Allyson's Zoe

This is Allyson's Zoe.
I found this idea on a friend's blog and thought it would be cute to show each child's finished Zoe.
Make your own Christmas Zoe.

Caden's Zoe

This is Caden's Zoe.
He was a little disappointed that there wasn't a boy one!

Baby Jesus and Christmas decorations

Driving home today, we passed a nativity scene and Caden said, " Hey - Hey - There's Baby Jesus!"
He thought we should stop and see it.
Wow - I am amazed at how much kids notice!
What a neat thought that he can recognize the manger and Baby Jesus. It makes me sad to think that in some areas the freedom to put out decorations that remind us of the Very First Christmas, has been taken away! I am so grateful that I live in an area where this is still allowed. I am also proud that my kids have the privilege of growing up to recognize Baby Jesus in the manger.

Sticking with the thoughts on Christmas and decorations, the last 2 mornings, I had to be at work early (before 7 am) and the kids anticipated seeing the Christmas lights as we drove into town. I smiled when they would say - "there's a Christmas tree" and "there's a Christmas house" (meaning that the tree has lights on it, or the house has lights on it). They said the same thing both days!

Holiday PJ's

Wanted to show off our matching Christmas PJ's!

The kids love our Christmas tree, even though there isn't a lot on it this year except for lights, a couple ornaments and the gingerbread cookies that we made.

Gingerbread Cookies!

We baked Gingerbread cookies this weekend! Caden and Allyson both had a great time helping! Most of the ones that we baked are gone. We shared a couple with G'pa and G'ma and Uncle Kyle, and then hung some on the Christmas tree (which are slowing getting bites taken out while still on the tree. We will be making more soon!
Allyson called the girl cookies the "dancing" ones. Both kids loved licking the beaters and helping stir the batter. Allyson loves to put her fingers in the measuring cups after they have been used. She didn't care for the molasses taste very much!
After the dough is made, it needs to be refrigerated for a couple hours. Before I could get that in the fridge, both kids got into it and had just plain dough. They both thought it was really good - but called it "terd cookies". You can all rest assured that they tasted much better than the above mentioned name!

A few more pic's

Wanted to share just a few more pics of the fun memories we have of Angel.

Do dogs go to heaven?

Today was a sad day for our family. We had to put our pet Rottweiler named Angel to sleep this morning. She hasn't been herself lately and hasn't been eating well. Broc took her to the vet this morning and found out that she had a tumor in her mouth and there was nothing that could be done for her. Angel has been a part of our family since 9-11-01. We got her when she was just 6 months old. She was our house dog for awhile when we first moved into our house. Then she became an outside dog during the summer and a inside the porch dog during the winter and at night. She will be missed for her friendly nature. The kids loved playing with Angel and were never scared of her. We have told the kids that Angel was sick and that daddy took her to the animal doctor and that because she was very sick, now she is in heaven with Jesus. They don't question that - they just occasionally ask "Where's Angel - in heaven with Jesus?" Broc being the great guy he is took it upon himself to dig a hole in the yard and bury her.

Row, Row Your Boat

To pass the time in the car on the way to and from work and daycare, we sing. The kids sometimes like to be silly and this is one of thier most recent silly songs.

"Row, row your boat
gently down the stream full of 'getti"

they will sing this and then just laugh!
It definately puts us all in a good mood for the day!

"Ducks"

The end of last week, a co-worker told me about a pond on the edge of town that has had geese and a beautiful white swan. After I picked up the kids from daycare, we drove by and watched them for a little while. The kids thought that was really neat! So of course, the next day, we did the same thing. I'm sure that this week we will have to check on them too. Maybe one of the days we can get a picture of the swan to share.
(Thanks AP for sharing your pic!)

Snow!

Yesterday, we had our first snowstorm for the winter. It started early Saturday morning with snow, then turned to rain later in the day. This was the end result - some snow and lots of ice. We had a few tree branches that fell in the storm.
Ally thought it was fun to "ice skate on the snow" with her Sunday shoes on this morning.
In order to get into the van this morning, we all got to climb in through the passenger front door because all the other doors were frozen shut from the ice.