Gingerbread House Competition

The Gingerbread House Competition has come to an end, and now we all has amazing candy houses decorating our kitchens! This year we had a number of rules. Only four consecutive hours to put house together, only edible materials, and much more. Thank you for abiding by these rules. Now to the voting. each TEAM gets two votes. You will need to comment on this blog post to cast your votes. Love you all and Merry Christmas!!
Team #1 - Richard, Lynne and Heather - Using homemade gingerbread and homemade candy! Look at those hand molded sugar animals!

Team # 2 - The Sink family - Using gingerbread and traditional use of red and green!

Team #3 - Rachel and Jim. They made a mini gingerbread village. Look at all those little roofs and little details!

 


Team #4 - Chad and Angie Blaser! They have the "alternative" house with graham cracker! Look at that height!

 Team #5 - Corey! He made one all on his own, that is dedication!

 Team #6 -  Eli and Jamie. Master of edible materials! They even used broccoli :)

Team #7 - Dan, Jessica and Karin! Homemade gingerbread with homeade candy making Santa's Reindeer Barn.

 

Santa!

 Tis that time of year. We get to take the children to go ask Santa for a present. As if writing him several times for a specific toy was not enough, we get to go ask him in person. Jake was extremely confused at first. He asked questions like " He can't come down and play, he needs to make toys", " the reindeer need to practice Mom, so they can fly everywhere on Christmas", and " Santa can't come, he needs to eat the food so he can have a big belly". Frankly, if you do not understand Jacob's statements you had a sad childhood. Call me and I will recommend some Christmas movies.

 After giving him many completely made-up explanations we where off to see Santa. Jacob was so excited. He knew just what he wanted, and even said thank you.

 Now Derek on the other hand... Well, Derek is terrified of Santa! Dan wondered if making Derek sit on Santa's lap was torture. I told him it was tradition, and if I had to do it as a child so will he. It is like the circle of life.If I was forced to face my fear every year so shall he.

Merry Christmas everyone!!!

Christmas time!

Christmas time is such a fun time of year, but sadly super busy for Dan. I have found the multitude of random activities going on to be a good distraction from Dan's absence. My friend Katrina was husband-less because of a Job as well. So we packed up the kids and headed to the "drive through light display" at Thanksgiving point. I remember as a kid driving through neighborhoods trying to find houses with a lot of lights. This is less gas and tons of twinkling lights. All fun, until we decided to go see the reindeer after. Why would that be bad? Well, if you dress your kids in their pajamas and planned to take Derek out of his carseat and straight to bed than this would have been not ideal. So Derek got to run around in hay, in December and in footsy pajamas.

We went back to Thanksgiving point this past monday for the Family Activity Night at the museum. Obviously Jacob requested the reindeer... so we stopped by again so he could talk to the reindeer. It was super cute. He asked" Hello, do you know Rudolph?", " its okay, you can fly back to the north pole now." Jacob makes me laugh, he truly thinks he can talk to the animals. Yes, Derek is trying to climb in with the reindeer.
 They had a Santa letter station all set up and little crafts for the kids. Jacob wrote his letter to Santa . Okay I wrote what he wanted but he did sign his name. It is getting better, the letters are actually slightly recognizable. He asked for a train, shark, and whale shark. And thanks to Amazon he shall be getting all three. We then went to the mud area of the museum, where the kids spent an hour playing with mud and dinosaurs. Jacob decided he was going to be a purist and play with only green t-rex dinosaurs. Derek's mission was to destroy anything Mom created out of mud. That is right, I played with the mud too. 
 I had my niece over the other day, Jacob and her play so well together. Because it is Christmas and Jacob is putting on a little nativity scene for his preschool they obviously had to play Mary and Joseph.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving this year was fun and different. I had to cook the turkey and had some of Dan's side of the Family over to celebrate the Thanksgiving feast.My whole family was down in Las Vegas for Thanksgiving. Though I think I had to call my Mom and Aunts so many times about the huge turkey it was like I was there. The turkey turned out great, just an hour later than planned. Dan rated the meal a 9. Turns out I need to pay more attention when my Dad makes gravy. It was a good holiday. We also went over to Dan's Parent's house for the Astin Thanksgiving get together that week. It was fun having such a big gathering of people. All the kids running around reminded me of when I was little. All of the Glassford kids and Sinks running around driving the adults crazy. Biggest difference( besides people) .. no random bowl of olives and pickles on the table.  

Here is Derek with his cousin Nathen. 

UVU Basketball Party!

 We went to a "UVU meet the basketball teams" with Steve and Noreen. It was super fun. The kids got a basketball and UVU shirt. Jacob thought it was so cool that the team signed his ball. He keeps asking me to read the signatures... I come up with original names like Bob, Luke and Wakeem. I like the name Wakeem , if my kids could pull of that kind of name they would totally have it.

Jacob had fun doing all the activities and meeting the players. He discovered the sweet stickiness of cotton candy . Derek obviously didn't touch the cotton candy. 

 They had all the kids line up and hold their hand out. This way the could call out the basketball player's name, then run down the line giving everyone a high five. Super fun right? Oh yes, Jacob had a blast! Derek.... well ... that is another story.

 Then the cheerleaders did a little show and the basketball players demonstrated their skill of shooting a basket in a non-stress situation. As you can see, Derek thought it was riveting.

Okay. Here is the thing, I have come the realization Derek has a fear of strangers. The crying and not wanting to be near the wolverine mascot, totally normal. But when the nice cheerleader wants to hold his hand and put a fake tattoo on his wrist he was more than willing. Seriously.... he is only 1. Liking the ladies isn't supposed to start till he is a lot older.

Grandpa Glassford

Grandpa with Jacob

This Fall has been a rough one to say the least. We have been licking our wounds and trying to wrap our minds around loosing our Grandma's when we got the news that my Grandpa passed away. It is hard to even bring up, and I don't like dwelling on this loss. For I feel like a rug has been pulled from underneath me. He was a great man and my families patriarch. Grandpa was truly a hero in my family and helped raise me and all my cousins. He was the ideal Grandpa. Always there when you needed him. He always told me that family was more important than all the gold in the world. He said that because he had us he was a rich man. I know he wanted to be with Grandma and he had a broken heart not to have his true love with him. But I will truly miss him. I will miss all my Grandparents. They are part of me, and hope that someday I can talk about it without crying. Until then, If you ask me about it just know you are just asking for tears. We love you Grandpa. We will miss you terribly.