Ginger bread house

Fun making their Ginger Bread House!!! We've loved doing this for the past 3 years. The pre-packaged kit is so fun and easy for the kids to do - especially now they are getting older.

Silly kids havin' fun! They had some fun ideas to make some silly poses for the camera . . .

... presentation of the house

... exxagerated presentation of house... haha... these guys thought of these poses all on their own! so funny!


... curious...

... shhh... sneaky sneaky... sneaking a piece of candy from the house... haha

Cute kiddos!

Wishing "U" Happy Holidays

We hope EVERYONE has Wonderful Holidays!!

May the New Year bring all you hope and desire!

May bliss fill your hearts and homes!

We LOVE YOU ALL!

Christmas Day 2008!

Ready to open presents . . . wearing their cozy pj's they opened Christmas Eve! Conrad in Thomas the Train pj's and Hana in High School Musical pj's!

Conrad, Hana, and their cousin Elli at G&G Mack's house for Christmas breakfast!

Delicious McKinnon family traditional Christmas breakfast! Every Christmas morning, since Scott was young, his mom, Karen, makes a delicious egg and sausage breakfast casserole! Yum - it is so good and flavorful - mmmm! Also for the past couple years since G& G got their waffle maker, they also make those yummy, large waffles! mmm mmm mmm!

Breakfast with Santa Dec. 20th, 2008

For the past few years we have created a little tradition to do "Breakfast With Santa" with the McKinnon family!!! Good times! The kids love it! What could be more fun...




There is always a couple pre-teen girls doing face-painting for the kids...

Then the music starts playing and the jingle bells ring and Santa enters the room. He has the kids sit on the floor while he talks to them about Christmas. Then he has a few kids come up and help him with some songs. Some how my kids always seem to find their way up there - sometimes Santa calls on them, and sometimes they go up there even if he asked another kid to come... haha. Good times!

Then the kids get to sit on Santa's lap and take pictures and tell him what they want for Christmas. The kids also get to write a letter with the things they want for Christmas on it for Santa to keep. Then after about a week Santa sends the kids a letter thanking them for coming to breakfast and letting them know that he is working on their toys, which he names them specifically in the letter. Its pretty cool for the kids to get that letter. They get very excited!

Oh look at my kiddos! They are such cuties... I sure love them!!!

Happy 6th Birthday Hana-Bear!

Hana turned 6 years old this year! Wow! I sure love that girl!


Hana had a little Birthday party with some of her friends! Below are her friends from school... left to right... (top) Kimberyly, Birthday Girl!, Kelli. (bottom) Hannah, & Sierra (twins, not sure which is which :)) and Conrad!



Kimberly (above with Hana and Conrad) is Hana's best buddy! They are always playing together at school! Hana tells me they play "kissy tag" with the boys at school. haha! Funny girls!

Disneyland - again? and Hana's 6th Birthday! Thurs. December 11th - Sun. December 14th . . .

Yes! Its true! We went for Hana's birthday this time. Scott's parents came with us again! We all had a blast! We were also absolutely exhausted by the end of each day, and especially by the end of the trip!!!

We LOVE Disneyland at Christmas time!! It is decorated so BEAUTIFULLY! This is what the castle looked like at night! AMAZING!

Here are some fun family pictures of our 4 day trip! Enjoy . . .

Classic family castle picture

Hana had this idea about doing this in the picture! Cutie! (We're in Bugsland in CA Adventure)

Here is our beautiful Birthday Girl!!! She had a blast! We had to try a little bribing for her to come on some rides with us, but it didn't really work. She really hates rides with hills and some of the best ones have them -- such as, Pirates of the Carribean (yes the little ones at the first) and Splash Mountain. She never went on Splash Mountain, but on Friday night she fell asleep during the fireworks, so right after they were done, we snuck her with us on Pirates. She slept right through the hills, then woke up for the rest of it. It was perfect! :)

She did agree to go on the Matterhorn for some Cottoncandy. She ended up liking the ride and we went again during the trip. It was very cool to talk to her about how she overcame her fears and what she did if there was a hill. Maybe next time she will do Pirates without having to be asleep. ;) Her FAVORITE ride is Soarin' in CA Adventure.

Here is our Little Man! He has a thing for his Grandpa Mack lately. Its fun! Together they sang "Utah Man" pretty much the entire trip. If you can tell in the picture on the bottom left we happen to be in line right in front of some Zoobies who were on a roommate trip. Conrad saw them and said "I am a Utah Man sir! Cougar fans!" then he sang "Utah Man" for them. They of course thought he was adorable.

Conrad also LOVED the Cowgirl in red. We went to Santa's Reindeer Roundup and they sang songs with the kids, and he LOVED it. He wanted her to keep singing with him. So cute.

Have some Characters, Huh!? Yes we got pictures with TONS of the Disney Characters. It helps that we got to go to a Buffet Breakfast with Minnie and her friends. Anyways, above are all the ones we got pictures with. We actually only saw Mickey from a distance this time.

Good times!!!

Trimming the Tree . . .

Good times putting up the Christmas decor! Here are the kids and Scott helping Hana with the final touch - - - the Angel!

Best Pals! . . . oh and Go UTES!

SO this deserves its own post! Scotty Mack and Brad have become best buds these last several months! They talk on the phone at LEAST once a week about life, and football!

Brad went with Scott in Oct. to the Oregon-Utah (home) game! They had such a blast - of course because it ended up being one of the best games to be at! They leaped onto the field and slapped and hugged the UTE players after they won!!! PARTY!


So as many know the UTES are still 12-0 and are awaiting the details on their BCS Bowl invite!


And here are these Best Buddies in their matching Utah Conference Champions - Perfect Season shirts . . . hilarious!!!

Cuties

P.S. They were yelling GO UTES when I took this pic - even tho you can't hear that in pictures, it had to be authentic ;)

A time of Thanks, Food, and Family . . .

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

What a FUN, DELICIOUS, AND THANKFUL day, and week, we had!!!

(above) Preping the delicious meal! It was a family affair! Also enjoying Mom's deliciously-popular homemade cheese ball with crackers as we prepped the meal and enjoyed the company of each other's craziness!



(above) And we finally get to eat! YUM! Here most of us are at the Thanksgiving meal table! Kendall's brother Aaron and his wife Sabrina were able to join us for the festivities! They were so FUN to have there!!! Also, Scottie's g-friend, Jocelyn joined us too! She's awesome! I LOVE having so many people together for holidays!

We sure missed ya Becks and Cam -- we heard your Thanksgivings were Fabulous too!!!

Pie Instructional with Mom!

So in prep for Thanksgiving we had "Baking With Nan: Pie Making Course."

(Since Becks wasn't there to document for the blogging world, I took the liberty! Missed ya Beck!)

(above) Brad and Kendall were WAY into it! It was SO great! Mom is also VERY GOOD at making and baking pies! Masterful instruction, Masterful work! (we thought the Minute Tapioca (used in Apple pies) box was so old looking, so we took some "ad" style pics -- funny) I also love the pic of Michael and Mom singing to the music as they create!

Also notice the pie dough after it is rolled out . . . it must have big beautiful swirls, of the shortening, so it will create the flakiness in the delicious crust!

(above) Here we are putting the apples in and learning the techniques of putting the pies together!

(above) Here are the different TOPS we each did for our pies! Brad chose to create a Laddis style, and Kendall chose to create the beautiful Traditional style! They were both so proud!

(above) Mike and I worked on this one together! Great team effort! Mike did the cutting out of the top crust and he shaped a beautiful APPLE shape to go atop our lovely pie! I buttered and did the edges of the crust! Good Times!


(above) And FINALLY the BEAUTIFUL finished pies! They turned out SOOOO amazing -- and very delicious! Mom did the pecan pie on her own after we did the apple pies! What a woman she is!

(above) This is a GREAT pic of the after math of the pie baking! Mom used the rest of the dought for the Pecan Pie!

SOOO FUN! Thanks Mom for the great instruction and good times! We all had a blast! Great memories!

childhood memories . . . my amazing family!!!

Today at work (The Sharing Place) I met with a mom and her 6 children, the oldest child was 15. I couldn't help but have flash backs of my childhood as the oldest in my big, wonderful family!!!

I just couldn't help but think of my family. My mom was so similar to this woman, and the kids were so similar to me and my sibs.

I am so grateful for everything about my childhood. I couldn't have been raised by two more wonderful parents, who of course didn't have a manual for how to raise their kids, but they did an amazing job (and still do, Mom!). I remember so many fun times, so many learning experiences, and SO much family time and family outings. Even when I was in High School and into my friends, we still did a lot of family things all together.

I remember my Dad, and Mom too, were so huge on family time. Dad loved having his family all together and really vocalized and exemplified the importance of that.

Memories fill my head of:

- camping

- fishing

- hikes

- Saturday outings to explore Southern Utah

- Family night and the conducting and acknowledgements- "We'd like to welcome everyone out to Family Night! We'd especially like to acknowledge the presence of the most wonderful, most beautiful, most harmonious, most fantabulous, most superific (and whatever other wacky words came to mind) ___(?)___ Glauser!!!!!!!!!! And the person named would stand and do a silly bow (and we'd acknowledge a different family member each week - SOOO fun!)

- Sunday cookies and movies

- Random, yet perfect, family teaching and sharing moments

- Uno in the tent

- Picking Peas out of the garden in the Spring

- weeding the garden

- water fights

- hallering moments, followd by teaching and learning moments

- "Take the punishment!" (inside thing)

- Dad's bulldosing moments and Mom always there to replant (Dad learned to replant too, a little)

- The Narrows (the little ones) at Pioneer Park (I wonder if I still fit in those?)

- Easter morning and Thanksgiving with the Taylor's or the Garrett's

- Family trip to Laguna Beach!!!

- Disneyland (and meeting the Neff's there one time, when I was real young)

- Our blue Astro Van (and the surfing sticker on the back window that Bri Neff gave my Dad)

- Taking out the middle seat in the van and laying out blankets and pads for a long road trip (so seatbelt safe)

- Performing nights at home (random, never planned)-- Me and Brad's Aladdin performance, Michael inbetween ;), Becky and Scott (or Cami and Scott, or Cami and Michael?)) doing the Phantom of the Opera, Michael inbetween ;), Cami's dance moves, oh and Michael inbetween;), and Jeffery just laughing so hard and Sara just trying to think of something to perform, dance moves, poems, you name it --- And most hilariously Michael's random, yet awesome, raps and rhymes! Hilarious! (I sure miss those lately Mike! Really - I do! No jokin' this time!)

The list goes on and on! I hope others in my family can comment and add more to the list - ones I am forgetting or some of the endless ones I didn't list!

I love my family! Thank you for being perfect just the way you all are!!!!!!

Halloween!

I LOVE Halloween - almost more than Christmas! I love dressing up and doing the whole dress-up and trick or treat thing with my kids!


(Above) Here we are with the McKinnon Family picking out pumpkins the weekend before Halloween and spending Halloween night with them! So FUN!

(Above) Here are some fun pics throughout our day of Halloween. The finished product after I made Conrad's Peter Pan costume (super easy - awesome!). I dressed up (middle top pic) as my supervisor at work (I am on the right - he is on the left) Hee Hee! How did I do? (My chest is not very large so I was able to pull off the "boy" look pretty well) :)



Then Scott and I took the kids to Discovery Gateway (Children's Museum) for some Halloween celebrations. The kids had a great time playing. Conrad won 1st place in the costume contest and was presented with a little plastic trophy by two guys dressed like the Ghostbusters! It was hilarious!

Then we spent a fun filled evening at G & G Mack's house eating pizza and trick o treating!!!

Here are a few more fun pics:


Hana's first Elementary School Halloween parade! Fun!

Conrad and I (Scott behind camera) waiting for Hana to walk through the gym with her class in the parade!

Two cutest kiddos ever! Hana as a "Pink Tink" and Conrad as Peter Pan! SO FUN!

Hobbies

I am in the mood to bake! I did not bake this delicious dessert, but I want to make it. It is a peach cake. I am blogging about this because I feel like I have NO time to do little hobbies, such as baking. I just needed to comment about it - and make your mouths water when you see this picture. :)

Was it worth it?

I got a fun cabinet and now have a little pantry! yay! So my house is older and does not have a pantry. I have been on the look out for some type of cabinet to put in my kitchen for added space . . . I finally found a GREAT deal at Shopko with a 3-day special . . . a $140 cabinet for $45. Sweet!

So the question is . . . Was it worth the drama of getting it? A maybe 1 hour excursion, turned into an all day ordeal . . . Its one of those situations where they only have 12 in stock, its an incredible deal and you don't realize the demand for the item. So I go to the store, buy the cabinet, they take too long getting it for me, Amy's bothered, cuz I have to leave to get Hana, they tell me they can't hold it for me, I get my $ back, take care of Hana, return an hour later to buy it, I found out they could've held it for me, Amy's grinding, they tell me they are out of them now, Amy's pissed, they call other stores and they are also out, Amy's very pissed, but composed, they finally find a store that has one, they hold it for me, I drive across town, finally get it, rush staight from there to drop Conrad off with Scott and rush to work.

Was it worth it! Well, I could've done with out the ins and outs, but am glad for the extra space and it was fun to set it up and organize it!

The funny part is the customer service lady told the guy at the store where they finally found one, "You better make sure that you hold it for her, because if she gets there and you don't have it, you are going to be sorry." Funny :) I was pretty mad :0 I guess.