Lying Little Imp!

A few nights ago Mabel wouldn't eat her dinner (this happens most nights but we're just talking about one specific night). She knows that unless she finishes her dinner she can't have anything else to eat for the rest of the night.

I finished eating and started to clean up the dinner mess while everyone else finished eating.

Eventually everyone finished and left the table, so I moved on to cleaning the table off. Mabel's plate was left there with food on it so I scraped her plate off and stuck it in the dishwasher.

As I'm wiping the table off, Bret comes out (with Mabel in tow) and asks me, "Did Mabel finish her dinner?"

I said, "No."

He started laughing and told me Mabel had come back to the bedroom where he was and said, "I'm ready for my candy. I ate all my dinner. But don't ask Mommy."

She is going to make a marvelous teenager.

Family Fun Time

On the 2nd (Bret's last day off before heading back to work after Christmas break) we decided to take the kids on a hike. One of Bret's resolutions was to do some type of family outing each month. This month was a hike.

I know this will come as a surprise to many, what with my optimistic personality and all, but I didn't have high hopes for this excursion. My kids. Walking. In the desert. For an hour. I was sure this wouldn't end well.

But hiking (minus the kids) did sound like fun to me.

We tried to take the kids on the Wind Tunnel hike. We pulled into the parking area and realized it was $6. Bret had $4 in his wallet. I didn't bring my purse (but I never carry cash anyway). So we turned around and found a new trail.

When we got there, there was a pay station. They wanted $2 per person. We paid our measley four and called it good. We decided the kids hiked free. Seriously, who wants to pay $12 (we brought Neighbor Max along) to walk through the desert?!!

The kids did AMAZINGLY well. Granted, it was a simpler hike than the Wind Tunnel hike which I ended up being grateful for. Bret stopped at forks in the trail and let the boys look at the map and tell us which way we should go.

We took plenty of snacks along. That helped, too. And we saw people out there horseback riding...the kiddos loved that! The boys stayed well ahead of us so we never have to urge them along. It was a little over a two mile hike I think, and these kids ROCKED IT!

The only snag came towards the end when Mabel decided she needed to be carried for the last half mile or so. Bret carried her a while then put her back down. We had around and eighth of a mile left when she tripped and fell. Then she was done. She screamed the rest of the way to the car. Still, color me impressed that her little legs walked much of the 2 mile hike.

Over all, I was very impressed with my kids on their first hike EVER (well, Aiden's second). It may be something we'll have to repeat!

Christmas

Christmas morning at the Rowley house

Christmas morning at Grandma's house. I didn't think to take pics of the kids opening their gifts from Grandma! Actually, I don't think I took many pictures on Christmas. Bret was behind the lens.

9th Annual Gingerbread House Contest

Am I really only just bloggin about my party? Yes! December has been a whirlwind of chaos!

The Gingerbread party came and went and it was a blast! I love it. I think I'm really going to have a hard time quitting it in a year...we'll see.

It was a small turnout (which was perfect for me because I had the busiest week EVER that week).

Bret and I FINALLY placed after about three years of nothingness! We came in first!

Now, on we go!

Mike and Rene' came in thirdplace with what they named "Abandoned Redneck Treehouse".

In second place we had Tim and Nancy's "The Little White Wedding Chapel of Love, North Pole, USA"

And Ryan and Tracy took first with "Santa's cottage"

And now all of the honorable mentions:

Julie and Preston's "House of Rock (Candy)"

Gennifer and Creston's "North Pole"

And Zack and Genice's "Left Overs"

The OFFICIAL first place (I don't think I can say that enough...it's been a long time) is Mine and Bret's "Barnyard"

I spent the good part of an hour on this lamb.

Yes, the animals look dead, BUT, I am getting pretty good at this fondant stuff. It's too bad you can't see the horse's mouth. I gave him some big ol' buck teeth. But, alas, his head wouldn't stay on the house, so we had to hold it up with a pile of "hay".

LATER!

Aaaaand, they finally got it right!

Aiden had his third grade Christmas concert on Thursday. It was aaaawesome! They actually sang Christmas songs! Silent night. Rocking around the Christmas tree. Jingle Bells. Even some strange folky type song that mentioned Jesus and I think the entire nativity about 20 times. Go figure.


I love this picture. Isn't he handsome? It reminds me of his two year old pictures for some reason.

I tried to upload one of his songs, but it was taking an eternity...then my kids closed it! GAAAAHHH! It was cute. Just take my word for it.

And thank you, Mrs. Donahue, for finally getting it right!

Plants VS. Zombies

Our Grayson turned five on November 6th! So on the 12th, we celebrated Plants Vs. Zombies style!

Plants Vs. Zombies is a DS game that Grayson has been obsessed with. There may be others in this household obsessed as well, but I won't name names....ME!

Grayson is really gettting to know more boys in the neighborhood thanks to the neighborhood sports group. We invited a couple of them over for Pizza and BRAINS!

We set up a human-scale game. We also invited two of his little girl friends...they didn't dig the game as much as the boys did.

Here are our Zombies...

And here we have our plants...

I filled nylons with flour to be our "ammunition". Eventually, it just turned into an all our flour war.

After it was all over, we settled down for some cupcakes and ice cream.

The little dudes on the cupcakes are "Doom-shrooms". You have to play the game...

Then Gray got to tear into some serious gifts!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MONKEY BOY!

Picturing Halloween

Rapunzel

Candygram.

Plumber.

Unicef Man

LANDSHARK!

NINJAHHHHHH!

Mummy.

Policewoman, SWAT, bumble bee.

DONE!