UGLY SWEATERS

As many of you know, Bryan's family has a tradition of exchanging ugly sweaters/shirts. With this tradition we like to have votes on who is wearing the UGLIEST and MOST CREATIVE shirts. Please vote ASAP!!! Voting will end in one week. Then we'll post the results. Thanks.

Don

Lois

Terin

Tucker

Janelle

John

LeeAnn

Katelynn

Bryan

Stacie

Claire

The Group

Get your votes in now!!!

Just Some Fun Times

As I've said before, I teach preschool...the other day we were talking about nursery rhymes and one of the projects they had us do was Mother Goose headbands. One of the mothers helping talked about putting lipstick on the mouth of Mother Goose. Claire took it a bit too seriously. She put lipstick on her lips and kissed her Mother Goose headband; too bad the lipstick was a purple marker. Oh the funny things kids do.

I am not one to dress my girls up matchy matchy, but it is cute. Mia needed warmer pjs so I bought her these thermal pjs. Claire saw them and said she needed some too so she and Mia could be twins. Back to the store we went and purchased some for her. I have to admit they look really cute being matchy matchy...even though Mia isn't happy. (It was bedtime and we were trying to hurry up with decorating the Christmas tree)

We usually do a big extended family home evening to make gingerbread houses, but that didn't happen this year. Instead we got together with Grandma Lois, Grandpa Don and Paul (a friend from Germany) to make graham cracker houses. It isn't as easy to make a house out of graham crackers, but it is nicer with kids since they tend to break them. After a few minor set backs with the icing we were ready to go. Claire had fun making hers; although I think she had more fun eating the candy that was supposed to go on the houses. Bryan and I took turns making ours. He built it and did the gum shingle roof and I decorated it. We make a good team. Here is our little family with our two gingerbread houses.

Photo Shoot

This past month we were able to have a friend, Tiffany, come over to take pictures of the girls. We love her work and here are a few of the amazing photos she took for us. (If anyone needs a photographer...she is great!! I can give you her information.)

Mia (3 months old)

Claire (almost 4 years old)

My Girls (Claire loves being a big sister)

Thanksgiving

This weekend was a busy one, but it was great. The weather made it a little difficult for my family to get here, but they all made it safe and sound. We started out Thanksgiving day by running the 5K turkey trot. It was a cold morning.

Here is Bryan running the 5K.

I was a just over a mile into the 5K when I ran into Lois and Claire. She was crying so hard and all she wanted was mommy. I stopped running to be with her. She was freezing. You can tell from the picture below that she wasn't happy and this picture was taken after she was in the warm truck and had drank some hot chocolate.

She was however happy to play in the snow with her cousins.

With all this snowy weather we decided to take advantage of it and we took the kids sledding. They had so much fun sledding down Lois and Don's hill. Claire was brave and went face first down the hill.

Just another picture of the kids sledding.

Then we finished the weekend with Mia's baby blessing. It was so great to have most of my family here to support us on this special day. Here she is in her dress made by Grandma Lois.

Here is our latest family picture. It isn't easy to get a good picture of all of us.

Here we all are! This was all the people at my house for Thanksgiving weekend. Despite the weather we had a great time. Bryan and I are grateful for all the family that came to support us with this special day. We love you guys!!

Snow Bound

This week it snowed here. It started in the late evening and then continued into the morning. When Claire woke up and came into my room. She opened my curtains and said "look what it did mom. Let's play!" So I got up and got Claire dressed and she went out on the back porch and played. i watched and took pictures since Mia was awake. Here Claire is all ready to go:

In this one she is trying to do a snow angel.

Then one of her playing.

Laughing

This is a video that we got of Mia laughing for the first time. You just need to be patient because Claire wanted the attention too so she kept putting things in front of the camera.

Preschool

Claire and I did our one on one preschool day this morning and we had a great time. We talked about our 5 senses, Veteran's Day and also Claude Monet's birthday. Here she is with one of her projects she made this week.

Pumpkins

We always have fun carving our pumpkins. This year Claire actually got into it and would help pull out the insides and also poke the holes. She even got to pick her pumpkin out of grandma's pumpkin patch. She was so excited about it. Here is Claire's pumpkin:

Here is my pumpkin:

Here is Bryan's pumpkin:

Here is how Mia contributed to our pumpkin carving experience.

Finally here is a new little family tradition we've had the past two years now (Thanks to my sisters telling me how to do them), we made mummy dogs. Here is Claire with her mummy dog. She loves to make and eat them.

Halloween Fun

This past weekend we were able to go to Bryan's cousin's Halloween party. This is something we look forward to each year. It is always a good time. We are so glad they have it every year. They have a costume contest were we all vote for who had the best costume. Results will be on this post in a bit. This year they did a Price is Right theme game. John (Bryan's cousin) was Bob Barker and LeeAnn (John's wife) was Rod Roddy...I went as a Bob Barker Beauty (I wasn't so cute so I won't make you all suffer with seeing a picture of me). I will however post a picture of my girls and Bryan in their costumes...mostly because they won. Claire and Mia won. They were Princess Peach and Toadstool from Super Mario Brothers.

Claire was so determined to be Princess Peach. We finally found a costume. It was like 7 inches too long so we had to fix it where it fit, but it looks so cute on her. Then my mother-in-law helped me make a pattern and I made Mia's hat and vest for her costume.

I'm not sure how many of you have seen the SNL more cowbell with Will Ferrell. If you haven't seen it you need to look it up and watch it . If you have never seen it Bryan's costume won't make much sense. Bryan tied for the winner of the best adult costume at the party.

For Family Home Evening this week we made a haunted gingerbread house. I say we, but really it was Bryan and Claire making it and I held Mia and took pictures. Here are a few pictures of them making it and the finished product.

Claire got to do something that helped us to see how much she has grown and that she truly is a great big sister. She got to feed Mia.

It isn't often that Mia gets a bottle, but she had one the other day and Claire was just so excited to be the one to feed her the bottle. She asked if she could feed Mia and it was so cute to watch her do it. Then today was my preschool Halloween party. It was a bit crazy, but I think everyone had a good time. Here is a picture of Claire with two of her cousins who attend our little preschool.

Here is Mia in her cute little Halloween shirt. I couldn't help but post such a cute picture.

Here is the picture close up because I couldn't resist posting such a cute picture of the smile and the chubby cheeks and the little fohawk.

ONE YEAR!!!

I wanted to just tell everyone that reads this blog how proud I am of my parents. Last year this happened....

They have now been serving the Lord on their mission in Sweden for one year now. I love them so much and I am grateful for their example and dedication of serving the Lord. Thanks for all you do Mom and Dad!!!

The Fair

A few weeks ago we went to the fair. I've never been to the fair before (at least I can't remember going to one)...Here are a few pictures from it. This one is of Claire next to the huge zucchini and also the huge cherry tomatoes.

Here is Claire next to the massive pumpkins. The one with the ribbons on it was 420 lbs.

Of course we had to let her go on a few rides.

We had so much fun. Thanks John and LeeAnn for having us go with you and introducing me to elephant ears!!! It was fun and we loved our time with you...and the cotton candy was yummy too.

Hot Stuff

Claire has had a difficult time lately. She has learned to spit and enjoys doing it. She will spit pretty much every where we go...the park, on cars in parking lots, her bed, etc... I got fed up with it one day and put some cayenne pepper on her tongue. Just enough it taught her that it is hot and we shouldn't spit. I felt like a horrible mother, but it worked. She hasn't spit in over a week now. YEAH!!!

Well that isn't the point of this post the point is to tell how much she has understood we don't spit. The other day Bryan was working in the garage and Claire was out with him...she came in and told me she needed the "hot stuff". I asked her if she spit outside and she told me no. I then asked her why she needed the "hot stuff". She responded to me by saying "Daddy spit, he needs the hot stuff on his tongue". I gave her the cayenne pepper powder and she took it out to him and kept telling him he needed to put it on his tongue. She was persistent and stood her ground until Bryan put the powder on his tongue. I guess my moment of feeling like a bad mom is paying off.