Valentine's Day Happenings

Things have been crazy busy around here, but not too busy for some fun Valentine's Day Happenings.

Valentine FHE:

On January 31st, we had a Family Home Evening about Love.  We read and discussed Matthew 5:43-44.  For our activity I had cut out a TON of hearts from pink, red, and white construction paper.  On the hearts we wrote things and people we love/are grateful for.  Examples:  Each other, Family, Gospel, Days off Work, Jesus Christ, School, Jobs, etc....  Then we taped all of the hearts to our pantry door with signs that said, "We Love..."  We finished off the night with homemade Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies.  It was one of those rare FHE's that was a success.  I see the start of a great family tradition.  Love it!

The 14 Days of Valentine's:


I used the FHE to also introduce another family tradition that I hope to continue, The 14 Days of Valentine's.  I found these cute little mailboxes in the dollar section at Target.  I cut out the kids' names in vinyl using my Cricut and put them on the front.

Here's how it goes, for the first 14 days of February when the flag is up on their mailbox, my kids will find a small treat or token in their box.  It's nothing big.  A Dove Chocolate, a Hershey's Kiss, a Valentine Pencil, a small heart balloon.  I found most of their treats at the Dollar store.  I also plan on leaving some notes to tell them something I love about each of them.  This new tradition has been a HIT!  The kids love it, and to be honest, so do I.

I have to admit, I've never really been one to decorate or really get into Valentine's Day or some of the other lesser holidays BUT my kids have changed me.  It's not the Holiday's that make the day special.  It's my kids that make the Holiday special.

Stay tuned for:
Handmade cheap Valentine's decorations
My first ever banner
Great gift idea for a friend
Our Valentine's Day Dinner
My second 5k that I trained for in a little over a month
WICKED....eeeeK!!!! So freaking excited!!! and....

LOTS of catching up.  (Seriously didn't even realize that my last post was three weeks ago!)

The Rest of Christmas 2011-Instagram Style

After getting home from church, putting our jammies back on, opening all our presents, eating our traditional Christmas Breakfast (bacon and eggs, with a new twist, waffles!), and taking some much needed naps, we headed out to Gramma's house for Christmas dinner AND to spend the week with the Bergy clan!!!

It was a very Bergy Christmas, so EVERYONE came.  Some even from far off distant lands like Texas, Utah, and Colorado.  Very, very exciting!  

So of course I documented the rest of Christmas with my new Iphone, because like I said I am now addicted to Instagram!  So, here is it goes....

Over the river (the Aqua Fria River, that is.  It's bone dry.  The most water we see in it is some puddles after it rains and those usually evaporate within the hour it stops raining.), and through the woods (Woods?  What woods?  Who are we kidding.  This is the Arizona desert.  We're lucky if trees grow here at all!), to Grandmother's house we go (DON'T EVER call my mother-in-law Grandmother OR Grandma.  She says Grandma was her mother-in-law and she is Gramma. Honestly, I don't hear much of a difference when pronounced, but whatever makes her happy.

We had a very yummy dinner of ham, potatoes, salad, and rolls.  Unfortunately, we got there 2 hours late and everyone had eaten without us. C'est la vie.  Those naps were worth having to reheat Christmas dinner.

This my niece Katie.  She dislikes having her picture taken.  She asked me if I was taking her picture.  I told her no, that I was just playing with my new Iphone.  She believed me.  Silly Katie.

The Beast broke up crackers into little pieces and then handed them to Grandpa. It was a fun game, just ask Grandpa.

This is the Pit.  It is where all the Bergy's gather after meals to get horizontal and let the food digest.  

After dinner we exchanged gifts, ate goodies, and enjoyed each other's company.  It truly was a great Christmas. 

Dave had the week after Christmas off.  So we packed up and spent the week at Gramma's house. It was a busy week filled with bouncing (Gramma rented a bounce house), birthday's, cousins, games, food, and more food!

Christmas Morning 2011

Christmas 2011 was a banner holiday for the Bergy's. We had church at the unearthly hour of 8:00 am (luckily, that changed at the new year and we are now at 10:00 am, hallelujah!). We made an extra effort to be on time, something we hadn't done much of this year (shame on us), and it was lovely to start the Savior's birthday with partaking of the sacrament and singing praises to Him.

We went with a purple, black and gray theme for our church clothes. I'm thinking next year we will go red, SO much easier to find.

 Santa came and brought the kiddo's 3 presents each off of their lists.

We gave Cy a new stegosaurus piggy bank since the Beast broke his other one earlier on in the year.

Each kid got Dave a small gift card and I got him a larger one to Amazon. With his cards and the other money he had hoarded away he was able to fulfill his most recent technological obsession. Dave was thrilled with his very Amazon Christmas and I continued the tradition of family calenders for his offices.  

Cy's Christmas consisted of Lego's, the Cars 2 Wii game, and more Lego's.  We also got him and Princess new sheets and comforters for their beds.

The Beast celebrated Christmas with the arrival of a new bike, cars, Elmo, and lots of things that make the most annoying sounds known to man.

Princess' letter to Santa Claus was filled with all things Barbie.  Her wishes were fulfilled and she had a very Barbie Christmas.

There are no pictures of me seeing as how I was behind the camera, but trust me I had a great Christmas. My kiddos under the direction of Dave got me a much desired waffle maker and waffle mixes, and Dave surprised me with a beautiful new white Iphone.  I LOVE it! I've been wanting one for a while and am now Instagraming everything in sight.

I loved watching my family open their presents.  My kids are still talking about how that was the best Christmas EVER.

Tis' the Season....

for yummy treats:

and air dried jeans:

Here's a little tip I'm sure you already know, but just in case you don't...jeans shrink when you put them in the dryer, leaving you no room for that extra holiday padding.  If you hang them up to dry you will be able to fit into your jeans even after those cookies, cheese balls, candies, pumpkin logs, rolls, hams, pies, breads and muffins.

Happy Halloween 2011

Happy Halloween from a squinty Snow White........

a confused Captain America.........

and a reluctant Dalmatian.......

This year Halloween wasn't just a one day, wham bam thank you ma'am celebration.  Oh no, it was a full on, four day party extravaganza.  I'm exhausted and THRILLED that it's over.  Halloween shouldn't last this long.  Thanksgiving?  Yes.  Christmas?  Yes.  Halloween?  NO!

Our Halloween celebrations started on Friday with the kids Storybook Parade and Boo Bash at their school.  They went Trick-or-Treating and got to paint oranges, good times.

The Beast threw a fit every time we put his costume on.  He had to wear it three times.  It was a nightmare.  He only wore the hat thingy for that first picture then he screamed and cried until we took it off.

On Saturday we had our ward Trunk-or-Treat.  The kids made their way through the trunks till the candy was gone and people started closing their trunks and driving away.  The kids got hyped up on sugar and ran through the parking lot like they were being chased by zombies.  I spent the majority of my time chasing the Beast up the row of trunks, and down the row of trunks, then back again.  It was fun, let. me. tell. you.  Afterwards, we had to wrangle the kids into the car, get them home, showered and in bed for 8:00 AM church the next day.  Yep, you read that right, 8:00 AM church.  I don't know what our ward did to deserve this starting time, but whatever it was, I'm sorry and I beg for forgiveness.

On Sunday we did our first ever Spooky Dinner.  I made these spooky licorice trees (idea from pinterest) for our centerpieces.

Our menu consisted of Lizard Eyeballs......

Mummy Pizzas..........

Mummy Hot Dogs........

A Healthy Salad (possibly the scariest thing on the menu)..........

Witch's Brew............

and Bat Cupcakes...........

To scare the kids, I wore my glasses.  They were freaked out.......

We finished off our Halloween Extravaganza with our traditional neighborhood Trick-or-Treating with Grandma.

We've got a LOAD of candy.  Most of it will probably find it's way into the trash over the next few months.  It's been fun but like I said, I'm SO glad it's over.

Till next year Halloween, till next year.

Scenes From A Sunday: Late Easter Weekend Edition

I was looking through the pictures on my camera when I realized I never blogged about Easter.  The day started out with a visit from the Easter Bunny.

I don't know what the Easter Bunny was thinking bringing those plastic flutes.  I will be having a talk with him next year.

Always a diva.

I SCORED!

Then we got all ready for church in our new Easter finery.

After a beautiful time at church we headed over to Grandma's house.  We had a fun and candy filled Easter Egg Hunt and then a yummy Easter dinner. 

Egg hunting time!

Princess was like a homing pigeon for eggs.  Her basket was twice as full as everyone else's and five times as full as the Beast's.  The Beast, after finding one egg, decided he had had enough and promptly sat down to enjoy his treasure.  Poor Cy.  He wasn't quite as fast as Princess so after the hunt I relocated some of her eggs to his basket.

I am so grateful for the Savior's Atonement and Resurrection.  Easter is a beautiful holiday full of hope and joy.  I know that my Redeemer lives.