Ginger Bread House

This is the first time I've done a Gingerbread House with Sam (once again James slept through it!). It was a great Family night activity. Seth got to go to a Jazz game with his friend, so we invited our neighbors (who are our very good friends) over for some Christmas fun.
Sam loves Aubree and Aymee. It was cute to see Aubree and Sam get into it. I loved all the snitching! :)



This was my side....I know, I know, it could use some work!

The kids did this side. So cute....and yummy!

This is our beauiful house. Pretty good right?!

And about 5 minutes later this is what it looked like.

Peppermint

I love peppermint. Especially at Christmas time. I love the peppermint ice cream, the peppermint chocolates, the peppermint hot cocoa, the peppermint candy canes....and now I LOVE the peppermint donuts!
I don't know if they've had them before, but this year is the first time I saw one, had to try it...and it was all over. It was DIVINE! I had to take a picture of one to remember that blessed day! :)

The "M" Family Party with Guest Star the Big S.C.

Saturday night was the big family party. It was a great. It took a lot of preparations but it was very worth it.
Each year I love going and helping Mom M get ready for the party. I get to wrap presents, reorganize things, clean out, and decorate. All things I love to do. I wasn't as much help as I would have liked to have been due to my sprained ankle. I wish I would have hurt it doing something heroic, or even cool, but you know me. I was just walking in the garage!
It was good to see Seth's side of the family again. I am really starting to get to know them and that's a good feeling. It involves all of his aunts and uncles on his Dad's side and their kids and their kids kids....and I love that it still doesn't total as many as are at my Family parties that only involve immediate family! :)
We have a family dinner, then a fun white elephant for the adults and the kids get to pick a gift. This year Grandma and Grandpa M got Santa to come! It was so fun. I knew that Sam was learning who Santa is but I had no idea that he really got it. (I guess it's all thanks to Dora and her Christmas special!)
If I could have changed anything about it....I wish James wouldn't have slept through it. I missed having him up!

Here's the video of Sam meeting Santa for the first time.


Huh, let's see what's in here...

I wanta see too....

Wow! That is great!


Santa even had a gift for Seth! I wonder how that happened! :)

What could it be?...

Oh man, the newest Galactic Hero Cinema Scene, Slave I. How did he know?!


Santa was so great. After handing out presents he sang songs with us. Sam was very into his Jingle Bells and now wants to sing it all the time.


Here's some fun shots of the family and our fun activities:

A Picture...

....is worth a 1,000 words.

My good friend Naomi is an amazing photographer. She took pictures of my boys for me. They turned out so well. She has an amazing ability to capture who a person really is in her photos. These are probably some of my favorite pictures of my boys ever because I can see who they are and I know I will always remember how they were at this stage because it literally got captured here.

You can check out her amazing work here on her blog. It's worth the trip.

Here's Sam-Sam





Here's Jimmy Boy

Gingerbread Cookies

My sweet sister-in-law brought us a Gingerbread Cookie kit for Christmas. The boys. Loved it and so did I. She made us the most delicious cookies and had a bag of yummy frosting, sprinkles, and goodies to put on them.

This is the first time Sam actually ate a cookie. It is usually is just like a trophy that he carries around and admires. You know it had to be good!







James loving every minute of his cookie and then every minute of what Sam didn't finish!



I found James on the counter downing some water. He was thirsty after all that sugar!

Sadly they were gone quickly. Here's the aftermath of it all. Gotta love when kids to "hands-on" things! I love Christmas and all it brings!

Lights!

We "stole" my niece Tressa from BYU this weekend. It was such a fun time. We ate out with her Friday night, watched movies, took her to Seth's hockey game (7:30 a.m. ycuk!), made her help me put out the rest of my Christmas lights, set her up on a date with and old friend of Seth's, made her help me sub in nursery, and so much more!
The weekend went way too fast but we had so much fun. We were so happy to have her. Sam especially liked it. He made sure that Tressa was always around and when she and Seth ran an errand Sam was so worried that Tressa was leaving (he could have cared less that Dad left!). :)

Here's us outside putting up the lights. We were racing the snow!







Sunday Tressa wanted to help me pick and outfit (I think it was a hint!) :) I didn't have a necklace I wanted to wear. I've seen people upcycle vintage jewelry. I have a necklace of my Grandma's that I've wanted to do that too. So Sunday morning I gave it a try. I think it turned out pretty good. I made me so happy to wear my Grandm's necklace! (My Grandma's necklace is the silver chains. I added the ribbon, flower with button, and pearls)

Festival of Trees

This last weekend we went to the Festival of Trees for the first time. It is a wonderful fundraiser for Primary Children's. People decorate these amazing tree and then businesses and people come and bid on the trees and all that, plus admission, goes to the cause. It was so fun to see how much good it does.
We braved the cold and we so glad that we did. It was so beautiful it took my breath away. So much beauty, creativity, generosity....It will be a night I will always remember. I really want to find out how to donate a tree for next year. It would be such a great experience to do that.

My favorite.

Seth's favorite.

And a few more highlights. I couldn't post all. There were too many beautiful trees!




They even had quilts, wreaths, and gingerbread houses.

Here was the Highlight of Sam's night. We of course had to go around finding all the trains.