Home Life

Today was the first big snow of the season!  The boys were totally pumped to go outside and play in it.  They got all bundled up and had a chat about what they wanted to do outside.  The first thing they decided on was to try and build a castle.  That said, they got out their snow block makers and went to work…

That lasted a little while (no more than 15 minutes) 🙂 and then they decided to build a snowman.  They used snowballs for the eyes and nose, drew a smile with their fingers, and added sticks for arms.  It was pretty funny but cute.  🙂

After about an hour and a half outside, they were pretty cold and wanted to come in.  They were frozen little snowmen themselves.  🙂  Nothing that a little hot chocolate couldn’t help!

Today was a day of building stuff!  Ben is really into his blocks and building castles and such.  He loves to build stuff and then when he is finished, he finds us and wants a picture taken…

Once the picture is taken, he then wants to see it to make sure it’s OK and he approves of it.  He is quite the funny little guy!

Kirstyn built a beautiful gingerbread house today at Activity Days for church and couldn’t wait to show us when she got home…

She likes her picture taken with stuff she does as well.  She doesn’t always ask to see the picture once it’s taken, however.  🙂

Great building job, everyone!

This year, we are trying to take things a little lighter and not buy as much as we did last year.  We want to spend more time this season contemplating the true meaning of Christmas and not spend it shopping!  We got a large chunk of our shopping out of the way today and were very happy!  🙂  We try as hard as we can to stay away from stores, especially on Black Friday!  Amazon is our new best friend in helping us out with this!  The cool thing is that not one thing we bought today cost us a penny for shipping!  🙂

Today we had a wonderful Thanksgiving!  We had a couple of families over to celebrate with us.  Initially, Angela had said it would be very low-key, but I think my definition of low-key is a LOT different than hers!  🙂  We cleaned like crazy, cooked like crazy, and prepared like crazy to get ready for our guests.

The kids did a GREAT job on the Thanksgiving tables (we had to have 2 in order to fit everyone):

We had all kinds of wonderful food (some of the typical dishes you would expect to have at Thanksgiving) and were stuffed.  We then just visited, relaxed, and enjoyed each other’s company.  We wrote down on paper cutouts of turkeys and leaves (that Kirstyn made) all the things we were thankful for.

We love thanksgiving!  It’s a time to enjoy thinking about the blessings we all enjoy and spending time together as family and friends.  Unfortunately, many don’t see it that way.  Halloween is huge and then people skip right to Christmas.  It really bugs us that our society goes right from Halloween decorations to Christmas decorations in the same breath.  The day after Halloween, you start seeing ads for Christmas!  🙁

Recently, Angela entered to win a Just Dance 2 Party and won (she seems to be winning a lot of this stuff lately)!  She got the Wii Just Dance 2 Game for free along with a bunch of other stuff to host a party.  She and the girls invited over friends and had a girls night party playing Just Dance 2 on the Wii and eating a bunch of food!  They had a blast!  Zach joined in because a couple of his friends came over and he didn’t want to be left out.  🙂

Unfortunately, when I went downstairs to check on them and got the camera, I wasn’t fast enough to get any pictures of the adults playing!  🙂

The boys had a very creative day today!  They got out Zach’s Thomas the Tank Engine track set and built a person on the floor of the family room.  They were SO proud of it!

We had to take some pictures because we knew that shortly thereafter, the wrecking balls (a.k.a Ben and Zach) would come sweeping through and create something else.  🙂

Great work boys!

Tonight, Angela and I went to Drury Lane Theater in Oakbrook and saw Seven Brides for Seven Brothers!  Angela surprised me with tickets and we were very excited to go!  It was 20 years ago that we first met, got together, and this was the first film that we watched together at a ward leadership activity.  🙂  It was a great production!  They did a great job with the stage, and the actors musical talents were great!

We had great seats (right in the center, about half-way back) and it was nice just to be there together!  Before we went to the theater, we went out to dinner and enjoyed talking.  It doesn’t seem like it’s been 20 years since we have known each other!  🙂  Time really flies!  We met some really nice people there at the theater and Angela and the lady chatted up a storm (before, during intermission, and after, of course)!  🙂

Thanks for the great evening Angela!  🙂