Pre-Christmas Busy

My handsome boys in their matching-ish ties. Brandon had to wear it to school one day. He got a lot of compliments.I made sugar cookies WITHOUT my kids. I was surprised at how much cleaner it was to do it that way.
We celebrated our 5-year anniversary of living in our house. We ate on the floor in the kitchen to celebrate (that is what we did the day we moved in when we didn't have any furniture yet).
Cody's school party:
Brandon's Polar Express pajama party:
Ryan and I celebrated our 11 year anniversary (lots of anniversaries in December at our house).
Ryan took me to this really fun and fancy restaurant for dinner with an AMAZING magic show. It was so fun.
Then we had fondue with our kids. Kathleen insisted we take a funny picture. Well, let's be honest, it is a better way to describe us. Way to catch our personalities Kathleen.
Ryan made the kids red and green pancakes for breakfast.
Kathleen danced in the Nutcracker.

She was really excited about her bun in the net. She even added a red bow and had me do her hair this way for four days in a row.
Alyssa and Clayton came to visit.
Kathleen and Brandon had their piano recital.


We went to Bounce with Ryan's work for a party. I guess the Velcro wall was the favorite of the evening. But we should let you know that we raced through their biggest blow-up obstacle course and I beat Ryan with a whopping 27 seconds.

Awards, Concerts, and Gingerbread

Kathleen was nominated for Principal's Pride. We are so proud of our cute kids. They both have received this award this year. They do work so hard and as a mother, I can really appreciate when someone else notices.Kathleen with her Principal.
Cody had his preschool Christmas concert. He was so cute.


We took the kids to the mall to see "the REAL Santa." They love seeing Santa's helpers, but they were really excited to see the real one. Don't ask me how they know the difference...they just do. Luckily they are all in agreement. Kathleen said, "Because he was jolly and gave us a present." I guess that is how you know. It is the level of jolliness.
We made gingerbread houses. And by gingerbread, I mean graham cracker. And by houses, I mean...
Can you guess what Ryan is making?
Yes, that is Fenway Park, home of the Red Sox. No we aren't obsessed!!




Our snow fort/igloo melted in fun patterns. But the kids are sad that the snow is gone.
Kathleen and I dressed to match on Sunday, funny faces and all.

Happy Birthday Ryan

Sunday was Ryan's birthday. He was so cute. All he wanted for his birthday was to have all the Elders in Elder's Quorum for one day. So he completely arranged it all and taught part of the lesson. I guess we all have different ideas of what makes a happy birthday.

Here he is in the morning opening presents:
He loves the cotton scented soap from Bath & Body Works.


Key Lime Pie:

My mom sent Ryan money to buy root beer float stuff (and whatever else he wanted). So here we are:
Brandon needed a picture of himself for a class project. This is what he got. So cute.

Snow Fun

We had our Thanksgiving dinner today. Yes, that is right. It is always so much fun to visit family for Thanksgiving, but we really miss out on all the left-overs. So every year we have our own Thanksgiving separate from the family. It was sooooooo good.We go a TON of snow in the last week, which is really strange for this area generally. Today we decided to build the kids a little snow fort/igloo.

What really surprised me was how wide it was on the inside.
We had our ward Christmas party at our church. The kids got to talk to Santa.


Kathleen and some of her cute friends singing Christmas carols.
The boys decided to make a tunnel for our train.
Brandon is a cute little piano player. He is working really hard right now on a Christmas song for his piano recital. it is so cute to hear him and watch him play.
So on Wednesday, when school was cancelled because of the snow, we spent about 5 hours outside in the snow. What does a kids hair look like after all that fun one may ask? Well we have the answer right here:
And here is what Cody did for fun while mom shoveled the driveway (sat on a mound eating snow):
We set up our Christmas trees. Here I am with the "red" tree:
And here the kids are setting up their tree in the playroom:



And here is the first day of our own "Elf on the Shelf." The kids named him Freddie. They LOVE Freddie and even made us put up a stocking for him. That first day was the best behavior I have EVER seen out of my kids, knowing that Freddie was watching them. But don't worry, they are back to normal now.
Setting up the tree:

And since I didn't take a single picture of Cam's wedding, I decided I had better put at least one on my blog that I stole from someone else. I really liked this picture. Although it was hard to choose because they were all so good.