Christmas, Chapter 1... Gingerbread houses

It's too hard to do all of Christmas in one post. Here's Chapter one.

In an effort to magnify the Christmas season, Annie and I made gingerbread houses for all the cuz's. As it turns out making 9 gingerbread houses is super fun all the way through #2.

This photo was taken BEFORE my and Polly's house suffered some serious structural damage, due to pushing in our Golden Graham shingles with too much force. It was a complete loss.
Macy's surviving house...
Polly doesn't waste any time. Not at all.

Nativity

Our friends invited us over for FHE last week to be part of their nativity re-enactment.  Macy took her role as Mary very seriously, she quietly led Joseph to where they were supposed to be and eagerly accepted the gifts from the wise men.

Me, Layla, and Polly as the Wise Women.

Lincoln the shepard (looks devious), Carson as Joseph, Macy as Mary, Ella as the angel.

Firelight

We sure love our fireplace.

(and look, we have a dad!)

My view

Polly's view

Macy's view

As soon as we started the fire, Macy ran to get her rocking chair. She know's what's up. Polly quickly followed and came back with whatever she could find, an unrocking chair. Whatever works.

sidenote:

At dinner, something surely tragic happened to which Polly resonded with "It's not fair" (Sienna has a friend, Hayley), followed by dropping her head into her arms, "I'm just going to go to my castle now". I guess that's her happy place.

A prayer from the heart

Last night Polly said the sweetest prayer:

Dear Heavenly Fahver,

I Fankeful for God
I love God
I like going to church sometimes
I love Jesus
and I like playing with my friends
I Fankeful for everyfing
Amen

Haloween 4

4 Halloween events.

1. Pumpkin Carving

The ladies were very into cleaning out the pumpkins this year, despite Macy telling us before hand she was NOT touching the slimy parts.

2. Halloween Party

The night before Halloween Grandma Janet had a party for the kids. There were games, prizes, home-made pizzas and lots of treats. All the kids had a blast!

3. Pre-school Trunk-or-Treat

They had to sing for their candy. That's how it is at our house on a regular day, so Macy was right at home.



4. Halloween night.

Polly as Little Orphan Annie complete with dog, Sandy. This is my favorite costume we've ever done.

She informed me while getting ready. Next year she wants to be Cindallella.

Macy as a fairy.
She was very into modelling her costume. Very.

(fake laugh)

The next 5 years costumes are planned out as follows: Minnie Mouse, Elphaba (with green skin), angel, pine tree, and Flower princess. Very well rounded.

Canyoneering

Last weekend Scott and I went to Southern Utah to do some canyoneering. (Scott's second love after his family, of course.) This was my first time, while the ladies stayed with their wonderful Grandma Janet and Grandpa Mike. Really. Truly. Wonderful. They also had cousins Hallie and Daxton. That makes 4.

You see, this is how much Scott loves it:

This is a picture of me making a large deposit in the Bank of My Marriage. I am about to repel into that dirty, bug infested, stinky water below. And no, rolling up my pants didn't help. Thanks for asking.

I know this picture is bad, but it shows how awesome this corkscrew part of the canyon is.

Last and biggest repel of the trip.

This is what we came home to.

See? I told you... wonderful.

Family Home Entertainment

This is evidence that Macy is a born entertainer:

For FHE last night, Macy wanted to conduct (aka: be in charge). When I told her to go ahead she had to think for a minute at how to proceed then she said in a big bellowing voice:

"Introduc...." (voice trails off)

Thinking for a moment longer, still a big voice:

"Welcome to Family Home Evening... ENJOY!!"

I think we have a new slogan.

Teaparty part 2

To celebrate Macy's real tea set we gave her for her birthday (by "real" I mean not plastic), we had to have another tea party. This time with Grandma Janet. Macy requested grandma bring cookies and a mixture of nuts and m&m's. (I'm not sure if you're supposed to make requests at a tea party at your own house but she did.) Grandma even brought 2 roses for the ladies. She's the best!

And P.S.,

this is what Scott would look like in a moustache.

H.O.T.

Am I right, ladies?

Catching Hornets

What would you wear to catch a hornet?

Carnival Party

The Carnival Party for Macy's birthday was a lot of fun. There was face painting by Grandma Dedee, popcorn, carnival games, and prizes. We (Thanks Holly and mom) moved the party inside to the basement at the last minute (1/2 hour before the party started), because it looked and felt like rain. It was a bit crowded with 12 kids, plus the games and the adults running the games. I was a little frazzled and didn't get any pictures inside. It turned out to be nice, so we had cake and presents outside.
This is was was left of the prizes.

Macy turns 5!!!!!

Macy turned 5 yesterday.
And a proud 5 year old she is.
She showed me this morning what she looked like before she turned 5
(by squatting down a few inches).

A couple of the fabulous gifts.
It is easy to love Macy. She is creative, smart as a whip, gorgeous, an excellent dancer, a great friend to everyone and an all around fantastic little girl.

(Macy also had a carnival party with her friends on Saturday. It was loads of fun and absolutely exhausting. I managed to get very few pictures. I may or may not blog about it in the next few days.)

First day of (modeling) School

I forever want to remember Macy and her first day of pre-school.

Boy-howdy was she excited.
Turns out she's prepping for her modeling career.

Macy, show me "I am desperate to get to school soon",

Great.

Now turn and pose.
And on the ride home, Polly kept saying, Where's Macy (at school), Where's daddy (at work). Oh, I just miss my friends.

Little lady quote

This morning as I was trying to sneak out,  Polly comes running:

"Mom, where are you going?  Don't leave"

I'm going for a quick run and I'll come right back.

"Don't leave me"

Why?

"Cause I love you so much...

(stalling)

 right up to the sky...

(stalling)

 so you can fly."

Quote of the day

Macy and Polly (currently potty training and often without pants) were playing outside and I heard Macy shout:

"Mom, Polly's showing her bum!!"

Me: Polly put your panties back on.

(she likes to strip down)

"No mom, her panties are ON, but they are up her bum,

so she's showing the BOOB of her bum."


In walks Polly with quite a cute little wedgie.

Afternoon Tea

Yesterday we had a

Back to School Tea Party in our backyard.

[Sicily, Sosie, Willa, Polly and Macy]

First we made these tea party hats

that I saw on Design Mom.

Then we served mini foods:

sandwiches, muffins and cookies.

and raspberry lemonade for our "tea".

It was a wonderful time.

Everyone acted like ladies.

I think we'll start a tradition.

An afternoon with Polly

My little lady and I are home alone.

She wants to build a house for her animals.

o.k.

Oh no.

That wretched alligator knocked part of it down.

(see Polly's horrified look.)

ooohhh. She's mad now,

and down right sassy.

So, she knocks the rest down.

Then I asked for a kiss...

Hmmmm... just what I wanted.

This is embarassing

The other day Macy wanted to make masks.

Good idea.

This is the excellent elephant she made.

She drew it all by herself.

The only thing I did was cut it out.

Impressive.

...and

(wait for it)

this is my mask...

What is it?

seriously?

humiliating, that's what.

Tattlling

While I was in the shower this morning, I saw Polly press her face up against the glass and say (imagine a tattling kind of voice):

"Moooom, Macy say eenie menie mo, catch tiger by toe and I not it!! Why I not it mom?"

For the love of butterflies

While we were on our romantic getaway, the ladies stayed with Grandma Janet, one of their favorite places to be. After watching Macy dart around the backyard trying to catch butterflies, Grandma Janet set out to find a butterly net, as she loves her grandkids a whole lot. Lo and behold when the ladies came home, Macy proudly displayed her new friends held up in glass jars with some foliage and a grape (Diego says butterflies like the juice of fresh fruit.) 5 Butterflies in total. Make that 4 butterflies and a moth named Angel.

Grandma Janet so graciously prepared Macy that she would have to let the butterlies go. It was decided that we would let them go moments before bed. As the time got closer she started to panic and big tears welled up in her eyes. She kept telling me that she wanted them to live, but she was just going to miss them so much. We decided to take a picture so she could always remember them. She tried really hard to smile.

We took them outside and she started to cry harder and harder. Big, real tears. Macy has always been an emotional child, but this was more than her little heart could bear. We sat on the grass for a long time while she told them all a heartfelt goodbye. When I opened the jars and they flew out, she had a look on her face that was priceless. It was pure joy and anguish at the same time. She was shouting:

"Good bye little buddies, fly away and find a new home. I'll miss you little buddies."

I might just tear up thinking about it. It was the sweetest thing.

One of the many things that is so fabulous about Macy is how she loves with her whole heart.

Romantic getaway

Scott and I have been dreaming of a romantic vacation together. Okay. So I wanted the romantic vacation. Scott just wanted a vacation, but it's my blog and he doesn't read it. As it turns out, since the romantic vacation we both wanted isn't free, we opted for something that was. A backpacking trip. I had to do some arm twisting to get Scott to agree to a less luxurious trip.

But that's the kind of persuasion I have.

Destination choice: High Creek Lake.

Do I look tired? and hot?

Yes to both.

We had the lake all to ourselves. Lucky.
We may or may not have gone skinning dipping.
I'm not saying.

Macy would be in floral heaven with all the wildflowers. (her favorite part of hiking and who can blame her?) We made her a boquet and packed it down the mountain.