A Very Merry Christmas! ... and birthday wishes

Happy 27th Maria! We were so glad you came home to celebrate with us.  (These are the necklace and earrings Ardie and I lovingly made her for Christmas)

Christmas morning was nice and relaxed. The boys slept in until 6am... this is their normal wake up time but I was REALLY glad they didn't rise earlier. We spent 2 hours looking at our stocking while we waited for everyone else to join us. 

Ardie, Sarah and Maria joined us for Christmas. It's so fun to have so much family around during the holidays. (Notice all the snow outside... it's a winter wonderland here. My dad says it's the first all white Canadian Christmas since 1971! )

A special little Christmas dress and hat for Greta's first Christmas from Uncle Dan and Aunt Sharon. Greta wasn't super keen on Christmas partly due too the fact that we woke her from her morning nap of which she had only been enjoying for about 30 mins.

Back Home!

The kids and I have just returned from a trip down to Utah to spend some time with my sister and her family while she had surgery. We really enjoyed spending time with the Dushku's. We sure do love and miss you all.  The cousins couldn't get enough of each other.

While we were there we were also lucky enough to see the Kapps, Larsens, Linc Burnham Family, Spencer Burnham Family and Greene's. 

We wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I haven't sent out any Christmas cards yet  as we didn't get home till late monday night.  We were truly blessed to have made it home between storms. Thank you Ryan for driving all the way to Seattle to pick us up. And a big thanks to our new Honda Pilot for getting us home safe.

Look at those Legs!

Thank you Auntie Ashley and Uncle Bud for the leg warmers. We looooooooovve them!

Greta wore the red striped ones to church today. HUGE hit.

Weekend in Review

This afternoon we headed up to the Burnham's to build Gingerbread houses. Ardie is babysitting and spent most of the day preparing and baking the gingerbread. We found the most bestest icing recipe and we were ready to create our masterpieces.

Each child had their own bowl of candy to place on the house.

Joe and Ted's house began to collapse under their enthusiastic efforts to press (hard) the candies into the icing. We jokingly called it our Gingerbread shanty.

Our shanty adds character to the minimalist house of Elijah and Victorian style of Rachel's house.

The finished projects! 

Weekend in Review cont.

One of the charms of living in a small town is the local festivities. Last night main street was shut down for the Christmas light up. There were llama's, Santa Claus, singers, crafts....

Pony rides... the pony's name is Muffin. 

Cotton candy... ( that's Greta in the stroller not a huge blob of cotton candy and you may have noticed my sister Ardie with Rach and Elijah)

And roasting marshmallows over an open fire. 

The kids all sat on Santa's lap, had their picture taken (for free, I know, it just doesn't get any better) and were given a huge bag of toys. Our whole evenings entertainment cost me a grand total of 5 dollars. The memories.... priceless!

Edwin asked Santa for Star Wars toys, Greta just stared at him and Joseph thought hard then replied that for Christmas he would like, "a ticket to Hawaii". Yes please! 

Thanks for the visit!

Ryan's mom came for a visit this past week. We didn't do much of anything special but we sure are glad she came. Thanks for coming. We miss you already.

A fly on the wall

This morning my boys were playing with their "favorite cousin".  As usual I heard the boyish sounds of Star Wars blasters and play fighting. 

Then one child... not sure who... suggested they play house. My ears perked up...  boys playing house? Should I be worried?

Edwin complained that he didn't want to play house. (plenty of testosterone in that one) Then Joseph explained how to play. "So, we all have super powers and our parents are dead and we have to save the world." 

Whew! Glad I don't have to worry about them fighting over who gets to be "mom" or "sister".