Christmas Eve

We had another fun day with last minute shopping trips. However, about 4:45, we were all ready for our annual Chinese night! My parents started several years ago to take us out to a Chinese buffet on Christmas Eve, then lights, then caroling to our favorite friends. This is one tradition that Andy LOVES! Then we came home to do our Nativity, which the kids were so excited about! They have been practicing all week their costumes to be Mary and Joseph - with my white kitchen dish clothes and my headbands. Dad was wicked King Herod and the star. I was the shepherds with my pet sheep. Emily was the wise men with her gift. Annie was Mary while Ben played the part of Joseph. Joseph took great care of his donkey (the step stool) and even made it a pen with an opening/closing door.

The wise man reallllly wanted to hold Baby Jesus, but Mary just couldn't give him up! Either she was holding him, or he slept in his manger (the other step stool turned upside down). It was a great night, but the kids were so exhausted, they went to bed without putting cookies and carrots out. Dad kindly took care of that for them!

BYU Bowl Game

We finally got 'real' tv and with our special package, we get the college sports pack. So, we got the BYU bowl game in Las Vegas. Yippee!!! We are on Eastern time, so everything here starts later - except wake up time for the children. Happily, we were able to watch half of it and save the rest for the next night with the kids. Annie and Emily were just being silly. Ben watched the entire second half while Andy and I explained the rules to him..

Annie decided she would rather play with toys than watch since Ben already claimed Dad's lap.

Sugar Cookies

Since I was little, we have always made batch after batch of sugar cookies to take to neighbors. This year I just couldn't do it, so we made batch after batch of fudge to deliver instead. It goes much faster and makes less mess! However, I realized we hadn't made ANY sugar cookies and needed to send some of my brother. Out came the mixer... We had two little friends over for the day to give their mommy and new baby sister some break time. Me vs five kiddos with the dough...the cookies turned out a little bit tough since we rolled and re-rolled the dough so many times, but put enough frosting on and they were great!

Making 'Gingerbread' Houses

I'm thinking gingerbread houses are just too much work, so this year we got very enthused to make our houses with graham crackers! It became a fun activity instead of a 'have to' project. Doing the prep work - it was pretty good frosting...

Everyone needs a taste test...

Engineers at work! This house was very sturdy. Andy, Ben and Emily worked together.

Annie and I did another house.

Although for some reason I think more candy may have gotten in Annie's mouth that on the house. Hmmmm

Yeah - nine at night and all done!

Finished products! Our favorite part was the pond with the red pop rocks on it - looked awesome!

They loved turning Ben's car into a tractor so it would fit and the contemporary architechural style!

Yummy yummy houses!

More Snow Fun

The kids have had a lot of fun in the snow. Thankfully Ben is self-sufficient and Annie is mostly there, so getting outside isn't such a production. And, the right equipment makes the time outside much more enjoyable!

VERY posed picture; they have had lots of reminders NOT to throw snowballs at mom!

Cutting Down a Tree

When we got marries, Andy said we could only do a real tree when we could 'hike' through the woods and cut down our own. We now live in a place this can be done, so we did it - on a VERY cold, but somewhat sunny, day!

We found it! Annie said it was perfect!

They had the tree cut down before I could pull my camera back out, so we had to pose this one again!

The outdoorsman and his kiddos!

We tried to get a Christmas picture before leaving for church this past Sunday. This was the best we got! We were running late and supposed to be early and the morning just went downhill from there!

A Quick Jaunt

We were super-excited to use my sister's buddy passes to join some of the family in Utah for my little nieces baptism last week. All it required was a two hour drive to Pittsburgh, a short flight to JFK, then a cross-country flight to SLC. Long day, but we were so happy to finally be there! Emily helping Aunt Nancy clean some spots on the floor while Ben and Annie colored with Bronwyn and Cosette worked with me to make freezer meals.

The kids all loved visiting Anderson Park, so we went a couple of times. I love these three sweeties!

It was cold. We were so UNprepared. Yes, little river was frozen over. The kids all thought it was so cool to walk on the frozen water...until I told Cosette to jump and it cracked...I said SORRY!

Playing Captain Hook and Peter Pan with Addy. We were lucky enough to see Addy's play our second night there where she STARRED (was AWESOME!!!) as Ouiser in a scene from Steel Magnolias... She wasn't home much, but the kids loved when she was there!!!

"duncan, you my friend." was Emily's most often-heard phrase. She LOVES this sweet perfect dog!

On our way to the baptism! Nancy has painted her front door this BRIGHT blue. It matched perfectly with Annie's dress. And - the bow is one that two of my sweet friends in Ohio helped make. One Friday evening, they dedicated time to help make my little girls actually LOOK like little girls, so I now have a bow hanger filled with bows!

The McArthurs!!!

Our last day there, we woke up to LOTS of snow! The kids had such a blast playing in it - until they got too cold. It was fabulous, especially because I got to finish my book! Here Grandma came by to say farewell and found her 12 year old granddaughter outside without a coat on! :)

Cute picture of my mom and dad. I've been asking for a few years for a 5x7 to put in my house, but it just hasn't happened yet. This will just have to do for now....shadows and all!

Naughty Little Girls

Well, we had a (nother) hair-cutting incident. I've tried to figure out WHY in the WORLD Annie keeps doing this, but I'm not finding one... Last time she cut her hair, I told her if she did it again, I was going to buzz it short like Ben's... Fifth time is a charm, I guess! Emily's butch-job. Poor little girl was a complete mess. She had no real idea what was going on and just smiled for the camera.

And...the other one. Yes, looks like a mug shot! Naughty little girl! The back was cut halfway through in the middle of her head as well. Where was I? I know this is the question everyone asks... I was reading Ben a book upstairs and had just checked on the little cherubs as they colored Thanksgiving cards and cut snowflakes. Just one book - doesn't take much time to cut hair!!!

Happy Thanksgiving! We had a great day watching Andy play football, raking leaves, watching movies and eating! Ben came down with HIGH fever just before dinner, so we had to cancel plans with friends for dessert. It was just a nice peaceful day!

Ohhh...the LEAVES

We have beautiful trees...that drop a LOT of leaves in a short amount of time. One of the trees really needs to be trimmed as it hangs over the house, and therefore, dropped LOTS of leaves on the roof. We finally made two hours one Saturday evening to start raking...

The kids obviously loved it...

After scrapping off the roof, we worked in the front. This is the only pile we got to that night; it filled 12 black trash bags FULL. This was about 3 weeks ago. We have now raked about 2/3 of the front yard...anyone want some service opportunities???

I never realized how much fun could be had in a big pile of leaves. Or piles of little leaves for that matter...

Happy Halloween

Halloween seemed to last for weeks on end! I quite dreaded it for a time, but it was fun once it actually got here! Here are my two beautiful princesses before our church Trunk or Treat. They were so excited to have makeup on and not get in trouble! Andy was his normal gorilla and Ben was a hiker.

Face painting. The Young Men and Young Women's organization ran the activities. Then, they did a dance with the lights out and florescent paint all over. The kids loved watching it and loved it even more when they were all invited to join the big kids in dancing to the YMCA.

This is Annie's cute friend Mia. They play together fabulously! Unfortunately, we have preschool on opposite days and live 15 minutes apart, so it's been hard to play this past month and a half!

Ben's class Halloween party - I am a room mom (but NOT the Head Mom) and had fun planning the activities.

We did the classic toilet paper game, which the kids LOVED.

This is why I never wanted to teach the lower grades. Although the kids love it, I would go crazy with the wall decorations. :) We love love love his teacher and the progress he is making. They are constantly taking assessments of the kids to make sure they are on track; LOVE IT!!! Carving Pumpkins. We almost didn't get to it since our days were so busy, but after a massive melt down by Ben, I called Andy and told him school had to slide this time because we HAVE TO HAVE TIME to do these pumpkins that the kids had looked forward to carving for weeks. They had a great time for the 45 minutes we had before play practice!

This is such a typical Emily picture; the child loves to be naked. She's also normally colored in some type of pen or marker (as she is at the moment - red). I don't know where she finds them all, but some day I will blackmail her with all of her crazy pictures!

Yippee! We are almost got done! Annie and I did the smaller pumpkin while Andy and Ben designed the bigger one. It was actually much easier than I remember!

Yes - Emily with a pen...again...and her two pigs which she has come to insist on each morning even though her hair is finally getting longer!

Happy Halloween! We spent most of the day either in the car on the way to/from Columbus or in the Temple there. Ben fell asleep about ten minutes before we got home and didn't want to go trick-or-treating. Andy took the girls and we joined them about 45 minutes later to catch up with all the preschool friends and their families!