My first sad little gingerbread house

This is the first gingerbread house that i have ever baked and assembled all by myself. In elementary school I was always in the class that wasn't making gingerbread houses (which looking back seems truly cruel to let one half of the grade do something the other half couldn't.) Anyway the house was hard to put together because the sides were mismatched and the icing wasn't thick and holding the pieces together. But one must start somewhere and as I would like this to become a family tradition there is no time like the present. Besides it doesn't look half bad from far away if you squint a little.

Our First Gingerbread Family

These babies were made with a Betty Crocker mix, because I couldn't find a few ingredients to make the real thing. They didn't turn out much like I wanted them to, I didn't make the icing right and it was to runny. It always discourages me when my projects don't go according to plan (which is 99% of the time) but I still want to try one more time with a real recipe before I swear off gingerbread for good. See if you can guess which one belongs to each member of our family.

My beautiful childies

I hate it when parents brag about they're kids so I will try and refrain, all I know is Brock and I were blessed with amazing children and we do not deserve them.

This was a Rudolph.....

So this was a Rudolph cupcake that we made in "moms" group that we have every Thursday here in the quad. My dear friend Missy is the one in charge of it and she does a bang-up job every week! She is really good at cake making and baking so she made all the antlers and the eyes (both which are still featured before the out of control mom ate the other half of Rudolph). I really meant to take a picture before I ate it because they were so cute. Oh well.

Chrimas Pajamas

Here is me and Esther by our old Christmas tree, this was Esther's first Christmas I think she was 9 months old. I tell you I can't believe how fast time goes by, and even with the aid of photos and videos it's still hard to remember them being this small!

Esther Ballerina

I guess I am on a last year kick, I took these pictures last year for Valentines Day cards (which I never sent out) but I loved the pictures all the same. Another reason I will miss my old home, it had really good lighting.

Our Former Housie

Here is where we were living this time last year. It snowed so much last year! After living in our neighborhood for three years, we didn't really ever talk to our neighbors until last winter because we all got stuck so much in the snow! That driveway was a thorn in my pregnant side I can tell you! Still I miss our first house, and I miss living with Lizzy and Grizzy. (Sister and Brother in-law)
This house was built in 1924, and was our first home, but when a house is that old I can't help but feel that it was never really ours. And now it's found a new person to shelter.

Christmas time is here....

It's a little less than two weeks until Christmas and naturally I still have everything left to do. My father just underwent surgery on Thursday to have his prostate removed, and I've only just started to think how incredibly awful it would be if something went wrong and he was gone. He is having some problems with his kidneys so they probably won't let him leave until Sunday, but besides that I think he is doing ok. This would be the worst time of year to lose someone, and I just can't imagine life without my papa, so if you be the praying type, pray that everything goes well and he has a full recovery!

Here we are in Pioneer Park, blending in with our surroundings, well the kids are anyway.