A Homemade Christmas

This year my husband told me he wanted to go up in the woods to find our Christmas tree and then decorate it with ornaments we made ourselves. When I heard this I thought, "Are you kidding me? The trees in the woods are Charlie Brown trees and I have a ton of great ornaments in the attic to use. Besides, do you know how hard it will be to make ornaments with a 2 and 5 year old?" But instead I said, "I don't want a scrawny tree and I don't think it will be fun making ornaments with L."

He talked to me about it again a few days later and I told him it was fine but he was in charge of getting it done. I must tell you, I wasn't at all thrilled about this and talked to my friend Kristy about it almost every time I saw her. For the record, she totally agreed with me.

By Saturday, I had convinced him to go to a local tree farm to get the kind of tree he always wants, a Noble. I prefer and always get a Douglas Fir. He hates them because the branches are too thin and weak and the tree is really bushy. I like them because that's what I grew up getting every year.
I was pleasantly surprised to find that I liked the tree M picked out for us. It stands 9 feet tall and has plenty of sturdy branches. You can even hang ornaments close in by the trunk and still see them, it's amazing!

As for the homemade decorations, I was still not sure. We had already spent a few nights making some with the girls and had very little to show for it. I was convinced we would get to drag the ornaments out of the attic. We spent the remainder of Saturday making ornaments and actually got quite a lot made. The girls did a great job on theirs and I was impressed with how creative they were. We all had a great time.

M, K and I made some more ornaments Sunday afternoon and after dinner we trimmed the tree. M put hooks on the ornaments, the girls put them on the tree and I took pictures. They did a great job spacing out the ornaments and the tree looked beautiful. For those of you who know me, I did not feel the need to rearrange them to look more organized. That is quite the compliment coming from someone with OCD tendencies.

Now I realize that M had a great idea all along. I need to be less controlling and more open to his ideas. I let go, he took the reins, and everything turned out great. We all will have great memories for years to come from this wonderful experience.

M and L making ornaments.

My tree ornament.

K making her ornaments.

Daddy helping L hang ornaments up high.

K hanging ornaments.

Isn't L cute?

Here are some cool ornaments M made at work.

My favorite ornaments K made.

Favorite ornaments of L.

M was very creative making his.

Here are my favorites I made.

Our tree all decorated.

All lit up.

Ward Christmas Party

Yesterday was our ward Christmas party and we had a nice time. M made an Eclair cake that we were unable to sample because all the desserts were gone by the time we got through the line. Hopefully it was good.
After dinner, the primary sang a couple of songs and did the Nativity program. K was an angel this year. After the program the ward sang some Christmas songs until the arrival of Santa Claus. K was excited to see him, as was L. But once it was their turn, L didn't want to get near him. I was able to talk her into standing near him for a picture and before we left she yelled at him she wanted a blue bike. K told him she wanted a scooter.

Eclair Cake

K's costume

Getting ready for the program.

Santa's Workshop

The girls visiting Santa.

Family Portraits

Say what you want about Wal-Mart, but their picture studio does an amazing job every year. They are inexpensive and our pictures turn out great. We have tried other places and not been nearly as happy. So go schedule your family portraits today.

M and I haven't gotten our picture done together
since our engagement pictures 9 years ago.

Our darling girls.

K

L

L and K

Our family picture for 2010

Turduken for Thanksgiving

A turducken is a dish consisting of a de-boned chicken stuffed into a de-boned duck, which itself is stuffed into a de-boned turkey along with stuffing of some kind. Here it is hot from the oven.

Here it is after we cut some off to serve. There was a pretty good rice stuffing inside of it, although Mel's stuffing tasted better. The turducken tasted pretty good, lots of good seasonings and so juicy. Dinner was so yummy and after dinner we had Apple pie, Butternut Squash pie, and Italian Cream cake. Doesn't the spread look yummy?
Uncle Luke and Aunt Kenni came home from college and the girls were excited to spend time with them. Luke kept them entertained for most of the day. They also enjoyed painting with Grandma and going for rides on the ATV.

After we ate, Mel took the kids to the fire pit where they roasted a few marshmallows. Then we got the kids into bed and the adults played a game of Taboo. It was a close game, but Mel and Luke beat M and me by two points. It was a great day with our family.

Snow Day

We woke up to a light covering of snow this morning. It is the first time we have gotten snow in two years. The girls were so excited to see it and even more excited that school was canceled. They went out to play in the snow before it was even 7 o'clock.


It was quite cold so they were only out for 20 minutes before coming inside for some hot chocolate and oat meal for breakfast. But once breakfast was over they headed outside again. The snow wasn't very good for making snowballs or snowmen, but K was able to make a snow turtle on our deck. L played a little bit in the snow, but she got cold pretty quickly. I am pretty sure this is the first time L has ever seen snow.

K making a snow angel.

They wanted to swing some.

K's snow turtle.

Minions for Us

I was unaware of M's want for minions until recently when his mom gave us one for our house. Hers was named Roomba and she sent him to live with us for a while. I must say, I am not sure how we ever lived without Roomba. He is a great addition to our family. He comes out at night and quietly cleans our floors while we sleep. Once he is done, he goes back to his home under the sofa table.
The kids love him so we occasionally let him out during the day to do his work so the kids can chase him around. It has definitely made for cleaner floors in the kitchen and in the laundry room, not to mention the rest of the house. I highly recommend you picking one up for your family.
Now, if you have lots of furniture and decorations on your floors, have no fear. This little guy can maneuver around and through anything. He goes under couches, if they are tall enough, and around them if they aren't. He has a sensor so he doesn't run into walls. He can go over carpets and rugs. The only thing he doesn't do is get into the corners.
My girls make a huge mess under their chairs at the dinner table everyday, but Roomba picks up every last crumb. I love it. The only thing that would make him better, is if he mopped too.

Dirt in laundry room where we take off our shoes.

Food under the girls chairs where they eat.

Roomba to the rescue.

Clean laundry room.

Clean floor again.

Kindergarten Update

We had parent/teacher conferences on Monday and K is doing great. The school tests the children three times a year to see how they are progressing and by the end of the year they should be able to do certain things. These things include: identifying capital and lower case letters and numbers 1-20, saying their numbers up to 20, identifying and naming shapes, counting objects, counting backwards from 20, and identifying 33 sight words.
K can do all of these and much more. She is only lacking in knowing a hexagon and the words "who" and "what". She is already reading books where as most of the kids in reading groups are learning letters and the sounds they make. K is a very bright girl and a fast learner. She has known a lot of this stuff before she was 5 years old and the rest she has learned over the last summer.
As far as her behavior, she is a natural leader, though prone to bossiness. Sometimes there are conflicts with her classmates because they don't want to do what K is telling them to do. She also has pushed boundaries with her teachers, seeing just how far she can go to get away with things. Her teacher said she has had to go to time out a couple of times because she wouldn't stop what she was working on and go to the next project but other than that she is doing great. She is very helpful and considerate of others.
Here is her school picture from this year. She has grown so much; she's a beautiful and intelligent girl. I am so grateful she is part of our family. I look forward to the coming years and seeing how she grows, matures and changes.

The Candyman Can

Who doesn't love The Candyman song? I can't hear it and not smile.
Yesterday there were many candymen in our neighborhood making all of us very happy. Most of the houses were decked out in Halloween decor and serving candy to the hoards of witches, princesses, goblins, and spooks roaming the streets. We ended up handing out most of our candy before 7pm. Then we headed out into the night with our closest friends. We spent an hour knocking on doors and brought home enough candy to fill a huge bowl.
While the girls got into pajamas, we went through their candy and pulled out all the suckers, hard candy and chocolate we don't like and put it into our handout bowl then placed it on the front porch. Most of it was gone by 9pm; M took what was left to work. We had a great time and have enough candy to last us until next year.

Our family all dressed up.

The kidlets, aren't they cute?

The first house we went to.

K loved the decorations at this house.
L didn't want to get near it.

K really liked the lights at this house too.

The girls did a good job of saying thank you at each house
and waiting their turn when there were other kids around.