Ward Christmas Party

Last night was the ward Christmas party. We had a nice ham dinner and saw Santa Claus. Alan only got to come on his dinner break for the meal (he is working at Target), so we didn't get our traditional family picture with Santa. But we got cute pictures of the kids!

Who Would Have Thought...

Sometime after I got married, my mother-in-law told me that someday I would want to sew. I don't remember why we were having this conversation, or where we were, or even when it was, but I do remember that inside my head I was rolling my eyes and thinking "yeah, right!" (no offense, Illene). Well, she proved to be right. I just finished my third sewing project of the year (okay, it still needs a hem and button holes, but it is wearable), and I am very proud of myself. Who would have thought that I could make friends with my sewing machine? Okay, I admit it is a love/hate relationship. I can fill a bobbin, but I still have trouble threading the machine right. Someday I will have a self-threading machine. And I admit that I would not accomplish anything without massive patience and help from my mother. I have become quite adept at cutting things out, and I hardly need any help with that part of the project, but the sewing is another story. But I am getting better. I only had to pick out one seam on my latest project, and I did the elastic and gathering all myself. It is just a good thing that I have a mother and a mother-in-law who sew, or I would never get anything finished. Of course, it is faster to get it done when I am only making one item instead of three of everything. But surprisingly enough, the desire to sew is actually there now. If I could just get faster at it, I might find it more enjoyable. I guess that comes with time.

This Christmas outfit is my most recently completed project. Some of my family thinks Ben's mama dresses him funny, but I think he is cute!


I made the girls these matching outfits for Disneyland. I made the pants, and appliqued the t-shirts with their favorite princesses. Two pairs of the pants are only half way hemmed, but they are wearable (and I will finish them).


These are the dresses that I started to make for 4th of July 2006, and actually finished in time for our Washington DC trip April 2007 (with a lot of help from my mom and finishing touches by Illene). I wouldn't recommend Daisy Kingdom patterns as a first project, they are hard!

A Homemade Christmas

We have made it a family tradition to take the kids out individually at Christmas time. Alan takes them to dinner or lunch and to shop for Mom, and I take them for a treat and to shop for their dad and siblings. Unfortunately, this tradition is not going to happen this year. When I broke the news to the kids, and told them that they were going to have to figure out something to make each other this year, I was expecting whining and disappointment. And they were VERY disappointed that they weren't going to get their Happy Meals or ice cream, but they were excited about making each other gifts. Leilani and Emily are making puppets for Benjamin and Elisabeth and fleece hats and scarves for each other (they don't know they are making them for each other). They have been having fun with it, and I am glad. Poor Grandma is having to donate lots of time, though, because my sewing skills are not on par with hers. I am making them a puppet theater for Christmas, so they will have somewhere to perform their stories. The girls have a lot of imagination, and their projects are very detailed. I will post pictures when they are done, because I can tell that the projects are going to be cute. Now if they can just keep it secret until Christmas!

Holiday Star Wars creations

So, as you can see, I am not the only Star Wars fan in the universe. And apparently I am a rather passive fan, because I have never created Star Wars items myself. Here are some creative Christmas items:The R2D2 ornament
The gingerbread Tie fighter

And then there are the edible fan meals to make any occasion full of the force:
Yoda pizza

Darth Vader pizza
Cute little Ewok cupcakes

These people are very creative, very true blue fans. It makes me wonder what kind of things all the Twilight obsessed will come up with!?

A Christmas Present for our Soldiers

For our family night tonight, we helped my mom finish up the Christmas bags she committed to put together for the soldiers in Iraq. We finished filling them (we started them on Sunday night with a family assembly line) and then we wrote Christmas cards to put with each bag. Emilyanne and Leilani helped write the cards and Elisabeth drew pictures on the envelopes. It was a good service project, and it is good to remember the men and women who are away from their families this holiday in order to serve and protect our country.

Do We Really Sound Like This?

I'm sure a lot of you have already seen this, but if you haven't, it really is funny. Actually, it is really funny even if you have seen it... probably because we know we all say these things.

Because I Am The Mom song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anSpBUxsgAU

A Thorup Thanksgiving

I was gathering pictures for my brother Mike's fiance Alisha to use at their wedding in December, when I came across this picture from Thanksgiving 1991. I belive it was the last Thanksgiving that my Grandpa Thorup was alive. I was already living in Provo, teaching junior high in Orem(my first year!), and my family came up to spend Thanksgiving with my Thorup grandparents and relatives. This picture was taken of all the grandkids who were there that day. It is in the living room of Uncle Dick and Aunt Evelyn's old house (they recently moved to Logan). The beautiful wreath in the background was made by my cousin Teria, I think. I know Todd wasn't there because he was on his mission, and Jenalee had already passed away, but I can't remember why Chris isn't in the picture. From left to right, the back row is me, Kari, Mark, Jeff, my cousin Kami, my cousin Carolyn. The next row has my cousin Jonny, Grandpa and Grandma Throup, and Kim. The front row has my cousin Ricky, my cousin Tyler and Mike. It was a fun time. It doesn't seem so long ago, but I guess it was...16 years - wow! Tyler, who is the youngest in the picture, is on a mission now and everyone in the back row (plus Kim) is married and has kids (except Mark and Shauna). Funny thing is, I don't feel that much older.