Gingerbread Cottages

Mason & Fiona recently had a chance to share the fun of building a gingerbread neighborhood with their friends, Laurel & Lyla. Not sure how many structures were actually assembled but lots of icing and candy decorated the cookies and the kiddos.

After a nauseating amount of icing was eaten directly out of the dispensers, Mason had assembled an actual 3-D structure....he worked diligently and with purpose to complete his project...must be in the genes;)

Less into the details and more into the sweets....the ladies enjoyed the process in their own way...

The Real Tree

The kids had a chance to decorate our "real" artificial tree at home. They had alot of fun digging through all of the random ornaments & especially liked the photo ornaments with pictures of them from past years.

The finished product was a bit "bottom-heavy" but they did a fabulous job & were thrilled with their work. And of course needed a snack break of popcorn with dad before the final step....

Placing the star on the top of the tree was the "it" project of the day....since Mason & Fiona have had a bit of, how shall I say, a difference of opinion :) of  many things as of late we decided to compromise and share the duty between the two of them.....worked and we had some happy kiddos.....

Now if we can just get the Santa gig to work we will have a merry holiday season!

Lil' Cutie

Mason & Fiona are lucky enough to have relatives to spend time with when we stay in NH. Little Mya is a bit younger but our kids are toughening her up, though she may be a bit smaller then them she certainly holds her own. Mason is so sweet with her.....Fiona has a bit of work on her sweetness but still loves hanging out with virtually the only other little girl in the family (for now;)....since my kids tend to run when the camera comes out I recently got a few pictures of Mya, who hammed it up for me....could she be any cuter?!

Cousins....November 2010

The latest attempt at a group shot of Mason & Fiona with all of their Maine cousins.....always a trip....

starting with a Munchkin bribe...

Cousins 11.10 from Jessica Kettell on Vimeo.

Turkey Day....with a bunch of little turkeys

We headed up to Maine for the Thanksgiving holiday, of course Mason & Fiona were thrilled to have a chance to play with their cousins and celebrate being thankful for all sorts of good stuff.

The kids were up early and the turkey was in the oven shortly after....though it was VERY cold Grandma & the kids and I went for a walk along the river. The kids got some running in and discovered the fun of  breaking the thin ice formed on puddles....the simple things in life;)

When we returned the rest of the family filtered in....we had time for playing and the boys especially LOVED playing games on Auntie Amanda's cool new iPad....these deprived children.

Next on the agenda was the thanksgiving feast complete with turkey prepped by Papa....

We decided it would be best for the kids to eat first....though not a "traditional" thanksgiving gathering & not sure how much food was actually eaten....it's all about family, right?

Bodie woke up just in time for dinner to be served....

After their feast it was on to using up all of that new-found energy....it's like wrangling cats getting these guys to sit down for a little while....

Lastly, they decided that the mountains of Black Friday ads were multi-purposed....since Santa is bringing all of their gear, no need to shop....just have more fun!!

Thank you to Grandma & Papa for hosting a great Thanksgiving & for all of the rest of the family near & far for being such an important part of our lives every day.