Temple lights

here I go with the underlining again. Ugh....
We went up to see the temple lights on Friday. We were meant to watch my friends kids while she played in the orchestra concert. She wasn't able to make it, so we just enjoyed the music. The kids actually really liked it. We walked around and looked at the Christmas trees, the nativities from around the world and only managed to lose one hat.

Some sights at the temple. It was soo cold that night. We figured that may be why there wasn't a live nativity this year. I wanted to do it the first year we were married, but Darin had no desire to stand outside for 2 hours in the cold. But the kids have to sit on the camel every time. I couldn't get them to pose in front of the temple for me, though. In the building, Landon wanted to run around everywhere, but then when we got outside, he cried to be carried the whole time.
trying to be artistic
if you look close, you can see Jordan-I was trying to do something I learned in the photography class I took.
I just love this temple. It is very special to me and I look forward to going every year to see the lights. Christmas wouldn't be the same without it.

Ward Nativity Play

Our ward did a nativity play at our ward party last weekend. We had a practice earlier that day and I was a little skeptical about the kids attention spans, but it turned out amazing!!!! The kids did such a great job. Even the little sheep. There were a couple funny moments, but there always is. I was pretty proud of my class-they did so well. And of course, Spencer and Jordan were great, too. Spencer even wore his "cars" rain boots that a friend gave him. Festive!


The sheep
Spencer next to his best friend James. They were a riot. The would give each other hugs, laugh and had a great time. When we say "away in a manger" the chorus says "asleep, asleep" so they would lay on the floor and ago to sleep. So funny.
Our little donkey ( sorry, didn't edit any pics, and these are from Darin's camera-I was backstage)
the practice earlier the morning
more practice. boy doesn't Joseph look thrilled.
cute donkey
cute little sheepy!

Oh Christmas Tree

After we finally found a tree we liked-we went to 2 different Home Depots, we got it home and put up. The children were so excited and wanted to decorate it, but it was too late by the time we got home. So I put the lights on the next day and we did it that evening. The kids really had a blast trying to find places to put the ornaments. It is a little bottom heavy and some spots have multiple ornaments on one branch, but the hcilren love it. Ornaments get moved around on a daily basis, so it is almost like we have a new tree every day. Spencer is actually worse that Landon with the ornaments-he likes to play with them. Silly boy.

Here's some of our fun!

Dollar day in Baltimore

So we really love Baltimore. Once a year they have a dollar day at a few of the museums. We hit 2 of them last weekend. We went to the aquarium and the Maryland Science Center. Both I would highly recommend-especially on dollar day!

Ugh....this new laptop keyboard is taking some getting used to....

We really do love the Baltimore Aquarium. We got there pretty early and unlike past years, it wasn't as crowded. I think the weather my have had something to do with that. It started raining, was bitter cold, then turned to snow, which the kids love. Anyhow we lucked out and got to see feeding times, and lots of divers in the big tank. The kids were fascinated with that and could have watched all day.

One reason this is such a great aquarium is because most of the place is soo kid friendly. The tanks are at the kids eye level and if it isn't they have things for the kids to stand on. My kids weren't shy, either. Landon would walk through any gap he could find to weasel his way up to the tanks.

One of the divers we saw.
More fun times looking at fishies
They had an extra exhibit on jelly fish that was really cool
a very cool jelly fish
After a really yummy lunch at the Cheescake Factory we went to the Maryland Science Center. It was a really great. The first thing we did was go through the dinosaur exhibit. Of course, Spencer was pretty happy about that.

They had an area to excavate dino bones-we could have stayed there all day.
our future paleontologist!
our dino lover!
The rest of the science center was so good. We spent a while in the kids room where they had all kinds of hands on things for the kids to play with. All the kids loved the different areas where they could build with various materials.
Spencer and his new friend.
After we left the science center we tried to find a lights display a friend told me about. It took us forever because I put the wrong address in the GPS....very frustrating. We finally made it with 3 sleeping children. It is a block where they all totally deck the houses outs. It was ok, but would have been much better if we could have gotten out to walk around. I think it is meant for people to walk through.

All in all, the kids were great, we had a blast and it was a wonderful day. I'm telling ya, if you life anywhere near Baltimore, look out next year for dollar day-totally worth it!!!

Notice of Noncompliance

My rant for today. Inconsistent HOA's!!! Stuff slides by for years in the neighborhood, now all of a sudden there's a push to clean up....

It's all just so silly, really, it is! Here's the scoop. We have lived in our house for 7 years and have never once, I repeat not even once have we received any sort of warning telling us we were "non-compliant." So the other day I happened to open the door for some reason...I forgot what I was even doing. There was a guy just standing in front of our house looking around with a clipboard. At first I thought maybe a salesman. He looked right at me and said "Merry Christmas" I returned the sentiment and closed the door.

It wasn't until later when I noticed some signs on the mailbox about HOA bylaws that I realized what he was doing-I recognized papers he was holding-since I had one hanging on my door the next day. I now wonder why the heck the didn't guy just say something to me then..."hey, could you please move your yard equipment?" Wouldn't have been so hard. Isn't there something in the HOA about how they go about inspections? I think it was a little cowardice that he didn't say who he was or what he was doing!!!

So we have a rake, a little rake and a broom leaning up against our house in the corner. My neighbor also has a broom on his stoop. I get home yesterday and there was a thing hanging on the door-a "notice of noncompliance" telling us to put the rake/broom out of sight. Are you kidding me? Do they also live here and know what a pain in the neck it is to store stuff in a townhouse, and to do yard work with rakes, etc-especially one right in the middle? Who wants to carry dirty outdoor brooms and rakes all through the house to put them in the storage room? I guess you can call me lazy, but it is also a pain to walk around the whole row of houses to put your stuff away in the basement.

All last year we, along with plenty of our neighbors kept our snow shovel out front. Are we going to get written up for that, too?

Ok, I know there are rules and I want to live in a nice place, but I guess my biggest beef is that there were no warnings-unless there was one I didn't read- that people were going to be inspecting the neighborhood and that they have not been so strict in the past. We just got a new board, so there must be some seriously strict people on it now. Which is fine, but annoying since there has been a "status quo" for some time now. Oh, and the other annoying thing is that we have a screen that fell out of one of the windows and it is leaning up against the house, but they didn't say anything about that. What? I keep trying to put it back in, but give up. So I know I have to fix that, and I feel more bad about that sitting there than I do the brooms. I would have thought that would have been more "offensive" than a broom and rake leaning against the house, and I wouldn't be so annoyed to have gotten a notice for that...but a broom and rakes....seriously!!!

Ok, rant over. I feel better.

Spencer's thanksgiving fun

I was really excited because for the first time, the kids preschool-I guess now Spencer's preschool was going to do a little thanksgiving "play." It was really cute. Spencer was so excited tell me he was going to be a turkey. I actually volunteer one day a week and I cut out all the pieces for the little turkey hat they wore:)

So Landon and I got to go to the "Play" which was more like a little concert. They all sang little songs and one of the teachers was the narrator. Spencer was singing the songs and was excited when he saw me come in. He did all the hand motions and everything. It was really cute.

After the play, the served up a little "feast"-mashed potatoes, veggies, rolls, a turkey in the form of a rotisserie chicken (yeah-I thought that was funny, too) cookies. The tables were all decorated with cornicopias, etc and the kids had fun eating the "feast."

Here is Spencer in his hat.
The hat kept falling down. There was one little boy in Spencer's class who wore his upside down because he didn't like the legs in his face. So funny.
Spencer enjoying his feast. Nice Job on your hat, Spence:)
After the feast, all the classes went to the playground. Spencer's job that day was line leader, and his teacher told me he takes it very seriously. Landon would follow right behind Spence. He loves going to school and cries to stay with Spencer.
So sweet!
This is what I am most thankful for:

coloring with daddy

What do you do on a Saturday morning?

Color with daddy!!