Gingerbread Houses!

We went home to Arizona for Thanksgiving! It was wonderful to be in the warm weather. We got my sister and her family gingerbread houses before we left so my children really wanted to do it too. So the Sunday before Thanksgiving, after church, we sat down and built some houses. My sisters Emilee and Natalie and brother Jared joined in on the fun.

Tucker, Hunter, and Brylee had lots of fun putting on the candy. Brylee insisted on "I do it self" so she ended up with lots of frosting and not so much candy. Once she realized the "glue" was sugar she started squirting the sugar into her mouth instead of on her house.

UCCU Family Fun Festival

Our credit union did a family fun festival. It was free to the family and we got fake dollars to spend at different booths. We were given $10 for our family. The purpose of the festival was to help children/youth learn about saving and spending money. They had a fake bank where you could deposit your money and it would double in value after 20  minutes. So we deposited the kids money several times over to have plenty for them to spend on things. 

We were able to ride the train!

There were twenty or so bounce houses that they all played in. I was grateful that they had one for children under five-years-old. This was the one Brylee really enjoyed. 

Tucker and Hunter came and joined her in it right before we left. 

They also had a fake store where children could purchase one thing for a fake buck. We left with $5 fake for  Tucker, Hunter, and Brylee. With it we were able to open up a bank account for each of them at the credit union and receive $5 free!. They are super excited to have their own money in a bank!

November Snow

It was snowing all day and the children patiently waited for it to stop so they could go play in it. By 4:30 I decided that they could play in it even though it was still snowing a little. The snow was perfect! We had lots of fun making snow balls and throwing them at each other

 I helped them make a snowman. They gathered the rocks and sticks for the accessories.

Of course, being boys, they wanted to knock it down as soon as it was finished being built!

Apple Pie??

Bryant has been experimenting with apple pie and making his own crust. He thought it would be fine to use a ton of apples in one pie. This lead to an extremely tall pie :)

The crust recipe was not very good and it disintegrated when touched. The apples were good but a new crust recipe was needed!

We finally found an awesome crust recipe. It is my favorite and it doesn't crack a ton when being rolled out either. Doesn't it look so pretty?

Here is the winning recipe for those that are interested:
1 1/2 Cups flour
3/4 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar
3 Tbls cold shortening
5 Tbls could butter, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1 1/2 tsp cider vinegar
3 to 4 Tbls ice water, more if needed
Prepared egg wash (1 egg beaten with 1 Tbls water) [we did not use the egg]
1. To make the dough by hand, whisk together the flour, salt and sugar in a large bowl. Add the shortening and incorporate using a pastry cutter or fork (the dough will look like moist sand). Cut in the butter just until it is reduced to small, peas-sized pieces. Sprinkle the vinegar and water over the mixture, and stir together just until incorporated. Mold the dough into a flat circle (2 inches thick or so), wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate 2 hours. Then you can roll it out and put it in the pan. It can also be used to make 6 single-crust mini-pies in a cupcake pan it you want.

Halloween!

We got a Halloween package from Grandma Debbie! Everyone was super excited! 

Hunter did not want to hold still enough for me to try and take this picture again. He looked rather serious in his silly glasses :)

Hunter slept on the Sunday before Halloween, when we carved the first two pumpkins. Brylee and Tucker had fun scooping out their pumpkins but didn't last for very long. Hunter was SUPER excited about carving his pumpkin and scooping it out all by himself! Every time anyone asked if he wanted to take a break or have some help he said, "No thanks, I have everything completely under control." It was super cute and he did an amazing job scooping it out. As a mother, it was nice to see that Hunter could stay focused on a task for a half hour or more. That is a super rare occurrance for this super active kid.

Wearing their halloween treasures the boys became pirates and gathered up a lot of treasure on the couch

Hunter was a dog for the ward Halloweem party and trick or treating. He considered being a pirate dog and walking around with a sword and eye patch but thankfully he moved on when it was time to go out.

Brylee was a cheerleader at all times. Thanks to my sister-in-law for the costume.

Tucker was a baseball player for the ward Halloween party and a pirate for trick or treating.

Hunter was Toad from Mario Bros. for the ward party but he didn't really like it. I didn't dress him up for trick or treating since he was just sitting in the stroller the whole time anyway

Here is Tucker in his pirate costume for trick or treating on center st. It was a lot of fun to have a place to go during the day so that I didn't have to take them out at night :)

Here are the pumpkins we carved after having a little plastic surgery. During the hour we were gone trick or treating on center street some children came and ripped the faces off our pumpkins. It was disappointing to see them destroyed thinking that they only had to last another hour before it got dark enough to light them! Thankfully Bryant is handy with tooth picks :)

I dressed Gunnar as a teddy bear for Halloween night since it was cold outside and we were waiting outside for trick-or-treaters.

For whatever reason no one came down our circle to trick or treat. We had plenty of candy, and I even added a lot of what our kids got to the bowl to limit their sugar intake. As a result, those that stopped by got lots and lots of candy because I didn't want it to sit around my house forever!