A day's events

Today we learned about money. Tanner and I had a lesson on how all the coins work (a quarter=.25 cents, two nickels=a dime, etc), then we played "STORE". He loved it!

Lexie sorted the coins, then made patterns with them.



This Saturday is our Primary Activity and the Primary Presidency is hosting a get-to-know-you breakfast. They asked each teacher to submit a childhood photo so here's a sneak preview at mine. I can't believe I am posting this! Tell me I was the cutest kid you've ever seen!



To some three kids might seem like a lot, then to others, it's no big deal. I do have to say that since I have had Colin, there are many times I find myself feeling like WonderMOM. Having all three kids in the tub is just plain GREAT!

baby it's cold...inside!

Today I surprised the kids with some white stuff....INSIDE!



Lexie immediately began feeding it to Colin.



I didn't realize this at the time, but this was Colin's first experience with snow. It makes sense now why he had such a perplexed look on his face the whole time.



Tanner ran and got his gloves because his hands were COLD!



This last picture is for Aunt Carlie who brought Lexie a box of dress-ups for Chrismtas. This is the THIRD DAY in a row she has worn this one. And counting!

Oh Baby!

I know it has been forever since I have posted something and I am a bit behind on posting life events, so I thought I would just start somewhere and post this card I made for my Sister-in-law. My brother and his wife just had their first baby about 2 weeks ago. This baby was a miracle and we are so very happy he is here. I sent Andrea this card just before the baby was born.

The dress, hat and "baby" are cut out of a red cardstock that has a glimmer finish to it. I embossed the dress and hat and also the white shadow layer of the "B". There is bit of zig=zag around the "B" and I cut the purse and flowers out of red sparkle craft foam. The colors are non-traditional baby colors, but I know my sister-in-law likes these colors and they really are so classy/sassy together.

The card has five slots where I inserted 2 tags in each. Each tag had a motherhood quote on it. You can see them sticking out with white or black yarn attached. Most of the quotes came from President Hinckley.



Here's the inside.

Christmas Eve

We had a wonderful Christmas this year! On its Eve, I spent the day baking. Cinnamon rolls are a family tradition, so I made two batches. I also made two batches of Lion House dinner rolls. Then I made pie dough for two apple pies! I did the same lattice work on my apple pies as I did on the peach. I dare say they fall together quickly the second time around!

The kids had a delightful time helping me in the kitchen. When I was filling the cinnamon rolls, Lexie saw me put the brown sugar down. "I want some!" She and Tanner were at their post on the kitchen stool watching my every move. I told them they couldn't touch the dough, but anything that fell off the sides was fair game. As I sprinkled the cinnamon, raisins, walnuts, and coconut I would purposfully go slightly over the edge down on the end where they were standing so they could get their snitches. They were great helpers!

I was really looking forward to dinner and our Nativity reinactment. Several years ago I made a bunch of costumes for a Nativity at church. I have used them again and again since then and continually add to the selection each year. I suckered our guests into dressing up and they were all really good sports about it!

Here was the cast:

Derek: Donkey/sheep

Lexie: Mary (of course!)

Tanner: Angel (half way through he took over the Joseph role)

Elder Carter: Wise Man

Elder Rollins: Wise Man

Ian Moon: Wise Man

Alisha Clark: Shephard (I bet you didn't know there were female shephards abiding in the fields watching over their sheep by night!)

Richard Clark: Joseph (Poor guy, I don't think he was too excited about leaving his wife in the fields and being a husband to a 3 year old! He wins the best sport award.)

Dilcia Moon: chief babysitter. The show couldn't go on without her!

Me: Narrator, videographer, costume designer, director. I couldn't do it all, so Elder Carter took over the narration part way through. Phew!

We had to start and stop the camera part way through the reinactment, so I ended up with two files. I tried to merge them, but it wouldn't post once I had done that, so here they are.

Here are some of the pictures I took. The three wisemen:

Joseph, Mary and baby Jesus:

Here is our shepherd, but I thought she would have made a really beautiful Mary.

Our family tradition calls for a present to be opened on Christmas Eve. It is always a game that we can play together as a family. This year's game was the new improved OPERATION! (Can you believe we've gone all these years in the medical field and haven't owned this one?)

The Holmes joined us in time to play together for a bit then put the kiddos to bed and pulled out some grown up fun!

Lexie's Birthday

My did Lexie get a long, drawn out birthday this year! Her party the middle of November was supposed to be IT, but somehow we managed to find more excuses to continue the fun!

Her birthday fell on a Wednesday this year which meant that Derek wouldn't get to see her since he has Young Men's activities for church on that day, so he went to work a little late and we had a special birthday breakfast with dad.

Then came presents! Great Grandma Knights sent Lexie a hat and a book.

She opened the cabbage patch doll and tutu Derek and I gave her.

She got a PINK card from grandma and grandpa Ellingson with some $$$ in it!

And a book and rubber stamps from Uncle Nathan and Andi and a book from Grandma and Grandpa High. (Sorry, these came a little later and I didn't have my camera when she opened them. But I did take a picture of the card a little later! So cute grandma!)

Lexie is a little behind on Thank you cards due to the holiday season, but they are coming! wink wink!

Next came the PARTY!

Our good friends the McGowans and the Brooks both had a boy with a birthday right around the same time as Lexie's. So we got together for an afternoon of birthday fun. First came the gingerbread houses.

Here is Mark and Connor's

Here is Craig and Kyle's. (Or should I say, Craigs since Kyle was on the other side of the table eating all the candy! Great job Craig!!)

Here is Tanner and Lexie's

Special thanks goes to Naomi who made all the houses!

Doesn't this pic look like an I-Spy?

We had homemade Macaroni and Cheese for lunch. I realized I had SEVEN boys and Lexie in my dining room. BOY was Lexie a trooper! hee hee!

Back when I made Lexie's party cake in November, I made half the batter into cupcakes and the other half into a heart shaped cake and froze it. So, I pulled it out and tried to add some masculinity to it with brown frosting, but it still looks pretty girly in my opinion. Craig and Mark were cool with it! We put 5 candles on one polk-a-dot for Craig turning 5, then 4 candles on another for Mark turning 4, and 3 candles on another for Lexie turning 3. I was plum out of candles by that point, so it was a good thing we didn't have any more birthdays!

We put all three birthday kids together and BLEW!

In the end, that many boys in one house is sure to bring serious chaos, but seriously, it was a blast! And Lexie kept up with the best of them.

Christmas Gifts

This year for Christmas Derek got me a sewing machine! My usual exhersion of self control completely vanished as it arrived at my doorstep some 3 weeks before Christmas. I pulled it out almost immediately and made a slew of bibs. The idea came as I began to feed Colin "mashed up vegetables" as Tanner calls them and realized that I had very few bibs around. While I was at Joannes buying the fabric, I thought about my two sister-in-laws in Utah. One just had a baby in October and the other is due any day. I think they got 4 each and Colin ended up with one or two more than that. Then, a girl at church had twins and I made some for her too.

I made them all reversible too. Here's the back side of the tree.

The back side of the sheep.

The back side of the bird.

I confess, I really had a lot of fun doing these bibs and just couldn't WAIT until Christmas!

Visiting Santa

As a child, every year we would go to Grandma and Grandpa Knights' home for Chrismtas Eve. The evening would begin with shrimp, cocktail sauce, and egg nog up in the den followed by a large feast downstairs. Afterwards we would gather in the family room. Grandma would pull out her Nativity costumes and we would reinact the story of Christ's birth. Then there would be Chrismtas carols. She would split us up and give us each a line to sing any way we would like to the 12 days of Christmas. By the time the song ended, we were all quite tired of its repititions. As the night wore on and we had sung a good handful of songs, she would begin to sing Jingle Bells. Right on que, we would hear bells up stairs. Soon Santa would be bouncing down the stairs with a large, black bag filled with presents. As a child, it really was one of the highlights of Christmas! I don't know how grandma managed year after year to find a little gift for each of us, but she was quite creative with her gifts and we all got to sit on Santa's lap to confess if we were naughty or nice. (Here's an old picture of me at one of these special occasions!)

Now that I have children of my own and they are just at that age where they are remembering Christmas from year to year, I have found myself so anxious to teach them the real meaning for the season. Last year was so fun as we focused each family night in December on one aspect of the Nativity story. They have nativities of their own to play with and this year Lexie got a paper doll one. (Thank you April!)

One evening about a week into December, I was waiting for Derek to come home from work. All of a sudden I realized that my kids we not going to get to see Santa! It was as if my childhood yanked on my sleve and reminded me of some of the other joys that come during the season. So, I sent Derek a text page and told him to hurry home, we were going to Bass Pro!

This was one of those moments when the husband humors the wife and we both just smile. But we surprised the kids with the trip to see Santa and it was a real treat. Bass Pro sure does Santa up with style!

When we arrived, the first thing the kids saw was a life-size snowman.

Then the kids checked out the trains.

Finally, we found Santa!

After the photo shoot, there were a couple of activities for the kids to do. As we were driving home, I asked the kids what they liked best about our visit to Bass Pro. Tanner said he liked the Elf who was making a bird house. Lexie said she liked Santa, and Derek said he liked shooting guns with his son!

Salt dough ornaments

During the holidays we made some fun ornaments for the kids tree. Here's the recipe and some photos of our fun.

2 cups flour

1 cup salt

1 cup water

or

4 c flour

1 c salt
1+1/2 cup water

Bake at 325 for 1 hour