Isabelle's Baptism and Christmas House Village

My super sweet and beautiful niece was baptised! She was the lucky duck that got to wear the Baptism dress me and most of my sisters wore when we got baptised. So cool! I was not even aware that this dress existed until not too long ago which is why Kenedy did not wear it for her baptism. I will be getting ahold of this dress when it is time for Avynlea to be baptised. :o)

After the Baptism we all bundled up and went to Christmas Light Village. It is this fun place where local businesses decorate sheds in Christmas themes. The idea was really cool and I could totally see the appeal but honestly, I could not get past how cold it was. I was seriously layered but I could not find warmth anywhere. So I was pretty miserable during this trip. I really tried hard to put on a happy face and not complain but after about an hour I was done. Luckily I was not the only one freezing and while we enjoyed the memory making I was happy to get back into my SUV and crank the heat.

The Forgotten Carols

The first weekend in December found me, Avynlea and Rylee in Utah for my Niece Isabelle's baptism. We arrived Thursday night and Friday night Emily had a girls night out planned for her, Mom and me. We started our night out by going out and eating some super delicious barbeque. Oh yummers!!

After dinner we headed out to go see The Forgotten Carols. When we were kids we had a tradition that Mom would read to us from The Forgotten Carols and play the music. We all loved it and so we were really excited to go watch it being performed by Michael McLean himself.

Of course it was an amazing show and afterwards we got in line to meet the performers. I already had the book but I did not have a cd so i bought a cd for the actors to sign. Mom and Emily bought t-shirts that they had signed.

So here is our funny story, I warned Mom that this story was going on my blog and so she was prepared for this. :o)

While we were waiting in line I told Mom and Emily that when we got up to the front I was going to lean into Michael McLean really close and in a scary whisper say "I am going to stalk you". Mom was horrified and kept telling me to not embarrass her. Emily and I were laughing and I kept trying to get Emily to dare me to do it because who can turn down a dare? Mom was having none of it and said I better not embarrass her. So we got up to the front and Ems and I pushed Mom in front so she would be the first to speak, and that is when it all came out. Mom got kinda nervous and started talking to Michael McLean and told him about when she and my Dad went to see The Forgotten Carols years and years ago. She told him that they went to the concert and then right after my Mom had to take my Dad to the hospital with bleeding ulcers. After they came home from the hospital my Dad informed my Mom that he was never going to another michael McLean concert again. I could not believe that she was telling him this story. I was laughing so hard because you sould see her mind telling her mouth to be quiet but the mouth was having none of it. Poor Mom she was so nervous. She was so worried about me doing something to embarrass her that she ended up doing it to herself. Hahaha I love great stories!

I told Michael to not let this affect his next performance. But I am really hoping that somehow he works it into his next performance. 

It was a great night spent with people I love and lots and lots of laughing!!!   

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!