Reasons I NEED a Clubhouse

I have had a dream for the last few years of having a clubhouse. Our family is growing, and growing, and there are few places to host all these family gatherings. We have very few places to host a Stauffer Sunday! When I hosted last February, I had 52 people in my house!! Amy's baby shower had 25 people, Thanksgiving at my house was 30 people, and Christmas with my Dad and Step Mom was 23 people. So we NEED space to host these events. So that's why I want a clubhouse. I have it all planned in my head. Nothing fancy, just practical and room for all these people! The kitchen would hold commercial grade appliances, big roasters, commercial coffee pots and everything needed for a large group. I keep adding things to this clubhouse in my mind......until I hosted Christmas last week with my Dad. Dad likes to buy the "boys" some sort of weapon, have them all rip them open and start battling in my house. After the pictures frames started falling off the wall, I realized one thing that the clubhouse will NOT have is breakables.

A Christmas to Remember

A new baby in the family, Dan being home for more than 5 days, surrounded by family and friends, and of course the annual Stauffer/Dykman battle.......gives us one Christmas to remember. I am so thankful for these memories, and the blessings we have been given!!

Soup of the Month Club

Need a gift idea for the parent/grandparent who doesn't need anything? For my Grandparent's I do the Soup of the Month Club. I make out a list of a different soup for each month, and give them the list for Christmas. Each month I make a big batch of soup and deliver it to each of them. I even bought a set of reusable plastic containers, so they could just trade me back and empty container when I delivered more soup. In the past I did the bread of the month club, you could do just about anything! The idea is that it's homemade, and I will stop by once a month to visit! They LOVE this and look forward to it each month.

Family Photos, 2011

A BIG thanks to my sister, Amy Parsons, who took these pictures! We were lucky to get them done while Dan was home, and before Amy had her baby!!

Busy, Busy, Busy!

Wow, I have been so busy that I didn't realize the blog template was messed up! I'm working on finding a new one I am happy with! With Christmas approaching, I haven't had much time to keep up on the blog! I will work on that......once my shopping is done! In the mean time, have a Merry Christmas!!

Craft Bazaar

Sumas Elementary PTO is hosting a Craft Bazaar this Saturday, November 19th at Nooksack Assembly of God Church on Nooksack Ave. I will be there with my Scentsy stock from 9-4. Hope you can stop by and do some shopping!

Director Boot Camp

I was blessed to be able to travel to Boise last week and attend Scentsy Director Boot Camp #15. What a great time full of training and inspiration. While I have always known what a wonderful company Scentsy is, I was blown away at how much the home office cares about the consultants. And seeing the new warehouse and manufacturing facility blew me away. I made some great friends, and met Orville and Heidi!

I was also lucky to get to have dinner with my Dad and Step-Mom, the night I arrived, and then had lunch with a dear friend and her brand new baby. An exhausting trip, but it was fun! A big thanks to Mom and Poppa who took the kids for me!!

Pumpkin Patch

One of my favorite things to do in the fall is get the pumpkins from Grandma and Grandpa's garden. The kids helped me plant this pumpkin patch in the spring, and it's fun to see how well they did. My Mom scarred the pumpkins with the kid's names in August, so it was like a treasure hunt to find their names. The kids found little pumpkins that should have grown into giants (none of the giant pumpkins got big), and used these little yellow guys for eyes on this last picture.

Things the Snow children said....

My kids have been cracking me up lately!!

We were talking with my Dad's cousin, who we haven't seen in years. He made the comment that the last time he saw Lily, she wasn't talking yet. Nate pipes in, "Those were the days!".

I was looking through grocery store ads, making noises with my mouth without even realizing I was doing it. Lily asked if I was making kissing sounds, and I said no. She said that she was talking with friends and they told her those were kissing sounds and Lily told them, "No, that's the noise my Mom makes when she is thinking".

I have started making chili in preparation for our friend's annual chili cook off. Lily told me that the secret to a winning chili is using lots of Johnny's Seasoning. Because Daddy used lots of Johnny's last year, and he won!

Corn Maze

It's tradition to go to the Corn Maze put on by the Lynden FFA. I have to say that it was a good one. It took us a half hour to get out the first time (12 minutes the second time, and we took different paths). We always get pictures of us trying to decide which way to go. As I looked at these pictures last night, I realized that Nate has grown a couple inches recently, and will be passing me up soon. I really hoped to have another year or two before I was looking up to him!! This last picture cracks me up. It shows their current personalities so clearly!

Fall Soccer

Lily had her first game of the season last weekend. Her team played hard and very well, but lost. Lily's a quick runner and getting more aggressive for the ball. It's fun to watch her play! She's got a great team and coach, the same group from Spring. I'm looking forward to seeing how these girls learn and grow!

Side note- When Lily picked out her jersey, she grabbed number 36. She yelled across the field, "Mom, how old are you?". I wasn't going to yell it back, so I just said, "Dad is 36, so you are good!".

Labor Day Weekend

We took a camping trip to Priest River in Idaho over Labor Day weekend. We had fun in the sun and enjoyed every minute away!

Cousins

We celebrated August birthdays (on the last day of August) and finally got a picture with all 13 cousins. What a cute bunch!

Back to School

The kids are back to school! Lily started 3rd grade, and Nate is now a 6th grader in Middle School! I'm the bad Mommy that didn't get a picture of Nate on his first day of school. It was raining, we were late, and I just plain forgot! They are loving school and their classes. Nate is up and out the door early, but is home before Lily. I think I have had the hardest time adjusting to the new schedule!

Summer is finally here.....

Summer is finally here......just in time for the kids to go back to school! It's been a busy week of water slides, doctor appointments and trying to enjoy or late Summer. And of course, because everything is late, I just started canning. I made salsa last night, and it looks like I will be canning green beans next week. Lily has already started soccer practices, and school starts on Wednesday. Yikes!

Busy Fair Week!

What a crazy busy week it's been. The Scentsy booth went great, but man that was a lot of work! Long hours on my feet every day, and running the kids around to different family members who were a huge help with babysitting! On Wednesday, Mom brought the kids in after my shift and the kids did rides and saw some of the fair. I was so tired that we didn't last the whole night like I planned! They still had fun and even did some rides with their cousin Johnny. We had perfect weather all week, in the low 70's, except for today when it hit 85! With all the warmers going, it was really hot in our booth!

Gotta love the fair!!