The Ultimate Big Mack!

My sister Wanda had a great idea to use craigs top bunk bed and make a fort out of it. After drawing up lots of different ideas K.C. and her finally decided on a Mack Truck! And what better for A Craig than a Mack truck! I mean really.

So we went out to Grandma and Grandpa's the Monday before Christmas and Dad and K.C. cut it all out. Then we spent the next three days there just painting and building.

Pretty Good if I do say so myself! K.C. did most of the front and I did most of the side. Annie and Elle basically painted all the red and all the white on the inside and they helped with several of the details too. (The different pieces are just leaning against each other here. It's not actually put together yet)

 

We took it out to our house to complete construction because once it was built it wouldn't have fit through the doors. We had to distract Craig in the living room while we finished. 

My try at a simplified Rust-eze logo. :)

 

K.C. and my dad putting it all together!

It was a perfect fit.

 We through a blanket over it...

 We all gathered around with the cameras to see the unveiling...

 Here he comes....

 Even with the blanket on he could see a corner of the front of him and he was, well the picture describes it very well. He was so excited!

 Pulling the blanket off...

Happy happy boy!

The rest of the story:

He immediately got all of his cars and hauled them up into the fort. He put his rug that has roads on it up there too.

Lunch time came... Craig was still in mack and insisted on eating in there. On his Lightning McQueen plate, with is Lightning McQueen glass. He had a string Cheese and when he was done with it he ran into the bathroom, got his garbage can that has lightning McQueen on it and hauled it into his bed room so we could put it into Mack too.

He has it all very organized it there!

Night Came: Must sleep in Mack. So K.C. put a camping pad in there and for the first time in a long time, Craig stayed in his room ALL night!

Next Day: Just about every moment was spent in mack again, including nap time, meal time and bed time.

Long story short... Craig LOVES his Mack!
What a great Christmas present, thanks for all the good ideas and everyone's help!

Creative Craig

Never fear, Craig will ALWAYS have some creative idea!

This is one of his new favorite games to play.

yes he's being crazy on the couch but look at the blinds....

Cars! Cars everywhere! He'll spend hours and hours just lining them up and then taking them down, or having races to the other side. Watching his creative and fun in everything approach to life helps me remember to stop and have fun. He's such a delight to me!

He's also been having lots of fun playing with his new friend! They are both avid Cars fans and so they have LOTS to talk about!

They're watching Cars Toons! A series about Mater and his tall tales. Fun fun.

Christmas Tree Fun

This year my sister came down for Thanksgiving and had the fabulous idea of cutting a Christmas tree on Cedar Mnt. We wanted a big tree this year but we wanted a fir so it would be tall and skinny. AND we didn't want to have to pay very much for it. So this was the perfect option because you could get upto a 10 foot three for only ten bucks! Perfect.

So the day after Thanksgiving... we were off!

 Since Craig didn't have real snow gloves we put little knit gloves on him and then put his work gloves over them. It worked pretty good till one fell off!

 Ang and Nates Christmas tree!

 

 I love Kale in this picture! haha. ^

 There he is :)

Cuteness!

{ Cousins }

The attempt at getting a picture of these two ended up in "hey lets touch heads" instead. It was really funny.

 Kason was a snow maniac! While craig cautiously picked a path through the snow and tried to remain warm and dry Kason, well this is what Kason did....

look closely you'll see a snowball rolling down the hill. It's name is Kason.^

 It was fun to have Ang and Nate there to first of all inspire us to go, second of all to play with in the snow (which by the way was hip high!) and third of all to bring our Tree home in their truck! :)

 

 hehe. (need I say more)

We were glad that we didn't have to go far before we found our tree! 

(the arrow is pointing at it.) 

Half of it was under snow but the part we could see seemed great.

 Gosh I love that guy! Look at him. He's so, so... perfect!

And I like the mountain man hat too! 

I love being in love!

 one hip high step at a time we waded through the snow and made it to the tree. If you tread very carefully you could pack the snow down and walk on top (well on top of it meaning about a foot down. But that's still better than 3 feet!)


So much fun! And here's the finished product! My beautiful, Christmas Tree! 10 feet tall and my favorite one yet! 

New Callings

the 2nd counselor in the new bishopric called and talked to K.C. and I could hear them talking for the most part about Cub Scouts and if K.C. had enjoyed it. When K.C. got off the phone he told me that Bro. Hyde was going to come and visit with us that night.

I was happy for K.C. that he was going to get back into scouting and didn't think much else of it. When Bro. Hyde got here he chatted for a while and then turned to me and said "Well K.C. is off the hook, Celeste will you be the Secretary in Primary?" I admit I was a little shocked and not at all prepared.

 I was mostly bummed that I wouldn't be able to get to know people in this ward like I was planning on. But I will just have to be more creative about it I guess. I did find it kind of funny that it was the exact thing that happened to me in the Red Ledge ward.

The Scenario:
Move in, ward dissolved next Sunday, go one Sunday, called to primary pres.
Still here, ward dissolved, go one Sunday, Called to primary pres.

I guess primary is the place for me right now. I have been enjoying it though. Being secretary is right up my alley because I get to organize and make lists!

So a few days later we were out in Hurricane and the Stake called wanting us to come in for a visit with one of the Stake presidency. (Uh that's never happened, SCARY.)

That was on the night that we had a state of emergency in Washington County because of all the flooding. We borrowed my parents van so that it would brave the wet roads better but when we got to our house to change out of our dirty painting clothes we were very dismayed to find that we were locked out of the house because our keys were still in Hurricane. Can I just say ultra embarrassment and panic? They had given us like an hour notice so they said we didn't have to come in Sunday clothes. But still I'm pretty sure they weren't expecting WORK clothes/ Pajamas!

Sigh. But there wasn't much we could do about it so we went and I was very grateful to have my very long coat in the car to cover up all but the ends of my pants and my flip flops. (It was kind of funny though a very nice lady in the foyer that was waiting with us for their turn offered to let me borrow her shoes! When I grow up I want to be nice like that!)

So long story short K.C. is the Second Counselor in the Elders Quorum.

THEN the next day we get a call asking if we could meet with the bishop that night, (again with about an hours notice). My thoughts: This is getting to be a bad habit! What now?

But as it turns out he just wanted to get to know us. It was a very busy week.

From the mouth of Craig: Sweet Sincerity!

We have been trying to teach Craig to thank Heavenly Father for his blessings and then ask him for something that he needs...

Craig's prayer

"Heavenly Father, Thank Thee for the day, Thank Thee for all the stuff we have, (pause)

Jesus, can you please find...(whispers to me) mama, what is that name of one that's missing?"

K.C. realizing that he was talking about one of his cars whispered to me "Nitroade"

So I passed it on to Craig "Nitroade"

Craig "Nitroade! Can you please find him?" Gasps in delight and looks at me exclaiming with excitement. "He's finding him in heaven!"

Folds his arms again bows his head and finishes the prayer.

Oh what a fun memory.

Flexible.

This is the point where I need to stop. Take a deep breath and remember that plans can change. I can be flexible right? Not playing out the way I had in mind isn't necessarily a bad thing right?... RIGHT??!! Sigh.

Don't miss church / A sad good bye

We learned a lesson the hard way. You better not miss church. Because if you do, you might not have a ward any more.

Last week our kids weren't feeling well so we stayed home from church. We went out to my parents and K.C. was working on a drum for a Cub Scout Arrow of Light Ceremony. While we were out there we got a call from a friend informing us that we missed quite the shake up at church. The ward had been dissolved!

What?!

Wow. Red Ledge ward was disolved and chopped into 3 chunks. Those chunks were added to other wards. Our chunk was added to the Quail Ridge ward.

It was kind of sad for K.C. to realize that he was no longer the Cub Master. He has been working hard and loving the scouting for 2 years and it was totally out of the blue to just be cut off. We worked hard on our little 1770 pack. It was sad to see it and the boys and other leaders go. I'm sure other things are in store for us. But it was still sad to so abruptly say goodbye.

When we went to church on Sunday in our new ward we just met for Sacrament Meeting. There were lots of faces that we knew and obviously lots that we didn't. I'm so excited to enlarge my circle of friends and get to know these people. I think it's going to be great. I can't wait to see what is in store for us in this ward.

Funny note:

We have lived in the same house for 2.5 years. In that time we have been in
-the 2nd Ward - Meeting in the Bldg on Main street (then that got dissolved)
-the Red Ledge Ward - Meeting in the Capilla bldg, then and chappel out of even our stake boundaries, then the Northbridge bld.
-the Quail Ridge Ward - Meeting in the Stake Center.

Funny. 1 house, 2 years, 3 wards, 5 buildings.