Merry Christmas 2011

We had a Very Merry Christmas this year. This is our Family newsletter:

 I neglected to take any really good pictures of all our activities. Here are a few of the times I picked it up...
This is the gingerbread house the kids and I made from scratch! Yummy recipe. We're still picking at it. :)

 I always take a picture of the tree before we go to bed on Christmas Eve. I love setting up the gifts to make it look like there is more than there is. Did pretty good this year. :)

Our tree stand was melted last year, you can't tell that it's being propped up on one side by a cd case. *giggles*.

 I was blessed to be able to pay for all of our Christmas this year from my Etsy Business account selling patterns. Heavenly Father always provides a way.

We decided early on in our Christmas Preparations that we would start a new tradition limiting the gifts. The kids would get pjs the night before, one santa gift, filled stockings, and then 3 gifts from Mom and Dad representing the gifts given to Christ from the wise men.

Gold: Something Joyful (fun what they've been wanting)

Frankincense: Something Mindful (a game, book etc)

Merr: Something Meaningful (homemade, especially for them)

It worked out perfect. The kids were so happy with their gifts this year!

 Evelyn and her stocking. She got Princess PJS and a pink robe to sleep in on Christmas Eve.

 Egan and his stocking. You can't see his PJS, but he got Perry the Platypus fleece pjs. Love the antlers.

 Lego Building set.

 Easy Bake Oven from Santa.

 Princess Barbies! And a pretty girl with her eyes closed...

Trip to Utah Continued...

Coming from Logan to Salt lake we stopped to ride the "City Train" another one of Egan's must dos while in Utah. Here is a picture of the kids and Aaron waiting for the train.

 Egan SOOO happy to riding on the train. This kid just loves trains.

 Of course Temple Square was or destination.

Egan in front of the Salt Lake Temple.

 Evelyn. So gorgeous with the Salt Lake Temple

(Got a picture with her eyes open!)

 Aaron took this one of me and the kids. LOVE IT!

 Me and the Hubby! I love Temple Square. They were in the process of getting all the lights ready. Fun Fun. :)

Evelyn Lost her Teeth!

Evelyn lost her two bottom teeth! We're having a hard time getting her to keep her eyes open for pictures... this is the best I could do. LOL. She's still the most beautiful little girl in the world.

Evelyn struck it rich with the tooth fairy... the fairy's gonna go broke!

We sang quite a bit this Christmas "all I want for Christmas is my too front teeth." :)

Grandpa's Grape Juice

I grew up with homemade grape juice from Grandpa's (My Mother's Dad) little vineyard in Oregon. This year Grandpa Burt let us come and pick a BUNCH of Grapes. About 100lbs actually. He let us take home his steamer and gave me the recipe on how he's always done it.

Pictured in the collage are the grapes. There were green and purple!

There is no comparison from these Yummy homegrown organic gapes and the grocery store ones.

The kids helping us pick each individual grape off the vine.

The steamer draining the gorgeous juice into the jars.

I then added some fructose.

Put on the lids and steam canned the lids closed.

We made 48 quarts of concentrated Juice!

We gave some of the quarts away as Christmas gifts this year. Perfect!

I am so grateful to have learned this tradition to pass on to future generations. Grandpa has also taught me the art of whole wheat bread making, and the love of genealogy.

THANK YOU GRANDPA!

Thanks Giving SNOW

For Thanksgiving we took a trip to Utah to visit family. Our first stop was Logan to see Angie and Clint. Egan had been begging to see snow and boy did he get it! They built a sled hill with the snow off their back porch! Boy was it fun!

Snow Angels!

Super Cold!

Thank You Angie and Clint for the AMAZING fun Time!

Good Days

When uploading the most recent pictures I found some really good ones that I didn't know where on there! Evelyn took this picture of Aaron and Egan! I think we found another talent of hers!

Aren't my boys cute?

 Aaron took this one on a Saturday morning I think. Silly Kiddos.

 Egan had Crazy hair day at school the other day.. I'm pretty sure Aaron took this one that morning so he could capture his work on Egan's hair. That boy was so happy to go to school with a Mohawk!

Happy Halloween 2011!

The crisp air and beautiful colors in the trees really gets me excited for the holidays!

Its sad the year you no longer have a say in what your kids will wear for Halloween. This year Both kids insisted on what they wanted to be.

Egan wanted to be a cop complete with handcuffs and gun. I made him his shirt and pants with some fabric I found on sale, I already had the buttons and gold ribbon.The dollar store had a gun and badge, and wal-mart had a pair of handcuffs, I used a cereal box, electrical tape and foil for the his hat.  Total for costume: $8 and a few hours of time.

 Evelyn insisted on being a Fairy Princess Ballerina in Pink! So, thank you dollar store for the wings, crown, and wand. I used an old pink shirt she had and painted it up. The tutu was a costume already in her dress up box. I sewed together ballerina slippers that fit over her tennis shoes. With scraps and some ribbon on sale!

Total cost for Evelyn's Costume: $7 , 1 hr time.

 We carved our pumpkins for family night. The kids had to clean them out themselves, draw on the face and mommy and daddy carved it out for them. This picture of Egan is just so precious!

 Isn't funny how sometimes we look like the pumpkins we carve :)

My Darling Kids

They got to Trick or Treat twice this year once with our ward activity and once with Grandpa and Grandma Hill.

Now, on to November!