Celebrating Big

The Big Man

Last Saturday we went to a very successful ward Christmas PJ breakfast. Kevin and the awesome EQ presidency were in charge and worked their booty's off to make it a good time for all. Everyone had a great time. We ate, sang carols with White Mammoth, and visited with friends. But the highlight for every kid there was when Santa came to visit. Here are some pics of the kids with the big man:

Poor Santa had a hard time getting Gavin to release his beard. We definitely didn't want that to be pulled off. :)

Myla was very hesitant to visit Santa and so Annie, the kids' favorite babysitter, took her up. She finally decided Santa was pretty cool when she saw he was giving her a candy cane.

Cade had no problem sitting on Santa's lap. I think it was the 3000 times we've watched Polar Express this year that helped him feel comfortable with him. :)

Here is Cade imitating Santa Claus when we got home. Ho ho ho!

We wish everyone a very merry Christmas!

Gingerbread Houses

Last weekend my friend Hollie held a gingerbread house party. Hollie is amazing. Not only did she make dinner for everyone, she baked and assembled everyone's gingerbread house and provided prizes! I think there were at least nine or ten couples. The only rules were that everything we put on the house had to be edible. I was really impressed by the thought people put into their houses. We just showed up with a bunch of junk food and a vague idea and tried to make something out of it.

This is what we came up with:

Our gingerbread beach house. Notice the sand snow man with a surf board propped up and the palm tree made out of gum and a kit kat. We completed the beach scene with goldfish in the ocean.
Another couple had the same idea, except theirs was so much cuter. I love the clothes line behind the house. So cute!

Here are some other houses the couples created:Blue Christmas
The White House

Church house, Carousel house, and Foreclosure houseThe Gavman and Kev

We had so much fun! It was great seeing old friends and catching up. Thanks Hollie!

Our Angels

Giddyup

A little friend of Cade and Myla had a birthday party this weekend, complete with pony rides and a petting zoo. The kids had a blast. I mananged to get video of Myla taking her first pony ride. She was so brave! I think it helped that the pony was pink. :) Cade had a great ride too, after much observation of the other kids on the pony. We went slowly, starting off with just talking to the horse, then petting her, then sitting on her, then finally riding her. And as long as Mom was holding onto his hand or foot during the ride it was okay. Cade is a cautious child...something I really appreciate. I wish I could have cuaght him on video too. Just take my word for it, he was dang cute up there on that horse too.

Horsin' Around

We had our annual Webb family Christmas party out at my Uncle David's house in Queen Creek. We had a great time! It was fun getting the whole Webb crew together.

This is my Uncle David putting reindeer antlers on his horse.
Myla is telling a story about one of the horses.

Jacob and Jordyn took turns riding and leading the horse.

A bunch of us visiting and watching the kids ride the horses.

The kids all love Dawn. They all got a kick out of feeding the horses.

Rudolph..I mean, Dawn and Gavin

This is Cowboy Golf. I've never played it, so I don't really know the rules. All I know is that my mom, James, Jared and Kevin get really competitive with it. I think it's sorta like the game horseshoes.

Sweet Rachel and Nicki

Gavin and Grandma feeding the horsie.

Jared and Connor

Jared and Jared Jr

Uncle James

Kev, Myla and Jordyn

Myla and Uncle David

It's one of my favorite things to find my kids snuggled under their blankets fast asleep...especially since we've been fighting naps lately.

My Blog Crush

Do you have a blog crush? You know, the blogs you check daily...or hourly ;), anxious to see what loverly and amazingly creative thing they invented this time. I have recently discovered a blog that I am a bit twitterpated with -- LollyChops. It has everything I like...sewing, crafts, great recipes, gift ideas, freebies, tutorials and almost daily postings. But my favorite thing about LollyChops are her great designs (check out the pears below). And she's not stingy. In fact, quite the opposite--she gives freely! The design below, which I am in love with, is one of many that you can print out and use scrapbooking, card making, origami or anything else your little heart desires. And (this is my favorite part) she will be releasing her design soon to anyone to get printed up at Spoonflower as fabric!! I'm just a little excited. Okay, a lot excited.

P.S. Here are some other blog crushes of mine:

One Pretty Thing

Portabellopixie

Bakerella

The Pioneer Woman

Little Birdie Secrets

Cake pops anyone?

I am feeling a little proud of my domestic skills right now. I made cake pops! I have been following Bakerella for awhile now. I've always admired her skill with cupcakes, and have a mental list of her projects I want to try. I finally tried my hand at the cake pops last night in honor of the SSC Christmas party. (Oh yeah, it was a wild party...all that fabric swapping and sugar rushing and baby feeding going on. Okay, not wild. But fun. Always fun!) Anyway, I checked out Bakerella's Christmas cake pop project and was about to try the Christmas tree...then decided that I should probably settle down and start with the basic ball and if I enjoyed it, go from there. Here are the results:

You are supposed to poke the sticks in a styrofoam cube, but I didn't have one and improvised. Now I know why she said to use a styrofoam cube...you probably don't get drooping pops that bump into one another. They got pretty friendly with each other.

Cade and Myla thought they were pretty cool.

All packaged and cute.

If you are going to try these out yourself, here is the recipe and how-to...it's an insanely easy recipe, especially if you use a cake mix and canned frosting. Here are a few tips:

*Don't make the balls too big. I used a small cookie scoop and they were too big. A number of the pops fell off the stick into the melted chocolate. Not very fun to dig out, and they get cake crumbs in the chocolate.

*Be sure to chill the cake balls long enough so the don't turn to mush.

*Just do one color of coating at a time. If not, the red gets in the green and there's just mess all over the place.

* If you have specific number that you need to make (like for your child's classroom party) make at least twice what you need. I made about 30 of these and only 10 turned out. The kids and Kevin didn't mind eating the cast-offs though.

* Start early. With all the baking, then cooling, then forming, then cooling, then dipping in coating, then cooling...it takes a lot of time.

Will I be trying the tree cake pops? Ummmm, maybe next year.

PS 15 days until Christmas!!

Cade is a funny kid. Kev and I have gotten a kick out the things he's said. Our favorite happened this morning. Cade was upstairs with Kevin while Kevin worked on the computer. He was kicking and hitting our bed and Kevin said, "Cade, stop it. You're beating the crap out of our bed." Cade looks around and says, "Where's the crap, Dad?"

Later on we were eating dinner and Cade had talked non-stop the entire dinner. So finally, I just needed some quiet and suggested that we play a fun game...The Quiet Game! Cade and Myla asked how to play, I explained that we all have to be really quiet and the first person to talk loses. Cade hates to lose, by the way. Yesterday he threw a monster fit because Kevin beat him in a race. Uh oh. Anyway, I said "Ready, set, be quiet!" It was deathly silent for about, oh, 3 seconds when Cade shouts out, "I love Thomas!" Kevin and I just busted up. So much for the quiet game.

Another funny thing Cade says is "to-later." We say tonight, tomorrow, today...he just figures we also say tolater.

I love the things kids say. Always original and sweet.

Smile

Thankful Things Swap

I know, three posts in one day. I've decided I'm a blog binger. After several weeks of not blogging, I get my groove back and blog like crazy. Anyway, I have to apologize to my wonderful blog partner, Becca, for taking so long to get these pictures up. I wanted to get the gloves in action, but since my husband and I are very rarely in the house at the same time these days, the opportunity just didn't present itself. I tried to take an in-action shot myself and you see the outcome:

For the Thankful Things swap I received a cute package! These glamour cleaning gloves are so sweet. See the in-action shot. Not so great.
Here you can get a good look at them. Nice and frilly...perfect for feeling cute while doing the menial things around the house.

She also sent a sweet mug pin cushion, a coffee cozy, a cute Moda tin, and some lovely relaxing essential oil.

Thank you Becca!

Sunday Morning

I love getting the kids ready for church. I love the way they look when their hair is done and their faces are clean. I love that they get excited about going to primary and nursery. I love that as we play primary hymns while we take our bath, they both sing "I Am A Child of God" as if they are trying to let the whole world know. I love that after I get them dressed in their clothes they really do try to stay clean. One thing I don't love is putting on their shoes. It probably has something to do with my aversion to wearing shoes (which I'm paying for now, but that's another story). So if anyone loves putting kids' shoes on, c'mon over.

Cade noticed that he and Gavin matched today and wanted me to take pictures. He's a kid after my own heart.
This picture makes me laugh. I probably took 10 pictures in this position but they would not tear their eyes away from Mickey Mouse on the TV. They said "cheese" the whole time, but wouldn't look at me.

My handsome Cade, with his sidekick, Stripes the Lion. (We know he's a tiger, but Cade insists he's a lion. He compromised by naming him Stripes. You should meet Myla's Pig the Lamb. I'll introduce you someday.)

This cute dress came with a matching dress for her doll. Myla was so excited to dress her doll.

The Gavman. He needs no explanation. He's just so darn cute and happy and patient with his mom's flashing camera. (That red spot on his lip isn't a sore, it's a hemangioma. It should disappear in time. He has a bigger one on his tummy too. I tell you because everyone asks if he has a cold sore.)
The whole crew.

Oh Wait, He's Not

Our little Gavin has been throwing us some curve balls lately. He started sleeping through the night at around 5 weeks. We were getting used to getting our full 8 hours (or at least I was, Kevin is a night owl). Then about 4 weeks ago he started waking up again at night. Several times a night. Several. Little trickster.
Well, he's doing the same thing with eating. He absolutely refuses to eat rice cereal, no matter what I do to it...add formula, add water, add apple juice, add apple sauce. Nothing works. He spits it out and makes this face that says, "Mom, seriously. What are you doing to me?"

The other day I was eating an apple while holding Gavin. He was staring at it so I put it in his mouth and let him suck and gnaw on it. He loved it! So I thought he would love apple sauce. Who says we have to start them on cereal? He didn't like the apple sauce. I think it was too sour. So I tried sweet potato. He seemed to really like it! I thought we had a winner! Visions of sleep-ful nights danced before my eyes. (In my mind, the whole eating and waking up at night thing was related. I thought he was hungry and only formula wasn't enough for him anymore.)

He was finally eating something!

Oh wait, he's not. He only ate it that one night and won't touch it again. On to plan B. The waiting game. When he's ready, he's ready. There's no rushing the milestones, no matter how badly we want to.