Merry Christmas!

Ginger Bread Cottage(disaster)

UPDATE: One whole row of  gumdrops have disappeared. It wasn't just Taylor either:)


And so the story begins of me-the over-acheiver. I saw a beautiful gingerbread house on, you guessed it…pinterest. It looked amazing and it had a template for all the pieces that I would need! So I made the gingerbread and cut the pieces out. All was going great until after I had baked them and we were starting to put it together that I realized that this was going to be a challenge. Getting the house to stand up was your typical experience, and then the frosting wouldn’t harden fast enough. Oh what Christmas Cheer. I was beginning to think I might just throw it away when someone said the word ‘hot glue’. I promptly threw the mangled pieces away and plugging the glue gun in. Next year, I’m not even going to try to use frosting! Anyway, I downsized the cottage and came up with a cute little thing that we’re quite proud of. I have to say that the chimney is my favorite part. Gabe and I had to leave in the afternoon, so we reluctantly told aubrey and cole that they could decorate it all by them selves. When I got  back home, I was greeted with an adorable gingerbread house. We all had fun, despite the first part of the construction! Sadly, all is not settled. Our next challenge is keeping Taylor from eating the gumdrops off the tray. We are thinking about hot gluing them too.

A Merry Thanksmas to You!

We spent the last weekend in IL, and celebrated Thanksgiving and Christmas in one! We have delicious food, and we exchange gifts. We recall memories through old videos, slides and personal recollections. Here is a few photos from our adventures!

 

Piano Recital

Hey look! Its Jared from Wind From The Willows! a budding photographer perhaps?

Singing Jingle Bells with a twist…That song is SO much fun to sing:)

Many years in a row we’ve been blessed with good health at our gatherings. This christmas however…lets just say that Laura’s kleenex box was taken from her room and was seen being carried around the next day:)

Grandma always had this tray on hand for the wheezes and sneezes!

Singing

Cutting the turkey and ham-Cameron and Matt were elected for this position!

It’s become a tradition for Faith Grace and I to put together a little play using the younger sets of cousings as cast. We exausted Anne of Green Gables, so we moved on to Little Women. In this scene, Meg(hope) is getting her hair fried off by Jo. (aubrey)

Since we don’t have Grandma’s wall to measure on anymore, we lined up in order of height!

the guys were’nt as excited to pose:)

this WAS going to be a cute photo… PHOTO BOMB!

 

I think that this has been going on since Cameron could wrestle. But now, it’s the Kingly Kansan against the Ingenious Illinoisan. 

That’s who’s boss.

Skits!

Cole got a RipStik!!! Now he doesn’t have to fight over Gabe’s.

Crafts

Grandma’s beautifully set table for the Leman Ladies Luncheon.

We all went to the Pearce center for some swimming and other sports. We had our nummy pizza and the Chicagoans departed because they weren’t feeling very good. Todd, Faith, Marcus, Gabe, and I stayed up till 1:30 looking up funny pinterest quotes, laying dutch blitz and having ‘disscusions’. We groggily awoke to a wonderful Sunday morning! Our family isn’t very fond of traveling(to put it lightly) but we arrived back in Kansas, thankful that Taylor’s trap didn’t do to much damage to Marley’s foot, and that in less than a week, Grandma and Grandpa would be in KS with us!!!!!

Falling into Winter

This afternoon Michaela was with us, so we did a mini shoot-in the bathroom;) Hey! That's where the best lighting was! Anyway, they turned out beautifully!

On the first weekend in November, I took family pictures for a local family. It was a lot of fun! This photo is the grand kids and grandma and grandpa. 

Well, winter hit the day after I took this picture! I'm a little sad to see my warming evenings go, but I'll say hello to better indoor photos!

Fall Decor

If you're looking for a fun and easy project...isn't that how all pinterest crafts start out??? Yes!! We'll this one really did work. No paint, hard work, or writing is involved. 

Isn't it lovely? All you have to do is tape a peice of white tissue paper onto a peice of regular paper and print onto it. You could do whatever you want! Our house isn't a big fan of carving pumpkins, especially since it makes a HUGE mess and the pumpkins deteriorate so fast post carving. Anyway, after printing, cut out your shape. Take a little bit of Elmer's glue and mix it with some water, then paint a small part of the pumpkin. Place your paper on it and then brush your glue mixture over the top. Let it dry and viola! You have a beautiful pumpkin. I'm not sure how these will stand up against rain and weather, but ours are on the porch where it's protected. 

Aubrey made the thankful one and cole made the M. It's a great project! Enjoy your fall and be thankful!

Rainbow

On Sunday our family helped host the Church Fall Picnic. It was a lot of fun! We were all singing and it started to sprinkle. Then this beautiful rainbow appeared. My iPhone can't capture the true beauty, but it was gorgeous! At one time it was even a triple rainbow. Gods glory magnified by his wondrous works!!!!! 

Gone to the Zooooooo!

Well, we went! The Omaha zoo which is about 2 hrs. away. It’s a great zoo and we love it!

Here is the penguins! We made it in time to watch them be fed.

Here we all are! We took our little friend Abram with us. He was so cute! We thought he could have fit right in with the monkeys.

Mom got on a pretty tiger but realized when the carousel started moving that her tiger didn’t move up and down. she was pretty disappointed;)

 

This tiger is named Mai, she has three legs. When she was a cub in the wild, she got it caught in some wire and they had to amputate it.