It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas!

Ahhhh, Christmas! This really is my absolute favorite time of the year! This year it has been crazy, mostly in a good way! One of our favorite ways to get some holiday spirit is to get the decorations out. In the last couple of years, we have added the tradition of homemade gingerbread ornaments to the mix. This has become one of our favorite Christmas activities, and I was actually kind of proud of how well these turned out this year!

Aren't they beautiful?? The kids and I had a lot of fun making them, and they looked so pretty on the tree. As a bonus, the kids and their cousins had fun sneaking them from the tree for a snack. We found more than one gingerbread man amputee when we took the tree down! :)

Making the cookies wasn't quite enough to satisfy Tori's creative cravings, so she took a break to make an impromptu Santa mask. :)

Another Christmas tradition that we've created is going downtown to see the gingerbread displays at the Davenport Hotel and taking the kids to see Santa. This year we took Jaylee, Campbell, and Sawyer with us, and Grandma, Grandpa, Jill, Tyler, Damon, Tara, Ellis and Brad came with us.

Tori and Aaron by the big Christmas tree in the Davenport

Walking to the mall to see Santa...when did these girls grow up?? They already look like teenagers!

I got a really good picture of the kids with Santa, but it somehow was deleted from my camera. :( Thankfully, I still had this one!

We had a beautiful Christmas this year and once again enjoyed having our nightly devotional every night reading from the scriptures, singing Christmas hymns, and reading stories that helped us remember the true reason for celebrating the season. It was so wonderful to see Tori really get into the spirit of giving this year. She even made everyone homemade gifts, including a poem she wrote for Chewie, Brad, Grandma, and Grandpa:

Christmas morning, she was bouncing up and down, saying she was so excited. I assumed she was excited to open her presents, but then she added, "I'm so excited for everyone to get the gifts I made for them!" Seriously, I love that girl! Overall, it was a wonderful Christmas with lots of love and lots of family. We feel so incredibly blessed!

New pajamas for Christmas Eve. Tori's pants were too big in the waist, but she was a good sport and still tried to hold them up for the picture!

Mom showing off the cake we made for her

Christmas Day was on a Sunday this year...perfect time for Christmas pictures!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!! :)

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!

We had our first snow of the year today...I'm really not sure that I'm ready for that yet! Oh well...ready or not, here it comes! The Gills are staying with us right now while Mim and Brent are in the Galapagos Islands with Brad and Sharee, and the kids got out first thing this morning for some fun in the snow:

Cute Girls!

Frosty #1

Frosty #2

Winter Memories!

Superman and the Cowgirl

Happy Halloween 2011! The kids this year wanted to dress up as Superman and a Cowgirl...

We had fun carving pumpkins the night before Halloween. Bad mom award...I forgot pics this year. They pretty much look the same as last years' efforts, though. Visual arts is definitely not my creative strong point. :) I took the kids trick-or-treating on Monday night while Todd hit the books (ahh, the life of a college student), which is okay, because I actually enjoy trick-or-treating whereas Todd would pretty much rather be mauled by bears. My dad taught me as a kid how to find the best places and get maximum coverage in minimum time. We went around Liberty Lake until the kids had finally had enough...6 1/2 lbs. of candy later. Should last them until Easter!

Out of the Mouths of Babes

Time for another self-indulgent-my-kids-are-the-cutest-things-in-the-world post. Sorry...bear with me!

-Aaron climbed into my lap the other day, gave me a tender hug, and whispered, "I love your heart."

-Aaron was looking at a picture on a calendar that showed a lion roaring and observed, "That lion's face looks just like Grandpa. A lot of animals look like Grandpa."

-We were riding to church this week and Tori was getting frustrated with Aaron, who was jabbering next to her in his typical less-than-quiet voice. She finally covered her ears and suggested that "Aaron's nickname should be Forte!"

-While grocery shopping the other day, I had Aaron in the cart in front of me and asked him for a kiss. He gave me one and I promptly asked for another one. This continued until he finally got irritated with me. "I have 5 kisses, Mom," he informed me. He gave me five kisses in rapid succession and announced that he was all out.

-Aaron: "Where are Heavenly Father and Jesus?"

Me: "In Heaven."

Aaron: "Where's Heaven?"

Me: (not really sure how to answer this one) "Where do you think it is?"

Aaron: "Up in the sky. I want to go see them."

Me: "You can't right now."

Aaron: (Looking supremely dejected) "Awww!"

-Aaron was taking forever eating his breakfast and after asking him patiently several times to stop getting distracted, I finally snapped at him, "Eat your breakfast!" He sat up straight, saluted me, and replied, "Yes Sir!"

-While at the grocery store the other day, Aaron and I were waiting in lint to check out and a little boy in the cart in front of us looked at me, clutched a bag of Cheetos possessively to his chest, and yelled at me, "My Cheetos!" Aaron stood up in our cart, pointed his finger at the boy, and warned him, "Be nice to my mom!" Thanks for coming to my rescue, little man.

-Aaron and I were in Michael's and a little boy was playing with some figurines on a shelf. Aaron rushed over to him, and very seriously warned him, "Don't touch that! You'll break things, then your mommy will be mad and you'll have to sit in the cart!" Apparently, my words must sink in on some level.

-Aaron has never really had an ounce of stranger anxiety, and lately he has taken to talking to people and making friends everywhere we go. At WinCo, we were walking down the aisles, and Aaron was waving to everyone we passed, with a chipper little, "Hi Guys!" One of the men we passed laughed and turned around, asking him, "Which office you running for, little man?" Hmmmm...Aaron for President??

-Aaron was upset because I told him he couldn't watch a Hot Wheels video he has because I found out that it has a few words in it that I don't like. He tried to convince me that the "bad words climbed up (with hand motions) and jumped out!" If it doesn't work out for him as President, there's always video editing, I suppose.

-Tori had to use the word "cliffhanger" in a sentence for her homework tonight, and she wrote, "When I grow up I want to be a cliffhanger."

Happy B-Day America! (Bucket List # 3, 13, and 17!)

We had a great fourth of July this year! We got to spend time with family and check a few items off of our summer bucket list in the process. :)

Yesterday morning we packed the kids in the car and headed up to spend the day at the cabin (List #3). Of course when we got there Todd ended up having to go to the store to try to find a part to fix something on the boat. No holiday or vacation would truly be able to pass without some kind of project demanding his attention. :) While he was gone, I read a picture book about the Declaration of Independence with Tori (Aaron sat through a few sentences), watched a little of Finding Nemo with the kids, and hung out with the Burns Family.

Aaron with Sawyer

Once Todd was back, we took the kids out on the Sea Doos (List #13)

The lake was pretty choppy from all of the boats that were out, and Aaron wasn't excited about the bumpy ride, so Todd ended up taking him back to the cabin after a fairly short ride. Tori, true to her dare devil nature, was loving the waves, so we stayed out a bit longer.

It lifted my spirits to race across the lake with my little girl giggling in front of me, the water spraying us and the wind whipping our hair. We finally headed back to the cabin where Todd did some more work and Aaron went on a boat ride while Tori and I relaxed on the dock.

After lunch we tackled List #17...fishing. This is something Tori has been begging to do for a while now, but neither Todd nor I really know how to fish, and we don't have gear. Thankfully, the gear was at the cabin, and Uncle Brad and Uncle Gabe gave us some pointers. After tearing worms in half and threading their still-writhing bodies on our hooks, I wasn't sold on the activity. Tori didn't seem to mind as much, especially after she caught her first fish.

After that, she pretty much wouldn't budge from the dock for the rest of the day, even to go with us out on the boat.

At least she had her cousins to keep her company!

After Tori had caught her fourth fish, and after several false alarms, Aaron and I FINALLY got our fish! It was the biggest of the day, so I suppose our waiting paid off. He was SO excited, jumping up and down, giving high-fives, and shouting "we did it!" at the top of his exultant little lungs!

While we waited, I passed the time making him pose for me in his oh-so-stylish-and-masculine Barbie life jacket.

When the weather warmed up this year, I dug out our life jackets and realized that Tori's old Barbie life jacket fit him perfectly. "Great," I thought. "No need to buy a new one." Apparently, Aaron did not think my solution was very "great". The first time I put it on him, he broke into full out tears. "It's PINK!" he shrieked in horror. "It has Barbie on it!" I hoped it wouldn't be an issue since he actually plays with the Barbies in Mom's toy closet sometimes. Never mind that all he does is strip them naked and rip their heads off. I was hoping it would be enough to make him tolerate the life jacket. But...no. There was a full-scale temper tantrum until he realized it was either the Barbie jacket or no swimming. I wasn't budging. He finally resigned himself to a pink summer. :)

After dinner we spent some more time on the dock until it got dark enough to put the fishing gear away and watch for fireworks. Since we didn't want to light fireworks off on the new dock, we relied on the neighbors for our entertainment. Thankfully, they rose to the occasion! The neighbors directly across the lake put on a pretty good show.

Unfortunately, they caught a tree on fire for the grand finale! Todd and the kids and I had already left, but Damon caught it all on film. Those who were still there said that it looked like only the tree burned and that nobody was hurt...I hope they were right!

Overall, the day was a great day filled with family and fun...the perfect way to celebrate our freedom and our beautiful country.