December 31st 365 challenge

12/31/11

New Year's Eve party!  Lots of fun, food, friends, family... Happy New Year! 

December 30th 365 challenge

12/30/11

Video chat with friends in Colorado (most recently in New Zealand).  After disappointing news that they won't be here this weekend, this cheered everyone up on both sides of the country!

December 29th 365 challenge

12/29/11

Ready to go out for our anniversary... leaving our kids in the capable hands of... our older children.  16 years of marriage and we still look this good.  Looking forward to many more years together!

December 28th 365 challenge

12/28/11

One of my favorite birthday presents (my other favorite is my Plants Vs. Zombies game the kids gave me... but that's another story haha!) is the green book there alongside the other Eragon books.  Michael was probably more excited about it than I was.  I'm sure in time the 4th book will look as worn as the first 3 in the series...

December 27th 365 challenge

12/27/11

Tom's favorite Christmas gift... the extended Lord of the Rings set on Blu-Ray.  :)  Just showing it with our old, worn out copies of the books.

December 26th 365 challenge

12/26/11

Hot chocolate is so good.  She kept slurping it and saying MMMM.  Ahhhhhh!  Yum yum!  Then drinking some more.  We like hot chocolate as a Christmas surprise... one of our traditions.  Liberty appreciates it!  I did get a video of this... I will post it later.

Pop pop!

When having Family Home Evening, usually when Liberty has a job, someone else does it for her or asks her a yes or no question.  Tonight we asked her what song we should sing and she jumped right up and said, "Pop pop!"  So, we sang, "Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree."  For the un-initiated, here is a link, just click on "Words and Music" and press Play!  (testing the link, she's here singing right by me!)  Here she is doing the motions of her hands making popping motions.  I should have done a video... maybe later.

Kansas City Missour temple December 25th, 2011

Beautiful day!  Christmas day temple pictures.  Look how great the landscaping looks, and how little of the "construction" look is left.  Loving seeing it every week (that we haven't been sick.)  It was so good for all of us to go to church today.

Soon enough I'm sure we'll have pictures of the temple in the snow.

December 25th 365 challenge

12/25/11

Christmas Eve presents were socks this year instead of pajamas... this is the kids getting ready to open presents, after changing out of church clothes (we were first at church today, wow!  at 9 am church... we got there early for the boys to help) wearing their new socks.  Liberty is at a loss to figure out why everyone else is so excited.  Merry Christmas everyone :)

December 24th 365 challenge

12/24/11

Almost Christmas!  Just having fun.

December 23rd 365 challenge

12/23/11

Christmas cards from friends and family :)

December 22nd 365 challenge

12/22/11

Today we celebrated my birthday with this truly chocolate cake.  It IS a cake.  Frosted and everything.  Devil's food cake Benjamin made, then Tom frosted it.  It was then surrounded by little Kit Kat guards and the top covered with M&Ms.  It was good, though very sweet.  Liberty was brought to tears waiting.  It was just too much to wait for!

December 21st 365 challenge

12/21/11

Timothy and a Duplo train he made.  Sure, we could have done something to do with birthdays, but as we didn't celebrate today anyway as there was only 10 minutes where everyone was home and noone had to be in bed yet, I'm not going to mention that I'm getting closer to 40 again, haha.  See?  Didn't mention it.  And it's officially winter!

December 20th 365 challenge

12/20/11

Another food post... but it's been fun, trying to make new things this week.  Still need to make a holiday favorite, Gingerbread men!  These are jam thumbprint cookies.  Timothy calls them cheerio cookies... because they kind of do look like Cheerios... don't they. 

December 19th 365 challenge

12/19/11

Oreo Truffles!  So easy... so yummy... the worst part was getting them covered in chocolate!  These are the Candy Cane ones... Candy Cane Oreos, smushed up with cream cheese til you can't tell what's what anymore... and then coated with chocolate.  They are GONE now.  :) 

December 18th 365 challenge

12/18/11

Got our new family picture up on the wall... replaced the last big one that was 2 years old... and yes, we'll need a new one next year, too, but we try and get a family picture every year so that's ok!

December 17th 365 challenge

12/17/11

Family still not feeling well.  I am starting to think we're on another set of illnesses.  Benjamin doesn't mind being a seat for Christopher.

December 16th 365 challenge

12/16/11

She's either going to kill herself or her parents, through a heart attack.  Miss Liberty is at liberty to go pretty much wherever she can climb, apparently.  This was not the first time she perched between the bunk beds.  Sigh.

December 15th 365 challenge

12/15/11

Life is SO HARD when you are 6 and your mom expects you to do something.  Anything.

December 14th 365 challenge

12/14/11

The same Pooh that Samuel was scared to death of when he was 1... or was it 2?  Or both?  Pooh is a little soggy today with our above average temps and lots of rain.  And he's getting a little tired of the Poo(h) jokes from the teenagers.

December 13th 365 challenge

12/13/11

Yeah, he looks happy.  That's because I pulled out the camera... he was asleep less than 5 minutes later.  Another "sick" picture.  3 year old boys most definitely do not put themselves to bed in the middle of the day... or instead of having a treat after dinner...  I hope we are all over these various cruds by Christmas.  (yes, we have several versions going through the family... it's always exciting to figure out what we'll wake up to each day!)

December 12th 365 challenge

12/12/11

This is why we haven't done much lately, other than a house appraisal.  5 year old boys do not just fall asleep for no reason.... in the middle of the day... in the middle of a sentence...

This is why we didn't go to church Sunday and we also missed our ward Christmas party the Friday before.

December 11th 365 challenge

12/11/11

Nathanael and his stocking.  I'll post a closeup... these are cross stitch stockings that I started when Michael was expected... and we (Tom?) decided I'd make them for all of our children.  What I feel bad about is that Nathanael's was nearly done LAST Christmas... maybe baby girl (#3) will have hers by the time she turns 18.

(no these aren't all of the stockings... there are a few generic ones to the right... )

December 10th 365 challenge

12/10/11

We needed some new 'family' stickers for the back of our van (they go well with our BYU magnet, don't you think?)  So as soon as we found out who baby 10 was going to be we ordered these "Zombie" family stickers, and it says "we ate your stick family."  Gruesome.  But fun :)  These were Tom's favorites.

Here's the link:
Flip Flop Graphics

December 9th 365 challenge

12/9/11

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care...  plus, got the mantle decorated, too!

December 8th 365 challenge

12/8/11

Aren't these funny?  These are our Christmas ornaments for this year.   (sure, there were 12, but we don't need 12 til next Christmas... anyone need a hot dog ornament?)  Emilie, Timothy, Mom, and Dad, chose hamburgers, Michael, Benjamin, Nathanael and Liberty chose pizza slices, and Christopher, Samuel, and um, Joseph, chose hot dogs.   Terry's Village is where we got them, where they are now on sale for even less than we paid.  If anyone is interested. 

December 7th 365 challenge

12/7/11

And the sickies have hit our house again.  Making sure everyone keeps breathing, etc, can be a full time job.

December 6th 365 challenge

12/6/11

It's gone now, but here was our 'snow' for today.  Soon, there will be more.  At least worth calling snow.  :)

December 5th 365 challenge

12/5/11

We love birthday cards!  And Snoopy :)

December 4th 365 challenge

12/4/11

Happy Sunday!  Tom and some of the kids stayed home due to illness, but the rest of us got to see the temple.  They have more grass put in, more landscaping, and it's still just a joy to see it so often.

December 3rd 365 challenge

12/3/11

Samuel says he has a theme song now... "All I want for Christmas is my Two Front Teeth!".

December 2nd 365 challenge

12/2/11

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.... kids (and I) have been busy getting gifts under the tree.  Though it's killing the kids already, maybe they shouldn't be there yet...

December 1st 365 challenge

12/1/11

Last of the turkey leftovers along with some new veggies and potatoes in turkey pot pies... going into the oven!  They smell great.