Making Ornaments

Traditionally we make ornaments each year, so a few weeks ago, I asked Aurora to look up some ideas on DIY ornaments. She found some lightbulb ornament creations and we all thought that looked like a fun idea. There were multiple options: penguins, snowmen, santa, reindeer, minions (from Despicable Me) so I thought it would work well.

I bought light bulbs and some basic paint colors last week on one of my trips to Wal-mart and we did it last Sunday after church.

Everyone with bulbs, paper plates,
and brushes creating
their ornaments for 2014

Aurora decided she was going to
paint a penguin.

Painting on light bulbs is a little tricky for some
promotes concentration in others
(look at their faces).

Paint wasn't drying very quickly,
so we pulled out the hair blow drier.

Nate's snowman

Graigry and Aurora putting on
final touches.

Neta trying to finish her snowman

Xela made a wonderful Rudolph the red-nose reindeer. I sprayed with shilac in attempts to keep the paint from scraping off. I scraped paint off my santa after schilacking it and the paint still comes off. Guess we just have to pack with great care. Xela's reindeer is so awesome and I don't want it scratched. I meant to get a picture of the reindeer and its maker, but we just finished packing up Christmas, so I'll have to remember for next year (yeah right!).

Oh Christmas Tree! Oh Christmas Tree!

I forgot that I had pictures from our tree decoration activity, so here you go. Out of order, but oh well. :)

Typically, we put up the Christmas tree the Monday after Thanksgiving. Xela, in her 14 year old wisdom, suggested that we do it on Friday or Saturday so we wouldn't have the time constraints of Monday bed time. It was a good idea and we decided to make that idea a reality.

After hitting two stores on Black Friday, we came home, did a little rearranging of the living room, pulled out the Christmas box and began hanging our memories on the tree.

I had tried to set up children's ornaments on a table so there were things to pick from and I only had to rotate through kids. Xela and Aurora put up lights and the beads on the tree.

Grandma Neta's angel always goes on top. It used to light up, but it hasn't for a few years now. Eric took out the mechanics that make it light up so that he could fix it. So far, now being December 28, it hasn't been fixed, but that's okay. I don't mind that it doesn't light up.

I like having a piece of Grandma Neta with us each Christmas. I wish she was still here. We hang the snowman head ornament every year and remember the nicknames she gave each of the kids. Sally, Sue, Danny, Sammy, and Lulu are written on the back of the heads, one per kid, plus one for Eric and I. We love Grandma Neta. I think she died 7 years ago this January; she was there for Neta's first birthday. I need to find our her daughter's address and write her a note about how wonderful we think her mom was and how grateful we are that she was a part of our life.

Building Gingerbread Houses

Grandma Scott bought two gingerbread house building kits and so we built them as family home evening on December 15th. I typically like to do these kind of things on Saturdays so we don't have time constraints such as bedtime, but this is what worked for Karen and our Saturdays were a little booked as well.

Here are pictures from the just over an hour event (which ended with Eric yelling at the big girls for not obeying when he said they were done - they still had things to add to their house, but he had called time and wanted everyone in the living room - thus the yelling).

Assembling the four little houses;
trying to get the icing to hold.

Walls and roof now attached,
decorating commences.

Putting together their "pre-fabed" houses
& doing a good job of sharing icing
& candy pieces in their decorating efforts.

Xela and Ro started out being attentive
to detail, trying to make everything pretty.
Then it turned into just throw
on as much candy as they could.

Maybe because of the "hurry-up-its-time-for-bed" mode we were in at the end of the activity, but I didn't get a finished product picture and now, on December 26, there has been some massive destruction of the houses. Next year, we'll hopefully remember this year, and not try to squeeze a multiple hour, family bonding activity into an hour before bed time with the literal exclamation point at the end. Maybe next year, we'll have more candy leftovers from Halloween (the Bash did not produce excess candy, which isn't all bad) so I'll be more motivated to bake the gingerbread and promote the activity instead of voicing my intent to cancel it this year. :)

Lighting of the Circle

Xela wanted to go to the lighting of the Circle Center Monument. It was really cold the day after Thanksgiving and the other kids didn't want to stand in the cold to wait for lights to be turned on. Ro decided to go, so the three of us headed to the circle around 7:15.

We pulled into a paid parking space and it took me almost 10 minutes to figure out how to work and pay for our spot. The girls got a good kick out of that and then we hustled to the circle, following the crowd.

We stood kind of in front of the church building that is on the circle. Xela was hoping to see a friend that had texted that she was helping to serve hot chocolate. We didn't end up finding her, but after about 15 minutes of standing in the cold, and a countdown from five to one...

...we had...

LIGHTS!

We had to get a picture of ourselves in front of
"the world's largest Christmas tree"
or so says one radio station.

Xela mentioned this would be a fun date activity. Maybe she and I will make this a tradition and whoever wants to join us can. I know Eric won't come: he doesn't like the cold and doesn't like fighting large crowds. We'll see what happens next year!

Visit to the Indy Temple & the IMA

My Mom and Dad came into town for the weekend of Nov 14-16. I took off Friday to spend with them while the kids were in school. We drove up to the Indianapolis Temple, which is still under construction, but getting closer every day! Can't wait for it to be completed!

Here are some pics we took on 116th Street. So exciting to see the Angel Moroni on the spire!

Looks bigger in person than in the picture.

The spire is supposed to be
similar to the Monument downtown.

Dad, Mom and I then drove all the way across town on 116th Street and then down to Castleton and went out to lunch. It was great to have some time to visit without the distraction of posterity.

Saturday we started the day clearing out the house next door of the appliances we'd put in it over the years. Long story short, we finally gave up the fight and the bank got it back so we wanted to clear out what was ours before they changed the locks. 

After spending the morning doing that, we went to the Indianapolis Museum of Art. I think the kids enjoyed most of it, but most especially they following two pieces of artwork. It helps when you can interact with the work.

Thousands of people holding you up!

Think Nate might be tired?

He was up for this one!
One of the kids walked
under one of the arches,
before we were told not to get too close.

Then we went outside to the Hundred Acre Woods. I hadn't been here for a long time, so the swings were new to me. Seemed like a good place to take pictures. After a while of trying to get just the right shot, we let them swing and we moved on.

"Nate! Don't go yet!"

"Are we done? Can we swing now?"

"Okay, go!"

Some of the swing shots were kind of fun, or I just liked, so you get to see them as well.

Xela was taking photos as well,
and Neta loves being the model.

Then we went over to the skeleton. The three younger ones ran around on the bones. Then I asked them to sit for some pictures.

Happy faces!

Dad took this picture of me taking the above picture.

I thought these next three were kind of fun to look at the different faces in basically the same pose. As I recall, I was trying to do something with the light shining through the trees, but that didn't work out. There faces are what make these fun to look at.

Love my kiddos!

After being out in the chilly weather for an hour, we headed back to the car and Mom and Dad took the family to Golden Corral, one of our favorite buffets, which we only get to visit when family is in town. We filled our bellies, went home and got kids to bed.

Mom and Dad came to church with us, visited for awhile after church and then we had an early dinner together before they had to leave for the airport. We look forward to their next visit in June, when Neta gets baptized!

Graigry turns ELEVEN!

I can't believe it has been ELEVEN years since I gave birth to our eldest son! He has taken us on so many different adventures (some not really asked for - 2 concussions and broken arm for example), but we has also taught us many things. Our family would be missing something if he wasn't here.

One of the things that Graigry wanted for his birthday was a trip to Walmart. He had his own money and it was burning a hole in his pocket. We went with Grandma to Walmart, I had to get something, as did she and he came with us. He found a camo colored chair for $30 and he bought it. That is the chair that you see in the photos.

Of course, presents before cake and ice cream. The Aults and Aunt Kimmie and daughter Becca came over for the celebration of his completing 11 years of life. Considering his screaming during the first year of life and his propensity to crack his head, it is a wonder he is still here. :)

Nerf bow & arrow - AWESOME!

LEGO movie Lego set -
can't ever go wrong with Legos!

What might this present
from Grandma Scott & Kimmie be?

The Lego Friends set he wanted.
Why would he want a "girl" set?
Because it has a computer & guitar.
Alrighty then!

CAKE TIME!!

Lego candles. Graigry perfect!

Don't look too close, my camera
is not as quick on its shutter as I would like.
"Cousin" Marek Ault is in the background.

I think Graigry enjoyed  himself. He went laser tagging with Eric and two friends the Saturday before his birthday and then had more cake and ice cream on his actual birthday. Can't do much better than two parties!

Halloween Costumes 2014

I took Halloween day off of work so that I could work on costumes. We didn't do a family theme this year because no one could agree on anything so I told the kids to do whatever they wanted. I spent the entire day putting Nate's costume together and then painting his and Graigry's costumes.

It had been kind of drizzly and crummy most of the day, but the time it was trick or treating time, it was raining, almost cold enough to be freezing rain, so instead of going to the Dunahee's to trick or treat in Irvington, we went to the Little Flower Halloween Bash, which is all indoors and would put us home earlier.

Here are the costumes. Can you guess who they are, before characters are revealed below?

Hint: Popular movie

Hint: Novel & Disney children's movie 

Hint: should be fairly obvious

So did you guess right? Graigry is Emmett from the Lego Movie which came out this year. Neta is Tiger Lily from Peter Pan. If you didn't get Mater, then you're not up to date with Disney Pixar. His costume took me all day to cut, tape, and glue 5 different boxes together and then paint and let the big and small pieces dry. Xela did the teeth and hook. We used straps that went over his shoulder so he didn't have to carry it the whole time.

It was a little humorous when Graigry and Nate, after getting a plate of chips and a hot dog in the Little Flower cafeteria, tried to sit and eat their food at the table. Graigry's box came up past his lips and, well, there was no easy way for Nate to sit at the table and stay in costume. To help you with a little perspective as to his size, Mater took up its own seat in the van as we went to and from Little Flower. 

We got to the bash around six and were done just after seven. It was a little weird, but nice, being home so early on Halloween night. I was a little frustrated or annoyed that I spent all day on a costume that was only worn for an hour. But then, Nate said he wanted to be Mater and I wanted to make that happen for him. Currently, Mater is in the garage, awaiting someone else's need for a costume. I might strongly encourage Nate or Neta to wear him next year. Maybe I'll fit him if they won't. Guess we wait and see what happens next year!

Pumpkin Carving pics - the originals!

Here are the pumpkin carving pictures that were resurrected and retrieved off my phone.

Masterpieces in the Making

Step 1 - Cut open the head.

Nate's almost made it all the way around.

Graigry taking things from a side view.

Step 2 - Remove skull fragment

Xela stretches after the first part of surgery.
Nate getting ready to take another stab at his victim.

Step 3 - Pull out pumpkin guts.

Xela's rolled up her sleeves and
into it up to her elbows.

Mommy scraping out pumpkin guts. Yummy!!

Step 4 - Pick picture, wet it and plastic wrap it to pumpkin.

Nate ready to transform his pumpkin into Dracula!

Do you really think Neta
is going to do this all her self?
She even looks doubtful.
She didn't have many pattern options
after the big kids picked first.

Xela carved Grandma's pumpkin.

Step 5 - Grab scalpel and begin carving

Nate and Neta find a place to sit and begin cutting.

Graigry's pattern is falling apart.

County Dracula is coming along nicely.

Xela creating the owl's eyeballs.

Yep, Neta asked for help and then left the surgery.

Good think Dr Mom enjoys cutting things up too.

Step 6 - MASTERPIECES MADE

Graigry with his Hug hungry bat

Nate & Count Dracula

Neta and a Gooey Goblin

And, of course, you have to take a picture of them glowing in the dark.

Masters & their Pieces