Lund Family Christmas 2011

 This years Christmas competition was gingerbread houses. These are our entries starting from top left is Evie's, mine, Hoff's, and Gracie's. They were fun to make, but it was messy. Also, if we ever do this again, I will have to get fresh candy for the girls...they kept wanting to eat year old candy.

 All of the entries. The winner was Mom (church), followed by Dad (left of church) then Amanda and I tied for third, but everyone did a very good job.

 Colleen dressed up for the occasion this year :)

 Clint, Amanda, Lane and Kade

 Our best picture after taking like 50 (and I'm not kidding) Hoff's just going to have to look like he's going to kill someone - hahaha.

 Group picture!

 Sorry, out of order but Evie did real well at opening gifts!

 Of course Santa made an appearance with his trash bag of goodies :) Evie was scared to death, but mustered up enough courage to go get her gifts from him.

 Papa and Grandma Jo with the kiddos - good one guys!

And Gracie with her American girl! It was so much fun hanging out with everyone! We had appetizers and soup to eat and so much goodies. I think I've gained 10 lbs this weekend. The kids had a lot of fun playing with one another and we had fun making cat ornaments (pintrest) and playing games. Great Christmas; can't wait til next year!

Christmas Cookies

 As you may know, Gracie LOVES to help me bake. I got a crazy idea that I had to make 4 different kinds of cookies in 1 day! Let me just tell you, that's a lot of work and time consuming and fattening. Gracie is a natural in the kitchen.

 Tada the cookies are ready to be put into the oven!

 I think this is the real reason why she likes to help me; she sneaks bites and bites, and bites.

 Mom got the girls their cute aprons for their birthdays this year and so I wanted to get a picture of us cooking in them.  We were making the chocolate chip cookies here.

Evie likes to help too, but is usually interested cause Gracie is. Her level of attention isn't quite where it needs to be to finish a batch, but she has fun while it lasts and then goes and makes a mess out of the flour.

Grandpa and Grandma Lund's Christmas 2011

 I was finally able to make it to the Lund Christmas! Between snow storms and work, I wasn't able to make it for the last couple years! This year, EVERYBODY made it! We decided to celebrate early - December 10, so that everyone could come and snow would not be a factor! Grandma, of course, went above and beyond. Here she's cutting up her pork loin! We had a five star meal!

 Sheila got all the kids occupied coloring Christmas pictures!

 The table filled up the whole basement side and was so festively decorated!

 Grandpa and Grandma with the Grandkids.

 Grandpa and Grandma with the Great Grandkids!

 Our Family.

 Ok...lets add the rest of the clan.

 Sheila did a great job helping organize the festivities and I know she helped with the cooking!

 Ok...ready for it...big group shot! Wow! Glad we got it!

Look at this plate full of delishousness! Grandma had cookies, angel food cake, rice krispie ice cream dessert, and a chocolate peanut ice cream dessert! She never disappoints. We played Christmas bingo and enjoyed each others company. Many great gifts were received and lots of Grandma's famous yummy rolls comsumed! I really enjoyed visiting with and seeing everybody. It was a great Christmas!

My Tree

Our beautiful illuminating tree - while white lights are very pretty, we just have to have the colored!

 This is probably my favorite - a silver church and you can put a light in it to make it glow!

 I also really like this pinecone.

 I got some vintage inspired bulbs last year on clearance that I really love.

 And you gotta have the abominable snowman!

 Grandma Werts handmade Santa Claus - Love him!

 My favorite brand of ornaments is Old World Christmas - so sparkly!

As long as it glistens or sparkles - its got a spot on my tree :)

The First Snow of December 2011

 The girls were just chomping at the bit to get out into the snow! The whole 20 minutes we were out there, the girls had a blast!

 Evie thought it was pretty cool, but did not like getting it on her face. She was also the reason we had to come in so early - she kept taking her gloves off and getting red, cold, little hands.

 Gracie's first thing she did in the snow was make snow angels!

 That darn hat never stays where it should!

 I thought this picture was funny - Evie was rolling around in the snow and Gracie's in the background eating it!

 Little snow angel!

 Dad came up with the idea to put snow down at the bottom of the slide and slide right into a huge pile! Both girls thought this was fun!

A chilly Evie and Dad! Can't wait until the next big snow! Gracie's been wanting to make a snowman!

Our First Real Tree!

 And Hoff says it's our last because of having to water it. But the smell the first couple days was so heartwarming...big sniffs of fresh evergreen! Ahhhhh! The whole experience was sort of a National Lampoons Christmas vacation - packed the tree in the car.

 Got it all situated and then began to cut the strings......

 And it whipped open into a big beautiful tree - this also reminded me of National Lampoons where the tree whips open and breaks their windows. Love that show.

 This is the earliest I've ever put up a tree (2 weeks before Thanksgiving), but we seen them in Menards and they smelled so good, I thought they might lose their smell if we waited.

Once the lights were on, we called it quits for a while. The next night Gracie gathered everyone around the tree to sing, "O Christmas Tree" - it was great fun I tell ya. I'm sure we'll be caroling all season long!

Halloween 2011

 Mom and Dad even got into the Halloween spirit this year as they attended a Halloween party and Mom got 2nd place with her chili! Way to go Mom!

 Hoff was Superman and I was a fortune teller.

 The girls at the Knotty Pine - Maria, Me, Jana, Laura, and Cherri - we had a lot of fun!

 My little trick o treaters!

 My little witch Evie - this was the perfect outfit for her. They are really into witches.

Gracie as a beautiful mermaid. The girls had a ton of fun going door to door. They definitely figured out what trick or treating was all about and they were eager to keep moving. After an hr and half of trick or treating the girls were ready to go home. There they had almost more fun handing out candy to the kids than getting the candy. It was a great Halloween with beautiful weather - we were walking much of the night without jackets!