Merry Christmas Emma!!

On Saturday we went to the cemetery to see Emma and to decorate for Christmas.   The cemetery has such a peaceful feeling and it is nice to be able to take some time to just sit and spend time with our baby girl.

Thanksgiving Weekend

We always have a jam packed Thanksgiving weekend and this year was no exception.    The day before Thanksgiving my boys helped make our assignment for the Thanksgiving, a pumpkin cheesecake.  Anyone that knows me knows how much I love anything pumpkin.  But make it into a cheesecake and I am in Heaven.  My boys did a great job helping and I think I will enlist their help again next year.

Making the crust

Mixing up the pumpkin

We spent Thanksgiving day with my family at my brother and his family's house.    We spent the day eating way too much and playing games.  What more could you ask for?

Logan and the newest cousin baby James.  He was so sweet with him.

Trying to get 7 kids to look at the camera and be happy?  Impossible!!  But I will still try.

That night we headed to Andy's parents and spent the weekend with them.  Friday we just sat around and enjoyed playing with cousins and spending time with family.

On Saturday my mom wanted to take me out to lunch for my birthday so Logan and I had a date.  We decided to go over to Gardner Village where they had the Christmas Elves out.    It was fun to spend some time just with Logan and grandma.

Who knew he had his own barbershop?

Look who is on the naughty list?  Logan thought it was pretty funny.

Mom and Logan

Grandma and Logan

That night we went to my family's annual dinner that my great-aunt hosts.  She is 96 years old and flies here every year from Hawaii.  It is always fun to get together with family that we only see once a year.  We drove home that night exhausted but we had a great weekend.

My great-aunt Iris

Crazy Horse's Tee pee

Along with acquiring an Indian name at preschool Logan has learned how to build a tee pee.  We had blankets and chairs all over the living room for a good two weeks.  I am sure someday those skills will come in handy.

Catching snowflakes

One of our favorite winter activities is catching snowflakes.  As soon as the first flakes started falling from the sky Logan wanted to go out and catch them.  I found him some construction paper and off he went.  The flakes were pretty big and made for a beautiful design.  It's too bad we couldn't get them to stick around a little longer to decorate with.

Later that night we had a lot of snow on the ground.  Even in the dark the boys wanted to go play and build a snowman.  I am never a fan of snow before Thanksgiving but my boys loved it.  I guess I will stop complaining and just go play in it with them.

Can you spot the boys?

First snowman of the year

Crazy Horse

In Logan's preschool they were all able to be Indians for the day.  They were able to make up their own name and make an Indian hat and necklace.  Introducing Crazy Horse:

He is the cutest Indian I have ever seen.  And the name suits him perfectly.

11-11-11

We had to celebrate this awesome day.  A day that will only happen one more time in my lifetime, 11-11-11.  What do you do to celebrate 11-11-11?  Well, not much but we made waffles into elevens.  Then that night we had a Sew Fun Girls Night for Emma's Ensembles.    It wasn't a lot of fanfare but the boys seemed to enjoy it.

Our gift

I am so far behind on my blogging I don't think I will ever catch up.  But this is too good not to share so I am posting it now.  I am getting a wonderful, one of a kind mother's day present next year.  You may ask, "Mother's day is 6 months away how do you know?"  Well my friends we got started on this early so it would be done just in time for the big day.  I will give you a sneak peek of what we are working on.

Halloween 2011

The boys had a great Halloween this year.  They even  talked me into getting dressed up as well.  I was a little sad because this is the first year Alex wanted to go trick-or-treating with friends instead of his mom.  We invited a couple of his friends over for witch's brew and doughnuts before they headed out.  Halfway through trick-or-treating we met up with Alex without his friends.  They had gone to an area that Alex wasn't suppose to go so he stayed behind in our neighborhood.  I was really proud of him for being honest!!  They both came home with way too much candy but they had a blast.  That is what is important in the end.

Quite the scary group

Mater and a zombie

Mama, Mater and Zombie

One cute Mater

Mama's pumpkin

Alex's pumpkin

Logan's pumpkin

Pumpkin carving

We decided this year to be a little more creative with our pumpkin carving.  We went online and everyone picked the pattern they wanted.  Once the pumpkins were gutted we set out to carve.  the pumpkins turned out pretty cool.  On Halloween night we heard several people comment on the angry bird pumpkin.  I think the pattern idea may take hold at our house.

The lovely gutting

Concentration

WATCH OUT!!  He has a knife.

Logan's ghost

Angry Bird

Mom's masterpiece