Gingerbread House

Every year since I can remember (until there were too many of us), my grandma would make each family a gingerbread house for us to decorate after we ate our Thanksgiving feast. Then, my family would also make individual ones out of graham crackers. I loved doing this every year and have tried to do the same for our family. Brandon can attest that the last 2 years have been pretty disastrous - burned gingerbread, cutting it out wrong, bad frosting (I don't have the kitchen-aid power to make that royal icing), houses that can't stand up, crooked houses, etc. So, this year I caved and bought one of the premade houses so we could just decorate it. I was disappointed by the contents - the house was TINY. The house was crooked. The house had no chimney. But, all I had to do was take it out of the box. So, here are the few pictures I managed to take while we decorated. And, the anti-climatic final product...

Kurt looking excited to start...

Kurt stealing candy. This is pretty much what he did the whole time.

Kurt decorating

TA DA! :) I do have to say though that I am proud of my peanut brittle roof (the store I was at didn't have neccos...)

Kurt has already stolen the wafer cookie windows. I guess this house is too tempting.

Independent PBJ

I believe this began as lunch for Daddy - he asked Kurt if he would make him a sandwich. Kurt said, "Oh yes Daddy, I will!" And for the most part, this was all him. I did have to help get the fixings out of the jar and onto the bread, but as you can see, he was able to take care of the messes just fine.

The Bumps

Despite recieving the vaccination, our little guy caught a few chicken pox, aka bumps. We think he had a very mild case due to the fact that he had gotten the vaccination. He only got pox on the back of his arms and lower legs (mostly on the back) with a few spots on the B-hiney. We had a very LONG "quarrantine" period. At least it was cold out so we weren't too jealous we couldn't go out to play.

The funny quote from the "bumps" saga. Kurt was on our bed one morning playing and chatting with us and for some reason rubbed my legs. He said, "Mama, you got bumps too?" with his classic "right?" face. Guess it'd been awhile since the last shave...

Mouthful

"Hey guys, look what I can do"

Chocolate

We made cupcakes one night and they turned out HUGE! (It was a kind that had pudding in the mix, so I think that helped to the gigantic-ness) Kurt went to town (just as he should)...

And ended up looking like this

Luke was very jealous and wanted in on the action. I couldn't resist him so I gave in and he tasted his first chocolate/sugar/cake/etc. He devoured it and whined for more. He now begs for anything we put in our mouths - he doesn't know what it is, but he's pretty sure he wants it

Scriptures

I couldn't resist grabbing my camera for this shot

Then, we had a little dogpile fun

Puggles

This kid LOVES puzzles! We've had to graduate him to the next level to keep challenging him. He'd done all this by himself (I didn't even know he had the puzzle out) and called me over to see his "puggle"

Booger

Me: "Hey, do you have a booger up there?"

K: "No, I just pickin' it"

Boys

Kurt
2 Years

Luke

6 Months

I look like the Boogie Man

Don't you think?

It's a Gobble Gobble!

We used our old Halloween pumpkins to make a colorful "gobble gobble" turkey.

Then, we started to make turkey hats, but daddy thought they were indian head-dresses, so we just stopped at that and all the boys (yes, all of them - lead by Brandon) ran the loop in our house yelling indian whoops.

Where's Waldo

Just a few of the places I've found Luke around the house. I think he likes to "hide" because he always laughs and smiles at me when he gets found.

Under the microwave table (where the juice bottles are)

On the bookcase

Under the kitchen table

Under the train table

Another budding concert pianist

Whenever he hears Dad start up at the piano, he stops whatever he's doing and heads straight into the music room to watch/listen to the music. Then he inevitably crashes and bashes his face on either the piano or the bench. Hopefully those faceplants won't scar him from loving music.

Daddy's Babysitting

Silence

With 2 boys aged 2 and under, I fear silence. Silence means trouble, mischief or harm. But lately, Kurt's silence has been a good one. I have found him on multiple occasions, just sitting and reading all his books. He's always loved books and stories and I am excited that he's learning how to read and loving to do it on his own too. He soaks it all up, always asking for more. On this day he also thought that the bookshelf looked like an excellent chair and I was able to grab the camera and sneek a picture before he even knew I was there.

Luke must have thought it looked fun too. I have found him there also.

We know something you don't know...

Excuse me, sir, but I think you have a little something there on your face

Bed Head

My 1st case of bed head...

All Aboard

Better late than never right? Here is our trip to Nauvoo...before Halloween

Here are some pictures from the 1.5 days we were there for Brandon's fireside. Saturday night they had a pumpkin festival and a Halloween party. They had 400+ jackolanterns lining the streets. Kurt (Brandon too) loved it! We were also able to visit a few of the historic places on Sunday after church and before Brandon's fireside.

This adorable pea pod had his picture taken more than any pumpkin there...it was really funny. And of course, he just hammed it up for everyone :)

This one was really cool - it went all the way around (which is really hard to tell from my not so fabulous camera skills)

Exhausted after the Halloween fun

Making "Linsy? Wool"

Got tired of making wool and decided to take a ride on the sheep instead :)Eh, just making some rope...
Swinging with Papa and Grammy Brooke Outside the Brickyard
Inside the Blacksmith's