Snow ice cream

Well - when life gives you loads of snow .... you make snow ice cream! Yay! I found this recipe online and the girls thought it was pretty good. I think that I'm going to look around a bit more though and do some experimenting with chocolate ice cream to see if we can find the perfect recipe. :)

Mieka mixing the cream, sugar, and pudding up. Good stuff!

Annika got to fold in all the snow - 10 cups in total.
Don't worry - we made sure it was clean snow.

Enjoying the fruits of their labor. Kind of sort of tasted like soft serve.
Next time I'll put less sugar in.

NOTE: There are literally 11 new posts following this one. Eek! I got a bit behind on posting - but now we are finally all caught up. Yay!

Making our own mangers

For FHE yesterday, we made a little manger and baby Jesus for each of the kids. Each of the kids got a little bag of hay that they could use to fill up the manger and make it nice and soft for baby Jesus. The caveat was that they could only put a piece of hay in if they had done something nice for someone else. There was a lot of hugs for mom and dad going on originally so that the kids could put some hay in. And then they figured out that they needed to do a bit more to get that hay. Both Annika and Mieka have been getting lots of hay this morning - helping with shoveling the mass amounts of snow, picking up toys, making beds, helping to make breakfast. I think by Christmas day that baby Jesus' manger is going to be overflowing with sweet helpings and hay. :)

Mieka decided that her baby Jesus needed some company.

Also had to post cute pictures of the girls in their Sunday Christmas outfits. Cute! :)

Not quite so cute family picture ... but when you are rushing to get out the door to church you go with what you get. :)

Jingle Bell Mieka!

Mieka had her super cute preschool program on the 17th. She boogied and sang with the best of them. :)

A picture right before the program started. One grandma told us she was so cute that she should be on tv. :)

Singing AND signing Silent Night. Yay Mieka!
Mieka's teacher Miss. Jilane is amazing! She does such great stuff with the kids.

They also each got up and said what they wanted for Christmas. This time Mieka said she wanted a skateboard! Huh? Well - maybe next year.

After they were all finished with their program they got to go and sit on Santa's lap and tell him what they wanted for Christmas. He also gave them a book for Christmas. Mieka got Curious George's Christmas - her favorite!!! She was so excited. :)

Yay Mieka! You did such a super fantastic job. We are so proud of you! Love you!

TuTu Cute

Both of the girls had their mini dance recitals at their dance school on the 15th and 16th. At their school they do a huge production of a classical ballet at the Covey Arts Theater in June - this year they are doing Sleeping Beauty. So, the Christmas recital is a small in-class recital that the parents can come and watch at the studio. Both of the girls did FANTASTIC! Especially since they have only gone 3 weeks - we started late because of the soccer season.

Mieka had her performance on Wednesday. They started out by stretching and doing some practice runs of their dance. Then they put their little costumes on and performed their dance for us. Then they did what is called the princess walk - where they do different ballet moves down a path of carpet squares. VERY cute. Yay Mieka! You did a super duper fantastic!!

Annika had her class on Thursday. They too started out by stretching and rehearsing their dance. Annika's group got to perform their dance a couple time because after the first time the dance director brought in new costumes. Guess she didn't like the first ones too much. :) Yay Annika! You did a fantastic job too!

Video coming to a computer near you soon!

My cute little ballerinas!! :)

Deck the Hall's - Annika's playing the piano

On Monday the 13th we got to attend Annika's piano recital. Her teacher, Sister Bankhead, scheduled a room at the American Fork library because she has so many new students. Annika was the third one in a long line of pianist to play. I think she was more excited than nervous about playing. She did a super fantastic job! When Dave gets a chance he's going to make a you tube video of her playing so grandparents can see it.

Picture from right before the recital started. She wasn't worried at all - she just wanted to play Stack the States on my iphone. :)

Annika played Deck the Halls and All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth. I tried to get her to turn around after she finished and give a big smile, showing that she was missing her two front teeth, but she wouldn't have anything to do with that. Guess it was too cheesy for her. :) She did a fantastic job! Yay Annika!

Express to the North Pole

On Saturday the 11th we got to ride the "Express to the North Pole" - the train ride formerly known as the Polar Express. Not sure if they were sued by the author or film company, but they no longer read the Polar Express book or give out bells. BUT - the girls still had a fantastic time getting to ride on the train and seeing Santa Claus. A very nice family gave up one of their seats so that all of us could sit in seats facing each other. Talk about Christmas spirit for which we were very grateful.

We started off the train ride by seeing Mrs. Claus and getting to try some of her famous Christmas cookies. Yummy chocolate ones! Yay!


We then read The Night Before Christmas and sang Christmas songs. Before we knew it we were at the North Pole!

Annika was very excited to see Santa.

Mieka - not so much. She was hiding under the coats. :)

But, she finally warmed up when he gave her a fun toy top.
Mieka told Santa she wanted a doll house.

Annika told Santa she wanted a teddy bear. Really? That wasn't on the official list. Oh wait! Yes it was! Bummer. Maybe next year :)

Over all it was a super fun night on the train. I'm grateful that there are so many fun activities for families to do in this area. Lots of great opportunities to create fantastic memories.

Graham Cracker Houses

On the 10th we had a fun afternoon of making graham cracker "gingerbread houses" over at Emilee's. The girls had a fun time piling the candy on their houses and munching as much as they could in the process. :)

Emilee and Janice hot glued their houses together. Good idea! We opted to use a milk carton as a base and just frost the graham crackers on to that. Seems like they both worked great.

Num Num. Munching as fast as she can.

Kindergarten Devotional

On the 9th Annika participated in the Kindergarten Devotional at school. Each of the children dressed up according to their part in the program. Annika was a drummer angel in the angel band :)

Annika with her carpool buddies - Emma and Kenya.

Just before the program with her buddy Olivia.

Annika got to lead the pledge of allegiance at the beginning and was so confident! Where did this child come from?? Surely not Dave or me. :)

Then they sang several Christmas songs and each child had a part about why Christ is the center of Christmas. I was so amazed at how each of the children had all the poems, parts, and songs memorized. They do an amazing job at American Heritage. And the spirit of these little 5 and 6 year olds help remind us what Christmas is about.


Yay Annika! You are an amazing angel drummer and singer! We were so proud of the fantastic job you did on your part and leading the pledge. Love you!

Borax Crystal Snowflakes

For our Science Sunday - which was actually on Monday the 6th we made Borax Crystal Snowflakes. I found the "recipe" on Martha Stewart's website. I was actually amazed at how fast the crystals formed on the pipe cleaners. Super easy project and the girls loved the finished project.

Mixing up the solution of borax and water.

We decided to make ours pink since we are pinkalicious folks.

Mieka amazed by her beautiful snowflake. :)

This picture doesn't do it justice. They are all twinkly when the lights from the Christmas tree shine on them. Unfortunately the food coloring didn't make them very pink, but they are still pretty. :)

Sinterklaas

Yay! Sinterklaas is here! We celebrated sinterklaas this year on the evening of Sunday the 5th and the morning of Monday the 6th. We started the festivities by having a fun dinner with Jen, Jan, Dan, Emilee and the kids. After a quick clean up Dave read a sinterklaas story about Miet and Piet the mice who dress up as sinterklaas. The kids then did a rousing chorus of Sinterklaas Kapoentje. Upon finishing there was a loud knock on the door and low and behold Sinterklaas had left a big bag full of toys for each of the kids. :) I need to get some pictures from Jen of the kids running to the door and opening their presents. I missed out on that.

Later the adults exchanged jokes gifts with one another. Dan got an iphone cozy, jan - a new red bow to add to her collection, dave - enough white bread to choke a horse, emilee - baking aids , jen - a spiffy bread slicer guide :) and me - home made salsa made out of the veggies i neglected to take care of in Emilee's garden. :)

The next morning the girls awoke to find that Sinterklaas had come back during the night and had brought the blessed PILLOWPETS!!! Thank you Sinterklaas!!!

Annika in utter bliss with her unicorn pillowpet.

I think Mieka loves her dolphin/whale too. :)

Live Nativity

On December 4th we got to go and see a Live Nativity in Alpine. A family and their neighbors put the nativity together using their barns. The first barn has real camels, sheep, geese, and a donkey.

Mieka did NOT like the camels! Didn't matter if they had one hump or two, she didn't want anything to do with them. :)

They also have families show different trades that people performed back then, even bread making. Each of us got to try some "traditional" bread. :)

After we left that barn we headed over to a smaller barn. It was warm and quiet. You entered and there was Mary and Joseph with a little sleeping baby Jesus. In the hush of the room you could actually imagine yourself standing there looking at the baby Jesus. What an amazing way to testify of Christ and feel His spirit!

Annika, Mieka, and Matthew watching the baby in awe. It was so sweet to watch them memorized by the little baby. :)

Mieka with her favorite "horse" - she wanted poor Janice to carry her through the whole thing.

Birds, Santa, and Tree's - Oh My!

We started off our week by making bird feeders. Unfortunately the birds haven't gotten the message that we have FREE food for them. Bummer. Hopefully they will figure it out before it gets washed off the pine cone.

On the first of December we wrote our letters to Santa. Annika was very worried that Santa wouldn't know she wanted a Pillow Pet - the pillow that's a pet! I think the Pillow Pet company must own stock in the Qubo television station. They show an ad for pillow pets every 10 minutes! Annika's favorite show - The Magic School Bus - is on that station so she's been fully indoctrinated about getting a pillow pet. The other day she was telling me the virtues of pillow pets and why she "needed" to get one. Ugh ... I hope Santa gets that letter soon!


Annika asked for:
1. A Pillow Pet - of course!
2. Spring shoes -she wants jumpy pogo shoes ... don't think Santa is going to go for this one.
3. A teddy bear
4. Clothes for her Hello Kitty.

Mieka asked for:
1. A Pillow Pet - amazing! I can only assume Annika talking about Pillow Pets non-stop has influenced her some what. :)
2. Dolly House
3. A blanket

Pretty simple stuff. :) Guess we'll see what Sinterklaas and Santa show up with. Hope there wont be too much wailing and gnashing of teeth. :)

Annika got to put Santa's letter in the mail box.

And Mieka raised the flag so it could get picked up and mailed. All Even Steven like.

On Friday (December 3rd) we were able to go to the Festival of Trees up in Sandy. The girls had a super fun time making little crafts, looking at gingerbread houses, and of course the trees. They had some great trees this year. Very creative people out there.



While walking through the exhibits Janice mentioned maybe making a gingerbread house for next years festival. I hope that we do it. That would be a great way to show our appreciation for such a great hospital and all the people that work there.