Thanksgiving Visit to Ann Arbor

For the past 3 years, we've been visiting Neal and Kerrie and family for Thanksgiving. This year was just as fun and memorable.
We started by going to the Ann Arbor Hands-On Children Museum. They had a special Bob-the-Builder exhibit that was so cute.

Here's

Ella's favorite part was definitely the water exploration section.

Same with Gretta and the twinners.
Jed loved the bubble section and

Cyndi got to test her flexibility despite being 8 months pregnant.

Other favorites were the ambulance,

and Kenton and Merrill's foam fort.

They decided to demolish it together on 3, blocks flew everywhere.

We also did a turkey trot Thanksgiving morning. It was a great way to start the day.

All the kids ran, well, Ella rode.

And here is the coolest thing I've seen in a while. Brothers, Kenton and Merrill ran the whole race side by side and decided to tie to first place. What neat kids! And they ran the mile in 5:47!


The rest of Thanksgiving day was eating and juggling. Jed learned to juggle and even the twins got the hang of it, sort of.

The next day was shopping and lights...

The Wayne County Lightfest of 4 miles and over 2 million LED lights.

The arches were the best and Santa loosing his reindeer's heads was a little funny.
Lastly was the tree farm and family pictures.

The best part at the tree farm were the carts.

All the kids got to ride and pull over the hills of Christmas trees.
After MUCH deliberation a tree was decided on and everyone helped to cut it down.

The afternoon ended with fresh apples and genuine hayrides through the firs.



The family Christmas card photo shoot was hilarious. We did get a good one,

But these were my favorites...

Merrill always so stoic, and Hampton...

well he's just a character!

In between the activities were the usual game playing and

Eating of yummy treats!!!


We love this awesome family...

I don't know if we'll make it through Thanksgiving next year since they're moving to Utah. All I know is that the memories from these last 3 Thanksgivings have best so far. We'll miss you crazy 8 Davis'.

Christmas Stuff 2009

So this year is different for us as we have had our first Holiday by ourselves. We've definitely missed everyone and did our best to fill the time with fun things. We tried to mix new traditions with the usual favorites.

This was our Christmas Candy Making Night. We invited our bishop's family and the missionaries. Everyone was sugared out and covered in chocolate. Such a fun night!

Elder Hitchcock dipping homemade caramels. And here's Ella dipping into the chocolate.

We made caramels, turtles, coconut haystacks, mint cookie balls, peanut butter and mint truffles, and last but not least, buttermints. Here's the story of the butter mints.

It started with a very pregnant Cyndi spreading the syrup on cool baking trays.

It went outside to have the cool on the pans as we tried to start balling the mints. I think first degree burns were had by all, even though we were all laughing.

We eventually worked it into balls and started to pull and here is the amazing result...

a complete catastrophe! So the butter mints didn't turn out but I think it will be the biggest memory maker of the evening. We couldn't stop laughing.

Here we are with the Nelsons. Love them! Our family away from family.

The Ward Christmas Party:
Stress of the Season, for Cyndi, that is. She was in charge of getting the entertainment for the evening. Some of the numbers were:

Austin and Riley playing Jingle Bells Fantasy Duet. They were awesome.
Cyndi and Jed sang "Baby it's Cold Outside" while a couple did a ballroom routine on the stage. We weren't planning on singing, but at last minute the couple who was going to got strep. Oh the joys of planning! (Not my favorite thing.) And no, Ella isn't playing the piano, but we're thinking about starting that soon.

Another number was our bishop, JJ, and the elders singing the chipmunk song with helium balloons for the full effect. I think this was the favorite of the evening, especially when the singers had to stop mid phrase to suck more helium. Everyone was laughing. These gentlemen were such good sports to do it. A definite memory maker of the night.

And of course...Mr. and Mrs Claus came to wish the ward a merry Christmas.

Here's Ella and Jed with Santa and Mrs. Claus. She's still scared of him, so this was as close as she got.

Christmas Eve:
We did something we've never done before and went out to eat for dinner. We went to Texas Roadhouse with the Browns and then acted out the Nativity with puppets while dad read Luke 2.

We also made homemade ToffyPop cookies for Santa and wrote a note for him and left out carrots for the reindeer. Ella was so cute about leaving a treat and signing her name with thank yous for Santa.
After that, we all cuddled up and watched a Christmas movie by the tree and think we'll add that as a family tradition for years to come.

Dad and Ella watching "A Muppet Christmas Carol."

Christmas morning was a relaxed, fun, time. Ella got "baby toys," and mom and dad got new Nike running shoes. We swear by the Nike Zoom Air. That morning we had crepes (Nordfelt tradition) and then had a big traditional Christmas dinner with some other families. Part of that dinner was a white elephant exchange where Jed gave an autographed picture of himself and this was the picture...

Signed "Go-Go Nordfelt."
It was the funniest gift of the night for sure.

It really was a fantastic day.

Halloween Activities

The Halloween Festivities started with:

Boo Zoo...the trick or treat with the Louisville Zoo.

Ella's favorite part of the whole thing was seeing the PINK flamingos.
It was near impossible to get her to do anything. Although, she did master saying thank you after getting a treat.

Cyndi's Halloween contribution...Zumba Thriller at 7 months pregnant!

I have the awesomest class that is up for anything.

So we did an ode to Michael as part of our October Zumba classes by learning "Thriller."


Ward Halloween Party.
Trunk or Treat and Chili Cook-off.
We actually won 2nd for the while chili.

Little Princess Ella as Belle with her friends.

Happy Halloween from our family!


Trick or Treating in the Neighborhood...

Ella and daddy walking the neighborhood.

One house was totally decked out!


Friend's Halloween Party at the Southwells...

This was our first attempt at Homemade Root beer. We learned that we don't need 15 lbs of dry ice. It makes for lots of smoke, but pretty soon you can't drink it because the whole thing will freeze over! We literally had to use an ice pick to open the valve. It actually took 2 days for the whole thing to finally melt! Oops!

Next was a very cool ghost cake whose eyes lit on fire!



The pumpkin pinata was fun and since Ella wouldn't participate, Jed got to swing instead.

Last and certainly not least was...
The undies breakthrough!!!
Ella has wanted to buy big girl undies, but never wanted to wear them until after dressing as Belle for Halloween night. This was a big moment for her.