Gingerbread Houses

This was a couple weeks ago, but it is an important part of Christmas tradition, so I am posting it now as the first of several Christmas posts.

We had our annual Gingerbread House decorating party at Kim's a few weeks back. Everyone had a lot of fun and the houses we made were really pretty. The kids did a great job helping, especially Cameron and Jack who insisted on tasting pretty much every piece of candy before it went on the houses. Needless to say, we had two crazy boys running around hopped up on sugar for most of the afternoon!

Ella, surveying the table filled with candy ready to be put on the house.
Mama snuggles Cameron while he sneaks a snack.
Jack samples the candy too.
Ron and Cathy work on their house.
Jack and Jeff concentrating on putting another piece on their house.
Kim and Ella take a break from decorating.
Jack and Ron laughing about something.
Tom sneaks a snack!
Cameron places a gumdrop in the yard.
We were trying to get Cameron to smile by pretending to throw a ball at him. We got some cute shots, but in half of them he had his hands up, ready to catch the ball.
What a cute boy!!
At one point, it started to snow so the kids got their boots on and ran around on the deck for a little while.
Ella and Jack had fun. Cameron kept complaining about the cold hitting him so he came back inside quickly.
Tom and Joan with their finished house.
Ron and Cathy
Kim and Ella
Jeff and Jack
Daddy, Mama and Cam
Four of the houses in a row (Tom and Joan took theirs home before we remembered to take pictures of the neighborhood). It was another great year and everyone made really cute and different houses.

Cam Cutes: Cameron the future baker

Last week, I had a pot luck day at work. I decided to make darby pie, and Cameron decided he wanted to help me. He actually did a really good job, adding the ingredients one at a time and stirring everything up. I was impressed with him, he was a really good helper!

Vanilla goes in
The add the chocolate chips
And then dump in some walnuts
Stir it all up...
And check out what a good job I did!

House update

We will have some Christmas posts up soon, but first - a picture update on the house. We still don't own it (but closing might, maybe, perhaps, be early next week) but these are some pictures from the last few times we have been in there.

Here is the kitchen, complete with finished countertops, backsplash and appliances.
Looking from the living room into the dining room. Stairs to go up are to the right. The garage, taken from the mudroom steps. We have a very shiny floor, I think it is from some kind of concrete sealer.
The office, which is downstairs in the front of the house.
The guest bedroom, complete with lovely carpeting.
The master bedroom.
Master bathroom - the only thing missing is the shower doors, which are in there now.
The other side of the master bathroom.
Upstairs main bathroom

Decorating for Christmas

We haven't been all that good about posting this month. It has been a bit crazy, with lots of drama related to closing on the new house. We haven't closed yet, but the house is done. I don't really want to write about that right now though!!

Instead, here are some cute pictures of Cameron decorating Nana and Poppa's Christmas tree. He LOVED it and really did a good job. He hung all of the ornaments on the bottom branches, and he knew what he hung where. When Nana tried to move some of them the next morning, he quickly noticed and demanded they be moved back to his original placement. One of Cam's favorite games since the tree has been up is playing hide-and-seek on the tree. Someone asks him, "Can you find a shell?" and he points one out. Cam's favorite ornaments to look for are the nutcrackers.

Cam ready to put the first few ornaments on the tree.
Cameron is obsessed with cuckoo clocks, so he was excited to find this ornament (despite the complete lack of excitement on his face!)
Mama, Nana, Poppa and Cam all put ornaments on the tree
Adding more ornaments
Nana and Cam look at an ornament with Cameron's hand print on it. He made it when he was a tiny baby (one month old) and we can't believe how big he has gotten in two years!
Cameron examining his handiwork.
The fragile ornaments that I can't touch are waaaaaaaay up high!
Christmas boy

And completely unrelated to Christmas at all, here are a couple more cute pictures of Cameron in a box. We got a four foot long down rod for the fan in our family room, and the box it came in was abnormally large. Cameron had a good day at school (no biting!), so his special surprise when he got home was to play in this large box. He loved it and made everyone climb into the box with him at one point or another. It was very cute!

Thanksgiving in Rochester

This year we spent Thanksgiving in Rochester. We had Thanksgiving dinner at Uncle Jim and Aunt Jill's house. There were two turkeys, tons of side dishes and about ten different pies. Everything was great!! Cameron had a wonderful time playing with all of his cousins - he wasn't always quick enough to keep up but they did a great job making sure he was included.

Everyone ganged up on Uncle Matt, and Cameron got in on the fun. If you look really close, you can see Cam's face smushed into the middle of the pile!
In the middle of all of the craziness, Cam took a break with Nana to look at the fish and relax.

When it got late, it was time for Cam to put on pajamas. Before he got his pjs on, he asked to have some Nakie Time. Luckily, Nakie Time includes a diaper!! Cam found a huge Guinness pint glass hat and had a great time with it.

Check out my hat!
Yep, I know I look pretty darn cute.
Peek-a-boo!
Cam kept pulling down the hat and stumbling around not being able to see.
It was really funny, and he only got hurt once. :-P
Yikes, it has been a looooooong night.