Gingerbread House (kinda)

On Sunday we made gingerbread houses!

And by "gingerbread" I mean "graham cracker".

Catherine, modeling her Christmas dress.

She was supposed to wear it last year, but is just now fitting in 12 month dresses. 

Oh, and mascara AGAIN.

I saw this great idea on Pinterest, where you buy ice cream cones and have the kids decorate "Christmas trees". So I bought some cones and had everything all ready to go. Then I opened the package and realized they were waffle cones. Oops. I performed a slight operation to make the trees stable and all was well. But next year--sugar cones.  

Decorating his tree

Not at all interested in decorating anything.

Just interested in shoving candy in her mouth as quickly as possible.

The finished product: 

90% of the work was done by yours truly, as the kids were more interested in eating candy/destroying things. Before the house was even completed, Seth was asking when the earthquake was coming to knock it down. Perhaps gingerbread houses and four-year-old boys are not a good mix...

Of course, having done this last year, I was prepared for this contingency. I build Seth his own house that he could do whatever he wanted with. As soon as the roof was on, it was earthquake time: 

Total destruction: 

But even that wasn't good enough--he still asks me EVERY SINGLE DAY (and sometimes repeatedly) when he can destroy the gingerbread house. I'm holding him off until Aaron & Ashley get here. 

Snowman Pizza

Seth was SO excited to make his snowman pizza.

He gave it pepperoni eyes and a mouth, with olive buttons.

Here he is, with his creation:

No, those are not tears from the shifting of the pepperonis (although he was upset).

Those are tears because during snack time he had made a terrible concoction of yogurt, applesauce, and peanut butter crackers. I warned him that he would have to eat it before he could eat anything else, but apparently he didn't believe me until we wouldn't let him have his snowman pizza. THEN there were tears.

Needless to say, there have been no creative food creations for at least a week now. 

(And yes, he did eventually get some of his pizza).

Advent Sunday

Having a four-year-old at Christmastime is awesome. For the first time, he remembers what Christmas is all about and is excited for everything. It makes me excited about Christmas, too.

This year I decided to do an Advent chain to make sure we actually did all the fun things I always mean to do at Christmastime. Here's our list (this is mostly for me to use for next year):

1. Letter to Santa

2. make & hang snowflakes

3. FHE-watch Christmas Devotional

4. hang outdoor lights/bulbs

5. Watch Rudolph

6. make Christmas cards

7. Snowman pizza!

8. dough ornaments

9. Gingerbread trees/decorating

10. FHE-look at Christmas lights

11. Watch The Grinch

12. make piano treats/pretzels/gingerbread

13. Piano Recital

14. Live Nativity

15. Ward Christmas Party

16. Make Christmas treats

17. FHE-treats to neighbors

18. make hot cocoa with whipped cream!

19. Aaron & Ashley--train garden?

20. Preschool Party

21. Cousins come!

22. Drive to Grandpa & Grandma's

23. Watch Charlie Brown Christmas

24. Christmas Eve

25. Christmas

I got some nice Christmasy-colored paper, wrote one activity on each link, and stapled them together to make an adorable Advent chain. Of course, it was at this point that I realized I made the strips too short and wide, so I didn't have a chain so much as I had a tower of paper. Luckily Seth could care less.

So here we are on December 2nd--making & hanging paper snowflakes. This was a much bigger hit than I expected--Seth actually made 4 or 5 snowflakes!

Seth, helping hang snowflakes on the front door.

Not where I was planning on putting them, but that's where they're going to stay.

(Although the other day as we were leaving, he asked, "Mommy, why are there snowflakes on the door?"

Very good question, son.)

More snowflakes in our kitchen

And can I just state here that using patterns to make snowflakes is CHEATING.

Most of the fun is seeing what you end up with after all the random cutting.

(Unless those patterns are going to give you Star Wars snowflakes. Then more power to you).

Seth's best snowflake: I just folded--he did all the cutting himself.

Catherine: not so interested in snowflakes.

Very interested in candy canes.

After all the snowflakes were hung, Mommy made the mistake of laying down on the ground to relax.  Just in case you don't know what happens when parents get down at kid-accessible levels, let's just say 'relaxing' isn't part of it. Luckily I had my camera with me.

First I was attacked by this one:

Then this one:

Then the little one got distracted and started attacking her Daddy:

Leaving me with just this one:

He might just be mine.

I'll claim him.

Meanwhile, Princess Wild Thing was where she likes to be best of all: 

Hanging out with her daddy: 

(oh, and picking her nose. Whatever.)

Meanwhile, I was still under a full-fledged assault: 

I am desperately in love with these freckles: 

And then it was time for the show: 

"Rah! Rah! Something, something, something! Go team!" 

(that's about the extent of my cheerleading vocabulary)

Then we started getting poses: 

This little one is too cute for her own good.

I fear for all of us during the teenage years.

(And no, this is not standard Catherine wear. 

This is what she was wearing under her Sunday dress, which was removed due to post-meal nastiness).

Our Little Gnome

Once upon a time when they were teenagers, Mom & Aunt Lori went shopping.

And on their shopping trip, they discovered two outfits that they knew were destined for their future children.

And so they purchased them and hid them away, where they remained (for some reason) 

until Catherine was born. 

Then Mom retrieved the outfits from their hiding place and marveled at their retro-awesomeness.

For almost two years they remained in Catherine's closet, until the day that the miniature-sized Princess finally grew tall enough to fit in them. 

Behold, the awesomeness of 70's baby clothes:

If it weren't so white and awesome, I would totally take her out in public like this. 

Perhaps the ward Christmas party...

And check out the extra-awesomeness of THE TASSLE: 

I could not handle the cuteness.

Meaning I could not stop taking pictures.

Which, of course, resulted in this:

"Stop taking pictures, Mom!"

"No, seriously--STOP TAKING PICTURES."

In other Catherine news, I was somehow placed in charge of getting Catherine's jammies out (bedtime is normally Jon's domain). Catherine is now approaching two, but is still teeny-tiny. So I grabbed some 18 month jammies and zipped them on, only to find this: 

That's right--she's drowning in 18 month clothes. 

Back to the 12 month clothes it is!

Time to Say Goodbye

We enjoyed the rest of our Thanksgiving immensely.

But we knew that this was our last day together--our flight left very early the next morning.

And so we played with our new toys:

And loved on our Grandpa: 

And pretended to be an angry lion-in-a-box: 

And loved on Great-Grandma: 

And ate some pie, bear-style: 

And then we had to go home. 

And it was sad (and slightly traumatic), like it always is.

And Seth says he and Catherine are moving to Arizona, like he always does: 

Saying goodbye to Grandma

See you this summer (right?)! 

And so it was back to (FREEZING-FREAKING-COLD) Maryland for the Bloods.

But we got to spend some time with our "family" back here--the Oliveras: 

Emma, Seth & Catherine watching Winnie the Pooh

Marley, smiling despite the fact that Jon is creaming us all at Wizard: 

And now I think it's time to lure my parents here to Maryland to live.

They just built a lovely new Raytheon building here, Dad! 

The Big Surprise

For probably a year now, we've been planning a big surprise for my parents. My youngest sister will head off to college sometime this year, leaving my parents as empty-nesters. And, since they haven't really vacationed alone together since their honeymoon, we figured they were WAY overdue for a second one.

And so we plotted, and planned, and finally pulled it all together to present to them at Thanksgiving:

Holding their present with absolutely no idea what's going on:

"Welcome to The Price is Right!"

(Kenna has some MAD scrapbooking skills)

"Let's see what you've won!" 

"A HAWAIIAN CRUISE!!!  CONGRATULATIONS!!!" 

(They're going to hate me for the next couple of pictures, but I just love them. 

I still get a little teary looking at them)

Apparently we did well. Really well: 

This may be the only time I've seen my dad cry besides on our wedding days.

Merry Christmas/Birthdays/Mother's/Father's Day!

We decided on Hawaii because I blew my mom's Hawaii trip almost 28 years ago. Her little brother Mike graduated from BYU-Hawaii and her parents flew the entire family to his graduation. But guess who was 8 months pregnant with me and couldn't go?  Sorry about that, Mom! Hope I made it up to you!  ;)

Catherine, how do you feel about all this? 

"Hoo-RAY!" 

This was probably my favorite Christmas gift ever.

Merry Thanksmas

Since we would all be in different places for Christmas, we decided to have 'Thanksmas' and open some gifts together after Thanksgiving dinner:

Catherine is quite pleased with her fifty bucks (stolen from her parents):

Contemplating all the awesome things she can get with $50: 

Seth was DYING to open his presents. We finally let him just to make the whining stop: 

From Aunt Bubba--K'Nex!  

He immediately transported it to the other room so he could assemble his cars in peace: 

Thanking Aunt Bubba for her gift: 

We also had a bit of a baby shower for Kenna & Brian.

Catherine, however, decided that they had entirely too many presents and began redistributing the wealth: 

But then she decided it would be more fun if she just opened them all herself.

Merry Christmas to Catherine! 

Enjoying Thanksmas: 

Catherine's turn to open her gift: 

Best present EVER: a purse almost identical to Mommy's, full of stuff for Catherine to explore.

(Hopefully this will save my purse from being ravaged during every shopping trip): 

And her other gift--a baby.

She LOVES her baby--it now must sleep with her at every nap & bedtime: 

Little girls are awesome.