Can we eat it?

We spent part of the morning decorating this fabulous gingerbread house. I debated whether or not to buy two totally separate houses to avoid the fighting but thankfully there was pretty much equal amounts. I gave each kid a piece of the roof and a person to decorate. They used most of the candy on the roof so the rest of the house is a little bare but overall, not a shabby house! Owen was a little sad in the picture as he had just hit his knee after running around the house. What do you know? We learned a lesson about running in the house AND built a gingerbread house all in one day!

Promise, not staged and they aren't fighting. I will treasure this picture for a long time!

Of course...Emma had to taste the goodies...maybe that's why the house is so bare???

Christmas Party #1

We celebrated with the very large Lawler clan at the University Place City Hall. Yep, our family is so big we have to rent a hall. It worked out rather perfect. There was an area for the kids to run around in and not get hurt or knock over the food, a long table to set the food up, tables for everyone to sit at, and lots of room to walk around and visit with family we haven't seen in a while. It was a lovely night. My cousin Jenny made this fabulous cape for Owen which I am sure will become a dress up favorite and the kids got a lot of wonderful presents from the family. One down and three to go!

It was so hot and Owen was running around so much that we took off his shirt. Merry Christmas! The sweat in his armpits collected little pieces of the black sweater and it looked like he had armpit hair, very funny!!

My cousin Rachel has a cast on her foot and uses this lovely contraption to get around...that is, until the kids found it!

Santa Train at Mineral

Today we took a train ride to visit Santa. It was a present from Mom and Dad Wren last year but we had all that snow and had to reschedule it for this year. The kids have never been on a big train before and were very excited. We left a little early and arrived about 45 minutes before boarding and the train was a little delayed. So, waiting for the train in the cold the kids threw rocks and used a stick to try and break ice that had formed over puddles. It was like 18 degrees and we were very cold.

The ride was a little slow so the kids, and I include Scott in that term, made faces and played silly games.

One great surprise for me was that both the kids sat on Santa's lap and I think decided that he isn't all the bad. Owen asked for cars and magically Santa had some cars to give him, Emma asked for Webkinz clothes but I don't think Santa knew what that meant because he gave her a card trick game instead. Oh well, maybe next year he'll get it right!

Tree Hunting

Every year we go to the Snowshoe Tree Farm in Orting for our tree huntin' experience. This year we went on a cold and blustery day, hunted down the perfect tree (although it was hard to find as they had slim pickings), and Daddy cut it down. Owen complained the entire time about the cold, Emma ran off and hide causing lots of worry for me, and Scott's shoulder hurt when cutting down the tree. It was a tremendous experience!