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!

Deck the Halls....

We ended up getting an enormous tree. It took Craig about 2 seconds to find it which was great. It looks fabulours in our living room. The boys were sooooo excited to help Craig put the lights on.

Craig remained very patient and calm as the three big boys "helped" him untangle the lights. (always a fun project) The boys were thrilled as their handy work began to take shape.

Here we are with the lights on!

Guest photographer Jackson took this picture. He was very proud of his skills. Connor took a stab at some pics too...his were a little too fuzzy. We'll try again next time!

The Holiday Season

We had a great Thanksgiving with lots and lots to be thankful for...not the least of which was the great food.

We also celebrated Jackson's birthday too. He's got the energizer birthday..it keeps going and going and going....


Here they are with Aunt Lynn (Uncle Dwight got an early start on hunting season:))

After Thanksgiving we made a long overdue stop at the Mennonite Home to visit Craig's grandfather....or as we explained to the boys - Daddy's PopPop. It was great to get to see Grandpa and Norma.

Up next, our annual trek to get a Christmas tree. We didn't make it Black Friday because it was a little too cold for the little ones....but we did head out on Monday.

Grandma took this great picture. We'll surely add it to our collection of Christmas tree pics. Its one of my favorites...maybe because everyone is looking at the camera! Ha! The simple pleasures!!!

Movie Night

So we planned to have our cousins Lindsey and Seth over Friday night for Movie Night. The boys were so excited! It was Aunt Lisa's birthday on Thursday...so we wanted to give Lisa and Uncle Steve a night out.

We started the evening with make your own pizza. The boys (and Lindsey) did a great job. We had fresh dough, sauce, two cheeses and pepperoni. Yum.

Afterward, we had ice cream sundaes. Again,yum. We tried to watch a movie..but didnt' have much success. There was too much playing and fun going on.

Lindsey was a huge help. She loved holding Mitchell and playing with him. She's such a sweet heart.

Sing to the Lord, I love you

Connor and Jackson made their second appearance this season on the church choir circuit. They did great...and looked so cute. Mommy was running both the video camera and the still camera....so that explains these poor pics.

Here the guys are getting in place...they don't look so happy, but believe me, they did a great job. The song was super cute. I was sooooo proud of my guys.

Here's Mrs. Betty getting them all ready. Great Job!

Cookie

Oh, what a week. It was quite busy...but great. On Monday Connor asked if we could make "bear cookies"...he found a cookie cutter in a drawer and was eager to make use of it.

So...on Tuesday we made the dough...chilled the dough...then baked the dough....

It smelled awesome. Then to top it all of, we iced the cookies and decorated them.

We all had a great time.

Jackson had a lot of sprinkles left over on this plate...Connor asked if he could have them...Craig and I said no, let Jackson eat them....but Jackson said I want Connor to have them. Too cute. He has such a giving heart.

Sawyer inhaled his cookie. I'm surprised he even tasted it!

Take a look at this dude...covered in flour. You should have seen the mess we made. UGH!

This guy did not get to eat a cookie, but he didn't seem to mind! This week he started eating some new stuff...he had graham crackers, pears, and noodles. The pears were a big hit.