Thanksgiving

On Thanksgiving we went to my parents...which we do most years! It was a very relaxing weekend. My mom always makes a great thanksgiving meal! The kids "helped" grandma with her craft sale (which they love to do). We visited our friends in Blackduck, the Riggs, who just had a baby. In my mind, there is not much better than the baby stage where you can just hold them and they cuddle on you! They have kids close to our kids ages and they love hanging out together! But mostly, we read and played games. If you enjoy "fun" not thinking games, "Would you Rather" is a great game to play. It makes you laugh a lot. The picture of my dad is one of the challenges in the game (he had to slow dance with a broom for 60 seconds) :)

Gingerbread House

Typically on Thursday we have a fabulous small group that we attend or host. However, the Thursday before Thanksgiving, it got canceled so we decided that would be the perfect opportunity to build our annual Gingerbread house. Kudos to all you who do it from scratch...we use a kit!
I got everything ready. I made the frosting, put all the candies in little dishes all to try and stream line the process. It started out that the frosting was WAY to thick, so think in fact, it was to hard to push out of the bag. So, being the cook i am, i fixed it...and made it too thin ;) We decided to just keep it that way and held the roof up with different objects so that it would stay were it was supposed to stay until the frosting got hard. Then..the lovely dish that held all the little ball candies...got knocked off the counter and we actually found some candies two rooms away! ;)
We finally got the roof to stay in place and let the kids go crazy. Each kid got one half of the roof to decorate the way they wanted and one big side of the house. It was a ton of fun to watch their creativity!

Arlie and I decided to do the small sides of the house. I thought I'd be really "Martha Stewardish" and make windows with stain glass in them. So i crushed up some lifesavers and nicely placed them on the windows...however, the frosting was too runny and didn't stay so nicely and it ended up looking like a two year old did my side ;) Arlie's side looked amazing...surprise, surprise (he's good at creative things ;) ).

Jordan's side of the house!

Sydney's side of the house!

DRAMA!!!

Girls may be known for drama....at least mine is. Yesterday she was playing just fine and then looked down and noticed that sometime during the day she had scratched her heel. Now, when i say scratched it was about 1/8 of an inch and barely red. While she saw that there was red and quickly picked up her foot to baby it. "I need a band aid, there is bleed on my foot". I told her that it was only red because it got scratched not because there was blood on it. She starts almost crying because it "hurts so bad". I told her to get her own band aid if it was that big of deal (I know, not a very tender mommy moment for me :) ). She proceeded to hop on one foot up the stairs to get one. She then hopped down stairs and sat on the couch. After awhile, she got off and used her toes to walk with that foot. She walked over to me and said, "I think i need those things you put under your arms to help you walk." I told her she did not need crutches for a tiny little scratch. She said, "OK, a wheelchair would be fine." AND SHE WAS SERIOUS! I didn't know if i should burst out laughing or roll my eyes at how ridiculous it all was. So I did what every great mom does, "Go ask dad if he has a wheelchair for you!"

Busy....

As you may have been able to tell by my lack of blogging, my November and December were CRAZY! I think i was busier than i was during wedding season. Business was great, lots of new clients and several repeat client, a couple of weddings and lots of Christmas cards and a nice long Christmas break. It was a lot of fun, but kept me from doing a lot else...like blogging. I plan to get all caught up in the next couple of days. Hopefully that will be the case!

Deer Hunting

Exciting news this year... Arlie shot a six point buck. He was really looking forward to hunting and really wanted to shoot a deer since last year, he didn't get to. He called and told me about it, so when I got off the phone I told Sydney, "Daddy, got a six point buck". She thought for a moment, "Where?". "He was up at Grandma and Grandpa's" I replied. "Grandma with Gramps, or Grandma and Grandpa with the Hinckley house and Cabin" she asked. "Grandma and Grandpa out at the cabin. Grandma and Grandpa Norwood," I said. She thought again and said, "So it was Grandma that gave him the money?" "What money?" I asked. "The bucks?" Sydney relied a little exasperated that I didn't know what she was talking about since it was me who kept saying bucks. I laughed and then explained that a buck was a male deer or a boy deer. She said, "I wish he would've gotten a girl deer". I told her that he was shooting them for food and not keeping them. She then thought it was OK that it was a boy deer.

The first snow

Today it snowed for the first time. I woke up to flakes in the air and snow on the ground. It didn't stay, but Sydney and Jordan had already started making plans about the Princess Castle and Snow Fort they were going to make. Actually, they were fighting about which one got to make their desired fort. Then they decided to do an igloo that would be big enough for them and mom and dad (if they were on their knees). Then they decided they would throw snowballs at us and Arlie and I would be on a team and they would be on a team. Unfortunately, when we got home, the snow was already melted.

Trying my luck

Jordan and I were running errands together and had to go to Cub food. In the exit between the two sets of doors, they have vending machines and a couple of those machines are the ones that have that claw that grabs stuffed animals, that you NEVER win at ;) Jordan saw that game and asked if he could play. I told him he'd have to use his money and that I thought it was waste because he probably wouldn't win. He looked up at me with complete sincerity and said, "Mom, I'd like to try my luck. You know, Mom, it's about having fun, not about winning." I caved. I let him use his money and try...he lost. The whole way to the car, he said, "It's ok mom, it's not about winning, it's about having fun. Besides, I just really wanted to try my luck" Everyone who passed us and heard him saying that couldn't help but smile.