During the Christmas season, I usually make a gingerbread house for our family. This is a tradition of ours that I brought from my family. My mom makes gingerbread houses for the family to decorate and I loved that part of the holidays when I was growing up. My Aunt Bobbe (my mother’s sister) actually makes gingerbread houses professionally and sells dozens of them every year. I’m still learning and figuring all the tricks out, so my houses are definitely more amateur than professional, but I enjoy making them.

This year, I made two houses. The first was for my friend Marcie and was given as payment for a couple of nights of baby sitting she did for us. Here’s that house:

I make the windows with melted candy and I like to put lights inside the house to enhance the effect.

And here’s the house I made for our family:

Front view.

Back window.

Side view. Bryce and I ended up snacking on the M&Ms that I had from the other house, so this house is a bit plainer...

I make lots of mistakes, but I learn something new with each house I make. So, maybe in 20 years I’ll have it down! 😉 Next year I’m going to explore more candy options to jazz it up a bit, but I like the simple look, too. Either way, it’s lots of fun–especially now that Amelie is getting older and likes to help me!

Amelie is having lots of fun these days. Here are some pictures of what she’s been up to recently.

Just hanging out with Daddy.

Visiting the reindeer at Thanksgiving Point (can you see the reindeer?). We were disappointed that this was as close as you could get to them, but it was still fun.

Amelie is loving this big box full of packing peanuts. She likes to throw them in the air and say,"It's snowing!" Maybe this is what we should have gotten her for Christmas this year 😉

This past Sunday, December 7th, Calder was blessed in our sacrament meeting. Bryce was joined in the circle by his dad, Mark, two of his brothers, Brad and Brock, and our Bishop. Especially fun was that Calder wore the outfit that Bryce wore when he was blessed, down to the shoes! We were a little worried that it might not fit, since Calder is getting so big, but it fit perfectly.

And here's Calder!

Here's Bryce in 1981, one month older than Calder

So handsome!

Brad, Bryce, Mark, and Brock (and Calder, of course!).

It seems we might have a thumb sucker in the family now. It’s so cute now, before I have to worry about weaning him from it 🙂

Loving his thumb.

And at Calder’s 2-month appointment yesterday, he weighed in at 13 pounds 10 ounces. He’s gained over 6 pounds since birth! At 24.5 inches, he’s in the 93rd percentile for height–looks like he takes after his daddy on that one!

I call him my "Chunky Monkey." Thank you, Aunt Betsey, for making him the great blanket 🙂

Thanks to Aunt Nicole and Uncle Than, Amelie watched the game (vs. U of U) in True Blue fashion 🙂 Too bad we didn’t win…

Sorry it's a bit blurry!