Making Gingerbread Houses

I use "gingerbread" but they were really graham cracker houses.  Most of my kids don't care for gingerbread, but Megan really wanted to decorate a house.

There were lots of yummy candy decorations.

Some of us were sneaking pieces of candy while decorating.

Hannah wasn't even trying to be sneaky; she just sat there eating candy and licking frosting. Best Day Ever!

Rachel spent a lot of time on her house.  It looked really cute.

Adam showing off his creation.

Megan was all proud of her work.

Then we needed to work off all the sugar crazies.  So we bundled up and went on a walk.

And spent some time jumping on the trampoline.  Everything was more fun too because there were cousins at grandma's house.

More Christmas-y things to come.

Rachel is Baptized

I am going out of order for our last couple of weeks.  But this one is the most important.  Rachel is 8 and made the great choice to be baptized as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  I am so proud of her. It was a wonderful day.

I am so grateful to have a husband with the priesthood who could baptize Rachel.  It was wonderful.

Rachel was baptized with her best friend, Emmitt Lystrup.  So that made it extra special.

And we had lots of family support. 

Thank you everyone for coming. 

My mom did the talk on the Holy Ghost and she made blankets for each kid.  Thanks mom!  Also, Rachel got her very own quad from Will's parents and she has been loving those.  They come out every night for scripture time.

We set out little baskets so people could write notes congratulating the two.  I was amazed at the turn out and how many notes Rachel received.  She will always remember that she is loved.

My parents brought a great dinner for everyone after the baptism.

Thank you everyone for making this day special for Rachel.  We are so blessed to have a great family.

We're Off to See the Wizard

Rachel is turning 8 tomorrow and decided to have a Wizard of Oz themed party.  This one was a lot of work but I think it turned out cute.

Our first item of business was to decorate bags for future goodies.

Then we played Wizard of Oz Bingo.  This was a big hit.  Notice colorful paper.  I tried to do everything rainbow themed to go with Dorothy's song.

We gave out huge lollipops as prizes for getting a bingo.

Then we played the song and had to follow the yellow brick road to our next destination.  It ended up being yellow brick strips because my order of yellow paper didn't come in time. Poor Will had to keep moving the road around.  But I think the kids liked following it around the house.

We met the scarecrow along the way.

And had to answer trivia about The Wizard of Oz movie to prove that we had a brain.  Then everyone got a medal.

Then we followed the road to the tin man. (I was pretty proud of this drawing).

We needed to have a heart.  I made a bunch of heart shaped sugar cookies (too much work).  Each kid got to decorate one for themselves and one to give to someone they love.

Hannah in baby heaven with her cookie.

Then we got to the cowardly lion.  This one was so fun.  I got some little toy dogs from the dollar store and hid them in boxes and covered them with gross stuff.

The kids had to prove their courage by putting their hands in the boxes and retrieving their 'Toto'.  I started off easy with yarn, then flour, then noodles, then peaches (the slimy ones from a can), and finally pudding.  It was great watching their faces as they put their hands into the boxes.

I made a bunch of green playdough so the kids could form their own emerald cities.

Will was the judge and gave out awards to everyone.  We also gave them bubbles, since that is what Glinda the good witch travels in.

For food we had pizza and rainbow jello.

And rainbow cupcakes.  We were suppose to also have rainbow sherbet but everyone was too full from the jello.

And finally present opening, which is really the best part.  So we had another fun party.  Hard to believe Rachel will be 8 and is getting baptized soon.  So awesome!  Happy Birthday!

A Paw-Fect Party

Adam turned four at the end of November and told us he wanted a Paw Patrol party.  This was his first friend birthday party.  And, thanks to Pinterest, I think it turned out well.

Coloring Paw Patrol pictures while we wait for everyone to come.  We only invited a couple of friends, which was perfect for this age.

Adam with his Paw Patrol shirt on for the party.

I found tattoos by lucky happenstance at the dollar store.  Adam picked Rubble for his tattoo and still won't let us wash it off.

This is kind of hard to tell but the kids had to follow the paw prints all over the house (like Ryder calling all pups).  They blew little whistles along the way trying to find a lost pup.

Rubble is a digger, so we had to dig through the "rocks" to save the dinosaurs.  This was a big hit with everyone.

Marhall is a the fire dog.  We listened to the theme music and passed fireman hats around until everyone got one.

This was a hard game for a certain someone, but we managed to get everyone a hat without too many tears.

Skye can fly.  We had to fly paper airplanes through a hoop. 

For Rocky we just pinned the badge on his collar.  All the kids won "collars" afterwards.

Zuma does water rescues so we needed to rescue these water animals that were stuck in the dirt and bring them back to water.

And I made a Chase pinata.  It was really a cereal box with a Chase picture.  But Adam didn't mind. 

Hannah also takes a turn.  Eventually I just had to crack the box open.  Note to self, use one cereal box in the future.

Adam loved opening presents. 

And he requested a '4' cake.  I think it turned out fairly well.  We also had 'paw'psicles.  So that was yummy.

Lots of time was spent playing with toys that afternoon.  Anyway, I think the party was a success.  Not I have a very short break before doing another party.