Friday, December 28, 2012

Another Ugly Christmas Sweater Party

Last year after hearing about some great Ugly Christmas Sweater Parties, we decided to throw our own.  It was so much fun and we just had to have another party this year.  There is nothing quite like a bunch of yummy treats, a white elephant gift exchange, some silly "Minute to Win it Games", and of course ugly sweaters to kick off the Christmas season.  We have found it to be a great way to kick off the Winter Break and relax right before the big Christmas Day!  

This year we decided to have an adult party and a kid party.  The adults met at our house and the kids were at another friend's house with a few young women.  It worked out great and I most definitely hope we can plan more of these in the future.  

After spending time chatting and trying out all the yummy treats, we had our white elephant exchange.  This year proved to be as unique as always in the gift department.  Some adult diapers, a squirrel nutcracker, a Christmas snow globe, a beautiful picture of Jay Barney as a drag queen, and a macaroni penguin golf club cover were just a few of the highlights.  Brydon and I scored a large picture featuring the main character from the American American movie "Roots".  Although pretty, you will not find the picture in our home anytime soon.  

After the white elephant exchange, the games began.  I found some fun Christmas "Minute to Win it Games" and we had a blast.  There is nothing like cutting loose with some awesome friends, and making fools of yourself.

Deck the Balls
For this game, Mardy had to use a wrapping paper tube to suck up an ornamen,t then pass the ornament to Sean with his wrapping paper tub,e and then place the ornament in the tree.  Unfortunately we learned that Mardy is not very good at sucking!

Christmas Nut Stacker
In this challenge, David and Mike had to take the 4 nuts that were on their candy cane and with their mouths only, stack the nuts on their side.  They are quite the nut stackers!

Christmas Ball Conveyor
Troy and Thora were given the challenge of using ribbon wrapped around them to create an ornament conveyor belt.  This turned out to be a tab bit tricky, but Troy learned that some fancy hip action was the key to moving the ornament around.

Nose Dive
Lesa and Julie showed off their great nose skills as they used petroleum jelly to get 5 cotton balls in their bowl.

Christmas Cliffhanger
Gary and Natalee had to gently blow Christmas cards across the table until they just hung on the edge of the table.  However they both proved to be a bit too strong winded.

Back Flip
Ben was able to show us his special talent.  He was quite the pro at placing pencils on the back of his hand and tossing them in the air to catch them.  He was able to toss and catch all 12 pencils!  

Reindeer Nose Dive
Desiree and Kara didn't have much luck with their challenge.  They had to put the end of a ribbon in their mouth, on the other end was a red pom pom.  Without using hands, they had to swing the pom pom up and try to catch it on their petroleum jelly covered nose.  Alas no Rudolfs.

Suck It Up
Tammy and Brydon sharpened their sucking skills by using a straw to suck up skittles and then place them on the tops of the markers balanced on the table.  Brydon had some surprisingly quick sucking skills.

Candy Elevator
Randy was quite the careful mechanic.  Using 2 pencils with a string attached on each end, he had to lift 2 skittles to his mouth elevator style with the string draped over his ears.  He stayed nice and steady under pressure.
 
A Bit Dicey
Somehow I ended up last.  My challenge was to hold a popsicle stick in my mouth  and line up 6 dice on the stick.  This would not have been so hard if everyone hadn't been making me laugh so I failed miserably.  

Ugly Sweater Winner
Just call him Agent Goldfinger!

Got to love the Lime Green Cannon's!
Randy is being a bit shy showing off his new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle underwear to go with his wife's hot pink underwear that may have come from Brydon and I.  Who doesn't need a pair of underwear like that!
Agent Goldfinger and his sexy wife in her stringy sweater and awesome pants!
Go team Sutton!
Although we missed Jay, we were pretty lucky to get Kara to come party with us.
The Ross's showing off their Christmas spirit and so excited to score their adult diapers.
The Rollins had just moved in and were good sports to party with some strangers.  We are glad to call them friends now.
It wouldn't be a party without the Bradshaw's!
And of course the hubby and I.  
Got to love the style of an ugly sweater party!

If you ever want to just have a fun, cut loose party during the Christmas season, I highly recommend an 
Ugly Sweater Party!
Or you can just come hang out with all of us.

Friday, December 14, 2012

Our Primary & The Parade of Lights

Last year when I saw the Parade of Lights, I was really impressed by the number of churches that had floats in the parade.  I thought it would be so neat to have our Primary children make a float for this event.  What a fun thing for our kids and what a great way for our church to be a part of our community!  Fortunately I wasn't released as Primary President and so when the parade came around this year, we decided to enter.  
It was an amazing whole Ward effort!  We really wanted to share with the community our belief in Jesus Christ and the Bible and so we decided to have a small Nativity scene and dress the children up as angels with some wise men and shepherds.  It turned out beautifully!  Everything we needed was donated or loaned to us.  The Young Men helped repaint the wooden stable and animals we were loaned.  The Young Women made wonderful signs.  The High Priests Group loaned us the flat bed and truck with generator.  The Relief Society set up donuts and hot chocolate for the night before the parade and the Elder's Quorum helped us put everything together the night before.  We did end up sewing a lot of angel costumes but even the fabric for those was donated by a table cloth cleaning company that a sweet member of the ward hooked us up with.   The whole thing was an amazing experience, considering we had never done anything like this before.
Our super cute primary kids and young women who sat with us to help out.  
The kids were amazing!  No catastrophes, only excited kiddos!  
Brydon and I got picked to be Mary and Joseph, so we were in the back with the stable.  
Sweet wise men and shepherds!  
Caleb is on the far left and that is me in the blue.  
Our super cute angels!  I sure do love all these kids!  
We have the best Primary ever!
The float was beautiful and the kids had so much fun.  As we drove along the parade route the kids sang with Christmas hymns (that we had hooked up to a sound system) and waved to everyone.  
Truly a moment that you felt so proud to be a member of 
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  

The parade was featured on the local television station.  I was able to DVR the parade and then took a video of my TV.  So not the best video but it is fun to see us on TV!

(Thank you Ross Family for sharing your pictures with me!)

Friday, December 7, 2012

2012 Family Pictures

Obviously I love pictures and I love getting family pictures each year.  Our friend Markee takes amazing pictures and has started her own photography business Memories by Markee.  She was a lot of fun to work with and did a great job putting up with my quirky ideas.  Markee is super creative and we are so sad they are leaving Texas!
 
Here are a bunch of our favorites.
Enjoy!

 




They just don't get any cuter than that!!
Thank you Markee!  You did an amazing job!
We love them!