Power plants and gummy gods

This year for gingerbread houses we decided to team up boys versus the girls.  The boys quickly got busy creating their version of a power plant that had spilled nuclear waste and turned its gummy workers to zombies.  Note the green guys exiting the factory :)  They had a silo, a toxic chemical spill and a toxic waste area that looked more like a gummy bear graveyard.  I loved this little guy repelling down the side of the building.... 

 I LOVED their licorice power lines they looked great.  They did a really good job and definitely smoked us this year!

 The girls had originally started out with the idea of doing a Frozen castle but we didn't have all the ingredients to make our "glass candy" that we were going to use, then add onto that a fussy teething baby that wouldn't let mom do much of anything and a structure that kept collapsing.  So we decided to go with plan B, a super simple desert/ancient ruins idea.  Complete with pyramid, a temple, worshipers, and marshmallow tiki statues.

Oh and of course a gummy god wearing his headdress.....

 Actually if we had more time and Hudson was feeling better I think we could have really done some other fun things with this idea.  I think you could expand it to make it more of an Indiana Jones/jungle idea that could be cool.  We still managed to at least pull out something creative.  Every year its the drive to do something totally different and creative.  It is always one of our favorite Christmas traditions.

Ugly sweater party

We attended our first "Ugly Sweater Party" this year with a bunch of  friends from the ward.  I found a turtleneck with little snowmen and trees on it with a blue vest, Christmas brooches and giant tree earrings.  Add a side ponytail and it made a good combo.  Now named team Jingle Burch, we spent the evening competing in Christmas themed minute to win it games.

The first competition was to build your best gingerbread house in thirty minutes.  Deke and I decided to go outside of the box and do more of a tropical gingerbread hut of sorts.

Gummy candies became palm trees and Whoppers fallen coconuts.  It turned out pretty good.

The Horne's "abominable snowman"....

We had a "snowball" fight, had to wrap each other in green crepe paper and decorate each other like trees, race in cup stacking, and other fun holiday related games.  We laughed so hard all night and had a lot fun.  I ended up winning the title of ugliest sweater :):)

Olaf

One afternoon the kids came home from school to find Olaf (the little snowman from Frozen) sitting on the couch with a cup of cocoa and a note. It was written to the four of them letting them know that he had come to our house to watch them all month long and report to Santa.  Hunter (who had an Elf on the Shelf in his classroom) excitedly explained to the girls what this meant and that you weren't allowed to touch Olaf or he would lose his magic.

The kids were so excited all month long about Olaf, especially Avery.  Every morning they would wake up and search for him and then first thing when they got home from school to see where he had moved to.  We caught him doing all sorts of things including dusting in the living room, trying on tutus in the girls room and using Hunter's microscope.  This day he and some of the other stuffed animals were having a sack race across the kitchen table...

One morning he was doing some chin ups on Deke's bar.

Or looking up pictures of the North Pole on the computer.  Avery said it was because he was homesick.

One morning Emma found him getting ready to bake something.

After school one day he had hidden miniature candy canes around the room for the kids to find.

He also like to keep things clean.  He was found in the shower, brushing his teeth, and one day was in the laundry room doing a batch of whites.

He got into the pantry and was playing in the flour.  The kids were sure that he thought it was snow.

One afternoon we came home to find that a large group of the LEGO men had taken him hostage.

 Hunter said that one of their buildings had been stepped on and he was pretty sure that Olaf had done it accidentally. Whatever it was they were not happy with him.

 On Christmas Eve day we found him having a snowball fight with the Christmas teddy bears using sewing batting.  Later that day he was sitting on the tree with a note saying his goodbyes.  It was such a fun new thing to have at Christmastime this year.  The kids had loved having him and are definitely going to miss Olaf being around the house.

Honor choir

 This year Avery's music teacher recommended her to audition for the honor choir.  So at the beginning of the year she did and the next day came home with a paper saying she had been chosen.  We were so excited for her since Avery spends so much of her time around the house singing.  She loves to sing.  Every time she takes a shower we have to set a timer for her because she sits in there and sings away.  It is really cute.  She had a Christmas performance and she got to wear her choir shirt that she has been waiting to wear.  They sang several different Christmas songs.

 At the end they did a song from the Nutcracker and had added choreography with colored plates.  It was my favorite number.  The kids did a great job staying synchronized and it was fun to watch.

 She did a great job.  You are so cute Ave, we love you!!

On a week in December

We headed to the temple to see the lights....

  

Spent evenings taking nighttime wagon rides snuggled in blankets to scope out all the neighborhood Christmas lights and decor.

Enjoyed our Christmas light scavenger hunt.  Had to laugh at this inflatable in someone's yard...

 Days were spent enjoying the lovely weather swinging at the park.

 Hunter crashed on his Razor scooter and broke his thumb.  Hairline fracture across his knuckle.  Ouch.  Of course it is his writing hand :(

 Hudson took his first six steps (video of that coming soon) so Mom and Dad took just him out to frozen yogurt to celebrate.  Yes we are dorks :) :)

 Hudson cracked us up at work wearing this oven mitt for two days and going around and picking everything up with it.

 Avery and Emma had a very unique winter fashion show.  Awesome.

 They also played just dance and pretended to be DJ's

 Hudson got this stock pot out of the pantry and climbed in and out of it more times than I can count.

Ave and Em spent afternoons chalking up the driveway.

Last but not least, Emma built "Carlo's Bakery" (after one of her favorite shows Cake Boss) out of Lego's.  She did a great job.  Best part is all the bad guys from the LEGO agent sets are the ones running the place.  You've never eaten a better cake than one you get from a guy with a scar across his whole face or one with a robotic eye.  Plus their cakes are so pretty, I mean check out that two tiered pink one??