Phew! What we've been up to...

Well I have exceeded my photo limit on blogger, shocking, so here are just a few of the pics of what we have been up to lately! Christmas Eve Ger and the kiddos headed up to Four Peaks with the Stums and Marcus and JJ for some Ranger Riding and hiking. They had a GREAT time and the day was gorgeous!

Nothing like playing in the dirt...

Or playing with sticks! Hours of fun!

Christmas Eve we have a tradition of opening cousin gifts and grandparents gifts. Mia was SOOO excited about her Webkinz Horse and PJ pants from cousin Evie. She said, "THIS IS JUST WHAT I WANTED!!!"

Oh gosh... the other photos didn't download but Colby was in heaven with his Superman PJ's, complete with the cape, from Lola and Sydney was so excited for a new shirt and notebook and Target gift card from Brady.

My mom canned the kiddos Christmas gifts this year. Literally. They thought that was so cool! What a fun idea! They couldn't wait to see what was inside... and that pic didn't upload either. BAH! so sad...

The sugar plum tree got done after Christmas this year... This was a tradition growing up in Ger's family!

Luckily the kiddos weren't even tempted to eat the treats since it was after xmas and they had had their fill. phew.

LOVING the weather at this time of year- lots of bike riding, jumping on the tramp, playing in the sand box, going to the park, playing baseball outside with Dad, etc!

Movie nights! they all got new soft blankies to match their bedding and LOVE snuggling up in them.

YMCA! The girlies are MONKEYS. They did all 5 courses of the rock wall and LOVED it. It was very challenging but so fun...

Their little arms and legs are pretty buff from gymnastics!

Did I say how fun it was!?! Mia was THRILLED when she did the hardest side.

And the day rounded out with a family game of basketball after lots of practicing... Wow. Mia is our little competitive fireball. She is fiesty and wanted that ball! She got so frustrated if she didn't have it and between her competitiveness and Colby's, the game was humerous, fun and short lived. ha ha! But this pic of Ger teaching Colby to shoot is priceless!

Well I will have to figure out my photo limit quota problem and get back to you with more xmas pics! Hope you are all healthy and well! We feel extremely blessed to have our health and be able to spend time as a family this holiday season.

Need a few more Xmas Craft Ideas!?!

With the kiddos out of school until Christmas, there will be plenty of time for making and baking! Anything to keep them happy and entertained, right?!? Here are some ideas off Crafty Crow I have been eyeing... Gingerbread Man garland! So fun! Our kiddos each have a small Christmas tree by their bed that they get to decorate and they would just LOVE adding this fun and festive decoration to their tree. They love kneading dough, rolling it out, and cutting out shapes, so this is right up their ally... A simple and fun version of "gingerbread" men. It's magical for kids to see one cut out gingerbread man transform into a whole row with "paper dolls."
This would be a fun and easy ornament craft too- just pick up some polymer clay and let the kiddos go to work on rolling it out and making fun shaped ornaments! They can even experiment with textures on the shapes using material or other objects which would be fun. Just make sure to cut a small whole in the top to hang the ornament- a straw usually works great for this...

How cute are these?!? They could even make cute table decor if you stuck them in floral blocks in a cute little bucket with cotton at the base for snow or something! Provide the kiddos with marshmellows, a marker, skewers, and misc. candy and they will get pretty creative I am sure. I love the cloves for arms!

The girls loved this project- we just cut out gingerbread men shapes out of colored paper and they decorated them with candy. What kid doesn't LOVE getting to use lots of glue and candy?!? They got really creative and melted laffy taffy's in the microwave for the gingerbread girls hair! You could even use beans, rice, yarn, whatever crafty things you have around to decorate them with...

Colby had a blast doing this project at school so I thought I would post it too- another great gluing project! Lots and lots of cotton balls- so fun.

Here are the pics of the real gingerbread men we decorated! They loved getting creative with all the candy.And lastly, here's a pic of Colby and JJ working so hard on their candy canes made out of beads! Colby has literally made like 6 or 7 of these and even gave one to his preschool teacher, Miss Kerry and even made one for Mr. Kerry! So thoughtful. Colby and the girls have hung all of the rest of them on their little trees and they look so cute! A classic Christmas craft that never seems to get old.

Best of luck keeping your kiddos entertained this week before Christmas!

Dressed in our Christmas Best!

The kiddos got to perform in the Christmas Cantata our ward choir put on today. It was a beautiful program. The Primary sang three songs and did great- the choir even joined in on one of the numbers with them and it was angelic. They were so excited to get to wear their new Christmas outfits- such fun!

Christmas Gymnastics Recital!

YAY! We always LOVE going to the girlies gymnastics recitals. They are doing AWESOME! Sydney has bounced back amazingly well from her traumatic ruptured appendix ordeal and we feel so blessed. She is able to do just about everything she did before now and has regained all her strength. What a celebration to see them perform! They started off on the bar- flipping around and showing good form... then landing with a ta da!
Next up was the rope. It is 2 stories high and they both scrambled right up. Wow. Impressive. Even for Sydney to be able to do that just 2 months after being in the hospital, 3-4 weeks after being released again for physical activity, seems amazing.

Next up a routine of scissor kicks, 180 degree jumps, pikes, tucks, and then the vault. whew! (Sorry the pics aren't great- too far to use a flash...)

Beam was next...

So high up and lots of tricks that require balance and strength- they did awesome.

Last but not least, floor routine set to music!

a bridge... (Mia can kick over onto her feet!)

a candlestick... a cartwheel... and Sydney's bridge!

HURRAY FOR SYDNEY AND MIA!

One of the fun things about gymnastics is doing it with some of their best friends! Regan, Paige, and Brooklyn Breinholt. They did a great job as well.

They will both be moving up a level at the start of the year. Mia will be on the Mighty Mites squad with Coach Jason and Sydney will be in Level 2 with Miss Demuri. They LOVE gymnastics and are so excited to go every time. They are at the gym twice a week for 2 1/2 hours total. Whew! Great job girlies- we are so proud of all your hard work!

FABULOUS Peanut Butter Balls

Ok, this recipe is SOOO much easier and better than the one I posted a while ago. It is super easy to form the balls AND has rice krispies in it so we loved the added crunch... They didn't seem as dense and rich with the rice krispies- yum! (I was in a hurry so my balls are not quite perfectly shaped- ha ha!)

I even used mini cookie cutters to make hearts! Stars would be too hard to get in and out cleanly I think, but these heart ones turned out so cute I thought and are always in season... :-) These mini cutters are seriously tiny- remember you are going to want to keep these very small. I used less than a TBS to form the balls. No one wants to eat a monstrously huge PB ball... or maybe they do?!? I think the smaller the better though!
After you form the balls, or whatever shape you choose, they need to firm in the fridge and then you dip them in chocolate. Drizzling them is super easy using chocolate melts in a sandwich baggie, with the corner clipped.

The hard part for me was the dipping. I need to take more chocolate dipping lessons from my mom... or just practice more I guess! Give them a try though- they will be a sure hit at any holiday party! Peanut Butter Balls III
From Allrecipes- nearly 5 stars out of 200 reviews...
Ingredients:
2 cups creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup butter
4 cups confectioners' sugar 3 cups crisp rice cereal
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips (or I prefer milk chocolate)

Directions:
1. Melt peanut butter and butter in saucepan, over low heat. In large bowl, mix crispy rice cereal and confectioners' sugar well. Pour melted peanut butter and butter over cereal and sugar and blend together thoroughly.
2. Form into 1 inch or smaller balls, spread on cookie sheets, chill till firm in refrigerator (over night is okay).
3. Melt chocolate in double boiler and keep melted while working with balls. A teaspoon is best to use in dipping the balls in chocolate. Dip good and place on cookie sheet. As you dip them place them back on cookie sheet and keep chilled till firm.

My little brother...

I came across this pic today and just had to post it. This is a pic was taken just a few days before Zach left on his mission- Ger and I went snowboarding with him and just had a blast. I really have never posted much at all about Zach before... as many of you know he is serving on a mission for our church in Birmingham, England. He just got his release date, February 17th!!!!!!!!! Wow. It is amazing how missions make boys into men. He is a total inspiration to our family every week with his powerful and humbling emails. He is now serving as AP and is just crazy busy. He is still fitting in as much proselyting as he can, amid meetings, assisting with transfers, doing district and zone conferences, splits with missionaries across the entire mission, handling paperwork in the office, training new/existing missionaries, etc. He has countless stories of finding and teaching and baptizing many ready and beautiful people and families. He has been so busy in fact he has only sent one picture of himself the whole mission! But he does send GREAT emails. And in these, along with his powerful testimonies of the truthfulness of the gospel and principles he is learning and people he is teaching, he always finds room at the bottom of his emails for a hilarious story of some sort or another. Whether it's about chasing down someone who stole their GPS or receiving a speeding ticket at the mission office that someone had gotten in a mission car only to discover it was the mission President himself, etc! He has such an opptomistic attitude and is a hard worker to the max. He is an incredible example and inspiration to me!
Just a little excerpt from one of his recent emails... he talked about how in a recent seminar for Mission Presidents, his Mission President learned the church leadership measured the success of a mission president not in the number of new wards/stakes open in the lives of his missionaries or even the number of converts etc. The way to measure a successful mission president is to look at the children of the mission presidents missionaries. Zach said, "WOW, that blew me away. I feel strongly that I have been very short sighted, we aren’t leaders or Parents etc. to pound and force and rebuke, we are leaders and parents to love, lift inspire and bless to the point that an individual wants to use their own moral agency to follow the Savior. WE ARE IN THIS WAR FOR THE LONG HAUL, NOT A DAY NOT A YEAR OR TWO, ETERNITY MUST BE OUR GOAL. If it is not we will exert and labor and Sacrifice in vain. I HAVE COME TO REALLY KNOW THAT JESUS CHRIST IS THE ALMIGHTY LIVING SON OF THE ALMIGHTY LIVING GOD, I AM SO POSITIVE THAT MY GOD AND HIS SON DID IN FACT APPEAR TO JOSEPH SMITH THAT I WILL DO MY BEST TO DO WHATEVER THE CHURCH ASKS OF ME, AND I HOPE AND PRAY THAT WAS I REQUIRED TO SEAL MY TESTIMONY WITH MY VERY LIFE THAT I WOULD BE READY AND WILLING TO DO SO. But if I do not have the talent or ability to help another human soul feel these same feelings, not just going through the motions but really feel the way I feel, then I am of very little use to the Lord. I am so GRATEFUL for you Mom and Dad who are the best missionaries I know, I constantly am amazed at your incredible example of how you lifted, inspired and blessed me, and because of it I am making progress on the path that leads to eternal life, I have still got a very long way to go and a lot of progress to make, but I really am starting to recognize how crucial Effective missionary Parents and Grand parents have played in my life."

The kiddos and I just can't wait till he gets back... from water to snow lots of good times to be had when he returns!

Can We Keep Him!?!

This week Colby did not come home from school. Instead, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer came back in his place. He was such a cute little reindeer. So happy... with the cutest antlers and little red nose. I immediately texted Ger a picture with the text, "Can we keep him!?!"

His answer? YES!

Five minutes later, after friends had left and pictures had been taken, Rudolph dissappeared into the bathroom. A few minutes later, out came Colby! He was laughing laughing when I asked him what happened to Rudolph. With his antlers in hand he said, "MOM! I just washed the red off my nose!" He thought he had really tricked me into thinking he was Rudolph. So funny.

Looking for another idea on a cold winter day? Have your kiddos color antlers, paint a red nose on them, and take pics! They'll get just as big a kick out of it as you!

Christmas Activites for Kiddos...

A few ideas for kiddos that we have done or I have seen that look fun!!We do these candy canes every year it seems like- super easy and works for toddlers to school age kiddos. Hobby Lobby has kits that are 50% off!These cards look cute and easy! This is on our To Do List!I loved this idea of getting big bags of cotton balls (cheap!) and pretending they are snow and making "snow" pictures! You could make them in the shapes of snowman, snow angels, just animals or whatever... Make a round stamp out of a potato, felt chair bottom, or whatever other round item and let the kids stamp out lots of snowmen with white paint! They would LOVE creating a whole snowman village and all you need is one round stamp.We've bought our houses and the kiddos are BEGGING to make them! A Christmas Craft Tradition around our house...Gingerbread cookies! We love "Gingerbread Baby" and "Gingerbread Man" books... and the kiddos always love making gingerbread men for their house. They are easy to make though a little messy. ;-) The kids created for literally HOURS when we made these! One of our favorite neighbor gifts is a gingerbread man kit- the cookies are baked and come with a baggie of frosting and lots of fun candy to decorate them! I will post pics soon since we made them the other night!

Happy Crafting!