O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree

We had the house decorated for a week or so before we put up the tree -- so Ruby cuddled with Luke on the lonely tree skirt. 

cuddling soon turned to kissing. 

 

We got our tree Saturday and put it up as soon as it thawed out.  It was still bundled in twine, so we had to let it take shape. Luke kept us posted on it's progress -- it's starting to look like an egg -- or, it's very fat now!
Josh got this year's star installing honors. We got such a short tree that he could just ride on daddy's shoulders to place it.

Just getting the final positioning...

 

Luke hanging ornaments -- he was so into it! 

Ruby's first Christmas.  She's not too sure about this tree thing.  She has been good so far, not even knocking ornaments down with her tail, but we know the season is young.

 

And in closing, this random shot of Ruby in her favorite chilling-out spot.

 

Baker Boy

Luke and I made sugar cookies this week. He was kind of distraught about our empty cookie jar. 

The next night we frosted them. He was very artistic, adding more than one color to almost each cookie.  He kept saying "these are so pretty" about every one he completed. 

Sparkles

Sparkles is our elf on the shelf.  This year she came out Dec 1 and she's been up to some shenanigans.

We unanimously decided that this was a warning -- better be good -- instead of encouragement.  And the message was gone before we left for school that morning.  They figured she gave it to them, why not eat it.

This is my shopping list paper, and it says "candy, sugar, candy corn, syrup" -- directly from Elf.

She traded the stockings for socks.  Luke was super worried that the stockings were gone forever, and that Champ's and Ruby's stockings were going tob e gone for Christmas.  He was so relieved when they appeared like normal the next day.

 

She gets tired.

Luke thought she was looking for a kiss, hanging right under the mistletoe.

baby it's cold outside

 

After a week of frigid temperatures and no outside play, we just HAD to get outside.  It was definitely at least -10, if not colder, but we bundled up and tried our best.  It took us 15 minutes to get the three of us bundled, and we were outside for about 10.  Perfect.

The boys tried to make a snow fort.  The snow was way too cold to stick together, so they decided to make snow tunnels for snow ball delivery later. 

This is Josh pretending to attack me saying NO PICTURES

And Luke's version of no pictures.  He looks so happy. 

 



We came inside and wrote letter to Santa while we drank some hot cocoa. I worked on Christmas pillow cases for the boys.  The fabric on the right is Josh's choice.  So mature and fancy.



Ruby found the fabric for Luke's pillow case and decided that was just the right place to cuddle up.  Luke's fabric selection was this juvenile fleece -- much more what I was picturing when we headed off to Joann's.



 

This is Luke's letter.  He decided since he didn't know how to spell, he'd draw a picture for Santa.  And then Josh started dictating for him, and this note says "Dear Santa, 12-7-13, Lego City Undercover, DSI, Air Hogs Bomb Drop"

Hunting Camp Friends

Gabe and his dad joined the Jenkins' clan for Friday and Saturday.  The boys had grand adventures.



This is a dance party in the tent -- Josh is acting out the words from Hall Of Fame "king kong banging on your chest"

Ambush! 

The boys attacked the men often.

And sometimes they attacked each other.  Poor Gabe is running for his life.

Daddy's going down!

Three boys jammed in the back of the Jeep.  Fun times.

Hunting Camp 2013

 

Grampa Harley and Daddy found a sweet hunting camp spot outside Pony 

on one of their driving hunts, they found a tipi, so Josh claims that they camped with Indians.

Luke took this picture:

 

And Josh took this one: 

 

 

Pretty sure this smiley face was around a lot this weeke

The boys having fun on one of their driving hunts.

Daddy's chief spotter helper didn't want his picture taken.

  This boy is so smiley!

 

Civilization

Before I sent the boys off to Hunting Camp, I took them for haircuts.  I think of it as the last act of civilization for the week.

 

This is Josh's After picture.  He also had a stain on his face that he swears looks like Montana.  He insisted that I take a picture of it so that we could save the memories.

Luke was pretty mangy.  He did a good job sitting still -- this was his first non-Cowlicks hair cut.

Sorry it's blurry, its from my phone.  He got a little spike up front and I think he's so cute.