Calico Critter House...Reinvented!

Who says you need different toys for boys and girls? This is what I found Ronnow doing today with the Calico Critter house.

It's now an 8 room garage!

Tribute to Gingerbead houses

Well, I tried.

For the second year in a row I have made the ginger bread batter from scratch a day ahead. (So the dough can chill).

I have baked the dough hours in advance of building time. (So the walls will harden).

I have unwrapped insane amounts of candy. (So it'll look cute).

I even planned a Family Home Evening lesson on homes and how they can be like heaven on earth. (So I'll have a guilt free conscience when I go to bed Monday night)

During FHE, we all talked about what we can do to make our home better

*Claire and Cady will both share more
*Mom will be more patient
*Dad will "try not to drive mom nuts" (I responded tartly that that he's already failing with that kind of answer...I guess we both had a pretty short life regarding our resolutions) :D

We then made gingerbread houses. The only problem was that I used leftover strawberry icing from Cady's cake. The icing wouldn't stick! We couldn't get the walls and roof to stay upright. I wish I had taken a picture of the failed attempt. I didn't because I was too discouraged at the end result of my hard labor.

Suffice it to say, strawberry frosting everywhere, sticky candy faces and fingers, and kinda-sorta happy kids. I had to convince them that it was more fun to eat the house than make a beautiful one to look at.

Lesson learned: make the darned home-made icing recipe included with the batter recipe! :)

The story of a picture

It all started when I was wearing my favorite apron (a wonderful creation from Rhonda) while washing dishes.

Cady and Claire were going through the Christmas box putting up decorations and stumbled across our Santa Hats. Cady then brought me a hat to wear, so I put it on.

After finishing the dishes, I warmed up some milk for Ronnow's bottle (yes, I still give him a bottle before bed...hey, the routine works! I don't want to mess things up) scooped Ronnow up from the mischief he was currently engaged in, and carried him to his room to read some bedtime stories.

Not two pages into our first book, both girls wander into the room and perch where they too can hear the beloved, much listened to "Going to bed" book by Sandra Boynton.

Bryce happened to look into Ronnow's room as he passed by, laughed and said, "I need to grab the camera."

And that is how this picture came to be.

Thanksgiving madness

Why do guys play football on Thanksgiving? It has never made sense to me. Well, for someone unfathomable reason, they love it. Here's my man ready to take on the entire other team. :)

*Special note, this picture was taken before the ambulance and four police car units were sent to the field to rush one of the men playing to the hospital. (It involved a head, a shoulder, and three broken facial bones). Once again, why do guys do this?

Bryce turned on the Food network channel the day before thanksgiving and decided to make the turkey himself. He soaked it in Brine and roasted it in the oven. Then, he carved it and arranged it in the coolest way! It totally looks like a turkey! :) I was so impressed (i.e. relieved, grateful not to have to do it myself) that I gave him the job for ever more.

Happy Thanksgiving!

My boy

How can my little angel go from this

to this so quickly?!?

And yes, these are Claire and Cady's sand art projects that they had so painstakingly made...all over Ronnow and the counter now! This boy has figured out how to push chairs around the kitchen so he can climb upon whatever surface takes his fancy. I'm in trouble!

Happy 6th Birthday Cady!

Cady wanted to have a Scooby Dooby Doo party, so here's what happened...

They made scooby doo headbands and played in the mystery machine (a big appliance box). Then we had a pizza picnic on the flattened boxes. We were ready to have her birthday cake when we discovered that it had been stolen and a note was left from the cake ape! Then, of course, we had to play a bunch of silly games (scooby scooby monster, balloon pop, spider web, Velma's glasses, etc) to find the clues of where her cake was.

We topped the night off by sending Cady and some unlucky volunteers to be bait to bring the ape down to our trap (some curtains the girls were lying behind). I had the genious idea of Bryce borrowing his friend Tyson's full bodied ape costume. In my mind it was going to be really cool. In reality, it was...scary! I didn't realize how BIG Bryce is until all 6'2" of him was covered in black fur!

Despite a whole lot of screaming (and Ronnow and another little friend's tears), we tickled him down to the ground and unmasked him. My favorite part was him saying, "I would've gotten away with it too if it weren't for you pesky kids!"

It was a fun, if a bit chaotic, night. Happy birthday Cady!

Choir Girls

Yes, Claire and Cady are following their parent's footsteps and singing in a choir! We signed them up for Rochester Area Girls Choir, and here they are in their dresses, singing a song for me. They have their big Christmas concert at the stake center coming up this weekend, I'm so excited to see them perform. :)

The last 4 months in a nutshell...

My big girl Claire.

Yes...he's chewing on a bannana peel. (He's learned that there are all kinds of treasures to be found by reaching into the trashcan!)

Baby shower for Rahnie!

Happy first birthday Ronnow! Bryce and the girls are opening his present (a super cute ride-along train), while Ronnow plays with the box. :)

Yes...he is eating an onion. This is his favorite thing to pull out of the cabinet and munch on. Yuck! Oh, and the girls were just posing for the picture. :) They'd rather eat different things. :)

Merry Christmas Claire! She got what she really wanted, a "realistic baby doll."

A reunion with our dear friends from Oregon, the Ries family. (Their son married a girl from MN, how cool is that?)

Handsome Ronnow. I love dressing him up in his Sunday clothes.

The Leavitt family. (JaNae took family pictures while we were visiting for Christmas, I'll post our family pictures up as soon as I figure out how)

Merry Christmas Cady! She got what she really wanted, a pixie hollow tea set with Rosetta the fairy. Can you tell she was excited?

Little diva. :)

Christmas lights at the Ethel Merman Factory...my favorite part was how they put lights on the cactus!

Our future quarterback.

We went to an outdoor hunting store where they had all kinds of safari animals stuffed and on display. When we came upon this setup of a mannican repelling down a cliff, Cady, clearly worried, leaned over and whispered, "Mom, did they catch that man?"

Visiting with Grandma Toni. We love this woman, she is an inspiration to us.

Happy birthday Cady!

Can you believe this man grew up in the desert? :) I'd say he's acclimated to MN rather well.

Horse and buggy rides---beautiful, picturesque, quaint, but always slower and colder than I remember!

The girls playing in our front yard with their neighbor friend Cole. (Cady's eating snow, she does that every time she goes outside...I had to give her the talk about NEVER eating snow if it's yellow...)

New pictures

So, as you know, life is busy. :) But Buffy convinced me that I have time enough to just post plain pictures on the blog. Here you go! A few little snapshots of our life. One note, I had uploaded some pictures on Bryce's laptop so I don't have pics of the girls on Halloween or their birthday parties. More to come later.

Hello!

Hello! Here are some family updates:

Ronnow is almost 7 months now and starting to crawl! He is a very sweet happy little boy who positively lights up when he sees his dad--definitly a daddy's boy. He loves to watch and laugh at his sisters too. He has brought so much joy to our family. My fears of having a boy were apparently nonfounded. :) Or is it too early for me to be saying this? Every time I take him to church, I get so many comments on how he looks like his daddy. It's so true! I think my favorite thing about Ronnow are his ears---such Leavitt ears!

Claire has started Kindergarten! The first day was rather traumatic for both of us, lots of tears, (Of course, I waited until she had left). I had felt nothing other than excitement for her to go, but then once she boarded the bus, it sunk in....my little buddy was leaving me, every day, for the rest of her life!!! (Or so it seems). I'm happy to say that with each day that has passed, Claire has gotten more comfortable with school and is almost eager to board the bus and go to her class. I have high hopes for her this year.

Cady is doing Preschool now, three days a week. She loves it! The first day that I picked her up from school she burst out, even before I could ask, "Mom, I had a gweat time at Pweschool today!!" :) Yes, she still has a hard time with her letter "r" and it is so cute! She is enjoying her one on one time with me twice a week as well. Thus far, we have played princesses and littlest pet shops every afternoon after Claire gets on the bus. And yes, she is wearing makeup in the first picture...she let me pratice on her. :) I got this eye makeup book from the library and had already tried one style on me that morning...It really has been nice having this time with her. :D She enjoys it too.

Bryce and I are doing really well, we've just been doing our things and enjoying our sweet children. Bryce is in his fourth year of oral & maxillofacial surgery residency and will graduate from Mayo medical school in June. We're starting to think about our future and where it may take us...so exciting! Well, got to go pick up Claire from school now, but I will be posting again! (Especially now that I've figured out this new set up and how to post pictures, I was struggling for a while with this!)

I love this picture! I think it says a lot about our girls. :D
Hope you all are doing well!