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White Christmas

Ukelele

Ben bought himself an ukelele (pronounced oo-ke-lay-lee) while in Hawaii. He and Michael will have to do a duet sometime!

"Gingerbread" Houses

I have always HATED making gingerbread houses! It is such a huge mess and they always fall over before they are done and they are 100% sugar anyway, so I haven't even bothered for several years. But this week someone told me a trick to get them to be more sturdy.



Instead of using royal icing to glue the walls and roof together, I put about a cup of powdered sugar in a frying pan and slowly melted it over medium heat. At first it just makes a blobby, brown mess, but I just keep stirring until it was a smooth brown mess. Then I dipped the edges of the graham crackers into the syrup and "super glued" it to the board. Then I dipped more edges and glued to the last wall until I had something that looked like a gingerbread house.

I made royal frosting to attach the candy and decorate. That stuff gets really hard, but not as fast as the melted powdered sugar. A couple of things to note:

The building part isn't something that kids can do because the syrup is SO hot.

I tried dipping three edges on each wall but then I dripped a little bit on my hand and realized that was too dangerous. Just do two edges at a time.

I dipped my silicone pastry brush into the syrup and onto edges already on the house.


This is Joseph's and he does all of his own work. I think he may be the future Dr. Seuss!

Merry Christmas tutu you!

Thanksgiving Pics from lytro camera

Here are some pictures I took over Thanksgiving with my wired camera.  Depending on your internet speed it may take a several seconds to load the pictures, sorry.

Click on any part of the picture to refocus the picture on that point.  Click and drag to shift your perspective giving the picture a 3D effect.

Cousins with Grandparents

They are a pretty happy looking crew considering how tired, cold and hungry they all were!

Sweet 16!

¡Feliz Navidad!

It's Christmas time again, which means more silly JibJab musical holiday cards!  ¡Feliz Navidad de los Gonda!

This link is a bit better quality...   http://www.jibjab.com/view/4FO9n4tORLKiG57XxG6W

Christmas List

Emma has been looking through the American Girl catalog for about a week. First she carefully examined each doll to see which one she liked the best and now she is circling all of the outfits and accessories that she thinks are cute. In the beginning I explained that these dolls cost a lot of money and she can't have it all. Tonight after realizing how much she has circled she said, "Wow, this is going to take a lot of Christmases. Maybe 10!" I asked her if she thought she would still be interested in dolls when she is 17. After she verified my math and realized she really will be 17 in 10 years she said, "Maybe I'd better cut back."

Steph
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Thanksgiving Pictures

 We had a great time visiting you all.  I wish it could have been a longer visit.  Sorry we had to cut out early on Thursday night (tantrums) and then we didn't get to say a proper goodbye on Friday because a lot of you were already back to work.  I just wanted to share a few pictures I snapped while we were together.  I can't wait to see how the family pictures turned out.

Love you guys!

We had our primary program this past Sunday.  Camden and Liz were so excited to stand up and sing in front of everyone.  Here they are practicing at home with grandpa Gonda at the piano.  They are a pretty good duo with Cobey in Scooby Doo pajamas cheering them on!

Benjamin's Famous!

Watch this video and see Benjamin on KSL! It is for the Hawaii band trip. It aired yesterday and they have already had over $3000 donated. Enough to get the instruments shipped!


Here is the link too.
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Puppy love

Upside-down Cakes

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Trick or treating without coats!

Grandpa is going diving.  I will start my Hyperbaric Treatments today.  Each session is called a dive and the chamber is pressurized to the equivalent of 50 feet underwater.  Then you breath 100% oxygen for two hours.  It is used to force oxygen into your cells and help with blood vessel growth.  It also helps with people who have been exposed to carbon monoxide.  I will have twenty dives.  It is necessary before I can have a bone graft to restore my gum line.  I will be in the chamber with 5 other people.
Dad

Mr Clean, Japanese and my little sushi

Feed Me Seymour

Echo has recently decided that she wants nothing to do with baby food. It's our food or no food, and this little girl LOVES pretty much anything you put in front of her. So far some winners are tomatoes, beans, oranges, blueberries, bread, mushrooms and onions (cooked), spinach soup, rice, and seaweed salad :)

Happy October!

We had a great time at the pumpkin patch!

And Michael rocked the St. George Marathon finishing in 3:14:40!

Family vacation

Kurt's family has been out here this whole week visiting. We have spent it all on the road touring the countryside. We went to West Virginia (our soon to be new home), Maryland, Palmyra, Niagara Falls, Lake Erie, and Kirtland Ohio. Echo wants to toss her carseat into the ocean after this week.

 Caught these shots with a very squirmy newborn in my arms...

  The boys made pizza, crocodiles, birthday candles and who knows what else! 

Just look at the concentration on Ronan's face:

Seriously fun!

Leaves are falling everywhere

42 Years and Counting!

 

Missing 2 Front Teeth

She has been missing one tooth for five years and the other tooth for five minutes! We can't imagine how she will look with two front teeth!


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Adventures in Utah Land

Echo and I got to spend 2 great weeks in Utah visiting family. Echo loved playing with cousins and cousins love playing with her.