Christmas Kick-off!

Nope, I'm not talking about a football kick-off, I'm just making reference to this past weekend getting ready for the Christmas Season!!

Friday--Christmas Concert
Our family went with Grandma & Grandpa Lewis, and Aunt Chelsie to a Benefit Christmas concert. We listened to local artists perform their own variations of music. Some Christmas, some non-Christmas. Most of the music was pretty good, one of the singers was really bad and Mara leaned over to Aunt Chelsie and said "Is this lady speaking Spanish?" No she wasn't speaking Spanish she was just really bad! Anyway the concert was fun, not as festive as I thought it was going to be, but I really did enjoy listening to the talents of others.

Caleb was a rambunctious little fellow during the whole concert. It's a good thing it was kid friendly otherwise we would have left early!

Although this picture is blurry it tells the story of Caleb perfectly! Here he is running around with a cup on his head! He tried finding every way possible to be disruptive! Banging on chairs, throwing cups on the ground, stomping his feet.....let's just say Caleb and concerts don't go together!!!

Saturday--Gingerbread Houses
We all gathered at Grandma Lewis's on Saturday for a fun filled day of making candy houses and eating hot apple cinnamon rolls! This is one of my favorite traditions of my childhood/adulthood and it was fun sharing it with my children and Nate's family!

This is Ty's outhouse he made!
(He got this idea from a campsite that Nate and I made years ago that Mimi kept and pulled out to show the kids this week. Wish I had a picture, it was pretty incredible: RV, tent, picnic table, fire-pit, outhouse, even fence going around the campsite!)

Here's aunt Chelsie helping Ty construct and decorate his outhouse! Thanks Aunt Chel for your help!

Aunt Beanie also helped Ty with decorating it! Thanks Beanie it turned out great!!

Ty was pretty insistent on making a blue pond outside the outhouse! It even has gummy fish in the pond!

Quite an amazing job I must say Ty! I especially like the soft white toilet in the outhouse!

Ty snuck a few of the candy--here is the evidence: a blue tongue!

Next we have Mara's creation. She wanted to do a Princess house--of course! Would we guess anything different from our princess herself?! This is the inside of her princess's one bedroom country cottage! There is the nightstand and lamp, next to the princess's bed. Mara frosted the bed and made a pink bedspread with a fluffy red pillow. In the front of the room is the fireplace with logs and a fire blazing to keep any princess warm on a cold day! (--not actually seen in this photo!)

The outside is a two layer, A-frame slanted room. Perfect for high snow areas.

Mara was very particular about her candy selection and how this cute house was decorated!

After Mara was tired of decorating it I added a few finishing touches including the icicles hanging down and the jumbo gummy trees out front!

I love Mara's red path around the side of her house, very festive.

And here's the back view. It even has a window to look inside the house!

Caleb loved this activity--well actually he loved eating the candy! He put one candy on his house, then ate a candy. One for the house...one for Caleb! One for the house...two for Caleb!

This was a combined effort project. While Chelsie helped Caleb decorate the house, Nate helped Caleb do the landscape design! Pretty original!

The finished product! Great work team!

Speaking of teams....here is the stadium for a SOCCER TEAM!! Garrett loves soccer, so he wanted to make a soccer stadium. Colin, Trish, & Garrett all worked together to cream the Real Soccer Stadium. Pretty awesome I must say! I especially like the spectators watching the sport!

Sunday--Mr. Krueggar's Christmas
What says Christmas more than this beloved 70s Christmas movie?! We watched this last night as a family and it truly does invite the Spirit of Christmas into your home! If you haven't ever seen it....or if you are in the mood to watch it again take a peak!

What are YOU thankful for?!

On Sunday night before Thanksgiving we had our Family Home Evening and talked about Gratitude. Ty gave us a great lesson on being thankful. We discussed President Monson's conference talk on an attitude of gratitude and decided that we would strive to have an attitude of gratitude this Thanksgiving season. We put together this turkey and every day I would ask the kids "What are you thankful for today?" Then we would write the things we were thankful for on the feathers. Our goal was to 'count our many blessings' and get to 100. But we only got to 50! That's pretty good!
I would name all the things we wrote down, but I'm afraid I left our turkey at Mimi's house and I can't remember them all off the top of my head and so I'll just have to say that there were many things we were grateful for. And when you write them all down you realize how blessed you truly are. I also noticed that since we wrote them down and the kids were constantly thinking about things they were grateful for their prayers were more sincere and they started saying more thankful prayers.

The day before Thanksgiving is one of my favorite parts of Thanksgiving: making pies! I love making pies. I really should do it more often than just Thanksgiving! I especially enjoyed it this year working side by side my mom! We had a good time preparing the meal together. It brought back many good memories of me helping her with the dinner preparation and it's probably because of her and that time we spent together that I have such a desire and love for making good food.

Ty looks like a Thanksgiving bandit! We better start working on the manners thing again!

This was quite the spread! I wouldn't have changed a thing...except maybe had a bigger stomach so I could have enjoyed more food.

Ty & Kate had the best time together! I still can't believe Kate lost her first tooth on Thanksgiving! Both cousins had wiggly teeth and right before Kate went home her tooth just popped out!

It was nice to have papa join us at the table. He just had ankle surgery and hasn't gotten up much. We were glad that he was feeling pretty well and could be with us.

As long as he had his foot propped up a bit he was okay. He ate as much as he could and then went back to bed!

Caleb's favorite thing was the mashed potatoes and gravy!

I tried getting pictures of everyone around the table, but I was just too hungry and my plate of food was getting cold so I had to stop with the photos and start digging into my scrumptious dinner!

Here is our traditional photo of our feast! What is not shown in this picture is on the plate above, cranberry jell-o salad, artichoke dip, and let's not forget the sparkling cider! Pretty darn tasty!

Our finished creations! This year we outdid ourselves on pies! Nate & Mara made the almond, Ty & I made the pumpkin, Mimi made the coconut cream, and Erin made a banana cream and apple! For dinner instead of turkey sandwiches and chips we just had pie! Nate's plate had a small piece of every kind of pie to taste. That alone made his Thanksgiving very enjoyable!

Thanksgiving just wouldn't be the same without an almond pie! This is one of our favorite traditions. It is the most delicious pie I think I've ever eaten. Just looking at it makes my mouth start to water and I think we might just need to make another one for Christmas!

After we ate as much turkey as we possibly could we made just one more turkey this time on the sweet side: an edible craft! Aunt Erin found the idea and the kids had such a good time putting together their turkeys.

Ty was pretty excited about making his turkey, and more excited about eating it!
(*Why is Ty wearing his spiderman costume you might ask? Because he LOVES it and wears it nearly every day--sometimes even under his normal clothes!)

Mara wasn't quite sure how to eat this kind of turkey! But she started with the oreo and went from there!

Ty devoured his in one bite! He didn't even leave a feather!

Caleb wasn't sure what to do with his turkey! He just looked at it. Later he came back and decided to eat the candy corns!

Here they are: The 5 cute grandkids with their papa!
Papa couldn't do much wrestling and playing around with them as he usually does, but he still had a nice time watching movies and hanging out with the grandchildren!

When we asked the children what their favorite part about Thanksgiving was they said:
Ty: "Being with family"
Mara: "Watching basketball with daddy" (She watched the Aggie game and the Jazz game with Nate! Go Aggies!)
Caleb: "Papa" This kid gets such a joy and kick out his papa! Since papa couldn't get up and be in the kitchen with us Caleb would yell "PAPA" from the kitchen and Papa would respond "Caleb!" and they would do this back and forth several times! When I asked Caleb if he was a mama's boy he said "Papa" then I would ask him if he was a daddy's boy "papa". He truly is a Papa's boy!

Funniest Home Video

Around the time of Halloween we found in Mara's dress up box a cheerleader outfit. Grandma Lewis just so happen to bring down some pom-poms! We were set! Mara was pretty excited to be a cheerleader, but Ty was even more excited to show Mara how to be a cheerleader! Check it out on this clip:

We've got that lovin' feeling!!

If there is anything I want to remember as a mother it's that my children played nicely together! Not every minute, not every day, but there are moments that I could just watch forever and that is when all three of my children are playing nicely together all at the same time! I just love feeling that loving feeling!

One day over the past week Ty, Mara, & Caleb brought all their stuffed animals into the family room. They spread out their blankets and put their toys all around.

Caleb had more fun laying on the blankets and didn't quite get what the others were trying to do. But really that was the fun part of the day--there was no right or wrong to the play day! They all just had fun being together!

It was cute to see Ty with his beloved favorite stuffed animals. This kid loves his stuffed animals. Each night he sleeps with a different one and he loves all of them. Each stuffed animal has a story. Each are from different people and different places.

Mara loves dolls. Each one is her own special baby. She loves to 'feed' them and put them down for naps. She has quite the nurturing to her already. She loves real babies even more, but when no babies are around her dollies are just fine!

Caleb even likes playing with dollies too! He gives them hugs and pats!

Can't you just feel the love!! Seriously days like this when we are getting along and playing nice the love just flows and it makes being a mom the most wonderful thing in the world!
Love These Kids!

Together We Can....

I know you were probably expecting to see Thanksgiving pictures....they are coming! But before I completely forgot about these photos I thought I would take a minute and play 'blog catch up!'

The theme for reflections this year was Together we can... Ty decided to take photos of us carving pumpkins so for his entry it was "Together we can carve pumpkins!"

He did a pretty good job taking all these photos:

We had the perfect weather to carve pumpkins outside! Usually we wait until the evening when it's dark, but it was nice doing it outside and it didn't mess up my kitchen!

Everyone had their own pumpkin! Caleb's was the smallest, perfect size for Caleb! Mara's was the middle size and Ty had the very biggest!

First we had to take out the seeds!

Usually I wash the seeds and bake them for a tasty treat! I was running out of time this year especially trying to get the reflections done! Maybe next year we will bake them up!

Now it's all clean inside!

Next the face. Ty designed his own face. I even let him do the carving and he did a fabulous job.

Mara and Caleb gave up near the end carving, but not Ty! He finished carving the other two pumpkins too!

Here's Ty's pumpkin all finished. I love all the triangle teeth!

Here's Mara's pumpkin. She wanted round eyes, triangle nose, and a smile! That's exactly what she got.

And ta-da! Three glowing pumpkins for all to see!

His photography couldn't only be a certain size. So Ty had to pick and choose which pictures he wanted to put on. Then he mounted them on orange and black paper.

Ty also wanted to color a picture and enter his drawing. For this picture he said "Together we can go camping." This picture (which is kind of hard to tell from a photo) has our tent, and a camp fire, and daddy with a bucket of water putting out the fire. We are all in the tent getting ready to go to sleep. The yellow you see in our tent is the tent light. There are trees and moths flying away.

Here he is! Ty Lewis ready to enter his reflections in for the first time! I'm proud of Ty for working so hard on his reflection entries. I wish him the best of luck!