Catch a Break

It's raining so much! Finally the rain let up, and the boys were begging to play outside. We bundled up (as much a Tyson would allow, the only thing he will wear is a sweatshirt), and got out the scooters.

Snow Flurries!

We got some snow flurries, so the kids put on snow clothes as quick as they could and ran outside to play. The flurries lasted about 5 minutes, but it was a good 5 minutes!

Grandma and Grandpa Smith's Little Tree

Wow! What a tree! It makes me want to spend Christmas there (not that just seeing family isn't enough already, but wow, look at that tree). I don't know how they get it inside in one piece.

Swedish Christmas Dinner

The keeps going all day long! Dinner was at Grandma Huffman's house, a Swedish buffet!

The Big Day

Sydney and Tyson were checking out their stockings while waiting for Carson and Dad to wake up.Carson is up, time to start opening!

Sleeping bags from Grandma and Grandpa Smith! The kids LOVE them, especially that they are monogrammed! They opened the sleeping bags towards the beginning, and finished opening up while in their new sleeping bags.

Even Lafawndah had fun Christmas morning.

A Big hug with Sydney and Tyson!

Catching the Trolls!

I forgot to update you on the trolls we caught! Sydney set a trap, and it got two trolls!Here is what the trap looked like, and a picture of the trolls she got. The trolls also left a note behind.

Christmas Eve

In the morning Carson helped make dessert.

I was making turkey for dinner, but Uncle Brian wanted something "extra" special, so be brought King Crab. I wish I had taken a better picture so you could see how big the legs were!

This was how Grandpa Gary spent most of the night.


Aunt Erica, Grandma and I played a piano trio of We Three Kings.

Carson had fun playing with dished while waiting for dinner to start.

Getting ready for dinner, Sydney and cousin Ellie.

Acting out the Nativity.

More Nativity. Tyson was Joseph, Sydney was Mary. Carson was a wise man, but he refused to participate.

Gingerbread Disaster!

Time to make gingerbread houses! Yeah! So I baked the dough the night before. I followed the same receipe I always do. But I guess I need Grandma Smith here, because I didn't bake it long enough, and the gingerbread was soft. I figured it would harden over night.

The next afternoon we started assembling the houses. Uh-oh, the cookie was very soft still, but I'm sure I can make it work. I'll just use extra frosting.

Here you can see the houses, notice Sydney's roof is a little saggy?

We finished, they looked great. We had to hurry to Grandma Huffman's house, so everyone get in the car quick. But I have to run inside to get something, and this is what I see. Oh dear, what do I tell the kids. I quietly show Lance and we get in the car and leave.

Lance comes up with a plan involving some Christmas trolls who like to smash gingerbread houses. He mentions to the kids that he hopes they don't come while were gone. The kids are asleep when we come home later that night, so Lance leaves a note, and this what the kids find in the morning.

Sydney was disappointed. She said, " Hey, I worked really hard on that you know!" But now they're really excited to set traps and catch some trolls! They also get to eat a lot more of the house than we have ever let them eat before. The biggest problem is that Tyson's house survived and doesn't have a single mark, and this bothers Sydney.

Another Haircut

Carson got a haircut yesterday. This is what it looked like wet, but once it dried is was much shorter, and I didn't like it at all. I can't figure out what to do. I cut his hair, hate it, then it grows, I love it, then it gets too long, I try to just trim it, then I hate it! It's a bad cycle we're in.

Roll Roll

Here's a quick example of a game the kids like to play, roll-roll. Sydney was hogging the video so I had to cut it short.

Boxes

The kids are still loving the boxes!

Yea! Packages!

We received some boxes from the "package man" today, and the kids went crazy! They wanted to open them soooo bad, but I told they were christmas presents from Grandma and Grandpa Smith, so they had to wait until Christmas. They didn't complain anymore, they just loved their boxes. They stacked them, sat on them, carried them, decorated them with markers, and then I saw them playing the piano with them! That's when I quickly whipped out the camera! Maybe we'll never open them, and just keep them as boxes!

That Darn Coffee Table

I'm not really sure how it happened, but Carson's head met with coffee table Monday. These pictures were taken about an hour after the incident. I should take some more tomorrow becuase now the bruise is getting more purple.

Clay

Grandma Smith brought clay last time she came, and Sydney hasn't stopped making things! We bake them and then she arranges them in a display box. I love stuff like this because it brings our the creativity in kids. I always amazed at the things Sydney makes. Most of this stuff she makes all by herself.

Backwords!

Carson's been trying to come up with a few tricks of his own, since that what he see Tyson doing all day. His lastest is riding "little red" while sitting backwords.

Girls Night Out

I recently spent the night in Portland with my lady friends. They were going to Time Out for Women, but was just going along for the ride! I met them up there around 9 pm, checked into the hotel, which was amazing, then we walked to the Melting Pot for dessert. That is our waiter, eating our dessert with us! (he brought us extra dipping goodies for that)Hanging out in one of the many foyers of the hotel.


Relaxing in our room. We stayed up very late!

Soccer Party

The end of the year soccer party happened, and all the girls recieved their trophy. This was Sydney's very first trophy and she felt really special! It even had her name on it!

These are some of her soccer friends. You can see most of them are missing teeth. Sydney hasn't lost any teeth yet, and she keeps complaining that she's the only one!

Fall Family Pictures

I needed some family pictures for craft I am making at Super Saturday coming up. I asked my mom to take these pictures, but it wasn't until after we finished the "photo shoot" I realize that Carson still had ink on his face. You'll see a post further down in the blog explaining the ink. It's titled "Hitler".

Halloween and Grandma's House

We spent the afternoon making homemade for donuts, which would be for dessert later.

The kids found grandma's dress up trunk.

Stew in a pumpkin, a perfect halloween dinner. Erica made "little mice" which you can see in front of the pumpkin. They are made out of crushed chocolate cookies.