Little Chef

Jonathan loves to help me in the kitchen. He's a real little chef and very helpful too. He is really good at stirring things thoroughly and loves to chop up veggies for me with his kid knife (after I've done most of the work). One day I told him to smell what we were cooking & instead of just taking a whiff, he leaned forward slightly & wafted the odor to his nose with his hand. He'd seen this demonstrated on one of his favorite movies, Ratatouille (about a mouse that discovers he is a chef at heart). This is a photo of him chopping up some peppers and onions for a King Ranch casserole. He asked for the sunglasses to help keep his eyes from hurting from the onions & the candle is a trick I learned from Martha Stewart for the same purpose.

Christmas Eve Eve

Another Christmas Eve Eve has been successfully celebrated. This year's movie was Prancer. I still remember seeing it in the theater back when I was a little girl. Kinda different seeing it on this side of the parent/child relationship. The kids were crazy excited all day & once the air mattress was inflated this evening they were pretty much uncontainable in the excitement department. What makes me equally as happy is how excited Joel now gets about our little family tradition. I must also mention that Joel made some really, really good hot chocolate. His secret: a little butter & sugar mixed in. Now off to sleep & cinnamon rolls in the morning! Then Christmas Eve at Nana's, Christmas morning here, and finally Christmas day at Grandma & Grandpa's. Then what comes next....hmmmmm...my birthday! It's a 4 day celebration-a-thon.

Singing in Church

The kids sang in church this past Sunday. They sang Joy to the World & O Come Let Us Adore Him. Emily was so excited & kept asking me if it was time for her to go up & sing that morning. Here is a super cute picture of her in action. (Thanks Cheryl for sharing the picture!)

Gingerbread Cookie Houses

I won a cute house shaped cookie cutter at a Bunco night I went to last summer. I saved it to use to make gingerbread cookie houses with. I like the idea of making actual gingerbread houses, but they tend to be more fun in my mind than in reality, so I thought making a cookie version would involve less frustration & more fun. Add frosting & a variety of sprinkles to choose from and you've got some pretty yummy looking cookies! We had a good time just sitting around the kitchen table and having some creative, messy fun.

Here's a photo of us displaying the favorite cookie we each made.

And this is our token silly face photo. I think it's kinda funny that everyone but me stuck out their tongues.

Swing Lovers

Joel took a great photo of Katherine swinging the other day. It really captures how much that girl loves to swing. Which made me think back to how much all our kids have loved to swing, and still do. From the first time we put them in those baby swings they have loved it. Once they get bigger & can talk they request being swung as high as possible. All that to say it got me wanting to dig & find pictures of Emily & Jonathan when they were little swinging too. I hope you like them as much as I do.

Emily liked to just leave her arms tucked safely in the swing beside her. Even when I tried to show her how to hold on to the chains, she'd just put them right back where she wanted them to be.
Jonathan is my adventurer. He wanted to go fast & high. When the swing reached that point where it makes your stomach drop out a little he'd laugh & do cute stuff like this.
Katherine makes this cute sigh when she swings. It's like this happy little sound that she just can't contain because she's having so much fun it has to get out. She does it with her mouth wide open too. It's pretty cute to see in person.

Halloween

We got to go to two different Halloween festivities this year. One was a trunk or treat at Nana's church and the other was a carnival at Grandma's school. Both were very fun. We went the homemade, dig through our closets route this year for costumes. They turned out pretty cute!

Emily was a bride - her white sundress and sandals, mom's wedding veil, her great grandma's clip on earrings, and a homemade mini bouquet. Jon went as a soldier - camo pants, his baseball cap covered in camo print, homemade dog tags, and face paint. Kat went as a baby cheetah - because she had a cheetah print shirt

& I drew some whiskers on her face for added cuteness.I threw on a cowboy hat and some boots. Joel went as a nerd.

Fun times for all & plenty of candy!

Pumpkin Family

The last 2 years we've painted miniature pumpkins when fall rolls around. Each member of the family gets to paint theirs as they please. This year I tried to find size appropriate ones (Joel's is the biggest, Kat's the smallest). I think they turned out pretty cute. Kat even painted one...with help. We painted the palm of her hand & put her hand print on hers. Then they stay on our kitchen table until they get to yucky to keep there anymore. I think we'll keep this fun little tradition up in the years to come!