Graham Cracker Homes

We had a Graham Cracker House Decorating night with a bunch of our favorite friends for another of our 24 Days of Christmas.

Not a bad sized group, yeah?

I pre-made all the houses for the kiddos so they could just decorate, but -- Sierra went to town and made a cool house of her own!  I was so impressed with her.  They are NOT easy to make, and I had to follow very specific instructions to get the same house put together over and over again (and I still made mistakes!) Anyway - the older kids did an awesome job decorating.

The littles did a great job too!                                            Miss and Sierra (she's our FAVE!!)

 

Check out this amazing work!

 

Some of the kiddos ate their houses before we got a picture of them!  haha.  To be honest - we never have eaten our gingerbread houses - so, that kinda threw me off.  ;)  Of course - when I threw ours away a week later, it made me kind of wonder ...

The oldies.  We had some pretty fierce competition!

Check out the Peterson's detail work!

Soooooo cute .... and fun!

LOVE our hang-out crew!

Merry and Bright

One of our very favorite 24 Days of Christmas was a day planned by James boy (thanks so much!)  He got us all tickets to a BYU basketball game, free parking, and a trax ride to temple square to see the lights.  It. Was. Awesome!!

Here are the kiddos excited to start our adventure:

Riding the trax was an adventure in and of itself, because for some reason, we had to R.U.N. to make it to this one on time.  I seriously have no idea how we made it on there with all of Kristy's kids.  LOL!  It was crazy land ... and a bit of a miracle.

At the BYU game .... Gooooooo Cougs!

"Rise and Shout!  The Cougars are Out!"

This picture of M cracks me up so much!  No wonder she's the kids' favorite!

I'm not sure if Marissa is mid-cheer in this shot, or about to faint.  :)

Then we saw the gorgeous lights.  So amazing.

 

Truly - Krystal is 6 years old - but, obviously still the baby in our fam.  There is no way she would have made it walking the whole way.  That can't be normal ...

 

Me and my hubster!

I love my sisters (and Marissa!  she fits right in, doesn't she?)                       Hanna and Aaron

 

After we had our fill of the lights, we went out to dinner at a restaurant that I can't remember.  All I know is that we had to wait FOREVER - and our food was DELICIOUS (probably due to the long wait!)

Here are Krystal and Hanna playing games to pass the time:

Awesome day!

24 Days of Christmas 2011

I know December 1st has come and gone ... and feels like FOR.E.VER. ago now - but, it's a day that my kids look forward to all year.

Our "advent calendar":

Day 1:  Decorate the Christmas tree -

 

We tried to do all activities this year for our "24 Days of Christmas" - which was tricky, because Tyler works late every night.  But, I think we did pretty darn good.  We have a lot of good memories ... a few of which I even got pictures of ... coming up tomorrow.  :)

crochet creations

With Christmas and December birthdays upon us - I got busy with some crochet projects.

Now, I haven't picked up a crochet hook since I was a teen-ager ...  

But, my Dad started crocheting this year, and it really motivated me ... along with the "Angry Birds".  hahaha!

My Mom made Krystal this cute as heck red "Angry Bird hat", and I had a baby shower coming up - so I copied her pattern and made the itty-bitty black angry bird.  Aren't they darling?

I have to post all of these, because - quite frankly - I'm so proud of all my work.  :D!

Here are all the birthday presents I made for Ty's family (headbands, a pink purse, another Angry Bird hat, and a HUUUUUGE - as tall as Krystal - elf-ish hat [for Uncle Jers]).  I have to admit - crocheting got kind of addicting, and I had fun making these! 

We learned how to make these gorgeous headbands through amazing people in my ward.  I love them.  The crochet is the easy part.  Attaching the ribbon was super tricky, and I ended up throwing two away that I ruined with that darn hot glue.  UGH!!  But, these two turned out very nice, if I say so myself.  ;)

Then, I kept on crocheting for Christmas presents (I'm pretty crochet-ed out now).

A bauble scarf - a barn purse with barn animal finger puppets - and a BYU hat

These guys are cuties, and I think Amy (my sweet niece) really liked them!

The hats always look so strange in the first phases - but, the details make them come together nicely.  My kids all want one of these BYU hats.  :)  I love the bauble stitch on this scarf ... doing so many of them made my hands WAY sore!  

 

My grandma has crocheted all of her grandkids gifts for years - I truly don't know how her hands hold up.   My mom too!  Thank you, Mom - for teaching me to crochet!

Thankful for the Jenson Clan

We met up with the Jenson clan later Thanksgiving evening for games and desserts:

The kids played and hung out with their cousins:

We had a lot of laughs and came up with some GREAT words for "Word on the Street"  :)

We had a very Happy Thanksgiving, and we are so grateful for our blessings!

Gobble! Gobble!

We spent Thanksgiving day with the Miller clan, and enjoyed DEEEEEEEEElicious food and goodies! Mom made this homemade cranberry sauce that takes 2 weeks to prepare. I have to admit - I usually hate cranberry sauce, but this was awesome!! I especially loved it with the cinnamon and sugar wheat thins. Mmmmmmmmmm.

 

We really all enjoy just being together!  My family showed up a little early and got so busy goofin' off and munchin' and hangin' out, that when dinner was almost ready - Mom yelled, "BRENT!!!  We forgot the potatoes!!"  hahahahaha.  And, what's Thanksgiving dinner without the mashed potatoes?  Well, no worries - here's gramps posing with their new stove that has a "Fast boil" burner.  They whipped those potes up pretty darn quick.  :)

 

We ate like kings:

I brought some puzzles for the kiddos to work on, and - BOY! - did they ever go to town on them.  I think they finished every single one I brought about 2 times each.  :)

 

Tyler and Aaron got some good football watchin' in:

Mom and Dad made Grandma Miller's yummy Chocolate Sundae Pies (if ya look closely enough - you'll be able to see who has the pie crust shaping skills -- but, Dad's still very proud of his!)  And with the grated chocolate on top -- yum!

 

The girls got busy looking at Black Friday ads, the kids got busy playing the Kinect, and Ty got busy with some snoozin'!

We loved having Grandma T. join us.

What a Happy Thanksgiving!