Gingerbread Season

Each year, there is a gingerbread display at the Mormon Trail Center and the Kanesville Tabernacle.  Each year I've done a big gingerbread house decorating party and made tons and tons of gingerbread.  This year was an exception.  This year I didn't.  Most everyone who normally comes was gone, with a couple exceptions, and the time snuck up on me.  I wasn't ready, couldn't pull myself together to do it, and so it didn't get done.  I did, however, volunteer to help with our ward gingerbread party.  The coordinator had the houses taken care, of so I made all the frosting.  We weren't able to go to our ward party because Ashton had to work so we weren't decorating a house at all this year.  Dex kept asking to, so I planned on doing a graham cracker house with him later on.

I was honestly sad about it all.  I was sad that Dex was so excited for it, and that we weren't doing it.  I was sad because I love doing it.  I love making the gingerbread, and decorating it.  I love going into the tabernacle and seeing it with all of the others.  I was just sad it wasn't happening our last year here.

The night of the ward party, Sis. Smith picked up the frosting and borrowed my keys to get back in the church.  She dropped them back off after the party.  She had one house left and was taking it to a family who said they would come, but didn't show.  As she and I got talking, she asked if we wanted it and I said if it was already claimed, thank you, but no.   She replied, saying that the family didn't even know it was coming, so if we wanted it, to take it.  I did.  I was so excited for Dexter to wake up and see a house we could decorate.  I was so very thankful for this sweet tender mercy of still being able to submit a house for the gingerbread display and of making me and my little boy happy.

Here it is:

She left me with some candy and I called Ashton to have him bring home marshmallows and fruit roll ups.   The deadline for submitting was the next day so I woke up and decorated.  Dex decided not to help, but I didn't care.  I was getting it done.  I whipped up some green frosting and vwalla!  It was done.

A few weeks later, we hosted for an hour at the tabernacle.  We took the kiddos because it was just an hour long.  It looked very beautiful.  I think they put up more decorations than they normally have done in the years we've been here.  There were also some clever submissions, like always.  The number of submission was down this year, and I felt guilty for not having the 10 houses we normally have from our group.  It is still beautiful.  It is still so fun to go see.  Below are some pictures of our favorites.  Enjoy!

November

Here are some highlights from November:

Dexter wanted to be my vacuum helper.  We were vacuuming and I decided to vacuum the couch too.  Dex thought it was awesome and insisted on doing it himself.  I just loved that he did it in a shirt and underwear.  It made me laugh.  And yes, we sometimes struggle to keep pants on that boy!

It's so fun when Daddy comes.  The kids love it when he's home.  He is such a great Daddy!

Lions and Tigers and Bears, oh my!

This year we dressed up in a theme for Halloween.  It was "lions, and tigers, and bears, oh my!"

I made my bear hat, JJ's tiger dress, Dexter's lion hoodie and pants, and I painted oh my! on a shirt for Ashton.  Only a few people caught it at the ward trunk-or-treat, or rather, around-the-gym-treat.

 Here is a closer look at the kiddos:

Dexter's ended up being a hooded sweater vest and pants with a tail.  I ran out of fabric to add sleeves.  I free handed my patterns and just guessed on how much I needed.

JJ's went through several revisions and was even a different looking dress for a while that I didn't like.  Her's was the hardest to figure out.  I'm just not a fan of animal print and had a hard time liking it.  It turned out cute though.  It's an A-line pillow case style dress.  It has a black sash around the middle and then a black trim on the bottom. She was being a stinker and wouldn't stand up to take pictures.  She also has a tail.   At the party she wore black tights and boots.  Ashton taught her how to put her hands up and growl.  It was cute!  On our way tot he ward party, she broke her headband.  It is just a tube of ears that I slipped over a cheap little headband.  We had to make an emergency stop at Hy-Vee to get a new one.

I also drew whiskers and colored in their nose for the party.  Dex hated it and wanted it scrubbed off immediately when we got home.

On halloween, Dex and I carved our pumpkins.  He wanted a scary face on his and I tried to do spiders dangling on mine.

We also made a spider web and "brooms"  for a snack.

Our pumpkins greeting our trick-or-treaters.

We didn't buy very much stuff to pass out on Halloween night from our door.  I even had Ashton buy little bags of chips because I was sick of candy in the house and if we had leftovers, chips would be a welcome change.  Well, we were cleaned out of those and we started to give away Juliette's candy even.  We have never had more than 3 trick-or-treaters at our door in our whole married life.  It was pretty cool.  Dex had fun seeing all the different costumes as well.  

Because we did bags of chips, we apparently "tricked" a treater.  I put the chips in his bag and he looks down and says, "but that is a bag of chips!  HUH?!"  So funny.  

That was our Halloween this year!

Clifford LIVE!

Ashton and I took Dexter out to see his first play.  Ash scored some really cheap tickets to Clifford LIVE! that was playing at the Orpheum in Omaha.  It was so much fun.  Dex was a little nervous, but loved it all.

The play was very interactive so he had a fun time help call for Clifford, find Clifford, and I think the best part was his reaction to when Clifford grew.  The play started out with Emily Elizabeth (Clifford's owner) looking for a dog for Christmas.  Clifford was a runt and so small.  In the play, Clifford falls asleep with Emily Elizabeth, lights go dark, and in the morning, when the lights came on, Clifford is huge!  Dexter's face was priceless!  The magic of the theater definitely worked, and made this experience so worth it.

We got him a Clifford dog and wasn't very happy that I was making him take this picture.

I tried to take a picture of he and I during intermission while Ashton was getting water.  This is as good as it gets.  He is such a 3 year old.  There are a lot of funny, fuzzy outtakes.  Maybe I'll have to post them another time.

He also liked walking on the skywalk between the parking garage and the theater.  He thought it was cool to be walking above the cars.  Here he is pointing to the "C" on Clifford on the sign.  Lucky for us, this came on "C" week, so he was finding all the "C"s he could.

He enjoyed himself immensely.

The Sweetens watched Jules for us.  I was so nervous about leaving her, that I almost let Ashton just take Dex while I stayed home.  She had never been left by herself before.  She did awesome.  Serene said they just had to hold her and she wimpered the whole time, but no tears, no screaming.  So much better than the last time I left her even with Dexter with her!

We had such a fun time.  I'm grateful for Ashton and his dreams for his little family.  This was all his idea, and  a memorable one at that.