Sneaky gingerbread men

We've been having a great weekend and loving all the Christmas activities. December is crazy with lots of events and things to keep us busy, but I sure do enjoy it! We started up Advent with Ben's family this past Sunday, and then we had friends over on Monday for more Advent as our FHE. Throughout the week we've also been making Christmas lists and trying to make good choices regarding the gifts we want to get our kids. We got off to a good start on Black Friday and I'm happy to say I've already wrapped those gifts! Probably the most on top of things I've ever been. :) On Saturday we went out as a family to do some more shopping. I keep thinking I should just get a babysitter for an evening so Ben and I can go out Christmas shopping together without the kids... that would be great! But even though we had all the kids with us, we were still able to be a bit sneaky and get some great stuff without the kids knowing... and with Jake, we can shop right in front of his nose, and he has no idea what is going on. :)

On Friday, we went to our ward's Elder's Quorum Christmas party... spouses included :). It was a big turnout and a really fun night. There was delicious food, a hilarious white elephant gift exchange (we brought a big nerf gun and came home with a Smurf Snuggie! haha!), and a wonderful little mini concert from our very own ward celebrity, William Schwartz. I'm always in awe of how talented and fun our ward is!


We also made and decorated Gingerbread cookies this weekend. I'd never made gingerbread before, but it turned out yummy and wasn't very difficult. I used THIS recipe... and I liked that the cookies stayed soft. We really enjoyed this activity and laughed a lot as we tried to decorate little gingerbread men. We thought that one of Ben's ended up looking a lot like Colonel Sanders. So, before we decorated them, we had to let the cookies cool a bit after coming out of the oven... so while they rested on cooling racks, we read The Gingerbread Man story to the girls. Well, what a surprise we had when we came to the kitchen after reading our story to find that 2 of our gingerbread men were missing! Apparently they had teamed up and scampered off into the pantry to hide. We tried to convince the girls that they really had run away, but they were more than suspicious and immediately blamed daddy for moving them. Why would they think such a thing?! :)


I also wanted to add on here a picture I took of Becca and Jake hanging out on her bed. :) Emma is at school 5 days a week, while Becca only has school for 3, so on Becca's no-school days, her and Jake become cute little buddies. They also have started fighting a bit (which is hilarious, because it's usually because Jake takes something from Becca and she is incapable of getting it back because Jake is practically as big as her and apparently stronger... we laugh and laugh about this). But most of the time, they happily follow each other around and Becca tries to get Jake to be involved in her funny games. I love these two...