December Family Pictures

I just remembered that I never posted my scanned copies of the photos we had taken at JCPenney last month.  My intent was to get a good family picture for the Christmas card but they turned out well enough to use for other purposes as well.  The quality here isnt very good because its a scan.  I didnt pay the 150 for the cd of digital copies.

Merry Christmas to all...

Christmas morning with kids is always so much fun.  The kids awoke about 6am and piled into our bed.  Then youngest to oldest they came downstairs to open their presents and stockings and bask in their loot.

kids with their stockings

 Present Opening Fun!

Brielle and her Santa suprises

Makenna and her goodies

Brayden and his treasures

And Emmitt got a train table for Christmas which made him almost as excited as he was about his candy... almost.  You can see the possessive look on his face (below) which means he really likes HIS trains :)

Braydens gift that was in the big brown box was 2 parts-
part 1- a basketball arcade game thingy and
part 2- three hours of "quality time" with his dad putting it together

I got these guys these matching sweaters.  Awesome.

Voila.  Their hard work payed off.

And then we finished off our Christmas Day with a delicious ham dinner at the Thomas' and some "Just Dance."  It was a great day!

We hope you all had a Merry Christmas Too!

Christmas Eve

This year for Christmas Eve we took the kids to an indoor playground at Mahoney to try and get some of their excited energy out of them.  Then we re- energized them by stopping for Ice Cream on the way home.  The plan for the afternoon was some Christmas movie watching and then we were going to be joined by the Owens and Thomas'.  Unfortunately sickness kept the Thomas' away so we enjoyed a nice dinner and some Christmas Eve festivities with the Owens.

First a not so traditional Cafe Rio for dinner.  Feliz Navidad!

Then the traditional nativity (only repeated twice this year):


 Somehow the game playing and cookie decorating that also happened that night escaped the camera... but it should be remembered that fun was had!

Of course we couldnt put the kids to bed without the traditional opening of Grandma's "surprise" present... New PJ's of course!

The kids might have been a little hyper than night :)

... and then it was off to bed, off to bed...

Favorites of the Season

Its a fun time of year to check the mail everyday for the latest Christmas card.  When I get to decorate my kitchen fireplace mantle with pictures of cute friends and family that I can stare at as I watch Mickey Mouse- it just makes me so happy! 

I should have turned Mickey Mouse off for the picture but at least its a Christmas episode.  And also the tree there is not always covered in toilet paper. That was Freddy's doing that day.

 And another favorite activity was the making of graham cracker gingerbread houses.  I thought they looked so cute when we displayed them on the dining room table.

 

 And for teachers gifts this year I tried making those personalized hand soaps that we've all seen on pinterest.  They weren't as easy as I had planned but crafts never are.  In the end I think they turned into a cute gift (sorry you cant see them well in the picture).

 

And I went super easy on the neighbor gifts this year.  I didnt do the big multi-cookie baking day that is often the custom this time of year.  Instead I opted for an easy white chocolate candy cane bark in these cute little boxes.   I'll definitely be doing that again.

 

And then since there must needs be opposition in all things, here are some of my least favorites of the season:

1.  Sickness: the kids and I all had the stomach flu.  Poor Emmitt had a sinus infection too.  No fun

 

2.  Unexpected Accidents:
Kevin was the victim of an unfortunate "hit and run" when he was coming home from work on the Friday before Christmas.  Its a bummer but we're thankful no one was hurt.

Blizzard!

The kids had their first snow day of the year.  They missed the very last day before Winter Break and they were actually really upset school was cancelled because they had their parties planned for that day.  It turned out to be quite a party at our house though because the Thomas' came over since they had lost power at their house.  It turned into a sleepover so the kids had a blast playing in the snow and playing with each other.  Lots of hot chocolate was enjoyed!

 

Freddy

This year Makenna put an "Elf on the Shelf" on her Christmas list and he appeared (or rather came to life) shortly after Thanksgiving.  We received this elf from Santa at a ward Christmas party last year but it wasn't until this Christmas season that we discovered that he is one of those magical mischievous elves that comes to life.  He is at our house to observe behavior and he comes alive when we aren't looking and gets into all sorts of trouble around the house.  Here is just a sampling of what he has been up to... 

And my favorite trick he played on us was when he drew red marker on the kids noses while they slept so they awoke to this in the morning...

It has been a blast having this Elf the kids affectionately named "Freddy" in our home this Christmas season.

A Visit from Santa

It was just our typical Sunday evening.  We were hanging out doing nothing when came a knock at the door.  It was...... much to our surprise and delight......... SANTA!  Yes he came to check on the kids and see how their behavior has been.  He wanted to visit with them and remind them to be good.  Unfortunately Emmitt's fear of Santa is still going strong so most of the visit he was clinging to me and crying.

Santa had a special tool to tell if you had been good or not.  It would light up your nose if you were good.  Brayden was in fact good but it was a close one.

After visiting with the kids for a while, Emmitt started to warm up to Santa.  At the end he even gave him a high five and let him check his nose to see if he had been good or not.

Turns out Emmitt has been good this year.  Yay!

Cake-tastrophy!

So I havent done wedding cakes in a while but I was asked by a girl in our ward to do hers.  She didnt want a fondant cake so this was the first time I made a wedding cake without it.  I wont ever do that again. 

At around 1pm on the friday of the wedding I was finishing up the cake.  I had it all smoothed out and I was piping on the little details when I got lost in what I was doing and didnt realize that half the cake board must have been hanging off the counter because all of a sudden before I knew it, the cake crashed to the floor with a thud.   Immediately I scooped it back up and put it on the counter hoping to salvage it.  I was in shock.  I then proceeded to have a meltdown and called Kevin who rushed home.  After some deepbreathing I made calls all over looking for some cake to buy to replace the smashed portion of the cake.  I had no time to start baking.  We ended up with some sheet cake from Hyvee that we cut to size to fill in what had smashed.

Here is the cake after I scooped it off the floor and smooshed it back together and mentally got to the point where I could almost laugh at the situation

Here we are filling in with our cut out sheet cakes from hyvee.

And voila here it is all done.  Even if it hadnt fallen to the floor it wouldnt have been one of my favorite cakes anyways- just not really my style.  Unfortunately sometimes you have to do what the bride wants though :)

In the end it was lopsided and uneven and fairly flawed.  But I think if you just glance at it as most will do at the reception, then its just fine.  Also, the blessing was that I was doing the cake for free.  Luckily this never happened when I was being paid by strangers or it would've been even more stressful for me.  I was pretty much in cake retirement already but now I am even more retired.  Kuddos to my heroic husband who rushed in and problem solved when all I could do was cry.  He rocks!  I have the Best Husband Ever!

Student of the Month

This post is a bit behind but it should be noted that in November Makenna was chosen as Student of the Month.  She absolutely adores her teacher Mrs Olson and it seems Mrs Olson adores her too.  We are so proud of her for being so awesome.

Sisters

Makenna and Brielle are not always each others favorite person but when they do get along and love one another, it melts my heart.  It makes me soooooo happy.  Pictures like this one, which we took at the tree lighting before Thanksgiving at Shadow Lake, are just too priceless not to post.