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Send us some Arizona warmth!

Okay all my AZ friends and family, send some heat this way! We've been having some REALLY COLD weather the past few days! Like, the high was probably 0 degrees today. No kidding. It was -14 this morning! I've decided that would be a terrible way to die - of the cold. It wouldn't take long in this weather! I feel like I'm halfway there just walking Keaton into the school and back to the car!

Fun with family!

So I am posting this event a little out of order, but oh well! On the 6th, Grandma and Grandpa invited us to The Wildlife Experience-Winter Wonderlights exhibits. We don't often say no to offers like that! Aaron's sister, Jane, and her family went too! It was cold, but the kids enjoyed it!

A really strange picture of our family. That's our nephew, staring up at us like the weirdos we are!


I don't even know what to say about this one!




A rare picture of the two of us!

Gavin, Eli, Raegan & Keaton

Me, Aaron, Raegan and Fred/Grandpa - Further proof that I always smile like a dork for the camera, something Aaron has teased me about for YEARS!

Gavin telling Santa what he wanted - Bakugan, in case anyone was curious.

Gavin wants Bakugan toys because Keaton wants them. He is absolutely OBSESSED with these things, and he doesn't have a single one....yet. I can't wait for Christmas to come so I don't have to hear him tell me 1000 times a day that he wants Bakugan toys for Christmas! And he told Santa that was what he wanted so he'd better listen!

Raegan and Santa - we still believe!

Visiting with the reindeer!

After sitting on Santa's lap, we were all starving so we went to California Pizza Kitchen.

Thanks for a fun night, Grandma and Grandpa! And thanks for taking pictures!

Gingerbread houses!

Every year for one of our advent activities we make a gingerbread house! In the last few years, we've started having the kids make and decorate their own graham cracker houses as well, so that they are less tempted to eat and destroy MY gingerbread house...(er...I mean, the family gingerbread house...right? Right.....)

This year we bought our kit at Costco, (no, I don't make it from scratch, I have 3 kids! Who has time for that?), and it smelled soooo very good that I almost wanted to just eat it! I've decided we're buying the one they sell at Costco every year, it's pretty awesome. They make it so easy, the frosting is even already made. I don't even have to break out my Kitchenaid! So we ripped open the package yesterday and went to it!

The masterpiece in all it's glory....well, maybe not glory. Everyone helps out so it's pretty hodge podge! We have fun, though!

Gavin, placing his candies "just so"....

Keaton strategically places some candies on his house....

Raegan is weilding the icing bag!

Very proud of his house!

This kid is a goofball!

See what I mean?


Unfortunately I didn't quite capture the start of one of our next gingerbread house building traditions....Aaron squeezing left over frosting into the kid's mouths. This year, my wonderful, darling, dear husband got a little carried away!



See what I mean? *sigh* It got on my kitchen floor too!


There's no way Raegan would miss out on that action!

We are some kind of crazy here in the LeGrand household!

Gavin was next in line!

Now this is some good, clean fun! Cheap too! Bored? Nothing to do? Squirt icing onto your kid's noses! It's the funnest thing ever! :D

And for kicks, a picture of our Christmas tree. If you look closely, you'll notice that there are NO ornaments higher than 3 1/2 feet on the tree. That's what happens when a 7, 5 and 3 year old are responsible for decorating a Christmas tree! I don't even care enough so far to try and even things out a bit!

Traditions...

Every year from December 1st through the 24th, we count down to Christmas with a fun little advent calendar. In each pocket is a little paper that says what that days Christmas activity is going to be. The kids have a lot of fun with this and look forward to it every year. (Thanks, Aunt Becky for inspiring me many years ago!)

Aaron's family is Dutch. His dad was born in the Netherlands, and his mom's family is Dutch-American on both sides. It's kind of strange when you think about it, since our last name is obviously French. So going back a few generations, my father-in-laws family, the LeGrands, were from France, but they immigrated to the Netherlands, which explains how this Dutch family has a French last name, or, depending on how you look at it, how this French family ended up calling themselves Dutch.

Anyway, the Dutch have a tradition that on the evening of December 5th, all of the children put their wooden shoes outside, and Sinterklaas comes and puts treats and toys in them for the children to find in the morning. Aaron's family never did this when he was growing up, but I wanted our kids to experience it, and give them a little bit of their Dutch (nee French) heritage, so we started doing this about 3 years ago. And yes, they have their own wooden shoes! Raegan's are from Holland, MI, and the boys are from plain Holland! And so on the 5th and 6th of December every year, our advent activity is to put out their wooden shoes for Sinterklaas, and get treats!

Did Sinterklaas come?

He sure did!

He brought them authentic Dutch chocolates and Dutch stroopwafels!
(Sinterklaas tries really hard each year to bring them REAL treats from the Netherlands!)

This was breakfast for the day!

Thanks, Sinterklaas!

Snow days.....

It is now winter in Colorado, which means SNOW! My favorite..... (yes I am being sarcastic!) If it were up to me, I would not step one foot outside in the snow, but the kids want to play in it, so they win! Here are some pictures of the first big snow of the season, two days after Thanksgiving.

Our handsome Keaton - (just don't tell him I said that, he hates when I call him handsome, because it usually means that I'm going to style his hair!)

Marshmallow puff Gavin!

The snow fort thing that Aaron built for the kids in the back yard. He bought this cool snow block mold thingy.

You have to make a snowman when it snows!

Yes, ours has a bike helmet on his head.

We went back to the backyard and saw that some of the snow blocks had fallen down...

Raegan was determined to fix it!

So she started packing snow into the mold....

When this guy here told the boys that they could destroy the rest of the fort.

He didn't have to tell Gavin twice....

He was born to destroy things!

Now to take care of the other side....

Cowabunga!

Raegan wasn't very happy about it.

Not one little bit!

"Geez, what's the big deal anyway?"

"DADDY!"

One day we're going to pull this picture out for her future boyfriends....

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

I must be a mean mommy, because pretty much all I did when this was happening was laugh hysterically and take pictures!