Just Because

And It's Gingerbread Time!

On Ben's birthday we decorate gingerbread houses:

Wahoo! Finally!

Little Emmy hard at work. . . at making a cute mess of herself.

Her finished home. All made by Emmy herself.

Jonas and his beautiful creation. All made by Jonas himself. He had lots of "rock gardens" in the front. I couldn't tell if he was just having fun, or if he was being smart and gathering up all that candy. :)

And Miles' beauty. All made by Miles himself. I love it, too. He had some pretty great icicles on the sides. Nice work!

Ben and I worked on ours after the kids were in bed. But I didn't get pictures. Maybe later. Maybe not.

Why God Just Had to Create Eve

Because the above "Adam" says things like, "Well the tights don't quite fit, but I think they will work."

You serious?

Because even little eve knows that something just ain't quite right with them.

Ben had his birthday yesterday. I felt a little bad because it wasn't a spectacular birthday. Or even close. But Ben is a spectacular man, husband, and dad. And we do love him. A lot.

Saturday, Santa and Sleepover

On Saturday we went downtown to see Santa. We all walked, except for cute Jonas who wanted to ride his bike.

Miles was really excited to see Santa. But also said, "I might be scared." But we got there and he wasn't at all. Both he and I were surprised. :) Miles told Santa he wanted a real bird. Then Santa interrogated him with all sorts of questions: "Who's going to feed it?" "Clean the cage?" "Talk to it?" Miles answered all with "Me." We have it on video and will use it when we need it. :)

So cute. I'm not sure all of what Jonas told Santa he wanted: a bird like Miles, bubbles perhaps?

(not a great picture of emmy and santa - but it's our only one) Emmy said she wanted a "candy cane" when asked. She had seen her 2 brothers get one, so it was only natural. :)

That nite we got the kids ready to watch Jack Frost, but first the kids enjoyed being "penguins." I don't quite get the connection of penguins and what they were doing, but whatever. I also don't recall penguins sounding quite like them either. But they had fun.

That nite we slept out under the tree. All except poor deprived Emmy. :) She went to bed and then the boys watched a few more little Christmas shows and then the 4 of us slept under the tree. It went pretty well!

Fun day and fun nite.

Hand-prints: A Timeless Treasure

Ben, 1981.

Miles, 2009.

p.s. click on it if you want to read the poems. i had to read the poems to miles tons and tons of times today: "mom, read it the entire time we are walking home." cutie.

School happenings for Miles

Well Miles got to wear PJs to school today - I won't go in to all the details of how we forgot, had to run everyone back home so Miles could change, then while Miles was chaning the dog ran away, etc. . . Miles choose these PJs to wear - ones the Jonas usually wears. They were a bit small and snug, but he didn't know nor care. Too funny.

Then tonite we had a "Kindergarten carols" program at the school. Pretty cute.

Miles and others. The benefit of being short: front row.

Not the greatest of videos. Nor the most entertaining. But Miles is not entertaining while singing. . . because he doesn't sing. But he did have fun - despite looking like he was bored out of his mind.

Jonas' Birthday!

Yea! I just love my kids' birthday - a chance to make them feel special. :) I love it. It was a very busy and very delightful day:

Waking up to the traditional birthday-streamers!

"How old are you Jonas?"

His first present of the day - and really he couldn't have been more excited. :) I started making Emmy an apron the other day and Jonas kept telling me, "I want an apron." He even lamented to my sister, "Aunt-E," while she was here that she didn't make him an apron (she had made Miles an apron years ago. . .). So I got some old fabric and made this for him.

Here he is helping make his birthday cake.

Of course.

Love it!

Now on to opening presents. Doesn't he look so happy and excited. Oh I love him.

He loved, loved, loved his gun. He got some other neat gifts, too (including another favorite: remote-control motorcycle that he picked out with his gift-card from G. Max and G. Diana). But this one was pretty special.

Ohhhhh.

For lunch we went to McDonalds and had fun there. Emmy was lucky to have her brothers there - Miles especially. He helped her climb up all the stuff to get to the slides. It was so cute and sweet.

The still happy birthday boy!

Miles had a super fantastic day, too! (p.s. I think Emmy is behind him. Miles has her foot I am pretty sure. :)

While Emmy napped the boys got to watch some Max and Ruby Christmas DVDs. Yes, they watched lots of movies! Oh well. It makes up for the whole year when they don't get to watch much at all, right? Jonas lasted for a while, but then had enough and told Miles: "Miles, I am going to go and play now, okay?" Cute.

Later on we went to Walmart and the kids all got to pick out a little something. Miles and Emmy had gotten a few dollars from their grandparents (and great-grandma) and so they were able to pick out something too. Jonas, like I said, picked out a motorcycle toy. Fun times!

The day ended with dinner (breakfast-fare so Jonas could eat Cheerios) and then having our friends over who have a 4-year old and a 2-year old as well. They came to visit and eat cake and ice cream. Oh such a fun day to celebrate our fun boy.

Sunday

Sunday morning was spent at Stake Conference. Then home for Emmy to nap and the boys got to watch Joseph and The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat DVD. It was a very weird presentation of the play. Very weird. Then in the afternoon we just hung out:

Emmy enjoyed taking care of her baby and wrapping her in blankets.

The boys sure enjoyed this bead craft - what's it called?! Miles made about 6 or so of these things while there. He was really, really into it. :)

We were lucky enough to have Grandma Dee come over for dinner, as well as Aunt Gail - visiting from Montana. It was a very nice evening with family.

My oh so reverent kids getting ready to pray.

Oh whoops. My oh so irreverent kids who decided to "hide" under the table during the prayer.

Saturday

(I meant to add this picture, but I didn't at first. And when I use Google Chrome it doesn't allow me move my pictures around. Grrrrrr. But I like using Google Chrome as opposed to Internet Explorer because it allows my pictures to be enlarged. But still grrrrr. So this picture is out of place. But I love it and wanted to use it. I especially love it because Ben is looking at me and smiling - well, okay, truthfully he's smiling at the camera, but oh well. . .)

So. . . we went to Littleton this past weekend and really had a fantastic time. We did things we've never done before over there - both with and without the kids - and so that was extra fun, too.

We drove over Friday evening and got there sometime before 10. Saturday morning Ben and I got to go running together. A rare treat. It was great. When we got back we got the kids ready and headed over to a light-rail stop near Ben's home. We got to walk over a huge over-pass path to get to the stop and so that was pretty exciting.

Here they are on the TRAX (or whatever Denver calls it). Emmy is ecstatic. But really it was fun. We only went to the next stop - a 3-minute ride. Perfect.
We got off at downtown Littleton and walked to the candy store, Sugar Rush. It's an adorable store. (I love, love Littleton's Main Street.) The kids got to pick out a candy. Miles found something he wanted and Jonas and Emmy picked the same. :) Doesn't it look Yummy hanging out of Miles' mouth?
Yummy for Jonas too.
Here's Emmy kissing a frog.

Then we headed home for lunch and nap for Emmy. The boys went out back and played in the snow for an hour or two. Then after we got Emmy up we all went to the front yard and the kids (and their dad) had a super time sledding.

Oh my. So cute.

Whoosh goes Jonas and Ben.

They even managed to go all together! Impressive.

Part One.

Part Two.

That evening the kids got to color these extra-large pictures. It's the neatest coloring book!

Aw, I love this picture.

On Saturday nite Ben and I and his parents went to see Oliver! at a local theater. It was so fun to go out and was such a cute, cute performance. How can you go wrong with adorable children in a play? It was a very enjoyable evening.