Merry Christmas

Trent and I received a flip video camera for Christmas. It is really fun and easy to take around and takes good video. For an initial installment of Christmas fun, I thought I would try and upload a few short videos from Christmas.


For the last few years, I have told the kids that they can't come down until 6:00. This is the first year it mattered. In the past, they have gone to bed tired enough that they slept until closer to 7:00. This year, I looked at the clock when I heard someone come into our room. It said 5:58. I heard Ashley say, "why does my clock say it is after 6:00 and your clock says it isn't 6:00 yet?" Good morning and Merry Christmas. Ashley was really excited about everything this year and was thrilled that Santa brought her a Nintendo DS. I think you can see that in the video.






Trent tried waking up Jon and Sammy a little before 7:00 to no avail. The second time he went up at 7:15, Jon joined us. Of course, Ashley gets right in the middle of everyone else's discovery process, but it is still fun. (side note: I tried for two days now to upload the whole video clip of Jon. It spins for hours with no luck. I trimmed it down so that it would upload. You miss his complete excitement over a webkinz snake but not much else)




The last video is Trent waking up Sammy the second time. It is really cute to see her reaction this time.

And Yet Another

Knock knock.......

Who's there?

Yeta.

Yeta who?

Yeta another top tooth is missing from Jon's mouth. He not only wants his two front teeth for Christmas, he wants his four front teeth. He was actually quite happy with the situation. He wiggled that last loose top tooth all day until it came out. Now we really do wonder how he eats.

Deck the .... Doors

Trent's office was involved in a door decorating contest for the holidays. His office, the office of Ocean and Polar Affairs, cleverly renamed themselves the Office of Ocean and Polar Express. They had both poles featured and a train. Trent volunteered to take pictures of everyone in the office and turn them into elves. In that past, I have asked my dad for so much help with this kind of stuff. We decided to finally get a home edition of Photoshop. We certainly do enough to make use of it. After some much needed and helpful tutorials from my dad, Trent was able to make 20 elves for the door. In the end, they took second place. The door that one was a take on Starry Night. Still, Trent's work was fun, and it really helped make their door. Here a few pictures.

That little elf in on the bottom right is particularly cute if you ask me. :)

The door that won. Notice the star fish in place of the stars, the kelp forest, the sea monkeys.

A White Christmas

If you have watched any news in the last 36 hours, you know that the East Coast received a significant snow storm Friday evening and all through Saturday. I grew up around a lot of snow, but this (2 feet in about 24 hours) is a lot of snow and not common for this area.

We knew it was coming, so we had everything we needed at home already. Saturday morning was delightful. I stayed in bed and pretended to still be asleep. I heard footsteps come down the stairs and then a big gasp. The fact that I then heard footsteps go back up the stairs was proof that it was Jon. His sisters would have made much more noise. He returned shortly with both sisters in tow, and Trent and I heard many exclamations about how deep the snow was. Little did they know what was coming! There were several rounds of shoveling, and by the time the walk was finished, it was dusted over again. By the time the driveway was clear, it had a good covering where we started. I did most of the last of the shoveling this morning, and I am SO SORE. I will leave my commentary here, however, because Trent is off right now digging out some of our ward members, and he will be far more sore than I've any claim to. Now the sun is shining, and save the fact that we still can't see the road at all, it is gorgeous. It will definitely still be with us for Christmas, which is just wonderful. Save traveling home to Utah at Christmas, we haven't had a white Christmas in 7 years.

The kids are having an absolutely joyous time, and they haven't even dented the back yard yet. Everyone who has lived here for more than a few months tells me that they will likely call school tomorrow because though the main roads are clean, the side roads haven't been touched. That makes it difficult for buses and the children that must ride them. I can already imagine the raucous joy of three children with nothing to do tomorrow but play in all of that snow. I love it. I just hope we are back on track Tuesday as it is Ashley's winter strings concert, and I would hate for her to miss that.

Trent doing the first round of shoveling Saturday morning.

Sammy playing in the snow. (A side note: I love that that hat coat and gloves all used to belong to Ashley. I think I could dig up similar pictures of Ashley if I looked)

Jon. He is near the street not that you can tell the difference at that point.
Ashley who spent hours outside. I can't believe she didn't end up just freezing.

Check out the accumulation of snow on Trent's hat following an hour of shoveling Saturday evening. Trent took Jon to a birthday party that afternoon as I get nervous driving in significant amounts of snow. He did the finishing shovel until this morning when he got back.

We have a sky light in our living room. Our kids call it the Harry Potter ceiling because they can see the sky from inside. Right now, it looks like we are buried in snow.

Ashley doing a face plant in the snow to show off her cardboard snow shoes her dad made for her.

A final look at all the snow. This is the view from the front porch.

And Another One

Friday night while eating dinner, I noticed the front gap in Jon's grin looked bigger. I asked if he lost another tooth. He proudly pulled the plastic treasure box from his pocket and shook it so that we could hear that that there was a tooth inside. That makes 3 upper teeth and one bottom tooth all missing at the moment. He only has 2 more than will be going anywhere in the next little while, but I am still getting nervous about his ability to eat. He seems unaffected, however, and looks adorable if I do say it myself.

All Jon wants for Christmas..........

Jon now has both front teeth missing. He decided to lose these teeth with one of his bottom ones as well. In addition to looking a bit like a jack-o-lantern, he may need to stop loosing teeth until some new ones come in. He has lost three teeth since Thanksgiving. I think it is a cute time though.

A Visit with Santa

We went to our Ward Christmas party this weekend. No dinner (boo) just desserts. Santa made a little visit, which was the main attraction for the Warner children even considering they sang in a primary number during the program. When Santa came in and told the children to come and see him in the Primary room, I had to race to keep up with Samantha who zoomed across the room and out the door to follow him. They had the children fill out lists that had lines for 10 items. The children were then to circle the top 2 items they wanted, and that is what they could share with Santa. Although this was perhaps cute in conception, it lead to some chaos. Sammy has fewer things not on her list than on her list and doesn't really write yet, so she and other like-minded small children, made an immediate bee line for Santa. They knew the one or two things they were going to ask him for anyhow. The older kids all started filling out lists but lost patience with the whole process at some point and recreated a line. Ashley only had two items in the first place so felt put out to have to come up with more. Jon doesn't spell well but insists on writing things correctly so gave up after it took too long to write Star Wars. All in all, they were just happy to finally get to see Santa. Ashley wants to sleep in the living room this year. She is hoping to see Santa come down the chimney. Didn't the tooth fairy episode teach her anything?

Pumpkin Pecan Cookies

This past Saturday I went to a cookie exchange. We each brought 6 dozen cookies (either 6 of one type or 3 each of 2 types). We pulled 4 out and cut them up for sampling and then chatted and had a great time. We voted on our favorite and then divided up all the cookies. Therefore, we baked one or two types of cookies but brought home 12 different types of cookies and the recipes to make said cookies. One of the two types I brought were pumpkin pecan cookies with brown sugar butter frosting. I got the recipe from the cookie recipe collection Trent's Aunt Dee gave me. I have discovered many a yummy recipe there. They are a little bit different than the usual Christmas cookie, but they are really yummy. No, I didn't win, but these were well received. If you are looking for something a little different that definitely falls in the fall/winter flavors department, give these a try.

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 cup chopped toasted pecans

1. Preheat oven to 375. In a mixing bowl combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda and allspice. Set aside.

2. In a large mixing bowl beat the butter with an electric mixer on medium speed for 30 seconds. Beat in the sugar. Add the egg; beat well. Stir pumpkin and flour mixture into egg mixture. Stir in the chopped pecans.

3. Drop the dough by rounded teaspoons about 2 inches apart onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until bottoms are lightly browned. Transfer to wire rack. When completely cool, frost with Brown Sugar Butter Frosting.

Brown Sugar Butter Frosting

In a medium saucepan heat 6 Tablespoons butter and 1/3 cup packed brown sugar over medium heat until butter melts. Remove mixture from heat. Stir in 2 cups sifted powdered sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Add enough hot water (2 to 3 teaspoons) to make a smooth spreadable frosting. Frost cooled cookies immediately after preparing frosting (I put a decorative blob in the middle more than I frost the entire thing). If frosting becomes too grainy, add more drops of hot water and stir until smooth. (I have to do that last part at least twice before I am finished).

There are Games Afoot

Jon lost another tooth at school on Friday. I should take a picture and post it. He now has one top front tooth gone and one bottom side tooth gone. It is adorable really. That is not really the point though.

He brought his tooth home in a little treasure chest the school nurse supplied. Being Friday, we had movie night, and Jon, as he nearly always does on a Friday night, asked to have a sleepover with his sisters. He either sleeps on the floor between their beds or on the bottom of one of their beds. Last night was the later on Ashley's bed. We made sure he put his tooth under his pillow. After that, Jon and Ashley were talking quietly, and it seemed they were plotting something.

I set my alarm for 11:30 when I went to bed. They should be out by then. When I crept upstairs and peeked in the door, Ashley sat up and started looking around. I went downstairs and set the alarm for another hour and a half later. On the second trip, I was extra quiet but the same thing happened. Needless to say, the tooth fairy did not make a visit last night. Jon is trying for another shot tonight in his own bed. I told Jon that I thought Ashley and I created too much noise for the tooth fairy and that we would have to try again tonight. I also talked to them about trying to catch the tooth fairy, which I suspect is what was going on (you see, the toothfairy can fly you to the North Pole). Jon confessed that Ashley had devised just such a plan. Ashley insists that Jon is just saying that. After the plotting I saw and the uncharacteristic jumpiness last night coupled with the fact that I know Jon regularly tattles on himself, I think they were indeed trying to catch the tooth fairy. I can't say for certain though, because Jon has given a false confession in the past.

We had a good snow fall today, and they played in it this afternoon. That coupled with a long day of fun and all children in their own beds should mean they are all fast asleep and we can try again in another half hour. The games are afoot!