Merry Christmas to All

We are so Lucky to have had so many wonderful Friends over the years...from our days at BYU to Florida, Ohio and now in California! Blogging has been such a great way to stay in touch with all of our favorite people so we though we'd give a little Christmas Shout out to all of you we love!! 


so here it is......

MERRY CHRISTMAS
and a Happy New Year!!

     

Our Christ Centered Christmas

This Christmas we are trying to focus our thoughts and actions more on Christ. We kicked off December with a family meeting on the true meaning of Christmas and on how we can share the spirit of Christ with others.

Here are some links to the videos we watched with the kids:
The Greatest Gift
Christmas Spirit
What Shall we Give

Here are the things we are going to do

• We're reading the whole story of Christ's birth through all the gospels a little bit each night.
• We're doing a "Good Deeds and Good Treats" Advent Calendar. (we really want our kids to learn to love serving others and not just waiting Each day they get to open a little box with a treat and a good deed challenge in it such as find some one who needs a hug today, pick up 3 pieces of trash you see, make a sibling's bed, Smile at 5 people on purpose, give your teacher a compliment....etc. Then we discuss what they did at dinner or during book time. 
• We are going to sing Carols at an Old Folks Home on Christmas Eve.

What are some of your traditions that bring the spirit of Christ into Christmas?


Here are some of the kids comments after we asked them what they thought a Christ centered Christmas means:
Gordon: A Christ centered Christmas is about giving gifts to celebrate about Christ's Birth. We celebrate becuase he is our Savior. I like the gifts and the wise kings.

Oscar: It means we have lots of pictures of Christ so we can think about him and love him. We also help our mom and dad because we love them and want them to be happy. I like the presents and candy.

Eleanor: We get to play with our family and be nice like Jesus. I love to play with my Nativities, they are my favorite thing for Christmas. I also love candy canes to eat!

Here's to trying to make this Christmas our best ever....

MUNNS GIRLS Live it UP!!

So...friends... I am sorry to admit that you are all going to wish that you were a Munns girl.....we sure are lucky to be part of this "elite club"

Our latest trip was to Utah to live it up in the land of our College Days! 

Our Itinerary was as follows: Eat, Shop, Laugh, Not Sleep, Eat, Laugh, Shop, and then Eat some more!  We did get some serious culture in when we attended the Carl Bloch Exhibit at the BYU Museum of Art....a must see. 

We also were treated to Goodie bags courtesy of the "planning committee" aka Shelly, Kara, Mom and Dad (who also included some very personalized notes and a "note" to be spent on spoiling ourselves....he is the most thoughtful man!! thanks Fadash!)

Straight off the plane to the gift shop for some hot chocolate waiting for our ride...getting crazy already

at Harry Potter....Shelly is still having bad dreams and Tiffany is still embarrassed that we really wore these glasses into and through the movie! We got a few eyes poked in trying to adjust them but they were PERFECT...thanks E!! and can I just say for the record....I have the most stunning sisters ever....good genes thanks mom & dad!!

Breakfast at Maggleby's....so soo good!

Front row in "the Boat"

Rows 2 & 3....we just can't resist taking pictures in the car...sue us!

at one point there were 6 of us in 1 J. Crew fitting room!!

Lets get this party started!

Delicious Red Rock Cafe...

a few more car shots....this is just before we RAN OUT OF GAS on the way to the airport....yes...you heard me right...ran out of gas...luckily a nice young man came to our aide and gave shelly and I a lift to the gas station....after 4 girls had moved out of the moving car to try and preserve some momentum in trying to push the tahoe up the exit ramp to the station...no chance!

I just had to include this picture of my sister Kara couldn't she be a model....she is the baby and we're all so proud!! ha...seriously though...

It was so great to see these women who inspire me to be better in all areas: the gospel, parenting, attitude, and let's be honest fashion...it's a feast every time!

THANKS to all my Sisters (by birth and marriage)...and to the most wonderful-est amazing woman of them all....My Mother! 

A Camping We Did Go....

The SPOT of all SPOTS!!

Yes, it is absolutly enviable! AND yes, we did pin mark it on our GPS...so we will be back!!

When we got home from our wonderful trip to Florida we decided that we could not let another summer go by without a real deal camping trip...so we packed up the car and headed up to the Sierra Nevadas.....which are only about 20 minutes away...lucky us!!


We decided that "dispersed camping" was more our style so we drove out on a Forestry access road until we found the PERFECT SPOT...and really it was!

We had a pristine creek/stream/river with a crystal pool higher ground for the tents and even a fire ring set up (apparently "our" perfect spot is a regular with some other lucky ducks!

The night was refreshingly "cool" though some could call it "cold"--who wants to sweat it out camping...it was fun to get all snuggled in our sweats and roast marshmallows by our roaring fire.

Too bad I am not a better campfire cook....the ideas/recipes were wonderful...execution was a C+...it was edible but not stellar (and by edible I mean not all of it was burnt.... sue me!) I need a dutch oven and a few more tries...for honing of my skills...any tips??

Oh another wonderful thing about our spot is just past our pristine crystal pool there was a bit of rapids that rushed through these huge granite rocks....the boys had a BLAST rock exploring while E, Mags, & I headed up the calmer part of the stream to go "rock hunting" the river was full of perfectly round egg shaped rocks of all colors and composition...we got some really good ones and have decided to make it a tradition to gather cool rocks from all applicable family trip spots and label them so we can have a cool collection that brings back the memories!!

Unfortunately we got skunked though we saw tons of brook trout swimming happily by our bait...we need some tutoring with our fishing skills!! We'll have to be hunter/gatherers if we're ever forced to rough it totally!

the Family Fire starting lesson....even Maggie was fireside for this! 

Oscar was concerned he was being left behind on the boys rock exploring trip, while Steve went to scope out a safe route....

The Rock Exploring was done in unders....of course!

 

Luckily Steve didn't get the memo on the unders dress code....

The girls stayed behind...and eventually entertained ourselves elsewhere...on a rock hunt!

our spoils.....so cool huh?

Gordon couldn't stop "accidently dropping things" in the water so he had to strip down and retrieve the last item himself...it was so cold!!!

Don't worry Oscar is not wearing pants or shoes while handling the fire BUT he is wearing his Smokey the Bear badge he got from a Ranger!!

I love the textures in these pictures... nature is really SO amazing...

Our Sweet Happy Little Camper

The water was very cold but just as we got the kids loaded up in the car Steve decided he couldn't not take a dip....so....he did...a very brief dip! then home again, home again, jiggety jig.