...Gingerbread house continued

Burke finished his Gingerbread house over the weekend. It turned out great! Some of you wanted to know how it went in case you want to try it out sometime too. If it were me I'd say, go and buy one! But if this were Burke he'd say do it, it's a lot of fun! So choose who your most like and go with it. I did enjoy watching Burke create it though, don't get me wrong. :)

Here it is at the beginning. Whenever he'd put pieces together he'd find something close by to prop up against it until it dried completely.
Everything is now dry and ready to decorate with candy.
When I thought it was finished.
Oh yah, the fence!!! Now it's finished. Isn't it so great!?! I mean, it's got it all from icicles to a cobblestone pathway. I think he did a great job.

Early Christmas

We decided to give the kids their big present since we're heading out to Salt Lake and were not going to lug Kaiya's big ol' kitchen there! It was really fun watching them each open their gift. Kaleb's wasn't huge, but we couldn't just give Kaiya her's and not give him one, so he got his Lego Batman Wii game. We wrapped it in a bunch of boxes and in this video he's down to about the last two I think. At the end it's in a microphone box and Burke makes him think that's what it is and you can tell he's a bit disappointed. Then the joy when he finds out what it really is, so funny!



And here's Kaiya opening her kitchen. I love her face when she see's what it it. I was SO excited to give this to her and she just loves it so much. It's been nice to let her enjoy it before we go and have it to look forward to when we come back home. This video is a bit long, so at least just watch until she finds out what it is and see her cute face, then I'm alright with you turning it off ok?!!! :) hehe. But if you do watch it all, I love Katelin's response to it when she see's it also. She loves it a lot too. We got her a stroller and she's loving it too. We have a few more things for them to open on Christmas morning that we will bring, so don't think we ruined everything, it's alright.

Santa Kaleb

Kaleb decided he wanted to make a Santa outfit to wear out of paper for the hat and wrapping paper for his Santa suit. I think he makes a great Santa! Oh, and Burke and I made the cute little penguin's out of olives, carrots and cream cheese for our Bunko Christmas party. It was a fun party playing Bunko with our husbands too.

Holiday Guitar concert

It was time once again for Burke's guitar classes to perform for the school yesterday. I always look forward to these concerts. Burke lets the kids choose what songs they want to play, he has to approve them of course, but it turns out great! This time since it was a holiday concert they had to choose something geared more towards Christmas. They chose some great songs. They got into different groups and got a song together to perform, so we listened to quit a few. Then Burke chose to do Tom Petty's Christmas All Over Again with all of them together at the end of the concert. That's what this video is of. Sorry about the crazy lady that recorded it...me. I had Kaiya on my lap and it got bumped around at times. Anyway, I loved it all, way to go Burke!!!!!!!!!

The Gingerbread house

We've been wanting to make a gingerbread house from scratch forever now, but it has been unsucsessful. But today a sweet couple from our ward brought us a gingerbread house kit for a gift for our family so Burke and Kaleb decorated it together while Katelin watched. Well I'm sure she helped eat some of the candy, but that's it. And little Kaiya is sick, so she wasn't up to helping and I went to our Relief Society Christmas party which was wonderful - so I wasn't any help either!

During the making:

And the completed house. Tada! Kaleb loved every minute of it and I know he'll enjoy eating it to pieces too.
I'm sure there will be another house to come made from scratch, because Burke is just determined to make one work. He's already tried two times and the first was to soft and crumbled, but was yummy to eat, and the second recipe was perfect, but wouldn't come off of the pan easily! So it broke. I think he's figured it out though so stay tuned for the next Simmons gingerbread house to come!

Birthday fun

Kaleb made this sign for Burke's chair at the dinner table. I thought it was so cute.

Burke cooked his own Birthday dinner as usual. I know wierd, but he just has something different each year that he wants to try and he wants to do it, he really enjoys cooking fun things when he can. So heck, I gave the birthday boy his wish and let him cook away. And I'm so glad I did cause it was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO GOOD!!! He cooked steak, chicken and sweet potatoes right on top of natural wood coals. I wasn't sure about how it would turn out, but it was great, and he loved it too so that's double great. After we were done eating he took the kids out and they roasted marshmallows over the hot coals and we made smores.

This was his happiest moment though, when he found out that the candles I bought were the ones that relight after you blow them out. hahaha! This was his face when he figured that out. I just had to laugh, he's so funny.

The kids and him had a blast waiting for them to relight and blow them out and on and on. Greatest birthday entertainment ever!
I'm glad he had such a great day, it was really fun. Thanks for all of the happy birthday wishes also. We love you all!!! :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BURKE!!!

Burke has caught up to me again in age after two weeks! We're both 32 now and lovin' it. Here's a few things the kids and I love about Burke: He's really gets into projects that we do as a family. He makes learning new things really fun. He loves to be silly and laugh and make us laugh. He's very talented and seems to know a little bit of everything. And he loves us very much too. WE LOVE YOU BURKE/DAD!!! Happy Birthday!!!

My favorites

As we put out our decorations this week it brought back memories of where I got them and certain ones stand out to me more than others. I thought I'd share a couple of my favorites.

This nativity set was my Oma's and I'm so glad we get to have it in our home now. It's so beautiful and when I think of it I think of her and also the amazing story of the birth of Christ. The kids love it too and are so gentle with it. I enjoy telling them about our Savior's birth while we look at it and they point to who I'm talking about. I hope it lasts a while for us. It's such a nice addition to our Christmas.
And this sweet little precious moments figurine is from my mom. She sent it to me when I was on my mission in California. I was missing the pretty snow. So whenever I see this little person mailing snowballs I just smile. I think it is so sweet. And it's nice to have it here in Green River too since we hardly get any snow either, just the cold. Thanks mom! I love setting this out each year.

What's one of your favorite Christmas decorations or ornaments? Consider yourself tagged! :)

O Christmas Tree

Before
After (the next day)

It's more and more fun each year putting up the Christmas decorations and the tree. The kids just love it all and want to help with everything. They think each little decoration and ornament are just amazing. It makes it all even more enjoyable to have them to share it with.

little helping hands

We all thought it was so funny watching her just throw them in wherever. She felt so big helping out.

And MORE family fun

Me, my mom, Juli, Robyn and Tiff (my sisters) all headed out on Wednesday night to see the Twilight movie. We always have a lot of fun together and I always end up laughing so hard at silly things that I get a great ab workout without even trying! It's wonderful!!! We all really enjoyed the movie and eachother's company.

I mentioned in a post below that I didn't get any pictures of our temple square trip, but my sister Tiffany did! So I took some off of her blog, THANKS TIFF!!!

Katelin and Reagan kept giving adorable hugs. They're so sweet.