Pre- Heit Holidays

At the start of November I attended my fathers funeral(s). We had two for him, one in CA where I was glad that some of his co-workers had been able to attend and one in Utah where he is now buried. The next two pictures  are from the CA event. There were beautiful flowers at both and warm wishes and smiles. I was able to learn new things about my father from the talks and was pleased at how well we were able to honor my father.

Since we were in Utah we visited a few friends and family members including Greg who is there at school and Michelle (and Allen) who I drove up with. Yes I actually drove on the freeway at high speeds on a long road trip. And no I was not ever speeding. In fact I was so slow or something going 60-75 mph that my mom and company who used to be a few hours behind us started to catch up. :) Yup this picture is a keeper!



We walked around campus to see some old haunts and I took a picture of the place I used to live as a Freshman at BYU. On the right hand side used to stand two tall towers called Deseret Towers or DT as we would say. Now that is torn down and there are these cool new places like the building on the left. 

 

Here the kids were learning about how Indians shared food with the pilgrims for Thanksgiving. They each to some degree colored their headbands.



And we have put up the Christmas tree! It looks even better with presents underneath it. Only 9 more days to go!

 

Downtown Madison had free trolley rides. How could we miss out? We went twice in fact, another picture is below.

The Hilldale mall does a gingerbread house contest yearly. This was one of my favorites .

 

Wesley sat on Santa's lap and showed him a picture of some legos that he would like Santa to bring.

 

 

 What was even better was that Kate also got brave enough to sit with Santa, and Kairi started to walk up to him but then changed her mind. I was still impressed considereing she still won't sit in nursery without crying the whole 2 hours unless I am in there with her.

 

Here was another gingerbread house that was intriguing.

Kate and Kairi are showing off their new Christmas pajamas. Soft and cozy! 

We were excited to get a visit from Aunt Michelle and Uncle Allen. We didn't have too long to play around with them, but we did get to play with Michelle for a day and go on the trolley ride the next. 

 

Another fun, although short this time, trolley ride.

We had our first "large" snow fall this winter. I am not really sure how much snow it was an inch or so.... but we were able to use up the snow in the backyard to make something spiffy!

Tah Dah! The finished product. Too bad that as we speak only a small amount of it is left since it rained yesterday. 

 

I held a gingerbread house making party again this year. I was happy to do it ahead of everyone leaving for the holidays so that we had a good turnout. Seven kids, four plus my three, decorated the houses.

 

And what is a new season without changing the fireplace mantle display? We have a lego advent calendar so this has been added to, but here is the general idea of our lego mania.

 

 

Hope you enjoyed the post. Please have a warm and safe and cozy Christmas and New Years everyone! My fingers are crossed so we're not sick on Christmas like last year. Toodles!

 

Happy Michelle?

 

Some things we have done.

Here are some movies that were requested. They are still cute even if Kairi was slow to warm up to the camera.The first one is of Kate, while the second one is of Kairi.

Please note that the following may sound brief but hey I got tired of trying to update the blog after two hours of nothing uploading, and moving everything to the other computer and trying again. So here it is short and sweet; simple.

Chris had his birthday in September. We went mini golfing for part of the celebration.

Chris requested an ice-cream cake this year so Wesley  helped me pick one out. It even had gummy worms on the top. Yum! (Well you know they were good once they got over being frozen.)

We went to a garden...somewhere. I kept the paper telling me it's name but um that is all the way upstairs. It was a Japanese garden with several fun bridges, a wedding reception to spy on a Mexican dance group to peek at which is all super exciting for quiet people like me who enjoy watching and listening in to other people's lives.

All the kids had to try out sitting on the giant leaf. A couple passed us as we did so and I heard the girl say, "I want to sit on the giant leaf." I don't think she would have stayed up so well though. 

Yeah a maze made from shrubs. I've got to get me one of these, although not with the flowers and bees so close by. 

Kairi in pink, Kate in green.

Wesley in purple. 

A double rainbow looking out our back door. Ye Haw! 

I got a bag of apples at a farm with part of our weekly book group and with it made two apple pies and an apple blueberry crisp. I must admit to eating most of those pies.

Turtle pecan cookies. I think they are called snappy turtle cookies on allrecipes.com We had them as conference weekend treats. My kids ate the ones I made without the nuts. Wesley did the best with his nuts. At least he swallowed the ones he had put in his mouth. I know for sure Kate took a bite and spit it out.

This weekend we went to LegoLand! Which is in some town next to Chicago that starts with an S. Here we are at the front entrance. 

This was Wesley's second favorite spot. 

Here is Chris's favorite part. 

Wesley made a monster to place inside a monster town. Can  you guess which one is his?

One of my favorite parts, a dragon ride!

Wesley built a race car to send down a ramp. It flipped head over heals a few times. 

Kairi built this tower all on her own and was very thrilled. I thought it was pretty cool too. 

We got to see a 4D movie, but not one with a prince. We saw one about a team of guys retrieving a box, escaping a scary monster, driving backwards down roads etc and flying on a jet pack. The girls got scared of the monster. Wesley loved this part of Legoland the best. After playing with legos they all came to life!

Here's the kids in their first ever theater experience. Kairi, Wesley, Dad and Kate. Me? I'm taking the picture.

This one is out of order. It really belongs at the top as it happened in August. We got our driveway mudjacked to get rid of the two bumps that stuck out of it and made me and kids trip. 

This one is out of order too. It is a zoo picture taken in September. Now it is too cold for shorts. 

Kate, Dad, Kairi, mom, Wesley.

Homemade playdoh party.

Oh another golfing picture.

This is the last mini golfing picture. It has Kairi making a funny face. Kids are sure good at making those. :)

The End.
Phew made it through this post!
Have a great week everyone!