Christmas 2011

Christmas was a little different this year with the move hanging over us.  At noon on Christmas Eve I put everything dealing with the move on hold and dedicated the next 18 hours purely to Christmas.  We went caroling at the Senior Center with the VanGeisons, the Adams and some of the Hamblins.  After that we went to dinner at the VanGeisons and enjoyed some good food and good friends.  We had to forego our normal light sight-seeing trip and after dinner we went home to open our Christmas Eve present. 

The kids have always gotten PJ's to open on Christmas Eve but the older boys kept going on and on about how boring the jammies are and how they might not even open theirs on Christmas Eve.  No on needed new jammies and so I decided to switch things up on them and got them all Pillow Pets instead.

Lucas got Thomas the Tank Engine.

Cinderella Pillow Pet

Lucas helped me pick these out for the boys and he decided that they both needed at Yoda.  I was going to get something else for Guss but Lucas insisted that Guss needed one too.

The scene as the kids come down the stairs.

Chloe got to be the first one down, even though the boys woke up first.

The boys had time to shower and get dressed for church before we let them wake up the little kids.

The rest of the troops down to check out their loot.

Santa brought new chairs for Chloe and Lucas.

Lego organizers for Guss and Owen.

We waited until after church to open all the presents that were under the tree.

Chloe made herself and Cinderella very comfortable for the present opening.

Lucas was very excited about Cars 2.

Owen couldn't get enough of the fun.  He was the last man standing.

That night we packed up all our new toys and headed out to our temporary house at the beach in Wells.  It was fun to spend one last Christmas in our house in Sanford.  It was a peaceful day before the craziness of the move fully hit.  We got the house totally emptied out and cleaned over the next two days only to have the sale fall through the night before close.  It was a very stressful couple of months after that but in the end the same people were able to work out their problems and buy the house at the end of February.

Winter Wonderland

We went with our friends, the Camerons, to see a lighted Christmas village.  I can't remember the exact name of it but we had a great time.  There were animals to feed, lights to see and a sleigh ride to go on.  We decided to take our Christmas pic here as well.  We had a great time with our friends and it was a great way to catch some Christmas spirit.

The sheep knew we had food and wanted more.

I love this picture of Chloe.

This guy gave Ben a nice hello.

Warming our hands at one of the fires they had around to stop and warm up at.

Lucas was demonstrating proper hand warming technique.

Chloe, doing her Flawless Girl pose, and Lucas with a real reindeer.

Meeting Santa in the barn.

Merry Christmas!!!

Good Morning!!!

The day after Thanksgiving, or more technically late Thanksgiving night, I went out to hit the sales with a few friends.  We had a good time and snagged a few good deals to boot.  I didn't get home until 5 in the morning but luckily the kids were nice and let me and Ben sleep in that day.  Guss and Owen kept themselves busy with Legos and, well, Chloe kept Lucas busy with anything she could find. 

 Ben loves to take embarrassing pictures of me.  

Maybe if I put this one out in the open he will stop. 

 I would say touche but this picture really isn't that embarrassing. 

Gum Drop Turkeys

One of my favorite traditions when I was little was making gum drop turkeys at Thanksgiving.  I hadn't done it with my kids yet and so I decided that this year I was going to introduce them to the fun of gum drops and toothpicks.  I made them an example turkey and then they each did their own thing.

Traditional Gum Drop Turkeys

Chloe's creation.

Lucas ate the gum drops faster than he could build.

Guss's teepee and gum drop man.

 Owen's gum drop ferris wheel.

Our gum drop carnival.

Cake, Cake and More Cakes

For the past two weeks I have been on a cake making binge.  I was hired to make cupcakes and a smash cake for my friend's little girl on her first birthday.  I had a hard time deciding what to do at first but after I finally came up with a plan I decided I needed to try a few things out before the big day.  Luckily, I have two friends that share a birthday and so I offered to make cakes for them.  I didn't think that we needed more cake around the house yet, R2-D2 was still being finished off. 

This one didn't turn out as planned but I still think it is cute.

I have wanted to try a pink ribbon cake ever since I saw one on a blog. 

I was glad to finally have a reason to try it out.  I will definitely use this technique again.

I love it so much I thought it deserved a second look.

I also made some mini-cupcakes for the teachers at Guss's school for a meal that the PTG provides on the night of Parent Teacher Conference but I didn't take any pictures.  That same day I also decided to make some cupcakes for a Breaking Dawn pre-party.  The cupcakes turned out great and the party was a lot of fun.

Thanks to Hello Cupcake for the directions to these scary werewolves.

Finally, after two practice cakes and some cupcakes I finally got around to the cake that started it all.  I decided on neopolitan for the flavor because the pink, brown and white are a great color palette for a 1 year old little girl.  I had made butterfly cupcakes for Chloe's 3rd birthday and decided that they would be great again.  I am really happy with the way it turned out and so was my friend.

Hide and Go Seek

It took Lucas a long time to find Chloe in the shoe cubby.

Lucas had a great hiding spot but he had a hard time staying quiet while Chloe looked for him.

Cute Kids

This is how I found Chloe and Lucas watching Thomas today. 

I love finding things like this.

ON-7N

What does this crazy title mean?  It means that my Star Wars obsessed Owen is 7!  Right now Legos (or as he calls them, mini-Legos) and Star Wars are his big obsession and so I decided to make him an R2-D2 cake and he wanted Star Wars cookies to share with his class at school.  They all took a little more work than I originally thought but they turned out great and most importantly Owen loved them. 

Yoda and the Stormtrooper

Darth Vader and Bobba Fett

Owen with the goods.

This is the candle cake.  I had extra cake and fondant and I couldn't bring myself to put candles in R2 so Owen got two cakes.

R2-D2

I made the legs out of rice crispy treats and then covered it all in fondant. 

It was a lot of work, with a fondant mishap thrown in, but I loved the way it turned out.

Chloe really wanted to be in the picture with them.

Owen said he wanted a Lego birthday and that is what he got.  5 Lego sets. 

I am not sure what I was thinking other than I love to see my kids happy. 

Soon we might have enough Lego's to build a new house for us to move into.

276 piece Transport Truck Creator set.

158 piece Ninjago Ice Dragon Attack set.

Lukey was as excited as Owen.

163 piece Star Wars Luke's Landspeeder set.

166 piece Alien Conquest Tripod Invader set.

139 piece Star Wars Imperial V-wing Starfighter set.

All said he got 902 new Legos for me to step on unsuspectingly in my bare feet, two Star Wars shirts, a Star Wars popcorn tin, a few very nice birthday cards, money, a trip to Jokers and Crunchy Tacos from Taco Bell for dinner.  What a haul!

He was able to blow out the candles without passing out and so I guess we will let him turn 7.

Owen is a happy, fun-loving kid.  He loves to be around friends as much as possible and counts his siblings among his best friends.  He loves babies, Wii and playing outside.  He has been working hard and is reading better and better all the time.  Owen has started piano lessons this year and is doing really well.  We are so blessed to have Owen in our family. 

We Love You, Owen!!!