Free Time

 I've banned TV on the week days.  Suddenly, the kids have some free time.  Mac has taken to building this huge towers of wooden blocks.

 Maddie has tried out making her own instruments.

John has gotten into more trouble.  Here he is showing off his make up skills.  He also made a gigantic mess with lotion.  That wasn't cute at all, so I didn't take a photo. 

Uncle Brett's Birthday

 We got to go and visit Greenville for Uncle Brett's birthday.  Delayne and I planned it as a surprise for Brett!  The kids had so much fun hanging out together.  Eliza was "reading" to John.  Saying that John loves Eliza is a major understatement!  He followed her around all weekend.

 We missed Ethan's birthday at the end of November, so we took him a present too.  That kid loves to read.  I can't believe that he is 11!!

 On Saturday we went to the school Book Fair and the little Christmas party that they had in the cafeteria.  Ryan LOVED the crafts.  He tried them all out.

 John stuck to the cookies.  He had his own container of frosting, which was good as he ate from the knife and then stuck the knife back into the frosting.  No one wanted to share with him after that.

 Lily enjoyed the candy cane that she got from Santa.  She did not enjoy Santa, however. 

 Eliza put tons of frosting and candy on her cookie.  I wish I had gotten a photo of it after she had finished.

 While I was away with the little ones at the school, the men cut and stacked wood.  This was the idea for Brett's "party."  They need so much wood stacked and chopped for the winter and they moved up rather late in the season.  So, we hope that they are all set now!

 Is Spencer a stud or what?!?

 Zane helped Delayne to make the birthday pie!!  (Brett prefers pie to cake.  Delayne also made cake and cookies, being the overachiever that she is!!)

The blur in the photo above is Lily.  She thought it was great to swing with Uncle Spencer.  He would hold the back of her zip up pjs.  It was a crack up!!  I'm still sad that Delayne and Brett moved away, but it is super fun to visit them!!

Preparing for Christmas

 On Sunday we got to have a nice visit with Nana and Papa who came out from Utah for a visit.  The kids wanted to decorate the Christmas tree with them, so we did. 

 Mac just wanted to play games.  So, Grandpa beat him twice at Sequence.

 Ryan and Maddie went nuts with the ornaments.  Our tree is well decorated thanks to them!

 John just takes ornaments off of the tree.  It didn't take long for him to get cozy with Nana. 

 We also built our gingerbread house.  I almost didn't want to do it.  It is the first time in 10 years that we didn't do it with Uncle Steve.  I wish he could have been with us.  John and Spencer were playing a game where John was Uncle Steve and he wanted Spencer to be Kayla.  Spencer wouldn't be Kayla though, so it kind of killed the game. 

 Here is our work in progress.  Maddie and Ryan put the candy on this one.  Macky was in charge of the gingerbread men and the trees. 

 Here is our finished product!!

 This is our Christmas tree.  It's all wonky and I love it!

Uncle Jeff and Weston came over to try and get the Christmas train working, but it's a no go.  After many, many years of service, the train is no more. 
We're ready for the holidays!

Ryan and Santa

 Ryan is SUPER excited about Christmas.  He has been very serious about his Christmas list.  He made a several page long list where he cut pictures out of a catalog and pasted them on to paper.  He put his papers in a folder and wrote on the front, "To: Santa, From: Ryan."  It was awesome.  He worked hard for hours.  He used alot of glue and tape.  Then he had to go and show it to Santa.  Now, he understand that the Santa in the mall is just a helper, so he insisted that the helper Santa kept the list to take to the North Pole.  Santa took his time and really looked over the list.  Then Ryan added that he also wanted a reindeer, but he didn't find a picture of one.  Santa suggested that maybe he couldn't fit all of that in his sleigh and could he tell him his favorite things.  But, Ryan insisted that since Santa is magic,  he could handle the load.  I whispered in Ryan's ear that he should say that he would be thankful for whatever Santa brought.  Ryan pushed me away and looked at me like I was crazy.  I was messing up his bargaining with Santa!  I laughed so hard.  That poor kid.

Here are Maddie and Ryan after their visit with Santa.  John would not go anywhere near Santa.  He ran straight to Grandma.  Macky took off for Game Stop immediately upon hitting the mall...

Christmas Tree Hunt

 For our Christmas Tree this year, we decided to go and get a permit and cut it down.  The kids had a BLAST.  John had so much fun in the snow.  He told his friend Jodi all about our trip to the "mountain forest" where "we wear coats and gloves." 

 Ryan did not bring gloves, but that did not slow him down.  He was determined to hit everyone with at least one snowball.

 The kids enjoyed making snow angels and sledding a bit too!

 Spencer actually picked out the tree and hiked up to get it and chop it down.  We all love it

Here are some photos thanks to Wang Lu!

Thanksgiving 2011

 Man I am kicking myself for not taking more pictures!!  This year we cooked dinner at our house.  My parents came, my brother Jeff, my grandma, and my Aunt Patti.  Emily came a bit later, but didn't eat dinner.  Spencer was in charge of the turkey.  It was DELICIOUS!!  Oh, man it was good.  He brined it and then barrel roasted it.  I made sweet potatoes with marshmallows, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and carrot cake.  We bought pies from Costco, which got moldy.  Stupid.  My grandma brought rolls from Great Harvest, which weren't very good.  But, she also brought a cherry pie from Marie Callander's that saved the day!  My aunt brought yummy Trader Joe's gravy.  My mom made the cranberry sauce and jello salad.  We had quite the spread!

 Here is the turkey.  It had to be cut in half in order to cook it in the smoker. 

We laid everything out on my counter.  Looking at this picture makes me hungry!  I really wish I had gotten a group shot.  Maybe next time...

Run for Food

 This Thanksgiving we did the Run for Food.  It was my first 5K.  It was the last item on my Resolution list.  Yeah!  I didn't run the whole time.  It was tricky.  When we first started, I couldn't run because there were so many people.  Then, I had to run faster than my normal pace to get around people.  So, it was frustrating.  But, I had a great time.  It was a really  nice way to spend the morning.  Spencer stayed with me the whole time, even though he's much faster.  It was raining, so we got drenched. 

Here we are at the end.  Jaycee did the race too!  She is AWESOME!!  I hope we do it again next year, only with our kids.