12 Days of Klamath

We went to our ward party tonight and it was a blast!

We had a yummy dinner and then we had a funny little 12 days of Christmas skit that Chad and I were a part of.

I recorded it, I'll have to see if I can get it up on my computer from my camcorder-I haven't tried that yet.Then each table represented a number of the 12 days of Christmas and everyone had to come up with something from Klamath Falls and sing it as the song went on. Such as; The falls that don't exist for day one, 5 feet of snow for day 5 etc... It was a lot of fun.

Then we sang some songs and Santa came!

I took all the kids' pictures in the ward-most of them wouldn't look at me and when they would, Mrs. Claus wouldn't look or pull a face.

Whatever-as long as you get the yearly pic right?

If I took your kids' pic and you would like it email me and I will send it to you!

Photo frames by Shabby Princess

Dumped On

Friday: It shows no sign of stopping! It was windy and cold and miserable but that only stopped me from playing in it! Topher lasted quite awhile but Bekah and Chad were out there for hours! Topher braving the blizzard. These icicles have also encaged our side door-I didn't notice my daughters life was in danger when I took this picture-her tongue was touching the bottom of it-but look at that pile of snow on the awning-geez! Topher started building this with Chad but lost interest-Bekah stayed out there and they made this into quite the fort! Bekah wants to build it up even higher tomorrow-well we are in no short supply of building material-sheesh! I hope we are able to make it to Portland for Christmas-but if this keeps up-we'll be snowed in!

Gingerbread Pancakes and Cheerio Face

Thursday: I am cheating because I don't have any pictures from Thursday-we went out to get Topher some new snow boots and snow pants. On the way home we slid off the road and almost hit into a Christmas tree stand-but we didn't and it was all good-but that is the most Christmasy thing we did yesterday. Since today (Friday) I have tons of pics and plan on getting quite a few more-I am posting breakfast from today on yesterdays post. Gingerbread Pancakes with whip cream and chocolate chips-yummy! The kids , I cut out with cookie cutters and decorated them-but they were devoured before I got a picture of those.

• 2 1/2 c flour
• 5 tsp baking powder
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ginger
• 1/4 c molasses
• 2 c milk
• 2 eggs
• 6 T butter melted

Mix it up, and make pancakes. Easy and yummy! Porter did not have pancakes; he had bananas and cheerios-I was clearing the table and came back to find this, he is trying to get them in his mouth already with out any help-too cute!Almost buddy just a little down and to the left!

We Believe

Wednesday: We watched Miracle on 34th street this night and the kids were mesmorized by it. We wanted to show our support for Santa and made a little sign to hang in our window.

(I know the picture stinks-but I didn't think about taking the picture until late at night and the kids were ready to get ready for bed and not in the mood to take a pic-so I didn't bother trying to find a better lit area!)

The kids colored the stick figure that represented themselves and Bekah colored all the stars and Topher colored the tree with a little help from mom. The sign hangs proudly in our window letting everyone know that we Believe***

My Horn can pierce the sky

Princess Unicorn-Half Unicorn Half Girl- How is that possible? Ask Dwight-but here is her offspring.We played out in the snow and the kids sampled the icicles. We pulled them around on tobagans-Chad knocked this little guy off the tobagan on a mad circle run-no tears, just a bit of an annoyance and a "Dad-don't go so fast"-and he was back in the saddle. Made snow angels, And stayed out till our noses frozes. Good times.

Snow Baby

It's been snowing here for the past few days and the kids are antsy to go play in it-brrrr! So that is probably what we'll be doing today. Porter woke up in a great mood this morning (like every morning) and his snow hat was sitting there-so I stripped him down pulled it over his ears and snapped away. I put a couple more of the 20 or so I kept on his blog. He is such a fun baby!

Bekah's Christmas Party

Bekah really wanted to have a Christmas party with her friend Phoebe and her family. I told her yes last month that she could have a party when it was closer to Christmas. Well she didn't let me forget and she had the whole thing planned out.First we had dinner on our fancy china dishes with candlelight.

Then we made Christmas books-and even though I thought the guys would be miserable-they surprised us all and gave us a good laugh spending more time than any of us on them and I won't embarrass Jason by letting everyone know of his knowledge of crafting tools.

Then we decorated gingerbread cookies. ie; made a mess with sugar crystals.

Then the kids watched a movie and played while us grown ups played Rummikub.

It was a way fun time with our friends-so thanks Bekah!

December Hangovers

Sunday-Well I guess the partying last night really did a number on the kids! Bekah woke up sick, so I kept her home from church. Chad went, He found out that April ended up keeping Phoebe home too!

It's a good thing Chad went! He was sitting in sacrament when they sustained him Ward Executive Secretary-I guess they forgot to call him! It's all good-he's excited for the challenge.

Bekah was feeling better by evening so we borrowed High School Musical from the Appah's. Bekah and I sat up and watched it, munched on some popcorn and m&m's and rocked out. We hadn't seen it before, (I know we are sooo behind the times huh?) we both enjoyed it-Bekah was dancing all over the living room.

I was knitting some little hats for some little neighbor gifts I'm making for my mom's neighbors that we hang around when we are down there. I might make a couple for down here too, but we'll see how it goes.

Hopefully the sickies are out of the house to stay!

Hop on Popx3

A favorite past time of our kids is to "Hop on Pop" It drives me crazy, because Chad get's just as wild as they do and someone usually ends up crying. It doesn't stop them from coming back for more though!

Well he starts the rough housing young and even Porter gets in on the fun now. Chad was tackling him with his head, the other two kids saw the opportunity and jumped in and Porter got a death grip on Chad's hair.

Chad was the one callilng for help this time, and all I would do was take pictures.

Serves you right! If I've told you once...

New Business?

I was looking online for a candy bar cake for something and they were so pricey-$40 and up-so I made one myself for my mom and step-dad's gift to hide in. I think it's better than any I saw online, and it was really fun to make! Maybe I should go into business-huh?

December Daily 9 | Mallows or Cream

Tuesday: A rather lazy day-Chad had a final in the morning and then spent the rest of the day studying-and for some reason the rest of us felt we couldn't do anything while he was sitting at the table. We finished up the Santa Clause series of movies, I went to a presidency meeting and then we all sat aroung reading. I am reading book after book on homeschooling right now since Bekah and I will be starting that up after Christmas break. SO much information and good stuff to sort through...so much that I want to teach her and learn with her, that I am getting antsy. To curb that, we started reading Charlotte's Web together-she is LOVING it. She amazes me how much she grasps from this story with no pictures. I've said it before, this girl is too smart for her britches!

I am enjoying the briskness outside, it's just cold enough to want Hot Chocolate-my favorite is Stephen's milk chocolate-with marshmallows...

topped with whipped cream... ...yup both! Once you get through that creamy goodness you still get the gooiness of the mallows, then the warmth of the chocolate-seriously doesn't get any better for me!

December Daily 8 | Here we go a caroling

Monday-SO after Bekah has all those questions about caroling-and trying to make sense of it all the night before, April called and asked if we wanted to join her family for caroling for FHE. Bekah was all excited about the prospect of playing with Phoebe, but the idea of knocking on people's door and just start singing at them was baffling to her.

We only went to a couple houses, but she and the rest of us ending up having fun.

Topher was SO upset that we couldn't keep going to more houses, we finished up and he says, "Another one house mom?" like we were trick or treating again.It's one of those dying traditions that we need to keep up, so that our grandkids can come carol at our house, and hopefully stay for some chocolate!

December Daily 7 | A Soft Place to Lay

Sunday- Since it was Sunday we went for the Spiritual side of Christmas and made some beds for Baby Jesus and gave him a soft place to lay.

We then read The First Christmas Story......and watched it on DVD-on the same DVD as Mr. Kreuger's Christmas.The kids talked me into letting me watch this as well, even though it was well past their bedtime at this point. This movie always gets me when he is talking to the baby Jesus. I bawl like a baby myself. Such a great Christmas classic. When we were watching Bekah cracked me up-when he pulled out the record -Bekah says, "Whoa, mom that is a HUGE CD!" and then the whole Christmas caroling thing was just too much for her-"But why mom are they singing to him? Why do they have to go sing more? Why are they doing that? Why don't they stay for chocolate?"

Anyway if you haven't watched this yet with your kids this year-go do it, even though it's a little cheesy, it's way too sweet to pass up!

December Daily 6 | Movie Night

Saturday: We had a pretty low key day, just did some stuff around the house, Chad went up to the school to study for an hour or so for finals and we went to our friend Payton's baptism. It was a really sweet baptism and all the primary kids sang "I am a child of God". Our ward just got done with the primary program-did I mention I'm first counselor in the presidency? I can't remember if I had or not. Anyway I am loving the calling-the other girls in the presidency are fabulous and the kids are great. So back to the song-our ward's kids learned the descant for the program-and so when all the kids from a few different wards were up there singing, our wards kids sang the descant on the 3rd verse like they'd been taught and it was so sweet, such a great spirit there. Loved it! When we got home we popped some popcorn put in The Santa Clause with Tim Allen and just relaxed. The kids had never seen it and loved it.The kids have actually been watching only Christmas movies since December started, one a day and are quickly going through the classics-so far they've watched: Santa Claus is coming to Town, Rudolph, Frosty, The Grinch, Charlie Brown's Christmas and now The Santa Clause. We still have a good stack to get through though-one of the perks of Chad's movie buying sickness-we've got em' all! On an unrelated note-this kid turns 5 months tomorrow! If you are wondering why he is strapped into a seat like that-he only lets me put him down for short bursts of time and those bursts are a little longer if he is sitting up and able to see that I'm in the room still. Seriously. this kid is the neediest little thing! I know it will be short lived though so I am trying not to complain too much! He is such a lovey bug!

December Daily 5 | The Reason & The Cookies

Friday: Still having a great December, full of Christmasy things. Unfortunately my oven and I were too worn out from baking about 150 0f these;

and about 150 of these to have cupcake Friday again. (I will make up for it-I have 3 great recipes in the works for this month!)That's right, I baked almost 300 cookies for the Nativity Gathering at the church!

Of course it was one of those days where Porter thought it would be a good day to take zero naps until right before we had to leave-so I got NOTHING else accomplished for the day, but luckily I didn't have much else to do!

It was really nice-everyone brought beautiful Nativities to look at, and there was a live Nativity with a reading put on by the youth.

There was beautiful music and there were lots of cookies and yummy treats, my kids filled up on them and found it pretty pointless to eat dinner afterwards...

...I'm okay with that. It was a great night to remember what this season is all about and be able to have the opportunity to share it with my kids.