Last night Brent, the kids and our friend Wes Winsor set up the Christmas tree right before the Christmas devotional.  Today the kids put all their ornaments on.  To keep with tradition, we made our ornaments again this year and the girls did a great job.  You can't tell in the pictures, but the tree looks really charming with all their homemade decorations.

Allie is such a ham when the camera is on.

Haley was very creative and decided to use the beads she got at the Millbrook Christmas parade to add some extra sparkle to the tree.

Joseph has already tried to eat 3 candy canes off the tree today.  I'm surprised it hasn't been more.

Andy, or "Anby dog" as Joseph has names him, is thinking about the gingerbread men we made for the tree.

The girls made the gingerbread dough themselves.  It makes the whole house smell like Christmas!

We also added glitter to pine cones and made glittery stars and hearts for the tree.

Emily woke up just in time to hang a few ornaments herself.

We've done lots of other Christmas stuff this weekend.  Dad and I took the kids to see the Christmas lights at the zoo and we took them to the parade on Saturday.  I also took them to the Interfaith Nativity Exhibit at the Stake Center on Saturday evening.  I guess I'm trying to squeeze it all in before the baby gets here, but we've really enjoyed ourselves.  We only wish Brent could've joined us for more of the festivities, but exams are over in a week and then he's all ours for a whole month.  That will be the best Christmas present this year.

Gingerbread House

We kicked off another year of Christmas traditions today by putting together our gingerbread house.  We've done this every year since Haley was born and it is one Christmas tradition I'm happy to keep. 

It's true that there are no pictures of Emily on here.  She seemed content to watch and not participate.  I think she was waiting for the girls to get done decorating so she could eat the left over candy.   I was amazed that we were able to keep Joseph from destroying the house before the girls finished decorating it.  Now the trick will be keeping the kids from picking off all the candies before Christmas.

The Nursery

I finished putting the nursery together last week.  It was a much larger project than I anticipated.  Moving Emily's things to the girls room and pulling out all the old baby stuff meant moving the entire house around, at least it seemed that way. Now it's all finished and I think we're as ready as we'll ever be (as soon as I wash the car seat, bouncy seat cover and vacuum my truck).

I love that we were able to make use of the old quilts.  The pink and white quilt was made by Bubo when Haley was born.  The blue and white quilt was mine and the white quilt next to Sarah Kathryn's crib was Brent's baby quilt. I like mixing the old with the new.  It gives things meaning.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Brent and the children do not like traditional Thanksgiving food, so last year we started making a Thanksgiving breakfast with everyone's favorite breakfast foods.  This year I made bacon, cinnamon rolls, eggs, cheese grits and we had punch to drink.  Brent's dad was visiting this weekend so we celebrated on Saturday.  If we're home for Thanksgiving (rather than at the hospital), we'll cook a nice dinner to celebrate, but it seemed wise to have our family feast a little early this year, just in case. You can tell Joseph was a big help with licking the beaters!

Pics you may like

Andy the circus dog

Brent finally had a baby (although his stomach has not shrunk). We named him Andy the Circus Dog. He's a poodle and his birthday falls on the same day as Emily's, August 28. He just turned a year old and is a ball of energy. We actually named him Andy because PaPa and Grandma have Barney. When we get a guinea pig (which Brent calls Andy's $30 dollar steak), we'll name it either Aunt Bea, Ms. Crump, or, if it's a boy: Opie. We love the Andy Griffith show.

Back in Business

We've been without a digital camera for I'm not sure how long, so the blogging has been nonexistent. Sorry. Unfortunately, it means that I've missed out on some great pictures of the kids along with a lot of funny stories. The first one that comes to mind is a couple of months ago I took the kids to Toys R Us and Allie stopped to tie her shoes. She took this moment in time to tell me that she loved me. I thought that was so sweet. She followed it up with, "Every time I see your face Mama, it makes me have to pee." I'm not sure about the connection between those two thoughts, but it was pretty funny. It totally caught me off guard, and with four children, I can honestly say that doesn't happen very often. Anyway, you can start checking the blog again for updates on the kids. Soon we'll have pictures of our little Sarah Kathryn. Brent is hoping she arrives the week after his exams, Dec. 12. I'm hoping that she arrives tomorrow! We'll keep you posted about whose prayer was answered.