Gingerbread Houses

Yesterday, we made gingerbread houses. I have never really decorated a real gingerbread house before and Emily has been begging to decorate one so we had Ben, Sara, Rachel, and Megan Skidmore (my roommate before I got married) come over and I made gingerbread yesterday. I got the recipe here. We all put our houses together and waited for about half an hour for the frosting to set a little. (okay so some got a little antsy and started early) Then we decorated away. We didn't have any of the traditional decorating candies other than M&M's (until we sent Joe and Benjamen to the store), but it was a lot of fun and I think they all turned out really cute.

Emily and Madison decorated graham crackers because it was easier and they had to go to bed.

Here is Emily's finished house. I think she did a great job with only a little bit of help. We didn't take a picture of Madison's finished house because yet again she was mostly interested in eating all the candy.

Megan and her house

Me and my house

Joe and his masterpiece

Benny's work of art.

Rachel's cottage.

Sara's Christmas Cathedral.

Didn't we all do such a good job?

4 Months

JJ turned 4 months on Sunday. Here are some pictures.

He is growing so much. He is starting to play with toys. He also loves to be tickled and will laugh a ton if you tickle his tummy (unless he has gas). He likes to stick his tongue out and thinks it is funny if you copy him. Joe said that he used to do this when he was little and he remembers his mom always telling him to stick his tongue back in his mouth.

This afternoon I came into the living room to find JJ like this.

He wasn't very happy that he had stickers all over his face and body.

Here is the culprit.

She thought she was being nice covering her brother with stickers. Who doesn't like stickers?

Cookies!

Tonight for Family Home Evening we made cookies to give to our friends in our ward. Emily, Madison, and I cut out sugar cookies this morning and then tonight I made frosting and they helped me frost them. Emily's favorite part is the sprinkles and I finally convinced her not to dump a ton on the cookies. Madison's favorite part is eating the cookies and licking the frosting off of them (we won't be giving the one's she decorated away).

Then after they went to bed Joe made his Grandma's no-bake cookies and I dipped pretzels in white chocolate. We still have to make more chocolate dipped pretzels and then we will hand the cookies out on Wednesday.

Christmas Cookie Exchange

We had a pretty busy weekend. On Saturday we went to a Christmas Cookie Exchange at our friends Bob and Julee Irish's house. This is the second time they have done this. We took Raisin Filled Rolled Cookies which are kind of like sugar cookies with a raisin filling. There was a lot of other yummy cookies as well. We took the recipe with us and Bob and Julee compiled all the recipes together and emailed them to everyone after the party. While we were there we also played a fun game of Christmas Cranium and then when it was time to go we all got to take some cookies with us. We had a really good time.

Friday's Christmas Party

Friday night we went to a Christmas party at our friends the Smith's. It was a lot of fun. We did a Christmas dinner scavenger hunt. We broke into two teams and went out to houses of people from our ward to collect the items. We had an hour which we thought was plenty of time, but then we ended up talking for quite a while at each of the houses we went to. The Smith's are going to give one of the dinners to our bishop to give to a family in need and the other dinner to the community for a family in need. Some of the items we had to collect were: a turkey(or ham), potatoes, stuffing, fresh fruit, nuts, fresh vegetables, canned vegetables, cranberry sauce, and candy. We had a lot of fun. After the scavenger hunt we came back to the Smith's house and ate yummy snacks and played games. We played Are you Smarter Than a 5th Grader and Apples to Apples. What an enjoyable evening.

Who are we eating?

Apparently Emily thinks we are Cannibals as we hear this several times a day. Who are we eating? She has her who, what, where, and when mixed up. We keep trying to explain to her that we aren't eating anyone, but she just looks at us like we are crazy. I know she will get it someday.

Six Years

Saturday, Joe and I celebrated our sixth anniversary. It is hard to believe that we have already been married that long. I love Joe very much and I am so glad that he is my husband. He is a very hard worker and is such a great father. He also knows how to make me laugh. I am looking forward to many, many more years with him. To celebrate our anniversary we took Emily and Madison to my parents house (thanks Mom, Dad, Jared, and Rachel) to stay the night and then we went back to our house and played Guitar Hero, went to dinner at Fudruckers, and then went back home to watch 2 movies. It was a lot of fun to just relax.

Ward Christmas Party

Friday was our Ward Christmas Party. This year it was a little different than ones I have been to in the past. We had dinner which was yummy baked potatoes and salad. After dinner they had the children go to the primary room where they had a little lesson about the reason for Christmas. The adults went into a different room and we had a little lesson as well. The bishop talked to us about some things that don't often get talked about at Christmastime. He talked about John the Baptist and how is mission on earth was to prepare the way for Christ (see Luke 1:76). He talked about the shepherds and how they came to Christ, and after they left they "made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child" (Luke 2:17). And he talked about Andrew, one of the apostles, and how Andrew was a follower of John the Baptist and when he heard about Christ from John the Baptist, Andrew went to his brother Simon Peter and told them that he had found the Messiah and brought Simon Peter to him (John 1:40-42). He then told us that during this Christmas season and at all times it is important that we to bring people to Christ and to share our testimonies and let others know about what we believe. We then watched the movie The Nativity and they gave us copies so that we can share with our family and friends. I thought it was wonderful that they helped us remember Christ and what Christmas is all about. Often we get caught up in the presents and other things about Christmas, and this really helped remind us of why we celebrate Christmas. After the short lesson we all went back into the cultural hall and had some yummy desserts that everyone had brought to share.

Everyday Food Storage Fanatic

So I really want the cookbook that Everyday Food Storage is giving out and I have to proclaim on my blog that I am an Everyday Food Storage Fanatic. I really do love their blog. For Halloween we made the spider cupcakes from their blog and the kids loved them. I love how they even do video to show you how to make things. I plan on using a lot more of their recipes in the future.

Christmas Decorations

Yesterday morning Emily heard me mention to Joe on the phone that we should decorate for Christmas soon. All day long she kept telling me that when Daddy got home we were going to decorate for Christmas. She couldn't wait for him to get home. Sure enough when he got home she told him we were decorating for Christmas. So Joe went out to our garage and got out our Christmas stuff and we decorated. We played some fun Christmas music and decorated our tree and put out all our fun knick-knacks. Emily was telling us the whole time how we were supposed to decorate the tree and where things went. (she must remember from last year) Here are the pictures.

Joe setting up the tree

Emily putting on some decorations

JJ having fun

Madison decorating

JJ's decoration

Emily holding up a decoration

The final product

All this decorating is exhausting

Potty Time

We are potty training Madison. We aren't pushing it too much, but just try to ask her occasionally if she needs to use the potty. Last Sunday during Nursery one of the girls went to go potty and she decided she wanted to go too. When they told her no she laid down on the ground and lifted her legs up because she had peed and she wanted her diaper changed right then. I told her that if she wants to always have a clean diaper she needs to tell us when she has to go potty. Today, she told me she had to go potty, so I took her in and left her on the toilet for a little while (she won't go if I am standing in the same room). When I came back to check on her she had not only gone potty but had tried to wipe her bottom. This wouldn't have been so bad, but because she likes to play with the toilet paper, I had moved it out of her reach. She decided that she needed something and took some out of the garbage and used it instead. I couldn't help but laugh.

Emily is growing up

I can't believe how big Emily is getting. Today I was folding laundry, and while I was in the middle of it JJ wanted to eat. I left the clothes I was folding on Emily's bed and went to feed him. While I was feeding him she came in with a stack of towels and asked where they went so I told her to just put them on my bed (Christmas presents are in the closet where they belong). I thought it was really great that she was putting the towels away for me because she has never done this before. Well, when I went in her room she had put away all her clothes! She had not only put them away but put them all in the right drawers! It made me feel so great that she did that for me because I really don't like laundry. She really made my day.