A Fun Playhouse

This year for Christmas, Santa brought Eric and Rubie a playhouse. Santa is so smart. We spent Christmas at Grandma and Grandpa Jeppson's house in Farmington. We would not have been able to bring the playhouse back home if he had delivered the house there. So being such the great Santa he is, he came a night early, the night before Christmas Eve. When Eric and Rubie woke up on Christmas Eve morning the playhouse was in the family room all set up for them. They instantly loved it. They love playing in it every day. Besides being a house, it has also been a fire station, a hide-out, a dog house, and a place to build towers. Thanks Santa!!

The playhouse delivered and ready by the Christmas tree.

It has cute little details inside including a small kitchenette and a fireplace.

Eric is the first out of his room and sees it.

Look at that!

A little house for us!?

It even has a working doorbell.

Rubie is delighted about the playhouse too.

Let's go inside to check it out.

Now back outside.

Ooh, a doorbell. And a dog barks when the bell rings!

Look at the table with all the little food.

Hello, hello.

I can talk and cook at the same time.

Back inside to see what Rubie has found.

Ooh, buttons. What do these buttons do?

I can get to the table from the inside too.

Me too. I'll get some food.

Eric discovers the phone.

They begin to enjoy the picnic together.

And no picnic is complete without Teddy Bear.

Bubble!

One of Rubie's favorite words is "Bubble." She loves to take bubble baths and sing about Tiny Tim the Turtle. It goes like this: I have a little turtle, his name is tiny Tim. I put him in the bathtub to see if he could swim. First he ate the soap, then he drank the water, then he tried to eat the bathtub but it wouldn't go down his throat. Bubble, bubble, bubble. Bubble, bubble, bubble. Bubble, bubble, bubble. Bubble, bubble, POP!!!

As soon as she gets in the bathtub she asks for bubble bath. She will stay in there a long time playing with the bubbles and seeing what kinds of things she can do with them.


Bubble, bubble, POP!!

Look, I have a bubble beard.

Do those bubbles taste as good as they smell?

Reindeer and Lights at Thanksgiving Point

On Saturday the 19th of December we went to Thanksgiving Point to check out the Christmas Lights and to see some of Santa's reindeer. It was a nice night, cold, but not too bad. There were hundreds of other people that also had the same idea. At Thanksgiving Point you can stay in your nice warm vehicle and drive your car through the lights. Well, the line to drive through the lights was about 2 miles long. That would have taken us at least an hour just to get to the lights. I can't handle just sitting in the car waiting for that and I knew the kids couldn't either. So we parked the car and first went to see the reindeer. I was surprised at how little they are. Eric tried to feed them but they weren't very interested in the hard corn kernels. After a few minutes at the reindeer we walked down to Farm Country and got in line to take a wagon ride through the lights. The wait for that was only about 30 minutes and we were able to keep ourselves entertained in the Farm Country barn.

The lights were beautiful! They were colorful and had moving parts. Among all the lights there were such things as a gingerbread town, toy soldiers, penguins on igloos, a train, polar bears, elves, and a giant Santa who waved goodbye to us and wished us Merry Christmas.

Rubie is wondering what those animals are.

Santa's reindeer.

They don't really seem to pay much attention to those who have come to see them.

Eric is delighted to see some of Santa's reindeer. They are like Rudolph.

Rubie wants to get in for a closer look.

Eric would really like to feed one.

But the reindeer don't really seem to care about the hard corn kernels. They seem to just like the straw for now.

Finally we are on the wagon ride to see the lights.

We are greeted by beautiful reindeer jumping over us.

Eric sees something fascinating.

There is lots to see.

Rubie is just happy to cuddle and get warm.

A beautiful view of the lights.

Bean Museum

One of the fun things we did during the holidays while Daddy had some time off was to go to the Bean Museum on BYU campus. When we first got there Daddy and I were totally excited to see a building site across the parking lot. A crane was in action lifting things up to the men on the steel I-beams. We watched for a while until Mommy and Rubie were done watching and ready to go into the museum. In the museum we saw all kinds of animals. We loved the huge lions, bears, and even bugs. There were so many things to see I couldn't even name them all.

The construction workers looked really high up there.

They crane was lifting things high up to the workers.

Welcome to the Bean Museum!

What's up here?

I'm not sure if I should follow him up there?

Come on Rubie.

Look! There are animals up there with claws just like this.

Whoa!

Look at me, I'm a Cheetah.

I carry my doll just like a lion cub.

Hey, how did you get way over there?

Thanks Bean Museum!

Sushi Night

Scott and I love sushi! We do enjoy going out for sushi whenever we can. But it is kind of pricey. Fortunately we have a good friend who is great at making sushi. One night during the holidays Scott invited our friend over and he taught us a few things to know to make it ourselves. We have a lot more practicing to do but it is a good start. It is very inexpensive to make ourselves. Now we can enjoy it more often.Scott and I love sushi! We do enjoy going out for sushi whenever we can. But it is kind of pricey. Fortunately we have a good friend who is great at making sushi. One night during the holidays Scott invited our friend over and he taught us a few things to know to make it ourselves. We have a lot more practicing to do but it is a good start. It is very inexpensive to make ourselves. Now we can enjoy it more often.

The table is set with salads as appetizers, and the platter ready for sushi.

The rice and fish ready to be put together.

Avocado, asparagus, and mango will go nicely with our fish.

Eric helps me pat the rice out on the kelp.

He wanted to do it himself, but it took a little muscle.

We put on mango and some cucumber strips.

Bob demonstrates how to roll.

I try it, it is a bit thick.


I cut the role.
A beautiful platter of sushi and nigiri.

By this point Eric was more interested in providing dinner music by playing with the radio.