More snow and lights

On Sunday (November 28th) we had a huge snow fall! The girls saw me out there shoveling the driveway and decided that they needed to be part of it all. :) Dave brought them out to play for a bit - one of the benefits of having 11:00 church!


After church we decorated our tree. I was feeling a bit bah-humbug before the tree went up - I'm not a huge fan of decorating trees. :) But the girls had such a fun time putting on decorations that pretty soon I was caught up in their excitement.


Both girls wanted to put the star on - so we figured that it would be better to let both of them do it. Mieka flew up (via Daddy Air) and set it on the tree and then Annika flew up and straightened it out.



After the tree was decorated we made some sparkle snowflakes for the windows. Glue on wax paper covered with glitter. Next day, once it was fully dried I peeled it off the paper, put a dab of water on the back and stuck it to the window. I think we are going to make some more they were so easy!



After snowflakes we had a semi - well actually not so successful science experiment. If we had raisins it probably would have worked. It's the experiment where you put a raisin in a glass of water and baking soda. The weight of the raisin makes it drop to the bottom of the glass, but the bubbles from the baking soda make it rise. And then when the bubbles on the raisin pop it sinks again. We'll have to try it again now that we have raisins in the house. Note: rice and pasta do NOT work - no matter how much baking soda you put in. :)

Christmas Lights

Saturday night (November 27th - I'm a bit behind!) we headed out to see the lights at Thanksgiving Point. We thought that would be a good way to start out our Christmas Holidays.

This was a tree that had sprinklers running over the top of it to create a big ice sculpture. Neat idea.

Later we headed back over to Marianne and Gary's to celebrate Gary's birthday. They had a pizza cake from Maggie Moo's - super yummmm-o. I wish I would have brought our camera in to take pictures of everyone. Bummer :( Oh well - it was fun for the girls to play for a bit and for Dave and I to chat with family.

Thanks for Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving this year was with my family - who all happened to be in Utah. Yay! We started the morning with yummy turkey pancakes - stretching our stomachs out for a full spread Thanksgiving lunch. Sadly - this was the only turkey the girls ate all day. :)

A quick picture of Mieka's turkey for preschool and the turkeys that Annika's made in the past. Hello Kitty, Mickey Mouse, and Tinker Bell. :)

At 1:30 we made the journey over the river and through the woods to Marianne's house.

Family enjoying a super duper yummy dinner!

After dinner we relaxed and chatted. Lois brought some very cute little Build a Bear Kits for the girls to make. They thought this was the greatest thing ever! Almost two weeks since Thanksgiving and both girls are still carrying around and sleeping with their pets. Thank you Lois and Scott! That was their highlight of Thanksgiving. :)

Mieka with Hoppy the Bunny Cheerleader - Goooooooo Build a Bear! Yay!

Annika with Spotty the Cheetah - so chic!

After dessert the family either chatted, played games, or watched football. And Dave knitted. :) He's become quite the master of the knitting needles. I need to take some pictures of the things he made for the girls so far. He's doing great!

Mieka playing games with Val and Janae. Mieka loved playing with the big girls. :)

Over all it was a fantastic day of spending time with family. I'm so grateful that we were all able to get together and am grateful for the fantastic family that I have.

Playing Catch-up

So this post's purpose to play catch-up of the events that have happened in our little family up until Thanksgiving. Also this quick posting serves as proof to my children that we did do these activities and when they are teenagers I will be able to prove that I wasn't always a mean mom. :) We started out on the 15th by having FHE at our house. We had our usual group and after the lesson we made roll turkeys. They looked cute ... but tasted "interesting." Think next year we'll do a different type of turkey roll.

Mutated birds ... don't eat them! Yuck! Well the eyes were ok cause they were chocolate chips - but the rest - yuck!

Annika with cute little Isabella. Both Annika and Mieka are in love with babies and want to hold people's babies all the time. Good little future mommies!

On Wednesday the 17th we had Janelle and her kids and Emilee and her kids over to make some Thanksgiving crafts. We started out by making bracelets that told the Thanksgiving story. Each bead represented a part of the story. Fun idea - hard to execute with little kids. They had a little trouble getting the beads laced on their strings ... but the main problem was keeping the bracelet in one piece. Several were broken after they went down to play in the basement. Now I can see why other people just used regular plastic beads and pipe cleaners. :)


Later we decorated ice cream cone tepees, played outside, and made bow and arrows out of popsicle sticks, dental floss and q-tips. And yes - the bows could actually shoot arrows - almost 10-15 feet. They were awesome! :)




On Friday and Saturday I was lucky enough to be able to go to Time Out for Women up in Salt Lake with my family. It was so nice to have a short break to just sit and think about things of a spiritual nature. And I learned tons of things to help improve who I am. By the time it was finished my brain was on overload with all the things I wanted to do ... but that's a good thing. :)

We were missing Marianne, Ashley, Janice and Lois. Bummer that we didn't get a picture with all of us. :(

For our Science Sunday we talked about surface tension and did a milk experiment. Drops of food coloring in a shallow dish of milk - add a few drops of dish soap and the colors start to dance around the milk. Very neat experiment.

You can see a video of the milk dancing here: Awesome Milk Trick

Afterward we made Plymouth Rock cookies. Hmm .. probably wont follow this recipe again. But the girls had fun making the dough in to rocks.

Yes - I agree - it looks nothing like Plymouth Rock. Plymouth Rock probably looks more palatable then this!

Monday we built a wigwam out of newspaper. Yes - it is possible! We rolled up mass amounts of newspaper, stapled them together and voila! We had made our own little wigwam ... of sorts. :) The girls had a fun time watching tv and having snacks in their hide out.



Tuesday we were suppose to head down to the Covey Center to watch a musical made from the book Knuffle Bunny. They girls were so excited to go ... it's one of Mieka's favorite books. But there were major storm warnings ... something about a blizzard. :( And so instead we stayed home and had a super movie night with popcorn and licorice. I have to admit I was pretty bugged when I woke up the next morning and there was hardly a skiff of snow on the ground. Oh well - better safe than sorry. :)

And that leads us up to Thanksgiving which I'll cover in the next post.

School Pictures

So, we just got back Mieka's school pictures so now we can post both Annika's and Mieka's. I thought they turned out really cute. Annika in her cute uniform and Mieka in her "what I want to be when I grow up" out fit. Mieka decided that she wanted to be a "maker." Her words "so that I can make stuff with cantaloupe, sugar, and flour." That sounds like an interesting recipe!

Flat Annika

This year in Annika's kindergarten class they did Flat Stanley's. Well - actually in Annika's class it was Flat _____ - so for Annika it was Flat Annika. The kids drew a flat version of themselves, and just like the book Flat Stanely, mailed themselves off to family or friends for a visit. Flat Annika decided she wanted to see the wilds of Alaska and that she did! Thanks so much to Gary and Marianne for the scenic tour you took Flat Annika on. Here's the photos Marianne and Gary sent back of the super trip - their captions are included - way funnier then mine could be. :)

Safety first! Buckled up and ready for adventure!

Wow!! There's Denali (Mt. McKinley) Amazing how big it is.

Stopped at the "Beautiful" town of Talkeetna. Well, maybe not so beautiful in the Fall.

How's this for a real Alaskan hat? :)

I don't see lions or tigers ... but bears! Ahhh!! Run!

At the Anchorage temple with Aunt Marianne, and cousins Braeden and Hayden.

Out at the Eagle River Visitor Center - close by where my mom used to live!

Uncle Gary showing me the sites at the Visitor Center.

A baby moose! Quick let me back in the car!!!

Reindeer! Guess this is where they hang out when Santa isn't using them.

Mmmmm ... Alaska Wildberry and Chocolate Factory - where they have a real chocolate waterfall. I'll see if I can take a dip later. :)

My own Alaskan Souvenir. I'll "moose" you all when I have to go back to Utah!

Thanks again for the super fun trip! And for all the funny goodies you sent back to the non-flat Annika!