Ward Christmas Party

We had our ward Christmas party last night!


They had face painting and Kevin showed off his skill:)



Kevin and Bryson loved that they had playdough to play with while waiting for everything to get going and also to play with while listening to the talent show.




This doesn't have anything to do with the ward party but they gave this mask to Kaitlyn while she was grocery shopping with me this morning - it is so fun having Christmas with the kids!!!

Traditions

Since this is our first year not traveling for the holidays to visit family, we started some traditions on our own...
The kids were quite impressive with their gingerbread houses. Kaitlyn's was appropriate since she loves candy and tried to eat as much as possible but also wanted to put on tons on her house. Bryson did all of his on his own, the design and all. He told us that the one Kaitlyn made and the one mom made were just for decoration because there were no openings but his is for the gingerbread man because he made an opening in the fence and the house. He also thought all on his own to do the lightpoles around the outside, the green tree in the backyard and the red tree which is a cherry tree in the backyard, he also thought of doing a "trap" walkway so that when the gingerbread man walks across it and eats some of the candy that he will fall in the backyard, and then my favorite was the chimney - he said that the gingerbread man has never gotten presents from santa before so he blocked off the chimney with candy to make sure santa doesn't come in this year. Creativity #1!!!

Another tradition we decided we wanted was Ice Skating, so we went this afternoon with another family in the ward, the Everetts. Bryson started off needing to hold someone's hand.



Then he progressed to using the wall for help.



And then even though this isn't the best photo, he amazed us by skating around the rink pretty quickly all by himself several times, he will sleep good tonight!
Kaitlyn on the other hand would only skate if we held both her hands.



I am sure it was quite hard on her, so she took a break to play in the snow and play with her friend, Johnny.



Alyssa was once again perfect even though it was FREEZING cold.


Even though it wasn't as warm as when we went ice skating in California, it did have a beautiful surrounding with the Wabash River behind us.

Merry Christmas Everyone!!!

Snow Storm

We got 10+ inches of snow Saturday night. We had no church on Sunday and the kids didn't have school on Monday. We enjoyed staying nice and warm in the house. Kevin did venture out to shovel our driveway and it was quite the job. His back has been hurting for days, he says that if we continue with these types of storms, a snow blower will move from the list of wants to the list of needs.



I got the kids snow pants just days before the storm, not they had everything and could enjoy playing in the snow! Their favorite part was sliding down the slide. Kevin even helped them make a ramp at the bottom so they would slide further!

Icy Wonderland

When the weather said ICE, it wasn't kidding. This is how it looked all weekend and in fact still looks. The temp was about 30 and raining. It would then make icicles or coat everything. We were fascinated with the grass and the individual frozen blades.

Breakfast with Santa

Purdue had a breakfast with Santa on Saturday morning. We went and had pancakes and then they had crafts for the kids. They also had a fun gingerbread house for the kids to play in.


The best part was visiting Santa. This is our 3rd time talking to Santa this year and the first for Kaitlyn getting on his lap. You would never know she is "too scared" from that smile.

Winter Wonderland

We had our first snow fall last night. When Kaitlyn woke up this morning she said that she couldn't see the grass and she didn't know why, we told her it was snow. They loved seeing it and even did great bundling up warm to go to school in it. We are LOVING having a nice home and a garage with this freezing weather but truthfully this is my favorite way to enjoy the snow, just looking through the window at it!


We "prepared" for this winter wonderland experience by going to the Children's Museum in Indianapolis yesterday. They had a fun winter exhibit with even Santa to visit (Kaitlyn wouldn't sit on his lap but just wanted to wave from the distance). She did enjoy playing in the castle, ice fishing, and going down the slide.





We also enjoyed getting in the mood by going to Purdue on Monday and watching them put up the Christmas tree. It is quite the tradition - it is gigantic! It was fun to watch and fun to even see the kids' little friends there: Collin, Katherine, and Benjamin.

Super Stamp Man

I am helping with the nativity exhibit at our church this weekend. I was responsible to mail out 570 postcard invitations. Bryson amazed me by putting the stamps on ALL 570. I can't wait to use him again with Christmas cards! Thanks Bryson!!!

Homemade Butter

For family night last night we named our blessings while shaking a container of cream and we made homemade butter. The kids were surprised that we could make it ourselves.


They loved spreading it on bread and it tasted DELICIOUS!!!

Purdue Football

Kevin got us free tickets to the Purdue/Michigan State football game. They were on the 50 yard line just 30 rows up. It wasn't a great game for Purdue but it was fun to be there. The weather had even warmed up so it was nice and enjoyable.

I have to admit I did not miss the Stanford band. It was so fun to see an actual band - very impressive.

Happy Halloween

After over 300 trick or treaters, we still thought it was great having halloween in a home. Bryson said it was funner trick or treating at actual houses rather than people's backyard patios like we did at Stanford. People had warned us how many people come to this neighborhood trick or treating so we had lots of candy on hand but that is still a lot of doorbell rings between 6pm and 8:30. Alyssa did try to steal the show with thinking this was a party even though she didn't know why. She would grin and kick her legs like crazy when helping to answer the door. The kids got quite a bit of candy themselves but thank goodness the witch fairy will be visiting tonight!




Bryson's school had a costume carnival on Friday. Instead of doing all the crazy Halloween stuff and costumes at school, they did nothing today but had the big carnival with lots of little kid games and little prizes - not candy :) The kids were excited when they learned what a cake walk was. It was one of the first things we tried and then we tried it once more as we were leaving and Bryson won a cake. Kaitlyn was pretty disappointed when Bryson picked cinnamon rolls instead of a cake but I was impressed with him because he doesn't even like cake so cinnamon rolls was definetely the best choice. He was quite proud of himself. I do worry what their expectations will be at the next carnival!!!

Family

We love family and since we are the only ones in the midwest, we do feel a bit lonely. While in California we had lots of visitors who were coming through San Francisco or in California for other reasons. Unfortunetly it won't happen as much in Indiana but we were excited when Thayne called on Saturday morning and said he was just 2 hours away for work and that we would get to see him for a bit. He came late Saturday night and stayed the night and then we got to play with him a bit Sunday morning before he had to catch his plane. The kids were ECSTATIC to have him here. Thanks for visiting Thayne!

While we are on the topic of family, we just got the CD of photos we took this summer with Kevin's family. I had to share!


Grandma and Grandpa Mumford with their grandkids!

This is Alyssa with her cousins, Josh and Jackson. They were all born within a month of each other.