Gingerbread House

Grace has been begging me to build a gingerbread house with her. I mentioned it to Christopher so he bought us a kit from Costco. It had everything in it.








While building the house the frosting bag split. Derek caught the frosting in his hand. Grace loved the easy access to the frosting.




It was so fun, sticky and we have lots of extra candy.

Substitutes

I came down with the flu. Chills, aches, stuffy nose and head. Derek decided to be a copycat and catch my flu. I lost my voice and could not sing with our ward choir in the stake Christmas music program. Christopher called me to check in and see what we were up to and found out that Derek and I were sick.




The next day he called to tell me that he and Heidi, his friend, were coming down to take care of us. After making us lunch Christopher and Heidi went out and built a snowman with Grace.




It was so cold outside and Christopher had the good idea to tell Grace that they were going to build a snowman that was "buried" except the head.




Grace still loves it and checks on her snowman daily.

Dinner and Bath

Grace wanted to dress up as a ballerina and wear her costume to the dinner table.




Ryan wore his dinner.




The next night Ryan decided to take a bath with his clothes on.






Night number three...We ate dinner with a fairy princess.




Life is never boring when you have cute kids like me.

Santa

We had our ward Christmas party and Santa Claus came. Grace was a little nervous to sit on his lap.

Ryan was fine and soon he was distracted with his goodie bag.






P.S. Grace says that her favorite Christmas song is Angels We Have Heard on High because the main word in the chorus is Gloria and that is her Grandma's name.

Christmas in Midway

We went to Midway to see the Creche and Gingerbread exhibits with Derek's family. There were the most amazing pictures of Mary and Jesus and Nativities that I have ever seen. Our nephew, Riley, made a beautiful nativity and had it put on display. There was one made out of bottle caps, one out of newspaper and one out of Little People. Next we went to the see the Gingerbread houses. There were the cutest little houses.

We went to Dan and Shauna's and had dinner and played.






While we were there Ryan fell and bumped his head. He had a bump for a few days.

Derek's Good News and/or Christmas Present

Christmas came a little early for us...or Derek got a late birthday present, it is all about how you look at things, I guess.

We want to thank all of you for so many prayers, thoughts, etc. as we have been going through this chapter of our story.

Derek got a job offer last week from the state to work at the Department of Workforce Services, he had to turn this down, however, because we got a better offer not too long after. Derek is now the Regional Business Director for Young Living, he oversees the Eastern Region for the company. He starts shortly after the holidays and it is a great blessing in our lives. It actually turns out be even a much better job than he had at Valassis.

There will be a little more travel involved with this job, but we are excited about it. He will basically oversee the sales and training for the region and when he is out in the field will give presentations and do training to reps, etc.

It was quite the process as Derek had to go through several interviews and even had to prepare a 20 minute presentation and then took a question and answer period from the panel that viewed the presentation. He did his presentation on redheads, it was quite entertaining and impressive. The group seemed to love it and I think it showed his personality well. He covered the ever so troublesome topic of "Gingerism" that our society is faced with.

He will get to go to New Jersey several times as well as many other fun locations along the east coast. He will also spend some time in Canada.

We feel very blessed at this time when so many are struggling with this crazy economy. We hope all of you are having a lovely holiday season and want to, again, thank you for all of your thoughts, love, support and prayers!

Grace Meets the Harp!

We went to a viewing for some really good friends of ours not too long ago who lost a family member. There was beautiful harp music playing and Grace was fascinated. The lady (Kurt's relative...thanks Kurt and Alanna!) was so nice to bring Grace over and let her try it out and showed her some things.
Grace has mentioned it several times since and keeps telling us she hopes Santa brings her a harp. Uh...probably not, but maybe the harp is something she can give a try down the road. The name Grace seems like it fits well with the harp and we could both definitely see Grace doing something like that.
Anyway, it was awesome...thanks again Kurt and Alanna!

So Long, Farewell

My mom and dad's home was packed up, so it is now official and seems very final that they have moved.






Derek and Christopher jumped up in the attic and climbed under the house to move things for the movers. They apparently don't like going in attics or under houses.




They are excited to be in a much warmer climate, but make me aware that they miss their grandchildren (and, oh, yeah, Derek and me).

Lights at Temple Square

We went to see the lights at Temple Square for Family Home Evening. We figured we should go before there is snow, but that does not seem to be a threat any time soon.













We had a lady offer to take a picture of our family. When she took it she pushed the power button. No picture. It was a nice gesture and gave us a few laughs. There also was a man in a kilt playing Christmas songs on a bagpipe. I took a picture, but with the lighting I could not get close enough to get a good picture.

Kids in a Box

Grace really wanted Ryan to play inside the box with her. Within minutes of Grace putting him in the box and climbing in behind him the box broke.

Its Christnmas

Grace made this picture and then took a picture of it. It is actually now in our front window.




We set up our tree after Ryan went down for his morning nap. It took about two or three hours from start to finish.




When Ryan woke up we were about half way through. He was scared of the tree for awhile, but warmed up within a day. He does not really play with it much. He has tried pulling on the lights, but mostly ignores the tree.




Grace really loved sorting the branches, putting the tree together and decorating it.




Derek put the star on the top. He is the most coordinated person in the home and did a great job.




Last year I almost fell off the chair and took the tree with me. I was as big as the tree last year being eight months pregnant. I was also warm last year. I forgot how cold winter was, and we have not really even had snow yet this year.

Food, Shopping and More Food

On Thursday we went to Dennis and Kathy's home. Grandma Juanita and Aunt Kelly were there as well. Dinner was really yummy. Dan, Shauna, Riley and Isaac came over for pie later.




Friday morning Ang and I went shopping. We went with her mom, brother, aunt, uncle and a few cousins. We got to Target around five in the morning. We were so close to the front and the line ended up being so long. The store opened at six and Ang and I were out of there by 6:30. We then went to Smith's Marketplace. We got home about eight. I actually had fun and was super glad that there was no snow. I have the majority of my shopping finished.




We went to my Uncle Mark and Aunt Laurel's home for Thanksgiving number two. My cousin Natalie has a daughter named Oakley that is close to Grace's age and a boy, Zander, around Ryan's age. The kids played together and they were so cute.




The girls could not tear their eyes away from Snow White to smile AT the camera.




Christopher was making faces at Ryan and Derek took the picture at the perfect time.




Ryan loves Christopher's phone and likes to listen to the ring tones...




and eat it.




Ryan has started to make this funny face. He scowls all the time and at anyone. I think it is so funny!




Ryan is so cute!