Holiday Happenings...

I know I look scary in this pic, but isn't Porter adorable? He loves his baths...and I think just being naked in general.

 Brooke showing us her owie finger (by flipping us off)

 My cuties all dressed up in their Christmas clothes:

 We have been doing some really fun things with Brooke this year. She is SO EXCITED for Christmas and is always so enthusiastic about any activity we do. Her excited has rubbed off and I think Blake and I are feeling the holiday spirit more than ever too.

I orginally bought a gingerbread house kit for our family to put together. Those things are like $10 each and I decided I'd rather each of us make our own houses and returned it to the store.

A couple of years ago Brooke made a graham cracker house with her sitter H. and I learned this trick of hot gluing the house to the plate, and then gluing the house framework together. Then you don't have to worry about the house sliding around or it falling apart.

 Then, I went to the dollar store for our candy. I also found this awesome gingerbread icing recipe: 1lb powdered sugar, 3 egg whites, 1/2 tsp cream of tarter. Mix 5-7 minutes, adding more sugar if needed. The frosting was perfect!

 We had tons of fun putting our houses together.

 Blake's frosting bag malfunctioned and he ended up with icing all over

 Brooke's house: she keeps asking to eat it.

 Mine:

Last night our advent activity was to watch The Grinch and have Grinch treats. I made Grinch cookies (chocolate chip cookies with green food coloring) and Grinch floats (lime sherbet and 7-up)

photo courtesy of Pinterest

For our next movie night, we are going to watch "The Polar Express" and have a hot chocolate bar. I am going to make a crockpot hot-chocolate recipe I found online and then have different kinds marshmallows, candy canes to stir it with, whipped cream...we're keeping our bar pretty simple, but you could find lots of fun things include in your hot chocolate bar.

photo courtesy of Pinterest