Advent Calendar Activities

This year I again made an Advent Calendar for the girls so that each day they have a Christmas activity to participate in.  These are a few that we have done this past week.  One night we made Snowman Pancakes for dinner.  The girls loved them but I was told that they weren't as good as their Aunt Hollie's pancakes.  I'll have to try harder next year.

On Tuesday afternoon we made gifts for the girls' school teachers.  They were very well received.

On Thursday we made Grandma Alberta's famous Molasses Cookies.  This recipe is a family favorite that has been passed down through the generations.  We usually only make them around the holidays and they are DELICIOUS!

Good Helpers!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Christmas Around the World

Tonight's activity on our Advent Calendar was to learn about Christmas traditions in other countries.  I went to the library last week and found some good books that were great resources for me and I did alot of research on the internet.  I decided to go with traditions from our heritage so I chose England, France, and Norway.

We talked about a few Christmas customs and I made a dish from each country: an English trifle, potatoes gratin (France), and Norwegian pancakes.  Everything was really delicous.

I really like the idea of incorporating these different traditions into our own family.  We'll see what next year brings....

Santa Claus

Friday night was our Ward Christmas Party and, of course, Santa Claus came for a quick visit and passed out bags of candy and fruit to all the kids.  While Emma feels a little too grown up to sit on Santa's lap, she tried to do it so Clara would feel more comfortable.  Unfortunately, Clara wasn't have any of it so we settled for having her just stand and watch her big sister tell Santa what she wants for Christmas.

Samantha (who is definitely NOT shy) couldn't wait to get on Santa's lap.  I'm sure she gave him a very long list of all the things she wants.  Hopefully he will come through for her! :)

Christmas Performance

As part of the County Childrens' Choir, Emma and Samantha were able to participate in a Christmas performance this past week at our local library.  The city was celebrating 100 years of service so there were activities and cake and Santa came for a visit.  The girls both sang solos with the choir in front of a nice crowd and they did a great job!

It's really hard to get up in front of people.  We are so proud of them for being brave and sharing their talents with everyone!

Gingerbread House

Part of our Advent Calendar of Activities this season included making a gingerbread house.  I took a shortcut this year and got a gingerbread kit instead of making things from scratch.  We had a fun time putting it together while listening to Christmas music and sneaking some of the candy....

Mark was very meticulous with getting the frosting in just the right place so Sam and Emma could put the candy on.

It's coming along....

Here is the finished product with our happy helpers.  It was snowing that day so it seemed especially Christmas-y while we were doing our fun project.  What a great afternoon!

School Christmas Concert

Central Elementary had their Christmas Program last week.  Our our school, the program only consists of first through third grade so this year only Samantha was able to participate.  Emma will do a program in the spring with the fourth and fifth graders.

The second grade sang some very fun songs and Sam had two speaking parts which she was very excited about.  Singing is one of her favorite things to do and she did a great job!

Emma Turns 10!!!

Emma Katelynn turned 10 on December 3rd!  It's so amazing to me how the time has flown by and she is such a beautiful young lady now.  We celebrated all weekend with activities and hopefully she felt how much she is loved.  Emma loves her baby sister so much and Clara wanted to give her a great big birthday hug!

The night before her birthday we had a fondue night - cheese AND chocolate!  We had bread and cakes and all kinds of fruit and we ate to our heart's content!

Yummy!!!!

On Monday, both girls had a caroling event through Children's Choir.  Mark came home early from work so that I could attend the caroling party with them.  We met downtown and walked from shop to shop singing Christmas songs.  Here is Samantha getting ready to perform.

Here is Emma with two of her friends from choir.

Afterwards we came home and had pizza, birthday cake, and opened presents.  Mom and Dad got her a new mountain bike which she is so anxious to use.  Unfortunately, the snow outside makes for a difficult environment to ride bikes.  She'll have to wait until spring comes.

She blew out all her candles and we dug in to the cake!

We sure love Emma and we are super proud of the sweet spirit that she is!  Happy Birthday!

Our Christmas Elf

I haven't made a blog post for several weeks because it's been fairly quiet in our household.  My sister Shellie gave me a hard time about not seeing any updated pictures lately so I am making this post for her!  Clara was playing around with our Santa hat the other night so I put it on her and tried to take a picture.  She had a hard time looking at the camera and she squirmed and fussed.  I sat her down and looked at her and said, "Mommy wants to take a pretty picture!"  She sat right down and looked at the camera and I got this great shot.  What an angel!

Halloween 2012

Halloween this year turned out to be a family day which was pretty great.  The girls had no school so Mark took most of the day off of work so we could do some activities together as a family.  We hadn't had a chance to visit the pumpkin patch yet due to the non-stop rain we had been having.  The day was cloudy, but dry, so we decided to check it out.  We were worried that the hay maze would be soggy and run down because of the rain but it turned out to be in fairly great condition.  Plus, we were the only ones there so we had free reign to play to our hearts' content.

This was Clara's first time at the maze so her big sisters made sure she had a fun time exploring.  She ran around so happy and excited to be there!

Here is Daddy and Clara at the top of the hay stack!

The pumpkin patch is a family owned operation that is right on their working farm.  It is out in the country and in a really beautiful area.

There even happened to be a little fort for the girls to play in.

By the evening it was time to get our costumes on and get ready for the trunk-or-treat!  Clara was REALLY not interested in having her picture taken.  She was adorable as a little bumble bee but these are the only two pictures I was able to get that somewhat showed her costume.

I think she was just sick of being in front of the camera all day. :)

Samantha was a "Vampire Gypsy."  She put her own costume together and was very proud of her accessories!

 Here she is looking very fierce!!!

Emma was a Vampire as well.  She also put her own costume together and especially loved her cape!

SPOOKY!!!!

It was a fun day but then we were tired from our adventures.  We came home and got in our PJs and watched "It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown."  Then we were off to bed dreaming of Halloween candy!  Now we are on sugar overload and I'm trying to figure out how to get rid of all the chocolate in the house!  We hope you all had a Happy Halloween, too!

Food Preserving 2012

It was that time of year again - time to can and stock up on fruit and get our food storage taken care of for the winter.  This year I really wanted to work on getting a large amount of applesauce preserved.  We did several batches.  Thankfully we had friends give us LOTS of apples which we were so grateful for.  It ended up being a family affair and everyone helped which made the work go faster.

Here is what my storage room looks like downstairs - peaches, pear sauce, applesauce, jams, butters and relish.  I'm so thankful that we have been blessed with abundance and it will be wonderful to have fresh fruit for the coming year.

Temple Open House

Today we had the wonderful opportunity to travel to Boise, ID to participate in the temple open house there.  The temple was closed for renovations over a year ago so now the church is making it available for tours before it is rededicated.  We were especially looking forward to taking Emma and Samantha through it so they could understand more about the importance and beauty of the temple.  It was wonderful to watch their faces as we went through each room.  It really DOES feel like heaven.  The estimation was that 13,000 people were going to be passing through it today so there wasn't time to talk and ask questions - but the feeling was there and that was what was important.

It was so beautiful inside and except for the six hours of Clara screaming on the drive there and back, we had a lovely day. (Clara just doesn't travel well, no matter what we try.)  We are very grateful for the temple and for the blessings that it brings to our family!

Battle of the Books!

Last week Emma was invited to participate in the Oregon Battle of the Books!  She was very excited to be one of five kids in her class who were asked to participate.  It's a great program to encourage kids to read and learn so we are thrilled for her.  She has already finished her first book and the battles begin in January.  If their school does well enough they could go to the state competition next April.  We are keeping our fingers crossed!  It's one more reason for us to be SO proud of miss Emma!