Pre-Christmas Activities

We have been doing a few early Christmas things.  Here are a few pictures of us.

So this one isn't really us, obviously.  But we got out our elves on the shelf.  Our elves get into lots of trouble through the month - like playing Nintendo or stuffing each other into the cheese grater.  The kids enjoy finding them.

We made these Christmas trees using a pointy sugar cone, green frosting, and mnm's.

It started off as a preschool craft for Megan's group when it was my turn to be in charge.  Then all the kids wanted to make their own that evening.  So simple and tasty.

This picture comes from going to the Living Nativity.  It was outside of a church.  I think it was good for the kids to learn more about the time of Bethlehem.  We went last year and loved it.  It was good this year too.  Then we got cookies and hot cocoa afterwards.

We have made a couple of Christmas crafts.  Whitney shows off her gingerbread man tree ornament.

And Megan shows off her paper bag manger.

The ward Christmas dinner was delicious.  I think I ate too much ham.  But oh well.

Santa made an appearance after the dinner and music show.  Look at this cute family.

I wanted our children to remember why we really have Christmas.  So we decided to take a tour of the outside of the Columbia River Temple.  It was super cold that day.  But I am glad we went.  It was nice teaching the kids more about the temple and show them where mom and dad were married.  Next time we may come in the summer so we can stay longer.

So it has been a wonderful couple of weeks as we have prepared for Christmas.  I love this time of the year.

Someone Is Two!

So I know that I am a bit behind.  We have been busy getting Christmas things ready.  But we did celebrate Adam's 2nd birthday right after Thanksgiving.

We were still in Pasco.  Megan helped make the brownies while Adam mostly watched.

Two little candles for a cute little boy.  Adam did not know how to blow them out without a bit of dad assistance.

But he definitely knew how to feed himself brownies and ice cream.

And, of course, there were presents to open.

This car that lights up and makes noises seems to be the biggest hit.  But the whoppers came in a close second.

It is amazing how someone this small can change so much in two short years.

We love our Adam!  He is definitely a cute, mischievous two year old.

Happy Thanksgiving

We went up to Pasco for Thanksgiving.  Will had three days off and so did the girls from school.  So it was a really wonderful vacation.

Thanksgiving Day had the most beautiful weather.  So we decided that it was time to take a walk before the big meal.

We enjoyed hearing the birds singing and smelling barbecue smoke.  It felt more like late Spring time.  So nice.

I took Adam on the trampoline after getting home.  I don't let him on without an adult or with the other jumping girls.  He had fun playing on there for awhile.

Then it was time for our relish tray and snacks.  Everyone liked dipping - we had to prevent some double dipping or triple dipping action.

Yummy Thanksgiving food.  There were a couple of new items on the menu.  Chas made some deviled eggs that were tasty and my mom made a baked macaroni to practice for the upcoming wedding.  Both were nice additions. 

Later after playing some games and relaxing for awhile, it was time for pie.

More pie. 

I am glad that we got to spend the day all together.  I have a wonderful family and I am really thankful for them.  There is so much to be thankful for on this holiday.  I hope everyone else remembers their blessings on this special day.

Happy Halloween

So it is a little late posting Halloween pictures.  But the kids looked so cute in their costumes that I wanted to put up some pictures. 

We went to the pumpkin patch with Megan's preschool group.  There are five kids (one was sick) and the grown ups all take turns having the preschool group at their home.  We decided it would be fun to go on a field trip.

Adam was more interested in playing in the sand than in looking for a perfect pumpkin.  But Megan found one.

After you get a pumpkin you have to degunk and carve them.  The girls did pretty well with this.  Megan eventually got bored and I got to finish.  We ended up with yummy roasted seeds.

Whitney carved her own pumpkin into a vampire, Rachel's was an angel, and Megan picked a queen's crown.  They were all very excited about their pumpkins.

Another part of pre-Halloween activities is to decorate sugar cookies.  They were suppose to be pumpkins.  I had made them for a mutual activity and there were some extras.  The kids put on lots of decorations.

This is us at the ward Halloween party.  There was a good turnout.  We had some yummy soups and rolls.

Adam enjoying his spoils from the cupcake walk.  The young women were in charge of the cupcake walk so I got to bring cupcakes to the event.  The young women did a good job bringing cupcakes also.  Our kids were the first ones to be part of the cake walk.  It took awhile for some of our kids to win and there may have eventually been a little help for each child to win.

There were lots of decorations at the party. 

This is us on Halloween night.  The kids were super excited to get going right after Will got home from work.  Do you notice the similarities between the costumes and the pumpkins?

We were trick-or-treating for about two hours.  Then it got a bit too dark and cold and everyone was hungry.  It was a good evening.  And everyone got lots of candy.

I hope everyone else had a Happy Halloween also!

Harvest Festival

Two years ago we heard about a harvest festival up in the Tri-Cities that was being done by a church.  We went to it and had a great time.  Last year it was rainy but this time weather was perfect.  It was basically the same as two years ago, but I don't think the kids realized that.  It was still fun.

There was a spot that was meant for family pictures.  It was decorated all Halloween-y.  Did I mention that it was a sunny day?

All the kids got to go on a little pony ride.  Adam seemed a little ambivalent about the ride, but the girls all liked their turns.

There was a big pumpkin bounce house.  We had to wait in a long line for a turn but it was still fun.

Adam is afraid of bounce houses.  So he and I waited in the "baby section".  There were little farm animal toys.  And a nice lady giving out candy.

A spot to see how tall you are.  It always amazes me that Rachel is almost as tall as Whitney.

We went through this straw maze.  Whitney was our leader.  With her as a guide we didn't make any wrong turns.  And more candy at the end.

The baby goats were adorable and super friendly.  They loved sniffing hands.

The girls all got their faces painted.  This probably took the most amount of time.  Megan wanted a heart.  Whitney is a shark and Rachel is an angel.  They all turned out very cute.

Then we played some carnival games.

This was Adam's favorite game.  You were suppose to find little jewels in the container of beans.  Adam didn't care about the jewels.  He just wanted to scoop out the beans, over and over and over.

Then on our way out we stopped at the little pumpkin patch so each kid could get a little pumpkin.  These pumpkins are cute and tiny.  I think we will paint them instead of trying to carve them.  It was a fun afternoon.

So now we are ready for Halloween.  My kids are really excited about their costumes and getting lots of candy.

Gymnastics Day

We have a friend in our ward whose daughter is part of gymnastics.  They travel to the Tri-Cities every week for her practices.  They told us about free gymnastics day and invited us to come.

There were a couple of little performances for people to watch.  I thought these were cool and some of the older kids who did flips and twists were really good.  I have to admit the gymnastics is my favorite part of the Olympics to watch. 

There also were times where the kids could play on the different gymnastics equipment.  Adam liked going down this little slide.

Up high was a spot for slightly older kids that Whitney and Rachel spent most of their time at.  Whitney is waiting in line to jump into the pit.

And in the pit.  Both girls spent at least an hour jumping into this foam block pit.

Each jump led to big smiles so it must have been quite fun.

Megan liked this car track and spent a lot of time sliding on it.  Even Adam did this a couple of times.

Megan climbing onto the double bars.  No crazy flips were done but she showed off her balancing skills.

This was Adam's favorite spot.  It was a long thin trampoline.  Unfortunately, only one kid was allowed on it at a time so you had to wait for your turn a lot.  But Adam still loved it.

Maybe one day we could get our kids involved in gymnastics because they all had a lot of fun here.  But I don't know if they would actually like being told what to do versus having free reign with the toys and equipment.  Still a fun day.