Baking and Sledding and Christmas Eve

Thursday, December 22nd - Baking Day at Mima's. Jenna was happy to loan her extra aprons to her cousins. Aren't they cute?

Jenna helped me make a pumpkin/cheese cake-ish pie.

See my apron? I made it!

Then all the cousins helped make M&M cookies.

Grant was the last one standing when it came time to scoop them out on the cookie sheets. So, he got to eat the first one when they were baked.

All our goodies when we finished: Nut pies (made the day before, actually), pumpkin/cheese cake pie, M&M cookies, peanut brittle, rocky road candy, peppermint bark, puppy chow, and some chocolate covered peanuts and white chocolate covered almonds. Yummy!

We had a wonderful snow storm the night before and all throughout the day. At least 6 inches (one spot at our house read 12 inches). So, after baking, we went sledding down the street.

This street!

The little ones got to ride back up the hill, the big ones had to walk. I walked up and sled down six times - good thing with all those goodies in the house. And remember the littlest girl with the princess dress on while she baked? Well, she's wearing that princess dress under her snow-suit, too!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Friday, December 23rd, we went out sledding again. This time, it was warmer, so we took Kellen for a couple runs. He had no expression on his face whatsoever. So, we tried to have the same expression in the picture.

Heather even convinced Mima to go once!

Christmas eve. Unfortunately, after all the fun we've had, Kevin is sick today. But, I still took these two precious ones to church, to celebrate the most marvelous gift of our Savior. Merry Christmas!

Christmas Singing and Dancing

Sunday, December 18, was the children's singing program at church. So cute! Jenna is kind of second from the right on the first row in a short sleeve purple and black dress. (See videos in Christmas '11 folder.)

 

Jenna wanted to know when she could do that again.

Then, Sunday afternoon, Mima, Heather, and I took the girls to see a children's performance of the Nutcracker. Here's the girls watching a video of it as we were waiting go into the auditorium.

Jenna loved every minute of it and the next day, put on her tutu to dance. I found a CD of the Nutcracker music and played it for her. It's just a short clip of what really lasted several songs because my memory card ran out. Again. Enjoy what I did get! (See "Nutcracker Dance" in Jenna 4 yrs old videos folder.)

North Pole

Saturday, Dec. 17th, we made a Christmas trek to the North Pole. Kellen rode some rides for the first time.

The giant candy cane slide - my favorite.

The rockets - Jenna's favorite.

Her turn to ride Rudolph = happy girl!

Kellen got to ride this one, too.

The three musketeers.

The North Pole Express. Is he having a good time? We can't tell.

A self-photo of my girl and me - a favorite.

O Christmas Tree

Saturday, Dec. 10th, Papa, Uncle Geremy, the cousins, Jenna and I went out into the forest to cut a Christmas tree for Papa and Mima's house.

Here's the tree we picked. Jenna was having a momentary bad attitude about pictures. I think there was some misunderstanding about sledding vs tree hunting.

Happy Jenna again, helping to cut off the lower branches.

My little snow angel.

And here's the one I made. Jenna said, "That one is perfect!"

Then, a snowball fight broke out! (See video 0351 in Christmas '11 folder.)

After we got the tree, we had to do some sledding of course! I was so glad that Jenna was willing to try.

She loved it and said, "Sledding is my favorite thing!"

Time to decorate! Notice the nice clump of decorations on the lower branches. : )

Here's how you decorate the top if you're 4 years old.

The Party

Sunday, Dec. 4th, we celebrated Kellen's 1st birthday with Papa, Mima, Geremy, Heather, and the cousins. I decided on a giraffe theme because he really likes the giraffe on the blanket that covers the rocking chair in his room. And because the first time I feel that we really communicated, it was about giraffes. He pointed to one and I told him it was a giraffe, then stuck my tongue out to show him that's what they do. He immediately stuck his tongue out, too! And repeated it when I asked him what giraffes do. He was ten months old, then.

I did a search for giraffe cakes and found a picture of this one (the picture here is the one I actually made). A number one shape decorated like a giraffe - perfect! Kevin cut the shape out for me from a 9x13. Then Mima helped me as I agonized over the cake crumbling into the icing where the edges had been cut. It ended up perfect!

With the left over pieces, we made a small version to be Kellen's own cake. Icing this one was even more frustrating than the big one because every edge was cut. But it ended up okay, especially for a cake that would just be destroyed.

Some of the decorations.

 Our family with the big one year old.

Waiting to be sung to - he loves the Happy Birthday Song! (I forgot his hat this time.) (See video 3002 in Kellen's 1st bday folder.)

Note to self: Always make sure there is enough memory on the photo card before important occasions! At least Kevin got the whole thing with the better video camera.

He had a blast (and so did we)! He kept going swinging his arms in wild delight and flinging cake everywhere. Then we'd laugh and that was all he needed to keep doing it!

One Year Old

One year old today! In some ways, I can hardly believe it! In other ways (no sleep), it has seemed much longer. 22.4 lbs and approximately 28.75 inches of wiggly sweetness! New things since last month: he sings (in his own gibberish words), a new tooth (top left central incisor), 4 teeth total now, he plays peek-a -boo, and he may have said "Mama" a few times. AND he's slept through the night (7:45pm to 5:30am ish) for eleven days straight! Praise God! It all started when he slept in the pack-n-play when we were traveling (his pacifier could not fall out of the bed). So, when we got back home, I put the bumper pads back up in his crib. (Bah! to the safety experts who said we could no longer use them!) He can now find his pacifier in the middle of the night and goes back to sleep. Then, when he wakes up at 5:30, I feed him, and he goes back to sleep until 8:30 or 9:00 am.

How the year has flown by! Here's a year in pictures of sorts:

Minutes old

Meeting sister

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

Seven

Eight

Nine

Ten

Eleven

Happy Birthday to my favorite little man! You bring so much joy to our family!