Santa gets a new house this year

As is the tradition at our house, instead of cookies and milk for Santa we construct a gingerbread house for him. This year was fun because the kids had their cousin over to help out. There was six of us and six sides to the house so we all took one to decorate and at the end the leftover candy was shared with all. There were a few additions like trees and such because my wife made gingerbread cookies the day before and the kids decorated some of those for Santa's house too.

Frosty came over to say hi!

Prior to Thanksgiving we had some snow out here in Utah. Enough to allow our CSA (Chief Snowman Architect) Lucy to get to work on the first Frosty of the season. I must say she did an excellent job. We left for California a couple of days later and by the time we got back to town all that was left of Frosty was the scarf. Lucy had a great time with Frosty and will probably bring him to life a few more times this year.

Who doesn't love fall?

Don't be frightened

Hazel just sat there patiently while Rosey painted on her face. She loved it. The only time she has EVER been patient post infancy.

Drawings

This is a giraffe and porcupine by Dexter (age 5):


Here is an ant and zebra by Lucy (age 4):

Also by Lucy, the solar system:

Snow?!

From yesterday. 30 minutes of putting on and taking off snow gear for 20 minutes of fun. But the kids were so excited to put on their snow gear for the first snow of the year. I wouldn't dare spoil their fun.

Simplicity at it's finest: lying in the grass cloud watching.

After this crazy busy summer I decided I needed to simplify. I took a 3 month break from school (which ends this month) and slowed my pace down significantly. I had a long to-do list that I wanted to get to and I didn't even pay attention to it. It has been heavenly. So when Elder Uchtdorf quoted Da Vinci in his GC talk, "Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication" it resonated with me. Not that I am sophisticated, or even want to be, but the simplicity part sounds good. After all, "Tis a gift to be simple," right?

Which brings us to Halloween. I really have enjoyed making their costumes but it is a lot of work and I am not a talented seamstress. Plus Dexter wanted to be a Ninja Turtle and I found myself trying to talk him out of it because I didn't think I could make that costume. It made me feel a tad guilty. So when I saw a costume at Target for $12 bucks, I snagged it and simplified our lives. Same with Lucy, saw a cute witch costume for cheaper than I could buy fabric and went with it. Hazel costume was super easy and I have been asked to show a group of women how to make tutus, so it was a good excuse to practice.
I did stuff his turtle shell and sew around the edges to give it a puffy look. I padded the front shell part and gave him straps in the back of his mask. He loves it. In fact, it will probably be worn out by Halloween he wears it so much.
Lucy's broom was originally brown so we spray painted it black and pink. I had to do some alterations to her dress but it was no problem.
A witch and her black cat. Could you get any cuter?!
I made Hazel a tutu with a fur belt, vest, cuffs and a little bow for her ears. The boots were a little bonus. I bought them last year on clearance for her hoping they would fit, which they do, and they are so cute with this outfit. They have fur tops and huge pom-poms hanging off them. Perfect.

Look at that attitude though.

The kids are geared up for this week. We have lots of Halloween activities to attend. Most of all we love trick-or-treating at Dad's work. We thought it would be cancelled this year but it isn't so we are really excited. Dad loves showing off his family!

Here is one project that was on my to-do list that Rich and I did take on. We recovered our big chair. It was super comfortable and we hated to get rid of it but the fabric was dirty and worn and ripped in places (children can really do a number on furniture). And because it was this weird size of over sized chair I couldn't find a slipcover to fit. Plus I hate slipcovers. So we got $30 worth of upholstery fabric and spent the weekend on it. The kids and Aunt Rosemary even got in on the action. Rich did most the work while I just mostly did the sewing.

Looks great, feels great and I am happy that for $30 and a bit of frustration we were able to keep our comfy chair. For more detailed info you can check out: http://elemeno-first-times.blogspot.com/