Breaking Out The Sleds!

Here is a snippet of us sledding today after school.  There is a great sledding hill at the park behind the Kmart in town.  They have a "bunny hill" and a steeper hill for the big kids.

They are calling for even more snow this week...more sledding might be in the plans for our after school activities this week!

Chunko Christmas Traditions

Every family has traditions that they pass down from generation to generation.  We have some of our own...some old and some new.

One thing we enjoy doing is having an elf visit us during the Christmas season.  My friend Kerri introduced me to "Elf On The Shelf" when we lived in Jax.  We have our very own elf who comes to visit us every year now and each night he goes back to see Santa at the North Pole and reports on the behavior of our kids.  In the morning he reappears in a different spot in the house.  The only catch with having an elf in your house is that you can't touch him or the magic will disappear and Santa will know you weren't on your best behavior!

This is Hermy who came to live with us this year.  We spotted him sitting on the speakers that are attached to our wall in the family room this morning!

Another tradition is having the kids pictures taken with Santa.  There is a photographer here in Sandy who brings in a Santa and takes pics of the kids with Santa.  It's so much nicer than waiting in line at the mall!  We get 15 min. with Santa all to ourselves and she takes some amazing shots for us.  It only costs $10/kid and you get a free 5x7.  It's totally worth it to me!  We are scheduled to get ours taken this week.  

This is last year's photo shoot!  We're hoping for better results this year...But she captured the kids' reactions!  Kendall did NOT enjoy Santa last year.

This was Kendall's first experience with Santa...she slept through the entire visit!

We also like to try to take the kids to see a live nativity each year.  In Jax, we took them to a church in Ponte Vedra that would create the town of Bethlehem and you could walk all over the village and see what life was like back when Jesus was born.  You could also walk through the stable and see Mary, Joseph and Jesus.  Last year, an LDS church in our town did something similar.  They have you walk through a path that takes you by the same types of things.  Last year they had calves, camels, donkeys, etc.  We also saw a live nativity at This Is The Place where you can tour an example of an old pioneer town and how the Mormons lived when they first settled here.  They also have Father Christmas there for the kids to visit with as well.  Hoping to get to one of those places again this year!

This photo is from the chuch in Florida...How neat is it for the kids to see what it was like to live during Jesus' time?

Last year's LDS live nativity 

So fun seeing the animals

Seeing Christmas lights is always on our list of things to do to enjoy the Christmas season.  In PA, we'd go to Longs Park or drive over to Wheatland to see the lights.  In Jax there was an awesome little neighborhood near our house that would light up the entire neighborhood and hand our candy and hot chocolate on Christmas Eve.  Here we go to Thanksgiving Point and see the lights they set up there.  You can drive through while viewing the displays or take a carriage ride instead.  The kids love it because we let them out of their car seats to get a front row view!  We also took the kids to Temple Square last year to see the lights there.  It really is a beautiful setting.  I think we're going to take our parents there this year.

Both of these pictures are from Temple Square last year at Christmas

This is from Thanksgiving Point

This is from the cool neighborhood in Jax!  The entire 'hood looked like this and they had the neatest blue colored lights!  Check out how they hang the lights straight down from the branches of the old trees.  Never saw anything like it!

Another fun thing we do on Christmas Eve is to bake a birthday cake for Jesus. Riley and I have always done this in the past and it's time to include Kendall in our holiday tradition.  On Christmas day we sing "Happy Birthday" to Jesus and then enjoy some cake in His honor.

Getting a video message from Santa is another treat for my kids.  This is the second or third year we've done it.  This year Riley wasn't too sure if it was real or not, but after listening a few minutes, he totally bought into it!  If you click on this link you can view Kendall's message or click on this link to view Riley's.  If you want to create one for your child, click on this link.  

We are planning to make a gingerbread house this year again.  We didn't get to do it last year because of living in a tiny apt, but I think it will be lots of fun for the kids to do while Nanny and Pappy are here to help them!

An Advent calendar is another tradition we have at our house.  Riley's former babysitter started it with him when he was 18 mths. old and we've been doing it ever since.  We make paper chains with 25 loops and then attach it to a paper star.  On the star we write "Every night after prayers are said, we take one down and jump in bed, when the only the star is left to shine, that's how we'll know it's Christmas time."  We've got one more day to get ours made!  Guess I know what our after school activity will be tomorrow!

Going on an elf hunt is something we started here in Utah.  There is a shopping center called Gardner Village and they put out numerous displays of elves at Christmas time and the candy shop sponsors an elf scavenger hunt.  The kids have a blast checking out the elves and finding all the ones on the hunt!

It wouldn't be Christmas without a few trains running under our tree!  For as long as either of us can remember, we've both had trains under our tree.  Even before we had kids, there were one or two of our own trains (yes, I have my own train!) under our tree.  This year, both kids have their own trains and they are running under our tree.

Here is Kendall watching her first train under the tree

Watching Christmas movies is always a favorite at our house.  Andy and I already viewed Christmas Vacation for the first of many times this season.  Other favorites of ours include:  Holiday Inn, White Christmas, It's A Wonderful Life, The Christmas Story, as well as a few of our Veggie Tales holiday movies and the classic Santa Claus Is Coming To Town, Rudolph, Frosty, and Charlie Brown.  The Muppets version of A Christmas Carol is also a fun favorite!

We just received the new Veggie Tales movie "It's A Meaningful Life" in the mail today and we're off to watch it as a family...What are YOUR family traditions?  I love to hear what other people do.  That's how we get good ideas, by sharing them with others.

Have a wonderful Christmas season!



NOTE:  After I had most of this post created, Riley came home with an assignment for school on holiday traditions!  How appropriate!  The hardest part for him will be choosing his favorite one:  Elf On The Shelf, trains under the tree or baking a cake for Jesus.  Tough choices!

Thanksgiving Wrap Up

So much has happened this past week!  Whew!  Where to begin....Well, first we had a blizzard last week that closed school on the day before Thanksgiving.  It was Grandparents Day at Riley's school so that was a disappointment, but he got over it quickly by having the day off and being able to play in the snow!  Uncle Kevin and Aunt Cara were going to go with him to school that day to represent his family.  He was bummed about that, but he said they plan to reschedule Grandparent day.  To keep the kids occupied, we dug out the Christmas decorations and started to go through all of them.  The tree is now up and we are ready for Christmas!  Since we didn't get to decorate our apt or a tree last year, this was a real treat for all of us.  We even have both kids' trains running under the tree!

On Turkey day we headed over to Cara's mom's house to celebrate all we've been given with her family.  They are so kind and loving and accept us into their fold as if we really were related.  We are so thankful for them and their willingness to include us in their lives.  The kids had a blast even without their buddy Tristam there to play with.  Aunt Heather introduced them to Beauty and the Beast that night and both kids were glued to the tube!  Uncle Tom was there and that was Kendall's excitement for the night.  She flirted with him the whole night.  She was playing hard to get though.  Thankfully she always went right into Uncle Kevin's arms and not Uncle Tom's!  She knows who her favorite "uncle" is!  ;)

On Black Friday I ran out for a few errands around 8:30 am.  I didn't buy into the get up at 3am and find huge savings hype!  I just can't stand the crowds or the lines.  I have done that a time or two in the past and never felt it was worth the hassle!  Later that day we headed out to Gardner Village to go on an Elf Scavenger Hunt!  It's the same place we went to see the witches around Halloween.  We somehow missed two of them in our search so now we'll have to return (maybe during the daytime hours) to find the missing two and get our reward for completing it!

They had some of the displays in empty store fronts which made for creative displays.  This one was the elves baking and packaging cookies!

Saturday was the day Andy decided to head into work to try to get caught up on some things that needed to be completed by the end of the month.  He traveled a lot and had some important people visiting his region this past month so things didn't get done and he needed that uninterrupted time so the kids and I went to see Tangled at the movie theater.  Both kids LOVED the movie and mom did too.  Disney did a pretty good job on that one - sometimes I'm not thrilled with their humor or vocabulary in G rated movies, but this one was pretty good.

After Andy got home from work he wanted to take us to Thanksgiving Point to see their Christmas lights.  It's the type that you drive through and see the different displays.  At the end of the experience you get to drive by the shops and restaurants where they have a pen of reindeer.  We always stop and get out to see them.  This year Kendall really went nuts over them because she understands the idea of Santa and Rudolph.

This one was so cool - it was a lighted ice sculpture

Checking out Comet and Blitzen

Sunday was the second Sunday in a row that it snowed...seems to be the norm around here now.  We've got about 10+ inches outside right now...may be up to a foot of accumulation by now.  After church the kids convinced Andy to take them sledding.  They all had a blast!  Kendall loved going down the hill with her dad because they went so fast and pretty far.  Riley has a sled that looks similar to a boogie board and he loves to try to go over jumps with it!  I was grateful for a little quiet time away from the kids.  I was able to get almost all of our Christmas cards addressed and ready for stamps!

This morning there was even MORE snow!  I am convinced winter is here to stay!  Thankfully we have some awesome neighbors who've been kind enough to offer their snow blowing services when they notice our drive isn't done or if they see Andy out there with our shovel!  I think we're finally in the market for yet another snowblower.  He was checking out prices online last night.  Here are some pics of Kendall and Penton playing this morning.

She thought it was loads of fun to get a running start and crash into the snow bank on the driveway

You can see how much we've had by how much is piled up by the mailbox

It drifted in the back last night and filled the fire pit to the top with snow

Penton can't get enough of the snow!  She missed the cold and white stuff when we lived in Florida

She'd had enough...time to go inside

Not without falling down in the snow first

Penton decided to be helpful and lick all the snow off Kendall's face!

All in all it was a great weekend and we were all sad to see it end.  Three more weeks of school until a two week vacation and a week+ long visit from Nanny and Pappy Hershock!  We are all thrilled that they are coming to spend Christmas with us here in Utah!  Maybe we'll get some skiing in during their visit?  Riley's lessons start at Snowbird in less than 2 weeks!  I'm sure the time will fly by!  We've got some other fun stuff to do with the kids between now and then.

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving as well!

What Is Family?

According to Mr. Webster, the definition of family is a group of individuals living under one roof and usually under one head OR a group of persons of common ancestry.  For us, family means something all together different.  Since it's rare that our address is anywhere near those of our same bloodlines, we often find ourselves choosing our "family" based on where we live.

Here in Utah, we are so grateful for the love of my friend Kevin and his wife Cara and her family.  They have graciously adopted us into their lives and we couldn't begin to express our gratitude to them.  Kevin and Cara will always be known as "Uncle Kevin and Aunt Cara" to our kids.

This Wednesday is Grandparents day at Riley's school.  We obviously have no grandparents anywhere nearby, so Riley invited Kevin and Cara to come and be his family for the day.  They will be eating breakfast together and then going to Chapel, back to his classroom for a bit and then the kids are putting on a performance for their extended families.

Cara's mom has again extended an invitation to us to join them for Thanksgiving.  What a joy it is to be included in someone else's family!  The holidays are always so difficult and Thanksgiving is one that we've always spent with my family.

I think family means who you choose to spend your time with...who loves you in spite of your flaws and gives you the support you need in times of trouble.  Family is who you feel your best with because they are your biggest cheerleaders.  Family is who you can be yourself with and know that they will love you no matter what.  Family makes an effort to be involved in your life no matter how far away or how close you live.  They care about you and those you love are important to them as well.  Family comes to your rescue.  You can always count on them physically, emotionally and spiritually.

We are grateful to have "family" in numerous places - those with common ancestry as well as our chosen family.  We would not be able to live this mobile lifestyle without the love and support of ALL of our family.

To those we can't be with this year at Thanksgiving, please know that we love and miss you!

Happy Turkey Day!

My Boy Can Sing!

If you know my son, you know he CAN sing and does it frequently, except when it comes to singing in front of OTHERS.  He's so nervous about someone making fun of him.  He must really like his music teacher this year because this is the now the second time this year that he's sung in front of a group of people.  The first time was for Mother Goose Day and it was just parents and siblings.  This time it was in front of the entire Grace Lutheran Church congregation!  People he didn't know were watching him and he didn't even care.  If you know Riley's voice, you can clearly hear him on the video I captured below.

Changing schools has been such a positive experience in so many aspects of Riley's life.  It's given him confidence he lacked last year.  It's challenged him intellectually and grown him spiritually.  He will be the first to admit that he has so many more friends in his short time at Grace than his WHOLE year in public school.  In the public school, he was an outsider, accepted by a few.  At Grace, he's one of the family.  I can't say enough about how wonderful this school is and how thankful that God opened this door for Riley.  This video is evidence of that!

Disclaimer:  If you don't like listening to children singing (aka shouting) off key, then I don't recommend you click play.  If you want to see Riley in all his glory, check it out.

Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!

This morning we woke up to a winter wonderland!  Riley was determined NOT to miss out on this snow fall like he did the last one.  As soon as the kids were awake I was putting on their snow pants, coats, boots, gloves and hats!  It was hardly even light out, but they were too anxious to wait for the sun!  I can't blame them, I was just as excited for them to go play in the snow!  There's something magical waking up to a world of white!

Here's what I was able to capture of them:

Topics of Conversation

Today on the way home, we were listening to our Veggie Tales Sunday Morning Songs CD and there is a song about shoes and when you get to Heaven you can walk all over God's Heaven with your shoes.  I think this song is what sparked Riley's question below:

Riley:  "Mom, when we get to Heaven, will we become angels?"
Me:  "I think so Riley."
Riley:  "Cool!  I can't wait to fly!"

Don't you just love their innocence and enthusiasm?

A Victim of Ring and Run

I have a friend out here who has decided that she and her five kids are going on a mission to deliver 100 homemade yummy treats without repeating recipes to friends and neighbors.  They are moving away from the busyness of activities and practices and focusing on character and relationships.  Yesterday we fell victim to the Flour Fehries.  And what a treat it is to become one of their victims!  She and her little ones made the most delicious cranberry oatmeal cookies and delivered them to our door yesterday after school.  Her kids are in charge of the deliveries...They snap a pic of the treat at your door, then ring your doorbell and run like the wind back to the gettaway van!  Boy her kids are FAST!

This is such a great way to involve your children in giving, service and spending quality time together in the kitchen...I think her idea might be something we take with us whenever we have to leave Utah and remember her and her family by carrying it on somewhere else.

If you want to make some of these yummy cookies for yourself, you can find the recipe here: Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies

Thanks Flour Fehries!

Not So Intimidated Anymore...

Using my sewing machine for anything other than a quick repair, attaching scout patches or sewing straight lines for the past 14+ years was about all it was good for until today...

I've been wanting to create a skirt with coordinating material and a matching applique shirt for Christmas.  I finally figured out what I wanted to do and created a "protype" for it.  My first version is decent, but sloppy.  I had to figure it out on my own with some cheap/scrap material before spending money on the good stuff!  Today I was brave and started cutting the expensive material, daring myself to try something new.  The most I've done is create a pillowcase dress - creating a pattern from one I had bought.  They were pretty simple, but it's mostly straight lines!

This skirt is mostly straight lines, but it required gathering, some top stitching, numerous french seams, and a waist band.  Still pretty simple for even the newbie seamstress.  My mom said she gets intimidated by her computer...that's how I feel when I sit down in front of my sewing machine.  I use to sew with my mom as a kid, but her machine is so different than mine and we haven't been able to sew together for a few years now.

Well, I've kept you in suspense long enough...Here's my finished product:

Kendall and I made a trip to the Fabric Center on Monday and I was overwhelmed by the number of choices...and good choices.  Lots of designer fabrics!  I was in sewing heaven!

The shirt was pretty simple to create as well.  I traced letters I printed off the computer and then sewed them on the front of the shirt so it would coordinate with her skirt.

I'm so happy to have been able to complete this simple one.  The best part is that I didn't even have a pattern.  I just followed some written instructions...the ideas are flowing now...The next one will probably have more panels or twirl or have layers...the possibilities are endless!

You've Got Mail!

For those of you who know me well, you'll understand why I had to take this picture...It's packaged in a John Herr's bag too!

My mother-in-law was sweet enough to send me some Cope's Toasted Dried Sweet Corn and it arrived in the mail today!  I was down to just one bag and that won't get me through both Thanksgiving and Christmas.  I have THE best recipe for this stuff, and as much as I'd like to share it, it's a family secret.  There are only a few of us Hershocks left who know Nanny's tricks to making it delicious.  I just love the way the house smells on Thanksgiving and Christmas days...and leftovers are just as good if not better!  It will be my job to pass the family recipe down to Kendall (and Riley's future bride) someday so the tradition can carry on.

If you can't be "home" for the holidays, at least you can have a piece of "home" wherever you are!  (NOTE - I am cautious talking about "home" in front of the kids because I want them to feel like wherever we are currently parking our cars is our home...Unfortunately for Kendall, Lancaster will never be her home since she was born in Florida and has only been there 3 times)

Thanks to Nancy for making collecting the mail today an exciting experience!  Whoo Hoo!  Bring on Turkey Day!  (I know, I'm a simple girl...doesn't take much to make me happy!)

BEST NON-PUBLIC SCHOOLS IN SALT LAKE CITY

If you want to learn more about the school Riley attends, this is a great video that shares a lot about Grace and the other Lutheran schools in Salt Lake county.

I read an interesting article the other day that spoke to the point that Utah spends the least per student than any other state and test scores are at the national average...well that sounds great except for the fact that few students in Utah come from poverty, most come from well educated parents and there are very few minorty students here...Hmm...all that being said shouldn't students being doing better?  Here's the article if you are interested in reading it.

We've Got New Shirts!

I posted about this turkey shirt last week and have since gotten myself organized to finally make it over the weekend.  After Riley got a peek at it, he wanted me to make him one, but I can't see a 6 1/2 yr. old boy walking around with this shirt on and not getting beat up, so I made him a different shirt so he'd feel included.

Here's Kendall's Turkey Shirt:

The feathers are made from tracings of her hands.  A plus is that this shirt required NO SEWING!  Unfortunately, she's been trying to feed her turkey at meal times...It's gotten pretty dirty and she freaked when I had to take it off to wash it...She's even slept in it!

This is what I created for Riley:

He really wanted a turkey shirt of some type and I had a different idea in mind for him, but the more I thought about it, it didn't make sense to spend the time or money...He wears uniforms to school everyday so he would only be able to wear his shirt when he's home or on weekends.  Thanksgiving is only a few weeks away so once turkey day has come and gone, it would hang in his closet collecting dust.  The boy loves lizards (and all things reptile) so I made him this shirt from a freezer paper stencil.  I cut the stencil on my cricut and then ironed the paper to his shirt and painted the stencil with some brown fabric paint and voila...a new shirt for my boy that he can wear all winter long!

Wait till you see what I have in mind for Christmas shirts this year!  Last year was freezer paper stenciled snowflakes...Even better ideas swirling around in my head for this year!  Stay tuned!

I'm Ready This Time...

They are calling for the possibility of the white stuff tomorrow.  Let me clarify that, they have issued a winter storm warning for heavy snow in effect for our area until tomorrow at noon.  Snow accumulations of 14-22 inches with more expected on the Wasatch front (including Brighton and Alta!).

This is the view from the webcam at Sugarloaf at Alta...Lots of white in this shot!

So I made sure I have all the necessary ingredients on hand...just in case!  If we don't get enough to enjoy some ice cream, I may have to drive up Little Cottonwood Canyon after school tomorrow with a cooler and scoop some up!  That's a dangerous benefit to Riley's school being so close to the canyon!

The funny thing is that I'm all ready to make snow ice cream, but I just realized that we don't even own a shovel to remove all the white powdery goodness from my sidewalk!  We actually gave our snowblower and shovel to our neighbors in Jax who had family in Maryland.  Andy was convinced we'd never need both items ever again!  I begged him to keep them, but he argued we didn't have the storage space in our garage.  At least when we lived in upstate NY, we owned a shovel!  Guess I'll be stopping at Homer's between my trips to Little Gym and Dance class tomorrow!  Thank goodness for all-wheel drive!

I Wanna Whoopie Pie Mom!

In unison from my two munchkins today.  Here's the scene afterwards:

Two happy children enjoying the sunshine and pumpkin whoopie pies.  One still in jammies and one in a leotard, tutu and fairy wings...This is how we roll at the Chunko house!

The Right Message At The Right Time

Have you ever sat in church and felt like the pastor's message was directed right at you and your situation?  That's how I felt today.  I've been spending a lot of time praying over something dear to me and today I felt God's presence through Pastor Paul's message.  It was as if God was letting me know that He hears what is on my heart and that since I've given it up to Him, that He'll take care of it.  What a blessing to know that we have a God who will take care of all our needs if we just turn them over to Him!

 

This is a song called Undone by FFH.  The lyrics to this song are included in the video and have been speaking to me a lot lately (I even have this song in my workout mix on my ipod!).  

If you've never heard of FFH, you are missing out.  This group started out as "Four For Harmony" in Lancaster, PA and then became "Far From Home" before changing their name once again to "FFH."  One of my dearest high school friends was an original member.  This group has come a long way from singing harmony in elementary school auditoriums and local church sanctuaries on a Sunday night!  

It's amazing how God can speak to you through a number of different ways...like today's message at church.  Back when we were living in Albany, NY, we struggled to find a church so we decided to just send our tithing back to our home church in Lancaster.  In the meantime, we also were donating money to FFH when we had extra.  We believed in their ministry and knew they were going to change hearts and lives.  One day, Andy felt lead to send them more.  No reason, just the Holy Spirit nudging him in that direction.  So, he sent them a check for more than what we had budgeted.  A few weeks later I received a call from my dear high school friend who told us how much that check was appreciated.  We'd never received a call from them while they were out touring before, but this one was under special circumstances.  The band had just had a speaker blow out and the check we had sent was for the EXACT amount that a new speaker would cost.  They didn't have the money for a new speaker but trusted that God would provide.  God works in the most amazing ways...That's why I believe that if I give my problems to Him, He'll figure out the solution that I can't see right now.