Thursday, December 26, 2013

Fun with the Family (Church Family That Is)

In the middle of December we had a church ward's annual Christmas party.This one was really cute and the kids were perfect angles the whole night, in spite of the fact they were by themselves for a while while we set up food and tables. at the beginning of the party we took cute family pics which I LOVE in-spite of the fact Sophie missed the smile memo (at least her hair is super cute) .
Towards the end of the evening all the kids gathered and sang us Christmas Songs they had been working on; I  loved it wished & my camera took better pics so you could find the 3 older kids are up there.
Sophie had fun on daddy's lap while the older kids were up singing.
Right before we left the kids got a chance to see Santa and give any last minute wishes, they pretty much stayed the same Josh wanted a digger, Cami- an Eve robot, Sophie- a digger, & Phoebe- a huge-o stuffed dog from Costco.
This was a really great evening with our new neighbors and I am super excited to have many more of these ward parties to attend in years to come!

A couple days earlier December in our church ward  had our Young Womens (similar to a girl version of scouts)had their annual Women in  Excellence Evening, where we display all the cool things that the young women had been work on all year long. We made the theme of "Look What we Cooked Up" so had spent many hours having most of the young women (ages 12-18) make fun aprons to go with the theme This taught them how to read and follow a pattern and sew. I made REALLY cute wooden spatulas in each of the 8 value theme colors of the Young Women Program. For food we had fruit piazzas making sure to have a fruit that matched all 8 of the young women value colors. 
This turned out to be a really cute fun program for the young women and families in our area.

O Edible Christmas, Oh Edible Christmas Tree...

Every year (for 3 yrs now) our little family has assembled some sore of cookie Christmas display. Last year we found the cookie tree and LOVED it for how simple it was to assemble. I was a bit sad this year I could find the same kit again in the store until finally 1/2 way through December Wal-Mart finally got them in stock! I snatched one up and the following Sunday we had fun putting it together.
All the kids took turns stacking the cookies and then helping to squeeze out the frosting, sprinkling on the snow and placing the candy ornaments carefully of the cute tree.
This tree always looks so cute, even though it's kinda of a mess in person up close.
My VERY favorite part of this tree is because it was so simple to assemble my heart is not broken when the kids want to turn around and begin eating it 2 minutes after it is complete.
This is a fun family tradition of our as well as cuddling afterwards watching Christmas movies as a family.
I just LOVE all the fun traditions that go with this time of year!!!

A Snowman Extravaganza 2013 (Fergy Progressive Dinner)

Every year the Fergy Clan gathers for a progressive dinner, this yer it was only at 2 homes (Ours and Dave's). We had the theme for snow men to try and base our food off of. So I had appetizer so I made meatballs (Snowman Coal eyes) and Alfredo Sauce (Snow Gravy) The Madsens's were my appetizer buddy family so they had a, relish plate (Snowman Noses etc.)
Mom and the Medico's made the main courses if Chicken Pillows and Rice (Snowman Pillows & Mounds of Snow)
Our house was total chaos, I know this pic doesn't show it, but we has a ton-o-cousins running, playing and screaming.
After the first two courses we traveled to Dave's home for desserts. The Elwell's made hot cocoa (snow man cocoa), Julie made the most delicious cream puffs (snowballs) ever and I normally don't like cream puffs. Dave had a variety of marshmallows (snowman poop & mini snowmen).
Julie read the family SnowMen at Christmas, which this year's progressive dinner got its theme from.
The kids were supert trilled about the cocoa and treats!
For an added treat Grandma/pa Fergy gave all the kiddos fun snow & snowman glasses.
Thanks for another fun progressive dinner Fergy clan, excited to see what we come up with next year!

Our First REAL Snow Day

To kick start December we had our first real snow storm, which I was actually excited about for the first couple of minutes. I had bough a snow shovel and planned to use shoveling as a great winter work out. I unfortunately, hadn't even been hard at work for 10 minutes hen I got a call from Cory saying he slid on the roundabout near our home and hot the curb and blew the tire. I then dressed up the kids warm loaded them in the van and went to help. Just our luck things went from bad to worse quickly. We had a spare so coy went to work replacing it, but unfortunately couldn't get the nuts off and broke 2 stems trying to get the cross threaded nuts off, we then finally got the spare on only to discover it was flat. we then called AAA and had them come help us, they sadly couldn't help us with flat so they called in the tow truck. We luckily got free towing for 5 miles, but unfortunately the shop was 8 miles away. We paid the difference and finally got the car in the shop which was sadly just under $400 to fix.
That evening we had previously scheduled our 3rd annual Santa pics in Lehi, which is normally only 30 minutes away, but in the storm it was 90 minutes. We were about 1 hr late for pics, but they said it was fine since no one was showing up for their pics due to the storm. Our pics turned out adorable, I just love this Christmas tradition!
After the pics with fattened Daddy dressed up as Santa the kids got to visit the real deal and get a candy cane. 
While waiting for the pics we went out in the blinding show to visit 2 of Santa's reindeer and see the beautiful ice sculptures that had been cared the night before.
Normally, to end the evening we drive through the holiday light display, but this year we were eager to get home out of the storm so we skipped it, maybe next year we can drive through it again. Thanks Thanksgiving Point for another fun December Fergy Family tradition !