Bri's cheer performance

This girl has been dying to be a cheerleader her whole life! Her day finally came when her studio had their christmas performance. She was so excited to dress the part and wear her uniform!

Just before them went on and a few shots of her performance. She did so great and cheer has really come naturally to her! She's very strong and got to base a few stunts. 

They got awards and trophies at the end! 

She was so happy to get a trophy!

Sure proud of my cheer girl! Gooooo Brielle!

An Adult Party

I've always wanted to have a just adults Christmas party! I figured this year was going to be the year! We invited 5 couples but only 3 could come. Ugly sweaters were encouraged! I found some fun games based on the 12 Days of Christmas song and we had so much fun! 

Some of the challenges - 7 swans a swimming (race a rubber duck with a straw)

Three french hens (hit a birdie with a french baguette)

Two Turtle Doves (stack alternating a candy turtle and a candy dove)

5 Golden Rings -ring toss in the dark

7 Maids a Milking (use a duster to brush Milk Duds into a jar)

9 Ladies dancing - music dance charades

9 Pipers Piping (Drop a pipe cleaner in to a PVC pipe on the floor)

Then came the white elephant gifts! Oh boy! Emily won my pad wreath with some gift card roulette. 

i won a hair dryer! What in the world!? It was good for a laugh for sure!

We love this group of friends and so glad they came to party with us!!!!

 

Brielle's 8th Birthday and party

This little missy is EIGHT! She is such a joy. She was so excited for weeks about turning 8 and all the fun things that would come with it..including baptism in a few weeks!!

She of course had school so we opened gifts early since dad would be home. 

A bike was waiting for her on her birthday morning. 

Chippy wrapped himself in a gift for her birthday!

She was so happy to get a giant pop-it and several fidgets! 

Chad and I picked her up and took her to lunch at Costa Vida before he had to go to work. 

What a cutie she is!

After school I had a surprise for her! She has been wanting her ears pierced and after doing some studying we found a guy at a tattoo shop with a very great reputation and so we went to him! 

She of course was quite nervous but Kory walked her through every step and was absolutely amazing with  her. At one point she wanted to back out so he told us to go outside and get some air and talk to her. She was able to calm down with a bribe of candy and she was a champ! She didn't flinch at all and it didn't even hurt! Here she is with Kory. He's a unique dude but knows what he's doing. 

Look at those pretty jewels!!

The next day we had her friend party at Altitude! Its a super fun place. She was worried about her ears so she didn't play much and I think she was fighting a cold but she had some fun I think. 

Even the big kids had a blast. Carter rented a board and had fun jumping around with that. 

Cute party girls!!

Afterwards we hit up Wendy's and they served us so awesome and quick!

We came back to the house for cupcakes and presents. 

Happy birthday my sweet girl! I love your enthusiasm for life! You are always happy and giggly and I love your happy go lucky nature! Keep smiling and being happy! It is your greatest attribute!
 

Ward Christmas Party

Our second week in our new ward Chad and I were asked to head up the ward Christmas party. We chuckled because we were in charge of our wards in 2019. We've also helped with a few other large ward parties. I guess its our eternal calling. We put together a committee and they were all pretty wonderful. One lady is a chef and did ALL the food. That was a huge worry off my plate. One person organized the program and another decorated the gym with me. 

Everything was decorated and in place. It was too perfect...at the last minute we were scrambling because the tortillas that were brought for breakfast burritos were frozen solid! We were frantically defrosting 200 tortillas!! No one was asked to serve the food (not my job) and again at the last second we were frantically organizing and serving food. BUT it all worked out. We made it through tortiallas until there were 2 people left in line. Those 2 had to wait just a minute for the to defrost...blessing in disguise. 

Here we are serving in our double sweater with Bro O'Rourke!

Santa's set up. We had a member read a story called I believe in Santa Clause but it paralleled how Christ and Santa were similar. It was sweet. 

We set up for about 250 people. We didn't quite have that many there. But look at our coffee filter trees! I had no finger prints for the whole month of Nov because of all the glue gun burns I got making these!  I wasn't alone because a few on the committee were missing theirs too!

We had artists in the ward paint us some windows. Look how pretty!

And the program went so well. We awarded the ugliest sweater winner and then had a few songs and speakers and Santa! It went well!!

Here's our kiddos with Santa. Carter was too cool.

 Merry Christmas! Now to enjoy the season!!