Happy Holidays

DH and I got an exciting new job as models for romance novel covers. Can you believe it? Don't we look great?
Just kidding, of course (DH photoshopped our heads onto these pictures)! These were part of our white elephant gift this year. We covered some old kids' paperbacks with these covers. The titles were awesome. The first one was "Midnight Pleasures with a Scoundrel" the second one was "The Care and Taming of a Rogue". They were hilarious!

Christmas was super fun. I always have so much fun watching my kids open their gifts.

Some new cozy digs:

Some new "pets" to add to the family:


This cute little guy is actually a CD holder. H3 got some new computer games to play:One of H1's friends taught him how to play chess. Impressive!


Santa knew this was H3's favorite library book, so he got her her very own copy to keep. She can sing me the whole thing.....it's pretty cute : )

Everything's cuter when it's tiny!

One of the things I made to give as Christmas gifts this year was mini-pies. I decided to post it because trying to describe it to my mom over the phone didn't do it justice, and some of my friends wanted the links for the project. I love how they turned out....I'm thinking of doing these together as a family sometime and having them for FHE treat.

I found the idea on Our Best Bites. I have found so many great recipes there. The tags for the top of the jars were designed by Lolly of Lollychops (check out all of her free download and print things on her sidebar!)

I gave H3 a bit of dough to play with while I was working. I love her little creation. It's a kitty! (Can'tcha tell?)

Oh Little Town of Bethlehem

One of my favorite holiday traditions is setting up this little (literally!) town of Bethlehem that my mom bought us at Costco about 8 years ago. I love it and I love letting the kids play with it (although a few of our little people have died tragic deaths in the hands of my children). It lights up and everything. As long as the Holy Family stays intact, I'll be happy because that's the most improtant part.

The girls built a snowman outside with Daddy yesterday while I shoveled (which, by the way, is my favorite form of excercise!). They named him Kyle. We took bets on how long it would take him to fall over. He looks like he's doing yoga after a bit of melting, but he's still standing!
Backing up to Halloween, I wanted to post our creepy little apple faces. Each of us carved one and then let them dry up. It was fun checking on them each day to see how different they looked as they dried ( and by the way, that's not mold, it's just the core):

Thanksgiving,Two Haircuts, a Tree, and a Naughty Kitty

I hope everyone had a fabulous Thanksgiving. We sure did! It was my first time hosting it here at my house and I loved it. We had a ginormous 20 lb. turkey, rolls, mashed potatoes, berry-pretzel salad, stuffing (with BACON in it!), sweet potatoes, and lots of pie. Mmmmmmm......... The turkey is almost gone now, I've been eating it with a little gravy everytime I feel hungry. Love it.

We had Grandma and Grandpa, Chris, and the Newhouses over. When we had cleaned up all the mess, the kids decided to put together the gingerbread house. They're getting better and better at it every year.

The next day we put up the tree and went to see The Christmas Carol. I re-did the tree a bit this year with a new color combo and a collection of birdies. I love it!

This little bird is my favorite (the brown one with all the feathers):

Unfortunately, we have a very naughty kitty that thinks our tree is her personal playground!

So now the bottom 1/3 of my beautiful tree looks like this:Lovely, huh? I'm off to Petsmart tomorrow to buy a can of Ssssscat, which is pressurized air with a motion sensor. I'll put it near the tree so that whenever she comes near it, she'll get the crap scared out of her. Wish me luck!

On the other hand, she sure is cute!The girls wanted their hair cut so I did that yesterday. It ended up pretty short, but so cute.Every year the kids look forward to playing with our City of Bethlehem. We got it out tonight and the girls set it up for me. They love all the little tiny people and animals that they can pretend with.

Best Night Away EVER

Thursday we stayed the night at a cabin near Sundance. It was so wonderful. Very cold, but great. Check it out:

Here I am cooking tinfoil dinners in the barbecue. Later that night we made s'mores in the fireplace. It was so cozy.The kids and hubby went for a dip out in the hot tub.

The guy that owns the cabin (and some others) grew up right in the area. Sundance resort didn't even exist back then. His house sat between the Alpine Loop and the river. All that is left now is this fireplace. His dad did all kinds of cool things with the river, creating pools and waterfalls. I totally want to come back in the summertime!

We had so much fun on this zipline! I was a little scared at first, but I did it! None of the kids were daring enough.

Go Grandpa go!

And this tree swing was awesome. Someone has to push you because it is really hard to get going very high on your own with a swing like this.

Snack Mix by JyJy

It was H3's turn to do "show and teach" at school last week. It worked out perfectly because Grandpa was here to see her do her thing. She taught her class how to make a snack mix. I love that this shows the sassy aspect of her personality. As she is pouring the cereal in, we are all saying "keep going" and "more cereal".....she just looks at us, ignores us, and does her own thing. Same thing happens when she fills the cups to the rim and we are all asking her to put a little less in each one. Nope, she was going to do her own thing. Good thing she's so cute : )

Fun at the Park

We set out today to find the new reservoir in Herriman, but I screwed up the directions and we ended up "touring" Daybreak. It was actually a pretty cool drive. Lots of really cute houses to look at, and we found a really neat park. Check it out:
I was calling this thing a "birds nest", but DD1 decided it was "the diaper". Too funny! They had so much fun and the weather outside was absolutely beautiful. You could feel autumn in the air. When we left here we found the reservoir and spent a little time playing in the sand there before heading home.

Furry Little Friends

Here is one of my favorite little friends--although she's not furry. We like her a lot. I just thought she looked so cute all dressed up for school that I had to get a picture.And our newest furry friend is adapting to the house quite well. She gets lots of attention....if she's not getting attention, she mews and mews until someone picks her up.
She's also getting used to Smuckers. Pretty soon they'll be playing, I'm sure. They've tried to play a few times, but they haven't quite figured out the "rules" yet so that they don't hurt or scare each other.

The kids set her on Smuckers, so this shot was a set-up, but "awwwwww...."

And, there's nothing like napping with two furry friends. How do you like Smucker's "Quarter Bark" shirt? I know, I'm a nerd. The plan was to shave him again and then have him wear the shirt to keep him toasty, but it came off after about a day. He's just too stocky and the shirt kept working it's way farther and farther down his chest.

Aaaaaah.......Free Time

A little of it anyway. A little can go a long way! I've been busy organizing and getting household projects done. Here are a few:

I finished DD1's quilt for her bed!

I've canned a full box of pears, some tomatoes from the garden, and frozen most of my two boxes of peaches. Mmmmmmm......
I put together a small quilt for my brother and his new wife (so if either of you are reading this, I hope you like it!). This one's going to be hard to give away--I love the colors!
I organized our wee pantry and installed shelves on the interior of the door.

Tink (our new kitty) has been visiting during the afternoons for a few days. She's a little small to leave her mommy entirely and this gives her a chance to get used to the new environment. The kids are having a ball with her. She's so tiny!

Yesterday she crawled between the fridge and our cabinets and fell asleep there for a while! I think it felt very cozy to her and she didn't have to worry about the kids wanting to touch her. You can tell how little she is by comparing her to the crayon on the floor--the gap here is so little that the broom won't even reach back there (thus, the stray crayon).

Now, backtracking to another important event:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY LITTLE GUY!

9 years old! He had a great day. We let him stay home a little bit in the morning while we played with some of his toys. He didn't mind missing a bit of school at all : ). Then he had friends over to play in the afternoon. Dinner was his choice--spaghetti!

This is an awsome toy! And the best part is, I just happened upon it in the clearance aisle at Target a while back. DS loves to build, so this is perfect for him. He is such a sweetheart--after opening each gift, he held it up and smile for the camera. The boy knows his Mamma!
He also got a few Magnext sets--more building!
I don't know who loves this toy more, DS or DH!
And for DS, it just wouldn't be a birthday without a new video game!

Another favorite was the knock-off brand iPod that he got with the money his grandparents gave him. It's a video and mp3 player. That will sure come in handy on our big family vacation to Silver Dollar City next month. Happy birthday, baby boy!