Family skype calls are the best. Mom left early and left her screen on this bag of m&ms. Ryan was poking the screen with a big smile!
Fall into Chocolate Cake is probably one of the top three cakes I've made.
Chocolate Ganache is always a hit!
FHE game time
Jim winterized the power washer. Only forgot one letter in my name and had to go get more gas ;)
Honor Roll for Jacob
Respect Award for his grade also
Honor roll for Mike. These assemblies are always an adventure keeping Katy and John quiet for hour after hour.
I tried replacing the dinged up hallway vent on my own. I was able to take it off and apart but when power tools were required I had to call in Jim.
Gold tipped roses
At Family Council, we've been asking each family member what we can pray for them that week. Diana copied down the different people and taped this to her door. So sweet!
During Halloween we were "booed" with surprise crafts. Diana kept the sign and colored it pretty cute...and taped it on her door.
Nicole's project on mummification. King Bird the Third.
Nicole on honor roll.
Nicole got the Music award too. So special when the kids are picked out of their grade for these awards.
Diana on honor roll. Pretty excited about it too!
Playdough fun
Testing out wilton gingerbread kits for company party idea I had.
Happy John!
It's a real struggle over here to keep fake plants alive.
Fortunately I can trim them. Eventually they'll be bald, but it works great for now.
Iced pumpkin cookies for the teachers.
I was prepping for the school vendor fair and John was my helper hiding under the table.
Nicole felt on top of the world after her first game where she scored a few baskets!
Her basketball shoes just show how much she's grown.
We had a mommy-daughter adventure where we stayed at a hotel, went swimming there and ordered food to the room (very exciting for her to eat while watching tv in the room!), then went to a fun park and painting class and dinner before heading home.
Cupcakes getting ready for the vendor fair (also did maple bacon)
I handed out the cupcakes in these cute containers so they wouldn't make a mess.
Nicole got braces! Her mouth was SO ready for these and I'm so glad we are getting this over with! She was sore for a few days, took Tylenol a few times but really has been fine about it.
Afternoon at the park while Jim was on call one weekend. He's had to take three calls in four weeks, and when he's on call he's pretty much at work a lot of the weekend.
Katy's Thanksgiving party! She sang some cute songs and had a yummy lunch. The other kids were already off school all week for Thanksgiving, so Nicole babysat and I got some great 1-on-1 time with Katy!
Last minute I found out Jim's work was having a potluck and they signed me up to bring cake! So I whipped out this idea and thought it was kinda cool! A pool of ganache, gold and roses is my kinda cake!
Nicole caught a lizard, here it is in a bucket.
Thanksgiving was at the Koffords this year. We brought a game that I had remembered from my childhood- a pinball type game called Battledome.
Peeling potatoes!
Katy and Easton playing Bugs in the Kitchen
All the crew!
John got upset, but it was nothing that Uncle Brandon and Honey couldn't handle.
The FEAST! We had to guard the soda haha
A neighbor asked me to make her 40th birthday cake!
Diana with Honey!
Kids reading scriptures to each other was the sweetest thing the other night.
We decorated the Christmas trees. Then John got to work. What was a cute kids tree looked like it had been through a windstorm.
Our family tree looks like it's been attacked by cats. He broke over a dozen glass ornaments in a few days. At this point, there is nothing breakable in reach. It also look ridiculous but I can't get myself to redecorate and put up gates. Have to recover first!
He hasn't destroyed the fireplace mantel yet though!
The vendor fair!
My two elf helpers gave out free samples of fudge, while I sold cupcakes, specialty cakes and fudge. We made a good amount of money, it really helped I had items that weren't expensive and kid-friendly.
Jake made a k'nex sail-powered car. Reminds me of when I met Jim and our first date was making a sail for his longboard.
John has entered DESTRUCTO-mode. It's a phase in our family where anything is fair game. It seems to strike children in a pattern of every other child. Michael, Diana and now John excel at DESTRUCTO-mode. This incident with pretzels, cheerios, playdough and water from the fridge dispenser took about 7 minutes. Skilled indeed.
Katy did her hair, looked into the mirror, and exclaimed "I'm so precious!"
Nicole at her basketball game.
They finally won a game! It was a super close game with a million chances to win/lose and the game went forever! I was the scoreboard operator and there must have been 3 dozen jump balls and a hundred stopped clocks- the game went 2 hours and it's just four 8 min quarters!!
Big smiles after victory!
John just out of the shower after another day of destruction. He is so very cute and he's just curious. Part of destructo-mode is just having ideas that aren't the best. Like, what happens when I get the whole bottle of desitin and cover my bottle, cars and bed with it?
Nicole enjoying her first taste of homework and staying up late to finish. She is working so hard to keep her math grades up. Each year, we find it really depends on the teacher and how they teach it. This year is tough, but Nicole has a good attitude about it and so far so good!
Diana's self portrait! Her classmates had oval shaped heads in their pics, but Diana really has quite the large cranium! It's like she's too big for the picture and had to stop at the top of the paper. If I were into psychology I see this as her being bigger than life, so full of energy and fun that she takes up all the world with her...until she has to stop :)
One of the kids deans asked if I could make cookies for her son's 21st birthday. He goes to ECU and their mascot is the pirates. While I was happy to help her, I really don't like cookie orders- they take FOREVER and can be so finicky if you're worried about getting it perfect. I decided no more cookie orders!
Mike hit his head on a metal pole while running during tag. He said he saw lots of black dots and then got a headache. The office gave him ice after a while and had him relax. It didn't go away and they called me but my phone was on vibrate and I didn't hear. Jim was in Raleigh with a full schedule and thankfully Marian came over. Unfortunately, Michael got up when she arrived and he got sick all over the front office floor. Marian was able to reach me thankfully and I drove over and took him to the ER where he got sick a few more times until their anti-nausea med could take over. And then he could also take Tylenol for the headache, which was contributing to the nausea. Marian was just incredible and watched John and Katy for the hours we were in the ER. Mike has totally recovered and was able to play basketball Saturday.
John cuddling while we were in the ER.
Several very important doctors had a holiday party on Saturday and I volunteered to make their holiday cake. We took John and delivered it and it was a great way to make a personal connection to the doctors. I also really loved making this beautiful cake. Making navy frosting is new- it was actually a Nutella frosting around chocolate cake. The gold lace was so pretty too!
The boys basketball games have begun! Jacob worked SO hard and missed his first 7 shots, but his coach helped him with some pointers and then he made 3 baskets in the fourth quarter. His coach was also his coach last year and he is awesome, really lifting him up and helping him be better.
That night we had Jim's company party. We tried something different and rented our clubhouse and had food catered. We played games- Guess Who the baby picture is, Guess how many candies are in the jar, and Two Truths and a Lie. We also played Left, Right where you hand out a bill of money to everyone (a $50 is one of them but also some $5s, 10s,20s) and read a story. Whenever the story said "left" you pass the money left, and pass right when it says "right." Pretty fun. We had a college basketball game on in the background and relaxing holiday music. I wish I'd taken a pic of the tables. I got ornaments, gold votive jars with lit candles, the kids got pinecones from the back yard and Jim got boughs from some trees so it looked and smelled so pretty.
The hot chocolate bar was out of this world. I had to test a few recipes (sorry Marian and Brandon haha) before I created the best one yet. It's Hershey's recipe using cocoa and then I use a can of evaporated milk as part of the total milk needed. SO good and the perfect starter for all this goodness. This was our version of after-dinner coffee for everyone :)
Here they are! We were missing some people, but it was a very relaxed and nice evening. Much nicer ambience and ability to talk to everyone than a restaurant. We had tons of food thanks to the great deal the caterer gives Jim because he uses this guy for marketing lunches too.
The next morning we woke up to this.
This was before breakfast, and we ended up with 10 inches before the sleet and rain started and now it is a big slushy mess that will turn into a dangerous deep ice skating rink tomorrow.
The neighbor took this pic of our house and sent it.
John went out in the snow for the first time he could remember! He was SO excited!
Mike helped he because he was so nervous. Since it was Sunday, they enjoyed the beauty of the snow and didn't do any sledding.
Breakfast! Nicole helped make the snowmen. Jim and I enjoyed a slow morning with everyone. We got to watch the Christmas Devotional that we missed last Sunday since it started way after bedtime.
I saw this hairbow on the tree. Katy is a decorator! I think she misunderstood me when I asked her to but some bows on the tree.
Jake with his pioneer wagons that say "choose the right"
Katy made a temple with all the shiny pretty stuff she could find.
Diana made beautiful patterns and told us it was a church building.
Nicole said this was what the stable where Jesus was born might have looked like (minus the snowman)
Michael built the inn that had no room for Mary or Joseph.
Diana helping Katy with finishing touches.
