The Hampster Wheel of Life

I have been cleaning (albeit kind of slowly) the last two days and my house is no cleaner!!! Well the laundry is done- but that is it. And Becky called this morning to say she felt a little better and she and her brood were hopping in the car to come and stay!!!!!!!!!!!!! AAACCCCKKKKK!!!! I was planning on posting pictures of Alma doing yoga (while cursing) to tempt her to come- but I didn't expect her to actually ever get here!!!! You would understand the panic if you could see our guest room/ where every holiday craft was created and any thing I didn't know what to do with the last month has been thrown. AAACCCKKKKK!!!!!!!!!!

And yes, I know I am a junior high student with all these exclamation marks- but AAAACCCKKK!!!!!!!!!! you can't see this room- hours of work, not to mention the rest of the house.

Also, Andrea wrote the sweetest post about Conley sisters- so any cousins lurking go the the Life at 169 link just to your right there and read it. It made me cry (I admit not to difficult to do).

Christmas Eve Pictures

In typical blogger fashion here are our Christmas Eve pictures, backwards. Here are Alma and the boy's stockings. Notice how I forgot to get a stocking for Beckett- I think my sock filled in okay.

Here are the accompanists for our caroling.

The Shepard and her sheep.


The whole crowd- this is about as organized as we get.

The gun toting sheep. Baa Baa

Mary and the Baby

Joseph delivering the baby Jesus.

Angels

Mary great with child.

The inn keeper- he is always this serious.

Cesar Augustus

Hannah

Mary and Joseph- parts were assigned by picking a number between 1 and 100. Mitchell picked 90, David 89- so you can see who was Joseph.

Melissa and her Honey.

We like Abram because he is soooooo CUUUUUTTTTE.

My Darling

My cake- Pumpkin spice with a chocolate middle layer, and orange sour cream frosting.

Christmas Eve Magic

We just returned from Wendell and Kirsten's home. A wonderful meal of soup and salad, some caroling, and a fabulous nativity play filled our evening. I loved the Play Beckett was Baby Jesus and Coen a gun wielding, horse riding sheep. Baa Baa. I will post hilarious pictures later.

I love this time of year. I love the music, the food, the spirit all drawing you home and closer to your family and loved ones. I feel so grateful for my family, Alma's family, our little family- how blessed we are in our life.

The spirit is close to us this year and I feel especially grateful for our Savior and his life. I value how the lens of the Gospel helps me focus on what is truly important and needful. I value the support only the spirit of the atonement can provide. The sorrows and griefs are lightened by the Savior's loving hand. The joys and blessings even sweeter with the knowledge of our purpose and plan.

Well the little elves in our house need to get working. There are stockings to stuff and cinnamon rolls to be made. Lots of Christmas cheer from the Clove home.

This is what the little elves will be doing after all their Christmas Eve work. Just picture Alma's head on the green elf.

This is Just Life

Too much to do on my Christmas to dos.

Very little sleep (like two or three hours).

Fussy kids.

Painful back.

Fussy Mom.

Worry, worry, worry.

And yet so overwhelmed with gratitude for our blessings. The gospel, two healthy boys, a loving a supportive family, and sparkeling snow.

So hopefully a nap, an evening with Alma at Victorian Christmas, and some cuddeling with my boys (and lets not pretend the Vicoden bottle isn't going to get hit) and hopefully tonight I will be pain free, calm, in love, and setteling in to bed at a decent hour.

PS- isn't the cover of the New Era just lovely?

Late Night Crafting Update

I finished my BIG sister gifts tonight (What you say? no real rush on those- and yet Christmas cards which desperately need to get done were neglected for another day- pish on you voices in my head I will do what I feel like- it's the Sabbath!) Anyways- I was pleased with the end result (even if they don't quite look like I pictured them in my head), I showed them to Alma and he said "Those are pretty..................goofy looking." (There was a really long pause). ARRGGHHH!!! What do I care what he thinks- he doesn't even like Boden clothes- so what does his opinion matter. But it matters because no one else is in my house to give me crafting feedback. Here are some of the vintage sequins used in said project:


You will have to wait for final pics until after my sisters open them when I see them this weekend. It is a miracle already that we haven't told each other what we are giving on another- we are really bad at secrets.

While I was hot gluing the last few remaining nerves on my finger tips this is what Alma was doing:

You can't really tell, but he is making Beckett a little Mii Wii thingy. He didn't like that when he turned on the Wii there was Polly, Alma, and Coen and no little Beckett. He said it just felt wrong. So cute in a weirdo Alma way. So even though Beckett can't play (and lets be honest Coen is kind of a mess at this as well- he just runs around the room waving the controller and every now and then miraculously hits a ball) he has a Mii. Here is our little Nintendo family:

Alma Beckett Coen Polly

Do you like how Alma made Coen taller than me? Very funny people. Just as a side note- I am almost unbeatable at the Wii bowling- but useless at every thing else. When we first got it this was enough for me to have a much younger Wii fitness age than Alma but sadly he practices and has passed me up. Also my Mii has some crazy blue eye shadow and a mole on my cheek and bright red lips. Super Hotty.

One thing learned tonight: Peppermint Stephens Coco is yummy- but add marshmallows and it crosses over the fine line to not yummy. Some things you just have to learn from experience. Hopefully mine will help save you all.

SNOW SNOW SNOW!!!

You are supposed to hear the above title as sung in White Christmas when they are on the train on their way up to Vermont. This is what I hear whenever I see this:

And to make it even better church got canceled after sacrament- so I didn't have to teach my semi-prepared RS lesson- and then to top things off the SNOW is supposed to continue through the night. Yes, I already made a sledding date with my nephew David if there is a snow day tomorrow.

So this is what Coen was doing while I was blogging and talking with Becky on the phone. (And Megan was on the blog at the same time!)