Christmas 2009

We had the Mowers, Ben's parents and two brothers, come to our house for Christmas this year. It was fun to have family around for Christmas and still be in our own home. On Christmas Eve we had a nice dinner, played the candy bar/dice game, had a nativity puppet show narrated by Luke 2, read the story of The Other Wise Man, and ended by singing Christmas songs. It was a fun Christmas Eve!



We were able to sleep in until 8:00 on Christmas morning because our kids were tired and do not yet know to wake up really early on Christmas. It was nice and refreshing to get extra sleep.

Jacob and David are discovering all of the fun things in their stockings.



Ben's dad was dressed and ready to go. Here he is opening a Subway gift card, his favorite place to eat.



Madeline got a lot of dolls and baby supplies. She loves playing with her babies!



Our family before we started opening presents on Christmas morning.



My brother and sis-in-law came to our house for New Years Eve and day. We had a good time with them! We were a little lame on New Years Eve and ended up going to bed around 10:45. However, we had already celebrated the New Year at 9:00 because we set our clocks ahead for the kids. They really wanted to stay up until midnight so we tricked them.

Happy New Year to everyone!

I Am A Blogging Slacker

Since I have not been very consistent with my blogging, here is a month-in-review.

Chef Ben in his Thanksgiving turkey hat.



My parents and my brother, John, came to our house for Thanksgiving. This is John getting ready to drink the whole bottle of sparkling grape juice.



Making apple turkeys.




Here are the kids on a cute bench at the mall.



I had a piano recital for my students last week. They worked hard on their pieces and did a great job!



Every year we grow paperwhites. We put the bulbs in a pot of rocks and fill it with water. In about 2 to 3 weeks we have live flowers in the winter. These are some of the prettiest paperwhites we have grown.



Because we have a vaulted ceiling, we decided to buy a giant Christmas tree. We had to buy additional ornaments and lights to decorate it because it was so much bigger than past trees. We also had to borrow a ladder to put the star on and to decorate the top 3 feet.

A "New" Table!!!

Awhile ago Ben's parents gave us their old table. It needed to be cleaned up a bit and so it sat in our garage as a daunting task needing to be completed. After a few months of sitting there I decided it was time to tackle the project. I stripped all of the old stain off the table set and refinished the table. It has taken me three months and hundreds of hours to get this project done. I am sooo excited that it is finally done! Here are a few pictures of our "new" 100 year old table.

Syrup Anyone?

When I came upstairs, David had prepared his own plate of french toast. His plate is three pieces of french toast and half a bottle of syrup. He only ate a few bites.

October Recap

We have had a busy October! Here are a few of the things we have been doing. The kids took all of the leaves from the front yard in buckets to the trampoline in back. They were entertained for hours!


We made sugar cookies and David turned the mixer on full speed, which sent a flour shower all over the kitchen, what a mess!


We went to Elitch Gardens, an amusement park in Denver. We had a fun time with shorter lines because of less people.




School was canceled on the day of the school Halloween parade and class parties. My neighbor and I threw a spontaneous party for the kids in the neighborhood. We ate snacks, had Halloween music playing, had a costume parade and told spooky stories. It was not quite as cool as a class party but we did the best we could.


Our kids loved Trick or Treating! They were pretty hard core and went to a lot of houses, which resulted in too much candy but a nice stash of chocolate for Ben and I to keep hidden and snack on when the kids go to bed.


I have been trying to spend more time playing with my kids. Jacob wanted to practice taking pictures so he took this last week while we were spending time together.

October Snow Day

This morning I woke up with a ton of things to get done because I had a very busy day. This is what my plans were;

1. P90X workout with friends from 9:00-10:00
2. Visiting teachers coming at 10:15
3. A friend from Jacob's school class and family for lunch and playing at 11:00
4. Drop Jacob off at school at 12:30
5. Visit teach at 12:45

I quickly got started on my day so I would be able to stay on top of everything. Then #1 Cancelled, #2 Cancelled, #3 Cancelled, #4 Cancelled, #5 Cancelled

My busy day has turned into a stay at home, do nothing day. I might work on scrapbooking or maybe start a new book. I just finished The Hunger Games and I loved it! Now I have to read Catching Fire. I highly recommend The Hunger Games if anyone is looking for a good book.

Who would have thought there would be a snow day in October? Not me.

First Kiss Day

Ben and I had our first kiss on October 4, 2001. Every year we celebrate first kiss day by buying our Halloween pumpkins. Since the 4th fell on a Sunday this year we went pumpkin shopping on Monday evening. It was the perfect day, I decorated for fall/Halloween during the day while Jacob was at school, David at a friends house, and Madeline sleeping. In the evening we went pumpkin shopping then came home to eat pumpkin chocolate chip cookies and candy corn. Yum.

Here are a few pictures of some of our decorations.









We hunted through the bin at Walmart to find the best five pumkins $4.50 could buy.



These are the best cookies! All you do is take a spice cake mix, a can of pumpkin and a bag of chocolate chips. Seriously delicious, you should make them.