Merry and Bright 2016 Family Photos

Our Christmas Card 2016

Merry and Bright Family Photos 2016

We had our nephew Manoel Silva take our family photos. We decided to take them at the beautiful rocky amphitheater in American Fork across the street from the Mount Timpanogos Temple. For our color pallet, we tried to match little brother's long sleeve shirt. I think they turned out cute! Thanks Manoel! 

Winter Olympics and Adore You Scraps

Since the Winter Olympics are taking place this week, I decided to share my scrap page of when the 2002 Winter Olympics came to Utah. During that time, we went downtown to Provo to check out the ice sculptures, activities, and watched the Olympics on the television afterwards.

Winter Olympics, 2002

Credits: I used "Winter Wonderland" Kit by Shabby Princess and  Mareen's print for the font.

As for a lovely Valentine's Day page, I would like to share how much I adore my two daughters! They have such a sweet relationship as sisters. I am certain they will always look out for each other. 

Adore You, 2009

Credits: This is an old kit by Dani Mogstad called "Crazy Love". I used FO giggles and DJB fonts for the fonts.

December 2013 was a busy month!

December 2013 was also an eventful and stressful month for our household. We had several events and doctor appointments going on each week such as state report homework, Festival of Trees, choir concerts, young woman activities, little brother stayed at the hospital, followed up with doctor appointments, big sis got her braces off, and celebrated baby's first Christmas.  I cannot believe how fast this month went by since we were extremely busy!

State Report
At the last minute, hubby and I helped complete little sister's state report (we were up most the night, ugh). She did the state of Illinois for her report and hopefully learned her lesson to never procrastinate ever again! Around the same time, we had horrible internet issues, which finally got resolved three weeks later, grrrr! We actually had to go to the public library since we couldn't research at home.

Festival of Trees
For Big sister's foods class at school, she went on a field trip to see the Festival of Trees in Salt Lake City. Her favorite Christmas tree was the Audrey Hepburn Breakfast at Tiffany's and Toy Story display.

Christmas Choir Concerts

Big sis had a chamber choir concert at school while little sis performed at a local mall, nursing home, and her elementary school. According to Dad, they both did a great job! I wasn't able to attend due to little brother not feeling well and went to the hospital. 

Temple Square

For Young Woman activities, big Sis went to Salt Lake City to see the Christmas lights at Temple Square and went ice skating at Seven Peaks.

Little Bro's Second Hernia Surgery

At 3:00 AM on December 11, 2013, Baby brother was struggling to breathe and we noticed a very loud rattle in his chest. We took him to the ER at American Fork Hospital, which he was admitted for bronchiolitis, swine flu, and Morgagni diaphragmatic hernia. He had to be life flight via helicopter to Utah Valley Hospital so that he could be treated by several pediatric specialists.  The next day he struggled to breathe on high flow oxygen maxed out while fighting his two viruses and the doctors feared he was too weak for surgery.  He had an x-ray on Thursday afternoon that showed that his hernia was larger, shifting his heart to the right, putting pressure on his trachea, and stomach. At that point, most the doctors feared he would crash eventually if he didn't get surgery right away because he was literally using all his energy to breathe (it was very scary to watch his chest rise and fall with labored breathing). So his team of doctors decided it was time to repair his hernia even though it was extremely risky due to his low immune system. To our surprise, little bro was remarkable during surgery and had zero complications! The doctor pulled his intestines out of his chest and repaired the hole in his diaphragm, which was under his liver.  Unexpectedly, he recovered fully from surgery and his viruses after a few days.  His pain was managed well, he ate up to four ounces of bottle, and he voided many diapers. He was discharged from the hospital on Monday December 15, 2013. What a strong little man and amazingly, I remained calm during this whole experience due to our baby receiving two healing priesthood blessings from my husband and family members. I knew he was very sick the day before he went to the hospital.  I had an emotional melt down and looked at my precious son in the eyes and said, "You fight for your life!" My faith and many prayers kept me strong!  On December 26 and 27, 2013, he met with his surgeon and pediatrician. Little bro will need to follow up with a feeding therapist, physical therapist, gastric intestinal specialist, and genetic specialist. He also got a prescription for acid reflux, which hopefully will improve his bottle feedings.  It is still unknown what caused his birth defects (four hernias, wow) or if he has some sort of syndrome, but we are hopeful he will continue to live a normal and happy life with help from many medical professionals. Sadly, he starting to fall behind on some major milestones and needs help gaining weight.  He unfortunately has a "conditioned" bottle aversion (I think when he drinks the bottle he is afraid of pain or may have bad acid reflux since he gags, spits ups, and coughs a lot after consuming his bottle) So we will address his feeding issues by a feeding therapist. As for his weak muscles, he many need help from a physical therapist to help him to accomplish his major gross motor skills such as rolling over and sitting up again, and future ones such as crawling, standing, and walking.  He will be evaluated by Kids on the Move and they may have other services available to him.  I am confident he will catch up on milestones and gain weight in the near future! 

No More Braces
On December 19, 2013, big sister finally got her braces off. Look at that gorgeous smile! She has to wear a clear retainer for the next six months!  That smile is worth every dime! She is very pretty!

No Place Like Home for the Holidays
One of our friends sent this Santa letter photograph to us, which they saw at a local elementary school. It said, "Dear Santa, Can you please give Zachary Free a good Christmas. He is very sick and in the hospital. Also I ask you to help him have a Merry Christmas." Isn't that adorable? We are so grateful for the love and service that our friends, family, and neighbors did for us during our time of need!

Baby's First Christmas

Having little brother home for Christmas was the greatest gift of all for us since he was expected to stay at the hospital for a couple weeks. It was a great blessing that he healed very quickly because of many prayers, positive thoughts, and well wishes. We had a peaceful and lazy Christmas day. My father in-law stopped by to visit, which was strange not having my mother in-law here for Christmas. We enjoyed spending time with him. Baby brother loved his new toys and clothes. The girls enjoyed spending family time watching new Disney movies, eating ham and cheesy potatoes leftovers, and drinking hot chocolate, etc.  

Bring on 2014!!!

I recall my husband lost his job earlier during the year and four months later was blessed with a great job opportunity. In June 2012, I suffered a miscarriage while this year we were blessed with a strong baby boy that joined our family in May.  Little brother has gone through two major surgeries and was such a trooper during both of them. My mother in-law fought cancer for six months and passed away peacefully in November. She is now our guardian angel who will watch over us always. After a year of challenges, sorrows, and triumphs, we can truly see that the Lord has blessed us in our lives. We are looking forward to seeing what 2014 adventures will bring us! Happy New Year!!!

Season of Snow * Winter Scraps *

Since it it BRRRRR cold outside (currently 15 degrees outdoors) and we are surrounded by a lot of snow, I thought I would share some of my winter scraps!

Frosty Fun, 2010

Credits: I used Frosted Flakes kit by Dani Mogstad and Catherine's College Days font.
Winter Wonderland, 2006

Credits: I used the Winter Wonderland kit by Shabby Princess.

Fave Winter Scrap Pages for 2012

Since it is officially the last day of winter, I would like to post some of my favorite winter scraps.  I am looking forward to Spring especially after mother nature dropped two inches of snow this morning, ugh!  Luckily, we have warmer temperatures later in the week!

Snow Day, 2010

Credits:  The template is from Sweet Shoppe Designs "Dattlan" 2011 Cookie template, Snow Day doodles are by Kate Hadfield, papers Karah Fredricks,  green and pink alpha are by Kaye Winiecki, word strips, stitching, orange frame, and orange paper by Eve Kipler all from the The Lily Pad.
Be Mine, 2011

Credits:  Love You template by Morignals,  Project Scrap January 2012 template (free) from Shabby Princess blog, Wild Love kit and Seasonal Sampler Amore (free kit) by Shabby Princess and Three Dates and One Night font.

Valentine's Day Surprises

I love Valentine's Day surprises!  We sure had a marvlous day!  The girls were dressed in pink...  We made a simple heart and foil Valentine's Day box for little sis and big sister received many Valentine's from her friends at school.  No worries nothing shown here were from boys!  She does not have a boyfriend or secret admirer...  Obviously, big sis has a lot of friends!

I made special Valentine's Day school lunches for my girls the night before.  They included the following: heart shaped ham and cheese sandwich, a clementine, Capri Sun, strawberry fruit roll up, a pink Loft House cookie, and Chicken in a Biskit crackers.  Then I enclosed a Happy Valentine from Mom too.

Later in the evening John surprised the girls with a puppy!  One of the biggest pros of living in our new place is the owners allow small pets with an extra deposit.  So we looked for the perfect puppy for our needs:
 non shedding
 hypoallergenic
 small breed
 intelligent
 easy to train
and happy
I did some research on several breeds and the winner is a bishon frise/poodle mix.  We named him Jagger! Isn't he the cutest puppy ever?  He already knows how to play fetch, sleeps in his kennel at night, and sometimes walks on his two front legs.  He loves to entertain us.  I can already see that he will have fun learning new tricks!  As for potty training that is another story.  In due time, he will get the hang of that.  We absolutely adore him!

December 2011 Highlights

December was a super busy month for us, which is typical during this time of the year with Christmas shopping, holiday traffic, choir concerts, several parties, visiting Santa Claus, etc.  Among all the holiday craziness, we found out on December 14 that John has type two diabetes and the following day we had to move out of our rental home because our landlord sold his home (a 15 day notice).  So we were extremely busy packing and looking for a new place during the holiday break.  To be honest, I lost the holiday spirit due to the stress. Since I boxed up all my Christmas stuff, we spent Christmas in southern Utah with my husband's parents.  We enjoyed the peace and quiet bliss at Granny's house (a simple and small country town)!  Granny spoiled us with incredible tasty food!  On Christmas Eve, we drove a couple hours to see Aunt Rhea.  We had a lovely time visiting with her, Vickie, and Carmen.  Granny read a wonderful Christmas story to my girls that night and we enjoyed the glow of candle light dinners.  We went to church for one hour the next day and opened presents after church. We were so happy we spent some time with Granny and Grandpa Free!  A week later, we moved on New Years Eve with help from our awesome family, neighbors, and ward members!  Luckily, the weather was great (no snow) on moving day.  Later that day, one of our old ward members dropped off some pizza, bread sticks, and soda while we unpacked at our new place then we went to a friend's house for a New Years Eve party (we were invited to three parties that night).  We will miss our Grovecreek ward!  We found a wonderful place on the west side of town. It is a lot bigger than our last home with tons of storage space, yard, storage shed, tool shed, greenhouse, potato cellar, etc. Pictures will come later once we are all set up... I have a lot of empty spaces.  Hopefully we can purchase our own home in the future.  In the meantime, we are blessed we found a great place during this cold and chaotic time of the year.  We hope to get to know our neighbors and make new friends in our new ward in the next couple weeks. 

DECEMBER HIGHLIGHTS

Junior High Choir Concert

Big Sister with her friend at their choir concert

A Fabulous Birthday Haircut (thanks Jenny)! 

A Gorgeous Hair Style from David Douglas Salon

  Checking out the Christmas lights at the River Bottoms Mall 

Never Too Old for Santa Claus 

A Peaceful Christmas in Southern Utah and My girls with Aunt Rhea!

Wearing Red on Christmas Day!

 Making Memories with Granny and Grandpa Free

 Playing Barbies in the Snow! Priceless!

Winter Wonderland Scraps

Since it's brrrr cold outside. I thought I'd upload one of my favorite winter scrapbook pages!

Winter Magic, 2008

My girls had a lot of fun in the snow! The journaling says: The magic of winter is making a snow family come to life! Credits: The cluster of photo frames are by Gunhild Storeide from here http://www.storeide.se/gunhild/index.htm and I used "Snow Bunny" kit by Laura Deacetis and Dani Mogstad. I used the following fonts: Jane Austen and Love Ya Like A Sister.

On the 3rd and 2nd Days Before Christmas...

On the 3rd, day before Christmas, John surprised the girls with some cool simple plastic sleds. So they went sledding down the hills in our backyard. The snow was slushy compared to the dense snow the day before.



During the evening while watching Christmas movies on TV, to our surprise the Christmas tree fell down onto the floor! Wow, what a cheap Walmart tree! For a couple days, I have noticed it leaning more to one side. It reminded me of the sad "Charlie Brown" Christmas tree. My oldest daughter put tons of tinsel on it while my youngest daughter and I were at the hospital. I guess the tree could not handle the weight of the tinsel,ornaments, lights, and so forth. Instead getting all upset or angry, I got a great laugh out of the situation. I laughed so hard my eyes were watering! LOL!!!



Craft alert! This year my girls and I made some homemade Christmas ornaments. We cut out tons of small snowflakes, applied some glue, and sprinkled silver glitter designs. I tied them with some thin gray sewing thread. They were easy and added a lot of character to my "Charlie Brown" Christmas tree!



Supplies: glitter, glue, paper, scissors, a small cup, pencil, and sewing tread.

Step 1. Draw a circle with a small cup.
Step 2. Fold circle in half.
Step 3. Fold it in half again.



Step 4. Fold it again for the 3rd and last time.
Step 5. Cut the corner (straight across, rounding it, or cutting two slits)
Step 6. On each sides cut out deigns (circles, squares, triangles, ovals, etc).

Next you glue your design and sprinkle the glitter on top. Allow it to dry for a couple hours before adding the sewing string.





On the 2nd day before Christmas, I did some last minute shopping with my brother Nate and sister Karen for my mother who is in a nursing home. We picked out some new clothes and slippers for my Mom and a sweater for my step Dad Dennis. My mother is no longer stable on her feet due to her Parkinson's disease. She can walk in walker but is a little shaky! She is now in a wheel chair and needs a lot of assistance with her daily activities. In addition to the clothes and slippers, I gave her a small bag of mixed chocolates, a homemade pink hair flower clip (bought the supplies from Hobby Lobby), a homemade bookmark, which I printed out from Shabby Princess, a quick homemade fleece blue winter scarf, and The Christmas Box a book by Richard Paul Evans. My brother, sister, and I delivered her presents to the nursing home to bring her some Christmas cheer.



We have been preparing our turkey by soaking it in a cooler with some amazing goodness (water, sugar, seasonings, citrus, and so forth) for our Christmas Eve dinner! It smells amazing every time I take a look at the process! John is so proud of his turkey brine mixture!



Just one more day before Christmas!

Daddy Daughter Winter Ball

On Saturday night December 11, 2010 was my oldest daughter's Winter Formal Ball, which I was in charge of setting up, decorating the gym, getting the food, and doing the invitations. Here is the cute invitation that I made out of my digital scrap-booking supplies. Please note we had to make a date change a week later after the invitations went out, due to a wedding reception going on that same night at the church. It worked out better for most us to move the date anyway!



I used Winter Wonderland kit by Shabby Princess, the snow man and snow girl doodles are by Kate Hadfield @ The Lily Pad, and the font is sister-frisky.

We wanted to do a special fun activity that the girls would remember always with their Dads. So we thought a dinner, dance lesson, dessert, and small gift exchange between the girls and Dads would be a perfect memory to cherish forever. There were three other Primary leaders Sister Law, Sister Montoya, and Sister Sister Johansson who helped me that day. We did a silver, blue, and white winter ball theme with tons of snow flakes and white or blue Christmas lights. I made the silver glittered snow flake place cards as well as several paper snow flakes. A couple weeks ago for one of my activities, I had my 8-11 year old activity day girls help me cut out the snow flakes, write letters to their Dads, and glittered the snow flakes for the place cards. They were able to count that activity as a service project since they helped us with the decorations for the ball.

Here is what the table looked like with the place cards and centerpiece.



It was a fun fairy tale night! Everyone was dressed in their best dress. First the girls and Dads received their "king" crowns and "princess" tiaras from a basket then they got their pictures taken in the foyer. We made a backdrop out of a portable chalk board, white sheet, Christmas lights, and snowflakes. When I get the photo back from Sister Law, I will post it on here.



Next, they all gathered in the gym and looked for their place cards. They socialized for a few minutes until we had a blessing on the food. We had the food catered from BYU catering services. We ordered fettucini Alfredo, brownies, and bread sticks from BYU. We picked up some drinks, Ranch salad dressing, salad mixes, and ice from the store. Sister Montoya and I delivered the food right when the ball started. We had to hurry home and change into formal wear and get back to help serve the food,etc. During the lovely dinner, the girls and their Dads seemed to enjoy it very much. In fact, one of the Dads said, "Is this food from Olive Garden?" What a huge compliment for BYU catering. I even got to eat a plate of the food and I was very impressed with it too and thought it was delicious!



After eating dinner, Sister Law and Sister Johansson taught the Dads and girls a waltz. Annie Law is a talented dancer with a lot of dance experience. We played several fun Christmas songs that they all danced too. It was fun to watch the little girls smile and giggle while they danced with their Daddy!









My daughter is stepping on her daddy's toes while dancing, lol!





After dancing for about 30 minutes, we had dessert. While Sister Montoya read The Pearl Necklace poem, the Dads and girls ate their chocolate brownies.

The Pearl Necklace

The cheerful girl with bouncy golden curls was almost five. Waiting with her mother at the checkout stand, she saw them: a circle of glistening white pearls in a pink foil box.

"Oh please, Mommy. Can I have them? Please, Mommy, please!"

Quickly the mother checked the back of the little foil box and then looked back into the pleading blue eyes of her little girl's upturned face.

"A dollar ninety-five. That's almost $2.00. If you really want them, I'll think of some extra chores for you and in no time you can save enough money to buy them for yourself. Your birthday's only a week away and you might get another crisp dollar bill from Grandma."

As soon as Jenny got home, she emptied her penny bank and counted out 17 pennies. After dinner, she did more than her share of chores and she went to the neighbor and asked Mrs. McJames if she could pick dandelions for ten cents.

On her birthday, Grandma did give her another new dollar bill and at last she had enough money to buy the necklace.

Jenny loved her pearls. They made her feel dressed up and grown up. She wore them everywhere--Sunday school, kindergarten, even to bed. The only time she took them off was when she went swimming or had a bubble bath. Mother said if they got wet, they might turn her neck green.

Jenny had a very loving daddy and every night when she was ready for bed, he would stop whatever he was doing and come upstairs to read her a story. One night when he finished the story, he asked Jenny, "Do you love me?"

"Oh yes, Daddy. You know that I love you."

"Then give me your pearls."

"Oh, Daddy, not my pearls. But you can have Princess--the white horse from my collection. The one with the pink tail. Remember, Daddy? The one you gave me. She's my favorite."

"That's okay, Honey. Daddy loves you. Good night." And he brushed her cheek with a kiss.

About a week later, after the story time, Jenny's daddy asked again, "Do you love me?"

"Daddy, you know I love you."

"Then give me your pearls."

"Oh Daddy, not my pearls. But you can have my babydoll. The brand new one I got for my birthday. She is so beautiful and you can have the yellow blanket that matches her sleeper."

"That's okay. Sleep well. God bless you, little one. Daddy loves you." And as always, he brushed her cheek with a gentle kiss.

A few nights later when her daddy came in, Jenny was sitting on her bed with her legs crossed Indian-style. As he came close, he noticed her chin was trembling and one silent tear rolled down her cheek.

"What is it, Jenny? What's the matter?"

Jenny didn't say anything but lifted her little hand up to her daddy. And when she opened it, there was her little pearl necklace. With a little quiver,she finally said, "Here, Daddy. It's for you."

With tears gathering in his own eyes, Jenny's kind daddy reached out with one hand to take the dime-store necklace, and with the other hand he reached into his pocket and pulled out a blue velvet case with a strand of genuine pearls and gave them to Jenny.

He had them all the time. He was just waiting for her to give up the dime-store stuff so he could give her genuine treasure.

What are you hanging on to?

--- Author Unknown


On the round table, it included a blue snowflake take out box that contained the girls letter to their Dads, which they wrote a couple weeks ago and the girls received a cute pearl necklace and bracelet set. Overall, I think it was a huge success! All our hard work paid off because we had about 15 girls show up and they all appeared HAPPY having a GREAT time that evening!



Here is my "not so little princess" showing off her new pearl necklace and bracelet.