Gingerbread House... disaster!

So over the weekend, I got all pumped up and decided it would be such a fun tradition to make a gingerbread house! How hard can this be? Right? Wrong!!!
The icing came out really sticky... they said it should be the consistency of toothpaste. Hmmmm.... is toothpaste supposed to that hard to spread?
Anyway, it was fun and Reid had a ball! That's all that matters, right?
He enjoyed eating the candy way more than making the gingerbread house. That's a kid for ya!

I thought this was going to be a piece of cake until my bag that
I was supposed to pipe the icing on with, blew a whole as I was
squeezing it to get the icing into the bottom. Oh well... a spoon
works just as well, right? Wrong-oh!!!

Here is my attempt at making a door.


The finished product... on a pizza pan.
Probably would have helped if I had read the directions and saw
that there was a piece of cardboard inside the box to put the house
on. That and all the other directions that went with it!
Hilarious! What a fun memory! Reid loved every
minute and that's all that matters to me!

It's Christmas time in the Lindsay house...

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care...

In hopes that St. Nicholas would see our pretty table!


And our other pretty table!


The tree was all decorated...

with the most precious ornaments on it that it could bear.

Merry Christmas 2010

Riley is 5 months!

I can't believe Riley is already 5 months! You have filled our hearts with joy and we are so in love with you precious baby! Your smiles get more precious by the day and I just can't kiss you enough! I wish I could hold you all day long and I know you wish I could too! You and Reid have brought my heart more joy than I have ever known.
It's so fun to watch you laugh at your brother and you are going to be a great little brother as you learn from his sweet example. Hopefully he will always do the right thing!
I love to watch you smile, laugh, and bringing you nourishment is still my favorite thing.
Seeing you sleep on me is a precious gift and I could just watch you in awe all day.
I love you Riley. Thank you for filling my heart everyday!

Christmas Dinner with sweet friends

Reid, Braden, and Jackson eating their Christmas dinner.


Rolling out the dough for some Christmas cookies!


Cutting out some shapes.


And now time to eat some!

Man, those sure were good!

Rod & his sweet boys.

Us.


The Keith Fam. Sweet friends!

We had a wonderful time last night with Rod's best friend's family eating dinner together. Every year we alternate houses and have dinner together. It started out as just the 4 of us before kids and we would go all out with amazing food, creative menus, and table decor.
Now we all have kids and it's a family dinner tradition. No more gourmet food, fancy menus or decor. Just us & the kids. What could be better?
We loved the time with you guys and the memories just keep getting better!

Thank you for a memorable evening full of good fun, fun cookie making, and just watching our kids play. I can't believe it has been 10 years of this ongoing tradition!
We love this time of year and LOVE spending it with all of you!
We have watched each other grow as married couples, have children, and now are enjoying watching our kids play together. Can't wait to see what the next 10 years of Keith/Lindsay dinners brings! We love you all!

Celebrating Advent

This year we decided to start the tradition with the boys of lighting the advent candles. Although Reid is still a bit young to understand all that this means, we wanted to be sure he begins to learn that there is more to Christmas than just Santa & presents!
It is really neat to light these candles and think about the true meaning behind Christmas. It helps Rod & I to also gain perspective and not get so caught up in all the "hoop-la" of presents.
I love this time of year for soooo many reasons, but the birth of Christ is our true reason for celebrating this season. Thank you Lord for sending your Son, the most precious gift of all.

Christmas in our neighborhood

We had a fun night the first Saturday in December going to our neighborhood Christmas festival.
It was complete with bounce houses, a feaux snow hill with sleds, music, hot cocoa, and lights galore! We walked around in the freezing cold and greeted neighbors, watched Reid bounce, and finished out the night watching the beautiful tree get lit!
LOVE, love, LOVE this time of year!

The boys before we ventured out into the cold night!

My little Santa man. :)




Merry Christmas everyone!

Brotherly love

This is my new favorite pic of little Riley.
I could just kiss this boy to pieces!


Sweet kisses from big brother Reid.


Riley learning how to hold his (Reid's old) toys.


Sweet smiles.


I'm loving these days with both of my boys. Riley is becoming so much more animated and smiles all the time now! Reid loves "playing" with his little brother and showing him all the toys he used to play with when he was a baby. It is fun to watch Reid interact with him and to see little Riley's face light up when his big brother talks to him. Riley is really reacting to the faces he recognizes now and gets kinda grumpy when it's a face he doesn't really know. :)
Mommy loves her sweet boys!