K is for King!

I taught preschool a couple weeks ago. The timing wasn't great because it was my last week to get things done before the big kids were off for Christmas. But we had so much fun that I was glad I got to do the Christmas week. We made & wrapped ornaments with their pictures on them, dressed up and acted out the Christmas story, and had a gift exchange.

I borrowed all these awesome costumes from my friend, Cheyenne. I seriously need to start building up a similar collection. They all loved dressing up.

Then they all wanted to take turns holding baby Jesus.

It was so cute to see how excited they were about the gifts they brought, watching with eager anticipation as they were opened. That was almost more fun for them than getting their own present.




Merry Christmas everyone!

Hockey!

Hockey is done for now. I was happy to get my new camera in time to take pictures of the last couple of games.

Spencer's coach likes all the players to take turns being goalie. Spencer dreaded his turn all season, but the time finally came a couple weeks ago. They won, so that was good. He blocked some shots and did a good job, but thankfully the puck spent more time on the other side of the rink.



Dave usually meets us there after work, and Levi's so happy to see him.

Last week was the championship. We went into the night in 4th place (out of 4 teams), won the first game and lost the 2nd. So we came in 2nd place overall. Spencer had a good season. He really liked his coach, who gave him just the right amount of direction from the sideline.

He does really well on face-offs.

#4 is his cousin Jacob - this was his first season. Alec and Braden played too. We were really hoping they'd all be on the same team this season, but my friend pointed out that her kids always play just a little harder when it's against their cousins.

His team, the Stars

His coach, Corey

His new friend, Ryan. His dad played hockey when he was younger, and they all (including Dave) love to play 2-on-2 (kids vs. dads) Saturday mornings. Now we have a couple weeks off before the next season starts.

Gingerbread Houses

We've always bought the gingerbread house kits, which are super easy. But this year I really wanted to make them from scratch. I found a recipe online, found a template online, then cut them out 60% of the normal house size so they could each make their own.

All Dallin wants for Christmas are his three front teeth. He lost a bottom tooth one night and the 2 top ones the next day. The toothfairy was running out of ones.

Dallin and Brennan were done super fast, but Spencer and Tyler spent hours on theirs. They've learned that the more candy they put on them the more candy they can eat off of them.

I had heard that meringue powder makes super stiff icing, and it worked GREAT. I just mixed a couple tablespoons with powdered sugar and water, and it was like cement. So putting them together was no problem, unlike last year when our house collapsed after 5 minutes.

From left to right: Tyler's, Brennan's, Spencer's and Dallin's. Yes, it was more work than the kit. But it was so much fun. Plus it reminded me of making gingerbread houses growing up. Without the stress of the icing not being stiff enough.

The tree

As soon as Thanksgiving was over the kids were ready to decorate for Christmas. We didn't have anything else planned that Saturday, so we finally gave in and put up the tree.

My big anniversary/Christmas gift this year is a camera. Dave was going to make me wait 'till Christmas to open it, but he agreed it would be nice to have it to take pictures of all our December activities. Yay!

I'm still learning how to play around with the aperture and shutter speed, but these are all taken on the automatic setting.

By the time Dave got our tree put together with the colored lights on, it was around noon. But the kids really wanted to do it in their jammies - I think they might have even changed back into jammies.

I didn't hang any ornaments. We let them do the whole thing themselves without getting too concerned about it being even. Although we have been moving them up higher with Levi around.

It was Spencer's turn to put the star on this year. We had to look back at old pictures just to be sure.

Arrg! Look who's 4!

Can you believe our little Thanksgiving baby is now 4 years old? I remember how miserably overdue I was that year, wishing I was in the hospital being induced rather than eating turkey. But he eventually did arrive (he was my latest baby), and now every year we celebrate his birthday on Thanksgiving. This year Brennan is really into the Backyardigans, which is a cute, imaginative cartoon with lots of singing and dancing. There was no way I was going to attempt to draw the characters with icing, so I printed them out, covered them with contact paper, and stuck them in the cake with toothpicks. Brennan LOVED his cake. He still talks about it. He knew he wanted a pirate ship cake (since there is at least one pirate episode), and I really liked how it turned out. Yay for Google images.

After our Thanksgiving feast we had a pinata. He has been telling me for months that he wanted one for his birthday. I even planned ahead and bought Halloween candy on clearance. Sometimes I really am on top of things. Too bad it's not as often as I'd like. As you can see he is dressed as a pirate.

Dallin was dressed like a pilgrim. Have I mentioned how much my kids like to dress up?

Whenever we get together with Kristen's family, it's an instant party. They went from youngest to oldest, and the parrot was falling apart nicely by the time we got to Alec and Braden.

It was nice to have dessert options - cake and pies. We just sorta nibbled on them the rest of the day. Happy 4th birthday Brennan! I'm so thankful you got to have a regular cake this year, with milk and flour and eggs. It really does taste much better than rice and soy

Fun Run - Brrr!

Last Wednesday was the annual Panda Fun Run, and it was freezing. But at least they were running around to stay warm.

The younger grades ran first, and it was so cold I had to go home early and put on more layers. Then I came back to watch the older boys.

My friend took this picture of me with Brennan and Levi. I bundled them up in coats and blankets, so they did fine. Plus it warmed up a tad for the older group of runners.

I accidently switched it to this interesting color setting. You can see Spencer and his cousin Jacob in the middle.

Here's Tyler speeding past some walkers.


And Jacob giving me a what-are-you-doing-Hilary?-look.

Afterwards they got hot chocolate and cookies.

I'm so glad they do this every year. It's my favorite fundraiser (100% of the money raised goes to the school), and the boys love it.