Murder Mystery Dinner

Melissa hosted a New Year's murder mystery dinner with the Johnson's visiting Utah at the time.  It was quite entertaining.  The kids partied with pizza and movies downstairs, while the adults had a 5-Year High School Reunion with a murder upstairs.  

(Characters: Jeff- football player, Niki- drama queen, Steve- nerd turned billionaire, Melissa- recovering nerd, Sally- high end shopper and little sister to the guy who was killed, Mike-cowboy, Brian- Class President, Kira- cheerleader.)

December Activities

Decorating the Tree.

Making Salt Dough Ornaments.

This was a huge hit.  They rolled, cut out, colored and stamped for over an hour and a half.  The dough started drying out and crumbling to pieces so I had to say "enough" and start the baking. They were so proud of their little ornaments. 

Bracken worked on this little present for Chandra faithfully throughout the month.  He chose the material himself, and sat on my lap and helped me cut and sew the entire little apron.  If he wanted to work on it and Chandra was awake he'd always spell, "Mom, let's work on Chandra's A-P-R-I-N." He was so excited to give it to her on Christmas morning. 

 Decorating Christmas Trees...instead of gingerbread houses.

I always love the idea of decorating gingerbread houses with my kids.  But the reality is never as perfect as the idea.  By the time I assemble the house and let it set up, they're off to a new project, or have spent the entire time trying to eat the candy that's supposed to go on it. Plus the gingerbread is as hard as a rock and not very tasty.

So this year I tried something simpler.  I just bought sugar cones, covered them in green frosting, turned them upside down, and gave the kids sixlets and Christmas sprinkles to decorate with.  It was a huge hit!

Reindeer and Snowman Pancakes

 Celebration Time!  Brian finished all his finals and few other obligations until school starts back up.  That means partying with the kids.  We went to Cedar City to visit friends, to the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point, sledding and playing K'Nex and making forts.  We loved having Brian with us so much.

Bracken's favorite thing at the Dinosaur Museum are the T-Rex's.  Chandra's is the big shark.  She loves it and is scared to death of it at the same time.

Thanksgiving Point also had a couple of reindeer visiting.  Bracken even touched Comet's antler.  It was freezing, but made the kids happy.

 Blowing Green and Red Christmas bubbles.  (I know, kinda lame, but they LOVED this and asked for this activity over and over again.)

Building our Snowman Family together...and lots of sledding this day too. 

Went to see Christmas Lights at Temple Square.  We bundled up really well and everything was beautiful.  

We certainly had a fun-filled December!

Awkward Spelling

Bracken loves his new found skill of spelling, and he uses it often.  He's figured out that if he spells a treat or activity I'm more likely to do it with him.  "Mom, let's read a B-O-O-K.", "Y-E-S I want a C-O-O-K-I-E." He's also found it helpful to keep secrets from his sister. "Mom, let's work on making Chandra's Christmas A-P-R-I-N." (They're not always spelled perfectly. :)  It's fun to hear him laying in bed at night sounding out words, or studiously making letter sounds as he works on writing a letter or story.

Every once in a while it can get awkward though.  A couple of Sunday's ago during sacrament meeting I hear Bracken starting to sound things out under his breath.  He announces to me in a loud whisper, "Mom, I can spell six, "S-I-X, S-I-X."  He pauses for a moment, and then much more loudly and excitedly says, "And I can spell a new word!  S-E-X, S-E-X, sex!" He was so proud of figuring out a new word, and I just wanted to climb under the seat as it felt like all our neighbors were looking at us.

Sometimes spelling is just awkward.

Daddy and Baby Games

I love my children's imaginations.  I also love how they've been playing together more and more. Chandra is excited to play anything with Bracken as long as it also includes "Daddy and Baby." For example, they play "Daddy and Baby Pirates," "Daddy and Baby Santa Claus," "Daddy and Baby puppies" (or kitties, or dinosaurs, or whatever else they decide at the moment.) 

I was making dinner and walked in the kids' bedroom to find a full blown pirate ship, complete with a red baseball bat cannon, cannon balls, a treasure box, jewels, a parrot, baby doll, and two adorable pirates.  

They've made good use of the two mattresses that are available for them to sleep on...even though they each insist on sleeping on the floor every night, the mattresses get used for lots of playing.  Trampolines, Hot Lava Monster games, or being turned into forts, pirate ships, or Santa's sleigh. 

I'm Grateful for My Family

Happy Thanksgiving!  We spent our Thanksgiving break with my family in Richfield, and everyone was there.  We played games (Hand and Foot, Blokus, and 7 Wonders, and spoons were probably at the top of our list), made and ate good food and just enjoyed visiting and being together.

The Whole Family

 Glade and Shaylee 

 Linsy, Caleb, Brayden and Kylie

Ryan and Breonna

The Size of your Brain

During dinner last night Brian was telling us about his day at school, which included dissecting a brain. Bracken was so interested, "what did it look like? How big was it? How big is my brain?" Brian told him that your brain is about the size of both of your fists put together. We all put our hands together to see how big our brains are. Chandra watched us for a moment, then put her two little hands together. "Oh..." she said despondently, "Mine is tiny."

As the night went on she kept putting her fists together and looking at them. Finally she put her fingertips together instead of her fists, and happily said, "Mine's brain is bigger now!"