Christmas Party

December 22, 2010

Another fun party at Tanner's school! This time for Christmas.  Here are my cute party favor bags.  The parents were great about donating items to go in the bags.

Mrs. Horn read the kids a Santa book while we got the food ready.

The food for this party was a nightmare.  We have one student who is HIGHLY allergic to peanuts.  Try as we might to send message after message home to the parents NOT to bring in any food items that may have traces of peanuts, we still had problems.  Here are these darling cupcakes we mascaraed by putting them in plastic baggies and sending them home with the kids.  We could not prove they were peanut free, so out they went.  A father brought in boxes of fruit juice and insisted we serve them up after we already advertized and had cups of apple cider out on the tables. Another parent brought in a tray of sugar cookies.  (Not peanut free.) There were not enough to go around, so we had to take a poll and find out if there were enough kids who didn't want one to be able to serve them up. Awful. Awful. Awful.  I vowed the next party would be different.

Here's my sweet boy. He's such a good eater, he ate it all and loved it all!

One mom brought in this cute craft for all the kids to do.  Simple and fun!  A great idea!

Afterwards we played a couple of fun games.  Here they are playing musical chairs to Christmas music. The kids loved this.

Lexie turns 5!

December 17, 2010

There is something magical about turning 5 years old. From the instant Tanner and Lexie have turned 4, they have anxiously awaited the day they could turn FIVE. Today was Lexie's big day!

We did a family party this year and filled it with lots of pink.  Here's her pink heart-shaped cake complete with pink ice cream and candles that had pink in them.

Lexie's BIG gift this year came in a small box.

Lexie got a cheap green CTR ring in primary this year.  She wore it faithfully for months and didn't loose it.  So when I was out in Utah for Time Out For Women, I went to Deseret Book and picked her up one that wouldn't t turn her finger green. Yes, it's PINK!

Lexie, we are so blessed to have you part of our family!  You bring a sweet cheerful spirit into our home.  You hold your own with your brothers.  You are a mother-in-training in all you do.  You love to daydream and role play.  You are a wonderful example to your friends. We love how you are always singing.  Your simple melodies make our spirits smile. You are beautiful and we love you! Happy Birthday Lexie Noel!

Christmas Concert

December 16, 2010

Last year I missed Tanner's Christmas Concert because I was in charge of our Enrichment night. I wouldn't miss this year's for the world! It was a cold, blustery night, so we all bundled up and enjoyed listening to our sweet children singing!

Presenting............ The kindergarten and first graders of Two Mile Prarie!

Look who we found in all those faces! It he was so excited we were there to hear him perform! His music teacher told me later that she really loves Tanner because he is such a great singer. We really love him too! Way to go Tanner!

2010 first snowfall

December 12, 2010

Our first snowfall of the season! We got dumped on! We love all this white stuff! Colin thought he would come out and ride his scooter in it.

Tanner and Derek did all the walks and drive way plus a few extra.

Colin taste tested the snow.

Tanner was in heaven.

Camping

December 11, 2010

As part of our advent calendar this year we camped out under the Christmas tree! We all loved this and I think it is a tradition that is here to stay.

Visiting Santa

December 7, 2010

We stopped in to see Santa in his workshop this year over at Bass Pro. They know just how to deck him out with all the right elements from the North Pole to help him feel right at home.

The only one who didn't quite feel "at home" was Porter here, but this picture just makes me smile, so it's getting posted anyway! Thank you Santa for letting us come visit you!

Thank you Bass Pro for letting us play with your toys! Colin in particular had a grand time of it this year!

Lexie's do

November 28, 2010

It started to become a bit of a craze at church for the little girls to wear their hair in a side pony tail.   I noticed this, but since I sometimes try to avoid crazes, I wasn't interested in participating.

Lexie noticed the trend and began begging for this particular hair style to be worn to church one day.  It took some time, but okay, fine, we'll do it. Well, it turned out, that in all my hair-styling "experience and expertise" (ha ha), all the braided crowns, and basket weaves, all the french braids and rag curls, the combination of Lexie's hair and style of ponytail were not meshing well. It took me some time to finally get her hair to do what I needed it to do. In the end, she looked the look and we were pleased.

Honestly, I had no idea what the messages were that day in Sacrament meeting because no sooner did we get to church, then Porter AND Colin seem to be attracted to Lexie's new do. They spent the hour trying to grab at it, snarl it, and sabotage everything I'd just worked so hard to accomplish. Derek and I both just held our breath over the whole thing.

Once Sacrament meeting ending, I knew it was all over. She was off to Primary where Derek and I would not be there to protect her little head from any interceptions. I thought to myself, "Its over. I'm already fascinated to know how I'll see her at the end of Primary in TWO hours. Oh well, we tried."

To my complete shock, at the end of church I found my sweet Lexie with the same hair do as when we left the house 3 hours earlier! Somehow, some angel must have guarded her little head and she made it out just fine. Well, it came to the end of the day. Church had been over for hours. We'd had dinner and playtime with the kids. I put Lexie in her pajamas and noticed that still hours later, her do held strong. I took a bitter sweet picture because I knew, I'd want to forget this day's do, and yet, never want to forget it!

Gingerbread mansion

November 27, 2010

It didn't take us long to dive into the Christmas festivities this year! Remember all that candy we got from MIZZOU's Homecoming Parade? And then Halloween too? Well, we like to save a good chunk of it for our Gingerbread house! This year it turned out to be a bit more of a mansion than a house.

To make these from scratch, bake the gingerbread two or three days earlier than when you are going to construct it.  Cook it for longer than the recipe calls.  Both of these tips will give you a nice hard gingerbread to work with. 

We've found that one of the best ways to get a good gingerbread house with consistently the same walls is to roll the dough out on the cookie sheet, cut out your pieces from your template, then remove the "negatives" from the sheet and cook.  That way you are never handling or accidentally manipulating the pieces.

The icing makes all the difference when "gluing" the candy on.  This year our icing was terrible.  Can you tell what kind of candy i don't let my kids eat? --  Bubble gum and suckers!

Porter joined us in his Bumbo seat and somehow managed to get his hands on a piece of the gingerbread!

Here's the almost final product.  We still had a lot of decorating to do, but we sure had fun! 

Swee Turkey time

November 25, 2010

This year for Thanksgiving, we went to the Guthrie's farm. This was such a treat for us! It truly felt like being with family.  The cooks created some amazing dishes and the children had a delightful time playing together.  I brought a little activity for the kids to do and we all had fun giving it a try. 

In the end, we had quite the collection of sweet turkeys! (Though there were more eaten than assembled I presume!)

Thank you Guthrie family for having us as part of your family!  We give thanks for such dear friends!

Welcome home!

November 23, 2010

I'm pretty much NEVER away from my kids. I didn't miss them too terribly much as I wasn't gone long. But since I was gone, and now I'm home, my how it reminds me of how much I love.....

These faces!  These personalities! These hugs!  These giggles!  These cuddles! And these ages!

I'm so grateful you're mine.

TOFW

November 20, 2010

My first time going to Time Out For Women was amazing! My mom flew me out so I could be with all the High girls for the weekend! Porter is 11 months now and I'm still nursing, but I knew I'd be coming, so I built up a supply of milk in the freezer and started teaching him how to use a bottle. This meant I'd be leaving ALL of my children for the weekend!

I drove to Kansas City on Thursday night and stayed with a med school friend who lives there. (Thank you Chantel!) We stayed up late catching up, then I was up at 4am to catch my plane.

I arrived first thing Friday morning so mom took me to the temple and then we headed up to Park City to do some shopping. That afternoon we grabbed some Subway sandwiches and waited in line at the Salt Palace to get in. I had no idea how hotly contested those seats would be! But once the conference began, I understood why.

On Saturday morning we were back in line bright and early.  Here we are waiting in line together! It was worth the wait too because we got great seats both days.

They give out these darling tote bags to all those in attendance.  They become a permanent reminder of the wonderful, "bucket-filled" weekend and of the resolutions made to be a better mom, wife, mother, friend, and sister.

For lunch on Saturday we rush across the street to the Olive Garden.  They don't take reservations there unless you have a party of 10 or more.  Mom gathered all her friends together and treated them to lunch.  It was perfect!

Here we all are!  I love you ladies!

Thank moms for such a great weekend!  It was truly a treat!

MKT trail

November 13, 2010

We decided to take a drive as a family and see if we could find a few Missouri treasures. This we did as we somehow ended up along the banks of the Missouri river.

We came across this neat old bridge that is now part of the MKT trail. This used to be the old Missouri-Kansas railroad and has now been transformed into a wonderful trail for hikers and bikers.

It was a chilli day and we didn't expect to get out of the car. So I didn't do a very good job of bringing coats along. Tanner found a blanket in our emergency car kit.  Once we saw this bridge though, we had to hop out and experience it first hand!

The view from the bridge.

Just beyond the bridge about a 1/4 or a mile or so down the trail, we found this boater's graveyard!

 

Leaves and photos

November 11, 2010

We made a trip to St. Louis to pick dad up from the airport. On the way, we stopped in to see some good friends, the Spriggs and play in their leaves. I knew we'd be having some fun there, so I brought my camera along and dressed them up for a little photo shoot. (They're still little, so I can get away with this!)