Candy houses 2009

Ok so I had to quit calling these 'gingerbread' houses cuz I was getting called out on not technically using gingerbread but graham crackers. Any way you want to call it we had a great night making our houses. We also have Chris and his daughter Siobhan (shavon) with us from Australia. He was one of Johns missionary buddies and will be with us for Christmas. Trent is getting serious.

Siobhan getting started.

Kelsie using ultimate concentration.

Jeffy was the cutest. He squealed with delight the entire time and was so excited to glue on blue foil santas.

Trenton with his creation.

Cute Jeffy....Telling me just where to squeeze the frosting.

Trent is ready to dig in.

Jason getting his original going.

What a great time. Hailie and Brad A.W.O.L. ;)

Rockin' around the Christmas tree 2009

I love Getting our home ready for Christmas every year. All the kids gather around and we play Christmas music and pull out all of the Christmas Stuff. My kids take over and do the decorating of the tree while I hand out the ornaments. They do a great job and the tree always looks so nice. Most everything on our tree is home made or has been given to us or gotten on a special trip. I love getting each ornament out and remembering what it means. This is our tradition. Sometimes I see amazing trees in the stores or someplace else and think one year I will have one like that but then when we get ours decorated I love it so much. Thanks kiddos for making our tree look so great every year!

This is my other favorite part of our tree, the star. John made this out of wall paper for our very first tree. We of course had no money to buy one. When I did finally have a little extra money and bought something for the top of the tree it just wasn't the same and we all agreed that the star had to go back on. There is has been ever since.

Jeffy loves the snow flakes we hung in our windows.

Thanksgiving 2009

Another thanksgiving only this was the first time in about 15 years it wasn't at my house! It was so nice not to have all the stress of having it at my house. So a very BIG thankyou to my sister Natalie for hosting us all at her house. It was a wonderful day with great food, games and ending it goat rides for the kids....sadly no pics of that. Kelsie was my photographer for the day so our pictures are a little blurry but she did a great job.