Cute Little Sad Face

Look at the super cute sad face.

My happy boy has been acting a little grumpy lately.  He's hit the point in life where he wants to do EVERYTHING on his own.  He has his mind made up about what wants to do and not do and if he doesn't get his way he gets really upset. When the doorbell rings if someone answers it and he wanted to, he throws a fit. If I'm dressing him and he wanted to do it himself, he throws a fit. If he wants to get his own cup and I get it for him, he throws a fit.  I could go on and on, but I'm sure you get the point.  On this day, I don't remember what it was that set him off, but nothing I did made him happy.  Watching his poor, sad face, I decided he was sooo cute and I needed to snap some pictures of him.  At first he was mad at me, but then he worked really hard to make a good sad face for me.  After it was all done he was much happier. Since then he has slowly been getting better, but it's something we're still working on.

A little mad that I was taking his picture.

Here he is trying to make a good sad face for me.

Building a Gingerbread House

Our gingerbread face.

On the 30th of November we decided it was time to start making gingerbread houses.  We waited too long last year and didn't get them made so we decided to do it early this year.  Kenny designed a clock tower like last year and Ben helped him come up with a design for small houses (I'm not sure we'll get to those this year.)  That night we started making the gingerbread house while the kids painted.

Ben and Kenny designing the houses.

Kenny cutting the gingerbread.

The kids painted while we made gingerbread.

Adam ate a sucker (or two.)

Some of the gingerbread cooked and cooling.

Happy Thanksgiving

Taking pictures on Nikki's computer.  It's so much fun having a big cousin around.

We had a little change of plans this Thanksgiving   In October we got an email from my in-laws inviting everyone to Grace for Thanksgiving   We thought it over and decided it would be best for our family to stay in Salt Lake rather than go to Grace.  We didn't really have the money to drive to Grace and we didn't want to miss out on the Black Friday deals that began at 8:00 that night.  Black Friday is important to us because it helps us afford Christmas.  We respectfully declined the invite and planned on having Thanksgiving with just our little family.  

Alli and Gracie

Hannah and Cadence

Beautiful Sarah Kate

The week before Thanksgiving Nielsen's, Dearden's, and Kenny's parents went to Disneyland.  While there they all came down with an nasty stomach flu and were all throwing up by the end of the trip. Because of this and because they decided it would be best to be in Salt Lake to make decorations for the Festival of Tree's tree, more on that later, they decided, right before Thanksgiving to change their plans.  The day before Thanksgiving we got a call from my mother-in-law asking if we'd be interested in having Thanksgiving in Salt Lake at Mindy's clubhouse.  I'll be honest, at first I was a little weary about it.  They had all been sick and some were still throwing up, and I didn't want my family to get sick.  For the past few years we've had Thanksgiving at our house with just our family and I've grown to kind of like that.  All of that aside, I knew we'd have fun if we went to Thanksgiving with everyone else, so we agreed to be at Mindy's on Thanksgiving.  

Ben and Zack

DanDan

It was a very simple, yet yummy Thanksgiving which is just how I like it.  All the food was prepared before we got there so there was no cooking and very little clean up.  Everyone was in charge of bringing something so one person didn't have to make too much. The meal was delicious and the kids really enjoyed playing with each other.  The weather was fairly nice so the kids spent a lot of time playing on the nearby toys.  It was perfect.  The only downside to it all was that 2 days later our family and Kingston's all got the stomach flu.  Not fun, but it passed and looking back at it, I'm glad we went to Thanksgiving with everyone.  

Cutting the pies.

Waiting for pies.

Rearranging Rooms

Daniel was having a hard time going to sleep in early November   For some reason he was terrified of everything   Scared of monsters, the dark, anything.  We added a second nightlight to the room he shares with Adam, but it didn't seem to work.  He would stay up forever, scared in his room, keeping Adam awake.  One night we went in and found the boys both in Daniel's bed.  We went ahead and moved Adams pillow and blanket in the same bed as Daniel and both boys were quickly asleep.  It was at that time we decided to rearrange their room.  Instead of having their bed on opposite sides of the room with a changing table in the middle, we moved things around and put their beds together.  It's kind of inconvenient and makes the room not as open, but it has helped Daniel sleep. He hasn't had a problem falling asleep since we moved the bed, well unless he's just being a stinker. I'm so glad these little boys have each other.  I hope they know how lucky they are.

Let It Snow!

My goofy kids playing in the snow.

The first snowfall of the season came on November 9th.  The forecast called for rain until about 3:00 and then the snow to start falling.  We were really surprised to wake up to a blanket of snow and especially to an entire day of falling snow.  The kids were so excited.  Luckily Kenny and I were prepared this year, shocking I know.  We had gone up to Park City 2 weekends ago and gotten the rest of the snow clothes the kids needed.  So, I bundled the 3 oldest in warm clothes and sent them off to school.  Luckily it was a Friday which means early out.  The kids got home around 2:00 and were out playing in the snow by 2:30.  

Gracie, Daniel and Hannah enjoying the snow.

Adam loved the snow.  I wasn't sure, being that he's only 2, that he'd like the cold, but he jumped right in and played for at least an hour.

Ben wanted a jumping picture, so a jumping picture is just what I took.

Hannah building a snowman.

Gracie Playing.

Adam playing in the staying warm in the snow.

Sarah ready to hit me with a snowball.

Daniel loved the snow the most and keeps asking me to make it snow more.

Ben's a great big brother.  I love how he's letting Adam help him build his snowman.

Hannah showing off her snowman.

Playing! The kids stayed outside for at least an hour, the bigger kids were out there for at least 3 hours.  When they were all done they came in for hot chocolate.  We sure do love the snow.