Nathan Lee Shepherd is 2 years old!

Happy Birthday to Nathan! My cute little boy is 2 years old yesterday. He might be confused that everyday is present day for him. We still have a gift for him because he was so preoccupied with his previous presents. I never realized how wonderfully easy it is to shop for little boys! I love it. There is no inappropriate makeup to confiscate, no dolls lacking in the clothing department floating around the house, its so great! Balls, bikes, basket ball hoops, baseball bats, and blocks . . . if it starts with a "B" we have it at our house now! Which leads to one of my favorite things, organizing equipment! I have organized Nathan's closet to hold all his great gear, so he can see it and get it. I have gotten rid of all the baby things that he has out grown so there is room for stuff that he is presently using!
We are going to the zoo on Jan 1st to celebrate his birthday, Randy was feeling poorly yesterday so we postponed it for his next day off. We are hopefully that some family can make it too.
Happy birthday wonderful little boy! You are so full of personality and fun and love! Yesterday after he opened his basketball hoop, he spent a lot time trying to make a basket, we were watching him and encouraging him, he never gave up, I asked Randy if he should lift him up to help him make it. He shook his head no. After more missed shots he finally made it and we cheered and clapped. He smiled so big, He was so proud of himself. He laughed and laughed. Then he kept shooting and he was making it basket after basket! He kept shooting until he couldn't lift his arms up, it was so cute. He was so tired, we ended up waiting to eat his birthday brownies until today!

Christmas tree fever

I am going a little crazy. If I could in any way justify buying another tree this year, I would. I have found a flocked tree that I love. The branches are so real looking and the snow on it looks so real, and its not everywhere so it even looks like fresh snow. I just love the way it would look with all of my colorful decorations, and all the kids crafted ones, even a homemade popcorn string thing. I really love Christmas trees, so much so now that I have toyed with the idea of working at the Orange patch so I can learn more about decorating them and just being around them. I am trying very hard not to obsess, but would it be weird to just redo my tree every couple of days? I feel like I cheated a little this year with my new tree, with how easy it was to put up. I used to dread the hours it would take to carefully place each branch and arrange it, then when the 150 branches were in place put up the lights (all 5 strands), pray that each bulb would light. Now, we decorate. This year it was all done in under 30 mins. and that includes opening the box and reading the directions. Wow! I really do love my Christmas tree! But you better keep a close watch on me, I just might not be able to hold myself back from another! Merry Christmas

I am thankful

Do you ever find that you just need a good dose of being thankful?
I am thankful for my husband.
I am thankful for my children.
I am thankful for the gospel.
I am thankful for tender mercies that show me Heavenly Father is aware of me and my sweet family.
I am thankful for scriptures and general conferences.
I am thankful for a living Prophet, and a wise Stake President, Bishop and Home Teachers.
I am thankful for the spirit of Christmas in the air.
I am thankful for good friends.
I am thankful for my job.

My tree is decorated!

I am happy to report that my tree is up and beautiful. We have been enjoying the tree with just the lights on for a few days and Saturday we finally felt ready to decorate! We decided on the white,silver, and gold for this year. I just love the way I feel when I walk into the room or see the tree when I am passing by. Nathan is loving redecorating every few hours, and when he wakes up in the morning its fun to watch him run into the room and sit down and just look at the tree. He says Christmas tree pretty well. I just love celebrating Christmas. Hope your days of holiday preparations are less stressful and more joyful. Merry Christmas.

Upholstery class

Before

I am taking an upholstery class with a dear friend of mine. We are having a great time and the class just goes by way to fast. Here is what I am doing with my kitchen chairs. I am quite thrilled with the results. Thank you Randy for taking care of our children while I am away on Thursday nights. After

Ready to put up the tree!

I have been so ready to put up my new Christmas tree. It is the tree I've been dreaming of for years! I love it so much. But every one wants to help put it up and we haven't been able to make our sweet little family's schedule come together to get this tree up. So I put a deadline on it and tonight is the night. Even if its just me. The tree will come up! Can't wait to post a picture. Special thanks to my great friend Marcy who inspired me to create amazing trees each year after one especially bad " Charlie Brown tree" year. It has made all the difference in my Christmas season to look forward to putting up a gorgeous tree (or two).

Last year I bought great stockings and Christmas lights and we have loved them. This year I got the tree and a great wreath for the front door. I also hope to add to the Willow Nativity I started collecting two years back.

This year we are also starting something new. I bought the kids each a new Christmas book to have on the shelf to read during the Christmas season. I am giving them out tonight! Thanks to my sister Tam for this great idea! I just love it and had to start it this year!

Our Family pictures finally came today!

I can't even begin to describe how happy I am to finally have professional pictures of our family done. I am so happy with how they turned out. I can't wait to get a wall of pictures done. This is one thing we are going to keep up with every year. I can't believe how fast Nathan has grown and how beautiful my girls are. Merry Christmas!