Gingerbread Houses!

As you can tell I was BEHIND on blogging, so I set aside some time to catch up a little today. This weekend we put together gingerbread houses together. The kids always have fun doing things together and they love being creative. We love the holidays!

Just getting started on the fun!

Ella and Dads piece of work!

Cavin and moms artwork!

Ugly Sweater Party!

This past weekend we had a lot of fun. We went to Ragnar's work party Friday night and then on Saturday we got to attend the 2nd annual Ugly Sweater Party that our friends the Millers put on at Christmas time. We really have fun at this party and were looking forward to it. There is yummy food, fun friends, and fun games.....my favorite!

Here is Ragnar and I in our ugly...I mean beautiful sweaters!

The lovely ladies

The handsome men!

This was the championship round of the marshmallow game. Ragnar and I totally won!

Each round the marshmallow you had to catch was different. The first round you had to catch 2 white marshmallows and eat them, the second round 2 chocolate (which we NASTY!) and the last round was a campfire marshmallow and as you can see it was HUGE! I was feeling sick by the end! But we won! We had fun. Thanks to the Millers for hosting!

The Nutcracker Ballet

Every year we have been trying to make a tradition of having the girls all go to see the Nutcracker ballet. Ella can recognize the music anywhere and loves to dance to it. This year my mom took Ella, me, and my sister Natalie to see it at a Cy Fair college. It was different than going downtown, but I actually enjoyed being able to actually see the dancers perform because we were much closer. We had a nice time. Thanks mom for taking us!

Getting ready for our fun girls day out!


Our future dancer getting ready!




All the girls getting ready for fun!

Ella always does really well at paying attention. The dancing seems to really keep her interested in the ballet. She loves to watch dancing!

Thanksgiving Kindergarten Play

Last month Ella had a Thanksgiving play in her Kindergarten class at school. She was very excited to be a pilgrim girl and if we didn't practice each night she would say..."mom if you are going to be good at anything you have to practice!" There is my little 15 year old in a 5 year old body! Anyway, she did great and our family came and Aunt Natalie and Grandma came to watch as well. We also stayed and had her Thanksgiving feast for lunch with her.....it made me remember why I brought my lunch to school everyday :) Nice work Ella!

Here she is in all her glory!

Mrs. Adams class

Ella's crush is on the front row with his hand up...Grant. She came home a few weeks ago and said "mom..I have something to tell you. I love Grant and he loves me!??!!" wow



Her brother wants to be part of the fun!



Channing had to try on the bonnet as well :)

Thanksgiving Thankfulness!

This year for Thanksgiving we spent a few days and my parents house. They are only about 40 minutes away, but since we were the only ones coming this year and Ragnar was off of work, we decided to make a real mini vacation out of it. Thanksgiving day was yummy as always and we had really nice weather. My mom and I did a little black Friday shopping and we enjoyed hanging out with my parents and sister. The kids love spending time there. On Friday, we spent the morning taking a couple family pictures. My mom took some for us and I saved the best ones for the Christmas card....but here are a few I thought were cute.

I feel like these were engagement pictures! Haha...I think I like them better than our engagement pictures!

Our little sweetie!

Like Father...like son!

Ok are they spitting images of each other or what?!?!


This is just a silly candid one but I thought it was kinda cute

My little buddy

Ella sure loves her dad...and she is always striking a pose

I took this one of my dad and I love it :) He looks handsome!

And here was our three Thanksgiving buddies. We sure are lucky to live close to them and are indeed VERY thankful for them and for all they do for us!

And to top off the Thanksgiving weekend, we got WONDERFUL news.......THE NBA LOCKOUT IS OVER!!! Ragnar woke me up in the middle of the night when he found out with a huge fist pump in the air! He was so excited to have something to keep him busy at work again and to be able to do what he loves. He was like a little boy waking up on Christmas morning when he got ready for work on Monday! It was a huge blessing for us that work will continue and he will have something to sell! We continue to have lots to be Thankful for!

Naomi's Wedding!

While we were enjoying a visit from Chira and the boys, Ragnar was in Germany enjoying his older sister Naomi's wedding! We are so excited for Naomi and Sharlon. I was sad I wasn't able to go with the kids, but so grateful that Ragnar could be there. All of his siblings were there, even Daphne who just visited Germany...came back and surprised Naomi by being there at the wedding. Ragnar said it was a great trip and he was so glad that he was there for her and so grateful that she met Sharlon and is happy. Since I was not there, I wanted to at least post pictures for our "journal/blog" sake. Ragnar tried to take a bunch for me...so here are some :)

In Europe you have to get married "civilly" first because they don't recognize the church, so here is the civil ceremony in Holland where Sharlon lives.

Lunch after the wedding. The happily married Naomi and Sharlon

Cute Mia. Ragnar said she was adorable!

Belana, his other neice...she is growing up so fast :(

And the nephews..3 of them are his sister Pamelas boys (Fabian, Aaron, and Jared) and one is Sandras (Jonas the third one).

The next day they were sealed together in the Frankfurt, Germany temple (this is not actually the Frankfurt temple, it is just a temple they drove past). Rags says it was a little cold, but a nice day!

Naomi and her parents and Sharlon and his parents.

Naomi and Sharlon and all of Ragnars siblings. Daphne, Sandra, Naomi, Sharlon, Pamela, and him

Here we go again......:) She said YES...silly!

Naomi and Hellmut and Ursula

Ragnar with Naomi....she looks beautiful!

The next day they had a reception in their hometown Duesseldorf, Germany.



I thought the m&m's of them were cute. Congrats Naomi and Sharlon! I can't wait to come visit and finally meet Sharlon!