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Our First Snow!

Snow came in early December--after the snow came the cold. I love our little hill in front of our house. The kids can put on their snow gear and go sledding right away! Our oldest loved to take GG down the hill!

For the first two weeks of snow--they would get on their snow after Luke got home and play until it got dark.

I love seeing their smiles!

Ironing

Do you like to iron? Well I don't.

Tonight while I was at the church setting up nativities for a nativity exhibit, I walked by when someone was ironing. As soon as the iron struck the tablecloth, a total look of relaxation came over her face. I could tell she liked ironing. I'm not sure that look has ever passed my face when it comes to anything that I do around the house. Well maybe sleeping . . .

Images of Spencergiving!

The Turkey

It tasted as good as it looked! I stuffed it with two apples and an onion and sprigs of sage. I decided the best approach was to try and seal in the juices by rubbing the turkey with olive oil, sea salt, minced garlic, and molasses. I thought between the oil and the sugar, it would make the skin nice and crispy, and seal in the juices of the turkey. It worked!

Mike and Luke making a blueberry pie. The boys loved it!
I did too!

Luke is putting in the lemon juice for the pies!

This was supposed to be our appetizer, but we had an unexpected tornado show up. A tornado touched down four miles from our home. I was in the middle of mixing rolls, so I brought them into the basement with me and stirred and stirred. After the storm passed, I went to Luke's school to get his homework. (Also unexpected, Luke has been fighting off a cold for about three weeks. I finally took him to the doctor where they gave him a nebulizer treatment. Who knew he had a touch of asthma.) The electricity had gone out, so it took forever because of all the downed lights. Luckily no one was seriously hurt during the storm! With all the school buses taking children home, that was a blessing.

She knows it's better to eat the craft than to make the craft.
Again, something we made a few days after Spencergiving--but since it hasn't even been Thanksgiving we are still not late!

The beginnings of the craft: striped circle cookies with chocolate covered marshmallows on top! The boys did a great job of covering the marshmallows with chocolate and placing them on the cookies.

After the initial eating of the craft, GG went to the floor to work on her Cheerios book. I've read this to her about ten times, now she can do it on her own!

The completed pilgrims hat. It turned out pretty cool I think. We will spend Thanksgiving with my sister tomorrow, so we will bring these over to share. The boys thought they tasted great! I like GG rather just eat it before it is complete!

I didn't get any pictures of us eating the meal, but as usual the kids didn't eat much--at least Mike loved the meal! We also had the missionaries over. It made it seem a little more like Thanksgiving having them in the house. We often had the missionaries at our house for Thanksgiving, what a treat to be able to host them again! I was a little worried they wouldn't want Thanksgiving twice in one week, but I guess most people keep eating leftovers for the rest of the weekend!

Other items on the menu: Apple sausage stuffing, caramelized butternut squash, green beans, broccoli, homemade rolls, and turkey. For dessert: blueberry and pumpkin pie! AAAH can't wait until tomorrow to stuff myself silly again!

(The food crafts were courtesy of FamilyFun Website.)

Spencergiving!

Today I've been peeling potatoes, making pies, snapping beans all for our Thanksgiving dinner. We started this tradition last year when Mike had to work on Thanksgiving. Last year Mike flew for a few days then had all of Thanksgiving to spend in the hotel--in Canada. There weren't even any restaurants doing Thanksgiving buffets in Canada. This year he is spending it in Charleston, South Carolina. Oh, I would love to go and be with him, but can't imagine trying to bring three kids/standby on Thanksgiving.

We had the choice to have him work Sundays or on Thanksgiving--we prefer to have him work on Thanksgiving. We can still eat a wonderful meal, enjoy a family day, and have Thanksgiving--even better the kids are at school for part of the day. One thing I love about doing it early noticing how stressful everyone else is because Thanksgiving is coming up, where as I haven't a care in the world. On to check the Turkey--it's looking really good again!

I'm Thankful for her!

She's beautiful!

She loves to read books to her dolls--sometimes they even hold the books! This girl is pure. There is a goodness, a purity that is just part of her soul. It seems to me that it will be there for eternity!

She is so fun! She loves doing cannon balls, gymnastics, tickling and swimming. She has a wonderful deep laugh, and it is contagious! You can't help but be happy when she laughs!

She makes me smile this big every day!

Lately I've been in a kind of a slump. Not really wanting to go anywhere. Well at first the kids were sick, so I really didn't go anywhere. Yesterday, I made GG's map. It's her daily visual schedule--it seems to help her know about her day. At the end of the list I had drawn in Peak--so we could go swimming together. When it came to the end of the day, I didn't want to go. But she was so excited jumping around--and knowing it was on her map! We went, had a great time! She went across the lily pad, jumped in doing cannon balls, and just had fun. The boys had a great time. They had created an obstacle course at the pool and were chasing each other! It was well worth the trip. Last night she finally got the bug that the boys had--she threw up all night and into the morning. She about cried when I made the map, and her school wasn't listed on the map. Her expressive face said it all. Then she threw up again. Hopefully, it will end. I hate cleaning up throw up!!!!!

Spooky House!

After Halloween, I went to Target--look what I found a Spooky House! We had a lot of fun decorating it. This is actually our second. I bought the first when Halloween stuff was 50% off, and the second when it was 75% off. It was a really fun to do together. GG did a great job of making the fence. We rolled out the fondant to make the bats, and the boys loved decorating the roof. It was pleasant to do it as a family: both times! The first house collapsed, and this one could have easily fallen apart, but somehow it stuck together.

I am thankful for our Spooky House--and that we were able to have the Halloween fun last even longer!