Frosting Cookie Ornaments

Kiki texted Tuesday afternoon and asked if she could bring over a kit she bought with Christmas cookies shaped like ornaments. I wasn't sure they would make it to the tree (they didn't), but we were happy to have her over for dinner and excited about frosting them! One of our missionaries, Elder Speer, is getting transferred to another area tomorrow, so the elders stopped by to say good bye. We discovered that his companion (whose name I can't spell) had never frosted a Christmas cookie! He's from a tiny island near the Marshall Islands. Apparently they don't do Christmas cookies there. Of course we had to remedy that, so we had them stay and frost a cookie ornament.

Kylie's finished cookie ~

Jack started eating his cookie before I got a photo of it ~

First ever frosted Christmas cookie!!!

Elder Speer with his cookie :) ~

Megs made sure every last inch of frosting was covered in sprinkles ~

Eva had a bit of help from Kiki with the frosting, but put on the sprinkles by herself ~

Elder Speer got his handshake! He is the first elder to analyze it afterwards, stating that the amount of pressure was perfect, it was firm, but not too firm, and that Rob's hand was neither cold and clammy nor hot and sweaty :)

Kiki and Beth with Beth's cookie ~

Laura and Daddy hung out by the computer ~

Kiki's cookie and half of Beth's ~

Meg gets in on the action ~

There might have been just a bit of red frosting on Eva's cookie . . . 

Meg's decorated a second cookie ~

Beth and Kiki sung Christmas carols together after we were done decorating cookies. I taped it, but Kiki noticed and commented "you aren't going to post that online anywhere, are you???" Beth responded by looking at me accusingly and informing me that if I did, that would constitute cyberbullying. Kiki agreed with her, so no videos of their caroling :)  

Laura talked and talked to Kiki :) I believe she's only done that to me before!

Kiki told Eva she would give her flying lessons. It's a good thing I snapped this photo as soon as Eva got up in the air because she only lasted about 30 seconds before deciding she didn't like it. 

Other than that, nothing horribly exciting has been happening, but we've been keeping very busy. Laura is as cute as ever :) Here are a few photos we've taken recently of her ~

Rob got to watch her for the first extended period of time ever last night as I went back to PDI for the first time since June. I've missed being able to serve in that way; it was nice to be back! It was super hard to leave Laura for so long, but I knew Rob would take good care of her. She had no problem drinking pumped milk from a bottle, but wanted to be held, so Rob walked her for three hours straight just to keep her happy :) He said she made it all worth it with a look of love she gave him towards the end of the night :)

I assessed my first heroin addict last night. I had to look up the DSM code as the only ones I'm used to using are for crack or alcohol addiction. Even though I actually left at the end of my shift for the first time ever (I usually stay until the end) I still was able to work with four women and all four agreed to go to treatment! I don't know if the ones assigned to outpatient treatment will show up today, but at least they all said they would! :)

Eva is talking more and more each day. She is supposed to have between 40-50 words right now; I think she has hundreds. My very favorite is "I love you", which she pronounces "I lovey". It's so cute to hear her say it that I have a hard time leaving or putting her in bed as I keep telling her I love her just to hear her say "I lovey" back to me :) She has also started informing me when she likes something. The "y" sound is big with her, so it comes out "I likey". She uses this for everything from tv shows to food to Laura. It makes me laugh when she climbs up on the counter to help me make dinner and sticks her finger in all the ingredients, tasting each one and announcing that she likes it :) At least they get cooked to kill any germs afterwards ;)

Jack is doing well in school, but is struggling a bit at home. He isn't horribly interested in the things the older girls are, but is a bit old for the things Eva likes doing. Rob has been spending some extra one-on-one time with him, which Jack loves! He loves to help me with things that I do too and he loves helping to take care of Laura :)

Beth is having a bit of a hard time right now as her very best friend Maia is moving in a few weeks. We're letting Beth do her birthday lunch/movie a month early so she can take Maia with her. She's loving that we've gotten to see more of Kiki lately. She is a bit obsessed with Kiki. She apprehended the copy of Kiki's senior picture that I had and even tried to sleep with it one night. I had to pull it out of bed and tell her she couldn't sleep with things that had hard pointy metal frames or that had glass in them. She has put together everything she has ever gotten from Kiki (like cups from when Kiki bought her a drink at a QT gas station) and compiled it into a shrine she calls her "Kiki Collection".

Kylie just wrapped up her last season of soccer for a while. She liked it, but didn't love it, and we were spending 4-5 days a week at soccer. If she had LOVED it, we would have figured out how to make it work, but it was getting more competitive and she didn't want to practice at home at all, so we decided it was time to stop for now. That was a hard decision, but Kylie was the one who made the call. We were honestly a bit relieved by it as it frees up a ton of time! I have no idea how we fit it in to our schedule!

Megan is doing well. She and Kylie are practicing to be babysitters as Megs will be able to babysit for our kids next summer and for other people's kids in 18 months. Megan has started cooking dinner completely on her own one night every two weeks. The first night it was hard for me to walk out of the kitchen and let her at it, but I know she needs to learn :) When I walked back in to check at the end, we discovered two ingredients that hadn't been used and had to figure out how to work them in, but dinner turned out well!