More Christmas

Dec. 18. More baking. We made candy cane cookies and they are almost gone. No wonder my kids are on a permanent sugar high. The sweets need to leave this house.
Dec. 17 Classic picture at the ward Christmas party. It was on my phone so not the best picture. Poor Ben was happy until we threw Claire on him. He got hit in his face, Claire was not happy. Good Santa though.
Ben told him to come to our house that we would leave him cookies. He also asked for a Nerf gun.

Dec. 16. We had daddy/son date and mommy/daughter dates. Basically, Siena needed to go out and buy a gift for her teachers. Siena, Claire and I made our way over to Panera bread and had some treats and talked. Siena was bouncing all over the place. She was so excited and it was lots of fun. She is a lot easier to take out than Ben. Claire is easy to take out because I can just throw puff cereal in her direction and she will be happy and she loves all the attention from people. I don't even know what the boys did on their 'man date'. When we left they were talking about watching a show or playing a video game. Sounds like a perfectly boy thing to do.

Dec. 15. There are always so many things to do in December. I finally realized that if I worked for a couple hours on one night and made all the dough for our treats that I could do it a lot easier during the day with the kids when we planned on making cookies. It has seemed to work. Now it only takes 20 minutes to make a treat as we just have to decorate it or cook the cookies.

Dec. 14 We did a gingerbread craft to add to our gingerbread display. Siena loves to do any little craft so she is decorating our home nicely for Christmas.

Dec. 13 Dave and I went out and finished up our Christmas shopping. The kids got to spend time with Aunt Karin. They were so excited. She lived with us for a couple months and Ben has always wondered when she was coming back home. They had a good time and I think this is the earliest we have ever finished our shopping.

Dec. 11 Matching Christmas dresses. I am a little worried that my older two kids aren't growing. They still fit comfortably in their Christmas clothes from last year. Claire got a new sparkly dress to match Siena. I love that they all match.

Dec. 12 For FHE we decorated gingerbread houses. Grandma gave these to us at Thanksgiving so the kids have been waiting a long time to do them. There are 5 mini houses. It was difficult to put together so I only bothered putting 3 together. The kids loved doing these. Five minutes after we were done Ben asked if he could eat his. Siena with her swing set in the side yard with a snowman.

Ben with his snowman and play ground

Dec. 10. We went to a Christmas party. We celebrated with friends from Heathers Headache.