christmas loveliness

tis the season to make gingerbread houses

ok, so the gingerbread houses have been out of control this year. first, raegan went to a birthday party and decorated a beautiful house...

a couple weeks later, the nelson family invited us over to do houses again. wendy made the gingerbread from scratch and the adults made their own houses and the kids used graham crackers. this was so fun. i loved making my house and it was fun to have the kids do this too... fyi, this was a 3+ hour event. gingerbread houses take a long time!



and finally, raegan's preschool class decorated gingerbread houses at their christmas party. this was so fun. and i think raegan's house is my favorite... so much candy, so heavy!


*side note... when raegan was putting on one of her candy canes, it broke and so she took the curved part and said, i want to put this over the door, then it will look like a real doorway... so creative! i loved it!

the nutcracker ballet

on 11 december, i took grace to see the nutcracker ballet in topeka, ks. this was something that we have been looking forward to doing all year. we got a babysitter for the other kiddos and headed out of town.

unfortunately, we have to pictures... lame... but i we had a great time and she loved every minute of it.

i also have a fun little story to tell about the happenings with the babysitter.

grace and i left at about 12 pm. i asked essen to babysit and gave her all the instructions she would need. about 12:30, jack said he wanted to go outside. it was freezing... literally freezing. so cold and windy. essen bundled up jack and raegan and opened the back door for them to go out. essen left her shoes inside since she figured the kids wouldn't be out there too long. and she shut the sliding glass door. when she shut the door, the bar we keep in the slider (so it can't be opened from the outside... or inside for that matter) fell down into place locking them outside. did i say it was freezing? and essen isn't wearing shoes?

so essen says, should we say a prayer? raegan is like... why? and so they do and then raegan says, 'i know the way to the richards house!' and she led essen and jack on a trip around the block to the richards house. essen says that she asked raegan one time on their walk, 'are you sure this is the right way?' and raegan says, 'YES, it's right there!'

i thought this was so funny and i am so happy that raegan was able to remember how to get to the richards. i was very surprised she knew the way, but she is one smart cookie.

oh, and the richards had a key to our house and were able to let the freezing kids back in...

steampunk mystery dinner

oh so fun...

the day after jack's party, i hosted a steampunk mystery dinner. (actually, we just used our house, the merrills did all the work and the cooking and it was just about the best way to have a party). our good friends, the merrills called and asked if we could get together and have a fun steampunk party. of course, especially since it meant a little rock band afterwards. so, the merrills, the nortons, the becks, and myself all dressed up (thanks jeanette) and had a delicious dinner while we took on characters of the steampunk variety. (visit jeanette's blog for more education on what steampunk actually is). this was so fun... the only thing missing... bryan! boo.

jack and jill celebrate birthdays!

so, jack turned 2 on 03 december. crazy!

we had a joint birthday with our friends the richards. jillian turned one on 01 december. they are good friends and we had a fun time together. the nelson family also joined us for the party. we had pizza, a fire with s'mores, cupcakes, ice cream, and hot chocolate. yum.

this about sums up how my kids feel about taking pictures...



the girls loved to stay warm by the fire... but honestly, the weather was perfect. about 60 degrees!



jack and jill each got their own monkey cupcake (they are both monkeys and into everything!) and then proceeded to eat and make a mess... yes, jack is smearing the frosting on his face and hands







but jack finally got what he wanted... cars, cars, and more cars. yay, he is now officially not playing with girl toys!

thanksgiving at nannie's

please excuse the lameness of no pictures... i plan to get some from pam and my mom's camera... without bryan, there isn't anyone to really take the pictures... so here is what i have to offer.





we had a great time, though... my mom and dad drove from missouri and then we all drove together from kansas. the trip was good and the kids traveled well. we stayed at nannie's and pam and dan came with hannah and sarah. we got to see greg and niter as well as glenda and her family and cody and his family. thanksgiving was delicious and we ate a different dessert everyday. yum.

6 years old and 3 less teeth

so, i took the kids to get their teeth cleaned in september and the dentist mentioned that grace had her permanent teeth coming in behind her baby teeth. he was not concerned, but said that when those teeth broke through we needed to bring her in and have her baby teeth extracted. well, the day has come. i took her in and because she had lost one tooth on the bottom already, she needed to have all the rest pulled. that is a lot of teeth missing... all 4 teeth on the bottom are gone. but again, the look of pure excitement on grace's face after the tooth fairy visited... worth it.

tree time

so, as usual, we decorate for christmas before thanksgiving... i really like to enjoy the christmas decorations for longer than a month. so, we decided to decorate before we headed out to new mexico for a family trip. the kids love to decorate the tree and see all the ornaments they have collected over the years. we have a tradition where we get each of the kids a new ornament at christmas time. they love to see the ones that they have gotten in years past. i love to see our home decorated and so do the kids. just sad that bryan had to miss this year.

6 years old and one less tooth

11 november 2010... and grace has finally lost her first tooth. yippee! she pulled it out herself while eating breakfast before school. the tooth fairy visited and gave her a dollar coin. the pure excitement on grace's face the morning the tooth fairy came makes me smile.

and grace ties...

...her shoes...



...finally.

saddest day ever...

07 november 2010

bryan leaves at 4 am

don't really want to talk about it.




*guns on a plane



at least the kids are still smiling!

come on baby, light my fire

well, after a delicious meal at the merrill's house, eaten outside by the warmth of a fire pit, we decided that we needed a fire pit too. and what a great time of year to get one...

the kids love the fire, to say the least... who can turn down delicious s'mores?

all hallows eve... or a few days earlier

since halloween was on a sunday this year, the only trick or treating our kids did was at the trunk or treat. on wednesday, grace had her halloween party at school and all the kids got to dress up, eat treats and watch the great pumpkin, charlie brown. good times...



so, this year we went for the tinkerbell theme... grace wanted to be tinkerbell, raegan wanted to be silvermist, and they wanted jack to be blaze, the lightning bug.



check out jack's glow bum... it really did glow in the dark!



their costumes were super cute and they will be eating halloween candy for the rest of the year, i'm sure.

field trip fun

the kindergarten classes took a field trip to a pumpkin patch in a neighboring town. after about a 30 minute bus ride, we made it to alma, ks. now this trip was packed full of activities. great fun!

first, we entered the hay maze and found our way out to our mid morning snack (graham crackers).



then the kids went for a ride on the train around the farm.



after her turn on the train, grace searched to find the perfect pumpkin... which she did.



after the pumpkins were hunted down and gathered, we took a short hike through the forest and ended up at the petting zoo. some animals were really scary, but grace loved the little pigs.



after the pigs and some hand sanitizer, we shot over to the giant tree house and ran around for a bit... it was very high and looked unstable, so i managed to stay on the ground.





finally we made it over the the pumpkin shooting thing... there were all these little pumpkins that they picked when they were still green and bumpy and the kids were able to shoot them from this sling shot thing strapped between two trees. this was a favorite among the boys.



next came the zip line and the hay jump and finally lunch time! what a great day spent with grace and her little kindergartner friends!

pumpkins pumpkins and more pumpkins

while we were in missouri, we decided to check out the pumpkin patch just outside of town. the kids really had a good time. we took some very scientific measurements of our kids...





there was a teepee made out of hay...



there was a petting zoo complete with a baby calf named gracie. there were pigs (jack's favorite) and chickens and cows. good times and good smells....



there was also an acutal pumpkin patch, however we did not buy or pick a pumpkin. i think that absolute favorite was...



the corn box... that's right, the corn box. i was picking corn out of their clothes and bodies for days.

6 years old in missouri

about a month after grace turned 6, we were able to travel to nana and papa's house and celebrate grace again. she is still 6... we had a great time with our lovely cake and ice cream and of course, all the presents.

the horspool family 2010

knowing that bryan is going to be leaving in november, we asked a family friend to take some photos of our family before he leaves.