Pancakes!

A few months ago, Brett was making breakfast and started some pancakes. He's much better about letting the kids help in the kitchen than I am, so they were sitting on the counter while he worked on breakfast. Somehow they decided to try making fun shaped pancakes. I think the first ones they did were initials for everyone.

They did this a couple of different times, and each time they all had a blast, Dad included. It reminded me of a blog I had found sometime in my blog stalking of a dad who did the same thing with his daughter. He just started doing shapes one day, and enjoyed it so much that it morphed into a new kind of art...pancake art. If you've never been to Jim's Pancakes, you need to check it out. It's incredible. Anyway, Jim published a book of 75 different pancake sculptures (for lack of a better word) and I decided that Brett and the kids had to have it. So for Christmas they got the book and three squeeze bottles to help in the drawing process.

They have now used the supplies two different times, and every time it has been a huge hit. This last time I finally decided to get out the camera to showcase some of their creations. What do you think?

It's a lion....RAWR!

The lion...couldn't quite get a good angle on it before Brianna attacked it. :-)

Albino Ladybugs. :-) Big kids decided after they had started they wanted ladybugs...not enough red led to  this...

New Year's Eve with the Thurmans!

For the last couple of years we have spent Christmas Eve Day with our good friends, the Thurmans. It started the year that we got at least a foot of snow in the days leading up to Christmas, so we invited them to go sledding. Last year, with no snow (sound familiar?) we ended up having lunch at their house and just hanging out.

This year our schedules made it impossible to continue our tradition, so we decided to hang out on New Year's Eve instead. We started off at Blast Off. Since we got there pretty early, there were very few people there and we basically had the place to ourselves, which was awesome. By the time we left it was filling up and we were so glad we did it that way! Then we went to the Thurman's house (our get-togethers are usually at their house...since it's about twice the size of ours. :-) for lunch.

We always have a good time with this awesome family, and end up staying way past what we expected. Here are a few photos I managed while we were watching the kids play at Blast Off!

Miss Brianna is the queen of slides, so she loved climbing up so she could slide down again.

Kylee was in awe of Alyssa's ability to hang upside down. :-)

 

 

Poor Spencer. He's 10, almost 11, and is thoroughly bored when we hang out since none of our kids are his age.

Kandy treated the kids to some games in the arcade.

Christmas

Christmas was crazy this year, as always! We spent most of the month of December listening to Christmas music, decorating, baking, and learning more about Jesus. Our Primary gave the kids a reading schedule for the weeks leading up to Christmas of scriptures in which the birth of Christ was fortold. It was really fun to read those with the kids and try to keep more of our focus on Jesus. Kylee now prays that we will remember his birth in most of her dinner/bedtime prayers. :-)

Kylee had her school program the last day of classes, on the 16th. It was really great having her home for the whole week leading up to Christmas, and I think she was super excited about it too. She did great in the program and was singing her songs for days before and many days after the performance.

Kinda hard to see, but Kylee is wearing a yellow/white striped shirt, and she's right in the middle.

I decided that I wanted to do some Christmas "mini" sessions this year to utilize some of the ideas I've been storing. I had a couple of friends decide to do it, so I was able to do some pics of Aedan and Brianna while I had the backdrops all set up. I had good intentions of doing Kylee's when she was home from school...eventually. :-) We still haven't done hers, so we're missing the 'J' in our 'Joy'. :-) I think I'll still do it even though Christmas is over just so I can have the complete set.

 

I continued last year's "tradition" of not taking a single photo of Christmas day. Someday I'll probably be sorry, but in the moment it's so much easier to enjoy when I'm not juggling the camera! Either way, we had a great Christmas!

Family Photo Outtakes 2011

We FINALLY got around to getting some family pics done this year...for the first time in four years. Yikes! And as usual, I did them myself, since the hubster has a photog-phobia (I know, ironic, right?) and would probably be mad for a month if I made him pose in front of a stranger. This condition is also the reason we end up in the middle of nowhere for our pics, so we don't have an audience. :-) But it's okay, because it fits our personality as a family to hit the outdoors and find somewhere new.

Now that I've started the photography blog, the finished family photos will appear there (IF they ever get finished!), but I'll post a link here. Now that it's been almost 4 months since these were taken, I've decided to post some of the funnies (unedited, something I never, EVER do!) here for a laugh, and hopefully a kick in the pants to get some on the wall!

 

Autumn at Our House

This fall has been an interesting time at our house. With Kylee in school all day now and my schooling finished, Aedan is beside himself with boredom. Mom is just not cool enough, and Brianna is too little to be much fun. So Aedan has gotten himself into some pretty interesting situations, all in the name of fun.

Aedan decided he needed to do something about all the leaves in the backyard. He filled up the wheelbarrow and wheeled it to the truck in front. This first picture shows his original idea...loading leaves into the pickup by the handful.

Clearly, that wasn't working. So he went for the snow shovel.

 

While the shovel held lots more leaves, it was a long walk to the pickup with that heavy load. So he eventually put the shovel down and moved the wheelbarrow right next to the pickup so he didn't have as far to walk.

The whole event was really quite entertaining to watch. I was amazed at how quickly he would reach a conclusion and go for a solution. The next day he decided to put away the lawn mower, worried about it being rained on. I found him outside like this:

Using the car ramps to try and get the mower into the shed. :-) Usually we just tip the mower back until the wheels can reach the floor of the shed, then we lift it right in. That little step up must have looked like a mountain to Aedan, so he went for the ramps. Unfortunately, they weren't quite right for the job.

Aedan isn't the only one looking for mischief around here. Brianna fulfilled what must be mandatory for my kids...the first venture into the flour bucket. She was covered in it, as were her trusty blankets that are never far from her side. Boy was she ticked when I took them away to be washed!

Just to show the tradition, here's Brianna and Aedan, both about the same age, both covered in flour. :-)

It certainly hasn't been dull around our house! Now we're done with our fall fun and ready for some SNOW!

Halloween 2011

Yep, it's me. We're still here, slugging along. :-) I was reminded by one of my BFFs from high school that I've been an absentee blogger, so I thought I'd go ahead and get a start. This one's for you, KelDawg. :-) (How long's it been since someone called you THAT?! haha!) Besides, Halloween was only a month ago, so I'm doing okay.

Halloween around here was, as usually, absolutely insane. From my annual determination to make costumes, to this year's new goal of holding a costume party with friends, it was just completely, certifiably nuts. :-)

When Heather mentioned to me that she wanted to have an honest-to-goodness costume party with some of our friends from the ward, and hinted that maybe she wanted some help getting it done (haha, lot of help I was!), I jumped on board and we made it happen. The original plan was for the party to be held in party tents outside Heather's house, but the wind made the cold simply too unbearable, so we switched last minute to the church. Kinda handy having keys in the house. ;-)

I spent way too much time on the food and decorations, and the kids' costume (which, by the way, were FAR from done at this point, one week before Halloween) so Brett and I barely managed to scrape up some semblance of a costume, just to avoid being party-poopers. We pulled out his jerseys from high school and painted our faces. We decided to go as high schoolers. :-)

The party turned out great and I think everyone had a great time. Here are just a few pictures I managed:

Brock and Heather made the BEST nerds! Made me wonder if there was something in their past... hahah!

Had to double-take when I saw Gordo in a suit...He was a high councilman! hahah!

 

Kylee got to wear her costume to school the day of Halloween, and they had a costume parade for us to come watch. It was kinda fun to see her with her class. Kylee was Tinkerbell, despite the fact that the wings were not done until after school. ;-) 

Ky's friend Kiera was the one in the leaf costume. She's the only one I managed to get a shot of...the kids were practically running cause it was so cold!

Ky's teacher, Mrs. Tokita

After school, the kids and I piled into the car and headed to Blackfoot, something we never do on Halloween. But this year, Grandma Kathy's work decided they would have trick-or-treating in the office for all the employees' kids and grandkids, so we decided to make the trip. They set up a photo booth outside the front door, and it was cold! This is probably the best shot of the kids' costumes. Aedan was Hiccup from How to Train Your Dragon. Brianna was supposed to be a scarecrow, but it didn't happen. And I don't really feel too bad about it! :-) These pics were pulled off Facebook, so they're pretty blurry.

Ky and Aedan with their cousins, Hallie, Dewey, and Hank. Aren't those the cutest monsters you've ever seen?? :-)

With Grandma and her traditional kitty-cat costume-slightly updated from the 80's version. :-)

So that's Halloween in a nutshell. A very tiny nutshell. I was sure glad when it was over, but it's always nice when the kids have a good time.