Christmas Eve Breakfast

Christmas Eve is a special day for our family.  This year we decided to add something more to the festivities--Breakfast at McDonalds!  We don't do it too often, but it really is fun to take the kids out for breakfast and play with them in the play area (did you catch the "play with them?").  Oh yea, we don't mess around! 

This was the first time our littlest guy went to the very top--with daddy of course!

A pretty fun way to start a great day!

Extended Lowe family pictures

I finally got copies of the family pictures we had taken over Thanksgiving when all of The Big Guy Lowe's family was in town.  Unfortunately Aunt Christina wasn't able to be there.

The picture makes me smile a bit...

Then there were the grandkid pictures...

In case there is any room for wondering, we really aren't the favorite family!!

And, if by chance you missed getting a good look at our youngest and his protest over pictures, here's a close up.

Believe it or not, we actually had a very fun day following this short but emotional display!  You just never know if kids will perform on demand...and we have more work to do if we think they ever will!!

Missionary Breakfast

The Big Guy Lowe and I were both blessed to serve full-time missions for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (commonly referred to as Mormons).  I served in the Ohio Cleveland Mission and The Big Guy Lowe served in the Netherlands Amsterdam Mission.  We both have a great love for sharing our testimonies of our Savior, Jesus Christ, and his restored gospel; we also have great respect for those that are willing to do the same.  In fact, on the list of things required for marriage, both The Big Guy Lowe and I included that our "future spouse would want to serve more full-time missions for the Lord".  Pretty Awesome, eh?  I know, he's amazing and I get to be married to him forever!!  (Love you babe)

Throughout our married life, different callings continue to prepare us for the time in our lives when we will be able to be full-time missionaries.  Now is no different.  With The Big Guy Lowe's current calling he has opportunity to work with the missionaries on a very regular basis.  Our family is greatly blessed because of this.

This past Saturday we had a breakfast and short meeting for all the missionaries in our Stake (Stake is a term describing a group of multiple congregations or wards).  I believe we had 18 missionaries over!  It was wonderful!!

We made German Pancakes, bacon, sausage and Brother Freeman brought over his wife's delicious fruit salad.  No one went away hungry!!

After eating, The Big Guy Lowe shared a Christmas childhood experience.  One particular Christmas he wanted a specific GI Joe helecopter.  (He still remembered the details about it, but I don't! lol!)  Christmas morning he opened a gift that wasn't the helicopter.  His youthful disappointment and lack of gratitude was openly shared.  His parents had given him a very nice gift, but he didn't recognize that  because his own desires got in the way.  He then shared how his actions that Chrismas make him feel bad to this day, but continue to teach him the importance of gratitude.  He then likened his childhood experience to the greatest gift we have been given in the life, teachings, death and resurrection of our Savior, Jesus Christ.  A challenge was extended for each of us to evaluate our personal appreciation of the gift of our Savior--as our Heavenly Father intended.

It was so nice having all the missionaries in our home.  There was a wonderful feeling that stayed with us long after they left--we all felt it.  I love that our boys get to be around missionaries and see their example of serving the Lord. 

Today, I am grateful for missionaries.

Oh Gingerbread!

What can I say about gingerbread?  From as far back as I can remember, gingerbread has been a huge part of Christmas for me and my family.  I believe kindergarten was the first year my family made the delectable house-shaped treats as thankyou Christmas gifts for teachers at school and church as well as for friends and neighbors.  Through the years we went through many different blue prints to find the best shaped house for kids to decorate and families to enjoy.  There were even a few years that we ventured away from houses and tried gingerbread trees and sleighs.  While those were also fun, they just didn't stand the test of time.  Gingerbread houses, for our family, are a huge tradition that I now joyfully carry on from my own home!

Most years, the Thanksgiving turkey has barely left it's perch on the dining room table when discussion of Gingerbread baking begins.  I'm always excited for that day as, to me, it signifies the beginning of celebrating Christmas!  The past few years have been especially fun, because we get to do the majority of the baking at my home.  When we moved into our current house, we ripped out all of the kitchen appliances--the single oven was replaced with Dacor double convection ovens!  Oh the joy!!!  Because of this beauty of an appliance, we are able to bake six gingerbread dough houses at once.  It really cuts down on all the baking prep time, so we can generally complete all our baking in one day.  While my house may be a mess of flour, molasses, oil and spices, the aroma that is a part of our home is well worth the clean-up involved!  In addition to the wonderful smells of gingerbread, I get to spend the whole day with my mom.  That in itself makes me happy. 

I love being able to carry on a tradition in my home that she so creatively began in her home when she was a younger mother than I am now.  She has worked so hard to help each of her children (me included) know that Christmas is first about celebrating the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ; everything else needs to stem from that one truth.   How does making gingerbread houses branch off from this most important point?  We make the houses to share our love and gratitude for those around us.  We rarely keep more than one house for our own, even though we make dozens.  We give these candy-covered cookie gifts created with our time, hands, love and imagination so we can tell people thank you.

Okay, enough talk, on to the houses!

Once the baking has been completed, these are the pieces we begin to put together.  Royal icing is our glue of choice because it gets as hard as rock when it dries...that always makes transporting to their new homes so much safer!!

Before and after.

These are a few of our creations this year.

We are strong believers in having the kids decorate the houses they will give to their teachers.  The first year our oldest began decorating houses for his teachers, it was a real test for me to step back from my symetrical self and allow him to create as his imagination lead him.  Now it's just fun to see what they think of next.  Me, yep, I'm still hooked on symetry when I decorate!

While we have gingerbread houses to decorate at our own home, we always start out by decorating one with Grammy (and often cousins too) at her house.  It always makes my heart happy to see my kids loving time with grammy and grandpa.

We love Christmas!  We love the reason we celebrate Christmas, we love the ways we celebrate Christmas, and we love the people with which we get to celebrate Christmas! 

Merry Christmas, to everyone!

Happy 7th Birthday!!

What a day we had!  Our oldest son is now seven years old.  It amazes me to see how grown-up he has become.  How we love our oldest son!!

His birthday started out with Apple Jacks cereal and bacon.  How's that for a choice at anything for breakfast?  It was enjoyed by only The Big Guy Lowe, our birthday boy, and me because the other boys were still sleeping.  Once they woke up they enjoyed the treat as well.

We had a big day planned and we were all excited!!  The birthday fun actually started a bit early, with the birthday boy bringing fun birthday cookies to school on Friday.

I have loved this cookie recipe as well as the glace` icing.  The birthday boy was pretty excited to pass these out to his class!

For the actual birthday, our oldest had decided that he wanted it "Lego-style", so that's what we did.  Last night I stayed up pretty late decorating the birthday cake.  Our birthday boy had asked that it was just the Lego logo. 

I was pretty happy with how it turned out, and even better, our birthday boy was so happy!!  That made it all worth it for me!

Friends were scheduled to be over at our home at 10:30AM for the party.  The first (of 10 boys) arrived and we didn't stop for a moment for the next two hours!  I began by asking what we do with Legos.  The boys said "we have fun" and "we build".  I used both of those answers to explain that we were going to do just that, but with a different type of lego.  We had gingerbread houses for each of the boys to decorate with tons of candy to choose from.  The candy was the type of lego that we were going to be using. 

10 boys all decorating at one time was quite a site to behold!  I am so grateful for both Grammies that were here to help!!  Grammy HB helped with the frosting and piping,

while Grammie Lowe was encouraging and helping clean up throughout it all!  The Big Guy Lowe was very hands on the whole time too!  This was a multi-generational birthday extravaganza!

After each of the boys were finished decorating the houses, we played a game that our son had made up--such a clever 7 year old!  It was a version of the classic "pin the tail on the donkey" but we used a lego-guy head and played put the head on a picture of a lego-guy that our birthday boy had drawn earlier. 

It was a great hit!  We had all the boys chant "lego-guy" as each boy was blindfolded and spun around.  Then it needed to be silent as each boy made their attempt at placing the head in the right spot.  It was fun and kept the boys pretty interested.

After the game, we opened presents.

Each of the boys were asked to watch and help our oldest son make sure that he did two things after opening each present.  First, he needed to say "thank you" to the person that gave him the gift and second, he needed to say why that gift was cool.  It was pretty fun to hear the different things that were said about all the gifts.  Great toys and Lego fun everywhere!

After present, we had a quick lunch consisting of hotdogs, chips and Cool aid.  I'm so disappointed to say that I think some of the kids didn't know what Cool aid was!  What are people teaching in their homes these days?!  ;)  Lunch was a pretty quick affair that lead right into the birthday cake!

Let's see, singing "Happy Birthday" from left to right was Sam, Logan, Jayden, Ryan, G, Trevor, Ethan, Logan, Bryce and Eli.  Unfortunately the other Sam had to leave a bit early!!  Fun friends!
Two hours went by pretty quick, as I'm looking back.  There were a few times that I had to remind myself that of course things were somewhat crazy--we had 11 first-graders in our home!!!  Overall I think it was a great party; lots of laughing, loud noises, and no crying.  Yep, a good party!  It was fun to see the boys excited to take their gingerbread houses home with them.

After all the boys left, the rest of us just about collapsed!  Whew!  Happy times!  Grammie Lowe then shared her gift with the birthday boy!

Ever since I received my AWESOME camera for my birthday, this birthday boy has wanted one of his own.  Grammie was so clever and passed on a camera that had previously brought her many wonderful pictures.  Our birthday boy was ecstatic!

As is famiily tradition, we continue the birthday celebrations at Grammy and Grandpa HB's home on Sunday with the rest of the local families.

So we recycle cake--it was a big cake, even if it only said "ego" this time!  :)  Uncle Jonathan was in town and gave the birthday boy a gift from his family--a wonderful drawing book!  He's already been working from it.  Uncle Michael and Aunt Jaymee and family gave him some Bakugan balls--he loves them!  He has taken many pictures with his new camera from Grammie Lowe!!  And Grammy and Grandpa HB gave him art classes through KidzArt.  His classes started yesterday after school!!  In addition to all of this, our neighbor, Sue, gave him art supplies and a new art book that he is on his way to filling up!

What a wonderful birthday.  My favorite thought through it all was that seven years ago, the arrival of this son changed my life forever, making me a mother.  Happy birthday sweetheart!  We love you and are so grateful we get to be part of your family!

Thanksgiving 2009: Newport Aquarium

What a day!  More beautiful weather--enough to take a beautiful (and long) drive down the coast to one of our favorite aquariums!

Up close with the rays and a few small sharks!

Our youngest not phased by the crab!

I love how The Big Guy Lowe loves his boys.

Cute cousins!

Looking though the glass floors at the sharks swimming by!

Big Boys/Brothers having fun together!

Our oldest in the antique dive helmet.

Our middle son following his brother with the help of Uncle Brett.  What was that you said?  H1N1?  :)

Laura, Brett, baby Sophia, Gunnison, Conner, Cannon, Grace.

The Lowe family!

All the Lowe cousins!!

I don't think we returned until about 10 PM that night, but what a great day we had!

Thanksgiving 2009: The Oregon Coast and answered prayers

Thanksgiving this year was celebrated in true Northwest style at the Oregon coast!

We were excited to have all the Lowe family out for the holiday!  We had a wonderful time and can't wait until we can all do it again--and that's saying something!!

Before heading to our condos at the beach, we enjoyed family pictures, OMSI, Apizza Scholl's, our church's primary program (the sunday school kids all have parts and sing) and a trip to Costco to prepare for the upcoming week.  You can imagine how full that shopping cart was!

Even before that though, Grammie Lowe made sure all the grandkids had matching hats.  Cute boys!

Finally, it was time to head to the beach.  Now, the Oregon coast is known for it's wet, cold, windy weather, so we tried to prepare our boys for that before we left.  Wouldn't you know it, the weather was amazing!  In fact, we found out it was an answer to a prayer.  As The Big Guy Lowe and I were exclaiming about the incredible weather, our oldest son spoke up.  He excitedly said "Heavenly Father answered my prayer!".  We looked at our son as he continued saying "When you guys said that it was going to be rainy, I went to my room and said a prayer and asked Heavenly Father if we could please have nice weather at the beach.  We are having nice weather!".  The Big Guy Lowe and I gratefully agreed with our son that Heavenly Father had heard and answered his prayer, and that He will always hear our prayers.  It was a completely unexpected teaching/learning moment for our son--one that he helped prepare for.  Thanksgiving was wonderful for me at that moment.  Love you so much son.

Thanks for your great photography skills Aunt Christina!!  A few of my favorite shots.

Our youngest right in line with daddy.

Our middle son's treasures.

Family silhouette.

Oldest son running free.

Mommy and youngest son finding shells.

The Big Guy Lowe's batting practice.

I feel such satisfaction reminiscing over that day...