Some Overdue Christmas Photos

Not wanting to break from my norm, here are some Christmas pictures that are about a month overdue! They aren't in order either, but it's all good!

Dan trying out Joel's beloved Colt's football helmet!

Jack and Jake...best buds!

Joel trying out Claire's guitar!

Looks like Claire found the perfect place to rest.

Lydia and Noelani...best cousins forever!

Jake got 2 boxes of Dinosaur Eggs all to himself! (He loves them, but rarely gets them)!

Lydia's gift to Grandma! She made this piece in art club. I made my mom a similar one in elementary school. How fun that she has one from her grand daughter now!

Anna's first Christmas!

My special gift from my two oldest kids...a notebook with 100 recipes! They (Jake especially) worked so hard on writing down recipes, complete with hand-painted illustrations! I love it!

Grandma knows Lydia will always love a pretty outfit! Aunt Sarah Beth and Uncle Matt got her one, too, but I don't have a picture of that one. She loved it enough to wear it in the spelling bee this morning, though!

Claire got her own giant package of Craisin's (she loves those)!

And finally, some Christmas cupcakes I made for our Sunday School party. I wish I had mini-M'M's for the lights on the "tree." But it still turned out cute, I thought.

Some Funnies to Share

So, here is one more cookie to show...notice the mistake? Whoops! Forgot the "r" in Stroop.
This is one sad piece of toast. And this is one of my favorite pictures recently taken. Claire wanted to help out while I was cooking supper. I asked her to set the table. I finished cooking and when I turned around, this is what I saw...complete with toilet paper napkins!

5th Anual Christmas Cookie Decorating Day!

I had to look back on Picasa to figure out how many years we have been doing this. The kids were so little when we started! I hope they don't outgrow this tradition anytime soon. A big thank you to my sister, who helped me shape and bake all these cookies! And of course, to all the decorators! Two out of the who knows how many trays.

Claire thoroughly enjoyed herself this year! That pile on her plate that looks like just candy actually does have a cookie underneath!
Who needs napkins when you have your shirt? Right, Jake?
Jake's favorite that he made.
Lyd's fave she made.
Claire's fave she made...that's pretty impressive, wouldn't you say?

A newbie! Found this cookie cutter at a garage sale this summer.

Another newbie.

*I do have one more special cookie pic to share, but it'll be on the next blog posting with some other funnies.*

Happy New Year! (and some late Christmas pictures)

Happy 2012

While my intentions are to post things on time, life gets in the way. The kids have had a nice break from school, but we did mingle some sickness in there. Two days before Christmas, Claire came down with strep. Thankfully, this was a Friday, so I was able to get her into the Dr's office before the weekend. By Christmas Eve, she was back to her perky self and we were all able to attend the annual candlelight service at church that afternoon. A highlight of that day was getting to see Brian (my "kid" brother) who is home for 2 weeks from Afghanistan. We had a unified service the next morning, during which my mom, Lydia, Dan, and myself sang special music (Tell Me The Story Of Jesus). After the service, we took our pictures in front of the tree (seems to have become a tradition). This year, we had an ANNA girl to join us...yay!Sitting still (for anything, much less a picture) is not high on Anna's priority list. This picture reminded me of a little Claire girl just a few years ago...

Freedom!


In the bulletin, the special music was under the name, "Kanost Family." So, here's a pic of the Kanost women, I guess.