Gingerbread Houses

Thanksgiving 2011 found us once again at Peterson Farms. The past couple of years I have had various siblings come and stay with me during the thanksgiving holiday. This year was no exception with Andrew coming for a couple of weeks. It was bittersweet having him here though, sweet because he was here and bitter because I am afraid that this might be the last year it will happen. But I chose to look on the sweet side of things and really enjoyed having my little brother for a couple of weeks.

Alison let me bring whatever I wanted to the dinner and so I decided to make a jello salad and some pies. I have never done a jello mold before and when I found one on sale at Wal-Mart for $2 I thought it might be fun to try it out. I think it would have worked just fine if we didn't have an hour trip to Nyssa. The jello kind of melted and when I tried to set it nicely on a plate it blobbed all over. So I dumped the mess into a bowl and though better luck next time. It was still delicious. I also made a most delicious coconut cream pie and an even more delicious chocolate cream pie. Yum yum yummers!

Dinner was great and then after we ate it was time for the annual gingerbread house decorating. Except this year it was gingerbread trains, so fun. Each family got a train to decorate and then Ryker and Bailey got one to work on together.

Avynlea was super excited that there was a new kitty at the farm. I am not entirely sure why but this kitty had a temporary home in the laundry room. Avynlea spent a lot of time in the laundry room keeping the new kitty company.

I made my traditional candy palm tree and I think they get better and better every year. This one had coconuts on it and a nice base so it wouldn't tople over. I origionally placed it on top of the train and them moved it down to safer ground later.

Rylee was the first one to begin work on the train and the last one to leave it alond. She was very concentrated on where to place all of the candy and did a mighty fine job.

And here is our familys finished creation. Looks delicious!

And Ryker and Baileys happy train!

All Dressed Up

Our ward usually does a clothing swap at least once a year. Back in august, I think, we held a clothing swap that i was in charge of. That was when I was still the enrichment leader, side note: I now teach the 11 year olds and I absolutely love it. So anyway we had a clothing swap and since I was in charge I was there when all the clothing was brought and basically had first dibs...awesome! My friend in the ward has seven kids which includes two sets of twin girls. The younger set are a little bit older than Avynlea and the older set are Kenedys friends. So I was pretty excited when Deena walked in with a plethora of clothing her daughters dd not want anymore. In addition to some other great things I grabbed I was able to snag two identical brand new dresses with the tags still on, one being a size larger than the other, perfect for Rylee and Avynlea. I thought they would be perfect dresses for Christmas and so I kept them put away until the first Sunday in December. Not too shabby if I do say so myself!

I think I have some dang cute kids!!!

Yup they are gorgeous, it is hard to believe how big they are getting!

Halloween

Now I have to play catch up because I am waaaaay behind on posting. In the previous years I always send out halloween cards to immediate family. it was my way of letting my family see the kids halloween costumes. This year I decided to expand that a bit and send out halloween cards to friends and family, make it our holiday card. Well I had brit design a card with our picture, I then got the cards printed at Costco. I even went as far as to start addressing them, and then they sat, and, and sat until it is now January and I never sent those cards out. I don't know what happened but I have a pile of cards that are way put of date. So here is our Halloween...finally.

The day of Halloween while the kids were at school I thought it would be a fun activity for Rylee and I to carve her pumpkin. I figured we could get hers carved and out of the way and then when the kids came home from school we could do theirs.

So I cut the top and had Rylee start scooping out the guts, she liked that part and liked playing with action figures in it also.

When it was time to carve Rylee said she wanted a princess pumpkin. Um yeah that was not happening so I suggested a crown. She was cool with that and so I did a crown. I realized during this carving process that I am really, really bad at carving pumpkins. Like really seriously bad. So when the crown turned out not so great I suggested we do a heart on the other side. When the heart turned out even worse then the crown I gave up and decided pumpkin carving is not my forte, I am ok with that.

After the pathetic carving Rylee went into the bathroom to clean up and decided to stay in the bathroom and play in the sink.

When Kenedy came home I told her she could carve her pumpkin and she was not in the mood. No worries I wasn't either. But when Avynlea and Ryker came home Avynlea wanted to do it so I cut off the top and let her scoop out the inside. And that is as far as it went, she got it gutted and we left it at that. Ha!

Ryker was so excited about the Link costume I made him that he immediately put it on as soon as he got home. I thought it was pretty cute of him to practice the piano while as Link.

For dinner I wanted to do a Halloween theme with the food and so I made spooky Mummys by wrapping biscuit dough around hotdogs and turned our mashed potatoes into ghosts just by adding eyes!

We had our ward trunk or treat to go to which started at 7 and for some reason I didn't think we needed too much time to get ready. So a little bit after 6 I had the kids start getting into costumes and we quickly ran out of time. So no fancy hairdos no makeup and no cute hair bows. Oh well, life went on.

A beautiful Ballerina Princess

Link from the Legand of Zelda

(I made the costume and that shield. Pretty proud I am)

A Sassy Pirate.

(I made the entire costume. Gave me some stress but I did it. When I origionally finished the hat the brim was HUGE, it looked like a sombrero. So I took it apart and cut it down. I still think it should have been a little smaller but it was good enough.)

A cutiepie Boise State Ballerina.

(bought the shirt, made the fun tutu)

After the tunk or treat Kefford took the kids around the neighborhood. As soon as they came home the candy was dumped out and the sorting began. Overall it was a fun Halloween!

A really good day!

For my Birthday I told Kefford I wanted a plane ticket to see my family after Christmas. He is the best Husband and gave me what I requested plus another ticket so Avynlea could come with me. When I was sure of the times that I would be in California I called my Brother and requested that he let his two boys get baptized while I was there. Jeremy and Alec have been going to church with my Mom for a long time along with their little sister Jaylynn. About a year ago they said they wanted to get Baptized and so they took the Missionary lessons. They also read the Book of Mormon as requested by their Mom. Finally they had the opportunity to get Baptized. We had a family dinner at my Moms house before hand and then went to the Stake Center. When we got their nobody had the key to the font so we had to wait for a Bishop to come and open it up. Luckily it didn't take too long to get the font filled.

Jeremy and Alec

My little brother Andrew was the one chosen by the boys to baptize them. Andrew is a favorite of theirs and I think they made a good choice. Andrew did an awesome job and the spirit was so strong. I know many people were touched including my brother Jeremy.

 

I am so happy that I got to be at this Baptism. Jeremy and Alec have waited so long for this day and were so excited. They are going to touch a lot of lives with their examples and will do so much good in the world.

It was a good day!

Rylee says...

* About a month ago Rylee and I went to Albertsons so I could get a couple of things. We got to the checkout and I started to unload the shopping cart while Rylee eyed all of the candy. Suddenly I heard her ask me if she could have a pack of gum. I said no and then I heard her say..."too late". I looked up and saw Rylee with a little grin on her face and the checkout girl holding a pack of bubblegum she just rang through looking a little concrned. That sneaky little Rylee! All I could do was laugh and when the girl asked if I wanted her to return it I said no and let Rylee have it cause I thought it was too funny. She better not pull that trick again though!

Happy Birthday Elizabeth and Ryker

Ryker and I share a birthday. When we was first born on my birthday I was not sure how I felt about that. I very quickly though learned to love it! this year Ryker turned 9 and I turned 33. I am getting so old! :o)

Ryker wanted an oreo cookie cake like he had last year and so I made oreo cookie cupcakes. I crushed oreo cookies and added them to the cake batter and then I crushed more oreos and added them to the frosting, they were most delicious! My amazing friend Candice came by and brought me a Victorias Scret gift card, she knows me so well! Her daughter Katherine is in my primary class and she brought me peanut butter chocolate cupcakes that she made herself. They were so good! I love those two girls and really appreciate the rememberance of my birthday! Another good friend of mine, Lanette, brought me some lotion and a yummy brownie. I got many texts and cards wishing me Happy Birthday from friends and family and it really made my day great!

Five things that make Ryker great!

1) He will always give me a kiss before he goes to bed. His Dad gets a fist bump but the Mama gets a kiss and it makes me so happy!

2) He does not always enjoy practicing but he is getting to be such a good piano player. He gets really excited when he finds a song that is fun for him to play and he will play it non stop. I love watching and listening to him play and I can see so much improvment with his playing every day. He is going to grow up to be a piano hot shot!

3) He gets excited over the funniest things. Any time we do something not of the norm it suddenly turns into the BEST NIGHT EVER! He is so cute!

4)He has a grateful heart and shows much appreciation for anything given to him!

5) Ryker is so stinkin cute and has these amazingly long eyelashes that make all the women jealous. The lashes drive him nuts though. The other day he came to me and asked if he could cut his eyelashes. I told him no way and made him promise me that he would never ever try to cut his lashes. He says they bug him cause they are so long and get smushed against his fake glasses when he wears them and he doesn't like people talking about them. I love his lashes and hopefully someday he will appreciate all the attention they garner from the ladies!

Ryker's Favorite Things:
Color: green
Sport: basketball
Coach ;o) : Kefford
food: chicken
dessert: cake
candy: chocolate
book: Geronimo Stilton
church song: scripture power
any song: James Bond "you know my name"
TV Show: Adventure Time and Thundercats
Movie: the Pacifier
Toy: Binoculars
school subject: Math (multiplication)
video game: Every game
friend: Braeden Irish
why he is excited to be nine: It's older then 8