Gingerbread House

We have always thought that it would be fun to build a gingerbread house and so this year, we actually did it.  We cheated and bought a kit with pre-made gingerbread, but we had a lot of fun.  I think this might just be our newest holiday tradition.  Maybe next year we will even try to make one from scratch, or maybe not.

Here is Kirk and Robby building the structure of the house.

Robby loved decorating it.

One of the few pictures you will see of me since I am always the one behind the camera.

And here it is, our finished work of art.  I need to work on my piping skills just a little, but hey I've got lots of years ahead of me to master it.

Thanksgiving

Wow, I am a little behind and have a lot to blog about.

Thanksgiving was great.  I have so much to be thankful for right now: a wonderful husband who loves me and does more for me than I could ever expect, a son who makes me laugh and makes me proud every single day, a daughter that is the answer to prayers and truly brings so much joy to our home, parents who love me and are the absolute greatest, the best little sister who I am now able to spend so much more time with. wonderful in laws, a beautiful home, my husbands job which he loves and that allows us to have the things we need, great friends, and so much more.  I am so blessed and thankful for so much.

Thanksgiving was great.  We had it at our house.  My family and Kirk's parents came.   We had good food (well except for the stuffing, I am still on a quest for the perfect stuffing recipe), and a lot of fun.   Then on Friday, I went Black Friday shopping with Emily.  That has become a tradition for us and I love it.  We are never too serious about it, we just go to have fun, but we were relatively successful this year, which is nice too.

Here are some pictures from Thanksgiving.

Robby and Zoe with Grandpa

Our turkey, which was honestly the best turkey I have ever eaten, yum!

Robby made these cute little buckets for everyone's napkins and silverware to go into.  He worked so hard on them and they turned out so cute!

Halloween Part 2

We finally did end up doing a little trick or treating.

Robby had been feeling a little bit better all Halloween afternoon and had a hard time deciding if he wanted to go trick or treating or not.  Finally, about five minutes before the start of the ward trunk-or-treat he decided he felt good enough to go out.  So, I had 5 minutes to get them both ready.

The last couple of years, Robby has insisted on wearing something "Halloweeny" for his costume.  Last year he was a skeleton, this year he decided to be a ghost, and he is already talking about possibly Frankenstein for next Halloween.  I decided to just keep it simple and dress Zoe up as a ghost too.

Last weekend, when we went trick-or-treating downtown, Robby had his face painted white and his costume looked pretty cool.  We just didn't have time to paint his face this time, not to mention that since he was sick, he did not have the patience to sit still and let me do it.  So, his costume didn't look quite as cool, but I still think we had two pretty good looking ghosts.

Robby walked around the church parking lot, got a little candy, and then was ready to come home.  That totally did him in.  I think the fresh air did him good though and he has been feeling much better ever since.  We are all just glad he got to celebrate Halloween a little bit.

Halloween at Our House

This is what Halloween looks like at our house this year.

Robby has been sick for the last couple of days. Yesterday he stayed home from school. He missed a field trip. Today he missed his school Halloween party. We had all sorts of fun plans for today, but instead, we are just staying home in our pajamas and watching a movie. Poor thing. I feel so sorry for him; what a terrible time to be sick. He has stayed pretty positive through it all though and I do think he is starting to feel better.

Robby has never been a napper, but being sick his poor body definitely needs the sleep.  Even being sick, he still couldn't manage to fall asleep on the couch.  I left the room for a while and when I came back, I found him here, asleep on the floor, sprawled over the pillow, with his head resting on the tile.  It couldn't have been comfortable, but at least he got some sleep.

Luckily, last weekend, the city had trick or treating downtown, so Robby and Zoe got to wear their costumes and do a little Halloweening.  Of course, I didn't take any pictures because I thought I would do them all today.  Oh well, they are both going to have to get in their costumes one day next week so I can at least get some cute pictures.

Here is a picture of Zoe on Halloween.

I didn't put her costume on her since we aren't going anywhere, but I at least had to put a spider in her hair to make her somewhat festive.