Brace yourself...I did it again

So about 7 years ago I attemped to cut bangs on myself..with disastrous results. Ahem. Some of you may still vividly recall this. Well, I tried it again...on Cady! Cady is such a little glamor girl. If it's sparkly, pink, or feminine, she loves it! As I was fixing her hair for school today she said the magic words. "I wish I had bangs." This statement was followed by a big long sigh. Suddenly, a light bulb turned on in my head and I said, "I can do that!"

Tadah!! Doesn't she look cute. I've got to confess, I was nervous while cutting, but I love the result. Only problem is that she wants to wear them straight in her eyes! :) I'm going to pull up some pictures of the side swept bang on Catherine Zeta-Jones to show her how it's supposed to go.

*a funny side note, she was late for the bus today because she was so busy posing and I was just a grinning fool, clicking away with my camera. :D

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.