Santa's Big Event

On the Friday after Thanksgiving, while most people were black Friday shopping, we took the kids to go see Santa. I am not one who will stand in line at a mall for hours to let my kids cry on Santa's lap...but...I did see an ad in the Utah Valley Magazine announcing KSL 5 flying Santa in to university mall by helicopter! Now THIS was the way to see Santa!

We got there at 9:30 and the helicopter arrived about 10:00-10:15. It was such an exciting event for the kids, I'm so glad we went! 

 

 Can you see all their excitement!! OK, maybe I was more excited for them to see Santa than they were...

  a little cocoa to keep the kids warm....

The copter coming in for a landing....

Getting wind blown by the chopper blades....now the kids are starting to get excited!

Santa, Mrs. Clause and the elves did the rounds around the square and chatted with everybody...the kids couldn't believe it! Jackson got to shake Santa's hand! It was quite unbelievable! We all enjoyed it.

My opinion, the best way to see Santa!

Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. We spent the morning finishing up our pie baking. We had started the night before and didn't get it all done. We made two pumpkin pies, two apple pies, and one pecan pie. They were delicious. Both beautiful to look at and tasty! 

Later that morning I was fortunate to go for a run (I wasn't feeling sick! Yeah!!), and Brian got to play some Turkey-ball. At noon, we headed over to the Bell's and spent the day with Brian's family. It was mostly a relaxed, casual day spent hanging out with each other and eating lots of good food! It was perfect. That night we all slept really well... it must have been the turkey! 

Christina and I made these place setting for the table. I think they added just the right touch! 

We have so much to be grateful for. It was a great day to be reminded of all our blessings. I love the symbolism of the huge turkey feast, with tons of food (way more than we could possibly all eat in one meal) compared to the abundant blessings in our lives. We have more than we can our cups can hold!

Zoey's Birthday!

We celebrated Zoey's 3rd Birthday! She is such a sweet girl and was super excited about her birthday this year. It was fun for Brian and I to make it a special day for her.  

It snowed overnight, so she was surprised to wake up to a few inches of snow, which got her day off to a special start. The first snowfall of the season! For breakfast, we took her to the local doughnut shop to pick out a "birthday doughnut", which happened to be a vanilla cake doughnut with pink icing and sprinkles. After doughnuts, she and Jackson went to play in the snow (good time to work off that sugar before cake and ice cream!). 

When they had enough of the cold, we let Zoey open up a couple gifts from us. She got a new stroller and a Rapunzel doll with matching dress for Zoey to wear. She was ecstatic about it! She wouldn't take the dress off all day. She loves the movie "Tangled" and thinks she looks just like Rapunzel... and wants to be just like Rapunzel, so this was the perfect gift for her! They were side by side all day. She and her dad enjoyed watching the "Tangled" movie together while I frosted the cake.

After lunch, we invited the grandparents to come over and eat cake with us. Zoey had requested a "My-little-pony-and-Tinkerbell" cake, so I did my best to mix the two themes. It turned out like a float with the pony pulling the cake with fairies on top... Zoey loved it and that's what matters. We had fun decorating it. She loved it so much she didn't want to share her cake! Her grandparent's on the Beutler side got her a Berenstein bear collection of books (I love those!) and her grandparent's on the Gray side got her a puppy in a travel purse (so cute!). The Bells also joined us and got her a huge pencil with a coloring book and stickers (Zoey will enjoy this too!). She was very "showered with love."

She had a fantastic day! And as she would say in true Rapunzel fashion: "THE BEST DAY EVER!"

We are so grateful to have Zoey in our family! She is a very special girl and is quick to show love to her brothers and parents. We appreciate the big girl she has become!

November 9th

We celebrated my birthday yesterday! I made a pumpkin roll for dessert (which Zoey was calling the "birthday taco"), but my neighbor dropped off a chocolate cake and the candles worked better on the cake than the roll, so that's what made the picture (although I did try a little of both, and I must say the pumpkin roll hit the spot!)

 The kids helped blow the candles! It was a great day, thanks to all who made it special for me with kind messages or visits! Brian took me out to eat the night before and we did some Christmas shopping, which I love to do (especially before the holiday crowds- I have no patience for it).

 We didn't actually have to spend much money for my birthday; when Brian and I were married, we had used all our wedding money on investing in a really expensive, but nice set of pots and pans. Unfortunately, six years later, they were in horrible shape! The non-stick coated had all worn off and was flaking into our food. I was sooo disappointed. Brian did some checking and found they had a lifetime guarantee, so we took them back to the store, without a receipt, and got roughly $800 in store credit! So it felt like Christmas coming home with a trunk-load of brand new pots and pans. I am so excited! And, if we ever have a problem, we can always take it back and get a new one! It's a wonderful thing! I think new pots and pans will make cooking exciting again :)

13 days of Halloween!

We like to go nuts over the holidays, let's face it, holidays are SO much fun with kids (and they only get to enjoy childhood once)! So... for the Halloween season, we celebrate 13 spooky days (just because 13 is a spooky number). This is what we've done:
Day 1: place mats from dried leaves the kids picked earlier in the season, we used glitter and laminated them and they turned out really cute. They used them every day!

 day 2: spooky candlelight dinner, with chili served in a pumpkin

Day 3: we made ghosts to hang from the trees in the yard, very fun for the kids!

Day 4: gray Halloween party at the grandparent's. We got to dress up and have another spooky dinner- this is when I made "the announcement"

Day 5: we played a Halloween memory game

Day 6: we played in the leaves- so much fun!

Day 7: pumpkin balloon game, we filled the balloons with prizes and let the kids pop them. don't laugh at the pumpkin shape, they were too anxious to get popping the balloons that they wouldn't let me tamper with it much...

 Day 8: Zoey had a witches tea party, made hats and cookies and got all dressed up like a little witch

Day 8 cont'd:  Ward Halloween festival:

 Day 9: we made ribbon snakes with cousins and friends, very cute!

 Day 10: movie night with friends and popcorn! We watch "How to train your Dragon" and ate popcorn out of Halloween scoops

Day 11: pumpkin carving! the kids were sooooo excited to do this activity! Jackson wanted an angry face and Zoey wanted a smoky face (whatever that means?). We did our best to accommodate:

(I wish i had an SLR, I really would like to get better photos than what the old point and shoot can do)!

Day 12& 13- tonight we are making sugar cookies and Monday we go trick-or-treating! I can't believe it's already over! We had so much fun.

Bun in the oven!

Yup! Here we go again! I decided it would be a good time of year to make the announcement, so here is my costume:

I wish you could see it better, I turned a cardboard box into an oven (which is baking the bun, of course).I am due in may, about 10 weeks along. Very tired and a little sick, but handling it well enough I guess. We are excited!

Jackson is a robot, Zoey is an ice cream cone and Eli is a turtle. Cousin Lili is mini mouse. We had this photo taken at our annual Gray fall party which was a blast as always.

Our latest photos

I was looking through my camera and found a few favorites of the kids I wanted to share. 

Jackson actually took this one, most of his shots are fuzzy and don't have a subject in them, but I liked the expression he caught on Zoey's face. She's getting so big! 

This one of Eli reminded me of Jackson and his peaches. Eli grabbed this apple and went to town on it! His little teethmarks are so cute.

 Eli is so happy to play outside and has recently discovered the joy of walking through crunchy dry leaves. he absolutely LOVES them!

 The rest are just some cute fall pictures taken after church one day. These lovely fall days won't last long.

 Jackson pretty much emptied this branch of its leaves by shaking it like crazy! He enjoyed it!

Friendship Week

Our ward's annual Friendship week is this week. We love participating in this event as we leave a mystery clue and treat on a member's doorstep each night. 


This year, we modified the poems a little, but here they are: 


Day 1 (given with a jar of home canned peaches and our peach cobbler recipe):

The week of Friendship has just begun,

And we hope you’ll enjoy our gifts of fun.

You may ask, “Who treats us so well?”
But that is our secret and we’ll not tell!

We’ll give you clues as to who we are,

The first one is -- we don’t live far!

Another clue, in this poem we will sneak,

To help you guess by the end of the week.

We like to camp and Dutch-oven cook,

We’ll share a favorite recipe from our family cook book.

And so we leave you with this gift and rhyme,

And hope your family has a good time!

                                                               

Enjoy!

Day 2 (Given with a small jar of sprinkles): 

Halloween is a big holiday at our house,

She decorates galore, to the dismay of her spouse :)

But decorating a house isn’t the only thing,

Why! Every holiday cookie needs some “bling!”

We’ll leave you some sprinkles we think are fine,

To decorate your own cookies when you have the time! 

Day 3 (given with homemade pepper jelly): 

The husband is good at working the ground,

But his wife stays busy when harvest comes around!

Canning and preserving for a much later feast,

Home-grown tastes just can’t be beat!

Here’s a little treat we’d like to share,

Top it on a cracker with cheese-- a fine fare! 

Don’t eat it this jelly with peanut butter and bread,

Or it might turn into a jelly you dread! 

It’s tasty, we promise, don’t judge by it’s name,

Life without some spice just wouldn’t be the same!

We’ve made it from peppers we grew by hand,

A favorite of ours, ‘cuz it spices up the bland! 

Day 4 (given with a pumkin from the garden and carving set):

The man of the house has a truly ‘green thumb,’

While the wife is learning just how gardening is done.

We’ve grown all sorts of food in our garden,

This year, we grew tons of pumpkins for carvin’

This one has not been long off the vine,

You can use it to carve a face that is fine!

It wouldn’t be fun to leave you without treats,

So please enjoy carving while these candies you eat!

You may have noticed that for us food’s at the heart,

If you haven’t tried guessing, it’s time that you start!

Day 5 (given with ice cream from the creamery):

We have many reasons to like BYU,

Our majors were health and History too.

It hasn’t been long since we were students with books,

Now they collect dust in corners and nooks.

You’ve heard of the saying, “To thine own self be true,’

And that’s why we’re loyal to the white and the blue.

Yes, we’re fans of the cougars, through and through

And to the athletes who play for BYU.

We might stay at home and watch the game on the big screen,

Enjoying a nice big bowl of cougar ice cream.

Have you narrowed it down to a half dozen families at best?

If this clue doesn’t help you, just wait for the rest!

Day 6 (given with smoke signlas marinade and fajita recipe): 

Although we now claim Utah our home,

Once on the plains of Texas we roamed.

If you’ve ever traveled to the heart of the South,

You’ll know what South’ners like to put in their mouth!

Preparing good meat is nothing short of an art,

So for today’s gift we leave you our part.

Fajitas are one thing that we love to eat,

This marinade is something that just can’t be beat!

You may look for this jar in stores near and far,

But it can only be found where they fly the Lone Star.

We hope you enjoy this gift and our poem,

As we leave behind something of us in your home.

Day 7 (the day we reveal, and a tray of sugar cookies):

Our youngest is still too young to talk,

Just recently he has attempted to walk!

Our girl is active as ever can be,

Appropriate for her age, she’s just under three!

Our oldest boy is clever and funny,

His favorite days are the ones that are sunny.  

The man of the house works in Lindon, not far,

You might see him in a red truck- not driving a car!

His wife cooks and she cleans and gets the kids dressed,

All on less than a full-night’s sleep of rest! J

Have any clue yet as to who we are?

If you do—you’re a real shining star!