How sweet it is

We were thrilled to take part in a super fun...super sweet holiday tradition at our church. The annual Gingerbread House Decorating get together is a blast. We did it last year and had soooo much fun. The boys talked about it for months. So this year, we got three house to decorate...and let the boys go to town. (Get ready for picture overload...we didn't want to miss a morsel!!!!)

We enjoyed the fun with just a few of our closest friends. HA! There were about 150 people there! Wow. We all ate pizza before we started to decorate. That explains all the empty pizza boxes sitting around. (I guess we eat first to lessen the temptation to munch on all the goodies!)

This year Sawyer got his own house to decorate. I got nominated to help him out. Not too bad, but this boy tried to lick the roof of his house as soon as we got it to the table. Plus, I think he ate as much as he decorated!! He did get the hang of it pretty quickly. He loved getting the m and m's stuck to the top of his house!

Connor took this very seriously. He filled his bowl with all sorts of goodies and went to town. He was set on using every ounce of icing they gave us!

Jackson had a blast. Last year he decorated his house...then started picking all the candy off and eating it. Before we left here were a few sweets left...but this year he decorated every inch! He had this sweet smile on his face the entire time.

I love the tongue. He always sticks out his tongue when he's concentrating. He loved all the different colors...

Here's Connor...again, very intent on using all the icing. He was taking after his father here and doing a little exterior landscaping.



More cuteness...notice Sawyer with his hand in his mouth. His theory was one for me, one for the house, one for me, one for the house....

At the end, jackson squirted a ton of icing on the top of his house (His finger is poised right where his stream of icing stops.) It looked cute..like a big swirl of snow on the roof peak. Well...I looked away, only to glance back and see him bent over and licking the icing with his tongue! I immediately told him to stop...Craig looked a me, laughed and said...let him go, its his house. So...Jackson went to it...and licked the huge swirl of icing right off the top of his house.

Here's Sawyer's finished product. Not too bad..and there's still candy left on the house!

It was flurrying as we left church...very picturesque! (first snow of the season) We all headed home and I put their decorated houses on a high shelf in the kitchen. They look great!

When we got home the boys headed outside to play in the snow. (Can you say sugar high!!!)

In the swim

So we wrapped up swimming lessons this weekend. The boys enjoyed it...for the most part...though Jackson only agreed to go back if he didn't have to "get sunk" anymore. (He went under twice during one of the lessons.) They both did pretty well.

This week was safety week...so they had wear their clothes in the water.

Here they are walking around the shallow end. But before they were done...

they had to swim out to the deeper part with their life vests on. I know this is an awful picture..but you can see the angst on poor Jackson's face. Ugh. He DID NOT like that.

Here he is a little calmer. I think once I gave him the thumbs up he relaxed a little bit!
I think we'll sign them up for more lessons...but maybe not this next session. We're going to have our hands full when Connor starts playing Upward basketball in January. The kindergarteners play first...8:00 am!

The boys thought it was pretty cool to wear their clothes in the pool..but it was a real bear to get them peeled off and dressed for our next stop...church choir!