easter...

We had a lovely Easter Sunday.  We had a good time at church and then we went and had dinner at a friends house.  And then came an egg hunt.  The kids had so much fun!  We let the littler ones go first, just to make things fair.  I think they got more candy during this hunt than they got at Halloween.  Maybe. 

pi...

Happy Pi Day!

So, what else should you eat on pi day (3.14, March 14, get it?) but pie? 

And it was my first ever attempt at making pie crust.  I think I did pretty good.  And the filling was the peach pie filling I had made last summer while taking a class.  It was wonderful, except it made a mess in my oven.

december twenty-fifth...

I really don't like having Christmas on Sunday.  I also don't like having anyone be sick on Christmas.  Both things happened this year.  However, Sacrament meeting was combined with the other ward and it went by pretty fast.  And I was the only one at the tail end of the stomach flu.  So it wasn't all that bad.

Our Christmas was small this year, because of many reasons and that is okay.  The kids were fine with what they got and Dad and I were too.  

santa claus...

I guess I'm just a softy when it comes to the guy in the red suit.  He doesn't come to our house, but the kids enjoy sitting on his lap.  And since this was at the ward Christmas party and I know who was under that fake hair, I was okay with it.  Believe it when I say I know about other Santa's.  Not all of them are okay to sit on.  I'll spare you the details.

gingerbread houses...

The school the kids go to doesn't do normal holiday parties.  However, they do make gingerbread houses for fun.  The entire month of December parents are encouraged to send in bags of candy to be able to decorate these houses.  When I went to help out in Sunshine's class I wanted to brush my teeth or throw up.  I couldn't figure out which one I wanted to do more, so I just decided to grin and bear it and help the kids out.  They had so much fun designing their own houses and grabbed candy to decorate it with. 

I eventually made it to Buddy's class, where they were just starting their own houses.  But I had to go take the other kids home so I wasn't able to take more pictures.

Here are their finished houses.  No awards were given out in Sunshine's class, but Buddy's class had awards and Buddy was given the "Ugly in a pretty way" award (he was hoping to get the cavity award).

The worst part of this whole process was that the kids each came home with a bag full of the extra candy.  Yuck.

costumes...

The kids in their costumes.

Buddy as Poseidon.  He has a thing for Greek mythology.

Sunshine as a pink and purple princess.  She is all girly and Dad and I discovered that we are in HUGE trouble when she really starts wearing make-up.  Wow.  She's going to be a knockout.

I had to throw this one in the mix.  I LOVE her face in this.

And Turtle was a Musketeer.  He loved it, mostly because he got to wield a sword all night.

  I actually enjoyed the costume making this year, minus all that tulle on Sunshine's dress.  It took me awhile to figure out how to put it together best, and it WASN'T how the directions said to do it.  I even enjoyed making those hats, which were a lot easier than I thought they would be.

three cheers for the red, white and blue...

We love traditions around here. And even though Mom is now sick (I finally caught what the kids had) and Sunshine is just getting over her sicknesses, we still had to have traditions.
Don't you just love the timer buttons on cameras? They come in handy every once in awhile.