Church Christmas Party

Each table was given ginger bread making kits and then there were prizes for mystery categories. :) We received honorable mention for Richard's Tie Fighter. :) It was a lot of fun and the boys and even Ben participated in some of the entertainment numbers. The kids sang a couple of church Primary songs and Ben and the Bishopric (leadership) sang a Danish Folk melody a cappella. :) It was pretty good. I was proud of him.

Richard's 9th birthday

 We bought Mini Murphs from Papa Murphys because the boys can top them as they want.

 See Garrett's line of pepperoni?

 Each year Ben and I have made the boys a unique cake. This year we are featuring the Death Star. Richard's only requirements was that it had to be Party Rainbow chip and Star Wars. And cool. :)

 So it is (was) a two layer with homemade strawberry jam holding the layers together with homemade vanilla frosting. (Thank you Betty Crocker for great box cake mixes.) Ben is the creative one so he gets to do the decorating...

The favorite was the binoculars.

Randomness

 Spencer taking a picture of Garrett.

 Garrett taking a picture of Spencer.

 Spencer taking a picture of his cute feet.

 Spencer taking a picture of Richard reading. Yes, that is what he is really reading. :)

 Our Thanksgiving Rice Krispie Treat turkey farm.

 We had homemade bread, mashed potatoes from scratch, green bean casserole, stuffing with extra yumminess in it, gravy from the turkey drippings, and our turkey was stuffed with fresh rosemary and thyme. Cranberry sauce and olives completed the meal. :) We used my great-grandmother's china.

 Afterward we Christmas-ized the house; we completely had to rearrange the living room to make room for the tree...as little as it is. Thanks to Sarah for helping us move the piano across the room. :)

 All of our home/handmade stockings. Spencer's will be done next year...

We had to move the stereo into the play room so we've been listening to music through the blu-ray player.

Our first snow

 Spencer doing his homework. The reading lamp helps I guess.

 The trees across the street. Some men from the neighborhood spent all morning using their chainsaws to cut the limbs up.

Quiet family time

At the luncheon after our new nephew's blessing there was a huge dog named Shadow. He was so great with the kids.

We had a great time at Glen and Elliouse's house.

Adventuredome!

This is the Adventure Dome at Circus Circus. We bought all day passes so we could go on as many rides as we wanted. There are also tons of carnival games, food, arcade games, etc for extra money. :) We just did the rides. Some rides were just for the kids, and other we could all go on together. Richard and Ben and I could go on the big roller coaster and the water ride, so we took turns with Richard and let the two littler boys go on other rides while Richard rode the roller coasters several times. :) 

They are just getting warmed up. The day gets better. This was the only ride Richard didn't like. But he rode the gigantic roller coaster several times...silly kid.

I think they were in shock when they got off. I was so worried at the beginning of our time here...how would their stomachs hold up? They were all fine and all had a ton of fun. :)

They went on the Thunderbirds several times throughout our day.

The Drifters was just a mini ferris wheel, and you can see some of the park (all indoor) from this shot.

Las Vegas Trip

Visiting the Ethel Chocolate Factory in Henderson NV. The boys loved the little M&M shop...I did too, especially since we didn't have time to visit the big one on The Strip.

 The Cactus Botanical Gardens at the Ethel Chocolate Factory. We didn't just come for the chocolate. :)

See the patch of Rabbit ears? We learned a lot about cactus. But our favorite is still the Joshua Tree.

Stopped at McDs for lunch and once the happy meal toys wore out there play time Spencer discovered that the arm rests from his car seats can be removed. Thus. He is imitating the boxing game from Wii sports...

The Volcano show at The Mirage was pretty spectacular. You could really feel the heat.

                                 At the hotel swimming pool...a bit small, but fit our needs. :)

Halloween Carnival

Candy eating contest!!!

Gepetto's Workshop 

Yes that is Angry Birds

Adventures at Cornbelly's

 Shooting the corn cannon

 I got buried in the hen house...found corn kernals days later...