Kaitlyn's Doll

Here is a little bit better view of the dress I sewed for Kaitlyn's doll. It turned out really pretty I think. I'll have to try sewing a few more outfits for her doll now that this one turned out ok!

Christmas at our House!

Here are a few pictures from Christmas morning at our house!Matt got Incredible Hulk Hands! Rrrrrrroarrrrrr!
Mark enjoying Christmas. Thanks for the iTune Gift Card Gran & Grampy!

Emily got several Twilight Posters for her room, and Kaitlyn got an American Girl Doll.
I sewed the dress that her doll is wearing!

(I know, my girls were shocked that I could sew something too!)

Natalie loves the Barbie Toaster and playset you sent Mum!

Great choice! Thanks!

I made Brady this blanket for Christmas.

Brady also got a snowsuit. So cute! He looks like a little Eskimo all bundled up.

At least I know he'll be toasty warm in this.

Katie & Brady.

Merry Christmas!

Our Gingerbread House & Yummy Pavlova

We did some fun holiday baking over Christmas and on Christmas Eve, we made our first ever Gingerbread House. I made this one all from scratch with the dough and cutting out the house pieces. After I baked it all, I let the kids decorate it and do what they wanted with it! I think they had a good time being creative, but most of all, eating it when they were done! Our "House"
Emily, Matt & Katie at work.

Matt putting some MM's on the roof.

Doing a little bit of frosting!

This picture below is of a Pavlova I made. Pavlova is the national dessert of Australia, and is usually topped with strawberries and passionfruit with the kiwi fruit and bananas. I searched everywhere for fresh strawberries but no luck there. Then I think I'd have to go to Hawaii to find passionfruit or even to find someone that has heard of it! It is a tropical fruit that is very delicious! Oh well. So my pavlova looks a wee bit bare and colourless without the strawberries, but it was still very yummy, and we shared it with some friends last weekend. As always, it was a hit. For those of you that have never had Pavlova, it is made from egg whites and sugar, and has a hard outside shell, with soft marshmallow inside and is topped with fresh whipped cream and fruit. It is truly delicious!

Happy Holidays?!

Ok, so when you have 6 kids, trying to get a half decent family picture is next to impossible. Someone is either crying, not smiling, or not looking at the silly camera! So as you can see from this array of pictures taken yesterday, we had all of the above. We even picked up a stranger!
Not too bad, but Matt has bunny ears........
I wasn't looking and someone is missing. Can you guess who? Natalie is now screaming!

At least we look like we half like each other!

Here we grew another family member - Emily's best friend Ashley.

I love this picture of Emily & Katie!

Glad we could crack a smile out of someone!

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!

Winter is officially here! It has been snowing on and off yesterday and today and boy is it cold. The high today is only 28 degrees F, and later this week that will feel warm after we get 0 - 12 degrees on Saturday; at least that is what they are predicting. Yikes! That is some cold weather. Thank goodness most of my Christmas shopping is all done because there is no way you are going to get me outside when it is that cold! That is when I officially start hibernating for the winter! I'll take hot weather anyday over being stuck in the cold! Brrrrrrr! Katie shovelling the driveway with Matt
Pushing the snow away
Dumping it off to the side

Matt looking a little chilly!

Brady & The Candy Cane

Last night after we had FHE we had candy canes for treats. We didn't want to leave Brady out, so we let him try a taste of his very first candy cane. Kaitlyn took some photos of him.....Not quite sure what to think at first......
Starting to get the hang of it....

All finished with a very sticky face!

"It's Beginning to look a lot like Christmas"

Since 'I've been dreaming of a White Christmas' for the past 2 days, I decided to get some Christmas decorations put up around the house because ''tis the season to be jolly!' So this year I don't think I did quite as much as in years' past because I have a 2 1/2 year old and an 8 month old who is rolling EVERYWHERE and ready to take off crawling any minute now.......'Joy to the World!' So since 'I'll be home for Christmas' this year, here are a few pics of our 'Little Town of Bethlehem' in Nampa. We send you warm thoughts and wishes from 'up on the housetop' because 'baby it's cold outside!' Our front door, but 'Santa Baby', hurry down the chimney tonight....
'So this is Christmas'........at our House
Our ' Stairway to heaven'.....oh wait, that's not a Christmas song.....

We'll all be 'rockin' around the Christmas tree.....'

And then you can 'bring me some figgy pudding'........

'O Holy Night', 'Silent Night'....Christmas is 'the most wonderful time of the year.'

What a wonderful gift we've been given.

May you enjoy the season, your family, and may we remember it is better to give than to receive.

Merry Christmas

(If you get a chance, enjoy some Christmas music on my playlist too! :)

Our Thanksgiving Weekend

For Thanksgiving we drove over to Soda Springs to spend the weekend with Mark's parents and family. G'ma & G'pa just returned from a 2 year mission in New York City, so this was the first time in 2 years that we had all gotten together for the holidays. We had a really nice time. I should have taken more pictures. Unfortunately I was too engrossed in my Twilight books........! I did manage to take a few though so here they are.Natalie and her cousin Hannah played outside in what little snow there was on the ground. We did manage to make a "mini" snowman!
Natalie found a big stick in G'ma's backyard and had fun playing with it.

Matt & his cousin Nathan were playing with some balls outside and they threw them up on G'pa's roof. So Josh got to be the lucky one to climb up and retrieve the balls! All I asked was that he didn't slip!

Climibing down.......

Yay! He made it safely back down the ladder.

Katie's Pie & My Cutie Pie :)

Kaitlyn wanted to cook something the other day so I suggested maybe she could try and make a pie. She has never made one before, and she really likes to bake in the kitchen, so I thought she might have fun doing this. She made an Apple-Cranberry pie which turned out so good! It was sooo yummy too! She did all the work on it, right down to the decorative flower on top in the picture below. Awesome job Katie! And speaking of "pies" here are two cute pictures of MY little Cutie Pie! Poor Brady has been sick with a nasty cough and wheezing lately. He is having breathing treatments at the moment which I hope will help him get better soon. He just turned 8 months old yesterday, and he is just the sweetest little guy. Josh took this picture of Brady wearing his hat.
This picture of Brady and Mark was kind of funny. Brady fell asleep on Mark's lap holding onto the strings of Mark's sweatshirt. It looked so funny to me to see him laying there so straight, and then with his one hand clinging to those strings. He must have had a pretty good grip on them to be fast asleep and not let go!

Young Woman in Excellence Night

On Wednesday night, Emily got to get all dressed up for a special night. It was their Young Woman in Excellence Night. This is where they honour the girls for their projects that they are working on. It was so fun to see Emily and all the other girls dressed up so pretty. They looked so grown up! Here are a few pictures of Emily from the evening. So pretty. She is growing up way too fast!
Emily and her friend Rachel Grove

All the girls taking turns looking into a mirror and saying:
"I AM Divine!"

Katie's Black Eye

I promise this is not a Halloween picture! Poor Katie was wrestling with Matt the other day when he accidently socked her in the eye with his knee. OUCH! That is quite the black eye she has. Poor thing. She says it is rather sore too. She was sweet and didn't want to tell me at first that it had happened because she was worried that Matt was going to get into trouble. She said it was just an accident and didn't want him to get grumbled at. (Hmmm, what does that say about me I wonder??!) Don't worry, Matt didn't get in trouble. I just felt bad for Kaitlyn. Maybe one day she can hold this picture over Matt. They say a picture's worth a thousand words so it might be good for some kind of bribe in the future!

Happy Halloween!

BOO!Like my sweet little Jack'o Lantern?!
How cute is he?!
Happy Halloween from all of US!

Be Afraid..... Be VERY AFRAID!

Well today I took Josh down to the DMV to get his drivers permit for Driver's Ed. He starts the class on Monday, and will have class for the next 2 weeks. He has to been in class for 30 hours, and then gets about 6 hours of driving time on top of that. After he completes Drivers Ed, he will have to practice driving with a parent for the next 6 months before he will be all official. So like I said..... be afraid, be very afraid!! I can't believe the boy is old enough to drive! I'm sure he'll do just fine, but we sure do like teasing Josh! Good luck ol' boy! Here's to our white knuckles for the next 6 months!