Getting Ready for Christmas

December always keeps us busy. But I try to make is memorable for the kids, too. This year I was asked to run the class Christmas party for Augie's kindergarten class. The teacher knew someone who had a real beard and often came as Santa (he was actually the husband of another teacher) so we had Santa visit the Kindergarten. Then they got their picture taken. They wrote a little list of things they wanted for Christmas and decorated a "cookie" they cut out of foam. It all went together on a scrapbook page for their class memory book.

We have had a lot of fun in the past week getting ready for Christmas. We started with our ward Christmas party, where the primary children sang a couple of songs for the guests. I have been blessed with children who can sing well. They are very good and cooperative, too. Here is a picture of Sam and Abby with the group--unfortunately Augie was sick that night, running a fever, so he had to stay home with Dad.

This is essentially our whole primary group-- pretty small, but sweet kids!

 Another fun thing we did was visit Leo's Place, a favorite restaurant that serves pizza and burgers and has a playground for the kids. Augie had a birthday coupon that gave him a free kids meal and playland pass. So he got free food, and we got a pizza for the kids. At the end of the night Santa visited and all the kids got their names in a drawing for prizes--TONS of prizes! Since you had to be present to win, two of our children were lucky enough to have their names drawn! Sam won a football player action figure, and Abby this adorable circus-themed tea set.

 Augie got a consolation prize-- a cute rubber ducky "dressed" as a penguin. And with his free food and play time, he felt like he'd gotten a special treat. The only bummer was Jim is too old to be considered a "child." At 13, he's too old for the drawing and the playland. :( But he had a bunch of tokens for the arcade and that kept him happy.

We love Leo's Place. We know the owner personally and he said his wife has a ball planning this special Christmas giveaway night each year. We certainly enjoyed our evening there.

 This week has been crunch time for finishing Christmas projects. I have been working on this quilt for Augie since July. We borrowed a quilt frame from my sweet old neighbor Gay Solomon (we lived next door when we lived on J Street). So I got the quilt on the frame and Abby helped me tie it. The quilt has a lot of Augie's favorite cartoon and superhero characters--Scooby Doo, Cars, Pokemon, Superman, Batman, Captain America, Green Lantern, Spider-man, and more. After sewing the yarn ties on I bound the edges, and Augie will have a new quilt for Christmas. I also spent all day yesterday sewing Christmas pajamas.

 A new tradition we did this year was to read aloud a Christmas story each night to the children. We wrapped up each book and opened it each night (like an advent calendar). I got this idea from a lady in our ward, Ruth Arnell. This is a picture of Daddy reading a Disney Christmas Parade book to the kids. As you see, they really were into this story!

Sam,  Jim and I also were reading books that night-- a nice way to pass a cold winter evening.

Now it's just two days until Christmas, and we are so excited! We hope you all have a Merry Christmas, too!

Random pictures from earlier this year

It's hard to keep up on my blog now, so I'm just putting up some highlights from 2011. And they are in no certain order...

Halloween costumes--Abby is a tiger, Sam a surfer, Augie the Hulk, Jim is Darth Vader.

scary zombie Grammy!

Jim carved this Jack o Lantern

glowing Jack o Lanterns on Halloween Night

Augie's first day of Kindergarten.

Abby with cousin Taylor at Ammon's wedding.

Ammon and Jackie's dance at the reception.

Grammy's wildlife "over the hill" cake.. the bucket says "kick." :)

Family vacation in August... this is the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone

Emerald Springs hot spring... I love Augie's face!

Mammoth Hot springs... very pretty

Family picture at Yellowstone. We loved staying in these cabins at Mammoth Hot Springs.

Abby and Sam's first day of school.

Augie lost his first tooth!

Abby and Augie with the fall foliage at Mesa Falls.

 

Overlooking the brink of the falls. It's an awesome sight!

The video is at Mesa Falls, north of Ashton, Idaho. We took at trip to see the fall leaves and the falls on October 10. 


Well, there are some highlights in pictures. We are just staying busy and plugging along... hope you are too!

Augie's Sixth Birthday

Augie turned six today! It is incredible how fast the years have gone by and how big he has grown.

Augie has been excited for his birthday for months. He let me know several months ago that his cake was to be a scene where Godzilla attacks a city. Since I am no "ace of cakes," I decided to do one building and have Godzilla attack. Well, the cake did NOT look good so I covered it in graham crackers. The cute part was the mini Augie on the roof, with a blaster rifle (donated by Jimmy from his Lego Star Wars minifigure), defending Augie Tower against Godzilla.

The finished product was a bit crooked...

The funny part was, we had dinner then went in the living room to watch Augie open presents. The cake was left on the kitchen table--no one touched it! But when we came back in the kitchen, apparently Godzilla had attacked! The building lay in ruins! I thought it was hilarious but Augie was sad--he had wanted to be victorious against Godzilla.

Before...

and after! total destruction.

I propped up the cake long enough to light the candle, sing happy birthday, then have Augie blow it out. Then it crumbled in front of Godzilla again. :)

Augie was pleased with his presents. He got a gift card from Grandma and Grandpa Droegemueller. He had a blast popping balloons from Grammy and finding a dollar bill in each one. He especially liked his Green Lantern Imaginext set and Sonic remote control car.




What a special day for a special boy!

Here is a video of the cake destruction. 

Long-hair beauty to short-hair cutie

Abby has begged me to let her cut her hair for years. I finally told her when she turned 8, she could decide if she wanted it cut. Well, we were at the salon at 10:00 a.m. for her haircut.

This is her picture from last summer. Now I know every mom says this, but my daughter is SOOO beautiful!

 But this summer her bangs were always hanging in her eyes, and she would throw her hair into a ponytail. (Here she is modeling a shirt Grandma Johnson sent for her birthday).

This morning we cut a 10-inch length and saved it in a braid so we could donate it to Locks of Love. They make wigs for children who can't grow hair or who have lost their hair. Her hair was down to her waist before. And now...

 Here is the view from the back. She wanted the "flip" look. It is adorable (but I still cried at the salon when she cut it).

This shows how long her hair would have been. This braid will be donated.

 She is cute! She looks older. She is wearing a new outfit I made her for her birthday.

 That's my girl! I will post more about her birthday after she opens presents and we have cake, etc. tonight. Love you Abby!

Visit from friends and April Fool's day

 Our wonderful friends (who used to be neighbors, but are now our neighbors up north in Canada), the Deans, came for a visit. They were on their way down to Utah for spring break. We had a wonderful, happy Sunday evening visit. We had dinner and a lot of laughing, talking and games. It was so great to see that the kids picked right where they left off and were instant friends once again.

 Here are the "girls" and Augie... he's the only boy in this age group. Emma and her mom Heather came to visit the Deans as well. So from left, Emma, Abby, Emily, Shelby, and Augie.

 Playing games on the floor. Jimmy, Sammy, Chad and Riley (Emma in background).

 So sweet! I love this picture. Such good friends still! They played dress up and watched a movie.

 The moms: Me, Jessica holding Hailey, and Heather. We had a good chat... just what moms  need!

 Shelby looking like a rock star!

 More talking and having fun.

I miss you! Thanks for the visit, Jessica, and all your family. We'll meet again....sometime!

For April Fool's Day I had this "great" idea. I was looking up St. Patrick's day dinners (we had corned beef and cabbage and irish soda bread) when I saw this "cake." It's two meatloaves, cooked in layer cake pans, and frosted with mashed potatoes. I had leftover potatoes so I added them as scoops of "ice cream". So we had dessert for dinner...the potatoes look slightly purple because my comedic kids decided to color the milk blue, then another one decided to color it red. So we had purple milk that day.

Our "layer cake" from the side. It tasted okay, but the potatoes got cold quickly and needed some gravy.

And then we had dinner for dessert. I made a "pizza" out of a sugar cookie, some cream cheese frosting, and strawberries. My kids thought this was quite the treat. I hardly ever make homemade cookies, so they thought this was out of the norm. And to turn a cookie into their favorite food, pizza, well that was the bomb. I had lots of leftover dough so we cutout the letters of their names with alphabet cookie cutters. 

The next day the Oscar Meyer Weinermobile came to town. Abby and Augie went to see it. It is about 11 feet high. The people who drive it work for a year taking it all across the country. The next Monday we saw it pulling up to a red light, just like a normal car... hilarious looking car, of course.

Another look at the weinermobile. The sign in front shows there are several still in service.