My Dad and sister.....

(Warning: Picture overload. I can't just pick a few; too many fun memories...

Note: Briggs took this one of below! My up-in-coming photographer)

We feel so blessed to have had more family than usual around the holidays. A week after Cory's parents left my Dad and sister Candace rolled into town on her way to move out to Connecticut. We got to spend 3 nights and 2 days with them--which never seems like long enough but we made the most of our time. The first night we taught them one of our favorite games The Settlers of Catan. I think Candace liked it...Dad, on the other hand...I don't know if he caught the vision ;-) Which is okay because the deal was that if we taught them a new game Cory would learn Pinochle the next night. Which I don't know if Cory caught the vision of either (bummer...I love pinochle!!) But it was fun! That was Tuesday night.

Wednesday, Cory had to work. We took a ride to the local Miejer to get some groceries and a patch for our wall. My dad, true to his wonderful fix-it nature, wanted to help us by fixing a large hole that was made by our garage door hitting the wall. He always does a wonderful job!! He even painted it and it looks awesome! He also fixed our broken toilet paper holder. A great thanks to him!!

Then after lunch Candace and I spent 4 hours talking and baking and cooking in the kitchen; it was so much fun! I taught her how to make homemade sauce and lasagna. We also made yummy avacado dip for our game night. We made Key Lime Pie for one of my Young Women's birthday (which I've never tasted or made before). We made a small sample for us to try and it turned out great!! I will definitely make that one again. Then we decided to make a chocolate cookie with chocolate chunks and peppermint frosting. I didn't think I'd like them when I had them at Cory's Christmas party, but they were amazing. I think ours turned out really good. I think that will now grace my favorite recipes for Christmas each year! There is something that is therapeutic about baking and cooking on a cold winter day. Coupled with the fact that I was toasty and warm and surrounded by good company; the day was perfect!

My darling sister...

Ethan helping us cook..

Chocolate peppermint cookies!!

Key Lime Pie

(okay, this isn't the actual picture of our pie but it tasted as good as this looks!)

We had a yummy dinner, watched the boys ride their scooters downstairs, played memory, the ABC game and Briggs enjoyed Grandpa's I-touch and learning new games. We ate avacado dip and played games after the kids went to bed.

Building a coral for all her animals

Briggs took this picture of me and my Dad!!

Enjoying scooters and a finally clean basement!

Brooklyn loved my Dad and Candace. I love these pictures of them together!

The Candy Factory

Thursday, Cory took the day off and after dropping Ethan off at pre-school we headed to the Anthony Thomas Candy Factory to go on a tour. It was really interesting. At the end we each got a buckeye candy. We also learned that the people that work there get to eat as much chocolate as they want!! It's definitely a good thing that I don't work there!!

Brooklyn was hilarious! As we were leaving the tour and heading down the elevator she puckered up her lips (actually more like a fish kiss by pulling in her cheeks), raised up her eyebrows and leaned in to give me a kiss. I gave her a kiss. Then she leaned over to daddy and did the same, and then after receiving a kiss from him leaned towards my dad for a kiss and then Candace and then to finish off by puckering up for our little old tour lady to give her a kiss (which she thankfully didn't see ;-). It was so funny! I guess we should be concerned about how freely she likes to hand out those kisses but for now I'm not complaining!!

Now you see the Buckeye...

Now you don't...yep, it's all in there all at once!

A Buckeye piece of chocolate listed at $3,300 or some insane price like that!

Snow play...

Later that afternoon we went out and played in the snow. Brooklyn was excited to go out until she realized how cold snow was; it was her first time. She loved getting all bundled up with the boys. She tried the sled but was not a big fan! But she would giggle from the warmth of the garage as the boys would throw snow at her! It was really fun! The boys loved being pushed down the driveway and being pulled from Grandpa and Daddy! The boys and Brooklyn LOVED having them around.

The week before they got here we had decided that one night we were wanted to go to the temple together and my sister recently just went through but because the weather was so snowy and miserable, our leaving 2 hours before our session in hopes of eating at a nice restaurant before going, were squelched when we entered the snowy, slushy roads that were forever backed up. So, for fear that we wouldn't make it on time to our 7:30 appointment we decided to see if we could find something to eat a little closer to the Temple. Nope. Not a whole lot of choices. We ended up eating in a little Wendy's that was hooked onto a Travel Center gas station. We definitely were overdressed but we enjoyed ourselves before heading over to the near empty temple. When we got there we learned that we were the only ones that showed up for our session, so we did some other work there and had the temple all to ourselves; it was actually quite nice. Then we headed home and enjoyed playing trump until late.

Friday morning we made pancakes, and bid them farewell. It was a wonderful time. I thought it was really sweet when I had gone up to help Briggs tidy his room we found a bunch of coins under his sheets, Ethan's too. They were really excited. I had a sneaking suspicion of where they came from. Sure enough my Dad had slipped them under there for them to find when they made their beds; I think I have the best Dad! Miss you two already!! Now who else wants to come visit ;-)