Making Gingerbread Houses

It is a tradition at our church that the children make gingerbread houses one night after going to carol at a home for brain injured patients.  Chase is not yet involved in the children's program, but she was invited to make a house, so I thought we'd give it a whirl!  

I now know (not that I didn't already) that 2 is too young!  But, I, I mean she really wanted to do one!

So really for her it was just a great excuse to eat a lot of candy!  She ate things she never even knew existed! And mostly spit them back out.  But, the M & M's she loved!

She almost ate a choking hazard hard candy....but handed it to me instead.  Thank goodness!

Maybe next year it will be more about the decorating than the eating....oh who am I kidding??!!

Summer in Winter

We had a special opportunity to go to Palm Desert this past weekend for about 24 hours.  Our friends were there all week in a great timeshare and invited us to come over for a little getaway.  Talk about gorgeous!  It was in the 80's and bright blue skies....perfect weather for us!  It was strange to see things decorated for Christmas wearing a bathing suit and sundress.  But we'll take this over the crazy cold snap that has seemingly taken over most of the country.

Thanks friends for the fun!!

Happy Birthday Dear Ellie!

Here is John's very first niece, Elisabeth Noel....she became a string of many sweet nieces and nephews...who would have known this 12 years ago?  And there are a lot of other neat things that have happened in those 12 years that no one would have guessed while this little one was eating her first cake!

.....like who would have known that Uncle John would not have a full head of blonde hair in a few years???!!!

...and at the time there was no Aunt Heidi in the picture! (this photo is from 2005)

...and there was surely no Chasey Jo....

...but mostly what was not known was what a sweet young woman this little one would turn into.  Who would have known that she would be so full of creativity, or so loving toward others, or such a big help to her mom (and others)?  And I did not know that such a big hole would be left in my heart when she left our daily lives.  I'll never forget the first memories I had of Ellie.  She and Drew were such little guys, and such good buddies. And Uncle John was (and still is) just crazy about her.  He loved spending time with her and having her over to spend the night with us.  

There are a lot of sweet memories there. We are anxiously awaiting Ellie's first big "flying by herself and coming to stay with us for a month" visit!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ELLIE!  WE MISS YOU SO!

What Have We Been Up To??

Veggin' on the bed while watching Sesame eating snacks....

A baby shower for Lisha....

Decorating for Christmas....

Having fun with hand me down dress up items...

Going to Legoland with Hailey....

This picture is for you Drew...

Breakfast in Bethlehem at Chase's preschool/church with Elyssa...

And our monthly dinner party with friends...

So far December has been a really fun month with lots of holiday activities!  

And we're only on the 8th day of fun....there is much more to come!