Happy New Year!!

New Year's Eve was a busy one at our house. In the afternoon, I decided that I wanted to make something special for the sisters I visit teach, and since December's message was about Jesus being the "Light of the World", I decided to make some simple little candles in jars. It was the first time I'd made colored candles, and it was really fun! I made layers of 4 different colors by putting the jar in the freezer for a moment between each layer. In the evening I went and delivered them.

Also on New Year's Eve we had about 9 young men stay over the whole night and play video games and eat junk food. Another couple in our ward brought their little boy over to play with our kids, and they stayed. We adults played games in the front room while the kids played games in the rest of the house. At midnight we all counted down and watched the ball drop on TV. It was alot of fun. We didn't get much sleep though.

Merry Christmas!!

Christmas Eve is always a day for making fun and yummy treats at our house. For the first time I tried my hand at making some home made candy canes. They turned out really well. And yes, I know they only cost a few cents each at the store, but it's way cooler to give away "handmade" candy canes.

I also like to make home made Almond Roca. I call them Roca Rocks. Here the kids are dipping some pretzels in chocolate as they prepare goodies for Santa:

Then we carried on the McGiffin (my side of the family) family tradition of acting out the Scriptural account of the birth of Jesus. Tom read the scriptures while I helped the kids act it out.

Here's Kaitlyn the angel standing in the "clouds". (It's a big white down comforter)

Then, Christmas morning Alan and Sarah wait patiently in the Hallway for the time when they can come out and see the gifts.

And here is the Family Room after Santa has visited, and before we all came in to open presents. Santa left a little 2-wheeler bike for Kaitlyn and a full-size basketball hoop for Sarah. Alan got some nice starwars stuff, William got some cute baby toys, and we all got a Nintendo Wii and a Wii Fit. I swore I'd never have a game system in our house, but Santa knew I wanted to be able to do the aerobics andyoga with the wii. I'll tell you how that goes as I use it.

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas Tree...

As I've said in previous posts, we have two Christmas trees in our house. One is in the family room for the kids to decorate, and one is in the living room that I call my "pretty tree". I decided to put some "snow" on the tree this year in honor of all the snow my family is getting up north. These pictures don't do the tree any justice. It actually does look alot like snow is on it, even if it is just quilt batting :)

Alan's Gift wrap

These were the first gifts under the tree at our house. Alan used everything from an empty plastic spoon container to one of his Dad's old gun boxes. He even put some printer paper around one present and wrapped it with a belt of his. I guess I should've told him where the wrapping paper was. He didn't buy any of these gifts. These are his toys that he is giving to his family and friends. So even though it just looks like there's junk under the tree, we're keeping them there.

Candy Cane Cake

Kaitlyn wanted to make a "Christmas Cake" today. One of our favorite flavors is chocolate mint, and so I thought I'd try out making a chocolate mint cake. I just used a chocolate cake mix and added 2 tsp of "peppermint extract". You can also add some crushed candy canes. For the shape, I just baked the cake mix in an 8" square pan and an 8" round pan. Click on the picture below to get the details on how to make the shape.

I also added 1 tsp peppermint extract to the white frosting I made to give it a candy cane flavor as well. It was delicious and fun to make!!

Sarah's homemade Basketball hoop

Sarah and Alan have been learning to play basketball at school. Sarah told me before church today that she loves basketball, and that she wants to be a basketball player when she grows up. She then proceeded to build herself a basketball hoop out of some of the PVC pipe that I let the kids play with. Here's a picture of her "hoop". She also decided to use one of the giant soft blocks I made a few years ago as a the "ball". I think Santa knows what to bring her now.

YAY!!

Tom is finally home. We're so happy. It's Christmas early with him home now. I don't mind if I get no other presents this year. Just to have him back is enough. He's going to take the next 3 weeks off of work. We're all so excited. Each of the kids are going to have a special "Daddy and me Day". They all missed him so much. He's a super hero in our house right now. And now, after two months, I think I might be able to relax.

William the Conquerer...

Alan loves to build little traps around William to see if he can get out of them. Today he used some PVC pipe and joints we have. Sorry the the video is a little dark.

Simple Wall Art Nativity

I made this in Relief Society about 2 years ago, and this year I had the idea to hang it on the wall. I thought it looked so cute that decided to list it with my other nativities in my Arts Of The Heart biz. It probably won't sell, but hey, it's worth a try right?

You probably can't see it very well, but here it is in our front room hanging on the wall behind the tree and next to the door. (This is our living room, where I decorate my "pretty tree". The kid's big tree is in the family room where I let them decorate it, and the decorations from the bottom half of the tree go missing by mid December)

Frosty morning

Because it never snows here, or it hasn't in nearly 8 years, a frosty morning is as good as it gets. Here they are showing me leaves that had a layer of frost on them.

My poor winter deprived children couldn't figure out why the leaves didn't stay frosty when they brought them inside. They figured out that if they put them in the freezer they will stay frosty. So, now we have a jar full of leaves in our freezer. I suppose if it does snow, we will have a snowball or two in there too.

Dancing Elf Roses

So, Ben and Mary did this on their blog, and of course I couldn't resist putting it on ours. Sadly, they won't let you put more than 5 pictures up, that's why Tom's not in the dance. To see yourself as an elf, go here www.elfyourself.com

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Decorating the Tree

We decided to go ahead and decorate the tree before Tom came home. Since the kids and I are the ones that do it mainly anyway. It was a lot of fun. It's been a tough 2 months and we needed it.

William loved dumping out the ornaments and playing in them. That's why our ornaments are plastic.

William likes potatoes

Here's a video of Tom feeding William potatoes. Or rather, William feeding himself with Tom's help. It was nice to have Dad home for 3 days.

William is ONE!!

I can't believe our baby is already 1! Friday, November 28 was his first birthday. He also shares his birthday with Uncle Johnny. Happy 31 Uncle Johnny!!

Thanksgiving

No picture with this post because I forgot my camera. Thanksgiving started with the kids and I driving up to Atlanta to pick up Tom from the airport. He was be able to spend Thanksgiving weekend with us before having to fly back to school in Missouri. We came back home and got ready to go over to a friend's house for Thanksgiving. I made the Turkey because our friends didn't want to cook a Turkey, but I couldn't have Thanksgiving without the traditional fare, and besides, Turkeys are the easiest thing to cook on Thanksgiving-just put it in the oven.... Anyway...
We got ready to go over to have our friendly feast and when we got in the van, we realized we'd locked our keys in the house. What's worse, the spare key wasn't in it's usual spot. So, we had to go in through a window. I had the bright idea to pry open the window screen with a small, rusty, dirty, hand shovel. Tom went to work on our heavy duty storm window screens. Unfortunately, the shovel slipped and hit Tom in the face and he split his lip open. It was pretty bad. We finally got in the house and when he looked at his lip, Tom realized he needed stitches. But, because we had the Turkey for the feast, we had to go over to our friend's house first.
One of our friend's is a nurse, and he took a look at Tom's lip. He thought it needed stitches too, but thought he could do it. So, Tom let him. After dinner we cleared off the giant island counter they had in their house, and turned it into an operating table.The missionaries were there and were video taping the stitching "surgery". Tom was a really good sport. Poor guy. He finally gets to come home for a few days and this happens. Four stitches later Tom was all sewn up, and we all sat down for pie.

It was quite an eventful Thanksgiving. Oh, and while the kids were playing, the little boy who's house we were at broke his arm. So after we left, they had to make a trip to the ER for him. We should've just waited on Tom's stitches and all gone together and let Tom get stitched up by a real doctor.
So.... that was our Thanksgiving. We're just thankful we're all together.