Ice Skating

Here are some pictures of Benjamin's first ice skating experience. He lasted about two times around and then wanted to leave. We were impressed at how well he could keep his feet straight on the ice!

Christmas Pictures

We had a wonderful Christmas. Enjoy!

We Wish You a Merry Christmas!

Much love to you all during this season,
Stephen, Rebecca, and Benjamin

(You can click to enlarge so it is readable.)

Carriage Ride and More Christmas Fun

I had heard about a store in a neighboring town that gives horse drawn carriage rides for free during the Christmas season. So, off we went to enjoy a ride on Saturday afternoon. We waited about 15 minutes for our turn and then jumped the line because they needed a small party to fill the carriage. It was great! Benjamin loved the ride and even got to pet the horse after. Then, we went into the store. It was a child's paradise. They had trains on tracks all around the ceiling of one huge showroom, and we found Santa at the North Pole in the back. The line was extremely long and Benjamin has already had a few visits with Santa (I think 4 or 5) so, we just got him some candy from the candy river, a balloon, and took his picture in front of the tree. The greatest thing about visiting with this Santa was they take digital photographs for free of your child on Santa's lap. They print out the photo and put it in a cardboard sleeve while you wait. It is something that we will have to do next year for sure. On the way out, they had a large climb on train for the children to play on. This was Benjamin's favorite, and he ran up the stairs to drive the train. Other benefits were free popcorn, hot chocolate, and apple cider. There was even a train that took children for rides around the outside of the store, but it wasn't running when we were there. It was literally a North Pole experience, with furniture sales included. Visiting the store will become a family tradition. It was fabulous! Here are a few pictures of all the fun.

Sugar Cookies

Benjamin is obsessed with the book Gingerbread Baby by Jan Brett. He has been wanting to make a Gingerbread Baby and says he'll make sure that the Gingerbread Baby won't hop out of the oven and run away. I convinced him yesterday to make one with me out of sugar cookie dough instead of gingerbread. He helped me make the dough and then during his nap I rolled them out. I saved some dough so that he could roll out his own after he woke up, but when he did finally wake up after an unusually long nap, I was already frosting them. At that point, the frosting was much more interesting so he decorated to his little heart's content. The sprinkles were by far the favorite decorating tool. Stephen even surprised us and came home from work a bit early and got in on the decorating action. It was a family activity for sure, especially to clean up the kitchen after the mess. We took the cookies to the Ward Christmas Party last night, and they were a hit. Here are some pictures of the fun.

Benjamin's Gingerbread House

For our activity today, we decided to do a post about the gingerbread house that Benjamin and I made with the YW. He mostly ate the candy but had a great time. Here is the story that he told me about the house. "This is my gingerbread house. Happy I love you day. The gingerbread house put these candy. And these candy canes. A gingerbread lives in the house. The frosting got put on the house. And then we put some graham crackers. Then we put candy on it. We write on it. The most ones on the top. I like to eat the candy. The end. Yeah! (Benjamin clapping)." Here are some pictures of the house including two that Benjamin took all by himself.