Snow Painting

Last week it snowed on & off a few days.  So on Monday, when all the kids were home from school & I had finished teaching my piano student, we went outside to play in the snow before it got too dark.

The snow was perfect for snowmen & snow balls, but the kids wanted to paint the snow--so I filled squeeze bottles with colored water & they had fun painting.

 Brienna drew a Christmas tree.

 Ben just had fun squeezing the bottles (notice he lost a glove already!)  Ethan helped him.  (Ethan said I should NOT have filled a bottle with YELLOW water--because it's best to avoid yellow snow!)

 Emmalee mainly just emptied the bottles quicker than I could re-fill them.

 Emmalee making a snow ball to throw at me--Where are your gloves?????

 Brienna with her "bloody" foot prints (& her name behind her)

 Ben jumped right in to throw snow at everyone.

 I did put his glove back on right after I took these pictures.

Brienna's Christmas tree--with a YELLOW star on top ;)

Ethan "teaching" Emmalee & Benjamin how to make the perfect snowball. 

 Emmalee was drawing a self-portrait.

 She put pig-tails on her cute little girl.

 Callum had been shoveling grandpa's walks, so he got back a little late.  He found a spot that hadn't been painted & went to work.

 By the time he finished, it was too dark for a picture.  And by morning, we had fresh snow & all the painted snow was covered.

 Callum (by the ladder) & Rusty on the roof shoveling off the snow.

 Benjamin thought it was funny to see them on the house.  Not surprising, he ran over & started up the ladder faster than I could run after him in my snow boots.  He got up the 3rd rung before I was able to get him down!

 Zane had basketball practice, so I made some more colored water for him to do a quick "masterpiece".  He picked the "canvas" in the back yard, so I was able to take a picture of him painting up the town yard.(thanks to the porch light) 

Brienna & her colorful snowman.

Decorating our Tree

We actually set up our tree the day after Thanksgiving.

I'm just s...l....o....w at getting the photos posted.

Benjamin was very interested in the whole process. 

 He jumped right in & helped put ornaments on the tree.

 And then he pulled up his cute little chair & sat in front of the tree.  We let the kids put the tree together & then I hand out the ornaments--they hang them.  

 Ethan sat back & watched this year--I think he might have helped put it together (they actually got it up while I was gone) and he hung one ornament.

 Zane in his "flamin' hot" shirt ;)

 Here is our tree a week later--it is still up, all the ornaments are on the tree, and looks beautiful!  I was a bit worried that Benjamin would pull the tree over at least once--but so far, so good!!  

And amazingly enough, he usually only takes one or two ornaments off the tree--the family picture ones that Rusty makes each year.  And he is only taking those off so he can see his "Emma, ..allum..enna.." & family!

The view of our tree from outside.  It had snowed & the everyone was outside playing in the snow.  Those pictures are coming up next.

Ethan--the Pizza Artist

Since Ethan has been making pizzas for the past 5 months, we decided he needed to make us dinner.

 So I mixed up the dough, and he made the pizzas.

 This one was for Rusty--& the boys:  "The Works"

 He got a little bit of flour on his clothes!

 He was nice enough to make one for me with wheat dough--the Sicilian.  It has olive oil as the base, Parmesan & mozzarella cheese, tomatoes, oregano, garlic, & "shakes" (which is Italian seasonings).

 It looks yummy--but tasted even better!  

 This was for the kids & Aunt Pamela--1/2 cheese 1/2 pepperoni & sausage (w/2 slices w/pineapple).

 He even made a batch of bread sticks--1/2 plain & 1/2 mozzarella sticks

 Here is my finished pizza--it was good for breakfast & lunch the next day too!

 Emmalee & Benjamin couldn't even wait to start eating it--right off the plate!

 That pizza went fast!

 Here is the pizza Ethan made for himself--the Sicilian on white dough.

He hand-tossed the pizza--or at least attempted it.  He found out that we didn't knead enough flour into the dough so it tore too easily.  

Luckily I got this picture of his attempting to toss my wheat dough.  He was only able to toss it once because it was starting to get a small hole.

Edit about Ethan's Teeth

I guess I had better clarify the facts about this picture.

When my sister saw this, she wanted to know what was wrong with his teeth & how I got them to look this terrible.

They are Hillbilly teeth from our Halloween dress-up.  We thought since he looked so scruffy, that he might as well add another "scary" feature to his attire.

So I hope I didn't "scare" anyone too much--or lead anyone to think that I have let my son neglect his teeth to this degree ;)

Thanksgiving 2010

We have a lot to be thankful this year. 

Each year, we add feathers to our "Thankful Turkey"--listing things we are grateful to have in our lives.

 Emmalee handed the feathers to me as each person in our family took turns saying what they were thankful for.  

 It is always fun to list our blessings.  Then after Thanksgiving, we "pluck" his feathers & put him away until next year.

 This year we went to Rusty's sister's house between Rigby & Ririe, ID.   Because of the storm/blizzard we had earlier in the week, the roads were not the greatest, so it took us a bit longer to get to her house (a little over an hour).  

 We brought a turkey (that Rusty got up early & cooked in our electric roaster), 2 pies (just frozen Sara Lee pies that Rusty also cooked earlier that morning), green olives & cranberries.

 I also made the gravy from the drippings of the 2 turkeys.  We had plenty, plenty of yummy food.  Tammie is busy getting things set out on her counter.

 The kids getting their food.  (Zane, Colter, Brienna, Cody, Ben & Callum)

 Callum loading up on olives & pretzels--silly kid!  

 This is what Benjamin was more interested in doing while we were eating--sliding down their stairs.

 Way to go, Emmalee--yummy veggie tray!

 Kids table (18 & under--sorry, Ethan.  There just wasn't room at the "adult" table this year)  

 Grandma Marge (in red), Rusty (behind her), Mike (Tammie's husband), Pamela, Callum (back to us) & Zane (eating some yummy turkey). 

 Hey, Ethan.  What are you doing at the "adult" table???? 

 Stuffing your face???  He was able to sit there for about 3 minutes--until all the adults got their plates loaded up! 

 What's that????  Benjamin is actually sitting at the table for a second?  Good thing I got it on film--because he quickly disappeared to the stairs. 

 The "adult" table:  Rusty, Pamela, Tammie, Mike, Uncle Reed,..Reed (Rusty's brother), Liz (Reed's wife).

 Mike, Uncle Reed, Grandma Marge, Grandpa Stewart, Reed.

I do have to say that this is the first year that I ate just enough to be full, but not stuffed.  I guess it helped that I didn't eat any pie (since I have been sugar-free for 7 months & didn't make me a sugar-free dessert).  I did have some sugar-free jell-o w/pineapple, though. 

 It was an awesome day for us--we had good food, good visits, and more good food!