Gingerbread houses 2011

Hayden got to do the Engine to the Gingerbread train. She had a lot of fun sticking candy all over that thing!

This was Ruth's contribution to the evening. Spill M&M's over and over and over and over.... But she didn't ruin any one's masterpiece so that was good. Plus she had fun. I think there is something wrong with her though. If I had given Hayden those M&M's at that age they wouldn't have had time to hit the floor once let alone 4 or more.... Ruth loves candy, but only certain kinds. None of my other kids ever cared. Ruth's favorites are Resess Peanut Butter Cups, and Smarties.

Brock worked on the caboose, and Amelia did the Gingerbread tree.

Ethan did the "coal car" it was filled with M&M's. hey that is what powers me through the holidays too!
Usually the kids take turns "helping" Larry do the Gingerbread house. This year I had handed him the house told him it was all his! The kids are big enough they did their things all by themselves with NO help and NO instructions so Larry got to do the house all on his own. It really is a work of art! All I did was one gingerbread boy and girl. Ruth did eat the head off the girl for me though. I am usually there just to take pictures, clean up and referee any candy disputes. It was a lot of noise, oops I mean fun!

Ward's primary Nativity

3 very cute Angels ready for the show!

Joseph and Mary all ready

Brock was the Shepard

What a sweet picture of the Nativity.

Amelia as the Angel, Brock the Shepard, and a flock of sheep.

All the angles, sheep and Shepard's went to see the baby Jesus. Hayden informed me after wards that they used a doll for the baby Jesus. Probably because on the way there I jokingly said they should use Ruth as the baby but Larry and I were laughing that the baby would end up jumping off the stage, climbing the tree, grabbing the Shepard's stick and hitting everyone one with it, as well as who knows what else. It was fun seeing the other 4 participate though!
 They all did a good job and it was very cute. They didn't have to talk there were other people who sang, and a narrator. It was a lovely evening.

A visit with Santa

Every year we go to the Carousel in Salem and visit Santa. This is the only time of the year we go and ride the carousel. The kids love it and it is always lots of fun!

 

I love that Santa will take a break and ride on the Carousel.  I snuck this picture of him sitting in the "wagon" on the ride.

Brock loved his visit with Santa!

Ethan loved that he was tall enough to play this game they have at the carousel. They have a ring catch. If you get the brass ring you win a free ride. He won 2 free rides doing this. He had pulled enough rings he got it down to the gold one for another one but someone behind him pulled the brass one. They waited for him to get it down the brass one and then took the brass one. He was a little irritated, but it was pretty funny! He would hoot and haller when he won though. It was pretty funny!

Ethan even at 11 still loves to visit Santa!

Amelia was so cute. She climbed right up there and visited with him.

Hayden seemed a little shy about getting to close to him but she sat by him and smiled at me.

Ruth not so much. This is the ONLY child I have a picture of like this. All my other kids went to Santa every year, even if they were shy about it. Pretty funny!

Hayden Loved picking the horse she was going to ride each time

Ruth LOVED the rides!!! She would wave at everyone and go "weeeeee weeeee" so cute!

Amelia and Brock had a great time to. The bottom one here is Amelia on my favorite horse. It is one of the 2 Christmas horses. I just love this one!

Back yard visitor!

I wanted to throw up when Ethan found this dead in the yard today when he went out to mow the leaves... Ethan says we should save it for a white elephant gift.
GROSS!

My/ Our First ballet recital

This fall I had a choice to make. I had "lost" or severely cut my baby sitting hours since the lady I sit for had lost her job and was going back to subbing instead of full time teaching. Child care is how I have been paying for piano lessons for the boys and dance lessons for the girls. I had at least 5 people ask me why I was not teaching dance since that had been my major in college and the whole reason it had been my major in college. I even had one good friend tell me where I could teach. Even though that place didn't work out I had a very kind friend let me use her garage, which also happened to already have a barre and a mirror in it! So I set off on a brand new adventure! I set word out and got 8 (counting my 2) students. I also worked it out with my boys piano teacher to trade. My boys got piano lessons and her girls got dance lessons. It has been a fun 3 months! Tonight was our recital and I was just so excited to share some pictures. I saw these Tutu cupcakes on line and LOVED THEM! I had to have them for the recital treats! I would have made them myself but I was worried that today was going to be crazy busy and I would not have gotten them done or have stressed about them. Good thing I asked a friend to make them (I paid her to do it). I would have stressed and I didn't have much time. It was a very busy day! I did make the chocolate chip cookies though.

Here is Hayden in her super cute purple tutu. We did a Tangled theme. All their music was from Tangled. So I got them lavender tutu's and a purple flower for their hair. They all looked so cute!

Amelia was so cute. She has been in 2 recitals from her last teacher. It was funny because when I started teaching my girls acted like I didn't know what I was doing. They doubted I knew how to dance at all. I surprised them on the first day when I did turns across the floor. Hayden also informed me that she use to take "real" dance lessons. It made me laugh. It has been a lot of fun being with my girls, and getting to do one thing I love. I am looking forward to what we will do for our next recital.

These are all 4 of the girls in Hayden's class, Natalia, Adaline, Hayden and Hadley. They did a great job in their 2 little dances. 2 of the girls got stage fright but Hayden and Hadley busted it out! They were having so much fun on stage it was cute!

These are all of my girls! Back row (Ruth) Norah, Jocelynn, Amelia, Lucia, Natalia, Front Adaline, Hadley, and Hayden. Ruth got a tutu by accident. I ordered 8 tutus and when I opened them up to fluff them right before the show and the girls were getting them on Ruth kept begging for one and I was not going to give her one (they are for the dancers) I pulled out the 8th tutu, and there was one more in the box. I checked the packing slip it said 8. They sent me one for free!!! I got it out and gave it to Ruth. She was thrilled and had a great time being dressed up like the big girls! She ran around and at the end was posing with them all.  I didn't get any of her doing little ballet poses since my batteries were dying. Which is why these are a little dark/ grainy.  I was really proud of all of them. It was a lot of fun and I look forward to starting again in January.

Tree skirt

So the year that I was pregnant with Ethan, or the year he was born I saw in one of those parenting magazines where some one had a tree skirt that every year they would paint their kids hands and add the hand print to the tree skirt. I loved this idea and started it that first year with Ethan. I have done it every year and added each kid as they were born. They love this tradition to because every year when we get it out they measure to see how much their hands have grown from last year, and how much since they were a baby. Last year my skirt was looking pretty ragged because the one I started with was pretty cheep, and I couldn't wash it or the paint would come off.... SOOOO I had this great idea! I went and bought this great big piece of white felt, and giant pieces of red and green. Then I chopped up my old skirt. I cut out all those tiny hands, and traced them onto the red and green felt and stitched each name and year on each hand. I hot glued them on to the skirt. (yeah hot glue don't laugh! It was just to hold them still so I could stitch around them with out having to pin a million pins in it!) I stitched them  all on then I stitched a little green and red around the edge. Now every year I just need to add their new little hands. I have room for about 2 more years then we will start a new row! I love it it looks better then my old one and brings me happiness when I look at it! That and lots of memories of little babies and growing kids!

In this picture you can see a foot print. The year Hayden and Ruth were babies they were so little they wouldn't flatten their hands out for a hand print so we did foot prints for them that first year.

Christmas Tree hunting...

The weather was perfect for getting a Christmas tree today. We usually go the first weekend in December but since we had sick kids Thanksgiving and the day after we couldn't go to Prineville like we had planned so we thought we would go today since the weather was nice.  We love this tree farm. They are cheep and they have lots and lots of huge ones and that is what we like! BIG!

Ruth had a BLAST! She wanted to play in the mud more but mean mommy wouldn't let her!  She was really good for pictures though which is not normally the case! She would stay put long enough to get some good ones! (Yes I made these shirts for the girls. I also sold 4 at the bazaar!)

Sweet Amelia. I let her get her picture done first since she is the middle kid and always ends up going in the middle (some times we go youngest to oldest sometimes we go oldest to youngest....)

Hayden cute as usual. She only wanted to do silly face pictures but I lucked out with this one!

Love my baby Ruth! She was very smiley and fun today!  She loved doing the silly face pictures too.

Brock I have a hard time getting a NORMAL smile out of, he gives me lots of FAKE smiles but I finally got ONE! I love this smile too!

Ethan has a hard time doing a normal smile to... they are often fake. So this was as good as it gets. It is crazy seeing how big he has gotten. He is almost as tall as me.  I am sure he will pass me up this year!

 

Their favorite silly face one!

Here they are actually looking for and cutting down our tree. The others I took mostly because I haven't gotten around to getting family pictures scheduled and wanted something to maybe send out a Christmas card. I love how happy Ruth is in this picture though!

Ethan helping Amelia cut down the girls tree. Yes the girls and the boys have their own trees. Every year I tell them that if they get their room clean before it is time to go get our tree they can have one in their room. They also have to keep their room clean the entire time they have their tree or I take them down. They love it and so do I!

Ruth loved being out in nature and trying to get dirty and looking for pretty trees... we will see what she  thinks of having a tree in our house tomorrow... she already LOVES all the other decorations I have up! Lets just say all the non-breakable things will be on the lower 4 feet. I just know she will get something over there that will help her reach higher then she is tall.