So, yeah, Christmas Cards....

That's something I'm hoping to get to this weekend. I wonder if it will happen?

must. make. it. happen.

My friend TeachinFourth was talking about his Christmas cards and it reminded me that I need to get crack-a-lackin' on mine.

What? You don't know TeachinFourth?

You REALLY should. He tells awesome stories about a certain 4th grader named "Joey" and besides being a kick butt fourth grade teacher he has some amazing photography skills that I may or may not be jealous of.

Okay...I am jealous of them.

Anyhow. You should really check him out. Head over to his blog or his photography site Along the Backroads and ask him

"How YOU doin'?"

You won't regret it.

What does one do on December 13th in Utah??

Well if you were like me you went out to the shed and opened it up...

Pulled out the good ol' Yardman mower....

Fired it up and....

MOWED THE LAWN

This is DECEMBER 13!!!!

In UTAH !!!

Check that date stamp on the pictures if you are a non-believer.

On the docket for tomorrow?
Hanging the outside Christmas lights.

Because it's supposed to snow on Wednesday.

And thanks to me those lovely little flakes

will have a pristine lawn to land and pile up on.

And I hope they pile high.

Because I would really like a white Christmas.

And I don't want to pull that mower out again

until sometime in April....

possibly May.

On a side note...

I found these on my back lawn.

We haven't had a dog for a while now.

Should I call CSI??

One of my favorite things about Christmas

A Muppet's Christmas Carol. It's my number one favorite Christmas movie.

What's yours?

Too many, too soon

The lapse in blogging is because...

Our family has, to yet again, say goodbye. Or as my darling niece put it "This is see you later....I'm not into goodbyes."

She was talking about her mom. My ex-sister-in-law who died unexpectedly on Friday. She was two years younger than me.

And even though she and my brother were divorced they had managed to stay friends. In fact I saw her in the store a few days before she died and we had a nice little chat. I thanked her for being there for Ben and for being a friend to him.

Kodi had a big heart and was willing and wanted to help out those she loved. My heart breaks for the three kids she leaves behind.

Her oldest just got engaged. She is a strong, beautiful, amazing girl. Who, as she sat waiting for her grandpa to come and drive her home from college after receiving the tragic news, thought to herself, "Well, now mom will be able to be there for my wedding." She will be married in the Salt Lake Temple and her mom wouldn't have been able to be there for the ceremony. She is already planning on going to the temple to do the work for her mom when the time comes.

Kodi will be missed. I know her children are in good hands. They have some of the best grandparents anyone could ask for, my mom being one of them. They have many aunts, uncles and cousins who love them dearly and will be there for them in the years to come.

I am concerned for my brother. This has hit him hard and I'm not really sure what I can do, if anything to ease what he is going through. The future is uncertain. I hope and pray that we don't have to say "See you later" to anyone else for a long, long time.

*edited...I put that she died Saturday but it was Friday so I corrected that.

How Shanna Got Her Groove Back..

Crafting Groove that is.

So I do like to do crafty stuff but my crafting mojo has been on the fritz the last little while. But something got me going again. It could be the fact that I'm in charge of my family's Christmas party and therefore went looking for some fun ideas.

Since it's the first day of December I thought I would share with you the advent calendar that I made.

Here is the page that I got the idea from.

I love advent calendars but I don't like to buy the ones from the store because I'm not too impressed with them. This is one that, hopefully, will last through the years. It's not too difficult to make but it is a bit time consuming.

In the directions it says to use "strong and regular adhesive (SNAIL and Terrific Tape)". I had no idea where to find those so I used Mod Podge instead and it worked really well...I did try to use hot glue... that did not go well.

I got my tins from PaperMart.com. I thought that the price was pretty reasonable and they came in lots of 24...just the amount I needed. They are a little bit shallow but you can put notes of activities that you can do as a family rather than treats. I didn't have time to sit down and figure out what days would be best for us to do the different activities so I just put in chocolate.

Also instead of stamping the numbers I just found a font that I liked on my computer and printed them out and then cut them out.

Here's how it turned out for me.

There you have it! If you have any questions feel free to ask.

I'll do my best to answer.