My momma found a cute gingerbread house kit for $6 and bought it for us to do with the kiddos. If I weren’t 9 months pregnant I would have probably accomplished my goal of actually making homemade gingerbread and building the coolest ginger house you ever saw. But, I would have spent more than $6 just on candy. Sooooo, I’ll mark this down as one of the thousand things I tried to save money on this season. (Random tangent: Baby boy hasn’t even arrived but I’ve been stocking up on diapers and OH. MY. GOODNESS. How did I have 2 in diapers at the same time for so long? Thank you Ashelyn for being a potty training princess. Also, I don’t think Jake or I will ever be able to buy Christmas gifts for each other again. Seeing as we have gifts to buy for family and once little man arrives… two kids with birthdays at the end of the month. Smart planning. NOT. End rant.)

Gideon was so fascinated by the whole process. Jake is really the confectioner extraordinaire around the Doan house, so he handled all that business and I just plopped my pregnant self down in a chair hidden behind the camera lens.

As much as Gideon was interested in the “candy house,” Ashelyn was equally interested in… just the candy. After all, I don’t know that she’d ever experienced gum drops. Which are awesome… if you’re 90 years old or a 2 1/2 year old sugar addict.

Gideon was helpful throughout the entire thing. Totally enthralled by it all.

And Ashe did a fabulous job of eating all the extra candies. Waste not, little one.

Let the real decorating begin! We made Ashelyn spit out about a dozen gumballs she had stuffed in her mouth which she immediately started using to decorate. Awesome. 

I thought it turned out pretty cute for “out of a box.”

Unfortunately, the little ginger house only lived for one night. While folding laundry the next day, Gideon ran downstairs to tell me that, “A monster ate the candy house Mom!” Boy was he right…. There wasn’t a single piece of candy left. Must have been a very hungry monster.

*Thanks for the fun family night Mom :)

Happy Santa Lucia Day! Every day from now on gets brighter and brighter. Hope your morning was full of hot cocoa and maybe some of these….

I know ours was!

Well, even though the activities committee was officially nixed back in November, we were still left in charge of the Christmas party. I’m super excited to be done with all the planning and craziness, but not so excited that I’m now waiting in the wings to find out what my next calling will be :).

Being 9 months pregnant during the set up didn’t really help much with my enthusiasm, but I did really love the calling and I had Jake and my good friend Laura to help with everything. Pretty awesome!

I think everyone had a good time and I just have to say we have an amazing Bishopric. Bishop did a Rudolph skit that had all the kids (and adults) laughing and singing. I’m just so thankful to have wonderful people in our ward who are always willing to help. It makes everything so fun and all the hard work totally worth it!

Ashelyn and all the kiddos waiting for Rudolph and Santa. (You can see Gid’s happy face in the background, too.)

Rudolph telling the kids all about how the reindeers get ready for the big day!


Which includes shaving….

And brushing your teeth. (I was laughing so my pictures are all blurry…of course!)


The kiddos loved it, which of course makes the parents REALLY happy. :) Next up….

SANTA! Once again, Ashelyn was totally fascinated by the beard.

It was a great night. We just love our ward!

It’s not very often that Santa makes house calls, but check out who came to visit us last weekend!

That’s right… Santa AND Mrs. Claus! The kids were so excited they could hardly contain themselves! Ashelyn is still talking about how Santa came to see her. For the record, Ashelyn asked for a Barbie and Gideon asked for Puzzles and Games. Love it!

Oh look… my family is cute and I’m HUGE. So, I asked Santa for baby to come before Christmas… still waiting on that to happen. :)

*We were super bummed because we got home much later than we planned last Saturday and thought we missed the chance to take the kids to see Santa at the Mayor’s Christmas Tree lighting. Luckily, we have great neighbors who just so happen to play Santa & Mrs. Claus for the event. They were nice enough to call us as they were getting home (after spending HOURS out in the freezing cold) to see if the kids would like a special visit. Pretty much, our neighbors are awesome :)

So, I never thought I would be into this, but is this not the cutest thing you’ve ever seen!?!?

Ya. Gideon has a 4 wheeler. He does in fact have a helmet, I’m not sure why J didn’t have it on him. He does have a safety on the throttle so he can’t make it go too fast, which helps keep my crazy-paranoid-mom-brain under control. The kids all went for a little ride on Thanksgiving even though it was FREEZING. They love it!

Ashelyn gets to “ride” too. But Jake just runs along with her controlling the throttle…. and the brake, haha! Mostly she just likes to snuggle her Grampa and Gramma and watch!

Of course Jake is a project guy, so he has big plans for this little quad!  Nothing but custom for Gid the kid!