Setting up Christmas

A few days before Thanksgiving we were supposed to get the Blizzard of all Blizzards.  Schools closed (including most (all?) Utah colleges!), businesses (but only some) closed, people left work early.  It was crazy.  The anticipation was high.  I was excited.  I hadn't been in a real blizzard since probably elementary. Maybe middle school.  

I had been listening to some Christmas music here and there (I know, I know, blasphemy before Christmas!  But I was in the mood) so I was already starting to prep for Christmas in my head.  So with the promise of the worst blizzard Utah has ever seen, I decided it was time to decorate for Christmas.  Even if it was before Thanksgiving.  

Kessa was very thoughtful about where ornaments were placed.  (Also, I just love the way she would sit on that chair.)

She ended up loving the tree.  It was thanks to the ornaments on the Christmas tree that she started learning how to answer the question, "Where is the ____?"  She started identifying shapes. (Ball, star, heart and … spiral?  We tried to ignore that last one.)  It was quite fun.

She also learned how to say "ho ho ho" which would crack me up every time she did it.

 Also, as a followup, the blizzard never came.  We invited neighbors over for games and taught them Ticket to Ride.  We watched the wind blow some, but not really much at all.  It was very, very disappointing.  I had all this romantic visions of curling up in a blanket with hot cocoa and all the lights off and watching the snow swirl and blow.  [sigh]  But having the Christmas decorations up were fun!  :)

Murder

Tragedy struck recently. Many of we Homers gathered together for a trip through time and ended up in the middle of a Roman murder!  Poor Flabbius Corpus was murdered in his own home!  It took a lot of food and suspicion, but we finally discovered the culprit and were able to return home.  Whew.  (I want it to be noted that despite having every reason in the world to have wanted Flavius Corpus dead, I was the only one who didn't even attempt murder.)  (My apologies to anyone out there that does this particular game and now knows one person who is innocent… well, sort of innocent.)

Mercedes Accelleratti, Flabbius' wife, was very (sort of, a little) sad about the whole thing. 

(But more so about the pottery that was broken during the murder.)

Maximus Testosterus, a Roman military commander, 

is ready to take down anyone that is proven guilty.

The decor was very Roman.  See the grapes?

The food was too.  A Caesar salad!

Bogus Fortunatus read all of our fortunes by looking at animal intestines.  

Gross.

Licentius Caesar, good friend of Flabbius, was determined to find the murderer.

Cleptopatra didn't really care about Flabbius, 

but she did have a hard time refuting the claims she had been stealing from Rome.

Flotilla Submergia, world-renown shipbuilder and Harangus Adnauseum, Stoic Senator 

were both greatly offended at being considered suspects.

Rotunda Immaculata, Vestal Virgin, had no idea why she was invited to this dinner, except that Vestal Virgins are very important for all business dealings in Rome.

Somehow a baby snuck into our dinner.  I think to tell us it was time to go home, so could we please hurry up and solve the murder?

Even Caesar had to do dishes before we could leave.

Luckily Teresa was watching Kessa and they didn't get sucked into the time trip of death.  

Except, y'know, for that one part where Kessa snuck in to tell us to go home.

Clothes

Kessa has been having way too much fun with clothes lately.  She loves to wear them, even improperly at times.  Not shown below are her love for socks and shoes.  And in case it's considered clothing, her blankie.  I need to get pictures of her with her blankie.  She loves it.

Geese on the greenbelt

We went to Idaho for BJ's aunt Karla's wedding.  It was a lot of fun, even if it was a quick trip.  I realized as I put these pictures together that we never got any pictures of the happy couple or even the reception.  But we did get pictures and a video of the geese at the river.  Kessa wanted to get down so badly, but I wouldn't let her, since there was so much goose poop on the ground.  Ewww.

(So I don't look like a crazy mom, Kessa had said duck earlier and we were trying to get her to say it again on film.)

David and Goliath

Sorry about all the sideways videos, folks.  Someday I'll remember to take videos horizontally.  :)

So it's another FHE with the Hendersons.  BJ is amazing at coming up with ways to tell scriptural stories in a way that the girls love and will (hopefully) remember for a long time to come.  This one was David and Goliath.  BJ played the part of Goliath, using a body pillow as a sword and a pillow as a shield.  Ellie and Sarah played the part of David (we had two Davids) who threw marshmallows instead of stones.  (One of those marshmallows we found hidden a month or two later.  Ick.)  Kessa was not well-pleased that her Daddy was being beat up, as you can probably tell by her reaction at the end.  So all you kids out there, do your best to make sure your daddy's aren't evil and wicked giants.

Halloween '10

I told you I was behind.

For Halloween, Kessa was a … leopard ballerina?  Whatever you would officially call it, she was adorable.  My aunt Trudy gave me the costume about a year before, just after Halloween the year before.  It fit perfectly for this Halloween.  We spent the holiday up in Riverton at BJ's parents' house.  It works fabulously.  I highly doubt we get a lot of trick-or-treaters here, and in Riverton we got to spend the evening playing games.  We just set up a card table near the door and played Settlers of Catan, pausing whenever someone rang the doorbell.  Perfect!

Here's a video and some pictures of her crawling around in that cute outfit.  Goodness, it's crazy that I'm so far behind that I'm still blogging about when she crawled everywhere.

And let's not forget Jax in his costume.  Hahaha.  Love it.  :)

Do you love BYU?

BJ's brother, Nick is in a marketing competition right now. He's representing BYU. So if you love BYU, go the WFU Marketing Summit 2011 site and vote for BYU! It's super easy.  No need to register or anything. Just click next to BYU, then submit.  Tada!  All done!  Except then you should tell all your friends to go vote, too.  Because we all love BYU and Nick.

And for all of you that are crazy and don't love BYU, do it because, whether you know it or not, you love Nick.  Because he's the one that made the motorized couch.  (Plus, you'll learn more about Nick in March when we do his birthday post.  But the voting won't last that long.  So go vote now.)