Christmas

We had a great Christmas season this year.  The week of Thanksgiving, I sat down, and with some input from the kids and Sam, created a Christmas bucket list.  I scoured local papers and blogs to find fun things to do every day leading up to Christmas.  Our advent calendar this year consisted of little paper sacks with one activity for us to do every day.  Some were very simple, like watch the Nutcracker or put up a ribbon sash for Christmas cards, while other were a little more involved (at least on my part) like make homemade marshmallows and hot chocolate or have a Christmas dessert party.  We did many of these activities, but I will also freely admit there were days when we just didn't get to our activity for that day.  Here's our complete list:

                     Fill a manger with straw for Baby Jesus

                     Do a family "secret service santa" day. Draw names in the morning and do good deeds anonymously throughout the day.

                     See Santa

                     Drive to see lights

                     Watch It’s a Wonderful Life

                     write letters to Santa

                     shop for sibling gifts

                     Make Christmas Cookies for friends.

                     Find Mistletoe, hang it in our house and kiss under it.

                     Address and Mail Christmas Cards

                     Go to the mall and Pick out one new Christmas CD.

                     Watch The Nutcracker

                     Listen to Handel’s Messiah

                     Leave out wooden shoes on December 5

                     Go to the Temple

                     Make Thick Hot Chocolate and Homemade Marshmallows

                     Put up a ribbon sash for Christmas cards

                     Give neighbors a present

                     Put up a wreath

                     Make a Gingerbread house

                     Make a popcorn garland

                     Make hot chocolate and read The Best Christmas Pageant Ever

                     Sing (or listen) to favorite Christmas songs

                     Drive around to see neighborhood lights

                     Go out and see public light display

                     Read Christmas story from the Bible and the Book of Mormon

                     Make a family traditional dessert

                     Eat out at a festive restaurant

                     Go to a seasonal movie

                     Tell stories of childhood Christmas around the fire

                     Make decorative sugar cookies

                     Sign up to purchase gifts for a needy child

                     Host a Christmas dessert party

                     Write out a Christ-centered goal to start early for the New Year

                     Have a movie party (classic Christmas clips)

                     Go to a Christmas Concert

                     Go caroling

                     Attend City tree lighting event

                     Have a full traditional breakfast while listening to Christmas music

                     Make homemade ornaments

                     Make candycane milkshakes

                     Dinner by candlelight on Dec. 21^st

                     Have French toast and hot chocolate for dinner 
           Lighted Boat parade
           pasco luminaria

                     Have an elf treasure hunt For Christmas eve presents.

I think we all had lots of fun, and for me it was helpful to have a plan a head of time.  I'm not the greatest at being spontaneous.  

Here's some photos to document some of the fun things we did:

Reenacted the Nativity: Olivia was an angel, Noah a Shepard  and Harrison was Joseph.

I was in charge of our adult Christmas dinner in our ward this year.  I really didn't do that much, but my committee came through with an amazing evening.  The decorations were a "winter wonderland" and they literally turned the cultural hall into a winter wonderland, complete with snow covered trees hanging with glass ornaments and white lanterns   There was a fabulous musical program, and it really was a lovely evening.  Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures.

Our ward also had a family Christmas party.  It was interesting, and I'll leave it at that.  But the highlight of the evening was definitely the bishopric dressed up as wise-men   I'll let the pictures do the talking.  

The Primary children all sang at a retirement center in December.

Here's the family all dressed in their Christmas Sunday best.

Christmas day we were surprised with SNOW.  A white Christmas in Kennewick is a rare thing, and the kids definitely took advantage of it, and spent quite a bit of time outside playing in the snow.

We spent Christmas day enjoying each other's company and relaxing.  It was wonderful.

And some more shots of the kids in their Sunday best:

Olivia's Dance Recital

Olivia started a dance class this fall, and has really been enjoying it.  It's taught by one of the moms in her home.  She is in the Tiny Toes class, which is 3 and 4 year-olds.  In December they had a recital at a local retirement home.  Olivia loved it!

Here she is at home before the recital:

Just before the recital:

With her best bud, Eliza:

And here's some videos of the performance:

Fall Bucket List

A few weeks ago, I was musing on all the fun things we had done this fall, and crafted a whole post in my head on all the fall bucket list items we'd checked off our imaginary list.  But since the list was imaginary, and it's been a few weeks and I didn't write the post, I'm afraid I've forgotten what I was going to say.  But here's a few of the things we've been doing this fall (in no particular order):

took family pictures at our favorite photo location in Kennewick, full of beautiful fall leaves, and a fun tire swing:

cheered Harrison and Noah on in lots and lots of windy soccer games:

Levi was a great sport during the games.

went on a preschool pumpkin patch field trip:

enjoyed the mums in the front yard:

went to the Bills Berry Farm apple and pumpkin festival where we made our own apple cider, and thoroughly enjoyed fresh hot pumpkin donuts:

invited friends over for hot apple cider and pumpkin muffins (we ate all the donuts...)

went cosmic bowling in Halloween costumes for Sam's annual work party

dressed up and trunk'or'treated and trick'or'treated and enjoyed the spoils

watched the annual primary program (from the audience, this time, since I didn't have to be in charge!),

shopped for school supplies

attended back to school picnics

conferenced with teachers

introduced Levi to solid food

made caramel apples

watched general conference

carved pumpkins

watched football

constructed a thankful chain

celebrated our 2nd anniversary of living in Kennewick

devoured pumpkin cheesecake

ran in the turkey trot

watched Olivia perform at a Halloween dance recital

family reunion-ed at Walt Disney World!!!

Thanksgiving

We had a fabulous thanksgiving weekend.  Just the 6 of us (still surprises me everytime I say that.  Are there really 6 of us now?!?), hanging out all weekend, having a great time just enjoying each other.

We decided to do the turkey trot again.  This year we all ran it - while, I jogged a bit, Olivia ran about a quarter of it, Levi rode in the stroller, and the 3 oldest boys all ran.  I gave the boys a monetary incentive for a fast time, and it seemed to encourage them a bit. Last year they ran it in around 11 minutes, and this year Harrison came in at 8:40ish and Noah about a minute later. Maybe next year we'll go for the 5K!

Kids under 8 were free, so I even registered Levi.  He had a number and everything:

Poor kid had just fallen asleep in the car when we got there.  He was great the whole race, even though he was pretty tired.

We got home and got busy cooking.  I kept it simple. I wanted to focus my energy on family time, and not creating a fancy meal that no one was going to eat.  I made a roast chicken, which the kids helped prepare, and our turkeys were in the form of a veggie tray, and fruit platter, also prepared with the kids helping.

The roast chicken was delicious, finished cooking in an hour and a half, and we still had plenty of  leftovers.  

The next day we spent the morning decorating for Christmas

And then headed off to the Christmas Kickoff in Dayton.  There was a little bit of a snafu with forgetting wallets, so we missed out on eating at our favorite place, the Country Cupboard, but we still managed to have a great time, going on a hay ride, visiting with Santa, watching a free movie, and enjoying the lighted parade.

Then on Sunday we finally built our Gingerbread house.

It's so fun that we are really starting to have some solid yearly traditions, that the kids are remembering and looking forward to.  Dayton, the turkey trot and a gingerbread house are definitely Thanksgiving weekend traditions we plan on continuing.

Thankful

For Thanksgiving, I wanted the kids to elaborate a little more on the immense blessings that we enjoy.  Sometimes it is a bit hard to pull it out of them for night time prayers, but I was excited to see them fill up a list in the week before Thanksgiving.  This started out as a FHE activity that we carried over on the next few days.  Each meal, we would try and get every person to list ~5 things. We wrote them on paper strips and made a huge long chain. I did my best to try and not allow duplicates because I wanted them to think.  We quickly got beyond the standard list and figured out some great blessing

I am thankful for:
smiling - L
swing set - H
rain - S
Chickens and hens - O
Ridley Pearson, Dave Barry, JK Rowling - H
coloring pages - N
Hello Kitty shirt - O
trampoline - H
Cinderella - O
Dad coming home from work early - M
our Bishop - S
comf pile - N (a big pile of blankets and pillows)
our baby brother - N
pie - M
Jello - N
ibuprofen - H
letters - O
Sleeping Beauty - O
crawling - L
Disney vacation - S
Balloons - O
flowers and roses - O
reading - H
beautify day - M
animals - N
Bible - N
candy turkeys - N
primary teacher - N
hot cocoa - H
General Conference - S
church - N
jackets - H
dad - N
warm soup - S
Oreos - H
loving children - S
origami - H
playdoh - O & N
skirts - O
ovens and cooking appliances - N
grandmas - O
holidays - N
Scriptures - N
families - O
Moses - S
prayers - N
pajamas - N
Minnie, Mickey and stars - O
our garden - S
pears - O
cars to drive - S
my mom and dad - O
mom's cooking - N
apples - N
leaves - O
jumping in leaves - N
Levi's naps - M
my sewing machine - M
electricity - H
princess dresses - O
doctors - S
flex time - S
warm clothes - S
a temple close by - S
computer - N
my brothers - N
movies - N
ninjago - N
house - H
books - H
internet - H
muddy buddies - M
a helpful mom - H
Rapunzel - O
princess dolls - O
blueberries - O
obedient children - M
Levi - H
strong bodies - S
strawberries - O
Legos - N
tomatoes - O
listening - N
gravy - H
rolls - S
football - S
music - L
vitamins - N
Cinderella cup - O
friends - H
safe neighborhood - S
piano - M
chicken nuggets - O
board games - H
mommy's effort - O
soldiers - M
turkey trot - N
mom's green thumb - S
green lawn - M
tools - S
our freedoms - M
the great plan of salvation - H
puffs - L
free roaming to crawl - L
veterans - N
thanksgiving - N
mashed potatoes - S
our time on earth - H
sandbox - O
family activities - S
KOG - H
a helpful dad cook - M
birds - O
books - L
home teachers - S
candy - N
schools - S
cousins - O
creativity - S
flowers - O
thanksgiving dinner - H
vacation from school - H

The boy's beds

The construction of the boy's beds was a long time coming.  Since Noah was born, the two of them have always been in the same room.  For all of our time in San Diego and Maryland, we had them in an Ikea bunkbed.  After a few months in this house, we decided to sell the bunk bed (yeah craigslist!) and make them some more traditional beds.  As usual, Mollie found a plan on Ana White's website (http://ana-white.com/2010/02/plans-simple-bed-full-size-inpsired-by.html).  These looked very sturdy and not too difficult to make.  Of course, everything takes longer when you actually make it.

I rarely have a full Saturday to dedicate to these projects.  With soccer games and lawn care, the day always goes too fast.  I started with the headboards and footboards.  Mollie and I were forced to improvise when we could not find any 4x4 posts at our local Lowe's.  We bought 2x4 and some hardward that would allow us to attach the side rails to a 2x4 instead. (This involved a little bit of learning with my router.)

I got the beds put together right about the time that I grew frustrated with the boys jumping on their mattresses.  For some reason, mattresses on the floor are the perfect jumping toy.  But when I put them on a framed bed, then that does not happen.  I was so rushed in fact, that I didn't do any finishing.  They slept on raw wood beds for a few months.  Then (after finishing other more pressing projects) I got back to the beds.  We had since found 4x4 lumber at Home Depot (not Lowe's)  and were ready to take on the task of correcting the posts and finishing it.  I'll note only in passing how much I hate finishing.  The endless sanding, filling, resanding. One way that we get around this is to use spray paint.  Because I don't have to wait hours inbetween coats, we can paint the whole thing in less than an hour.

Here's the finished project: