Some December Happenings

First, I have to wish my sister a Happy Birthday! And Will's sister a Happy Birthday yesterday. Tis the season of celebrating.  Anyway, we have done a couple of little things throughout this month to prepare for Christmas.

We only did a couple of crafts.  I usually do better.  Oh well.  One was a marshmallow snowman.

The marshmallows stuck to the glue a lot better than cotton balls, which I have done before.  So marshmallows will be used in the future, and the kids got to sneak some while doing their artwork.

We still only have our little Charlie Brown Christmas tree.  We thought about getting a new one this year; we have too many ornaments and not enough tree.  But it isn't worth having to fight Megan the whole month since she loves the bright Christmas lights.  Whenever we go to another house that has a real tree, it is a struggle to keep her away from the lights.  But maybe we will brave it next year.

The elves have reappeared this year.  They are mostly pretty good elves.  Whitney took this picture of the elf in the scrapbooking box.  If only we could teach her to not put her finger in front of the camera.

What a helpful elf - making some toast for our breakfast.

This was at the ward Christmas dinner.  Being in the Relief Society presidency, I played a big part in getting this dinner together (a bit stressful).  More people come to this dinner than any time at church.  We ended up with just enough meat, potatoes, and rolls.  And pie for dessert.  Poor Will had to help the kids because I ended up setting up, serving, and washing dishes.

There was a little program.  Whitney got up once to be part of the primary singing.  I didn't get a picture of that though because I had the camera and I had to stand up there to convince her to stand up there.  Oh well.  I mostly just heard people singing while washing dishes, but everyone said it was great.

We made our traditional chocolate covered pretzels.  They are delicious.  Whitney and Rachel managed to eat all the extra sprinkles in a very short time.

I made these little gift boxes to give to the Relief Society sisters as a little Christmas present.  They have a variety of candy inside with a little note wishing them a very sweet Christmas.  I think they are pretty cute.

Not really Christmas-y, but I like the picture of the girls matching.  I was also wearing a red shirt (but not purple pants).  Aren't they beautiful?  So that is our Christmas preparations.  Maybe I will buckle down and find some other crafts or treats to make.

A Happy Willie Birthday

It was Will's birthday yesterday.  I think he had a good day.  We celebrated a joint birthday for Will and my dad on Saturday.

My mom gave me a cake mix and frosting so we could make the cake.  The frosting was very bright blue, which was humorous.  Rachel helped me frost it.

And Will next to his cake (with plenty of sprinkles in the middle).

We managed to find two candles.  So Will and my dad each got to blow one out.  We sang to both of them at the same time.  I think they were even singing along.

Will gets the first piece of cake.  It was strawberry flavored and pretty good.

The girls and I each made a card for Will.  I rummaged through our stickers and everyone had fun.

The girls liked "helping" with the present opening.  Just in case the dads forgot how.

We all went to Taco Bell for lunch.  Funny story.  My girls had never been to Taco Bell before.  On the drive, Whitney asked if we were going to Tinker Bell.  So we told her it was Taco Bell.  And then when we got there, she asked if there was any magic there.  I think she was a little disappointed.  But that didn't last long while she just ate a bunch of chips for lunch.

This was the highlight of Taco Bell.  Everyone wanted some of the icee. Thanks family for coming up and for the yummy lunch and the presents.

And the day was ended with a little video game playing, hard to beat that.

For Will's actual birthday, I made him some of his favorite - Double Chocolate Chunk Cookies.  They have melted chocolate in the batter, chocolate chips, white chocolate, and macadamia nuts.  Then we surprised Will during his lunch at work.  So it was a good birthday. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

We went to Pasco for Thanksgiving.  One day I will have to learn how to cook my own turkey.  But for now, it is really nice to not have to do it myself.

 
I bought tickets for Will and myself to go see the Forgotten Carols by Michael McLean.  We ended up getting there pretty early; the seats got much fuller before it began.  (Except the row right in front of us, which stayed mysteriously empty).  The show was wonderful.  I won't spoil it for anyone who wants to see it in the future.  But a nurse learns the true meaning of Christmas through some powerful music.

And taking a selfie.  We dressed up nice for the occasion. 

Then getting the kitchen ready for the big turkey dinner.

Enjoying our snacks and dip (one of our yummy traditions).

Rachel was the designated mnm placer this year.  She got a little encouragement from great grandpa.

Then the kids wanted to jump off all those calories.  Conner is very patient with them and played with them all weekend.

The weather was super nice.  Rachel and I went on a nice walk and saw some cows.

Outside one of our stores for the Black Friday sale.  I still wish it didn't start on Thursday now, but oh well.  We did get a lot of things we needed for Christmas presents.

And Whitney's favorite part of grandma's house was discovering the ninja turtle suit.  She wore it many, many times.  Whitney loves to get dressed up.  Anyway, that was our Thanksgiving.

First Snow and Other Stuff

We, unfortunately, got our first snow this week. It was only two inches, which wasn't terrible.  The kids enjoyed it.

Just stepping outside.

Rachel tried to throw a snowball at me, but it stuck to her glove.  That made us both chuckle.

There was a lot of slipping and falling.  Lots of wet clothes.  Whitney and Rachel only stayed out for about fifteen minutes.

That was long enough to make Megan feel very jealous.  I left her inside and she was ticked.

I promised the kids that we would have hot chocolate on the day of the first snowfall.  We waited for Will to return home from work and all enjoyed the yummy treat.

And some other non-snow pictures.  Whitney and Rachel decided to pile things on the baby.  Megan was the happy recipient of books, coats, balls, and other miscellaneous toys.

Megan has two favorite sitting spots.  The first is on top of the heating vent.  I guess she is like a cat who loves the warm spot.  She will actually remove anything from the area that might be blocking her and gets a big smile on her face as she sits.

Her other favorite spot is to climb onto the computer desk and sit on the keyboard.  She gets very angry when we pull her down.  It would be funny if I wasn't worried about her falling or breaking the computer.

Obviously, I need to find another good spot for her to sit.  Anyway, that is the happenings in Umatilla.

The best Part of Fall

My favoritest part of Fall is the leaves.  I remember playing in lots of leaves growing up.  We had a Ginko tree in our front yard that produced a lot of leaves.  Over these last two weeks, we have been collecting lots of leaves in our front yard. Lots and lots of leaves.  It was finally a nice Autumn day right after Halloween.  I wanted to take the kids outside to pass on the tradition of leaf jumping.

Whitney LOVED, LOVED raking.  She spent a lot of time raking.  I hope she will still love raking so much in the future when we want to give her that chore.  Now, Whitney has been asking us everyday if she can do more raking.

Rachel wanted to get into the action also.  She could not rake very well because the rake kept getting caught in the grass.  But oh well.  She thought it was fun and we ended up having to take turns with the rake.

After we got a big pile, it was time to jump in.  Whitney was the first one brave enough to step into the leaves.

I put Megan in the middle of the pile and she not impressed.  She started crying right away.

Rachel also got into the action of jumping in the leaves.

Whitney 'swims' in the pile.

Megan would get right on the outskirts of the pile and watch everyone else playing.  She still didn't like the leaves.

And getting buried under the leaves by daddy.  

Whitney and I had a leaf fight.  

Whitney got even more leaves on her during our leaf fight.  There was a lot of laughing, so it was fun.

I hope we have some more enjoyable Autumn weather.