Gingerbread Houses

Before we had kids we had all the time in the world. With that time we were able to create this master piece one year during Christmas. It took us about two weeks to do, working several hours each night. M and I had a lot of fun doing it and thought it would be fun to make a lighthouse one year. However, I was 6 months pregnant when we made this house and we have not had the time to make another in the past 7 years.

M put a hole in the bottom of the board and wired up a light
so our stained glass windows would shine at night.

Our snowman family.

Which brings us to this little beauty. M and I helped the girls to create this house last night. We all had a lot of fun and the girls ate WAY too much candy but it turned out pretty cute. M and I still have dreams of making a lighthouse one day, but it will probably have to wait until our girls are much older and can help out in a different way. Until then, it's fun to make things like this with them.

Do You Believe?

Auntie and I took the girls on a magical journey aboard the Polar Express to see Santa and his elves at his workshop. On our way to the station the girls watched the movie Polar Express so it would be fresh in their minds. When we arrived at the train station we didn't have to wait long before the conductor checked our tickets and loaded us into our car.

We sat in the Upper Dome so we could see everything and we received a special mug we got to keep. Once the train got going, everyone received hot chocolate and a ginger cookie. The ride was very pretty twisting through trees and over rivers. At one point we had to stop because there were caribou on the tracks. We ended up taking a switch-back to get to our destination.

Here is the conductor punching the girls tickets.

We finally made it to Santa's workshop; I was on the wrong side of the train so I didn't get any pictures. We saw Santa's elves and the train stopped so they could come aboard along with Santa.
K was very concerned that there was no snow at the North Pole. She kept asking where it was and if we were really at the North Pole. I told her to talk to Santa about it but she decided to ask the elf instead. The elf told her it was a little warm that day but it would snow by Christmas. That girl is too smart for her own good sometimes. I have a feeling she won't be a believer for much longer.

Here is K telling Santa she wants a T-rex toy that can
open it's mouth and walk around by pushing buttons on it's back.

L told Santa she wanted a Strawberry Shortcake Toy.
I was impressed that girls were so open and comfortable with
Santa. That has never happened before.

Santa gave each child a special bell.
The girls love their bells and rang them most of the day.

Here is the tramp who joined us on the train.
He was quite funny. He talked very fast and slurred his words.

All of us on our magical journey.
It was a lot of fun and the girls were well behaved.

When we got off the train we got a photo with all the elves and another one with Santa. It was so much fun. I definitely recommend doing this with your young kids. Don't wait until they are too old, they may spend more time questioning it then experiencing it:)

A Sad Sight

I went downstairs this morning to make the girls breakfast and this is the sight that greeted me. It was much worse than this picture looks; there was glass strewn more than five feet out from the tree. In my distraught state, I didn't think to take a picture until after we had picked up most of the glass and fallen ornaments. Even my acrylic snowman broke. The only things that survived were the stuffed ornaments, the plastic candy canes, and the metal ornaments.
Here is a picture of my favorite glass nativity ornament shattered into many pieces along with some glass from the hand blown ornaments I got our family the year before last.

What's left of the hand blown ornaments that were destroyed beyond repair. One for each of us that I bought the year before last. We had hung them up high on the tree so curious hands wouldn't break them, which only insured their shattered fate when the tree fell and they took the hardest impact.

I know it's just a tree but every year we pick out special ornaments for our girls that signify something they really like or an accomplishment for that year and give it to the them. My parents do this too. So to see them broken is very upsetting for me, they are ones I can't replace. Luckily the ornaments from my parents were able to be repaired by my husband as were most of my snowmen.

To end this post on a happy note, here are some pictures of the girls decorating our tree last night. I never did get a picture of the completed tree. Guess we will have to try again tonight after the glue dries.

K and L in their new jammies.

L putting on one of her ornaments.

K carefully hanging one of her ornaments.

Almost done with the tree.

L trying to put on the angel.

K tried to put on the angel too, but it was tricky.

Giving Thanks

We got double the dinner this year. We started off at Bahmah's house on Monday night where we were greeted with a very tasty dinner. I forgot to bring in the camera so I missed the layout:( But it was wonderful. After dinner we indulged in some Italian Cream Cake and pumpkin pie. Oh, so yummy.
On Wednesday I went to my aunt's house to help create our Thanksgiving feast. M and the girls met us there Thanksgiving morning and we ate about 1pm. I ate entirely too much food but it was equally delicious!
Here are some pictures of the family and the tasty spread. Sorry for the blurriness. I still haven't gotten the hang of our new camera.

The sideboard had deviled eggs, rolls, and fruit salad.
We also set Tommy Turkey there that the girls made.

On the main table we had turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce, tex mex corn, jellied cranberry sauce, and candied yams (which aren't really yams at all).
What we call yams are really sweet potatoes. Yams grow in Africa and grow to be 7 feet long and weigh 150 pounds. They have a dark brown bark-like skin and are grainy on the inside. Sweet potatoes range from white to yellow and orange skinned and are potato-like inside. Did you learn something new?

Pictures of my wonderful family. We had a great time stuffing ourselves
and talking about all the things we are thankful for.

After dinner the menfolk cleaned dishes while the womenfolk
packed up the leftovers. Then we enjoyed some pumpkin and apple pie.

My aunt sent us home with lots of leftovers but they only lasted a day. Anyone else ready to do Thanksgiving again? I sure do love those tasty dishes!

Breaking Dawn with the Girls

So Thursday night was the Breaking Dawn Part 1 opening night at the box office. I joined 16 of my friends for a pre-Breaking Dawn party. One of our sweetest friends even flew in for a 16 hour layover on her way home from Nashville to surprise us and join the festivities. We were so excited to see her. We had a taco bar and ice cream bar for dinner while enjoying each others company before heading over to the theater.
We stood in line outside in the pouring rain for about 45 minutes before the line moved enough forward that we could stand inside. Luckily some of us brought huge umbrellas that kept all of us dry. Once inside we stood in the hallway for another hour and a half before being seated in the third row from the front of the theater. It was so close but we were happy to finally be sitting down. We visited and got snacks while waiting the final hour before the movie started.
This was by far the best movie in the series. They did a great job and the actors have improved immensely. I didn't find myself laughing or poking fun at any of the movie this time. It left me wanting more but we have to wait a full year before the final movie is released.
All of us moms drug out of the theater and arrived home by 3:30 am. Friday was a very hard day. I was planning on going back to bed after getting the kids off to school but by then I was no longer tired. Running all day on barely four hours of sleep was hard but I made it. K had a practice at church this morning for our Primary Program and all the moms that went still look exhausted but we all agree it was totally worth it and so much fun. Gotta love Girls Night Out!

Here is a picture of some of us girls.

Here's our whole group. I love these girls!

End of Another Season

Wednesday was K's soccer party at Putter's where they kids received their trophies. Her coach, McKenzie, said K was the Princess of Strategy when it came to defense. She got out there and blocked the other team from making goals.

Saturday was our final game of the season. Thank goodness! It has been a very long season this time around and the last few games have been chilly to sit through. It was 47 degrees and raining on Saturday. Bahmah came to see the game which pleased K greatly.

K made a great block at the end of the

game when the other team tried to score.

Here is a picture of Coach McKenzie, Coach Garrett
and the team. It was a HUGE team this season.

Now that soccer is over the girls are taking swim lessons. It should get us through the winter before starting up the spring session of soccer once again. At least we will be inside and warm:)

Halloween Festivities

Every year my wonderful mother-in-law makes adorable costumes for my girls to wear at Halloween. This year she made gypsy costumes and they are awesome! The girls wore them to school parties, our ward trunk or treat, and out trick or treating too. Now they will head into our beautiful dress up wardrobe, also made by my m-i-l.
Here are some pictures of L modeling the costume front, side and back. Isn't it adorable?


And here she is heading out the door to her preschool Fall Harvest party on Friday. They had cookies and juice after going trick or treating through the school house. They also painted bats and pumpkins.
Here is K in her costume before heading to Trunk or Treat at our ward. This year we had hot dogs for the kids and chili for the adults outside in the parking lot. There was also ice cream cones for everyone. Inside the building were a couple of activities for the kids. They could put their hands inside of jack-o-lanterns and guess what was inside. One had guts (spaghetti) and the other one had eyeballs (olives). There was also musical chairs set up but the youth weren't ready to do it when we were there. After eating we went around to each trunk and got candy. The girls got a ton. When we go home I had them pick out 10 of their favorite pieces and put the rest in the candy bowl for trick or treaters Monday night.


On Saturday we went downtown to see all the pumpkins people set up along Broadway. There were hundreds of pumpkins and a lot of them were pretty cool. There was a guy with a HUGE pumpkin carving it. He said it would only take a few hours to carve his masterpiece but if he carved the same thing out of wood it would take months.

K is really into dinosaurs so she loved
this pumpkin with the Stegosaurus.

I would have loved to see the end product.

We thought this display from our local hospital was quite ingenious.
I love the open skull showing the brain and the one with the skull wound.

Anyone remember the California Raisins?

After looking at the display, we stopped at VooDoo Donuts.
I wasn't very impressed with their donuts but it was fun for the girls.

On Halloween we invited our good friends over for dinner and
trick or treating. I think it has become a tradition by now.
This is our fourth year doing it together. Aren't those kids adorable?
Two Gypsies, Rapunzel, and Cap'n Jack Sparrow.

Here is one of the houses in our neighborhood.
You can barely make out the girls at the door.
This was another cool house in the neighborhood.
It was a little spooky for L but she was fine with Daddy by her side.