Her two front teeth!

All Sarah wants for Christmas is her two front teeth. If only that were true and her list wasn't actually a mile long! Sarah lost both her front teeth within two days. No apples for her now!

What happened to the two front teeth 

 We had our first snow of the year and the girls made an awesome snowman. Matthew did not want to help because it was too cold. The girls, however stayed outside for quite awhile and had a blast. They really do love snow.

Frosty the snowman

 It's been a few weeks since I posted but we have not been idle. We've been enjoying the weather and sitting by the fire drinking hot chocolate in the evenings. That's my favorite part of winter. The toasty warm fire!

I have also been overloaded with work. I'm on two new course developments while still teaching my courses.  Luckily I've been able to take the kids to Grandma's house so she can babysit while I work and do my endless conference calls.

Pink Moon cupcake Bakery - Matthew and I went one day

Kid pile

 We had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner yesterday. Unfortunately Nana and Papa were sick and Uncle Dave had to work so no one from my side of the family could come. Hopefully Nana and Papa will feel better soon. We had Grandma and Grandpa and our friends Sunshine, Matt, their kids and Sunshine's Mom Pamela here. We ate lots of delicious food and dessert (which is my favorite part!).

Thanksgiving table

I made a chocolate caramel pie that Erik loved so much he requested it as his birthday cake instead of cake. I also made lemon cake that was to die for! It was so moist and delicious and had a bright burst of lemon flavor. Both recipes I found on pinterest. Thank you pinterest!!

Desserts

In other news:

• Jenna and I read The Giver by Lois Lowry. Jenna really loved the book. It is one that makes  you think certainly.
• I finished the Blinding Knife by Brent Weeks. I love his writing and can't wait for the next book to come out in this series.
• I am reading the Matched series by Allie Condie. This is another dystopian young adult series. This seems to be the theme in young adult literature now.
• Jenna is now reading the Belgariad by David Eddings. I read this series many years ago and liked it, not for its thematic elements or intellectual stimulation but because it is a fun read. And I'm all about fun reads! 
•  After 6 1/2 years of leading our small group we have decided to take a break. We are not going to lead and host anymore but we still plan on attending a small group. 
• We have also joined the YMCA. I realized how much I missed fitness classes after not doing them for 2 years. Erik is planning on running outside all winter long. He is crazy. 

No common sense

Halloween was cold and rainy but the kids still had fun. Jenna went as Hermione Granger. Her friend Grace went as Harry Potter on the Quidditch team. Sarah went as a cat and Matthew went as spiderman. I attempted to crochet Jenna a scarf by watching youtube videos. I've realized that I am not good at crocheting.

Ready for Trick or Treating

 The next morning I woke up and started making pancakes for breakfast. I turned around and what did I see??? Matthew had opened 4 suckers and was attempting to eat them all. The candy had been strewn all over the living room and we hadn't put it out of reach of little hands yet. So apparently we need to do that.

4 suckers at once!

 I have discovered one sport in which I am better than Erik. Bowling. My Dad is an excellent bowler. He pretty much always throws a strike and I was on a bowling league when I was younger. I'm not great at it (I throw many non-strikes) but I like bowling. We decided to take the kids for bowling and pizza. It was fun except for Sarah and Matthew running all over the place and lopping the ball down the lane rather than rolling it. Then Jenna getting frustrated that she didn't get a strike. At least they didn't kick us out.

Bowling fun!

The ball will get down the lane at some point

This weekend I went to skyzone with my kids and Sunshine and her two kids. We were all so excited since the last time we went to skyzone we had a blast. Well this was quite the opposite!

Skyzone has a rule that they separate jumpers by size. So smaller kids on one end and adults on the other. Well we assumed we could jump near our little kids, especially since there were so many kids running across multiple trampolines being crazy. The skyzone "floor monitors" (16 year old kids) kept yelling at us and telling us to move. Really??? We are Moms. We are not jumping around like crazy hurting the kids. This ticked me off. I wanted to jump near my kids and have fun. Also, I wanted to protect them from the crazy kids. I talked with the "manager" (another 16 year old kid) and told her the situation and asked if moms could jump near their kids. Nope. This is the rule and they never break it. No common sense. Sometimes blindly following rules without using common sense is not the best solution. Anyway - this skyzone is AWFUL. The one in Cleveland we went to before let us jump near the kids.  What happened to common sense???

In other news:

1. I LOVE Jenna's teacher this year. She took the class on a service project trip to Operation Buckeye to pack candy for the troops. She also goes to our church and took several kids from church to a food pantry last Saturday. She is amazing and she really loves Jenna. This year has been so great for Jenna.
2. I make dinner for our Bible study every week and this past week I made chicken bacon pasta in alfredo sauce. It was SO good and easy. I just cooked up some bacon, then fried the chicken in the bacon fat (super healthy), Put it in some prepared alfredo sauce with some frozen spinach and voila! An easy yummy topping for pasta. 
3. The grocery store has had raspberries really cheap ($1/half pint). So I decided to can raspberry jam and some dill relish. The raspberry jam turned out really great. Now I need to make extra bread to go with it!
4. I am down to running only once or twice a week. Today I ran 4 miles but I probably won't run the rest of the week. It is starting to get cold. However Erik plans on running all winter. He is braver than I am! 
5. I'm reading the Giver by Lois Lowry and the Blinding Knife by Brent Weeks. Both are good and I'm enjoying them.
6. Candi is leaving for Indiana soon. If you know anyone who wants to move two doors down from me I'd love it!!!