time with both my family and Brian's over the holiday and that is always a lot of fun to chat and laugh with everyone. The kids really got into the spirit of giving this year with each of them making gifts for their friends and buying gifts for each other...thoughtful gifts for each other...not just something they stole from the other's bedroom and wrapped as they've done in years past. :)

This is my one picture I have of Hailey on Christmas morning going through her stocking and finding the fun earrings and nail polish. The rules for Christmas morning is that they can't come wake us up until at least 7 am so they actually showered to kill time before coming to get us. Nice!

...and this is my one picture of Nick on Christmas morning holding up something he got in his stocking.

I did, however, get a couple of pictures of the awesome wrapping job Nick did on the present he got for Hailey. I'm pretty sure we were out of tape after he got done with his wrapping!! :)

My favorite part of the morning was captured on the video below. The presents Nick and Hailey wanted MOST for Christmas were the new Ipod touches. I knew they would be looking for small rectangle shaped boxes under the tree and I also knew that what they would want LEAST would be socks & underwear. So I decided to hide the ipods & cases in a box under socks & underwear...hehehe. I set these presents aside and directed them to open some of the other presents and then near the end just casually mentioned opening those too like I had somehow forgot they were there. I could tell they were getting a little anxious that underneath the tree was quickly becoming depleted of presents and they still hadn't opened anything "ipodish". My favorite part of the video is how diplomatic they both were about getting a box of underwear for Christmas when they were really hoping those boxes contained ipods!! :)

As the season comes to an end my hope is that we can keep the feelings and spirit of Christmas all through the next year. I feel like the Christ centered lessons at church and conversations at home have been particularly near to my heart this year and I am grateful for the birth of our Savior and the role He plays in our lives. I'm grateful for good friends and family that surrounds us and makes our lives so much richer.

Catching Up

I haven't been very good at blogging lately...I guess it's due to the busy-ness of this time of year. So, here's a short picture tour of our life over the last month or so. :)

First, I just thought this science experiment was cool. Nick was bored one day and asked if he could try something his science teacher did...of course that makes a mom nervous when you're asked questions like that, but I thought is was pretty cool....perfect colors for the season. :)

Nick has been learning the saxophone in band this year and he's to the point now where he can play along with Hailey playing the piano. Maybe they're ready to start the Morrow family band? Okay, maybe not. :)

Our favorite little girl Ellie became a big sister last month. Now we have TWO favorite little Spencer girls!!!! :) What a blessing for them to adopt another little sweetheart and I can't think of two people who deserve it more!!

Hailey's 6th grade class put on their puppet show last week. I think this is one of the neatest projects they do because they have to take a story and turn it into a puppet show keeping the main points but putting it into a "conversation" and adding their personal touches. Then they make the puppets and the backgrounds to represent each scene. This is Hailey and her friend Jerika getting ready for their show.

This is Hailey's AWESOME teacher!!!! (Same one Nick had last year.) I am convinced he is one of the best 6th grade teachers in the country!!!!! He holds his students accountable and he also makes each and every student feel like they are the most important thing in his life. He truly loves teaching and it shows. He doesn't let any one of his students sell themselves short or not live up to their potential and beyond. His students want to excel to make him proud. He also attends as many of his students events as possible. He even came to Hailey's piano recital tonight where 2 of his students (Hailey and Brinn) were performing.

Hailey's puppets. Usually when Hailey is speaking in front of people she speaks very softly and almost mumbles because she hates to speak in public. But when she was doing this puppet show she spoke loudly and clearly and had a lot of voice inflection. I commented on that to her and her response was, "It's because I was hidden." :) She is much more animated when no one can see her. :)

That same day they had the Jingle Jam at school. When I was sitting there watching it struck me that this is the very last elementary school Jingle Jam I will attend with one of my kids

participating. It's so weird to me that Hailey will be in junior high next year. I don't feel like either one of us is old enough for that!!! :) This is Nick looking very thrilled to be all dressed up in his scout uniform. The awesome thing about this day though was he was heading to his Eagle Scout Board of Review!!! They don't let the parents into the board of review, but after they asked him questions for 10 or 15 minutes they send him out of the room to discuss everything amongst the board members. Then they called us all back in and let us know that they unanimously voted to award him his eagle and that date would be the day on record for him receiving it even though we won't be able to have his Eagle Court of Honor until everything is recorded at the national office...so probably about 6 to 8 weeks from now. He is very excited to be done with scouting but he is also happy he accomplished his goal of receiving his Eagle at age 13 like his Grandpa Walker and Uncle Dave did.

We got together with my side of the family yesterday for our Christmas Party and this is Nick modeling the apron grandma got him. He loves to cook but he never wears an apron because it's not manly but I think he'll wear this one. :)

Nick's haircut that I wish he had before his board of review but we didn't make time to go. :)

Hailey got to play on the grand piano at the church for her recital tonight. She was so nervous but she did really well!!!

After the recital we went to see the lights at Thanksgiving Point. I must say Brian was very patient amongst the thousands of other cars there as well and that's not usually what I say about him when he's driving. :)

Odds & Ends

A couple weeks ago the youth at church had a pinewood derby for their combined activity (boys and girls). The rules were that the girls could have their dads help them make their cars but the boys had to do it on their own. As you can see from the picture below, Nick DID make his car all on his own...hence the reason that his "weight" is a battery hot glued to the top of his car rather than in a hollowed out area on the bottom of the car. :) Amazingly, his car actually came in 1st in one of his heats and 2nd and 3rd in the other two heats.

This year for the kids picture on our Christmas cards we were playing off the word "bright" in our wish to everyone and had the kids wear sunglasses to symbolize the "brightness". This isn't the picture we used on the card but this is the one that made me laugh the hardest at Rocko with his sunglasses on looking over at Bryson like, "Come on dude...get your sunglasses on so we can get this over with." LOL! We couldn't believe Rocko left the sunglasses on and actually posed for the pictures!!!

I didn't take any pictures of our Thanksgiving dinner table, but I DID get this picture of Brian carving the turkey with his surgical gloves on...hahaha. He did not want to get his hands all yucky. :)

On Saturday after Thanksgiving we got all the fall stuff taken down and the Christmas stuff came out. I had to make more of an effort to get it out earlier this year since last year we didn't get the tree up till around the 12th or so of December. It's so awesome that the kids are old enough to put on all the ornaments and I just get to sort through boxes and decide what's being displayed and what's staying in the box.

...and this is what Brian does while the kids are decorating the tree. (That would be the remote in his hand.) :)

Hailey definitely is the queen decorator of the tree!!!

This time of year is so much fun! I love how much the kids love to help with the cooking on Thanksgiving and the decorating and wrapping for Christmas. It's also when the title of this blog resonates with me the most...others may make gourmet meals and have designer trees but what we have is just fine with me! I love my family and the time we spend together doing things the best we can. :)

Halloween, etc.

This year it was pouring down rain the day of trick or treating so Nick really didn't want to wear his big sumo suit with the fan. It did stop raining right before they went out but he was content just to wear the mask...he's on the right. His friend Dallin is on the left and they spent most of the night meeting up with girls, etc rather than doing a whole lot of trick or treating...I guess they're at that age. :)

Hailey, on the other, never wore any part of the clown costume we bought for her this year...shocking. :) She has never been really big on dressing up for Halloween but always THINKS she is going to get into dressing up each year. :) She convinced me that she could put a black hat on sideways and be a "gangsta". :)

This is just a random picture added to show what a kid can resort to to combat the boredom they sometimes feel on Sunday. Hailey said she wanted a snack so Nick made her this plate of vegetables and whipped cream covered strawberries...I think he's been watching the food network too much...hahaha. :)

Nick and his puppy!

Of course you can't forget the annual pumpkin carving...even though I almost did. We got their pumpkins about 2 days before Halloween and they did EVERYTHING from start to finish. I'm so happy I'm not cleaning out pumpkin guts or messing up on the carving anymore. :) Even though I feel like my kids are growing up way to fast and I'd love to slow down time, there are some advantages to having older kids!! :)

Such posers with their pumpkins. :)

I think these are the happiest pumpkins ever! :)

Hailey also painted a mini pumpkin with my young women when we did this for an activity. I thought it turned out really cute.

Halloween Party

Last week was our Halloween Party for the youth at church. Nick had us running all over to find the blow up sumo wrestler costume for this party and we finally found one. He told his friends about it so they were out trying to find one as well so they could all go as the these big wrestlers. Only one of his friends found one and it happened to be a "female" costume. They looked hilarious!!

I went as a hippie chick and this wig made me look so different that no one talked to me for the first 10 minutes because no one knew who I was. :)

UEA Weekend

Last Thursday and Friday the kids didn't have school for UEA (I think that's a teacher conference) so we headed down to Vegas for a couple of days. I really don't love Vegas but since Brian is such a frequent traveler and chooses to stay at the Hilton properties on most trips, they gave him a free weekend in Vegas. It was actually a condo-type resort with no casino on the property so very family-friendly. I forgot my camera so I have no pictures of our trip but it was fun to get away. We had the pool to ourselves for a couple hours on Friday morning and they had a big net to play water volleyball so the 4 of us played some very competitive games...hahaha. We're all VERY good at water volleyball. (NOT)...it's so easy to move around in 3-4 ft water to dive for the balls.

My favorite line from the trip was when we were ordering at the Cheesecake Factory and the waitress asked Hailey how she wanted her burger cooked. I realized immediately that my children had never been asked that question before because Hailey's response was "Good". Smart girl...who wants a burger cooked yucky! :)

Exciting Times at Work

The owner/founder of the company I work for has been working on a book that encompasses the principles from the coaching programs we sell. He originally started out as a tennis coach but soon realized that the knowledge he was "bestowing" on his students was creating a lot of interference in how they performed. They were so worried about thinking about everything they'd been taught that it actually interfered with performing at a high level. Over time he created a process of getting rid of the interference and focusing on what's most important in order to perform at the highest level possible. He then transferred these same principles into the business world and we now use them to help managers/leaders help employees perform at their highest level. He has continued to work with athletes in the tennis and golf world but the success of his company has proven that these principles are universal. His book was completed a few months ago and is being launched officially this week. A LOT of work has gone into completing the requirements in order to launch this book on the New York Times Best Seller list and it also launched as #1 on Amazon. We had a launch party on Monday to celebrate this great accomplishment and we look forward to continued success with the book!! I am grateful to be a part of this organization, and I'm grateful that they are flexible with me and my hours so I can be home with my kids when they are home from school...a complete win/win!

The books being proudly displayed on the conference table. It is called "You Already Know How to Be Great (Subtitle: A Simple Way to Remove Interference and Unlock Your Greatest Potential) The King Chess piece is displayed on the table because on the cover it shows a Pawn in the front with the King in the shadow behind.

This is actually a cake make in the likeness of the book. Amazing!!!

Cookies also made in the likeness of the book...yes we all went away on a sugar high!! :)

Most of the team...unfortunately not everyone could be in this picture because we have Regional Sales Directors located in the field.

Key people responsible for the writing and launch success of the book. From left to right...Kim, CEO; Rebecca, writer; Alan, author; Jacques, Director of Marketing

Eagle Project - Check! :)

Today was Nick's Eagle Project and it turned out to be a lot of fun! He did a Safety Fair with a Fire Truck & Ambulance, Seat Belt Convincer (which was the hit of the day), Beer Goggles (which came in a close 2nd), Fingerprinting, Internet Safety information, Face Painting, Bean Bag Toss, and bike safety information with a bike course to ride. Unfortunately only 1 kid brought their bike and 2 kids brought their scooters to ride the course so the bike cops were probably a little bored. :) I am extremely appreciative though of all the people that helped him accomplish this project...both the ones that brought the equipment, etc. and the ones that showed up to participate! I think he learned a lot through this process and I'm grateful for that.

Bryson "walking the line" while wearing the beer goggles. It was pretty funny watching everyone try to do this. Some were better than others...hmmmmmm...haha.

Nick and Briggs giving the Seat Belt Convincer a try. This "ride" simulates a 5 mile per hour crash and shows the importance of seat belts.

Nick getting his face painted by a "good friend". :) As you can see, it wasn't all work and no play for him. :)

The cool eagle Madelyne painted on Nick's cheek.

One of my BFF's, Cara modeling the "gurney" pose. :)

Hailey & Kaelen on the Convincer.

Another BFF, Chris, at the Fingerprinting table fingerprinting all the kids.

Notice all the boys hanging around the face painting table where all the cute girls were the face painters. :)

Nick "walking the line".

Brian walking the line. He decided from this that if he was ever intoxicated he would always veer left. :)

Chris and I on the Convincer. I was actually pretty shocked at how hard of a hit it is at only 5 miles per hour. It makes you understand how people can actually be ejected out of cars when they're not wearing their seat belts.

We're now very relieved that it's over with and Nick is thrilled that he doesn't have to worry about merit badges or anything like that any more! :)