Santa, Gingerbread houses, and Festival of Nativities

The kids sat on Santa's lap at Factoria mall. It took all morning to get the kids ready for this. Myles has a bow tie like Rhett's but it didn't look comfortable for him, so we went with the winter vest. Caramel looks like she is too old for Santa in this picture; she is only 5 and a half. After we went to the Kidsquest museum where Caramel did a polar bear scavenger hunt and dance-a-long.  

Traveled over to Grandpa Dan's to make gingerbread houses. Caramel picked out the big house and the rest of the family had small houses. Rhett's house had a garage of course. It was hard keeping the candy on the houses and I can see where candy has magically disappeared. Our new decorating candy this year was gum. Gum is great for doors and driveways. This activity cleaned out all the Halloween candy we still had in the kitchen.

Next to the Temple was a Festival of Nativities in the church building we viewed. There were a ton of Nativities. It was hard to keep Rhett from touching all of them. In the chapel different groups sang including a primary group, the kids listened for a bit. There was an activity room for the kids and a dress up nativity room. We didn't do the manager picture like we have before.

 

Snowflake Lane

Snowflake Lane 2012
Went to this event twice this year.
First time we saw the Santa's workshop and flying reindeer in Bellevue Square too.
The snow was extra bubbly this year falling from the sky.
One child did not like the loudness, Myles.
Caramel loves the drummers and always dances along.
Rhett will probably have a memory of this now.
Another Christmas tradition.

Garden Lights

We ran through the Garden d'Lights this year at Bellevue Botanical Garden.
Running is what happens when you have more than one kid and a clear path.
A family tradition for 5 years now, I believe.
It was cold but dry so perfect for Seattle.
So many garden lights with fun animals too.

At the end Caramel did the funniest thing. We were walking back to the car in the dark parking lot and there was a grass hill and she decides to log roll down it. At first I was like "Caramel, no" but too late. She rolled down that hill and thankfully stopped before the cement parking lot and was nice a wet. (Good thing I made her wear two pants!) Crazy girl, it is dark, cold, wet grass and she decides to roll down the hill. Pretty sure that is something you do on a sunny summer's day in a huge grass area not in winter with a cement parking to stop you. Always entertaining.

Yearly Family Pictures

Normally, I try to get family pictures in October but it finally happened at the beginning of December. It gets harder every year to get everyone smiling. We have some good fake smiles though. At least there were no tears. Also the whole what to wear is hard to.....I know all these first world problems.....what to wear. Usually I look in the closest and think "oh, this is nice, wait, that is what we wore last year." I didn't purchase anything new for this picture. Caramel and I are wearing matching tank tops I bought during the summer. And the boys are wearing shirts and ties from Aunt Charity's gifts to Myles. Myles is in size 12 MONTHS! When I put a tie on him I feel like I am choking his chubby neck. He kept sliding off the chair. We tried to get a picture of the 3 kids together but Caramel holding Myles wasn't working. With our family the first picture is always the best.

Santa Letters

Letters to Santa, HOORAY! After 2 years of wanting to make it to the mailbox on time at the community center, we finally made it. Caramel and Rhett are wearing their cute hoodies Daddy bought for them. I been seeing families wearing matching outfits and it makes me smile.

Caramel wants Dream Lights for Christmas (yes, yet another stuff animal for her bed). Good thing Caramel manages to watch a couple of commercials, otherwise she wouldn't know about these weird types of products. I wrote the last couple of lines in the letter including one Christmas activity the family likes to do. Rhett got to "write" a letter too. He wants a riding horse (well, half the time, the half of the time he wants an astronaut).

Especially Made By Great Grandma Miller

Myles received his stocking when we went to visit Great Grandma Miller for her birthday. Frosty riding a train with so much detail on it! GM has made each kid a stocking and they are pictured with her and the kids. She also made a Kranz Welcome sign and a handful of ornaments in similar style years ago. We love getting gifts from GM! We have a handful of books she sewed as well that are great for quiet time.

Crafty December

Projects! I finished a bow tie for Myles to match Anthony and Rhett's I made last year. I think Myles is to chubby to wear it though....maybe next year.

We get out the small and big Lego blocks more these days. Rhett has a love hate relationship with blocks. He likes to build but gets super frustrated when the blocks all fall apart. 

Caramel's new thing is paper, scissors, masking tape, and a pen. She loves creating masterpieces and displaying them on the wall. Usually they are people from our family and heart shapes. She had to have the pen in the picture too and wanted to have it on her ear. Funny girl.

Give Thanks

Here is our "Give Thanks" door. We wrote down one thing we were thankful for each day. Lots of family members made the list. My favorites- babies and Jesus being in charge. It was hard for Rhett not to have cars on there more than once.

South Dakota

Pheasant Hunting

Anthony went to South Dakota for his annual hunting trip with his dad in mid November. They flew into Watertown, South Dakota where Uncle Rodger and Aunt Karen, Grandpa Neil's sister, live. He left on a Thursday and came home on a Monday.

Anthony enjoys going to South Dakota and loves talking about moving there. It is beautiful but I think I would actually need to stay there for a week or 2 week before I decided to move there. Love seeing the pictures from his trip.


Rodger on his tire bridge

Kranz Language

"Mommy, I know you"

This is a Rhett saying. He likes to tell Anthony and I that he knows us. "Mommy, I know you" or "Daddy, I know you." It is super cute when he says this and gets you right in the heart. I feel like he is speaking wisdom beyond my years when he says this. Yes, Rhett you do know us from the Spirit World, now, and when we will pass beyond the veil. This almost 3 year old knows his family very well and will for eternity.

"I begot"

This is a Caramel saying. "Oh, I begot." She is always "begotting" so much that Rhett "begots" sometimes. Maybe in the future she will actually begot someone. But for now I continually remind her it is "forgot."

"Mom"

This is what Anthony calls me. When I hear it I automatically think, I am not your Mom, why are you calling me this.

"Love Jesus"

This is the way Caramel ends her prayers currently. She will say the normal "Amen" at the end but likes to add a declaration of "Love Jesus" to officially end her prayer. She also has gone through some name changes since school started. At first she wrote CARAMEL then Caramel then Caramell and now it is Caramellt. Maybe because she is realizing caramel is a candy and it melts in your mouth....this isn't it, but for some reason it is Caramellt.

"Dang it"

This is a Rhett phrase learned directly from Mommy when she is driving.


"Myles, Myles" Said in the loud crazy fast voice.

This is Anthony talking to Myles making him turn into a crazy person because now his siblings do it too and, okay, Mommy as well. It is just so catchy "Myles, Myles" super speed.

Photo Shoot, Strike a Pose

Fun Pictures of Myles

He is a big one- this bear outfit is 12 months!

Superman: Lots of Stickers

Rhett does this quite often when he finds stickers. He will stick every last one of them on his right arm and call himself Superman. His stickers on his arm are his super powers. He has never seen Superman so he just means a super man.

The tears in the picture are from the evil villain stealing one of his super powers. Yes, Caramel is very evil and loves to steal things; kind of like a girl Swiper from Dora but of instead of "Oh, man" she will say something like "How dare you!"

While Caramel has had swimming lessons, Rhett has been supplied with stickers and a magnified glass. He likes to spy on the bench area looking for cracks. He has made Mom and Myles Superman as well with stickers, but always takes them back before class is over.

 

Caramel has realized that when she is at school she misses out on things that Rhett, Myles, and I do. When she found out Rhett was having a pajama day with his Joyschool class she was devastated that she wasn't. Also when she found out that we played at the church in the gym that was just exactly what she wanted to do that morning as well.

Halloween Day and Night

Caramel had school but there was no costumes allowed. I remember on Halloween in elementary school having an assembly and each class parading around to show costumes- times have changed. They did have a class party and Caramel brought grapes and banana chips- very festive..well the grapes did have a ghost on the container. 

During the day on Halloween we went to Grammy Pam's house to trick or treat. The kids got treat bags and stayed for a bit. Grammy's house is always decorated for holidays. Myles went as a ghost this time around.

Halloween night Anthony took the kids around the block. Our sweet elderly neighbor was waiting and watching for us to knock. Caramel was so excited. Rhett changed his costume to a fire truck and was pushed out the door with no shoes on. After going around the block Rhett declared, "this is the last house, daddy." He was tried of walking. Caramel wasn't to happy about that but was easily distracted with the idea of counting candy at home. I enjoyed staying home answering the door with Myles. We had a few large groups stop by, one teenager group with no costumes and no bag!