Gingerbread house party

We went to our friends, the Neyenhuis', for a ginger bread house making party.  They had it last year too.  It was so fun  - the best part is having the mess at someone else house!

Their masterpieces!

This is Brock's best ginger bread house ever!  He doesn't love art or creating anything so he just usually throws it all on and calls it good.  I was so proud of him for taking time, having a plan, and finishing!

Noah's Piano Recital

Noah had his first piano recital.  Right now he is his teacher's only student (he is a HS student in our ward) so it didn't make sense to do a whole recital - so we went to a retirement center and played for them.  He played 3 songs: We Wish You a Merry Christmas, Jingle Bells, and Away in a Manger.  He really wanted to play Hark the Herald Angels Sing (his favorite Christmas song) but it wan't quite ready - it was quite a bit above his skill level - but he really wanted to learn it.  He has loved the piano - truly loved it.  He loves to push himself and learn harder songs and I have never even had to ask him to practice because he spends most of his day at the piano.

Noah and his teacher James Henniger.

Our cute Noah.

Sledding in Sub Zero temps

We have only had one good snow fall this winter season so far (as I sit here writing this we are home with a snow day - so now 2).  Both have come, however, with sub zero temperatures - and I mean SUB zero temps - like negative 5.  My kids were so excited to go sledding however it didn't bother them.  I made them wait until it was a balmy 6 degrees and then we headed out.  They had a blast and sledded for a good hour and a half.  There wasn't a wind and the sun was shining so it really didn't feel that cold - or we just might has been numb - who knows?  We also brought our friends Finn and Zoe.

I love watching all of them carry their sleds up the hill.

playing in the preschool

Sometimes I feel kind of bad that my preschool takes up 1/3 of our house.  I think I will definitely feel more bad about it as they get older.  But for now the truth is they (and their friends) love it.  When they come over  they always ask "can we play in the preschool".  The way I run the preschool adds to the fun becasue I change things up every few weeks - so there is always something new to play with.  

One day Maddie was playing while I was cleaning up to start the winter break (it was my Polar Express train set).  She asked me if I would come play with her.  I used to play with this train set for hours with my kids (mostly boys) years ago - but I hadn't played with it with one of my kids in at least 3 years.  It was really fun - and the thought occurred to me, "this might be the last time".  

Even my boys play in it with their friends.  Lincoln and Brock set up a whole war with Army base camps. 

Library Santa

We went to the library to see Santa.  We have gone every year since living here.  This year I was late signing up and all the evening slots were taken.  So I took them all out of school to go see him.  It was a fun was to kick off Christmas.

You may wonder why Santa has a bunny.  It is a long story - he just does - and my kids LOVE him.  His name is Alowishes - meaning "all the wishes"

Family home evening

My visiting teacher, Jane Guthrie, had us and her other visiting teach-ee's family over for a Christmas Family Home Evening.  First off I want to say how wonderful Jane is.  I feel kind of bad having her becasue she is so wonderful... and I kind of asked for her.  Well, not her specifically.  I was feeling like I needed an older woman in my life.  At the time my VT'ers were other moms of young kids in their late 20's or early 30's .  I was missing my mom, my aunts, my grandma.  I needed someone in my life who wasn't in my same life stage - and when you live away from family that seems to be who you end up surrounding yourself with.  I mentioned this to my RS president and they switched me to Jane.  She is wonderful.  She takes care of me as if I was one of her kids.  She loves my children.  It is perfect.

We had some yummy snacks and dessert, did a craft,

and a nativity.

It was a fun night.

Escape Room Double Date

While we were in Utah we went on a double date with our really good friends, Rob and Jill.  We have a long history with Rob and Jill (Jason and Rob played football together as kids, Rob and I were friends in Jr High, Rob and I were each others first date, Rob and Jason became best friends in madrigals in HS, Rob dated one of my good friends in HS and college, Jason and Rob were collage roommates, Rob and Jill lived in our same apartment complex when we were all first married) - wow - that's a lot of ways to know somebody!  Needless to say Rob and Jill are awesome - it is rare you find a couple friend where everyone gets along.

However, I am definitely the odd one out of  the group.  The three of them are more "alike" in their interests and hobbies.  For example this date.  I would absolutely never, in a million years, want to do an escape room.  There is not one aspect of my personality that even finds it remotely interesting.  We have been invited on several group dates here in Denver to do them and I turned them all down.  I guess that just goes to show how much I love Rob and Jill!

It was... ok.  Not as annoying as I thought it was going to be.  But still not something I would ever want to do again.  That being said... we will probably do it again next time we are in Utah.  ha.

My Birthday

Jason has been traveling more lately.  Still not a lot, especially compared to husbands who do travel a lot.  But it has been for a week every month for the past few months.  It just worked out the he was gone for both our anniversary and my birthday.  My birthday this year was on a Friday and my good friend, Veronica felt like it wasn't fair to have to stay home on my Friday night birthday.  So we got a group of friends together and went out to dinner.  We went to my FAVORITE place - PF Changs.  I was nervous about going there becasue it is so expensive.  Most of my friends laughed at that - usually what I think is too expensive is not in line with what other people think is too expensive.  But I am so glad she talked me into going because it was pure deliriousness.  I had never been to PF Changs with such a large group and we all shared what we got - so I got to eat SO MUCH.  It was the best birthday!

Marissa, Me, Karen, Becky, Veronica, Charity, Heather (not pictured because they left early - Leslie and LeAnne)

When Jason got home we celebrated my birthday.  He gave the whole day off so I could work on my Grandma's Christmas present - they made me a wonderful breakfast (raspberry and cinnamon milk mush) and dinner (teriyaki salmon and garlic mashed potatoes) and dessert (asphalt pie) and some great gifts (gold bracelet and earrings)

Also I thought I was turning 33.  I guess at some point during the fall I told someone I was 32 (because I was turning 32) and then my brain just thought I was 32.  So I thought I was turning 33 until about noon on my birthday when I did the math and realized I was only turning 32 - I got a whole year of my life back!  It was fantastic!

Temple Nativity

Oh how we miss the lights at temple square.  I don't remember if I mentioned this in my Thanksgiving posts - but we were going to go see the lights when we were in Utah - but had to leave 2 days early becasue of a storm.  Our Denver temple doesn't put up any lights - but they do put out a nativity.  We went by one night when we had to take Ammon to the hockey store.

Ward Christmas Party

Jason was hunting during our ward Christmas party - so I went and took the kids.  We had Santa show  up!

Megan hung back after Santa had left to get some pictures in his chair.  Silly girl.

Earning Money for Christmas

We wanted our kids to buy presents for each other with money that they had earned - AND we didn't want it to be stupid presents form the dollar store that break in a day.  We told them about the "new" plan and that they were expected to earn and save the money - we talked about HOW they wanted to do that.  We discussed several ideas - but in the end they came up with a babysitting night.  At first I thought it was a cop-out and I would do all the work.  In the end we made a deal - they had to distribute the flyers, clean the house before the kids got there, play actively with the kids the whole time (even the babies and toddlers), and the clean up after they left - then we could do it.  I was in charge of dinner.

Here was their flyer:

Need a night off??

The Herbert "children" are hosting a

Babysitting Night

to earn money for Christmas

**********************************************************

This Friday, December 2nd

Drop off /pick up anytime between 5:00 - 9:00

$2.00 per child for the whole night

$3.00 per child if you want me to feed them dinner (mac and cheese)

or you pack a dinner and we can feed it to them for free J

************************************************************

Please RSVP by Friday at 3:00 pm

Jamie 801-633-5715/jamieherbert84@gmail.com

When each family came one of my kids wrote their names on our white board and took any special equipment (diapers, sippy cups, dinner etc) and wrote down information.

It was a crazy busy night.  We ended up having about 20 kids (not including mine).  They made 60 dollars!  It took over an hour to clean up - so they didn't' get to bed until about 10:30 - so if we did it again (which they are already asking to) I would end it at 8:00.  But all in all it went great - the kids really did "babysit" and not just play - I had to keep reminding them - like "who is watching Alayna - she is walking around with a marker with no lid!"  It was an easy way for the kids to make some real money in one night - with also doing a lot of work.