Gretchen's Skills

The baker.

Gretchen has been eyeing the Cupcake Maker for months. I was not going to buy her that but wanted to encourage her in learning to bake. Aaron and I were at the OSU bookstore and found a very cool cookbook that came with 6 silicone cupcake cups. The book had different recipes other than cupcakes. Like the fruit tarts above. Gretchen was so proud that she made these. She couldn't wait for everyone to eat them. Gretchen also made some Banana Chocolate muffins. They didn't turn out so great. We 'll keep working on it. I thought the gift was much better than the Cupcake Maker.

Christmas 2009!

Before the kids came down. I loved the tree we got this year. It was a Nordman Fir. It dropped maybe 20 needles the whole time it was in the house. It never dried out and stayed very green. It was beautiful. We will definitely get another one.
The stockings.

Before we came down the kids had already put all of the presents in piles. Organizing...those are my kids.

We love seeing Harrison and Graham sit like this.

What a cutie!

Gretchen not quite ready to wake up. Yes, we read scriptures before opening presents. It probably wouldn't have gotten done.

Ready for bed. Did we just get up? Rats!

Starting to tear into it.

So much fun.

I think Gretchen was excited about what see was opening.

The Christmas p.j.s.

I had to get another pattern. Hunter grew out of the pattern I've used for all of these years.

I even made some for Aaron this year. Last year it was just a couple pair of pants. This year the whole shebang.

Graham loves trucks, cars, trains, anything with wheels.

Still heading down the hall way with a truck.

Lunch upstairs. It is a special day. And some of them are still in their P.J.'s. It's always a good day when that happens.

My mom called us Christmas morning not feeling well. We were going to head over to her place Christmas day sometime. Now what do we do with ourselves. the kids loved playing with all of their presents and not having to run around and get ready to go. We even went to a movie something we have never done on Christmas. It was such a great thing to not have be any where and just be together.

Christmas Eve Caroling

Christmas Eve we had Dawn, Darin and their kid, Jared, Lydia and their kids and Shannen over. We had some great pizza and salad. ( We were going to get together in a couple of days with the rest of the Hales for a traditional Christmas dinner. No need to do two, right.)After we ate we headed out into our neighborhood to carol.
We had so much fun.

Alice and Graham would get right in front and dance. Alice also kept asking Aaron where we were going next.

We had such a great time.

To warm up after caroling we headed home and had some hot cocoa. Then we played a couple of rounds of Catch Phrase. One our families new favorite games.

After we were done and walking back to our house, Harrison said, "Mom when are we going caroling?" I replied, "Harrison that's just what we did." "No it wasn't", he said back. He was more than frustrated. I didn't understand where this was coming from.

Later in the evening I asked Harrison why he was so mad after caroling. He tilted his head and said, "Where were the horses?" It was so difficult for me to not laugh out loud. Frustration explained.

Another Creation By Gavin

During the Christmas break Gavin created this great house with wooden blocks.

He was so proud of it. I told him to get some pictures of it before it got knocked down.

Gavin got different shots of it.

Soon after the pictures were taken, the house came tumbling down. Gavin luckily wasn't to upset because he had gotten some pictures. He's always got some great things in his head that he creates.

Helping Out Before Christmas

The Thursday before Christmas I was able to watch a couple of extra kids.

In fact I had 5 kids the age 4 and under. The morning went surprisingly well. They all got along pretty much.

Helpful!

One night last week, Gavin was showing signs of needing some attention. Signs being-constantly bugging his siblings, running through the house like a crazy man, and yelling. Of course Aaron wasn't' home. I had so many things I was needing to do, like fold laundry. In our house there is a lot. I had the thought ask Gavin to fold the towel. It would definitely help me out, occupy him and give Gavin something positive to do. I gave up a long time ago on how I want the towels to be folded. I figure if the are balled up and thrown on the floor or in the cupboard, I'm okay with that. Harrison couldn't wait to help out too.

I;m not sure why Harrison felt the need to kick over the stack. That is just something Harrison likes to do, stir the pot.
Doesn't Gavin look so proud of himself.

They even put away most of the towels and the our home was much calmer and sweet.

Ice Skating

I'm way behind in the happenin' around here. It has been a crazy week and now the kids are out of school and the pj's are not quite done. I like to have them done before they get out of school. That way I can spend more time with them and not have to stay up late at night to sew so they don't see them. On with the happenings.

Last Friday we had our Ward Christmas Party. It had been cold and dry the whole week. I mean cold for this area. The high during the day was 35 degrees. It started to rain late in the afternoon. About 5:30 it started to drop below freezing. Thus freezing rain. On the way home from the Ward Christmas party it was slick. I think I didn't get above 15 mph. the whole way home. Saturday morning we woke up to glossy roads and driveways. Gavin ran our to the back yard and was sliding down the slide. It was so slick that he couldn't stand up at the bottom of the slide. He kept sliding on his bum even on the grass.
After Hunter ate breakfast he wanted to try sliding down the driveway. We don't own any sleds so he grabbed the lid of a tote. It didn't work so well. The kids liked sliding around more than anything.

The neighbors and the dogs decided to join the kids out front.

Can you see Graham's head in the bottom of the picture. He wanted to see what the kids were doing.

They had so much fun and then it started to rain and the ice melted away.

Freezing Football with Friends

Last night the temperature dipped down to 8 degrees here in Corvallis. So not the normal or anywhere near it. During the day it might get up to 34 degrees if we're lucky. Despite the temperature, boys must still play football. Gavin has some friends over today after school, Rees and Luck Stenson. As soon as we got home they headed to play. They quickly came back in for hats and gloves.

Hunter headed out to play with them. Have I mentioned what a great big brother he is?

It was Gavin and Rees against Hunter. Luke was one the sidelines and would jump in to try to steal the ball at times.

They stayed out for about 45 minutes. That's about 45 minutes longer than I would have. Hot chocolate was served then the headed up stairs for more football, on the Wii this time. It's so great when your kids have such great friends.

Like Mother Like Son

I guess that's not how it goes, but it is so fun to see Hunter really enjoying knitting.

This is the third square he has done. Next Hunter wants to make a hat using this new stitch he learned for this square. It's the moss stitch.

This is one of the blankets that the kids did. Hunter's square is the red one in the middle.