Casey's Gingerbread House

Tis the season for making things. Sunday we tried out hand at decorating a gingerbread house. I only say decorate because I purchased a pre-baked kit. Not wanted to try and deal with the baking of the gingerbread I decided to take the help where I could. The nice thing is it came with its own frosting. With the help of Casey we put together the house and let it set for a couple hours. That was the longest couple hours for Casey who was very excited to start.


Here we are pre-decorating the masterpiece.



As your can tell it takes some serious concentration when decorating the roof.

And we have the finished project. He was very proud of the fact he did it all himself. And it was mostly by himself, there were only a few helps from mom that he has choosen to forget. :)

With all the snow and cold weather I was a little worried about getting Casey into a nice warm jacket. But as I was going through his closet we found this jacket... It was going to be gift for next year, its a couple sized to big but now its the only coat he will wear. He likes it because of the camo print. He now called it his bird hunting coat. :) Not going to be a hunter like his dad aor anything

Dentists, Baking and Wrapping

Dentists, Baking and Wrapping that pretty much sums up my week. On Tuesday we had Casey's second dentist visit. Not a good time but so much better than the first one. I did not lose any hair this time around and he was able to let go of my neck for more than a second. This time they were able to look in his mouth but sadly a cavity was found. Since he is being so hard at the appointment they have not been able to do a full check on his teeth, no x-rays and no really checking. So now we have the choice of either trying to come back enough to get him comfortable enough to be worked on or something called sedation dentistry. There are two levels of the sedation option, one in the office where the child is just on the end of being aware and one in the hospital where is fully out. Since it takes a while for him to get comfortable in new situations the first option is out. Who knows how long that would take and by the time he was comfortable things would be really bad. The sedation in the office is not a sure thing, there is no guarantee he would be calm enough for the work that needed to be done so... I think we will have to do the full hospital visit. I know that many kids younger than him have much more work done but when its your own child they just seem so small. It will be the best option because we can get x-rays, all cavities take care of and have his teeth sealed. If only he would be willing to have his teeth worked on in the office, it would make life so much easier.

Yesterday I tried my hand at fudge. I though I had everything needed but was missing the most important part, the chocolate chips. For some reason they disappear, mainly Brent will eat them and not tell me when there gone. I did have some peanut butter chips and some Starbucks chocolate bars and truffles. So I figured why not just use those. For the peanut butter fudge I added some raspberry coffee syrup. Not enough to change the color but just enough to make you stop and say whats that other flavor. As for the second pan...I have to get it out of the house before I eat the entire thing. The chocolate bars were dark and coffee infused. Then I added just a little bit of Bailey Irish Creme to the mix. Yummy Yummy Yummy.

I have never been a fan of wrapping presents. Last year I used a bunch of bags and called it good which I would have done this year but just never got around to getting them. So after the fudge making I had Casey give me a hand. Thankfully he did not get into to much trouble. He just had fun taking the left over strips of papper and cut them into hundreds of little pieces. So much fun to clean up. I would have taked pictures but my son had hidden the camera and I did not want to search the house for it yet. :(

Home Again

We had a great thanksgiving this year. I love seeing the holidays though Casey's eyes now that he is able to tell us what he is thinking. We spent this holiday in Idaho Falls with Brent's parents. Wednesday afternoon we headed over and got there just in time for supper.

Thursday turned out to be the only truly nice day, weather wise. My in laws have animals on their farm which makes Casey a very happy boy. He loves being able to go down with papa and daddy and help feed them. Once they got back we did a little bit of this and that getting things ready for the turkey dinner. Turns out Casey loves turkey. After a very good lunch and some light reading with Casey while the others slept we went for a walk. That evening we played a board game and then finally got Casey settled down for bed.

Friday the weather turned cold which was fine since we planned to head to Aberdeen to visit my parents for a few hours. There was no chance of me going out for the morning sales...nothing I want/needed that bad. After lunch with my folks we went to American Falls to see Robb's elk rack and chat with him for a little while.

Saturday was another cold day but Casey still did his morning duty of feeding the sheep and cows. He was more than willing to wear the many layers as long as he could head out with papa and daddy. That afternoon we took him bowling. They only had one set of bumpers for the gutters and they were being used. But thankfully Casey was able to hit a few of the pins, a 40 in the first game. He just had fun with the ball and watching the rest of us try out best to hit a few.

Saturday night we visited Brent's grandparents. They had three little dogs at their house which made Casey so happy. He spent almost three hours playing with the little guys. I think they were happy to see him leave.

Sunday we had breakfast and Casey did his chores and then we headed back to Boise. Its a four hour trip and Casey only slept about an hour of it. Here is the best part he was a happy boy for the three hours he was awake. He just sat in his car seat reading his books and looking for animals in the desert.

So all in all it was a fun holiday but boy it was nice to get home and get back into the routine of life in Boise.