Stay-cation

Since are doing such a push to make this Christmas about memories more than gifts we decided to take the boys on a mini vacation.  But we ended up with the flu and didn't make it to Leavenworth as planned, so this weekend we had a stay-cation instead.  We started at IHOP for breakfast then went shopping for a secret Santa gift, then went home and Sabree napped while the boys played barbershop.  Dave has been begging for a haircut and Tanner did a bang up job.  He even did a John Deere logo on the side of his head :). Then we went to linner at 3:00 at granny's buffet, much to Dave's chagrin.  The boys loved it.  Then our big gun surprise was the movie Frozen.  We said that we were going to get tickets and Dave led them to believe it was for a helicopter ride.  They were even more excited when it was the movie instead!  (Good thing!) 

Tanner asked Braden why he also makes crazy faces in every picture and Brady replied that he doesn't know how to do anything different.

Family Christmas party

A few of our friends got together for a family Christmas party.  I was in charge of games and we has a blast.  We raced the make reindeer antlers, raced to fill the bowl with reindeer poop, ate yummy treats, played the candy bar game, played an adult white elephant game, and then had a kid gift-walk.  So fun for everyone!  Oh, and we all wore Christmas sweaters - some uglier than others.

First snow!

We got our first snowfall of the winter on Friday.  Braden and William were so excited to shovel the driveway.  Even Sabree thought she could help!

Tis the Season

It snuck up on us this year with Thanksgiving so late in the month, but December is here and so is the rush that seems to come with it.  This year I am trying to focus on our family and making memories more than getting stuff.  We have asked our grandparents to please give us their time for Christmas instead of toys, and we have told the kids that we are doing other things for Christmas than just buying more toys to get broken and thrown out.  I made a calendar with the fun things we are going to do each day, and so far we have done each one.  Of course it started with putting up the tree.

Everyone wanted a turn putting up the star, so we had a replay of that event.

We have done some neighborhood secret santas, had hot cocoa and candy canes, cut out snowflakes, and yesterday the boys and I went to the play "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever" at the Academy of Children's theater.  We all loved it.

Tuesday night was our ward Christmas party.  We got to see Ho Ho and the kids sang in the program.  Brady didn't sing because he wasn't done eating and wanted to finish.  It was a fun evening for the family.

I have also been doing a little shopping here and there.  My little helpers are so cute.  And, I have decided that if everyone would wear pink sparkle boots the world's problems would dissipate.  EVERYONE we walk past makes comments about Sabree's boots.

The other day I was at Value Village and Sabree found a little wagon.  She loaded it up with all the babies on the shelf and hauled them around.  You have heard of "No Child left Behind"....  Well this was "no baby left behind."  It was cute, and a simple miracle that we got out of there without them.

Gobble Till ya Wobble

We were all so excited when Melissa and Klade called to see if they could come for Thanksgiving!   The came on Wednesday and left Saturday.  We had the best time with them, (although if my house had a basement for the boys to be boys in it would have been even better.)  We had the big dinner at Stratton's with the Strattons, our Bosnian neighbors, the Elders assigned to our ward, and another family in the ward.  It was a delicious spread of food and nice that it was split up so we didn't have much to take.  We played games after dinner and the kids all had a good time playing too. 

 Friday morning the boys were going to go shooting, but it was frosty cold and foggy so they didn't end up going and we went bowling instead.

 That afternoon we played the candy bar game and some crazy Uno Roboto.

 It was so fun to play with cousins and hang out and get to know them better!  We are so blessed to have such good family!

Kate's Kreations

I love crafting, and I have been doing a lot of it lately.  I am "co-founder" in a group called TLC Ladies night, and on November 15th we had a HUGE ladies night out.  We ended up with about 120 ladies coming for dinner and crafts.  We had planned on doing it at the library, but as our numbers climbed we decided to move it to the church. Good thing we did.  We used all the space we could.  We had 12 or 13 crafts offered for ladies to make and it was AWESOME!!!  Ashley and I went to local businesses and got door prizes for the evening and ended up with over 30 door prizes to give away.  I decided that event planning is something I really really love and maybe I will be able to make money doing it someday.  Everything was super organized and though out and we really rocked it!

 I donated this nativity as a door prize, and made the burlap wreath that night as one of the crafts. (Although I didn't get it done that night)

 I then decided that there was so much interest in my nativity that I offered it for sale and sold 10 sets in a few days and then said I was sold out.  I love how they turned out.

I won!!

Our awesome Dentist's office, Dentistry for Kids, held a costume contest on Facebook and the winner would get 5 tickets to Disney on Ice.  I had a dream a week ago that I won these tickets, so I had to enter our cute family.  And guess what....

 We had such a fun time!!  They acted out Little Mermaid, Tangled, Brave, Beauty and the Beast (which Tanner said reminded him of Playmill but we both agreed that Playmill was better and funnier) and Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, and Donald danced around, and we saw Pinocchio.  We all had a really great time, even though Dave wasn't quite as into it as some of us.  Great show!  Thanks Dentistry for Kids!