And then there were five

It snowed on Monday and on Thursday (Thanksgiving) I saw a picture on facebook of a snowman that my parents had made. They live just up the street from me and so I thought "that snow must be the right constancy for snowman today". I hurried and got the two little kids in their snow gear. Luckily the three older kids can get ready themselves. And then we all headed out and started rolling snowballs. We started with one snowman and then decided to do a snow couple and then a snow family.
In the end we made 5 snowmen in just one hour. Wow! I thought it would be cute to get a picture with each of the kids in front of a snowman. Cute, right?

Here is a closeup of Megan lifting one of her snowballs. She is one strong kid.

And here is Emily with her snowdog. Every snowman family needs a snowdog right?

Our outdoor adventure ended when Nathan came up to me showing me his hand. I guess his gloves got wet and so he took them off and then his hands were freezing. Silly boy!

Today I am thankful that;

*I got to go to the temple with Scott this morning. We have been taking turns going for the past 12 years but now that the big girls are old enough to babysit and Nathan isn't a screaming momma's boy anymore we can leave him.

*Scott got to go and watch the BYU game with some friends, unfortunately they lost.

*Most of our Christmas decorations are up. The kids begged me put them up the day after Christmas they were so excited. Personally I'm losing steam in terms of decorating. I have too many decorations, it is exhausting to put them all up, and I am one tired momma.

Snow-Finally!

Last winter we didn't get any snow. So when it snowed today our kids were ecstatic. Melissa and Nathan went outside in their PJs they were so excited.
After lunch we put the kids in snow clothes and headed out again. Nathan thought riding in his car in the snow was fun. He liked the snow jump we made (for sleds) and parked his car right on top of it.

Of course when it snows out come the snow clothes and the mess that accompanies that.

By 3:00 in the afternoon enough snow had fallen to build a snowman. I pulled out my handy dandy snowman kit, and we got to work.

Holly rolled the biggest snowball and the neighbor kids helped with the other two. I put in my snowman decos and we had ourselves an awesome snowman. It was a wonderful day. And the best news of all--tomorrow is a snow day, so we can have even more fun in the snow.

Today I am thankful that

*Nathan did a good job without a binky all day, we took them away this morning (for good)

*Scott had a day off work and babysat the kids for a few hours and made dinner.

*We have a warm house to hang out in on a cold day.

Looking for a fun crafting blog to follow?

Here's a fun blog I found a few months ago. Pamela lives in the Portland area, is a mother to three little girls, and is a crafter in every way. Her husband made this fun utube video highlighting many of her creations for her birthday. He told us we could share it with our families and friends. So here is it.

http://pamelasusan.typepad.com/pamela_susanup_close_pers/2010/11/happy-birthday-pamelaheres-a-tribute-to-you-love-your-husband.html

He plays with the big boys

We live at the bottom of a culdasac. At the top live a family of boys, big boys. Nathan loves these boys and is quick to run up to their house anytime he sees them outside. Two of the boys play hockey and so they have a hockey goal and lots of sticks and pucks/balls. They gave Nathan a stick and ball to play with once and now he expects it everytime. Luckily the boys are nice and seem happy to play with him when he comes running up.

The boys have a dog too. Most of my girls have been afraid of dogs just because they haven't spent much time around them. That isn't the case with Nathan, luckily.Before you have children you are so excited to have them. Then once they are born you look forward to moments like this. Both kids taking a nap simultaneously while the other kids are at school=free time for Mommy!

I posted a picture of our Halloween Mantel earlier so here is our Thanksgiving one.
Melissa recently got some cute buttons and jewels and then decided she wanted to glue them onto a frame. Grandma gave her a frame and with some glue gun action we made a cool frame. It hangs in Melissa's room by her bed and we can swap out the picture with a new one whenever we want. By the way that is Melissa and me under the rainbow, in case you couldn't recognize us.

For Family Home Evening we each made a list of things we were thankful for. Here is Megan's list. I just love her first grade writing.

Finally, we have had some beautiful fall days here and my girls decided to get buried in leaves. Here are their heads.And here are their bodies. It took all of our leaves to cover them.

Today I am thankful that;

*Nathan went to sleep in his bed tonight rather than on the couch.

*Scott came home early from work and helped me make dinner.

*Holly and I are in the ward choir together.

A Turkey Craft

On Sunday we had an early Thanksgiving with our extended Moulton family. I brought gingersnaps, hersey kisses, red hots, chocolate chips, candy corn and chocolate frosting to make a turkey craft with the kids.

They turned out cute but the store bought gingersnaps were kind of nasty tasting. I think I would go with store bought iced oatmeal cookies next time or homemade gingersnaps. To see detailed instructions for this turkey craft you can go to alittletipsy.blogspot.com and look for the turkey tutorial.

Here is a shot of the grandkid table. My parents have 14 grandkids now, 7 girls and 7 boys.

In other news Megan learned to ride her bike in 1 day! With my older two daughters learning to ride a bike was frustrating for both them and me and took a long time. It was a very welcome surprise when Megan did it so quickly. Now everyday she asks to go out and ride her bike.
Melissa got her new dance costume. The performance isn't until December but she couldn't resist trying it on for the family the day she got it.

Today I am thankful that:

*It is a sunny day and I got to rake leaves (luckily we only have a few trees to rake leaves from)

*Megan is also learning to jump rope and does it everyday in our house. She can do 20 in a row now.

*I went to the dentist and didn't have any cavities (even adults don't like getting cavities filled).

Leaves are falling all around

Yesterday it was sunny and 75 degrees in Seattle. It definately broke the record for being the warmest on that day ever! We took the opportunity to walk to a nearby park and stopped to play in some leaves on the way. Megan thought it would be fun to make a leaf angel (like a snow angel). It didn't quite work out but she had fun trying and she didn't get snow in her clothes like you do with snow angels.
Getting ready to throw a handful of leaves into the air.

What fun!

Melissa--I'm so glad you finally like to pose for pictures again

Not only did we get to enjoy the beautiful day but our brother in law Steve (who lives in Ohio)was in town for an interview and he got to enjoy it too. He drove out to share dinner with us and we had a good long visit. Thanks for coming Steve! This is Scott and Steve.

Today I'm thankful that:

*my Halloween decorations are put away--decorations are always more fun to put up than take down.

*YW in excellence was great last night and I didn't have to be in charge

*today is going to be sunny and in the 60's. Monday (it poured all day long) and I had to go grocery shopping. I had a wet cart, wet and grumpy kids, and wet groceries. Not Fun.