Loving the holiday break!

Having Madi home from school and Brett home for the few days he got off work was so heavenly! I loved all the extra family fun stuff we got to do!

Madi is reading a story to Brooke. (I sat around the corner and just listened). It was so neat because Brooke really enjoyed being read too as usual, but Madi was reading for fun too. A lot of the time I have to make her sit down and read and she fights it, wanting me to read to her. It is really amazing the things that are changing as my children get older and I am learning to sit back and let them do things for them selves. For example, It is really hard for me to let Madi do her own hair. (Melanie, she's a lot better at doing her own hair than I was thank goodness! ha ha ha).

Dad's night to cook! Hooray! Brett makes dinner on Sunday evenings and it is so nice to just sit back and WATCH.

Ben was Daddy's little helper.

Brett taught the kids how to make tiny smores over a candle. Nice honey! Now every time I burn a candle they are going to be looking for the mallows.

We had a family snow man making session. Ben would rather eat his carrot than donate it to his snow man's nose.

So now I have our FAMILY of snowmen on my front lawn. I love snowmen, but it was a workout making six of them! I don't really look as round as my snowman makes me look.

Grasshoppers and hot cocoa! Yummmmmmm...This is one of our fun family traditions! It is one of those treats that our cousins, Brandon and Michelle taught us. It isn't something you'll want to do in front of company, but pay attention, and kids... Do try this at home!

Nibble off two ends of the cookie and suck the hot cocoa through it... then quickly put the cookie in your mouth. (It melts from the inside out). NOTE: Real "keebler grasshoppers" work the best AND it is kind of nasty if you use flavored hot cocoa... the regular cocoa is better.
So try it and let me know.

By the way... this is one of those awful pictures I post only to show you that occasionally I'm not the one holding the camera. In my defence, I am still getting over pinkeye and can't wear makeup. Waahhh!

Christmas at the Binghams

We had a wonderful Christmas. We stayed home and enjoyed a very nice family day. We always have a big breakfast and have to clean up before the gifts are attacked. It's my favorite tradition and the kids were really good about waiting. (How mean am I... they even had to make their beds and get ready for the day first). Madi, Brooke, Ben and Connor under ready to open gifts.All the kids watched Daddy open his gift. (They were so good about keeping this Christmas secret). I had been working on scrap booking Brett's missionary pictures for two months. I am so surprised that not even Ben spilled the beans. It was one of the few gifts (in the history of our married life) that I managed to surprise him with AND that he actually liked!

The day ended with our little Connor taking his first step!

We also had our own Christmas pageant. Its so fun to have kids old enough to actually do one now.

Brooke was the angel... Ben kept changing his mind between wanting to be Joseph and a shepherd with me...

Madi was Marry and Connor ended up being Joseph... although he kept climbing onto the "manger" and upsetting "Mary."

Things are BUSY!

This time of year is always busy... especially at our house. (All of our children were winter babies) So we start in November for Ben, Madi and Brooke have birthdays in December, and Connor is the day before our anniversary... in January. What ever do we do for excitement the rest of the year right?!? So here is Brooke with her blackberry and whipped cream cake... She picked that! The morning of her birthday, she grabbed her backpack and was convinced, now that she was five, she got to go to kindergarten when we took Madi to school. That took a little explaining.

This was our first REAL snow fall of the season. We got five or six inches and the kids were in heaven. They were launching themselves off the slide on the deck.

This is the project I did instead of cleaning... It was a joint birthday present for the girls. They call it their reading tent or something like that. As soon as it was hung up they immediately grabbed books and settled down. It has been really FUN. (For Christmas I am making two pink beanbags for their reading corner).

These last two weeks have been... well kind of like... "AHhhhhhh!" I got really sick after we got back from Thanksgiving and then the kids caught it too. As soon as we were better an attack of pinkeye quarantined us again. We are almost over that plague, thank goodness... But a long story short... I was trying to do some fun homeschooling with Madi (she was home most of this week because of the pinkeye). This was our baking soda volcano science project. The kids loved it and making the volcano kept them busy most of the morning.

Christmas gifts or cleaning?

Do you ever have a hard time fitting everything in? Well, even if you don't... I DO! In a regular month I find it challenging to teach my children preschool, help THEM do THEIR chores, clean the house, laundry that never ever ever ever ends, read to them, make a meal or three, do my church calling, maybe fit in a little project here or there... (and what the heck is "me time"?)

So now that the holidays are here the real fun begins. I love to do homemade gifts... and it is really fun now that my kids are older, to teach them how to make gift for their friends and each other. Unfortunately, I don't have a maid or an Alice from the Brady Bunch to help with all the regular stuff. So each day its a, "Hmmm... do I do fun gift making or clean and clean and clean." Tough choice right? Well, the cleaning never stays done anyway, so what the heck.

Hope you are all having a fun filled holiday season!!!

Holiday's: Thankful for..... Christmas!

I think that I mentioned before that I am like a kid when it comes to holidays... Well, now it's getting closer to the Christmas season and I am getting so excited. Brett has to hold me down so I don't jump on the roof to put up the lights. I love thanksgiving too... but I really think it's a shame to squish all the fun holidays into one season and leave only a few "interesting" ones to hold us out until the next year. I mean, honestly, all you do for St. Patty's Day is pinch people?

No, really I think that Thanksgiving and Christmas are very appropriately situated on our calendars. What better to be grateful for than the birth and life of our Savior? So to all you "bah humbugs" out there: I am getting my Christmas music going, not because I want to blow right through Thanksgiving, but because I am most grateful for He who gave his all for us. So I hope you all have a wonderful Holiday filled with gratitude, love, family, friends, and of course a wonderful Thanksgiving Feast!

Bad Hair Day?

We had a little fun with the Halloween clearance stuff. I think its a good look on Brett.
I think the wig is bigger than Connor.

What a hottie!

Ben is a big cheese ball!

Brooke's Shirt goes well yes?

Halloween

I love holidays! Halloween is just as much fun for me now as when I was little. We had a ball picking out what the kids wanted to be and making costumes. I asked the girls to pick someone out of a story. Brooke chose Rapunzel. (Grandma Conover came up with the yarn wig idea). Brooke wasn't to into the idea when she saw we were making it out of tights... but when we added the yarn that hit her feet she was ok with it again.

Brett was a safari guide... nice hat huh? Madi was Little Bo Peep... that was a fun challenge! Ben wanted to be Mater. He was so excited watching me paint it but when it came down to it he only wore it for a few minutes... so then he was a cowboy again. Connor sported the same bear suit they have all worn. (I love the snuggly costumes... so much smarter for cold). And I grabbed one of my old prom dresses, added wings and a wand with a tooth brush. All in all we had a ton of fun.

Hope you all had a fun and candy filled holiday.